Fascinating Amish Country

Simple living. It is taught world over. Its way of life that is known to me especially because I come from the country whose father of the nation is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. This way of living that Mahatma Gandhi practiced is preached and today when it is taught one important factor is missed which goes together with simple living, self-sufficiency.

This may be my limited extent of knowledge that makes me says that this is the first community I saw which practices this collectively. What fascinates me more than ever is that it is practiced by this close-knit community in a country which is the biggest consumer, where technology is fashion and corporations create a need for something that is not required at all.

In this small town of Shipshewana, an Amish elderly person took us in a two horse Buggy through the town and countryside. All Amish family houses are huge with few acres of farm attached to the house. A dairy farm of about 20 – 50 cows is a part of their house. Religious and Spiritual history of this culture can be googled but the experience of visiting this place is very peaceful. Knowing that there exists a community which lives life similar to our ancestors few generations ago is hard to believe. These people do not believe in higher education. There are Amish schools which cover grade 12 education by the time they graduate grade 8.

We were told that the schools do not teach religion, it is left to the church. Another peculiarity is that Amish communities do not build a church building. Instead every family gets to invite the community members to their house for church service. Every thing in their lives revolves around their house.

In these towns the mode of transport is buggy. Bicycle riders are common and very few ride trucks or tractors. Electricity is powered by generators fuelled by biogas or natural gas. Agricultural machinery is driven by Horses. Horses are bred within the community. Percheron horse breed is the one used for agricultural purposes. Everything that will reduce the dependency on money and eventually economy is raised in the town. Self-dependency indeed!

Sunrise 2010

More than 6 months into 2010 and this is the first sunrise we happened to watch. I do not want to count the ones I look straight into on the way to work, during winter months.

Prepared to witness the sunrise at 5:57 am we had our boat inflated just in time. Ananya woke
when we paddled to the middle of the lake. At the break of dawn the flora was ready to capture the first rays of the new rising sun. The rays were mild and penetrated through the dark to touch the flowers. This picture is of a wild flower; common daisy. Member of the sunflower family and that explains why its up so early in the morning.

Ananya was excited to see water all around her. Within minutes the bright sun was out and innocence dissolved into the prime rays. After paddling for about an hour we were back to the shore.

Hoping to get out more often and enjoy every sunrise.

Mushroom Hunting

Mushroom Hunting! Well, this sounds very peace loving sport. I have however never been in the woods hunting for these suspicious umbrella shaped fungi. Damp and rainy weather and relatively warm fall climate favor the growth of mushrooms. There is a wide colorful variety of mushrooms out there in the woods. Few are edible and few are super poisonous. It is good to have a thorough knowledge of the safe and deadly species before trying out the raw product from the wild. BTW you veggie lovers, Mushroom is also called chicken of the woods.
Ananya, Shalaka and me were out to take some pictures of fall colors and this mushroom was fitting very well into the fall color theme. We didn’t have enough information on edibility of this fungus, so we spared a colony. The universal edibility test I am aware of is to observe if the wild life enjoys it as their food. Will try and observe it some other time. For now I know for sure that I enjoy eating mushrooms.

Where is my food?

One fine early morning, this squirrel was spotted with a big nut running away from its mate to save its food. His mate was smarter than this poor creature. Other squirrel used his tricks and snatched the food and vanished.

Not seen in this picture are its four front teeth which never stop growing. This is perfect for their omnivourous diet. This is an American red squirrel. It has a reddish fur with a white under-belly.

It has a long list of predators and I was one amongst the list to shoot at a good moment. Squirrel nests are most commonly constructed of grass in the branches of spruce trees. And thats my next target.

Lost In The Grind

Very much comparable to a sparrow, my mind gets programmed to do monotonous chores day in and out. I heavily depend on external source to trigger my inner senses to get out of my comfort zone.

With several thousand wrinkles more than a sparrow’s brain, our brain has the ability to store mental images - Images about people and many other assumptions. These also are assumptions about your own capability to take up new tasks and complete with commitment. These images shape our perception and eventually ability to perform tasks necessary to change our lives for the better.
Mental images are tacit. Recognizing and putting a mental image to examination, indeed calls for some coercion.

Scrutiny, aspiration, assumption, inference, skill – put all these words in context to this topic. Without the word “action” the engine runs at a constant speed.

Courtesy with Sensitivity

Entrepreneurs are making a good fortune by teaching executives and onsite engineers on culture. Culture primarily means etiquettes for these teachers when their target audience is a group of people destined to a new country. Every HR decision maker has always felt the need to invest in these programs for obvious reasons. Deals and projects go wild when communications fail.


Who else can be more sensitivity to culture than we people who make a quick gesture of apology when their feet touches another person. Same etiquette holds true in our culture where books and written materials are treated with respect and as a form of goddess of learning. Imagine how a disrespectful offender is looked upon.


These are few common examples to sensitize us on this topic. Now similarly, when it comes to some other regions of the world, time can have same intensity of cultural value. A recent experience was during a 1 day visit to Niagara Falls. Loads of Indian Film industry crew men were present for a outdoor shoot at this marvelous place. Wow that was a moment of pride for me to see a film being shot and the female performer dressed in a sari. Some music was running in the background and the director and then the performers were doing re-take after re-take. We were in the line standing for about 40 mins for a film crew. This was a day of vacation for about 300 people standing in line. Not a single person lost patience. Not a single person probably expressed his loss of patience. Everybody was observing the act being performed.
The crew finally let the tourists go to their awaited destination under the falls of Niagara. No sign posted to appreciate people's patience and no word of gratitude from the crew was no surprise.

The moment people started passing near the crew members, all they could hear is "Hurry up guys". Excited crew member must have used these words without realizing what it would really mean in that situation. With tourist around this crew from world over, the lasting impression left was not good by any means.

How can one be sensitized to surroundings? What do you suggest?