Google Earth has loved a front-row seat to the transformation {that a} patch of land in Bokakhat, Assam — the place Medini Homestay now stands — has undergone from 2018 to 2024. A fast ‘earlier than’ and ‘after’ look on the snapshots will convey the eagerness of the duo behind this inexperienced endeavour: Champak Deka (a former deep-sea diver with the Indian Navy) and his spouse Anna-Louise Meynell (a textile designer).
Working a homestay that bears hallmarks of sustainability whereas concurrently catering to a contemporary world is akin to strolling a tightrope, the duo factors out. However, as within the case of tightropes, the experience is thrilling, they add.
A drive by way of Assam with the homestay because the vacation spot reveals a panorama the place the surroundings will get extra stunning with every passing second. Lush fields give approach to thickening forests because the drive comes nearer to the Kaziranga Nationwide Park, and these make means for sprawling countryside. Your experience will terminate precisely “in the course of Assam”, in response to Maps; at a spot the place the thrum of the skin world melts away.
When you thought the journey was very winding, wait till you hear the story of the duo that began it. It has an equal variety of twists and turns. Over a powerful cup of Assamese tea, Meynell who hails from Scotland, will let you know proudly that she is finishing a decade of dwelling within the Northeast the place she has been working in handloom growth. Her hands-on information is backed by her PhD in handweaving traditions within the Ri Bhoi district in Meghalaya.
Although Deka hails from a contrastingly completely different background, the 2 discovered widespread floor in desirous to empower the artisans of the Northeast by way of weaving and pure dyes.
As Deka shares, it was this shared curiosity that led him and Meynell to resolve to show this friendship into an enduring endeavour with nature on the core.
An oasis of inexperienced decisions
The homestay is a brief drive from the Kaziranga Nationwide Park — a 430 sq km space sprinkled with meadows, and species just like the one-horned rhinoceros, elephants, wild water buffalo, swamp deer, ferruginous duck, Baer’s pochard duck, black-necked stork, and Asian Openbill stork. Whereas nature lovers can head right here for the day, the extra culturally inclined ones can plan a day on the looms, the place Meynell can be very happy to information you with suggestions and tips.
As Deka notes, the weaving studio began as a challenge to make sure that his spouse’s analysis in weaving and textiles didn’t stay as a doc in an archive, however lived and breathed as a substitute. “There was a lot information that we inherited from the indigenous individuals. We wished to build up this and convert it right into a bodily type for the subsequent technology. The thought was that if somebody would need to examine this topic sooner or later, this analysis needs to be a stepping stone for them,” he shares.
Right now, he says, the weaving studio has taken on the avatar of an area that encourages conversations round hand-woven textiles in opposition to the backdrop of an trade fighting the ‘client mentality’.
On the Medini Homestay, you’ll be aware of the method of silk manufacturing, from watching the rearing of the silkworms to spinning silk in real-time.
The duo prides their silk manufacturing strategies on being cruelty-free. “Our focus is on Ahimsa silk, also called ‘eri’ silk,” Meynell explains. The title borrows from the Assamese phrase ‘period’, which implies castor. In distinction to mulberry silk, which is spun utilizing lengthy steady fibres and entails boiling of the cocoons (thus killing the silkworms), eri silk manufacturing is a much less dangerous course of.
On this, the cocoons are boiled as soon as the silkworms full their metamorphosis into butterflies and moths. “This fashion, we aren’t disturbing their life cycle,” Meynell factors out. The weaving studio has additionally given an impetus to the artisans within the space who earn by way of silk manufacturing and turning the silk into textiles.
Practising what they preach
Deka and Meynell shrink back from making daring statements about their sustainable endeavours. “We see it extra as a set of way of life decisions,” Deka notes. As a substitute of positioning Medini Homestay as an ‘idyllic sustainable spot that doesn’t dare to contradict typical approaches’, Deka says it’s as a substitute, a easy ardour challenge for anybody seeking to have a slice of nature with their tea.
Every part is a piece in progress at Medini Homestay, he insists. Even himself. “I’m nonetheless studying the methods of farming.” In 2018, when Deka stared on the piece of land he now calls dwelling, he wasn’t as assured. The duty of making one thing stunning out of the barren woodland felt daunting.
