Silverfish spill the Golden word!

By Dr R Sudarshan W ith summer slowly setting in, the rural landscape now is predominantly fallow. Heat and dust have covered the farmlands as farmers are yet again looking for rains. The wildlife in the bush too is driven by hunger and thirst.  This being the predicament, a whole army of rabbits have invaded our farm overnight and devoured a whole lot of succulent cucumbers.  The pity is that you will not have any cucumbers this week. But the pleasure is that some rabbits  lived to run about another day. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla , Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan O urs has been a fertile mindscape. As a culture, we have often imagined the unthinkable.   In our fabulous mythological landscape, we have had mighty mountain sized living beings walking the ground causing tremors. We have had them turn into beasts that flew or swam or ran at the blink of an eye. They have often come with many limbs or several heads or even just as headless torsos. Hiranyaksha, Tataka, Mahisha, Simhika, Taraka, Raktabeeja... so many names that swirled in our conscious minds all our lives. Priya writes one beautiful anthology of demons and demonesses drawn from our texts of yore. And our shelf now growls a deep resonating voice of the ancient. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan I t is now the time of plenty. In the farms of this city, most fruits happen and ripen from now till June and vegetables are various. Spring in the farms is a sight-worthy season. So the variety alone in the market is a buy-worthy reason. The 73rd weekly market assembles tomorrow. 73rd Organic Farmers' Market, Sunday,  27 February 2022 - 9 AM to 12 Noon For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,  Kalidasa Road,  VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr. R Sudarshan T hat's the most favored jackfruit tree of all on the farm and this is its first fruit of the season. It is growing bigger in a cleft and is wedged so hard that it won't be possible to harvest it intact. Either the tree wants the birds to eat or the connoisseurs to slice it on the spot.  We know not yet. For now, the story is stuck. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore. April 01, 2022 STORY REOPENS: JACKFRUIT BANQUET FOLLOWS! T hat's the best jackfruit tree we have on the farm. Its fruits are as sweet as honey and it is not something that you can value in money. And it grew so possessive of its first fruit of the season that it inserted it in a cleft and locked it tight. The fruit is now big and is immovably fixed in the arms of an otherwise generous giant. The fruit will ripen in that cleft in about a week or 10 days. And the only way to work around it is...

By Dr R Sudarshan The cabbages have begun to fold well and their heads are compacting. They may just be a week or two behind the market. Meanwhile, the moringa trees around the cabbage patch are in full bloom and the flowers are showering. Their petals have fallen between the layers of cabbages and as the leaves fold and compact, there is a chance that the moringa nectar is squeezed in. We didn't plan it. Nature made it. So, accept it. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan S ahana, our bird expert, has so far led 4 batches of bird-watch and nature-walk enthusiasts in and around Padma Farms. Now with the onset of spring and a sudden explosion of flowers on every plant in the farm, she wishes to tiptoe into the season's landscape, listen to the bird whisper and check the stealth of their beaks. To have the pleasure of being led by Sahana into the world of wings, please register through a message to Gagan at 97421 62956. A fee of Rs. 200 to cover breakfast at the farm applies. BIRD WHISPER AND FARM WATCH, Saturday, 26 February, 2022, 7 AM at Padma Farms,  Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan A mongst the most addictive things of life are the nursery rhymes that indelibly stay alive in the back of your mind. You sang these meaningless lines as a toddler and then again unconsciously in your adulthood while in a shower or in a boardroom break or on a long drive. You did row the boat, you asked the black sheep if she had any wool, you rolled over or even celebrated those hot cross buns that you have never seen in life.  Not just handy to repeat to kids or grandkids, they are also nice to read again and recite in adulthood under stress. If you haven't tried, do try. It helps to live a moment of hilarious silliness in life. Now on shelf. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan S ome years ago on a trip to our daughter's Film School in a faraway land, I learnt a term - suspension of disbelief. First considered by Aristotle in 4th century BC and then made famous by Coleridge in early 19th century, it just meant that when you enter a theatre of imagination, keep away your critical thinking and expect an unreasonable reality. Indeed, an organic farm is a grand theatre of life. Enter through the gate and suspend your sense of disbelief. Yes, blueberry buds have sprung up. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan A Pandemic that burnt like a bad summer sun seems to have set and a calmer time is born. People are back on the riverbank to browse the book river at Silverfish. And books are flooding again. Another 500 now waiting to jump out of the boxes. That makes it more than 10,000 in impoundment. The book river is spilling over the levees.  It is springtime for the shelf. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

