Anna Hazare on fast..

Heard of Anna Hazare? Pl see here .
He is an amazing person who transformed a village (a failing one at that) in to a model village. Brought about lotsa change and improved livelihoods. There was a detailed serial on him in pasumai vikatan (a tamil agri mag from the vikatan house).
His deeds are so impressive. The most striking for me is his work on watershed management. Later on he also became a big champion of RTI (Right to information Act) and has many achievements to his credit in that facet too. See here and here for more info. He, with his ingenious ways and ideas, transformed a barren & desolate village and uplifted so many rural lives. The village became self sufficient infusing all his idea(l)s touching ecology, environment, self sufficiency, upliftment of downtrodden, getting rid of drinking problem in the community, micro financing, local market n coop, community irrigation and what not! What impressed me the most is water conservation as the first point of his ventures and I always feel that water conservation shud be the moot point to any eco restoration or for any livelihood question.
A cricketer, ex-service man and a big social activist! What a resume!!

BTW what bothers me now is he is to go on a fasting from Oct 2nd. Pl see here ! He is fighting against corruption- yes, one of the rare champions against corruption today.
With elections due in Maharashtra will politicos play some tricks and hush him up?
I wish more people recognize his work and help him in Maharashtra. And he gets to have a say in maha-politics.
Pl follow this development closely and wish for his success folks!

Pumpkins

Very topical isn’t? U see this white pulpy stuff, not really white, but blood red sprayed as pieces all over. Oh yes! We need all those evil driven off, so we don’t care about simple drivers like u & me..so we throw these pumpkin pieces all over -fully made up with red kumkum and what not.
But this post is not riling about that stupid act but something else connected to the same veg. We all know, its but normal for its price to soar beyond all logic this time of the year.
I got a call from a friend who said his friend from TVmalai called and that they had plan(t)ed pumpkin to make some killing (business, I mean) but things were different. They were offered only Rs 2 to 2.50 per pumpkin (not kilo!) and asked if I could help him. Hey, I can explain the whole dynamics and give you a reason why this phenomenon happens every year.. he immly said ‘I thought u were retired and u were not a consultant any more..’ joke, eh? Poda..and he continued “..so u cant help..” Not that I can and I did not, but this is far too gross for any one to intervene and pitch in.
These guys denied accepting that. They even asked some shops here at madras and they were offered Rs5/-!! They thought there should be some way out of this rut. They wudnt sell their pumpkins for 2 or 5! So they arranged to bring a full lorry load of it with a person from there. Then they just piled them up on a road side in Madras outskirts and sold each pumpkin for Rs20/- u math wizards calculate what % the middle men who offered to buy at 2 wud have made! The only expense these guys had was in ferrying the whole load to Madras. That costed them 3750/-
Oh! Don’t forget the Rs350/- they had to give to the cops each day of sale. How cool, eh?
So, whats the way out? Buying locally, buying from the source or atleast knowing the source, buy from small organic shops who procure directly from the farmers offering fair prices (eg. from restore), buying from farmers market (uzhavar sandhai) are some ways. Sadly, unless the Govt intervenes these ills shall remain.

Borlaug, green revolution and some facts.

You all would have seen the News report about Norman Borlaug's death. So obviously you know that he was the father of green revolution.
I was so fed up of the coverage and the paeans being sung about him with not a single article about the facts or atleast some shades of truth somewhere about the fall-side of the green revolution. Inadvertent or otherwise many proponents of GR did not realise they fell a prey and lost the art of sustainable agriculture and did push the modern agri beyond repair with the many ill fall outs. The main impact being on environment, next the livelihood of farmers (why else so many suicides here?), sustainability and water. I mention water separately from environment bcos one has to see (read) it to believe the impact of green revolution (chemical farming) on water.

Then I visited Devinders blog and came to know he had indeed written an article in DNA which I missed out. Am sure most of you would have missed that too. so here it is for you to read and masticate.

Unnai pol Oruvan

literally translated it means: One like you..referring to the much cliched 'common man'..
remember A wednesday, I wrote here long back? A very well made movie- very contemporary and original in ideas..
That movie has apparently impressed kamal so much, he jumped in and (re)made it in Tamizh as Unnai pol oruvan..

