Springtime, December.
Just the other day, The Free Tree Commune yielded its first watermelon. It wasn’t too big, too green or too round. It wasn’t anything like your average supermarket watermelon. It had bloomed leisurely in the ground. Natural and Organic. Just like everything else at The Free Tree Commune. It was the sweetest watermelon we ever had.
Freedom, Leisure, Serenity, Beauty, Nature- these are some the ideas that the Commune believes in. If the first watermelon was anything to go by, we seem to be onto something. We’re also growing brinjals, chilies, tomatoes, pomegranates, papayas, mangoes, gooseberries, bananas, potatoes. Our first ragi crop is a ripe brown and ready for the harvest. The garden is teeming, the silver oaks and banyans look lush and promise shade and the water bund has decided it would rather be a lotus pond. The pond was a real surprise. It was never in the original plans. It just came to be. There’s also a tiny stream trying to go one up on the pond. It is as if it declared a return to the wild and now, Tarzan could feel right at home.
The Free Tree Commune, nestled serenely among the Kolar hills, just sixty kilometers away from Bangalore where the noise and the smog of the city give way to sounds of birds and rustling leaves with the occasional gust of breeze, is experiencing a full spring in the grip of December. The place seems to have gathered a vital energy and innate rapture and now it celebrates- brimming and bursting into colors. As usual, we’re just joining in. There will be a feast, song, dance, treks, celebrations.
We’re calling it ‘Suggi Sambhrama- A December Spring’. We’ve invited a few of our friends who are already part of The Free Tree Commune and we would like all of you to join in.
The name ‘Free Tree’ was inspired by the Persian name, Azad Darakth for the Neem Tree, an important ecological source of meaning and healing. We think of it as a metaphor for a new way to learn, to know and to share. We welcome you. And bring a tree when you drop by. Or just be there.
That’s exactly what the lotus pond did.
Date: 12th December 2009
Time: 3.30pm to 8.30pm
How to reach there
Venue:
The Free Tree Commune,
Antarahalli, Vemgal,
Kolar District.
If you do not have your own vehicle catch a bus headed towards Kolar or KGF via Narasapur. Alight at Narasapur. Then take an auto to Medihaalla. At Medihaalla Junction, ask for Aashrama. A stone’s throw away on your right side and you’ve arrived at the Free Tree Commune.
Contact at Kolar: Shantamma: 0815 - 22328012 / 9448249371
Sumati: 081- 52232801/ 9902772715
Contact in Bangalore: Siddharth: 080 - 25493705/9886213516
Renuka: 9036188284
Contribution expected
A minimum of Rs. 100/- per person towards tea, snacks and dinner.
For overnight stay we have a neat and simple dormitory facility in the commune grounds which will be made available on first-cum-first serve basis for an additional Rs. 250/- per person which will also cover tea and breakfast in the morning. Kindly inform and book in advance as the beds are limited.
Some Instructions:
Please remember to carry warm clothes as though it is warm during the day, it turns cold at night.
There is borewell water available in the Commune which we use for our drinking purposes. In case you do not find it suitable for your needs, we would ask you to bring your water.
Organised by
The Free Tree Commune, CIEDS Collective, Samvada, Era Organic, Vimochana and Bangalore Film Society (BFS).
