A little prelude ...

A few years ago I started realizing the impact of man on Earth (guess triggered by the BJP's India Shining campaign) and the role of any single individual in that process. Then there was this article by Edward Luce - One Land Two Planets. It was easy for any aware person to feel a little disillusioned. Thankfully, around the same I chanced upon GoodNewsIndia. I think no other single website had as much impact on me as that one single website did.

Over the last few years I had been digging information and issues, people and organisations to understand the issue better and the possible solution. The problem was huge and highly complex. But that was not the issue. The issue was that each and every relevant bit of info I gather indicated the same thing ... the solution was near impossible. Not for any other reason but for its simplicity. The solution to all our problems seem to be just one ... Slow Down!

We, as human beings, are moving too fast for our own good! We are consuming everything and anything in our path to fuel our journey to destruction!

But before I draw any such sweeping conclusions, I thought, I should first slow down myself - to know if it was feasible. And if it was feasible, was it sustainable? What would be the primary hurdles in implementing it and in replicating it? What would it be like then to live in a world still tearing down at breakneck speed?

While a lot of lifestyle changes had been underway, I realized that the first major step should be to reconnect with soil! I therefore decided to buy a small piece of land to start my experiment with sustainability. Since I cannot buy land in Karnataka (that is another story), I started looking for land in Tamil Nadu, which was thankfully not very far from Bangalore (where I live). The idea now is to experiment with sustainability and see if I can build something that can take care of most of my needs without too much of impact to the surroundings and the environment.

A slow first step ...

I had been contemplating on a slower lifestyle for sometime now, a lifestyle that leaves behind a much smaller carbon footprint. Been working on things slowly ... one plastic bag at a time! But was not satisfied by a little change here and a little there ... and I decided that I should do much more than just using less plastic or wasting less water. I don't mean to say that whose aren't worthwhile things to do! It is just that I wanted to make a bigger impact!


So a month or so back, after a considerable search, decided upon a small piece of land (3.5 acres) some 80 kms from Bangalore and bought it along with three other like minded friends. The idea will be to toy with the land, grow stuff, and in the process do something worthwhile and meaningful, something that has the potential to creates true value. While the idea is yet to take form, the process of implementing it, I hope, will be a worthwhile journey.


This blog is to capture things as they happens, and of course share other related stuff ...