The beauty of fruit caked plans

Terry Pratchett wisdom

A year ago, Mani and I had finally bought ourselves some land. We were so happy and we'd come up with so many plans for the land and our move there. We were itching to go back to working on the land after a whole farmingless month post leaving the leased land we had farmed in.

The Plan

The plan had been to make a pathway, fence the land and build a one room house/set-up a container house and to make our well safe enough for us to do some whimsical Sound of Music style singing without drowning. Post setting up our living space, we were to move in, build cattle sheds, get some dogs and start permaculturing.

The Unplan

Three days after we bought the land, Mani's dad was hospitalized with a heart problem. The weight of 'looking after the family business' then fell on Mani's shoulders for a good three months after that. Mani's dad recovered and Mani was back to metaphorically banging his head on the wall in trying to make things work in working with his dad. Meanwhile, I found myself trying to do lots of reading which lasted a good 12 days out of those 3 months. At the same time, we were advised by the people at our village to not build anything or do anything during the monsoon season and to wait for summer times instead. This meant those who usually help to build things were telling us they weren't going to help us do so, for our own good. (We were instead advised to plant rice every inch of the 3 acres of land.
Me : But permaculture!
Helpful villagers : Naaaah, psh!)

The aching frustration

I've written how FOUR MONTHS of not doing anything farmwise post buying the land left me feeling frustrated AF (as Fred). I look back now and hysterically laugh at my naivety. (I wonder if I will end up taking another 45 years to get started and hysterically laugh back at this moment's naivety).

The farming we did

Part I : Getting myself a day job

By the end of November I decided to get a job to be able to start paying our day-to-day bills. Till then (and to a large extent even now), we were completely dependent on my parents. I am so grateful to my mum for believing, trusting and investing in Mani and me with the little she has. We couldn't have come this far if it weren't for her unwavering support and I want it made known that this narrative of mine would have been impossible without my mother's part in it.

I attended an interview at Clarivate Analytics and landed a job as Associate Research Analyst to curate and index research papers for the Web of Science tool. God it felt good to start getting paid again and have a routine, which rain and family issues couldn't touch. Also, it's thanks to work that I've discovered the wonderful world of podcasts and Audible <3

It was Elizabeth Gilbert's chapter in her book, Big Magic, which helped me navigate my shame in applying for a job and indefinitely leaving farming behind.

You can read her full post about this at her page

Part II - Mani bringing to life Comic Art Cafe

Mani's artwork of Gamma Collectibles and love of comics and action figures took on further shape as Comic Art Cafe. A place he could share his artwork in an atmosphere of pizza, mojitos, pastas, comics and more. Also, it would be a place we could transport our farm produce directly to. It's been close to 6 months since Mani opened his cafe and I must say, I absolutely love it!

It hasn't been easy for Mani to start this with nothing but the barest minimum. If anyone reading this would like to support an artist who wants to : 1) create a food forest which can link and start conversations on sustainable happy food without the guilt and 2) work towards creating a space and a home on the land for rescued animals and people wanting to reclaim their narratives and 3) support comics and comic related art, honestly just ordering a Classic Superman pizza or a Red Hulk mojito from the cafe once in a while makes a world of difference to Mani and our move to the land :)

Mani at the cafe :)

Part III - Realising the dream of working with horses

I've written about finding Manjeev Natural Horsemanship and like I said before, learning Natural Horsemanship from Manjeev and Charlotte has been life-changing. Also, having a job helped me partly pay for the expenses of our course (the rest was thanks to my mum). We've gone to Gurgaon three times now since our December trip and there's so much we've learned and experienced. Our last trip was nothing less than magical with the rescue of a two and half-year old filly by Manjeev, Charlotte and the folks at Gurgaon Polo and Equestrian Club (separate post on that soon!). We've named her Rey (after Rey from Star Wars!) and the future ahead of us involves bringing Rey to the land. I'm so very excited by this and honestly, it's set the wheels in motion like never before. Also, we've made baby steps in working with the horses used in joy rides in Marina beach. For those interested in getting to know about Natural Horsemanship, we're looking forward to hosting Manjeev and Charlotte in Chennai in the coming months! :)

Lal Singh of Manjeev Natural Horsemanship leading Rey away from her abusive home. She was given away because the owner's dogs had bitten her on the leg and the owner didn't want her anymore

Watching Rey's amazing progress and healing with Manjeev and Charlotte.

Pictures from Manjeev Natural Horsemanship's amazing Instagram account : naturalhorsemanshipindia

Part IV- Finding our architect - Meenakshi and Workroom

Around the month of February, Mani was invited to display his Gamma Collectibles artwork at Dakshinachitra as part of the Dance, Arts and Music festival. Next to our stall was Meenakshi and Jim of Skinny Zebra selling educational flash cards in Tamil (I immediately bought the Animals pack for myself! one of the coolest things I own :D ). It felt like providence when we started speaking, especially when Meenakshi completely understood Mani and I wanting to build a home on our land with local materials and our love of Laurie Baker style homes. She also understood and never once shamed us for being too poor to think of building cool architect styled homes for ourselves. She's been nothing less than fantastic in understanding our needs. I absolutely love the fact that she is our architect and can't wait for us to finally begin work on our land. If you're looking for a compassionate, dedicated architect with a wonderful eye for design and an appreciation of what her client likes, Meenakshi is your person :)

Mani and me with the Gamma Collectibles stall at Dakshinachitra

Back to gardening

Yesterday, I helped set up two bags of soil holding chikoo seeds for my mum. It took me back to how three years ago I used to think of myself as a gardener and not a farmer. Getting back to gardening and identifying myself as a gardener, feels a whole lot different than last time. This time around, I made sure to keep the plants close to the water source (tap) so we wouldn't have to go lugging heavy buckets of water. Also, I'd chosen a spot which would get the longest duration of sunlight. And, I'd made a snazzy design of left over tiles from a decade ago, which ended up surprising even me.

For mum :)

With a cafe to take in the produce, a day-job to keep the pressure of finances away from farming at the start, the tools of Natural Horsemanship to share with people, one new adopted dog and a rescued horse on her way - the land beckons.

"Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving."