A social Experiment

Yesterday i had been to Bangalore Central (A shopping mall and not railway station) for shopping with my cousin Pavan. Thanks to weekend and Christmas round the corner, there were plenty of people and pretty people around. A live band was entertaining the people around. Few good looking girls with red cap were entertaining the kids with tattoos, music, mehendi etc. There was also a Santa distributing chocolates to the kids around.

The band was playing some steppy bollywood numbers as we walked around the store. Soon the band stopped and a DJ took over playing some totally un-understandable music. For fifteen minutes i tried hard to follow the music but could not. I suggested pavan that we must go and ask the DJ to play kannada music. Pavan was game for the idea. We picked some stuff and headed towards the DJ. Pavan suddenly chickened off and said it was embarrassing to ask the DJ to play kannada music.

This is a pretty "Flashy place" and kannada music is not generally played in these places. I made up my mind to ask the DJ to play a kannda song. He told me that the management has told me that he has to play 80% English and 20% Hindi songs. He started giving me some rationale behind the choice of music. I insisted that he has to play a Kannada song. (I had serious doubts about him playing it). To my surprise he agreed to play.

From no angle, i look like a right wing kannada activist . As a matter of fact i asked him in English to play a kannada song. So he definitely did not fear me as a pro-kannada activist.

Within the next couple of minutes, he started playing a kannada song "Jinke mari na". I was in the ground floor and the moment the song started, almost everyone looked at the DJ. The customers and the employees there, almost all of them turned to DJ looking at him with some astonishment.

As i left the mall, i asked a few employees of the mall if they had heard a kannada song in the mall before. The answer was obviously "NO". It was the first time a kannada song was played in that mall.

I cannot draw any conclusive conclusion from this. But the reaction of the people in the mall for the kannada song did surprise me.

Gender Exclusivity??!!

The discussion i had with my cousin Pavan yesterday prompted me to write this blog. Most of it is directly copied in verbatim from Pavan's blog (http://thoughtpaisa.blogspot.com/2009/12/gender-exclusivity.html)

Whenever people talk of gender diversity ( people actually talk of 'gender inclusivity but since there are not too many diverse genders, let us stick with 'inclusivity') they most often mean the inclusion of women in hitherto men dominated spheres of work.

This in, late 2009, is passe. The march of women at workplace, in India, is slow but sure and is gathering pace to the (pleasant) point of no return. Which is to mean that the world (including corporate world) can choose to ignore women to their own peril.

However, the fate of trans-genders in India is deplorable. Disowned by families, abandoned by society and forced to fend for themselves, the national profession for transgenders seems to be petty extortion at traffic signals and railway compartments.

Their situation is pathetic. They simply have no means of livelihood because of their unpleasantness.

Of course, in some communities, there is a social accommodation in rituals involving transgenders to bless the social function. While this provide a source of livelihood, it does little to bring transgenders to the mainstream. In fact, having the opposite effect - furthering the myth of a transgenders' potency to bless and curse.

Society chooses to ignore them, because it is unpleasant to think of them. Anyway if you travel in air conditioned cars and coaches, it is very convenient to ignore them.

No mainstream enterprise hires transgenders. They have no marketable skills. But they are able-bodied and know that society is embarrassed by them AND have stomachs to support. Easiest way is to use unpleasantness and extort a price for it. They are not doing this out of choice.

The difficult and uncomfortable question is how to get them to mainstream and make them give them the dignity. Universal declaration of Human rights say that "Everyone is born with equal freedom and dignity". Unfortunately the problem of transgenders are never spoken about in any political or social forum/agenda.

When governments can have rehabilitation and skill development programmes for HIV infected people and differently abled people, why not a similar programme for the transgenders?

There are many thousands of transgenders in India. Their problems and the problems they create cannot be and should not be ignored. The social stigma associated with them will reduce once the society finds a way to rehabilitate them with dignity.

To start with they are able bodied people. They can be hired as unskilled jobs with minimum social interaction. Of course this is a humongous social engineering work and easier said than done. But one hopes that it will be done someday.

Tumkur Thatte Idli corner

Not many would know why a small town called Kyathsandra near Tumkur district of Karnataka is famous for. This small town invented the ತಟ್ಟೆ ಇಡ್ಲಿ (Thatte idli). Its another form of idli. To this day we get one of the best thatte idlis in Kytahsandra.

