serendipity
“So let’s leave some blue up above us

Let’s leave some green on the ground

It’s only ours to borrow, let’s save some for tomorrow

Leave it and pass it on down”

So sang Alabama in their 1990 album Pass It on Down. But here in this weird year of 2020, I find myself doing the “leave some green on the ground” bit as a vocation. All very serendipitously.

I was just past the decade mark at Zyme (a terrific experience, with some wonderful folks), when I started talking to a few people who were planning to set up a farming collective. Having tried exploring the idea of farming a few years earlier (and almost giving it up due to the challenges involved), the collective idea re-kindled the urge. And in mid-2017, I signed up to become an early member of the Tamarind Valley Collective . The Tamarind Valley Collective is a 100 acre permaculture farm with a vibrant community of 50 families trying to rejuvenate an otherwise barren parcel of land using cyclical and regenerative methodologies. It has been an interesting and rewarding journey so far.

Long story short. Zyme got acquired in 2018. The new company wanted to run things differently (obviously), and I found myself taking a long awaited break from work. The break was short-lived as I started a music school sometime in 2019! The story of how I stumbled upon it deserves a longer piece.

In the meanwhile, visits to the farm became more frequent. One thing led to another and I started putting some of things I learned (and, still remembered) in my corporate marketing experience to use in helping one of our Collective’s co-founder in his venture, WeCommunities. What does WeCommunities do? To put it simply — builds sustainable living communities.

A year later, we are living amidst a pandemic and increasingly unsustainable models of living, hurtling fast towards a point of no return as far as the fragile ecology of our planet is concerned.

Can we reverse the damage? I believe so. Will we reverse the damage? I need an oracle! How does one stay sane in the face of these challenges? Each day, I do whatever little I can. Some of these, hopefully, may rub off on others.

And each day, I remember to ‘leave some green on the ground…and pass it on down’…
['Prayer Flags']
['Farming', 'Climate Change', 'Sustainability', 'Bangalore']