I had always wondered if I was the only one who seemed to be crazy to other people around. I had been leading a normal life in the city (if you can call a city life, normal) and still, my heart seemed to be in a far away place. Some place where there were tall tall green trees, the sun rays falling through a net of leaves, birds chirping and feeding their young in all the hidden branches, beautiful butterflies flying from one wild flower to the other, and bees stealing nectar from each bloom on the plants. There were rabbits and deer not afraid of people and nuzzling around me :-). There was no greed, no cruelty, no cement, no plastic, no fast food and no TV (if anyone can imagine!). Life was peaceful. I wondered if I was really crazy!
The internet opened my world wide and I realised there were hundreds, millions of people who dreamt of the Eden that I did. I longed to reach out and meet them and I finally got my chance one day!
It was a terrible day when I realised everything I have been doing at Chaitraban had all been in a wrong order! It dawned on me when I started learning Permaculture seriously. Uptill now, it had only been a hobby but one book lead to another and to another and to another until I was reading and watching videos and browsing about only Permaculture all day. I had too much knowledge crammed in my not-used-for-a-long-time brain and was getting confused day by day. Suddenly, I had this great enlightenment :-) of doing a Permaculture Design Certificate Course. I browsed and browsed on the net for one in India and found one too. But I needed more adventure (and it was time for a vacation too! I had never taken a break alone in my life and now I had a chance!) and I stumbled upon a course in Bali. It wasn't too far, the faculty was great and the venue looked promising. Out I went packing off to Bali in February 2013...
We were twenty seven of us, enrolled for the PDC and all had almost the same vision. I met wonderful people, some closer to their dreams than others and some like me, just starting to realise that we could make our dream a reality one day. Each friend had a story to tell, about good and bad experiences, had had their shares of ups and downs in life. We were of different age groups, some in their late fifties and the youngest was twelve years old! He was from a family of organic farmers and was the most interested and the most amazing participant in the whole group. We also had a baby of four months amongst us! If she could talk, I am sure she would have had a story of her own to tell. We all shared our experiences and learnt from each other. We were like a family for those days of the PDC at Bali. We had great interesting sessions of classroom hours, movie hours in the day and then we would dissapear in the lanes of Bali for a different and great gourmet experience in the evenings.
At the end of the course, we had a teary goodbye session with promises of keeping in touch on the net and with a heavy heart I caught my flight home. Once in the flight, my spirits rose at the thought of seeing my loving family again after such a long long time and started planning on how I would apply all that I had learnt.
With a vision of my own Eden, our Chaitraban, smiling to myself, I dozed off on the flight back...
The internet opened my world wide and I realised there were hundreds, millions of people who dreamt of the Eden that I did. I longed to reach out and meet them and I finally got my chance one day!
It was a terrible day when I realised everything I have been doing at Chaitraban had all been in a wrong order! It dawned on me when I started learning Permaculture seriously. Uptill now, it had only been a hobby but one book lead to another and to another and to another until I was reading and watching videos and browsing about only Permaculture all day. I had too much knowledge crammed in my not-used-for-a-long-time brain and was getting confused day by day. Suddenly, I had this great enlightenment :-) of doing a Permaculture Design Certificate Course. I browsed and browsed on the net for one in India and found one too. But I needed more adventure (and it was time for a vacation too! I had never taken a break alone in my life and now I had a chance!) and I stumbled upon a course in Bali. It wasn't too far, the faculty was great and the venue looked promising. Out I went packing off to Bali in February 2013...
The lumbung
We were twenty seven of us, enrolled for the PDC and all had almost the same vision. I met wonderful people, some closer to their dreams than others and some like me, just starting to realise that we could make our dream a reality one day. Each friend had a story to tell, about good and bad experiences, had had their shares of ups and downs in life. We were of different age groups, some in their late fifties and the youngest was twelve years old! He was from a family of organic farmers and was the most interested and the most amazing participant in the whole group. We also had a baby of four months amongst us! If she could talk, I am sure she would have had a story of her own to tell. We all shared our experiences and learnt from each other. We were like a family for those days of the PDC at Bali. We had great interesting sessions of classroom hours, movie hours in the day and then we would dissapear in the lanes of Bali for a different and great gourmet experience in the evenings.
My first duck!
At the end of the course, we had a teary goodbye session with promises of keeping in touch on the net and with a heavy heart I caught my flight home. Once in the flight, my spirits rose at the thought of seeing my loving family again after such a long long time and started planning on how I would apply all that I had learnt.
With a vision of my own Eden, our Chaitraban, smiling to myself, I dozed off on the flight back...
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