After successfully reaching our goals for the seed community, we have now paused memberships for the time being.
Our efforts are currently concentrated towards legal due diligence, structuring and patching work for the land aggregation. We aim to initiate the bylaws meetings in June and expect a first registration by July – August
After the successful launch of collectives along the Western Ghats, we are now heading towards Central India and are looking forward towards setting up our first collective in Bhopal. This will be our second wilderness collective and it is conveniently located at a driving distance of just 15 KMs from Bhopal city, along the Sehur-Bhopal road and near the Ratapani Wildlife Reserve.
Our seed community meetups are scheduled for the 3rd week of June and for the first time, we will be taking interested prospective members through a sensory experience at the collective.
We are mostly expecting a seed community closure by July 2022.
We began the month by organising a pooja for the Blyton Bungalow. With the furniture and interiors drawing to a close, our next steps would be focussed towards hospitality guest experience mentoring which we are exploring with our very own member experts – Payal and Harsha. With the Estate Managers house also ready, Rathan is getting ready to shift in.
At the farm, while the cardamom plants are looking healthy, the soil in Block 1 seems to be getting more acidic and we are exploring interventions with some permaculturists.
The new Arabica plantation is shaping up well too and we are exploring tie-ups with speciality coffee roasters.
As our preparations for the monsoon get rolling, we organised our first members activity – a seed-bombing event. Members and their families spent a productive day at the collective, interacting with our on-ground teams, learning how to make seed-bombs and spreading them across the collective. The fruits of their efforts will be visible in a few years. We hope to organise many such member initiatives in the near future.
Work at the Hyderabad Collective has been progressing at a considerable pace. The full time security staff now have new cabins ready, while the final plan for the housing clusters has been set up and the approval process initiated.
Our efforts at transforming the landscape are also shaping up well with the swales and 3 water channels done, resulting in some really beautiful landscape interventions especially on channel s9.1
Back in 2019, when we first iterated through the major offerings of a collective, I remember thinking of a day at the collective when it is fully implemented. “Wake up to the birds” was the first line that I had put down. 3 years later, it was deja vu of sorts, when I woke up at around 6:30 in the morning to the soothing whistling of a Malabar Whistling Thrush. Although I had heard this little one many times before, the experience of the call acting like an alarm, was just something else.
As our dream translates to reality, I cannot express my excitement in words. June in that sense is always an inflection point. The hot months of May give way to the dark clouds and downpours as the sun baked soil quickly absorbs its fill and gives out that beautiful scent of the first rains. June is when our theory gets translated to reality and projects see fruition as our planting begins.
This year, the monsoon seems delayed by about 2 weeks. However we have received some strong pre-monsoon showers that have encouraged us to start some preliminary seed bombing. Come the first showers, and we get started with our swales in Hyderabad and diversification in Coorg. This monsoon we are also trying to do some interesting measurements on our stream, the Kembuva Poley to see if hydro power can be a reality for us.
As we move towards design finalisations for the houses in Poomaale, and plot choices in Hyderabad, what really gives us a kick about June is that this is the month that simply transforms landscape from a brown-scape to a green-scape. This helps us to imagine the final form and shape and helps even our members imagine what they have signed up for. It also reminds us of the long road ahead and the need to stick to the road that we have embarked upon.
“When monsoon storm pass over my home,
Excerpt from the Coorg Ballad.
Then there’s no time for me to roam;
I plough the fields, plant rice with cheer,
But still remain a mountaineer.”
I have had the fun of experiencing heavy monsoons in different parts of the country – the ones that will stay with me for life are the rains of Coorg and Mumbai.
My time in Coorg was largely during school holidays. By the end of the month, there was a constant drizzle all day long and heavy downpour by evening. But this never stopped us from going about our plans. ‘Gum boots’ and umbrellas on, we would walk everywhere – to the market, to visit relatives.
When we returned home, we would head straight to the backyard. There, inside a tall upturned wicker basket, was a pan of hot coal sprinkled with some wonderful smelling benzoin resin (Sambrani). This simple apparatus was like a warm hug on a cold, wet day. We would sit there for hours talking, while the clothes dried out on the basket.
Much later, we moved to Mumbai. Whatever is said about Mumbai rains – is true! The experience was frustrating and rewarding. To add to the mix, we chose to live in the outskirts called – Marve. The area was not as crowded but it meant, we frequently took the ferry.
My days during monsoon were dictated by the high or low tide of the sea! Lashing rains took over Marve early each morning and sitting in the comfort of my home, I had to decide if I was ready to brave it all or not.
During a high tide, the city roads would be gushing with flowing rain water, rising by the hour. The ferry would stop plying for some time, till the tide went down. And all you could do was wait.
But without a doubt, I have also enjoyed Mumbai rains. This was most often on the days off work and school. There were many times we drove to the beach, or stayed home reading by the window with a cup of tea in hand, or just splashed around in the playground with the kids. No complaints, what didn’t break me, only made me stronger 😀
I hope you have taken the time to enjoy rains too. We would love to hear your stories this monsoon
With the advent of technology and globalization, we lost touch with a way of life which earlier revolved around seasons. We now work at erratic hours, to cater to different time zones, eat any exotic food we desire, sourced from far off lands, irrespective of seasonality, and can even skate on an ice rink in a desert with no snow.
