We teach them a little English as they 'are otherwise unemployed post college', we link them up to markets as 'there is malnourishment and some money flow is desperately needed'. We think of 'better schools', when schooling itself is an alien construct. The local lives existed in the son working withe father through growing years learning pottery and weaving. Every real step seems a little further from the Gram Swaraj we dreamt of.
Yes, we document and try to being back the local herbs ... but one old
person dying means the vanishing of a whole knowlege system and
worldview, before which what we attempt is insignificant. Yes, we try to
work with SRI and organic agriculture, but as we watch the groundwater
is overused and exhausted. And there is neither inorganic nor organic
agriculture anymore.
Once we accept the death of our dream of Gram Swaraj, then our activities of enabling them enter the mainstream makes sense. But while we pay obeisence to Gram Swaraj, we are living a contradiction.
...
Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula - what Deepavali used to be in our villages. The only firecrackers were the palm leaf ones sold by traveling salesmen. the modern firecracker were introduced to the villages by us.
Aparna Krishnan Sometimes I feel we are the Bhasmasuras, for all our goodwill. You introduced firecrackers. I am afraid we introduced English - 'with all the good intentions that the road to hell is paved with.'
Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula - Yes, we didn't know better and we also had superiority complex!
...
Once we accept the death of our dream of Gram Swaraj, then our activities of enabling them enter the mainstream makes sense. But while we pay obeisence to Gram Swaraj, we are living a contradiction.
...
Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula - what Deepavali used to be in our villages. The only firecrackers were the palm leaf ones sold by traveling salesmen. the modern firecracker were introduced to the villages by us.
Aparna Krishnan Sometimes I feel we are the Bhasmasuras, for all our goodwill. You introduced firecrackers. I am afraid we introduced English - 'with all the good intentions that the road to hell is paved with.'
Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula - Yes, we didn't know better and we also had superiority complex!
...
Komakkambedu Himakiran we
need to hold out for a few more years until the masses realize the
fallacy of this English education and also the economic and social
strengths of their existing/past setup.
we have lost a lot but not everything, a composite model is what will emerge. The Organic food movement is a good example of how rapidly a good thing can spread. Tier 4-5 places are getting into organic now in TN. Millets are becoming a staple again. As per the organic business directory I got at last weekend's fair, TN has the maximum entities dealing in organic and almost all of them are locally conceived and implemented. Again, all of these businesses work directly with farmers or source close to the farms.
we have lost a lot but not everything, a composite model is what will emerge. The Organic food movement is a good example of how rapidly a good thing can spread. Tier 4-5 places are getting into organic now in TN. Millets are becoming a staple again. As per the organic business directory I got at last weekend's fair, TN has the maximum entities dealing in organic and almost all of them are locally conceived and implemented. Again, all of these businesses work directly with farmers or source close to the farms.
Komakkambedu Himakiran Unless
agriculture is saved, everything else is useless. Villages cease to
exist when farming stops. Selling agri land is tantamount to handing
over the sovereignty of the country as it will eventually end up with
the corporates. Also, water bodies need to addressed immediately. This will ensure independence of the villages. Everything else can be managed slowly.
Similar work is needed in all fields; Villagers need to get into MoUs with city dwellers creating a guaranteed buyer base for what they produce. I sincerely hope TN will evolve that model soon for the benefit of the country. We are the most urbanized large state and are dealing with the problems of it. Other states don't have to go through what we went through.
Similar work is needed in all fields; Villagers need to get into MoUs with city dwellers creating a guaranteed buyer base for what they produce. I sincerely hope TN will evolve that model soon for the benefit of the country. We are the most urbanized large state and are dealing with the problems of it. Other states don't have to go through what we went through.
Aparna Krishnan Inshallah.
The other thing is that it is also a mindset of reducing needs. A
sustainable way of water management , and agriculture can only provide
less than a way that overdrew on stored water of aeons (and finished it
!). Sugarcane according to an old man in
our village, now dead, used to be called the Saraswathi panta (crop)
and would be grown minimally. With borewells, sugarcane boomed, and that
much sugar was supplied to cities, draining the village water resource
base totally. In sustainable practices, the mind also has to be come
more evolved out of consumerism. Otherwise every state and mandal will
go thro' the same path ! Madanapalle hit 1000 feet before us, and
watching that, we also followed the same path of greed and
unsustainability. So are others now, living in better situations, to
whom we are pointing out our condition ...
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