Over to the next phase..

Twenty days back we relocated to Kerala.  From buzzing Mumbai to a remote village called Mulanjur, near Ottappalam town in Palakkad district.  Quite a few people were asking me why are we leaving Mumbai.  First, let me tell you why did we come to Mumbai.  We came to Mumbai for a reason.  When Pratibha was 10 years old, she was almost non-verbal.  We felt vibrant Mumbai can help her transform.  It did happen.  She transformed to a chatterbox.. She did her Bharatnatyam Arangettam.. She started pursuing her passions, music and cooking.  She was enjoying her life to the fullest, learning and playing Sitar; and working at Arpan, as a Cook / Chef.  

We felt it is time to get into the next phase of her life, and ours too.  Four years back, we joined project Nishchintha (निश्चिंता), which aims to provide an answer to the most worrying question in our mind “What After Us?” for Pratibha.  With whatever goal in mind we came to Mumbai, that not only got fulfilled, but exceeded our expectations.  We hope the same will happen in our next phase of life at Nishchintha too.  

I was surprised that we haven’t seen a crow in last twenty days, where we stay.  But we have plenty of peacocks, cuckoos, cranes and many other bird species here.  It’s about 14 acres of land where we are setting up Nishchintha village.  We also have about 6 acres of paddy field adjacent to it.  Absolutely beautiful, picturesque and serene ambiance.  Unpolluted and blessed with diverse flora and fauna.  

We have been allotted a flat on the top floor of a 5 storied apartment block.  It is not ready yet.  Hoping to get it in a weeks' time.  Many villas are complete and some of them fully furnished too.  Those villa owners were magnanimous in offering us their villas for temporary stay till our flat is complete.  We are staying in one of those.  After almost 35 years of staying in flat / apartment type building, we are experiencing staying in a villa.  We are the second family in Nishchintha village. Hope our move might inspire more families to move into the village and start community living here.  

We were initially a bit apprehensive on how Pratibha would adjust to the new environment.  From buzzing Mumbai to a sleeping village.  Almost no one to interact.  Not much activity for time being.  Once the Nishchintha village becomes operational, I am sure, she will be busy 24x7!  And now for past twenty days, she is absolutely happy, enjoying the new environment, seeing the beauty of village, walking along the narrow walkways in paddy fields, adjusting to frequent power failures, enjoying the minimum shopping - shopping for survival - that we do, doing cooking activities at home, playing shuttle badminton, helping mother in all household activities, and having many new experiences.  Once in a while she tells that she misses Arpan and her friends in Mumbai, but absolutely happy here.

Now little bit on Nishchintha project.  Nishchintha means “worry-free”.  The project is an initiative by a group of parents having children who are developmentally / intellectually disabled.  The objective is to live together as a community and take care of children together.  Also train the children to live independently or with assistance, so that after the parents are no more, children can live in the care rooms comfortably.  Fifty villas and fifty apartments are planned.  About 20 villas are complete and work on another 15 in progress.  15 flats are about to get completed and one of them is Pratibha’s.  We will be having a common kitchen and dining hall, so that we don't have to cook at home.  We will have more time for the community activities.  This would immensely help in bringing in synergy in our community living.  We are also setting up a National Centre for Assisted Living and Skill Development (NACALS), in which we will be offering therapy services, vocational activities, skill development, care room training, and employment opportunities for our children as well as persons with developmental / intellectual disabilities from outside.

We plan to go with the nature, and practice sustainable living.  We have few wells to meet our water requirements.  We are working on harvesting rainwater, so that ground water is recharged leading to increased quantity and quality of water.  All our bio-degradable waste will be converted to energy and manure through biogas plants, which we have already constructed.  We are in the process of setting up systems for using solar energy for some of our needs.

Now the life here.  We get up everyday morning listening to honks of peacocks, cock-a-doodle-doo, chirps of many small birds, chatters of many different species of birds.. but we haven't heard a "Ka Ka" of crow!  Our early mornings are sitting on the verandah of the villa where we stay now and watch all these and enjoy.  We could see families of chickens moving around.  Pratibha watches them and tries to identify who is papa, mamma, kids etc!  Then we see peacocks and peahens roaming and flying from buildings to buildings.  Beautiful peacocks with long tail with colourful feathers.  Then comes cows and calfs.  Always there are two cranes (white birds) on both sides of one of the cows, moves along the cow, as if they are guarding and protecting the cow!  Amazing scene.  Evenings we walk within the campus.  We frequent near a rivulet that passes by the side of our premise.  The clear water in the rivulet and bushes and trees on the banks give very refreshing feeling.  

Going to the paddy fields and walking along the narrow walkways not only gives us fresh air, but is also immensely fulfilling experience.  As it was time of sowing seeds in paddy fields, we could participate in that, in our own paddy field.  We pluck tender mangos from trees, raw papaya from papaya trees.. We get many different varieties of spinach all around; just pluck, wash, chop and stir fry..You don’t need anything else with chapathi or rice.  All these are new experiences for Pratibha and she is thoroughly enjoying.  Buying milk from a house nearby was another new thing for Pratibha.  Here they milk the cow and give us the fresh milk. 

Altogether a different life.. Both Asha and myself lived in village during our childhood. So no issues for us to get adjusted to.  But for Pratibha, it's all new.  She is looking at only the positive side and thoroughly enjoying the new life. That's a big relief for us.  When more people are around here, she will start enjoying more. 

We are looking forward to a successful next phase of our life here at Nishchintha.