Living with less 25th April 2012

First published on 25th April 2012 (now re published)

At first it felt strange, but right now, it’s become so easy to adjust. Living without the bright lights of the city, seemed so unthinkable at times, but today, it just seems so normal, as I work on my computer, with just a solar lamp on its lowest luminance level:  cannot afford to use the higher luminance, as it might not last the entire night. Having the flash light from the mobile phone is a big help. Strange are the ways in which human beings adjust to situations – something I realized on camping trips in the Himalayas. As the evening closed in, I had one small pot full of water for drinking saved from the previous trip. There has been no power ever since, so could not fill any water. Not that I had water inside my borewell. It had gone bone dry, at most giving me one jug full of water. So, my farm hand, god bless him, managed to get me four pots from the neighbour on my last visit. The pot of water was what was saved along with half a bucket of water in the bathroom. But there has been no power ever since. So, we could not even borrow water from the neighbour in the last two days. But there was a ray of hope, some rain water filled one of the drums under the roof – and as we took it out with great care, it managed to fill one full bucket. So, there is water to drink and for the toilet. But taking a bath will have to wait, until we get the power or I manage to repair the hand pump which I fixed on the other bore well. Was wondering about all the water that gushes out of the taps in the bathroom in the city – where we very easily flush precious drinking water down the drain. And now, learning to live with less – is a great experience. Remembered the olden times, when people learnt to live with a lot less than what we do today – dragging up water from the wells, growing crops using rain water, saving and storing rain water, working according to the availability of sun light. And yet, we managed to produce great thinkers, painters, philosophers and revolutionaries. Without a thing called an electric bulb, the great Indian freedom movement happened with great co-ordination, while with all our mobile and internet technologies, forget about revolutions, even a whimper on the goings on in the world doesn’t happen. Culture and relationships too got relegated - to facebook – as we are happy talking to a screen, but sit mum next to a fellow traveler on the train or the bus. Learning to live with less – gives more time despite all the physical work - to pause, talk to the fellow farmer, and listen to the birds and cows. And get a sound sleep at the end of a day full of tiring activity.

Can change ever happen? (April/May 2006)

It can if all of us work towards it. But while there are so many of us, busy gathering our gold coins and BagPiper Scotch, it looks like a distant dream. Many would think I have become fanatical about things concerning the ecology and Gandhi. Why this combination you might ask – despite my reservations about Gandhi’s role otherwise, he was a very futuristic economist – one who thought about sustainability way back 60 years ago, while we talk about it after most natural resources are either lost or are contaminated. So, when I speak about the present day situation, that we are still living in a colonial set-up, only the coloniser is different, and we need to find solutions from Gandhian economics, someone said, “You seem to be on a crash diet, a crash-civilization diet”. He was one of the better halves of the modern day India. He doesn’t have to loose his livelihood, if the city expands, if a multi-national decides to patent your seeds or decides to destroy your land by polluting it.

We fail to see that we are being unkind to ourselves – by polluting and destroying nature like a marauding cowboy. Ultimately it is us, all of us, who will be paying for it, with our health and our lives. We already are doing that. We don’t realise it. For now it is not us, those being happy in our multi-storeyed buildings, or those living in plush bungalows in posh neighbourhoods, that are suffering that much – but the fellows who are directly dependent on nature that are paying the price. We see their deaths and suicides being written about everyday in the papers. But we can’t care, for it is not us. For it doesn’t affect us today. It will surely affect us tomorrow, but then, tomorrow is another day.

Last October, I was in Tuni, I was speaking to an NGO consultant about the displacement of the fisher folk by the Special Economic Zone. He was not too interested to do anything about it. I had met him recently in the month of February, he told me that he has decided to bring people together and campaign against a minor irrigation project in his district (Vizianagaram) where 12 villages will be displaced. “What to do, it’s my motherland, my home and my village where I grew up and where I still own the land. I am losing my own land and house too”, he told me when I asked him how come he is getting into activism. Well, since it has come to his doorstep, he has taken up issue. Until then, he was as unconcerned as any.

