In busy cities, several residents are taking to terrace gardening. While some use their terrace or backyards, others grow produce in their balconies. Finding ways to grow the maximum amount of plants in limited space is always a challenge.

C V Varghese, a vegetable farmer in Wayanad, Kerala has come up with an innovative solution to grow potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and other vegetables in limited spaces using a vertical mesh tower method. Apart from that, he was able to grow these vegetables in dry leaves, wet and dry cow dung, goat dung, organic fertilizers like jeevamrutha and neem cake, and very little soil.

Here’s how he did it:

Making the mesh tower

Step 1: Purchase a metal mesh wire that has 2-inch gaps and is 5ft tall.

Step 2: Cut the mesh in 1.5-metre width and paint it if you wish.

Step 3: Bend the mesh to form a cylindrical shape or tower and bind the ends together using plastic zip ties.

Layering the tower

Before you begin adding the elements of the potting mix, such as the dry leaves, cut a PVC pipe of 0.75 diameters and 5 ft length. Put holes with 3.5 inches gap between them to release water. Place this inside the tower and then start layering the soilless mediums.

Step 1: Add 4 or 5 inches of dry hay. This layer will prevent the potting mix from leaking below.

Step 2: Then add 50cms of dry leaves. Use a long stick or pipe to shove the leaves and pack them together.

Step 3: Add a layer of wet cow dung.

Step 4: Prepare a dry mix of goat dung, dry cow dung, neem cake, and some organic soil mix.

Step 5: Add the dry mix layer. Then, place a few sprouted potato cuttings, evenly spaces, in a circular order.

Step 6: Add dry mix again to cover the potatoes.

Step 7: Repeat the process by adding more layers of dry leaves, cow dung, dry mix and potato sprouts.

Varghese says that in one tower, he was able to plant 20 potato sprouts.

Plant maintenance

In November 2020, Varghese planted potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, capsicum and a few more vegetables in 10 towers.

“In some of the towers, I planted potatoes at the bottom and tomatoes or chillies at the top,” he says, adding that this did not affect the growth of the plants or the produce.

After planting the sprouts, Varghese watered them regularly. Within one month, the leaves started growing outside the mesh tower, and he added organic fertilizers like jeevamrutha and neem cakes to replenish the potting mix.

By the end of January, the vegetables were ready for harvest. While Varghese did not calculate how many kilograms he cultivated, he says that from the 10 towers, he was able to grow 120 potatoes.

Varghese’s 28-year-old son, Akhil Varghese says that there were so many vegetables that they could not consume it all themselves. “After taking what we needed, we shared the rest with our neighbours,” says Akhil.

If you wish to know more about how to grow plants using the mesh tower you can contact Varghese at 9744367439.

Four years ago, John Varghese (30), a resident of Thrissur in Kerala, began growing a few plants, including tomatoes and brinjal, on his home’s terrace. He wanted to reduce his dependence on vegetables sold in markets. “I learned through friends that Kerala is a consumer state, and that it sources vegetables and fruits from other states. Owing to this, fresh produce often comes laced with pesticides and other harmful chemicals. So I started growing whatever I could myself,” says John.

Two years later, he began experimenting with aquaponics, wherein plants are grown in a soil medium, but nutrition and water are provided by fish, their waste, and the water they live in. “I chose aquaponics because I wanted to grow a wide variety and a larger quantity of plants,” John says.

Today, his little experiment has proven to be a success, and John is growing a variety of plants, including a banana tree on his terrace. He is also the owner of Growcerys, a Thrissur-based store that sells indoor plants.

A week-long process

In 2019, John decided to venture into aquaponics, and changed the setup of his terrace. He had an 800 litre grow bed made with help from a friend. “It was made using fabric coated PVC to ensure it could withstand wind pressure, as it would be placed on an open terrace. The grow bed also has draining holes in the bottom, provisions to insert mesh filters, and two holes on the side for the water pipe’s inlet and outlet,” says John.

This grow bed was placed on the terrace and filled with Quartz Silica sand sourced from Hyderabad. John chose this grade of sand because the soil medium should be clean and chemical-free. Otherwise, it would alter the PH levels of the water, which is harmful to both the fish as well as the plants. He chose to grow his plants in the sand instead of the commonly used medium, clay balls, because the former requires less maintenance.

“On the ground floor, I placed a 500-litre fish tank and started breeding Tilapia fish. They are also known as ‘poop fish’, because they produce large quantities of waste, which benefits the plants,” John says, adding that he currently has 80 fish in the tank, but the number can be altered depending on the number of plants that need to be watered.

From the fish tank, there is an outlet connected by a pipe leading to the grow bed on the terrace. This system is attached to a 60-watt motor that ensures water circulation takes place for half an hour, three times a day. In the grow bed, the fish water is first filtered through the sand, where the solid waste is collected at the surface. “Then the water passes through a fine mesh filter, which collects the sand particles. Finally, the clean water is directed back to the fish tank,” says John.

Growing a banana tree

Initially, John would grow leafy vegetables such as lettuce, red amaranthus, and coriander, as well as plants including tomato and brinjal. Four months ago, he saw the banana tree growing in his backyard garden, and wondered if he could grow this on his terrace using aquaponics.

“I cut a banana sapling and placed it in the sand. I gave it the same duration and amount of water as my other plants. Today, there is a full-grown banana tree that has produced a flower and a stalk of banana, which will ripen within the next few weeks,” says John, adding that he did not add extra nutrients, organic fertilisers or pesticides.

Neighbours and those walking past John’s house always stop for a few minutes and marvel at the banana tree on the roof. Some have even approached John to take a look at his terrace garden.

As part of his next experiment, John has planted a papaya tree. However, in the future, he hopes to understand the techniques better and help others set up an aquaponics farm in limited spaces.

“Being born in a farmer’s family is a privilege that not many realise,” says 37-year-old Tom Kiron Davis. A native of Thumbur, a small village in Thrissur district of Kerala, Tom is a proud banker-turned-farmer, who has dedicated his life to make farming a lucrative professional career, rather ‘a brand’ as he likes to call it.

Speaking about his motivation, he says, “Most of my childhood memories revolve around farming. Daily trips to the fields to help my father and grandfather helped me understand the nuances involved in the entire process both pre and post-harvest. It was an education that not many people appreciate, unfortunately.”

But, he did.

And that is why, despite having a Masters in Economics, and a successful career in the UAE, he decided to come back to his roots. In 2015, he quit his high-paying job in Dubai to return to Kerala and start farming.

“Almost everyone I knew was against this decision. People called me a fool. No one could imagine that a well-educated person would want to farm. You see, farming here is considered a low-income occupation that can only be fueled by necessity and compromise. I challenged that notion by making an informed choice to start farming and dedicating my efforts to make it a lucrative form of livelihood,” he shares.

Not only did he successfully manage to prove this point but he did so by overcoming another major challenge — turning hundreds of acres of barren land into fertile cultivation.

Fallow to Fertile

Once back home, Tom found out about hundreds of acres of land lying abandoned and barren for years in Velukkara panchayat. He immediately decided to take on the challenge of turning this land into fertile fields ready for cultivation.

He started this journey by leasing about one and a half acres of uncultivated land and initiated the cleaning process.

“Nothing was grown there for decades, so no one was even willing to touch it. People had assumed that this was a wasteland. So instead, I started preparing the land by removing weeds and dirt, levelling the ground and even cleared a 2km long canal that runs through Vazhukkilichira paddy field for irrigation. The next step was to enrich the soil organically. Rain is good in this area so water is not a problem but organically enriching the soil took time. We used natural fertilizers like cow dung, jeevamrit, ghanjivamrit and vermicompost and in just a month and a half, the 1.5 acres of land was finally ready for farming,” he says. In the first year, Tom started with paddy cultivation.

Within a year he reaped the fruits of his labour with a good paddy yield and his success soon encouraged other farmers to join him. Following this, many friends and neighbouring farmers took parts of the barren land on lease and began collective farming.

“I formed a youth forum and farmer’s collective to guide them through the entire process, from preparation to harvest,” he adds. Today, a total of 200 acres of barren land has been transformed into fertile cultivation, all thanks to Tom’s relentless efforts.

But, his work does not end there.

Managing the Menace of Middlemen

In time, Tom recognised the real problem ailing the farmers of his district — the menace of middlemen.

“One of the biggest challenges that farmers face is the post-harvest sale of their produce. Most of them do not market their produce and instead make the sale via middlemen, who end up exploiting them. I decided to find a way to put an end to it, and so began to leverage technology to solve the problem. I used social media as a platform to spread awareness about the indigenous varieties of paddy we grew organically and began to welcome orders online,” he says.

Today, with the help of a group of 15 youngsters and 25 farmers, Tom grows organic paddy in 15 acres of land that is directly sold online and the paddy that is grown on the rest of the land is supplied to state government-owned company, SupplyCo. He also grows rubber, coconut, vegetables, fruits, flowers and spices like nutmeg, turmeric and mace, on 4 acres of land.

“We grow four varieties of indigenous rice organically namely, Kuruva, Rakthashali, Mattatriveni and Kodukanni, on 15 acres of land. There is a high demand for good quality organic produce and by directly selling these online at a good price, we are empowering the farmers,” says Tom who sells spices, jackfruit, tamarind and mangoes in addition to rice on their online platform. He has also launched a brand called Pepenero for selling these products on Amazon.

Today, from just the online orders, these farmers earn annual profits worth Rs 50,000 per acre. With every farmer cultivating on at least 2 acres of land, their yearly profits touch lakhs of rupees thanks to Tom.

His continuous efforts of empowering farmers earned him the Swami Vivekananda Yuva Pratibha Award from the state government in 2018. Currently, the secretary of the Kannukettichira-Vazhukkilichira Padashekhara Samithi and a member of the Rubber Production Society in Karur, Tom has become an inspiration for many in Kerala.

As a message for the youth and fellow farmers, he adds, “We as farmers need to realise our worth. We are irreplaceable, no matter what happens in the world, a pandemic or anything else. We are our own brand.”

“I’ve been making and selling pickles for over three decades now. I ought to have made some amount of profit from it, right?” asks 85-year-old Alamelu Ammal, a.k.a Ponnu mami. A resident of Kalpathy town in Palakkad, in Kerala, Ponnu mami is known to many for her delectable pickles.

With customers coming from Cochin, Chennai, Coimbatore, and even from the far North, she says, “What I can guarantee is the quality of the pickles I make. That is the reason why people keep coming back from more.”

But Ponnu mami says she is not making pickles to earn a living. “I do it because I like it. Putting in the hard work and being able to maintain this quality for all these years ensures that I have a good night’s sleep,” she adds.

To maintain her standard of quality, even today she does all the work by herself. “I have not yet felt the need to hire help,” she says.

Speaking about what got her interested in pickling, she says, “I grew up in an estate in Kannur, Kerala, and was always surrounded by mango trees. Even as a young girl, picking the right mango to make vada manga [a pickle made with baby mangoes], was something that I enjoyed.” Ponnu mami would take great care in making the pickle and shares that many of her relatives would ask her to make the pickles for them too. “That is where it all started,” she says.

