Kids staying at home in times of corona ≠ Homeschooling

I've been reading and listening to families', especially mothers' struggles with working from home, kids being at home, and of course handling all the corona-related stress as well as measures to stay safe and well stocked. Some have used the term “homeschooling”, perhaps to describe the way kids are currently learning now.

In this post, I first talk about our own understanding of the word “homeschooling” and whether this corona-induced period of homestay is a good time to consider homeschooling. We have been homeschooling our daughters aged 8 and 5 since 2016. The older one attended a year of playschool. The younger one's never been to school.

I share here observations from our own experience so far with our children. Other homeschooling families may have different takes.

The second part of my post deals with the “benefits” of homeschooling as I see it in these difficult times. Of course, we have reaped more from homeschooling than we have sown and I believe we will continue to do so. I am only sharing a few observations here that may ring a bell with the larger, non-homeschooling audience who may read this.

Now, what does “homeschooling” mean (to us)?

1. The term “homeschooling” can be misleading. It's true that the home is central to our lifestyle choice as against going to school or even office (yes, that's another choice, but may need another post), but homeschooling does not necessarily mean that the kids are always at home, learning from their books. In fact, many a homeschooler spends a significant part outdoors, be it in the garden, farm, on the playground, or travelling. It's for this reason that other terms such as “open learning” and “self learning” may come closer to describe this way of life rather than the term homeschooling.

So, what does homeschooling mean to us? Being cooped up with kids at home doesn't equate to homeschooling. For us, homeschooling has meant that children learn what they want to at their own pace and in their own space. Their natural inclinations and curiosity leads them to explore and discover. We as parents largely stand by the sidelines and give them our help, counsel when they need it.

Many a homeschooler spends a good part of their time outdoors.
Some even travel as part of their learning process.  

Homeschooling is a recognition of the fact that the human learning process is continuous and omnipresent. School is not the only place where “education” happens.

2. Homeschooling was one among many gradual changes we made in our lives. As we started slowing down our pace of life and making more sustainable choices, homeschooling fit like a glove. Hence, if our decision to homeschool is seen in isolation as only an education approach for kids, you may not understand it in its entirety.

3. We weren't forced to homeschool, you shouldn't be too. We decided to homeschool because of a deep dissatisfaction with the education system. At that time, we did not have a very clear understanding of how schools can systematically tamper with and destroy the human brain's capacity to learn. Nor were we aware of how the schooling system feeds into other exploitative systems that take the individual far away from what could be their natural existence and thus weaken their relationship with their self, society, and nature. But now that we know, we stand strong and happy with our decision.

Our decision took time. Our decision has strong moorings. But it was our own decision. It was not forced on us because of a Covid-like situation. Most families are now being forced into “homeschooling” and that can give you the wrong idea. And, I can easily see why. When you are not used to having the children around all day, it can feel stressful, especially if you also have to work from home during the same time, which too you may not be used to.

But homeschooling, really, has been one of the most liberating things to have happened to us. I am sorry that it may not feel that way to you right now. However, now that you are a sort of a forced homeschooler, it doesn't hurt to come over to our universe and see for yourself what homeschooling can be and how it has helped us keep the hair on our heads in these times. Please do note that it is a difficult time for us as well: the kids are used to engaging and fulfilling social interactions which they now have to do without. However, our choice to homeschool has definitely kept us and our children sane in these very strange times.

1. Children learn to self-manage. Our children approach us if they seek something from us, be it food, help with a toy, or simply our attention. While they do need our attention at times, we don't sit with them all day. We have never done that apart from the first couple of years when they needed us to be constantly around. (I've had the support of my in-laws and my parents in looking after the kids until they were two-three years old. I still have their support, but my kids don't need it much now.) However, when we do spend time with them, it has to be mindful time. It can't be colouring with them with one eye on the phone or laptop. If children have never been to school, they simply don't need anyone to hover around them from morn to night, monitor them, or tell them what to do at what times. They simply be.

Impromptu and self-made games and props are
stock-in-trade of our homeschoolers. 

2. Children understand when you explain. My children understand that I have household duties to attend to, a day job (though now part-time), and that I too need my own time. When we decided to homeschool our older daughter, it was not a parent-led decision. My daughter simply didn't want to go to preschool any more. I used to work full-time from home then. So, one of my big initial concerns with homeschooling was how I would get anything done with her around from morn to night. I sat her down one day and explained my situation to her: that she no longer had to go to school, but that didn't mean that I would be available to sit with her all day or that she would watch TV all day. She readily agreed. All she cared for was that school was out. It has been the same way since then: if we need to get something done or draw a line that the kids need to respect, we explain it to them.

I spend a certain part of the day with the kids, usually in the evening between 4 to 6 pm on certain days. I work two days a week, so those days are off limits for the kids. They know that. Yes, there are times when they do get cranky, hover around my computer when I am working, or be more demanding than usual, but these are exceptions rather than the rule. At such times, I pause my work, attend to whatever's bothering them, and they usually let me go after that.

