DIY Coconut Shell Planter

10 Steps to Reusing Coconut Shell Waste

Step - 1: Find coconut shells that fit in to each other. The fit needs to be a bit tight
Step - 2: Remove the coir covering from both the shells
Step - 3: Make a small hole in the bottom shell for drainage. If it is a piece with three eyes, puncture                 the weakest one.
Step - 4: Cut a hole on the other coconut shell
Step - 5: Fit the two shells (the top one should fit in to the bottom one). Only mechanical fitting, do                    not use any form of glue. The glue will kill the plant.
Step - 6: Find a suitable base to ensure the coconut shell stands on it, else it would roll away :-)
Step - 7: Fill the coconut shell with soil up to 3/4 level
Step - 8: Add an indoor plant and fill up to the top, leaving some space to water the plant
Step - 9: Add water, limited quantity only
Step-10: Place it on your window sill

if you have other ideas please share it in the comments below.

Yellow Fever Vaccination – Mumbai



List of countrieds for which the Indian Government
has mandated yellow fever Vaccine 

Yellow fever is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes. It is caused by a virus carried by mosquitoes. You can catch this disease if you are bitten by a mosquito infected with this virus. 

This disease is common in South America and in sub-Saharan Africa.

Anyone can get yellow fever, but the elderly have a higher risk of severe infection.

If a person is bitten by an infected mosquito, symptoms usually develop 3 - 6 days later.

Prevention is the mantra, so you need to get the vaccine before you travel to the countries with the risk of yellow fever (refer pic above)

 

Signpost at the Cross Road



I am sharing my experience here, which is a snapshot in time. Encourage you to check and verify for changes. This article is not an advisory.

Mandatory stuff first

1.       This vaccine is a must to go to countries listed in the picture alongside

2.       You need to carry your ticket and passport

3.       Needs to be taken 10 days in advance of travel

Airport Health Organisation

It is tucked away near the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, as you drive straight from the Leela Hotel, it forks at the end of the road if you turn left it would lead you to the airport. Don't enter the airport, instead watch out for the signpost at the cross roads and follow it to reach the Airport Health Organisation (AHO). As you are driving through you should be able to view the building.

It’s a time consuming process, takes nearly half a day. It is important you reach early since the number of injections is capped at 70 numbers. A unique twist is that these vaccines come in vials of 5 so if the numbers at the end exceed a multiple of 5 they need to return again.

Long hours of waiting can be a challenge so diabetics ensure that you carry food and water. People who can’t stand for a long time, please bring along you seating arrangements. Waiting can be a challenge in case you need to handle small kids.

Administration Procedure

One has to go in quite early, it is better to reach there between 7 and 8 am (registration closes at 11:30, you can take a chance till then). Once you reach there, you or the others need to do one very important activity and that is to ensure that people write their names, as they arrive (it is not a registration). This is because people cannot maintain a queue for a very long time. The wait period outside the gate is from the time you arrive to about 09:30. Chaiwala will come it at around 08:30 and sell you chai around 09:00.

Around 09:15 a guard arrives and asks a que to be formed based on the name list. Then people are marched inside and asked to site on a small parapet wall within the compound wall of the building. It mostly would get filled up by ladies and the men need to stand.

At 10:00 am you will be led in to the main building for the registration which will close at 11:30, wherein you will be made to sit in the order of the names listed on the sheet. Then each one is called with his ticket and given a token number. Post this exercise everybody is asked to go and come back at 11:30. This is when you can go one stair up and buy your Bajji Pav, it was quite alright. A hot cup of chai post the spicy hot bajji pav was good.

Then you come back at 11:30 and then sit according to the token number in the ground floor. At about 12:00 the first batch of people are ushered in to the first floor. Once there you will be given the yellow card (not sure if they wanted to give a visual que to the yellow fever through the card), which needs to be filled up by you. And then each one is called as per the serial number wherein you walk to the counter and give them your yellow card, passport and Rs 300/-. After this people are sent in batches of 5 for the injection. Once you get injected, you can take your passport and signed copy of the yellow card (they also put in a batch number of the vaccine). Now the process is complete, you watch may be reading 13:00 hrs by now. Never the less one task out of the way for the next 10 years.

Save Powai Lake - Eichornial Infestation

He banged the table and said with all his confidence Powai Lake is a Natural Lake and it is a Salt water lake. That response left the rest of us, on the lunch table, a bit perplexed as to the source of his information but never the less that does not change the facts about the Powai Lake. The fresh water lake is a colonial legacy, built by the British.

