Silverfish spill the Golden word!

PLUNDERING PACKS OF PLOUGHING PIGS By Dr R Sudarshan W e rushed to the farm early in the morning as the farmhand made an emergency call. A pack of pigs had raided the farm overnight and there were telltale signs of pillage.  A low hanging jackfruit had been devoured, a banana plant had broken its back and some greens had turned into resting mattresses. On a derailed survey, we found that the pigs had systematically done ploughing at the base of over 450 plants. Minimal damage but the maximum benefit of turning around the soil and mixing nutrition well for the rainy day. It would cost some Rs 5,000 for us over three days to do what they did overnight.  When pigs can plough, mood can fly. Watch video:  https://fb.watch/dlPUOdNKy7/ * * * EXIT OF THE CICADA ARMY By Dr R Sudarshan Watch video: https://fb.watch/dlQ62v9V_P/ T he CICADA army has as suddenly left the farm as it came and sang its deafening chant. Birds chirp again. Silence of the swinging trees. The hum of air. And...

By Dr. R Sudarshan W hen we set up a book display booth at the Literature Carnival in an Engineering College last Saturday and were stacking Harry Potter volumes on a shelf, we discovered that a student in the next cabin was stacking Harry Potter wands. Handmade, delicate, and pretty, we put them alongside the Hogwarts library. Imagination went a few inches further. We brought a few of these wands to the store and thought of giving them to someone who bought the Harry Potter book set. A few still remain on the shelf. But a child immediately bought three on Saturday to gift to her friends and retain one. Suddenly, the air of my city looks magically magnificent. 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 13th-century world trembled at his feet. And he founded an empire and civilization that extended across the world and even begat Mughals that ruled India. In 25 years of his ascent to the world stage from the remote grasslands of central Asia, he subjugated more lands than the Romans did in 400 years. He caused a complex cultural communication that changed the way the world lived. Evermore progressive as much as he was ruthless, his system of governance was far more refined than western. He abolished torture, granted religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems and aristocratic privileges that even the medieval and modern monarchies elsewhere didn't do. His name is unjustly mired in some inglorious images because western historians couldn't credit an eastern man with higher attributes of civilization. Thoroughly researched and unraveled lucidly like a riverine flow, Jack Weatherford brings to fore the importance of GENGHIS KHAN to the history of the wo...

By Dr. R Sudarshan T he benefit of organic farming is that at times you have more than what you asked for and you often reap what you didn't sow. We didn't sow the seeds of even one bird's eye chilly plant. But we have over a dozen, growing in all gorgeousness. That's because the winged strangers fly in and drop seeds all the time and some half-digested cow manure dips into the soil every week. Result - unexpected boons cease to surprise us. Well, at 9 AM on Sunday, tomorrow, the market turns 86. And two handfuls of fresh bird's eye chilies will hit the shelf as well. But beware, they are 10 times higher on the Scoville scale than the chilies you normally use in the kitchen. 86th Organic Farmers' Market, Sunday, 29 May 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.

