Posted in Environment

The damaging Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, India

Posted on by veeskitchen

The VAN (SANRAKSHAN EVAM SAMVARDHAN) ADHINIYAM Act

Very disheartening learning about the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, passed by both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the lower and upper houses of the Indian Parliament, that can make way for taking over of shoulder lands abutting forested areas for developmental activities of national importance (as claimed by the tenets of the bill). This means, highways can crisscross India’s forest reserves and wildlife sanctuaries in future without legal implications. Of particular concern is the virgin forestry we have in north eastern India that is home to myriad species of wildlife. The nation boasts of ecologically diverse zones from the Western Ghats (Nilgiris – the Blue Mountains) in the south with the primary rain forest reserves and the Thar desert in the west, the Sundarbans with its mangroves in the east and the mighty Himalayas in the north. Central India or the hinterland is home to a range of hills including the Vindhyaas and Satpuras and lakes and plateaus. The long peninsular coastline of India is rich with an impressive array of marine life. There are natural harbours and coral reefs and the world’s only surviving dugongs among others in our waters. Mountain ranges and valleys and passes and peaks of India together with rivers and streams and seas and islands and seasonal monsoons facilitate survival of a stunning range of flora and fauna, as next to Africa, only India has lions, tigers, leopards, elephants and single horned rhinos – the big five – in the entire world, and winged species gracing and sharing the congested land with some 1.3 billion strong human population. India is home to highest number of tigers in the world. Lion count is also on upswing. Conservation efforts are afoot but for every single step forward, the naturalists get pushed over by a dozen steps backward. What is the need for eco-tourism in a country like India where wildlife and humanity have to jostle for space and the man-animal conflict is getting worse with each passing day claiming lives on both sides. As someone has posted in the comments, this is clearly a DEFORESTATION move:

Even without the Bill, elephant corridors have been illegally but smartly taken over by those like Jaggi Vasudev in Tamil Nadu – right under the nose of both the central and state governments or perhaps under the auspices of our government. Ramdev & co., reportedly encroached on north eastern forests for Ayurvedic production unit. The environmental degradation we see in India is mindboggling with our rivers polluted and air toxic and soil poisoned. Now look at the further damage the Bill can do. Adani and Ambani can set up five star hotels without approval from Forest department right next to the wildlife sanctuaries and promote upscale tourism for celebs and page 3 socialites from India and abroad. Is it not the motive of the bill, after all? Who knows, whether Mahindra mooted the bill or any other business house. Agroforestry and afforestation are hogwash. Then there is the case of the tribals of India who have been living alongside wildlife right within our forest reserves or in settlements adjoining forest areas with their livelihood tied to the forests, traditionally for centuries. It will be piece of cake for Adani and Ambani to remove the tribes from their native lands and rehabilitate them in cramped neighbourhoods erasing their roots cleverly and systematically. A well planned strategy. Under the aegis of our prime minister himself, I hope? What a sad story. Following up NCF, Bird Count of India etc., I have been on a high noting the conservation efforts even if painfully aware that only a small percentage of it all succeeds. If I have it my way, a good portion of my meagre, petty and insignificant estate shall go to wildlife conservation in India (and NOT to temples). Its my wish and unregistered will (!) as of date. The kids can fend for themselves -god shall give them the strength.

Posted in Science Engineering Technology

Women behind Chandrayaan 3

Posted on by veeskitchen

Fascinating video on women behind Chandrayaan 3 although the faces are recognizable from the second mission. Chandrayaan 2 entered the moom’s orbit but failed to land the rover in the lunar surface. Chandrayaan 1 had discovered water on the moon’s surface which made India discoverer of water in lunar surface. Chandrayaan 3 attempts at landing the rover in the south pole, not attempted by the three other successful nations when it comes to lunar expeditions: the US, Russia and China. Let’s wait for the lander-rover from Chandrayaan 3 to make it this time even as the 4th orbit raising for the satellite by the ISRO team proved successful yesterday. I am linking this you tube link on the rocket women of India.

I found this on Mangalyaan, our successful Mars mission that made India the first of the four nation elite club to make it to Mars in her first attempt.

Posted in Food For Soul

Aadi Vibes: L R Eashwari.

