Our watchman Suraj

  I walk the land almost everyday.  Walk the fence to see how it is growing.  Is it breached?
  Since i have this watchman who works part-time, i am more relaxed and reassure :)  I have asked him to do a few things..even i forgot what i had given him to do; to my satisfaction the fence is looking better and better.  He gives good attention to the land.
  The Nepali have a sense of work and aesthetic very deiffernt to the souther folks :)  For example, we have to put sticks for the tomatoes to be held up; he instead put a branch with many smaller branches,,so the green beans looks like a shrub now :)  Of course, with our broken tamil and my broken hindi..i told him, "do it just like in Nepal."
  It is a fine balance between giving freedom to a worker and to control..
  He is happy.  I am happy and the land is happy.  Thank you :)

Twitter our hen

  "Call her Twitter," Monica emphasised with her spanish accent.  She is a bird lover!
  Even an iphone application called birds gets her going :)
  Twitter was born with a few other siblings.  Her mom sadly one day defending her babies was bitten by a snake; my mistake.  I did not follow my instinct/intuition to put another basket over the one eaten by termites which i was using ~ means that it was holier and more vulnerable! :(
  The hen was our last standing one.  Sadly, until her passing, she protected her last surviving chick ~ twitter!  Just writing this saddens me..
  Twitter grew up with us.  She adopted us.  She spent a lot of time in my pocket; warm and cozy just like being under her moms wings.
  We could not tell if it would be a hen or rooster.  Well, i think i already gave it.  She is a hen. Yes.  Our country chicken dynasty can live on.
  In the meantime, our cocks were getting cocky and going bananas.  NO hens!  Our cats were targets.  They were each other's target.  Nope.  We need to get hens fast, Twitter will take longer to grow up.
  Windarra was so nice to give us 4 white hens.  Bigger eggs.  We call them the Gandhi family, as they were handed to us by the lady there called Gandhi :)
  Today, Twitter cheeps no more.  She is brown-red and happy!  She has had many visits..people are always surprised to see a chicken in our kitchen and amongst us.  Our family in the making.
  

Rediscovering her roots

  She has rediscovered her roots.
  She has started her vegetable garden!
  Coming from an interior design/architect background - she finds today nothing more rewarding then sweating in your vegetable garden!
  She is exhilarated.  She is motivated.  She is full of energy.  She can hardly finish her sentence she is so moved by her joy of work :)
  We visited her work place; home.  Lovely to see her site.  Papayas growing galore.  Pineapple in the hundreds; she says, "i am trying to get a 1000!"  All beds lined up, weeded, a variety of vegetables growing happily.
  All this maintained by her and watered by a drip irrigation system installed by her.
  Even the Farm Group has to say if she can grow so much in so little space, why can't she be a farmer? :)
  To our suprise, she made us a meal that night with home grown veggies!   Excellent!
  oh, yeah,  beans hanging from the sky she collected and ate straight from the vine - our advise - she thought it better then cooked! ;) Thank you Ilona.
  People, edible landscape!

Leaking tap

  Behind the house we have a leaking tap.  It has for a very long time.  A lot of water is "lost".
  When i discovered drip irrigation for my convenience and started applying it here on the land; i figured that i should install for the coconuts too.
  So i added a system to the leaking tap.  I wondered if it would work.  Well, to my surprise, each drip is dripping nicely all from a leaking tap.  and i can tell you the leak is minimal.
  So with the pressure of air and little water it makes a perfect system.
  Avocado and Coconuts are happy! :)

A squirrel that has found a new nest

  "hey, can you come over to the pony farm..some people have been cutting trees and we have to do something.."
  "See you in 5," i respond.
  Reaching the spot where the tree cutting is going on.  Catherine and Jonah are there working out some money story that an Aurovilian had created to make some cash.
  i saw something move in the thorny bushes; i stared at it thinking it was a snake eating something.  Gave it a few seconds to be sure. It was a bunch of ants going after a baby squirrel.  I pocked my hand in the thorns to pick it up and shake off the ants.  That became my world.  Catherine and Jonah disappeared.  Forget the wood cutters.
  I was just saying, "there might be others like stuck in the air"  Looking up in the thorns towards the nest above; i spotted another but it was too late :(
  This happened all because a tree cut fell on the bush where the mama squirrel kept her babies.  They got shook out of their nest..
  "Don't touch it," i was told.  Later, i discovered from @Mirabelle that it is a myth.  She was kind enough to take care of it.  She knows what she is doing.  She rescues plenty of animals..
  I jumped on my cycle and went home.  No milk.  Actually i was advised to give it baby food like we did for the rabbits.  So, leaving the baby squirrel in a drawer with plenty of clothe to keep it warm and safe, i jumped on my cycle..
  The time i returned after my lunch, the squirrel was getting cold.  I was delighted when Mirabelle picked the phone.  She asked, "Does it have fur?  is its eyes open?"
  "Yes," i replied.
  "Ok, bring it."
  Phew.
  so i speed on Dhruv's bike praying it would survive the last league to her rescue.  A new nest.

