have been travelling

last week has been hectic- no newspaper, tv or mail access..
been around salem, ooty, coimbatore areas..
till i get time to catch up, mulch this!

some change, eh?

One of the serious mails (left over from my professional days) that I received recently said this:
1800 new projects were added during Jul- Sep 09
25 were Cement projects, 58 Steel projects, 28 Textiles projects,
54 Thermal & 41 Hydel Power projects, 878 Roadways project,
152 Water Supply Schemes
106 Commercial Complexes and 301 Real Estate projects.

Oops said my mind..my heart bleeds..what a catastrophe says my brain..how much pollution, how much effluents, how many more tonnes of carbon di oxide? how many more lives??
Hm, what a change in a few years, eh?

Monsanto- Devil of this century!

see here for a recent verdict against them..
yeah there are scores of such verdicts against them but these master manipulators somehow manage to get away and amass..
see this to get an idea of their modus operandi..so many 'big scientists' and politicos have been in their pay roll and so influenced public(opinion) in favour of their products.

So if you didnt follow any of the anti-GM fights, just go by one rule. if Monsanto is involved just be sure its for public evil and run for cover.
more on GM in this blog earlier is here and here

BTW did u guys see this film spoken about here? atleast read that review to get the full gory picture.

BJP & Thirunavukarasar!

Most of you would not even known this politico! He was a minister in MGR cabinet and then became a Jaya loyalist and like many others,was booted out by her..Their enmity was such that when BJP and JJs ADMK had an alliance few elections back, JJ’s prime condition was this Thirunavukarasar should not be fielded. And shamelessly BJP accepted to that demand, though this man has a big clout in his area. He was with BJP for quite some years after that shameful event. BTW all these shameless points are not what I want to point out. Now suddenly this man has left BJP:-) guess why?
He cant stand communal politics of BJP!
How nice, eh?

Sachin - a gentleman? a role model??

You see and hear Sachin Tendulkar all around? Its more bcos the media decided to use that thread now, for lack of anything else spicy..we all know their regular 'news deprivation syndrome', don’t we?
Why is 20 years any special? Especially when every outing, every century, every move of his has been celebrated..
I accept some of his strokes and innings are the best you can get to see in cricket. For me the back foot punch screaming to cover boundary splitting the fielders is an unbelievable stroke..and it has been produced too many times and so is the best shot of his.
But I do have lotsa questions esp now that they are ‘over glorifying’ this demi-god..
-has he ever delivered some sensible sentence, even on cricket except the mundane- bowlers didn’t bowl well, batsmen didn’t bat well or such like..
-has he ever stood up to any nonsense diktat of the selectors. Mind you, if he didn’t (or cant) none can..for he is the god of ticket sales all over the world even today. So in his prime he shud have stood up to them..but did he?
-Actually one hears his voice only when he is endorsing some rubbish product for some crores..
-Remember Pulela Gopichand? He refused to endorse pepsi or any cola just after his All England win. He said he wouldn’t endorse any wrong/unhealthy product to next gen!
-Will sachin ever do something like that? Oh! Well, we hear he wudnt drink the competitior’s product..how nice?
-Oh yeah! Remember how he used his clout and pull to avoid paying the tax for a Ferrari? Oops that Ferrari itself came free and he wanted to avoid the tax too..hmm what a standard to set aint for the youngsters?
-Has he ever voiced something politically correct or more so against something (politically) wrong?
-I remember reading (in Madhavan’s report or some such 100+ page document) that almost all bookies attended his marriage! If true what a sham! Esp when so much noise was made that it was very personal and none including the press and big wigs were invited. (I accept that part of not welcoming press and others..but the presence of all bookies, hmm?)
-If many incidents like that of Azhars, prabhakar’s siddu’s, Cronje’s etc
happened so close to your room or right under your nose, what should your reaction be? what do u expect from some star like this? A role model, eh?

I still accept that he is a class act. I do accept some of his innings are fantastic to watch even today. Also his conduct as a player in & off the field, his matured way of carrying his head well in tact above his shoulder all through. There are so many pluses.
I do accept his slips especially in the recent past and I do (almost) endorse every word of Prem’s thoughts on this recently (and do check the link to his earlier take).

But what I cant stand the most is his failure to stand up and set an example..
So I really object to this inundation of adulation. I will question his stand and stature outside the arena..I feel we have every right to question that..He is a great in this game, but not a gentleman and definetly not the god or role model the mass media is trying to portray him to be.

Adyar poonga

We all know that Settlements historically have always been along water ways...we also know that in the recent past (4-5 decades) mankind has screwed up the waterways-by encroaching water ways and waterbodies ignoring the fact their dependence on these very water bodies. If its not encroached then we have dumped - effluents, debris and what not? So there is a Pressing need for sincere and urgent revival of waterways and lost ecology around them.
One such step towards eco-restoration and sustainability is Adyar Poonga in the heart of Chennai.
This is a 58 acre land which was abused by the urbans (fruits of development & urbanization!) to dump all their wastes! Hmm..wastes in to water body..that too in a creek, estuary..the loss? The flora & fauna- typical estuarine birds and aquatic, semi aquatic lives.
This poonga project apart from the 10s of 1000s of varieties of tress that have been planted will also bring back saline ecosystem like the crabs, insects and fish. So a whole gamut of flora and fauna surfaces to its old glory in the famous Adyar creek:-)
The man behind all this is Joss Brooks- the same aurovillian, who did a great recovery at pitchandikulam forest! More on that here.
Iam amazed at this man’s passion, energy and great work in the few times I have met him since couple of weeks. Its fascinating to know that he has tons of knowledge and more importantly executing this project with such finesse and ease covering all aspects- beauty, nature, walkways, enviro friendly, sustainable, community involved, Govt minus bribes and this list gets bigger & bigger.
The estuary part that has seen some recovery already has some unique birds showing up. There has been quite some species spotted here these days.
Many school kids come here to get an environment initiation. There is a cute little exhibition and his team of able players like Dr.Karim and Preston add so much value. Another very striking aspect of this project is the involvement of the Govt arms in a very professional manner and the community too.
Iam thrilled at the prospect of pitching some things here..I wish to really steal as much time as possible and invest here.it worth every bit of it..its already a great place in my opinion..and to leave such a show case of a park/garden for the next gen is unbelievable..
For more info see here
So a new association starts for me..hope to get more info here as things progress..
BTW this is open to public only from Nov 2010. so wait till then except when I call you for some tree planting or such like programs out here.