Posted on by veeskitchen

The kids of ’70s and ’80mes couldn’t have missed her metallic voice: L R Eashwari. For years I found it difficult to believe she was born a Christian very much like K J Yesudas who got synonymous with Aiyappa bhakthi songs the very same way. KJ Yesudas’s ‘Harivarasanam’ still is No.1 chartbuster when it comes to Sabarimala season. Followed by Veeramani in Tamil Nadu who came up with his own Aiyappa songs such as ‘Bhagawan sharanam’ and ‘Pallikattu Sabarimalaikku’ we knew the months of Karthika to Margazhi with the flavour of the season. L R Eashwari blared from every loudspeaker loud and clear in every single street of Chennai that came alive with the month of Aadi. I am talking about the times when we were spared the Aadi sale by Kumaran, Nalli to Ratna Fan House and Vasanth & Co. Its not that these folky singers got to us with their boomeranging voices, there just was something about their bhakthi element that got embedded into the songs they sang. Listening to them thirty to forty years later, I still feel the goosebumps when they invoke for me my favourite deities. So far as we Hindus are concerned, our local deity or Kaval deivam or the Kula deivam has a significant place in our worship over even the Shiva Vishnu family. Which is why Bodyguard Muneeshwara sees the devotees turning up with their newly registered cars for Car puja! Every street in the Kanchipuram-Chennai districts comes alive in the month of Aadi reverberating with the L R Eashwari Mariaamma songs. Aadi is from mid July to mid August. Some Tamil communities prepare the koozh (porridge) with pearl millets and water it down with curd and onions and distribute it to the neighbourhood and the street Amman temple. The koozh or the millet porridge coming by the end of summer when normally epidemics such as measles may emerge, scientifically helps by cooling overheated bodies. The koozh is supplemented with Murungai keerai, the greens from the drumstick tree which is enriched with vitamins and minerals. So Aadi has relevance for this reason to be observed with such a religiosity by our masses. Needless to say, it is difficult NOT to spot at least a small chapel like temple dedicated to either Lord Ganesha or Ambal in Chennai. Temples take turns in organizing in-home Koozh collection and distribution days (usually a sunday) and ensure that there is a perennial supply of koozh every weekend that way for at least two months. With its medical and cooling benefits, the koozh cannot come at a more precise time. We had this koozh tradition in my parents’ side. We made the vegetarian Koozh and we poured buckets into the common collection at the temple. We also gave away jugs to our neighbours. Of course, everything stopped with my mother’s untimely demise. My in-laws are from Arni and they have never had any Aadi tradition! Looks like Aadi is so sensational only to us Chennaivasis. Anyway I miss the Aadi maasam in Chennai. Right on day one every year, my househelp excuses herself for an hour as she carries ‘Paalkudam’ for Ambal on her head. She even attempted firewalking once. An ardent Durga devotee, she has been doing the Rahu kaala puja for over twenty years now (on my advice, who else’s?!). Her children are now graduates, she has progressed economically and is doing well. Aadi for me means, preparing the sweet jaggery pongal and distributing it to devotees in temples. I used to prepare the jaggery pongal in my next street Vembuli Amman temple premises and then Mundagakanni Amman temple premises in Mylapore. For years I did it but in last five to six years, I find no energy to do it in the temple. So now I make the pongal at home and take it to the temples for Archana alone. Fridays and tuesdays mean Diya puja for me for over 20 years now with Lalitha Sahasranama recitation. The recitation started over 30 years ago. Now fridays have come to mean also Soundarya Lahari and parts of Devi Mahatmyam if time and energy levels permit. Taking a break from the ritualic Diya puja here for lack of facilities but the chantings go on. Of course as per Arni customs, we have Kuladeivam puja on an Aadi friday at home when we also do kind of Sumangali worship (Poovadaikari) (women ancestors who died sumanglis in our family) and Kanni (for the children departed too early in the family line). I have been blessed to see the Poovadaikari pudavai (sari), a cotton one preserved in a clay pot for generations spanning over 200 years in my father-in-law’s family with such a reverence. The family tree can be traced back by ten generations at least. Yearly thrice the pot is kept in view for the family guests: for Aadi friday Kuladeivam puja, for Deepam and for Mattu Pongal. The women who came in our lineage were Kula Patnis. No dilution of any kind anywhere. Explains why some of us are what we are and how we are even in this 21st century. We consider the matriarchs equal to Mother Goddess. One of the Aadi fridays also mostly will have Varalakshmi Vratham but it looks like this year, everything has gone for a toss. We have the occasion coming up a bit later, in August. Aadi Pooram is the bangling ceremony for Mother goddess who we assume is pregnant! Very special for Aandal in Perumal temples as well. As much as I can, i try to get Ambal some bangles on this day. We in our local street temple organize a small function for women who are trying to get pregnant. We observe ‘mock’ ‘valaikaappu seemantham’ for them and bangle them up in front of Ambal. Many have returned with babies within an year or two. Its such an emotional moment – doing the nalangu (haldi kumkum ceremony) for these young married ladies. Its a privilege being invited to bless these women. I as a grandmother and coming in the Arni line of matriarchs have my share of responsbilities. Aadi is a very sacred month and from this month the Tamil Hindu calendar starts getting busiest. Non stop pujas at home, back to back at times. My mother observed Varalakshmi vratham (and Gowri Kedara vratham on Diwali day) as well but these vrathams stopped for us with her. Yet they are special to me. They bring back memories because vrathams in our house used to be celebrated very grand. Four short young banana trees would be affixed to a small wooden stool on which would be placed the Kalasam. Trays and trays of fruits and flowers and bakshanams all homemade. In fact the flour used to be ground in a stone