2nd walk in the forest by non residents

  There are walks in Auroville being organised by the Green Centre.
  We graciously accepted as we feel a need to share and express ourselves in regards to what we are doing and being here in Lumiere and there is nothing better then actually coming in person :)
  So this Sunday, a good 20 people, walked from Dana (1km ~ 15 minutes walk) to the land that we renamed from Fertile Field.  It is open, there is a lot of light, wind and space to breath hence the name Lumiere which Ange actually suggested once upon a time.
  Everything that is here is because of Perumal.  He started the place in 1999.  We took the relay several years back..
  Tlaloc, a pioneer and returned Aurovilian, so happened to be on the walk and had lived in the area back then :) so he briefed us on the area..the Fertile dynasty of the past.  i.e. Dana used to be part of it..
  Interesting to have people over and ask questions.  I am a young forester and when fancy questions are asked and i dont know the answer i bluntly said, "i dont know."
  Barnabash, a Hungarian child, actually to be precise Bogi and Zsolty's son, trotted along with his newly learnt whistle.  it is their family tune that he practiced all along :)  sweet.
  i hope it was of interest for the walkers.
  Catherine gave a little talk on Carbon Initiatives..where a few did generously donate towards planting in all forests in the greenbelt for this year 2011!
  It is raining as i write this.  What a pleasure and a gift for the plants.  It will be a great boost for the passage through the summer..

Aji Rooth Kar Ab Kahan Jayega

It's been a long time

  Now, that has been a long time since we wrote anything on our blog.
  So much i have wanted to share and express..our last story has been our new hens.
  Our hen's have perished.  Three cocks are standing alive and flying!
  There has been 2 workers digging a trench.  I asked them if they could get me some country hens.  They willingly brought us 2 beautiful ones.
  1 week in the storeroom to get used to the place.  Yesterday, our lady Padma, from Bommayarpalayam, decided to leave the hens go and enjoy our roosters!  The day goes by she has to leave to get home..the dogs are running after the hens..one is in the tree another she has no idea.
  Over the phone, talking to her from Quiet made me nervous.  Luckily, Catherine was close by, we made it in record time to save one hen that was under the grass unreachable by the dogs and the other was simply not traceable..good camouflage.  By nightfall, the hen flies down to go up a tree with our cocks! phew..(sigh)

Michael our CS turned volunteer

  Michael came to us through our first WWOOF volunteer, Noah, from Lexington, MA, USA.
  Noah, met him at some evening gathering..Michael got in touch with me. 
  A young french traveller visiting India.  Self motivated, eager to learn and an energetic man.  Always asking what he can do.  Always informing us what he is upto to..leaving messages, sms' or calling.
  Everyday he did something which made me feel really comfortable, at ease and another work done from the thousands of things to be done :)
  From planting trees to cleaning the dishes, he was all over the place. 
  He left for Thiruvannamali today.  He has taken our Goenka Vipassana book with him; another subject that he is interested in..he will return to bring back to book though :)
  With all those lovely rains we have had in the week he has stayed with us; it was tough planning anything.  His adaptability was of help..
  We always welcome self-motivated, happy, smiling and courteous volunteers! :)

Fundraising details for the wind generator

For anyone interested in the wind generator project, here are a few more details (from Martanda):
I'm trying to manifest what I think will be a great project for Auroville, so I thought I’d start by speaking with you.
Our City of Dawn struggles with energy. We need it, but we’re not getting it in the best or most harmonious ways. Some people connect to the grid (which is harmful to the environment, supports an arguably corrupted system, and provides unreliable current) and others use solar (which can be costly and is not as eco-friendly as we’d like to believe). In cities around the world, from Boston to Geneva, I’ve seen small, domestic-sized wind generators provide adequate power without relying on the “system” or requiring costly replacements.
The best domestic wind generators are made right here in America by Southwest Windpower. Their latest model, called the Airbreeze, produces electricity with just 8mph winds! And it only costs $650. Wow.
I intend to bring domestic wind power to Auroville, proving that these inexpensive and more eco-friendly turbines can compliment or replace our dependence on solar or grid energy. I would like to do this by bringing one generator back as a pilot (I'm in Boston until the end of October), then carefully measure its production based on wind speeds, and release to Auroville at large the findings. Yes, there are bigger wind projects in Auroville—but they are outside our plateau and for others. Domestic generators could provide for Auroville within Auroville at an affordable price. I’m confident the pilot will exceed expectations.
I have already found several individuals who are willing to make financial pledges towards manifesting this project. Unfortunately, several will only donate after I’ve secured the rest of the funding.

I appreciate any help you can offer.

Domestic Wind Generator - Budget for Pilot System

Airbreeze wind generator $649

Tower $400*

Wind meter $85 yo $165

Amp meter $32

Circuit breaker $17

Lightening arrester $100

On/Off switch $16

TOTAL: $1299 to $1379


* I hope Aureka will build a tower at a discounted price for this project, but I have not yet reached out to them.