Time for a fun blog entry. For some time I have had the urge to write some of the fondest memories I have of my childhood. I find some of them very funny, hope I am not the only one who feels that :)
1. Although now it doesn't look like my brother could ever have been small but there was a time when he was. He was extremely good at making me aware of my bullying tendencies:P My favourite was me tickling him just enough that he falls off the bed. His ego hurt he would hurl himself back only to be tickled off again. Oh my god! that was so much fun. Now there are times when I think of the 90 kilos of fat in his six foot three inch frame and despite being an atheist, pray to god that he did not take those things too seriously.
2. Well this one is my favourite. I am the eldest in my family from both my mom and dads side. I think that led to my being the default punching bag of the family. Whenever anyone wanted to give a lecture, all they had to do was get hold of me. I have had lectures that continued for more than two hours on how my book shelf is not tidy, how when my grandparents were young they used to walk for five miles to school and so should I, how I have to make the family proud. The most irritating part was how mom used to add fuel to the fire by saying the wrong things at the right time. Interestingly, she does not remember any of it now. When grilled on how she could do that to me, her response is, " Really? I did that? "
3. I have faint recollections of this one. I was in prep class in my new school. Since my mom was always shouting at me, my dad was my favourite teacher and I used to study only with him. The class had 3 term exams. I secured third or fourth rank in the first two ones. In the last one I came twentieth or something. When my mom asked my dad how did this happen, he said to her, " I wanted to see how much he can get if he gives his exam without studying. Twenty is not that bad! " .
I can go on and on, but I have to get back to work and this looks like a decent enough blog entry to not get judged by S and D about me being a sucker for increasing my blog counts. So thats it for now.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
350 Cycling Rally
For those who do not know today is 350: The International Day for climate action. Find the details here . As part of this we had organised a cycling rally in Bangalore the details of which can be found here .
This was my first experience as a member of a cycling community and to say it was fun would be an understatement. Around 50 cyclists travelling together for a forty five minute ride in the heart of Bangalore was bound to attract a lot of eyeballs. Riding in pairs and chit chatting with people with whom the only connection you have is your interest in cycling is not an experience you often get.
Highlight of the day would be two seven year olds Advaith and Arpita riding with the gang. There mom came to the starting point and left them responsible to the group. (My double thumbs up to the mother of A & A) It was amazing to see their enthusiasm. I am pretty sure there will be someone who will start cycling just because they saw these kids today.
MMs efforts despite the fact that she almost ruined last nights party were highly appreciated. It was awesome to see everyone wearing blue coloured bibs spreading the message of 350. That she did not ride herself is altogether a different matter!
However, I was not able to appreciate the climax of the rally. At the end we were supposed to get together in a "350" formation and get photos clicked. Somehow we got permissions to do it in the middle of the road. It took us around 20 mins to get this thing done. Obviously, we caused a lot of inconvenience to other people. Sometimes people ( I am including myself) get carried away when they do things they passionately believe in, forgetting the impact it is having on other people. The next time I see a jam because of people doing something on the road, I don't think I will have the right to call them jerks.
Overall it was a very fulfilling day. Three cheers to D, MM, Dodo and Hallidude for pulling it off. Dodo is one of the most enthusiastic guys I know of in Bangalore and Halli is on his way to becoming a politician in his own right.
Btw today I rode the maximum I have ever done till now in one day. 24Kms! Hopefully I will break this record next week :)
This was my first experience as a member of a cycling community and to say it was fun would be an understatement. Around 50 cyclists travelling together for a forty five minute ride in the heart of Bangalore was bound to attract a lot of eyeballs. Riding in pairs and chit chatting with people with whom the only connection you have is your interest in cycling is not an experience you often get.
Highlight of the day would be two seven year olds Advaith and Arpita riding with the gang. There mom came to the starting point and left them responsible to the group. (My double thumbs up to the mother of A & A) It was amazing to see their enthusiasm. I am pretty sure there will be someone who will start cycling just because they saw these kids today.
MMs efforts despite the fact that she almost ruined last nights party were highly appreciated. It was awesome to see everyone wearing blue coloured bibs spreading the message of 350. That she did not ride herself is altogether a different matter!
However, I was not able to appreciate the climax of the rally. At the end we were supposed to get together in a "350" formation and get photos clicked. Somehow we got permissions to do it in the middle of the road. It took us around 20 mins to get this thing done. Obviously, we caused a lot of inconvenience to other people. Sometimes people ( I am including myself) get carried away when they do things they passionately believe in, forgetting the impact it is having on other people. The next time I see a jam because of people doing something on the road, I don't think I will have the right to call them jerks.
