I hate life coming back to "Normal"...

Shaken by the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai?? And back to normal life within a week???

Well, I am sure thats definitely the case with all of us.. and we continue to hate it...Do we really want to do something about it other than (rather, in addition to) just blaming the system / politicians..??

In addition to the immediate measures such as beefing up our internal security, upgrading the police system and improving co-ordination between intelligence systems to counter the terrorist attacks (which are pretty much the government jobs), I think each one of us must start to take a smallest step towards “the Ultimate Change” with at least the following:

Smallest step towards a bigger change: Stop paying those petty bribes.

The system is riddled with corruption. The filthy quality of bullet-proof jackets used by the Maharashtra Police bears blatant evidence to this problem. We have to try and uproot the corruption from the lowest level possible. Stop paying those petty bribes to the bureaucrats (babus), traffic police and tax officials. This smallest act of corruption is giving them the confidence to accept bribes for the vital issues such as defense equipments and equipments, weapons, technology required for National Security.

Please Vote
Register yourself for voting if you haven’t already. Please visit http://www.jaagore.com/. It is a good site and makes the registration process a matter of minutes. Though, the law requires you or your blood relative to personally go and submit the form to the relevant officer in your city / area.

As far I am concerned, I think I am gonna use the ‘Right not to vote’ under Rule 49(O), if I feel I have no good option to choose from. The chain mail has been forwarded so many times after all. I hope it serves its purpose this time around. (One can simply walk up to the presiding officer – Sign the register – Ask for Form 49A and Say she / he would like to vote for – NOBODY..!!) This is the closest Indian voters can get to negative voting.

Right to Information (RTI) Act
Everybody agrees that we need to DO something and that the political apathy is here to stay. Everybody agrees that some of us need to be present ‘On the ground’ and join mainstream politics to clean up the system. However, this isn’t obviously possible for all the professionals. Though, we have to be aware of our rights to make these thick-skinned men (read politicians and babus) listen to us and be accountable. And one of the most powerful rights is Right to Information. Lets choose one area / topic that we are interested in (e.g. Police training, highway maintenance, traffic control, trees & gardens in our city, anything) and find out about the status of government action (local, state, central) in that area through the RTI act and keep the follow-up on.

Moral Values at Historic LOW

"Serial blasts kill 60 in Assam, 450 hurt..." – Friday, October 31, 2008

"SGX Nifty opens 8% positive gap on Friday."

What an example of irony..! I've heard about a basic phenomenon – "Anything in abundance is not valued". Has our population hit such an excessive mark, that there is no value to human life in this country anymore?

There has been news every fortnight of a series of blasts taking place in some city / state of the Country and killing tens of people in each event. Be it the eternal J&K issue, Naxalism, attacks on Christians in Orissa, Maoism, Gujjars in Rajasthan or issue of North Indians in Maharashtra, every state of India is facing social unrest. Are we totally lost as a secular democratic country after 60 years since independence?

I agree that serial blasts in a town in one of the 'backward' states of India may not have the magnitude of hampering India's macro economic potential. But aren't we undermining the entire internal security issue while considering the macro economic factors affecting our growth? We have always been talking about the infrastructure opportunity so positively and thousands of crores of rupees to be spent to create and upgrade it. Doesn't it take just a few minutes for the terrorists and these anti-social elements to wreck the buildings, transport systems, bridges created over long gestation period?

Wherever the missing pieces are, we must act fast and put them together. We are in dire need of tougher implementation of anti-terror laws, better access to basic infrastructure including education & healthcare to the economically lower rung sections of the society, these made possible by strong anti-corruption practices. We must figure out how we, as citizens, could be involved in the entire process. And after deep introspection, I feel the entire anti-corruption issue starts from ourselves and from the smallest bribes we pay to get our daily tasks done OR just to save a few minutes of inconvenience OR a few necessary visits to the government office…

If this continues, the day is not far when the famous Jijibhoy Tower or the Dalal Street would have been blown up and still the market would have a positive opening gap on account of rate cut by some foreign bank...

Ashutosh Z

31st October, 2008

(Would appreciate your reaction on what can WE do as our bit...)

The following Sunday....

