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Journalism of Courage
HE spent weeks in the Himalayan caves, sought peace in a 8220;nomadic8221; life for a decade and then turned to philanthropy in Kullu and Lahaul. But now, Eris is on an assignment that marries his qualification as an architect and his calling. The Italian, settled in this hill town for decades, now plans to build earthquake proof houses with natural material and use them for what he calls charity tourism.
This, he says, is the link to join development and ecological conservation. Eris has been motivating local residents to construct houses using stones, bricks and waste wood, all locked together with kaath-kundi spider joints. The process does not involve cutting of trees and the wood used is drawn from old and damaged traditional houses in the Valley.
The experience, he says, is hard-earned. 8220;About 30 years ago, Himachal showed me the way to peaceful living. I had a long journey before reaching Manali. After leaving Italy when I was 16, I reached Iraq where I worked as a house builder. A year later, I moved to France and worked there as an agricultural expert.8221;
In 1977, Eris came to India, visited Kolkata, Banaras, Bodh Gaya and some places in Rajasthan. 8220;I had visited India with a belief that human kind did not have a future. But, in India, a revelation came to me that there is also another side of the so called coin of human life8230;I got a job in the Indo-Italian Agricultural Olive Project and moved to Banjar valley in Himachal Pradesh in 1979. Then I decided to stay on,8221; says Eris.
He chose to live in tents and lead a nomadic life. Then he bought a dozen horses to move to Lahaul and Spiti, ferrying peas and potatoes for a living. He also transported stones to help build a hospital at Keylong. 8220;It went on for about 10 years and I took up seasonal work to guide trekkers and transport ration to various government depots on my horses. Things changed in 1992 when my first daughter was born,8221; he says. He decided to settle in Manali.
8220;I set up a small diary farm, started teaching local residents how to make Italian cheese. This was the beginning of the diary business in the valley,8221; he recalls. Then came the calling to turn eco-friendly house builder and a philanthropist.
There8217;s some stillness now. Into his 50s, Eris, with some like-minded people, set up the Philanthropic Fund for Spiti and started an old age home five years ago. They were among the first to motivate the women in Leh and Spiti to collect and market seabuckthorn. That8217;s a long journey on the green route to development.