chakki at home. We had it until very recently. What I do these days is not even one percent of what my mother or grandmother used to do. But what I cannot do, I try to catch up with my little bhakthi quotient and puja. I think of the years and years when after starting the Aadi friday Diya puja early and completing it on time, I would be rushing to Mylapore. I and my Chithi both would then go to Mundagakkanni amma. We both cooked hot steaming jaggery pongal on our own bronze/copper pots within the temple premises on woodfire or using the cowdung cakes as fuel. Water we would draw from the temple well! We would have darshan by 2 or 2.30 in the noon. I would be famished because without offering Pongal to Mother goddess, I wouldn’t eat. I survived on coffees four or five in those days. But when we would finally distribute the prasad and return home, my heart would swell with such a sense of fulfillment. Cooking for Mundagakkanni is very important to me. My life mission. Before returning to my in-laws, when my son was just 1.5 months old, I first placed him on Her lap. Every baby born in our family has the first outing to Mundagakanni Amman temple only. Even I was placed in Her bosom by my mother when I was hardly one month I believe. I miss the Mariammas of our streets. As much as I may perform the rituals, recite the mantras, chant the slokas, I must say I also feel equally drawn to our rural or village deities who are deemed powerful – the kaval deivam, the Ellaisamy, the Aiyanar, the Kula deivam etc. Our Kula deivam in Arni is some 30 km away from the town – in the middle of an agricultural field in a village. Access was through farm lands only on ‘othai adi paadhai’ (by foot) – only now they have secured the place with a compound wall on three sides. There under the Neem and Peepal trees are our Kula deivams. There is aslo Muneeshwara, the protector of children closeby. The magnetic pull and aura of our rural deities can be awesome. First of all we picture our ancestors standing right at that spot some 150-200 years back. I feel emotionally moved. This year anticipating my absence from home base during Aadi, I finished my temple Pongal duties by January (in the month of Thai) itself. Thai (mid Jan to mid Feb) is also an auspicious month when most Tamil Hindu marriages take place. If possible I try to visit Mangadu, Thiruverkadu, Vadivudaiamman temple and of course Kapali temple and Perumal temple (for Aadi Pooram) in the month of Aadi. In our street temple, we have a ‘Dhandumari’ but as She shares the space with Shiva (the presiding deity of the temple), we have no ritual of ‘koozh.’ Instead we have ‘Kanji’ made with broken rice and a spicy mixed vegetable Vatha kozhambu. Its a hit with the street people. I look forward to Temple food always. Its the biggest blessing to eat what Mother gives you. Like, once I was asking my Mother goddess, why I never had a mother’s home to go and eat. Next week I was in Chottanikkara in Kerala. The archakas asked me and my friend to have lunch in the temple. We were just in time. We had had an awesome unbelievable and leisurely darshan of Bhagawathi. It was only two days I guess since I asked that question to Mother in my Puja. In fact I verbalized my question aloud. When we ate at the temple seated with the general janata, I was overwhelmed with tears and my friend squeezed my hands. I don’t need a biological mother to invite me home or give me lunch. I have eaten at the Sharadha temple, Sringeri. So what if I have not cooked one square meal for my biological mother who never lived to eat out of my hands, from my kitchen, in my dining? I feed Mundagakanni Amma. I feed Vembuli amma, Kolathamma with my jaggery Pongal. I am feeding the Universal Mother for years now. What more to ask for. By the way the meal at the Bhagawathy temple at Chottanikkara was simple but yum. Typical Keralathu Sadya. The Aravana Payasam was impossible! I thought they served it only at Sabarimala. Mother Goddess lives in my heart, etched in my heart. She is my mother and I have a special connection with Her. I reckoned She heard me and invited me home for lunch! I miss being in India now – but I see a greater purpose: I am seeing my Mother goddess is a sweet angelic face here. I see the goodness of my Mother. I see Her choicest blessings. People ask why India is not like China. How can we be? The electric wave of spirituality that sweeps through the Chennai streets in the month of Aadi needs to be witnessed to believe. Our energy is spent on thanking our Mother for what She is to us. A lot of self introspection happens. Self realization takes place. Materialism loses its prime importance at least for a brief while as folks vie with each other to feed the masses. Contributions are generous. Mother brings her children together. She is the Brahman. This is Her holy month. My throat is sore right now because of a cold, but I manage to silently chant as much Her name as possible. Just thinking of Her will suffice. In this special month of Aadi, I am grateful for all the blessings She has bestowed upon me, for I know I am far well placed than a vast majority of human race. I have no complaints absolutely. READY TO GO REALLY. If its my time, I am ready mentally. With or without me the world and my family will go on. To be able to say that, you must be blessed. You must be satiated. Folk form of Hinduism can be enchanting – this is taking down your faith to the grassroots where you can see the raw unadorned bhakthi that cannot be seen in elite Yagnas performed even in Agama temples. This kind of intense bhakthi grips me totally – the unshaken faith, as I see in my househelp. Her kind of devotion, i will never be capable of in a thousand years. I heard of their practice of anointing ‘vibhuti kumkum’ after cleansing every single step when climbing the Tirumala hills on foot. After that they would go for Dharma darshan and be out in flat one hour. I think of the time we the so-called well-offs spend in queues. God has a way of honouring this clean rustic earthy bhakthi that insists on no mantra recitation or the ritualistic puja. All that matters is, YOU HAVE THE HEART. This post of mine will be incomplete without the mention of the Aadi cultural scene. Karagam and Pulivesham are the highlights although they are fast losing out to entertainment shows of modern day. This is one long story that is better googled.

