Through a contest today, @geetharao wants to know about our childhood time spent at grandparents’ home. Although I am not participating in that contest, it made me reflect of my time spent at my grandparents’ place in the rural India.

What is more revealing to me about those times is the sustainable lifestyle we used to live in those years. With the so-called “development” and “modernization” in today’s urban life, we have become an enemy of our mother Earth.

Some of the striking features, I could recollect about that era are:

Kutcha Mud House

My grandma and most of the village were living in a kutcha mud house. They were never painted with any chemical wall-paints, were never pargeted with mortar. Every year, a new coating of mud mixed with some cow dung was done on floors & walls. Ceiling was covered with clay terracotta tiles supported by thick wooden logs.

Natural Airconditioning

There were no fans or aircondioning. Those houses were cool during summers and warm during winters. There was no electricity in the village. Kerosene lanterns were used after sunset for a couple of hours and everyone will sleep after that. Kitchen had a chulha (stove) made by mud in one corner. Wood was used to cook food. Therefore, whole family will eat together at the appointed hour because it wasn’t easy to set fire again and again. The ash produced after burning wood was used in cleaning utensils and hands.

Community Bathroom With Zero Water Wastage

There was no pipeline or water connection. Whole village used to go for a one kilometer walk to the village lake for taking a bath. I learned to swim in that lake only. Children there had devised fun games around bathing, diving and swimming in that lake. We used to spend a lot of time there. Until the washed cloths didn’t dry, we won’t return back. There was a step-well nearby our house, from which ladies used to fetch drinking water. All these water bodies were community resources and were maintained and taken care of by the community.

Open Toilets in Nature

We also used to go towards a hill for our daily morning calls. I find relieving in the nature more comfortable experience than behind the closed door of an urban bathroom. The wastage of water in flushing and sewerage lines are all polluting the Nature somewhere. In villages, either your poop will be consumed by some animal or it will turn into compost naturally. I remember, at my maternal grandma’s house, there was a toilet without any water connection and pipe fittings. There was no septic tank. We need to spread some sawdust powder after finishing our job. The entire defecation got collected in a basket kept under the hole. It was then collected everyday by sweepers and taken for composting.

No Need for a Dustbin or a Dumpyard

There was no kitchen waste because no packaged goods were sold in the market. We used to bring all stuff in a cloth shopping bag. Mostly all parts of green vegetables were consumed as food. If something needed to be discarded, it was offered to cows. So there were no dump yards. Cow dung in the street were collected and dried. Then it was used as kitchen fuel.

There were no asphalt or bitumen roads though roads were paved with local stones. Cycle was the only vehicle with some affluent families. So everyone used to walk to go anywhere. This kept everyone healthy and fit.

No Refrigerator Means Fresh Food Everyday

We used to buy fresh vegetables daily from the market. All vegetables were organic and locally grown. There were many wild fruits which we used to pluck on our walks around the village in our free time. It was a lot of fun being in Nature all the time.

We also used to grind our wheat and pulses fresh as every house had grinding millstones. Many village women used to grind dried rosemary leaves to earn extra money in their spare time.

My grandma also used to work on the spinning wheel. It was a good way to earn extra income by spinning cotton in your spinning wheels. So at times, I too tried running that spinning wheel for fun.

I still find that life manifolds better than today’s urban and “civilized” lifestyle.

• Do you love a village life? What life you would opt, if given a choice?
  

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_{N.B.: All images used here are for reference purpose only and are sourced from copyright-free sources that do not require any attribution.}