Whadda I do over a weekend?

"I wake up on a Saturday afternoon with a bad hangover wondering what to do?" Such remarks annoy me greatly. I can't understand people who don't know what to do with their time on weekend. The idea is totally alien to me. I wish there was same way I could siphon out the time from their lives into mine - could do so much more as there are just so many things to do and only 24 hours in a day!!!

Take just this weekend for example - started with a strenuous session of Kalari on Friday evening leaving me soaking wet, no not coz of a monsoon shower but due to the sheer workout!!! I come back home and plan the weekend squeezing in as many things as possible. I lose a lot of time currently training for a byking trip (read cycling for byking thru out) from Manali to Leh or shopping for it. So this time we had the choice of going to Nandi and do a typical climb or...

A friend asked if we were interested in visiting this farm near Shravandurga in Arakamanahalli (dang the names are tough!!!). We thought we could byke to this place instead and we did. Started off at 5ish (lacking sleep) and went from the beginning of Magadi road - about 47kms from Kormangala I was told. The stretch in city is boring and once u get out it is serene lined with beautiful trees on both sides - hoping BBMP doesn't see the need to widen roads that far... I was horrified at the look of cubbon road - one of my favorite stretches. U shud take a look from some higher floors of Manipal center - all gone now!!!

Anyways we reached the place and met up with Shekhar who has an interesting story to share. He was with HP Labs before retiring recently. On one of his visits to Shravandurga he parked his vehicle near a farmer's house. They took some unknown path and returned only by evening. On their return the farmer offered food and insisted they have it. He wanted to pay them for it but they wouldn't take anything - atithi devo bhava! :) He told he would be back in which case and they would have to feed him each time. They were only happy to do so. He kept visiting the place and got to know more about them. One trip he noticed their son was missing. They told he has taken up a job in the city to help clear the loan. Shekhar was surprised to know that the amount was a meager 20K loan and the farmer was merely paying the interest with all their earnings. Why so? the interest was 5% per MONTH!!! He was shocked at this ridiculously exploitation. He told he will clear the loan for them. They wouldn't accept so he told he can use a piece of their land to make a simple home for him. This they agreed to and he got a piece of land that wasn't fertile with a rock. The house he has is amazingly simple much better than a farmhouse thing I saw in the previous week. All this was done with no paper work. Today the farmer is out of debt making a good life for himself and helping other farmers. Shekhar continues to help them and has himself bought a piece of land to grow trees and encourage organic farming practices.

Shekhar thinks that what he did is simple and scalable. Others could follow suite. The next adoption is already in progress.

What are the many possibilities?

1. Fair trade options: He says that these farmers need to travel to city and sell the vegetables where they get auctioned. It would be good to have a fair trade mechanism whereby only transport expense is part of the sale and most of the profit comes to the farmer.

2. Encourage best practices: I was intrigued by the drip irrigation, rain water harvesting, bio gas generation, etc at the place. He said the tomatoes yield could be increased if they were spaced out better - less plants more yield. This only gets more interesting...

3. Supply of organic manure: The farmers are not as ignorant. You go and ask them for any gobar they refuse as they can simply dump it on the land knowing it is good manure. Shekhar told it would be great if we can get organic waste from cities and provide it to the farmers. Probably the same truck carrying the organic stuff can take back their fresh vegetables if the hygiene is taken care of - meaning the wet waste brought from city should not be rotting...

4. Clearing the loans: Clearly the interest rates here are exorbitant excoriating the farmers. It would be good to have some tie with an org like RandDe to ensure the loans of these farmers are migrated to RangDe like institutions which have as low as 16% interest annually as compared to 24% provided by other MFIs. I was coincidentally wearing a tee from RangDe. It feels good when u see the pieces of a puzzle fall in place! (:

5. Insurance against crop failure: This could be a part of the adoption mentioned earlier or a tie up with people in city willing to secure some farmers. In return the city folks can use the land for respite without investing a huge chunk of their savings. This option can appeal to many.

