why black background??

A black background consumes less power compared to white background.
This gives me immense pleasure as I save a few watts in energy consumption of the viewers viewing this site

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Our lifestyle is placing increasing pressure on the environment. Today we have to work extensively with the opportunities innovation and management of human resource use that can contribute to the environment and sustainable development.

Strategy for Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is about finding ways to develop environmental, financial, and social resources that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

3 core principlesof sutainable development :

• Commit and motivate all actors to take responsibility for a sustainable development

• Develop innovative and environmentally friendly solutions

• Take long-term global consequences into account

The Strategy for Sustainable Development brings forward goals and specific initiatives for the following 9 areas:

• Globalization as a benefit for all

• Climate change

• Nature for the future

• Green innovation in

• Well functioning urban areas

• Better health for all

• Knowledge, research and education in an innovative society

• Man as a resource

• Responsible, long-term and sustainable economic policy

HUMANITY AT CROSSROADS

As a student of an elementary school in a hamlet of just forty houses in a remote village in Tamilnadu me and my classmates , on orders from our teachers used to go to the nearby villages which were two to three miles away from my village to bring lunch or to get post-cards or inland letters from the sub-post office or to collect chocolate pockets from the village panchayat president’s house on the eve of independence day or the republic day . On a few occasions we had to deliver some bags of noon-meal items (corn-flour/imported oil supplied through the CARE programme, the pioneering dream project of K.Kamaraj as CM of TN). At times we had to wade through knee deep waters and walk along the grassy bunds of green paddy fields. In case of rains we had to drench as umbrellas were a luxury then for us. A few streams are to be crossed on way and in the months of October and November the Jungle Rivers would be in spate. Holding the hands of the passerby we had to cross those small rivers.


But to run these errands there would be a stiff competition among my school mates. Only the lucky ones would get a chance to explore the outside world. After the lunch, in the afternoons we would take turns to cool our teachers with the help of palm leaf fans as the village had not seen the electricity. The teachers were mostly from the southern districts and never our parents had questioned our teachers for assigning such works to us. All this happened when we were hardly eight or nine year old.

Now after three decades I turn back and wonder what I lost as a child and what my child has gained today. He goes to his school by a bus and his teachers are not asking him to go elsewhere. But is he safe in this concrete jungle and moving metals?

Not a single day passes without a blown up report on a ‘killer bus’ or a ‘killer van’ driven by a ‘killer driver’ crushing a child. A TATA or an Ashok Leyland school bus metamorphoses into a new avatar all of a sudden. Either the bus is burnt or stoned and damaged beyond recognition. The driver, if he is lucky survives or otherwise succumbs. Calls for the arrests of all concerned are made and yet another incident engulfs us. These are not the signs of a mature society.

School kids running behind moving buses with their loaded school bags, hanging on to the foot boards precariously and overcrowded buses are a common sight here. Children packed like sardines and sitting dangerously on the sides of the driver seat in an auto is a regular feature for decades now. Nowhere in the world have you seen kids reading books seriously while they sit on the fuel tanks, as the father or mother riding a moped on a highway. It is not an uncommon sight altogether to see a parent talking over his /her mobile while the kids are on the vehicle.

It is also a fact hundreds of children lose their lives when the vehicles are driven by their own parents and hundreds of parents lose their lives as they travel on our killer roads. When lakhs of men lose their lives on our Indian roads insulating our kids alone from such tragedies is impractical. Of course the parent too has to survive to give a quality life to his kid. This problem of road rages can’t be treated in isolation. What is required is a missionary zeal from all concerned to minimize these avoidable mishaps.

Let us realize roads are neither parking lots nor shopping complexes. They are purely meant for journey alone. Don’t park your vehicles on the sides of roads and boycott shops with no parking space.

Most of the accidents are due to rash driving and drunken driving. The families with people of ‘drinking habit’ have to accept them and allow them to drink at homes as in western nations. Drinking is no more a social stigma and no need to hide this ‘great secret’ from our neighbours. You may want to protect your kids from the vice but others have to protect their lives. ‘Drinking habit’ may be an ‘evil’ for Gandhi ji but a ‘drunken driver’ is an ‘evil’ for the society. Allow them not to ride on roads under the influence of alcohol.