Posted in Environment

The Immortal Jellyfish

Posted on by veeskitchen

When the kids told me of the immortal jellyfish, I couldn’t believe my ears. All my life I never heard of such a bizarre thing! One is reminded of the picture ‘Death becomes her’ starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn! The greed of some ladies to debunk ageing and always remain youthful! Actually there is grace in ageing, and to look your age is what is dignity all about. I can’t understand why women want to look younger than their age. If you are gifted, your genes can do the wonder for you without you having to ask or try – without you having to hop into the beauty salon every other week or having a body massage every five days. You don’t have to go for fillers or tummytuck or liposuction. I have always felt that the lovehandles and sagging boobs and a cute paunch and a big butt are sexiest! They mean you have lived a wholesome and fulfilling life and that you are well endowed! There must be lines under your tired eyes, the crows feet show that you care, the cheeks weigh down with the stress and not just hang down there, double chin is the proud smirk and you may look look amazing in salt and pepper, sign of your maturity. The baldest men are the brainiest in the world with their untold stories of success! The transparent veins, the creases in your forehead script your life experiences. So ageing is something profound. A milestone not everyone is fortunate to reach. Beauty is your natural skin without any overtone or conditioning. BEAUTY IS YOU, JUST YOU. Death is a blessing that has to come to us at the right time, never a moment early, never too late. I read a lot about wildlife, watch quite some ecology stuff, yet how come all these years I never knew that the jellyfish never dies?! The immortal jellyfish actually regenerates once its medusa is damaged, reverts back to its cystic form on the ocean floor. From this stage it begins a new lifecycle as if on rebirth. We have to remember here that the jellyfish. similar to many other species of marine life, carry both the male and female sex organs within. The regeneration or new life starts when the medusa dies a natural death with age. This means, an immortal jellyfish NEVER dies and is immortal! So the age of a jellyfish can be easily thousand years! However, the same jellyfish can die at the hands of fish or turtle in the sea becoming a meal! In essence therefore, a jellyfish cannot die due to ageing process and those that survive on regeneration are termed the ‘immortal jellyfish.’ Kind of weird, is it not? Not only can jellyfish cheat death, it is a also a super organic life form without eyes or heart or brains – like some narcissists we have here! And yeah, the jellyfish also shares with the narcissist an inherent toxicity, beware! So if there is one animate on planet Earth that may have stayed immortal from primordial times and that which may continue to survive to eternity, it could be the JELLYFISH.

Posted in Lateral Thinking

Hate and Anger are very positive emotions.

Posted on by veeskitchen

I had a professor who was way too different, when I was pursuing masters in Econometrics (yes, the same major of Revathi in Mouna Ragam) who used to insist that anger and hate are two very positive and constructive emotions that must be nurtured and not suppressed. He was kind of arrogant and kept smoking in our classes (for the chainsmoker that he was). In one of my earliest classes I asked him not to because the smoke bothered me. He apologized and quit smoking in our classes for the entire two year period. But it seemed, whenever I missed my class, he told the class that ‘as vijayalakshmi is absent today, let me take the liberty of smoking’ and puffed away to the chagrin of my classmates. It shocked me that nobody else in my class had the guts to bell the cat. I did it and thanks to me my friends got to miss the passive smoke fumes from the professor. So he would tell the class (and I knew he addressed me in particular) that anger, outrage, protest and hate are very good and positive emotions. Obviously he was referring to my objection to his smoking. He would say, unless we expressed our displeasure, anger, discontentment and dissatisfaction – there was no way these could be dealt with. ‘Be angry for the right things’ he would say, because if you are complacent enough to put up with WRONG THINGS then you have no right to complain of your miseries at a later date. Anger for right thing is actually JUSTICE or aspiration for justice. By keeping quiet, you are voting for injustice. You have to show your dislike, disapproval and hate for things that you are not comfortable with or don’t want done. After years I am reminded of this man who always told us to express our emotions explicitly. Speaking our mind was very important to our professor. My relationship with the professor also would remind me how I was subtly and really bold over the other girls who liked to giggle with him but never mustered the courage to talk him out of his smoking habit. I never approached him once in his lunch room or struck up a conversation with him in the corridor like some girls did. Been way too proud all my life! He was much older anyway. I gave him the pass but he in his 50s was like my dream hero then. Probably he knew it! In life we come across rare gems like this. I felt no need to go and butter my professor like other girls did. But I exalted in the secret happiness that I was special to him. This period lasted for just two years. Most of the time I ended up picking up arguments with him. It wasn’t a smooth relationship at all. But I guess this man became an influential figure in my thought process in the proceeding years. Decades later I still have this question in my mind: what made the others stop short of asking him not to smoke in the class. Why do they all need a scapegoat, someone to bell the cat. Cowards! Like the mice following the pied piper! And why could these same girls not resist crowding over the professor and chatting him up about anything under the sky from latest picture to politics. And most of all, why the hell wasn’t I like the other girls. I gave the professor wide berth whenever our paths crossed in the university. I maintained my distance and he did his. He was over my father’s age yet most of the girls could not stop drooling over him.

Anyway, thanks to him I have no qualms about nurturing a temper, red hot at that! Speaking the uncomfortable truth, keeping a straight face, confronting lies and dishonesty – these came to mean a lot to me. For our brutal honesty, some of us get branded as negative people. The fact is, who we have around us are mostly TOXIC POSITIVE who encourage falsity and trivialize grave situations. Toxic positive guys try to undermine the seriousness of matters by generalizing everything as ‘common good’ which may not be the case. For instance, unhealthy free sex to them is openmindedness and liberty even if the collateral damage could be by way of broken homes and families. One of first things we have to set right about perceptions is that, we learn to distinguish between what is right and acceptable and what is not and beyond the limits of decency. We have to come clear on this aspect of intellectual honesty. And we have to put down in writing what we believe in. Where your word is like a written rule, you must give your word, you must record your say. I have no respect for those who cleverly ‘sit on the fence’ and play it all safe.

In a world that is increasingly asking us to ‘tolerate, forgive, forget, be patient, distance ourselves from drama’ I am forced to recall my professor’s words asking us NOT TO TOLERATE, NEVER TO FORGIVE OR FORGET BUT TAKE YOUR ADVERSARIES HEAD ON. ‘Release the hate, cleanse your mind’ is the sermon drummed up your ears. Quotes of them, reels and then there are the gurus who preach too much of love and forgivance that at times we are overwhelmed carried away be the waves of ‘kindness, openness, goodness’ and all that stuff! Whereas ‘Hold the hate, whip up a healthy temper, fight fair with tooth and nails, ALWAYS REMEMBER and NEVER FORGET’ was the counsel that I received from my experienced rebel professor!

