Seeds, Salt and Trees

RECENTLY, on a road trip to Sirsi, in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, we decided to take a short cut and ended up driving through dense evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests. We were the only ones driving through on a narrow road which went up and down and curved and slanted, sometimes dangerously. We had run out of water, so we stopped by a small waterfall. On this road we spotted an emerald dove, which was a lifer for us. Later, I found out that it was the state bird of Tamil Nadu.

Our destination was a friend's farm near Sirsi. Sunita runs a seed collective (Vanastree) and has been a great inspiration for us, in addition to being a great source of books, seeds and encouragement. The first thing I saw when I reached her place was a lizard on a tree and I knew this trip was going to be a fine one.

We'd been to the farm in 2010 and the most obvious change since then was this oven, which wasn't a great success oven-wise, but had a lovely 'presence.' He just emanated this feeling of a yogi. Later, I would write a poem which the turtle had something to do with, as did the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Sunita was a little worried about Scrabble. He's a large, moody, unpredictable, doberman mix. He's sweet, but can turn around and snap and then feel really sorry about it. Sunita told us about the time when he butted her aunt from the rear and made her fall. Then he was so sorry about it that he nibbled her ear for the rest of her stay to apologise. For safety sake, Sunita tied him up, but he started whining so we asked him to be released. The usual rule applied: No Sudden Movements. I think Scrabble took to us, considering he tried to get up on Monika's lap in the evening. But, it could also be because he had fever and his ear was developing an infection. We fed him turmeric and ghee and he got a bit of Crocin.

IN THE MORNING, Chitti and Scrabble joined me observing birds. We watched a coucal for a long time, and then I tried to impersonate one. 'Hoop-hoop-hoop-hoop-hoop' I kept going. Chitti came over to me eventually and politely let me know, in her very lady-like fashion, that my efforts, though interesting, weren't all that great.

THE NEXT DAY we planted a vegetable patch. This was another new thing since our last visit – the raised beds on the hard soil. Monika and Sunita prepared the beds and planted some summer methi and onions, and finally covered the beds with hay as mulch and watered the beds. I prepared five pots for planting wheat so that we could have wheatgrass which would be juiced and fed to Scrabble for a quick recovery. Chitti hung around and viewed the proceedings.

 NEXT MORNING we headed back home, with heads full of ideas about an organic store, and of course, lots of seeds, books and thoughts. We decided to drive back via Gokarna since it was on the way. For those who don't know, Gokarna is the place where Ganesha tricked Ravana (you can read about it in the mythology section HERE). We reached there in the afternoon and it was hot, sticky and religious.

We escaped from Gokarna within an hour, after making a trip to Om beach. On the way to Karwar I saw some nice trees and had my share of religion.

Somewhere along the journey, we noticed salt pans and decided to buy some salt.

Monika went into this small cottage industry while I waited in the car. When she came back, she told me about a woman worker (the one in the green saree) who took a fancy to Monika and gave her a nice slap on the buttocks. When Monika turned around, she was pointing to someone else, so Monika knew it had to be her. She also gave salt for free.

We drove back home trying to get the most out of the car in terms of fuel efficiency because we didn't want to buy any petrol in Karnataka (Rs 73 per litre). We finally had to get a bit of petrol before we got into Goa where we glugged on it (Rs 54 per litre) and blessed Manohar Parrikar, the recently elected Chief Minister,  for providing us the cheapest petrol in the country. I had a beer as soon as I crossed the border into Goa.