Happy New Year

Three new year greetings that were sent to me - three perspectives:



http://www129.123greetings.com/card/12/31/05/37/FP21231053755510.html



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I wish I could wish you all a very happy new year.

I cannot because both this region and the world today faces an ominous future. There is political instability, public policies bordering on the insane, public outroar, hegemonistic activities of the powerful, an impending climatic catastrophe, not too happy changes in the geological activity of the planet, and the sighting of a comet that may, hopefully, miss us by a whisker. Not to mention the old enemy, religious intolerance.

There seems to be no ray of hope.

Probably the only ones those would be happy are the ones who like to play and thrive in troubled waters. That includes politicians, policy makers, greedy scientists and social workers. There is more work now for all these groups.

I am not happy, despite my nomenclature these days as a social worker, because I tend to identify with the planet and its inhabitants. I realise that it is my house that is burning. I realise that I cannot rush out because there is nowhere to go. You cannot, as the saying goes, step out of the world.

There was life in Mars. Perhaps science could find a way out to recreate earth's climate on that planet. Perhaps a lucky few, we know who they are, could just make it. A lot of money has been invested into the process. Much more is needed and hence the desire and the subsequent implementation of plans to milk the planet dry.

But there are some of us who would not rush for a ticket even if it was offered for free. We love this natural world of ours too much to act like rats. We would rather go down with the sinking ship.

I have discussed many options with my friends. The size of the coming storm makes such ideas seem like a paper boat in the face of a tsunami. But it is ideas translated into action that save in the end. If we are prepared we need not start from scratch.

Let me end this note with an appeal to prepare sincerely for the future.

Let 2008 be an year of selfless action.
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I identify with the last one, but despite the miseries (around us), life is a mystery and wonder and I try not to be one-dimensional about it.

So... I also add : have a happy new year 2008.

Timbaktu pics

We swam in a natural pool. It was great fun.



This time when I visited Timbaktu I was shocked to see a bloody great canal passing just outside the Timbaktu land. It seems the government is executing a lift irrigation scheme from somewhere to somewhere. It was pretty shocking to see this, because it is so in contrast to Timbaktu. These people have been labouring patiently for ages to regenerate the land do ecologically sustainable improvements, conserve soil and water etc. And suddenly big engineering lands up outside your doorstep. The water is the canal is not flowing water (the project has a long way to go), but water that has percolated into the canal from Timbaktu land. Add injury to insult!
The speed of the development was astonishing -- I did not see any hint of this when I was last there (a month or 2 months back). They also quickly put put a couple of buildings for their offices/workers, which I didn't capture in photos. I didn't get a chance to talk to Timbaktu people about this, but I don't think they were even aware that this was going to happen at that time (actually slightly wrong see below). It comes home very clearly to you how government can bulldoze its way through. How would you like this kind of thing to happen to you out of the blue ?

A small ironical sidenote: actually this project has been in the works for ages it seems. How long ? Well, Kalyani at Timbaktu tells me that when she graduated with a diploma in civil engineering and was looking for a job 10 years ago, she heard that the govt. for recruiting for this project and was advised to apply for it. So the project languished for 10 years and then got off to a rousing start in 2 months. Excellent.






Some of the natural regeneration work at Timbaktu. These are common lands that are protected and afforested. The density of trees is due to planting and protecting efforts and dissuading unrestrained grazing.


More Timbaktu pics:

www.flickr.com More of ahminotep's photos tagged with timbaktu

Raagi Idly

Hatching eggs

Did you use to that phrase when you were young to signify a person who was not doing much. We did in Coromandel colony. (At graduate school in Physics, we used another picturesque phrase 'doing diddly squat').
Anyway, the appropriateness of the 'hatching eggs' simile was brought 'home' to me recently as a pigeon has been hatching eggs on our balcony. The process goes:

sit on eggs
continue for most of the day and night

When we first saw an egg we got a little stressed and considered dumping it. Later we moved it to a shoebox next to the pot but the bird seemed to abandon the egg, so we put it back. The bird has built a little nest and laid one more egg after the photos we took.