As a civil and environmental engineer, Nayantara Nandakumar could have designed and built impressive structures where she stayed for 14 years — United States of America. Instead, she chose to work with mud and bamboo back in Dharur, Vikarabad, on the land bequeathed to her family.
Initially teaching Odissi dance, she has begun to promote sustainable living through her initiative ‘Our Sacred Space’ in Secunderabad, and now in Dharur.“We faced a dilemma when the opportunity came knocking to sell our ancestral property in Secunderabad to Walmart. But I decided against it, and started Our Sacred Space, where a variety of workshops are conducted for the urban learners,” she said.
After achieving considerable success here, Nayantara has shifted focus to her true calling. Towards her aim of sustainable living, she started developing a Telangana Heritage Village at Dharur. Surrounded by forest lands, her 22-acre plot in Dharur provided her an opportunity to realise her true self. She began her chase after the fast disappearing traditions of rural architecture, and tried to conserve them in her modest space. Small shacks made of bamboo roof, and mud walls greet the visitors to the facility, built typically with ‘arugulu’ or ‘chabootra’s (raised platforms to sit and relax).
“Initially, I did not know which mud to use for plastering, and how. I sought help from the villagers, but they did not take me seriously. I somehow started doing it myself. Then they came, and offered help,” she shares. The heavy, carved wooden doors, she found discarded in the village, and spent a ‘bomb’ to buy. Reflecting nativity, she used slabs of slate to cover the wooden beams and rafters for one structure, while another had a wavy roof of bamboo gifted to her by Telangana Progressive Foundation, in appreciation of her work. Mud flooring adds to the rural flavour, and completes her quest for nativity, while solar panels provide electricity to the minimal appliances used in the centre.
Inspired by the book One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, Nayantara has begun raising a natural eco-system around her Dharur facility by principles of permaculture. Channelising rainwater is all she does to help the saplings of different species carefully spaced between.
“Peacocks and wild boars sometimes visit this place in search of food. One of the principles of permaculture is to leave a wide margin for wildlife to thrive,” she explains.
The use she puts the facility to is as noble as her effort for sustainability. She, together with Kisan Mitra, an NGO, conducts skill development workshops for the widows of farmers who committed suicide under debt burden. Coordinating with various organisations, she brings masters in each craft, and makes them teach the women.
So far, they have conducted 23 different workshops, besides cultural events and a health camp. The women are trained in various arts and crafts, and market is created for the products at ‘Sunday Angadi’ in Secunderabad facility.