MERRY CHRISTMAS ! HO HO HO !

You must be busy with Christmas preparations. Today is 22nd ? I don't know. Now I am in a new house and we don't know the neighbours yet. They don't seem interested in knowing us too. This is a direct result of globalisation. No one has time to know people for the sake of knowing people. No purpose. Now every thing has purpose. I have been doing things with no purpose all my life. Now I am completely out of place. My present situation is a bit shocking. It takes time to get used to not smiling at your neighbour (I tried but got cold stares in return) or for being treated like a statue.

Most of human communication is non verbal.
The body language says ' Hey man, I don't want t know you or I don't have time to know you'





This pelican says ho ho ho ! He is happy. Merry Christmas !

My sister normally sends anything good that she prepares to the neighbours. There is a constant stream of goodies coming from our neighbours on Christmas and other festivals. We happily eat and they happily eat what we send. My sister takes delight in giving recepies. Now I am afraid what if the neighbour falls sick after eating what we send ? It was ok in the old neighbourhood but not in the new one. We can't take chances. I know you are laughing.

Anyway we will be moving back to the old neighbourhood after six or eight months when the house construction is complete. It takes time here in India.




Went to Bangalore for Suresh's exhibition. It was a huge success. Terrific response. 'Art in Nature' was the theme. You can see most of the pictures exhibited here in Suresh's blog WILDPIC

From there I went to a couple of villages in Karnataka. Kokrabellur is a sweet village near Maddur on the way to Mysore. Bellur is the name, Kokra is bird in Kannada language. Some Pelicans, a bit early though, I'll go there again in Feburuary.





These pelicans are communicating too !

Took pictures of the village life. very sweet and sincere people, always ready to help.

Can I keep my bag here ? I'll pick it up in the evening.
Oh Yes ! no hesitation.
OMG ! what if there's a bomb inside ? No worries for them

Tea is one rupee. You don't get much to eat. My friend Shankar had packed me a couple of sandwitches which I shared with a little girl Sudha. She accepted without hesitation, I would hesitate to do the same believe me. When I sit on a rock under a tree after a long walk, people stop and ask if I need any help, I speak a little Kannada.
Why are you walking in this blazing heat ? here take my cycle. The chap insisted.
Thank you I love to walk.
But you look so tired ????

They want to know where I come from.

'Oh Chennai ? a lady drying red chilies said. 'gold is very cheap there'
Is it ? I've never heard of that, I've never bought any gold in my life' I said
For them Chennai is as far as the north pole. She offered me tender coconut water.
They are not afraid of talking to strangers. They want to share, they want to know you.









I always show them their pictures in the small camera monitor. I love to see the delight on their faces. This man too has something to say.





These simple folks teach me a lot. To communicate, to know people, they bring me out of my shell. They are not afraid of the risk of losing something.








This smile was in my mind when I boarded an over crowded bus at the end of the day and I did not feel tired. Forgot her name.

We have not stopped existing. There is nothing wrong in knowing people. There is no fun, there is no joy in just existing for ourselves.

I'll post more pictures of the villagers later.

I had no internet connection all these days, I'll respond to your comments on my previous post today, and I haven't visited your blogs in a while, I'll do that today.





I hope these smiles brighten up your day like they did mine.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

Hope you have great fun and share your joy with some one you do not know. Its ok if they think you are mad. Lot ofpeople think that I am mad.

I love you all

BLUNT KNIFE
WILDPIC

SPEED 12 - ENVIRONMENT - THE MANAGER

WHO IS THE MANAGER HERE ?
I tried to understand but couldn't come to any conclusion.
Would you please explain what is happening here ?

Took these quick shots while crossing them in another boat. I told the husband in English and in broken Malayalam to let his wife sit.
I had to yell at him as mine was a noisy motor boat.

'Bhaari' is wife, 'Irikki' is sit down in Malayalam. He mumbled something back which I couldn't hear as my boat was faster.

Half a mile away I kept looking back at the boat, the wife was still standing holding the baby. I lost sight of them after that.





When I came back home after a few days I kept staring at these two pictures trying to understand what was happening.

This was not crossing the river or a short ride, they were still in the boat when I kept looking back and they were moving away.

There is little room where the husband is sitting. The wife has to cross the husband and sit behind him which would rock the boat.

There is more sense in wife standing. She wants to hold the baby and that is fine. Husband is managing the other kid. but why and how this happened ?

