@theorganicindian: I get blood circulation problems when I'm in India. Limbs fall asleep frequently. Inexplicable medical mystery. Ideas, doctor readers?
@theorganicindian: TOI = Times of India. But also TOI = theorganicindian. Who do you turn to first for breaking news from South Asia? Yeah I thought so.
@theorganicindian: At my gym ppl wait around as trainers rack their wghts and practically lift their bar when spotting. U cant even work out w/o a servant?!
@theorganicindian: American franchise that would dominate in India #212: Taco Bell. Think on it.
@theorganicindian: Fav daily routine so far: listening to rap on my ipod in rickshaw to work. Contrast b/w what I see and what I hear is tremendous
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Bhavnagar: Where the Buffaloes and Blue Bulls Roam
This weekend Pareshbhai and I went out to visit two villages in Bhavnagar district. Our goal was to meet with farmers to discuss the DSC radio program: what they liked, what they didn't, how they'd like to see the program evolve in the future. We also wanted to get feedback on Avaaj Otalo, the phone-based information service I'm working on with DSC. I've put a slideshow below with plenty of captions to explain things. After you start the slideshow (big play button), hit the pause button and use the arrows to flip through, so you can actually read the captions. Hope you like!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Uppar Chadavo
Last weekend I attended a meeting hosted by Yuva ("Youth") Unstoppable, an org that claims "young people are not useless, but used less". They facilitate some unique service opportunities in many cities in India, all in the small acts of kindness paradigm. Last year I was blown away when I joined some of youngsters for a meet-and-greet at a nursing hospital in Ahmedabad. It was amazing to me how much love they put into the service; it wasn't something they were doing just so they could pad their college application. They were there to genuinely connect, which I didn't expect from teenagers. And the response from the elderly people there was tremendous.Yuva is trying to start a movement with young people around the country by asking to give just
2 hours/week, focusing on serving underprivileged children. I really like two things about their setup: one, that they have people commit 2 hours regularly, which is small. But when you take 2 hours x 52 weeks/year x 3500 youth around the country, you've turned micro-actions into a tidal wave of impact. The other thing I like is that the service opportunities are off the beaten path. In Ahmedabad, there are a number of ongoing projects: give school lessons to slum kids, bring lassi's to police officers working on busy intersections, play with and do lessons with kids at construction sites (while their parents are working), pick up trash for street sweepers at busy intersections, etc. There is the act of service, there is the humble connection to the underprivileged, and there is the statement-through-action, made in busy public spaces.At the meeting, Amitabh, the founder of Yuva, gave an impressive speech. He started with a
great story of something that happened to him on his way to the meeting. He was stopped at a busy intersection when a street-seller boy came up to his car. Wanting to do something for him, Amitabh told the boy to put his hand over his A/C vent, to cool off from the hot day. He loved it! The boy's name was Papruj. As Papruj was enjoying to cool air, Amitabh had to move, but he didn't want to leave the little dude hanging. So he pulls his car over to let Papruj cool off for a little while longer! He'd be late for the meeting, but he was putting a smile on Papruj's face. When they were pulled over, Papruj called over some of his buddies and soon Amitabh had a bunch of little hands sticking into his car.Yuva is all about energizing youth and trying to fire people up. In fact, Amitabh told the story of the origins of Obama's "Fired up, ready to go" slogan in South Carolina. And this after starting the meeting with everyone standing and yelling the Yuva anthem: We are young! We are productive! We are good-looking! We are dynamic! We are hard-working! AND we are creative!
Finally, I liked Amitabh's concept of a culture of "laddership", which means that Yuva members (Yuva-ites) should generate opportunities for others to achieve and to celebrate when they do. He also introduced the "Uppar Chadavo" ("lift others up") campaign as a way to foster this culture. Always be looking for ways to make others around you shine.
Unfortunately I didn't get to go out and serve that day, but hopefully soon. Fired up!
Back to the Kheti
Editor's Note: The theme song for this post is N2Deep's classic Back to the Hotel. Except that you have to substitute the word 'hotel' for 'kheti'. Like, "Back to the Khe-ti daa naa naa naa naaaaaaaaa". Listen to the song so it plays in your head as you read. Thank you for your attention on this matter.
This post is long past due, but two weekends ago while in Delhi I did my first farm visit since being back in India. That's right... I was "Back to the Khe-ti daa naa naa naa naaaaaaaaa"!!!!!!!!!!!!