When asked if her mother also made these pickles, she is quick to say, “No, it was just me. I enjoyed the process, from the plucking until the pickling.” Ponnu mami also makes pickles out of lime, magali kizhangu [a root known to have several medicinal properties] and various different kinds with mango.

What started off as a small business with about five half kg packets being sold a day, sees close to 10 kgs of sale every day currently. This is about 300 kgs a month. For half a kilo of pickle, Ponnu mami charges Rs 200. She says, “I was charging Rs 150 two years ago, but the costs of everything has risen, so I have also revised the rates accordingly.”

Even after all these years, Ponnu mami says that she has never maintained any accounts. “I have never kept a note of how much I am making. Whatever money I make, goes back into buying the mangoes and other ingredients. I have enough money in the bank and use that for my daily expenses,” she says.

The House of Achaar Mami

Ponnu mami has been living by herself for more than a decade now and tells me, “Since my husband passed away in December 2012, it has been just me. I have no children of my own but that has never troubled me.” Recollecting the times she spent with her husband, she says, “He was his own boss. Whenever we had enough money, we would pack our bags and travel. We’ve gone to the North, where we spent a lot of time. Travel was also very fulfilling.”

Ponnu mami’s home is typical of the houses in Palakkad. On any given day if you were to visit her home, you would be greeted by chillies left out to dry near the front door. The walls and cupboards are adorned with pictures of various gods and goddesses, yet another typical feature in most Palakkad homes. As you walk through the corridor and reach the living room, you will be greeted by a weighing scale that hangs from the ceiling.

“This is an important element in my house,” she says, in reference to the weighing scale.

Even though it hangs prominently in her living room, she almost always adds a few extra pieces of mango to each packet she makes for her customers. The machine to seal the bags was something that her sister sent from Delhi, and she tells me that the local grocer is able to source good quality bags to pack the pickle.

While one can buy the chilli powder and even the mustard powder directly from the market today, Ponnu mami insists on following the traditional method to the ‘t’. She buys all the raw ingredients and makes her own powders according to the proportion that she has been using for years.

Her schedule is set — waking up at 5.30 am, and by 10.30 every morning, she is done with her cooking. In the evenings, she spends her time packing the pickles and readying them for sale. On an average, she packs close to 150 packets each evening. “Most of my customers from outside Palakkad. Here people can buy and make their own pickles,” she says adding that the more the mango soaks in the oil and spices, the better it tastes. Each batch takes about 6 months to prepare.

While the main kitchen is on the ground floor, a flight of steep stairs takes you into her attic space, where she lets the pickles rest.

On an average, she climbs up the stairs at least half a dozen times a day. She says, “In 30 years of climbing up and down, I have always been extremely cautious. If I am upstairs and the phone rings or someone calls out to me from the front door, I take my time to make my way down. If I fall, then who will come to look after me?”

Her attic is lined with several bottles, jars, and even buckets – all filled to the brim with pickles. Each container at a different stage of being ready. Each one is Ponnu mami’s pride.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)
Images courtesy: Harish

It’s close to 10.30 am on 15 April, 2021, and Harikrishnan and Lakshmi are relishing their piping hot tea in Rishikesh. Today is their fourth day in the city of sacred rivers and mountains, and they have just ticked off river rafting on their bucket list. 

Despite low network coverage and the occasional noises of vehicles passing by, the couple is enthusiastic about discussing their road trip experiences across eight states — Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand — amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We started the trip from our house in Thrissur, Kerala after quitting our respective jobs in October 2020. The pandemic had stalled our plan to travel to Thailand on a bike, so we channeled our travelling bug to a lesser ambitious car trip in India. Our original plan was to return home in two months, but after seeing the breathtaking beauty of the places we visited, and experiencing the warmth of people and mouthwatering food, we decided to extend our trip. Each corner of India has something different to offer,” Harikrishnan  (31) tells The Better India. 

The couple have chronicled their journey through travel vlogs on their YouTube channel, ‘Tinpin Stories’, under their series, ‘Living the car life in India’. Yes, their car doubles up as their home while on the road. The idea is to live, sleep and travel in this vehicle in order to make this a budget-friendly journey, especially considering that the Indian economy has taken a serious hit due to the pandemic. 

They have already covered a distance of more than 10,000 kilometres, and are well within their budgetary confinements (Rs 2,50,000). At present, their earnings come from freelancing and their monetised YouTube channel. 

A makeshift home

Under any other circumstances, the trip may seem impressive. But against the backdrop of a pandemic, it raises several disclaimers, the foremost being the safety from coronavirus, followed by incessant lockdowns, border closures, and availability of food. To tackle these issues, the couple modified their car, made it self-sufficient and were flexible enough to alter routes. 

“We have always been fond of traveling, and after our marriage, had gone to Thailand. That’s when we created our channel and posted our first vlog.

A single-burner stove, a five litre cooking cylinder that can be refilled, and three 20-litres plastic cans for drinking and non-drinking chores have been neatly accommodated in the car. The couple refills the cans and cylinder during layovers.  

Their makeshift home has been a blessing, especially when there are curfews, or when eateries are shut due to COVID-19. On most days, they have cooked only during the day, and that too, only basic food like rice. The food made in the morning is used for other meals as well. In the night, they park the car in petrol pumps or public places for safety reasons and use public toilets for bathing. 

The couple has booked a hotel once and stayed at a relative’s house during the six-month journey. “In Kashmir, it was too cold to sleep inside the car, and in Rajasthan, we had to live at a relative’s place due to the curfew. Overall, the trip has been pleasant. Our biggest takeaway from this has been learning to live with minimal needs. You don’t need to visit supermarkets, malls or shops constantly to fulfil your needs. It can be done with most basic necessities,” says Harikrishnan. 

Collecting memories

The couple strictly adheres to their mantra of themselves learning about a place’s history, culture and traditions while travelling, instead of relying on locals to guide them. For example, they read about Lonar Lake in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district in advance, and how it was created by a meteorite collision. Usually, people visit conventional places such as Mumbai and Pune while visiting the state, but their homework helped them discover this lesser-known but magnificent place. Likewise, they were stunned by the handicrafts in villages of Kutch. 

In Jaipur, they met Padma Shri awardee R K Derawala for his work in Bagru block printing. His grandson, Manu, gave them a tour of their printing factory. They also unexpectedly stumbled across Indian Coffee House where legendary painter M. F. Husain drank coffee in the pink city. 

They visited India’s last village, Chitkul in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, which is 11,320ft above sea level. They made khichdi in temperatures as low as -10°C, which they say is one of their most treasured memories. The next morning, they visited the Indo-Tibetan border, and then drove for an hour to meet India’s first voter, 104-year-old Shyam Saran Negi in Kalpa village. 

In terms of cuisine, they have tried every regional dish, including Sachin Tendulkar’s favourite breakfast, the famous Kolhapur Bawda Misal at a local restaurant. In Gujarat, fafdas and jalebis came to the rescue. 

And finally, their encounters with people from different communities was their most enriching experience. Whether it was a father-daughter duo that gave them a free boat ride around the Hanging Bridge in Karnataka, the girls in a Rajasthan village welcoming them with their famous phrase ‘Padharo Mhare Desh’, a Kutch family that invited them to spend the night at their home or their interactions with the Siddi tribes of African ethnicity in Yelapur, Karnataka — they experienced immense outpouring love and kindness from strangers.

Their weekly videos and pictures are a testimony to this. The way they have shot and edited videos are engaging and hold a narrative. No wonder their subscribers shot from 10,000 to 1,00,000 in just a couple of months. 

You can watch their vlogs here. 

Edited by Divya Sethu 

Dr. Kuzhalmannam Ramakrishnan from Kerala’s Palakkad district holds five Guinness World Records for his marathon performances, in which he plays the Mridangam, a Carnatic instrument, for the longest durations in the world. In one of his record holding events held in Coimbatore (2006), the maestro did a solo performance for 301 hours straight. 

Among the many people he thanked for helping him reach this stage was a man called P R Kasumani, a native of Peruvemba village. He was the craftsman behind making the two-headed percussion instrument that proved to be Dr Ramakrishnan’s perfect companion for the evening. 

“We have been sourcing mridangam from the Kasumani family since my grandfather’s days. Although the village is a culturally rich hub for instruments, our loyalties lie with the dextrous craftsmen,” Dr Ramakrishnan tells The Better India. 

Kasumani is a third generation craftsman, taking forward his family’s hard-earned legacy of making and preserving instruments. His skills and focus on precision have made him one of the most sought after artists by maestros of Carnatic music, including Indian film actress and Bharat Natyam dancer Shobana, as well as late Carnatic music artiste Jaya Krishnan. Kasumani’s instruments are also sold in countries such as Canada, Malaysia, United States, Singapore, and Gulf countries.

Like Kasumani, there are several uniquely skilled craftsmen in Peruvemba who manufacture musical instruments like Mridangam, Maddalam, Tabla, Timila, Chenda, Idakka etc. However, over time, some families have moved over to other professions such as making charkhas and sari weaving, due to financial issues. Presently, there are 30 artisans actively engaged in the profession. 

Kasumani’s son, Rajesh K, who is the fourth generation entrant in the profession, speaks with The Better India and gives a sneak peek into their well-preserved heritage, which is more than 200 years old. He shares what goes into each instrument piece and how the family has thrived over the years. 

A meticulous process 

Peruvamba is located only 15 kilometres from the noisy town of Palakkad, and upon entering the small village, you only see a different world. At any point in the day, you can hear someone humming along to classical ragas like Kambhoji, Hanumantodi, and Malahari, on freshly made mridangams. 

The cumbersome and labour-intensive process of making every piece, which continues seamlessly and without glitches, takes anywhere between 2-3 months to complete. Generally, the artisans dedicate a part of their house to make the instruments. This is probably the reason why the entire family is involved in the work. Rajesh was around eight when he first tried his hands at making one. 

“For a school project, I had made a miniature mridangam, and cut my skin in the process. In fact, in the initial days, I’d cut myself often, till I grasped every step of the process. Every family member excels at certain tasks. For example, my grandmother aces mashiyidal, which is the black circular ring on top of the instrument made from boiled rice and black stone. Her work is especially in demand by customers. Likewise, my father perfects the shape,” says Rajesh. 

The main materials to make the instrument are jackfruit and leather. The family sources their jackfruit from Tamil Nadu’s Panruti village and to ensure the sturdiness, the tree has to be at least 30 years old. The middle and lower body of the fruit is cut and kept for drying for nearly two months, and then chiselled to make the body. 