Overall it was a very fulfilling day. Three cheers to D, MM, Dodo and Hallidude for pulling it off. Dodo is one of the most enthusiastic guys I know of in Bangalore and Halli is on his way to becoming a politician in his own right.
Btw today I rode the maximum I have ever done till now in one day. 24Kms! Hopefully I will break this record next week :)
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Friday, October 09, 2009
Naxals: Do we understand the problem?
1. 220 districts out of 660 are Naxal effected.
2. X number of Cops have been killed.
3. Our Home Minister has declared a war against Naxals.
These are the kind of news items that you get to see whenever there is any mention about the Naxals in the media. What I would want to hear is how the problem really started, what were the points where we failed as a community,as a state, as a country.Did this problem became so huge all of a sudden?
The media often limits their side of the story to them demanding (besides release of their leaders:) ) all inclusive growth. "All inclusive Growth", wow! What the hell is that!
We have pushed tribals out of forests where they have been co-existing for centuries . Our landless farmers get into a debt of FIVE THOUSAND RUPEES and commit suicide. Our leaders just before the elections use our tax money to waive off their entire loans as nothing but a popular measure. But Equitable Growth, what the hell is that!
See this post which I had made on Praja some time back. At the end, is a mention of the discussion some of us had with Dr Balu from SVYM.
"
The highlight of the day was meeting the person who started all this, Dr R Balu. He told us that his mission was to reduce the inequity between the Urban and Rural India. Then he explained what he meant by inequity. He gave examples like-
2. X number of Cops have been killed.
3. Our Home Minister has declared a war against Naxals.
These are the kind of news items that you get to see whenever there is any mention about the Naxals in the media. What I would want to hear is how the problem really started, what were the points where we failed as a community,as a state, as a country.Did this problem became so huge all of a sudden?
The media often limits their side of the story to them demanding (besides release of their leaders:) ) all inclusive growth. "All inclusive Growth", wow! What the hell is that!
We have pushed tribals out of forests where they have been co-existing for centuries . Our landless farmers get into a debt of FIVE THOUSAND RUPEES and commit suicide. Our leaders just before the elections use our tax money to waive off their entire loans as nothing but a popular measure. But Equitable Growth, what the hell is that!
See this post which I had made on Praja some time back. At the end, is a mention of the discussion some of us had with Dr Balu from SVYM.
"
The highlight of the day was meeting the person who started all this, Dr R Balu. He told us that his mission was to reduce the inequity between the Urban and Rural India. Then he explained what he meant by inequity. He gave examples like-
- The Kabini River dam which is in HD Kote supplies 40% of the water supply of Bangalore. Yet,at HD Kote all they get is water enough to irrigate 3000 acres of land!
- The hydroelectricity generated over there is around 27 MW. If all the electricity needs of HD Kote are meet the maximum demand it can have is 3-4 MW. Yet all they get is 10-12 hours of power supply. All the electricity is sent to Bangalore.
- The Contribution of the tertiary sector in Karnataka's GDP has increased from 18% some years back to 36% now. However the population engaged in it has grown only from 1.4 % to 2%. During the same time the population involved in Agriculture has declined from 65% to 61% only. In short the inequality is increasing.
- In Rural India, for every 100 children that start schooling, only 7-8 children complete it. While for Urban India the figure is around 80.
He further said that it is difficult to get industries to HD Kote because of poor infrastructure, even promises of cheap and skilled labour are not enough to compensate for badly built roads and power shortage."
Based on all this, is equitable growth too much to ask? Are these kind of issues at the heart of the trouble which we are facing? Is declaring a "war" part of a long term solution? Don't you think these guys were pushed to the walls by their own state? Did they actually have a choice?
Right now all I have is questions. I hope some body has answers.
Climate Change: Its for Real!
1. Monsoons Shift by 2 months.
2. Unprecedented Floods in Draught Prone North Karnataka/Andhra
3. After being declared a draught state we have a possible flood situation in UP.
If this is not climate change then what is!
I think Indian Government's expectation that developed countries take the lead in solving this problem is very short sighted. It is high time we accept that our doing or not, we are going to be affected by it. In fact our population is going to be the most effected by it. Climate Change is real and we have to do something, anything!
For a country like India it is an opportunity to take the lead in sustainable development. It is an opportunity to make the west follow us in 50 years time. Innovative ways to fulfil our energy needs, Protecting our bio-diversity among other things are need of the hour.
The trick is to take climate change as an opportunity to bring the next revolution instead of thinking it as a hindrance to our growth.