Husband gets in to the boat first and takes the older kid, then wife gets in holding the baby ? Why is she still holding the baby ?

There is room behind the husband, but he did not have the commonsense to occupy that seat and allow the wife to sit where he is sitting now.

Is it too late to adjust now ?
Is the wife too confident to take such a risk ?

Or the wife thought let me sacrifice my comfort for the safety of my family ?


We humans committed a monumental blunder on the page one. Page one is the first page of the last four pages of the fourteenth volume of the history of the universe. We clicked on a wrong link opening a wrong page and the subsequent pages, links and all the pop up windows were all wrong ones.

I'll conclude this series on environment in my next post SPEED 13 which is not a good number and will not make a pleasant reading.
This post is an introduction to that huge blunder we committed on page one.

I am fine healthwise, please do not worry about me. Things are going fine, a bit chaotic but under control. Thank you so much for your response and concern. I am just overwhelmed.
I love you all so much.

BLUNT KNIFE
WILDPIC

SPEED 11 - ENVIRONMENT - EVOLUTION

New post in BLUNT KNIFE after a long time. Just forgot about it. I'll try to update regularly in future.





Posted this story last year when I started blogging, now it has a different relevance.


1495 Medieval England

Mary Jo is merrily walking on the cobble stoned streets of London, smiling, a song on her lips, on her way to school. Suddenly a severed head oozing with blood comes rolling down, stops at her feet, she kicks the head out of her way and continues walking, now she is very angry, because there are blood stains on her shoes. She stops to wipe them off, reaches the school and screams at her teacher for giving her low grades, she thinks she deserved more.


2006 Present England

Mary Jo is merrily walking on the streets of London on her way to the dance class. Suddenly a severed head oozing with blood comes rolling down and stops at her feet. Mary Jo screams in horror and faints. Now she needs months and months of therapy to get herself back to normal life, but still can't get rid of the nightmares and wakes up screaming in the nights. Seems impossible for her to erase that incident out of her mind.


What is the difference between Mary Jo of 1495 and Mary Jo of 2006 ?

Its plain evolution

Mary Jo of 2006 cannot accept such a gruesome act of violence.

She is civilised.

People in the past had scant respect for nature, today we humans fight for the survival of spotted owl, bald eagle, We fight for the survival of the trees.

Today chopping of trees, loss of life is unacceptable.
You respect life more today

There is a biblical Tsunami and flood coming

If you are God. What would you do ?
Would you tell Noah to build an ARK ?? and tell him to save two of each species ?

No, If you are God, you would do everything in your power to stop the Tsunami and flood, stop the disaster from happening.

That makes you more kind and more compassionate than God himself

Today there is more love than there has ever been.
Today there is more kindness and compassion than there has ever been.





Today we do everything to co exist with others against all odds, unfortunately there are few who refuse be civilised and refuse to join the process of evolution. Its like the process of natural selection has rejected them.

This little uneducated girl is more conscious of environment and she is willing to listen.


BLUNT KNIFE
WILDPIC

SPEED 10 - ENVIRONMENT - HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

"The pumpkin field in front of the house was blown clean. Nothing was left of the whole thick crop, except that in place of the pumpkins there was a woman's head. I looked at the face to see if I knew her. It was a woman of about forty. She must have been from another part of town - I had never seen her around here. A gold tooth gleamed in the wide-open mouth. A handful of singed hair hung down from the left temple over her cheek, dangling in her mouth. Her eyelids were drawn up, showing black holes where the eyes had been burned out. . . . She had probably looked square into the flash and gotten her eyeballs burned. "
-Fujie Urata Matsumoto, a survivor - Hiroshima.

Lot worse could happen to us.

We may do our best to preserve our ecology, We can make our planet greener than the day one. But there are people out there who can destroy all your efforts, your love, all your hard work in a matter of seconds. They are very few in numbers, so few that you can count them on your fingers. Let us stop them first before we plant another tree.

BLUNT KNIFE

WILDPIC

SPEED 9 - ENVIRONMENT - WHO WE ARE

Before I go any further on the environment series, I want to tell you who we are and where we are.

This is something you already know, this is something every school kid knows, but for some strange reason it doesn't seem to occupy the top layer of our memory.

This would give you a rough idea.

If the history of our universe is ever written, each volume would be the size of United Nation building.

