I started towards varakampadi around 11 AM by car from the cotton city Coimbatore. Picked up my farming friend, philosopher & guide Mr. Vincent Paulraj ( he blogs in tamil at
http://maravalam.blogspot.com/ ) from his greeny home at Peelamedu. You must visit his open terrace atleast once to know how inefficient, we the concrete junkies of the city! He grows Greens, keeps Bees, maintains a green house for ornamental plant propagation, manufactures vermicompost etc etc!! .... all in his open terrace ! We reached Manngarai, the foothill of Attapadi Mountain Range, in 45 minutes and took "Chukku Kaapi", our traditional morning drink... along with the crispy Raagi Pakkoda at the popular "Rajan Chukku Kaapi Shop".. From there the Ghat Road Section begins. From Maangarai you have to travel just 20 minutes / 10 kilo meteres, to reach the hilly village joint Anaikatty.
On the wa
y, we visited the organic farm of Swamy Ramanji, a disciple of Swami Dhayanantha Sarawathy and took some nice images of the tree Noni, a fovourite of Hon. Dr. APJ Kalam, our ex president. The fruit of Noni is rich with anti-oxidants. We reached Anaikatty, our base camp around noon !! We bought some vegetables, groundnut oil, an LED torch light, a few chalk-pieces, a ribbon and a green ball point pen. We also bought a few Barottas ( cooked using renewable firewood ) for our lunch. We reached Varakampadi around 2 pm ( 12 kms from Anaikatty ), our second/last Base Camp, ie Mr Vincent and Mr Thirumalai's Plant Nursery. Mr Rajan, our farm caretaker welcomed us with folded hands ... "Sir, Vaanga Vaanga, Vanakkam " in a traditional Tamil Way. We chatted for a few minutes with a few locals informing us... a new check-dam project coming up near Mr Vincent's Farm. Mr Vincent was very very happy cause he visualised one for water harvesting a long back and his vision came true through a government funded project ! Mr.Vincent made a nice Passion Fruit Juice made with country sugar !! Oh What a tasty welcome drink !
Mr Vincent and Mr Rajan went to see the farm and i took a short nap cause i was terribly tired due to my house shifting work. They returned back in an hours time and we set out to my farmstay ( 10 min walk from Plant Nursery) where my experiments are going on in its own way ! The way is bit steep and you have to climb up a bit to reach our farm. On reaching the farm we painted LIFE with the chalk piece and tied the ribbon. Our low impact "opening ceremoney with now flex banners or tent or guests is performed by cutting the ribbon by the Mr Vincent . Mr Raman our neighbour and the Rajan are the only two guests! The Low Impact Farmstay Experiment Began !
I woke up around 5.15 am after the village morning alarm sounded "Cockaraco"! Peacocks and cuckoo birds started their morning symphony. After the morning rituals i went to the farm to plan the day after a quick breakfast made by Aval ( flattened Boiled rice) and country sugar soaked in water for 15 minutes. I wanted to build a work table for my laptop to do my regular office work. Raman my neighbouring former who knows a bit of carpentary and masonry has arrived to build my working table. We decided on an unbonded Brick table covered with a recycled wood top! We have marked the place and started the brick work without mortar so that we can dismantle it once we have our proper wooden table. We finished it around noon. I sat and checked the comfort level. A bit of fine-tuning went on for a few minutes and our work table was ready for my laptop!
I took a quick lunch again with Aval and Mr.Raman brought me some fresh oranges and gua fruits. They were plucked from the trees just an hour ago! The fresh aroma of the fruits and the sweetness of the chocked Aval filled the gap lightly and i tried to connect to the net via my cellphone and laptop. I dont have the electricity and i should finish my configurations in an hours time cause i am using a laptop battery that was bought 3years ago. But i could not do it in one hour. So i decided to return to my base camp ( Mr.Vincent's nursery) without proceeding any other masonry work. Mr. Raman wanted to go to Palakkad to look after his ailing son and hence we started in our car to the nearby village joint Anaikatty.
y, we visited the organic farm of Swamy Ramanji, a disciple of Swami Dhayanantha Sarawathy and took some nice images of the tree Noni, a fovourite of Hon. Dr. APJ Kalam, our ex president. The fruit of Noni is rich with anti-oxidants. We reached Anaikatty, our base camp around noon !! We bought some vegetables, groundnut oil, an LED torch light, a few chalk-pieces, a ribbon and a green ball point pen. We also bought a few Barottas ( cooked using renewable firewood ) for our lunch. We reached Varakampadi around 2 pm ( 12 kms from Anaikatty ), our second/last Base Camp, ie Mr Vincent and Mr Thirumalai's Plant Nursery. Mr Rajan, our farm caretaker welcomed us with folded hands ... "Sir, Vaanga Vaanga, Vanakkam " in a traditional Tamil Way. We chatted for a few minutes with a few locals informing us... a new check-dam project coming up near Mr Vincent's Farm. Mr Vincent was very very happy cause he visualised one for water harvesting a long back and his vision came true through a government funded project ! Mr.Vincent made a nice Passion Fruit Juice made with country sugar !! Oh What a tasty welcome drink !
