Grass and beauty

October. Monsoons are over. It is still raining crazily though. What?? Tonight it is supposed to start and go on for twenty-four hours!!! We are overwhelmed with grass. Kasha grass, taller than a person, with fluffy white flowers waving gaily in the breeze – gorgeous and resilient. Very good at helping us prevent erosion andContinue reading “Grass and beauty”

Preparation for the floods 3.0

Inspecting the bridge – it’s still doing well, but needs a proper inspection and repairs in order to withstand the monsoon onslaught for the next few years. The nala makes a sharp turn and hits our land at one point. Every year, soil is washed away and we retreat backwards. We build a new portionContinue reading “Preparation for the floods 3.0”

Coming out the other side

The floods have receded, leaving us to survey the damage. There is less than we feared. The water entered the land through a few main points. We think we can close most of them up so that much of the land isn’t affected next time. The one part of the land which is very lowContinue reading “Coming out the other side”

Floods!

Well, we made a mistake not to make our bridge even higher. Our carpenter had planned it for about five feet higher than it is, and that seemed outrageously high to us. But, today, the nala has risen above it. If you stand on the bridge, you are knee-deep in water, and it is stillContinue reading “Floods!”

The Worship of the Nala

The past days of rain have turned the nala into a gushing stream. There is even a ‘waterfall’ near our building, so that we hear the sound of rushing water all day and night. Here’s a post from Prof. Nita Kumar’s blog about the inauguration of our bridge – a controversial affair! “The nala, that is,Continue reading “The Worship of the Nala”

Bamboo, bridges, and snakes

It’s been a couple of weeks since our last update, because of some unexpected events. But we are back. We’ve had over ten days of sunshine, which meant extremely hot, humid, unpleasant weather, but also that we have been busy. First of all, we decided that we need to get across the nala, rain orContinue reading “Bamboo, bridges, and snakes”