6. Need for milch cow: Shekhar said he wishes to equip the family with a few more cows so that the gobar can be used to generate electricity and the milk could be used in the family. Need to check with Jain farms in Bangalore if they can supply such cows as most of the cows there are rescued from butcher houses as they are old and unproductive. At least we could get the gobar feeding these cows wet waste from near by localities. Could be a win win for all.

The possibilities are many and doable. If only...

For us the weekend began with a talk with such an inspiring person and it is not the end of it.

We helped pick the tomatoes and did it at least for a third of the field. Felt great and again the possibilities of making it efficient. Shekhar devised a bike (trike actually - tricycle) to transport water. Again why re-invent wheel err drum - http://ngopost.org/story/rollable-water-container.

A good idea begets another idea - a neat animation from google contest.

This was followed by a sumptuous breakfast - with raagi mudde involved I would call it heavy lunch rather - very tasty pickle grown locally - bitter lime or something. I m always loving it! :D

We decided to hitch a ride. I wanted to byke back and do the beautiful climbs but let it pass due to time constraints. Returned to the city and helped a friend pick a good high end byke. She is a strong byker lugging aournd a 30+ kilo byke currently. Then a tryst with the monsoon shower which is becoming a rarity - an inconvenience to us city dwellers a night mare for farmers!

Again spoilt for choice in the evening - a play by Indian Ensemble, film screenings by Maraa - around a tree, etc. I had to buy a helmet so skipped the plays and ended up watching Raavan - a bad bad choice. People should realize there are many wonderful plays running with limited audience who are wasting their time in movies such as this!!!

Sunday - skipped training went for a tree plantation drive - my first. Love this group as they are focused on preserving the plants. It was good to see some residents come early on lazy Sunday morning and pick up the tools and get to work. It took me a lot of effort as I am new to this but enjoyed thoroughly - was a work out for the upper body. Those morons going to gym and pumping iron should actually think of doing something more useful!!! The average Indian is usually a laborer and with great physique due to the hard work with limited meals - the best way to stay fit - a need for most IT professionals trying to sweat it out in air conditioned gyms! :)

The next thing - well deserved - yummy tatte idlis in Domlur (u must try if u haven't) - some vishnu ... We then visit this plot given for our zero waste management efforts. Wet waste appears to be a big problem most places so we hope to use this piece of land and take care of that while apartments take care of their dry waste. We plan to plant a good number of bamboo saplings that can cover the activity as people find it an eye sore that someone takes care of their waste and pretty well at that! :) These hopefully can be used for making composting tanks if there is a need to clear the land.

The next thing is a play reading at Bangalore Little Theaters workshop - SPOT (Summer Project on Theater). Amazing improvement in the script and creativity at its best. Really enjoyed the next few hours. One should not while away their after noons when there is such fun stuff happening around!!!

Evening was spent shopping again for the trip - wonder how the weekend would be without the over head of the trip n shopping! :)

A pretty eventful weekend nevertheless with a great dinner at a nice punjabi dhaba - "Kaaku da Dhaba" on Sarjapur road near Wipro Head office. The week again begins - look forward to the Kalari class in the evening. Will go for a swim if I find time - if only I had more time... :)) So next time I am around don't u dare say - "What do I do with my time?" I might just wring your neck!!!

Open up, open up!!!

"I wish to change the world but they won't give me the source code"

            - from some T shirt at FOSS @ IISc

Promoting linux/FLOSS has always been a challenge but fortunately it gets easier by the day! :) I have often found similarities between advocating biking against fossil fuel vehicles and linux against windows -

1. It is gonna be tough - "Common give it a try - a matter of getting used to!!!"

2. It's not friendly enough - "when was the last time u used linux/a bike?" Try the latest ones and u will know what u have missed all along!!!

