Fair Share Of Responsibilities - Small Steps, Adding Up, And Accounting

I have been looking at news, at sites and at blogs, at debates on the internet and at programmes on information channels. And there is a factor that should make anyone sick but I am not sure anyone has noticed it. It is about responsibilities and evasion of a share where it belongs - more than one individually but collectively speaking belongs is the correct form of the verb.

I remember as long as a decade ago or more when the ozone hole was detected for the first time the media turned around and told people not to use aerosols because that was bad for the atmosphere. What no one talked about but was obvious is - people sued them, but the responsibility was with manufacturers who made them, and lawmakers too who allowed it, just as much. No one talked about it because it probably was perceived as of no use - tell individual users, stop them from using bad stuff, and make it unprofitable for makers to manufacture them, and they would go away.

That was the logic of inviting no trouble in form of industries descending onto one. It is interesting that coming from a powerful democracy no media trusted the lawmakers to protect one if that happened.

Then it was about water that California lacked, and again it was individuals who were told to stop watering lawns with water provided for drinking and use instead recycled water to do so. As a house owner made it clear, it was far from obvious how one was supposed to do that, under the existing infrastructure. So the issue probably took a back seat and I don't know if anything ever got done.
................................ x .............................


What was achieved by the media blitz telling people - individuals, house owners, women - to do this or that is that people were individually and collectively made to feel not only responsible but also guilty for causing regional and global problems, and so they did not think of who really was responsible - and so there were no protests and no noise against the real huge culprits.

This use of guilt has been learned from past masters of power who have used it for various purposes by insisting everyone is guilty of some crime or sin - and thus gotten power over their psyche, their minds, and used it for their own, generally nefarious, purposes.
................................ x .............................


Should individuals not take responsibility? No, that is not the point at all. Whatever little one can one should do and a collective small steps adding up to a significant change for better is always a good idea. What should not happen is forgetting the main agenda in the trivia of small steps and noises about them and everyone pointing fingers at each other and looking down in guilt - while the real huge culprits are forgotten and no one points at them, either out of one's own sense of guilt or forgetfulness or worse, being part of the design that brought this about so the big culprits could get away.

The fallout of this strategy is what is to be avoided - yes, take all the small steps you can and point out other small steps everyone can take but don't forget the big culprits, those that are responsible on a large scale and intend doing nothing as far as possible and going on making money or clinging to power, no matter if you run short of drinking water or whole continents starve or drown due to warming. Don't forget to hold them responsible, especially when your system is not only democracy it is with pain and troubles that it was so established. It is not for benefit of the powerful alone that you have this system, the precious democracy.
................................ x .............................


Water in California was wasted on lawns, and so it was on the sort of agriculture that needed intensive irrigation and needed water that the state did not have - but also responsible were industries that used it for various purposes without a thought of if that was in fact sustainable in the state and no one thought about that either, not politicians and not others who could and should have done so.

Industries all over, not only in California, went on not only using precious water resources that they might have done without by invention or at least been frugal about, but also went on polluting with chemical effluents so whole neighbourhoods were sickening seriously and finding it difficult to fight the industries that could always hire some specialists without conscience to testify about "there being a doubt as to the effect of --- on health", and people kept on sickening and dying.

Aerosols were not just from your deodorants, which are still being manufactured and sold since no one went after the makers, and are still depleting the ozone and contributing to the global warming while people are proud of using them and think those who do not "stink", not realising that "stink" is in fact relative while the ozone depletion and global warming is not.
................................ x .............................


And now it is about oil - about global warming, about fossil fuels, about renewable resources, about clean energy. And once again the same tactics are working - this time with much less effort from media, who only have to plant a seed for it to immediately grow into whole forests, make storms out of a gentle wave of a fan languidly. Internet and people eager to go put in their two bits and blog and debate on sites provided for that very purpose takes care of the rest.

Everyone is telling everyone else what they could do to help, all good suggestions and some obvious, some hilarious and ridiculous too deliberately put forth; plenty out there to go on the other side too - nothing going on, no reason not to go on playing violin still, would rather not stop enjoying liberty of luxuries (not realising the objects are not luxuries but the thoughtlessness is one and an unaffordable one at that) - and there is a lot of noise, lot of sites, some pretending to straddle the fence and calling it a left verses right debate while some are devoted to deny global warming - just as there are those out there denying evolution, and very likely heliocentricity as well.
................................ x .............................


In all this noise of course what is forgotten is the real culprits responsible for global warming and those that ought to be reigned in before it is too late, the industries. While most citizens of the powerful democracy are debating it out on personal levels and enjoying themselves hugely at the new game, they are probably quite proud of their nation's various representatives - politicians and industries and those elected for the purpose of governance - telling off all the rest of the world at every global warming conference, telling them how they do not agree with others who are all more or less in accord with the scientists, and that they will continue the polluting and consuming that is their hallmark, no matter it is due a huge chunk of the responsibility for the looming disaster.

All the rest of us dying in tsunamis and earthquakes and starvations will do no good though to the one nation that refused to see the point when you are left alone on the planet either - the doom this time recognises no isolationist nations or people, respects no nations refusing to take part.

Or differences of opinion, for that matter. Soon it is going to be too late.
................................ x .............................


There are a couple of things that are perhaps worse - one, some people, some businesses are trying to make money in this too. Selling "Green gadgets" - especially when they do not work or are not green at all. Proliferating "Green" sites where people go on debating - and uselessly, since a large number are merely there for the nay-saying and trashing every fact and everything true down while a small sincere dedicated number go on earnestly and unaware of there all of efforts being perhaps futile.

And then there are the real shockers, part of those that are proposing replacing fossil fuels by bio fuels, for a clean and renewable, replaceable source of energy. Not the ones who are going with organic manure for fuel - that has been done forever in countries where waste of resources has been avoided and held reprehensible, and is a good idea in fact for a portion of the replacing fossil fuels - but the others, those that are proposing burning wood or corn oil or other green stuff, to be grown for the purpose.

Is it not obvious why those ideas are not only bad they are horrible?
................................ x .............................


We need forests, not only the existing ones but more, to take the carbon out of the atmosphere - or else we are on a roller coaster to doom that will be soon impossible to stop much less turn around. Cutting down trees for any reason at all should in fact be banned, that is what is needed.

On face of it corn oil or other vegetable oils sound like a good idea - until one thinks a moment and realises it is about food that could be used for the poor, the starving that are not only predominantly in a huge continent but are everywhere, including U.S., and cutting down on food because they cannot afford it. And every one can see where it will lead - while more and more people starve in every continent corn will be kept exclusively for oil for fuels to replace petroleum for cars and industries.

It will never happen, U.S. will not let people starve, Christians won't allow it, the good people of west will never allow it - that is the sop that keeps consciences quiet in the very people who could help and think they do and will. But what did happen really when African situation first came to light - starving in one country after another? People took up donation drives and went on collecting money and used clothes and sent them, and some went personally to organise the distribution. But there are still starving people - and givers are tired.

Meanwhile, through it all, for the last well over two decades, corn and other perfectly good food of human consumption was being fed to pigs in the same countries where people are more and more Christian, proud of their charity, and so on - the food that could have fed Africa was used to fatten pigs so people in U.S. should not be short of fat in their red meat intake. As if!!

................................ x .............................

Was it the fault of people? Individually, no.