History will be written in dots ........ each dot giving us the history of a thousand years.

Each page a million years

Each volume would be a history of a billion years

There would be 14 such volumes giving us the history of 14 (13.7) billion years of our universe

Our planet earth makes an appearance somewhere in the middle of 9th volume, Our planet is only 4.5 billion years old

We humans make an appearance in the LAST FOUR PAGES of the LAST VOLUME

God that we created makes an appearance in the last seven dots ....... of the LAST PAGE of the LAST VOLUME

The holy scriptures which caused all the bloodshed appear in the last 3 dots ... of the LAST PAGE OF THE LAST VOLUME


WHO WE ARE


Imagine standing alone in Sahara desert.

You don't see the end

pick up a grain of sand, blow the sand away as the single grain of sand is too big

There is dust sticking on to your finger, Our planet is smaller than a speck of dust in the map of the universe, so small that you can't find it with naked eyes.

There are trillions and trillions of galaxies up there or down there, and it is still expanding. We hardly know our own galaxy.

What do we have in this almost invisible speck of dust ?

You are staring at a single tiny speck of dust

what do you see ?

We have kings, I know you are smiling

We have her majesty the queen, Now you are laughing

We have superior race

We have inferior race

We have masters
We have slaves.

We have high cast people
We have low cast people

We have untouchables, touching those unfortunate people is considered a sin.

You see bloodshed, you see people killing each other for silly reasons.

you see pain, you see suffering, you see hunger. you see poverty.
Where did it all come from ?
This is something we have created.

Look around you, you are standing on a vast Sahara desert , the universe, and observing a tiny invisible speck of dust, our world.

You look still closer
you see boundries,
boundries ?
You need passport to cross those boundries
All in a speck of dust ?
Yes.

If somebody gives you any philosophy, if somebody tells you about enlightenment, if somebody tells you about cosmic consciousness, please pour a glass of water on him.

Humans are the only species that commits suicide
We have created enough material to destroy each other
Do we deserve any kindness ?
Please tell me.

BLUNT KNIFE

WILDPIC

SPEED 8 - ENVIRONMENT - TAMPERING WITH NATURE

I was born in a forest but that doesn't give me any authority to write about forests as I have lived in a city all my life. The forest where I was born is no longer there. It has disappeared.

40% of India was forest in 1947, Now its 3%
Yes THREE PERCENT is all that is left now.




I spend lot of time in forests of Kerala Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. After seeing massive deforestation in Himachal, Uttaranchal, Nepal I have stopped going for Himalayan treks, it is quite depressing. what I say is based on my observation and what I feel. I am not a scientist.





Thorny bush !
Is nature unkind to us ?
We have not understood nature fully, It doesn't want us to enter the forest and cause any damage. But nature doesn't have any answer to our bulldozers. We have bulldozed our way into the forest.





Sword butterfly on Elephant dung


There is absolutely no waste in Nature.
It has a perfect waste management system, perfectly balanced.
Waste of species A is the resource for species B.

The environmentalists have been on tree planting and forest creating drive from past 30-40 years.
Has the global warming come down ?






Forest is a highly complex network. We can't create a forest by planting thousands of trees and having some friendly animals running free. You can call that a plantation or a park.







A forest is not made by trees alone. It is made by millions and millions of micro organisms visible and invisible, like bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa, nematodes, earthworms, and all kinds of insects above and below the soil. Out of these, bacteria and fungi constitute about 80%, This is a highly complex interdependent network.







I avoid taking my friends on my forest treks. I don't go there to enjoy any tranquility.
There is no tranquility in a forest.
You'll observe million times more activity than you'd find in New York city. I am more alret in a forest than crossing a busy road, a pair of eyes are not enough. Something is always creeping under my t shirt and I can't see it.
I don't belong there, I am an intruder.




When I come back to my base its a ritual to pull out leeches stuck on my body drinking my blood. Its so fascinating to study leeches. They have no eyes, they sense body heat and they know where you are and leap on you and crawl under your dress.





This is my hand after a leech bite. They secrete an anti coagulant and blood keeps oozing out for nearly half an hour.
The best part is you are completely unaware that ten or twelve leeches are drinking your blood. Leech bite is less harmful than a mosquito bite, actually not harmful at all.

There is no peace in a forest. There is a constant struggle for survival going on at all levels, most of it is invisible. Its fascinating, at times scary





This is what I feel would happen to artificially created forests in a tropical country.