What is depressing is that I haven't heard/seen any media mention of linking any of the above incidents to climate change:( Its high time we get going. Any politician listening?
P.S. All those who are with me in thinking, Gandhi was wayyyyyyy ahead of his time, say aye!
2. Unprecedented Floods in Draught Prone North Karnataka/Andhra
3. After being declared a draught state we have a possible flood situation in UP.
If this is not climate change then what is!
I think Indian Government's expectation that developed countries take the lead in solving this problem is very short sighted. It is high time we accept that our doing or not, we are going to be affected by it. In fact our population is going to be the most effected by it. Climate Change is real and we have to do something, anything!
For a country like India it is an opportunity to take the lead in sustainable development. It is an opportunity to make the west follow us in 50 years time. Innovative ways to fulfil our energy needs, Protecting our bio-diversity among other things are need of the hour.
The trick is to take climate change as an opportunity to bring the next revolution instead of thinking it as a hindrance to our growth.
What is depressing is that I haven't heard/seen any media mention of linking any of the above incidents to climate change:( Its high time we get going. Any politician listening?
P.S. All those who are with me in thinking, Gandhi was wayyyyyyy ahead of his time, say aye!
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Change: A Short Story
There were four friends, 1 chick who is militant in her environmental beliefs and is ready to kill humans to save even a canary, lets call her MM. 1 guy who is a darling of his friends, makes people laugh but has a troubling habit of forgetting. Amongst the things that he has managed to forget is his bike in the college, his car at the metro station and once both at the same time, he is called PP. 1 dude who besides being extremely smart and sexy is also funny,caring and passionate. His name is SSS. The last old fellow, well, his friends used to call him Adolf. I think that is a description enough :)
So these 4 friends went on a trip.For those who don't know, MM is a little radical about not buying mineral water bottles and soft drinks. PP on the other hand does not share similar sentiments. What ensued was a battle of wits between MM and PP. MM not letting him buy bottled water and PP making fun of MM not letting him buy bottled water. Not to say this was turning out to be a fun trip for SSS and Adolf because of it.After Having Filtered water for 1 day and witnessing 1 sealed water bottle thrown in the trash by MM(that is a separate story and the author encourages its readers to pursue MM or PP to know more about it), PP finally asked MM why she is doing what she is doing.
Shocked at realising that PP has no idea why MM is like that, SSS went about explaining the reason. He told him that for every 1 litre of bottled water 3 litres of water gets wasted in the filtering and processing of it. He also explained the impact of all the trash that gets generated in the form of plastic bottles. Adolf added the humans are trashing 11000 plastic bottles every second. It was also brought up that these bottling plants are set up in agricultural areas where these plants get water supply by boring. As a result the water table levels nosedive, making water unavailable to the local farmers forcing them to migrate to cities and increasing the urban poor population. The impact of soft drinks is similar if not worse. Not to mention the profits which these companies are making on resourcesto live happily ever which they get almost for free.
Listening to all this PP converted. Not only that he also promised to convert more and more people.
To end the author can say, And they drank happily ever after :P , but the "ever after" will depend on whether we as a whole are able to stop ourselves from using bottled water.
So these 4 friends went on a trip.For those who don't know, MM is a little radical about not buying mineral water bottles and soft drinks. PP on the other hand does not share similar sentiments. What ensued was a battle of wits between MM and PP. MM not letting him buy bottled water and PP making fun of MM not letting him buy bottled water. Not to say this was turning out to be a fun trip for SSS and Adolf because of it.After Having Filtered water for 1 day and witnessing 1 sealed water bottle thrown in the trash by MM(that is a separate story and the author encourages its readers to pursue MM or PP to know more about it), PP finally asked MM why she is doing what she is doing.
Shocked at realising that PP has no idea why MM is like that, SSS went about explaining the reason. He told him that for every 1 litre of bottled water 3 litres of water gets wasted in the filtering and processing of it. He also explained the impact of all the trash that gets generated in the form of plastic bottles. Adolf added the humans are trashing 11000 plastic bottles every second. It was also brought up that these bottling plants are set up in agricultural areas where these plants get water supply by boring. As a result the water table levels nosedive, making water unavailable to the local farmers forcing them to migrate to cities and increasing the urban poor population. The impact of soft drinks is similar if not worse. Not to mention the profits which these companies are making on resourcesto live happily ever which they get almost for free.
Listening to all this PP converted. Not only that he also promised to convert more and more people.
To end the author can say, And they drank happily ever after :P , but the "ever after" will depend on whether we as a whole are able to stop ourselves from using bottled water.
