Silverfish spill the Golden word!

By Dr. R Sudarshan T he one good thing that happened through a rain-free window of the week at the farm was the bird-watching workshop that found some new visitors, totaling now to 82 bird species, listed on the eBird platform. That strengthens the natural status of an organic farm. And almost every product that we grow is now shared between the community of people and a growing community of birds at the farm. 26th market is at 8 AM tomorrow. Organic Farmers' MIDWEEK MINI MARKET - 26, Wednesday, 31 August 2022, 8 AM to 10 AM * * * 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 SIlverfish bookstore is curated with an insatiable passion for presenting to Mysore what the world reads. The bookstore's organic farm on Gaddige Road is handcrafted with an integral vision of hosting wide biodiversity. A tree house has been built with bamboo and wood, blue benches spring out of a Brahmi patch, story stones make corner stools and benches are draped with the shade of fig trees. Pick a book at Silverfish Store on Kalidasa Road. Drive down to Padma Farms. Climb midway to the sky and sit in the treehouse.  Or choose a bench or stone to turn the pages and enter the mist of your thoughts. Converse with your mind. And unwind. Message 8105112990. Padma Farms (Gaddige Road), Farmer's House, 1A, 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr. R Sudarshan T he charm of legends and our weakness to relate to them are so strong that almost every place has a story linking to the narrative of epics. We may have a waterfall which we think is an impression of Sita's attire, a hill that has a footprint of Hanuman, or a broken rock that fell apart by the arrow of the hero.  Vikrant and Neelesh make an extremely enviable journey across the nation to trace the geography of Ramayana. They hear the folklore, listen to the locals, search for shreds of evidence and trace the morality of people that reflects an incident in the epic.  And in an extraordinarily simple travelogue, they trace a legend, discover the land's moorings, comment on human societies, and place before us some astonishing perspectives  That's the definition of 'awe' 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 S avithramma is versatile.  Having come to work as housekeeping staff, she once became a guest chef to demonstrate to the community how to make organic tamarind thokku. She has always aggressively defended the entrance corridor to the store as her garden and tended to the plants. She stands in the Sunday market and helps people choose vegetables and fruits.   Today, she is turning the front yard into a traditional farm floor and is planting Ragi in pots. What if we are an urban store and what if her work is to clean the floor? She is organically a farmer.  If everything goes well, Savithramma will have grown a handful of ragi in pots in the middle of the city. And if you thought that the farms are far away from the concrete jungle, that's a pity. For some, farming is just an organic state of mind. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan A mother of 87 has a brain hemorrhage and she lands up on a hospital bed, without much hope to improve. She wants to die but her children debate if they should pull the plug or try saving their mother. A daughter firmly believes in the morality of keeping the mother alive and pours out a cruel love of medical interventions and prolonging life. Whereas for an immobile and incommunicable mother, the hospital window is the world where her mind has to form a train of images. That's one of the greatest commonplace dilemmas of life - whether your love of keeping alive a deeply dying person is moral or immoral. And it is one of life's deepest pains that when you want to die, your own beloved ones won't let you go. Richard Flanagan is a Booker Prize winner. And any of us could have written this book of familiar thought but not as masterfully as he does. On the shelf - a deep pain of love of life that stops death. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * ...

