The hearing ear and seeing eye - Day 2

I don't know by when I had slept. The previous night was a sleepless one both because of the mosquitoes and the 24/7 Bhajan @ the Ashram. Since we had to start early that morning, I made sure that  I don't delay, took bath, had quick breakfast with 2 plates of Dosas and bid adieu to Ashram and the school premises @ Uppala. Just to make sure that we doff the old at every place we stay, someone had religiously left their undies and obviously no claimant for the left out.

Our next destination was Kasaragod town, even though it was quite early to start off our campaign, considering that we had to cover few more places that day, people were divided into teams of two to start our book sales and were given 10 sets of 5 books each costing Rs80 per set and the tempo traveller stopped @ Oppumaram (Signature tree), a venue of a series of anti-endosulfan agitations, near the new bus-station premises in Kasaragod. Even though there were not many people to buy the books since it was opening time for the shops, our primary aim was to make people aware of the scenario of poisoned food and thereby to return to farming. The whole experience was interactive, where most of the time I was explaining the shop owners not to use pesticides and fertilizers and that soil will take care of itself if we do not disturb its ecology and we just need to enjoy watching the saplings each day and see how the nature works. My companion was Harshil, who is from Shirdi, has a farm there and wanted to have this first time, first hand experience in Kerala. He was capturing photos, making short video clips and holding all the books for me and people were dumbstruck when they heard about his passion for natural farming. After the interactions we gathered again @ Oppumaram and Sunny Paikada State Coordinator, Bhakshya Arogya Swaraj has felicitated participants of rally. 

Next we stopped @ Periya, the place which is connected with Endosulfan related struggles and strikes. We saw Leelakumari Amma's house on the way. In 1998, Leelakumari Amma, a staff of the Krishi Bhavan (Agriculture Department’s office at the village level) at Periya Panchayath witnessed the deterioration of health of her two children and herself – loss of voice and hormonal problems – after she came to live in this village inside the spraying area. She then lodged a complaint in the local court along with two other farmers to stop the aerial spraying in the interests of the people’s health and the environment. In 2002, the Kerala High Court banned sale and use of endosulfan in Kerala and following the State Govt. also issued a ban order in 2003. The land looked so barren and cursed. Periya Conservation Society members have organized felicitation ceremony at the junction there. Ramakrishnan chettan, the eldest of us all was the chosen one to receive the ponnada (golden shawl). Ramakrishnettan is a gypsy bachelor and masseur who does certain stretches on everyone in the morning to relieve any sort of body pain. I guess this could be a sort of exercise for himself too, because he just lifts people irrespective of their body weight. After having some snacks and tea from there we all were off to Kanhangad.

Kanhangad is the largest town in Kasaragod district and is one of the municipalities of Hosdurg taluk. Bekal fort (Uyire Uyire song fame) is situated in this taluk and so the name derived Hosa (new) Durg (fort). The book sale was much better than Kasaragod town and by now we have read the contents of each books and familiarized ourselves with it and were eloquent in our approach to the public. Books were titled soil conservation, importance of paddy fields, how to make organic manure, food & health and seasonal farming. The complete set is priced at Rs80, whereas individual ones are priced between Rs10 and Rs20. After giving brief introduction to the audience on Kerala Organic Farmers' Forum's activities, we briefed them about the contents of the books and persuaded them to buy it since it is through the sale of these books and seeds that we meet our expenses in running this rally throughout Kerala. A new energy and encouragement to the rally came by way of Sreeja chechi and team's Malayalam Naadan Paattukal (folk songs). They are members of Arangottukara Kala Paadasaala and so energetic and patriotic young ladies.

Next stop was @ Payyanur, northern end of Kannur district and the name of the place derived from Sri Subrahmanya Temple (Payyan=Subrahmanya + Ooru=Town). Payyanur has great history of national movement and is still active with lots of strikes, struggles and activism in the areas of socio-cultural, educational and environment spectrum. The mangrove trail of Malabar is located here. The rally's reception was @ Gandhi park. By the time we reached there, the regular park going people among supporters of our movement were gathered there in good numbers. We have made arrangements to put up the posters, other exhibition materials, seeds, tubers and books. Local MLA C Krishnan of CPI(M)'s speech was really encouraging considering his efforts in conserving our traditional varieties of fruit bearing trees by distributing the saplings to all houses in the locality.