Waste of species A is the resource for species B. In the absence of species B, waste of species A piles up. Nature has to come up with some micro organisms to dispose that waste piling up. It may take years. The new organism may or may not be friendly. If it is not friendly and if they multiply rapidly we have a situation. One of the adavantages of genetic engineering is, it helps the trees to grow faster. Thought about this just now, Dumping of unsold GM food products is as lethal as toxic nuclear waste. If micro organisms or ants insects grow eating them, their behaviour would be utterly unpredictable.







Species D survives on eating species C. In the absence of species D in an artificial forest, species C multiplies. Ants, termites, rats. They will multiply to phenomenal proportions, multiplication may go out of control.




This sweet chap is eating a flying insect, and most of them eat bees ants and termites. Growth or multiplication is always kept in check.




Unlike human evolution, ant evolution is in multiples of 6 days. Behaviour of fourth generation of ants will be completely different from the first generation, If they grow eating GM plants or dumped GM food waste, their behaviour would be unpredictable. We will have absolutely no time to control them. You can apply the same to rats termites or other small organisms. They will multiply so fast that entire forest would be swarming with ants. They can eat up the entire population of India Pakistan and Bangladesh within a short period.

The forest that we had created with all our love to help the planet may become the reason for our extinction.






The web was so fine that I did not see it. there's a dragon fly trapped in it. The spider would slowly eat it little by little. Inter dependancy keeps the growth and multiplication in check in a naturally grown forest.





What do we do ? We want to help nature, we want to do something.

First of all the nature does not need our help. We are too small. The people who are abusing the earth and the self styled defenders of the earth have absolutely no idea how small we are. They have no clue how powerful nature is. Tampering with nature is lethal, if it gets angry no one can save us.








Have you seen grass growing on abandoned roads ? through the asphalt, through concrete ? The grass grows if we let it grow.
This was a busy road once, now lies abandoned.





All it takes is a drop of water or a bit of moisture. And we have life growing.








This was my table once, dismantled and the wooden planks dumped on the terrace. A little bit of moisture and we have life growing on it.





We normally don't observe the silent power of nature, It grows silently. The growth is so powerful that it can rip through thick concrete. we realise the nature's power only when disasters like hurricane Tsunamis tornados strike us.







This house is abandoned from past 10 years. It was a strong and a well built house. Locked due to court cases. Roots peneterated into 4 feet thick concrete foundation. The growth was so powerful that it ripped through the strong thick concrete ceiling with supporing iron beams and MS rods running through it. One day the whole ceiling caved in, within 6 months the second floor roof collapsed. Now the neighbours have lodged a complaint to the authorities that the roots are creeping into their foundation.

Nobody planted these trees, they grew by themselves.








Best thing to do is to select a large area of fertile land say 400 sq kilometers and abandon it.

No trees ?

No trees, we'll be planting wrong kind of trees. Let the nature choose.

Leave a 10 kilometer width as a no man's land around it. Better burn everything, burn all the trees and houses and abandon it. Burning is good for regeneration. The area should be guarded to ensure no interference. In countries like India such an abandoned place would become a haven for criminal activities. Big time criminals are the politicians, the saints and the cops themselves. Best people to guard it is the Army. You can't trust the cops.



Plant jutting out of concrete





One rainfall, and life grows. From a blade of grass to huge trees.







All necessary micro organisms will come automatically, and we have to make sure that the environmentalists don't introduce anything new. Don't allow them to touch anything. Not even an inspection. Leave the place alone, for 100 years.





Its a slow process. It will take 400 years 600 years, We may not be able to see it grow, but the future generations would be benifited. Please do not expect quick results, The environmentalists are impatient, they are in a hurry to see the result and prove to the world how right they are. With Genetic engineering, tempering with natural process, We may see short term gains or improvements but in the longer run it will be as lethal as dumping a truck load of plutonium rods in the open.





We have to select such patches at different places, as many as possible. The courts should be advised not to entertain any cases or petitions against it. It needs govermental support to pass the law and unfortunately I don't see it happening, not in this generation. We have far too many greedy Multi Nationals and politicians serving their own interests all over the world. The Younger generation is smarter. Hope they will have a better life taking care of the mother earth.

This sweet little tribal child will have a better future, Priya is her name.



BLUNT KNIFE
WILDPIC