By Dr. R Sudarshan Yet another workshop: BIRD SOUNDS AND SIGHTS, Saturday, 27 August 2022, 6.30 AM at Padma Farms S ahana, our bird expert, took a tour of the farm this week to get the season's update, bringing the bird count to 76 species in all.  She sat on the benches, roamed the estate, and climbed the tree house to listen to the sounds and watch the birds perch and fly. And she decided to hold another workshop on bird watching for the Farmer's House community in Padma Farms at 6.30 AM on Saturday, 27th August. Please register through a message to Gagan at 97421 62956. A fee of Rs.300 per person applies, which covers breakfast on fig leaves during the session. * * * 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 human mind is restless. There is an intrinsic urge and power to run away from home and yet return. This is part of the evolutionary biology, psychology, and civilization of this species we belong to. Right from Neolithic times, nomads have structured and restructured human societies. They had their golden time at the fall of the Roman Empire, through Arabs, Mongols, and Mughals, contrasting with and counterbalancing the empires of human cities. Anthony Sattin writes history but questions our minds. Between the lines, the reader identifies himself with one of the greatest human characters - nomadism. Roaming on our shelf now. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990. * * * Silverfish Books, Farmer's House, # 1A - 13th Cross, Kalidasa Road, VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr. R Sudarshan A bout 10 percent of the world and an equal percentage of India is diabetic. So possibly every second family has someone with the condition. Perhaps the greatest amount of medical common sense people have is on diabetes and we may all know it better than common flu.  And so, something so prevalent in the public domain should obviously be a lifestyle issue, graduated as a medical issue. And that's the line of approach the world has taken in recent times.  David Cavan empowers you with the knowledge of the lifestyle approach and even prescribes what you should do every day, day after day  The 10 percent of the world, please take control of your state of being, from 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 sn't life consistently insistent? A seed somehow embeds itself in the axil of an arm of a young coconut tree and explores the possibility of living under challenging circumstances of soil-less and substrate-less reality. Surprisingly, it germinates and grows into a healthy plant. An organic farm is a natural story. And an organic market is a story store. Saying this, we realize that the midweek mini turns 25 tomorrow at 8 AM. If not for anything else, come over for a handshake. And find yourself surrounded by some fresh farm produce. Organic Farmers' MIDWEEK MINI MARKET - 25, Wednesday, 24 August 2022, 8 AM to 10 AM * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,  Kalidasa Road,  VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr. R Sudarshan L ast week, our farmhands suggested that we harvest cucumbers for the Wednesday mini market. We felt they were too small. Let's gather them on Saturday for the Sunday market, we said. There were over 60 tender and juicy cucumbers on the vine. It all felt fine. By Saturday, every single cucumber was eaten. Was it the cucumber beetles that silently snuggled and nibbled? The rats might have come out in hordes and chewed them all up. Some squirrels of late are hiding in the trees.  Don't we see those brown rabbits too often on the farm, innocently rolling their eyes! The peacocks are triumphantly calling aloud from the bush, all week! The silent and sneaky night rider thief, please step forward. Who ate all the cucumbers? For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan T he SIlverfish treehouse, a platform in the air to read a book on our organic farm, is almost ready. The tribal boys from the bush took a mid-mission break to visit their families, but are back today to complete the task. Meanwhile, we requested a leading architect of world renown in town to take a look and opine on its structural stability. He vouched for its strength and suggested a few improvements. But one thing caught his special attention and he stared at it for long. The spiral roof lattice.  The boys carved a piece of false neem wood like a rough chandelier and stuck bamboos to it.  Some kind of a self-supporting lattice girder, an engineering fundamental, born out of the intuitive ingenuity of bushmen that are unpolluted with education. The sky is now held away from falling on you when you read a book. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan T he first dragon fruit happened on the farm from the gorgeous flower that had bloomed for a night a month ago. And the puzzled birds that cannot prick a dragon, pecked the fruit. The squirrels too tried some. What was left was eaten by us. So, the dragon-slaying took the combined efforts of a number of species. We assemble at 8 in the morning tomorrow for midweek mini. And we seem to have a considerable amount of lettuce alongside many other things. Organic Farmers' MIDWEEK MINI MARKET - 24, Wednesday, 17 August 2022, 8 AM to 10 AM * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,  Kalidasa Road,  VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr. R Sudarshan E veryone has a way of expressing freedom. Someone flies a flag, someone drives for long, someone leaps high and someone seeks peace. Ain't freedom just doing what you want to! Niharika curled up with a couple of books all day and sent us this picture. Her freedom - her books from Silverfish in tricolor. 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 appearance of a snake on the farm is not very frequent. We know they could be there, hunting a frog or rat, somewhere below a rock, or crawling beneath a bush. But that's mostly an invisible world.  And on those rare occasions when you find one, the whole world changes around you in a moment. You scramble to understand the situation.  It could be a harmless Boa or a harmful Viper. Identification manuals ask you to see the underside of the tail or marks on the head but you can't ask the snake to stop or turn around. For farmhands, every snake is a vengeful creature that will haunt you for 12 years. You have to jump into the middle of the commotion and hold back the staff from their murderous movements.  This time, we succeeded to stand guard and allow it to silently slither away. But tonight in the village, the gossip could be that of a foolish urban farming family that allows a snake its right of way.  Do whatever. The reason, however. Sudden ...

By Dr. R Sudarshan 97th Organic Farmers' Market, Sunday, 14 August 2022, 9 AM to 12 Noon E ven as we thought that the tropical fruiting season is over, the chestnut plant bore some babies and cautioned us never to say no. Not enough to bring to the market but quite enough to feel the excitement. Also curious if birds and squirrels like chestnuts. So, we don't want to pluck as we wait to watch if someone would peck.  We are already 97 and closing in on the magical number 100. It may just be a weekly market to buy vegetables for you. But it has been a journey for us. Tomorrow at 9 AM. That's not too far away. 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 Y ou already know a part of this story. The stray slabs from the city's sidewalk have come to live as story stones at Padma Farm. The bamboos harvested from a corner of the farm have climbed the banyan tree and huddled as a hut. Now, the fallen giant Melia tree is sliced into stool-sized pieces, to be placed under the canopies in widespread corners. Book reading can't be more natural than what an organic farm can support. Clean air, a fruit in hand, a stone or trunk, or a tree house to rest. And a story-spinning book in the hand.   Maybe this life is livable. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan I ncubating plants is an unending excitement in a farmer's life. Here are pumpkin seeds, rising their hood of infant foliage. Soon they will spread half an acre and produce fruits that look like scattered dinosaur eggs. For now, we are scrambling around to gather what's left alive in the rain. Yet, the midweek mini market is growing in variety and community support. Greens, vegetables, and fruits will be there. Peeled jackfruits will also be there. And yes, the star of the midweek mini market, little Anushka will be there. We assemble at 8 in the morning. Organic Farmers' MIDWEEK MINI MARKET - 23, Wednesday, 10 August 2022, 8 AM to 10 AM * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,  Kalidasa Road,  VV Mohalla, Mysore.