It still stands serene, I especially enjoy the morning sunrise setting on the Powai lake in winter. The newly built foot over bridge could probably give an elevated perspective to the sunrise. The Powai Lake has gone through many stages of water quality degradation. The lake water which used to supply drinking water for Mumbai has been declared unfit to drink.

The lake in itself is a blessing and a key natural differentiator for the Powai area. The Powai Lake influences the microclimate of Powai Area, typically the influences exerted by water bodies in the location where they exist. A key component of the local drainage system, the monsoonal rain waters of Powai and the adjoining areas drain into the lake. The lake still remains a tourist attraction, thanks to the recently rejuvenation efforts by the government and the intervention of the interested local populace.

Eichornia - Lake Powai



I recently took a picture of the lake and observed that there is a green invasion on the lake, not the Martians; it is the weed Eichornia or Water Hyacinth pervading the lake. Water hyacinth is a free-floating perennial plant, it is one of the fastest growing plants known.

The plant in itself is not bad in fact it can be used beneficially to treat waste water but, if their grown is not checked they can choke the life out of the water body, primarily through expedited evapo-transpiration and eutrophication. These plants cover the water’s surface in a mat-like sheet and restrict sunlight that underwater plants need for growth.  Eventually this underwater vegetation dies and decays depleting dissolved oxygen in the water, which is needed for underwater life.  Water hyacinth provides prime habitat for disease vectors such as mosquitoes.

Interestingly it reminds me of the kingly tales such as the one which gave the ancient name Bendakaluru to modern Bengaluru i.e., to invade the enemy by surrounding the periphery. That is exactly what the Eichornia is doing to the Powai Lake or for that matter any lake it invades. Once in the water body the Eichornial infestation can double in size in a few weeks.

Water hyacinth has been used successfully in wastewater treatment systems to improve the quality of water by reducing the levels of organic and inorganic nutrients. It is known to absorb and translocate cadmium, lead, copper, zinc, and nickel. Based on this unique property water hyacinth can be used for developing cost effective and environmentally friendly technologies for the remediation of soils and wastewaters polluted with toxic substances (Heavy Metal Phytoremediation).

The plant is quite an useful one, however their collective sheet over a water body is detrimental to the water body as well as the humans and animals that depend on it. The common methods of control include physical removal of the plant, using herbicides etc. Biological control (bio control) can be very effective however it brings in the issue of introducing alien species. Two agents, a weevil, Neochetina eichhorniae, and a moth, Niphograpta albiguttalis, are known to be effective elsewhere in the world. The tunnelling larvae of these insects achieved good control. There may be other bio control agents available.

The lake has to be preserved, it impacts the life in Powai in many ways directly and indirectly. Lets not kill the preserver, by turning a blind eye to the Eichornial Invasion. Save the Powai Lake prevent the pervasion of the lake.

Be the Change

BE THE CHANGE

This song was inspired by Mahatma Gandhiji's quote "Be the Change you want to See in the World". We did choose to sing it for the 2012 independence day. My colleague Abhijit Das was the music composer. Listen to the practice version of the song. Be the Change - Practice Version (mp3)

Be the Change

Be the Change you Wanna see

Be the Change you Wanna be

Be the change you wanna see in the world

Believe it and make it happen

Take the step, as small as it may seem,

Make it bold, Be the change foretold

Its not easy, they say change is the only constant

In time it is never in an instant

You got to go through the grind

Till the meaning you find

The foe’ll mock and humiliate

He’ll push, shove and put you to test

Stir up the dormant beast

Slaughter your humane trait

You go to hold on, its less about you and me

change is mighty, it is larger than the person

let not the trials and tribulations consume

change, is all the more an imperative reason

Be the Change

Be the Change you Wanna see

Be the Change you Wanna be

BE THAT CHANGE……………

Indian Railways Playing it Green - Virtual Reservation Message

This is an absolute convenience. Now, travel with the Indian railway with just a soft copy (Virtual Reservation Message [VRM]) of the railway e-ticket. This move by the railways could have a considerable positive implication on the passenger and the environment.

Virtual Reservation Message (VRM) - A screen-shot of the e-ticket displayed through laptops/palmtops/ Mobile phone. VRM combined with valid photo-id in original will be treated as an instrument on par with the Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS). ERS/VRM along with proofs of identity in original will also authorize the passenger to enter the platform on the day of journey and he/she will not be required to purchase platform ticket.
Forget about clamoring to take a print out or worse still not including the print out as part of the entourage. Now the convenience is simple as storing the snapshot on your mobile or even someone sending it to you, in case it’s forgotten. Oh well, what if the display device is forgotten, obviously if you don’t have a print out of the ticket or the display device then will have to pay the fine for the travel.
From an environmental standpoint with the VRM we can save about 3 lakh A4 papers daily, which amounts to saving of 25.5 full grown trees, 40 m3 of water 6150 kilowatt-hour of electricity on a daily basis (estimates only).

