Compost and clean up your city

Compost and clean up your city

 

Teaching the kids to compost in Hoskote

We got a pit full of wasted, over ripe fruit from the Safal depot near our farm and dumped it in the specially made pits in my farm. Instead of just wasting the property, we joined hands with the St Josephs School senior class kids and they were brought to the farm to be taught to be more sustainable in their way of life. We have strayed away from how to be frugal and sustainable like our parents and forefathers were and instead, tried to be imitators of the West and  lost what was a sustainable way of living.  I always remember a pit in the garden into which all garden waste and kitchen waste were thrown. This waste once composted and broken down into black sweet smelling earth, we fed back to the garden when we re-potted the plants or topped up compost in the beds.

Kids learning to compost.
 The schools that came enjoyed the classes we held, teaching them to understand the basics of sustainable living. They loved their visits and had no problems eating with hands when they were fed simple village meals. We also did a quick talk on menstrual hygiene for both boys and girls so they understood what it was all about and how important it is to realise its just a bodily function and not something unclean that man has made it out to be.

  Menstrual hygiene which both girls and boys were educated.

Many of the girls were first scared to tell us, but after a while they let down their guard and told us how badly they were treated when going through their monthly, normal, cycle. This was where we stepped in and the older kids too to explain how important it is to look after their Mums and sisters and its just a normal part of life and not something unclean. Many boys who came from all boy homes were glad of the education which they would not have got otherwise.

They loved our hands on talks

Im so glad that so many schools çame forward and sent their kids in whole bus loads.  We also taught them hygiene when they ate bananas -- the skins had to be thrown on the compost pile, not desecrated the whole farm. Thank you Maam and Sir said many of the kids who come from poorer and marginalised homes. They could never have enjoyed an open space orchard like ours. And Im glad we were able to do this with the children  of so many schools before we sold the farm altogether.  

The beauty of the Hoya

 

The pink Hoya brought from Perth

Many years ago I was given two pieces of Hoya brought from Perth, West Australia by my sister Christine. The pieces couldn't have been more than 5 inches long and I grew them. They grew rapicly but I think I over fed them in huge pots with wet waste compost, so all they did was grow and grow without a flower in sight. I thought it was no sunlight, I blamed it on too much watering, but nothing would get it to flower. And in no time, five whole years passed.

There are literally hundreds of bunches all over

But to my utter  luck the vine seemed happy on my balcony and its leaves began to shine and it spread across the entire trellis work. On one of my annual holidays in the UK with my son David, he said "Mum why don't you try feeding it some Epsom Salts? "  

He bought me a packet and I carried it home to India to feed my Hoyas. In a few weeks bunches of buds appeared and the plant flowers twice a year now.

Enid shared a [piece of her White Hoya!

Meanwhile I had begun a Whatsapp gardening group and in minutes I had a gardener respond that she had a white Hoya and would I like a piece?! Ofcourse I would and in weeks and months the pieces grew huge and this year -- barely in a year I got my first white Hoya bloom! They are outstandingly beautiful and emit a delicate scent. I will share ONLY with growers and gardeners who can make the effort to grow them and send me pictures of the blooms!

The waxy Hoya!

Then a gardener from Pintovaddo in Goa, said --"Come over and take my brown Hoya cutting. Imagine that?? I got the brown from Lillia Pinto in Goa, a prize winning gardener and my collection has grown to three. Gardeners are good people. They share with no expectations, like I do now. Dozens of gardeners in Goa are growing my pink Hoya and sending me pictures of them flowering. Now I've begun to share among the mothers of seminarians and the priests whom my son Steven is in touch with. 

Speckled leaves!

And the leaves took me a long time to get used to. I thought they had a problem, some sort of virus! But No! They are speckled like that!

Scare those dratted birds away!

 

Last week when we went to harvest our fruit in Hoskote we were surprised to see beer bottles hung up on the branches of the fruit trees. Bonny a teetotaller was completely annoyed and said "what the heck is he trying??"

I chuckled, as I understood what Rajanna the caretaker was achieving with the bottles.-- he gets most annoyed to see good fruit wasted on the ground by parakeets, and Seven Sister Babblers. So this was his way of scaring them off. The bottles clanked in the breeze and there were no fruit marauders anywhere. The dratted things come even for our tamarind -- don't really eat it, just make a huge mess. Tamarind fruits for us only once a year in Hoskote and I have planted only the best -- Salem Tamarind. I can barely bring it home and my customers snap it up as its so flavourful and fresh. 

