moi on Radio- 105.6 FM

Through my good friend and blogger(oops, is it ex-blogger nos going by the frequency at which he blogs these days) Thennavan, I was called by Gyanvani- a community FM radio channel under the All India Radio. This is being broadcast today, saturday, april 10th at 7.35pm. There is a repeat 2moro, sunday morning at 7.40am.
This was free wheeling interview on Organic farm, farmer, produce etc..
It was nice interview..
Those of u who can, try and listen..
ofcourse give me a feedback of what should I have included or changed or not said..
otherwise, it was a fun experience for me and so just to share my fun, u listen.

BTW they gave me an envelope when I left and I was so eager to see that, which I could only after I was out of their campus. It was a cheque for Rs.400/-!!!! my only earning since I returned back to india 4 years back! nice feeling, eh!

Huggi

Heard of Huggi? Pronounced ‘Who gghee’..
Supposed to be some south canara stuff.. akin to pongol but has pepper in powder form..the mung is roasted (in ghee, what else?) and then cooked like pongol!

That was the special of the day when I walked in to Karanataka sangha – Nungambakkam culturals..
Got the wind?
Madras music season is back…yes so soon!
and so the canteen hopping begins.. I really love the concerts as much as the different canteens at diff venues (as blogged here yesteryears!)

Still, to spot a new item like Huggi for a foodie like me is amazing!

As for the concerts its just hotting up…outstanding for me was the Lec demo by Aruna sairam! Unique experience..

Oh! Btw its winter (yes, tamil month of margazhi) in madras and so u wud see lotsa people with the monkey cap, muffler around neck & ears and funnily with sweaters even inside the halls/sabhas:-o

If you are in Madras just lap it all up- the winter, music season and ofcourse all these special food at each sabha canteen..

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.

its all happening..

a talk at Rotary silver beach at Madras on "why organic" and a film screening at Madras Terrace house (see here for their eco-month program) by restore followed by an interactive session.
The madras Terrace house was very eventful : a nice film - Poison on the platter by Mahesh Bhat, followed by an interactive session with the IT-turned-organic farmer jaishankar. That was a very nice and informative session.
The ofcourse all our restore regular activities taking so much time, I hardly had time for other things..
so I really sincerely thank Dhoni for this goof up..for he singlehandedly saved me quite some hours! thanks buddy! BTW, Iam sure that only with his faulty captaincy and scratchy batting he screwed it up for chennai kings in IPL and India @ T20 WC. He shud learn to receive these flaks with some grace for he was enjoying lotsa of adulation in good days. I really cant get how one could bat like how he is doing these days esp for a flamboyant batsman like him!

BTW am off to wayanad, Kerala for 4 days- an outing with some friends and wud also visit a great guy/farmer/farm there. wait for a nice piece on him on my return.
till then be friendly- eco friendly. Those of you in Madras see if u can visit Madras Terrace house

cool Madras!

Its surprisingly so cool in this time of the year here at Madras! yes,around 20 degrees at nights and early mornings! Thats incredible in the 'hot, hotter, hottest' Madras.
So you will find all these monkey caps, sweaters and shawls being sported, funnily all over. I think its just about pleasant at nights and thats all, but all these warm clothings are on display:-)
still its nice to have such a pleasant surprise in Madras. Global warming, anybody?

Slum – the other side!