But kyathsandra thatte idli has not become as popular as Mysore dose or Udupi shira bhath or Mangalore bhajji or belgaum kunda or dharwad peda. We would find all this in many restaurants in Bangalore. I haven't come across a single eatery or a restaurant in Bangalore offering Kyathsandra or tumkur idli. Bangalore is known as hungry city where you find atleast two if not more eating joints on any road . But as far as i know, none of them serve thatte idli as a speciality.

I was in Belgaum last weekend. To my surprise, i found a Tumkur Thatte idli shop there. It was a shabby looking small place with uneven mud flooring and thatch roof. There were only two tables and one small warped wooden plank supported on two wooden struts. I went there for breakfast. It was quite crowded. Believe me, the idli vada i had there was one of the best thatte idlis and vada i have had in the recent past. The idlis and vada were fresh and hot from the oven. The chatni had a magical touch. It beats the likes of veena stores (malleshwaram), Brahmins cafe (Chamrajpet) and janatha hotel (malleshwaram) (all these are famous idli shops in Bangalore) by many counts.

My local friend in Belgaum had recommended me that place. But for his recommendation, i would not have visited a shabby looking place like that. Of course later in the day i tasted the famous Belgaum kunda and gokak Kardhat in a famous sweet shop and an awesome Pav bhajji in a road side eatery. Sweet lovers should never miss kunda and kardhant in Belgaum. They are local specialities.

On a different note, why thatte idlis have not become popular in Bangalore???

Simple Way to test Potability of water

With rainwater harvesting made mandatory in Bangalore, many NGOs, Institutions and private businesses have come forward to help the citizenry in designing and implementing rainwater harvesting in their campuses. But There is is still a feeling of insecurity and skepticism among the people on the quality of water and the ways to ascertain the right quality of water.

While there are many methods and many Laboratories which can test the water, many people are are complaining about the logistics involved in getting the water tested and the cost involved.

But there is one simple way to test the water for bacteriological contamination. This test is virtually free and can be done at the household level. This is what is called H2S strip test.
It is a simple 20 ml bottle with some chemical inside. The water has to be filled in it till a mark indicated on the bottle. The bottle should to be kept in a warm place (preferably in the sun) for 24 to 36 hours. If the water colour turns black, then the water is not fit for drinking and if it turns to any other colour (generally light brown), the water is potable.

The test bottles are distributed for free by UNICEF and manufactured by water health laboratories , Roorkee. It can also be bought from water health laboratories or LTEK systems, Nagpur.

Trying to be a "Little green"

In my efforts to reduce my personal carbon foot print, i have tried to adopt few green technologies and initiatives at my place. Below are some of the things that i have tried out and practicing successfully.

Rainwater Harvesting (2008):

Even before BWSSB (The water supply utility company in Bangalore, India) made rainwater harvesting mandatory, i have installed a rainwater harvesting system in my house. Rainwater harvesting is very simple and can be done by anyone very easily. The technical design is very simple. The first few minutes of rain should be allowed to drain away and then the the subsequent runoff must be filtered and can either be stored for later use or can be charged into the ground. In my house, i have directed most of the water into the sump after due filtration. To make sure that there is always some storage space available in the sump, i have lowered the float valve in the sump so that it never gets completely filled by BWSSB water supply. Only one down-take pipe at he back is not connected to the system. Instead, the water from that pipe goes into what is known as a rain barrel. It is nothing but a water tank to store water for secondary purposes like washing and floor swabbing.
With an annual rainfall of 1019 mm in Bangalore city spread over 70 days falling on my roof area of 112 Square meter, i can harvest about 1,02,700 liters of water annually assuming 10% loss. We are two people in the house. So the daily water requirement is about 500 liters. (Far more than Indian standards of 135 liters per person per day) . So by only rainwater, we can manage upto (1,02,700/500)= 205 days or 6 and a half months of water requirement in a year.
So if every house in Bangalore city adopts rainwater harvesting, then the water problem in Bangalore city can be easily solved. May be some incentives by BWSSB or something like "Green your home" loan from the banks can help.


