Greenwashing

it is interesting to learn new words.

Greenwashing is not a new word, but recently when i came across a reference to a chair that had a low carbon footprint, i could not feel anything but amused!

this was one of those hi-tech chairs that comes with buttons for umpteen adjustments. sitting in those chairs makes one feel in control – of what, i do not know! but the novelty wears off soon.

once adjusted, most of us are going to sit / work in the same position.

i like car seats that can be adjusted. particularly when you need to make some minor adjustments in a car driven by someone else before you. most of those are mechanical adjustments.

by adding extra motors and increasing the costs and the carbon footprint when a company says that the latest model is their lowest carbon footprint, i am not sure if that is also not  form of greenwashing.

in my school going years, i remember reading a monthly newsletter from a Canadian company that would have articles on new technologies and products. i used to wait for every issue eagerly. That company used to have a bye-line ‘if technology cannot solve problems, what else can?’. i remember writing to them asking how many of these problems solved by technology were created by technology! i never got an answer..

those were days before email and internet technology

don’t get me wrong – i love technology. like when earlier today, i was on a phone call with my daughter – who needed some  directions to reach a place in Boston.

Here i was, in Bangalore, checking an online map and pretty much giving block by block directions over the phone to locate a place half way across the world!

i know, you my ask if a local GPS or a smartphone would have given the same or better results.. but the human touch would have been lost and sharing the feeling of being lost in real time is something that technology alone cannot completely capture or share..

a prize for [writing about] walking..

Today is World Health Day!

for a contest organized by the wellness council @ the office, i wrote this piece while waitig for other to join a conference call..

not sure how many entries were received by the organizers, my entry was chosen to be one of five winning entries..

caveat:

I shall not respond to any queries related to how much of this is fact…

if you decide to jump to conclusions, maybe it is good for your health on this world health day..

===///===

I like to walk.

Even as a child, my mother used to say that I would convince her that we should walk, rather than take a rickshaw – and use that money – to buy some biscuits or juice that I could have while walking!

As we watch babies grow, it is always a very special moment to see a child standing up and taking the first step! That is the first sign of growing up and standing on one’s own feet and becoming mobile. It increases the confidence of the child and everyone around too!

While I enjoyed walking, particularly with bare feet sinking in the sands of Marina beach, it became a serious activity soon after I discovered that my cholesterol levels were high. The doctor was surprised to see that though the rations were high, the good cholesterol [HDL] levels were also high – higher than the normal expectation.

When I told him that I like and do walk regularly, he asked me to continue that practice. From that time, I try to walk for at least 30 minutes a day.

A few years ago, I used to walk at the Lalbagh gardens in Bangalore with a few friends and their families every weekend. Since that was limited to weekends – and also required some commute to get to Lalbagh, I was looking for other options. When we moved to the flat where I stay at present, the ‘mini forest’ close by became a convenient path for a walk.

An old saying goes – sit a while after supper; walk a mile after dinner. This walking would be more of a leisurely stroll, as it is not advisable to walk briskly after a [heavy] meal – as the body needs the energy to digest the food consumed.

Walking as an exercise has to be more aerobic. The action of walking with swinging arms and keeping a steady pace improves the blood circulation and also regulates breathing.

Breath control is a technique that many yoga schools also recommend. The side benefit of breath control is to have your pulse rate also low! This is something quite normal for athletes. They need to conserve their body energy to peak at the precise moment they need additional energy to push themselves higher or faster or farther.

Walking every morning is one of the best exercises one can get. It is advisable to walk at least for half an hour every morning. Studies show that walking has a positive effect on problems related to high sugar levels [diabetes] as well as high cholesterol levels.

If you are not able to walk any day, try to make up for it by climbing stairs. Someone told me once that ‘your health can be assessed by what you take two at a time. Steps – or tablets!’ from the time I heard it, I have been trying to take two steps at a time.

Our flat is on the 4^th level – and we are probably the only family in the building that takes the steps most of the time.