By Dr. R Sudarshan FULL SPECTRUM: India's wars: 1972-2020 A nd you thought we enjoy relative peace as a country... In under 50 years, we have been in 21 wars. Kargil to Doklam to Siachen to Nathu la. Bullets have been fired, planes have been flown, enemies have been killed and our soldiers have been brought draped in the national flag. We have also been a violent country.  Arjun narrates the strategic, operational, tactical, and human dimensions of India's contemporary conflicts. Well researched and authentic.  As we celebrate the 75th year of independence in a week, we ought to know that our freedom has been challenged scores of times. A remarkable chronicle of India of our lifetime. On the shelf now. 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 tribal artisans are at the farm, working 10 hours a day on the tree house, sitting where you could read a book. They think, sit back to reflect, cut the culms, peel out the layers, put together the pieces, balance the odds, tie the loose ends, nail a point and weave a magic of bamboo narrative. That's just like the process of writing a book.  Soon in a week, there will be a sky ground, some 50 feet above terra firma between the branches where the birds nest. You could read a book in the sky and converse with thin air. A presentation of uneducated tribal men for the educated Urban people.   A Silverfish Books' dream. * * * A SENSE OF PERFECTION IS AN ORGANIC ESSENTIAL By Dr. R Sudarshan Watch video:  https://fb.watch/eQ8LsifA_Z/ The tribal boys that are building a tree house at Padma Farms as a reading abode for Silverfish are obsessive perfectionists. They hardly rest. They aren't eager to break for lunch. They don't do shoddy work. Meticulo...

By Dr. R Sudarshan A kshay came to us over a year ago asking for a job. He was a trained chef and we were not hoteliers. Wrong combination, that. But he wouldn't leave and so we modified an area as a cafe and asked him to run. His dream was to succeed in a year and open his own restaurant on Kalidasa Road. We asked him to build this cafe, learn the craft and then go open his own in a big way. Our only precondition was that what he bakes and makes here must be organic. We bought him the equipment he wanted and approved the training he asked for. Now nearly a year and a half later, success has been elusive because his programming and marketing skills are rudimentary. And as a result, although he works hard, the cafe is closed far too often. Akshay now wishes to reboot again in a week and give another determined shot. We don't so much care if we have or not a busy cafe doing good business, as much as we wish him success. If someone wants to help him do well, impart some marketing ...

By Dr. R Sudarshan O ne big Melia dubia tree was over 60 feet high. Majestic and magnificent. Only over 5 years of age but a giant in its own right that stood high. Just those drops of water pouring from the sky for weeks brought it down. When it fell all the way to bite the wet dust, it felt that it died as rapidly as it lived and grew.  When it fell, the farmhands were nearby but not close by. Yet, it shook their confidence. And it also broke the back of scores of other plants.  Sometimes, a dozen rises cannot stick in the mind as much as one big fall can. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan 96th Organic Farmers' Market, Sunday, 7 August 2022, 9 AM to 12 Noon A million things happened at the farm in the week that passed apart from the billion barrels of rains that pounded. But what stood out at the end is a ton of harvest of bamboos from the farm, which will now hold up a tree house on the banyan tree, from where the community could watch an exciting world of the organic food forest.  Meanwhile, we hold tomorrow the 96th Sunday fair. What remained from drowning in the rain floods and what thrived in the torrent will all be there, naturally. So, wake up early. 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 bookstore now has a flight of stairs to its organic farm. Those of you who have seen the Spanish Steps by Piazza Spagna in Rome will know how Keats was inspired by stones and how many youngsters still sit on the steps and imagine their individual worlds in their minds. Silverfish imitates inspiration. Not so grand but nonetheless well intended. Not so historical but a humble present. Hand-built by our inexperienced farmhands, who collected garbage and heaped broken stones from the city's sidewalk with help rendered by volunteers like Dr. Charan, the stairs are in part the personality of our diligently curated bookstore.  Silverfish stones - to sit upon, reflect and read a book. In silence. In nature. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan A book is a torrent of ideas. The season has pulled a curtain of rains. You may now sit on a natural farm to browse a book between the lines and hold an image between the rains.   Silverfish is a unique bookstore with reader access to acres of a hand-curated food forest. Away from the noise of the city and under the canopy of an organic farm, open the pages of the book you loved and listen overhead to the birds that hummed. We live that life. And we share it with you. For any relevant query, message 81051 12990.

By Dr. R Sudarshan T his week began with the beautiful pearl hue inflorescences on an Arabian date palm plant at the farm. Hopefully, they will all fructify. September could be our date with the dates, possibly. Till then, the fam is as busy as ever, producing other edibles. And tomorrow at 8, the market again - the 22nd edition of midweek mini. Organic Farmers' MIDWEEK MINI MARKET - 22, Wednesday, 3 August 2022, 8 AM to 10 AM * * * Farmer's House, Silverfish Books, Kutz Bowl and the Farmer's Market, #  1A, 13th Cross,  Kalidasa Road,  VV Mohalla, Mysore.