Shower head Kitchen tap (2009):


Installing Low-Flow shower heads is another effective way to conserve water. It is relatively inexpensive and simple to install, and can reduce consumption significantly. Using a low-flow shower in the kitchen sink instead of a tap can bring down water usage by 50 per cent, particularly since we like the water to spread over the dishes while washing. A regular tap will have a foam/stream line flow and we waste plenty of water to spread it over the utensils.
As such these type of taps are not available in the market. One may have to buy the sleeves, nipple and the low flow shower head, assemble and fit it. It is relatively simple and saves lot of water while washing utensils.





Solar Power (2014) : 

I started by using one solar light in 2009 and by summer of 2014 i completely switched over to solar.  

Now, my house and office is completely run on solar power . One blog post is completely dedicated to the design and installation of solar power in my house and office. 

The blog can be accessed HERE


LED Lighting (2013-14-15):

Reading under a 7 W LED light

LED or light emitting diode bulbs are the  new generation luminaries. These are very energy efficient and will soon replace the incandescent bulbs and CFL tubes. These work at full efficiency under DC power supply. However the rectification design is available. Latest rectifiers have made these bulbs adaptable at 220-250 V AC power supply. 

LED lighting has considerably reduced our energy and carbon foot print. This is by far the easiest energy efficient transformation that we have made. 

LED In Office

A 7 W LED bulb can easily illuminate a 180 to 190 soft room easily. It is in fact more comfortable to use a LED light over CFL. 

Earlier , in our office and house put together, we were using 1 CFL tube of 23 W, 8 of 18 W CFL tubes and 8 of 10 W CFL tubes. Now these have been replaced by 7 W, 5 W and 3 W Led bulbs respectively. 

In addition we have table top LED bulbs in our office. With this if there are only one or two people working in the night, they will use the table top LED tubes  (4 W) and not the central lighting . 

Azolla Cultivation (2013):

The Azolla Bed on our roof top 

This is actually a little cumbersome and not very easy to grow. It takes some patience,  maintenance , periodic harvesting and weed control to grow this properly. 

Azolla is a floating aquatic fern. It is very rich in nitrogen (in wet form) and extremely rich in protein (25 to 30% by dry weight) in dry form. Azolla also keeps the mosquitoes away. 

Azolla is unique because it is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet – yet it does not need any soil to grow.

Making the growth media. 

Unlike almost all other plants, Azolla is able to get its nitrogen fertilizer directly from the atmosphere. That means that it is able to produce biofertilizer, livestock feed, food and biofuel exactly where they are needed and, at the same time, draw down large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere and convert twice of that into usable clean oxygen thus helping to reduce the threat of climate change.

More information on this is available on http://theazollafoundation.org

Our company is in fact is associated with the Azolla foundation to spread awareness about this fantastic fern and help people realise Azolla's full potential.

We have put two Azolla beds on our rooftop each of 2.6 Sq Mtrs. The azolla gives us ready bio-fertiliser.

Solar Heating (2009):

Solar heating is very common in many tropical countries. It is an economical and Eco friendly way of heating water. An evacuated natural flow tube collector system is cheaper and slightly more efficient.

In our house we use this round the year for heating water.

Composting (2008):

The "Kambha" Composter. 

Composting is another simple thing to do at the household level. All that one has to do is to segregate the organic waste and inorganic waste and put the organic waste into the earth or into a composter.

In my house, if there is a lot of organic waste say too much spoiled food or plenty of vegetable peels during functions, i just make a hole in the my garden and put all the waste into it.

For daily organic waste, i use a simple device called composter . This is nothing but a simulation of the earth. It consists of three pots one over the other. We have to fill the top one with organic waste till its 3/4 full. Then it is transferred to the middle and the middle one goes on top. Then once the top one gets full ,the middle one goes to the last and the top comes to the middle. By the time the top one now becomes full, the bottom most one would have got decomposed and turned into rich nutrient. This can be used for the plants or just thrown out. It will only add to the nutrient of the soil.

Thanks to the composter, we hardly give any waste to the BBMP push cart chap who comes everyday morning to collect the waste. Apart from the milk plastic covers and rarely some plastic items, i don't give anything to the waste collector.

Composter is very effective and if at least 50 percent bangaloreans adopt this, we can easily solve the garbage problem of Bangalore city and bring back its old name of Garden city from the current Garbage city.