Kgs of Salem Tamarind every week!

We are enjoying the farm for a few more months till the new owner finishes all the formalities and the money is transferred to the boys. I get bags of sweet Thai tamarind, the nellie kai, sour limes, chickoos ofcourse and the last of the ramphals. The mango crop has begun to flower and in a few weeks we;'ll spray them and put up the yellow bottles with the fruit fly lures to safeguard our organic mango crop. I eat ALL the sweet tamarind. I mean this is my last chance and I save all seeds for Fr Valerian Vaz the Provincial of the Saligao seminary.  He will grow saplings and make some good money ( hopefully) from that for the seminary.

Sour sops have begun!

We had a tall Sour sop tree in the Hayes rd compound and that's where I had my first taste of Sour sop with my Nanna Augusta. What a wonderland of fruit this garden was and we never had to buy any sort of fruit, just pick them off ripe from the tree like I am doing now in Hoskote.

The miraculous chapel of Candelaria, Pilerne, Goa

 

The miraculous chapel of Our Lady of Candelaria, Pilerne, Goa

The steps up to the chapel on the hill

As children we were taken to the miraculous Our Lady of Candelaria chapel on the hill. I hated going as we had to climb so many steps up to the chapel! But if Dad said we go, there was no discussion. The chapel was tiny and the statue nothing spectacular to us children, but any intention Dad or Mum made was almost instantly granted to them. I remember Dad had given my Uncle next doors house to the army to help him and his young family get rent to live on. However soon the family grew to eight kids and the family needed the house back to live in. The army refused and Dad ran around from office to office to beg for it to be returned. With no hope in sight he went to Candelaria and begged Our Blessed Mother and the house was returned in a few months.   

The chapel is much bigger now

Over the years the chapel has been expanded by the faithful giving donations towards its renovation and expansion. It was the feast when we were visiting and it was such a special visit for me as all my memories came flooding back. We walked the distance from our home in Furtavaddo and that was a pretty distance. This time we happily drove by car and then were worried about parking! 

Protective wall and tower

We went because the young Parish priest has become an old friend and gave our Steve such a wonderful taste of what his ministry will be like when he is ordained. That's when I felt a sense of peace, that my Steve will be happy in his chosen path. I left it all at the feet of Our Lady of Candelaria on the hill. 

Adoption need not only be children or animals!

                           

Adoption of two Tabibuea Roseas on Hayes rd

Our Rosea in Hoskote

Two young  Rosea trees were planted at the top of our Hayes Road. Then in typical BBMP fashion they are left to die with no maintenance. Thats when we decided to adopt them and water them till they could manage by putting down deeper roots to an underground  water source. Inbetween some nasty person beheaded one and we nursed the stump back to life. Now they have raised their heads and give us a lot of joy to see they are managing well and growing taller by the day. Time to stop watering, except for the occasional bottle I put on a Saturday.

 A baby Indian Almond

Then around a dozen Indian Almond, champas and Jamuns were planted near the St Josephs school. I tried asking the priests to water them but no response. So here were two old people, carrying a dozen  5 litre Bisleri bottles of water and watering the trees after Mass every week. People stared, but we didn't care. We kept watering and  had the most weird questions -- are you buying Bisleri and watering them? Give me a bottle rather than waste!  Today they have doubled their height and manage their own water. We have stopped  watering them completely.

Residency Rd medicinal Honges and spider lillies.

Then suddenly over night dozens of lovely young 2 feet tall Honges and spider lillies were planted on Residency rd. Ofcourse they were just planted, no watering after that. Many began to dry up and die and that bothered me on my morning jog past them. I asked Kiran the road sweeper and he smiled broadly and said "Definitely Amma!"and the trees kept dying. That's when we decided again to be the Good Samaritans and water the babies till they are able to find their own water source. 

Its so strange but people will feed dogs and asthma causing pigeons, but trees which will help clean the pollution in our cities, they don't see the positives. How do we educate us humans that our health and clean air is freely given by mature trees?? 

