Baptism by Soil - Day 1

I have taken this first step towards organic and natural farming with full conviction and there is no looking back. After resigning from CSC, instead of just lazing around, what I have done was to order some self-help books of Robin Sharma (The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and Who Will Cry When You Die?), Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and my Manasa Guru and Guide of farming Masanobu Fukuoka’s The One-Straw Revolution, The Road Back To Nature and The Natural Way of Farming. This late realization on purpose of my life must be triggered by the movie that I watched recently and that is Sean Penn’s Into The Wild, true story of Christopher McCandless (played by Emile Hirsch). Thank you Ganesh, my mone for everything. You are my best friend, brother and teacher. I dedicate these scribbling to you since you were the only one who understood and supported me completely throughout and the one behind encouraging me to write this journal too.

When I recall, I have always fascinated, inspired and moved by poems that I have learnt in school and college. Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken (“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference”) and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep”), Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe (story about a sole survivor of a shipwreck, stranded in an uninhabited island for more than 28 years, hunts, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to make pottery and raises goats, encounters cannibals etc.) and 2000 released Tom Hanks film Cast Away. 

When I googled to find out organic farming in Kerala, I came to know about Thanal, Jayakumar sir, Sridhar sir, Usha Chechi, K P Illias and Kerala Jaivakarshaka Samithi’s Jaiva Jeevitha Sandesha Jaatha. I became friends with all in facebook and used to write to Sridhar sir about my plans and desire to work on the soil to cultivate own food and knowing about the Jaatha, I enquired that with him. He was positive and supportive in me joining the rally so that I could learn and understand farming and related topics. He also offered me the opportunity to work with them as a volunteer and welcomed me to visit them in Thiruvananthapuram. On telephoning Illias, State Secretary of Jaiva Karshaka Samithi, he also welcomed me to join the rally and asked if I would be full time member. I didn’t have any second thought in answering that, but asked about the rally routes, the vehicle hired and the halting places which he promptly answered by sending me all the required details. Since I didn’t want this to be a free Kerala trip, I have made online transaction for ₹10k as my contribution. Illias acknowledged the same the very next day.

Kerala Jaiva Karshaka Samithi (Kerala Organic Farmers' Association) is an organization that has been working for the last 23 years with the vision of making Kerala shift to organic farming. The Samithi studies various issues faced by farmers, promotes and practices organic farming by laying emphasis on environment protection - as the only viable alternative to the practice of chemical farming which makes our soil, air, water and thereby food toxic. The root of Kerala's problems is our withdrawal from growing our own food. Despite being blessed with a land with ample of sunshine, water and other natural resources we import food worth around ten thousand crore annually. Eating this toxic food contaminated with chemical pesticides is making the Malayali chronically ill. This situation must change. We must come forward to grow our own food by making use of every inch of cultivable land. In order to make this message to the public, Kerala Jaiva Karshaka Samithi has organized the state level vehicle rally from 5th April to 24 April 2015. The rally was titled "Jaiva Jeevitha Sandesha Jaatha" (Message of Organic Living) and with the slogan "A new Kerala through Food Crops". The rally aimed to convey to people in the villages and towns the benefits of locally and organically growing our foods by distributing pamphlets relating to agriculture, food and health; posters, street plays, exhibition and sale of 200 varieties of traditional rice seeds and other common vegetable seeds accompanied with lots of traditional songs, documentaries etc. 

Illias also told me about Mr Srinivas P Vasu who was the Coordinator SOIL (Sustainable Organic Initiatives for Livelihood), Karnataka and requested if I could accompany him in the journey towards Kasaragod since he was supposed to inaugurate the rally from Kasaragod. SOIL provides technical consultancy for implementing organic and biodynamic farming practices, trainings to farmers, publishes books, manuals on various aspects of organic farming including rebuilding soil health, crop management and farm management.

Me and Srinivas uncle got in touch with telephonic calls the previous day and understood that both of our tickets were not confirmed. On finding out about the confirmation, just couple of hours before our journey, I informed uncle. Even though his compartment was quite away from mine, I had gone there and introduced myself in person to him. He was so approachable, patient and accomodative throughout. He shared many tips and his own learning and experiences from natural farming, all in specific to conservation of soil, dangerous use of pesticides and fertilizers, importance to begin the awareness programmes from the school levels, various methods of composting which he was explaining to the villagers (based on a question that I raised by seeing a photograph of him in facebook).  When I knew that he hasn’t had dinner that night, I shared the dry fruits that I carried with me which he even though initially resisted, but later said he felt grateful since he couldn’t find anything else for dinner that night.

We reached Kasaragod @ around 9:45 am, half an hour late from the scheduled arrival time. As instructed by Illias we boarded a Mangalore bus from Kasaragod town after having breakfast and got down @ Uppala. From there we hired an auto rickshaw and got dropped @ Kondevoor Nithyananda Ashramam. The Ashramam premises looked empty but loud music was played all the time, which I later learnt that this was because of the 24/7 Bhajan following a Yaagam. 

On calling from Srinivas uncle’s mobile phone, Illias came down welcoming both of us with big smile. We were accompanied to the nearby school building, where our night halt was arranged. I noticed that there were some 5 - 6 people busy arranging seeds (both traditional varieties of rice and vegetables, with their respective names stitched). I also got introduced to them informally and helped them identify fenugreek in Malayalam (Uluva) and in threading needle to stitch the 200 grain packets onto the long white banner used for exhibition. 

Our food was arranged in the Ashramam premises. The camp had around 25 people from various places of Kerala and most of them in their old age. Around 5:30 pm, the inauguration programme has begun with Illias welcoming everyone which was followed by presidential speech by Vice President Chandran mash, inaugural address by Srinivas uncle, benedictory address by Swami Yogananda Saraswathi, objective of the Jaatha was described by Editor Ore Bhoomi Ore Jeevan magazine Ashokan mash, felicitations by P N Modithaya and (sorry not sure of the name of the other) vote of thanks by Jaiva Karshaka Samithi District President P Appunjhi. 

The meeting was followed by the exhibition arranged on the school ground. It included posters depicting important messages, 200 traditional rice seeds varieties, vegetables and tuber (kizhangu) varieties, millets and other small grain varieties. The fund raised for the rally is mainly by selling booklets on soil conservation, saving paddy fields, how to make organic manure, seasonal agriculture called njaattuvela krishi and packed food and our health and by selling vegetables seeds and accepting personal contributions from the general public. 

After the exhibition concluded by around 7 pm, there was a meeting called by Illias to discuss the day's activities, suggestions and complaints. There were some heated arguments though on poor participation from the local village people. The reason for this unexpected outcome was due to the person who had taken up the responsibility from the District Committee had backed off citing some other urgent personal work. Though that had not dampened the spirit of people, all of them were suggesting to take this as a lesson to learn immediately and arrange for alternatives or backup plans and ready to face such unforeseen events in future. Some senior members were assigned with the task of coordinating each activities like arranging display items, sale of books, seeds and other display arrangements. Once the meeting got over, everyone had gone to the Ashram for dinner and later after small chit chat sessions the day's activities concluded by everyone finding their places to rest.

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