Another hot year?

It was a cloudy day to start with... but as the day progressed, the clouds departed and the sun came out quite harshly.

But being under lockdown, you don't feel the heat much... at least for fortunate people like me. But for the ordinary people working in the fields, it is quite a harsh day. This year is going to be another "hottest" year, no doubt.

The evening was anyhow cool and breezy...

The setting Sun with its beautiful hues and colours...

Though the summer is something not all people can take it so easily, everyone cherishes the sunrise as well as the setting of the Sun. The change of the night into the day during the sun-rise and the change of the day into the night during sunsets brings about a variety of reactions from nature. Though as human beings, we have lost the importance of these important times of the day, other life-forms are quite active during these occasions.

 

 

 

Here is a sunset which I could catch at Matrikunj through the trees and I was amazed at the hues and colours that it brings about and the change in the mood of the surroundings, including birds which come back for nesting around huge trees, the call of the peacocks, the sound of distant cattle etc. The artificial lighting that we have, have taken away the beauty of the sunset and the dusk that follows, but still, every sunset, day after day, have always amazed me time and again.

Summer Blooms...

The summer in Pondicherry is always hot, humid and dry to some extent. It is quite taxing unless you are a very "sun-friendly" person, especially from 12 noon to 3-4 pm. One has to have a good protection from the sun. But this could be the same situation in other east-coast regions as well. But what was quite different is the summer in Delhi. It is dry, burning and dangerous at the same time. More about that later.

Though the summer is a bit tough, it has its own charms. The water melons, the local Kulfis, the summer vacation and free time for the kids, summer vacations for most of us are quite nostalgic. It is also the time of exhibitions, the melas, the circus and of course, the new phenomenon of summer camps where the parents want to park their kids so that they get some respite from their ever demanding kids..

It is also the time of examinations for grown-up kids (post-school of course), internships and fun camps etc. But beyond all that, the summer flowers are a treat to the eyes, adding colour and beauty to the otherwise, dry, dusty scenery. One of the South Indian festivals (State of Kerala), the Vishu or the Malayalam New Year (which comes in  mid-April)  is to start the new year with the arrangement of yellow golden flowers as part of the Vishukkani where the Konna flowers are used. (Cassia fistula, commonly known as golden shower, purging cassia, or Indian laburnum, is a flowering plant in the subfamily, Caesalpiniaceae of the legume family, Fabaceae. The species is native to the Indian subcontinent and adjacent regions of Southeast Asia.  It is a popular ornamental plant and is also used in herbal medicine. It is both the national tree and the national flower of Thailand. It is the state flower of Kerala in India: from Wikiepedia.) 

In Ayurvedic medicine, the golden shower tree is known as aragvadha, meaning "disease killer". Hardly used by the common man, it forms an important herb used in the Ayurvedic preparations. It has long black seed pods which is not very easy to germinate, and I had to wash the seeds with hot water for a couple of minutes (after several instances of googling), I could get them germinated..

Photos taken at Matrikunj Organic Farm (Sri Aurobindo Society, Poothurai near Pondicherry).

A punctured wheel and a Cycle Mechanic...

As usual, I was rushing on my two-wheeler  (which is a 20-year-old Bajaj Boxer CT!!) on a Saturday morning to office from Lawspet  and as soon as I took the right turn at the Ajanta Signal (the old Ajanta Theatre is now replaced by Aditi Hotel, but still people refer to this as the Ajanta Signal in Pondicherry), I felt there was something wrong with my bike. Another 25 meters gone (since I had to cross the signal and move to the side to stop), I could feel that my bike's back wheel was punctured.  I stopped the vehicle to see that a big nail has pierced by wheel and looking at the position (near the wheel's neck), I thought it was really bad. I got down and pushed the vehicle to a cycle shop in SV Patel Salai. Mr.Palani, the owner had just opened his shop and was still arranging his tools to start the days' work. A couple of cycle riders came in to check the air.

I told Mr.Palani, that my back wheel was gone. He had a look and immediately said: "Sir, the neck of the tube seems to be torn, Let me anyhow check-up".  Having no other option but to wait, I told him to go ahead. As soon as he opened up the wheel, I could see that the tube was completely torn at the neck. He asked me to get a new tube and offered his cycle to me so that I can go and buy the same. I did that, cycled half a kilometre to Akka's shop (this is a famous auto-spares shop in SV Patel Salai, Pondicherry), and got the tube.  While he started his work, we also got into a discussion about his work. He was doing quite okay with his cycle shop where he has regular customers (cyclists) especially the Aurobindo Ashram devotees, where a majority of whom still use cycles. He also repairs/reconditions cycle rikshaws. Plus some occasional customers like me as well. On an average he earns about Rs.300-400 a day and some days if he is lucky more also and some days less too... Rainy days (though they are quite less), is bad business he says.

