Ancient Wisdom &Traditional Way of Life

In ancient times, our ancestors used to ground wheat in a traditional 'chakki' or a mini stone flour mill -The varieties of wheat and millets were grown in paddy fields adjoining their homes. Fruits were plucked off the trees grown in their backyard- have you heard of the 'wax apple' fruit or 'Chambakka' or the 'Jackfruit'? Food was always 'Farm to table' - a concept that is gaining a lot of attention today. This is just one in many stories that used to be our life when we were young. Forgotten just before the pandemic but now we see the benefit in eating 'healthy', living a stress-free life, bringing a sense of balance in our 'work-life'... Like..

• Getting in touch with nature - or going for a ‘Nature connect’ barefoot walk that stimulates the soles of your feet, Hugging a tree, talking to plants, growing your own vegetables in the office/ your homes etc.
• Living a life without medication - which would mean a deep look into the nutritional value of foods served in the cafeteria
• Stressing on the importance of getting in touch with your inner self through yoga and meditation 
• Being minimalistic in our homes and work habits – from minimizing our waste and pushing to adopt clean energy with a zero-carbon impact on our world.
• Being a global citizen – contributing and supporting the global community and disengaging from geopolitics.

This system exists in societies which have living traditions — the human population therein learnt its limits. It sensed that key resources — clean water, air, food and energy — needed for survival are scarce.
Hence, these societies used these in prudent ways. Farmers would therefore rotate crops in agriculture, city dwellers would preserve rainwater, etc.

And finally - here is a solution that has been heavily ignored and should be considered an important aspect of workplace planning

Most times we are inside a conditioned space with artificial light and air for a minimum of 8 hours a day – so maybe we need to mandatorily conduct our work outside of the office on a regular basis, build outdoor meeting spaces or collaborate in a natural setting or it could be under a tree …. Maybe a Bodhi tree, after all the BUDDHA found enlightenment under one!

Learning objectives:

• Connecting as one with the Ecosystem – respecting your environment, how?
• Can a workplace be designed to emulate an outdoor space ?
• Using local materials - circular design was always a way of life in India
• Can we move towards minimalism to conserve depleting resources?