“Earlier, we would shape the jackfruit by hand, but now we have a rotating machine that does the work in three hours. The leather is made of three skin layers and pinned on the top and bottom. The strings are fastened tightly on the sides, and while doing this, it is crucial to note if the struti (microtonal units) is in perfect order. It is an excruciating process which requires a lot of arm and leg strength. After this, we make mashiyidal by grinding the black stone or puranakkallu on a mortar and mixing the powder with boiled rice. It is applied to drumheads which create a resonating bass sound,” Kasumani explains. 

The family makes two types of mridangams — Ech, which is usually used by female musicians due to its high pitch, and Thag used by men. In Ech, straw is placed in between the leather layers, and for Thag, rust iron is used. The finished product weighs between 9-12 kilos and the price range is between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000, depending on the specifications of the customers. 

The bespoke percussion instruments are made without any shortcuts and the dedication is reflected in the family’s policy of testing each instrument before selling it. Even though they make an average of 50 mridangams through the year, they don’t hesitate in discarding pieces if they find a defect. Many artisans sell the defective pieces at lower prices but for Kasumani and Rajesh, nothing is more important than quality. This principle is applied when customers come for their instruments to be repaired —  they either replace the instrument altogether, or repair it for free. 

However, adherence to quality has its drawbacks, especially in a time like COVID-19, when the demand has dropped dramatically. They end up working more and earning less. The family either sells directly to customers who comprise musicians and music institutions or middlemen at fair price. In case of middlemen, Rajesh tells me that often, they increase the price and sell it under their brand name without giving any credit to the makers. 

But by now, Rajesh has accepted the bitter truth. “Unlike in the old days, customers have specific demands with regards to design, tone, etc and we provide these, but they don’t want to pay extra for the extra work we do. Due to the pandemic, festival celebrations and social gatherings have reduced, so very few people are ordering from us. It is a difficult time for us.” 

Even though Rajesh holds a degree in MA, he has chosen to be a part of Kasumani’s legacy and, despite the pandemic, he aims to continue the craft. While he does not have children, he hopes to pass on the learnings and skills to his nieces and nephews, giving them a choice to join the family tradition when they grow up. 

“Mridangam is part of our identities now, I will part with it only when I die,” adds Rajesh. 

Featured image source: Manikandan/Facebook 

With inputs from Upasna Sudhir

Edited by Divya Sethu

Unnikrishnan Kurup (Unni) stays approximately 6,100 kilometres away from India, in Finland, a country known to be the happiest country in the world.

Keeping this attribute in mind, and having spent more than a decade in Finland, Unni has decided to export some of the country’s good practices to Kerala, his hometown. For this, in February 2019, he launched Venture Village to incorporate and implement Finnish ways of learning with children back home in India. Having impacted the lives of 3,700 students across 25 schools in Kerala, the programmes developed by Venture Village have helped these kids understand the environment, as well as waste management systems, better.

An engineer by qualification, Unni was a resident of Kerala until 2010, before he moved to Finland for work. He began working there as a consultant with Nokia, and eventually went on to co-found a start-up with some of his Finnish colleagues. “While my bread and butter comes from the company I co-founded, Venture Village is my way of giving back to Kerala,” he tells The Better India.

Unni founded Venture Village with his friend Dr Anup Jinadevan.

“Our focus points were educating children from a very young age in subjects such as sustainability, environment, work life balance, entrepreneurship, personal health and hygiene, to name a few. The teaching methodologies we used were mainly based on tried and tested Finnish ways of teaching like learning by doing, play and learn, and phenomenon-based learning for acquiring 21st century life skills,” Unni says.

While both Unni and Dr Anup have been funding the venture as of now, Unni adds, “We have designed this venture to be a for-profit-social-enterprise and have been seeing marginal profits as well.” So far the duo have put in close to Rs 20 lakh to get their venture going.

Drawing inspiration from the good

With two school-going children in Finland, Unni had first-hand knowledge of how well the country’s education system worked. “The manner in which some fundamental things are imprinted in the minds of students from a very early age caught my attention,” he says.

He says that some examples of Finnish teaching techniques include the children being given the freedom to choose elective subjects from as young as Class IV, and being taught behavioral skills, which includes social media responsibilities. “Some topics they discuss in class include bullying on social media and learning to identify fake news. Life skills include vocational courses such as carpentry/wood work, textiles, and cooking/baking,” he adds.

“While the subjects my kids study in Finland remain the same as India’s, it is the method of teaching that makes all the difference,” he says. Students are grouped according to the learning level they are at, rather than be grouped as per their age. Unni and his partner have tried to incorporate some of these features into all their learning plans for Indian students.

“The idea behind launching Venture Village was to be able to start inculcating various aspects of the economy, sustainability, working life, society and entrepreneurship in students from a young age,” he adds.

While the programmes were conducted all through 2019, with the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the world in 2020, everything shifted to the virtual world. “Even though it was all moved to the virtual world, we wanted to retain as much of a hands-on experience as one could. The Green City programme, designed to encourage school children to understand waste management and sustainability, was conducted online last year,” Unni says.

Speaking of more factors that influenced the foundation of Venture Village, Unni says the Kerala floods in 2018, which left the state devastated, were also a trigger for founding the platform. The duo wanted to work on issues related to the environment in a way that could perhaps drastically reduce the chance of yet another disaster hitting the state. “We believe that many of the solutions to our problems lie in planning, understanding and implementing good systems,” he adds.

Both Unni and Dr Anup were involved in relief work and wanted to find a larger way of contributing. “Just coordinating relief work and collecting money and resources for people back in Kerala did not seem to satisfy either of us. We wanted to think big and implement ground level changes,” says Unni.

‘Catch them young’

Close to 3,700 students from 25 different schools in Kerala have benefitted from the programmes run by Venture Village. “While the idea remains to catch them young, it is also imperative that students are old enough to understand the issues at hand. Students from Classes VI to IX take part in these programmes,” says Unni.

For a student to enrol in one of these programmes via their school, it would cost Rs 4,000 for the entire year. “We do not intend to over-charge any student solely because we have brought these programmes from Finland. The idea is not to make money out of this, but instead bring about a systemic change in education in India,” he says.

Adithyan, a Class VII student at Devi Vilasom (DVUPS) School, who participated in the Green City programme, says, “I got to learn about some of the ill-effects of using plastic, as well as ways by which we can reuse the material around the house to ensure that it does not end up in the landfills. I also learnt how to make compost and have been using the same for the plants I grow.”

Theress Raison, a student of Class VIII, who undertook the Green City programme from Mary Land Public School, says the course taught her all about waste segregation. “I did not know there were so many ways of waste segregation even possible,” she says.

To ensure that the programmes being developed at Venture Village are authentic, both Unni and Dr Anup have enrolled for a Master’s programme in Educational Entrepreneurship from a University in Finland.

“It has been such an interesting journey. Just being able to understand the theoretical aspects of what we wish to implement has been enriching,” he says. When asked about some of the high-points that Unni has experienced in building this venture, he says that the feedback that they constantly receive from students is what keeps them motivated to work better.

What helps Unni work on Venture Village while working on his own startup in Finland is the work-life balance that the country offers, Unni says, “There is no spilling over of work on the weekends, which is a time that one spends with family or doing whatever they wish to.” The time difference between India and Finland also works to his advantage, and he is able to get on calls with his Indian counterparts at very decent hours, he adds.

In terms of plans for the future, Unni and his partner are looking to expand from Kerala to other states in India. Unni says, “We are looking to introduce shorter courses that kids can undertake during their summer break. This will be rolled out to schools across India.”

Rapid fire with Unni

What’s the one thing you miss about India?
Unni: The food, as well as and the order in chaos one finds in India.

What’s the one thing you would like to export from Finland to India?
Unni: Following the rules and processes.

One thing you’d like to change in India?
Unni: Inculcate respect for all jobs; however big or small.

Words of Wisdom
Unni: Follow your dreams no matter what. Be on the move both mentally and physically by constantly learning and doing new things. Keep in mind that success doesn’t happen overnight. Stay consistent!

To follow their work, click here to access instagram and here for Facebook.

(Edited by Divya Sethu)

No matter how much I try, the taste of my grandmother’s rasam made in her eeya chombu (a tin vessel) is something I can never replicate using my regular vessels.

Longing for the authentic taste of grandma’s cooking is also what steered Kaviya Cherian (27), an actuarial science professional, into becoming a food entrepreneur. “The taste of the jackfruit halwa that my grandmother [Ann Thomas] makes in her traditional cookware is just out of this world,” Kaviya says to The Better India.

“For a year-and-a-half, I was working as an actuarial analyst in Mumbai but I didn’t find the satisfaction I was looking for,” says Kaviya.

Having quit her job in January 2019, Kaviya moved back to Cochin, Kerala, where her parents lived and subsequently visited Thiruvalla, where her grandparents lived.

“My grandmother was undergoing a cataract surgery and I went to help them out around the house. Since my grandmother could not cook post her surgery, she would sit outside and instruct me. The joy of cooking in traditional cookware was what fascinated me,” she says, adding that most of the vessels were passed on from generation to generation.

But while most traditional houses still use such cookware, Kaviya found that they were not easily available in shops. “If I were to step into any big supermarket, I would have a huge non-stick collection to choose from, but there was a gap needed to be filled with traditional cookware,” she says.

It was this realisation that led to Green Heirloom being established in August 2020.

From my grandma’s kitchen to yours

“Did you know that the lifespan of a non-stick cookware is about six years?” asks Kaviya. She adds, “From a sustainability point of view, investing in traditional cookware is far better. Some of the vessels in my grandmother’s kitchen are older than her. The health benefits of using this cookware are also tremendous.”

“Besides all the benefits that I can rattle off about using the traditional cookware, the taste of the food when cooked in it is something that you have to experience to understand. The same dish that is made in a regular non-stick pan, with the same ingredients and recipe tastes so much better when made using the traditional cookware,” she says.

She further adds, “If you were to cook fish curry, which has a tamarind base in a non-stick pan and cook the same in an earthen pot the taste is completely different. Acidic food when cooked in earthen pots makes it alkaline, which makes it easy for us to digest. There was a lot of science behind the way our grandmothers cooked.”

Business born in lockdown

One of the biggest challenges Kaviya faced was not being able to travel to meet the vendors making the cookware. She says, “Just before the launch I had to make do by speaking to them on voice calls and doing video calls with them from June 2020. I had to make sure that I was getting the right products to start with. With things easing up a bit, I started travelling to meet the vendors and physically checking the products I was retailing.”

Kaviya mentions that she started with an initial investment of about Rs 3.5 lakhs and says, “I tried to work within the budget I had set for myself. With the help of YouTube tutorials, I made my own website to begin with. Once business started picking up, I made an investment in revamping the look of the website.” The cookware that retails at Green Heirloom comes from all across India.

“I get my cast iron cookware from Madurai [Tamil Nadu], while the soapstone (kal chetti) cookware is sourced from a couple in Salem. I even have cookware from the North East region,” she says.

Kaviya started with stocking close to 20 products and, since the company’s inception, has been adding products month-on-month. Kaviya also spent a considerable amount of time working on the price point of each product.

“There are other brands in the market and I wanted to carve a niche for myself in doing this business. One has to be extra cautious in packing these products well, given how fragile they are. Those are also some factors that I kept in mind while narrowing down on the price,” she says.

The cost of the products is on par with those in the market and ranges from Rs 450 for a terracotta clay curd setter to upwards of Rs 5,900 for the bronze urulis and vessels.

The first lockdown in March 2020 saw many people trying to switch to healthy eating, using traditional cookware and going back to their roots. Kaviya says, “This gave us a good impetus. We were in a position to service requests of people looking to buy such cookware online.”

Maintaining the traditional cookware

Green Heirloom retails products made out of clay, cast iron, stoneware and bronze/kansa items. One can find tawa, kadai, skillet, appam pans, mortar pestle, bronze uralis and even bronze puttu makers.

One of the reasons why many people steer clear of using these cookwares is because of the amount of time and effort it requires to maintain it. Addressing this, Kaviya says, “It is merely a matter of getting used to it. Once the food has been prepared, wash it, coat it with a layer of oil and set it aside.” Clay pots, she mentions, are easier to maintain. All they need is one rinse under water and they are good for use again.

“The customers expect a lot of hand-holding, more so because it is something new that they are working with.”

“They tend to have many questions and I am usually available to answer them all,” says Kaviya. Given that many of Green Heirloom’s customers are from Tier 1 cities, like Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, there is a need to standardise the size of the cookware.

With most families being in a nuclear set-up, the preference is for smaller cookware, which are easier to maintain.

“With each product that we ship, a manual is sent to the customer, which explains how to care for their cookware,” she adds.

The growth, thus far, has been organic and Kaviya says that she has seen a three-fold increase in revenue since the beginning. With seven vendors onboard from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the North East, Kaviya says that one of the things that she is most happy about is being able to support them during the pandemic.

If you would like to get in touch with Kaviya, click here.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

Communicating with another person while wearing a mask can be uncomfortable. Studies confirmed that masks can muffle one’s speech, making it harder for the other person to hear. For people who are hard of hearing, the words sound very faint or inaudible.

In such situations, I have noticed family members, friends, and strangers, pull down their mask to speak, which defeats the purpose of the mask.

Kevin Jacob (19), a resident of Thrissur, Kerala, realised his doctor parents faced the same struggle.

“Both of them work at the Metropolitan hospital, and at the end of each day, they would come home with a sore throat. While speaking to patients, they would have to raise their voices because of the N95 mask and face shields worn during duty,” says Kevin, who thought of a simple solution to solve their problem – a mask that amplifies their voice.

In October 2020, he developed a prototype of a mask fitted with a mic and speakers that will amplify the user’s voice while speaking without having to strain one’s vocal cords.

In an interview with The Better India, Kevin explains how he made the mask and shares how it has benefitted frontline workers.

A quick solution

Kevin is a first-year student of Computer Science engineering at Thrissur Government College. In June 2020, he stumbled upon the news of a smart mask that can amplify one’s voice while speaking. However, it was too expensive and he could not afford it.

“So, I thought of making my version of the same for my parents. When I looked online for miniature mics and speakers, they were either too heavy to be placed on a mask, or too expensive,” says Kevin, adding that a 3D-printer he made in class 8 to design the amplifying device and its parts.

By referring to research papers online and watching several videos on YouTube, Kevin recreated the speakers, and a mic using the 3D-printer. He even made the circuit boards that provided charging facilities for the device.

Instead of tampering with the mask’s material to fix the amplifier, Kevin fitted double-sided, strong magnets, which hold the amplifier and mic in place.

However, he says it was not an easy task. He had to make two versions because the first received negative feedback from doctors regarding the quality of the sound. So, by making some modifications to the circuit and altering the casing of the amplifiers, he was able to perfect the device.

“The final version is 6.3 cms long, 3 cm wide, and 0.5 cms thick. It can be charged using a micro USB cable, and takes up to 45 mins to fully charge,” says Kevin.

The mic is placed on the mask, while the speaker and amplifier (a single unit) is placed over a face shield. If the user is wearing only the mask, the mic can be placed on one side and the amplifier on the other.

“The two are connected by a small wire,” says Kevin.

Benefitting frontline workers

Once the final prototype was ready, Kevin’s parents – Jyoti Mary Jose and Senjoy KC, wore them to work every day. They even referred the product to their friends who were working at other hospitals.

As the word spread through extended circles, Kevin received more orders and has made 50 devices for frontline workers in various cities, including Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.

Doctor Sareena Gilvaz, the head of the Gynecology department in Jubilee Mission Medical College in Thrissur, heard about Kevin’s device for masks through the medical fraternity WhatsApp group. She purchased one from him for Rs 900 and says it has changed the way she interacts with patients.

She says, “I see more than 100 outpatients every day. It was difficult to speak to them wearing an N95 mask and a face shield. I would have to raise my voice as they could not hear me over the gear and I would get a sore throat. However, this amplifier has changed that completely. I wear it from 9 am to 4 pm and charge it during my lunch and coffee breaks. Even patients have shown interest in the device as they can hear what the other person is saying clearly.”

In January 2021, Kevin’s innovation was selected as the best project in DARSANA ignite, an event organised by the alumni association of NSS Engineering College, Palakkad.

Currently, Kevin is not making any more devices as he wishes to focus on his studies. However, he is looking forward to transferring the technology to someone who can help him manufacture the devices on an industrial scale.

To know more or to get in touch with Kevin, you can send him an email at vo.a.improvs@gmail.com.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many people moved from urban areas to their hometowns in remote villages. While some wanted to work in the midst of nature, others quit their jobs altogether to spend time in their native villages and start businesses of their own.

However, 43-year-old Seema Ratheesh, a mathematics teacher at the Government Higher Secondary School, Kumbla, Kerala has managed to retain her old job and simultaneously take up agriculture. In November 2020, she started cultivating organic watermelons on her 2.5-acre land and harvested 5 tonnes of the fruit until April, when the season ended.

“I moved to Meengoth, Kerala when the lockdown was announced. Since I had to teach virtually, my family and I decided to move in with my mother and brother. I had a lot of free time, and with help from my husband, brother, and a family friend, I began the cultivation of the Sugar Queen variety of watermelons,” Seema tells The Better India.

Taking charge of ancestral land

Seema belongs to a family of farmers. Her father, Madhavan Nair, had farmlands across 15 acres, where he cultivated paddy, areca nut trees, rubber trees, and banana. However, three years ago, he passed away, and Seema’s mother, Vilasini, and brother Manoj Kumar took over the farming business.

“During the lockdown, when we were staying in my mother’s home, my brother explained how income from farming was not like before. He told me that he had to manage his day job with farming simultaneously, and the yield was not as high as it used to be. I decided to step in and change our farming practices so that we could earn more money from the land. So, we consulted our family friend, Nashid, a resident of Mararikulam, who has been an ardent organic farmer for over a decade,” says Seema.

Nashid suggested that for the quality of land found in Meengoth, it would be advisable to grow the Sugar Queen variety of watermelons, which are well-known for their bright red pulp and sweet taste. However, instead of growing it via a traditional method, on Nashid’s advice, Seema decided to use a precision farming method.

“In the first few weeks of November, we spent time cleaning the 2.5 acres of agricultural land. We removed weeds, stones, and added nourishment to the soil,” says Seema, adding that this was done with three others who worked in their fields.

Growing melons organically

Before planting the saplings, the fertile soil was piled up in straight lines. Compost and dry leaves were added over this. Finally, mulching bags were placed over the soil along with water pipes for a drip irrigation system.

“After spending about Rs 5 lakh to prepare the ground, we planted all the seeds on 20 November. The drip irrigation system provides water to the crops three times a day,” says Seema.

She would visit the farm every morning for one hour to check on the crops, then go back home to begin her work for the day. Then, she would visit the farm in the evening, once she was free from household chores.

Within one month, the seedlings grew bigger, and Seema had to provide fertilisers to ensure their healthy growth. However, instead of directly spraying them on the plants, she decided to mix them with the water and allow the mixture to be fed through the drip irrigation system.

“The organic fertiliser is a concoction prepared by Nashid and sold in bottles. One part of this is mixed in a specific ratio of water and then added into the tank with the water for the drip irrigation system. Further, instead of only water, the crops were given organic fertilisers three times a day,” says Seema, adding that this was a reason for a successful harvest.

In January 2021, Seema made her first harvest of watermelons, inaugurated by the former revenue minister E Chandrasekaran. She had up to 3 tonnes of the fruit which were sold to consumers in various districts including Kasargod, Kannur and Thalassery.

The fruits were fresh for up to 15 days and were sold at Rs 25 per kilogram. Seema says that though people complained about the high prices initially, after tasting the fruit, they came back asking her for more. By the end of the season in April, she had sold up to 5 tonnes of the fruit and earned around Rs 2 lakh.

Seema continues to receive orders for the Sugar Queen variety of watermelon even though the season is over. Now, on the same land, she has begun cultivating ladies’ fingers and hopes to add chillies and onions soon.

S Sivaganesh completed his mechanical engineering in 2006 and worked as a contractor at an atomic power station in Rajasthan. However, he quit his job in 2010 to return home to Meenakshipuram, located at the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.

His family owned about 27 acres of farmland, where he decided to try his luck with coconut farming and export the same. For the next couple of years, he experienced ups and downs as the business had untimely payments from traders or buyers in the UK.

Sivaganesh then decided to switch to organic farming for which he requested 6 acres of land from his father. Over time, he began to reap Rs 16 lakh income a year, out of which he earns up to Rs 13 lakh as profits. The state government lauded his efforts by giving him the Kera Kesari award in 2020.

Speaking with The Better India, he says the secret behind his success are a few farming techniques — including the intercropping method, a practice of growing multiple crops in close proximity, the drip-irrigation technique, among other agriculture-allied practices.

Farming, organically

“I planted nutmegs as an intercrop along the 1,600 coconut plantations and took up mango, turmeric, pepper, and areca nut plantations across my 6-acre farm as well. I used organic methods for all the crops,” says the 36-year-old, adding that he implemented drip irrigation with fertigation, a method to supply fertiliser through an irrigation system, to save on labour costs and use water judiciously.

With time, Sivaganesh created two rainwater harvesting ponds and started cultivating fish such as Rohu, Tilapia, Katla, Nutter, Mrigal (white carp) and other common species.

“The scientific and disciplined approach started reaping results. I added poultry, created green fodder for cows and a Neem Cake unit to be sold for animal nutrition. Besides, I started developing a nursery of 3,000 nutmeg and mango saplings. I earn Rs 2 lakh per acre as a combined income from all plantations,” he says.

The farmer says that though he receives a lot of praise and appreciation from the village folk today, this was not the case when he decided to take up farming. “When I quit my job, all the youngsters from the village were moving to lucrative IT jobs. Moving to the city for a corporate job was the norm and considered a ‘wise move’. The community said it was a mistake for me to return. I avoided social events or village ceremonies to shield myself from the criticism,” he says.