In about half an hour, my job was done. I paid Rs.70 for the job, which I thought was very reasonable for the labour. Thanks to people like Palani, cycles still ply on the road. Cycle shops like his are becoming rare these days, but Palani thinks that in future, more people may start using cycles and he hopes that he will have a business too. But at the same time, he says that the young generation does not want to take up works like his as it is not a "styley" one.. Again more expensive cycles are coming which do not come to shops like his as they are more specialised and are serviced only by the shops themselves who charge exorbitant rates, says Palani.

Anyhow, cycle shops like Palani's are a fascinating world where we can learn many things. A visit to a cycle shop will teach more science to children than any other means !!!

A trip to Yanam, a part of the Pondicherry Union Territory.

Yanam (French: Yanaon) is a town in the Indian union territory of Puducherry, located in Yanam district, which forms a 30 km² enclave in the district of East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. It has a population of just 56,000, most of whom speak Telugu. For 200 years it was a French colony, and, though united with India in 1954, is still sometimes known as French Yanam. It has one MLA who is also a Minister in most of the governments formed at Puducherry who has been getting elected continuously for many terms now.

Though I had been in Pondicherry for almost 30 years now, I never had gone there before and I had the opportunity to go to Yanam for a training programme. As it turned out, most people take the Circar Express which goes upto Kakinada and take a bus from there to Yanam. Myself and my friend Segar also did the same taking catching the Circar Express from Tambaram at about 4.20 pm which proved to be a long journey. It seems that the Indian Railways consider this as a second rate train as we saw that this train had to give the track preference to all kinds of trains some times four to five trains in a row and at one station, the train was side-tracked for almost 90 minutes. But interestingly, the train gains speed and makes up the time (the train schedule itself is designed in such a manner).

The huge statue of Rajiv Gandhi

The route of the Circar Express is a scenic one. Lush green rice fields interspersed with aquaculture ponds which are being aerated by propellers and it seems the rice fields and the aquaculture farms co-exist quite well, though only a detailed analysis will bring out any inherent problems exist or not.  One has the feeling that you are travelling through  Kerala as the rice fields were green with adequate water, ponds and channels having water being flowing etc. 

Anyhow, we reached Kakinada town quite late about 45 minutes later than its scheduled time. We took an auto to the Kakinada Complex (Bus stand as it locally called) and from there took a bus to Yanam. Though the distance is just a bit over 27  km and a bus fare of Rs.23 per person, the bus journey was so slow, with the condition of the road so bad and also the bus stopping at every single stop. It took about 90 minutes to reach Yanam in the extreme hot and humid climate prevailing.. 

If you ever had been to Pondicherry or Karaikal or Mahe which are parts of the old colony, one obvious thing you will notice is the sudden change of roads, shops, petrol bunds, liquour shops and one can obviously notice the sudden change of the state with a noticeably richer quality of homes, infrastructure etc. But to our surprise, we hardly noticed that we had reached Yanam and became aware only after Conductor asked us whether we wanted to get down at the old bus stand or new bus stand in Telugu and translated to us to Tamil by a Tamil traveler from Salem who was there in the bus.  Too many houses, too small shops, cemented roads but in bad conditions and definitely not maintained well. As soon as we got down, we took an auto to the Government Guest House and the first indicator that Yanam was much backward compared to other enclaves of Pondicherry was when the auto driver demanded Rs.40 only, for which if you were in Pondicherry, the auto drivers would have fleeced at least Rs.60-Rs.80. 

The Yanam Guest house is a decent place but lacks maintenance. First thing we noticed that there was no drinking water facility within the Guest House. The window has a grill not fixed to the frame and one can easily remove it which is light and made of aluminium. The AC was working but there was no cooling effect at all. And after about 1 hour of running, it started leaking from one end and we had to keep a bucket which got filled up every three hours or so. We complained to the person who came next day morning to the room and he said that he will inform the management.  

These white elephants embodies the development of Yanam

We went out and had lunch around 2 pm at the Balaji Hotel which was quite reasonable with Rs.60/meals as the nearby Le Cafe or Govt. Canteen (as we could not read Telugu we are not sure what is the actual ownership of this) did not serve meals. 

