Masanobu Fukuoka...at Your Doorstep!
ServiceSpace
--Praveen Krishnamurthy
2 minute read
Oct 29, 2012

 

What would you do if Masanobu Fukuoka was at your doorstep?

My cousin, Shri, narrated to me this incident in the life of Dr. Narayan Reddy, who is a well known organic farmer in Bangalore. In the 1970s, when Dr. Reddy was taking to organic farming he had heard about Fukuoka and studied his technique of farming. Soon Fukuoka became an inspiration for Dr. Reddy. But there was no way he could travel to Japan to meet this inspirational figure in his life. In recalling this incident with Shri, Dr. Reddy shared "There was no way I could go to Japan to meet Fukuoka. So, I just sent a prayer to God that I would like to meet him once and left it at that".
Much later, Fukuoka was in Calcutta, India attending a conference (or something like that). He was also scheduled to go to Pondicherry on his tour in India. On his journey from Calcutta to Pondicherry, Fukuoka made a stop for one night in Bangalore. Someone at the guest house where Fukuoka stayed got to know that he was a renowned farmer, so he told Fukuoka that there is an organic farmer close to the guest house who does similar kind of farming. Fukuoka felt called to meet this farmer. So, he (along with his translator) went up to the farmer's house and knocked on his door. Dr. Reddy opened the door and could not believe his eyes. He broke down right there and fell at Fukuoka's feet. And, Fukuoka was puzzled by this reaction, until the translator explained that Dr. Reddy could not contain his joy at Fukuoka's visit.

Dr. Reddy is 78 today and still works in his organic farm, and has trained many aspiring organic farmers over the years.

In narrating this incident, I could sense a change in my cousin's voice. It had softened, and I thought I saw a tear in his eyes.

 

Posted by Praveen Krishnamurthy on Oct 29, 2012


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