That children being able to understand when adults explain has got nothing to do with homeschooling, per se. It is to do with trust and respect. I need to trust that my child will understand and I need to respect any concerns she may have. This sort of relationship-building comes with the territory with homeschooling. You need to build a solid, deep relationship based on trust with your children, else homeschooling can't work.

3. Their creativity blooms, untampered as it is by school. My children come up with impromptu songs, dances, even full puppet and dance shows, all on their own. They also create games of their own with simple props. While their days are hardly empty, neither are they crammed with “activities”. There is stuff they do together as well as on their own. When it's time to switch off the lights at night, I have often heard my older daughter grumble that the only time she gets to read is at night and that it isn't fair that the day came to an end so quickly. Yes, you read that right.

Our children immerse themselves in a dozen things from morn to night,
without necessarily being busy. 

4. No reliance on a schedule, go with the flow. The kids have blocks of time roughly assigned to certain tasks or activities. This “schedule”, if we can call it that, is something we have collectively agreed on. For instance, playing in the garden and bath are what they do before lunch. Post-lunch, they have their hour of TV watching. In the evening, we go out for a walk, cycling, playing with their friends. But these are large blocks of time and are intentionally designed that way, so that there is no micro-managing of their day. This schedule keeps changing with the weather, kids' preferences for that particular day (bathing and breakfast still have to be dealt with in the morning), or with any external factors such as if we have visitors.

Whether to homeschool or not is not a decision you can come to under duress. However, it's a good time to think about the possibilities of children being and learning on their own, of blooming to their full potential, and how they can grow up with the sense of the self still intact. And, what a difference it could make to the world.

Kempu Kanagile -- Kids' watch their first play

Bhargavi and I went about half hour before the scheduled start of the play to buy the tickets. We settled in with a packet of chakkli and waited for the show to begin and for my mother to arrive with Maya.

As we had bought a family pass after paying a bomb (well, Rs 500 per head is a bomb by Sirsi standards, at least), I felt entitled to sit in the second row. This was rather daring of me, because usually in small towns like Sirsi, the first two rows have to be left empty for the press or dignitaries even if you have premium tickets.

But, I began to chicken out as some event organizers began to come around and started sticking “Press” labels to the row of chairs in front of me and “VIPS” or “Ganyaru” on the wall beside us. We eased out of our really premium-feeling second-row chairs to the third row of chairs while they were still available. Life in Sirsi has taught me to be grateful that I made this move fast enough to still get the seats in the third row.

My mother and Maya came. Maya duly demanded her share of chakklis and munched them, while our wait still continued for the play to start. I was hoping that this being a paid event, the organizers may skip their pound of flesh and start the play right away. But the templatized “sabha karyakrama” was hard to evade, though it was a shortened version. And, what is sabha karyakrama you ask? Well, you have to live through one to understand it, but I’ll spoil it for you: a true sabha karyakrama begins with a lighting of the lamp, then an invocation to God. Next, the Chief Guest and the President (not of the country, but the event) is honoured with shawls that they will never use in their lives and some “moments” (really, you didnt know they were mementos? You are not living the life, I tell you.) packed in shiny, plasticky paper. Then the Chief Guest is invited to talk and how long he/she speaks really depends on how kind he/she is feeling towards you.

The President is next in line to speak and it’s the same about his kindness. Sometimes I suspect they are just prepping you to be the next Chief Guest and President, because you can’t really be a good one unless you have weathered the role of the audience.

Now, if there are no special felicitations, it quickly moves to the Vote of Thanks(!?). Why vote, why be thankful, I have often wondered. The Vote of Thanks is taken particularly seriously as I have seen the Thanker going all red in the face if they forget to thank anyone and needs to be reminded.

But I digress. So, yesterday we did have a sabha karyakrama, but an abbreviated one and the play finally started a full hour after the scheduled time.

The children had their eyes riveted on stage from the moment it began. There were questions all throughout: about the stage props, about the fantastic costume of the emperor/gold mine magnate. I didn't provide explanations for everything as I thought it may interfere with the viewing but kept feeding some info to Bubbu so she could get the threads. When I told Maya that the fantastic-looking creature was actually the Raja, she was not convinced. She said a Raja didn’t look that way.

It was a good performance by everyone, especially the lead actor, Disha Ramesh, who played Nandini. I think the kids loved the play more because it was a musical. Too much conversation would probably have made it difficult for them to follow. On some levels, it was simple enough for them to get it. This is what they understood: there was this girl who seemed to like red flowers. Some people were slogging it out and some other people who really looked evil seemed to be flogging them, etc. When the evil-looking people were on the scene, there was much lashing of the whip and threatening, but when Nandini was around, they could relate more as there was music, which they loved. Why the emperor found it difficult to sleep, they could not fathom. Nor about why the people were chained.  

When Nandini sees through the emperor's fearsome facade for the tortured creature he truly is, it was for me Jeevan Vidya re-visited all over again. Indeed, how can a person who feels prosperous and happy want to violate anyone? It is the one who feels deprived who may act depraved.

