India 2

After practicing some basic asanas together, we head off to the farm visit we have all been waiting for: Bhaskar Save's farm.
Masanobu Fukuoka, the person who inspired many people worldwide about nature inclusive farming, biodynamics etc, visited this farm many years ago as part of his tour. But when he arrived and saw this farm, he said: cancel my tour and tell everyone that they should come see this farm.
Bhaskar Save was at that time implementing everything and even more than Fukuoka had been teaching so far.

We arrive on time at 10 but only 2 hours later everyone else has arrived. For the farm this delay was not much of a problem. The only work that needs to be done takes only 2 days a week! Compare that with any conventional farmer!

Bhaskar Save's son gives us an in-depth lecture about the principles of natural farming, and after that hís son gives us a tour in the truly amazing forest garden. A really amazing thing about this project is how they use indicator plants that tell by their drooping leaves wheter a section needs to be watered or not. This way, they only need to water up to a maximum of 8 times... A YEAR!
Having incredible yields with very little work and at a very low cost, this farm is an inspiration for many people who want to follow the same path, to what farming is supposed to be.

60 to 70 year old coconut trees.

Bhaskar Save kept close contact with his neighbors, even though they had different practices. A striking question he would ask them is: for 100 rupees of produce you sell, how much did you need to spend? On average they would say around 70 to 80 rupees for every 100 rupees of income.
Unlike you, he said, I don't need to spend money on pesticides, heavy tractors and tilling machines, manure and a lot of water. That is why for every 100 rupees of produce I sell, I only spend 5. And on top of that, unlike any conventional farmer, we only have to work about 2 days a week amongst the 3 to maximum 4 of us, and the main work that we do then is only harvesting. This insight was a turning point for many neighbours where they started to take his crazy practices seriously.
The farm works often together with school students, but they have to turn down interns many times, as there is simply not much work to be done.

Planning our journey ahead

Today we visited 2 projects by Rekha and Vinayak. Rekha got inspired by Vinayak's permaculture experiments and since then started multiple women-led gardens in her region. Her project Earth Forever is so beautiful to see! Her lush green little oasis is a contrast to the dry barren soil of conventional agriculture around her plot. The way she set up her garden is so smart and shows that she really has a deep understanding of soil ecology and plants. The raized beds with rooftiles around protect the crops against the heavy monsoon rain. That is how she can even have plenty of harvest in this extreme season. Rows of perennial and annual herbacious plants are alternated with trees that provide shade and protection agianst wind. They make the garden also very comfortable to be in even at the peak of the day. In between the rows of plants are several ditches filled with woody and leafy material to accumulate water and nutrients that are carried to all parts of the garden by the mycelium network underneath the soil and in the pathways. Rekha only spends 2 hours a week in each garden and gets so much in return from it that she can feed herself and family, provide all her medicinal needs as well and sell the surplus of her harvest on the local market, providing her local area with diverse and nutritionally rich food as well.
Vinayak's farm is in an earlier stage of their permaculture experimentations, so we can see many learning points where they changed approach in more recent gardens like Rekha's. Seeing their gardens makes me realise again how important it is to just start doing the best you can with the knowledge you have at the time and don't try and do anything perfectly. Only then you are able to engage community in your project in a way that you learn and find solutions together for the challenges you face along the way.

Morá Mukta bhúmir meye, Prabhat Samgiit #468
Bengali song that was stuck in my head the wole day.

Want to know a plant? Ask your local plant woman. All the permaculture farmers we've met so far couldn't tell me the name or purpose of this plant that grows and creeps EVERYWHERE here in India. So naturally I was curious about it's uses. Everyone kept telling me it was 'just grass' or a 'weed' but Rekha could tell me this plant is very edibe and nutricious before it starts flowering, and it is very good for blood pressure, anti-carcenogetic, for gut problems and many other things.