I am happy to see many colleagues take the stairs to get to work in the morning or to the cafeteria in the afternoon.

Now, are you enthused enough to start walking?

This page can be your starting page to get some basic concepts.

See you soon on the stairs in Surya Sapphire – or if you walk in the mornings, at JP Nagar Mini Forest! If there are sufficient enthusiasts, we can start a walking club – to explore electronics city and the neighborhood during lunch hours!

Summer is [almost] here!

Today was Ugadi.

Tthe first day of the new moon cycle of the month of Chaitra.  In terms of ritu (season), it is the last fortnight of basant (spring), and the onset of grishma ritu (summer) is a fortnight hence.

The day is celebrated as the beginning of the new year in various parts of the country.  It is Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra; and Yugadi in Andhra and Karnatka.  In Goa, today is being celebrated as Samsar Padvo.  The Sindhi community celebrates today as Cheti Chand.  It is also the beginning of the spring Navratra, the nine days of celebration and worship of the Mother Goddess. –-*--

While in other states, the new year is a couple of weeks away. the difference being the calendar based on the moon or the sun.

essentially, what this means is -- Summer is here.

that means the next two months would be the least comfortable weather wise in Bangalore.

before it gets too hot, this is a good time to enjoy cold water baths. after that, the water will also be hot through the day!

while i always have cold water baths in chennai, warm water in Bangalore feels more natural during the winter this season marks the return to cold water baths!

as refreshing as the water is the mental preparation for the first splash of cold water on the body.

a cold water bath after a sweatey morning walk is very refreshing. with the early mornings still soemwhat cool, the water could be … cold! it is a major decision. whether to wet the head, toe or thigh first.

after that, it does not mater. just plunge in - if under the shower, or pour it on - if from a bucket!

today, i also realized that i am not alone. look at the sequence below, when this bird hesitated for a moment, before jumping in to the little lilly basin!

step 1: take a close look at the water. is anyone else watching?

step 2: take a look from another angle

step 3: another view .. just make sure it is not too cold or hot!

step 4: just check the water – be ready to take off!

step 5: what does it matter now! just enjoy the summer bath..

the lilly basin has become a regular watering hole for mynahs, doves [recent visitors] and… sparrows! yes sparrows. i saw the first one today. i guess the SOS is working..

I remember a trip to kovai kutralam, where even at mid day, the water was very cold. the localite who took us there encouraged getting into the water, saying it would be very refreshing. jumping into the water without realizing it – was a resl shock! but very enjoyable and surely refreshing..

--*--thanks to a friend and former colleague for the fundas on the calendar!

Animal Similies

i hope that this post does not trigger the wrath of the animal rights activists.

no offense intended directly or otherwise to any other living beings.

for humans, i leave it to the reader to interpret the similies as compliments – as much as a nmirror would be considered one.

if you feel offended, you know whom to blame!

i have wondered many times how some of the analogies or behaviors are associated with specirfic species.

as .. as a sloth or as .. as a dodo.

isn’t it their nature? i get very uncomfortable when someone remarks on somebody else’s physical form [size, for example] or their eating habits [quantity].

when one says as poor as a church mouse – do mice have a desire to be rich?

or as crazy as a bedbug .. i know that bedbugs drive me crazy, are they crazy? maybe they are stupid, by our standards – to expect a feast by biting me!

if dogs are geneticaly condition to be faithful to their contemporary masters – can that be considered lotyalty – as we define for humans?

the Chinese name their years after animals. the soothsayers attribute qualities to an individual based on the animal associated with their with their year of birth..

i have come across many references to the region influencing expressions in the local languages.

while it is very positive to be received warmly, in the west – in south India at least, it is a compliment when someone talks to you cool or cold. I had rationalized this as a quality that is sought after in that region – in cold climates, it is good to have warmth – and in hot climates, anything cold is welcome.

but, in today’s context – it is great to be cool whereever one is.

before my mind wanders off like a monkey i want to tell you about this research paper that i read recently – that is about some theory behind some of the animal similies in English.

warning: this is not a very deep research paper that you might find very educative. but, if the topic interests you, it might be worth a quick read.

p.s. why is a wandering mind like a monkey and not like a butterfly?

one of the amusing expressions that i have heard some persons say about secrets that aren’t is [in tamil!] Kamba sootram, kazhudai m…… [rhymes with sootram]

don’t ask me the connection or the exact meaning

SOS day : 20 March 2011

No, it is not SOS due to the supermoon effect.