The play also made me think we need more of Tagore in our regular reading. Very relevant and required. 

That night, we had a more detailed discussion on the play. Maya wanted to fill in all the gaps in her understanding of the play. She asked why the emperor had touched Nandini with an oversized hand, why he constantly stayed on an upraised prop (which was his palace), why there was a hole on the stage -- this was the opening that represented the entrance to the gold mine.

Bhargavi told her dad that the play was about red flowers, when I asked her to describe the play to him, as he had not watched it. It seemed all she could remember from the play was the actor who played the role of the emperor. That he was particularly good-looking. Well, well.

Why I try not to buy -- an effort to live the gift culture

I try not to buy because:

I can do with a little less.

Someone somewhere probably already has that pair of sneakers I am looking for.

Perhaps they no longer need it or have more than one pair and are willing to share.

We seldom pay for the real price of things. How can I ever pay for the 2,700 litres of water required to make a single t-shirt in just a few rupees? And that’s only water we are talking about.

It’s my effort to live the gift culture way of life. I not only try not to buy, but I also help whoever else is trying not to buy. I freely give away things that I no longer need or have in excess, but are in a usable condition. Please see my wishlist for things I am currently looking for and want to give away.

It’s an attempt to cut down waste. After a bag or a mobile phone or the zillions of things that make up our material existence have lived their life, they frequently end up in the landfill. So, the less you buy, the less ends up as trash. Of course, the other alternative is to buy things that are not designed for the landfill, but can be rotted, re-used, recycled. But when you must have something that cannot be rotted or recycled like those sneakers I need for my daughter’s badminton classes, it’s all the more important to try and not buy a fresh pair.

I can wait and see if I really need that thing. Many a time not rushing to buy brings clarity on whether that item is really necessary. Buying comes at the very end of the acquisition journey, it’s best not done on impulse.

It’s a way of winning back our life from the dependence on money and the toxic spirals it pushes us into.

The very act of asking for something helps me tame my ego. While hand-me-downs have always run in the family, asking from rank strangers is still new. In aspirational middle-class upper-caste India, you’d rather not borrow or take from others what you can buy. While that might massage our egos and bring us some temporary joy, it makes the world a little more dirtier. Children also grow up equating buying with happiness, when really the more you share, the happier you are. It’s a truth as old as the hills. Why would I rob my children of this simple joy of giving and receiving? Hence, I ask and give.

Easy home composting

When I began composting two years ago, I would follow all the instructions that are commonly found about composting: turning it, adding an accelerator/inoculant, and also sieveing the compost.

As days passed, I began to simplify things. Now, I don’t do any of those three steps. It wasn’t because my beginner’s enthusiasm had dwindled — I still feel composting is poetry — but because I began to understand the composting process better. Everything that has ever lived will eventually rot and become one with the soil. Composting is only a human-aided approach to this process. And, we aid or facilitate this process because we have our reasons to do so: we need good manure for our plants, we want a way to dispose of our kitchen waste apart from sending it to the landfill, we are simply composting nuts, etc.

So, as organic matter doesn't really need us to degrade and if composting is only something we do to suit our purposes, why not simplify the process and only do as much is strictly necessary for us to close the loop of resource recycling?

Also, home composting is actually quite easy and quick compared to biomass composting or community composting. The quantity of kitchen waste of a family of four in a country like India averages between 250 gm to 500 gm a day, which is quite easy to handle at the domestic level.

These formed my line of reasoning for reducing the composting process to its bare basics.

Here is my recipe for home composting. It’s a method which I have found to be the least interventional and highly convenient for those short on time or intimidated by the very idea of composting. Please note that I compost in containers —earthen pots— that are well aerated. If you are composting in a pile on the ground or in plastic buckets, you will have to adjust for moisture loss or not enough air circulation, as the case may be.  

I have four sets of terracotta pots: two of them big and two small. Don’t ask me how I landed up with so many, I just did. But we are more than the average-sized family (four adults and two kids), so we are well served by this capacity.

In each set, the top two pots have a hole at the bottom, apart from little holes drilled along the sides. The hole in the bottom is for any excess liquid to drain off. The bottom pot has holes only on the sides.

Now for the process.

What I do:
1. Start by spreading a layer of sawdust or dried leaves or coco peat at the bottom of the pot. These are carbon-rich materials and are called “browns” in composting lingo. I use sawdust as that’s the cheapest option for me — I get it at Rs 2 per kg. 

2. Add kitchen waste. This is called “greens” — it is rich in nitrogen content. 

3. Add a layer of saw dust on top of the kitchen waste. 

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until Pot 1 fills. Make sure you don’t fill the pot to the brim but leave about 1-2 inches space on top.

Follow the same steps for the subsequent pots. Finally, after you have harvested the compost, which is about 45 days from when you started adding to the first pot, cure it (let the compost rest in separate containers) for about a month or two, after which it will be ready for your garden. If you don’t have the time or space to cure the compost, you can still spread it on the soil anywhere and your job will be done. You will have completed the loop by restoring the food waste back to the soil.