We went out in the evening to the river front to have a walk and see around. One thing that I noticed was the over doing of all the civil works. The so called ferry road had statues in golden colour on either side of the road for every 20 feet gap. The statues had the names of the leaders written in English followed tens of names of ministers, officers etc. with the same font size. Interestingly, the name of the person whose statue is kept has no description of who he was but the names of others clearly mentioned whether they were ministers, Engineers, with designations etc. One wonders whose purpose these statues serve. May be, the more statues, the more expenditure and the more someone earns !!!.. May the distance between the statues should have been reduced a bit more so that we could include statues of many more dignitaries and hence more "development" also.

The ever locked out toilets.

With just 30 sq.km and a population of just 5000 or so in 1928, the population has grown to 32000 in 2001 and to 56000 in 2011. How this growth rate of about 75% or more per decade has happened is worth to be researched. Some people say, every five years, new people are brought from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, ration cards and stateship given to them and they become new voters. Obviously, the poverty level of the majority of Yanam people are much higher than the other three enclaves. Till recently (about five or six years before), the educational pass percentage of 10th board exam students (here they write the Andhra Pradesh Board exams) were also not so good. The literacy rate of Yanam is the least in Pondicherry UT, though it might look good compared to other states. Fisheries is one the main occupation of the people other than of course, the government servants themselves..

The "tiled" river front which had very few people to see around

Some people when enquired also said that the drop out among students is high as boys go for fishing with their fathers. Another interesting fact told by one of the teachers was that the rate of cancer in Yanam is very high , though he could not give any specific reason for the same. 

Anyhow one thing is obvious. There is no dearth of money when it comes to "developmental" projects like river front beautification or installation of statues or other mammoth structures which have little or no relevance to the people of Yanam. The quality of infrastructure and their maintenance is much to be improved, whether it is the condition of roads, sewerage channels etc. 

One of the very few French time buildings left in Yanam

But one thing good about Yanam is the cost of living - transport, food etc. May be like in Pondicherry, the autos are not monopolized by politicians or goondas and may be administration is still relevant to the people. Anyhow it shattered the rosy picture of Yanam that I had from others who had gone there before .. I dont know what thefofficial  statistics talk about Yanam, but being an over-pampered enclave, the results are no where visible ...!!!

While coming back our train was from Rajahmundry as there are no evening trains from Kakinada to Chennai. Actually Puducherry should have pleaded with the Indian Railways to reschedule the timings of Circar Express so that the train reaches at Kakinada at least by 6 am in the morning and leaves from Kakinada Port by 6pm in the evening so that this will be of immense time consuming for the officials and public who regularly commute from Puducherry to Yanam and back.  

We left Yanam at 4.30 pm reached Kakinada by 6pm and took a non-stop bus to Rajamundry which took 2 hours. Finally we boarded a train at 10pm which reached Chennai Central around 9.45 am the next day.  May be we should have gone to Ramachandrapuram which is about 27 km and from there to Rajahmundry which is another 37 kms, but there were conflicting advises given to us regarding connectivity and travel time etc. Being first time travelers did not want to take the risk and loose the train.. May be next time? .. Not sure..

A typical Yanam street at night

Anyhow, a small tiny town with some suburbs also, can be made a wonderful place provided we have the right type of governance with what people actually need. Provided people are made the focus of development, not the contractors or others who have little relationship with the people. 

World Forests Day & World Water Day at Raj Nivas with a difference

This year, Pondicherry Science Forum and CERD had celebrated the World Forests Day and the World Water Day with a difference.

More than 200 children including special children, 40 teachers and PSF activists gathered at the Raj Niwas, Pondicherry along with the Hon'ble Lt. Governor of Pondicherry, Dr.Kiran Bedi IPS and her team including LG's Secretary, Mr.Deva Neethi Das IAS, Mr.Devaraj, IFS, OSD Mrs. Amrita Bahl, Controller Mrs.Asha Gupta - all gathered at the Raj Nivas Lawns on the 21st March (World Forests Day) and eve of World Water Day.

After a brief introduction by Mrs.Asha Gupta, an Introductory Speech by LG's Secretary, Mr.Deva Neethi Das IAS, the first programme was a Mass Theatre on Forests, its intricate roles and how a forest supports all kinds of life forms and hence the future of human kind.


The theatre had all the children as participants and including the Hon'ble LG, Dr.Kiran Bedi IPS who acted as a beautiful bird of the forests.


The programme ended with a beautiful mass rendering of Hum Honge Kaamyaab. Dr.Kiran Bedij danced and ran and played with the children and she also paused for a photo session with all the children running around the lawns.

