2020
December 2020
Some of the bounties of the gardens of BASE.
November 2020
The workers celebrate Deepavali in their own way.
October 2020
A new spree of tree-plantation anticipating the north-east monsoon rains
September 2020
The drive-way at the entrance is smoothened out with a cement track to facilitate driving in and out at the entrance: in keeping with the Pallangi-Kombai road newly laid-out by the government.
August 2020
We do repair work, partly to give employment to the local workers who are all out of job due to the pandemic situation
June-July 2020
The construction of a well at a location with lots of water begins. The massive and physically demanding task done by a team of 4 men and 2 women. At the end it feels like a major breakthrough: The intelligently conceived well holds the water, the land doesn’t slip. The credit goes mainly to Kumar, the excellent mason.
May 2020
The water storage is used for swimming in the hot season.
The cows get a spacious new shed with more sunshine.
April 2020
Repair work, changing the reed, ensure that the local people keep their skills alive.
We, our workers and the neighbours get along through Corona-times also thanks to the produce.
March 2020
Destroyed Habitat Creates the Perfect Conditions for Coronavirus to Emerge says leading science journal “Scientific American”. We’re glad to keep doing what we are doing.
March 2020
One of the trees felled by the road-workers is being cut, to make tables for the dining hall.
February 2020
A young Indian working for Google in Silican Valley has a massive accident and has a magical survival between the branches of a tree on the property right next to the Yogashala.
January 2020
The road to Base from the little town Pallangi is being made. Some trees along the road get axed.
2019
April 2010-November 2019
Major activity to clear the piece of land devastated by the fire, rescue the trees which can be rescued. We procure trees, shrubs and plants from a Ayurveda-Hospital-Nursery in Kerala which sources key medicinal plants from the forests. We create a medical garden over a patch of about one acre and plant out about 4000 trees on the rest of the land which was affected by the fire, making sure to source indigenous varieties which are out of vogue and which belong to the region.
Harvested fruits and vegetables – avocado, pumpkins, bananas, radish, carrots, greens, etc as well as coffee and pepper.
March 2019
Our immediate neighbour denudes his entire property of all its trees to start an “avocado-farm”, as he says. The fire set to the heaps creates a a major fire-damage which destroys the bushes in one-third of Base, scares us all terribly and gets averted providentially by turning winds.
We build a tank to store water out of one of the holes dug out for the construction of the first cottage.
March 2019
Advent of two puppies and construction of a kennel.
January 2019
Thanks to the ayurvedic pharmacy we have and the advice of our doctor in Chennai, Dorothea, a young visitor from Germany gets cured of a acute attack of dengue fever.
2018
May 2018
Major fires in South India with many lives lost, include a group of young hikers from Chennai. In our vicinity too fires more than in the previous years, caused, of course, intentionally by men who believe it will replenish the soil and they can control it.
April 2018
Creating nurseries and preparing for a major tree-plantation and beginning to harvest coffee and pepper which grow naturally in the land.
March 2018
Removing lantana over an area of 2 acres around the axed tree and planting it out with a variety of trees as a start to make a medical garden
2017
May – August 2017
More trenches are dug out, a big well is dug out for storing water to feed the saplings we are planting out. The summers get very dry, there is a major water shortage everywhere. Thanks to the water resources we have, the people on the property and the plants survive fairly well.
April 2017
Creating a drip-irrigation system to nourish the first major plantation of forest trees and a fruit orchard across 1 acre of land
Preparations made to make a big pond out of one of the holes out of which mud was dug out for the constructions.
Installation of cupboard with a big stock of ayurvedic medicines as a health-support for people visiting Base, the workers and the neighbours.
March 2017
The construction of a larger watchman house at the entrance, the toilets for the workers and the hall are finished, and all the building materials and rubble left over are cleared from the place and we are relieved to end the construction phase, so that we can launch the inauguration.
2013 – 2016
March – December 2016
Parallel to the constructions, paths are made, further trenches are dug out, more lantana patches are removed and fresh trees are planted.
A traditional mud-hut is built for a watchman family.
Biju from Madurai is appointed as a coordinator and overseer of the construction. He takes charge of handling the workers, the material and the finances and coordinates with us.
Friend and well-wisher of Base, Varun Aiyer visits the space and helps with finishing the construction, giving finishing touches and dealing with the workers
December 2015 to February 2016
We design and begin the construction of 3 more cottages and a hall along with our partners Arno and Susanne, who would be doing their “Art-based-philosophy Residency Programme” beginning 2017.
November 2015
We send Raja, the mason to learn mud construction from a team of organic builders in Bangalore
March - October 2015
With the help of the local villagers we find a beautiful spring uphill. We build a huge ferro-cement tank of 100,00 litres capacity to store the spring water.
We scout for a team and find Raja, a mason from a nearby town. He builds a cottage, a pilot project. CCD, a major NGO operating out of Madurai helps us by providing their jeep for the workers and for our own use.
We discover a quaint, old tree-shrine under the lantana bushes in the midst of the property.
We also discover a cross raised by the original owners of the property in the bushes not far away in another part of the property.
A forest elephant wanders through Base destroying a few plants only fortunately, but having a good feed of Jack fruits
December 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015
A team of local villagers and tribals devotes time to the removal of the weed lantana, which covers and suffocates most of the trees on the property with. We do all the bureaucratic work involving owning a company, a company bank account and semi-agricultural forest land. And also discover a little bit of Kodaikanal town, which is 12 Km away, and make a few friends.
We live in the room which later becomes the kitchen-dining-space, and become aware of the many animal friends which are curious about us.
Renewal and repair work on the existing cottage.
Lakshmi, a Kangeyam cow, an old breed of Tamilnadu joins Base. She’s pregnant.
August 2014
Buying the property.
Feburary 2013
DISCOVERING THE PROPERTY in Kombai owned by Brigitte Singh, a French designer settled in india, who had bought the land off the villagers a few earlier and given it to her brother Marc Baudin. Marc, a French sailor settled in India lived there as a recluse and planted trees. He wished to sell the property and leave the valley.