A two wheeler is meant for ‘two’ only and not for a whole family. Admit your wards in a nearby school. Don’t make your kids a ‘yatri’ every day. Search not for a reputed school and realize all our reputed men today came from non-descript local schools. Do take all precautions in your interest and in other’s interest.

MUSIC CAN MOVE

As u listen to the music…


Get drunk by the splendor of melody,

Drink the same red wine of your Keats  and Words Worth

Walk on the grass, holding the glass,

Enter the caves men ever entered,

Stop the waves from making any blast, lest your lover lose her sweet dreams,





Climb on the cliffs, to witness the valleys profound in beauty,

Fly with the stars to far-flung lands,

Clutch the moon to gift your lone sweet heart,

Get drunk full by the beauty of the vales,

Go with the clouds to slake the thirst of distant lands,

Let the gentle breeze freeze your craze,

Cut your worries, if any, with the shining sun’s sharp rays,

Let the cuckoo long for your song,

Ask the peacocks dance to your tunes,

Stop the waves from making any noise, lest your lover lose her endearing dreams

Let not the world carry your saddle,

Carry the world as a bird carries its fluff,

Don’t long for any golden gifts

When the all full world is under your feet and before your eyes,

Listen to the melody, my dear friend…

RETTAVAYAL S KRISHNASWAMY

Seeds

One can count the seeds in a fruit,


Can anyone count the fruits in a seed?

Bear in mind, poetry ‘is a seed.

PESTICIDES

Our Indian farmers should have ample opportunities to choose more environmental friendly pesticides for control of pests and weeds. This could be pesticides based on plant extracts or micro organisms.

GO GREEN CAMPAIGNS- MYTH OR REAL

There are people who feel the talks on ‘global warming’ or on ‘climate change’ are mere ‘fashion’ and nothing in ‘real’ is affecting us. They are unwilling to accept the dialogues on ‘rising levels of sea waters’ and ‘melting of glaciers’. The opponents to the climate change champions believe ‘the melting of glaciers is a natural phenomenon and no big land mass has submerged so far due to the rising sea levels. The lop-sided monsoons or flash floods in different parts of the planet are the normal deviations’.


Yes, their arguments have got substance. But one should realize none is expecting a deluge immediately after planting a million of saplings or all our mountains sporting frozen ice. Also none predicts a ‘doom’ for all of us in the very near future. But can’t they realize that they have started to purchase water? Aren’t they aware that ‘pure air’ finds a place in every new ‘home’ advertisement? Is it possible to survive in a city without an electric fan? Do we have a pure river in any of our cities?

The earth we inhabit is millions of years old. Man is on a rampage only in the past two centuries. The industrial revolution and the advancement in science and technology have made men live longer but the process of decay of the earth’s environment is being accelerated. An un-watered small plant may die in a day or two; without water to its roots a banyan tree may survive a little longer. The earth is a very big banyan tree. It would take some more time for the man to destroy the earth completely.

Friends, the question is not the man’s survival alone. He has survived a nuclear holocaust and may survive more severe consequences. But the survival of the planet earth is in question. Man drills pipes for miles and empties the crude oil leaving a hollow earth. He has been demolishing mountains, spoiling the sea water and has succeeded in killing of millions of fresh water bodies and rivers across the world. He is polluting the untouched glaciers in the name of tourism and exploration and leaves behind trash that lay there forever. The ever rising concrete jungles and the choking carbon emissions are a pointer to prove that ‘man is on a mission’! It is but true that man has got technology to ward off acid rains and filters to fill his lungs with pure oxygen. He may take water from air and use air as fuel. Like this man will go to any extent and do anything for his survival. But some questions arise: ‘Is he the sole owner of this earth? And, how would the other occupants of the earth (flora and the fauna) protect themselves from the dangerous developments, which are consequences of man’s exploitations? How would the life of a man be to live all alone without a single piece of grass or grasshopper? (We know he is readying to go to the moon or Mars.)

Let us remember the earth we live in are not an ‘inherited one’ but a ‘borrowed one from our future generations’. Those who want to pass on a ‘beautiful earth’ to our future generations do join us to save the ‘earth’ and its occupants. Contribute your time and thought. Let it be in any small way. But let there be a way for our future.