Organic Vegetable Garden (2011):

The little organic garden

A waterproof sheet is laid on a wooden box of 6 sft and 6 inches deep. I have got 4 of such boxes totaling to 24 sft.    Filler media mainly comprising of vermicompost and coco-peat is filled into these wooden boxes . This media is carefully chosen such that nutrient content is high.This can also retain moisture for a longer time .  

This 24 sft is divided into 24 grids of 1 sft each. 

Its been about 60 days since this garden has been in place. I have already got one harvest of spinach and one harvest of dhantu. The carrot is almost ready for harvesting. Brinjal is in the growth stage. Lettuce is growing well. Beans and radish are coming up well.   

Apart from being a low carbon initiative, its a very enjoyable and satisfying experience having my own small vegetable garden. Moreover, though little, i have been able to grow and eat organically grown, fresh and pesticide free vegetables. 

This was very professionally designed and executed by Purna organics (http://www.purnaorganics.com)

Cycling (2011):

I have recently started cycling. This is more to reduce weight than anything to do with ecology. But nevertheless, since i started cycling my usage of the car and the bike has come down significantly. Not only its good for the environment but also to the pocket. These days i realize that my fuel bills have come down appreciably.

With a good geared bicycle its quite easy to negotiate the Bangalore's sick traffic. Many times i feel that its faster to cycle short distances (less than 6 Km). Its a delightful feeling when   i  overtake an expensive luxury car or a SUV stuck in the traffic jam by my bicycle.

Mapping Bio-Diversity (ongoing):

External and Internal Conflict

This has nothing to do with "Going green". But this is definitely a spin off of the baby steps that i am taking to care for my surroundings. 

Since i started spending some time with my environment and started developing a relationship to it, i started noticing the other species which are in the same environment. I started observing the nuances of little life. I started documenting these in form of pictures. I started to enjoy observing these little creatures. At times i got philosophical seeing an insect caught in the spider web. Sometimes i felt smaller than them. 

pandorus sphinx moth

These little lives around me has brought me closer to nature and the divinity in that. Not only at home but everywhere else i feel a strange connect with my environment. 

Nevertheless, all my pictures were later documented under the caption "Tiny world". I have published it only for myself. 

These are just a few baby steps that i am taking to reduce my personal carbon footprint. Personally there is a long way to go. I wish the global leaders become more sensitive to the grave environment problem that is engulfing us. I hope the right people take the right decision at the right time and avoid inconvenient truth turning inevitable.

[My Take on climate change and India published in the Hindu Businessline http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2007/05/03/stories/2007050300460800.htm]

Flirting with Danger.

NO ONE SEEMS TO BE BOTHERED ABOUT THIS!!!

This is an an electric pole in a village called Bhaktrahalli about 80 Kms from Bangalore city. Look at the its condition. This is right opposite to a government primary school. I have sent this to the district collector of Chikaballaputr district. Hope Someone fixes this. Otherwise it will be a major accident waiting to happen

Ambedkar Aur Gandhi

Toady i had been to the newly opened restaurant called "Adithya" near Rangashankara (Bangalore) for an early dinner at 7:00 PM. Coincidentally, i met my friend Girish there. We had something to eat and then just went to Rangashankara to check out the schedule for the remaining month. We saw that there was a play to be staged at 7:30 PM today called "Ambedkar Aur Ghandhi". We got interested and decided to go to the play. The play was in Hindi and was about the relation between Gandhi and Ambedkar in the pre-independence period.


The play is written by Rajesh Kumar and directed by Arvind Gaur.The Play was enacted by a troupe called Asmita based out of Delhi. Most of the actors were from Delhi university and they had traveled all the way from Delhi to perform this play.

We all know that Ambedkar and Gandhi had differences between them on issue of un-touchability and awarding separate electorates for Dalits (Pre-independence). The play was all about this differences and how they were simply irreconcilable. It focuses more on personal relationship between the two and how the two champions of the crusade against un-touchability were so drastically different in their approach.

Two strong men revered by the whole nation , placed in the premise of the historical event of the poona pact of 1932, which saw a step forward in the cause of Dalits and against the practice of untouchability. Gandhi and Ambedkar were severely disturbed by the ill treatment of the Shudras or the lower castes of the society. However, they found themselves at odds when it came to achieving a solution to the problem. Though they had the same aim, their means were different. Ambedkar, who had experienced the excesses of the cruel practice, was seeking a political solution and law enforcement while Gandhi was seeking a human level change. As it is today even 80 years back these two paths are irreconcilable.