Were they aware it was this sort of skewed balance and if they were would they have cared, would they have said "send the corn to Africa, reserve it for whatever people need it next, feed the stalks to pigs and the leftovers form all kitchens of the country, let people eat first"?

The answer can only come from the same people. Would you do it now? Would you vote to reserve food for people, and not use it for fattening pigs or running hummers and other fuel guzzlers?
................................ x .............................

What is needed is opening eyes and minds and consciences, to see things for what they are, and to go for real measures, for saving our planet - for your children and their children. Not waste time accusing and guilt and small steps while big ones are still going on the same way forever, not waste human food on pigs and cars.
................................ x .............................




As for needs of energy, of renewable and clean energy, we do need to put our force and our minds together with solar and wind and wave and tidal sources of energy - all that our planet has always given in abundance and is unlikely to run out in foreseeable future and is clean and forever there most of the time, if not in one form for a while then surely another - and not allow other distractions in the way.

There is always the other kind of bio-fuel for use - manure - that is a good idea to use up either for enriching fields or for needs of fuel. As long as there is life on earth that is a renewable resource too and much better used this way than polluting our water resources or oceans through sewage and so on.
................................ x .............................





Let us not have vultures in the way for once - this is too important, and it is not in anyone's interest to let the ever present grab-a-buck-or-a-million-while-one-can-out-of-this-opportunity get in the way of saving the planet. That really is the key. When it is well and assured we are all going to survive, then one can go back to the opportunistic free for all - but this is too crucial now. It is survival of the planet, not one species or one continent or one race.

So don't encourage the fraudulent green-gadget sellers, the big guys who reserve corn fields of million tons for fuel for replacing petroleum, and their kind rule the day. If there is one way small steps should add up and account and demand the rest of the account, this is it.
................................ x ................................ x ................................ x ...............................

Greener Life

Reducing Your CO2 Footprint


There is a site called Greenopolis, a place for people to chat about such things, where one blog asks one to measure one's carbon footprint and measures levels. Ours came out pretty good, but I am sue it could be better if we did without a few luxuries. Still, the blog then asks us to tell them how we manage to do so well.

Well, two things help us reduce our co2 footprint - one, we live in India, and I am pretty sure people living in other countries in Asia or Africa do about as well too, by necessity and by bringing up, so we claim little credit for that factor; though we would do better than other residents of a western nation if we did live there by using those habits and again, that is something we would do because of being inculcated with these, not those, values.

The other factor that helps is that we are vegetarian.
............................................... x ...........................................


Most nations that are called undeveloped or whatever the correct current terminology is, do better by the very virtue of living more naturally than the ones that are called developed. There isn't such a lot of industries in such nations as ours for the purpose of taking all fresh produce off the farms into refrigerated warehouses to then sort it into supply chain for the supermarkets.

Most produce is processed more naturally - from the farms to the wholesale markets and thence to retail vendors, often brought calling to your own doorsteps where you can buy it after examining and bargaining -without spending fuel to shop - every day, as fresh as it gets unless you take it out of the ground personally.

The vendor brings it on foot, with a basket or a pushcart, so his footprint is zero for that part, and the only bit is the truck (usually overloaded) that brings it from farm to wholesale market. That is collective for all of the chain. Of course it can be seen how small that footprint is from the price of vegetables one buys - fuel is far more expensive here.

The way it helps living in India or other countries that are supposed to be less developed is therefore obvious - we eat fresh local produce, mostly, and our limit of non-local food is for example apples from another part of the country, when they are in season. So a great deal of energy that goes in U.S. into bringing foods from different parts of the world and especially from within U.S. is here simply not spent in the first place. The vegetables we get are local and fresh - when they are not so fresh they are reduced in price and poorer people get to buy them and finally cows are fed, or they become part of organic feed for the earth by being thrown to become part of it. Little gets that far though, most gets as far as garbage where animals do eat it.
............................................... x ...........................................


There is another part that helps us and that has to do with more modern facilities and better use we make of it, but again I am only going to say we do this and not prescribe it for everyone - or anyone for that matter. This is a matter of your own risk and your own responsibility.

In short we believe in using modern equipment as and when convenient and not just keep it while doing things the old ways, as many people do. This is a different way and other people might be doing better for health in fact, but for what it is worth we do not cook everything fresh three times a day for every meal, and instead use our large refrigerator and microwave, for cooking on large scale when we cook and storing it, and then heating a complete served plate for individual meals - this can be done partly because there aren't any young growing children involved, and has to be done when it is a family of adults otherwise busy, so we cannot afford a person wasted for cooking and housekeeping full-time basis, as most households do - in fact most households have more than one person involved in kitchen activities of cooking and so on, what with more than one generation (three minimum) and average six to ten people per household.

So in short unlike most we do not use our fridge for conserving milk and the very little leftovers, and while they probably see us as very improper and lazy for doing this we do save on energy - especially gas for cooking, since some things - like rice or daal (beans) or sprouts or vegetables (but now that is the whole list of what we cook!) - cost the same amount of gas each time no matter how much quantity you cook, so cooking on large scale and storing it works to conserve more energy - as for microwave, it is a matter of short minutes, less than five minutes tops, for heating it to a degree one can eat without burning. Ultimate proof is how little gas we do use, how infrequently we have to get a new cylinder. Most people need one cylinder per month average and won't believe it if we told we need less than one fourth of that, in fact our first one went for almost two years.

One does need to arrange for uninterrupted supply of power for the refrigeration - but that does not increase the co2 and costs less than people might fear.
............................................... x ...........................................


We are not as good as most people in many respects - we do not buy wholesale when it comes to grains or daal (beans) or most dry grocery as people do and prefer to get it from a good little old supermarket - one century old in fact - that gives it cleaned and in smaller packs, so there is more plastic involved than in other people's homes. If there was another way of buying things without having to sort them and clean them before use we would, but it has to involve another - younger - person in all likelihood to do it the way everyone does. So we do this for now and regrettably there is more plastic in wrappings - and storage containers, too, since we dare not risk so much glass and having moved so much do not wish to invest in expensive steel containers for everything as most households have.

On the other hand the ready clean things we buy do involve people employed to do the cleaning and packing, since little is mechanised, so that is not a total negative either.
............................................... x ...........................................


A good car obviously helps in reducing mileage for fuel but we found to our surprise that a good mileage need not be equal to a small car, and the second one we bought since being fed up with the first brand new one always out to repairs is in fact better in every way, though larger. This is not to say it is true about every bigger vehicle - only that it is necessary to check out if your smaller car is in fact better at mileage. I used to have a Saab that was my first car and loved it - and if we could we would but it is not in India, and the good one we found is a Honda, we have the smallest model of it that is available in India. It gives better mileage on highways of which we have not many and the city traffic is jammed most days, but once in a while we go out on a weekend outside town to have very ethnic food and a pleasant drive. Most days we drive little, fortunately - people cannot keep shifting homes closer to workplaces and industries do keep shifting their offices, so it is sheer luck for now.
............................................... x ...........................................


Again it is sheer luck we live where heating is not needed, but in north India in winter temperatures do drop considerably and most people do not have heating in homes, central or any other way. Keeping warm is with warm clothes, and keeping windows closed and a little from colling fire of the kitchen - most people eat in kitchen, indigenous style, unless they have acquired a taste for eating at the dining tables which is limited to urban middle-class and more well to do. When very cold they can use a heater but people are very conscious of not wasting money, and this use of heaters is limited to very little time.

