{"id":15331,"date":"2019-02-26T06:05:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T06:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog2\/?p=15331"},"modified":"2019-02-26T06:05:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T06:05:32","slug":"contribution-of-fsl-indias-volunteers-to-shri-gurumahanteshwara-sustainable-agriculture-project-rahul-dayalu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/contribution-of-fsl-indias-volunteers-to-shri-gurumahanteshwara-sustainable-agriculture-project-rahul-dayalu\/","title":{"rendered":"Contribution of FSL-India’s volunteers to Shri Gurumahanteshwara Sustainable Agriculture Project – Rahul Dayalu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I am Rahul Dayalu, an IT engineer turned farmer\nand writer. I have been associated with FSL-India to host volunteers in our\nproject since November, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was looking at pictures of our project just\nreceived from Miriam, a volunteer from FSL-India, who worked with us for few\nmonths. I cannot believe it\u2019s been more than a year we started this project in\nmy village S Hoskote near Mysore, Karnataka, India. Those photos speak more\nthan words on our initial efforts, planning and fun-filled work. I wanted to\nshare the experience with all of you, and that\u2019s when I decided to write this\nblog about my experience on our first year in this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was just out of my IT job, full of dreams and\nwishes to work for Society. Being lost in the world of a corporate for more\nthan 9 years, it was as new as it was for a baby who came out of its mother\u2019s\nwomb. Not having contacts in any of the social fields and with many friends\nfrom college and a few colleagues, it was not easy to find a way to start my\nwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first year after I quit my job was not very\nfruitful. It was never easy when your family does not support you as you\nexpected. It is more difficult when mutual expectations differed. They expected\nme to quit this project and go back to my IT job. It would have been disastrous\nfor a starter like me if I had not used the failures and setbacks as stepping\nstone to grow personally and socially. Every opportunity which came my way\nlooked promising, and every person who wanted my collaboration seemed to be a\nmentor. The world of perceptions and false projection crashed within a year.\nThis pushed me to start a project on my own. A project which would be rural\noriented, environmental friendly and a job creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 I did\nnot take more time to choose farming to work on, and spent a few months on\nresearch, having been in training sessions and seminars. Also started searching\nfor a piece of land which would suit our ideas and plans. Raising funds was\nnever easy to initiate the project. Everything needed to start a natural\nfarming project fell onto our plate, and we started our project on a land of 10\nacres, in my village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 I met\nTim Hafner from FSL-India when he came to work in an NGO I was associated with.\nI shared my plans and he told me to approach FSL-India for volunteers to\nsupport my project. He came to our farm a few times and learnt the aims,\nobjectives and impact of our project in the long run. We had just got the land\non lease and were preparing to start natural farming.  I put a word to FSL-India via email, and they\nreadily agreed to place 2 volunteers with me. I was bit surprised at their\nquick response, and it also made me nervous, since we were not prepared to host\nvolunteers. I was expecting them to join us a few months after we kicked off\nour project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miriam Nass and Thomas Hassler were the first\nto join us. At first look, Thomas looked like a plumpy, red faced cartoon under\nthe piercing sun and Miriam looked like an urban college girl who had lost her\nway back home. And our land looked like a man-made dirty forest full of bushes,\nplastic and domestic dumps. It seemed like pushing someone into a river who was\nafraid to see their reflection in a pool. The biggest challenge for me was to\nplan continuous work, closely observe their progress and act fast during their\ndifficulties. It was never like a walk on a smooth pavement for a starter like\nme. My physical presence in the project was way too minimal, as I had to put my\nhead in every corner of the project. The workers in our project were illiterate\nand were not able to communicate in English. My concerns and fear soon\ndisappeared when Thomas and Miriam got adjusted and worked seamlessly in our\nproject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I still remember the day when Miriam came to me\nand said \u2018Don\u2019t underestimate me because I am a girl. I am a tough girl, and I\ncan adapt to any situation. I will work hard to meet your expectations and help\nyour project\u2019. I confirm now she lived up to her words in every means. She did\nnot stop work even after her hands were bleeding and we had only turmeric\npowder to apply on her wounds as disinfectant. She surprised not only me, but\nall of us. She soon earned a nickname for her work in our village. People\ncalled her \u2018Maryamma\u2019 which means \u2018Mother Mary\u2019 in Kannada.  Her elegance and charm soon earned respect\nand love from people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thomas was someone who has the capacity to suck\nyour worries up with his fun filled stories. We would sit for hours to listen\nto his stories every time he came back from a trip. He is a person who can make\nstones talk. He is like a back bencher who surprises you with his grades. When\neverything looked ugly during the process, he would bring cuteness with his red\ncartoon face. He earned the nick name \u2018Walky-Talky\u2019 from me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Both of them worked with us when the farm did\nnot even have basic facilities like toilets and clean drinking water, but they\nnever complained. They never made us feel uncomfortable. Pretty soon, the farm\nstarted taking shape. The dirty forest turned into a perfect red field. It got a\nnew fence. A new drip irrigation system was placed. All types of standing trees\ngot enough organic fertiliser. Volunteers painted limestone white on the trunk\nof every tree in our farm. We planted different types of bananas, mulberry\nplants, sowed turmeric, vegetables and greens. We laid drip pipes on the crops.\nWe cleared the weed plants and covered the land with dry sugarcane hay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then came the summer. Miriam and Thomas were\ntraveling. FSL-India placed short term volunteers with us for the summer. When\nwe were still getting the hangover of Miriam and when we were reluctant to get\na girl volunteer who would work as hard as Miriam, Anja Bitter came like dynamite\nand proved us wrong. You assign a work to her and you expect her to complete in\n2 days. She would astonish you with her skills and complete the work within\nhalf a day. She was an electrifying country girl, perfect for the farm. Even\nthough her stay with us was short, her influence on us is something to be\nremembered for long. Anja \u2018Bitter\u2019 soon turned \u2018very sweet\u2019 with everyone. She\nnever complained and would read books in her free time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Phillis Sunny Day was like a grandma. She\nworked to match her name. She was bright, caring and concerned at the same\ntime. Lea Corinth was like a spiritual guru. Her eyes and expressions talked\nmore than her words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All of them shared everything which came our way. They were part of our problems, they were in our celebrations. They shared the darkness in the night, and faced the brightness on the day. They enjoyed the food and hospitality of our family. They brought their families to us. They played with my daughter and had fun with our workers. They painted on our walls and left their imprints on our hearts. They learnt from us and taught many things to us. They inspired us. They challenged us. They pushed boundaries for us. They extended their generous hands to help us. It seems always less and not enough if I try to put it into my words. So, I take this opportunity to thank FSL-India and all the volunteers who worked with us in the year 2016-2017. The changes you brought in our project are appreciated and commendable. I wish the tree of volunteers you planted would grow into a EYWA (of Avatar movie) and keep the ecosystem of our farm in perfect equilibrium. I hope to meet you all very soon. Good luck, and stay in touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I am Rahul Dayalu, an IT engineer turned farmer and writer. I have been associated with FSL-India to host volunteers in our project since November, 2016. I was looking at pictures of our project just received from Miriam, a volunteer from FSL-India, who worked with us for few months. I cannot believe it\u2019s been more than a year we started this project in my village S Hoskote near Mysore, Karnataka, India. Those photos speak more than words on our initial…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":15385,"comment_status":"Closed","ping_status":"Closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433,429],"tags":[302,552,427,276],"class_list":["post-15331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-study","category-ltv-bangalore","tag-farming","tag-plantation","tag-sustainable-agriculture","tag-volunteering-in-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15395,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15331\/revisions\/15395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}