India, February - March 2024. India was a mixed experience that galvanized my liking for Indians and Hinduism. Like Italy it ended with bad weather. Go to my DestinationMother community page for a full and colourful review.
This is an overview of Aanandaa Permaculture Project in Haryana where, during a couple of weeks, I and a German volunteered fixing up hives and making videos for the coming season. Great Ayurvedic food, vegetarian, and easygoing people.
It was just like Italy. I spotted a parmaculture enterprise not far from Dehli. I made a convincing case and that is when I met Agam and Manisha. Where in Italy I developed the permaculture in which I infused them to live their dreams again, here the project was all but complete. There were rammed-earth buildings, pergolas, courtyards, fields of vegetables mixed into a veritable forest garden of papaya, guava, mango, sapodilla, star fruit, bananas, custard apple, medlars, kaki, wildflower meadows, medlars, drainage and recycling systems, a new nursery, chickens, ducks, cats, dogs, wild monkeys, wood chippers, fields of grains, just phenomenal really in 11 years work. What a great place to bring up your children. Home-baked breads, home-made pickles and chutneys, sauerkraut, lemonade and kombucha, fantastic cooked foods 3 times a day. Fabian and I were inspired to work hard for it. The best I could do was banana ice-cream, and Fabian made sourdough. I quickly discovered a disaster in the two remaining bee colonies; it was all cross-combed where they had entered without any wax laminates. I ended up destroying the colony in order to extract the honey which everyone appreciates, but trying to fix it all up with a good-laying queen was near impossible. Strangely, whilst Fabian filmed everything we realised that we had similar goals. He'd cycled from Germany whilst my cycling career was slowly retiring along with my music. We also liked the idea of an Indian wife, he, a rich one and I, a poor one. Both of us didn't really talk that much about our journeys but it seems he had a lot of marriage proposals in Iran. Like I say, Hinduism for me is more suitable than Islam. But I have made some connections. Quite ludicrous to think that with a non-capitalist philosophy of permaculture it is asking a lot to bring one home.
So, just like Italy, with good food comes my nocturnal emissions. I had 3 there. My toilet habits were perfect before I arrived but now we were eating lots of green juice, yogurts and everything traditional. I had my first nocturnal emission the day I moved into the visitor centre, having frozen a bit in the hammock. The nights were cold but unfortunately I still can't sleep horizontally. It seems I have a trapped nerve. I squirmed all night, occasionally eating bananas to try and knock me out. This is the bike accident I had in early September when my mother had been recovering, but since then it has been a history of bad luck. I lost my mother one month later and I still dream of her like they are visions. My mind flickers to the urn of ashes I am carrying. She shouldn't have died other than by a curse.
A nocturnal emission lowers my immunity levels. I started feeling like I had covid. My throat got sore, I had a runny nose throughout my stay, I lost interest in the guitar they lent me, just like Italy. Remember, when I had an incessant bout of this during 2022 I quickly lost weight and hair, and I nearly died. I was averaging about 25 a year then. I'm looking forward to seeing a medic in the UK.
But let's go out on a high note. I've had my fair share of illness during my life, and I always win. Just look around you and see how others live, then compare what opportunities they have to your own. There are many rich people who can't have a life like mine. I do it with little to no money. That's a brilliant mindset. Had life rewarded me with a fortune I'd already be on the moon. But actually I've inherited a farm, have more skills then practically anyone else I've met, allowed myself to develop on all levels, have a small fan club, and am still embarrassing teenagers who smoke too much and eat(alk)shit. I understand what makes me tick. And it ain't materialism.
The hosting was wonderful and very friendly. In times of need I was helped to book plane and coach tickets, which can be very difficult when your normal Western banking systems don't function. However, the gardens themselves were an inspiration to all who need mentoring in the art of human ecological landscapes. The hosts as well as all the kitchen staff and gardeners make you feel at home. The food was as diverse as it was delicious. One spends their time acknowledging techniques and relationships between all the surrounding elements. It really felt like a lotus flower peering out at the world around it.
