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).

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.

Faces of the River

Faces of the River..

Oh Dear River

How many faces do you have?

The pleasant calm face

With the undulating waves

The happy face

with the life thriving inside you?

The playful face with the Kids

Swimming in the river?

The vibrant face

During the downpour?

The kind face 

Blessing the dark thin fishermen?

Or 

The sad face 

With the dark effluents let in to you

By the greedy industries?

Or the pale face

With your inflows being reduced 

due to the catchments 

being encroached 

by the real estate mafia?

Or the angry face

With the dirty politicians and thieves

Who plunder your sand 

And destroy not only you

But the livelihoods

of the poor farmers and 

the water resources of the people?

Oh Dear River

How many faces do you have? 

Don't be angry with us humans

because we don't care for anybody

We live only today

and we don't care for tomorrow

nor do we care about

our children of tomorrow.

We are the only inhuman species 

On this earth and we wrongly

Call ourselves 

As Humane beings..

Make Science Competitions 2015: New set of students, new projects..

This is the 9th year that I have been working with students from government schools in Puducherry in a programme called Make Science Competitions or "faites de la science" as the French call it..This is part of an international science project programme for children to carry out innovative science experimental or exhibit based projects on any theme they want to carry out.

The programme is being organized by the Pondicherry Science Forum in collaboration with the University of Paris, South 11, Orsay, Paris, France. This is the latest edition and the 9th year..

Nine years is a considerable period for any project ... It is a very challenging project - taking into account, the limited resources that children studying in government schools have, lack of interested teachers (especially in a government job) to guide the children etc.

This year too, I have a variety of projects to handle mostly from rural Pondicherry - from Sellipet, to Karayamputhur to Bahour, Koravallimedu to even schools in the Pondicherry town and Mudaliarpet.. More regarding the project ideas and the work related to this - later..

Now I am busy in video-documenting these projects into small documentary films with their Tamil voice subtitled to English for the Jury of the University of Paris, ORSAY to understand and evaluate..

So, wait.. I will be back shortly with more details regarding the 2015 Edition of the Make Science Competitions ....!!!..

I am pretty serious....

Cuddalore, Tamilnadu.

The Make Science Programme

For the last eight years, I have been involved in a unique programme on Science Education front. This is called the faites de la science (in French) which the French translate as "Make Science Programme", but which I think is more appropriate to be translated as "Let's do/celebrate science".

The Programme is unique in many means. First of all, it is limited to students of Government schools of Pondicherry district alone. Affluent private school children can not participate and thus can not out-smart the poor, rural children who study in the government schools. Secondly, it is about exploring science around the school and have lot of scope for the school children. Thirdly, it is run by the University of Paris, South 11, Orsay, France where the project are evaluated and certified by an Expert Jury of the University and where certificates are issued to them, which itself is a very prestigious educational institution with a number of Nobel laureates and Field Medalists to claim.  Fourth, every project done by the Indian student are video-documented in Puducherry and sent to France with sub-titles in English (for Tamil voice), and later the Jury members interact with the School kids through a live video conferencing before they announce the prizes.

We, from Pondicherry Science Forum started this programme eight years ago with help from Dr.Santhroubane who is a Pondicherrian settled in France and along with his friend Prof.Pierre Fontes who himself is an accomplished Science Communicator and who has the habit of conducting science experiments in street corners and shopping malls etc. A number of people have been involved in this programme.

This year's video editing was completed just now and the films have been despatched to France. Eight years - indeed a long time ... and a large number of children have been benefited already, a large number of school teachers have been trained in project research methodology... and for Pondicherry Science Forum, it has been a great programme. But the entire exercise of videography, editing, sub-titling, DVD authoring is becoming a huge task for me...and I wonder how long I can continue to do this ....Another year? Let us hope ...

Innocence....

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.