My water, your water

Our apartment complex has stopped water service between 1 and 4 in the afternoon and 12 and 5 at night to conserve water. It sucks and is very inconvenient. And I know from working on water that there are many more convenient and sensible solutions (RWH, recycling, metering and tariffing, personal consciousness and conservation) all of which are not so easy to implement in a community group like an apartment complex.

I do not appreciate the irony of running a website to help people with their water issues while not being able to fix mine.

Travails of a ticket

This is how my ticketing experience went for the travel to Delhi:

-- I booked the ongoing ticket and return ticket separately (ergo, extra time spent)hoping to squeeze in some personal vacation time with Priya in Delhi which didn't work out
-- Suddenly an important meeting came up a couple of days before the scheduled departure, so our office person had to go the airport and waste hours to get both tickets rescheduled after paying decent amount of money. You can't do rescheduling online.
--when I went to the airport on my departure date, I found that the ticket had been postponed to November 13th by mistake instead of being preponed to Oct 13th, so I ended up taking the next flight out after paying a sizeable difference. The ticket had a fairly illegible scrawl for the new travel date, and I'm fairly sure it would have been the airline's fault for a wrong reschedule.
--the day before my return I noticed that the ticket said that I needed to carry the same ID that I had booked the ticket with. This had been done by our office person with my PAN card which I wasn't carrying. I called them and they said they couldn't guarantee anything even with a xerox of the PAN -- it would be the discretion of the people at the airport. Rather than stress, I bought another ticket on the same flight at a hefty premium again and cancelled this one after losing some money.
-- at the airport they didn't ask for any ID at all.

Fuck you Indian Airlines and Jet Lite and all you other stupid airlines out there !

Meetings in Delhi

I was in Delhi for a long trip 13th to 18th and met several government types including fairly high level people. Very interesting, scary and a learning experience but won't talk too much about it. Was in a couple of meetings with Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the NKC. Instead here are photos and other stuff. The recording was made on my cellphone. I have been feeling for a while that given lack of time, I might try podcasting instead of blogging. However this first attempt is painfully amateurish and painful to hear. I am however always ready to lay it all out, so here it is. Photo context is in the audio.

Recording is at : http://www.geocities.com/ahminotep/Upload/Delhi.amr. Works on real player for me, but needed a software update.

The Written Word blog has a post about the Delhi Metro

The first two tomatoes from our balcony garden. I have a lot more respect for the red colour of tomatoes after watching the amazing change from green to red in just a few days




Cooking Ragi mudda at home (well in my case, watching Ragi mudda being cooked and making a general nuisance of myself)

From a year-mate at college

The Malejodi CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is based on the principle of connecting people to the source of their food. When you join the Malejodi CSA you are entering into a partnership that is dedicated to bringing fresh, organic produce directly from our fields to your table. Your membership helps to provide a ready market for the organic produce that we grow, and in return, Malejodi will provide you with fresh seasonal produce each month.

CSA members make a commitment to support the farm through their membership. By joining, you become an active part of the farm's success and community.

About Malejodi:
Malejodi is located in the foothills of the Western Ghats, near the source of the Nethravathi River in Belthangady taluk, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, about 320 kms from Bangalore. It was purchased by its current owner in 1995, and has been farmed organically for all its life, as far as we can tell.

How Does This Work?
Our 2008 CSA season will begin in March 2008. The season will run for a six month period, and membership can be renewed thereafter every six months.
Produce will be delivered to member’s residences (in the Ujire/Belthangady area, Mangalore and Bangalore) once a month beginning March 2008. Depending on harvest times, the gap between monthly deliveries may be as low as 20 days, and as high as 40 days.


Share Size & Cost
In 2008 we will offer 12 full CSA shares in addition to a limited number of non CSA produce shares (This is for people who want to pick and choose what they want to buy at a fixed price, though Large and Medium share CSA members will have the first priority to both their share of produce and any excess quantities that they may want of the produce).

The following choices are available:
• Large Share (Rs. 1200/month, feeds 4-5 people)
• Medium Share (Rs. 700/month, feeds 2-3 people)
• Non CSA produce Share (a la carte ordering, product availability and prices will be notified by email roughly 2 weeks before delivery for you to place orders by phone or email)

We will accept check payments. We require a non-refundable deposit of Rs. 1500 at the time of requesting membership to hold your share, with the balance of your share price (which is 6 months of payment) due by February 1, 2008.

Membership includes your monthly produce, a newsletter, recipes, and if we get our act together, invitations to CSA work events and farm events and the opportunity to enjoy the farm.

To get more information or to sign up for the CSA, please email us at: malejodi@gmail.com

What Do I Get Each Month?
At Malejodi we grow over 100 varieties of grains, vegetables, fruits, tree crops and herbs. Each month you'll receive a diverse mix of crops that are in season. While no two months will be the same, here is an example of what we think would be a typical Full share in April.

Vegetables:
Ash gourd
Lady-finger (Bhindi)
Bitter-gourd (Karela)
Tomatoes
Various Greens
Brinjal
Beans

Fruits and Tree products:
Mango
Raw jackfruit
Papaya
Coconut
Tender Coconut
Banana fruit
Raw Banana
Grains:
Rice (white or brown par-boiled)
Urad Dhal

Spices:
Ginger
Turmeric powder

Herbs:
Curry-leaves
Coriander leaves

Beauty, Health and Miscellaneous products:
Shikakai powder
Herbal tea
Honey


Since our deliveries are monthly (something necessitated by economic and ecological constraints), we will supply only those quantities of produce that will keep under storage for the appropriate time (a week to two weeks for vegetables, longer for grains, pulses and oils). We will also accommodate requests for some shuffling of produce based on personal preferences (tender coconut instead of coconuts or coconut oil, for example). Our goal is to provide sufficient quantity and variety from the crops we grow to ensure that you receive excellent value for your membership, though the vagaries of nature and farming might go against us on occasionally, hopefully compensated by its bounty at other times.

Crop List
In the 2008 season we are either growing or plan to grow the following*:

Grains:
White rice
Brown rice
Urad dhal
Moong dhal
Sesame

Vegetables:
Lady-finger (Bhindi)
Dry Beans
Brinjal
Elephant Yam
Green Beans
Greens (Basale, harive)
Tomatoes
Melons
Bitter-melon
Bamboo shoot
Snake-gourd
Ash gourd
Summer Squashes
Elephant Yam
Colocasia
Various Herbs and medicinal plants

Fruits and Tree products:
Amla
Avocado
Banana (raw, ripe, flower, and stem)
Breadfruit
Coconut (tender, ripe, copra and oil)
Betel-nut
Cashew nut
Jackfruit (raw and ripe)
Mango (tiny for pickling, raw and ripe)
Sithaphal
Guava
Papaya (raw and ripe)
Pineapple
Pomegranate
Tamarind
Drum sticks
Spices:
Ginger (raw and dried)
Turmeric
Black Pepper


*We may occasionally have to provide produce from other farms in the area to supplement our quantities, and some of the crops here may not be yielding during the first season itself.

===========================
Return/refunds and fine print:
We will need at least 7 full shares to make the project viable. In the event that we have less than 7 sign-ups by January 2008, we will refund your deposit.
Once the CSA begins, and you feel that you are not getting value for your money, we ask that you talk to us and explain the source of dissatisfaction immediately (produce not of adequate quality, too little in quantity, variety of food not what you expected), and give us a chance to correct it during the following month. If you are still not satisfied, we will gladly refund your share price from the point forward of your first telling us of your dissatisfaction.

Malejodi farm
Anand and Alpna

malejodi@gmail.com