Summary
Biman Roy is a 2021 kanthari who founded bon, an organization that works to empower individuals/communities in growing their own food in ways that helps in environmental restoration.
Riya and Chacko recently visited Biman’s project in Belda, West Bengal. Though he was not there, they were made to feel absolutely at home by his energetic team members who educated them on different food-growing practices, showed them around the beautiful green village, and laid before them a delicious platter of domestic and foraged foods.
In the blog below, Biman writes about a struggle that often plagues those who follow the less travelled road of creating social change. Read on to find out…
The struggle within
by Biman Roy
“If you want something, reach out and grab it”. This has been my attitude toward life. Irrespective of whether I got what I wanted, I always got lessons out of those pursuits. These made me seem like a bit less of an idiot than I was! Of course, the struggles I had been through in those persuasions played a bigger part in the learning, and my journey with bon is no exception. It’s been a little over a year now that I have settled back in my village after 16 long years. Here, I let you peep through the struggles that I have been through during this time.
Right after settling back, I became busy with gardening. I was collecting dried leaves from different parts of the village to make compost, digging soil to prepare vegetable beds, and chopping bamboo to make a trellis, etc. This did not go well with my parents. Like me, they also dreamed I would become a professor one day and teach computer science. My dream changed with my changing understanding of the world and the purpose of human lives as I knew them. My parents still hold the old dream dear to their hearts (in a developing country like India with no social security, parents are invested in their children’s lives, which has both sides). In our society, being a professor holds a much higher value than being a gardener or the founder of a non-profit, for that matter. Seeing me working with “dirt” instead of teaching people was not easy for them. It hurt them a lot. This was mixed with genuine concerns about my financial well-being as I chose this less-traveled path with no stable finances in sight.
There were times when I would be working in my room, and my mother would come and ask me some questions. Before I could finish answering, she often started crying. Let me tell you, those were not easy sights to withstand, especially when I knew many of her concerns were valid and I did not know the answer. I grew up in a lower-middle-class family. My father worked his way up from being poor. I never really felt the heat of how it feels to not have something, as my parents always made sure I had everything I needed. Being what we are, we desperately look for a sense of security, whatever we do. It went to a point when my father, who happened to be one of my best friends, stopped talking to me.
All these were happening at a time when I was not sure exactly what I was trying to achieve through bon. I had a sense of direction, but it needed a lot of clarity. The lack of clarity was reflected when I approached the community to start a gardening project with them. These initial failures threw my self-confidence and self-esteem to a new low. I was seriously doubting my decision to come back and do what I was doing after leaving a “settled life” abroad and a loving partner. The whole situation was super confusing and very very uncomfortable.
Yet here I sit and write this for you. A lot of my roadblocks have become small milestones. Currently, we have two people working full-time with bon (besides me), we are working with five families in the village to create model gardens, we have a mentor who is helping us develop a plan for bon for the next two years, and my parents are a bit at ease as well. The external world started changing as I learned most of these external struggles were reflections of the struggle within myself. Evidently, I have learned (and am still learning) to deal with struggles. To know how that happened, stay tuned for my next post.
For more information about bon, visit; https://bonforest.org/