The farm is run by an NGO called Farmers First Foundation. I came to know about it through one of the directors Amandeep Gill, a wonderful guy who was a visiting scholar at Stanford last year, but originally works in the GOI's Ministry of External Affairs in nuclear proliferation issues. The farm is a collaboration of a lot of heavyweight organizations connected to the government. My impression was that it brought together some of the best agricultural minds the GOI has to offer. The result was an impressive 4 acres south of Delhi with every sustainable agriculture toy you could imagine. I'm going to give the grand tour through pictures mostly.
Partial panorama of the 4 acres:
A structure for collecting and storing cow waste (urine and manure) for eventual application on the field.
The Indore method of composting. Straight out of Sir Albert Howard's playbook:
Vermicompost... this was phenomenal:
Fodder is being grown right now to feed the cows, along with nitrogen-fixers. Veggies will be going down sometime later.
Chickens! Used for manure (very high nitrogen concentration in chicken manure). Once they build up the flock, it will be viable to sell the eggs also (roughly 1 egg/chicken/day). Check out the black beauties on the second pic.
Bee-keeping. This is expensive to start up, but highly lucrative (honey production) and ecologically beneficial (pollination) once the trees get established.
Silage container. Used for feed in the cold months. Fits about an acre's worth of fodder when compressed. It becomes soggy.
A (fully gifted) tractor. The implements were borrowed by neighboring farmers. I told Amandeep that the value of the tractor will be appropriately amplified once those farmers use the tractor for their own farms.
Amandeep showed me the cows last, which he said he saved for the end because they are the "heart of the farm". Well said. Any ecologically balanced farm must have both plants and animals. Cows are the bedrock. They provide nourishment to the soil, the plants, and humans.
These are some studly Haryani buffaloes:
Indigenous breeds (forgot to note the exact name... anyone know?). Amandeep's daughter instructed, "To pet the cow, you must show it only love, not fear":
The little ones:
Interesting story about the cattle feed shown below. They supplement the fodder from the farm with grain they get from Delhi retailer outlets. Those outlets often poke open bags to give samples, and grain spills on their floors. Amandeep buys up the grain they sweep up from the ground for the cattle feed. Nice. Later I heard from Pareshbhai that in Gujarat that is done as well, except people eat the swept up grain.
All-in-all this was a very impressive farm. The way it was organized and laid out, but also the spirit of sustainability behind it. I had two main criticisms. The first one was, how does this farm serve small farmers? One dimension is the accessibility. Traveling to model farms like this isn't easy for farmers... who would come there to learn? The second dimension is the farm system itself. As I mentioned this farm has all the best practices and facilities. All of the toys (compost facilities, storage, animal quarters, etc.) were designed by experts in their respective fields, and probably at considerable expense. The farm is basically like a showroom of the heights that can be reached in sustainable agriculture, all here in one location. But what can a small farmer take from this? Are there cost-effective implementations of the facilities shown? If not, then the farm is educational but not implementable. It would be nice if it were both.
The second criticism I had of the farm was about the perimeter stone wall that surrounds it. I mean, a wall?!?!! It felt so out of place given the spirit of what was within it. No organic farm should ever be walled in. This farm is a treasure that is for all to behold. As my dad would say, 'Born Free'!
Daa naa naa naa naaaaaaaaaaaaaa
This post is long past due, but two weekends ago while in Delhi I did my first farm visit since being back in India. That's right... I was "Back to the Khe-ti daa naa naa naa naaaaaaaaa"!!!!!!!!!!!!
The farm is run by an NGO called Farmers First Foundation. I came to know about it through one of the directors Amandeep Gill, a wonderful guy who was a visiting scholar at Stanford last year, but originally works in the GOI's Ministry of External Affairs in nuclear proliferation issues. The farm is a collaboration of a lot of heavyweight organizations connected to the government. My impression was that it brought together some of the best agricultural minds the GOI has to offer. The result was an impressive 4 acres south of Delhi with every sustainable agriculture toy you could imagine. I'm going to give the grand tour through pictures mostly.
Partial panorama of the 4 acres:
A structure for collecting and storing cow waste (urine and manure) for eventual application on the field.
The Indore method of composting. Straight out of Sir Albert Howard's playbook:
Vermicompost... this was phenomenal:
Fodder is being grown right now to feed the cows, along with nitrogen-fixers. Veggies will be going down sometime later.
Chickens! Used for manure (very high nitrogen concentration in chicken manure). Once they build up the flock, it will be viable to sell the eggs also (roughly 1 egg/chicken/day). Check out the black beauties on the second pic.
Bee-keeping. This is expensive to start up, but highly lucrative (honey production) and ecologically beneficial (pollination) once the trees get established.
