Fantastic Hidden Truth: We eat what we sow

Are you a pure vegetarian OR do you eat non vegetarian food ?

Do you know the various factors that determine what we eat -- our eating habit ? Are there are any patterns. How does vegetarian and non vegetarian food pattern being determined by society?

Anthropologists have developed so many theories around what we eat.  But I heard an interesting story or theory from a friend of mine emanating form his observation.

The story started after a villager from a tiny hamlet expressed his concern about change in food pattern. Small tea shops located at the outskirts of his village, which also used to serve simple vegetarian snacks, have now been replaced by chicken kabab outlets. You may call it as effect of globalisation or  change in taste of people.

Outlining principle according to my friend is  -- "we eat, what we sow". It was true yesterday and will be so tomorrow.

Main crop of that village was paddy a few decades ago.  With good rain fall and abundant water in the lake, farmers could get a good crop to the need of the village. There was no greed factor. Even during a bad rain year, there was no panic situation; more than enough to get to eat. Agriculture was not considered as business then, it was a profession followed by their ancestors and passed on to them.

All the village activities ,  not called as economy or commerce, were developed around paddy field. Apart from rice, paddy products included puffed rice and various other sub products. Small industries rotated around paddy and employed local villagers.

Village borders were dotted with a few small thatched roofed tea stalls. Common scenes in all villages across India. Along with tea, a simple snack made up of puffed rice was a popular serve. Since paddy was the main crop, puffed rice made from paddy, was a natural simple snack. These outlets were a convenient stop for peasant folks returning from fields after a hectic day.

Over the period the whole demography of the village changed. So also agricultural practices. For multiple reason crop yield reduced. Farms were sold or villagers moved to different business. Main crop changed from paddy to  maize. It requires  less water and effort to grow. Quick yield is guaranteed and so also Return On Investment --- a good cash crop for dwindling farm community.
Man does not eat maize as staple food here. Most of the maize corn are being used to prepare food for chicken. Number of poultry farms around increased. Naturally chicken eaters increased and chicken kababs  and other such dishes attracted a good crowd to those outlets. So all those thatched roofed shops changed to permanent stalls and puffed rice snacks were replaced by chicken dishes.

In principle -- if you grow paddy, you eat puffed rice ; if you grow corn you eat chicken.

So, we eat what we sow !!!

Best Gift for child

What is the best gift you can give to your child -- love, education, pocket money, cell phone....?


According to me -- it is teaching them how to become independent. Rather allowing them to explore and learn by themselves  and hence imbibe some amount of adventurism.

In city life, we work in the reverse way. Over protect our kids.

Shall give you an example. Many parents are hesitant to send their kids outside their home, to a stationary shop, just across the street to purchase, say a pen. Funny excuses are being put --  Traffic is heavy, it is not secure, he/she may be  cheated, our maid/servant can go and get it, etc.  Add to that, a strong defense being made about the capability of their kid -- "you know he ordered online a shoe worth of Rs. 5000 for his dad ? these kids are very smart!".

In the cocoon of their home world, the children are unable to develop skills like -- socialisation, observation, confidence, etc.

Crossing the road and purchasing a pen itself is not the goal. All along this transaction, one learns or exposes himself/herself to quite a few life lessons.

1. How to cross a road itself is a skill in Indian cities.
2. Observe different kinds of people on the street and their behavior.
3. Interaction with a fellow human in the shop and understand/observe language/slang he/she uses and how shop keeper manages the shop.
4. Arrangement of the shop, different materials available over there, etc.
5. Finally the shopping -- getting the pen and exchange of money.

Don't you think that  life is full of such transactions ?-- going to an unknown place, interacting with different set of people, observing the opportunities available to us other than the ones thrown at us, adapting to the situation, crossing the life smoothly with some success and a few setbacks.

 

Let us make our children independent naturally. That should be part of our daily home work, assignment, exam and grading.

This will bring ownership in education and confidence among children.

What do you think ?

HOW TO TREASURE ENVIRONMENT AND EDUCATE ABOUT TREE GROWTH TO CHILDREN

What do you do on world environment day ?

Plant one sapling, deliver a lecture, write a report/blog, conduct/participate in painting competition or  quiz. What do we do to our environment rest of the year ?

How are  you making our children aware of importance of trees ? Showing them a video/film or giving a boring lecture ??


My son told me an eye opening anecdote, which he'd heard from his teacher, related to Bhutan.

In Bhutan, school handovers  each student (in lower classes)  a sapling. Students have to plant and maintain the respective tree. He/she will be graded or get marks based on growth of the plant, till 10th grade or so.

Just think what kind of wonder it can make.