I used to live in the middle of the twin cities opposite to a big star hotel. I don’t live there anymore. There are about 96 flats in that complex of apartments. The present situation is that this Hotelman who has gone on a buying spree has bought the vacant building adjacent to ours. He began to demolish it and construct there. Now, he has come to our apartment complex and is asking the residents to sell it to him. I am not sure, how many will sell and how many will be able to resist it. And what of those who decide to continue to live there? After all, today it is impossible to find a similar apartment right in the middle of the city. What if the man is a real estate mafia, and if he forces the people out? What will the middle class do, when faced with a situation that normally our common villager or slum dweller encounters, “eviction by force”? What can be the solution? Does it solve the purpose by keeping quiet when things do not concern you or wishing away problems or just simply pretending that life is all fine?  

“Change can happen only when we become the change that we want to see”. Gandhi had said it and showed us the path too, by being and doing that which he wanted to see in others. Jesus said it, Do unto others what you want others to do unto you. The philosophy of karma says that your present life is a result of your past actions. Similarly, our future life is a result of our present actions. So, does it serve our purpose to ignore things that are happening around us, just because they don’t effect our present situation? The solutions are there. Only we need to look inside us. Some will say we need to agitate, to protest against the system. That is needed, the problem is that we are quiet when we should be speaking up or speaking against something that is not right; because we are afraid. It is fear and inaction which is stopping change from happening, but that is another story. Even if we all protest, can there be change, if we do not change ourselves? I went to this organic market – where one can buy directly from the farmers, but of course not before you are supplied the food in a plastic carry bag. Can we go about things in a piecemeal fashion? The way things are today, we most certainly need action that encompasses our entire lifestyle. The change should begin with me, within us. No regulations or laws can change the world. Only we can. 

The other day, I was in a local NGO to do some work related to our Uranium Mining Campaign. My friend works there. It was past five in the evening, and everyone has left except this friend who stayed back to complete some of her work. As I entered the office, I found most of the lights, fans and computers switched on, without a soul in those rooms. I switched off all equipment and commented about it to my friend. ‘Yes, words seldom translate to action’ she said. I find a similar situation in another NGO’s office, not a soul in a room, but all electrical appliances run in full flow. They are genuine people and are supporting adivasi campaigns against large dams and hydro-electric projects.

Can there be a change? If on one hand we fight against large dams that submerge villages, destroy environment, oppose Hydro-electric projects and Mining (including coal which gives maximum electricity in this country) which displaces people, how come we are not conscious to use that electricity with reverence, and care and not waste it; for is not this electricity a result of so many thousands of people’s sacrifices? Is it not important to save power, in order to reduce the demands for electricity; a demand which is creating havoc with people’s lives and livelihoods – the very same people whom we represent and campaign for?

The next day, I was there once again at the same NGO where my friend worked. My friend had not come yet, so I waited downstairs watching a documentary about the student revolution of 1975 along with some of the staff. I was thinking aloud, “Now if you speak of such things, not a single student would turn up!” The girl sitting next to me remarked, “Yes, and then they will go and watch Rang de Basanti!”

I had been to watch this film “Rang de Basanti”. The film had become very, very popular. Even three months since its release, it was running to packed houses. Patriotism is a big thing in India, we are all arm-chair patriots, which is what the film talks about, asking young people to take action and not just sit around complaining about the way things are all the time. A very valuable message indeed! But come to think of it, if words come to action, will the filmmaker take it upon himself and do the dirty work of involving in the day to day issues of the country? I am not sure. Will Aamir Khan, the main protagonist who gave his life for his country in Rang De Basanti and fought for his village in “Lagaan”, stop endorsing Coca Cola, which is snatching away precious water resources of rural communities and affecting children’s health?  

Coming back to this girl who was watching the documentary on student revolution with me; a while later my friend arrived and I finished my work. As I left, I invited the women from that office to join us in the poster exhibition cum demonstration on uranium mining which we planned to do that evening. A couple of them promised to come. Or, at least made noises to that effect, the girl who talked about the attitude of the youth in the country a few minutes earlier was not one of them. It is a different issue that no one from that office bothered to turn up for the demonstration.

Recently, we had a meeting of the Forum for sustainable development. Many people, well-heeled thinkers, sociologists, activists came and spoke about the need to stop this destructive kind of development which is putting the majority of the people’s lives in peril – be it mining, large dams, large-scale urbanisation; it is the poor and the marginalised who are paying the price. There were some people from the adivasi and rural communities. But most speakers were from the well-to-do half of the society – people like me. I asked one question, ‘all of us who are feeling sad about the mining and other such issues, expressing our solidarity to the people who are sacrificing for this “development”; will we be ready to give up our plush cars and our comforts? For, these very cars and comforts are a result of so much mining and manufacturing and displacement?’ Since, it was a one way talk; I did not expect any reply. But I am wondering if there would have been one, even if we had the chance.