If you do cure the compost, take care to see that it doesn’t dry up. Once compost is dry, it’s dead. Every week or so, pour some water into the compost to keep it moist.

What I don’t do:
1. Turning or stirring the compost. In home composting, this is not a necessary step, but may be relevant in municipal composting where huge volumes of waste need to be processed. The arguments for stirring the pile are that (a) it helps aeration and (b) and speeds up the process, thanks to aeration. After I stopped stirring my pots, I noticed no significant change in the time required to compost. As for aeration, I compost in earthen pots. This is naturally porous and allows air circulation. Plus, I have drilled holes in the pots. That’s enough air for the compost pile. One argument against turning the pile is that since this is not batch composting, but continuous composting, that is you are adding continuously to the pot until it fills, there can be different stages of composting happening in a single pile. If you mix the pile, you could be messing up with these stages.

2. Adding inoculants or accelerators. It’s simply not necessary in home composting. Whether they are needed in more large scale composting efforts, I really can’t say. Our daily kitchen waste averages about 200-500 gm and rarely exceeds that. I have been able to handle this volume successfully with no additional microbes. Why I say additional is that microbes are everywhere — on our hands, within us, within the food we eat. They are just waiting for the opportune moment to start their work. So, we don’t need to “add” them. As I became more and more acquainted with the process of composting, I have grown more appreciative of the microbial world and bow to them in all humility. Without them, we’d cease to exist. We only seem to think of microbes as something that ceases our existence, but our life is really enabled by them.

3. No sieving. For long, I thought this too was a mandatory step. It’s true that sieved compost is easily absorbed into the soil and hence there is no harm in sieving. But if you don’t feel so inclined, no harm done either. Of course, with unsieved compost, there is the occasional surprise now and then when papaya seedlings sprout out of a ladyfinger seed bed, but it’s all good for me. Hence, I don’t sieve. Unsieved compost when added to the soil helps in creating air pockets. Also, by not sieving, I get more compost for my garden more quickly. Because, when I used to sieve, I would put back the bigger, undegraded parts back into the pot and wait for them to turn into powdery compost.  

So, that’s it. It couldn’t possibly get simpler than this. Please try it and see if it works for you. If it doesn’t, I’ll be interested in knowing why not.

#HindiImposition: A Missed Chance for Linguistic Rights

-->

Last year, a hashtag trended on Twitter India: #HindiImposition. It was the online manifestation of a protest in Bengaluru over Hindi being one of the languages on the display boards of the city’s metro rail service. The protesters were Kannada-speaking people of the city. They felt that Hindi signs were not required in Karnataka.

If Hindi must be used in Kannada-speaking land, then the converse must also come true, they argued. That is, Kannada signboards be used in Hindi heartland, especially Delhi, the capital of the country. And as that seemed highly improbable, Hindi felt like an imposition over Kannada speakers, the protesters argued.

To someone not aware of the many fiery linguistic -- and thereby identity -- clashes that Hindi has stirred up in the past, this whole debate may make no sense. Indians by and large may deem the protests parochial or justified, depending on which part of the country one hails from.

To me, it seems that we may have missed an opportunity to press for a recognition of linguistic rights all over the country, starting from Bengaluru. If Hindi felt like an imposition -- and it may well have -- why not send a message out for linguistic diversity by including the top languages of Bengaluru?

And, no, Kannada is not the only language spoken in Bengaluru. This page here from a city-based translation and localization company cites at least three other languages that have more than a double-digit population in the city. An older article from The Hindu mentions pretty much the same proportion of other language speakers.

So, why can’t we have the metro displays in the four languages of the city: Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu, plus English as a catch-all language? Why can’t we take decisions related to language on an inclusive rather than an exclusive basis? That is, why should the people of Maharasthra rule out all languages apart from Marathi? Can’t every city in the state adopt a simple enough benchmark like recognising all those languages that are, say, spoken by more than 10% of the population and then have all public communication disseminated through them? Governments that have a much larger budget and certainly the central government must publish all information in all the 22 official languages of the country online.

India is a melting pot of languages. There is no one region, state, or city that speaks just one language. There may be smaller villages that perhaps speak just one or two languages, but the linguistic diversity deepens and widens a whole lot when you move to bigger towns and cities.

Why then must we insist on creating these non-existent linguistic monoliths? In doing so, we reduce the fight for linguistic rights to a much narrower and parochial squabble bordering on xenophobia. Linguistic rights need to be secured not just for us in our state, but for everyone everywhere. Only then, this call for language equality will be taken seriously by publishers of mass communication, whether it be government or private companies.

Of course, acknowledging people who speak other languages and their right to access public services in those languages requires that we understand democracy. Demanding that everyone speak the language of the land is a simplistic solution and one that frequently divides people along the lines of us and them. Which one of us wouldn’t be grateful to download bus routes in our language in any Indian city that we go to?