In earlier generations, people were very deeply connected to different seasons. Their work lives, food consumption and behavioral habits adapted themselves to changing seasons.
We ate foods which suited the season and kept us healthy, juicy fruits and light vegetables during summer and foods that kept us warm during winter. We celebrated festivals to commemorate changing season and the impact they had on our work and lives. Work would start at the crack of dawn and stopped as the sun began its decent. Farmers would sow their seeds towards the end of summer and let the monsoons do their magic of providing water to aid their growth. Changing seasons also affected us psychologically. Summers made us active, monsoons brought us hope and winters a time to rest and celebrate.
The ancient ayurvedic practice of Rituacharya (Ritu – seasons and charya – regimen or discipline), teaches us to acclimatize our lifestyles to seasonal transitions that are experienced. As we are in the process of transitioning from summer to the monsoons, we must acclimatize our bodies to this change and build our immunity by changing our dietary and lifestyle habits accordingly.
Foods that keep us warm like soups are best suited for this season. Consumption of sour, salty and oily foods are best suited for this season. Now you know why we enjoy fried foods along with a cup of chai more during the monsoons.
It was a miracle that everyone made it into the boats, mid sea; all possessions intact. As the boatmen began rowing back to the port, one could hear the waves beating against the wooden boats, the ship raise its anchor, blow its foghorn in the dead silence of the night and slowly set sail away into the darkness.
Docking and disembarking as the boats beat against the stone steps at the base of the fort, one could only imagine how pirates, soldiers and spies of the past tried to make it to the fort through these waters in the dead of the night.
The electricity shortage, meant most village folk and travelers carried battery operated flash lights to find their way at night. This was a bit like navigating through the Blair Witch project. With the first phase of the adventurous journey done, we waited at the ST bus stop, half sleepy and absolutely silent as the frogs croaked in the background, us too scared to step out of the confines of the covered ticket counter until the first pre-dawn bus finally arrived. We dragged ourselves into the bus and began the next part of our journey, our third mode of transport within 24 hours. The bus meandered through the curvy bends of the road along the hills until it stopped, bang in the middle, with the plateau on one side and a large grassy field on another. After counting all the travelling members and our possessions for the fourth time, we set foot across this vast field illuminated by the full moon, starry sky and enthralled by a shooting star or two.
Walking across the field, the elders took turns carrying bags as we neared our final destination. Having reached the end of the field, we now walked down a spirally winding mud road, holding tight and taking careful steps as the bright moonlit night sky disappeared replaced by high canopy cover. A few minutes later, the squeaky gate opened and we were finally standing in front of our home, surrounded by 100 year old trees, except for a small patch in front of the house that allowed some moonlight to seep in.
The long journey across the sea, a bus ride through the hills and walk through the fields under a full moon starlit sky back home was now complete and new adventures set to begin.
One of the biggest challenges of our times has been decreasing soil health. Increasing temperatures and decreasing ground cover have been leading to decreasing soil health which in turn affects the growth of plants and the ability of soil to hold water.
If you’ve ever tried growing your own flowers or veggies, you would have figured (through eventual trial and error) that the quality of what you grow is only as good as the soil you grow it in. Healthy soil is home to healthy microbes, teaming with life.
Diana Miessler’s Grow Your Soil! Harness the Power of the Soil Food Web to Create Your Best Garden Ever is a great way to understand how you can make easy to follow changes and see its impact on enriching soil in a space as small as your home garden.
The author shares the techniques such as cover crops, mulching and simple supercharged recipes for compost tea — that can transform any home garden.
Diana Miessler is a certified permaculture designer, a soil science enthusiast, and a gardener with more than 50 years of experience.
Chitra Soundar’s Mangoes, Mischief and Tales of Friendship is inspired by traditional Indian folktales that are sure to delight you.
The book takes you on a rollercoaster ride as the two protagonists, Prince Veera and his best friend Suku are given the opportunity to preside over the court of King Bheema. They soon discover that being a just and wise ruler is no easy task as they are faced with numerous challenging situations from dealing with a greedy merchant who wants to charge people for enjoying the smells of his sweats to solving the mystery of the jewels that have turned into pickles.
Illustrated by Uma Krishnaswamy, the book contains eight original tales by Chitra Soundar who tasks Veera and Suku with outwitting the kingdom’s greediest and wiliest subjects. Find out if the two clever boys up to the challenge.
As temperatures across the country are soaring, a glass of ice cold brew could just be the answer to your heat woes.
We tried the Sandhya, Bewild Cold Brew Medium roast in a very subtle recipe – Orange Cinnamon Cold Brew.
On World Environment Day, we held a sapling planting drive at the Hyderabad Collective. This drink was quite the hit after a long day of work in the sun.
Here’s the recipe and I hope you try this fantastic drink too!
Ingredients
Cold Brew:
Spice it up with
Preparation
The drink is now ready. You can enjoy this iced and cold with a bit of honey and milk or skip these altogether.
Pro tip:
