Buildings
My wife and me built our own home on Laurie Baker's principals. It was the beginning of my journey into cost efffective economical structures. Along with many farm houses, I also built a whole kendra (community center) for a BAIF project in a village called Shrishettikoppa, Karnataka. Convincing the villagers to contribute by labour as well as some material, the center now stands proudly as a testimony of my effort.
To create cost effective, urban functional and aesthetically designed structures has become my mantra. Based on the need of the structure and based on its environs I design and execute the same. Over time and after using many a materials, an art of using "in and around material" in sync with the environs has become the mainstay of my structures. Always working with nature, topography and climate a blend of agronomically designed structures has evolved.
If you are thinking of building your own house, a farm house or a shack get in touch with me. Together we can make your dream home a reality!
Want to know how?
Farming
I started to farm way back in 1979 in my graduation days. On a 4 acre family land patch I grew vegetables, packetted them in perforated polybags and distributed to families. From my farm income I earned some pocket money and bought my first Yezdi motorbike.
In 2000 I took up vegetable farming, created a club called Baingan Club. The concept was to grow vegetables and sell directly to consumers. At Baingan club we made individual homes as members and dedicated 52 weekly baskets for their needs. We co-ordinated with other farmers, for their produce and with our own farm produce could deliver to the members a complete vegetable basket for their weekly needs.
Today at TheEcogrid we are setting up a poly tunnel to grow our own vegetables.
Cooking
A journey since child hood Cooking nuances were instilled in me during school days. From a darling of an old chef (Mr. Rasool - a retiring police orderly) at home to exposure to good food at home, and later being a constant help to my dad on BBQ days, the joy of good food became an integral part of my life. Cooking and serving others became a daily mantra (खाने का शौक. खिलाने का शौक). The passion of cooking by defacto has made me a professional chef.
Today I understand textures, aroma and flavours making the cooking experience into a culinary journey. Cooking can be an excercise to de-stress, but the joy to feed is the one and only facet of cooking that thrills me.
My words of wisdom on cooking:
- It's a very proactive discipline; the range of recipes and the medium of cooking is a fascinating journey of exploration.
- A paticipative kitchen can lead to sharing of knowledge and bonding of souls.
- Creative cooking is an art.