When a friend of mine died in her early 40s, her two daughters in higher secondary school, were not even allowed to weep over her death. Their father stood by them and was reminding them of the so-and-so guru’s teachings that leaving life someday was inevitable whoever it is, and we must never mourn the passing away of even a family member. So the girls held tight. That really put this question in my mind: if the daughters cannot grieve openly about losing their mother, then what is the point of such a spirituality. Do we even need this?’

The girls of the gang I left behind had a different view on controlling emotions. They called me rigid because they claimed to be Osho followers. They had liberal views on sex and were open for free sex (at least phone sex). They lived for cheap thrills (as I found out later). For them, positivity and optimism was all about sex. Breaking homes was fine because freewill mattered. Individual aspirations counted. The emotions to be kept under wraps were anger and mistrust and hate and doubts because these are what that troubled others. Voicing your discontent ruined relationships. I had difficulty coming to terms with their kind of freedom of the mind so I quit. One thing I noticed about this free sex idea: its fine for the men so long as the liberal women were not family. The men wanted their own wives and daughters and sisters to be clean. NO FREE SEX FOR THE WIFE. With the gang I left, I went into spin figuring out what is love and what is hate really.

So how do we determine what is admissible and what is not. Here is the catch. What is NOT okay for you cannot be okay for others. Its as simple as that. I go by my intuition in these matters. What you don’t want to be done to you, you must not do to others.

Through all this I try to retain my clarity of thought: about what matters. What is important. What must be kept under self-control and what are the emotions that can be allowed to take flight. I still get angry for right things, things that must enrage anyone. I catch my adversaries by their collar and fling them on to the wall for the feeble shitty helpless flies they are. I break their wings with no mercy. They deserve that kind of brutality for the passive aggressive toxic selves they are. World can do with women like me. I wonder what made me, out of the class of 22 or 23 of equal boys and girls of 21 years, raise a hand and ask my professor to stop smoking in the class. I am the same girl. I still have the same fire in me. Don’t expect anything less from me. By the way for the internals, my professor awarded me my the whole allotted mark of 20 upon 20. I didn’t have to butter up my professor. I did nothing to get into his good books. We shared nothing personal. But I knew I was someone who made a difference to him. Like he did to me.

Posted in Environment

The Saguaro – Sonoran Desert

Posted on by veeskitchen

The Saguaro/Sonoran deserts from Arizona to Mexico have always been on my mind ever since I got transfixed by their beauty and endurability when I got introduced to them in Natgeo. That was years ago. Imagine driving through the stretch from Phoenix to Vegas in 2017-18 when I had a chance to visit the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. Both were in my bucket list of course! Hoover dam was especially the top favourite with the men in my family who are both civil and structural engineers. They wanted to check out the design of the dam and look up the engineering details, as the construction site is nearly impossible for human access perched on rocky canyons. Underneath like a thin blue ribbon runs the mighty Colorado, a bird’s eye view from the cliff tops. With luck you can pick out shapes kayaking down the river. Understandably hundreds fell to their death as the project took shape over decades. The reservoir is the chief supplier of fresh water from the river Colorado to the arid states of the US the Arizona and Nevada that are desert states as parts of California. The construction of the Hoover dam remains unparalleled in human history. Its an engineering marvel and could be easily a modern day ‘wonder of the world.’ The reservoir is the life source for the parched west coast of America. The Hoover with its architectural design is also a feast for our eyes. For me, the inspiration was the picture ‘Fools rush in!’ Anyway, looks like I have a karmic connection with the west coast! The Saguaro – Sonoran desert became a surprising reality in my life just as the Hoover dam did. I could sense the ‘deja vu’ moment because I did want to be here and I do believe the universe conspired to achieve it for me! Mexico just across the border has a state named after the Sonoran as I see from car numberplates in Arizona. Desert vegetation can be interesting and intriguing. I have been a resident of Middle east for over fifteen years now on and off. There the oil rich sheikhs import and transplant the Amazonian trees into their limestone soil that water cannot percolate. Rain water in arab countries gets surface-drained for this reason. No seepage down the limestone terra. So the transplanted trees from across the oceans, come with about twenty to thirty feet of amazonian soil with a good diameter, to ensure that the roots do not shoot into the limestone wall and die away. Watering the trees is another challenge for which the desalinated water is used. Desalination plants are already turning the sea coasts around the Arabian gulf into environmentally hazardous zones. The marine life ecosystem around the entire Persian gulf coastline is threatened as the Arab nations ramp uptheir desalination plants dumping toxic brine in international waters.

The native vegetation seems to thrive only in the open deserts in middle eastern countries as the cities and urban developments see increasingly the transplanted trees and plants from other parts of the world planted in their parks and gardens and sidewalks and homes. Date palms are an exception to grace the cityscapes from the native Arab fauna but for which the Arab cities don a fake festive green look with their manicured gardens and their impeccable lawns, flowering creepers, shady trees etc. My hometown is the monsoony Chennai from south India where sometimes the seasonal rains can lash for months together. Even here we don’t seem to boast of the kind of exotic trees and vegetation that the Arab countries seem to show off!

Desert Rose.