Silage container. Used for feed in the cold months. Fits about an acre's worth of fodder when compressed. It becomes soggy.
A (fully gifted) tractor. The implements were borrowed by neighboring farmers. I told Amandeep that the value of the tractor will be appropriately amplified once those farmers use the tractor for their own farms.
Amandeep showed me the cows last, which he said he saved for the end because they are the "heart of the farm". Well said. Any ecologically balanced farm must have both plants and animals. Cows are the bedrock. They provide nourishment to the soil, the plants, and humans.
These are some studly Haryani buffaloes:
Indigenous breeds (forgot to note the exact name... anyone know?). Amandeep's daughter instructed, "To pet the cow, you must show it only love, not fear":
The little ones:
Interesting story about the cattle feed shown below. They supplement the fodder from the farm with grain they get from Delhi retailer outlets. Those outlets often poke open bags to give samples, and grain spills on their floors. Amandeep buys up the grain they sweep up from the ground for the cattle feed. Nice. Later I heard from Pareshbhai that in Gujarat that is done as well, except people eat the swept up grain.
All-in-all this was a very impressive farm. The way it was organized and laid out, but also the spirit of sustainability behind it. I had two main criticisms. The first one was, how does this farm serve small farmers? One dimension is the accessibility. Traveling to model farms like this isn't easy for farmers... who would come there to learn? The second dimension is the farm system itself. As I mentioned this farm has all the best practices and facilities. All of the toys (compost facilities, storage, animal quarters, etc.) were designed by experts in their respective fields, and probably at considerable expense. The farm is basically like a showroom of the heights that can be reached in sustainable agriculture, all here in one location. But what can a small farmer take from this? Are there cost-effective implementations of the facilities shown? If not, then the farm is educational but not implementable. It would be nice if it were both.
The second criticism I had of the farm was about the perimeter stone wall that surrounds it. I mean, a wall?!?!! It felt so out of place given the spirit of what was within it. No organic farm should ever be walled in. This farm is a treasure that is for all to behold. As my dad would say, 'Born Free'!
Daa naa naa naa naaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The Organic Indian In Your Mailbox
Due to the overwhelming demand (OK, it was just Raju), there is now a way for you to receive posts on this blog to your email inbox. Just go over to the sidebar and click on the "Subscribe!" link and follow the instructions. Once you're a member of the google group, you'll start receiving emails.
Also while you're looking over there take a look at the 'Favorite Posts' section for posts that I either I thought came out well or which generated an especially energetic response from fans of this blog. I'd particularly recommend "The Hole" which is probably my most famous post. In it I eloquently make the case for Indian toilets as a superior technology to American toilets. Needless to say it generated controversy. Anjoy!
Also while you're looking over there take a look at the 'Favorite Posts' section for posts that I either I thought came out well or which generated an especially energetic response from fans of this blog. I'd particularly recommend "The Hole" which is probably my most famous post. In it I eloquently make the case for Indian toilets as a superior technology to American toilets. Needless to say it generated controversy. Anjoy!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Stuff Indian People Like #2: Riches-to-Rags Stories
I’m currently reading Gladwell’s Outliers, where he talks a bunch about how people become successful. His thesis is that as much as we like to believe in the Horatio Alger story of the modest lad from underprivileged circumstances rising up to success, fame and fortune by his own genius and/or hard work, it’s not the whole truth. The real story is that there were a lot of fortuitous circumstances and environmental advantages along the path for successful people that allowed them to achieve what they did. For example, Bill Gates was one of the few students in the country in the 60s to go to a high school with computers, and happened to live next to a university that eventually let him continue to hone his skills using their facilities. If it weren’t for those and a half-dozen other turns of fate, he probably wouldn’t have gone on to do big things in the computing industry. Gates himself calls it luck.
Anyway, American society tends to be obsessed with the idea of bootstraps, of going from nothing to something. In India, I think people are more enchanted with the opposite. They love the riches-to-rags story.
I hear these sort of stories all the time. Someone or other made his fortune in industry, or trade, or some clever invention, or through the IT boom. And then he realized that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be so he decides to be a philanthropist, or go back to the land and start a farm, or start a bunch of schools for high achievers in his family’s village locality. I don’t know exactly what it is, but my guess is that this story appeals to the part of Indian culture and spiritual tradition that values renunciation. Giving it all up is seen as heroic… it’s what the Buddha did. Conversely American culture is about excess and getting mo’ everything.