Trees clean the air by acting as natural filters, absorbing harmful gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide through their leaves. They also trap particulate matter like dust and smoke on their bark and leaves, while producing oxygen through photosynthesis. A single mature tree can absorb over 48 pounds of CO2 annually.

$48$

$\mathrm{<br>}$

Respect your lawyer

 

Dad always said lawyers are liars so I never thought much of the profession till I needed to use them for issues I had found myself involuntarily in. Sadly none of us became lawyers, which I think I most definitely could have. 

 

The very first time I faced a criminal case no less was a fake one foisted on my by a tenant of my family and encouraged by them to file it. It was over dogs -- you read right-- and I was supposed to have hit the tenant who was a consulate employees wife. I did not. But it was only after I got my students to slow down the video to show the DGP whom I met along with former DGP Francis Colaco that they realised who was the actual perpetrator. However the case had already been filed and as Francis said -- fight it out. But the lawyer I had gone to could only fight the civil case not the criminal case.

What do I do Father? I asked the principal of the college I was employed by. I had never gone to court leave alone face a criminal case.Just ask Mr Jagdeesha who teaches Media law and thats when I saw the power of a good lawyer. Tough as nails and in minutes he looked at the video and gauged the problem. Ill take it to the High Court and sort it Maam, relax. And in 10 days my case was quashed with him citing previous orders and closing it overnight.  The power of a good lawyer came home to me with that case and I realised it could have dragged on forever as my cheating family with their spouses especially, have no scruples. Case closed but I have NEVER forgotten.

The second case was over my farm in Hoskote. After 30 years the original owners filed a case to grab the land back. All my savings had gone into the property, sorry! I was not going to bend. I got a stay in the High Court and then fought it along with a tenant of mine who is a HC lawyer. Educated in Cambridge he said leave it to me and I'm glad I did as the property has made me rich overnight. Now I have the money to fight any more cases and smash them.

The third case was the original owner of the property where I have a GF flat, was bullying and threatening us and we really had no way to push him back. He was insisting our sale deed did not include the garden as he was trying to grab it to build a mall. Till, by chance I rented the place to a HC lady lawyer. I warned him to be careful as he started to bully her. He made the huge mistake of breaking up her name board -- that was it. The case was filed and we have a permanent injunction against him to stay away from us and our apartment. Standing in court with her fighting the case, my eyes opened to how skilled they are and how ethically strong a lawyer has to be to put a bully down.  

My attitude towards lawyers has changed drastically. I'm truly sorry I never thought of studying it. But NOW, I respect lawyers as they uphold the law and ofcourse you have to hire men or women who cannot be bought.

Climate change is getting our barren trees to fruit

 Climate change is getting our barren trees to fruit

Lichies are flowering!

Was I seeing right I wondered and my jaw just dropped open in shock to see the lichies are flowering in Hoskote. So glad they have flowered as a farewell to us as we've sold the farm and paper work will take some months. The lichies were grown from seeds by me decades ago and probably just fruited once. Then with Bangalore heating up they completely stopped flowering and fruiting for at least a decade. Now with Climate Change and the winters reverting to old Bangalore cold, the cold snap has shaken them up and they are flowering.

The avocados too are flowering!

Our avocados too just flowered and fruited only once. Now suddenly with the cold snap they are all budding and flowering! Its amazing to see and lucky before our handing over of the farm. Avocados need a male and female tree for pollination. It was fine in the Hayes road bungalow as every home had avocados so bees would cross pollinate over walls into different gardens. Here in Hoskote no one else has an avocado so I have planted four trees to cross pollinate. They are all the Haas ( German) variety sadly and not our regular, huge, Bangalore avocados which Mum and I would eat with no boundaries!

Apples fruiting too!

A Colonel in my Goa gardening group as a happy surprise, sent me a dozen, bare rooted, apple saplings, all the way from J & K! I remembered Dad planting Cherry blossom in Upper Shillong when he was posted there. They are blooming now says an officer friend who was stationed there recently. A tree remains as a memory of the person who planted it. Like Grandpas Malgoba and Dusseri which are growing and fruiting in the compound. These apples are fruiting now and to keep them happy I have bought a tractor load of chicken waste which they really enjoy.

A tractor load of chicken waste bought from the Godrej Chicken factory