The Forests' Theatre had special sound effects, various species of trees, birds, animals, a live stream of water performed by girls with their blue duppattas, waves of rain and wind by special children of Ananda Ranga Pillai Special School and Satya Special School.



PSF had also conducted a photography contest for school children on the themes of Forests & Energy and Why waste water? . More than 200 children had send their entries out of which the best 25 were shortlisted and there was an exhibition of these photos. From these 25 entries, the best three in Junior and Senior categories were honoured with certificates and prizes by Dr.Kiran Bedi.

There was also an interesting demonstration of children as to how to save water while bathing and washing of kitchen utensils. The children demonstrated how to take bath with a mug of water!. This was followed by Activity corners on water where children tried out several water based activities.

All this was planned and executed with in 4-5 days, by a handful of PSF volunteers along with a dedicated team of teachers and students which is the strength of PSF. The novelty of the mass theatre, the excitement of the children and teachers while planning the programme was refreshing and when the programme actually unraveled at the lawns of Raj Nivas on the evening of Raj Nivas, the entire place exploded with laughter, cheers and happiness.

Science communication does need new forms of reaching out to the children, the public. And this is most refreshing when they themselves become part of the process, rather than just receivers of communication! .

Thanks to the entire team of PSF and the dedicated Raj Nivas team who rose to the occasion and made it to a grand success. And of course, special thanks to Dr.Kiran Bedi, the Hon'ble Lt. Governor, and her team!

The legend of Bangari and Singari and the historical town of Bahour.

Bahour is a small town bordering the two rivers, Then Ponnaiyar on the South and Malattar on the South and naturally a very fertile place which was the right mix of water resources, fertile soil, huge number of water channels and close to the Bay of Bengal, having pristine unpolluted beaches and a mix of primary production of agriculture, fisheries. No doubt, the ancient South Indian rulers had found Bahour to be a prosperous town to make it their focus.

Thus Bahour known as Chathur Veda Mangalam (land of four Vedas) had once, a famous Sanskrit College where the students who passed out from here, had preference and lucrative offers in Kancheepuram, and even far off places like the Kashi. The famous temple "Moolanathar Swami Temple" was built by the Paranthaka Chozha and later developed by the Pallavas, Rashtrakoodas and the Naickers. Intact, Puducherry had detailed information regarding this temple which is built on the Kaarana Aagamam and the Vimana of this temple has a square frame due to the name Chathur (another meaning being Square) Veda Mangalam which is typical of the Chozhas who used to include an element of secrecy in all their temples.

Another notable natural heritage of Bahour is the Bahour Tank itself which happens to be the oldest tank in Puducherry (older than the biggest tank of Oussudu) and have abeautiful network of smaller tanks. The history points to a big drought in Bahour, when two unmarried wealthy sisters Bangari and Singari donated their wealth to deepen the tank and strengthen the bunds and also to dig a channel from Then Ponnaiyar to the Bahour Tank which is now known as the Bangaru Channel named after the sister Bangari. Some older people say that these sisters used to live in the South Street of Bahour.

To celebrate the historicity of Bahour and its natural heritage the Puducherry Heritage Festival held a Dance Drama in the Moolanathar temple on the 5th of February 2017 on the legendary life of Bangari and Singari.


More about Bahour will be shared at a later time..
(Krithiga Ravichandran as Bangari and Divya Ramesh as Singari in the Dance drama of Salangai Cultural Academy).

March 9, 2016: A partial solar eclipse fully eclipsed by the clouds..

March 9, 2016 had a partial solar eclipse which was partially visible from the east coast of India and we at Pondicherry Science Forum had hoped to catch a glimpse this which was supposed to have 24% obscuration from 6.20 to 6.47 am. We had informed the Science Centre attached to the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of Puducherry and Mr.Sathish and Sivakumar had also come to the Puducherry beach by about 6AM in the morning. We could see that the Thanthi TV had already set up their camera for uplinking to their channel.

The Gandhi Statue was a beautiful spot for all those who have visited Puducherry and against the morning sky, the silhouette of the statue was a beautiful site.






We could see thick clouds at the horizon but we hoped that by the sunrise time, they would move away or at least as the sun rises, we will be able to get at least a partial glimpse of the partial eclipse.  Though there were only about 20 minutes left for the sun to rise, the wait seemed to so long. The clouds stayed still thick at the horizon.