We need to show more maturity and inclusivity in our demand for linguistic rights. It’s not enough that we ask for shopboards to be in the local language. The demand needs to be for comprehensive language access for each citizen of India, regardless of where they are from and where they live. For, if one can have linguistic rights only in one’s state, they aren’t really rights, are they?

Homeschooling -- Some notes

In August 2016, I pulled my daughter out of pre-nursery and started our “homeschooling journey”. There was a lot of dissatisfaction in me about our education system and what it does to children. I was keen on alternative schools, but those are so few and far between in India. And, most of them are in big cities, while I was not.

My daughter was very excited at the idea of getting out of school. She had already been resisting school every day. Initially, I remember being a little tense at how I would manage her, now that she would be home all day.

Now, looking back, I am amused at this fear of mine. Why would I be scared at the thought of having a four-year-old at home all day? I could already see how the school had begun dictating the way we’d lead our lives.

The initial days
My daughter and I did arrive at an understanding that we would have to have some sort of schedule. We agreed that she would have to leave me alone for certain times during the day, when I’d be getting my work done. I remember being quite surprised that she was able to understand these terms of the adult world and see why are important to me.

It was only the beginning of my understanding of my daughter, in a sense. Until then, she was to me a person whom I intensely loved and cared for but I had no inkling of her capacity to understand, to know, to learn.

The other thing that I started to do, now that the nuisance of school was out of the way, was to actually spend more time with her. From the moment she woke up, I would be with her through her every morning ritual. Breakfast was when the adult concept of time would be daily challenged. Who knew it would take 10-15 minutes to observe the intricate designs of a dosa and an equal amount of time to savour each bite?

She would wake up at her own time. There was no school to rush to, no breakfast to gobble down. Things were definitely more relaxed. And, she seemed to have a lot of energy through the day.

When we started homeschooling, I bought some text books and activity books of Oxford University Publishing. Though I now see that a child’s learning trajectory doesn’t exactly follow the structure of a textbook, we still go back to these books at times.

Over the last year or so, Bhargavi has become more attached to me. Separation is not something she prefers. But at the same time, and contradictory as it may seem, she spends a lot of time playing on her own, too. She enjoys the company of her friends, whom she meets once a week. Yet, she is equally at peace on her own. I don’t need to “entertain” her or look for activities to keep her busy.

Getting bored is something I frequently see in school-going kids. And, initially, I too feared it. But I didn't have to, as I learned. A child’s world needs no props. I routinely see my daughter and any child, for that matter, make toys and games out of nothing but their imagination.

As I paid attention to the learning process of a child, I would be amazed everyday. It continues to amaze me. I couldn’t stop her from learning, if I tried.

Two important reasons to homeschool my daughter:

• A distrust of the current education system. I strongly believe that our schools and colleges, by and large, are built to kill curiosity and the urge to learn. They are also unequipped to teach our children the skills and values needed to live their lives. For instance, it’s considered important for a five-year-old to write in cursive than be able to dress on her own or clean up after playtime. Of course, there are exceptions and there are also students who miraculously escape the system. Still, schools these days leave no space for childhood in a child’s life. I recently heard from a local school teacher about how her colleagues call up her wards at five in the morning to make sure they’re up and are with their books. Such horror stories abound.
• An earnest interest in her learning. What will my child learn about her society -- its problems and its triumphs? Will she be able to think independently and learn to exist in a collaborative, cooperative spirit rather than in a competitive one? Will she respond to problems creatively? Can she learn to understand and accept failure, anomalies, disappointments in life? Will she be willing to share her privileges? Will she grow up into a kind and brave person? These things matter a lot to us and I didn’t see how she could learn such things at a school, given its obsession with exams and certificates.

And these were not the reasons for which we decided to homeschool
But it’s important to mention here that I don’t homeschool my child because I think she is unique and a school is in some way below her. The other day I was mildly disappointed and surprised to see a post on the Facebook page of an unlearning community about how a child prodigy was the poster boy of homeschooling.

Child prodigies are simply born that way. They cannot be explained and often have done nothing to attain the level of expertise/skill in whatever they are masters of. I have nothing against child prodigies -- how could I? They didn’t choose to be that way, but I wouldn’t celebrate them either.

Celebrating them would be a disservice to them as well as other children who are learning at their own pace.

I am not homeschooling my child to hone a particular skill or interest of hers. Not at this stage, at least. It’s all discovery now and we are simply savouring each moment.

I don’t believe that homeschooling is only for the fast-paced or the slow learner. Homeschooling or unschooling is simply the most natural, unhindered and unhurried way for a child to blossom, learn, and discover herself and the world at large.

It doesn’t preclude formal or institutionalized learning at later stages. The learner should be able to decide if she needs such education and if so, what direction it should take. That, indeed, would be one of the goals of homeschooling.

Homeschooling is now the most natural state of being to us. We would have it no other way.