Or Lake – the other side!
Ok, in these days of slumdog frenzy u wouldn’t even care and let go that title!
Call it conflict of interest. Or just what ever..
I had to visit a slum or a part of it – as most of it was demolished.
But then it was on a lake in the south western suburbs of Madras (near tambaram). Normally am associated with renewing or restoring a waterbody. But here, a friend of mine asked me to volunteer with a group of people to go and survey for the details of the slum dwellers out there. As a part of a court directive many encroachments around lotsa lakes in Madras are being evicted. This means demolishing of structures too.
What would have otherwise been a passable news pulled me a bit more closer.
Knowing fully well it could be in contrast to my views & passion, I went sniffing.
Its after all some leg work they are asking for, so what – I thought. But it was a school for the slum kids run by one old lady that was also demolished.
I am not going to talk of the emotions behind running down a school, her fight or the pains and ruins of the poor slum dwellers on that lake.
Man! What a sight. What a place to live. Forget that all this is on a lake like most urban suburbs that unknowingly eat up water bodies. But what a pathetic sight.
Its not that I have never visited a slum or unhygienic rural spaces.
But this is one time I walked up & down across and also on the rubbles and we really knew what ‘shit’ was below.
All of us – our government, NGOs, me, you, just about everybody– have failed them and so badly. Not only did none educate them of the necessities of a water body or why such encroachments are so bad for next gens but we all didn’t care to tell them how & why it was important for them to live in better conditions. On one side the water body and water table was being polluted by these people and on the other side (again on the edge of the same lake) Municipality was dumping all our urban wastes.
This sandwiched slum was unlivable. Why is it that none seems to take any care for improving their conditions?
And now they are offered compensation! A piece of land as a relocation package. Lets even ignore the fact that this one cent (one 100th of an acre) is too less. Who will check if that is a good enough place. Who will ratify if that is not a marsh land or some other land that some other court order can shoo them away? Who will educate them and help them plan a neater and healthier surrounds? Esp now that they will start all over from 1st ball!
BTW a family (or was it more?) that was living right in the midst of garbage dump has been spared!
If there is an after life justice, we all shall be condemned to live in some shit hole for sure. That then should be a fair deal.

One news, so many views

Or was it one view & still so many news!
His Holiness Dalailama was in town. I was there, thanks to sangeetha. It was nice to see such a big crowd show up at Madras to such a nice man. One of the few whole hearted practitioners of peace inspite of the Chinese onslaught, he is a man I rate very high. After having seen many tibetians esp during our tour of north sikkim, my reverence to this man increased manifold.
But one thing that struck me after attending his speech at the Madras University was – One need not be a great orator to be so successful & popular! In our college days we wud have named it ‘sappai’. It was a flat & bubbleless speech though interspersed with some western-like humour. But one could see how transparent, nice, cool and honest he looks and speaks. It was an experience, but failed the expectations! One image stands in my view still: a bunch of tibetain students from madras who were seated in the adjacent rows were seen standing with folded hands and so much of reverence in their eyes till he walked away from the stage.

Now to the subject: I told u I was there! I heard him say- He had no role to play in the srilankan crisis. Inspite of being a Buddhist leader, he said his attempts to bring some reason/sense in to the Burmese Junta failed and said it could go no where even if he interfered in the srilankan govt, inspite of it being a Buddhist country. He said his visit to srilanka, a Buddhist nation, has not been approved since 1970s and he has never gone there! He said violence was not a solution, but sadly he had no role to play.
But what did our media report it as?
Express said HH is not ready for a role in lankan crisis and Deccan said he is in for a role, Times said he will meet the lankan envoy and Hindu had different version!
Phew.. that’s amazing! In my opinion they all should have failed in SSLC if they ever went to school, for they couldn’t write this one small reply correctly!

The season!

Madras Music Season is so special IMHO. In my expatriate days too I used to try and travel back home during dec/jan for 3 reasons: music season, jan 14th Thuglak readers address by CHO and the weather will be the best in Madras then.
Now, I find the season becoming bigger & popular each year, which is a good thing. In the last 3 years I have seen a remarkable increase in the no of events, performers and rasikas. I did mention here how it was like going to a theatre for some of the popular artists’ concerts. This year too, last Sunday, W & me were left stranded for tickets to Aruna sairam’s concert at Narada Gana Sabha. I was only happy bcos am impressed with this surge in interest -how ever much it cud be a fad and ‘been there done that’ feel, it’s a good thing to have.
Its another matter that I caught up with aruna sairam’s performance in the next days. If u were to attend only 2 concerts this season, I would recommend Aruna & O.S.Arun. Although I wud venture to see how the newbies like sikkil Gurucharan and Charulatha mani perform.
And to name the best canteens – I didn’t venture out much to canteens (2 fasting days came up) and so an update from me at the end of next week shud be good. Till now music academy and Nungambakkam culturals (Kannada sabha) are at the top.