Bad Biscuits

Guilty pleasure. No. Just plain guilty. Nutri Choice is guilty of unnecessary extravagance.

 

You open it to see this. 

      

It's like an MLP- Multi Level Carpark. Learnt the acronym from corporate friends this week. 

This is what an individual packet of biscuits looks like... from the outside =/

 


And then, when you FINALLY make a sighting of your damn biscuit... that is after all going to taste only like cardboard... more packaging =/

Bag of Problems

I have been taking a cloth bag for my grocery shopping, for so long now...

There is this supposedly green option...

... that I have no more plastic bags to throw my garbage in!

This one is not an option- garbage has to be tied securely in plastic

Now the next time I go shopping, I will have to pick up plastic bags in a hurry. I will bag fewer things in single packets, just so I can stock up on packets at home.

I never wanted to admit this.

But the way we live, city folk just cannot solve the climate crisis.

"I am not a Plastic Bag"- denial much?

N-Tech, No Way

I always thought nuclear technology, for energy or warfare, was a bad idea. As far as Im concerned, there is no such thing as nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

One, because in our world-conspiracy, nuclear technology (for peaceful purposes. For ‘peaceful’ purposes), is denied to nations (think Iran), because of questionable trustworthiness- This coming from high and mighty, not to mention guilty, US of A.

Two, because of N-tech’s scope for misuse.

And three, because of N-tech’s potential to be hazardous, despite safety measures. All it needs is a tsunami to blow the reactor off the charts.

Japan is reliving pains of historical proportions. Only that this time, it is due to their civilian nuclear energy plants not being able to withstand the recent Sendai earthquake and tsunami.

In these days of energy insufficiency, radical environmentalists go all out in favour of nuclear power. They see it as a suitable compromise, between human supply and human demand, and their own concerns for environmental protection. Nuclear power is said to be a clean source of energy, even considering the dangers of radiation, and the dirty energy that is used to build and run the plants in the first place.

Given all my environmental concerns and activities, I cant agree to this settlement. Charge me with being a radical humanitarian over an environmentalist, but I think it wise to pre-empt problems- nuclear explosions and radiation can lead to irreversible environmental and human damage. Choosing N-tech is going from the frying pan into the fire, from a situation of an energy deficit to a situation of an energy danger.

What swings me away from N-tech is that the dangers are not worth it, given that we are not yet at a Hobsons’s Choice. We have coal. That’s right, I just said we have coal. And I would prioritize coal over living with a millstone around my neck. However I only speak in favour of coal, because policy makers, researchers and developers, haven’t yet found a way to make renewable and clean energy attractive on a large scale. What I truly mean, is that we have the ability to make clean energy more credible. Giving N-tech the kind of importance that environmentalists have given it, is as bad as giving coal the kind of importance that industries have. We are not better than them for having come up with this as a solution to the problem of energy, when it only poses other problems, if not bigger ones.

A note to you if you are concerned about the environment- Do not forget that you are concerned about the environment because at the very bottom of it all, you are concerned about humans. Apart from the fact that there is a public saturation with environmental needs, is the fact that environmentalists turn people off. Environment for environment’s sake is the idealist outlook, and a harder argument for you to sell if you want to gather momentum to the movement. And we are running out of time, that we can all agree on.

Acting The Saheb

“Twenty five buckets of water! You will bring twenty five buckets of water and clean it!” my father screeched.

**********

Sunday afternoons are always lazy and uneventful. If I’m not out and by myself, I’ll spend it in my room.

We have a small flat, on the ground floor. It’s in a relatively well-off neighbourhood. The bed in my room is horizontally placed against the wall containing the only window in the room. Right outside the window is a large bush, which is trimmed so that it fits the exact length of my window and ends just where the window begins.

I was in my room one Sunday afternoon, sitting on my bed. It’s my most favourite place to be, on days like this one. I heard an odd hissing sound, so I looked out and saw a strange man urinating in the bush outside. It seemed like he had purposely placed his three-wheeler goods vehicle close to the bush, because he stood wedged between the bush and the vehicle, doing his job in his make-shift toilet.

He didn’t know I could see him, from behind my Netlon.

I called my father, to come and see what was going on.

**********

My father, is not a hot tempered man. He can be so calm about things, that he can make you angry for it. He is always controlled. In many ways, he is even timid.

