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

Sun Apr 25 20:37:16 IST 2010

Thanks, Kshmendra, for all those links. Have seen the Charity Focus link
earlier.

You might be interested in these:
http://www.signposts.co.in
http://www.sevacafe.org/

On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 4:40 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Dear Chintan
>
> Thanks. Had heard about it but thanks to you got to read it up.
>
> Saw it someplace described as elements of Anarchist-Communism. It would be
> fascinating to know where the roots lie.
>
> Here are some links, of which you might already be aware. Just in case
> .........
>
> 1. "Dama: A Vibrant Gift Economy in Mali"
> http://www.charityfocus.org/blog/view.php?id=2051
>
> 2. "Mali: Gift Economy"
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ELNsQdSMOc
>
> 3. "The Gift Economy" (website)
>     "SHIFTING THE PARADIGM TOWARDS A WOMAN BASED GIFT ECONOMY"
> http://www.gift-economy.com/index.html
>
> Kshmendra
>
>
> --- On *Sun, 4/25/10, Chintan <chintangirishmodi at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Chintan <chintangirishmodi at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Article: 'Living on love and fresh air'
> To: "Kshmendra Kaul" <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Sunday, April 25, 2010, 9:02 AM
>
>
> 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<http://us.mc572.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=kshmendra2005@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<http://us.mc572.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=chintangirishmodi@gmail.com>
>> >* wrote:
>>
>>
>> From: Chintan <chintangirishmodi at gmail.com<http://us.mc572.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=chintangirishmodi@gmail.com>
>> >
>> Subject: [Reader-list] Article: 'Living on love and fresh air'
>> To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net<http://us.mc572.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=reader-list@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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