The first 45 minutes of the play goes into these arguments between Gandhi and Ambedkar in the second round table conference at London in 1932. The play very beautifully depicts the strange situation that these two stalwarts encounter. Both of them acknowledge each other that they are fighting for the same cause and yet unable to reconcile their means. It kind of shows our real life experiences. Whenever Gandhi asks ambedkar to "UNDERSTAND", the immediate reply by Ambedkar is that "WHAT TO UNDERSTAND, YOU ARE TELLING THE SAME THING AS I AM ".

Unable to break the deadlock, Gandhi goes on a fast in poona. Here the play very nicely portrays the milieu that ambedkar finds himself. He finds slogans against him on his way to work. At home he is visited by Gandhi's son Devdas who breaks down in grief. Ambedkar finds this situation very difficult. Despite their confrontations, ambedkar and Gandhi shared a camaraderie, which a scene in the play brings out poignantly. Rama bai, Ambedkar's wife serves him food, but he finds himself unable to eat . On being asked why, he tells with a heavy heart, it is difficult for him to swallow his food knowing Gandhi is on a hunger strike at that very moment. The next fifteen minutes of the play revolves around this theme and how Gandhi's fast was broken and a reluctant reconciliation achieved between them.

The next part of the play was most interesting for me. Ambedkar comes in to tell Gandhi that he will be changing his religion. Ambedkar argues that though he was born as a dalit, and a Hindu, he will surely not die as Dalit and Hindu. Here a strong argument builds up between the two. Gandhi argues that Dalits are a part of Hindu community and they must accept it. He says that ambedkar will be leaving his culture, his tradition, festivals and all related cultural settings if he decides to shift his "Dharma". Ambedkar responds by narrating his experiences right from his childhood and the cruel treatment he received even after acquiring a foreign degree. He very powerfully questions if these were what Gandhi meant by culture and tradition. Gandhi is left speechless. Gandhi picks up again reaffirming his faith in the varna system. He justifies the varna system and argues that a certain set of occupations are prerogative of certain varnas. He strongly refutes the idea of inter-caste marriage. Ambedkar very sarcastically says that Gandhi was practicing something contradictory to his preaching. He asks Gandhi why he is not doing any business being born in the Bania/vyshya community. Again Gandhi is left speechless.
This scene clearly shows hypocrisy in Gandhi. He totally justifies the menial jobs by the shudra and says that it is equivalent to a brahmin teaching wisdom. He argues in terms of dignity of labour. Ambedkar totally unconvinced by Gandhi leaves the scene. This is the face of ghandi that i had not heard of or read about.

When Gandhi passes away, feeling the loss, Ambedkar comments on how the dialogue has been left unfinished and that murdering someone is not the solution to a debate or a confrontation.

This was a very powerful play with outstanding performance by the actors. For a lay man like me, it puts me into deep contemplation on who was correct or rather who was wrong? In sociology this state of contemplation is called "Pattern variable" coined by the great sociologist Talcott Parsons.

Pattern variable aside, This play had a very interesting component which none of the play which i have seen so far had. At the end of the play, director Arvind Gaur comes on the stage and opens the gathering for questions and suggestions.
Here people can share their experience, their thoughts and give their comments. Quite a few people asked about the controversies in this play and how arvind handled it and how Arvind convinced the Gujarat police not to ban this play.
I also asked arvind if the gandhi's role was made more hypocritical than he actually was. Arvind was crystal clear in his reply. He said, each word in the drama is recorded in history and he has not tried to meddle with any of the historical content/sources. He also made a good remark. "We normally don't like to hear anything negative about someone whom we consider a hero".

All in all it was a very thought provoking and powerful play. I hope every young citizen of this country gets to see this play.

Visit to Flood affected areas in Guntoor District (AP)

“My house is gone... It’s no more...”, “I don’t know where my cattle is... Rather if it’s dead or alive...” this was a very common phrase I heard when we had reached a government school which was a relief camp for the people who were affected in the floods which recently took place in some parts of Guntur District (Andhra Pradesh, India). I was in Guntur to visit the flood affected area. (Hereon it will be called FAA).

