Solving For Patterns

I was reading the book, ‘Blessed Unrest’ by Paul Hawken and came across this amazing passage.

“The term 'solving for patterns' was coined by Wendell Berry, and refers to solutions that address multiple problems instead of one. Solving for pattern arises naturally when one perceives problems as symptoms of systemic failure, rather than as random errors requiring anodynes. For example sustainable agriculture addresses a number of issues simultaneously: It reduces agricultural run off, which is the main cause of eutrophication and dead zones in lakes and estuaries, and oceans; it reduces the use of energy intensive nitrogen based fertilizers; it it ameliorates climate change, because organic soil sequesters carbon, whereas industrial releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and is the second greatest cause of climate change after fossil fuel combustion; it improves workers health because of absence of toxic pesticides; it allows soil to retain more moisture and is thus less reliant on irrigation and outside sources of water; it is more productive than conventional agriculture; it is less susceptible to erosion; and it provides habitat for pollinators, birds, and beneficial insects, which promote biodiversity. On top of all that the resulting food commands a premium in the market, making small farms economically viable. Solving for patterns is a de facto approach to the movement because it is resource constrained. It cannot afford “fixes”, only solutions”.

I feel that the same thing can be seen in gandhian perspective in case of some of his vows.
If we decide to have ‘swadeshi’ or local then we avoid creating so many problems or create a whole pattern of solutions. It takes care of localization, food miles, employment generation, low carbon emissions. Or we might take the idea of ahimsa and if we have that as a guiding force we would see the himsa in a concrete house and go for a mud house. This would also be using local resources in the end. Or if swadeshi was a guiding force then too we will not go for a concrete house.

If we offer sytemic solutions or solve for patterns it can go to the root of the issues.

No Till Farming at Raju Bhai’s Farm

I had heard of Raju Titus as some one who’s inspired by Fukuokaji. I was told that he has not tilled his land for the last twenty years and has been getting good yields. Had seen pics of his farm where wheat was growing under the shade of babool trees. He just casts the seeds on the ground on the remains of the previous crop and then just waters the field(that’s a major intervention). He doesn’t even cover the seeds with clay like Fukuoka ji talks in his books. After seeing the pics I was even more clear that I wanted to visit him.

We saw that the wheat was growing on undulating land and under the gentle shade of trees. I was commenting to Daulat, my friend who is a farmer and was with me on his farm, that it won’t be possible to run a tractor in Raju ji’s undulating field which has so many trees. Daulat who ploughs his field with bullocks in his village said - “ forget the tractor, we can’t even plough his field with bullocks”.

I have met some organic farmers who are inspired by Fukuoka ji’s do nothing farming but he was the first person who was actually doing it successfully to the extent of zero tilling and throwing the seeds in the field. Being on his field assured me that there is abundance in nature if we live with nature.

Rajuji was sharing his story… around twenty years ago he was doing chemical farming but each year they were getting less and he was getting so sick of farming that he was about to quit it and sell his land. Around that time his mother met people at the Friends Rural Center in Rasulia, who were working on organic farming. She talked about her son wanted to quit farming to them. They gave her a copy of ‘One Straw Revolution’ by Fukuoka ji. She liked the book and gave it to Rajuji…

The idea of ‘do nothing’ farming appealed to him and he saw that tilling is the most harmful thing. He, like Fukuokaji, believes that when you till the land you break the structure of the soil which has been made by rats, worms, insects and micro organisms. The capillaries which are made by the up and down movement of the earthworms and other life forms in the soil are broken down and the water holding capacity of the soil is reduced. Tilling also exposes micro-organisms and other insects to sunlight and heat which kills them and destroys some humus. This reduces the water retention in the soil and also leads to lower fertility so the farmer has to bring fertilizers, either organic or chemical, from outside. Rajuji is totally against it and believes that the soil on an organic farm should become fertile on its own and should not even need organic fertilizers. Any biomass from another place according to him is stealing from where it should have been.

His farm was like a complete eco-system or a microclimatic zone. The trees next to the wheat play an important role by breaking the wind, increase shade and humidity. They bring the nutrients from under to soil through the deep roots and drop them through their leaves which are broken down in some time. The birds and other insects who live on the trees eat the insects on the plants and enrich the soil with their droppings. The trees also give wind break, give shade and increase humidity.

Rajuji believes that even on and organic farm, tilling weakens the soil. The plants don’t get enough nutrition and become vulnerable to ‘pests’ and diseases. The farmer then uses organic composts from outside (vermi compost) and organic pesticides, which according to him defeats the purpose of organic/natural farming.