But that Sunday, something went off in him, and he began to shout like a mad man from inside my room. The trespasser was shocked and looked around alarmed, trying to find where this strange voice was addressing him from. He hurriedly pulled his zip and pants up, and hopped back into his vehicle, trying to appear innocent. I was watching all this, from inside my room. My father then stormed outside, and began to shout at this man again.

Apparently, the president of the apartment’s owner’s association had hired this vehicle, to pick up some furniture from her house.

The president of the owner’s association is a rich woman. She owns six dogs and three flats in our complex. She’s quite the bully and a force to be reckoned with.

By this time, a small group of maid servants, sweepers, security guards and drivers had gathered. I could see how hard they were trying to straighten their faces. Some turned away, and I knew they were laughing.

**********

The trespasser began to plead with his hands folded “Maaf kijye sir, maaf kijiye. Main patient hoon.” He then began to cough violently, his chest heaving in and out from the strain, hand placed over his heart. It didn’t appear to be a very real bout. He was obviously afraid of what the repercussions of his action may be. “Would they fine me?” Whether he was a heart patient or not, I will never know. However, he seemed to suffer from the illness of Elephantiasis, because even though he was a large man, one could see an abnormally large lower body, from his waist down.

That was when my father spotted a boy, of no more than twelve years in age, peeping out at the tamasha, from behind the vehicle. He was the helper, to the trespasser of the goods vehicle.

“Twenty five buckets of water! You will bring twenty five buckets of water and clean it!” my father screeched.

He did this first at the trespasser and then when he realized that the man didn’t look like he was going to oblige and his coughing increased dramatically, my father pointed at the boy, and screeched the same.

Acting the Saheb.

The boy reluctantly came out from his hiding place. One of the sweeper women shoved a bucket into his hands, stifling giggles all the while. Another woman helpfully pointed in the direction of a tap, that the gardener used to water plants. The boy began to walk in the direction of the tap. My father shouted again. “NOT THERE! That’s not for you to use. Go to the public toilet and fetch the water from there.”

Twenty five times the boy trudged up and down, from the toilet to the bush. By the time he got to the bush, there was hardly any water left in his bucket. It had left a trail all the way behind him, marking the path he took, for another man’s sin.

The offender sat in his vehicle all along. My dad stood outside with all the society-cleaners, supervising the young boy. The crowd began to dwindle. Only my father, the offender and the boy were left, my father still counting.

The Irony At Sunfeast

Bangalore

I went as a volunteer from the IYCN, with Saahas (a Bangalore based NGO, that deals with waste management and reduction), for the Sunfeast World 10k Run, held in Bangalore, on the 31st of May, 2009. No, we didn’t go to run the race. We went instead, with the common aim of ensuring that the event was a zero-waste event.

The event was highly publicized, with The Times of India being the print media partner and Kingfisher being the ‘good times partner’. Procam was the organizer of the event. The event was held to raise money for some 60 odd NGOs in India. There were 23,000 registered participants, apart from a stifling crowd of onlookers who had come to pass their Sunday afternoon.

While everybody in Bangalore is celebrating the success of the event, allow me to enlighten you on the excuse for a waste disposal system, that the event had.

There were about four hired young boys as cleaners for the entire stadium. I was able to find only about five dustbins, after much searching.

Kingfisher water was flowing through the Kanteerva Stadium- the water, packed in handy little pocket sized bottles, was free and uninhibited. If my mother was at the event, I know she would have stuffed as many bottles as would fit in my pockets, so that she can carry the cute things in her handbag when she goes shopping. There were several people like my mother at the event, hoarding up as many of the Pet bottles as possible. If they weren’t hoarding, they were taking a sip of water or pouring it on themselves to beat the heat… and then tossing the bottles all over the place.

The volunteers from Saahas, IYCN and the MS Ramaiah Institute here, were the only ones responsible for trying to keep the event clean, and having waste recycled. The twenty of us brought about thirty of our own bins. We ensured that waste was segregated and all the Kingfisher water bottles were sent for recycling. Our collection of Pet bottles amounted to around 800 kgs (80,000 bottles). Other waste contributed 400 kgs.

With all its social motivations, a clean Bangalore, was just not on the agenda of the event’s namma Bengaluru plan. I've been told that the situation was even worse last year. We were the last to leave the stadium that day, and if not for us volunteers who cleaned up the place, the organizers of the next event to be held at the stadium, would have probably had to do so.