3. I don't mind paying the license fee/fuel - "But why pay when u can use it for free. If u run into an issue wear the do it yourself (DIY) hat and if u can't figure out there is a huge community out there to help you out! :) If you still can't do it pay for some help but at least u gotta a choice! :)"

4. It looks cool! - "Check out the new distros/brands - cudn't get any cooler!!!"

Common remarks -

"Switching to linux/biking was tough a few years ago but now..."

"You buy any comp/cycle and then all u need is linux/pedal power - absolutely free!"

"I can only wish that I had switched earlier!"

"Keeps me fit/my mind fit"

"I haven't known what a virus attack is for long be it flu or melissa. If u do get it u recover in no time!" ;)

Flame wars -
"Merida vs Trek" - "Fedora vs Ubuntu"

"Emacs vs Vi"  - "Road bike Vs Mountain Bike"   => Emacs with viper - Hybrid/Crossway

Communities -

"GNU, Free, OSS, Libre, ..." "BOTS, Wheelsports, Decathlon, RAC-F, GGGC, ..."

Unfortunate one:

"Fewer chicks on either!!!"

                                                 ...but the few that are - are darn good! :))

Linux is open and so am I! :)

Dodo

PS: I luv the song open up from nescafe - kind of goes with the mood -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d262BfXK1zc

A date with Murphy...

There was this bike workshop at Symbiosis and I was a little worked up with the many things at hand. Din't want to mess it up so did spend a good deal of energy on it. I actually washed my bike after a long time so that it doesn't look so dirty. It hadn't rained in ages and I was hoping I don't have to clean it for sometime. It rained the same night and almost every evening after that for a few days! :))

I got some really good slides from Pradeep which they had used for the Ignite Bangalore. That saved a lot of effort but I did wake up late not making it to the starting point for the ride to the Ecity. I asked Pankaj to move on forgeting Neera wud be there waiting as she doesn't work there. Deb & Satabdi joined and we reached there pretty late. Was keen on the blood donation camp at Symbiosis. It had been over a year so - result - yet another black out! :)) Great way to start ur day - quite refreshing actually! :)

By lunch hour we had students eager and trying the bikes - half a dozen bikes but only 2-3 bikers. I was pretty impressed by some of them as they freaked out on the bikes. A girl boldly took the strida down a small incline near the mess. Asked her to be careful. Grabbed my camera and I had just begun to take a few shots when a girl was brought with a bruises on her face. She freaked out on the Strida and took  it down the incline to the basement when nobody was watching - used the disc brakes and on the ground. A casualty even before the workshop had begun!!! Huh - no more biking for the students after that - spent much of the afternoon working on the presentation as not many bikers had confirmed presence - stretched the presentation a bit.

At 4 in the evening we had all the bikers those who had confirmed and even few who hadn't - pleasant surprise! :) It wud be nice to have as many bikers share their reason to be on the saddle but the presentation time was cut short as the students had a lecture they cudn't bunk! :)

We had a brief bike trial session and then we went on with the bike ralley. The trikes wud catch the attention and all but it started pouring! :D This didn't dampen the spirit of the bikers and we went to the 1st entrance to Ecity. Bizy junction and we had heads spinning! :))

Despite the many goofups (most of them on my part!) it was a good event more important a good learning. Now we work for the next few bike workshops - colleges and corporates!

BykeWorkshopSIBM

Lessons learnt:

1. Have a compact session targetting either only evening or morning - all day won't work unless many bikers in the hosting corporate/college. It worked well at Infy. Evening 4-6 i a good time as you can have those interested try the bikes for as long as they won't after the presentation say around 5:30

2. Ensure at least a dozen bikers for the one on one sessions with as many bikes assuming an audience of 100

3. Ensure a minimum audience else it may not be worth the time and effort of so many bikers

4. Have interesting videos as breathers in the presentation so that the audience don't switch off.

5. Eye candies like Trykes, Styda, etc work like a charm. Ensure u have all kinds of bikes - road bike, hybrid, MTB, folding bike, etc.

