BJP wins karnataka!

Its good that one party was (s)elected by people this time..atlast kar people did something credible.. infact SMK wud hav been my first choice for CM..but u never know abt cong..they wud have been squabbling had they won, thus enabling instability back..that way this is a good verdict though I wud have loved those 3 seats too in the BJP's hands..else the Karnataka games shall show up soon!
One astounding thing is - there are people who still vote for the gowda family ! the poor farmer(s) family with only few 1000 crores apiece?? Hmm..they shud have been routed was my wish, even though KS showed some semblance of sense in his initial days as CM.
But people of Bangalore deserve some nonsensical treatment just bcos of their pathetic turn out on election day. If they are dominated by such apathy they deserve just that from their rulers!

Restore - Bazar 1

Regulars here know of Restore - an initiative to address various issues like environment, organic farming, health, etc and ofcourse about the organic products shop front we planned to have.

While we are still looking out for a shop space in south Madras, we are holding the weekly bazar at a friend's garage in Besant nagar where we shall sell all organic, chemical free poison free food products, organically grown fresh vegetables n fruits, garden inputs, bio & naturally dyed clothing materials, products made out of banana fibre (like file folders, attractive bags etc). This is an unique once a week organic jaunt and we wish chennai folks benefit out of this. If you stay around besantnagar and didn't visit this bazar last saturday, u erred! u missed something good too..so make it next week..

meanwhile see this: (esp click on the 3rd foto and read the poster contents!)

Phone etiquettes

HALLLOOOOO..ALLLLOOOOOOOO..
Did u hear that so loud in a hospital or a cinema distracting so many around..did u ever wonder like in so many things we have been bowled over by the tool or a service and
(ab)use heavily with out the slightest indication of what are the dos & donts..
Here I see lots of ‘elite’ ‘white collared’ ‘aristocratic’ offenders!
Can’t we adhere to some basic discipline?
1/ Strict NO to mobiles where ever it is prohibited! (hospitals, gas stations, schools etc)
2/ No loud ring tones at public places
3/ Shift to Silence mode at places like temple, restaurant etc and definitely in meetings.
4/ Talking on a cell phone with one hand on it and a bent head while driving – its chaos and inviting trouble. To see the two wheelers do this perilously riding with the mobile and a side stepped neck hanging is a nightmare.
5/ Lets learn to honor calls. If we gave our number to someone, lets understand we shud also take the call. (We did have the option of not giving our number anyways). Also to note is that any missed call warrants us to call back. Its basic courtesy.
6/ Never ask ur kids (or any youth for that matter) to ever lie on your behalf. That’s a double blow.
7/ No SMS to folks late in the night unless its an emergency and surely not jokes or good night messages. That’s a total abuse of a terrific tool!
8/ finally an anecdote which changed my handling of wrong calls: It was 80s when Madras used to have 6 digit phone numbers. Tambaram started with 40 and adyar with 41. My aunt happened to call from Hyd to my uncle's house. She didn’t know it had apparently landed in to adyar exchange number . She asks for my uncle and the one who received the call asks ‘whom do u want?’ & says 'none by that name here' and she thinks its one of us trying our regular pranks and so says ‘ I can make out fool, give it to uncle’ for which this man says ‘ sorry Iam Jesudas..i think it has wrongly come to my house num’ (last 4 digit being same). YES! The famous singer Jesudas who happened to pick a wrong call but courteously asked from where she was calling and on knowing she was calling from Hyd he said “oh! If that’s urgent tell me, I shall call that tambaram number and convey the message..”in the process stumping my aunt..If such a tall figure can be so courteous we can be even better. Got it?
And we also had this long back ain’t?

Sevalaya result!

Remember sevalaya? The 12th (+2) results are out and its happy scene out there, yet again!
Sevalaya's Mahakavi Bharathiyar School has secured 100% pass in the Agricultural stream for fourth year in a row. We also got 100 % result in the Biology stream. 80 students from 3 streams of study viz Computer Science group, Biology group and Agriculture group and 79 of them cleared their exams successfully. The overall pass % is 98.75. The school topper is S. Umamaheswari, who has secured 1097 marks out of 1200. She has got 581 out of 600 in her core subjects. R. Ramachandran came second with a total of 1082 and the third place is secured by S.Surya who has scored 1062 marks.
The students of Sevalaya School are from poor families and most of them are first generation learners. Of the top 3 students, Umamaheswari's parents are daily wages labourers; Ramachandrans father rears cattle for daily wages and Surya lost her father at a very young age. Her mother works for daily wages.
Iam so glad these kids from this school are doing so good. You will have to see it to believe it! First generation kids to first study sincerely then to exceed so well is amazing. Remember how much we were egged on by doting parents, kith, all n sundry and then the tutions, question banks, notes and what not!! Atleast irritating comparisions to some BS or VS “see how come he always gets 100 or 99.8 and u also do so bad!’ that’s prolly for the 95 u got! The ones mentioned above are just the top scorers but in my op all those kids deserve the same adulation. Thats very heartening. Kudos & thanks to Murali and his team there!
Meanwhile be assured that such grassroot projects are India’s hopes. These projects sustain only out of regular and ample contributions from u(s) folks..so go here and donate..be happy u supported a very honorable cause!

