28 July 2006

BEAT THE HEAT- a sneak preview of our future


Normally I sleep very light, I wake up to the slightest of sounds, but the mind is strange, I am used to the ceiling fan noise and I sleep very well in the trains with deafening railway track noise.

But the soundest afternoon nap I ever had was under such a roof, my friend had to kick me to wake me up.
This year everybody is complaining. Heat is too much to bear even in the colder countries.
We are all still sleeping
Don't know when we will wake up.

Here the lady is making her own roof out of a coconut branch, Its not very complicated as you can see.
This is our future.

Ends up here like the picture below. A weather beaten roof. Cool inside, you don't need a fan or air conditioner even at the peak of summer.

Cool ? No we don't need that, not very good, There will be no water to make it anyway. All the rivers would have gone dry by then, most of the rivers in South India have gone dry already.

Urban planners like Sonal Sundari can make them look more elegant and attractive with some fashionable designs, Cheap, energy saving, made with material locally available.

Here the walls are made out of bamboo strips, They can be made leak proof.

This is Rajasthan, these mud walls are incredibly cool. But these houses are a bit dark inside, Sonal Sundari will think of something to make the interior bright. Here the lady is applying a fresh coat of mud. The floor is usually coated with cow dung, Don't say EEEEKS. It doesn't allow insects and mosquitos inside, believe me, it doesn't smell of cow dung at all. Imagine long queues to buy cow dung, Cow dung rates going high in stock market.
Cow dung is used as fuel for cooking and heating the interiors during winters.
Invest in cow dung, this is our future.

Ah! Sweet Sindu will have a ball on such walls She'll go wild, She's a terrific artist. Each member of your family can have their own huts and they can use their own imagination to decorate the walls.

My dream recording studio will have mud walls, A small concert hall with such mud walls will give very good sound effect without amplifiers.

Well ! they are happy, We'll be happy too, We'll learn to live, as there will be no other options available to us.

These are very well insulated as Rajasthan expereinces severe winters.

Dried grass is the roofing material used here. This seems to be our future, and Here is our future mode of transport.
Who is wise ?

Blunt Knife
Photography and Travel blog

44 comments:

ufukhati said...

rauf,

I used to spot that kind of landscape of life elsewhere. I noticed that the young girls were smiling. They still have the beatiful minds and souls and hope.Thanks God, they have huts to live in.

Margie said...

Thank you for sharing all that.
The pictures were wonderful!

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Simply wonderful. I really mean that. I must come to India some day. Blessings Rauf.

Ruth said...

We just keep using up our sweet Gaia, and abusing, and soon there will be nothing left to use and abuse, you're right. We have no sense, not common or otherwise.

rauf said...

Ufukhati, From past 100 years, we have caused more damage to the environment than the massive reptiles did. They went extinct for a reason. Now we are facing extiction. These people living in huts have very little demands from nature. They are not contributing to any damage. They have to pay the price for our blunders.

rauf said...

Thank you Margie

rauf said...

thank you Don.

rauf said...

Ruth, We forget one basic fact, The planet is hosting us, we are the guests here. so far the planet is treating us like invited guests. Its same like the guests messing up your house, You clean up your house repair the damage caused by your guests. Next time you will not invite them. The planet has seen many guests come and go from past 4.5 billion years
It has the capacity to heal itself, we are too small to cause any big damage. But the planet will stop inviting us. Slowly and gradually it will wipe us out as healing process will take thousands of years. We will not be there to see it Ruth. We have to wake up and say sorry to our host and stop any further damage.
We demand too much from our host, we have to reduce our demands Like the guys living in the huts do.

Feel so nice to hear your study tour goingso well Ruth.

CE said...

India! Beautiful India!

rauf said...

I am not talking about beautiful India here Imemine.

FOUR DINNERS said...

Dunno about guests. Sometimes we're more like a virus. We're THE only species that screws up the world. No other species does. Are we a life form or a virus? If we're a virus the Earth'll find a cure one day n that's our lot. Think we'd better decide sooner than later.

rauf said...

