HYDERABAD: V Ramachandrudu, based in Nagole, devoted 33 years to the NGO sector, serving across India. Afterwards, he embraced sustainable living with eco-friendly practices and pursued his entrepreneurial aspirations. He and his son Bharani built an eco-friendly house using green building technologies. “When I was working in the NGO sector, I used to talk a lot about these eco-friendly ways of living and gave a lot of lectures and advice to everyone, but it was high time for me to inculcate those ways in my own life. So when I was constructing my house, I thought about how to be a responsible citizen. And that thought was the start of ‘Sontha Dabba Sarukula Santa’.
While talking about the construction process he says, “Our house has roof water harvesting, we filter the rainwater and use it for household purposes. The amount of wastewater that goes out is about 5%. For the furniture and everything, we got wood and required properties from other old dismantled houses. We acquired door frames and window frames. Thankfully I received good quality pieces and antique pieces. I didn’t buy anything new except for the bathroom, rest is repurposed material. We made sure we get enough natural light, while constructing walls we used a technique called rat trap bond, which allows better thermal insulation. It makes the house naturally cool, we don’t have any ACs or coolers,” he said.
Ramachandrudu also makes bio enzymes, biogas, biochar, and shampoos at home with kitchen waste. He expressed his joy in his son, Bharani, sharing the same beliefs, leading them to undertake more eco-friendly endeavours together. “Sometime later, we fixed the solar panels, my maximum electricity bill is Rs 22,” he says.
Bharani creatively constructed a compact home in their front yard, utilising large shipping containers measuring 10 ft in height and 8 ft in width. “I liked his idea, so I joined him. The furniture and everything inside, he made with repurposing material. The exciting part is, we found joy in exploring the city finding alternatives to plastic and everything. We almost did a PhD in finding different types of materials to recycle, in the city, in this process, we became welders, carpenters, and artists,” chuckles Ramachandrudu. He also collects scrap material from the tailors around and stitches them into quilts and bags, “Bags are my conversation starters. Whenever I go out, I take my stitched bags. They would be intrigued to see a man wearing bags first and then ask the whereabouts of the bag. I enjoy stitching these things for fun and giving it to my friends and family,” he says.
As Ramachandrudu worked with the NGO sector for a really long time, he came across many farmers who were doing natural and organic farming, producing chemical-free jaggery and millets. “We encouraged them to conduct a market cum food festival near our colony, surprisingly no one from our colony visited but people from the city visited and said that they would need more such items in the regular market, so I thought I can make this happen at my house. Bharani also makes various products with millet, he makes pizza with millet dough and calls it ‘Mizza’.
We made a shop in my residence with recycled properties, i.e., Sontha Dabba. As time passed, I came across a lot of entrepreneurs who had similar mindsets. They had products but no market to sell. I thought collective efforts would be better than single ones. So we collectively come together and run Sontha Dabba Sarukula Santha once a month. We have a product range from rice and pulses to cotton dresses and chemical-free cosmetics. We might not get a huge turn-up, but we see more people joining every month. This month we are conducting for the 11th time on July 30,” he concludes.