We were in a team of 4 ,Avinash, Sheel,Parag and myself. We left Bangalore on 9th October to a city called Guntur. After travelling for almost 650kms and 12hrs we reached the city called Guntur. We had already made a contact person in Guntur who was going to accompany us as well as guide us in that locale. We were directed to an Institute kind of a place where our stay was organized for next 2 days. The institute name was BIRD (Bosco Integral Rural Development). We got freshened up and soon Mr. Bala Kumar; our contact person in Guntur, arrived at the place where we had been put up. After the self introduction session, we immediately started heading towards the flood affected areas and the relief camps. Toyota Qualis was arranged for us to roam around the places. En route we had brunch where we met Mr. Jagdish who joined us.

We got the news that the relief camp was soon going to be bunged as most of the villagers were going back to their native places. So we thought of having a look at the relief camp first. We reached a small village and then entered a government school. This school was a relief camp for the FAA people. There was a big line of men and women, quarrels going around everywhere, policemen trying to sort them, some government officials trying to regulate the process.


After a few minutes I comprehended what this havoc was all about. All the FAA people were getting food grains (rice) to take it to their home. This rice was being supplied by the government as a help for those who were affected. “My house is gone... It’s no more...”, “I don’t know where my cattle is... Rather if it’s dead or alive...” was quite a common thing to whomsoever I tried to talk. We were lucky to have Mr. Bala Kumar as he was a local person and well conversed with English and Telugu. Thus language was never a barrier for those 2 days. Around 2000 people were staying in a small school where they were provided with lunch, every day. They were also provided with clean drinking water pouches and biscuits. We clicked a few pictures of the provisions made in the relief camp and then we moved onwards to the actual affected area. We were watching all the flood affected farms, live, and till date had seen them only in the newspapers.

While listening to the stories about the floods from the local people accompanying us, our vehicle suddenly stopped and then we realized that there was a low lying area ahead and water was flowing over the road. It was a distance of 100 meters approximately to cross, but the water was quite high and we had to take a boat to cross this area. On the other side of the road an auto rickshaw tempo was waiting for us to take us to the villages. The first village we halted was Panchalanka. The scene was catastrophic as most of the houses were in water and mud slurry. The whole area was water logged. People were walking in the mud, in the garbage and whatever was there on the ground. The houses had buckled and people were trying to clear their spaces. We met few villagers and asked about the problems they were facing. It was really bad to know that their cattle were flown away with the flood water. A very few of them were lucky to have their cattle safe and sound. We then travelled to another place called Kullur. We were welcomed by applause. I still wonder what they were thinking about us! I guess they were thinking about us as entertainers, four crazy looking boys in shorts and cameras. A relief camp was setup in the village school and was still very much needed as half of the village was in water. The flood water was still flowing through the village. I feared to step into the water for a second, but then built the courage to get into it. I was having a look at a house and then the toilet grasped my attention. The water was gushing out from the toilet as the soak pit under the toilet had got filled with flood water.


We observed few damaged houses and spoke with the house owners. They had accepted the circumstances without any scowl on their face. They took us inside their houses. The beds were hanging to the ceiling, just to avoid them from getting wet. At the other sight, a shack made from dry tody leaves had collapsed. The lady owner was smiling cheerfully and was ready to show what all had got trapped inside her house. We came back to the place where our tempo was parked. A small shop in the village refreshed us from the scorching sun by providing us cold drinks. We started to our way back by taking a ring route. Our Qualis was waiting on the other side. All had stunned after witnessing the devastating scenes. Mean while we had a late lunch in Tenali town. We asked Mr. Kumar if it was possible to visit some nearby village and have a dialogue with the villagers about sanitation. He immediately called a contact person and arranged for a meeting in a village. These people were from Self Help Groups (SHG). They spoke very freely about their concerns of sanitation and toilets. They had no other option than open defecation that too at a minimum distance of 1km from their house. They had separate areas for men and women. They had no solution for it. All this was adding to my experience and was not a bookish knowledge. It was late, we took their leave and went back to the city where we were put up. At the end of a hectic day, we wanted rest, after taking a wash!

Day 2

The day started with heavy breakfast at a roadside eatery. We met Mr. Bala Kumar in his office for a small meeting about the potential of development in the villages. A Qualis was arranged again for visiting villages nearby, but this time it was non-flood affected areas. We had a visit to village Lam, a hilly and rocky area.

