208-596-6500 | I just got back from 6 weeks in India, checking out cool eco-businesses and visiting with my wife’s relatives.
There are some great things about daily life in India – things that can also have a big impact on our environmental “footprint”. I’m talking about the traditional methods of eating, bathing, and “wiping”.
Even wealthy Indians still eat food with their fingers, bathe with a bucket of water and a cup, and wipe (or rather, wash) with a cup or spray of water. Why?
My thought is that the Indian approach to these basic daily activities persists amidst the constant march of Westernization because they are far more aesthetic and sensual than the Western approach, and more conservation minded, too. When you eat with your fingers, it adds a whole new layer of sensation and experience to the act of dining. A spoon and fork, in contrast, can be seen as a piece of technology that makes eating fast and efficient, but separates a person from the joy of touching a wide variety of textures and temperatures. A spoon is a steam shovel for food.
Same with washing: a bath poured cup by cup over your body is just a far more engaging activity than a shower – it is a good match for the “mindfulness” notions of eastern spirituality – and it saves a lot of water, even compared to a low flow showerhead. Now that I’m back in the states, I have a real incentive to turn off the water in the shower while I bathe instead of just letting the shower run the whole time. This is much more inspiring than saving water because “you should”.
A discussion of one’s rear end is always a sensitive matter. Being a lifelong treehugger, I have always felt it a little odd that trees should be sacrificed for wiping. When I first went to Asia in 1982, I discovered washing – the alternative to wiping. Two negatives about wiping – 1) it’s actually quite foul…much of the time you’re just smearing the issue. 2) besides cutting down trees, the processing of most toilet paper still involves a lot of intense chemicals. Why would I want to keep exposing such a sensitive area of skin to a steady stream of these chemicals? Getting to know your butt, and getting past the odd morality of not touching yourself there, brings a new dimension to the idea of environmental and personal awareness.
On the big-picture environment front, India has a lot of problems. No need to list them here. I like to see signs of progress, and was pleased to see that the general air pollution in Bangalore has improved a lot from my previous visit there 10 years ago. The reason is that most of the old smoky vehicles have been replaced with current technology, and leaded petrol is no longer in use, I’m told. However, gains in the nature of pollution seem to be been offset somewhat in my experience by the massive increase in use of motorized vehicles in the same period. One of my “uncles” told me that the worst offenders remaining, the 2-stroke engines powering the ubiquitous scooters and 3 wheeled “auto rickshaws”, will be phased out within a few years.
Most interesting to me, however, was the emerging organic food industry. We had the opportunity to visit the Mojo Plantation, an organic spice and coffee plantation growing amidst the canopy of the native rainforest in the western Ghats. In the 1990’s, the founders, Sujata and Anurag, left biological research jobs in New Delhi to purchase a run down coffee plantation. Hearing Sujata explain during a tour how they invited their science colleagues to visit and inventory all the critters living there, and how they devised their pesticide and chemical free approach based on this research, was one of the highlights of the entire trip. A beautiful example was the complete absence of mosquitos, thanks to an abundance of dragonflies that dine on these otherwise ubiquitous companions on any trip to southern India.
Gradually, Sujata and Anu’s approach is spreading to the neighboring plantations. One of the main obstacles of this transition is the fear among growers that organic and bio-based farming might not work as well as a good dousing of chemicals, resulting in a financial loss. Of course, what is needed is an insurance fund to protect farmers who want to make this switch – any eco-preneurs up to the challenge of starting that business??
This is a great post! I especially enjoy your consideration of conserving water when back in the States and also the sensitivities that are present in Indian culture and lacking in ours. For example, I am currently learning about Ayurvedic cooking and the idea of eating with our hands to fully experience the meal with all our senses. Actually our hands, (of course, clean) are much safer and eco-friendly than silverware. Also, thank-you for reporting on the positive effects that global cleaning have had like in Bangalore. There is so much movement in a positive direction. Why not focus on that? Keep up the good work. Thank-you, Cheryl Janis from Planetpinkngreen.com