After the middle-eastern make-believe green carpet cities, Tucson comes as a breather with its beautiful bouquet of myriad cacti species, succulents you cannot keep count of, thorn bushes and creepers. Nothing seems out of place and everything fits so natural. This place is a rugged beauty: with altitudes shrouded in desert vegetation and getting chiller by twenty to thirty degrees. A mere one hour drive, there are cooler chimes to hang out for the weekends with cabins available for sleepover. Frosting at higher altitudes in the thick of desert summer is truly a wonder of nature! I am savouring the backyard gardening in the city where the best is made out of the worst available choices. The Mexican styled adobe homes I understand have cool interiors to minimize use of air conditioners. The individualistic homes are a style statement. Class with character! Spartan and minimalistic, thoroughly an understatement. In summers when temperatures can soar upto 120f the adobe homes can keep you cool the traditional way. The simple architecture without any fanfare, the neat lines, use of local construction material that are eco friendly, the efforts that go into preservation of the local vegetation, the streamlining of every single procedure that makes life easy for anyone and everyone – these are the things I have come to respect most about this place as anywhere in America. The desert vegetation is proudly nurtured – not hitched out of your sight the way it is done in the middle east. The succulents look aesthetic in the backdrop of the rocky Catalina. There are the spiked ones, the thorned ones, the branching ones, the stumps that shoot up to the sky, the fat stubs, the rounds, the thin reedy ones, the purples, the greens, the flowering ones that bloom by the evening as the sun sets down… the range is stunning. The landscape is surreal at times with the profusion of the cacti families of every single shade and shape that you can ever conjure up in your mind! The orange orchids and the bougainvilleas seem to infuse some colour into otherwise dry desert hues. The saguaro desert with its tall standalone cactus trees like proud old men is nature at its best. How many years do they live? A hundred? Or two hundred? Neighbours all. What would they talk to each other? Tens of thousands of them! I looked at the calm unfazed steadiness with which the saguaro trees dotted the protected areas. In close-knit groups in places. Spaced out at others. Miles and square miles of them. The saguaro-sonoran deserts are wild forest reserve. Bio-diversity one may find here is geo-specific to west coast of the north American continent. The desert vegetation also sustains a host of invertebrates and vertebrates such as scorpions, garden lizards, rattle snakes, javelinas, red and gray foxes, bob cats, coyotes etc. All the living species and the succulents of Arizona make the place thriving and bustling with activity all around the year! The conservation efforts are about preserving the desert vegetation elemental to the west coast rather than trying to green the sparsely fertile rain shadow region unnaturally with transplants brought over from the tropics . Monsoons are a rarity but Tucson is a lot luckier than Phoenix which is warmer than the former by four to five degrees. The pictures I have posted here hardly do any justice. Captured on my old Samsung Note 8 in the Desert Museum of Tucson, they can still be impressive.

Posted in Welcome to my blog!

Human Poop trucked out of Burj Khalifa?!

Posted on by veeskitchen
Trucks carry human poop out of Burj Khalifa every morning. So next time you poop in the world’s tallest tower, remember someone has to carry it out for you!

Wow! This is something I was never aware of! What a shame! So Burj Khalifa the tallest tower in Dubai has no sewer system? Reportedly the human poop generated everyday in the world’s tallest tower is ferried out in rows of trucks! The greed of the Arabs! They aspire for space technology without the knowhow. And even succeeded in putting a man in the space that it makes the world scientists raise the ethical questions. So long as the petrodollars keep jingling, the world is in their pocket. No qualms about aspiring for something that they haven’t earned with ‘qualifications.’ But isn’t oil and gas all about it. However, even the black gold has seemed to fail the Burj Khalifa when it comes to the drainage and sewer system.

Posted in Socio-Political

Reservations.

Posted on by veeskitchen

In ‘Target’ as I was browsing through for sunblocks with stronger spf, i came across lotions and creams and shampoos marked ‘made by African Americans,’ ‘handmade by Native Americans’ and ‘made by Mexicans’ that surprised me. Not really, because I recalled having seen this on earlier occasions. I am back after an year and the town is different. The hypermarket was midsize. There were aisles promoting beauty/makeover brands/cosmetics made by the minorities that was impressive. Every society seems to be doing its bit to help whoever needs a helping hand. Reservation quotas exist in every corner of the globe where inequalities exist. The injustices demand that they be redressed so that we can have a just an equitable society where everyone can prosper. To compete on equal footing as a mature society therefore becomes the basic criteria. The blue collar workers of America are not doing the janitor’s job or waiting at the tables at restaurant or plumbing or driving trucks owing to their birth/caste credentials. Rules are simple: if you don’t do well in school, expect to clear tables and bill at KFC or Tacobell. Unless otherwise you have trust funds to take care of you, that is. Nobody mows the grass in cemetary because his father and grandfather used to do that. Immigrants who are semiskilled may have to start from the bottom of the ladder. Otherwise, there is standardization to a great degree when it comes to education. Fairly competitive out here in America. India is hardly anywhere close to imparting that kind of equality and social justice to all sections of her populace. The sanitation workers, the graveyard staff, the chakkilis (footwear repairmen) and even the housemaids in India are what they are only BY VIRTUE OF THEIR BIRTH or what we call the caste prejudice, as ‘nobler occupations’ were systematically denied to them for millennia. Almost hundred percent, the blue collar workers in India are doing their ancestors’ job. Formal education was denied to them until the turn of the century. The most backward and the scheduled lists had to fight a legal battle to win their entry to schools and universities in British India. The discrimination practised for thousands of years put them at disadvantage for centuries. The reservation earmarked for them is not concession but compensation. Furthermore, those from the fringes of Indian society and the ones at the lowest rungs of our economic ladder are not enrolling their children in posh or creamy schools. What is open for them are the corporation or municipal schools where the medium of instruction could be local language. How do you even pit these poorest and weakest sections among us with the IIT and IIM savvy elitist groups. Reservation is a means to hasten the pace of progress by way of encouragement so that nobody is left out. The aim of reservation is INCLUSIVE GROWTH that sometimes may leave collateral damage in its wake. There is no other way out. When the center gave in to reservation demands of the forward communities, it committed a grave error of injustice. The affluent and the literate population of India have been making strides without the aid of reservation. However, hopefully one no more has to hear the whining against quotas that has been sounding since the day of India’s independence. I have personally witnessed how the first generation literate quota, the job reservation quota etc., have benefited the most vulnerable among us. Reservation is the greatest incentive that incites the rural poor to risk education with the promise of a future prosperity. When the fruits of a democracy percolate down to grass roots, the faith in the institutions of the nation gets reinforced. A possible civil war at a later date could be averted. Battles are fought over resources after all. So far as India is concerned, thanks to decades of reservation, there is increased participation at every level of those from each and every background. The marginalized communities and those in the fringes are visibly mainstreamed. Level playing ground is a society’s mark of civilization.