As a documentary filmmaker, I made very little money. There was always one question that was paramount to my inner conflict – that is, can I make my pots of money, highlighting the misery of the people? (Like any normal human being, even I wish to make money for my own reasons). This bothered me because; it is another thing to be able to make a living, but another one altogether to be minting money out of the misery of the people. It is somewhat like a doctor who wishes to get more patients, so that he can make a lot of money. In that sense, as documentary filmmakers we keep wishing to make films that are hard-hitting, issue-based films, which kick up controversy, win many awards abroad and bring us lots of moolah. I say this, because there are so many of us, who feel excited when there is a big issue, who make films precisely for this purpose. So, as a livelihood seeker, would a documentary filmmaker really wish that problems should get solved? What will happen if all the problems were solved and we did not have work?

A similar situation plagues the NGO world too. Many amongst the NGO’s make a lot of money by way of their salaries, with additional perks like frequent trips abroad etc. I always wondered why is it that they never educated the grassroots people– i.e., the rural and forest dwelling folks, never made them aware on the various issues that concern them, their environment and their situation. A few NGO’s did do that. But not all of them, then I began to understand, if the people’s awareness grows and if they begin to do things on their own, solve their problems on their own initiative, then there will be no work for the NGO set-up either, then like us documentary makers, they too will be out of work. Most importantly, they may not have an upper hand in negotiating with governments on behalf of the people, be it rehabilitation or development initiatives. Many among the NGO activists come for the protest meetings, against all large scale development works. But will they give up on their plush offices, big cars, five-star lifestyle which is a result of the sacrifice of the underprivileged?

A few weeks back, I was at a meeting opposing a large dam and a hydro electric project. At the tea break, the tea was served in plastic cups. I find it strange that in almost all environmental meetings, we are served tea in plastic cups. When I ask people, why are we allowing this to happen; they say, well, “life goes on, you cannot avoid the cups.” We may not avoid the cups, but as a principle, can we not stop drinking tea for that day and insist on the seller changing the cups next time?

 It was broad day light, we could have done without the tube lights, as the hall had many windows with light pouring in, but the lights were on all through the day. Many of the adivasi representatives were there with their cell phones. I suggested that we sit down under the trees to have our meeting, one of them said, “when we come to town we should behave like the townspeople”. At the meeting everyone was speaking of how adivasi culture is being lost due to developmental projects. Which is a fact, but come to think of it, I was reminded of somebody’s words. This man was part of the Pesticide Action Network of Asia Pacific. They were travelling in a bus all over Asia, and came to address an adivasi meeting in the forest area of East Godavari. The local adivasi activists staged a play about the loss of traditions, traditional crops etc.

This is what our visiting invitee said, “My question is to all my activist friends. It is fine that we tell the farmer to go back to plant traditional crops, but will we be ready to eat them? We speak of loss of tradition, but will we be able to go back to our traditional lifestyle, wearing khadi instead of jeans (most of the adivasi activists were in their jeans and t-shirts) and live without electrical appliances, motorcycles and all that? If we can do that, then certainly, we should be saying it, or else let us not mislead the public”. He continued, “I never admired Gandhi, (our speaker was a communist) but when I went to see his ashram in Sevagram, then I realised the greatness of this man. The house was stark empty, except for his mat and study table and his charkha. Here was this man, the most popular person in the country at that time, he could have had what ever he wanted on the earth, yet he lived his life in the simplest possible way, the way he told others to do. He lived his ideology, that if we can do even to a small extent, change can happen”.

Kaala Paani

The voice of Om Puri, Tom Alter and Jalal Agha take us to a different time in history as their voices boom through the Cellular Jail during the sound and light show. The pain, the terror of those times and the grit and determination of the people who fought for the freedom of this country comes out live as we are immersed inside the darkness around us with nothing but the lights and the sounds guiding us through history. As the show ends…people get up with great urgency, wanting to catch their cars back to their respective hotels. People busy flashing with their cell phone cameras as the show is happening; even after being told not to take pictures…I wondered what if the Peepal tree that stood the test of times could speak what would it say now? People who cannot think of a little discomfort for the sake of their brethren, who wish to take the first flight out to Uncle Sam, swearing by the White Man’s superiority….what would those people who defended the country’s freedom, killing themselves in the bargain, unable to bear the torture of the British, some force fed through their nose as they went on hunger strikes, and died due to the act of the uncaring officers…waiting for years inside the 6 by 3 foot cells, to hear a single word from their families – and their motherland…what would they say, if they came back and saw the audience that sat through the show as if it was another entertainment…?