Finger Lime variety: Red Champagne By Dr. R Sudarshan A good friend of the House - Melanie was vacationing in Melbourne and we made a request if she could get us some seeds of the Australian finger lime. She most kindly brought two beautiful fruits growing in her mother's backyard.  It is of tremendous value to us. The excitement of a great journey begins now. We ought to carefully extract seeds and sow them on the farm. We know it will take years before they fruit. But the real value of time is in waiting. Meanwhile, we have already harvested her goodwill. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan S tudents from Vidyavardhaka college of Engineering walked in asking if we could exhibit some bestseller books at their Literature Carnival being held tomorrow, 28th May. Young people want to read. So that's easily agreed. At Silverfish Books, the major footfall is that of young boots. We are a society that loves to live under a wet blanket dipped in stress. Students are the most challenged in this regard. Parental expectation, peer pressure, grilling examinations, and stifling competitive process. And every day, we see young. people. walking into our store to de-stress with classics, biography, fantasy, mystery, history, and everything that's outside their system of syllabi. It is rare that young people hold a fine feast of literature. And Silverfish Books won't miss the table. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr. R Sudarshan L ittle Anushka comes every Wednesday to the midweek mini-market, with some produce from her farm.  She arranges the vegetables and greens with a sense of elegance. She picks up pieces of paper and labels the display.  She uses freshly washed clothes to drape the greens that would otherwise fade and faint in the sun.  She is a draper, designer, and fashion maker of the midweek market display.  And as she waits for the customers to come and shop, she collects bugs, praying mantes, and insects and watches them wiggle. * * * * * ANUSHKA'S MIDWEEK MARKET ENCOUNTERS W atch video:  https://fb.watch/dxj9C0DTvC/ We earlier wrote how little Anushka brings her farm produce to the market, helps manage the floor, and sits fascinated with bugs and butterflies. Today, she helped keep away the orders, labeled them, and then sat down with a blob of jackfruit latex, playing with its elastic ecstacy. Pasting okra tops on the wall, breaking the beans with a soun...

By Dr. R Sudarshan Organic Farmers' MIDWEEK MINI MARKET - 12, Wednesday, 25 May 2022, 8 AM to 10 AM T he Brahmi roots are widespread in a network. And there seems to be some relation between such a root ramification and the growth of mushrooms in the moist farm soil. The beautiful Brahmi patch is now dotted with little umbrellas. Short-lived maybe, but seems deeply connected. Tomorrow from 8 AM to 10 AM, the midweek mini market will assemble for its 12th week. And we scan every inch of the farm today to check what can be brought to the market that's useful this midweek. 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 A kshay came asking for a job over a year ago. Since Farmer's House had some free balcony space, Akshay had a certificate in hospitality and as the unsold farm produce was going to waste, we asked him to build an organic cafe and structure a career for himself. We opened Kutz Bowl organic cafe for him, as his efforts to succeed began. A year has passed. He has largely had a free hand to sculpt his dream. He was sent to Lavonne for refresher training and was given access to the farm and a whole range of books on world cuisine at the Silverfish Bookstore. And this week, Sahadev who trained at Lavonne is starting a 2-week hand-holding course for Akshay at the Farmer's House. A number of tongue-twister cuisine titles are being taught and experimented with.  All said and done, an organic cafe is difficult to build even with the backup of an organic farm. Success for a young chef also comes after miles of a trek on the aroma trail. Nonetheless, there will be some ...

By Dr. R Sudarshan T he eastern world has been a minefield of philosophies for peace and every step of the way, some thought explodes into the heart and says something soothing. While people have looked to the West for wealth, material bliss, and living comfort, they have always turned to the East for the sunrise of consciousness. And among the gems of such philosophies is the Confucian thought of 'Ren'. Ren is your relationship with yourself and all around you. It is all about how through simple and sensible changes in our lives we can connect better with friends, families, and societies and build community, justice, fairness, and compassion. In a nutshell, it is all about making oneself a better person and being a happier human being. Ren is on the shelf. And so, peace is accessible. * * * LITERARY FICTION - STORIES OF LIFE IN ELEGANCE OF LANGUAGE By Dr. R Sudarshan O ver 500 titles draw attention on a pinewood rack in an entire room meant for fiction at the Silverfish Bookst...

THE TRAGICOMEDY OF FOOD COSMETICS By Dr. R Sudarshan I f you drive along the Bogadi Gaddige main road today, beyond the borders of our home city, you will see heaps of firm-bodied mangoes castaway on the road shoulders and the gutter. That's essentially the food cosmetics gone terribly wrong. These tons are not mature enough to ripen as fruits. But they have dark stains on parts of their skin, owing to rains, humidity, and lack of sun. They are pesticide washed, of course. But are neither acceptable to wholesalers nor retailers as they are blemished. And they cannot be turned into fruits because they are plucked a moment too early and even ethylene or calcium carbide won't give them the uniform pink yellow hue that the customers love. Stain, blemish, crooked shape, rugged skin, uneven colors, or varying size are cosmetic identities of human perception that can only promote an industry of pest venom and deny us the delight of nature. And of course, that can also make some farmer...