As far as the riches-to-rags stories in India, it’s nuts to me how people give a mulligan to a guy who was exploitative and greedy in his most productive years as long as he eventually realizes he’s erred in his life and makes an attempt to recalibrate by thinking about someone else for a change. And that when he is old, gray, and lonely. Never mind that he stepped on a bunch of people in his life before waking up. Sure you’re trying to fix the problems you helped created, but good lookin' out!
Maybe no person better epitomizes riches-to-rags than Chairman Gates. Indians love him. I think his legend has grown leaps and bounds since he’s decided that he’s going to be the richest philanthropist in the world. It’s ironic that the Gates Foundation has decided that its top priority isn’t development, but making sure they spend the vast reserves of cash they were endowed as quickly as possible. So they have millions tied up in huge foundations that are pretty much just like them, with a pittance remaining to fund smaller experiments on the ground that often produce impressive results. They also apparently have managed to blow $258M in India with nothing to show for it. Of course I can’t rant without acknowledging that I am seriously biting the hand that feeds me (my funding for these 6 months comes from none other than the Gates Foundation), but as my friend Rikin of DigitalGreen pointed out, it may be too little too late.
Anyway, American society tends to be obsessed with the idea of bootstraps, of going from nothing to something. In India, I think people are more enchanted with the opposite. They love the riches-to-rags story.
I hear these sort of stories all the time. Someone or other made his fortune in industry, or trade, or some clever invention, or through the IT boom. And then he realized that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be so he decides to be a philanthropist, or go back to the land and start a farm, or start a bunch of schools for high achievers in his family’s village locality. I don’t know exactly what it is, but my guess is that this story appeals to the part of Indian culture and spiritual tradition that values renunciation. Giving it all up is seen as heroic… it’s what the Buddha did. Conversely American culture is about excess and getting mo’ everything.
As far as the riches-to-rags stories in India, it’s nuts to me how people give a mulligan to a guy who was exploitative and greedy in his most productive years as long as he eventually realizes he’s erred in his life and makes an attempt to recalibrate by thinking about someone else for a change. And that when he is old, gray, and lonely. Never mind that he stepped on a bunch of people in his life before waking up. Sure you’re trying to fix the problems you helped created, but good lookin' out!
Maybe no person better epitomizes riches-to-rags than Chairman Gates. Indians love him. I think his legend has grown leaps and bounds since he’s decided that he’s going to be the richest philanthropist in the world. It’s ironic that the Gates Foundation has decided that its top priority isn’t development, but making sure they spend the vast reserves of cash they were endowed as quickly as possible. So they have millions tied up in huge foundations that are pretty much just like them, with a pittance remaining to fund smaller experiments on the ground that often produce impressive results. They also apparently have managed to blow $258M in India with nothing to show for it. Of course I can’t rant without acknowledging that I am seriously biting the hand that feeds me (my funding for these 6 months comes from none other than the Gates Foundation), but as my friend Rikin of DigitalGreen pointed out, it may be too little too late.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Mind is Slower than Nature
A thought from meditation:
The mind is slower than nature. It always plays catch-up. We use our mind to observe, analyze, understand the world around us. The way we do this is to use our reasoning abilities, which is essentially a pattern-matching exercise. Knowledge is the recognition of patterns in the world. At the same time the world is zooming by. As I type this sentence there are a billion chemical reactions going on in my body.
The mind can never keep up. Worse still, when we convince ourselves that we can understand nature, we end up going against the grain, stopping to figure this or rationalize that. We stumble and struggle trying to keep up. You miss the whole flow of life in an attempt to capture it.
I think a less stressful way is to try and tap into the flow of nature, which really means letting go of the pursuit of patterns. This is what you practice when you meditate. If you can master this, then you are riding the waves of life on a surfboard, instead of floating to shore in fits and starts.
The mind is slower than nature. It always plays catch-up. We use our mind to observe, analyze, understand the world around us. The way we do this is to use our reasoning abilities, which is essentially a pattern-matching exercise. Knowledge is the recognition of patterns in the world. At the same time the world is zooming by. As I type this sentence there are a billion chemical reactions going on in my body.
The mind can never keep up. Worse still, when we convince ourselves that we can understand nature, we end up going against the grain, stopping to figure this or rationalize that. We stumble and struggle trying to keep up. You miss the whole flow of life in an attempt to capture it.
I think a less stressful way is to try and tap into the flow of nature, which really means letting go of the pursuit of patterns. This is what you practice when you meditate. If you can master this, then you are riding the waves of life on a surfboard, instead of floating to shore in fits and starts.
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