Well Said Four Dinners, Though all the damage we have caused from past 500 would be perhaps less than a second for our 4.5 billion planet, it may not wait for the next second of damage. The species which is causing damage will be wiped out, unless we wake up and strt having less demands of Nature. We have plundered enough, as you said, no other species has plundered like we have done. This years's extended summer all over the world should be a reminder.

sundarsonal said...

oyo!lovely they are shaggy roofs. like funky haircuts. i will show the picture to my hairstylist. maybe it will keep my head cool also. beautiful they are.

Sangita S said...

There must be ways to blend such age old techniques in modern lives..Me also thought but cld never go beyond rain water harvesting.Good pics and observation. Business is not looking at them right now ..Wish they do Can lead to good for us,environment and livings of all other as well.

Sangita S said...

Hey loast pics I liked the best though :-)

wildpic said...

its an absolute truth that a massive size of the worlds population wishes for a life of this sort but stuck in ideas and the mess of the past ...

there is no turning back, but aint a bad idea to stop n sit under a tree ...

rauf said...

Aiyoo Sonal Sundari, I'll make a grass wig por you, cool it will be,

Dear readers Sonal is the qualified urban planner I was refering to in the post. She has ideas.

Vokkay Sonal, while you were in Delhi, you experienced massive power cuts, and it will not take much time when we have absolutely no power at all.
In such situaltions What would you suggest ? Please don't ask for consultation fees, I yam birokee, kangaal.

rauf said...

Sangita we have to go back. Put the gaadi in reverse gear. Rain water harvesting will be helpful in the longer run, but soon there would be no rain to harvest. Bangalore is getting hotter, First time last year I had a cold water shower in Bangalore. This year its worse. The business world is ignoring this area as you said. Believe me I was not joking about cow dung. Unless we take immediate steps we all are in for extinction.

rauf said...

Suresh, last year or the year before last there were nearly 30 000 deaths due heat wave and sun strokes in Europe alone. Could be worse in Asia and Africa. There will be no options but to turn back and reverse the progress. Actually it is a forward direction.
Have to sit under a tree for a new brand of enlightenment.

Ruth said...

The rivers are 4 feet low in Dublin and around the countryside in Ireland, you can see it on every bridge where the water line was. I must say the global warming is speeding up more quickly than I expected. I did not think it would be so obvious in a short time. I really long for a simple life, although I too often get caught in the web of consumption.

Kathy Trejo said...

I too like sleeping with the sound of a fan...it puts me to sleep. I wouldn't mind at all sleeping in a bamboo hut. My husbands Grandparents lived with dirt floors (my grandparents too) and the simple life keep Richard going back for more.

ari4u said...

Good post rauf. We should stop, think and retrace our steps and see where we went wrong in our greed for self gratification and comfort. It is a materialistic life we are leading today, and we simply cannot live without the luxuries offered. How sad, one power outage drives people crazy... This is a good learning point. I always learn something from you. Thanks!

rauf said...

Hi My dear readers
I am in Ernakulam to attend a wedding, I'll be back on 3rd August and respond to comments and your mail
love you all
Rauf

Candy Minx said...

Have a great time at the wedding lots of fun and good company!

Fascinating post. I could live in one of these houses. My dream home is a tipi.

Yes, we need to look back, way back. I feel our future depends on studying life of humans before we so stupidly started to grow food, then lock it up and sell it back to our selves.

Before all food and houses were free and simple. totalitarian agriculture implanted the idea that money for anything and the earth was our toy to mess with. Farmers damge the land, use up water supply.

We could eat less and carefully choose food. Stop using so much oil don't drive in cities, only emergency or trips? Grow food in cities and give ocean and land back to mother nature?

many things you give me to think about a always Rauf

Be well
Candy
http://gnosticminx.blogspot.com/

ari4u said...

rauf, have fun at the wedding :) I can see another awesome post with your excellent pics.

Anonymous said...

Awesome pics,Rauf..You made me remember my childhood days..Then we used to go to our grandpa's village during summer holidays..There we played in huts like the ones you showed in this post.But i sincerely feel there must be an immense pleasure in spending those natural cooling spaces than in airconditioned rooms in our urban culture...

nice post,Rauf...