A year of trying to live sustainably

I was never much of a shopper. Shopping malls made me anxious. Even before hearing of minimalism, zero waste, and similar concepts I wasn't comfortable with our "disposable" culture. Perhaps my background in alternative journalism, some values handed down by my parents, especially my mother, and a connection with rural life saved me from a life of splurge.

But, of course, I have been guilty, too. Most of my sins against the Earth were because of ignorance. That's no excuse, I know, but the fact remains that I like many people didn't know how a habit or some possessions of mine were injuring the Earth beyond repair or didn't know of alternatives that existed. Even now, a year after I became conscious of the waste I create and my lifestyle, I have hardly become carbon-negative or even -neutral. Far from it.

So, I write this post not from a holier-than-thou standpoint. I recognize that I have only begun and have a long way to go. I am also mindful of my own previous ways, so I would not be the first to cast a stone. Still, I write this so that it may inspire others to join me on this journey of fearlessness and love.

For, cutting down waste, reducing our carbon footprint is a lot about letting go of the things that bring ephemeral joy. Hence, it is about being fearless, as it does require courage to go without the things that we thought were essential for our existence or helped build a sense of security, albeit false. That is, zero waste is not just about avoiding plastic or having an empty dustbin--though these are lofty goals to have by themselves.

Cutting down on waste and making an effort to live sustainably is about, among other things, realising our true self worth, our place in the universe, our connection with nature. If this doesn't make sense, start on the journey and you'll see how it all fits in.

For me, it is also about truly loving your children. If I wish them to be happy and lead a wholesome life, how can I with my own hands pollute the soil, water, and air that my children need?

I’m writing this post to commemorate a year of drastically cutting down on unnecessary consumption items or replacing them with plastic-free, naturally or locally available items, or ones that have a place in the circular economy. In this period, I have taken complete responsibility for the wet waste I create. As for dry waste, the emphasis is on striving to not create it in the first place. But if it does get created, then I make efforts to take responsibility for it. Here's my journey so far.

Wet/Food waste or kitchen scraps

We cook our food fresh and try as much as possible to not cook more than what we need for a day. So, most of our leftovers are vegetable and fruit peels, but then there’s also food waste sometimes despite the best of our efforts.

From our food waste, we give to the neighbourhood cow whatever she will eat. The rest finds its way to our compost pots.

Composting was how my waste consciousness started. Food scraps is something everyone produces everyday – and that’s true even when you eat out. Food scraps or wet/organic waste accounts for 50-60% of the daily total waste you produce. So, it was a revelation of sorts for me to realize that everyone can actually take care of this major constituent of their waste on their own. And, this is true even for city-dwellers.

For me, composting has been pure poetry (but hey, I’m not the only one). For, how else can I describe the experience of seeing food waste turn into rich, black, sweet-smelling mud?

(Above is a picture of my first harvest of compost earlier this year. Since then, we have made about 20 kg of compost from our kitchen waste.)

The other magical thing about composting is that it automatically makes you sensitive to all the dry/inorganic waste that you generate. And, once you segregate to compost, handling dry waste becomes easier and manageable. Your dustbin is no more that big pile of intimidating, stinking waste that you know not what to do with and hence bag and throw.

Now, you can actually reach into your dustbin and start categorizing your dry waste. You start “seeing” all the waste and began to think about how it came to be in your dustbin in the first place: did you need that item at all? If so, what's the non-toxic, local alternative to it that could come from renewable sources? And, now that it's in your dustbin, how best can you handle it, so that it doesn't reach the landfill?

These and related questions fill up your mind. There’s no going back from here. There’s no more randomly picking up things that you may never need from the shelves of a supermarket. Hell, I’d doubt if you’d even want to step into a supermarket, unless it's the last resort. (Whenever you can, and this is very much possible in India, buy from kirani stores. It's best to have a human being between you and the commodity. The very process of the shopkeeper asking you what you want and then handing it over to you physically poses stumbling blocks to impulse buying.)

I began looking for ways in which I, personally, and as a member of a family, could reduce the amount of dry waste I generated.

Plastic

The usual plastic waste in my home is mainly of these types: HDPE cans of domestic cleaners, PET bottles of medicines, plastic bags used for food packaging, and other random items such as an old plastic clock that may have conked out. In the last year, we have been able to cut down all these types of waste majorly by simply (1) refusing to buy things that come packaged in plastic; (2) finding plastic packaging-free alternatives for those items that we can’t do without; and (3) lastly, recycle.

There’s a reason that recycle is the last option in the ways to handle plastic waste. That’s because plastic has a limited recycling life and despite how you upcycle it, the truth is that it will end up as waste in the true sense of the term.

We carry cloth bags whenever we step out, even if we are not going out specifically to buy. Often, we remember a grocery item or some vegetables that we need to buy when we see them in stores or on the street outside. So, always having a foldable cloth bag on you is a good idea.

Next, for items such as rava, rice, etc. that we buy loose, we got cloth drawstring bags stitched, like you see in the pic below.