Few use air-conditioners, fortunately, since it is very expensive and besides we have a lot of indigenous ways of keeping cool, through food and drinks, and oil massage for heads, and henna used judiciously for hands or head, and cool drinks made from lime or yogurt or other things with special spices for the purpose - and also special curtains and so on. So the nation's footprint as regards cooling is quite low. Most we use ac is either in offices or in cars - most people don't, to save money - and even malls are sort of barely cooled, with most managers glibly telling the sweating clients "others don't like it cold" just to shut up the complaints, while the mall saves money on air-conditioning. Since the doors are open breathing is not a problem and most people are used to heat and not to complaining even when uncomfortable.

Malls are in fact new and serve more as a place for people to walk sheltered from sun, rather than much shopping, and to see a film in the usual multiplex and eat a bit. Most serious shopping is done in the normal style in usual shops that cannot afford the high rent of malls for space, and malls have brand name stores that people go look at more than buy but this is a first stage and I suppose it will change to adjust for better economical use.
............................................... x ...........................................


How does being vegetarian help? It was a recent article, within the last two days or so, probably on Times, but I remember it was about various gases in the atmosphere due to production of meat for the consumers even apart from the refrigeration and so forth. The more people change to vegetarian food on the planet the more people can be supplied with food that is now given to pigs for meat production and the more farms there are the more it will help co2 - and a few other such chains that are now going in one direction will go in the opposite, was my understanding.

I am sure there are a few other ways it helps ecology and global climate, being vegetarian, and when I can gather it I can then write again. Meanwhile a few other things are - we don't need dryers. But Germans manage not only in summer with clotheslines in the backyards but even in winter with clothes lines in the basement, and when we were there we managed partly with the electric one in the basement for heavy stuff - jeans, sheets - and the rest with some clothes dryers, plastic coated metal ones, in the sunny attic. It might be a little uncool to have such dryers in living spaces but it is not impossible even in U.S., I am sure, to manage on most days for most adults.
............................................... x ...........................................


When one lives in western society how does any of it help?

For one thing an attitude of not wasting - not liking, not approving of waste of any kind minimizes a lot of it. I used coffee bottles for storage of various grocery and cleaned yogurt containers for storing leftover food and for giving it away after a party. Never liked throwing away cans and avoided using them for that reason for one (and for another, never did like taste of any of the foods or drinks that came out of cans) and mostly used the same fresh vegetables for cooking and so on. And never went by currents of fashion to throw away perfectly good and wearable clothes, as many people do.

It sounds a bit beneath snob value until you realise that very old rich - preppy is what you call them - have the same values, of using permanent looking and very durable clothes and other things.
............................................... x ...........................................


How do we reduce it further than at the level we have for now? I don't know - but perhaps if we had a garden and grew trees, I wish we could - then that would help that much, and too it might be possible planting a vegetable garden and composting kitchen organic garbage - and a few other measures.

We hope we can.

............................................... x ...........................................

Intelligent Use Of Free Energy

Green Earth - For Us All


There are various proposals to replace fossil fuels by bio-fuels and first and foremost they all address a short-term issue, that is, cutting out the dependence of other nations on oil rich ones - but this is very short sighted, since they will create far more problems if they do work, and if not they are merely distracting attention from the real issue and taking efforts away and besides, even ridiculing a very real grave danger we all might be in.
................................... x .................................


The really bad ones out of the whole range of proposals begin with one that showed someone inventing a wood burning car. It is difficult to believe it was real, but it was on news channels, respectable ones, and they showed good cars and compared their running and announced it was satisfactory.

The various dangers are obvious, but the greatest one is if people did take this seriously and started chopping woods and cutting down forests even more than they are doing now for reasons even worse than today, we shall lose all forest cover in no time - trees live long but they do take time to grow and using them for running cars is the greatest folly ever to cross any mind.
................................... x .................................


As it is there is too much cutting down of trees and use of wood going on for purposes that really don't need it, and should be substituted by other, better means. the two biggest examples are furniture everywhere and building of homes in U.S. - the former has many alternatives that would do better,

An idea for the former, there are many options, including using bricks to have permanent structures - how much do you really move your heavy furniture anyway, and what for, except for cleaning? so it would be good if you did not have to either clean under (there won't be anything under) or move it. And if it broke it is earth to earth, sweep it away and have another put in place.

For another idea, use the growing problem of plastic garbage by turning it into a solution here, by doing some rather intelligent recycling of plastics that are thrown away; that is, compactifying it for the mass of the furniture and giving a veneer of metal - or even better, of glazed earthenware, to construct the final usable and good looking furniture.

Just imagine what scope exists for craft and creation of beauty with glazed earthen furniture, even if it is only a veneer covering the compacted plastic.
................................... x .................................


And the latter, building of houses with wood, is a romantic vestigial habit from the times people arrived fresh from Europe and needed shelter and chopped down a tree from the then plentiful forests and made a log cabin asap; a habit that could have been changed long ago to more appropriate use and industry of bricks - but now it is high time the switch is made.

This is the time when we need all the forest cover we can have and not cut any more trees. For any reason.

Bricks after all come from earth and it is not so much of a damage to earth to take some mud from the surroundings, bake bricks and construct a house. Unlike wood that needs cutting down of trees that take decades to grow and are not so much in abundant supply

And as for what carbon that would generate - using solar power should be entirely possible for the brick industry, for the whole process. So the whole process should be from free material and free energy, as good sounding as it can get and quite practical too.
................................... x .................................


If the proposals to use either bio fuels or wood do work it is going to be disastrous, either with people getting distracted enough not to pay attention to the real need of the hour or even worse by actually doing this stupid thing and making it worse.

Trees absorb carbon and we really need them for that on a large scale, much more than they exist. And also to stop disasters like the tsunami and so on, which was far less devastating in places where there were trees all the way to the sea shore to and beyond waterline.

Trees hold the earth too and we do need them to avoid land slides, and the mountains that are now bare of them for either road and house building or for need of people to burn wood for winter or for sheer greed of lumber industry - whatever the reason the cover is thin and landslides are costing lives, and going to cost more.
................................... x .................................


As for burning bio fuels, people are more likely to think in terms of corn oil than the really useful fuel, dung - the latter is used even now in rural parts of much of the world, certainly Asia, and is very practical especially for the poor - they usually need to keep some animals, and a cow and an ox do wonders for the economy of the family in this and in every other way too, by providing everything from milk (much needed nutrition) to transportation (ox are intelligent and far more docile used with a cart that is useful as transport for trade and for every other need of the family; but the free fuel is the ultimate usefulness of the animals.

Of course - it can be made better and only recently someone designed a far better stove for it to convert the usual carbon monoxide emissions into carbon dioxide so it will benefit rather than be bad for environment in general - as long as there are trees.

But the fashionable people that talk of bio fuels are not thinking of or experimenting with such fuels, only with corn or vegetable oil; and while it is better to have farms and greenery rather than oil drills, the amount of land needed to use for farming for fuels for the ever growing need of people is no joke. In all likelihood it will amount to chopping down forests and taking away land and forest from the helpless poor - whether within a nation or more likely some nations taking away from the poorer ones, and Africa will starve more, as will people of south America.