Posted in Socio-Political

Shall we unmask jaggi vasudev.

Posted on by veeskitchen

RADHE, DAUGHTER OF JAGGI VASUDEV WITH HER HEAD TONSURED AND IN SAFFRON ROBES TAKING DEEKSHA.

JAGGI VASUDEV TAKING JEEVA SAMADHI AND ENDING HIS LIFE IN FRONT OF HIS FOLLOWERS AND IN FRONT OF CAMERAS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE

JAGG WITH BEGGING BOWL TO DESDERVE BEING CALLED ‘SADHGURU’ – APPARENTLY HE GAVE THE TITLE TO HIMSELF.

JAGGI REFUSED ADMISSION TO MANASARVOR FOR POLLUTION.

SANDEEP NARAYAN AWARDED PERSONA-NON GRATA STATUS IN INDIA

FINALY THE HIDEOUS SHIVA DISMANTLED IN COIMBATORE, ISHA FOUNDATION CLOSED AND THE LAND ILLEGALLY TAKEN OVER RETURNED TO FOREST DEPARTMENT WITH THE ELEPHANT CORRIDOR RESTORED

AT LEAST JAGGI VASUDEV PACKED BACK TO KARNATAKA – JAILED FOR ALLEGED MURDER OF HIS WIFE AND FOR ILLEGALY TAKING OVER FOREST RESERVES OF INDIA, NONBAILABLE CRIMINAL OFFENCE.

NOBODY WHO SELLS ENLIGHTENMENT WITH A BRAND NAME ‘INNER ENGINEERING’ CAN BE GURU, LET ALONE SADHGURU! SHAME! FOR A FEE FAKE GURUS CAN SHOW YOU THE FORMULA TO ENTLIGHTENMENT.

These are a few of my favourite dreams!

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The one and only Sadhguru is Sai Baba of Shirdi. Baba begged for food home to home the way yogis must, so long his health and age permitted. From the food collected in his ‘jolna’ (cloth) bag that was a mixture from different homes, he fed the poor and the dogs first. What remained, he ate. FOR SURVIVAL. Can you imagine this jaggi vasudev who awarded himself the title ‘sadhguru’ doing it. Or can we have jaggi vasudev tonsuring the head of his daughter radhe the way he did to countless young men and women (they say he brainwashed them with an eye to their parents’ estates) to the anguish of their unfortunate parents. Millions worth estates and savings and investments of these girls and boys who took deeksha now will go isha foundation. Or at least can we have jaggi attain his jeeva samadhi in front of his followers and the entire world. I will be lucky if he does not start plotting my samadhi for blogging about him. Seriously! I don’t rule it out after the suspected murder of a girl committed by the ashram in recent times which was all over the media. I used to listen to him and i visited isha twice. But what I could not feel there was anything divine or good vibes. So cosmetic and fake. Plastic. Like jaggi vasudev himself. I even donated for his Kaveri cause but later regretted. This is the man who in the name of Shiva took over elephant corridors and rendered the pachyderms homeless – right in the land that they had walked for millions of years. To the man who lies that everything is legal after taking god’s name, being the so-called yogi, this is PAAP. Not just criminal. For taking over forest reserves of India, jaggi can be jailed for his lifetime. Forest encroachment is a serious legal offence in India. Criminal. This charge must be enough for right government with intention to frame criminal charges against jaggi vasudev. For this reason alone he can be stripped of his Padmashri title awarded by union government. The open secret is that the foundation is benami for many political parties both central and state. Why do you think otherwise the prime minister has to visit him. What happens when the truly spiritual leaders refuse to cooperate with politicians. We know what happened to Sri Jayendra Saraswathi. Jayalalitha Jayaram met with her gruesome end for her karma? But that is what a real yogi would do. Like Jayendra, they would not be bothered about consequences. They would be ready to lay down their lives for the sake of Dharma. And what about jaggi. What did he do. Look at this shining jaggi shaking a leg shamelessly with filmy actresses and selling tickets for lakhs of rupees. Why is then tax exemption given to isha. How about cancelling the tax sops given to isha. Hopefully some NGOs or investigative media like Nakkeeran take up this point and file a suit against tax sops given to isha in local court. Now isha is developing settlement in US and we come to hear of many illegal/incompetent clauses imposed on buyers with greed by jaggi. Jaggi’s son-in-law is american and could be the brainchild behind the scam, oh sorry the scheme? Very notorious online fellow(!) IS FBI CIA listening. Investigate the jaggi vasudev investment in the US. Sounds like a fraud scheme to even those of us in India. Scrap the jaggi township. Indian govt should also investigate the FERA violations if any in jaggi’s US township scheme. The son-in-law sandeep narayan must be under CBI investigation and questioned about the US venture. Looks like he is a dummy piece but he is not. Sustaining on father-in-laws recommendations and bookings for kutcheries but could be the biggest beneficiary in the jaggi american township scheme. Anyway, waiting for the day when jaggi will tonsure his daughter Radhe’s head, drape her in saffron robes and give her deeksha. Does Radhe know what really happened to her mother. At whose hands. Did jaggi vasudev murder your mother vijji, radhe? In cold blood? The case against jaggi for allegedly murdering his wife can always be reopened. What is this Inner Engineering. What a fake guru to be branding and selling enlightenment for a fee. Can you imagine any authentic guru indulging in such a fraud. Lastly, even the isha international school must be annually audited and checked for any child sex offence. Go jaggi go around Coimbatore with your begging bowl. JAGGI VASUDEV must be stripped of sadhguru title and Padmashri. Can we kick this fellow out of Tamil nadu to where he belongs: Karnataka. Lets mount a campaign to that effect.