  By Dr R Sudarshan T he three year old calls himself Mopping Ishaan as he is fond of helping his mum mop the floor. This Saturday, he spent over three hours at the farm, helping us harvest beans, cucumber, okra, cherry tomatoes, brahmi, pumpkin and a whole lot of what we grew. Tireless and constantly at work, he amazed us about how focused and indulgent a little boy can be at something he rejoices doing. And you must know this because it is possible that what you bought this week from the market has an invisible imprint of two tiny hands. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore. RESPONSES [21/02, 10:30 am] Gayathri : ಮುಂದಿನ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯ ಯುವ ಪೀಳಿಗೆ [21/02, 11:05 am] B S Ranganath : ನಿಸ್ಸಂಶಯವಾಗಿ

  By Dr R Sudarshan Over a dozen types of vegetables, giant papayas, jack fruits, pumpkins, half a dozen kind of succulent greens or delicately hanging yard long beans. No. None attract attention in the farm the way the spectacular mango bloom does. A whole long year in waiting is so richly rewarded that you don't want the time to move an inch further from here. As we assemble the 72nd week of the market tomorrow, you and us know what will flood the market floor soon. For now, the flow is still green. 72nd Organic Farmers' Market, Sunday,  20 February 2022 - 9 AM to 12 Noon For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,  Kalidasa Road,  VV Mohalla, Mysore.

  By Dr R Sudarshan W e don't recall planting the thing. We can't remember from which part of the world we brought the seed. We won't be able to tell if it is Wee-be-little OR Labu OR Combucha squash. But it has clandestinely crept into the Brahmi bush and has fruited here and there, breaking the monotony of green. We featured it in the last week's market. There could be one or two on coming Sunday too.  They have fruited in dozens, but rabbits have nibbled them in scores. Sometimes, a farm doesn't conform to your command. And thus we experience the natural. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan We brought 3 Litchi saplings from Dehradun, some 5 years ago. In their first month, the water ran out at the farm and we drove all the way with cans of water that summer to keep their thirst quenched. In a year, the termites ate up their taproots and we dug deep around the base to fill the soil with Calotropis leaves. Once a borer ate up the pith and we injected neem oil to the stem. Last year the tips of sprigs wilted and we washed them with fermented butter milk. Watching over it almost every day in five years, we turned into plant paediatricians.  And then this week, one of the three plants bore a bunch of flowers. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan B orn to a Syrian man and an American woman, his mother put him for adoption at birth as her father didn't approve of a child from an alien. And he later called his biological parents as 'my sperm and egg bank', for the pain of rejection they gave him for life. Even death didn't creep in gracefully upon him. He was felled by cancer, aged 56. While waiting for his consciousness too to abandon him, he kept staring at his children for long in teary silence. In between these painful birth and death spectacles, there is just this little detail that he changed our world forever and became an iconic figure in human civilization.   An extraordinary biography of a precision thinker, who interviewed 67 nurses before choosing 3 for his final care. On the shelf. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