• One tonne of paper is equal to 200, 000 sheets of A4 paper.
• 1 A4 page of 80gsm; 1m2 = 16 x A4 sheets. 1 A4 sheet = 80g/16 = 5grams.
• 1 tonne/5 A4 sheets = 200,000 A4 sheets
• 17 trees are used to make one tonne of paper. Recyling 1 ton (0.91 t) of paper saves 17 mature trees, 26 m3 of water, 2 barrels of oil and 4,100 kilowatt-hours (15 GJ) of electricity

Railways has always shown leadership through the use of latest and prevalent technology. They launched the computerized reservations system and saved huge quantum of time by removing the need to travel to a booking center and to waste valuable time by stand in ques.

This latest move adds a further shade of green to its operations.
It does leave me with an afterthought are they focusing on the right stuff such as operating efficiency of engines and rakes, transmission and use of electricity. I am sure there is huge opportunity for the railways to play deeper green.

Bikes, Helmets and Mumbai

You dont choose the bike, the bike chooses you says the ad. Commuting in Mumbai? Hmm.... bikes are indispensible for some, it saves time and money. Bike rides are exhilarating especially if they are on the highway. Many die to do it or die doing it.

See a cop on the way or at a signal, put on your helmets, was it strapped on? Let me think. Not really, how else would you save time taking it off when you are away from the cops. Is the cop who is being cheated. With bike ride death follows the rider at the tip of the fancy exhaust. A little miscalculation and the laws of physics and gravity take over.

In an accident an unstrapped helmet would fall off, and roll away saving itself. The rider hits the road and injures himself, if he hits harder his brains spill out on to the road. Is it worth it, save a helmet and loose your brains. Never in this infinite world, finite you think, yes life is finite. I had seen an accident, a young college goer met with an accident. No helmet, he hit his head on the road, his brain spilled out and the crows were ready for the meal. God knows how his mother pampered him, but after the accident the scavengers were ready.

Next time you wear a Helmet 'STRAP IT ON'. Don't spill your brains on the road. Live to speak.

Tainted by Black Light

Be a light unto the world said the scriptures. Select few renouncing the worldly entreaty set out on the arduos task of divine supplication to live by what the scripture had said. The men and women vowed devoutness to the Holy Trinity, celibacy to themselves and selfless service to mankind.

Fathers / priests and sisters / nuns were words which brought hope and succor to the innumerable many who harbor neglect, hate and despair. Beacons of purity, strongly entrenched, unshaken by the vagaries of time. Ubiquitous in their presence especially at hospitals, leprosy centres, orphanages, charities, educational institutions and churches, were ever willing to serve in humility. India had the gift of one such nun.

Mother Theresa, epitome of humility, served Indians with all the benevolence until her death. She and her institution of nuns owned the bare minimum and lived an amazingly simple life with absolutely few material things. Saw one like her in St Marthas Hospital, Bangalore, the old nun a foreigner by origin, ripe with age, she would have been almost 80 years, came every morning and evening to the hospital wards and stood at each of the beds and prayed for the patient irrespective of their religious tethers. She was solace and love manifested for the patients. My father who was in the hospital was all praises for her and even waited until evening to say good bye to her though he was to be discharged in the morning.

Has someone or something tarnished this pure human manifestation? In the media recently was news that one of the nuns is being held in a mental asylum for she had threatened to spill the beans on illicit relationship between priests and nuns. On the lighter sense, is this reference to a holy family?

The number of child abuse cases by the priests especially in Latin America is quite often in the news. The Vatican has also instituted a corpus to as compensation for child abuse cases. Priests having illicit relationships, running secret families are so much part of the media that people are no longer perturbed on reading them.

Is the institution becoming an easy place for people to enter, use and exit? I knew one of the priests from the seminary studying with us. Though ordained, was on hot pursuit behind a belle, talk about her all the time, get drunk thinking of her. He was being supported by the seminary. To filth went the money offered by the congregations, which went to the seminary for funding depraved characters such as him, to God it was offered.

On a cursory analysis, the conclusion is that many have taken up being priests or nuns because they have very low acceptability or self esteem in the society in terms of having good education, appearance or money. Once in to the institution, job and money are not a concern, funding is available. After having lived as a parasite, they just move on back to the lure of the material world. There is more filth in the form of cheating, taking bribes, carnal favours etc than that meets the eye.

Is the light emanating from this institution tainted by black light? Is there a day the light would resurrect to shine in its glory again?