Thamaraikulam - A village in Ramanathapuram and its Ooranis..

Palm Trees...

The wonderful tree - Palm Trees and their uses.

These photos are from Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, India.  Ramnad (as people refer to the district in short) is rich with these trees. And the local people use the tree and its parts in all possible ways. Like you can see here as fencing, using the rib of the leaves tied neatly and placed vertically. These fences can pass water through them and when it rains, it allow water to flow through. Local people say, these fences are easy to construct, has a life of about 3-5 years and uses completely local materials and skills. 

 The leaves of these trees are used to construct a wall around their bath areas or toilets and again is easy to construct. They give good protection from the sun. Palm leaves are also used as roofing material which is quite sturdy and lasting as well.








Here you can see another wall to a school campus. These fences look quite beautiful and artistic. Other products are palm leaf mats which are quite popular in Rameswaram block where every household makes mats as a flexi-time activity. On an average a woman can make about 8-10 mats of 5 feet x 3 feet which earns them about Rs.25 per mat. Interestingly there is a well-established collection and trading network for these mats which is extensively used in the packaging industry and is even exported to many countries. They are super-eco-friendly packaging material used in packaging and exporting of fish to many other products as well.

 Ramnad is also famous for the baskets made of palm leafs. Though there are many more byproducts from Palm trees like palm juice (Patha Neer), Palm sugar (Pana Vellam) etc. the Palm trees is not getting adequate attention as Palm trees are being increasingly cut down for real estate and other proposes and new trees are not being planned to replace the cut trees.

The tree trunk has also great timber value and is used in various forms. The main role of the palm trees is in the strengthening of the bunds of water bodies as they tap roots which hold the soil together. In fact, in many districts of Tamil Nadu, the presence of palm trees tells us that there used to be water bodies for the protection of which, they were planted.

Ramanathapuram : Alaikathavalasai coastal village

I had been to Ramanathapuram off and on for quite some years ago. In fact, my first trip to Ramanathapuram would be dating back to more than 25 years ago and I have a long association with the place and its people also.

These images relate to Ramanathapuram coastal life ..in a coastal village called Alaikathavalasai.
The fishermen are ready to take their boats into the sea around 4.30 pm in the evening. They would come back with their fish in the night around 8pm or so.

Matrikunj, the Organic Farm

Matrikunj, the Organic Farm:

It has been quite long that I have shared anything in my blog. Many friends had asked me to start again. A lot of things have happened in the last year and among them, one good thing was my exposure to Matrikunj Organic Farm near Oussudu Lake owned by Sri Aurobindo Society. I will write more about the various initiatives in Matrikunj later but would like to share some beautiful images from Matrikunj for you..

Is this Aavaram Poo? 

Papaya Tree Flowers

A common visitor in the farm

The Grand Banyan Tree near the Small Pond

The Moon Science...

The Moon - Earth's only natural satellite has always fascinated the human being. The mythical stories that we have been hearing from our childhood where Moon has been thought of as an Uncle, (Male) or as a beauty (various goddesses in various cultures across the world), or even as some big delicious food items like a Pappadam (or Papad) or a dosa or other popular items. In India, moon has always helped mothers to feed their reluctant children with stories and songs and lullabies around moon and its charm. 

One of the beautiful celestial events that have always fascinated us has been the lunar eclipse. Again, there are several stories and mythical events built around how a lunar eclipse happens and ancient cultures thought that the lunar eclipse - or for that matter any eclipse - also solar eclipse - was a bad omen. Cultures around the world have strange traditions built around the eclipses.

Times have changed. Now we have sent several probes and even human beings to our nearest celestial body. Now we know a lot more about the moon than our ancestors did. Now we know that moon is just another tiny planet which goes around our earth and that it gets its lights and shades from our own light source which is the Sun. The Sun along with its other planets, their moons, even smaller celestial bodies called exp-planets make what we now call as the Solar System. A tiny family of planets and their moons revolving round the little star which is the Sun.

Interestingly, even in this 21st century, a lot of people are still reluctant to shred their belief systems that revolve around the eclipses. Many still are comfortable in believing that the eclipses have much severe negative impacts on our health, the food, the life forms etc. Many people still think, one could not observe the eclipses or travel or eat or drink anything during an eclipse. Anyway, it may still take more time for people to come out of their safe comfort zones and as religion and its strong linkages loosen further with more education, scientific information being reached to the common man, before such superstitions are done away with.

Anyhow, another lunar eclipse is coming. A super moon which would be about 14% bigger than the normal moon we see (since the moon is a bit closer to the earth due to its elliptical orbit) and a red moon (some times also called copper moon or blood moon -see the different terms used - though it has nothing to do with either copper or blood) on the 31st January 2018. Some also call it as a Blue moon as it is the second full moon day in the same month of January 2018 which is again some what rare and hence called as a blue moon - as used in the literary sense where we say once in a blue moon - meaning happens only once in a while. But this is also not very correct.  Two full moons in a single month happens quite often - something like once in every 2.5 years or so, but may be because all such moons we may not see..

Anyway, dont miss out the opportunity to watch the lunar eclipse of 31st January 2018 as it would be a beautiful event with the red coloured moon rising just after about 6 pm that day. Do watch it and continue to wonder about the beauty of the universe, being part of an infinite universe, how each of us are not even a dust particle size compared to the vastness of the universe. How short lived we are, and how we due to our ignorance and arrogance, are destroying our own home, the Earth.. Keep appreciating and wondering and start respecting our infinitesimally tiny life spans and how we can come together and cultivate peace, love, friendship and all good things..

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. 

Moringa or Drumstick Tree: : Backyard nutrition ...

The drumstick tree is a common sight in most parts of India, especially in South India. Every household, you could see a drum stick tree, especially in villages. They have beutiful small white flowers, and long fruits which are the basic ingredient in the mouth watering South Indian Sambar and finds also its place in other recipes like Aviyal etc.
Its leaves are also edible and one can make innumerable curries with its leaves, or chutneys with garlic, ginger, green chillies etc (some times also called thuvayal in Tamil.

Those days, when you have mouth ulcers, when Vitamin B complex capsules or tablets were difficult to procure (especially for those in villages), a handful of its leaves is chewed or you make a Poriyal (Tamil) or Thoran (Malayalam), you are assured of immediate relief.  The flowers are also a delicacy and rich in nutrients and vitamins. The drumstick leaves are known to have high levels of Calcium, Iron, Magnesium and Manganese and many more minerals other than Vitamin A, B and also C.

Now the trees have started to flower everywhere in Pondicherry and you can see long tender fruits (the drum sticks) emerging . as bunches. One can also see a heightened increase in the awareness about this humble tree as urban elites have started buying drum stick leaf extracts and powder in online shops.  For the rural people, it is a ready-made vegetable at their backyard which can be harvested anytime.

The leaves being rich in Calcium and iron, this is a must include the diet of all women, especially mothers who breastfeed their kids. Consumption of drum stick leaves have to found to have good impact on the yield of breast milk and one can get away from the so called baby foods which actually do more harm than good.  So next time you see a drumstick tree, get a small cutting or get a seed from a dried fruit in your back yard or in a large HDPE bag so that you need not store those coloured vitamin tablets anymore..

Another interesting use of the drumstick seeds is in the purification of turbid water. When crushed moriga seeds are mixed with turbid, impure water, it clarifies the water which can be boiled and drunk. This is part of a traditional knowledge system in many parts of India. Anyhow, traditional knowledge also tells us that one must not consume the leaves during rainy season, possibly due to its high fibre content could create problems for our gut.