One may think this is a municipal issue, or an issue of the organizers of the event. One may even argue that we deprived the rag pickers who would definitely have come scavenging for waste, once the stadium had quietened down. Yes, the stadium would have been cleaned up, some how, before the next event. We didn’t need to leave our homes at 5am, to be there by 6am and finally leave the stadium only by 12pm.

But we did it, in the hopes of being able to educate this highly developed Bangalore, on the value of reducing and recycling our waste. I can promise you one thing- climate change will be a priority of the Sunfeast World 10k Run organizers (and Kingfisher, if you want to pick a bone), next year.

Earth Hour ’09- A confession

When I first heard about the Earth Hour 2 years ago, I thought it was something that had probably been around for years, and I had simply not heard about it. It’s a brilliant idea. I just didn’t think it could be a new one. However, I was surprised to learn that it’s only been around for 2 years.

To tell you a little about the event,

“ Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday. “

The idea is simple. Switch of all electrical appliances for one hour, from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm, wherever you are, at your local time.

People I know have been talking about it for about a week now. And since I have initiated a lot of environmental activities in my community, people asked me specifically about it and if I was taking part. Even thought I did my best to publicize the event, I felt that I didn’t need to really take part in it and endure the discomfort of having no electricity for an hour, since I was already enlightened. I felt that the event was more for other people, to whom the good news hadn’t yet reached.

The goal of the programme is not so much to save an enormous amount of electricity on that one day of the year, but to instill in people, a lifelong value, to conserve as much as they can and protect the environment. And this is why I self righteously didn’t think I needed to participate.

************

I’ve just gotten back home from an Earth Hour event organized at a local school. It was organized and sponsored by Coca Cola.

From 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm, some of my friends performed a string of popular alternative rock tracks. They had musicians playing the saxophone, the tabla, the bongos, along with electric and acoustic guitars.

And from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm, the Earth Hour, the lights were dimmed and bits of The Inconvenient Truth were screened. It was followed by a choreography to Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal The World’, and ‘We Are The World’ and ended with a lucky-draw of people who had calculated their carbon footprints beforehand, and had submitted it.

I’m definitely going to organize a community event next year just like this, and would like to encourage you to do the same too.

************

As much as I may have felt that I was already doing things right and didn’t need to participate, I have a confession to make.

I sleep with my lights on, almost everyday.

I’m usually reading or writing and just fall asleep over my work. But most of the time, being tired, I get under covers thinking I’ll shut the eye for 15 minutes, only to wake up the next morning with my lights still on. Of course I use CFL lights. But that’s beside the point. The point is, I am as guilty as anyone else. I must change. I must. So if it means taking the comfortable quilt off to switch of the lights, or being more disciplined when the alarm rings to tell me my 15 minutes is over, I must do it. I know that I’m not the problem, but I know that I am contributing to it. So it’s going to be different for me from today.

Nargis

Written on- 20th May 2008

Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar earlier this year. Of Cyclones, there are many. They will be forgotten. But the way in which the military junta in Myanmar acted, for reasons only they can live with, was more memorable.

So sweet a name.
So vicious a temper
Like a schizophrenic possessor.
When a gentle breeze,
Turned into an all overpowering storm.
Nargis. Oh Nargis.
Why do we name you?
Why do we call you a name
So dear and soft.
As if with pride,
Like new parents,
Would call their future?

Because you came.
And because you went.
Because you are now,
A part of our fragile lives.
Because we can never deny,
That we did not know you.
That our paths didn’t cross.
And that you were stronger than I.
I know you Nargis.
And I'm humbled by your acquaintance.

Water

Here’s what I want you to do.

Pour yourself a glass of water, in a glass MADE of glass. As in, not in a steel tumbler, or a ceramic mug, or your best silver ware. A real glass-glass!

Go already! (Don’t peek at the rest.)

Now that we’ve got that settled.
Hold it up to the light.
Appreciate it.
Swirl it.
Sniff it.
Appreciate!

Okay, this is not meant to be gross or icky. I want you to hear me out.

See, I was doing the same thing today, when it struck me. That little sip that just went down my pipes has slipped between so many lips before mine. So many (and they didn’t all have to be human.). But really. My water’s been to more places, seen more things and experienced more than I ever have and will ever be able to. Its seeped into the tiniest of cracks, and probably been one among the many thousand little quantities of itself, that washed out the earth, when Noah was afloat.

Right. That’s all I have to say. No, there’s no moral, profound thought, inner truth or deep insight to be inferred from this.