Most likely both the disasters will come together - losing forests and poor losing precious farming land and crops. No, it is unthinkable. If there are any bio fuels to be used it ought to be on the lines of use of cow-dung by rural poor in India - and other animals in other lands; horses will do too.

At the very least that will amount to saving the animals.
................................... x .................................


The real danger in all this is that people will forget about the urgent need to do a lot more to reduce carbon, and the real answers are not about what other fuels to source from earth literally unless it is heat of the earth at night from infrared radiation - it is in solar and wind energy to be harnessed for every purpose.

Cars do get hot, as everyone knows, since they are driven outdoors and are made of material that heats - so what is stopping people from using solar panels covering the car to give energy to the engine and cooling the car too at the same time?

This is even apart from the fact that solar panels and wind turbines on top of buildings can help every building to become self sufficient in terms of energy, and with some intelligent architecture one can do away with air conditioning as well, so the need of energy reduces to where solar and wind energy will suffice.
................................... x .................................


The real need is to get down to the real questions and stop fooling around with dangerous stuff and make it possible for all of us to survive, and use what is there in plenty already - sun and wind and, heat of earth even at night.
................................... x .................................

Some Cool Dishes For Summer - from India.

Last one was about general known wisdom of old old traditions, ancient knowledge in India about how to keep cool in summer - without AC of course. A lot of it had to do with food, and there are some specific recipes and traditions. Here are a few.

In north there are wonderful melons in season in summer, and these help keep cool. Especially watermelon. Eat them without any added sugar or cream or any of the usual stuff. They are good all by themselves, as an afternoon activity to help keep cool. Pack pieces for a lunch along with a sandwich.

In south there are some wonderful and easy recipes to keep cool which one needs most of the year in some parts - one is a yogurt rice that is not just a mix of the two separate ingredients as in the rest of the country, but more of a recipe. Of course a casual mix as a lunch or even breakfast is good on hot days - keeps one cool. but the special recipe is something else.

You will need some mustard seeds, some dry long red chillies, some curry leaves (not bay leaves used in dressy north Indian food but small dark green leaves used in south and west) and salt, apart from organic yogurt (for culture) and oil for seasoning, preferably coconut oil or sunflower oil. You should be able to get most of this at the Indian grocery store and some possibly over the internet, like ethnicgrocery.com (I heard of this site long ago, there must be a lot of them by now) and so on. Of course it might be better to order only dry stuff over the internet unless you are sure of your dealers delivering the oil without spilling.

Try setting your own yogurt to begin with, for a good reason, by warming milk at night to a comfortable temperature - somewhat like a baby-bath for a summer day - and stir a teaspoonful of the organic yogurt in it by mixing it with the warmed milk and letting it in, and stirring gently. cover and leave over pilot light or over radiator or near it, so it is at roughly human body temperature through night. Look in the morning if it is set. If it does not work ask an Indian colleague's wife or mother or someone at the Indian grocery for tips and help.

When you are fairly confident of your being able to set yogurt you are ready for the next stage.

You will need rice cooked and cooled and milk ready to set (warmed to body temperature or a little more, not much more) for the next stage; milk should be enough to mix with the ready cooked rice and a bit more so the whole mix feels neither liquid nor dry but a comfortable mix. when mixing do not break or mash rice into the milk, be gentle. Then - this is the important part - set yogurt in this mix by stirring in a spoonful of yogurt mixed with a little milk, gently, just the way you have been doing to set yogurt from milk. Cover and leave on pilot light or on radiator or near radiator, in the place where you have been successful at setting yogurt for yourself.

You can do all of the above or do a shortcut by just mixing ready yogurt with ready cool rice, before the next step; the first tastes better, the second is easier.

Next and final step on the morning after when the yogurt is already set into the rice is seasoning. This is what is a basic southern seasoning.

Heat a little (- a tablespoon for one person or two for a family of four or proportionately more at logarithmically increasing quantity, that is, the more the ready yogurt rice the less the increase in oil, so three tablespoons of oil for a dozen people is enough -) oil in a small pan over low fire, with red chillies (one for one person, two for four, four for a dozen) and test it by throwing in a mustard seed till one pops, and then throw in ( half a teaspoon for one person, one teaspoon for four people, two for a dozen) and cover and wait for them all to pop, the throw in curry leaves and cover and switch off the fire and let the curry leaves cook while the oil cools a little. A couple of minutes and mix this with the ready yogurt rice mix which you can add a little salt as per your taste - less is better since it can always be added for those who like it more but a little is necessary for a proper taste.

And there you are with the most wonderful basic lunch or breakfast for summer, to which you can add a little quantity of dry fried vegetables (again, with very little oil) to complete the meal for lunch, or a half teaspoon of an Indian mango pickle for taste if this is too bland for you.

Of course the chillies in the mix are not necessary to eat - they have added a minimum flavour to the oil, and for more flavour squeeze them in the plate with your spoon or fork when eating so their juice is added to the yogurt rice (this is midway) unless you are hardcore chilli aficionado and you can take it - then eat one along with the rice. It will bring some tears and some sweat along with taste, and you will cool more.

Have fun.

If you have any doubts about your capacity for red chillies refrain from overdoing it, and it is ok to start without them and see if you like it - though they do enhance the taste and experience, but avoid for small children or even unaccustomed preteens anyway.

Tip:- if anyone old or young feels the sharpness of chillies have milk or buttermilk ready to drink instead of water to overcome the effect of chillies, it works far better. This is general tip for any food with chillies or hot pepper.

Food Shortage, Water Crisis, Industries And Meat

They now say there is a food crisis. And a water crisis.

There are people talking about the food crisis and giving completely crazy analysis, more to do with their trying to stir up people against those recently doing well rather than reality of what the situation is. But the discussion of water crisis is even more of fibbing going on in the belief that no one will notice the facts or the gaps in those arguments.

The obvious about water is all those fresh water resources - lakes, ponds, rivers, and generally water tables - polluted by industrial effluents, and in case of rivers by shipping as well. So naturally there is a "shortage" of water for drinking, cooking, irrigation and other human needs - washing, bathing, cleaning.

That those are really the primary needs for which fresh water should be reserved is blithely ignored, and there is an atmosphere being created of anxiety, panic, terror. Of course no one can or should point at the industries or else they will be muzzled, silenced in one way or another.
.............................. x ..............................



Look at the record on air pollution, carbon excess, ozone holes. People have lived for all these millennia without this stage of danger to the planet, without us getting to this where we are thinking about saving the planet. But no one is talking about what industries need to do, should do, to curb this - instead people are being told not to use this or that.

Well, why not ban the products that people are told are not good for the atmosphere or water tables or other resources of the planet, the environment? The aerosols, the chemical cleaning materials that are bad, why not stop the production? Why not make them illegal to produce, to sell, to keep and to use?

It needed a severe level of lung problems before tobacco smoking was banned in west - and of course those very people often visit Asia and smoke defiantly at airports in countries where courtesy to visitors makes people refrain from throwing them in the slammer - but the question of aerosols and so forth is more than a danger to just those who use them, as in fact was with tobacco, passive smokers being just as much in danger. This menace is to the whole planet - so what is stopping the lawmakers from banning them?

What does it need, another tsunami, this time in a place where it will hit them directly?
.............................. x ..............................