I had met some Permaculturist, who said that a plant gets pests because it is weak but insects after eating the plant will eventually die in the same soil and their carcasses will bring some more needed nutrients to the soil. Deepak Suchde, another farmer friend, told a story of a farmer in Hyderabad whose rice crop got some ‘pest’. He was advised by some organic farmer to cut the crop and leave it there to mulch in the same field. He did that and next year his yield was double than what he used to get normally. According to Deepak Bhai, two most important things in natural farming is improving the soil and making a micro-climatic zone.

It seem that ‘disease’ comes because there is a reason and its natures intelligence at work. If the plant is weak, the stem cant support the leaves so they become small, faded, shriveled and fall down, eventually, increasing the biomass under the plant to eventually increase the soil fertility. Had read that when there is a pest instead of treating the plant we should treat the soil. There is an idea of ‘swiss biology’, a healing system, where in case of human disease they say “don’t treat the disease but treat the patient”.

Raju Bhai believes that even ‘weeds’ are natures mechanism to improve the soil. ‘Weeds’ are natures way to increase the green cover so they come easily on any soil where there is nothing growing and the soil is weak. According to him when we till we weaken the soil and nature thinks that the soil is weaker so it gives us ‘weeds’ which grow very faster and stronger each year with more tilling.

For him GM is a smaller issue while tilling and the consequential farming done by adding fertilisers is a serious one. GM is a cause of the same problem which has been created by tilling at the first place. According to him the way we are farming, it is destroying the soil, so we get artificial fertilizers and pesticides and when that also doesn’t solve that we have to look for more drastic methods like GM seeds. Just as we need to increase the fertilizers every year we need more drastic measures like GM to solve our problem. Einstein had said that you cannot solve a problem with the same mindset which created the problem at the first place. He thinks that it is naïve to expect the farmer to forever stay on chemical farming and eventually not move on things like GM, etc. We have to go to the root of the problem and stop tilling the land.

He refers to his farming as ‘Rishi Kheti’, a name given by Vinoba ji. It is done by hands. Rajuji talked about ‘Rishi Panchami’, a festival when crab grass is worshipped and people are supposed to eat only grains which are grown without tilling. He also told of a floklore where when a particular grass called ‘kaans’ begins flowering on the fields it is said that ‘rain has grown old’ which means that the soil has lost its moisture and the field should be left fallow for the animals to graze.

He also thinks that the way farming is now practiced, it is violent and ‘himsic’. For him Rishi Kheti is a farming of Ahimsa. He doesn’t believe in using any pesticides (even organic). It is the overall ‘himsa’ of the chemical farming, wherein after killing all the other species, which we think are harmful, we are now forcing our farmers to kill themselves by committing suicides.

As for ‘satya’ or truth, he believes that such farming is in consonance with the ‘satya’ of nature. Understanding it and accepting it. Taking natures support to do farming. I would say this farming also stands for Swaraj. There is self reliance and one can live off ones farm. This includes, making your own compost, in situ and not getting anything from outside. Though he is not fully self reliant in food for some reasons but the farm where the wheat is growing is a really amazing space.

For him ‘do nothing’ farming is a kind of ‘akarma’(non-action) of Gita. It’s a stage of Karmayoga when the person does karma(action) without ‘doing’ any action. The way yogi’s don’t DO any thing but there presence creates a state of action around them, that’s how nature does the ‘karma’ like ‘akarma’ in case of ‘Rishi Kheti’.

The pictures of the farm can be seen at
http://picasaweb.google.com/rajuktitus

Rock Climbing and Soil Making

Had visited Surendra ji’s farm near Jaipur some time ago. He had got an acre of land some years ago and has planted some Amla trees. I was there with Chunchun, Anupamaji, Ira and Surendra ji.

There are small hills and as we were working on the farm doing some mulching. Me, Ira and Chunchun began talking about climbing the hills. The seemed pretty steep. Ira talked about her own rock climbing/trekking experiences and Chunchun was getting excited hearing about them. We decided to go for a climb the next morning.

Ira gave us some interesting talk on some basic rules of climbers. As we reached the steeper part Chunchun felt that he didn’t want to go through the steeper path. Ira suggested he try and she will support him. She talked of some basic rules that always keep minimum three parts of the body in contact with the hill and move the fourth part to move you up or down. She also suggested to keep the body as close to the rocks for better balance. All this helped and Chunchun with his trembling hands moved from one point to the other and we reached the top. It was fun for all of us.

It was nice to see Chunchun who is spending lot of time playing video games where they jump and cross mountains on the click of the mouse do some real adventure. He was really excited about the experiences. There were thorns too and all of us got some small cuts.

The most interesting part for me was to see goat droppings on the rocks and next to it were small piles of soil in between the rocks and grass and other vegetation(‘weeds’) were growing. I was amazed at the way nature makes soil on the dry hills. The goats come up to help make soil with the help of their droppings. The cactus grow on the soil and their root structure binds the soil and the thorns keep animals away from the delicate soil which is being delicately built. At the same time the goats and sheep come with seeds sticking on their fur and plant them on the top of the rocks. The wind also brings the dust/soil/leaves and seeds. In one of the crevices there was dry moss in the arid region. I was amazed to see that too.

On that hill there were bee hives, holes where parrots were having their houses and roots of banyan trees were going under the rocks and were coming out from another gap and traveling in the air and falling down to enter into the rocks once again. There were monkeys and mongoose too and so much more vegetation(‘weeds’) and creatures.

After that day Chunchun kept talking of climbing and we have planned that one day we will go together for some togeather in the Himalayas. When we were in Chattarpur Self-Healing meet, there was a big banyan tree in the campus there, next to it was a tall palm tree. Chunchun climbed the banyan tree and by the second day he was able to move on to the top of the palm tree and came down sliding on its trunk. He was spending a lot of time on the Banayan tree and later got together with the other friends to make a tree house.

When he went for the climb the first time he asked me if he could climb the tree and moment the kids began climbing some adults came to stop them. I intervened and said that its fine if they climb and I too began climbing. Soon almost all the adults began climbing the tree and we all had a great time…

Self Healing and Self Design

Was at Chattarpur Self Healing meet last month. It was a gathering of people who are interested in alternate ways of healing. Some of us were having the planning discussions before the meet and we talked of how the day will be for all of us. We agreed on having open space where people share their knowledge, ideas or host conversations during the meet.We talked of having a films every day, I felt that, we who are part of the hosting team should not fill all their time. I have seen meets where there is a time table and they are busy the whole day and when we talk of break so many people jump at the idea and enjoy it. Some times I feel they feel a sense of freedom from a structured day which is not in their control. So when the idea came of having film screenings every night I felt that we can ask them but should not keep it as a scheduled thing. Around the third day some one got Mahesh Bhatt’s film on GM foods and screening just came up.Last year, during the self healing meet there was music every day and along with that there used to be a meeting so people had to sit for the meeting at night. I was for doing least scheduling by the hosts as I feel people have to have time for themselves to meet and talk to others or just go for a walk or do nothing. I felt tat if they want music they will have it some how or the other. But, then eventually, every day some people would come out and begin to sing and would go on till 3 in the morning.

There were lot of kids this time in the meet. Chunchun and Rohit have taken a break from school. Lucky, a local boy, also has walked out of school. These three along with Ankit and Hari were a great group and were doing lot of cooking too. Keshav, who is around 9 has also taken a break from school as his father wanted him to, even though he is not very convinced. He was spending a lot of time with all the other kids. I had spoken to Daulat of this meet and asked him to come over for the meet. He is not really working on ‘healing’ but is doing organic farming. I feel that itself has a lot to do with healing.

Keshav’s father Shyam ji wants to move to a farm and Keshav is against farming and moving to a village. Daulat and keshav began on making a tree house with Chunchun, Rohit, Ankit, Hari and Lucky. In the process Daulat and Keshav became great friends and Keshav insisted that Daulat coming to his place. Shyam ji was happy that Keshav who is against farming has a farmer friend and now after the meet Daulat has gone to Keshav’s place to meet him and help them on their farming project.Interestingly, I became unwell so I went on a one day water fast. So my session in the self healing meet was on fasting without talking about it as everyone knew that I was fasting. While I was lying in the room, Manisha and Shilpa who are working on Reiki did a session on me. It put me to sleep and that too a deep one. Then came Samrat who is into yoga and does great yoga sessions, he is good at connecting the mind and body in yoga and also talks about the deeper meaning of yoga. He gave me a session on ‘yoga nidra’, its like a meditative sleep and he took me to a zone where he asked me to meet the people with whom I am angry and then asked me to forgive them. It was a good session and I had another deep sleep. Then came Ram and gave me a ‘Jin Shin Do’ session. It’s like massaging session with focus on some kind of acupressure points. That too was relaxing and it gave me another deep sleep. While all this was happening my fast was also on and by next morning I was fine.

Ira a friend from Ukraine who is a walkout from architecture also came here. She is working on organic architecture. When there was some conversations before the meet some one from the hosting team expressed reservation whether it will be the right thing for her to go for a self healing meet(as the person thought that she is into architecture and had not talked about healing). While she was there we worked on making a rocket stove of clay which is fuel efficient. I would say it does the job in less than half the wood as compared to the conventional wood stove(chullah). In the process I learnt a lot about mud house building, like what is the proportion of mud, clay, cow dung, straw, etc. Its was my second project with her(had made some clay benches) and finally we managed to make the mud structure which didn’t finally crack after drying. We also went to check a brick kiln nearby to see the combinations of clay and sand and got a feel of the soil that is used for making bricks.