Tryst with a run! :)

My first serious run ever - at 29 - like they say better late... :) I registered last year and was running for Kilikili. We participated in the costume thingie last year and we won a 2nd prize. That was the high and running with the costume was out of the question. I am not sure I would have been able to run in any case in the shape I was in! ;)

The rest of the Marathon pics.

This year the focus was to run and I did. Yay! :) I had a sprain in my left foot coz of a broken byke pedal and was really not sure I could do it that too with zero training. Wanted to sleep on time but was doing this article for Citizen Matters on the run and it kept me pretty bizy last 2 days. Woke up at 5:30 and yet managed to get late for the Open 10K run. I chose to run for Saahas this year and possibly participate for the costume thingie again with Saahas. Was looking for the team first thing I reached the place and I was shocked to find that entering from one gate gave you access only to a few sections of the stadium unlike the last year. I was a volunteer with Bangalore Cares last year and was able to move around pretty freely - was disappointed with the unecessary restrictions this year - when one of the volunteers told me one of the gates was entry only I almost lost it. Couldn't meet anybody in the chaos so went to the Gate 5 for the run. Joined two friends and started off at 8:30 - too many people and 20 minutes past the start time only half the people had started running! :D

As soon as I began to run I remembered I need to answer some call - had taken a good deal of water! :) Thought would stop at the first loo on the way! Started with an easy pace as was suggested in a workshop organized by Rang De. Was hoping the legs won't hurt with light steps and did pretty well for first 5kms. First short break for water after 3kms the next one on completing 5 kms with some glucose. The loos had long queues in front of them. Looked like I was not the only one who taken too much water! ;)

Each km after that was an effort. Surprisingly I was not out of breath just that my calf muscles began to hurt. I was taking long breaths and only throught the nose which helped - something I learnt from the yoga at Art of Living. I belive the regular byking of 15-20km helped and so also the Kalaripayitu lessons - all the while I wished my swimming was on!!! Why it is off is another story we can save for another time! ;) The legs gave way simply coz they have never been trained for a run! :D I have them dipped in hot water even as I type this... :)

I took several breaks in the 6th through 8th km during which I did use the loo (wat a relief! :D). I bumped into the friend who had sped off during the begining of the race! ;) Was out of water but din't want to touch the god forsaken KINGFISHER bottles which like last year were again out on the roads despite our many efforts with the organizers not to use them but I guess sponosors have all the say!!! Arrived back at Kanteerva in around 70 minutes. Not bad for the very first run ever! :)

I had to rush to another workshop so couldn't help the Saahas team that was working on clearing up the streets and the refreshment counter asking people to use the bins (hard to believe u need to educate people about such simple things!!!). I even missed the costume thignie but I am just glad I ran for them with a lovely T shirt! :)

All in all good fun except the plastic bottles which have been dealt with this time by Saahas despite the COLD response for volunteering for the same. Hoping this issue is taken more seriously next year. Have begun work on that! :)

A friend had shared this inspiring quote -

"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the fastest lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you'd better be running" - Roger Bannister.

Personally, I would neither be the lion or the gazelle but the good old dodo who would rather continue to sleep! :D 

I m glad I ran - now I m thinking of the duathlon in June but irrespective will consider running more often seriously. If a dodo such as me can do it so can u! :)

The power of one!

Chicken soup stories have always influenced my thinking a great deal. There is this story of a little girl throwing star fishes washed to the shore back into the sea. A curious observer asks -

"I have been watching you for sometime. What is it that you are trying to do?

"I m saving the fishes"

"But there are thousands of those on the beach and you can only do as much. What difference is it gonna make?"

"It will to that fish!" :)

Mother Teresa said -

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop"

Sri M Visveswaraiah said -

"Practice what you preach and preach what you practice"

The result is this freako that I have become - walk the talk and talk the walk - do wat you can while you can!