After our roadtrip in the weekend, we spent the day at Vinay's place mainly catching up on work. Vinay is off to work at the shop with his father and Rakesh finishes some promos for his upcoming courses (2024 is already filled to the brim till November). Meanwhile I get some writing done and forget about how long it takes for edited videos to render...

Vinay's mom is so sweet. I wanted to go out to get us some food but she has been cooking up the most delicious things for us the whole day! It seems like a lot of Rakesh's Indian food dreams have come true ready in these past few weeks. She allows me to help her out in the kitchen with cutting up the fruits and veggies while I try to take in the best I can what she is stirring in her pots and how she flattens her chapatis with the help of a wooden stamper. We communicate with a combination of English and my broken Hindi. I think if I would stay here longer both my Hindi and my cooking would make a great learning curve.

In the evening we enjoy great conversations that to Vinay's mom's delight are not about relatives or politics, but about travel, adventure and spirituality. As a Hari Krishna devotee, that is what fills her heart with joy.
Rakesh is such a great storyteller. I find it almost a pity that I am only helping him write a permaculture book, whereas his whole life is almost an equivalent to the Ramayana, exploring so many topics from his upbringing in poverty to computer engeneering, touring around different countries with his passion for reggae, doing desaster relief work as a homeopath in zones of war and natural disasters, to many deeply spiritual encounters and facing death more than his hand and feet can count, eventually leading him to permaculture and ecovillage life he now spreads around the world. It is truly inspiring to be at his side as someone who likes to live their life to the fullest too.

Want to know a plant? Ask your local plant woman! All the permaculture farmers we've met so far couldn't tell me the name or purpose of this plant that grows and creeps EVERYWHERE here in India. So naturally I was curious about it's uses. Everyone kept telling me it was 'just grass' or a 'weed' but Rekha could tell me this plant is very edibe and nutricious before it starts flowering, and it is very good for blood pressure, anti-carcenogetic, for gut problems and many other things.

Peanut butter plant! Gives fruits that taste like peanut butter

Vinayak's forest garden with very broad pathways

Vanay's mother playing the ektara

Rakesh has a radical idea that makes me laugh out loud: What if we behave like a 'normal' couple? Maybe that would send a clear message to the people around us and create less confusion.
But how do normal couples actually behave? We name a few stereotypical things that make both of us cringe:
Holding hands, looking each other romantically in the eyes, kissing in public, argue for no reason, going on dates, having nicknames-
- OK now you 're going too far! He laughs.
It is a funny idea but maybe a bit too much outside of our open relationship anarchy comfort zone.

Strange day. Doing morning groceries on the motorbike got a different turn when Vinay brought me to the park instead to talk, which made us miss our afternoon appointment with Lucy and Rhys and my opportunity to cook for his family. Sometimes there is just no ideal moment for getting some communications clear, but in general I don't like when those moments are imposed to me, basically leaving me with no choice.

Today we meet Lucy and Rhys early in the morning to visit a fort somewhere on the outskirts of Pune. I'm craving to get some proper air after having spent a few days in the city again. And that clean fresh air is awaiting us at our destination! We enjoy a nice walk, gorgeous views, plants that look like other plants but are not those plants, blue bees and some local food with a random distribution of what seems to be all you can eat curd - not for me, though! I've discovered that my random intense stomach aches from the past few days had nothing to do with ingesting local water in one way or the other, but with the delicious spicy coconut-mint sauce I've been enjoying so much at Vinay's place, which I discovered had curd in it. Glad to know it's nothing serious!
When we get back to Pune we get force fed one last time with Vinay's mom's delicious cooking - I'm sure we ate maybe even more these last days than my grandma imposes on my family during christmas. Really different from the 2 to 3 very simple eating moments I have on a day when I'm by myself back home.
After saying goodbye and expressing our deep gratitude for our stay the past couple of days, we move in to the hostel where Lucy and Rhys are based. Tomorrow we travel together to an ecovillage South from here and after that, plans are to finally start slowly heading North!