Kids understand the plant, its growth, etc. very well. Need not read books to know this or draw and redraw  diagram of this tree in Biology/Botany classes. The topics like, use of that plant, problem to grow such plant, etc. needn't be mugged to pass the exam, but get real practical knowledge. At the end of the day, a tree is grown and sanctity of the environment is maintained.

What a nice education system !!! A genuine way of Environment Protection !!!!!

REAL REASON BEHIND BREXIT

Following are the real reasons behind The Great Britain leaving European Union.

A. British are  the most intelligent community on this earth. They always want to align with future, rather than past or present.
B. They were not getting any benefit from aging and struggling EU -- neither money nor power.
C. Britain didnot have much muscle to decide which way to go, if they were to continue with EU.
D. Now the main reason -- The British wants to be part of Indian Dominion, as a its 30th state. Intelligent Brits found following  reasons to be part of India,

1. India is the prospering economy now, as it was a couple of centuries back.
2. Anyway The Great Britain has sizeable population of people with Indian origin, including quite a few politicians. English people have good taste for curry.

3. Many Indian Industrialists have already owning/purchasing  big British industries/properties -- TATA, Mittal, etc.
4. Indians just run to England, whenever they are in need. England is very hospitable to all those -- Mallyas, Lalit Modi's. British never expressed any concerns about such immigrants. On the other hand they donot want to deport such Indians, even at the request of Indian government. They love Indian emigrants so much.
5. Indian constitution has provision to provide special status to a state (like article 370 for Kashmir). Britain (it will not be called as The Great Britain then) could become such special autonomous state within Indian Dominion. So British people can continue to enjoy special privilege.
6. Brit youth will have more job opportunities than what EU could have provided.

On the other hand, it will be win-win situation for India as well.
i) India will get automatic entry into NSG, US Security Council, etc.
ii) India will also become a developed country, without any effort from Indian government.

So, Prime Ministed Narendra Modi might stop visiting London, as it will be just a state capital.

You never know, David Cameron's son/daughter or  grandson/grand-daughter would become the Prime Minster of The Great Indian Dominion one day ?



Just for sake of Fun :-)  The author doesnot own any responsibility for the comments/views/opinions expressed in this article.

Electric Vehicles -- Charging Problem

Population of Electric Vehicles is expected to explode.

New kind of problems may start surfacing. Mainly related to charging.

If many people start taking their car to office, they may like to put their car charging at home as soon as they reach home back. As per some study published in Washington post, this will result in increased peak hour demand  on the (electricity) supplier.  Armed with smart meter, electric companies would start increasing tariff during this peak period. This is worry some for consumer.

Other option is to charge in office during day time. But office management needs to facilitate those many charging stations in its premises.

Now some thought process has started to evolve smart charging. Car will charge checking corresponding tariff (peak or non peak) and battery charge level. Even people are thinking using fully charged, unused car connected to grid to supply back to grid.



In 2015, vehicular CO2 emission is higher than that from power generating units in US. Due to this cross over,  EV needs to come early and charging issues to be resolved ASAP.

Overall exciting time ahead on EV and charging.

Yoga Day CELEBRATIONS

Father's day, Mother's day, Valentine day, Friendship day,..To this list people of India seems to have added Yoga day. 

A student wrote a report about the day as below...

"International Yoga day was celebrated with full zeal and fanfare in our apartment complex. Once assembled in common area in the morning, every resident exchanged greetings -- "Happy Yoga Day". 

After inauguration formalities, including a speech by a senior citizen, colorful programs followed. The events included painting competition, song and dance performances.   With a sumptuous brunch the program was concluded. 
Thus we celebrated Yoga day successfully."

PS: One person, was doing some kind of physical exercise in the program. I don't know why.






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Project Delays......

"Metro project maynot be completed in this year". A big sigh, after reading this newspaper headline.

"Project is getting delayed. Have to work hard to meet new deadline.." -- howmany times you have heard such comments from your friends. Donot know why, in India, none of the projects meet the schedule on time -- be it private or public ; software or infra projects.

Always thought that money crunch, government clearance, lethargy of public servants, etc. contribute for project overrun. A few years back Vijay Mallya, during his Good Time, challenged Bangalore Corporation and wanted to show how to make a good road. It is about 300meter stretch of Vittal Malya Road(infront of UB City). The complete road was supposed to be dug up and relaid along with drainage and communication ducts in about 6 months time. A modern road was in making by a "professional" organisation. Ultimately it took about a year so. There was no fund crunch -- money was available. No fresh land to be acquired. Technical challenges were none... Donot know why it took so much time.

Considering this example as a benchmark, I tried to extrapolate for other projects. For example, a 3 km metro project could take about 10 years !!!!!  If I start adding parameters like funding problem, government clearance, land acquisition and court cases, technical problems, etc etc., it would anyway stretch to 12-15-18 years !!!!!

Why are we like this ??