[Reader-list] Article: 'Living on love and fresh air'

[Chintan]

Hi  Kshmendra

Glad you found that thought-provoking.

Check this one too.

*Mali's Gift Economy*

by Beverly Bell

http://www.yesmagazine.org/economies/malis-gift-economy?utm_source=27jul09&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=15_Mali

Excerpts:

Coumba says, “If you ask any number of people how they live, what they eat,
where they get what they wear, you would quickly notice that most of it has
been given by someone.” *dama* is a time-honored, well-honed means of
keeping away hunger, prolonged illness, and early death. It provides the
social safety net which the state—egged on by the World Bank and IMF—has
neglected: a working health system, social security for the elders,
education, and child care.

In addition to trying to prevent anyone from being too poor, yet another
purpose of *dama* is to prevent most everyone from becoming too rich. While
in the U.S. there often exists social reinforcement to accumulate as much as
possible, with wealth and the wealthy frequently being revered, in Mali the
cultural norm is to give away as much of your accumulation as possible, with
generosity and the generous being most respected. The social pressure to
give acts as a disincentive to hoard, or what we call save. Coumba offers,
“Being rich here means that the person has abandoned his or her values, that
he or she is not giving enough to the needs around. People really start
worrying about what has happened to that person.”


On Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 3:45 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Dear Chintan
>
> Thanks. Fascinating.
>
> Some thinking-aloud from me and what highlited itself for me:
>
> - (Writer Aparna Pallavi does not bring in religion into this evolvement of
> life-view by  Anusuyabai and Pandurang Meshram. Either she did not ask them
> or they did not mention it or she chose (very sensibly) not to corrupt the
> narrative by wedding it to a religion.)
>
> - "Love and trust. That appears to be the dominant philosophy of the
> couple."
>
> - "When you love the land, it yields in abundance. When you love trees and
> animals, they love you in return. What else do you need to live?"
>
> - "Zero-budget farming. The Meshrams have switched completely to organic
> farming. They preserve indigenous seeds (and give freely to whoever needs
> them) of a wide variety of crops they grow. Mulching and contour bunding
> have enriched the land and reduced the need for irrigation, and have no need
> for pest control. All other farming techniques have been simplified to a
> point where the need for labour is minimal."
>
> - “Initially, we taught them techniques for making vermicompost, vermiwash,
> organic pesticide. But after a year or two, they simply took to tying their
> animals under some neem trees on the farm. The falling leaves, animal dung,
> urine and fodder waste accumulating under the trees combined into the best
> fertilizer-cum-pest repellant you ever saw. I have never heard of crop
> failure or a pest attack on their farm,” (quoting Sucheta Ingole of
> non-profit Dharmitra)
>
> - "The same simplicity characterizes their financial transactions. The
> Meshrams keep their money with a trusted money-lender, refusing to bank, but
> most of their savings are spent in helping relatives."
>
> - "And anyway, the man is trustworthy." ( Can you beat that? Trusting the
> local money-lender?)
>
> - "So why do they bother to grow more than they need? “So we have something
> to give,” he said with touching humility, “Villagers regularly take
> vegetables and lentils from our farm. Everyone trusts us and we trust
> everyone.” "
>
> - "Love and trust. That appears to be the dominant philosophy of the
> couple."
>
> Thanks again Chintan
>
> Kshmendra
>
>
> --- On *Sat, 4/24/10, Chintan <chintangirishmodi at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Chintan <chintangirishmodi at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] Article: 'Living on love and fresh air'
> To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Saturday, April 24, 2010, 12:24 PM
>
> From Down to Earth<
> http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20090331&filename=news&sid=35&page=1&sec_id=50
> >
>
> Living on love and fresh air
>
> By Aparna Pallavi
>
> *A family that has little use for cash *
>
> The morning I went to meet her Anusuyabai Meshram did something she does
> not
> usually do—milk one of her cows. It was a special day: the Meshrams were
> having guests. “We do not need milk on a daily basis,” she explained
> cheerfully as she served us tea, “Because we drink our tea black.”
>
> There are many other things that Anusuyabai, 44, and her 47-year-old
> husband
> Pandurang Meshram do not need: electricity, piped water, security, a
> weather-proof house, regular social contact, and for the most part, even
> money.
>
> For the past eight years, this couple has been living by choice on their
> seven acre (2.8 hectare) ancestral farm outside village Wasriphode in
> Maharashra’s Yavatmal district without these facilities. Their joy in
> living
> a simple life shows on their faces. “We live like this because we like to,”
> Pandurang said. “Two years ago our only daughter, Manisha, was married. Now
> we are free of parental responsibilities,” he added.
>
> Before moving to Wasriphode, Pandurang had worked as a mechanic and driver
> and also in a fishery for a few years, but the couple was never happy. “We
> were always anxious about something or the other, especially money and
> rising prices. Finally we decided to move away here and grow our own food
> so
> that we could live without worries,” he said.