“However, my parents supported me all the way and are the main reason for my success,” Sivaganesh says.

He shares that he never regretted his decision. “I could experiment with my ideas and implement them too. I could execute, improvise and find multiple ways to improve the quality of my yield. I managed my work timings and lived a stress-free life. Today, I get satisfaction from my work,” he says.

He also shares tips and tricks with farmers in the village. “I do not wish to keep my success to myself. Many farmers seek advice and I am happy to share my expertise,” he says.

Sivaganesh says that his future plans include yarn manufacturing from coconut and experimenting with new ideas. “There’s no end to my urge to experiment with farming and the joy I get from its success,” he concludes.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

“It has been my childhood dream to start a business of my own but I did not have an idea about what it could be,” begins Maria Kuriakose, a resident of Thrissur, Kerala, who quit her job in 2019 at a social enterprise in Mumbai.

“After completing my Masters in Business Administration in 2017, I went on to work with a corporate company. I quit that job within one year because I wanted to work at a place that empowered the underprivileged. So I joined a social enterprise that worked with women in slums to make sustainable sanitary pads,” says the 26-year-old.

However, a visit to a coconut oil mill in Thrissur gave her the much-needed inspiration for her business.

“Coconuts are a versatile crop, where every part can be utilised. But I noticed that the coconut shells were being discarded. Researching further, I understood that a few businesses use them to make activated charcoal, else they’re burned as fuel. Earlier, several artisans around Kerala used the shells to make ladles for serving food. Today, these products don’t find much value and the artisans practising the craft have also reduced,” says Maria.

This led to the launch of a homegrown brand named Thenga, which means coconut, that has sold over 8,000 coconut shell-based products.

Earning From Waste

In 2019, once Maria decided to sell coconut-shell based products, she spoke to artisans and experts who were making its byproducts. She spent a few months understanding how the shells were sorted and how the final product is made.

“I learnt that to make products from coconut shells certain machinery was required. This is mainly to scrub the outer and inner parts of the shell to give it a smooth finish,” says Maria.

However, she did not want to put in a large investment on purchasing machinery just for doing a trial run. This is when her 65-year-old father, Kuriakose Varoo, stepped in to help. Being a retired engineer, he knew what was needed to make a low-cost version of the machine.

“By purchasing the spare parts at a hardware store, my father recreated the sanding machines required to smoothen the inner and outer parts of the coconut shell within a few days. My mother, Jolly Kuriakose, also helped by sourcing various sizes of coconut shells from our backyard and an oil mill nearby,” says Maria, adding that she spent this time reaching out to businesses who were willing to buy bowls made of coconut shells from her.

After identifying a few businesses, whom she did not wish to name, Maria made a few bowls at home. As an added advantage, she also printed business logos on them.

“The laser printing was done by a third party company that prints on wooden products. As the final step, the shells were polished with coconut oil instead of chemical-based products like varnish,” says Maria.

Once the orders were delivered, the feedback she received was overwhelmingly positive. If a client highlights any breakage issues, Maria ensures they are immediately replaced, free-of-charge.

Apart from selling to businesses, the bowls are directly sold to customers over e-commerce platforms and her social media pages.

A Bowl For Your Smoothie

Once Maria started receiving more orders, she struggled to find the right size of shells and make the bowls. Though her parents helped with completing orders, she felt it was a hassle to manufacture all the products at home, and wanted to spend time on marketing the business and innovating new products.

“So, I reached out to a few artisans in Thrissur, Kottayam and Wayanad who were making ladles from coconut shells. These artisans primarily do odd jobs like construction to earn a living, but they continue practising their craft on the side. After explaining about the products made at Thenga, 10 of the artisans were onboard,” says Maria.

The artisans had the machinery and only needed to be briefed on what kind of shells to use to maintain the size of the bowls and not use any chemical-based product for adding the glossy finish.

With their help, Maria was able to take on more orders and expand the range of available products. By the end of 2020, Thenga had four sizes of bowl, the smallest one being 150ml priced at Rs 250 and the largest being 900 ml used for serving salads priced at Rs 950. They also introduced teacups, candles, cutlery and hanging planters.

“The bowls can be used for soups or cold food like smoothies. The candles are coconut-flavoured and handmade by me,” says Maria, adding that the business has sold over 8,000 products and continues to receive orders from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

“In a few months, the products will also be launched in Germany through Amazon,” says Maria.

If you wish to buy Thenga products, check them out on Amazon, Instagram, or Facebook.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

“In 2016, after spending three years in an abusive marriage filled with violence, trauma, and an extramarital affair, I decided to end my life by jumping into a well. But when I was about to do it, I thought about my son, my academic achievements and my family, and stopped myself,” recalls A Noujisha (31) in a conversation with The Better India.

From this moment, there was no stopping her. The resident of Peruvannamuzhi village in Kozhikode went on to divorce her abusive husband and pursue her dream of having a successful career.

Today, Noujisha has completed Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) competitive examinations and is training as a Civil Police Officer in her hometown.

A traumatic marriage

A graduate of Bsc Math and Masters in Computer application, Noujisha worked as a guest lecturer at a college in Peruvannamuzhi for one year before her marriage.

“Early in 2013, before my alliance was fixed, I expressed my intention to go to work to my ex-husband and his family. Initially, they all agreed and we tied the knot the same year. But, within a few days of marriage, things changed, and I realised that I was married to a man whom I knew nothing about,” says Noujisha.

When Noujisha spoke about going back to work, her ex-husband now disagreed. He told her that he took back his promise and ordered her to stay at home and work in the kitchen.

“He did not value the hard work or the efforts that I put into studying to obtain my degrees. He would not give me the freedom to do anything of my choice but always insisted that I focus on housework and cooking. At first, I was very confused about why he would behave that way with me. Soon, I realised that he was in a relationship with another woman. I think that he was worried I would find out about it so he never wanted me to do anything. Whenever I spoke about it or expressed my concerns, he would get angry and sometimes hit me,” says Noujisha, adding that this upset her mental state of mind.

For the next one year, she remained silent and did not express her feelings to her husband or her family members. She felt telling her family about the abuse or affair would make them worry.

In 2016, Noujisha gave birth to a baby boy named Aiham Nazal. While she was very excited about the birth of her first child, her ex-husband did not feel the same way.

“That time, I realised that his relationship with the other woman was not only over phone calls, but was also physical. I spiralled, and this pushed me to attempt suicide. Even then, I did not want to speak to my parents because I thought if I went back home, they would feel ashamed and not be able to take that. But I thought about my son and the late nights I spent studying to get my degrees. I immediately lost the courage to end my life, which was the most courageous thing I did,” says Noujisha.

Reclaiming her life

The next day, Noujisha took her son and left for her parents’ home. On hearing of her ordeal, they were supportive of her decision. Her family, especially her elder sister, gave her complete support and stood by Noujisha right from initiating the divorce process until it was completed.

“I did not want to stay home and feel sorry for myself. I wanted to reclaim my life and prove that I was worthy of having a career. So I began teaching at a parallel college in my village and even attended coaching classes for the KPSC in the evenings. However, between handling divorce processes, attending classes, and taking care of my son, I decided to quit my job and focus only on excelling in the KPSC exams,” says Noujisha, adding that she cracked her first attempt at the written test in 2018, but failed in the physical examination.

She did not give up here and continued to study. In 2020, she retook and passed her exams, and secured the 141st rank in the state-wide list for Women Civil Police Officers (WCPO). She opted to work in her hometown and joined duty as a trainee cop on 15 April 2021.

“On that day, I cried a lot. I used to be scared of approaching the police whenever my ex-husband would torture me, but now I am in the police force myself, and know that there is no need to hold such fears,” says Noujisha, adding that if there is any woman suffering in her marriage, she can call the Mithra helpline number- 181.

Instead of being silent, women should raise their voices, fight for their rights, and chase their dreams, she notes.

“If any woman feels there is no one to support her within the family, she should seek counsel from professionals or approach helplines. It is also important for women to have jobs, as it gives us true power — independence,” says Noujisha.

With inputs from Parag Murali 

For five weeks, starting 30 April 1924, Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, a distinguished lawyer and judge of the Madras High Court—who also served as the first (and only) Malayali president of the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1897—was engaged in an epic courtroom battle at the Court of King’s Bench in London.

(Image above of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair via Wikimedia Commons and National Portrait Gallery.)

Sankaran Nair was in court because of accusations he had levelled against Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab from 1913 to 1919, in his book ‘Gandhi and Anarchy’. In the book, Sankaran Nair held the high-ranking British official responsible for the atrocities committed at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on 13 April 1919.

Angered by the accusation, he sued Nair for libel. Battling a high-ranking Englishman in an English court that was presided over by an English jury, the odds were stacked against him. But what emerged from this courtroom battle was as historic as Rabindranath Tagore relinquishing his knighthood following the horrors of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Even though the case has been well documented in Nair’s autobiography, a biography written by his son-in-law and Independent India’s first Foreign Secretary KPS Menon, and ‘The Case That Shook The Empire’ written by great-grandson Raghu Palat and his wife Pushpa Palat in 2019, it remains largely forgotten in recent public memory.

However, noted filmmaker and producer Karan Johar on 29 June 2021 announced his decision to produce a film that will “unravel the legendary courtroom battle” that Nair fought. The film will be adapted from the book written by Raghu and Pushpa Palat. Here’s a brief look into the life of a man who firmly believed in self-determination for India.

A Mind of His Own

Born on 11 July 1857 in Mankara village of Malabar’s Palakkad district, Kerala, Nair had a privileged upbringing. He was from an aristocratic family, whose members had served the East India Company and the subsequent British Raj.

Upon graduating from Presidency College in Madras (Chennai), he was drawn to a career in law. After obtaining his law degree, he was hired by Sir Horatio Shephard, who would go on to become Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.

His privileged upbringing, however, didn’t stop him from having a mind of his own. A man of strong convictions, his blunt and rather outspoken nature often rubbed his peers and colleagues the wrong way. No matter which way the wind would blow, Sankaran Nair was his own man. In fact, Edwin Montague, the secretary of state for India, once called him “an impossible person” who “shouts at the top of his voice and refuses to listen to anything when one argues and is absolutely uncompromising,” as Raghu and Pushpa Palat note in their book.

Even though he didn’t have many fans, Nair developed a stellar record both as a lawyer in the Madras High Court and as a social reformer. In 1897, he became the youngest president of the INC. More than a decade later, in 1908, he was appointed as a permanent judge in the Madras High Court, where he passed significant judgements supporting inter-caste and inter-religious marriages, and expressed his commitment to social reforms.

Four years after his appointment to the Madras High Court, he was knighted. In 1915, he was drafted into the Viceroy’s Executive Council (equivalent to the Union Cabinet of Ministers today), where he was tasked with overseeing the education portfolio. A firm believer in the rights of Indians for self-government, Nair played a fundamental role in furthering the participation of Indians in administering their own people.