https://fb.watch/bcN0C-aDfb/ By Dr R Sudarshan T he green leaves the tree. Between the fall and the crumbling sound under the feet, the leaves have turned dusty brown because the soil can't be green. You know, they will go back up the tree in the giant wheel of life cycle, but for now, it has been a rain of death. But then, it is February, and so, there has also been a spring of life with tender shoots and tons of flowers on the tips of the twigs. The farm is transiting through a mixed mood of life and death. And it is such a splendid time to watch the time pass by. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan It is said that it is a way of life for the women to tackle patriarchy from home dining tables to board room meetings. It pervades their beauty, body, mannerism, sexuality, caste, power, occupation, predicament and their paradox of life choices.  Sindhu puts together instances of how modern women ingeniously overcome patriarchy in their everyday lives. She records the bold opinions of the millennials.  Beginning with an expression that ours is a toxic time filled with vile masculinity, she ends the book proving that the future is female. And she implores not to judge but seek to understand why women make the choices they make.  A deeply resonating and mind engaging voice. On our shelf. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan When we found this farm just a few years ago on a rocky hill slope, it nested in a barren landscape where some mango trees hesitantly grew and rainfed crops rarely bore grains. We then held a dialogue with the land for a bevy of fruits - Chestnut, Litchi, Papaya, Water apple, Guava, Malay apple, Graviola, Cashew, Orange, Fig; well, we held a thoughtless procession of desire. And as the last week opened, we stood im'peach'ed for the error of greed. The plum and peach trees came of age and one lone peach spilled amour. Promptly a bird pecked the pink fruit. The word 'possibility' now has proof on a seemingly impossible terrain. And nature is a man and woman's original valentine. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan A young person from the community planned to make kale juice for tomorrow and asked us in the morning if we could get her a bunch in the day.  Our plants had just been harvested of leaves 2 days ago and we could neither harvest anymore, nor could ignore a rare request.  We reached out to half a dozen organic farmers that sell vegetables at the Farmer's House Sunday Market and asked if anyone had a plant that could yield a bunch of leaves. Manjula who runs Belavala Foundation along with her husband Dr. Ramakrishna asked her staff all the way from Bangalore to look for a kale plant in her farm near KRS.  They found one lone plant with a couple of  leaves already happily devoured by insects.  Ramakrishna chose the best of leaves and brought them to Mysore by evening that we drove to the store by night. A bunch of kale reached the connoisseur after 12 hours of scrambling.  And not just the juice, even a story was born. For any relevant query,...

By Dr R Sudarshan By February every year, the farms become cabbage kingdoms. Never in the course of the year does cabbage grow as lush, large and succulent as now. In the morning or evening Twilight, the cabbage field looks like a park of antennae, scanning the sky for the scanty sunlight. And soon in a week, cabbages will flood the market. In the meantime, the market assembles this Sunday with over Two dozen variety of vegetables and fruits. And week after week, the produce list is expanding. 71st Organic Farmers' Market, Sunday,  13 February 2022 - 9 AM to 12 Noon For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,  Kalidasa Road,  VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan I t is said that we have culturally practiced 64 art forms, among which, music commands the highest rank. Its origins may link it to religious and spiritual practices, but it grew independent of them all in time as an art form of deep cultural identity. We are surrounded by it. And as much as we assume that we know it, we may be unaware of its multiple dimensions. Written by one of our finest practitioners, this is a simple summary of the structure, history and the spirit of Indian music. It is a recapitulation for those who know and an inspiration for those who don't. The hum is now audible, on the shelf. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan I t was still dark when she drove alone with her little daughter to the farm through the village roads, just to pluck some tender spinach. She had the passion to touch the dew dripping leaves in a toxin free acre and take home a bunch, regardless of the 40kms round trip she had to make for it in that hour.  Till we saw the shadow of her arm on the torch lit spinach patch in the dawn, we ignorantly thought we are the only farm enthusiasts, blinded by passion. Organic quality of life is beyond the values of distance and money. Farm delight can be a deeply felt intangible gain. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan R idha and Supraja are graduating soon from AIISH and would move away into the wider world to tackle life. Just before the drift of youth dragged them away from Mysore, they wanted to visit the farm one last time, see if they could help the speech handicapped child of our farmhand and assist us harvest for the Sunday market. They were assigned to harvest cherry tomatoes that at least one of them had never seen before. The discovery delighted them. And as they stood in a crucial crossroad of life, they knew now that shining marbles of delight could organically spring out of innocuous little bushes. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