>
> Over the past eight years, the Meshrams have evolved a lifestyle that
> requires minimal money. They plant cotton on three of their seven acres,
> and
> food crops—jowar millets, a variety of legumes, vegetables, oilseeds and
> spices on the rest.
>
> The cotton—an indigenious variety—earns them around Rs 40,000 annually,
> which is enough to buy wheat, rice, the occasional set of clothing and a
> few
> necessities; perform their duties on social occasions like weddings in the
> family, and save a little.
>
> “We do not need money to spend on addictions like tobacco or alcohol, or on
> visits to doctors,” Anusuyabai said.
>
> For transport they have a bicycle, which, they claim is enough, because
> apart from a monthly pilgrimage to Mahur about 75 km away, they never need
> to travel more than 25-30 km. They get enough fuelwood from the trees on
> their land. They harvest food items according to their requirements,
> leaving
> the rest on the field for whoever needs them. The couple says that they
> have
> never run short of food, and hardly ever harvest more than half of the
> crops
> they grow.
>
> [image: animal] *Our animals don't let us feel lonely, Pandurang said*“This
> year we had an excellent okra crop,” Pandurang said, pointing to a plant
> still standing amid a festoon of dried pods, “Each plant yielded more than
> 100 pods. I gathered baskets of them and heaped them on the roadside for
> whoever wanted them.”
>
> Has he never considered selling his excess produce for money? “Yes, but
> *loche
> wadteel* (it will only create complications),” he replied without missing a
> beat. This sentence appears to be a refrain with the couple. Why don’t they
> get an electric connection that they can very well afford? Why don’t they
> add to their income by selling the milk from their nine cows? Why don’t
> they
> avail of government subsidies? Why don’t they put their money in a bank?
> The
> answer is the same always.
>
> It took some coaxing to get Pandurang to explain the nature of the
> complications: “See, if we get electricity, we will have to earn extra to
> pay bills, and will be frustrated over power cuts. If we sell our extra
> produce, I will have to spend more time in the market than with my land and
> animals. Subsidy means bribing officials.”
>
> So why do they bother to grow more than they need? “So we have something to
> give,” he said with touching humility, “Villagers regularly take vegetables
> and lentils from our farm. Everyone trusts us and we trust everyone.”
>
> Love and trust. That appears to be the dominant philosophy of the couple.
>
> Dogs, cats and cattle live in harmony on the farm, and injured wild animals
> find their way there too. “I have seen a peacock, a deer and a hare in
> their
> farm at different times,” says Sucheta Ingole of Dharamitra, a non-profit
> which works in the area of organic farming.
>
> “It is because of these animals that we don’t get lonely,” explained
> Anusuyabai, “We have them for love, not for making money.”
>
> But what about the investment involved in growing those extra crops and
> keeping the livestock? “What investment?” asked Pandurang.
>
> This brings us to one of the most important achievements of the Meshrams:
> zero-budget farming. The Meshrams have switched completely to organic
> farming. They preserve indigenous seeds (and give freely to whoever needs
> them) of a wide variety of crops they grow. Mulching and contour bunding
> have enriched the land and reduced the need for irrigation, and have no
> need
> for pest control. All other farming techniques have been simplified to a
> point where the need for labour is minimal.
>
> “We do all the work and in any case our farm does not require more than
> three hours of work a day,” Anusuya-bai said.
>
> “Initially, we taught them techniques for making vermicompost, vermiwash,
> organic pesticide. But after a year or two, they simply took to tying their
> animals under some neem trees on the farm. The falling leaves, animal dung,
> urine and fodder waste accumulating under the trees combined into the best
> fertilizer-cum-pest repellant you ever saw. I have never heard of crop
> failure or a pest attack on their farm,” Ingole said.
>
> The same simplicity characterizes their financial transactions. The
> Meshrams
> keep their money with a trusted money-lender, refusing to bank, but most of
> their savings are spent in helping relatives.
>
> [image: seed] *Indigeneous seeds, the secret of good harvests*For the last
> two years they have been planning to rebuild their mud-and-tile house,
> which
> is sagging, but never got around to doing it because they gave away their
> money to relatives who were in need. “It does not matter,” said a cheerful,
> sunburnt Ansuyabai, “We are used to living in the open with our animals. We
> will build the house when people repay us.”
>
> They do keep a nest-egg for an emergency though, but neither of them knows
> exactly how much they have. “I have everything written down,” says
> Pandurang, who has an education up to the fourth grade, with a careless
> wave
> of his hand, “And anyway, the man is trustworthy.”
>
> The Meshrams have inspired Tarak Kate, agricultural scientist and founder
> of
> Dharamitra. A year ago Kate, 60, retired from the non-profit and started
> living on his own one hectare.
>
> The Meshrams have no doubts nor fear about sustaining their unique
> self-sufficient lifestyle till the end of their lives. “When you love the
> land, it yields in abundance. When you love trees and animals, they love
> you
> in return. What else do you need to live?”
>
> What else, indeed.
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