an inspirational video!

One day, a son asks his dad "Daddy, would you like to run a marathon with me?"
The father says "yes".And they run their first marathon together..

Another time, the son asks his dad again "Daddy, would you like to run a marathon with me?". The father says "yes son".

One day, the son asks his father "Daddy, would you run the Ironman with me?

The Ironman is the most difficult triathlon ever...
4 kms swimming,
180 kms biking and
42 km running.

And the dad says "yes". The person running in the video is the DAD.
The story looks simple until you watch the following clip.
Just amazing.
not to be missed..

Compounder and a generational shift!

Heard of this word - compounder?
Wikipedia doesn’t even recognize this word!
The free dictionary says this.
Regulars here know that I come from a small town (oh! Yeah that heaven of a place called Neyveli. Ok, if u ignore that environmental disaster its mines was, it was heaven in many ways. The best part was >300 trees per head!)

There in that cute small town, you have to head to one corner for all ailments. GH!! Join a big queue bcos half the town and those ill from 18 villages around will only land up there and collect a slip to the ‘directed’ ward and there again sit on the long benches and wait perennially for ur turn to meet the doctor. Oh! Those long waits, the humming big fans above (How did they ever keep the regulator, if any, in 0.25 or lesser? And do you call it running still?), big chats of all diseases all round, and sudden spurts of actions- every one will rise and move 1-2 inches towards the doctor's door, every few minutes..The best part is one needs to bunk school for sure bcos no one ever went there early and got back in time for school:-)

Coming to the matter, atlast u get to sit in front of the doctor who is already tired of seeing so many patients and prolly the same symptoms as u. So he urges u to move fast with a scribbled prescription. Come on! Don’t try to read that, u can never decipher it.
Here enters our hero.
So u rush to that small window (or the ulta “U” hole in the wall) and flash your paper.
Its only this compounder who can decipher that and then in a swift move will take a cut paper and pour some powder and fold it in to a neat packet. If you are lucky this powder could be colourful! But more colors follow if you have been prescribed some syrup..oh! I know lots of them ask for the doc to write a syrup – all rose, pink and jarring colors. The more colorful it is, you get well soon- goes the local folklore..
If you had gone for some skin ailment, hmm, u had it. Poor you. All u get is a slimy jell like colorless substance. yes, that would stink too. You apply it and whole town knows you went for some skin problem to the GH. But even that is packed in 2 small pieces of paper by this compounder fella. Actually thinking back you always had stuff only in paper or bottles. How lovely and ecofriendly my upbringing has been:-)
But we never thought for a second what was given..None of us knew.. these stuff were all called APC, PPC, PP4 injection, Kalimbu and what not..
So this Compounder fellow was the king mixing away to glory.
If you pan over from the kid’s view of amazement of his job at the hospital, its even more incredible.
Say there is an emergency or just some high fever or suchlikes in the evenings, the townwalas never ran to the GH..they just call this Compounder and this man will come with his stylish leather bag in a cycle and mix something, then pick up one injection and insert and collect the pennies and run..all this he would merrily do till late night. Prolly all the input was flicked from the GH including the syringes (oh! Those days they were (re)used till they wouldn’t even enter even the cotton bunch).
There was one compounder in the other end of the town who would ‘put injection’ for all ‘rohas’ and so was the most popular and so became richer by the day and slowly progressed to a 2nd hand Lambretta and upwards..

I was suddenly thinking of this Compounder yesterday- as a word and as a job its not seen these days, but only people from my generation and before understand.
NO! may be my grandfather wudnt..

That set me to thinking more..My grandfather had never visited that GH (for that matter any hospital) and when he was seriously sick (almost all knew it was his time and so dutifully wanted him to part from the GH, which was the norm those days) too he objected to going to hospital or consuming medicnes..”che englishkaaran maruntha yevan saapduvan” used to be his regular retort when ever he used to have these small niggles..
But he did have his own treatments..he wud squeeze a lemon (plucked fresh from the garden- oh yeah, each house in Neyveli had so many trees) in to his eyes so casually or he would just squeeze tulsi or some erukkan leaves on some injury or rub aloe vera on cut wounds or cloves to be ‘adakified’ inside ur mouth for hours or such like..
Ok, I didn’t value that and so like lots of other special, traditional talents he had these also went to the grave (that’s for another day).
But This man hasn’t gone or seen the compounder and so not those chemicals- powder or injection or syrup or what ever..

So where did we lose this war?
Do you get it?
Like in many things, my previous generation that of my parents lost:-(
In the guise of development or Englishman’s way or science or just aping the west, it’s the previous generation that lost it all..and ofcourse we also followed it blindly..

Do you really get that?