Having pestered the many frens with my persistence (read nagging) on an eco friendly living - I have come to a point where I wonder if it is really worth being the odd one out! :) Be it byking, thrift usage of paper, plastic n such, vegetarianism, etc. advocated it all and aggressively so. Wincing each time someone carelessly picks a tissue to wipe his/her hands when (s)he might very well have used a handkerchief doesn't help at all...

Today a friend put it all in a rather interesting way - "You know what - you are trying to save this huge 5 storey sinking ship running around doing all you can with only a bucket in your hand. The ship will sink nevertheless - you might as well relax!" :) Interestingly he was the same person who insisted that I go vote and u know what I did vote today (Yay!!!:). It was a painful experience to just get my name onto the list (no voter id despite the effort). I voted for Captain Gopinath who is from Army and revolutionized air travel by making it accessible to the common man (not sure it is the best thing considering the environmental impact much like the nano). If I am to be consistent in thought I should not bother voting. But I don't know how that's gonna help. When people believe that each person's vote matters so also their stand in each little thing that they do...

Imagine if all the people who could afford to (you could be one if you sincerely try), choose a cycle over a motor vehicle - we would be able to crack so many problems together - traffic congestion, pollution, obesity, etc. If people could use paper, plastic, power, etc in a sane manner then the same wouldn't land up in a landfill - resulting in health issues. Why people fail to see the connect between this recent trend of floods (Bihar/Orissa/)or hurricanes in US and their choosing to drive a car/motorbike. If they only moved to public transport. "Oh but the govt is doing nothing to improve the same!!!" Who voted them to power (rather let them come to power by not voting!:))?

So all problems come to the same single point - what each one of us chooses to do and to what extent? :) This is the power of one. You set an example - if people follow the trend shall bring about the needed change - if not the ship will _probably_ sink but your heart will _definitely_ soar!:D

Ignorance sure is bliss!

Have seen loadsa ads, ppts, etc urging people to save water... Not sure what does it take? Washing cars when people should be talking rain water harvesting!

Watch this lovely ad...

More Ads...

Nama Raste Namma Ooru...Hasire Usiru

Road widening is the least intelligent solution to our traffic problem. BBMP is pushing ahead with this mega project in total violation of the law.

It is internationally acknowledged that widening roads:

• Makes more people drive
• Increase traffic congestion
• Increases pollution
• Increases risk to public safety 

Road widening costs approximately Rs. 10 crores/km. i.e. Rs. 4,000 crores in total! Your tax money is spent on a project that has no guarantee of success.Road widening costs approximately Rs. 10 crores/km. i.e. Rs. 4,000 crores in total! Your tax money is spent on a project that has no guarantee of success.

There is a plan to widen 140 roads totaling 400 km. This is how it is going to affect us :

1. Destruction of thousands of homes and businesses. 2. Cutting down of 30,000 trees resulting in a 3 degree rise in temperature. 3. Increased pollution (which is already 3 times higher than accepted norms in many places) because of the higher traffic. 4. Loss of many familiar, beloved heritage and cultural spaces. 5. The destruction of Bangalore as we know it, and its conversion into a hot, dusty, characterless city like the thousands of others around the country. A walk  from Lalbagh West Gate to Town Hall called 'Namma Raste' is planned for Sunday, Nov. 9. It is to raise public awareness of these issues, and to get the government to rethink its traffic policy.

If you wish to do something about it please make time and be available for the walk to avert this insanity. The government should abide by the law and build the metro with more wisdom lest we end up with worse infrastructure having spent a humongous amount. The details of the walk:

Namma Raste Namma Ooru... HASIRE USIRU

Time: 11:00 AM

Date: 9th of November, 2008 

Venue: West Gate of Lal Bagah

Kindly use the flyers below (English/Kannada) to mobilize people.

      

You can also use the following posters if you please -

With good number of people and support from media we can save Bangalore from legacy of goofups politicians have been leaving behind and preserve the legacies that Bangalore is best known for - it's parks, trees and the excellent weather! :)

 A memorable moment from the Walk: