The beautiful vine gifted to me by Mr Shetty from his eco friendly resort in Kundapur
It’s a dream coming true yet again for me! The use of all my education with UNFCCC, UNEP, UN Water and IUCN. A sustainable living centre being set up by the Old Boys of St. Joseph’s in my farm.A certificate course no less, a credit course to add to their college and school curriculum. How absolutely wonderful is that for me and the land I have loved with every fibre of my being. Sometimes I wonder at how God works in such mysterious ways.
For the last two years I have mentored the ISC and ICSE kids of St. Joseph’s Boys School. Mentored them on Rain Water Harvesting and Wet Waste Composting. I even did a webinar on Menstrual Hygiene of Women! It’s amazing working with young ones, sharing all the knowledge I have been given free of cost by the UN. How they lap up all you say.
Enjoying vadas dunked in sambhar -- an OB from the US who checked out the farm.
In the farm we will set up RW Harvesting in different forms other than what we have already set up when we started the farm. We have a huge pit into which the water of the land and surroundings pour into and percolate down into the sub-strata. By doing that the borewell we sank with my Dad in the initial stages of setting up the farm and then the subsequent bore which we sank, have been rejuvenated much to our joy. Both borewells dried up and we were buying water to water the trees. Now Narsimappa is so thrilled that we are getting water at as little as 100 feet with the rain water harvesting. Fr Saldanha of the school would be proud to see what we have achieved. He was the prophet of Rain water harvesting and told us about it when we were barely in our teens.
Enjoying fresh tender coconut off the trees
Wet Waste composting is what I do in our building and learned from my Dad and grandfather in the property we live in on Hayes Road. We have always composted the leaves and everything from the kitchen. And the garden has always been fed by the compost generated from the pit. Now we have a more fashionable pit with bricked up sides and a strong cover. But how many of the ‘educated’ in the building care to throw their waste in is the point. After all, the memsahib looks down her nose at her own waste generated and the servant has to get it out of her sight. Who cares where she throws it?
The BBMP is throwing up its hands desperately and saying they cannot handle so much waste which Bangalore generates. It will finally be fines which will turn the tide. People need fines to act sadly. So that's the whole idea of the NGO. To teach the kids young.If we educate and touch even 1% of the kids, to think sustainably, we have achieved a lot in terms of sustainable living.
Cutting off the ripe Ramphal fruit off the trees loaded with them!
It’s my dream to have this sort of NGO, where education on sustainable living is imparted by experts to the kids. And its coming true with the Old Boys from the US all gung ho about it. My baby school benches which are lying there can be used. School benches which helped me buy the farm with the fees I got running my preschool.
It's come full circle and another one of my dreams is coming true. Look out schools in Bangalore and all the educational Institutions run by the Jesuits. We are setting up shop to educate you guys sustainably!