This village was surely a big potential for EcoSan toilets according to my readings and knowledge. An interesting case in this village was about a handicapped girl, who had no other option than to walk about 1km as all the villagers do, for the big job. Most of the houses in this village had a small bathroom in the kitchen garden, but the water coming out from the bathroom was allowed to run in the open areas in the village. We visited one more village called Tillur. This village looked a little bit economically sound than others. The houses were having toilets as well as bathrooms. The wastes were allowed to flow to a septic tank. But rainy season was a big problem for these toilets as the water tables used to rise and the drain came out from the toilets. The village had open gutters flowing all around and was a major breeding hub for mosquitoes. The third village we visited had a surprise for us and welcomed us with a home prepared food with the country side taste. Very well prepared 9-10 varieties and to end it up, we were offered Kheer (porridge). After resting for a while and brief talks with the SHG leaders, we headed back to Guntur. We realized the potential these villages have to install EcoSan toilets. With enthusiasts and dedicated people, I am sure that sanitation will not be a dream for these villagers. It was a very much enriching experience to understand the state of Sanitation in the rural side. I hope that all the villages in India will cope with the problem of Sanitation and help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

(Few Pictures of the trip here)

Monetary policy and Food inflation.

The whole sale price index-based (WPI) inflation has come back to positive line at + 0.12 percent for the week ending on 5 September, mainly on the wake of surging prices of essential commodities.

What is the real significance of this inflation number? It only means that the prices of articles have gone up by 0.12% compared to its prices last year when the year on year inflation stood at 12.42 percent (September 2008). Similarly if we compare the current prices with the prices in 2007, then the price has gone up by 12.54%.

Already discussions have begun in the media on the response of the monetary policy towards positive inflation. On this backdrop it is worthwhile to look at the impact of monetary policy on the current food inflation (positive or negative).

The food inflation today stands around 8% year on year. Though the WPI based inflation was on the negative side over the past several weeks, the food inflation per se was very much on the positive side. With quite erratic monsoons this year, the food inflation is only going to rise over the next few months. Our country needs to address this on top priority. We are still by and large a poor country with crores of people having no sustained access to food, water and sanitation.

With the WPI inflation crossing on to the positive side, there is already a talk on rolling back soft monetary policy in order to stem inflationary pressures. Will hardening of monetary policy stem the surge in prices of food articles?

We must understand here that, the current inflation in food articles is mainly on account of poor supply and not on excessive demand. Though the demand has gone up, the supply of food articles have come down drastically. The situation will only worsen on account of bad monsoon. Monetary policy per se cannot do much to augment the supply. Increasing or decreasing the key interest rates will not get down the food inflation. On the fiscal side, the short term solution is to import food at affordable prices and to distribute this food at affordable prices. Monetary policy can help in doing this in the short run.

In the short run, contrary to conventional theory, following a softer monetary policy will help in stemming the food inflation. A softer monetary policy can act positively in three ways vis-à-vis food inflation:

1. Lower interest rates owning to softer monetary policy will push spending on food and non food articles. Obviously more money will be spent on non-food articles. There will be more credit flow and more economic activity. In this scenario, more money will be at the hands of more people. More unorganized people are likely to get employment and there will be some trickle down if not complete. Under the inflationary condition caused by supply constraints, more economic activity will at least make food articles more affordable thereby controlling the net impact of surge in food prices. Though food inflation will not be controlled a great deal, at least the net impact of surge in food prices can be controlled by increased affordability. On the other, in the short run, a harder monetary policy will stem economic activity and render people with lower or no wages and make food unaffordable and at the same time push the food prices since the food prices are controlled by supply factors and not by monetary policy.
2. Softer monetary policy will give incentives for import of food articles. Again, in the short run, it can help in reducing the impact of food inflation.
3. Since the current food inflation is not controlled by demand and supply of money inside the economy, a softer monetary policy will help in boosting revenue to afford food import.

On the long run, monetary policy will not help in making food more affordable. The government must come up with concrete plans to boost the farm economy, moving into a greener economy will yield rich dividends. Government must come up with clear renewable energy policy, must encourage spending on greener technology and get the energy prices lower and make it affordable. Watershed development and sustainable sanitation programmes must be given an unprecedented fillip.

In conclusion, at the current scenario, hardening the interest rates will only worsen the situation with food inflation and the current monetary policy must not be rolled back. On the long run, protecting the environment and boosting farm economy are the only way ahead if we are seriously thinking about a hunger free nation.