And, while we were never big consumers of packed and processed food items such as chips, if the craving does strike us we buy from the local bakery which has the transparent plastic bags, rather than the branded ones that come in metallised polymer film packaging, which is notoriously hard to recycle.

I send plastic bags to a recycling unit in Hyderabad, which turns them into fuel. To me, this seems like the best possible end to the plastic bag cycle. Here’s their address:

Poil Technologies,

B-25, BHEL Ancillary,

Near Priya Cement Godown,

Ashok Nagar, BHEL RC Puram,,

Hyderabad - 502032

Cell phone: 9348499922 

I have here a photo list of all the different types of plastic bags that they accept. If you wish to send your plastic bags here, ensure that the bags are clean and free of any food or organic matter.

As for the HDPE bottles of domestic cleaners, I have been able to minimize their use by making fruit enzymes. As fruit or garbage enzymes take time in making, I haven't yet been able to maintain the supply chain. Personally, I wouldn't care to use any cleaners regularly for floor or sinks and toilets, as they are not required at all. But other members of my family insist on adding some cleaner, hence the need to make fruit enzymes.     

Paper

The one thing that every Indian recycles is newspaper, so you’d probably think that we’re doing all we can at least when it comes to paper. Well, actually, we recycle less than a third of the paper we use.

This could partly be because we don't think of all the bits of paper, cardboard, packaging paper, envelopes, etc., as recyclable. And, again this is because our raddiwalas refuse to take any other paper other than newspaper and magazines – at least, mine does.

Luckily, I have been able to find a paper products factory in my town that accepts all types of paper and even old cotton clothes for pulping. I collect each scrap of paper and collect in sacks. Every couple of months, my sack fills and I make my trip to the paper factory.

I have been giving our old newspapers to a local charitable organization that uses it to make paper bags and craft items.

Glass

The plastic packaging industry has made glass recycling very unprofitable.  So, scrap glass now goes for Re 1 per kg. No wonder scrap dealers in my town don't touch glass.

I searched high and low for a glass recycler in my town, but in vain. Finally, I serendipitously found a wholesale scrap glass dealer in the bigger, neighbouring city of Hubli. I usually happen to go to Hubli once every six months or so. And, that’s when I haul my glass waste to this bemused person. Of course, he won’t take broken glass or bulbs: that goes on an entirely different trip to Kolkata, which I visit once a year or so.

E-waste

Currently, I generate none, except batteries occasionally. A local wholesale scrap dealer agreed to take them and I was very surprised, given his peers’ general apathy towards used batteries. One of these days, I must have a discussion with him on what actually happens to these batteries.

Though e-waste is not something I generate daily—hardly anyone would, I guess—I am mindful of the fact that I use devices and one day they may turn into electronic waste. So, I am trying to reduce my device usage in the hope that it will increase their longevity. I also try to take better care of them like protecting them from dust.

Un-compostable organic waste

We use a lot of coconuts in our house to make wonderful chutney, of course, and to make oil. This leaves us with loads of coconut husk and shells. I have now started to use the husk as mulch material in my garden. We give away the shells to our maid or the tea stall vendor in our area who use it as fuel for their ovens.

By un-compostable, I mean that it can't be composted easily at home. 

Update on 31 March 2019
We used to send out tender coconut shells to the landfill. Now they line the walls of our compound. 

Sanitary napkins

For a long time after I became conscious of the waste I produce, my periods were a disconcerting time. I was creating so much waste every month through sanitary napkins and there didn't seem to be a way out. Until I found out about the menstrual cup. I read up all about it, yet was a little suspicious of its efficacy and ease of use. But that didn't stop me from trying and I am so glad about it.

There was a small learning curve, of course. And until I became fully confident, I’d wear a back-up cloth napkin (yes, I had discovered cloth napkins, too, by then) or not venturing too far out from home on the heavy flow days. I could afford to do that as I work from home. But I got the hang of it pretty quickly and now there’s no fear.

As for cloth napkins, I find them a little inconvenient during monsoon. After every wash, it takes a napkin nearly a week to dry in damp weather. But it’s fine during the drier months.

Below is a list of items that are either made of plastic or come packaged in plastic; or unsustainably made that I have been able to refuse, replace, or find alternatives to.  

Toiletries

Toothbrush

Replaced plastic ones with bamboo. The bristles are still nylon, but I’ll take bamboo brushes over plastic ones any day. They are quite expensive, if you compare it with the maximum retail price of plastic brushes. A bamboo brush costs Rs 120. But it might be actually cheap if you take the cost of recycling the plastic brushes and the fact that it’ll ultimately reach the end of its recycling potential and pile up on ocean beds.

Soap

I initially switched to handmade, perfume-less soaps made of natural oils. Soap-making seems to be quite a cottage industry these days -- I have found several individuals who are making soaps using coconut oil and other locally available materials. Some of them are expensive, though.

About a month ago, I went soap-free, except to wash hands. It’s been smooth sailing so far.  

Shampoo

I use soapnuts to wash my hair. Superb lathering. Never need anything else. When on the road, I use shampoo bars.   