Leila said...

who is wise? certainly not the ones who abuse the earth. certainly not the ones who start wars. certainly not the humans...well no the ones who don't live in huts anyhow.

nature does provide a solution for everything, even this heat which we are worsening. but we choose to make our own solutions, and believe foolishly that we are wise because of this....

Anonymous said...

Wise words, Poms; it's pity that the people doing the most damage, fail to ponder over these issues, and by people, i mean, the big corporates, industrial giants and bigwigs who are power and money-hungry. Everyone complains about the global warming, but no one ever does anything about it, and the few who do, are made to shut up. Keep the words flowing, Poms, maybe it will make a difference someday *hugs*

Nabeel said...

what a nice photo essay .. loved the pictures .. thanks for letting us know how to keep cool :)

Anonymous said...

great message Rauf.
The houses are soo pretty..
living there is so much better than the concrete mess we live in. Need more people like Sonal Sundari who can convince people it aint a bad idea to adopt some of these traditional ideas to build yr houses.
Most architecture book/magazine "houses of the future" are featured as hi-tech looking concrete, glass and steel structures.The amount of energy required to keep such a place cool/warm--WOW!!
Loved the design idea for yr recording studio. Hope you get to realize it.:)

Anonymous said...

hope u are having a good time in Ernakulam.Any plans to visit bharat cafe in broadway for kaapi and veg cutlets?;)

Cari said...

The heat will clear up in no time!!

BTW never knew how valuable cow dung could be....

live and learn Rauf

rauf said...

My dear readers,
I apologise for the delay in my response to your comments, as I was away and my computer packed up.
I am fine Hope you all are doing well too.

rauf said...

Candy, yes you have read Jaryd Diamond, the trouble started with farming. But the eveloution cannot be stopped, and the damage to the surroundings is an unfortunate result of the growth of human mind.

You said it well Candy, we have to give mother nature a break. We have to look back before we are forced into extiction.

rauf said...

Yea Aamir, long and marathon wedding session, it was good, I took many breaks still did not miss anything, wedding was in Kottayam. The couple are in New Hampshire now.

rauf said...

Hi Gangadhar
Once we get used to city life and comforts what technology offers, it is difficult to go live in such places, looks like we will be forced to abandon all our comforts soon.

rauf said...

Laila, always with unique perspective, You throw light on hidden parts of truth. We have to stop Laila we have to stop before everything comes to a grinding halt. Your generation is very wise, much wiser than the previous ones. We depend on you to lead us.

rauf said...

Booey wattoo ? terrific thinking ! yupsee, greater damage done by very few, Your generation may not be affected much but the generation next will have to face accute shortage of essentials, resulting in crime and violence riots killings. It will be a different kind of war. The first casuality would be love. There will not be any love and kindness left on the planet. Everyones priority would be survival.
ummmmmmmmas and hugs

rauf said...

I have lived in such houses e2dees,
My mom's younger sister and her family were farmers in Hassan Dist. Karnataka, I used to go there for holidays in my school days, They had a house like those in the pictures, no electricity, very cool healthy atmosphere everything was home grown, but they used to dream of city life and envy our way of living. Now we will be forced to adopt their way of life and the concrete mess will be deserted soon.

The wedding was in Kottayam e2dees, but stayed in Bride's house in Kochi, after the wedding spent some time with my friend Sathyaraj in Pallurty south. Going there again to Allepy, Nehru trophy boat race is on the 12th. Aranmula is somewhere near Onam
When are you coming e2dees ??? please come for Onam.

rauf said...

Cari, cow dung is very precious in rural life here in India for various reasons. Cow dung gas plants are pretty successful, but not much improvement has been made in that area very little research work is being done on the subject for lack of funds. We will wake up only when some giant corporate patents all the cow dung in India.
'WHEN YOUR COW DROPS ITS OURS '. This has happened, some American food giants patented basmati rice which we have been eating for hundreds of years.

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