Any idea?

How did mankind get to this? To randomly kill anyone anywhere..It could be me or u, who was there as a tourist or just on an official visit (infact my only visit to Jaipur is a 2 day official visit in 90s) and you could have benignly chosen to have stroll around the market place. Even worse, you could have thought of giving one of those poor rickshaw fellas some evening dimes and so cud have employed him for a short ride and could have ended up being a statistic. (what else, with our govt’s apathy and lack of intelligence? what else is the death toll but stat?) But just tell me who gains out of these dastardly acts? What did that innocent u or me did to get that?
When ever I see such news I get in to a loop of trying to seek (or write about) some other good deed just as a reiteration for myself that there’s still some hope..here is the hope this time:
Svalbard global seed bank Norway is one such welcome news. Though it is a couple of months since its opening in northern tip of Norway closer to the artic (north pole), this is a heartening news. This is a mission to save the seeds of various crops across the globe from any catastrophe and for the future generations. This seed bank which is constructed 120 metres inside the snow capped mountains can hold the seeds in frozen state from 100 to 1000s of years it seems. The highlight is this project has strictly not taken any genetically modified seeds. So there is some hope for the future generations, atleast in the form of native seeds, even if we manage to screw up the climate and environment beyond repair. As is the case in many good causes, Norwegian govt has pitched in heavily from the beginning! For more info and to donate for this project go here
Finally, if u are looking for more lighter material see this – Arjun singh says “iam not a sycophant! we all know what that means in congress;-)

Tamasha at IPL continues..

Mallya spells his mind and that's fodder enof for MSM..only proving that he is thinking postfact..who in his mind wud invest so much on Kallis and then have him sit out! Which of that is wrong? If u don’t have (good) advisors why wud u even venture out? And the bytes that come out for Blore players (chk those of Shahrukh and VVS esp) is even more funny.. But can any one justify picking Joshi and Kumble:-) for how many $$$ that is?
Slowly but surely IPL is showing off that it defied logic from the start..good for the game..
I only wish somewhere it hits the Board and they suddenly spruce up the grounds and atleast have the toilet facilities and other basics straight..what a shame we still talk of such issues when their coffers are overflowing…
'Shame' reminds me of Harbajan and looks like he shall be let off..that's not good for the game and not for Team India surely..but we all know everything is ‘fixed’ and follows a pattern in this game these days..else how wud one explain this sudden “suspended sentence” for Shoaib Akthar and this convoluted design to let him play some matches for the kolkatta team..This sure is not a sport anymore folks..
while on it, to talk of some plus- see warne bowl and captain (oh! did i get that order wrong)..to be fair I told long back that the teams to watch for wud be Hyd and jaipur. one failed..but i backed Jaipur bcos i love watching warney bowl..but he sure has bowled us all over not only with his wrist but the googlies of thoughts with which he entangled all opposition till date! what a miss for Oz ain't?

great!

I don't think the TN govt took that decision on their own..i dunno if the courts compelled or if some other political compulsion paved way..
But its a great relief in Madras nowadays..Its more breezy say some, its more green say others, its more bright say some..
after all the hoardings (illegal ones) have been removed, Madras is a real great sight..
I really find that breeze thingy and more visible green cover to be true..
Thanks MK..that's a treat.

more poison folks?

Heard of the unseasonal rains in most parts of TN in April? heard of the cries of farmers of the loss?? heard of the big shouts from govt side about compensations???
ok, we all know what happens to such compensations, who really benefits and all that..
2 observations that struck me the most during my travel just after those rains..
1/ happened to see few of the farmers who had practised SRI method (aka madagascar method) and the loss was not as heavy. infact the paddy stalks were standing straight enof as against the now-regular bunch crops. hmm, way to go ain't?
2/ heard about lots of livestock perish suddenly after that rain, esp goats..it was founded that it was due the (excessive) usage of some toxic chemicals (in the form of pesticides & fertilisers). got it? the chemicals used for the short term produces like various dals/beans in that season were in high quantities in these plants and due to the unseasonal rains the plants fell and most of them rotted. so the chemicals were copiously dispursed in to the stagnant water. The livestocks that happened to feed on these stalks or water perished! so now they slowly realise what killed the livestock could infact kill us humans too!! some more poison folks?