By Dr. R Sudarshan W ho doesn't know the attic!  Over 30 million people in the world have read Anne Frank's diary and many times more had visited that canal-side house where the little girl hid from Nazis for a time before her family was betrayed.  And we have all felt a lump in the throat reading how she was hounded out of the attic, herded into a concentration camp, and allowed to die a dishonorable death.  But who betrayed Anne Frank? This question has haunted the world for 8 decades. Now with scores of interviews, hundreds of inquiries, thousands of pages of documents, and a diligent investigation using modern techniques, award-winning author Rosemary Sullivan bring an answer. And a closure. In wartime Amsterdam, none trusted anyone. And an avalanche of racial hatred overran one of the most celebrated little girls in human history. On the shelf - a compelling book that guarantees helplessness that this world couldn't save Anne Frank. For any relevant query, message 81...

By Dr. R Sudarshan T he curator of Silverfish Books is doing a stock check. It isn't easy to check every single title of the over 10,000 stock and update the database of book parameters. It takes weeks to complete the process, and it allows a number of discoveries. Hundreds of people that come and browse before buying, treat the books in a hundred different ways. While most of them are kind, some can be the bulls in a china shop.  A few book covers are torn, some pages are folded, some books go missing, some binds are pulled and most of all, the children cause a lot of damage to the volumes. The embedded toys, stickers, pull-outs, and pop-ups are at times taken away by the children and the damaged books are silently stashed in a corner, even when the accompanying parents may know what their wards did.  That's the difference between an accessible bookstore and an online platform. Online, you just get a book that you ask for without any experience of browsing. At a store, people...

By Dr. R Sudarshan T he week that passed was washed clean by incessant rains. Not only that the leafy vegetables drowned in flooded soil, the fruits and leaves withered and began to decompose. An army of metallic green scarab beetles took chance and invaded the farm brutally but beautifully. We guarded the jack in the cleft for months. When it ripened yesterday, we immediately announced the banquet and the farmhands covered it with a thick sheet, to protect it from the night riders till the guests arrived. And over 10 guests were assured of driving in. But this morning, when the farmhands went to lay the table for the banquet, they discovered that the jackfruit has been hacked and eaten by the real custodians of nature, overnight. Bees and insects are now swarming the broken fruit and competing with pecking birds. The shield of a sheet that we spread, is torn to pieces. On the tree, there are tell-tale signs of a conflict between the claimants. Sorry folks. The covenant of banquet had ...