Its just for those who haven't seen the hindi original. If you haven't seen the hindi version, happily go and watch it,for this nice, simple, different thriller can impress you. No songs, no fights and just 90-100 mins movie! Even the Tamizh version!!
Believe me, this Tamizh version is no patch on the original. Not even Kamal could match Nasrudeen Shah. So no need to mention about Mohanlal's role which was done by Anupam Kher. These 2 guys would have given extraordinary performances earlier(and can still give), but here they werent needed or this didnt excite them.

one thing that stood out in this movie was the close up shots of the old veteran actress Laksmi. hmm, what could be the reason to have such close up shot? some sort of a fear factor for a thriller movie? or is that chottu photographer of salangai oli (yes, that chappie is the director of this movie)employing those funny talents of salangai oli still? that was funny! All this when you couldnt even gather a reason as to why did that role need some one like Laksmi who is supposed to freak out on meaty roles. She is wasted here.

Then there is the kamal's trademark cheapo effects..like panning on to MK's house and the Chief secretary's car leaving from MK's house, MK"s voice as the CM on phone..yuck...cheap thrills those were..infact in the original there was scope to ridicule the CM, Chief sec and teh governance, where as here thats all lost..only Kamal can come out with suck pranks.remember the Bush look alike in dasavatharam and all those talks of organising a show of that movie for Bush? ROTFL..what if the Bushy fella had actually seen it:-)

All said and done, this is still a neat movie esp for the first timers..No songs, less than 2 hours hollywood style presentation, slick & simple portrayal are all to be welcomed and encouraged.
But please dont see the original till you have seen this. That can spoil the fun, everywise.

Update 1: forgot to mention the usage of too much of English, how ever impressive though. some sentences like " answer in binary..yes or no..", " This terrorist is currency and community agnostic.." ain't that too much?

Update 2: After the movie (at Maayajal) we went to the Arusuvai Arasu restaurant. and came up with the brilliant idea to get even with another friend of ours - of getting a ticket to the movie Kandasamy and order 'chilly parotta' from arusuvai. No better way to get even with any one u wanna penalise no ends. now, if u happen to step in to that arusuvai restaurant, just ask for the menu card and eat that. They are not going to serve you any thing better for sure;-)

Cycle

Those were days when cycles were a pride possession. Kids like us longed for one..aped at some well made-up and stylish ones..many times as we grew up, we all rode Kilometers in it- be it to play a cricket match in the next village or to go to a cinema in a far away town or just-for-fun trip to some friend’s house in next village..In our town, Neyveli, every house had 3 cycles atleast..That was the most popular vehicle..I still remember when my classmate viki’s parents bought him a cycle, he couldn't take it and flaunt at will.It was new and so had to be sparingly used and 'well maintained', u know. So he would ask me to come to his house and call him for a long drive (or to visit some teacher for some ‘doubt’ ‘clarification’) so that his parents wud allow him to take his new prized possession:-)
Hmm..those were days of nice simple but satisfying living..no excesses..Clinging to these small pleasures and making the best out of them was the key.
The cycles were one such gem. Slowly it was pushed to oblivion. Even as we all moved to colleges, slowly chetaks, M80s and TVSes started to surface in our small town and in to our own lives too..
Tough I did come a full circle in this ‘development’ cycle- graduating from cycle to a TVS50, then to a TVS Suzuki 100CC bike then a 4 wheeler..I was back to bicycles at CH but it was used only for the short rides & to catch up time in reaching station or gym. Back there at Swiss, rarely we used to go on long rides to next villages or riversides as a group. These trips also were far less than what we intended or planned.
All this build up is bcos, I was suddenly craving to ride a cycle in a city and am thrilled I did it! In this recent visit to Bangalore, I took my BIL’s cycle (a stylish looking geared one!) and decided to accomplish my one day’s meets/visits in that.
And I did that with élan er ease I shud say. That shud be a solid 20+kms..in blore terrain that’s an additional challenge. For the records, I went from taverekere to Koramangala from there to lalbagh main gate (to that organic mela!), then from there all the way to south end, then sangam circle in jayanagar, from there to JP nagar and finally back to Taverekere via BTM. 20+ in one afternoon gave me some ‘accomplished’ feeling and also the thrill that I didn’t spew any CO2. I rode it like a king with such a great relief and thought that my whole noon was so ecofriendly, travel wise!
So now that the night after passed off without any pains or discomforts, am wanting to do more of this cycling..not only for the nostalgic thrills but also for the carbon credits I can have..Now don’t mumble ‘to offset else where..’ like W. just cheer me;-)
Note: In the process I went to 2 apartments to visit my cousins and both the places the kids playing gaped at my cycle (so kids still gape at cycles, I realized) and shouted ‘hey, that’s a firefox’..poor me, I didn't know what that was, until my nephew updated me.

