*Leaf 11 - Full Moon - 06 Dec 2022*
Music & spinning brought us all together for the Sufi singer Mukhtiyar Ali's exclusive music concert on 5th Dec evening at Prakriti premises. It was also a moment to revere the 135 year old building Margosa Lodge, with its colonial architecture & madras terrace roofing system, standing majestically like the old English woman of yesteryears. Hope our collective energy is sustained further on community development activities around farming & spinning.
98 year old, weaver, freedom fighter Sangappa Mante and his family visited prakriti Food Store and met Mysuru Spinners k j Sachu, Rajani, Abhilash and a few others on 3rd December 2022.
Spinning a musical tale with Mukhtiyar Ali
Dear friends,
Time & Space connects us all. All through the Human history, the Day-night cycle, the monthly (lunar) cycle and the Seasons cycle (Solstices & Equinoxes) are the 3 cycles that are tracked by Humanity and all calendars across civilizations are derived based on these 3 cycles. The 2 Solstices and 2 Equinoxes in a Year are considered the four pillars of the Earth Time, which are crucial to measure our journey around the Sun. As Thea puts it: To lose sight of the Equinoxes and Solstices (on Earth) is to forego the means provided to Earth inhabitants to establish a connection with the cosmos and to experience life in harmony with the cosmic surround. The Solstice occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. The December Solstice happens on either 21st or 22nd of December each year. This day is characterized by the longest night of the year and the ancient Pagans (who worshipped Nature) celebrated this day by feasting, singing and dancing.... With Nature coming back to the focus in our daily actions, let's remember to celebrate 22nd December with love and happiness.
Do we really need GMO Technology in India?
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change argues that annually, India imports 55-60% of oils which may be GMO oils and hence fears about GMO are unfounded. It appears to be a very superficial response to the GMO topic, which is of great significance, considering the long-term impact it can cause to the Human and Soil health. Hence, it's imperative for the Government to educate the citizens in a holistic manner on this topic of Organisms, that are genetically modified. However, it appears that hasty decisions are being taken in a biased manner without engaging the civil society in a participative way. As citizens, can we all resolve to find a clear answer to the question - Do we really need GMO technology in India? Please do share your views and thoughts on this to admin@prakritifood.in/7204288166.
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Interaction with A Senior Weaver Sangappa Mante by Abhilash |
98 year old, weaver, freedom fighter Sangappa Mante and his family visited prakriti Food Store and met Mysuru Spinners k j Sachu, Rajani, Abhilash and a few others on 3rd December 2022.
We are enriched by Sri Sangappa Mante's words of wisdom. Sangappa comes from Kodekal village, Yadgir District. He led many weavers struggles with Handloom Activist Prasanna and other activists friends across Karnataka. Till few years back, he used to weave Ilkal Saree (Chandrakali Sarees) for many temples and silk rumaal (Pataga) with passion.
He invited all Spinners of Mysuru to Kodekal. He was happy after long time watching hand spinning by box Charaka happening in front of him.
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| Sangappa Mante @ spinning workshop |
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| Sangappa Mante family |
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| Sachu-Sangappa Mante |
by Abhilash
Mysuru Spinners Association celebrated one year of spinning activities with Mukhtiyar Ali music concert with songs on Charaka, Spinning, weaving and Kabir das at Prakriti Food.
Since the past one and half months, regular weekend Spinning workshops are organized at the Prakriti Food Store with active participation from Mysoreans.
Spinning is art of making Khadi Yarn. We are using Box Charaka to train people in spinning. Also promoting urban people with garden space to plant perennial variety cotton and grow cotton for spinning themselves. As a spinning community we are collecting spun yarn by spinners and converting it into fabric by handloom from Melukote Janapada Seva Trust currently. Janapada Seva Trust is a Gandhian organization working on Khadi production and natural farming from three generations.
Separating seed's from cotton is called Ginning, then orienting the cotton fibres in one direction and removing dust is called Carding. Carded cotton is used to make Slivers which is used for spinning.
Normally in one and half to two months regular practice of spinning, we can easily get good quality yarn which can be used for fabric making. By spinning daily for one and half hours, one can get sufficient yarn to weave more than 80 mtrs of Khadi fabric. Its more than sufficient for a 5-member family fabric requirement.
We invite to join the spinners club, Let's Spin!
Store Updates:
- Due to the prolonged monsoon season this year, the salt production at the salt pans of Saanikatta village in Uttara Karnataka was hampered and it's started again. We should be getting our non-iodized crystal salt again from next month onwards
- A computer doctorate Sri Ravi, who has started doing full time farming since the last few months has started giving soppu to us since the start of this month (Dec 2022). He has leased 2 acres of land near airport and have started this venture and let's congratulate this young entrepreneur and wish him all the very best in this endeavor. To know more about him, please reach out to him @ 94805 07409
- The Mysore kitchen gardeners assembled on 1st December to do the maintenance of the Herbal Garden at the Store premises. The primary focus is to keep a good collection of Herbs and the promotion of Herbal Kit. The brinjal and the basil planted by Suhit has reached the flowering stage and more such experiments are underway under the able guidance of Abhilash
- A tour to the nearby jaggery production unit is organized on 11th December 2022. If interested, please register yourself for at the following link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeLa0VxR0HCX9CbSdbHsnzaT43PvjjomIQ-YLONQLS1inqmXQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
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