By Dr. R Sudarshan F lowers bloom in a slew of colors, fruits occur in a range of tastes, sights spring out in an enchanting manner and a million lives go about their daily reverie. That's the summation of an organic farm. Increasingly, we have come to believe that organic farming is more of a way of life than a business or a community activity. And increasingly, we realize that intangible benefits far exceed the tangible profit. So, visiting and experiencing an organic farm could be as important as eating fruits and vegetables. In the last week, the shiny metallic green scarab beetle has been foraging fruits leftover by squirrels and birds. And that looks as delightful as delectable the fruits are. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan TOMB OF SAND - (shortlisted for international Booker Prize 2022 to be announced next week) A t 80, she slips into depression upon her husband's demise. Then she rehabilitates herself with sheer mind power and begins re-experiencing life. A transgender friend, a journey to Pakistan where her teenage memories lie, and a grand confusion in her daughter who always thought that she is more modern than her mother. She dons a persona that's both aged and young, ancient and modern, conventional and yet feminist. The old girl, with her sheer grit in life, crashes out of the boundaries of nations, religion, and gender. This is the first book translated from Hindi on the shortlist of the Booker Prize. The award announcement is on May 26th, just a week away from today. The book is on our shelf. Read before the world wakes up to the fame of the Tomb of Sand. Probably. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan T his community has known for over two months that a prime jackfruit is stuck in a cleft of the tree on the farm. It is now fully ripe and is broadcasting its aroma. There is no way it can be taken out of the tree without massacring it on the spot. As planned for months, there will now be a jack fruit banquet at the base of the tree tomorrow at 11.30 AM. This community's biggest jackfruit connoisseurs, Seetha Rao and Arun will be the guests of honor, presiding over the banquet. We would like to have some 10 similar connoisseurs invite themselves to the farm tomorrow to be on the banquet mat to eat the fruit.  Please message Akshay at 96631 10632 to register before 6 PM today. We will confirm acceptance, depending on numbers, late in the evening and share the location with you. * * * THE RISE OF "HOW CAN THAT BE" FRUIT By Dr. R Sudarshan T he jacks of 2022 are a strange lot.  Dozens of them are continuing to fatten on the tree but show little signs of ri...

By Dr. R Sudarshan I n the middle of May with the grey clouds, pouring rains and flooded farm soil, a few Jamun trees, and the Roxburgh fig trees have begun to bloom despite the gloom. The flowers and fruits are so outstanding that the farm looks bright and cheerful. The custard apples are not far. Blackberries are lining up.  The peanut butter fruits are already pink. A whole new range of fruits is yearning to fall into the basket of harvest. Come what may, drought or flood, an organic farm is a breeding ground for cheerleaders. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan T his season has been particularly peculiar. At first, the summer heat was so stark that the vegetables and greens were almost burnt by the soil that held them. Then came the wailing clouds that wouldn't stop crying, thereby flattening the standing crop, drowning the seeds, and turning the farm into a shoe-sucking swamp. Meanwhile, the jackfruits are growing ever bigger, but won't be ripe. The mangoes have taken so long to form and we don't know if they taste the same. Insects that are known to eat decaying fruits are devouring the fresh ones. Wild pigs are raiding every night to dig into soft mud to find juicy roots, which at times topple the well-grown plants. What triggered this nature's revenge!  Yes, we find it ever so strange!!! Farming is one of the most challenging, intriguing but exciting professions. Of the 10 crops you try to grow, declining favor on more than half of them is nature's organic action.  This season may have been fickle. I...

By Dr. R Sudarshan Organic Farmers' MIDWEEK MINI MARKET - 11, Wednesday, 18 May 2022, 8 AM to 10 AM R ains have again destroyed crops and farmland soils have become water dripping soggy. The market middlemen have brought out of warehouses and cold storage the vegetables that they saved for a rainy day. For us, trying to grow and bringing afresh what we grow is as much important as for some of you the organic produce is. Challenging times are always exciting too for those who share a passion. Tomorrow from 8 AM, the mini-market will assemble for its 11th week. Unfailing. 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 his week, we will begin bringing down the mangoes from our trees to wrap them warm in paper or hay to ripen. And we begin bringing to store the fruit royalty as it begins to blush. We will also allow people to go to the farm and pluck all they want. Tons of mangoes are on the trees now. Birds have begun to abandon a dozen other types of fruits on the farm as they are clamoring around mangoes. Insects, thieves, bees, and we are all eyeing them.  Meanwhile, you know but let us remind you that most mangoes in the open market are chemically ripened. Ethylene sachets are legally used by some to fumigate the fruits to color and tenderness. The banned Calcium carbide is believed to be widely available and not just that it contains traces of arsenic and phosphorus but produces acetylene. Most of the market mango magnificence that you see is manufactured. And you will have read that FSSAI is raiding godowns and destroying tons that have been exposed to toxic chemicals...