Going to Kaala Paani is always an emotional experience. I once went there 18 years ago, on a family trip…and the island people were a surprise coming as I did from Mainland India. The one place where the legacy of the freedom movement still lingers on as the nation forgets its genesis…made me feel, there is still hope for India. And 18 years later, today, I felt refreshed, once again seeing the innocence of the people, and their honesty. The India which Kipling wrote about, “If there was a paradise on earth, it is here, in India”…perhaps a vestige of that paradise still lingers on in these islands. A paradise of not just the green earth, but of people with a sense of camaraderie, and understanding amongst various cultures, languages, religions and castes, where people bonded with each other intermarrying across castes and religions, having been thrown far away from the motherland and cut off from most mainstream communication for most part of the last century. Even to this day, the saying goes that if you lose something somewhere in the islands…chances are 100% to find it lying in the same place days later.

But the increased influx of people from Mainland is showing its impact – slowly but steadily. There is the trouble of encroachers. I didn’t understand what they meant when I first heard a lady of Punjabi descent mention this to me. “These are people who come from Mainland and encroach the land”. “We are settlers, we were brought from the Mainland and settled in these islands, and were given land to cultivate”. True there are no real local farming practices in the islands, since the original inhabitants were the Adivasi people who are mostly hunters and gatherers depended more on fishing and hunting than agriculture per se. Post Independence, since the 70’s a lot of ex-servicemen and Bengali refugees were settled in these islands, by giving them land for tilling and so they are called the Settlers. Then there are the Locals – the people who came out of the penal settlement – after the British left, stayed on in the islands, intermarried, and created a casteless and to a certain extent religion less society. But the current influx is of people coming from the mainland in recent times. “They have grabbed land in our areas and are paying money to the Sarpanch and the Panchayats and getting pattas”.

 The whole discussion started when I was interacting with the island farmers at a seminar on Organic farming. And they brought up the issue of monkey menace which was more prominent for Campbell bay – that is closest from the mainland. “They come in hundreds and have made friends even with the dogs and now even our dogs don’t bark when they come. It’s a horror situation for us and we have no clue what to do about it.” “Earlier we could bring up the issues with the authorities directly, now since the encroachers have come – they call the shots with the Panchayat, in fact, our present Sarpanch is an encroacher – and they don’t allow us to meet the officers anymore”.  I was surprised that even after there being 80% forest cover in the islands monkeys are attacking farm lands. One of the farmers replied, “Earlier there were no monkeys in the islands; some were brought in a ship from the mainland to rehabilitate them here. And thus, they multiplied and have now become a menace. Our forest department tells us to “adjust” with them! Now how do we adjust when they uproot everything that we grow?” “It could be that there is not much food inside the forest that is why they must be attacking your fields? So why don’t you plant some fruit trees in the forest?” “That is true, what we have is mostly timber species and therefore the monkeys were not originally meant to be here. As for planting fruit trees:  that can be taken up only by the forest department”. 

One thing that will strike us immediately on reaching the islands is the cleanliness that is maintained, and believe it or not, I have not seen a single man peeing in public! The services are available in most points and you can be sure they will be clean wherever they may be. However, the plastic menace has caught up with the islands as well as increased urbanization and the signs of strain can be seen especially in places like Port Blair. Auto guys are mostly honest and have fixed prices. But that too is changing a bit. At the Phoenix bay, I came out asking for an auto to go to the Tourism office, and one of the rickshaw guys demanded 30 rupees. Then his colleagues who were busy playing a card game shouted back at him, “Its only 20 rupees madam” and scolded that guy for overcharging me.  However, that fellow didn’t relent later and I got duped by the same guy the next day when he charged me 50 instead of 30 rupees to my guest house. And from his behavior which was quiet unlike the islanders and pretty rude, I deduced he must be a recent addition. I was discussing this aspect with one of the workers at the Circuit house, and he said, “What you say is true, the culture is changing and now these outsiders are slowly outnumbering us. I feel we should have something like a permit system whether to allow people or not”, he added. But then it’s not just some unruly kind that land up here, and it’s the moneyed people who change the dynamics of a place. The well heeled think of buying villas and homes here, like this wife of a Navy Officer whom I met at the guest house, “I think we should sell out one of our properties in Delhi and buy a house here”.  And just moments before that, she was lamenting about how her home town Dehradun had become a concrete jungle and the forests are all gone in Uttarakhand, and how the weather has become unbearably hot! “People don’t realize the importance of preserving environment. Now they are talking about it. But I say to them that it’s too late now!” She added.   Hmm, this lady with her awareness cannot connect that when people like her come and go on building houses, soon, the islands too will become concrete Jungles? 

