The following YouTube video uses a series of GoogleEarth images of the pointReturn site to tell the restoration story. The earliest image is from 2001- a good five years before I bought the land to begin my adventure of turning it productive. It shows a land used for brick-kilns and as a vehicular thoroughfare between … Continue reading pointReturn – a quick history
Summary: Here is a quick run on the story of pointReturn: 18 acres of utterly barren, sloping land was bought in 2006. The aim was to restore it to provide the water, food, energy and cash needs of 40 people. It was to be created with funds available at a personal level. The point was … Continue reading The story so far and the road ahead
The Anna Hazare phenomenon is sweeping the country as I write. On television I see faces of all classes together supporting his cause. I am trying to understand my own reasons that urge me to wish him success.
I first met Sreenivas Ghatty in 2003 in Bangalore. We were at a conference on tree based biodiesel. I actually sat in the section reserved for journalists, on the strength of stories I had been publishing in GoodNewsIndia. I had met Prof Udipi Shrinivasa two years earlier and visited his seminal work at Kagganahalli where … Continue reading Pongamia: a mid-course check
Between mid-Jan and Jun, 2011 we built a cottage with two suites for volunteers who completed an year and thus became pointReturn Residents. Each suite was designed to have a living and bedroom but not toilet or kitchen. The Final Score Usable space: 360 sft Total cost:Rs.98280 Wages to locals:50% Industrial goods:35% Recycled goods:15% — … Continue reading A cottage for residents
If you care to look beyond the million gods you encounter in India, you would find a sturdy belief system that would be worthy of some fundamentalism. A ministry awaits a messiah who has the energy to found a new fanatical religious order based on it; and I would happily join it. For about a … Continue reading The Grand Spirits of India
On new year morning, I started work at 6 am to complete yet another swale. After warming up the excavator engine I quickly got into a steady rhythm, enjoying the nip in the air and the drift of mist across the far casuarina grove. In a few minutes I became aware of being watched. And … Continue reading Out of ’10 and into ’11
pointReturn now has another volunteer in P Siddarth
Click on any picture below to view a slideshow of my first visit to the land that was to become pointReturn project site. If you wish to know more about the origins of the project, visit the various pages listed under in the About menu Please upgrade your browser