It was his dissenting note to the Montagu-Chelmsford Report, which played a key role in the British Parliament’s decision to enact the Government of India Act, 1919. Besides introducing a system of dyarchy, this Act gave provincial legislatures the mantle of self-governance and provided Indians a greater stake in administering their own land.

This devolution of powers gave the strongest possible credence to the demand for self-governance. Nair recognised that this was a key milestone and a step towards constitutional freedom.

However, his role in the Viceroy’s Executive Council would come to a screeching halt following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and the British response to it.

As he writes in his autobiography: “Almost every day I was receiving complaints, personal and by letters, of the most harrowing description of the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar and the martial law administration…At the same time, I found that Lord Chelmsford [the Viceroy] approved of what was being done in Punjab. That, to me, was shocking.”

His resignation had serious repercussions for the British given that he wielded “more influence than any other Indian”, according to Edwin Montagu. Recognising the seriousness of his resignation and the bad press they were getting from it, the British got rid of provisions allowing for press censorship and ended martial law in Punjab.

Following the massacre, the British established a Royal Commission under Lord Hunter, which included English and Indian officials to investigate the horrific crimes committed on that day,

As KPS Menon writes, “That hour was, I think, the most glorious and golden hour of Sankaran Nair’s life. His star was never brighter.” Upon his return to Madras following the resignation, he was given a hero’s reception for taking such a public stand. “There were feasts and entertainment wherever the train stopped, and crackers were fired under the wheels of the railway, so much so that there was one continuous firing for hours,” he adds.

His Day in Court

One of the things he did after resigning from the Council was visit London and tell the British public about many of the ‘Un-British’ acts that were committed by their fellow high-ranking citizens in Punjab. Such was the impact he made that even future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed that the Jallianwala Bagh massacre “is an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation”.

However, his day in court arrived in unusual circumstances.

Besides criticising MK Gandhi’s approach to protest based on the premises of non-cooperation protest in his book ‘Gandhi and Anarchy’, he also hurled some serious allegations against O’Dwyer.

In court, O’Dwyer had Earnest B Charles, who employed an interesting defence.

As Raghu and Pushpa Palat write in their book, “Charles’ words were clearly meant to kindle the sympathy of the English jury for their own people. He exaggerated the perils the English bore to protect the Empire. Indians, of course, were portrayed as rebels, extremists and seditionists”. Sankaran Nair was defended by Sir Walter Schwabe, former Chief Justice of Madras High Court. The case naturally caught the eye of the British press, which reported on the severe pain and damage caused by O’Dwyer and his subordinate, General Dyer.

Unfortunately for Sankaran Nair and Sir Walter, the judge and jury showed no modicum of fairness and objectivity. Eventually, the jury decided against Nair except for one dissenting juror, Harold Laski, a notable an English political theorist and economist. Since this was not a unanimous verdict, he had another shot at a trial.

But he refused saying that he wouldn’t trust “another twelve English shopkeepers” to present a verdict in his favour. He even rejected the chance of issuing an apology and, instead, went on to pay damages amounting to GBP 7,500 — a huge sum at the time. He was also unbothered about the impact this verdict would have on his reputation back in India: “If all the judges of the King’s Bench together were to hold me guilty, still my reputation would not suffer.”

Even though he lost, the verdict strengthened the resolve of many Indians to fight for self-government since they understood the extent to which the British government would shield their own people from the monstrous atrocities they committed.

He passed away a decade later in 1934 at the age of 77, but not before leaving behind a real legacy of public service. His descendants (nine children and their children) would go on to serve India in various capacities such as Kunhiraman Palat Candeth, a senior officer of the Indian army, who played a key role in the liberation of Goa from the Portuguese in 1961.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

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During the first COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown, Rinoob Bhaskaran (42), a resident of Palakkad, Kerala, quit his corporate job and moved back to his parents’ home. He says his job had never been fixed to a particular city, and that he would always be on the move, travelling across various states or countries.

“This lifestyle led to unhealthy eating habits and I was diagnosed with diabetes. But in March 2020, I quit my job and began spending time with my family. During this time, I ate food prepared from the produce grown on our farm. Within a few months of consuming organic food, I noticed a drastic change in my health,” says Rinoob, adding that he also developed an interest in farming.

However, while speaking with several farmers to understand organic farming, he came to know that there were two major issues in this field. The farmers were either facing losses owing to damaged crops, or they could not sell their produce for decent prices.

“Instead of getting into farming, with help from my friend Shyju P, who is a digital marketer, I launched an initiative named ‘Support A Farmer’ to help such farmers out,” says Rinoob,

In an interview with The Better India, Rinoob shares what the initiative is and how it has benefitted 35 farmers within one year.

Selling at fair prices

When Rinoob began interacting with farmers in Palakkad, he noticed that many were cultivators with over 30 years of experience. Some had even won district and state-level awards for their excellent produce.

However, they were unable to earn or meet their monthly expenses with the produce they harvested.

“This was mainly because they were not able to tap into the right market, and in the local markets, there was too much competition. Instead of letting their organic produce go to waste, the farmers would have to sell them for cheap,” says Rinoob, adding that he wanted to help them sell their produce directly to consumers at a fair price.

So, he approached Shyju, who was also residing in Palakkad. Shyju helped him set up a Facebook page and created WhatsApp channels to raise awareness about organic produce.

Through Facebook, the duo approached several farming-related groups and began raising awareness there as well. “We requested farmers to join our cause so that we could help them earn better. Soon, we got requests from 15 farmers who were growing a variety of products including paddy, tomatoes, brinjal, coconuts, and more,” says Rinoob.

Organic produce only

Once farmers approached the duo, they conducted a background check to ensure that all the produce grown was only organic. “Last year, when there were no lockdowns for a few months, we made farm visits in person and learned about the processes undertaken to grow the crops. Then we would ask the farmers and also help them fix a price for their produce,” says Rinoob.

Then the details of the products were shared on Facebook and WhatsApp along with pictures, videos and details of the farmer. Soon, orders started pouring in from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Prijith Kumar (44), an organic cultivator of paddy, coconut, mangoes, and bananas, was approached by Rinoob in 2020. Owing to the lockdown, Prijith, a state-level award winning farmer, was unable to sell most of his produce.

“Some of my produce was sold at the local market but for very cheap rates. Mangoes which would usually sell at Rs 170 -190 per kilogram were being sold for Rs 120. After marketing my produce through Support A Farmer, I was able to get a good deal, and sell upto 1 tonne of the produce. However, I could not sell all my produce. I hope after the lockdown restrictions ease in Kerala, I will be able to earn more money,” says Prijith.

Apart from fruits and vegetables, Rinoob even onboarded farmers who were selling farm-grown eggs, honey, and a few other by-products.

Today, 35 farmers are benefitting from the initiative. Rinoob says they have also got enquiries from farmers in Tamil Nadu, but are unable to onboard them as of now. “Owing to the lockdown, we are unable to make personal visits to the farm and do background checks. However, once the situation eases, we hope to bring in more farmers and help them fetch fair prices for their harvest,” says Rinoob.

Other benefits for farmers

Apart from helping farmers sell their produce to consumers, Rinoob also plans to help increase their income by launching ‘Farm Tourism’. He convinced some farmers to set up a room on their premises so that tourists can spend a day or two among nature.

“Though this is a work-in-progress, tourists not only stay at the farm but also eat food cooked from farm produce and get to try farming techniques,” says Rinoob.

Another idea he launched earlier this year was to provide consultancy services to amateurs who are taking up farming. After understanding that maintaining a farm and growing crops is not an easy task, Rinoob convinced a few experienced farmers to provide their expertise to newcomers.

“The help they provide includes understanding the soil, advising on what crops to grow in which seasons, and how to prepare organic pesticides and fertilisers. If required, the farmers also help them grow the crops. Finally, after harvest, we help these amateurs market the fruits and vegetables for a fair price,” says Rinoob, adding that two farmers have already opted for their consultancy services.

This is a paid service and even NRIs with agricultural land can reach out for help.

If you wish to support a farmer, you can purchase their organic produce through the Facebook page.

In 2017, Cyclone Ockhi hit India, leaving coastal Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Lakshadweep devastated, before heading towards Gujarat. The cyclone claimed 365 lives and left thousands stranded in what was reportedly the worst weather phenomenon since the super-cyclone of Odisha in 1999.

The event left locals and the fishing community in dire straits, making them realise the importance of accurate and better dissemination of weather information.

“Hundreds of fishermen died and many were probably unaware of the weather warnings or how severe the cyclone would be. The same happened during the Kerala floods in 2018,” says Sindhu Mariya Napoleon, station manager at Radio Monsoon.

She believes that many lives would have been saved if the weather information had reached the fishermen on time.

Sindhu tells The Better India that the information on the weather forecast shared by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is often technical, posing limitations when sharing it among people at large. Fishermen do not understand English or the technical terms involved in weather forecasts.

To fill the gap, a group of researchers and media experts from Kerala have teamed up to start Radio Monsoon, a community radio dedicated to sharing daily weather forecasts with the fishermen in a language they understand, aiming to save crucial human lives.

Carving a safe passage in the sea

The members of this radio include Maxmillan Martin, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, founding member Aloysius Gomez, and Sajan, an advisor. Sindhu and Kishore Clement are station managers. The radio station, headquartered in the coastal village of Karumkulam, gathers information from various agencies such as the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), IMD, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras and the Kerala Disaster Management Authority (KDMA). Occasionally, it seeks inputs from European Centre.

One of the founding members, who does not wish to be named, says, “Climate change has increased the frequency of cyclones along the western coast of India. Earlier, the cyclones were known to affect more of the east coast, and the trend has changed in recent years.” x

The member says such instances make the fishing community vulnerable to rough weather, and that there is no government agency to help early warning information reach these fishermen directly. “Effective information sharing can help save many lives,” the member adds.

They also say that previous attempts were made to address the issues of fishermen through another community radio in early 2000, but this was futile. However, a new initiative began in 2014, where the Radio Monsoon Trust came into being. The members and volunteers would reach the coast armed with loudspeakers to broadcast weather information. They also took help from the local police station and church to spread information on severe weather conditions. “But we lacked funds and resources,” the member says, adding that Ockhi helped everyone realise the need for such a system more than ever.

In 2018, the University of Sussex, which was already working on an interdisciplinary programme, Forecasting for Fishermen, offered the required resources.

Sindhu, a fisherman’s daughter herself, says that she joined the same year and since then has helped at least 1,000 fishermen with safe weather passages and warnings while they are away from the land.

“We compile data from all the agencies, decipher the technical terms, analyse them, and break the scientific information to the fishermen. For example, a weather warning regarding a depression in the Arabian Sea is announced for a wider geographic area. However, the local impacts are unknown. We identify the meaning of such technicalities and present information that affects the community at the micro-level,” she explains.

