Mud

Arunachalam, Chinnathambi and Thenan were working with mud, one day last week: we are in the (slow) process of converting our cowshed into a room. The first step in this was levelling the floor and knocking down and rebuilding a crooked wall.

While the clay was available, Arunachalam kneading it with his feet, Sonati and I seized the moment to repair our 'adupu' (wood stove). The boys did some modelling: Varuna made a dog and Badri Baba made a monster (as in monster.com).

It is such a versatile medium, is mud: you can shape it as you please, you can knock down and rebuild without much heartbreak. And the feel of it in your hands is lovely: none of the noxiousness of working with cement mortar.

This medium is the villagers' forte: Arunachalam kept kneading the mud into the correct sticky consistency, and Chinnathambi and Thenan quickly rebuilt the crooked wall, and did some fine-tuning on the other walls.

For generations, they have built their houses using mud: Even now, in this age of cement and concrete, most of the houses in the villages here are "mud and thatch", built by the individual families themselves.

Laurie Baker was one architect who actually learnt from villagers, and could then contribute to an authentic Indian architecture.We need many more such architects, engineers and soil scientists in India, who can work with the people, learn from them and then help them evolve their building practices.

Just a few design inputs- How to incorporate a window for more light inside the house, How to stabilize the mud to prevent dampness, How to deal with the problem of termites- will make a world of a difference to the occupants. And most importantly, the medium will continue to be their own: they will not need "outside" masons or carpenters to build their own houses.







We have friends who live in a mud and thatch house (above), and (Sonati's) Baba, in Assam, has also built himself a Santhali mud and thatch house (below). Interestingly, both Baba and our friends speak of the intense interest generated among the locals during the building of their houses. Many people would come to watch the building. After all, it is a medium familiar to them and they can take pride in a "modern" house built on a "vernacular" foundation

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Hackers

I heard the sound of wood being cut (to which I am sensitised), and went to the Hippo Rock to find two boys from Gundiyapattu, cutting some "villeri", as bold as brass.

I started shouting at them -thieves... how can you just come into our land?... what if someone came into your land?...-, and they said that "they" had told them to cut some "villeri" (which is a shrub that grows to tree-height, and is used for making pandals, other temporary shelters, and "heat shields" for young saplings). "They" were, of course, the adults of the village.

More upsetting was the fact that one of the boys was Rajkumar, who we know very well. He has come here many times for "tuitions" which were actually sessions in drawing, painting and drama. His father is Kumar, one of our neighbours and friends.

Our land cannot be fenced with barbed wire: For one, it would be too expensive; moreover fences can be breached. For another, we are averse to a psychological barrier between "us" and "them". So, we have a lantana fence around our land, like the villagers have around theirs, which is of course easily breached.

We have handled the issue of trespassing for grazing and wood-cutting by using various methods: Outright rants and threats ("I am coming down now with a 'kathi'"), curses (our first curse actually worked, much to our surprise, and our reputation in this regard, kept the grazers away for a while), tying up errant goats and cows, and, over the years, a developing of relations with the neighbours, the villages etc.

Now the pressures are mounting. The forest is in retreat with more and more land coming under the plough. More roads also mean easier access to timber for contractors colluding with corrupt forest officials.With no "commons" to speak of, our land is an easy target where wood, grass and medicinal plants are easily available.

How does one respond? There is no point shaming Rajkumar for the sins of his elders. There is no point ranting at Kumar for "using Rajkumar' : the situation is too complex to lay the blame solely on Kumar. On the other hand, if one does nothing, then such incidents will surely proliferate.

Any answers, anyone?

Tree Planting

All four of us were outside this evening, preparing seedling bags and putting in some tree seeds. We punched holes in old milk sachets (Vangal Dairy!), then packed them with a mix of mud and compost, pressed the seed in and watered the bags.

Whatever seeds pop, will be nursed in the nursery for a year, and we will hopefully plant out most of the seedlings next year.

Some of these were jackfruit seeds. We received the jackfruit as a gift, yesterday from Swaminathan's family; the tree from which it came is an old one, planted by Swaminathan's grandfather.(The jackfruit is as much his gift as his grandson's). If all goes well, today's bagging will yield fruit in 20 years' time.

We were struck by the wonder of it all: One small seed given time and space, can give rise miraculously to a stately jackfruit tree, producing fruit, each of which is a meal (or two) for a family!

I went and saw our one surviving jackfruit tree which was one of those we planted from seed when we came here.It has survived the depredations of goats and three consecutive drought years, and has grown into a lovely-looking young tree.

With that one we are eight years "ahead of the game", so if any of you are in the vicinity in June 2020, you may be the lucky ones to share in our first homegrown jackfruit harvest.