Then there is food. What exactly is the quantity of corn and other food that is perfectly good for human consumption that is wasted by feeding pigs and so on, in U.S. and other western nations? you might think this is of not relevance to the food problem which is in fact mostly in Africa and nowhere near U.S.; but that is not entirely true, is it?!!!

African continent is used for the coffee and chocolate to provide U.S. through various multinationals and other companies, and if you think you are after all paying good money for it think about how little of that actually goes to the Africans, much less the actual people that were disfranchised when the colonial masters took their land away from them and deprived them of grazing and farming land, and think of how many people would be fed by the lands now in use for export crops, and think of if the starving people, the children, can eat the money that goes to Africa for chocolate and coffee, and if they were to ask if they could buy the corn you feed your pigs would you agree or refuse indignantly - and then think if your land were used for luxury products for, say, China, and if your children were starving and you were told your produce of (fill in the blank yourself - cars, gadgets, software, electricity, milk products, fruit, corn) was only this much worth whereas the what food you needed in exchange was not only expensive it was needed to feed Chinese chicken for their consumption. Would you then be indignant? Or does it seem like the way it should be, to those who call themselves Christian?

If you really think African starvation has nothing to do with you find out - at least - if your one pound of meat costs the equivalent of enough corn to feed forty people in Africa, and ask yourself if it is worth the cries of innocent deaths that reach straight up - and at the very least try to stop using the luxury products from African farms that could be used to produce food for them.

Sending money through organisations is not good enough. It merely is a sop for your own conscience - you are telling it to shut up and let you enjoy that chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich.
.............................. x ..............................

As for water, think of what rivers and ponds and lakes are.

Last few days on a discussion too many young people seem to have confused fresh water with that which is piped into your homes by your city or town corporations after processing - that actually is processed and therefore guaranteed by those whom you trust rather than actually fresh water, isn't it?

Fresh water you might have encountered on a trek or camping and you knew the air was fresh, the water from the stream refreshing. Extend that thinking and you will see that fresh water is - it is all the natural water except of oceans, of course. Lakes, rivers, ponds, wells.

For that matter - isn't "source" the word for spring, as in a spring of water, in French? (In case you were not aware English language is sourced from French among many other of its tributary languages, which include not only those that were native of England, but also German brought by the Anglo-Saxons, Latin - and its source, Sanskrt - through the Roman occupation of England, and also west Asian due to crusades and finally various Indian languages other than Sanskrt due to occupation of India.) So think again of where your water is sourced from, and is it fresh - and what is being done to your fresh water.

Of these, while lakes can be most enchanting to some and glacial streams to others, it is clear that rivers are the most ever renewing and therefore most fresh water source ever on earth. Unless otherwise polluted by humans, that is.

And when this pollution is by chemical industrial sources, and not likely to stop because you don't know and you don't care - whose fault is it you don't have drinking water, and are being told bathing is a waste of precious resources?

That precious resource is first and foremost for human purposes of drinking and cooking, bathing and irrigating - but for food grown for feeding humans, first. As for meat eating do the animals need food to be farmed for them or is it that you need them fattened? Do you really think animal body fat is healthy food for you? Especially when it is red (or for that matter white) meat you are paying for, under the impression it is good for your health.
.............................. x ..............................



Long ago a German friend remarked on how the red meat available in U.S. was nowhere near as good as that in Germany because back home he got meat that was lean, not so full of fat - and he further explained that this was literal, that there was too much fat in the meat he bought while at Harvard. He had to explain it further what he meant before I understood - being a vegetarian, I had no idea what he was talking about.

All this was new and academic to me but now it all makes sense in many connections - this is how and why people who look very thin (in my language they can be referred to as "ancestors of sinners", as extremely thin people generally are called in our language), and yet have high cholesterol - and I used to be puzzled; how one can have cholesterol without being far from anything but stick thin!

Now I know - those with cholesterol are actually fat, just with hidden fat that is on the inside and is actually killer fat, unlike that on the people that everyone calls fat because you can see their size - but if they do not have high cholesterol they are not actually fat, only large at best and overweight at worst.

Coming back to the original issue (not that this was unrelated), is it not clear that well fed pigs that are fattened with produce that could feed humans instead - and give life to a whole starving continent, too, - is not good for you, either, for your own food consumption?

You are paying your hard-earned money on fat to put inside your body by going for meat from farms where the animals are neither free to choose what they eat - they would be far healthier if they did have that freedom - and nor are they free to walk about or do any exercise - which sounds funny but in their natural lives animals get a lot more exercise than in farms where they are penned so they cannot move and get fatter so you pay more.

Then you ingest it all, and since people are what they eat according to an English proverb, you sit in one place or another, and are becoming a nation of overweight people where one large section is ridden with problems of how to reduce and then there are young women psychologically so traumatised by it all they are dying of starving themselves.
.............................. x ..............................



If all these ills are corrected - your industries did not pollute your water tables, your rivers and your ponds, if your produce was not fed to pigs instead of humans, if your superfluous food went to the continent that supplies your coffee and your chocolate and is starving in exchange - perhaps the water and food crises would not exist for now.

Instead the guys are proposing - no, actually forecasting, as if there was no choice and this is inevitable future - that forests are going to be cut for farming.

Forests and trees are our one hope of dealing with carbon for now. Global warming is not a joke, nor is the spiralling of our planet towards extinction through the warming of the planet, the carbon in the air, and the melting of polar ice. Already the northern route is ice free in summer for the first time and if it is used for industrial shipping forget your winters; or rather, remember them well, they are memory. And if more forests go, woods are not stopped from being chopped, and there is nothing to absorb the carbon, forget your planet.

Your planet - not someone else's concern. If you are young, if you are looking forward to a good life (and you should!), if you have children and care about their survival and their human experience (of having children and caring and hoping for them), then you have to save your planet.

And for starters, save your water, save the corn for humans, save Africa, the cradle of humanity.

.............................. x ..............................



It is not fresh water or food that is immediately short - it is honesty and thought and perhaps a little humanity.

.............................. x ..............................

Preferring Earth Over Plastics

A fortunate coincidence or circumstance brought me to a blog and a couple of sites I liked. The first one is about replacing plastics. The person concerned lives in Chicago, born and brought up in U.S. I take it, and as such is finding it difficult, since neither bringing up nor surroundings today help. It requires a great deal of courage and insight to do this, to initiate and carry on a conscious living action.

Obviously the difficulties are multiple, especially in any so-called developed country. Especially so in U.S.A. and even more so in parts in middle. A large variety of supermarket items come wrapped in plastic. You go out, any takeout food is either wrapped in plastic or served in plastic. You buy shampoo, not only chemicals unknown (yes they are listed on the bottles - in U.S. every item sold has to show contents - but how many comprehend them really?) - but also mostly in plastic bottles. And anyway most items sold in supermarkets do come either in plastic containers or wrappers. If you don't have a car and are using public transport the only way to carry grocery for the week home is in plastic bags, unless you live nearby and have a trolley you can take walking to the supermarket, in which case you can use the paper shopping bags.

When I lived there plastic shopping bags were not free, though only ten cents, but those ten cents mattered and I used the bags over and over, carefully folding them and carrying them around when the day for shopping arrived. Paper bags were free and my final roommate - housemate, more correctly - allowed me to use the trolley so it was possible to do without plastic bags, and the paper shopping bags were also convenient to use for lining the garbage bin. In any case the garbage had to be thrown in bags that were plastic though, I think. It was left on the road without bins - in Germany more recently one took the huge bin outside one's own house to the road where they would empty it - on a fixed day, and so at least then in U.S. some plastic was needed to throw garbage.