Kudos! great News that!

I had mentioned about a draconian agri law introduced by the TN govt and a massive meeting organised by various NGOs to fight it. I am told that, the same meet was held with great vigour and enthusiasm. Apart from very many farmers from all over TN, there were some politicos like Dr.Ramadoss, Mahendran of CPI, etc and the special activists like Devindar Sharmaji.

pl see here for a narration by Devindar himself.

and to great relief of all concerned this Law has been withdrawn!

some rare quick succes in our democracy!!
3 cheers to all concerned! Thats a great deed and a great news too.

Tibits

Many things happening! no time as usual and so here comes a quick whirl update on many items..

Rajasekhara Reddy died..am sorry for his family & friends..otherwise I wish such untimely deaths to politicians teach them enough lesson and they stop their amassing- intermittently atleast and do some useful contributions..what ever and how much ever they amass, many times the untimely death leaves the swiss banks & such likes to enjoy all these ill gotten money..even their nearest kins do not get a major share..I find that as a poetic justice but wish these politrickos learn..

On RR again- am not happy with all these eulogies being showered now and suddenly making him some angel just bcos of his sudden death! He was never the saint they all make him to be..he had a very tainted bloody path, big accusations of amassing wealth (obviously in wrong ways), involvement in most AP scandals incl our golden boy Raju, typical congress growth, etc. am happy atleast one commentator has written about his antecedents here (thx Nats)

as for those who committed suicide bcos their beloved leader died..hugh..what say? Didn’t they do the right thing?

**
BJP is the entertainer of the (last) month..oh of petty fights and scramblings..silly pranks..hasty and funny accusations..a team that’s not a team..a party that’s not a party..ha haa..but whats this about Jinnah and them..

Jaswant can only be a liar to state what he has (if he has) in that book..come on, don’t ask me if I read that book..I never will even if jaswant were to share all his dough (he makes from this controversy/book sale) with me..(incidentally remember he created some flutters like this last time he released a book and kept quiet when asked for some prrof?)

And for such a man to now accuse of lotsa things and people..all these rear end thinkers piss me off. WTF was he doing there all these days? If Advani was rot, the party’s decisions were rot, many of the leaders were rot, future leaders are rot, many decisions of his ministry was rot..may be only his flight to Kandahar was right..oh! BTW he makes the best choice to become the next DMK leader..he can freak out there..some one pl tell him, he has a future there.. and that he can still stick to that Public accounts committee and all those groundnuts & cashew freebies that comes along. Cheapos..

But am very happy that BJP, RSS all are proving to be mass entertainers..may be they changed strategy to win over people.

**
There is a draconian law introduced in a very hasty manner on the last day of the last session along with some 29 other laws in some 20 minutes.

This TN bill is to stop traditional agricultural practices and to move the farming systems towards western interest. (remember the KIA signed by the last central govt silently along with those noisy 123 pact?)

So prolly the western masters have read that TN with this non-government is the best place to test waters..may be they are right..not many even know of this law..No one other than a person whose name is borne on the register shall practice as Agricultural consultant within the State of Tamil Nadu or render Agricultural services. Indirectly stopping all those practicing traditional farming and the knowledge/torch bearers but letting the big chemical companies of the west dictate the future of our agriculture. How nice!

**
On the same topic: There is a “CONSULTATION ON TAMIL NADU STATE AGRICULTURAL COUNCIL ACT, 2009” at 10 am on 9th September 2009 at ICSA Centre, 107 Pantheon Road, (opp. Govt. Museum), Egmore, Chennai. If you can, participate.

**
Ok, that’s already long..am cooling my heel at blore..ok, not really cooling but enjoying the cool clime here..among other things I would also attend a South Asian conference of the Organic farming community at GKVK campus for 3 days. Hoping to meet lotsa interesting characters..so more stories beckon.

whats on your plate?

see this!

do you see the restore in small print?

That was one of the school talk & screening show that we took part along with prakriti foundation.
did u see those tips? try some of them or all of them and benefit.