"Sustainability day-daily" is my choice of day

If i could announce/ dedicate a day  for something i love, it would be  "Sustainability day -Daily ". I would announce this  to create awareness and take and make the idea of sustainability on a day to day basis at every step or choice we make, talk and introduce it as a way of life to bring about a societal impact.

Even as I am writing this post, i am drowned by a deafening noise since today morning. A bore well is being drilled in the corner close to my block to meet the water needs of my Condominium. While most of the  areas and condomoniums in my city were depending on water tankers during Summers especially, i could say with pride my complex was the only one which had no water problem or scarcity but that was only till last summer. This summer we too had to depend on water tankers for our daily needs. We are gettting notices and messages to use water judiciously.

Daily we are cribbing and ranting that the  taps have gone dry or the water  quality is not good and a battery of tests are done on the tanker water before it is fed into the RO plant and then supplied to our homes. There is a huge amount of money, time and human resource involved just to ensure that our taps don't go dry.

The taps going dry is just one aspect, The green cover is shrinking giving way to concrete jungle, ozone is depleteing, the  air we inhale  is disease prone, Sustainable livelihoods and nature is threatened, Carbon foot prints are increasing,  non bio-degradable usage is on the increase. Variety of Chemicals in the form of shampoos, toothpastes and other toiletries, choice of electronics like cell phones , batteries, cells, etc and so much more are bought with our money power.

No wonder, the apocalypse of Climate change is on us threatening and choking our lonely planet and also  putting us to many hardships .The  question is - what can a single person  do about it? can we practice on a day to day basis and still enjoy it. Yes,  we can do it  and Why not?

We can  make sustainability a way of life just like our elders practiced with limited and natural choices  many years ago and left us a better earth. We can practice sustainablity in our everyday choices and avoid plastics and use reusable products instead of "Use and throw" and disposables.. Starting from a small item like a battery used for our Tv remotes,( invest in a rechargeable battery), avoid plastics, chemicals  wherever possible and rely more on natural products.,

Each one of us can initiate and implement this in every choice and step that we take on a day to day basis and create a societal impact . We can introduce sustainability in every aspect of our life like food, travel, occupation business, clothing and through this we can have a better quality of living and live in sync with nature. We have to practice this for our own health,  our gennext and for that unique experience of taking care of  our lonely planet and keeping it in good health.

Written for Indispire prompt- 

If you could announce & dedicate a "Day" for a special someone or for something you love/hate, for whom/what would it be & why? How will you celebrate the Day? #DedicateADay2Celebrate

Food matters!

“Annam parabhrama swaroopam” that is my relationship with food.  The quote from Upanishads   is ingrained into me since childhood, yes “Food is god”  for me.

The strongest and earliest food memory I have is of my parents kitchen where the kitchen was treated more like a pooja room. As a little girl, I would watch amma wash the kitchen platform, wipe it clean and then put kolam on the platform and a small pattern on the gas stove also. This was followed at  grandparents place  and in my in-laws’ place too.   Cooking is more like a sacred  ritual in our household.

My elders would step into kitchen  only after a bath, cook the food with prayers on their lips. Such prayers and vibrations would render the food healing it is believed. The food is then offered to God (neivedyam) following which the food is offered to ancestors who are supposed to be in the form of crows.  

This is another memory I remember. During my vacation time at Mylapore,  I and my cousins would be called to offer the first morsel to crows. Patti would scoop out rice in a ladle, add a little dal and ghee over and hand it over to us, we would run  over two flights of stairs and reach the terrace and place it over the concrete chimney. We would  sniff at the aroma emanating from the chimney and hmmm….the aroma still lingers  Wow! Just writing about this makes me feel good.  We would also fill a bowl of water for crows.Only then were we supposed to eat.

Eating was not just holding a plate on our hand or our lap. We ate properly squatting on floor or on the dining table. It was mindful eating of what went into the plate. It was considered unhealthy to eat with a plate on our hand and also disregard , afterall so much of hardwork has gone into growing, sourcing and making  that meal. Appa was very particular about not spilling grain from the plate that I ate.

There was no question of trashing food also. Each and every grain was used and even the leftovers went into making of a new dish or into “Pazhedu” . Wasting food was considered a disregard to “God of food” Annapoorani.

Thanks to my elders who have inculcated such healthy food habits, maybe that is why I am not very fussy when it comes to food, i eat anything healthy and vegetarian. Even today, I follow all those and as far as possible inherently be kind to food and nature. 

Written for "Explore your relationship with Food" on Indispire #foodfads

Under the gooseberry tree......

The 70’s and 80’s were days of pre-satellite era  and kids  of this era either played  games indoors / sunny outdoors or picked up a book or craft to while away their time. I was no exception  Those were also the days of independent houses and so friends were few unlike  today’s condomoniums, I had only 5 friends in my colony who were my age and most of them would be engaged in their own house in the afternoons . My  noon time engagement was to  pick up a comic book and get lost in it .

One of my favorite places to read the book was under the  shade of the gooseberry tree of my house. It was in the corner of the compound and under that was a granite stone , the one used for building foundation. I had formed my own book club in which i was the lone member.  I would take a fallen gooseberry and write TINKLE BOOK CLUB (TBC), the acidic berry would leave its mark on the  compound wall.  I would  then sit under the tree and open my comic book bag which was labelled Tinkle book club and enjoy my comics. Most of them were my own collection of Amar chitra kathas which I had gathered over the years and I had even subscribed to tinkle comic which used to come home every fortnight. I would stamp them as TBC with ink and then  I would travel  through various kingdoms, jungles , countries or to unravel a mystery with them as companions.

I still remember the day I picked up my first comic book at The IBH exhibition in glass house, LAlbagh. My parents got me my first Amar chitra katha  Lord Ganesha and it costed just rs 2 then and I must say my love affair with the strung words started there. From then on the collection of ACK’s grew, whenever I passed by the book store near my house or while travelling when I found them in Higginbothams at Railway station, I would buy them and add it to my personal collection. Even the gift money that I got from family elders would be spent on buying ACKs .  Among comics ACK’s are still  my first love , although I hear from my friends, the English in ACK’s are not of good standard, I believe, ACK’s are windows to our culture and our  Indian kids must be brought up on this pictorial and word diet.

   My love for  ACK is followed by Tinkle. Tinkle which comes from the same stable was a total package. It had  a few folk tales, moral tales, info on everyday science, history, GK  and a tinkle tricks and treats which had quiz, puzzles and DIY treats. What I loved the most was the folk tales , Kalia the crow and Suppandi.  I still love this book and the last comic book I personally bought for myself some 4 years back  ( not for my kids) while travelling was Suppandi ( a book of just suppandi stories). Tinkle Tricks treats(TTT) were my first engagement with participating in contests. I would get lovely Tinkle stickers of the characters and I would go around pasting them in suitcases, almirahs etc.

Next followed Disney comics, I loved mickey, Minnie, uncle scrooge,winnie the pooh  and other Disney stories like ChipNdale. They were my inspiration for drawing too. Most of them have found their way into post cards as New year greetings for my relatives during school days.

I was not a great fan of Phantom, Tarzan and so did’nt have them in my personal collection but I would read them when I got a chance. I would read the DC comics and  Indrajal comics which had Bahadur who was India’s answer to the international heroes of Phantom, tarzan and their like. I would also love reading the comical strips that appeared in newspapers like peanuts and dennis the menace.

I still enjoy reading comics and even today I have my daily dose through Calvin & Hobbes in the Hindu, I think some of these comics have profound messages.

Comics are something we all loved during our childhood, in today's digital age many have closed down, which ones were the ones you loved or if you got a chance would love to read again?