Long before climate change made people wonder about pursuing a minimalist life, Dr Hema Sane, a botanist and an author who had taught at Garware College from 1962 until she retired in 2000, was already deep into it. Her home in Budhwar Peth never had electricity because “we had lived without electricity for generations and I decided not to change anything”. She owned two saris for everyday wear, and a few for when she went on stage to receive an award to deliver a lecture. A voracious reader, who was curious about the world, and chose to live by her principles, Sane passed away on September 19 at the age of 85.
“She had been ill for a few days but did not want to go to a hospital,” says Manish Agarwal, her long-time friend and caregiver. Sane’s body is at Sassoon Hospital and her last rites will be on Sunday.
The best way for a newcomer to find their way to Sane’s house was to ask any bookseller. Sane had published books, such as Medicinal Plants, Plant Morphology and Anatomy and Kahani Masalayanchi, a story of spices; Marg Shashwat Vikasawa, on sustainable development, and Buddh Parampara Aani Bodhivriksha on the trees of Buddhism.
The house, which she allowed to become an overgrown ruin that was frequented by birds, mongoose and squirrels, was a four-storey wada where four generations of her family had lived. For years, Sane had been living there alone in one room, unafraid because her precious possessions were books and papers that were of no interest to thieves.
Sane studied with kerosene lamps in childhood and completed her PhD from Pune University. She followed it up with an MPhil in Indology. “I did Indology after I began studying ancient Indian history and culture one summer as I didn’t know what to do during the holidays,” she used to say.
With a strong sense of humor and an endless reservoir of anecdotes, she would talk about greenhouse gases and give examples from history and myth about the importance of the environment in one’s everyday life. She used to cite the example of Emperor Ashoka as “one of the first to declare rules for the protection of the environment”. “We only know of Gautam Buddha but there were 27 others before him and each had his wisdom tree,” she said.
She was aware that her lifestyle was eccentric. She even had an answer: “My wicked, wicked lifestyle is dear to me,” she used to say.
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