While she was there she too fell sick and was having high fever. She went on a four day water fast and healed herself. Its interesting that some one had commented that it wont be useful for her to go to self healing meet, but I feel that she got the maximum from the meet. She also had conversations about self healing and fasting with my friend Vinita who has a great understanding about self healing.

Shikshantar has been hosting gatherings with other groups and individuals. There has been one on natural farming, self healing, zero waste, artistic living and families gathering. To me personally this was a mix of all the meets as everything was there. Of course self healing was more but the presence of children made it different. It almost looked like a families gathering meet which has the most organic pace till now. I saw it as the maturity of the meet and people were able to do things on their own with least facilitation. We would just meet for a short time in the morning and people would write down what they wanted in the open space and according to me that would be enough.

Another great thing of this meet was that we had almost all organic food. I feel it’s a big achievement for a self healing meet to provide organic food. I appreciate Sanjoy, Damyant, Deshraj, Kanhaiya Kaka, Ravi and others for turning their 40 acre farm to fully organic in almost a year. They have made a nice vegetable garden which supplied organic veggies for the meet. For me that was the biggest achievement of the self healing meet. The open space was also pretty open and I feel we moved a step forward in self designing. I later came to know that some people were not happy with the level of ‘self-design’ as some one said that they didn’t know whom to ask if they had any questions. I think in a certain way it is also a strength as so many times moment we enter meeting space we come to know who is the ‘head’ there even though they might talk of horizontal structures, etc.

I am also aware of Fukuoka’s ‘do nothing’ farming methods, he talks of not doing the unnecessary. He believes that tilling is the most un necessary thing and weakens the soil and then we need fertilisers(organic or chemical ones). The first thing he eliminated was tilling. He also says that a farmer has to work on the field but in its spirit it should not more than a bird which works to look for its food. He also says that there is a difference between ‘do nothing’ and abandoning.

I would like to take the spirit of his idea and apply it to community building. But different people will have different notions of ‘do nothing’. What is a ‘truly self organized do nothing space’ for me might be seen by some one as a space where nothing much is happening and there is a lack of effort. But then we can try best to meet at some common ground.I do feel there is need to work on bringing people together. I would once again take the help of Margret Wheatley's line that "what we need is not critical mass but critical connections". She feels that interesting things are already happening but there is need for them to come togeather. But the question is how it happens. For me its not 'what' we do but 'how' we do it. I feel as hosts of such gatherings we need to make a space where people can come together and the space and their interactions will make some things emerge on their own in organic ways.

Also what stops us the fear of chaos. When we were having the introduction Ram had said that each person will give their intro in groups of two and then we will all come in bigger circle to give our introduction. As the intro round started people began forming all kinds of groups of twos or fives of eights. Some were moving from one group to other. They were deeply engrossed in their conversations that me and Ram felt that there was no need to call them all in a big circle and break their intensity and no one came and asked us as to when the group will meet in a big circle and the conversations gently faded into dinner.I also feel that we have the need for naming things and unless that is done we feel that things are not happening. Its like the fact that learning happens all the time but its the school which names the learning that people feel that learning is happening only there. Most of my learning has happened when i have been in conversations and spaces with people where we chose to be and very rarely in structured ones. Just like the idea of cafe conversations. To what extent can we create cafe conversations in workshops is a question for me. Or, can we create a cafe and then cafe conversations will emerge on their own. I would like the idea of 'kitchen conversations' or 'farming conversations' where people have interesting dialogues while cooking or farming. Can we have them in a room or isn’t it better to be in a space for cooking or farming and then conversations will emerge on their own. The question is to what degree can our simulations become real.

I feel the right expression in hindi for ‘do nothing’ would be ‘sahaj yoga’. The bauls in one of their songs ask “why is it so difficult to walk on the sahaj (simple) path”.

I am not saying that this(self-design) is the only way but right now but I am more committed to doing experiments in these ways of organising. I know it is difficult for me to do it and I need a lot of un learning as I have grown in such structured spaces like school but I would like to see such experiments flourish and be with people who want to do things in these ways. Just as they say in some book titles that ‘revolution will not be televised’, or ‘revolution will not be funded’ i feel we can also say that revolution will not be 'organised'(in the conventional sense of organising). It will emerge like natures design principle of self operating systems where there is a synergistic dance of different elements of nature….