She adds that the information broadcasted by government weather forecasting agencies is mainly related to land areas and is less about what effects it will have on the sea. “We analyse that information so that it guides the fishermen in the sea and help change their course or plans accordingly,” Sindhu says.

She further says that the information is shared between 1 pm and 2 pm, when the fishermen are preparing to venture out in the sea. “The information is broadcasted on the radio and posted on social media sites including Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. The fishermen can also call to seek information for the day. On average, we receive around 350 calls a day. During rough weather conditions, the calls increase to over 500,” Sindhu says.

She says the system works in the manner of a missed call. “A person dials the dedicated phone number, which plays a pre-recorded message. It has been made simpler as many fishermen are not tech-savvy,” Sindhu says, adding that the younger generation of fisherfolk prefers social media.

The team estimates that the number of beneficiaries is multifold as more than one person is listening from a single device at any given time. “The fishermen work in groups, and information is heard by at least three from one radio. So the numbers must be huge,” she adds.

Kishore says the claims are made based on responses they have received from the ground and the sea. “The range of the community radio is limited to 10-12 km on land. However, with fewer interferences and disturbances in the sea, the signals can reach over 70 km and help the fishermen in a wider area,” he says.

Fishermen as secondary data sources

J Alphonse, a fisherman of a country boat from Puthiyathura, a coastal village in Thiruvananthapuram, says, “Since Ockhi, all the fishermen have been scared of the rough weather conditions. Hence, getting timely and accurate weather updates has become more important than ever.”

He says that Radio Monsoon has given the fishing community access to scientific information in Malayalam, their regional language. “We know how the wind direction will be and what weather patterns to expect once in the sea. The data from official forecasting agencies never reach us, and it has not changed even after Ockhi. The only source of information to rely on are the narratives from mainstream media,” Alphonse says.

Kishore says that fishermen from northernmost Kollam and southernmost Kanyakumari have also demanded the services. “The fishermen have no state boundaries in the sea, and they tend to cross paths and areas. The fishermen from neighbouring coasts have learned about the radio, seen its benefits, and now seek its services. They access the information once they are within the range,” he adds.

He says that Radio Monsoon also takes inputs from fishermen. “The fishermen are present in the sea and witness weather changes first hand. They are indigenous and have traditional knowledge of the sea. Their information acts as secondary data to cross-verify or adds valuable gaps missed by the technology,” Kishore adds.

Kishore says they are now working on making Radio Monsoon self-sustained. “Operating a community radio requires heavy resources and an intelligent workforce that understands scientific data and can deliver it to the advantages of the listeners,” he adds.

But for now, until the revenue model streamlines, the team says their entire focus is on helping fishermen brace for rough weather, protect them and reduce loss of life through timely and accurate information.

To listen to and connect with Radio Monsoon, click here.

Edited by Divya Sethu

The scenes of helpless migrant workers and the destitute putting themselves and their families at risk of the coronavirus, by walking back to their native lands in the aftermath of the nation-wide lockdown, were unfortunate and brutal. With strict impositions, they were rendered penniless and even begging was not an option, as the streets were deserted. 

According to an IndiaSpend report, 60 per cent of India’s 1.77 million homeless were provided lockdown relief between 9 March and 3 May 2020. This included food, water, regular health check ups and makeshift tents or camps. The rest were left to fend for themselves. 

Kerala was one of the 14 states to take action and the Kozhikode district immediately rose to the occasion to implement a successful rehabilitation model. In a laudable move, District Collector S Seeram Sambasiva Rao set up the Udayam Charitable Society to establish and run four shelter homes in East Hill, Mankavu, Vellimadukunnu and Chevayur. 

Close to 1,500 homeless were taken off the streets and transferred to the homes in the last 18 months. Additionally, the district administration also took the responsibility of reuniting the homeless with their families, giving them skill training and employment opportunities.

‘Nammude Kozhikode’

Two years ago when Seeram, a 2012-batch IAS officer was posted in the district, one of his goals was to provide shelter homes to the street dwellers under the state’s ‘Nammude Kozhikode’ project for development. 

“Way before COVID-19 hit India, we conducted multiple visits at railway stations, bus stands, public parks and more to analyse the situation of the homeless. Majority of them were migrant workers from North India who were working as wage labourers and domestic help. We told them about giving them a shelter home but they refused. It was hard for them to believe that the government was going to take efforts for them. After that attempt failed, during the lockdown we got another opportunity, and this time the situation was different,” Seeram tells The Better India. 

He says that it was more crucial to rehabilitate them quickly as they were at a higher risk of contracting the virus and some already suffered from other illnesses. “Comorbidities could worsen these cases. While on the surface they had health risks, we had to also take into account the psycho-social implications of being alone and jobless in an unfamiliar region,” he says. 

The first step was to send back as many people as possible to their villages and the remaining ones were first shifted to a makeshift camp with the help of NGOs and welfare organisations. While they stayed there for two to three months, the district administration identified shelter homes and buildings for a permanent arrangement. 

Close to a 1,000 inmates were provided meals and were groomed for their well-being through hair cuts, surgeries, counselling, medical check ups, etc. The ones who did not have ID cards, were given new ones. A literacy programme, ‘Jnanodayam’ and certification exams were also conducted. 

“The goal was to not just provide accommodation but also help them get their dignity and stable income back. Through skill and vocational training, more than a hundred people got jobs in restaurants, construction sites, etc. Some of them even moved out from the shelter home to an accommodation provided by their employers. If it weren’t for this initiative, the spread of coronavirus would have posed a serious challenge among the homeless,” says Rajesh, Special Coordination Officer, Udayam Charitable Society. 

Using a combination of disaster management funds, CSR and donations, the district administration spent an average of Rs 4,000 per person for their food, medical needs and training. 

To make this initiative sustainable, Seeram deliberately chose to make the district collector as the chairman of the Udayam. “I didn’t want such a noble cause to end due to the transferring process. So whoever takes the position of collector will have to continue this. Udayam is also an umbrella organisation that coordinates with different shelter homes across the district to ensure further rehabilitation of the homeless,” says Seeram who was recently transferred to Kerala fibre optic network project as the managing director. 

All images are taken from Collector Kozhikode/Facebook 

Edited by Yoshita Rao

While many architects emphasise on the use of sustainable construction and design, a couple from Kerala has put this into action with the construction of a home using eco-friendly material. Architects Ajay Abey and Thara Pandala have built a 1,600 sq-ft home for their parents in Rs 27 lakh using sustainable methods. The cost of building this home is almost 50% cheaper than that of building one using conventional methods, the architects say.

Speaking with The Better India, Ajay says, “My father did not want to spend a lot of money on building a house for his retirement. The use of conventional methods incurs heavy costs and is harmful to the environment due to the use of unsustainable material.”

He says, “Climate change and affordable housing are closely related, as people require shelter and their fundamental right is non-negotiable. However, the same demand puts pressure on natural resources, and unsustainable practices put stress on the environment.”

Ajay adds, “The existing norms in ‘Green Certified Housing’ are unaffordable and unfeasible at times. We realised that instead of complying with the slated norms, it would serve better to follow a need-based approach using sustainable methods.”

Hence, the duo decided to build a house on their ancestral land in Kakkanad of Kerala.

The unique aspect of the house is that its features can be adopted across all regions of India and withstand multiple weather conditions, Ajay says.

Sustainability all the way

“We decided to adopt a new construction methodology called Energy Efficient-Climatologically. We employed contextually relevant economical, environment-friendly and reused materials,” he says.

He adds that the new method holistically addresses the sustainability and affordability of a single-family housing unit.

Explaining the features of the house, Ajay says that they adopted a unique approach from the beginning stages of its construction.

“The building is raised using stilt columns, which involves creating pillars above the ground of the building. The technique helps prevent damage from rainwater, floods and shifting of land during events such as earthquake,” he says, adding that the comparatively cooler earth in the semi-accessible floor serves as a cold air reservoir to assist conveyed passive cooling,

Ajay says the next innovative feature involves rib and skin shell slab systems. “The system requires only a 1.5-inch concrete bed against the conventional 4 inches and saves 60% of the material in the slab construction. Moreover, it is lightweight and saves significant load on the foundation,” he explains.

“We used the shell slab infill made from non-degradable solid waste such as glass, plastic and others, thus saving resources for construction and reuse of waste materials,” he adds.

The other advantages of the method are that it does not involve formwork, enables using lightweight steel mesh for reinforcement, and lowers the cost. “The work on a 1,000 square-foot space was completed in two days by three men with minimal training,” he says.

Ajay says that they also used aerated concrete blocks made from fly-ash, an industrial by-product. It enabled the reduction of the overall weight of the structure. “These blocks require no water curing and saves thousands of litres of the precious resource. The same material was used in making lintels, which are horizontal blocks that bridge the open space between two vertical supports,” he says.

The architects avoided concrete and steel sunshades and instead used metal chajjas for ventilation and light.

Thara says they used multilayer lightweight steel fabrication for the roof structure. “It has a 3-cm air gap between the reused terra-cotta tile and the roof sheets used to prepare the topmost structure. The three layers facilitate convective cooling and ensure the structure remains cooler during hot summer months. The natural mechanism also helps keep the interiors significantly cool compared to a roof made from conventional materials,” she says, adding that the lightweight reduces the structural expenses.

Thara says that apart from the structure, a significantly different approach has been used for giving environment-friendly finishes to the house. “The walls have mud wash, making them breathable and free from chemical materials or toxic paint coating. The windows and doors are carved out of the thin wooden sheath. Special care has been taken to use plantation wood considering the replenishable value of wood in construction,” she says.

The couple deviated from conventional glass windows and used stainless steel insect-proof mesh for window frames, which contributed to cooler interiors.

“The consistent inflow of air through the mesh maintains microclimate inside the walls and allows convective cooling assisted by the cold air from the stilt floor,” Thara says.

“The overall measures taken during construction consume 67% less concrete, 75% less steel and no rubbles, as compared with conventional house typology of similar scale,” she adds.

House of hope

Apart from the structural features, Thara says the innovative methods of construction help reduce the time and cost of labour during the construction process. “The buildings have better spatial planning, ventilation, plumbing and waste management systems that save energy,” she adds.

The mud plaster gives a unique aesthetic sense, healthier environment and is conducive to the local economy. Thara says that the structure and model of the house are flexible and scalable. “The size can be reduced or increased depending on the needs of a person,” she adds.

Ajay’s father, Abraham Joseph, says that he moved into the house two months before the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. “The house creates a microclimate which is welcoming and comforting at all times. Many guests often wonder how the house has cooler conditions during summer. The ambient temperature difference is about 8 degree Celsius without any use of coolers or air conditioning, which is significant and often leaves visitors awestruck,” he says, adding, “Most importantly, the house has not consumed my entire retirement savings.”

To summarise their work in a gist, Ajay says, “I like to call it the House of Hope as it is a planet, people and pocket-friendly home.”

Edited by Divya Sethu

After hiding his true identity for almost 15 years, Praveen Nath from Kerala’s Palakkad district decided to be honest. He no longer wanted the gender he was assigned at birth. After all, he had never felt like a girl.

