Elixir of Life

This is our world (urban and 'civilized')- Amazing ads have blown our television sets. Ads about this, ads about that. Ads about everything. Every ad fail to bother me much; yet from Hema Malini to Shilpa Shetty- I get confused which R.O purifier is the best for us. Which would save maximum energy and waste minimum water during purification. Their dresses always matches the color of R.O's against which they stand. The words they use- Flourine, Arsenic, et cetera and of course their 'challenges with price money' make people go alert. We have given up boiling water and also matka pani. It all has to be scientifically pure and  potent. After all, its the one of the paanch tatvas which our body is made out of.

In a parallel world; somewhat in a different dimension exists another world which is rural and 'uncivilized'- There's no Shilpa Shetty or Hema Malini to save them from dirty water. The water with which they have bath is the same water they drink. The water they use in washrooms is the water they use for cooking. All with same formula- H2O and with same toxic elements. Gives a disgusting look on our faces, right? I imagine a kid, about to turn 5 years in coming weeks or so, lying on bed. No, no, not sleeping. He's probably suffering from the disease which almost all boys and girls suffer from nowadays in his village. Such are remote villages in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Same goes for Africa. Why can't Miss Shetty or Miss Malini fly in here and save the people? Because it doesn't work this way. It is far off (not distance-wise) from our imagination and care.

Follow these pictures:

While you are reading this, five more kids are on bed due to water borne diseases. And then in our world- this is us, follow up:

Such is life. Water is a natural resource. Above that, we 'need' it for survival. And dont we all deserve clean water to drink? That goes out to people living in parallel dimension as well.

Donate money, if possible at- Water project or Clean Water or even better, join this cause your self.

If not possible, at least don't waste water. 

Protect it. Respect it. Save it. 

With or Against Nature?

Toys, cartoon character, mugs, wrappings, stationary, decorative items, a lot of things come in shapes of animals easily available at Archies or Hallmark at which we all look with awe. We all, at some point of lives have had pyjamas with antlers faces, or maybe some other cute animals. Animals look cute when we bring into being with human touch. I look around my computer table, I see a turtle toy, sparrow sitting in her nest, four wallpapers of different types of birds, beer stickers all over my room.
Then why are sparrows vanishing, dogs being abandoned, antlers hunted for fun, tigers killed for skins when we love them so much with their fake entity?
I watched an hour and a half length documentary on dolphin slaughtering in Taiji, Japan by Ric O'Barry called "Cove" which killed a part of me as I watched intently. People in Japan watch dolphins in dolphinarium while eating dolphin meat (which has high mercury content) at the same time. A few people say there are not bothered, they cant do anything about it, its not in our country. If you simply try to avoid it, doesn't mean it'll go away. The movie will surely hit you straight in head and heart leaving you think for a real long time about what could be done. I see dolphins in movies and videos and 'mystical creatures' is all that comes in my mind. They've been proved to be more intelligent than humans, you know along with having the power to heal with their presence. Search the internet and so many results appear of people who have survived because of them. Dolphins love us and we only love their toys.
When will humans stop pretending they are ultimate owners of nature? Nature hates humans for what all we have done to her- exploited her in worse condition imaginable. We dont own any living creature. Nobody gave us right for it. We can only own cars and houses or draw borders. We are humans- selfish, preoccupied, not bothered, dictators. At the same time, we can be humans- loving, caring, helping. The only question is which part are we at.

Watch the movie if your inner calling hasn't come yet, it surely will now. Visit- http://savejapandolphins.org/

Lets Bring Our House Sparrows back!

Why is it a trend? That what is in abundance shall fall down someday.
A few days back Delhi Chief Minister Mrs. Sheila Dikshit announced House Sparrow as "State Bird of Delhi". Launching "Rise For Sparrows"; India's largest conservation programme for these birds, would draw awareness and rise attention towards these beautiful birds, they say. Delhi, considered under one of the greenest cities in world, has surely a tremendous scope for urban conservation. We all know urban population has made it difficult for sparrows to fly in the open blue sky, the fertilizers in soil has affected their feeding on insects and worms and development of buildings has worsened their nesting. If humans need development, why not think of organisms who live with us too?
What has happened, has happened, we should now think what steps we can take for their betterment.
Common Bird Monitoring of India launched its website- Common Bird Monitoring of India
which serves awards, FAQ's, birds in your region, sponsors, bird of the month, latest new, photography competitions etc, all for spreading awareness for all kinds of birds. Lets be a part of this!
What more should we do?
*Go organic! Replace the pesticides in house plant pots and spare some un-affecting worms for sparrows.
*Provide clean water for birds, right outside our balconies.
*Keeping larger bird bath & a bowl of dust bath for birds will surely help. All birds needs them daily. Sparrows need them quite often a day.
*Growing hedges with edible berries will surely facilitate bring them back. Its their favorite meal.
*Putting nest boxes/handies at a safe height for breeding.
An amazing site by Nature Forever Society provides scientifically designed sparrow nest boxes made of recycled pine heart wood & special sparrow feeders on a no-profit-no-less basis- Nature Forever Society
With bird feeders at Rs. 89 and Sparrow nest boxes from Rs. 309 onwards is surely a do-able price for saving these species.  Eager to hear the bird chirping again? Join the cause and bring the sparrows back!

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer"- Albert Camus

Lets all be Captain Planet!

Lately, I went to sabji mandi with my dad. I drove the car which was a happy thing. And then we walked into the Friday market with a huge vegetable bag that everyone has. He only took me to carry things, as I dont have any buying-the-vegetable experience. My dad bought tomatoes, my heart sank a little. He bought cucumber and lady fingers, my heart sank a little more. Tomatoes, spinach, green peas, eggplants, mangoes and many more green varieties followed with more and more sinking of heart. Each vegetable came with polythene. Each accumulated more polythene in the bag we had. I wonder why did we carry the bag when we had to pick polythene? So time came to buy onions & potatoes, I simply asked him to keep them in the bag without the polythene.
My dad explained: these vegetables will get squashed in some corner if not kept separated from each other in different polythene.
I drove back. In that 10 minutes journey to home, all I was thinking was some way it could be replaced or lessened at least. It didn't hurt me that all were doing the same. It hurt me cos I was doing something wrong.

Home back, these were the techniques crossed my mind which can be done easily and wisely. For the planet:

eat the chips but dont throw the wrapper.

^ We can re-use the polythene. If each vegetable is so delicate and fragile, we can take the same polythene each time we go to sabji mandi and ask the vendor to put them in our polythene and not use another one. Its easy.
^Kitchen waste is something which cant be get ridden off. The egg shells, the cut-out vegetables, the bread, milk packets etc. We always need a polythene to throw away this stuff right? Not exactly. Follow this: Cut the upper portion of milk, bread, cereal, pulses packets. They'll become like an open packet which can be used to throw away kitchen stuff. If the packet becomes small, cut out more. Am sure we all bring in milk or bread packets almost daily. (Even lays, kurkure, bingo packets would do).

and it becomes a bag! if your kitchen waste is more, cut out more.
do the same with pulses, cereals, tea, bread packets. 

^And of course, wise saving of electricity: Keep at least 2 hours of time when the entire family sits in one room. For us, its daytime. We often sleep in one room in day time. Saving maximum amount of electricity. Not to forget, as much it creates bonds with nature, it does within the family as well.

Share these simple ways of avoiding polythene and using electricity wisely. Use & reuse. :) Lets move one step towards a cleaner & greener planet!

looks amazing na?!