"Climate Change and its impact on the poor and third world countries" : Talk By Vandana Shiva
I had attended a talk by Dr Vandana Shiva quite some time back.
Below are my notes of the talk. I haven't verified them and are mostly for my own reference but I do want more and more people to know what she said. ( Its also possible that I may have written down something incorrectly)
1. 3 major greenhouse gases are Nitrogen Oxide, Methane and CO2 in decreasing order of harmfulness. NO is 300 times more damaging the CO2. The major source of NO in the atmosphere are the nitrogenous fertilizers that are used very liberally these days.
2. She has written a book called " The Violence of Green Revolution" (In case some one has it,then do let me know :) ) where she tries to dispel myths which most people have about the Green Revolution. Green in "Green Revolution" never meant environment or ecology as is commonly mistaken. In those times Green basically meant !=Red which was the color of communism. This was taken as 1 of the ways to prevent the spread of communism.
3. There is no documented data that the use of foreign seeds, fertilizers has actually increased the size of "the food basket". Rice and wheat were the major beneficiaries in the states of Haryana and Punjab but that was at the cost of oilseeds,pulses,millets etc, the size of the entire food basket DID NOT increase.
4. The chemical way of farming has had its own impact. The dwarf seeds which began to be sown were shorter in height resulting in a scarcity of fodder. In a country where most of the farmers are landless labourers, livestock is their actual asset and when the supply of fodder dwindled so did the livestock.
5. If you have noticed, the fields in southern states almost always have coconut,betelnut trees grown alongside the crops generating additional sources of revenue for the farmers, this practice is completely missing in Punjab and Haryana.
6. Green Revolution was/is a very high cost system. Genetically Modified Seeds, Fertilizers, High Water Demand. Between the years 2002 to 2007 the water table dwindled by 100 cubic metres in the entire North India!
7. For those who are interested she has another book titled "Soil Not Oil " . However I don't recollect what that book exactly was about. I am pretty sure you will find some of the stuff which I am going to say in it.
8. There are 3 kinds of draughts. Ecological,Soil and Aquifier. Ecological is when we actually have less amount of rainfall. Soil is when the soil is dry, which I think can be due to the wrong kind of plantations grown continously. An example in mind is Eucalyptus ( Bringing it from Australia was a mistake of gigantic proportions!). The third one is aquifier draught which is basically drying up of the water table.
9. A researcher, by the name of Somsekhar Reddy if I am correct, studied the recent drought in the Northern Karnatka region of Dharwad. His studies showed that the rainfall Dharwad received that year was at par with its average rainfall, however, the draught was caused due to continous plantations of Dwarfed varieties of Shorgum!! In other words it was a man made draught!
10. Major sources of methane - Plastics and Animal Industrial Farming.
11. The issue of climate change has to be tackled as a whole and not in parts. It is imperative that Glaciologists,geologists, marine scientist etc study it together and not limit the impact to their respective fields. A case in point that this year in Bangalore, it looks like that the entire monsoon cycle has shifted by 2 months! The metereologists will say that bangalore received above average rainfall for the year 2009 but they can not measure the impact on bio-diversity of this 2 month shift.
12. Another alarming fact which she mentioned (take it with a pinch of salt) is that out of the 10 rs Lays Chips packet which we munch away, 0.08 paisa actually goes to the farmer! Pepsi gets a profit of 8 rupees on every 10 rupee packet!
13. Another issue is the outsourcing of pollution. The carbon emissions by a country is a false measurement criteria. Japan, EU, USA have stopped Aluminium and Iron Production. This does not mean that they have stopped using it. Consumption rather than production has to be given consideration.
14. Another issue that has not been linked to climate change is diplacement issue that a lot of states like Orissa and Jharkhand are facing due to the setting up of industries by Posco and Vedanta. Lets not forget that a lot of this produce goes to Western Countries.
15. Walmart - 80% of their produce comes from China!
16. I was mistaken that US under Obama is making significant commitments to stop climate change. Under Kyoto Protocol the world except US and Australia that is, had a made commitment to reduce the carbon emissions by 7% by 2012 from the 1990 levels. Commitment which the US has made is 5 % by 2020 and that too of 2005 levels.
There is a lot more stuff which was discussed but I feel I have written enough to send ones mind on a tailspin. Will probably write another entry to discuss rest of the stuff.....To say that I was depressed and enraged when the talk ended would be an understatement :(
Below are my notes of the talk. I haven't verified them and are mostly for my own reference but I do want more and more people to know what she said. ( Its also possible that I may have written down something incorrectly)
1. 3 major greenhouse gases are Nitrogen Oxide, Methane and CO2 in decreasing order of harmfulness. NO is 300 times more damaging the CO2. The major source of NO in the atmosphere are the nitrogenous fertilizers that are used very liberally these days.
