Eco friendly living-3: Home composting

Facts: 

1. Homes generate wet and dry waste. Wet=all things organic (peels, flowers, rinds, tea dregs...). Dry=plastics, paper, glass etc
2. If the wet and dry wastes mix, both become non-recyclable and end up in landfills, poisoning the land and groundwater
3. If separated,wet waste can be turned into compost and used for plants. Dry waste can be completely recycled

Home composting, the solution:

That is where home composting comes in. All wet waste, instead of being pushed in a garbage bag, can be put into a khamba, a simple arrangement for home composting. The khamba is just 3 earthen pots piled on top of each other. The appearance is that of a pillar, hence the name khamba.

Snap of the khamba from the web

Operation:

1. Dump the wet waste into the top pot every day and add saw dust to balance the wetness

2. Stir every 3 days to keep the mixture uniformly wet and aerated, so that it doesn't stink

3. When the top pot fills up switch the middle pot to the top. Switch the middle pot to the  bottom when both top pots fill up

4. Keep going till about 60 days and you will find that the bottom pot has magically transformed into dry, crumbly, fresh-soil smelling, dark manure

Click to expand and see the manure up close

Result: All the organic waste from the house from Nov 2010 till now has been completely recycled at home, reducing garbage by about 50%. And we now have rich manure for the plants!  

A modern Santiniketan

On Saturday, a fruit juice and ghee sweet in the morning meant it was time for a good workout. By the time the chores were done it was too late for a run, which left biking as the only option. Where do I bike to? Criteria: should be at least a 40 KM round trip and be a worthy place to visit. I settled on the Prakriya Green Wisdom school (http://www.prakriyaschool.org/) as a destination. It was about 25KM from the house, and about 10 KM beyond the smog-noise bubble of the city. So that gave me 20 KM of fresh air cycling.

The school sounded like an interesting place, as a part of its vision indicates: Prakriya -"the green wisdom school", was envisioned as a school that seriously respects the wisdom of nature within ourselves as well as in our environment. It was also the HQ of the Bhoomi Network, an organization that publishes the Eternal Bhoomi magazine, a real page-turner for anyone interested in the social questions of today.  I needed to renew the subscription and it felt better to hand deliver the check than lose it to the Indian Postal Labyrinth.

So the trip seemed to meet many purposes, and I was set on it. The only hitch was that it was high noon when I started so I was going to have to really sweat it out.

20 KM and a couple of wrong turns later, I was on a winding "kaccha" road to the school. The road was tough but picturesque. A typical village, huge Raavi trees, decorated ant hills, white doves...a treat for the eyes.

The school was definitely worth the visit. Some pleasing features:

- No imposing multi-storey structures.
- Lots of community interaction spots like amphitheatres, benches under trees etc.
- A good bit of emphasis on eduction through story telling, arts and crafts.
- Wide playgrounds, sporting courts (basketball etc).
- A large organic garden
- "Green wisdom" abounds: Going beyond evils of plastic etc, there seemed to be a huge emphasis on moral education (remember that boring class that none of us wanted to attend in school?)
- There was an organic terrace gardening class going on in the garden for a few citizens of the city. From the bit I listened to, it seemed to be quite practical

In all, the school seemed to match the mental picture one has of Santiniketan. But it follows a regular ICSE curriculum.


The staff seemed to be bemused that someone would travel that far to renew a subscription for their magazine. I met Seeta AnanthSivan, the editor of the Bhoomi magazine, headmistress and founder of the school and complimented her on her excellent writing (she is really good!). She talked about how it is tough to  get new folks to subscribe to the mag- the community of folks who are interested in sustainability seems fairly static in size in India.

I reached home at about 5:15, utterly exhausted after about 60 KM of cycling in the hot sun. I rewarded myself with a vada pav and a chocolate thick shake, thus undoing all the good work of the day. I restricted myself to curd rice for dinner though.

So, a modern Santiniketan in Bangalore: If you had a chance, would you enroll your children there?

GREETINGS

Many Many Happy Returns Of The Day Alludugaru.
Happy Birthday SRINIVAS. Enjoy Well.

Thank You!!!!!

Thank you for the bday wishes!!!!!!! Mrudula was the first one to wish me at 12:00AM!! I enjoyed the day. I celebrated my birth day with my office folks. We went to "Punjabi Rasoi", a nearby restaurant.

Happy Anniversary Mama-Atta and Sasanna -Madhu

February is shaping to be a festive one with multiple birth and marriage days!!!!!!

HBD Kanth

Enjoy your party!

Congratulations and Celebrations!!!! :-)

It's a boy!!!....Yay!! :D
Congrats krupakar anna....congos bhabhi :-)

P.S Nanna was telling me that i should wait for u guys to post this, but i just could'nt stop myself!!!! Sorry... :P

A study in contrast

Same country, almost same time.

Sela Pass

Does anyone remember those Alpine slopes from Where Eagles Dare, frozen lakes, fresh powder snow on tree leaves, and black brooks in the valley?  Sela pass and the surroundings look like that. Of course,the US veterans would have seen similar stuff and more...but it was a truly pristine place which made the whole trip worth it. Snaps below (click on the pics to see them in bigger size):

black brook in the valley

graffiti, the death defying passion of some

You can see the road snaking its way down

RESULTS

Sorry for the late update...!! (thanks bhabhi)
I TOPPED my branch in my first sem of third year...
sgpa (semester grade point average) : 9.6
cgpa (cumulative grade point average) : 9.5 (all semesters included till now) :) :) :D
i stand university 2nd at present.....(inclusive of all branches) :)

Lavi why everyone is congratulating you on FB?

GREETINGS

many many happy returns of the day
happy birthday mrudula.

welcome back Narasimha.
How is the back?
How is being back?

