Oct Dec 2011
by Daily Dump Team
Only two human-made structures on Earth are large enough to be seen from outer space: the Great Wall of China and the Fresh Kills landfill in USA. Startling, and not a very pleasant fact to know!
Bengaluru generates about 3,500 tons of municipal solid waste daily, and the municipality allocation for its disposal is Rs. 160 crores (in 2011) for its disposal. So much money…
by Ravi Shankar
The yogi T. Krishnamacharya had said that it is not bodily contortions or exceptional breath control that determines progress on the path of Yoga. He said that the key indicator of progress on this path is the quality of the relationships the person engages in. Of the eight different aspects that make up the totality of yoga practice, the first that is listed in the…
by Aruna Kalahastri
It all started for me as a kid accompanying my father - my interest in communities. My father had a deep interest in the region where he was born. He constantly worked with empowering the communities he grew up with. He was a Director of Lighthouse & Lightships, but was committed to working with the fishing communities at Mannur, using his engineering skills to build…
by Rahul Hasija
“Hundreds of thousands of lakes, ponds, bore wells, tanks, reservoirs, etc didn’t manifest from nothing. They were created by groups of people who financed them and many more who built them. All these people together preserved the hundreds of thousands of water bodies in the world? During the last two hundred years, a new sort phenomenon has happened - a small section of society has…
by S.U. Saravanakumar
I pulled my hat down, making sure the neck-cover exposed nothing of my skin. I tightened the mosquito net around my body and camera, and then swore!! It was 47 degrees of baking heat and not a leaf moved for want of breeze. I wondered what madness it was to be wrapped from head to toe like this when the temperature was making water evaporate…
by Michael Ableman
I’ve had a relationship with islands since I was a young man. My attraction has not been to the clichéd tropical fantasy of palm trees and white sand: it is something deeper - island as metaphor for our existence on Earth, representing independence and interdependence, natural limits and boundless space. Island as paradox.
Living on an island as I have the last ten years, I’ve…
by Dr. Nalini Gite
This is a story of how an elderly lady in the village of Andhra Pradesh had tears in her eyes when after 20 years of globalisation, I gave her seeds of an indegenous millet variety. For the happy old lady, the seeds brought back smells and tastes of her childhood and a hope that all is not lost. For me, her tears signified a triumph…
by Suman Kumar
Patience pays. This Flameback decided to pose for me at sunset when I was all set to leave my perch. Shot in Gudalur, in a coffee estate.
The first lady of Hesaraghattalake. She doesn’t pose for photographers. She organizes a press conference, where 7 to 10 photographers stand around her and click away; not a feather ruffled!
…
by Vandana Shiva
As yet another example of the desperate ‘science’ of Monsanto, it is now being argued that genetically engineered Bt cotton – introduced in India in 1997 – has liberated Indian women. In a paper authored by Arjunan Subramanian, Kerry Kirwan, David Pink and MatinQaim, the argument is that the crop produces massive gains for women’s employment in India.
But this argument is false…
by Jyothsna Belliappa
Thinking of putting a bench in your garden? How about one made from clay, sand and straw, painted in soothing earthy colours and embedded with coloured bottles which light up with the aid of a simple wiring system? Or would you prefer a bamboo tree-house for your children? Or a jungle gym for the school playground perhaps? Living in a tiny flat with no space…