January 7, 2007

Dreams of a commune on the banks of Cauvery

I heard the other day from an e-mail contact (one of the many that have survived MyMysore.com) about his plans to shift base to rural Mysore. Prem Subramaniam, along with two like-minded friends, has located 7.5 acres on the Cauvery bank, some 14 km from Mysore and four, from KRS. Prem belongs to a small, but growing, band of professionals looking for open living space, rather than the confines of luxury villa in a gated community, to retire in.

What's more, Prem and his friends would like to work with local people towards improving the hygiene/sanitation/education of the two village communities close to their site; and also improve natural habitat with the right mix of trees, plants; with help from the forest department in getting indigenous saplings. Organic farming could be taken up on a small scale. He would appreciate help from individuals and organizations that have requisite skill sets and share common values to allow Prem and friends to develop their site suitably.

His e-mail, which reads like a mission statement, speaks of showcasing the living traditions in the area around their proposed commune. Prem has in mind in this regard: 1) Sufi music associated with Srirangapatnam,
2) recitation of Sanskrit Shlokas as done in Melkote,
3) medicinal plants repository and alternate healing,
4) culinary skills,
5) yoga (Prem would like to hear from a teacher who would like to use their site),
6) nature walks and identification of flowers, plants, birds,
7) vernacular architecture and indigenous building skills,
.8) dance, and
9) story telling..

All going well, I may have a place to stay by the end of 2007 and am keenly looking forward to spending a considerable amount of time from then on, says Prem - premsubramaniam@yahoo.com

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
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shanks said...

Quite interesting and would like to know more about the project. I have a couple of my friends whose thinking is also similar. Discussing these things on this blog would take a long time and also our thoughts may not be articulated as we perceive in our thinking. May be if we can meet it would help take up the project with real like minded people.

shanks

blue dot green said...

Its very encouraging and inspiring to hear people discuss a sustainable way of living. Ofcourse design and construction of your community, is going to play a major part in the success or failure of your project.
Best,PS

blue dot green said...

If you and your friends have some time please check out
www.operation-shanti.org

I have not visited the project myself, as I am based in San Francisco, but a few of my American friends are running it and I think its a very noble and sustainable idea, benefiting the street children of Mysore. Hopefully, opinions of like minded people like you will be of great value to such an organisation and its future. I hope to visit the project when I next visit India.
Regards, PS