Zero Visibility in Chennai Roads in May

The picture on the side is of the Velachery Main Road, where the visibility is reduced to near zero for motorists taking the stretch, thanks to the non-stop burning of waste at the garbage dumping yard of the Alandur municipality. This is an everyday affair and all pollution control laws [Section 3, 6 and 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (29 of 1986)] flouted!

Close to 110 tonnes of garbage are deposited at the nine-acre (36420.0 sq.m) land-filling site located adjacent to the road by the Alandur and Ullagaram Municipalities.

The smoke emanating from the yard has not only brought down visibility levels for motorists, it has also been causing breathing problems and acute irritation in the eyes for residents, particularly those living in nearby slum pockets.

Officials of the Municipal Administration attribute the cause of fire in the yard, to the scorching heat of the summer and the inflammable materials dumped in the garbage had sparked the fire. It’s a surprise as over 50% of the domestic wastes in India are wet wastes, comprising of vegetables, food etc., which will not easily catch fire. And the surprising act is the fire catches only in the nights/ early mornings and not in the evenings or afternoons!

This is also slowly degrading the Pallikaranai wetland on the opposite side of the road, and eutrophication is setting in!

An article appeared recently in the Hindu on this very menace, with my name quoted in! You could look up the following link if you so desire!

http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/16/stories/2008051659100400.htm

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My Son... My Teacher...

It takes a small child to make us see sense sometimes. My 7-year old Son loves school and on the days that I collect him, I always greet him with, "Hi Suraj, how are you?"

And nine times out of ten he answers, "Hi Papa, I'm brilliant!"

It is next to impossible from smiling at such an open exhibition of enthusiasm. His positivity is infectious!

Yet, like most adults, it took a while to dawn on me that I could learn something from a little child.

I was thinking about him when I met an office colleague this morning.

"Hello, Ramjee," she said as we automatically shook hands, "how are you?"

It was on the tip of my tongue to say "I'm fine", or, "not too bad" as I would normally respond. But instead, Suraj's smiling face popped into my mind and I came back with, "I'm brilliant, thank you. How are you?"

A flicker of confusion crossed her face as my unexpected response sank in. Then a big smile spread across this rather dour colleague's face and she said, "You know, I'm feeling pretty brilliant too!"

We had a great day working.

My son Suraj's natural enthusiasm taught me a big lesson: that we go through life saying and hearing conditioned responses that really mean absolutely nothing. It is only when we break out of the expected that real communication occurs.

What do 'fine', 'okay', 'not too bad', 'all right', 'pretty good' and all the other non-responses really mean? Absolutely nothing. They mean nothing because the question that they answer usually means less than nothing.

'How are you', 'how're you doing', 'how's the family' are meaningless punctuation. Most often the person asking is not even looking at you - and rarely are they listening to your equally meaningless answer.

Yet, by hijacking that automatic question and giving a completely unexpected - and exciting answer - we can take control of a conversation. And more, force the other person to think positively of us.

I could have said 'marvellous' or 'first-class' or 'absolutely splendid' or any number of positive, energizing statements. But I liked Suraj's choice.

It is certainly true that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Let your first impression in any meeting, be brilliant!

The edited version of this article has appeared in Hindu Metroplus. You could look that up by clicking on the following link!

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/02/11/stories/2006021103080100.htm

Blue Blessings From The Sky

As the sun starts to warm the region lucky residents of the city get to witness a Jacaranda tree in blossom! The trees are easily recognised by their breathtaking floral display of vivid lilac-blue clusters of trumpet shaped flowers. These trees thrive well in sunny areas and thus serve as an ideal ornamental tree in large to smaller sized gardens. They grow roughly 10m high and are five to eight m wide. Jacaranda is often chosen to serve as a perfect summer centrepiece for gardens, as its erupts in a blaze of brilliant colour when all of the spring blossom trees have long been gone. Its floral displays are said to be even better after a dry year!

Amazing surprise

Due to the bright lilac-blue floral shows that appear in unison, Jacarandas' blooms have locally been associated with the Garden City of Bangalore. However, Brazil and other parts of tropical and sub-tropical South America are its place of origin. An Argentinean student of mine told me that they call this tree Hakharanda.

If you have a Jacaranda tree in your neighbourhood, you could be in for a surprise any day now. A couple of days ago, in my neighbourhood a tree that appeared dry and withered all through winter bloomed and glowed in its magnificence overnight. When I drove around the city last weekend I was interested to learn that the tree, as in Bangalore, appears to have bloomed in unison! It is also delightful when the flowers fall to the earth carpeting the ground in a mass of colour.

There's a popular belief that if one of the trumpet blossoms from the Jacaranda fall on your head you will be favoured by fortune. A horticulturist informs me that the tree generally puts on its floral shows twice every year. The first blooms appear when its branches are bare and the second flush is in summer when the lush green leaves emerge. So, look up and don't miss the opportunity to receive nature's blessings for a fortune through the Jacaranda blossom!

Did you know? The administrative capital of South Africa Pretoria, noted for its 70,000 plus flowering Jacaranda trees is often referred to as The Jacaranda City.

Fact file:

Blue Jacaranda: Jacaranda mimosifolia

Family: Bignoniaceae

Origin: Brazil, Bolivia, North western Argentina.
Growth habits: Deciduous tree; twice-pinnately compound leaves, up to 45 cm long.
Propagation: Easily by cuttings, or seeds
Blooming habits: Tubular, lavender blue, flowers, five cm long, in 20-30 cm long clusters.
Fruiting habits: Flattened two inch capsules, containing winged seeds.

This Article of mine appeared on April 28, 2006 in "The Young World" a magazine of The Hindu Newspaper

You could read that following the link below: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-youngworld/blue-blessings-from-the-sky/article3227474.ece