In a way, it is an SOS of a different kind.

it is the Save our Sparrows movement. i noticed it in a news item a couple of weeks ago. Got curious, as the organization,  Burhani Foundation was distributing free bird feeders, not too far from home.

as i drove towards the Burhani Masjid, i was welcomed warmly by the volunteers and given priority treatment and taken to the distribution desk; after filling up a simple form – with contact details, i collected my bird feeder.

they were setting a record of number of bird feeders distributed in a day.

on the way out, some birdfeed was also distributed.

this was on one of my long time wish lists and i was very thrilled to have a birdfeeder in the garden.

an earlier attempt to have one

 

was not very successful as the birds could not recognize it, i guess.

i was hoping that this would have a better result.

though this had a clearly printed label, what it could attract was

a squirrel family!

other birds come to the garden, but i am yet to see a sparrow.

this does not seem to be a crisis only in India.

the facebook page indicates that this is possibly an international problem.

communicating briefly

i grew up in the era of correspondence.
and letter writing.
i used to look forward to the weekends, to catch up on the 'snail mails' from pen friends and radio stations, to write back to them.
the challenge was to write something different and personal for each letter.
even if it was the same, one had to write it all over again.

then came email. the ability to send the same content to many, by just adding them to the To, CC or worse, BCC  lists!

i was amused when i saw a Microsoft Word template called letter to mom. one could not miss the humor, that was part of the letter - that complained of how everything is being automated and simplified, but nothing could replace the joy of writing a letter to mom!

then came the world of blogs. one could just go on and on on whatever one wanted to fill cyberspace with.
a recent research that i read mentioned that most blogs have just one reader [i hope it is other than the person who wrote it!]

in the post facebook and twitter era, blogs seem to have lost their attraction for the Gen Y. but the facebook generation is freer with comments and discussions.

when i connected this blog to my facebook account, i find that more comments are on facebook, though, when i meet in person, more people talk to me about some of the posts.

can we not have a universal blog that could be read and commented on from various applications?

agastiyar everywhere

it started as a drop .. as it rightfully should have, at the origin of the river cauvery.

the recent trip to talacauvery became more interesting when i knew that the complex houses a temple for sage agastya.

agastya being one of the sages of our 'gotram' that is named after him, has been associated with water.
there are many stories including how he drank up the ocean, how he spilt water from his 'kamandalam' to create rivers, how he acted as the counter weight to prevent the sub continent from tilting, when everyone was attending Lord Shiva's wedding in the Himalayas.

Agastya is also known as the deity of the Siddhas.

the initial drop became a major flow with multiple instances all having an agastya connection, all happening pretty much on the same day!

a couple of weeks ago, i came across an organization called atree - an NGO working on research in ecology and environment.
their newsletter is called Agasthya!
they have a focus on the agastyamalai biodiversity area.

as i was reading that, a friend had a status update on facebook about agastyar falls that he was visiting
.
all this was during a recent visit to pondicherry for a weekend. Pondicherry - aka Vedapuri - was said to have been the abode of many Siddhas.
Agasthya was supposed to have worshipped the 'swayambhu' deity of Vedapuriswarar, the god of Vedapuri - now known as Pondicherry or Puducherry.

while talking to someone about the building housing sri Aurobindo Ashram, i was pointed to the following reference:

According to the archaeologist, Prof. Dubreuil of Pondicherry, on this very site there stood thousands
of years ago, a Vedic College, a centre of culture. The legendary Patron of the city was the great sage
Agastya.


I could not stop thinking is there is some hidden message for me - from Agasthya..