The Guru

I went to the outskirts of Pune, where the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) http://www.arti-india.org/ is sited. Three small rooms on the second floor of a rather unprepossessing building are where it all happens. Dr Karve had been out of town (when I’d spoken to him the previous day, he was still on the train) and here he was, smiling and courteous – the great man himself.
Dr Anand Karve, a botanist, has ideas on everything, and a great desire to help his fellow man in the hard rural conditions of the sub-continent. Working on the premise that if the standard of living can be improved in the rural areas, there will be less migration to the cities, he set out his stall of easy-to-follow technology. The global poor have always followed the route to where they believe the urban money lies, and as we all know the streets are never paved with gold, and so an urban sub-class of slum dwellers develops. Dr Karve’s techniques are simple, effective, and based on sound science. They deal with seed sowing and nursery culture, irrigation and other husbandry methods; charcoal making, better stoves, and the use of food waste to replace gobar for a more efficient supply if biogas. These and more we discussed, and he has been very generous with his time.