People seeing the TV camera, the telescope and the PSF team which included Aravindraja, Dakshinamurthy, Meena, Sengodethevan, Hemavathi, Maran etc started gathering near the beach front.


Looking at the sea and the clouds, I took a couple of shots which was interesting patterns of clouds.

I could also see a couple of catamarans which has started their fishing activity early in the morning totally oblivious of the eclipse going to happen. For most people, there are not much superstitions around the eclipse. Interestingly it is the religious middle class who give too much importance to these eclipses and the superstitions around them. For ordinary labourers, I dont think, they have the luxury of keeping themselves closed in their homes, or deciding to cook only after the eclipse is over etc. For them, even a day's wages lost is a huge loss.

It was already 6.20 am, then 6.21 am..and still there was no sign of the Sun emerging from the clouds. The eclipse was already on and was its maximum of 24% but the clouds would not oblige. Finally by 6.45 am, the top portion of the Sun emerges from the clouds but we knew that the moon would be blocking only the bottom hemisphere of the Sun's disc. THere was just 2 minutes left for the eclipse to get over and the chances were very meagre to catch a glimpse.

Anyhow, there was already a long que at  telescope to view the emerging sun and with a solar filter fitted, it was of course an amazing visual to watch the sun through the telescope which everybody do not get a chance...

And there, at 6.48 am just when the eclipse was completed and the moon would have moved out of the earth-sun line, the Sun emerged out of the clouds and here is the photo on the left side.

Anyhow, solar eclipses are still going to occur many more times, and I may still get chances to view them and even photograph them.. IT was a good day, to interact with lots of people, public and explain to them that it was the moon just crossing in between the sun and the earth and there was nothing to worry as proclaimed by the temple authorities all over India. IT is indeed an occasion to be cautious since viewing the eclipse with naked eyes could take away your precious eye sight..

A memorable day, though the clouds did the eclipsing , the one hour spent on the Puducherry beach road was satisfying and a couple of photos made my day too..

Waterman of India- Sri.Rajendra Singh at Pondicherry

Pondicherry Science Forum with a host of voluntary organisations and NGOs, govt. departments, farmers' associations, activist groups from Puducherry, Auroville, Villupuram and Cuddalore (PAVC) which forms a bioregion came together to form a People's Collective called the All for WATER for All (All for Water, Water for All) and launched a sever week long Water Festival 2016.



This was launched on the 2nd February 2016, the World Wetlands' Day and will go upto 22nd March 2016 which is the World Water Day.


The entire bioregion is divided into 7 sub regions and in each bioregion 7 days of activities would be held - total 7 sub regions and 7 weeks - to have a massive outreach programme to reach out to the children, women, youth, farmers, and the general public - to create an effective awareness programme around water in the entire bioregion.


In this connection, we had the Waterman of India - Sri.Rajendra Singh visiting Pondicherry on the 5th of March 2016 where he joined a team of bird watching in the morning around the Ousitteri Lake, the largest lake in Pondicherry. Later he interacted with the public at Sharanam near Ousitteri Lake.


He appreciated the efforts of the All for WATER for All collective and individual and collective efforts of Pondicherrians in protecting its water resources.


Some photos of Sri Rajendra Singhji during his interactions.

Death and Rebirth

We die momentarily 

When dear ones depart us
But we are reborn 
with their energies 
transferred to us
and may be 
they live in us, 
through us
Provided 
we are worthy 
of being the carrier of 
"their" lives..
for what
they stood 
in their lives,
the values they fought for
the virtues which they cultivated ...

The B&W beauty..

A bit colourful background for the black and white friend!
At Kalanjiyam, Bahour, Pondicherry.

The fisherman and his boat

Patiently he untangles the net
Standing calmly
Brazing the breeze
On the dancing boat
With an oar on its side
Which is cooled by the
Waters of the river..

The sun will set in an hour or so
And he has to finish his catch
Before the dusk
And back to his hut
Where his wife will be
Waiting eagerly
To make the dinner
With the fresh catch

Another day
Another catch
The river but
Remains the same
Greeting the fishermen
Who roam the river
With their boats
....
....

Victor Simonel St, White Town Puducherry

Victor Simonel Street, White Town, Puducherry: This is a beautiful as well as important street which has major structures and institutions. The Pondicherry Assembly building, General Hospital, the St.John's Church, the Lycee Francais, the old MLA Hostel, the Office of the Chief Engineer, PWD all are located on this street. It starts from the Bussy Street on the South and extends and joins the Rangapillai Street with the Bharathi Park on the eastern side.

Google Map of Vicor Simonel Street