The concept of converting agricultural land into plots has caught up. And people want to sell the land. And as for agriculture, most of the young people like elsewhere in India don’t want to continue in agriculture. They find it too tough and non lucrative. That could be a tough thing for the islands because with great difficulty some kind of self sufficiency has been achieved in food production. And if the trend continues, then once again there will be a dependency on the Mainland for food!!! Now that is again an anti-climax. Mainland India herself is suffering from an overdose of drought and food and water shortages. The island administration has a big agenda to convert the entire island agriculture which is about 50,000 hectares into completely organic agriculture. “Fortunately for us, the entire supply of fertilizers and pesticides are given to farmers directly from the govt. departments. We are creating awareness about the hazards of chemical agriculture. But we are also stopping the supply of fertilizers and chemical pesticides, so the farmers will have no choice but to switch to organic practices”, said the Chief Secretary for Department of Agriculture, Mrs. Menaka. One of the agricultural officers said, “here we pamper our farmers and literally beg them, please do agriculture, but they are increasingly getting alienated with agriculture”.

So, during the discussions, we talked about the need to preserve the agricultural economy and also discussed the impacts of global warming and the current paradigm of development which is destroying the mainland’s ecology. As a mainlander, I could share with the farmers and the officials, all the Don’ts to safeguard their islands.  The people could connect to it easily as they had faced the wrath of Tsunami.  Post Tsunami, there are many initiatives to protect the island’s ecology, but unfortunately, they are unable to stop the impacts of the Mainland activity. The increase in chemical pollution into the seas, from coastal India, and the increasing temperatures in the sea due to global warming, has destroyed most of the coral life. There was a time when the Andaman Islands were full of colourful corals and now there aren’t many corals left there.  At Neil Island when we went in a Glass Bottomed Boat, I could see mostly dead corals. My fellow passenger said, “It looks like a grave yard. Sad!” People say it’s because of the Tsunami. “No, Tsunami can’t be the only reason, it’s the increasing temperatures in the sea that must be killing them”, he said, and turned to his son, “I wonder if there will be anything left for your generation?”  One of the Port employees said, “Since we don’t have much industry, at least we don’t have that pollution”.  True, that is one factor that must have kept the waters still clear and blue. But who will stop the dumping of pollution into the seas from the Mainland? Who cares what happens to small islanders cut away from their mother land, for which their forefathers sacrificed their lives?

 I wondered at the beautiful rock formations that have disappeared in Ross Island. A local lady sitting next to me remarked,” they had to build walls along the island, since most of the beach was washed out in the Tsunami”. Then she said, “But the impact in Car Nicobar was extreme. Many people were lost. My brother in law went to work there, and till date we don’t know if he is alive or dead. Another sister of mine and her husband were washed away. But they were rescued 3 days later – they didn’t even have their clothes on them!’ But those of us, who pitch for the “so called” modern comforts (nicknamed as development)….which are increasing the heat on the earth, do we care what happens to our fellow human beings?  Or to us? Another sound and light show this time at the Ross Island comes to an end…and I see people being happy, it was good paisa vasool…it’s now time to rush back to the comfort zones.

Back after the HIatus

Its been so long since I had not been on my blog. And two years later, it seems a strange thing to look at my own blog. But once again the fingers are itching to write and in my own way and my own space, without asking someone to publish it. It all started when I was visiting Andamans recently, and then I felt there are so many little stories to be told...minus the issue of editorial control...I had been writing on my FB wall, but in that cacaphony one loses the focus on what one wants to say and do. In the past 2 years staying on the farm for most part and being out of touch during long breaks makes me realise how much time gets wasted in these conversations. The idea to be silent and enjoying the silence is getting stronger by the day. That is to be physically silent and yet saying what I wish to say, via my little blog. So, here I am back to blogging.