Feast for Thought

Sorting household goods into 'retain' / 'give away' / 'recycle' heaps is therapeutic, I find. Unearthing this and that, from shelves, cupboards, niches beneath mattresses and old trunks, what do I rediscover? Some certainly priceless stuff, several more valueless - but each single item worth one or more gray cells of memory. Some 'precious' possessions acquire even more valuable sheen over the years; art, antique and jewellery collectors will tell you all about that. Several more goods take on measureless sentimental value - things even the kabadiwallah may refuse to carry away. In the armed forces, you acquire a collection of mementoes that grows with every place of posting - these are things that (should) mean the whole world to the person whose name is inscribed therein... This time around, we have stuck to the decision that we would be ruthless - no room for things that were not used, not even seen, through 5 moves in 10 years. So here are the 10 box

Have you been dreaming of seeing a whole generation sensitised to issues of Sanitation, Environment, Respect for Diversity and Individual empowerment? The Aseema Trust , Chennai is doing just that, through their novel project "Spin a Yarn.. Self and Society" in Ten schools of Chennai. With the support of Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust , Devika and her team have started to teach spinning of Charkha to 12-year-old students of ten local schools. One wishes the team hurdle-free progress. Aseema has found a practical way to perpetuate the spirit of self-reliance immortalised by the Charkha . Look up the other projects of Aseema Trust here Watch for a few seconds Gandhiji spinning at the Charkha here

If you are a frequent traveller on Indian highways, you are bound to have noticed carcasses, small and large, of birds and stray beings, that have gone under many a wheel. If only we were not always in a hurry, we could train ourselves to 'live and let live'. This is in memory of a friendly neighbourhood squirrel...read on. I saw and watched you everyday In the balcony, the trees and the lawn Scampering with your family and friends Seemingly care-free and happy Someone wanted more light So they cleared away the foliage Your home in distant trees was saved But I lost your winged friends Forever, it seemed then Before new green life sprang out Irrepressibly kindled a spark in the eyes again Then I woke to renewed chirps could watch you, and flying colours Till one day as I rode out You, usually quick, scampered the wrong way Were you in a great hurry? My reflexes were not enough - the wheel rolled over your sweet nose, but that was enough. I feel for you, as I do for the green…

When I wrote on the subject of gold in GIAS , I decided to recount a related story here. There was this girl whose name meant gold. She forbade her parents from buying silks and jewelery for her wedding, and with the groom's consent (he also had a hearty dislike of pomp and glamour), the wedding was a 5-minute affair, (extended, regretfully, by the video-people) conducted in the sitting-room of her parents' house. Her father-in-law, hailing from a traditional gold-amassing state, was happy - after a fashion. He let the bride know that Interested Peers in the Family Circle queried him about the amount of jewelery the new D-I-L brought along. That bride is still wondering if her answer was passed on - "Please tell them that more than 60 kgs of Gold arrived in the house, and is likely to expand further!"

Continuing from Raji's entry . Please help to spread the word, even if you have already acted on a mail forward. This last-page picture from The Hindu caught the imaginaion, so I posted it here.

The media tells me You keep your child We only want his innocence The ads tell us You keep your child Here are things he needs to grow The jingle shouts out so what if he's young? He'll soon grow up. he should know this and that The shows in page 3 propagate artificial glitter and tell imagination to lie low To them I try to say, gently at times, Please - let him be? You and I know that there is a world beyond pixels and bytes Spare his senses, let him discover its rights and wrongs. Having said that, let me share some age-appropriate anti-TV measures I have used over the years, whenever mindless viewing overtook the edutainment aspect . (Some of the measures are impractical for daily implementation). 1. De-tune the addictive channels. 2. Help the remote get lost 3. Disconnect cable connection. (When that's no longer enough, remove cable out of sight). 4. Keep the TV in a locked room 5. Discontinue cable subscription. 6. Turn the TV to the wall, as close to it as possible (

Had brought the sapling from a neighbour's garden in Annanad (Chalakudy, Kerala) . Blossomed after a year. This is the darker red variety of Ixora coccinea The flowers immediately bring to mind the lyrics of the popular chethi mandaram devotional

Justice VR Krishna Iyer's articles are always forceful, and his packed messages are fervent calls for immediate action. 'A bizarre nuclear deal pursuit' is one loud and mercilessly-worded wake-up call for Indian legislators. I wonder how many citizens (among law makers as well as the thinking public) will even be seized of the powerful mandate explicitly spelt out - "Defend the people’s right now by rationing all essential commodities and services, petrol and electricity. Social and economic waste disguised as festivals, political, religious and other practices, should be banished through resort to deterrent penalties". - "...abolish or minimise all avoidable expenditure, including the expensive perquisites of heads of state, Ministers, judges and legislators. Alcoholism during festivals, celebrations and flashy functions should be banned. All five-star establishments, public and private, should be abolished". - "Limits should be placed on feasts,

Going eastward on NH-67 (Coimbatore-Nagappattinam route) from Sulur, we came across some sights which soothed the sore eye, and some others which instigate the mind to seethe... Sunflowers painting a nice picture before the seeds reach oil-mills, to further sate man's needs. A wide variety of mangoes cultivated by a family (karumburasam, banganapalli, alphonso, imampasand, rumani, kallamani...) We couldn't resist the inviting display, and had to stop enroute both ways to have a fill of the end-of-season pick. Tanjavur dolls waiting to reach indoor showcases. Food on wheels - 25 beef recipes traveling towards weekend dinner tables. You guessed right. The road has to be widened as an aid to lopsided development, and we humans are ready to fell those stalwarts who have thus far been forming green and shady tunnels. We humans insist on travelling even faster towards the 2 degree threshold of catastrophic climate change .