Happy winter solstice! It feels super weird to say here in the warm tropics. If I'd be home, I would probably have a cozy get together around a fire with a few friends and share stories. I hope I can squeeze something in today!
Today the 4 of us head to an ecovillage! They help people live free from medication through holistic health practices. Maybe we can exchange some knowledge or make some people enthousiastic to join our course in West-Bengal, which will be all about that and more.

The people at the ecovillage are really nice and welcoming although we doubt that they are open to learn new things. According to Rakesh is quite a common pattern in India that one man comes up with a project idea and then anyone else who joins in is quite submissive, treating the initiator almost like a guru where there is no space to go against his ideas. This morning the initiator of Serene Ecovillage proudly brought us on a tour to their farm where we could observe this same patten. Their organic farm is very bare and labour and water intensive of we compare it to any of the other projects we have visited so far. Also their crops are not protected for the monsoon, and we were told indeed that everything washes away except for some strong mature chia and the shrubs and trees of course. But when we shared some inspirations from places we visited that may help prevent these things, or make their farm even more productive AND nature friendly, he didn't really want to learn about any of these things. Because he didn't believe in "theories". What I found great about all previous projects was that they were ANYTHING BUT theoretical. But I guess some people are just not open to hear from other perspectives. Same for their conflict management they rely on only 1 person who guides these processes, which makes me wonder what they do when that person is the cause of conflict in the community. No enthusiasm for a sociocracy workshop here, but that doesn't mean it won't happen somewhere else! The biggest sociocatic organisation in the world is based in India, which is the children's parliament, that is actually represented in the real parliament. And it just so happens that Rakesh knows their ex-vice president who is now retired of this job because of his old age (18 years). After our adventures in the North we plan om meeting up with him in Chennai. Looking forward!

As a tourist it is almost impossible to get on some trains here in India because they are often fully booked at least 3 months in advance. For this the government did make sure there are tourist quota tickets available for foreigners who cannot book anything so far ahead. But you cannot just get these ticket at the train station ticket desk. You need a special app for this where you can only log in with an indian phone number (which you can only get in India), but then you need to prove that you are a foreigner through a text they send to your foreign number that doesn't work in India... Bless Rhys who tried his best to get us on the night train at the ticket desk with no result. We'll head to Udaipur by bus tomorrow then instead!

In the evening we eventually had a little experimental solstice music session together with the kids. Nice and cozy!

Never let anyone decide for you to travel with a fucking suitcase! Especilally in a country where the road is half of the time missing... causes a lot of unnecessary frustration. :(

Going through the bookshelf at our hostel (and killing my time organising it - my sister who loves organizing these things would have been proud of my job) I found amomgst the Hindi philosophy books and English classic novels a book that was placed backwards on the shelf and radiating some dark energy. When I hovered my hand over it it felt similar to touching certain gem stones that are not serving me: an uncomfortable itchy and prickly feeling in the centre of my palm on the edge of getting painful; as if an invisible needle is stabbed through my hand and getting slowly bigger in size.
Surprisingly - but also not - it was a copy of Mein Kampf. I wonder with what intention someone brought that on their travels to India and left it here on a public bookshelf...

More interesting books I found were an English copy of the Mahabharata, that I wanted to read anyways, and an environmental science study book from one of the top universities in India. I'm super curious what they learn here about this subject compared to the West. Study mode ON :)

Luminous Lucy on our semi-sleeper bus on the way to Udaipur!

A big thank you to all of you who have been reading and following my travel journal so far, and especially those who encouraged me to keep writing while I was traveling.

For the rest of the journey (as some of you may have noticed) I have not been able to keep up so well, because of the still limited access to reasonable internet and electricity facilities and on the other hand emotional overwhelm that brought all my attention to the present moment, leaving little space to reflect on past events in this creative way.