By Dr. R Sudarshan A nother 300 books arrived at the store this week, many of them being repeat orders of what our readers preferred and repeatedly referred to. Many books were bought by some in multiple copies to present to those they loved and cared for. In the weeks that have passed, we have discovered a new tribe of book lovers who buy the titles in multiple copies to gift to people they want to motivate, inspire, and incentivize.  They tell us that they reward with books, those whose productive capacity in an office, school, or institution is recognized and valued OR in a family is expected and adored. Do we then understand that books are as much a reading delight as they are an investment in a relationship! Well yes. Giving is a living skill. * * * GERONIMO STILTON Watch video:  https://fb.watch/d0Q7PxpnGU/ N ow 64, then young Elisabetta Dami was bored stiff, and depressed enough to concoct rat and mouse stories to children in a hospital in Italy in the 1990s. That roll...

By Dr. R Sudarshan KIDS' BAZAAR - AN EXHIBITION OF YOUNG VISION (A Farmer's House and Green Dreamz collaborative initiative)  Saturday, 14 May 2022, 3 PM to 6 PM, Venue: Farmer's House W e only stood in support. But the kids themselves have built a whole highway of creativity. And when you drive in today to the Bazaar, the road leads directly to your heart, just like the cupid's dart. Aahana is one of them who voluntarily turned into a communication designer of the Bazaar. Even this poster above was made by her like the one we used earlier. It is just a glimpse of what the deft hands of young minds can create. Today afternoon, you will discover a whole new world of their imagination. Come rain or sunshine, they will be there. They are our kids and so it's our duty to care. Yes. Walk-in. We bet you will walk out lighter. Because you will have left behind your hearts. * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,...

By Dr. R Sudarshan KADAKNATH EGGS - A JOURNEY FROM MADIKERI TO MYSURU T hat's a melanin-loaded beautiful black hen of Jhabua (Madhya Pradesh) nativity, under a threat of extinction because it hardly breeds in the new environments. And its eggs are said to be a little more proteinaceous and nutritive than those of other hens. Jacinth Aboobacker has raised KADAKNATH hens in the organic free-range around her house in distant Madikeri. On her weekly visits to Mysore, she wishes to bring KADAKNATH eggs carefully from there and sell them at our weekly Sunday market, beginning this week. We have told Jacinth that the market is merciless and it just thrives on what people want and not how much passionate the farmer is and from what distance or how carefully you raise the produce and bring it. But Jacinth is focused, like the half a dozen organic farmers that use our platform. Hope her enthusiasm sustains for long. Hope the community finds her efforts useful. MUSHROOM ADDITION Perhaps Mr. S...

By Dr. R Sudarshan M ulti-headed creatures are two per page in the mythological texts. A seven-headed serpent, triple-headed eagle, ten-headed king of an island,  fire breathing monster of two heads and a whole lot of characters have grown in the fertile soils of mind. In the fertile soils of farmland too, a mythical vegetable bore several heads this week. Three on one stalk, two on another, six on yet another, and so on. It is said that torrential rains split cabbages into multiple heads. We discovered it. And we read the cabbage mythology on mud. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan KIDS' BAZAAR - AN EXHIBITION OF YOUNG VISION (A Farmer's House and Green Dreamz collaborative initiative)  Saturday, 14 May 2022, 3 PM to 6 PM, Venue: Farmer's House S aturday is approaching. And over a dozen kids have been working hard to exhibit their artistic prowess and entrepreneurship. Baking cakes to making sculptures, painting bottles, sketching bookmarks, brewing lemonade to growing microgreens, just to name a few in the variety of shows they have contemplated. Don't underestimate the power of gen-next.  To remind you, this is totally the kids' arena. Their works, their decided prices, and everything they collect are their entry into the experience of earning through hard work.   Even the above poster is made by one of the talented kids - Aahana, who is no less than a professional designer. Don't show sympathy. Just show appreciation. Value their labor and brilliance of mind. You are welcome to the Bazaar at the Farmer's House on...