I soak the soapnuts overnight in just enough water to drown them. Boil it the next day. Then use the boiled water, plus the water squeezed from the soapnuts. Throw the soapnuts in your garden or in your compost pile.  

Detergents

Soapnuts again. I soak them overnight in about 500 ml of water and boil them the next day. Then, I squeeze them with my hands and tie them up in an old sock and chuck it in the washing machine along with the water I boiled it in. The whole process takes about 10 minutes more than adding detergent.

Update on 31 March 2019
We noticed that over a long term, soapnuts can tend to stain light-coloured clothes. So, now we use soapnuts only for the dark clothes. For light-coloured clothes, we use a mixture of baking powder and a mild laundry soap. The ratio is about a kg of baking powder and 250 gm of laundry soap.

Toothpaste

Switched to Colgate toothpowder. Because, this is the only toothpowder that still comes in a metal tin.

I still have dental floss with me which I had bought in bulk. Will have to figure out what do I do for flossing when these get over.

Cosmetics

I had stopped using all cosmetics except lipstick and kajal many years ago. These still are my favourite and I use them occasionally. While I have switched to a lipstick that has natural ingredients, I can’t escape the fact that the packaging will end up as waste. I am hoping to find a lipstick and kajal that perhaps come in a metal container. Kajal used to in the old days. Else, I will simply have to give this up or make my own. Kajal can be made at home, I’ve heard.

Clothes

This hasn't been a huge challenge to me. I used to buy clothes twice a year: once for my birthday and then for Durga Puja or Deepavali. From now on, I have resolved to buy only when I need to. So, it may not even be an annual purchase item. I have a knack for making clothes last long, thanks to the training given by my mother. So, I still have clothes from more than a decade ago and in very good shape. It gives the impression that I have a lot of new clothes, but many of them have simply been well-preserved.

And, when I do buy, it will be cotton. That’s the easy part, though. The tough part will be ensuring that the cotton is grown organically and is non-BT; has been stitched by people who don't work in sweatshop conditions; and is dyed with natural materials. Ticking off all these boxes is not going to be easy. But then, when apparel buying itself becomes a rare event, you can do enough research and find organizations that are striving to produce such cloth and buy directly from them.

I own some synthetic clothes. They account for about 5-10% of all the clothes I have and most of it was gifted.

I didn't know about microfiber pollution until last year. And, what I have done about my synthetic clothes since? Nothing. I am not throwing them away, as that’s not going to help either. They will simply stay in my wardrobe. All I can do here on is just not buy them anymore and hope that no one ever gifts them to me either.

Pens

I only use a pen when I have to fill in an official form, where writing in a pen would be mandatory. And, I hardly have to do that everyday, so it’s been months since I touched a pen. It’s all pencils. Recently, a friend gifted me a paper pencil. It can’t get better than this.

 Challenges still ahead

One very common hurdle in trying to cut down waste is that the people whom you live with may not always be on the same page. And, many a time, it may affect your own efforts to live sustainably. This is a difficult part of the journey. I try to navigate through this in two ways:

1.     Never to assume a ‘we’ versus ‘they’ position. No place for self-righteousness.

2.     Show, not tell. Doing rather than telling works better. When people can see for themselves, they understand. Gradually, there is a shift.  

Next, I feel that zero waste is just a milestone, not a destination. And, this is why I am not completely convinced about the use of the term “zero waste”, but I understand its spirit and would rather not quibble on terminology.

The point is that as we reduce our waste, we also need to become increasingly vigilant about what we consume. It involves:

1.     Knowing the food we eat. Where does it come from? How is it grown? Who are the people growing it? How much of this food can we grow ourselves?

2.     Knowing the clothes we wear. Where does it come from? Is it natural fiber or synthetic? If it’s natural fiber—cotton—how were our resources affected by its production and what will happen when they are finally disposed?

3.     Knowing the resources we consume as a domestic unit? Can we create humanure, instead of sewage? How to use local materials when building a house? Do we need the second or third flat, which we’re buying as investment, rather than for a real need?

4.     Stopping to consider if we are snatching anything from someone in the process of our consumption? (Hint: We almost always are.)

5.     Using transport systems judiciously. Can we walk to the neighbourhood store, or perhaps cycle there? Can we take a bus or any other form of public transport? If we must own a car, can it be an electric, or at least a petrol one?

6.     The education we give to our children. Will it teach them to live in harmony with nature and other fellow human beings? Do they understand how we are interconnected and inter-dependent?

The first and big step here is to seek to understand. This will open up many questions ranging from “How do I get packaging-free X?” to “What do I do about the fact that 1,000+ people attended my wedding and caused God-knows-how-much waste apart from setting a very wrong ‘aspirational living’ example?”

The past is not a thing you can change, but the present and future are full of possibilities. And, questioning and seeking to understand our existence is a powerful process, which can and does open up the paths ahead. So, while it may initially seem depressing and overwhelming, hang in there and take it slow. Sustainable living is as hopeful and meaningful as it gets.