Close encounters of the bird kind!

When I came home yesterday,  my eagle-eye instincts told me something was amiss. First, the wide open bathroom door gaped at me. This had to be the handiwork of  Sugami, the maid (rechristened Tsunami by Poonam due to the whirlwind effect she creates when she cleans. Speed and devastation are the common motifs...a bit like Jim Carrey in The Mask). Second, some objects were lying on the floor of the kitchen. My initial conclusion was that it was a rat (yuk!), but when I saw that the table had been fertilized with droppings, I realized that I had an avian intruder in the house. It must have come through a partially open ventilator shaft in the bathroom.

Still hoping that the bird may have found its way out somehow, I went to draw the curtain on the dining room window. Things then happened in rapid succession. If it were an old radio thriller, the sound effects would have sounded like this:


Whisshh! (sound of curtains being pulled back rapidly),
Ack Ack Ack...a heavy, frantic fluttering (bird, its rather wishful hideout revealed, making a fly for it),
Gyaaaaaaaa!.... a bone chilling yell-shriek (me, startled out of my wits).

I then knew how Asrani, the angrez zamane ke jailer, must have felt. A refresher for folks who do not remember that:

 (move to the 2 minute mark to see the "parinda" incident)

The bandit was now in plain sight, careering on the ceiling fan: a Blue Rock Pigeon (Columba Livia) , the most common co-resident of the city.  A handsome fellow, he seemed apologetic about the intrusion and intent on a face-saving exit.

After readjusting my internal organs (had swallowed my tongue and my heart was in my mouth), I embarked on a simple but elegant eviction program: The main door was already open- all I needed to do was to coax the bird towards it.

In the next 15 minutes, I astonished myself with the repertoire of weird noises I was capable of making. They varied from the guttural to the keening, from the deep growl of the Ogre to the shriek of the Banshee. I accompanied these noises with an adrenaline induced manic dance. Sometimes I danced the two-step, sometimes the Tango, and sometimes even stood still like Lot's wife. But all this to no avail.

The bird had moved its position to the top of the main door, but seemed incapable of seeing that it was standing on the very portal of its freedom. Since it was around 7 PM, it was dark outside, and lighted inside- and that seemed to be the issue. Sometime it would converse with its shadow on the wall, sometime it would fly to another perch next to the door. This became its routine itinerary: fly to perch, fly back to door, talk to shadow. And they saw pigeons are good at pattern recognition.

This was a stand-off. I needed to switch off the lamps inside the house and switch on the light outside. But I couldn't get to the lights without driving the pigeon nuts, as the switch was next to the main door.

At my wits end (which is not a far distance to travel), I called my wife. That certainly made her evening, judging by the hearty giggles I heard on the phone. However, she suggested that I call the neighbor and have him switch on the light outside.

Luckily, he was at home and agreed to execute the plan. With greater circumspection than the bird warranted, he sidled up to my front door and accomplished the  act. The final act of this drama remained: I executed my tribal dance and let out a hair raising ululating noise. This was certainly the last feather on the pigeon's back: it headed like a rocket to the only light now beckoning it, and just like that, the house was bird-free!

Thus ended the ordeal. "Not exactly a smart bird", concluded my neighbor, as we wiped the sweat from our respective brows. I am still not sure if he was referring to me!

mommy why you didnt?

yesterday me krupa and adi were coming.He asked me ammamma what doctor you are?I replied.krupa started telling him what a great profession medicine is and how you can save lives and at the same time make lot of money.pat came the question"why you didnt study medicine".couldnt answer so she said" you have to be very smart to do and iam not that smart".

HBD

Happy (belated) birthday Sasi and Happy advance birthday wishes Mruduls.
PS: Coming soon----Wait for my description of US trip.

Happy Birthday Sasanna

Birds of Nandi Hills

Last Sunday, I went to Nandi Hills, which someone described as the lungs of Bangalore. It is a 1200 ft high hill that is a bio-diversity hotspot close enough to Bangalore to perhaps compensate for the heat and the pollution generated in the city. This was my first trip to this hill in 10 months and I was in the good company of like minded birders.

It was a good day, with a lot of "lifers" for all of us. The birds:

Black Kite
Brahminy Kite
Egyptian Vulture
Shikra
Booted Eagle
Crested Hawk-Eagle
Peregrine Falcon
Grey Francolin
Blue Rock Pigeon
Spotted Dove
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Asian Palm-Swift
Alpine Swift
Little Green Bee-eater
Indian Roller
White-cheeked Barbet
Barn Swallow
Grey Wagtail
Olive-backed Pipit
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Brown Shrike
Blue-headed Rock-Thrush
Pied Ground-Thrush
Indian Blackbird
Indian Blue Robin
Oriental Magpie-Robin
Pied Bushchat
Puff-throated Babbler
Tawny-bellied Babbler
Ashy Prinia
Blyth’s Reed-Warbler
Common Tailorbird
Sulphur-bellied Warbler
Greenish Warbler
Asian Brown Flycatcher
Utramarine Flycatcher
Tickell’s Blue-Flycatcher
Asian Paradise Flycatcher
Pale-billed Flowerpecker
Purple-rumped Sunbird
Purple Sunbird
Oriental White-eye
House Sparrow
Brahminy Starling
Rosy Starling
Jungle Myna
Indian Golden Oriole
Black Drongo
Ashy Drongo
White-bellied Drongo
Spangled Drongo
Indian Treepie
House Crow
Indian Jungle Crow

Some snaps of the birds (not mine):

Spangled Drongo

Egyptian Vulture

Ultramarine Flycatcher

Shaheen Falcon

Blue Capped Rock Thrush