Posted in Environment

Sea Grass Meadows: the Carbon Capturers of the Oceans.

Posted on by veeskitchen

In Palavakkam, a suburb of Chennai, the stretch of beach sees Olive Ridleys laying eggs in the shore. To encourage the turtle breeding and to not confuse the hatchlings with too much illumination in the darkness of the night, the street lights are strictly switched off. This ensures that the turtle hatchlings make their way to the sea in their still unsteady tiny feat. The neighbourhood volunteer self-styled environmentalists help the stranded ones reach the waters safe. Olive Ridleys breed through stretches of the eastern Coromandel coast of India. The state pf Orissa is another popular pick for them with its pristine virgin beaches with minimum recorded human footfall. As awareness kicks in, locals now make sure that the olive ridley hatchlings survive. And therefore the south east coast of India remains the olive ridleys’ favourite destination when it comes to breeding. To encourage the adult female turtles to lay their eggs in the beach sand, the switching off of street lights is encouraged and practised. This shows that we are a responsible society willing to go the extra mile to see that wildlife is nurtured. Conflicts arise mostly when there is damage to property and/or loss of human life as it happens in the elephant corridors where human settlements bifurcate forest reserves.

Anyway, that is how my interest in olive ridleys happened. For sighting, one can plan an outing. This extraordinary adventure is open for city dwellers without pinching their pockets.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/news/chennai-baby-olive-ridley-turtles-emerge-from-pits-crawl-into-sea/videoshow/58098913.cms?from=mdr

It sounds implausible that the cousins of Olive Ridleys, the Green Turtles must be behind the environmental destruction caused by disappearing seagrass meadows with their mass feeding frenzy?! It comes as a shocking surprise that sometimes specific wild flora and fauna may turn out to be the agents behind driving to extinction many other co-existent wild species vying for survival in the same shared environment or eco-system. Of course, if wheat and paddy are widely cultivated and thriving crop species today, once upon a time they must have been the weed that drove to extinction better cereals/food grains. Like the poultry and cattle, maize and wheat are winners by mere mindless propagation. Green turtles to me sound like these hollow winners of the ecological war. Besides, it is news to me that the seagrass can capture and block at least eighteen percent of global carbon. It means the seagrass may be having a direct and significant role in oxygen quality in planet earth. Precisely this seagrass is fodder for dugongs, green turtles and other sea creature that mostly graze them to extinction. Reading of the green turtles in swarms feeding on the leaves and then even digging out the roots of the sea grass, one is reminded of the human greed. Green turtles have no geographic home ground. They are on the move for the entire span of their lives moving enmasse from one atoll to another, in search of seagrass, their staple food. They circumnavigate the earth thus from Cuba to Indonesia, India to Maldives and Pacific islands. In India, for a while, the Lakshadweep lagoons served as their feeding grounds before they grazed them seagrass meadows to near extinction. And then they were gone. Refer/recommend the book ‘At the feet of the living things’ yet again, authored by research scholars backed by NCF Aparajitha Dutta and others.

Seagrass meadows, the savannahs of the ocean are also the ecosystems that sustain a plethora of fish families besides supporting the turtles, dugongs and the like. Correlated to the corals and the mangroves, the seagrass meadows play a vital role in sustaining living organisms in the planet. Kudos to research scholars and NCF, India for coming up with unconventional ideas to protect and propagate sea grass and thus saving it from total extinction in this part of the world.

Mother nature maintains a delicate balance: the green turtles have to survive and the seagrass meadows also must flourish giving earth a chance to breathe. The key to Planet Earth’s survival lies under the oceans: in the profusion of seagrass meadows that absorb the excess carbon from the atmosphere and keep it all locked down fathoms beneath them cleaning up the oceans.

Wow now I do wanna go for snorkelling! I didn’t capitalize on a dozen chances I got in life, out of … er.. kind of phobia 😀 but then what a terrible loss this is. I must, the next time opportunity presents itself.