Rainwater harvesting at accept society.

I have already written about the good work being done by ACCEPT society. You can read in detail about accept on here .

ACCEPT is located off Hennur road in Bangalore where the water situation is pathetic. As a matter of fact the land given to ACCEPT by government of karnataka was a landfill land. So the land was virtually given for free to ACCEPT and few more NGOs around them.

ACCEPT is run by a gentleman by name Raju matthew. He left his booming business in USA to start this NGO to rehabilitate and care for HIV patients, particularly children. To reduce the water problem faced by ACCEPT and to contribute his bit for the environment, Raju Matthew decided to install a rainwater harvesting system at the NGO. For funding, he contacted KPMG, a leading audit firm.Thankfully KPMG agreed to fund the project through their CSR arm. Today the campus of ACCEPT society captures and uses directly for domestic purposes about 6,75,000 liters of water annually and puts about 10,00000 liters of water into the water table. every year. This is a fantastic example of how precious water falling on one's head can be used effectively using very simple technologies.

It is not the technology but the far sightedness of Mr Matthew that has to be appreciated. Though rainwater harvesting is doing its rounds in the academic circles for quite some time now, it is yet to get wide scale acceptance and appreciation in the society. Only now government is contemplating seriously about bringing a law to make rainwater harvesting mandatory. Mr Matthew had confidence on the technology and took great personal interest in executing the project.
In the grip of a very tight financial rope walk, Matthew persuaded a firm to fund his venture. In fact he always wanted to do this. He had collected all the articles written by colleague in the Hindu on the subject of rainwater harvesting. Moment he got the funding, he immediately got the ball rolling.

I was involved with this project in capacity of a consultant for KPMG. Below is a small write up on the technical aspects of the project at ACCEPT.

ACCEPT Society runs a charitable care and support home for HIV patients in Dodda Gubbi off Hennur Road on about 3.5 acres of land. There is a main building housing about 35 patients. There is also a children's home for about 24 children. About 20+staff is also present on campus. There is also a small dairy,poultry and piggery on campus. Some agriculture is also done on the premises. There are totally 3 tube-wells out of which one has completely dried up and the yields from the other two are quite low. Currently water is sourced from 2 tube-wells for all domestic purposes apart from private water supply through tankers . At present Accept society is not connected by BWSSB (municipal) piped water supply or underground sewerage. Approximately 10KL of water is required per day for domestic use

There is a large open perennial well outside of this campus. Water from this well is also used for irrigation. ACCEPT Society wants to secure its water sources (ensure that tube-wells do not run dry). In this context Accept society invested on roof top rainwater harvesting and ground water recharge with financial assistance from KPMG foundation.

Rooftop rainwater harvesting:

Rooftop rainwater harvesting is done for the main building, the conference room and the cowshed. 10” PVC gutters are fixed on two sides and rear side of the building. After first rain separation, the water is filtered by overground filters. Totally 6 filters of different capacities are installed at various positions to filter the water. All the filtered water flows into a 25KL underground sump through underground piping. (The sump roof is also serving as a training area and a good platform for drying utensils)

Submersible sump is installed in this sump to pump the water to the main sump. The main sump is about 13 KL capacity. The water from this sump is pumped to overhead tanks.

Provision is made to either pump the harvested water to the main sump or to take the water for gardening through a valve mechanism.

Details of the catchment, storage and cost are given in the table.

Parameter	Measure
Total roof Area (terrace area)	760 m2
Estimated Daily demand	10 KL
Size of rainwater sump constructed	25 KL
Recharge Well	One recharge well of size 5 feet dia and 20 feet deep and another 7 feet dia and 30 feet deep
Cost of system	Rs 4,10,000

Ground water Recharge:

Apart from this, two recharge wells are dug to recharge the aquifer. The surface runoff from the field and large open areas is channeled into a drain. 5 silt traps are constructed at appropraite places to hold the silt. The relatively clear water which flows over the silt trap is filtered through an in-drain filter and then the water flows into the recharge well. One well is 5 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep and the other 7 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep. Both the wells are yielding water. The 5 feet dia well started yielding at around 18 feet and the 7 feet dia well around 25 feet. The last 5 feet was dug by continuous dewatering using a dewatering pump.