On one hand I then did not really have a clear dislike for plastic as such and as a matter of fact still don't except that it is endangering the Earth and oceans and life on earth, and we should do something to contain the threat already. Those days though money was extremely tight as it is for students not supported by parents, and so throwing away was a rare event. I bought yogurt unlike many others of Indian origin who prefer to make it at home, but I saved the containers and used them for storing leftover foods and / or giving away party leftovers - to those who would have it - in them.

(How could we afford to have parties? Well, one had to eat, and having company once in a while was nice, and it was generally dinner one invited or was invited for, and the food was the same normal food except it was more extensive in variety having invited people.)
.............................. x .............................

When I returned to India my feelings about plastic went back and forth. Travelling in trains I began to dislike the plastic cups, ubiquitous by then, that tea and coffee were most often served in. They were not as nice as styrofoam but even that would only have been good for drinking, with the throwing away still a problem. I used to carefully crush them till they broke (so they were not used again) and leave them under the seat in the compartment, and even had an explicit conversation with a travelling colleague who remonstrated with me about not throwing them out of the window - he was another U.S. returned and I was surprised at having to explicitly explain this - and told him no one is going to comb the country side for the garbage that was inorganic, and not going to become one with the earth with sun and rain, unlike the indigenous cups and other serving utensils made of organic material. On the other hand the compartment would be cleaned eventually. he saw the point immediately.

We in India have always had other disposable alternatives at least for serving food, sometimes different in different parts of the country. Until returning from U.S. and being hounded by the plastic cups we had sort of looked down on one of the options - but now I came to see the error of that and not only preferred it I wished it would survive and began to look for it and ask for it explicitly.

This was the north Indian Kulhad, earthenware unglazed serving ware of various sizes for various purposes, to be used that ones and then thrown away with force to break it - and since it is only earthenware with some food or drink sticking to it it all becomes one with the earth. Plus you are guaranteed a fresh cup or dish every time. And they are extremely cheap, made with local labour with little cost - then the tea cup would be one paisa, and it was included in the twenty five paise of the tea - so the vendors could afford them too. It is far too much trouble to have proper chinaware to use and return for a wash, and now come to think of it that wash includes chemicals that pollute the water-tables, earth, and so on.


.............................. x .............................



Another solution to packaging or serving food that is a good alternative to plastic and still survives in India from ancient times is leaves, usually banana leaves that are washed and cleaned thoroughly with water (and perhaps with a touch of oil to make sure) with no soap or chemicals. Whole large leaves are used to serve food on in many indigenous food serving places that are usually not expensive and cater to middle to poor class people, and in rural places or small towns they might be more ubiquitous.

But this is mostly in south and central west where banana leaves are so easily and so abundantly available - you just have to plant them outside the kitchen and let them have the organic waste water (not with soap or chemicals) that is the first rinse of the dishes. In old style dishes were cleaned with ashes of the kitchen fire, so then that was no problem either. In such places most often a bath was an oil massage and hot water with scrubbing down with brush or special stones and then the bathwater was good for the plants too, and often men had their bath outside in the backyard by the well (while the inner bathing room was for women).

I suppose I am mostly describing vegetarian places - to give anyone an unnatural food would be horrible, (everyone knows how and why BSE happened - it was the horribly unnatural food fed to the poor cattle!) and plants would not be given water from non vegetarian dishes, I would think, not in India.

For takeout food in such places they usually use smaller pieces of older dry leaves cut up to size and wrap the food up in the banana leaf pieces thus kept ready, then wrap the outside of the banana leaf pack in small pieces of newspaper cut up and kept ready, and tie up in thin raw cotton thread that can be used further - and usually is. The banana leaves can be fed finally to cows along with other kitchen leftovers and organic plant material kitchen garbage, and the newspaper pieces are thrown away, no threat until the ink became one.
.............................. x .............................

North uses another way since banana leaves are not quite so plentiful, rare in fact, and some other leaves are - but they are not quite so large. So there is a whole art and craft around constructing plates and conical bowls out of these leaves stitched together with tiny pin-like but much less sharp and a bit thicker sticks. The plates (Patraawali) and the conical bowl (Drona) are used still in many places, again, rural or more indigenous sort of places in towns that serve to middle class to poor people, and don't want to bother with washing the otherwise ubiquitous stainless steel or other metal plates and bowls food is usually served in, or often cannot afford the expense in the first place. But the places are clean, the food wonderful, and you do not have to worry about the plates and bowls - they are a one time use and thrown away immediately, often by the customers as a courtesy to the establishment saving them the unpleasant trouble.

This making of Patraawali and Drona is a much prized art and craft, and in my region, Mahaaraashtra (usually spelled with one a each before and after the r, but spelling this way makes it clear how to pronounce it correctly) - which is neither north nor south, but central west, usually is much ignored in the north-south attitude battle, and has plants and so on growing characteristic to both north and south, hence uses best of both in most ways generally, but is very frugal from necessity - once upon a time a potential son-in-law was judged by his skill to make them; in fact a phrase in a couplet explains that one who learns to make a Drona (difficult!!) before a Patraawali (easier) is smart indeed.
.............................. x .............................

Newspapers are another rich resource used for much all over the country - first and foremost they are never thrown away. In richer houses the owners might not bother but the servants do it for them and it is understood they keep the money thus obtained by hard bargaining. Buyers of old newspapers go around and call or knock and buy old newspapers that are usually kept collected and pay money to buy them and take them away. There are shops too where one can take them to sell them, but this shifts the balance in the favour of the shop and they pay little less. Magazines, especially glossy ones, are paid more for if one knows to bargain - though nothing compared to what one pays to buy them in the first place if one is so stupid as to do so rather than use a neighbourhood circulation library - and all this old paper is used in various ways, mostly packaging.

Most shops used to use pieces of paper cut up to size to wrap what they sold until plastic became ubiquitous and still continued for a while, individual ware wrapped in paper while the whole carried in judiciously few bags (economy is much on the side of ecology) and if a customer demands extra bags they have to be paid for.

But in north India where we grew up there was a whole industry that supported many a poor families - making small bags or rather packets (without handles) from newspapers and other paper like magazines. Some people apparently still do it and they really want the glossy magazines since those packs are attractive and pay a little more. Most grocery then was given in those bags that were then just closed with a complex fold - for that matter a paper packaging without a bag was an art of folding the paper into a package around the contained grocery - and one carried it home either like that or more often in cloth bags one had brought with one, made at home from old clothes worn out, removing the worn parts; or baskets of cane that were bought but were nice.

Plastic first entered the back way, by having housewives and girls make those baskets of plastic material by weaving them with only hands and a few instructions, and they caught on like pizza in U.S. did - in fact the fashion for trousers for women was much slower and is still not quite accepted, though it came not too long after. No one makes the plastic baskets at home any more, they are for purchase from market if one wants them and not woven but made in factories. And no one is proud of them either, since there is no personal art and achievement.

But old newspapers business is still very strong - and why not? We hate waste.
.............................. x .............................

For that matter old clothes - especially sarees - were never thrown away. If they were given to the poor, or servants, that was in richer homes. Most middle class had a similar solution on the lines of selling old newspapers, readily available sitting at home, and most still do.

Women do this trade - they come calling out in afternoons on weekdays, carrying (mostly stainless steel) pots and pans, dishes and serving utensils and boxes and other containers, and are then called in by the women of the house and the bargain begins - the house has old sarees and other old clothes to barter for the brand new pots and pans and so forth, and it is strictly a barter with both sides doing utmost to get the upper hand, and a mutual satisfaction is important or else some other vendor might be preferred the next time. So then the house has new kitchenware to use or store for giving as gifts at weddings or other occasions - considered auspicious and obviously very useful - without spending money.

And the vendor goes away happy too or she would not be in business, with more houses to visit and then to dispose away the still quite good clothes. If they are wearable it is one thing and if not they are recycled into various useful things, such as quilts or bags, or finally recycled into manufacturing newspaper.
.............................. x .............................

Our favourite places in this town to eat out are still those that serve indigenous - not restaurant standard "Indian" cuisine same in most places and nothing like how it is made in any home, but real stuff - served the local way on leaves. Since we live in south technically - it is really southwest, geographically and in character too - this means banana leaves. Incidentally in most southern places the leaf is oriented with the spine parallel to the customer, and this is considered inauspicious in my region (done only at funerals), so I used to correct it until within the first couple of attempts I realised the waiter would turn it around anyway and so left it alone thereafter.

I miss Kulhads and newspaper packets and much else - hopefully environmentalists local and national would bring them back and do away with the plastic. But I don't have good solutions to some of the questions - like how to keep and throw garbage, the organic kitchen garbage especially, without plastic bags.

There are herbal and otherwise wonderful shampoos sold by several makers, based on old traditional Indian ways of what was and still I hope is used in much of the country - but the shampoos are in plastic bottles. Living in India I can give the bottles away and they then are much used before anyone finally throws them in garbage. Ditto oil bottles, and often one can reuse them oneself by buying oil in packs - made of plastic.

The old fashioned grocer exists in smaller places or older established neighbourhoods where one would go armed with bags and steel containers for oil and so on. We live in a place where it is difficult to walk without a serious risk of getting hit by a vehicle. There are no sidewalks and a very modern highway divides us from more people neighbourhoods with the old fashioned small shops. We shop in city center in an old supermarket, Nilgiris; they have been in business over a century and are still a family management and the family looks after the store personally, but they have modernised and while it is pleasant to shop there and one can be sure of quality it is difficult to avoid plastic - they try, by offering cardboard containers, but it is difficult to lift them from car to home two floors up (from shop to car they provide a helper to carry).
.............................. x .............................

The lifelessplastic blog of Haegele, and other such sites - greenopolis, ecogeek - have made me think, and I am somewhere in the middle spectrum where there is awareness and preference but some more personal and global solutions to question of avoiding plastics and other chemicals would be nice.

For shampoo one could source Rietha or Shikaakaaie, easily in India and from Indian grocery stores otherwise; or use yogurt for summer to feel wonderful. So it is possible to avoid shampoo by working a little - the substances other than yogurt need at least soaking and boiling and cooling before use - though hair oil does come in bottles, and for personal reasons of safety concern I prefer plastic over glass, until they can bring back either a system of exchanging steel containers (like drinking water - plastic - bottles are now exchanged); or takeaway earthenware jars, for selling all this organic,mineral and plant material stuff. It cannot be done except on a larger scale but most of India would welcome it - we frown on waste as sin and plastic is wasted when it is thrown in garbage before it is ready to disintegrate.

Garbage, I don't have a solution, though I suspect this being India they are taken out of the garbage and carefully reused by poor. Still, that is only prolonging it. Wish I had more answers that did not include risk to a severe back problem as it would to have to do much standing or sitting. This writing - it is not a necessity except that of spirit and it can be postponed any time, so it is less of a problem than something that needs to be, has to be done.

Keeping Cool

Why would you bother to think of how to keep cool?

Few would ask why bother with a question like that, and those would be the ones that are very sure that drinking a cold drink and using air-conditioning and so on will do. Enough doubt has been cast on the concerns of global warming by the lobbies of vested interests, using the techniques known for long about how to falsify and cast doubts on something that is not only true but staring you in face. So scientists might shout and warn all they can, and most do agree on the issue too - but people won't take heed because there are always those on the opposite side shouting louder and with one or two "scientists" on their side who do this for the love of taking the contrary side, or just for the huge piles of money on that side.

Putting that aside for a moment ask yourself if it is relevant to worry about it before adopting some ways to manage with less expense of fossil fuels or even nuclear energy for everyday life. Especially if it personally going to save, not cost, you more of your money. Of course adapting to some measures like solar energy and CFL light bulbs might - in fact certainly will - save money forever after the initial expense, so it would be good if you could do it.

But there are other problems that need solutions and keeping cool is one; fortunately there are ways to deal with that too - so let us look at a few other solutions to this and some others of the questions that can have more energy efficient solutions which in fact are good for your pocket as well. Foremost is the question of keeping cool - it is easier to keep warm with less fuel expense, one can always use warm and warmer clothes. But that won't be the problem in near future, and keeping cool is not that obvious - wearing minimum often makes it hotter if you are in the sun, for example.

Keeping cool in the ever rising temperatures of today and that too without air-conditioning is not easy, and using air-conditioners everywhere is going to make it worse for global warming. Most of homes with use of energy to make it easier for the inhabitants are in developed nations and most of them are in nations that typically had to deal with how to keep warm to keep alive. Even in the warmer parts of the world, often those homes that were constructed in an era when oil was not assumed to be a problem were not constructed with a view to keeping cool, either. That makes it even more difficult to change to keeping cool when necessary.

Of course if you construct a new home you might have these concerns and they might - could easily - be taken care of. But if not, what do you do to avoid air-conditioning and still keep cool is not easily answered.

Unless you know some old traditional techniques.
............................................ x ...........................................




There are two major parts of this problem with three separate solutions - how to keep your home cool, how to keep your body cool are two major parts of the problem, and the second part has solutions to do with food and clothes.

The first is obviously dealt with in elementary stages by opening a window to begin with - and then there are more intelligent ways. Create a draft in the house that will take out heat and bring in cool air, by having a window at a higher level opposite or at least at another angle at a distance from the one that is bringing in cool air. In northern latitudes for example use a north window to bring in cool air and keep the window on the side where sun comes in well draped. Use venetian blinds or even better, shutters of the sort in France, if possible, the kind that will let you switch the angle so air comes in and heat is blocked, on the side where sun is.

In countries where heat has been always a problem for last few centuries and millennia, they have more solutions of organic nature. Apart from using drapes and keeping windows at normal level closed - which works well with homes that have few inhabitants, but not when you need air to breathe - there are special curtains that are hung on the windows kept open, that help by the very nature of these curtains. These curtains are made of a special grass, which helps in keeping cool in more than one way. For more cool they are sprinkled with water, and then the air coming in through cools even more - and it is fragrant too. The particular grass is called Khus in most of northern India, and has other names in the southern parts. Apart from curtains it is used to make a traditional oil-based perfume - most of eastern perfumes are oil-based - that is very popular.
............................................ x ...........................................