While returning from the meeting, we stopped near a satyagrah pandal, where localites were gathered demanding investigation by CBI on Hakkim's death, a Muslim youth who was burnt to death in a mosque compound a year back. No one was arrested even at this point in time. Where are we heading to? Is our society becoming a lawless one, without any social order and justice and governments are run by anarchists and autocrats? Our night halt was @ Sree Narayana Ashram School in Payyanur. This property belonged to Swami Anandatheertha,  a disciple of Sree Narayana Guru (social reformer and a revolutionary sage). The caretaker there shown us the Swami's room, his belongings and the mango tree planted by Mahatma Gandhi in January 12, 1934, which still stands bearing lots of mango fruits is a testimony to the heritage of Independence movement at Payyanur. Unfortunately, me and Harshil were not able to sleep properly because of mosquitoes (even after using the repellents) and we came down and laid on the benches in the veranda since the hall on first floor where others were lying was so humid and dusty.

                

On a suggestion from Ganesh, I would be noting down something which might interest and encourage the readers of this blog to practice in their daily busy life. This is also to give a detailed introspection of what prompted me to take up to natural and organic farming:

Live a life that makes 'his'tory a "my"sto(e)ry

Do you wanna give the same life that you live now to your children?

This is the darkest time of our life when multinational corporate monopolies  try to implement their hidden agenda through scientific, cultural, religious, and political invasion with the support of liberalization and privatization policies. Long back, during the colonial era, European countries invaded and controlled us through trade and conquest. But in this modern times, the method used is slightly different i.e., by distributing genetically modified seeds, pesticides and fertilizers with government subsidies and grants, agriculture university researches and approvals to poor farmers. Initial usage of these practices will make high yields (because these chemicals kills micro organism and aggravate maximum exploitation - a kind of brutal rape of nature) which will urge the farmers to buy more even by taking huge loan amounts from banks and money lenders expecting another high crop, but these chemicals will spoil and deteriorate the soil in the coming years and thereby push the farmers to either leave their lands to real estate mafia goons or migrate to cities for petty jobs dreaming big or finally to commit suicide. This is the situation at the moment. Who will listen to the cries of voiceless poor farmers, our annadata (food provider).  We should give these money making companies a befitting reply not by challenging or fighting against them but by producing our own food with our traditional varieties of seeds and not to use the killer seeds distributed by these modern day colonial Satans and their partners in crime netas and agricultural universities. Once you have the imported poisoned vegetables from outside / markets, your life span will reduce and your remaining days will be counted without a doubt. Everyone should do farming or at least start to cultivate their own food. Whoever owns land but not doing farming should be liable to pay additional tax and this must also be made a punishable offence. To live soil is important. No human beings, no animals, no birds and no plants live without it.

The basic cause of human diseases according to natural healers is alienation of man from the soil on which he has been living. Let us hope that this trend, TO GROW YOUR OWN FOOD makes him closer to nature, to the soil and say bye bye to diseases and all dependencies. People who depend on others for their own food are merely enjoying pseudo freedom, which will ultimately take them to early grave and thereby free them from this world. Is that for you are waiting for? Do you know curry leaves are made to take bath in endosulfan (the spray of death) before it reaches you. Yes, the same killer pesticide badly affected lot of people, animals and environment. In Kasaragod, aerial spraying of endosulfan to the cashew nut plantation resulted in illnesses, palsies and deformities to hundreds of localites.

Most of our vegetables from market are contaminated with pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Organic or natural farming is the only alternate step against this anti environment, anti human urbanization which forces people to live in congestion, pollution and without any quality resources like fresh air, water and food. When we plant a seed or sapling, its first leaf, flower and fruit makes us happy. In this modern chaos this experience can be really a stress buster. So take a pledge today that you will plant a curry leaf sapling and will water it regularly to begin with. That's all you need to do to start off farming and to become your own food producer. Expand this by adding one or two vegetable saplings and yes now you are living a sustainable life free of toxins and poisons. Historically agriculture is known as joy giver and mankind's first step to civility and culture. So let's go back to where we begun i.e., nature and get rid of this dying civilization. Remember to stick to agri culture and be cultured; not agri business. Enough to grow for your own family.               

10 Reasons to become self sufficient:

1. Freedom from market manipulation

2. Hedging against inflation

3. Increasing health and wellness

4. Building community strength

5. Working for yourself

6. Having more free time

7. Generating food and energy security

8. Acquiring an appreciation for life

9. Restoring balance

10. Becoming producer not consumer

10 Ways to get to Self Sufficiency

1. Reduce your debt

2. Reduce your consumption

3. Reduce energy use

4. Store energy

5. Invest in food storage

6. Produce your own food

7. Learn new skills

8. Start a side business

9. Install alternative energy

10. Suggest solutions to your community

So those who have ears to hear, hear it and those who have eyes to see, see it.