Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish essayist, once said, “Man is a tool using animal”. In our daily life, most of us use countless number of tools. We use vehicles to reach office, pen to write letters, wrist watches to check time, and so on. Every product or service, at the end of the day, is a tool.

Professor Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School wants businesses people understand this simple fact. He rightly observes that people only “hire” a product to do a job – for instance, customers do not want to own a six-inch drilling machine but what they want is only a six-inch hole.

But many businesses try to sell their “solutions” (their products) to people who do not have problems. Mobile phone is a good modern day example of this. Using heavy advertising, promotions, and creating aspirational value, companies sells feature-rich phones to everyone. Even in rural India, people who earn low wages, save whatever they earn for days and months, often neglecting to spend for their basic needs, to buy high-end smart phones. So, it is tempting to define mobile phone as “is a man-using tool”.

No doubt, mobile phone is a highly useful tool for professionals like doctors or fire fighters who should be informed of an emergency instantly. Why would an accountant or a student need one? Even if we need, do we really need the so-called smart phones that come with camera, calendar, torch light, radio, music, audio recorder, TV, projector, and what not. 

Here the question is who is smart? The company that sells phones that we don’t need? Or the consumer, who parts his/her precious earnings to buy something just to impress others? You know the answer very well!

We may think that smart phones have helped us stay connected with our family and friends all the time, even when we are at work. However, studies show that we are losing our hard-earned rights for eight hour work with mobile phones. A recent global study, 'Well-being of the Mobile Workforce', suggests that besides the loss of work-life balance, "connected" professionals suffer sleep disorders, higher stress levels and reduced productivity gains.” The study covered over 5,600 mobile enterprise employees at 1,100 companies worldwide.

It is in this backdrop that, we at Aravindh Herbal, brought back the humble landline telephones, and freed our staff from working after office hours. Today, in our office, there is a landline phone on every desk. Though our customers can leave their message or orders round the clock using our Interactive Voice Response System, our staff can be contacted only during office hours.  Let us use tools and do not let tools use us.

Few days ago, the Ministry of Environment & Forests, banned mining, quarrying, major construction, and setting up of certain types of industries in and around about 37% of Western Ghats, the mountain ranges that are identified as the hottest ecological hot spots by UNESCO. This is good news for people especially of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, whose health and wellbeing depend largely on the bio-diversity of Western Ghats.

Not just Western Ghats, in general, the territories of south Indian States like Tamil Nadu are rich in biodiversity. Western Ghats accounts for just about 5% of India’s land, but it is home for over 5,000 species (or about 30%) of high plants in the country.

In urban areas, people intensively plant trees in small areas. This phenomenon is came to be known as “square foot gardening”. The idea is to grow more in less space. It can be said that when God tried His hands in square foot gardening, he chose Tamil Nadu, because, terrestrial biodiversity, the degree of genetic, species and ecosystem variations, tends to be the highest in this region, even among the south Indian States. One of the indicators of Tamil Nadu’s rich herbal treasure is the traditional knowledge of people about herbs, and their contribution to India’s traditional medicinal systems including Siddha and Ayurveda.

One of the indicators of Tamil’s knowledge of herbs and Tamil Nadu’s herbal treasure is the fact that Tamil language has more words for herbs than any other language in India or the world. (Among over 1,22,000 vernacular names for herbs listed by this online database, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu put together account for about 42,000 herbs. Sanskrit itself has only about 20,000 words. However, Tamil alone accounts for over 41,700 vernacular words.) 

If you happen to be in Tamil Nadu, all you have to do is take a walk in a barren land and pay close attention to the ground, you could find a rich variety of plant species even within small areas. Our own factory and office is located in the foothills of Western Ghats, at Rajapalayam, surrounded by large swathes of barren, uncultivated lands. 

As shown in the photograph, one square foot of land has about eight different plant species including plants with rich medicinal value, including Kolunji, Perkannuppullu, Pal perukki, and Kurunthotti. 

It is our duty to conserve our biodiversity and see to it that it is protected from narrow economic interests. 

Sitting on floor in an archetypal position such as squatting and kneeling can reduce the incidence of musculoskeletal distress. Once squatting and other forms of floor living – squatting, kneeling, crawling, etc on floor - were seamlessly weaved into everyday life.

However, our modern society does not seem to appreciate the importance of floor time for health. In fact, sitting on floor is simply not possible. Our schools, colleges, and offices are not designed for squatting.  

With all sorts of furniture for all rooms, there is no place for squatting in our own residences. You cannot sit on floor to have your meal at a hotel – why hotel, even the daily “annathanam” (food offered at temples), especially in Tamil Nadu, are served in tables and chairs!

Furniture can serve as status symbols, but research shows that it is unhealthy. Sitting is the new smoking, says Mayo Clinic of the US, one of the world’s leading hospitals, echoing the well accepted view that sitting on chair for a long time is bad for health.

Hence, at Aravindh Herbal Labs, we create chair-less offices and offices with options for squatting. Quite recently we removed chairs at our training hall - our staff and employees take part in training programmes comfortably sitting on floor. 

This is in line with the mission we stand for “Going the traditional way” for healthy life.  Even today, all Eastern traditions honour the art of squatting – Japan’s seiza is famous among them. And people have started realizing the importance of floor living. Let’s “past forward” for a healthy life!