2. She has written a book called " The Violence of Green Revolution" (In case some one has it,then do let me know :) ) where she tries to dispel myths which most people have about the Green Revolution. Green in "Green Revolution" never meant environment or ecology as is commonly mistaken. In those times Green basically meant !=Red which was the color of communism. This was taken as 1 of the ways to prevent the spread of communism.
3. There is no documented data that the use of foreign seeds, fertilizers has actually increased the size of "the food basket". Rice and wheat were the major beneficiaries in the states of Haryana and Punjab but that was at the cost of oilseeds,pulses,millets etc, the size of the entire food basket DID NOT increase.
4. The chemical way of farming has had its own impact. The dwarf seeds which began to be sown were shorter in height resulting in a scarcity of fodder. In a country where most of the farmers are landless labourers, livestock is their actual asset and when the supply of fodder dwindled so did the livestock.
5. If you have noticed, the fields in southern states almost always have coconut,betelnut trees grown alongside the crops generating additional sources of revenue for the farmers, this practice is completely missing in Punjab and Haryana.
6. Green Revolution was/is a very high cost system. Genetically Modified Seeds, Fertilizers, High Water Demand. Between the years 2002 to 2007 the water table dwindled by 100 cubic metres in the entire North India!
7. For those who are interested she has another book titled "Soil Not Oil " . However I don't recollect what that book exactly was about. I am pretty sure you will find some of the stuff which I am going to say in it.
8. There are 3 kinds of draughts. Ecological,Soil and Aquifier. Ecological is when we actually have less amount of rainfall. Soil is when the soil is dry, which I think can be due to the wrong kind of plantations grown continously. An example in mind is Eucalyptus ( Bringing it from Australia was a mistake of gigantic proportions!). The third one is aquifier draught which is basically drying up of the water table.
9. A researcher, by the name of Somsekhar Reddy if I am correct, studied the recent drought in the Northern Karnatka region of Dharwad. His studies showed that the rainfall Dharwad received that year was at par with its average rainfall, however, the draught was caused due to continous plantations of Dwarfed varieties of Shorgum!! In other words it was a man made draught!
10. Major sources of methane - Plastics and Animal Industrial Farming.
11. The issue of climate change has to be tackled as a whole and not in parts. It is imperative that Glaciologists,geologists, marine scientist etc study it together and not limit the impact to their respective fields. A case in point that this year in Bangalore, it looks like that the entire monsoon cycle has shifted by 2 months! The metereologists will say that bangalore received above average rainfall for the year 2009 but they can not measure the impact on bio-diversity of this 2 month shift.
12. Another alarming fact which she mentioned (take it with a pinch of salt) is that out of the 10 rs Lays Chips packet which we munch away, 0.08 paisa actually goes to the farmer! Pepsi gets a profit of 8 rupees on every 10 rupee packet!
13. Another issue is the outsourcing of pollution. The carbon emissions by a country is a false measurement criteria. Japan, EU, USA have stopped Aluminium and Iron Production. This does not mean that they have stopped using it. Consumption rather than production has to be given consideration.
14. Another issue that has not been linked to climate change is diplacement issue that a lot of states like Orissa and Jharkhand are facing due to the setting up of industries by Posco and Vedanta. Lets not forget that a lot of this produce goes to Western Countries.
15. Walmart - 80% of their produce comes from China!
16. I was mistaken that US under Obama is making significant commitments to stop climate change. Under Kyoto Protocol the world except US and Australia that is, had a made commitment to reduce the carbon emissions by 7% by 2012 from the 1990 levels. Commitment which the US has made is 5 % by 2020 and that too of 2005 levels.
There is a lot more stuff which was discussed but I feel I have written enough to send ones mind on a tailspin. Will probably write another entry to discuss rest of the stuff.....To say that I was depressed and enraged when the talk ended would be an understatement :(
Taj Mahal Visit : Praja Post
Wrote a post on Praja today. Its not often when I do that ;) Professionalism prevented me from posting it on my own blog. But I won't miss out on increasing my blog count ( I hear D saying "cheap tricks" in the background :D) . But seriously do read it just to avoid 1 way of getting mugged when you go visit Taj Mahal.
http://praja.in/en/blog/shekhar-mittal/2009/10/04/praja-member-reporting-taj-mahal
http://praja.in/en/blog/shekhar-mittal/2009/10/04/praja-member-reporting-taj-mahal
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