However he took on the problem head-on. “The land had been excavated in components, thus missing a topsoil layer. After I started work on the land, there have been round three bushes and a small patch of tea plantation, tried by the earlier proprietor,” he says.
So in the present day, when company praise the land thriving in all its inexperienced glory, they’re compelled to marvel, “How?”
“We simply saved planting and studying as we went alongside,” Deka solutions. He recounts one occasion that baffled him. “I had been placing inexperienced manure on the land however not seeing outcomes. An aged man who was on the land, on the time, requested me to ‘throw some urea’ and mentioned that will make the land flourish.”
He provides, “It was heartbreaking to listen to somebody so skilled advising me to make use of chemical compounds. It turned clear to me that the concepts of even seasoned individuals had been modified by industrial farming.”
That day, Deka determined to by no means spray any chemical compounds on his land. It’s six years and his dedication nonetheless holds true. However, it isn’t simple, he cautions. “You’ll make errors and you’ll be taught from them, and even then, you may not get it proper. However with every season, you’ll be taught to refine your strategies and to learn your vegetation and perceive them.”
One other problem, he says, is making inferences on plant well being when he begins recognizing indicators of illness cropping up. “There have been instances that I’ve despatched an image of the plant to the agricultural growth officer explaining the signs. They responded saying it appeared like a fungal an infection and that I ought to resort to a selected chemical.”
In instances like these, when Deka responds by saying he doesn’t use chemical compounds on his vegetation, the road stays silent on the different finish. This journey of odds would deter him you’d assume. Nevertheless it solely makes him extra resilient.
Right now, the 500-plus bushes that dot the panorama round Medini Homestay — together with Indian olive, guava, mango, papaya, and banana — sway within the breeze, virtually bowing all the way down to him in thanks.
A ardour challenge made from bamboo and wooden
The property across the Medini Homestay is crammed with bushes — glistening water droplets on the edges of the leaves refracting the sunshine — virtually that includes your entire forest in a single drop. The view out of your room is wonderful. A drone view of the property reveals two blocks of development. As Meynell explains, these are the household block and the visitor block. “They’re each an identical and every has 4 rooms. The utmost capability of the visitor block is to accommodate 9 individuals.”
Ask Deka what has been used to construct the properties, and he responds “Every part you possibly can consider.”
Additional probing reveals bamboo, wooden, straw, mud, cow dung, a small share of concrete bricks, cement, and corrugated sheets come below the umbrella of “every little thing”.
“The premise of selecting these supplies relies on their availability and likewise the practicality,” he says, including that whereas each particular person with a sustainable bend of thoughts begins out desirous to construct a house utilizing solely mud, calculated selections should be made.
On the homestay, the furnishings is handmade. The bamboo and cane items have been made in Nagaland whereas the curtains have been handwoven within the studio. The mirrors and cabinets have been made by native artisans.
Meals on the homestay embrace varied sorts of aromatic, sticky and black rice, urad daal (lentils), steamed and mashed herbs, meat with native herbs, fish and ou tenga ( elephant apple) curry, dishes constructed from banana flowers and stems, khar (an Assamese delicacy constructed from the peels of greens and mentioned to have with medicinal properties).
Whereas photo voltaic panels at present meet the wants of the fields, Deka says they’re within the course of of putting in a photo voltaic water pump as nicely. In the meantime, the water administration mannequin is exemplary.
“We aren’t linked to any municipality water system. All of our water comes from our borewell, which serves our kitchens, loos, and farm use. Our sewage is handled in our custom-built biodigester plant, which has an anaerobic micro organism digester system,” Deka notes.
He provides, “Our gray water from the kitchens is handled by way of a pure reed mattress made with stones, sand, and a pure reed mattress, which purifies the water earlier than it returns to the pure groundwater.”
It’s wonderful the oasis of inexperienced decisions that the couple have been profitable in creating with no prior background in agriculture. As Deka walks into the fields for yet one more night of conversing together with his vegetation, his years of underwater diving appear nicely behind him. The ocean of inexperienced is the place he belongs!
Edited by Pranita Bhat; Image credit: Champak Deka.