With such a loving mother and brothers he was so close to, Praveen expected support and more love at his decision.

Instead he was asked to leave the house.

Going against society was not an option, but living a lie was. So he stayed home for the next five years with a false identity, and finally left his house at the age of 20.

Praveen, a transman, is one of the many people across India who meet the same fate if they do not confine themselves to their genders at birth. Fortunately for Praveen, he received the right support from Sahayathrika, an organisation that advocates for the rights of the LGBTQ community.

The organisation not only provided him accommodation but also gave him the confidence and courage to choose his own route, he says.

Now 24, Praveen is a bodybuilding champion. He recently won the title of Mr Kerala after winning a championship at the district level. He is also working as an advocacy coordinator at Sahayathrika.

But the best thing that has come out of this is the support of his mother, who eventually came around and even acompanied him to his Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) in 2019.

“I just wanted to be happy, respected and comfortable in my body. Turns out I was asking for too much. When you think of it, It is not easy to start dressing as per your chosen gender, go to your preferred section of the toilet or even correct people each time they use incorrect pronouns. It takes a lot of commitment to be the new norm while dealing with hormonal issues post sex surgery. I was ready to take myself seriously but the people around me weren’t,” Praveen tells The Better India.

‘Contemplated cutting my breasts with knives’

Every parent of a teenager has to deal with new developments like pimples and growing genitalia, and thereby, mood swings. At first, Praveen’s mother too thought it was just a phase that will soon get over.

Even after Praveen came out as a transman, she had doubts. She thought it was just another trend he had caught off the internet and blamed it on his friend circle.

Meanwhile, in school, name-calling began, and terms like ‘sex-worker’ and ‘beggar’ were casually thrown at him. Even his teachers did not spare him.

In between all the ridicule and shaming, Praven stopped looking at the mirror.

“I saw an ugly and overweight person. I would wear loose clothes so that my breasts would not show. There came a point, where it was not possible to hide them, so I contemplated cutting them myself. I don’t remember the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep and thought of ending my life,” Praveen recalls.

Ignorance about trans people was another issue he tried tackling at that age. He liked girls but he was not a lesbian. He was conferred with the wrong labels. He was just a man interested in the opposite gender.

This part of his life continued till he decided to seek medical attention for his surgery. The doctors introduced him to the word ‘transman’ and gave examples of people who are living the life he aspired to.

When he finally decided to address himself as a transman and wear his identity proudly, he was met with non-generous results. Praveen was forced to quit college after he was harassed by his classmates and teachers.

“Education is supposed to make people aware and knowledgeable. But here, we were going back several steps. So I quit and joined another university, Maharajas College. The warmth with which I was welcomed by the college was enough to restore my faith in educational institutions. Unfortunately, I had to drop out due to lack of finances,” he says.

On winning the bodybuilding championship

Praveen says people of the LGBTQ community have to fight endless battles to be able to get recognised and treated like everyone else. For him, this battle started at home and seeped into his academic life.

So when he decided to take up bodybuilding professionally, he prepared himself for rejection. There was no separate category for trans people. Finding a fitness trainer who was okay with his identity was another challenge.

Finally, Vinu Mohan, a former Mr Kerala himself, agreed to train Praveen. The trainer went out of his way to persuade associations of Mr Thrissur and Mr Kerala to introduce a third category for trans people. His efforts proved successful, and the category was finally introduced.

Although Praveen’s training began around the same time that coronavirus entered India, he did not back down, for he knew this was his chance to make a difference. He could shatter all outdated but still prevalent definitions of being a ‘man’.

So he dedicated several hours of his day to training and focussed on a healthy diet. Upon winning the title, things changed drastically for Praveen in more ways than one.

From getting a shoutout from social media influencers and celebrities to coverage in news, his brothers posting about his title on Facebook, and Public Service Commission (PSC) including a question on Kerala’s first transgender bodybuilding champion, the waves of change followed.

“People who earlier detested me for my identity are now proud of me. So many of my childhood friends and classmates messaged me on social media. I received heartwarming messages from trans people from across India, sharing their stories and calling me an inspiration. While I am glad to see the transformation, I wish it had come before the accolades. Do we really have to win something in order to get people’s attention and love?” says Praveen, who is now preparing for Mr South India championship.

Image Source: Praveen Nath

Edited by Divya Sethu 

Cristelle Hart Singh is a 49-year-old Anglo-Swiss national who made India her home in 2000. Since 2007, she has been sheltering street children, HIV patients, the needy and the underprivileged through her NGO, ‘Dil Se’.

Years after she began the NGO, in 2012, Cristelle heard of a girl whose shocking and tragic life changed Cristelle’s life.

“A social worker found her at a train station in Bengaluru, and she seemed to be in distress. I immediately called her to Cochin, only to realise that she was pregnant at the age of 13,” she tells The Better India.

Cristelle learned that the girl was forced into marriage by her parents and had been sexually assaulted by her husband.

“I felt emotional as we were both on the same journey of pregnancy (Cristelle was pregnant with her second child at the time). The girl was placed in a home for destitute women until her delivery. I was allowed to take her for prenatal yoga, but her medical check-ups were taken care of by the government. I named my son Tej, and four days later, she gave birth and named her child Tejus,” she says.

The incident moved Cristelle to start a shelter home exclusively for sexually abused teenage girls. She named it after the child who inspired her to do so – Tejus Home. This is the fantastic story of the work that has been done in Tejus Home ever since. “They are children giving birth to children,” she says.

Short trip turns into life long stay

Some of those who come to Tejus Home are two months pregnant, while some are already seven or eight months due. Their families are not always supportive, and on most occasions, the abuser is a family member, friend or a person living in the vicinity.

Living near the abuser makes the girl more vulnerable and becomes a traumatic experience. The accuser is often in jail but may get out on bail depending on the case. Some girls decide to have a ‘Medical Termination of Pregnancy’ if they fall within the legal timeframe, some keep the baby, and some choose to relinquish it for adoption.

But they need a safe place during the months of pregnancy. And this is what Tejus Home provides.

“Since opening in 2012, Tejus Home has welcomed 55 girls coming in at various stages of pregnancy. The girls are provided counselling, art therapy, a healthy diet and a safe and non-judgmental environment. Their medical needs are taken care of by the wonderful midwives of BirthVillage, a natural birthing centre, and even have a choice to undergo a water birth, although none of them has opted for this so far.” Cristelle says.

“About 87 per cent of the girls conceive naturally, which we term as a success,” she says, adding that this aspect is crucial as the girls may have to answer future husbands for the scar in case they undergo a Caesarian birth.

But Cristelle’s journey into social work goes back to about 20 years when she landed in India as a part of volunteering for the Red Cross, an international NGO.

“I came to seek professional experience in a developing country as a requirement I had to fulfil to get a job with the International Committee of the Red Cross, an NGO. I had to choose between Asia, South America and Africa. I chose India in Asia as it was cheap and many people spoke English. So I decided to volunteer for a year to meet the job requirements,” she recalls.

However, little did she know that her brief stint in India would turn into a life journey of helping the underprivileged and the needy.

In 2000, Cristelle started volunteering for an NGO near Trivandrum in Kerala to teach spoken English to underprivileged children. However, 3.5 months later, she received an opportunity to work in a Don Bosco Centre, Mumbai. The centre was helping the street children by offering shelter and education.

“The children fascinated me as they had nothing at hand and were living off the streets, but still were full of life,” she says. After completing her six months, she returned to Switzerland for a brief time. On her return, she learnt of a shocking fact – the children at the street shelter were sexually abused.

The issue was raised with the seniors, but it went unattended. “I was shocked to know that they were aware of the incident but did not take any action on the same,” she says.

Disheartened by the realisation, she decided to start her own NGO – Dil Se and stay in India to address the issue. “The name Dil Se was conceived as the Bollywood flick was released around the same time, and children hummed and danced to its songs throughout the day,” she says.

She had to understand the laws and nitty-gritty of starting an NGO as a foreigner, sell her assets, and do some fundraising in Switzerland to raise initial capital. But eventually, the NGO came to life in Mumbai, in November 2000, with her friend Marina Racine.

Uphill and Many Stumbles

The NGO began as a pavement school for local children. But eventually, they started facing multiple threats and were forced to stop the initiative.

“We were two white women who had discovered child sexual abuse in an esteemed institution,” she recalls, thinking the threats might have had something to do with that. “They wanted us to be out of the city and not involved in any activities related to children suffering from abuse,” she adds.

Cristelle travelled to Trivandrum in Kerala to start something small and away from the big city. “We started working with the street and destitute children by providing them the required help,” she says.

“We met one George Jacob and his wife Anu through mutual acquaintances who were taking care of street dogs. They helped us in finding a house, getting around and networking. Not only that, but they treated me like family and still do to this day,” she explains.

In 2005, Dil Se came across people suffering from HIV and started helping them with the Madurai Institute of Peace Science. “We helped 45 widows who were shamed by the society or barred by the villagers. So we started supporting them and creating awareness along with providing educational material and food rations for them and their children”, she says.

Dil Se helped the women by purchasing an acre of land and constructing a home for HIV affected and infected children. But even here, the organisation was duped by one of the managing trustees. “The operations had to shut down in 2009 as we parted ways. I am still fighting the legal battle with this ex-trustee,” she says.

Cristelle eventually married and settled in Cochin, where she started the Tejus Home.

A home like no other

Cristelle offers shelter to the victims of sexual abuse after the police or members of the Child Welfare Committee direct the girls to the NGO through formal procedures.

District judge Nisar Ahmad at the Women and Children Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court says, “The court had started in abandoned facilities when it began in Ernakulam. There was no place for victims of sexual abuse to stay or offer shelter. It was Cristelle who extended support and provided a temporary place for them.”

Nisar says that when the court moved to a permanent property, the NGO helped to set up a play area. It also offered books, artwork and toys for the girls. “The facilities provided by Cristelle helped to earn the institute recognition of model court. The same ambience was replicated for other courts across the state,” he adds.

Cristelle says that she likes to assist girls in empowering them to give birth naturally. “The girls are alone and have no support during their pregnancy if it were not for Tejus Home. They need someone who does not judge them or taunt them and can advise them towards a healthy birth. We offer the same,” she says, adding, “We are probably the only ones providing such assistance to teenage sexual abuse victims in India.”

She adds that the COVID-19 lockdown put a hold on the activities as travel restrictions came in place.

“We are in the process of re-opening the home, with BirthVillage as our partners still as they now have a new state-of-the-art birthing centre with OB-GYNs, an operation theatre, and at Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Besides Tejus Home, the NGO is taking awareness sessions helping teenagers address various aspects of sexuality through webinars in schools and colleges,” she says.

Cristelle feels that women should be given the power and freedom to deliver most healthily and comfortably. “It is entirely their moment, and these girls especially should be able to experience it at their best,” she says.

Edited by Vinayak Hegde