By Dr. R Sudarshan Y ashveer Bhatnagar is a high mountain scientist, working on the elusive snow leopards in the almost inaccessible Himalayas. Living in Mysore, but roaming in snow, he pursues the predator and strives to save it from extinction, without the stealthy cat knowing about him.  Yash walked into Farmer's House and asked if he could sit undisturbed at Padma Farms and write a chapter for a book and a scientific article for a journal, whose deadline was closing in. We took the mountain man to the tropical farm. He instantly bonded with nature and even chose a place to sit and write. An organic farm has a million invisible faces that can only be felt, if not seen. And the snow leopards have no idea that their stories are written under a mango tree. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

  By Dr. R Sudarshan Organic Farmers' MIDWEEK MINI MARKET - 10, Wednesday, 11 April 2022, 8 AM to 10 AM P ossibly because the children have grown up singing the nursery rhyme "here we go round the mulberry bush", they are so excited when they see the mulberry fruiting at the farm. Most of them have never seen the fruit before but rush to the bush to pluck and eat when we show. So far, we haven't been able to bring mulberry to the market. Because our bush has been a popular practical lab for the kids that have memorized a rhyme in theory at school. Tomorrow from 8 AM, the mini-market enters its 10th week. 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 had even forgotten that we planted them there. But when it rained this weekend at the farm, the blades bore buds of lilies and burst open into petit flowers. The bees, bugs, and butterflies were all now on this patch. And these subtle petals became the cynosure of our eyes. Yes, the dynamics of farm pleasure suddenly changed.  How do rain lilies know to flower exactly after rains? On a day-to-day basis, we water their bed, use sprinklers that simulate rains and even drip irrigate at times. The lilies never bloom for the water we pour at their feet or pate. But when it rains, they invariably bloom.  We looked into theories of photoperiodism, the water pH differential, albedo-based soil moisture retention, and everything possible. But there isn't an answer in science how the humble lily knows the difference between natural rain and irrigation. We rest our minds for the moment, even as we widely open our eyes. Unbelievable. Yes, seeing is not always believi...

  By Dr. R Sudarshan POSITION: Associate - Silverfish Books, BASIS: Voluntary OR Part-time  W e need a person who loves books and can enhance the value of our book services.  Should be interested in spending time arranging books, updating the database, writing regular blurbs, and assisting in the review of publisher frontlists for procurement. The interested person may MESSAGE 99875 45230 with a few lines about self, after which we can meet and take it forward as appropriate. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr. R Sudarshan J ust almost a hundred-year-old book by Virginia Woolf. Touted to be one of the top 100 fictions in a century, Mrs. Dalloway mirrors the psychological insecurities of people that are secured by affluence and the lifestyle of the elite Bloomsbury privilege. Virginia sketches the character of Septimus as one of enormous mental dynamics with acute suicidal tendencies, stopping not a step short of literally killing him of his own volition.  A great classic by one of the most enigmatic writers of the last century, who in a restrictive Victorian world, defied masculine authority. And finally, walked into a river with a stone in her pocket, so that she wouldn't have a chance to survive her desire to die, just like the character she had created. Mrs. Dalloway - a classic by a thinker of rare skills. And a stream of action thoughts that would change the way we perceive life. And death. On the shelf. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farm...

Farmhand's rescue effort By Dr. R Sudarshan T he week that passed was quite eventful.  A huge dry spell at first, an acute water scarcity by midweek, and a merciless storm towards the weekend. A highlight is that the farmhands rescued a young bitter lime plant, which had been felled flat by the mindless winds. Now monitored carefully like a patient in ICU, the bitter lime that bit the dust has regained fully. Getting well as the plant's responsibility because at stake were hundreds of baby fruits that would otherwise whither from its arms. The 83rd week of the market will dawn at 9 AM tomorrow. 83rd Organic Farmers' Market, Sunday, 8 May 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.