Karthiga Deepam

The Karthiga Deepam: This is a festival which is celebrated in South India which comes in the month of Karthigai with the star of Karthiga which also happens to be a fullmoon day. While most people burn splinters and crackers, (all the left over crackers of the Deepavali is used up on this day) the older generation had the practice of creating beautiful fireworks using local materials and methods.

A small container is tied to the end of a string and the container is filled with charcoal (burning) and dried and powdered pollen of palm trees which when comes into contact with the burning charcoal gets ignited and when the string is rotated, it gives out beautiful fireworks. Children, women and elders take turn and rotate this to create beautiful circular patterns which is a treat for the eyes.

Up in the air....

Up in the air, goes the plane
As kids we used to rush out
Whenever the roaring sound was heard
And shout, "there goes the plane"

In the remote village
Where roads are still a dream
Where many still cant get
To see a hospital
Which lies miles and miles away
Where children cross brooks and wooden bridges
To reach a distant school
Which at most times
Have only one teacher
Where the towers of mobiles
Have still not pervaded the skies
Where the only TV channels
Are those of the Doordarshan

The half naked children
Ran out and shout
"There goes the plane"

A callotropis plant and a beautiful insect!

I am not a zoologist or an entomologist and hence I dont know what this insect is. Looks like it is a leaf eating grasshoper like insect. What attracted me very much is its beautiful body colours and how cleverly it hides itself with its matching colours (This is a tiny insect and what you see here is a macro closeup shot).

Somehow, this fellow resembles a painted African dancer with vivid and beautiful paintings all over his body. How beautiful is nature? Another interesting point occured to me was that the insect was sitting on a callotropis (Erukku in Tamil & Malayalam) plant which itself is a toxic one and is often refered to as organic pest control properties. So this insect should be a special chap which can even withstand the toxicity of the callotropis leaves.

Like Callotropis, there are many such plants which has insect repellant properties like the Ipomoea (the weed which grows abundantly in water bodies) and interestingly this plant is called "Besharam" (shyless plant) in Hindi which shows its ability to withstand both floods and extreme drought. The leaves of Sitha Phal (Custard Apple), Adathoda, Nochi etc.

In these Nochi especially is a very interesting plant. One of its properties was to reduce sexual desire, and it is recorded that Roman wives whose husbands were abroad with the legions spread the aromatic leaves on their couches for this purpose. It became known as the chasteberry tree. These were also used in Monasteries and came to be called as Monk's pepper. See www.holisticonline.com/Herbal-Med/_Herbs/h174.htm for more details about this plant.

Coming back to our beautiful insect, we sometimes forget the diversity of nature and we knowingly or unknowingly destroy it also. And this beautiful insect is just reminder as to how they have adapted to the nature. We also should remember that the man is a very recent phenomenon in the Earth's history and these little insects and cockroaches etc. have been inhabiting this planet for much longer. May be they are saying, "Look at these creatures called man. They think they know everything and they kill themselves. How long will they survive in this planet if they continue to harm the mother nature?".

Child labour and Diwali Extravaganza!

A leading Tamil newspaper carried a news item with jumbo font size saying that in Tamilnadu alone, Rs.60 crore worth of crackers were burst just in a couple of days! This was a startling item and the newspaper actually boasted saying that this was much higher than last year's figures.

Just imagine how much pollutants we would have pumped into the atmosphere in these days? How much of money just vanished in to thin air making just light and sound? Of course it is true that the the cracker industry in Tamilnadu is one of the biggest in the world as the ad line of "Standard" crackers say it is the world's largest industry. We also note that thousands of children work in these industries with extremely dangerous threat to their lives, devoid of any rights (forget about child rights, not even basic human rights). It is also true that these industries feed these children without which they may not have an alternate income. What is so pathetic is that, the government do not have any controls on these industries as for minimum wages, life insurance cover, better healthy working conditions etc. Whenever a few people die in accidents, the government announces relief and everybody forgets them the next day. Every year, the number of victims in such fireworks accidents increase, but still we, who burst crores of rupees, do not even think of the little hands which make these same crackers.

Though there are regulations which control child labour, the fact remains that children are still used as cheap labour. We see them in hotels, workshops, as paper walahs, as petty vendors, in industries, even those who are "employed" as beggars on the streets while their masters travel in cars to collect the day's revenue. And most of these happen with the knowledge of the police is another matter of concern. A leading national TV News Channel even conducted an SMS survey (this is the SMS Yuga : for deciding winners in reality shows, to interim polls etc.- what ever the issue, the telecom operators gain!) as to whether it is okay to allow child labour since at least they "earn" something.

A time should come, when the nation realizes and takes strong action that the children are the national property and anything which is against their interests is the against the interests of the nation. Those who exploit the children are the real terrorists of this nation. Those who kill the childhood are the real murderers ! Identify them and boycot them. That would be the best thing we can do.

The red roof and a beautiful Sunset in Wardha

As part of my work, I travel a lot. And I had the opportunity to go to Wardha for a meeting where we stayed in a remote village. The centre is known as the Kumarappapuram Campus being run by the Centre of Science for Villages (CSV) a reputed organisation which is based on Gandhian principles of self reliance in Science & Technology. One thing which attracted me very much was that even though it was extreme hot outside, the rooms where really cool. The roof were made into an arch-like structure consisting of cylindrical clay tiles one fitting into the other. This has some resemblance to the Laury Baker style of roofing, but the material used were quite an innovation by the CSV. So though there were fans in the room, we never had to use them at all!

While in Wardha, we also went to some watershed villages and the sunset was so beautiful which tempted the photographer in me. While returning from Wardha, boarding the train at the Sevagram Railway Station, I remembered that this was the same place, where Gandhiji had set up an Ashram and the British had established the Sevagram Post Office just to deliver letters to him. The Ashram still retains its routine activities by dedicated followers who still lead a simple life.