VOLUNTEERING
​About
Gaia Grid is a social experiment. It was started in 2016 by multi-disciplinary artist Harsh Valechha, with the aim of building a food forest from scratch, with the help of a community of people from the world over. The entire project was crowdfunded and continues to be so.
The goal was simple - can one person, from a financial consulting background, leave his conventional job, and no farming background, become completely self sufficient in terms of food, water, shelter, electricity simply by living it out on the land, learning in the process about life alone on a hill, in a foreign land, where he didn’t speak the language, and didn’t know the flora and fauna, and thrive?
8 years ago, this seemed like a distant dream. Now it is a reality. And over these years, hundreds of people have found peace on this land, getting their hands full of soil, and their minds empty.
It has gone from barren land into a thriving food forest which is constantly morphing and changing and evolving.
Now, only select people are hosted every year, and more focus is on long term volunteering as part of the tapasya. The work now is largely internal; external farm work is merely for keeping the muscles agile.
Over these years, hundreds of native plants have been planted and food aspect of the farm is ever-evolving. Volunteers stay in a shared dormitory which also doubles as an energy amplifier. Toilets are basic, food is vegetarian, and prepared together. Volunteers help with all farm work, including cooking, cleaning, weeding, mulching, watering etc.
The experience allows people to live in an extremely down to earth, mindful way, and doesn’t intend to offer luxury, or comfort. Often, it gets mentally difficult for volunteers to live so exposed to the elements. If elements don’t get to them, usually the aloneness does. But to counter that, there is pristine nature, wholesome conversations and honest work.
Please sign up only if you have willingness on your mind and openness in your heart.
Harsh is also as aspiring nihilist but will talk to you about Vedanta if he’s bored enough. Ask him about the quartz, the grid and uncoincidences.
But like all good things, this experiment and experience has its own shortcomings. The primary being cost. You see in an ideal world, this experience would be free and Gaia Grid would run just from the goodness of people’s hearts. But while we create that ideal world, it has aspirations of its own. We request every short term (less than 1 week) volunteer to pay ₹3,000 a day for the simple khichdi, stay and experience. Mid term (2 week to 4 weeks) volunteers pay ₹1,500 a day and long term (4 weeks or more) volunteers pay ₹1,000 a day. All of this money goes to food, kitchen expenditure and create a corpus fund to host those that are from economically challenged backgrounds. If you require scholarship, do let me know, I’ll be happy to speak about it.
Needless to say, volunteers are requested to only use biodegradable toiletries while here, abstain from bringing plastic, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs inside the land and respect the local village as their own. Please carry clothes and shoes you don’t mind getting dirty, mosquito repellent, something warm for the nights, a sleeping bag, a mosquito net and a flashlight.
Do reach out if you have additional questions, and I’ll be happy to chat about them.
This is not a coincidence.
Regards
H 🌀