  By Dr R Sudarshan W ritten some 2,500 years ago by Sun Tzu, 'The Art of War' is perhaps the most influential book on war strategies in the world. No book on peace has ever sold anywhere close to a fraction of the numbers this book has sold. And that tells us on our face whether we are a peace loving race or a war mongering species. A simple and direct  articulation is at the heart of this book. It has nuggets like, "Warfares are based on deception", "strike the weak and not the strong", "don't oppose someone standing on a higher ground", "employ a spy from among the enemy camp". This immensely popular book is a mirror to the self contradicting human mind and is a manual on how immorality too is a timeless value to our existence. One must read this once in life. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan S oil, water, seeds, sunlight and a heap of passion - a whole lot of vegetables and fruits grow and arrive from the farms on a Sunday morning. An experience, an imagination, creativity, a book read and loads of passion - a river of talent flows from the hearts in the evening. A weekly market in the morning and an open mic event in the evening. Uninhibited and transparent. That's a free flow of an organic commitment to life - at the same location and from the same patronage of a community. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,  Kalidasa Road,  VV Mohalla, Mysore.

  By Dr R Sudarshan O ne of the most difficult acts in sustaining an organic Farmers' market is the balancing between transparency and footfall concerning the farms. It is important for the community to access the farm at will, witness the farming practices and partake in the passion. At the same time, it is necessary to see that the farm is not stressed and we don't have too many boots on the ground. Within this ambit, farming efforts grow and a community bond evolves. And it is so gratifying to see that the market matured and turned 70. It was so pleasant to witness  70th Organic Farmers' Market, Sunday, 6 February 2022  live on Sunday, just two days ago. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,  Kalidasa Road,  VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan T he world of advice is so complex that we have long winding scriptures, highly revered masters and long syllabi courses and discourses telling how to live happily and change our rut-writ lives. Yet, we often feel miserable. And here is an incredibly simple sermon gave by an Admiral to a graduating class that turned sensational to the extent that it became a tiny book of 130 half pages and sold over a million copies in a jiffy. Make your bed says William. You can't go it alone he muses. Life is not fair, he makes you realise. And then, if you ever want to change the world, don't ring the bell and wait at the door. Simple, humble, clever and just a few words that can raise your eye brows with a sense of amazement. Our shelf is brightened. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.  

  By Dr R Sudarshan I n the past few months, over a hundred may have visited the farm, its ambiance and engaged its nature in their own language of dialogue.  And among the times they captured in their camera, four stand apart and define a character. Pictures made by guests. A piece of time they wrapped in a moment of stillness. For any relevant query,  message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr R Sudarshan S he tended to babies and toddlers at a kindergarten when she was picked up and thrown into Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and lined up for death.  But by a quirk of fate, she was asked by Nazis to run the day to day matters in the camp for fellow prisoners. In time, she became a slave 'lageralteste' that was responsible for holding together 30,000 women in barracks that breathed a degraded life and waited for gassing. That's an unexpected mission life handed over to Magda Hellinger. She walked on egg shells and lived on knife edge, balancing between the commanding Nazis and the crumbling fellow slaves, delaying executions, saving people, fulfilling small wishes and bettering the quality of existence of those that were damned to dying. Death was abundant and so she feared it not. Life was a rarity and so it outlined her fear. An extraordinary life story of an ordinary woman. Now on shelf. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish...

By Dr R Sudarshan T wo teenagers, caught in an inescapable grip of drugs, have a roller coaster life, totally controlled by what we term as one of the biggest chemical influences on human lives. Love, pain, ecstacy and disgust race through their lives on the highway of their hallucination. Junk is perhaps the most well read true life story of drug influence on young people in the world. And brushing it off as an exotic storyline of another culture doesn't help. This could as well be happening at our homes for our teenagers without a clue for us in our parellel spins of life. Forewarned is forearmed. A must read for those who think it doesn't happen at their homes. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

  By Dr R Sudarshan O rganic farming is a wholesomeness of halves. Just a half of all you bring, could be your whole sale. Only half of all you grow, could be your full yield. A mere half of all you sow, may be all that germinates. Even a flowering mango tree could be a split personality. And half the life could well be full of uncertainty. For any relevant query,  message 81051 12990. * * * Padma Farms, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.