Numbness

Feeling numb, seeing TV footage from Japan. Hope the people of Japan recover from this disaster.

The only positive fallout is that there is some talk about the hidden costs involved in generation of nuclear power. Today there was a programme on Manorama TV that discussed the risk that the radiation levels cause to people living near the Tarapur reactor. [Here is an old post from this blog on the nuclear option.]

Fukuoka Passes Away

Masanobu Fukuoka died at the age of 95. The man who wrote One Straw Revolution.

He was a farmer who questioned the fundamentals of farming -- he wrote about his experiments with what he calls natural farming, where he totally did away with tilling and weeding.

He was not only a farmer. There are people who think the book is not about farming at all, but are shaken by the charm of this small book.

I felt that once you read this book, you are not the same person any more. No matter whether you believe in his farming techniques or not. No matter whether you agree with his philosophy or not. It is one present I love buying for my friends (not just because it comes for under hundred rupees).

["This is the story of a Japanese farmer. You'll really like it. It's about farming, but not really..": from an online review.]

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Masanobu Fukuoka: On Wikipedia

Fukuoka Farming Web site

Nature Knows Best: an article on Fukuoka

Winter

The winter is coming to an end. It is still cool, but it's a matter of a few more days now. I have already started feeling sad about it.

It's not just about the heat. All those migratory birds that have made the lakes here their home this winter will be going back to their spring-summer habitats. Ranging from Himalayas to the old Soviet republics.

I don't know their names, or I haven't really bothered figuring them out, but I have enjoyed spending this season with them.

Of course, there will be those hundreds of water-fowls and other birds that would stay back. Through the scorching heat of months to come. Or may be they will also decide to leave some day, as the weather is becoming more and more unpredictable. (It seems it rained very less last year, and the "rainy season" turned into an unbearably warm one. Whereas in some other parts of the country it was the opposite, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh faced floods).

Ok- we were talking about the migratory birds. I don't even have a photograph of them. I may forget exactly how they looked, but the joy of spending these days with them would stay with me.

[Also see: Lake and me, Towards a Language of My Own]

Happy Onam!

Wish you all a happy Onam! (Tuesday 5th September is the main Onam day this time, the thiruvonam day of Malayalam month Chingam).

I was looking for a good Onam pic on the net to share with my friends, something other than the cliched Onam images of thiruvathira (a dance form where girls dress up and swing to please the voyeuring male gazes), pookkalam (a rangoli of flowers), vallam kali (boat race) or Kathakali (supposedly signifying Kerala, though majority of Keralites did not even know what it was like), and I landed on http://www.rock-sea.net/nature/insects/slides/onathumbi_001.php on sarah and rock sea's page.