Khus is also used for another category of solutions, that is to keep the body cool personally. It is one of the many ingredients that can be made into a cool drink, others being lime or lemon, yogurt and a few more. (Don't experiment to begin with - take the old well known and tried and tested recipes of over a few centuries. Don't mix indiscriminately, above all.) These drinks should have a little salt and some sour ingredient possibly but very little or no sugar, if you make them fresh, to help with being cool. Recipes can be sourced from northern India, most often from homes that have kept on the traditional ways. Ask a friend to ask his mother or grandmother how to make Kaanjie, if it is difficult to find the recipe on the internet.

There are two or three ingredients of southern food that keep the people of south cool generally - and since the south is more tropical it is a weather that is generally warm most of the year, and very hot in some parts, so these ways obviously work. The two important ingredients are yogurt and fresh coconut. They are used not only in food but also in other ways - chiefly for example using coconut oil to massage your scalp and letting be for at least half an hour allows the coconut oil to seep through into your system and cool it, before washing hair. Using the same coconut oil to season food instead of any other oil or fat brings down your general heat as well.

In north where in fact summer is far hotter people wash face, body and hair too with yogurt, after a general massage of head with yogurt and leaving it on for a while. Yogurt is used as addition to or alternative to soap, and while it cleanses far better it cools too. It is not necessary to use too much - a half teaspoon will do for face, a tablespoon or two for head depending on quantity of hair, and another couple of tablespoons or so for the whole body - you are not coating yourself, but only scrubbing with yogurt.

Needless to say these are part of an integral solution - if you go on eating heavy non-vegetarian food these will help but not as much as if you switch to more vegetarian food for as long as you need to keep cool. These solutions are not pills but more of parts of integral lifestyle, and the more you do to help yourself the more the solutions work.

Bananas and other foods that grow in summer climates are another part of all this. Eating local foods in season is the general idea. and local does not mean what has always grown where you are but also what can. For example if you live in southern parts where bananas can grow behind your kitchen let them have that spot to grow and flourish. In all likelihood then your yard can grow coconuts and papaya too, but the latter produces heat for the body.

Foods that give or produce more heat in the body are for example sesame, mustard, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, garlic, and other such spices or herbs that go into winter foods. Including sugar, and fried foods generally. Wheat - hot, rice - cool, as a general rule. Water - cool, oil - hot, in general. So the use of coconut oil for summer to keep cool is limited to a very small quantity for seasoning; for winter to keep warm you can use mustard oil to fry vegetables or season foods.
............................................ x ...........................................



As for clothes it is better for summer to wear loose and fully covering apparel to escape sunburn when going out, apart from sunshades, and using a hat or a parasol helps, but walking in shade of trees or even buildings is good too. No amount of lotion will do as well as just escaping sun will do - and the converse is true too. In winter just being in the sun is of more help and letting in sun heats houses more efficiently too, but most people of northern latitudes do know this already anyway.

A loose and long dress or a long full skirt keeps one cooler in summer - men can always try the Scottish kilt (or Indian Dhoti) - and covering your head or neck with a long cotton scarf does help a lot too. As for the fashions today a cool denim or cotton jacket over a short top will serve the purpose of covering while in sun to avoid sunburn.

Most cars today are not constructed with an idea of keeping cool without air-conditioning - one can open windows and let air flow, unless it is too hot for that. The metal body of the car heats with sun and there is no escaping the heat that is gathered in without AC or opening windows, but there are now a few things made from Khus available in a few places, a car seat accessory that can be used to support your back or to sit on for example. It would be better to have a Khus curtain covering the top just under the car roof, but that has to be devised, it is not yet readily available.
............................................ x ...........................................

Someone on Greenopolis asked about a biodegradable hair dye, and that reminded me I had forgotten that part of how to keep cool. This is the answer I gave.

Visit an Indian (meaning of those that come from India) grocery store nearest to you or find one that can supply this by mail or courier - there is a plant called Henna or Mehendie, of which the leaves are dried and powdered and this powder is used for colouring hands and feet (for beauty as well as cooling effect and it is a fun activity as well, and most often north Indian brides and other girls / women have it done for weddings) and also hair (mostly done for cooling effect).
The latter needs no instructions more than what you might find on packages, or ask the person at the counter of the store. You generally have to take a certain quantity, start with small, and mix it with water and apply to your head and leave it for a while before washing - use something gentle to wash, a teaspoon of yogurt rather than shampoo, I would think. None of these are likely to cause harm as far as I know, old people - mostly men - do this often in north India (women and young people prefer the natural beauty of dark hair and not wish anyone to think they are prematurely grey) mostly for coolness, but it does give a colour that can range from pale gold to deep dark red, depending on the quality and quantity of Hennaa (Mehendie) used.

The Future We All Love - And Must Save Earth For

Sometimes it is not clear what we live for - is it for the latest new brand of apparel, a new car, more money, prestige, that publication that would give fame, the party we have to make a success of ... the list can go on and on, everyone knows. One has little time to think of our planet, Earth, and it is only an irritant to be reminded we are not just a small scale innocent user - that we can make a difference. But life is just too busy and those who remind us irritating - we have other, more pressing concerns, that new spreadsheet and slide show for the presentation that is so important for the company, now ... oh, well, ok, later we will do a speech, maybe even a lunch for this global warming or whatever.

It takes very little, if persistently done by a large number of people adding up to large savings and helping ecology. And just as a hint - often personal economy is what helps global ecology. There is no need or reason to feel embarrassed or shy about it - it is about everyone's future, about the future of humanity and of our home, the Earth we live on. And there is no option in sight.

Something so small as switching off lights and appliances not in use at the moment, switching to CFL lights, avoiding using AC by using other means to cool in summer (look at the next blog entry), using a smaller and more fuel efficient vehicle or even changing to public transport, buying local produce and holidaying closer to home to avoid the huge fuel spent on transport, all of these can help a lot - you begin now, and soon others catch up. Just give it a try (and if necessary have an attitude about it - you are doing good after all).

We did see this - we bought and used CFL lights extensively and exclusively in every home we lived in in the last decade and more, and we began as soon as they were in the market; then, they were expensive too, which today they are not quite so much; soon others caught up, family and relatives, and now we see them everywhere, public places, hotels. It is considered smarter.

On another tack, for a similar phenomena - we asked our driver to stop honking (a way of life here) and amidst all the surrounding noise, we insisted on it. To our surprise in so little as less than a decade the cacophony is reduced considerably, and amidst the drove of surrounding vehicles in traffic (very thick crowd here with no one believing in lanes) few now honk, even fewer go with the ear-splitting, heart-attack producing, brain damaging loud stereo sounds! It has been a completely unexpected, very pleasant surprise. It has become a little more pleasant to go for a drive, though other bad habits are not so easy to discourage in others. Everyone still tries to take every inch available on the road and lane markings are just decorations for most drivers.

Still - that was a digression - the point is it is easy to forget what we all live for, what we work hard for - and in a word most people would agree it is for the future, (few could bear to live if told future ends tomorrow, even personally) only most think of it as one's own future, or at most the future of those who one cares for. The two are not so different and neither is the future of the earth separate from any of it. Trouble is few believe that future of the planet is really in jeopardy, much less that of the humanity. But if one can only really remember what is at stake here - one might not risk the huge disaster - however small the chances one thinks - just for the little pleasures or the little inconveniences (which actually are imaginary) that would help a huge amount.

So take a look. This is the future we all love to bring into the present, that makes us smile, that we live and work for, and we have to leave an Earth that is viable for.