The story goes on now I just made it back to the Netherlands - spoiler alert, I am still alive! As I am sitting in the Rotterdam library with all my luggage around me, waiting for the time to pass by, I have a perfect moment to reflect back on what happened these past months - some events feel already like they took place ages ago. But no worries, I can still recall - roughly - every day and I'll do my best to write down my experiences with as much detail as I did before.

So sit back and get ready to get lost (with me) as the journey unfolds...

To not leave you completely lost - yet maybe a little bit hungry - I made for you this Thali of contents, so you get a little taste of what the rest of the journey ahead may bring.
So far we have been Making friends in Maharastra, and leaving for a new adventure together with Lucy and Rhys on the 23rd we have now closed the first chapter of the story. Till the end of the year, we will be Touring through Rajasthan - a more touristy experience, that seemed a bit aimless to me at the start, but with some beautiful encounters yet to discover.
Then, the new year on 1st of January 2024 kicks off with a new campaign party as we set off on a mission to set Rakesh's friend's ashes free in the Ganges with the Oneness Family.
With that chapter behind us, and Sham Baba* to the Rescue, we will head towards West-Bengal for one of our other main purposes on this trip to India, namely: teaching a Holistic Life Design Course at Ananda Nagar.
After a short intermezzo at Puri Beach, the story continues with Kabya's Quest and A Story of 3 Gems.
The last and final chapter of this journey will be about Separation and Unity, but if this is where the story ends,
is for you to find out...

As you can see, we have many chapters to go through,
so let's move on, back to where we left off...

* someone you will still meet if you continue to read!

…a single projectile
Charged with all the power of the Universe.
An incandescent column of smoke and flame
As bright as the thousand suns
Rose in all its splendour…
a perpendicular explosion
with its billowing smoke clouds…
…the cloud of smoke
rising after its first explosion
formed into expanding round circles
like the opening of giant parasols…
..it was an unknown weapon,
An iron thunderbolt,
A gigantic messenger of death,
Which reduced to ashes
The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.
…The corpses were so burned
As to be unrecognisable.
The hair and nails fell out;
Pottery broke without apparent cause,
And the birds turned white.
After a few hours
All foodstuffs were infected…
…to escape from this fire
The soldiers threw themselves in streams
To wash themselves and their equipment.

- translated from the Mahabharata

Goodbye Maharastra! As the road leads us to the state of Rajasthan, Rakesh is telling us stories about the history of India and the places we're headed to. Apparently Rajasthan is a state were several atomic bombs have been exploded, at least one of which many thousands of years ago (before we Europeans even got used to the concept of 'cities'), of which the radiaton is still impacting people (body deformations, birth complications, etc) and the environment today. The Mahabharata warns in a passage about this weapon, a fragment that inspired Oppenheimer and other (re)creators of the atomic bomb past century. A part of me fills with rage to hear that (this is what I've been taught in my highschool history classes) people who were kind of innocently exploring the limits of science and then being forced to develop terrible things, were actually quite aware of the consequences of what they were doing. When I read the passage here on the left I am not per se inspired: hm, interesting, let me try and make something exactly like that! In his famous quote "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of Worlds" Oppenheimer refers to a passage of the Bhagavad Gita, another Indian masterpiece.
I suddenly get very annoyed by (mainly) Western intellectuals that keep pushing this story to the foreground that their view on science, their culture is somehow superior to anything else, and that without our influence people in other parts of the world are merly in an "underdeveloped" stage of life. I'm only starting to uncover the Indian culture yet I can sense how deeply rich, conscious and spiritually embedded each act that people perform on a daily basis is - or used to be before the West imposed their ways on the people and the with super superficial culture of capitalism spread out also in this country like a disease.
While the vegetation grows scarce in the landscape outside, Rakesh tells us about the famous Hindu scriptures and how these great heroes used to travel through India with enormous distances - on foot!- jungle after jungle after jungle... not desert after desert. Rajasthan is known as de desert state of India, and one of the biggest deserts on Earth. But these deserts are not "natural" they are completely man made