Saturday morning…Its 830 and I am mechanically pressing ‘snooze’ on my cellphone almost for the fourth time, the sound biting into my ears… I am at Nashik (Mahesh Nagar, my Place)… yet again… And for one more weekend after the last one..! Each of my friends at Mumbai and Pune curse me for this ‘fleeing Mumbai’ act but I can’t help… The place has a natural serenity, flashes loud green colour in monsoons and it’s a great feeling waking up to the chirping of birds than chaos of crows..!!

Finally, Nilya comes and ‘shake-wakes’ me up… We are to go to fetch tree-guards for our plantation the next day… This guy has an amazing zeal when it comes to plants / trees… He has already finished his routine weekend task of watering the trees that we planted over the last two years… We didn’t know until the last few plantation sessions that the Nasik municipal corporation provides good & healthy plants, free of cost, for social plantation (along public roads, parks etc). All you have to do is to follow up with the local gardening officer for some time etc (Again, Nilesh is marvelous at this job… He’ll really be following up with the ‘Sahib / Sir’ for a long time, do the necessary lobbying, get the relevant phone-calls made and finally get the trees! One of the best ‘liaisoning’ officers I have seen. I guess he’s can deal with everybody from the lowest rung staff to the babus themselves, until the ‘gifts and monetary payments’ enter the scene…)

I revise the list in my mind… Plants, pits, tree guards, red-soil, manure… everything appears to be in place… Most of the important logistics part is over, we have twenty something trees to plants and we’ve got a good variety - Neem, Sisum, Peepul, Amla, Apta, Rain tree etc… But something is amiss… I think of the monsoons and leave the list in the middle…

Sunday morning… We start again at eight… But we are stuck up for a small thing… The ‘binding wire’ for connecting the two halves of tree guards… Sometimes, the smallest thing makes a big difference… Meanwhile, Nilesh keeps the things moving by building an army of kids who were playing around…

We fetch some pieces of binding wires from a construction site nearby and get cranking up… I love this job of patching the two tree guard halves together…The job of bonding two halves borne to be made for each other… :)

We have finished planting about seven-eight trees in the last couple of hours… A bit of hunger enters my stomach and brings some fatigue along with it… But the situation changes as Dad, Ashwini, Vibha, Kaushik, Anand enter the scene… The division of labour takes place and everybody is contributing with an expert’s hand by working on various tasks... Things are now moving quickly…

As we approach noon… And its just the last 2-3 plants, one of the nearby shop-owners is watching us for a long while and approaches us… He likes the execution and asks if he can help, joins us… The guy finally ends up asking his men to create a couple of new pits for two new plants around and more pits near his home… That’s the spirit… I feel it just needs that ‘start / first plunge’…

When we finish, I wonder that the kids’ army has contributed with their efforts till the end, only for one thing in return - A few snaps of theirs :)… I think they are the hope for these trees’ survival and conservation… If these kids are motivated enough to care for trees, nobody can stop these trees from growing… I hope the thought spreads… like Nilesh, like the shop-owner, like the kids… When everybody thinks of planting / adopting and bringing up a tree… When the ‘De’ in Net Deforestation of earth will be replaced with ‘A’….

A good Sunday morning..!

This Sunday, we went on a plantation drive with ‘Hariyali’ in Mumbai. Just had a noble thought of spending the Sunday morning volunteering than snoozing inside that warm ’n’ cozy blanket. So, like all of our other OTSPs (On the Spot Plans) :), this one was cooked on our dinner plates on Saturday. While the canvass was ready in the form of an ongoing plantation programme by Hariyali at Bhavale Forest land, off NH-3, near Bhiwandi, we just had to help with our bit of green colour..!

We started for Kalyan on early Sunday morning, glad to see the less crowded train..! When we, full of the familiar gusto, reached the site, it was stunning to see ourselves joining a pool of another 300 volunteers (Mahindra & Mahindra employees and other Hariyali volunteers)..! About 2,000 odd healthy saplings at the base were waving their greens to us. These were to be transported to the top and various other parts of the hills. While half of the team carried some of the plants to the top, the rest formed a human chain. It was overwhelming to see so many people, bustling with enthusiasm, passing the saplings and actually planting them. Recalled the good ol’ story of ‘human spirit’ holding true..!

Hariyali’s plantation drive, to be carried out over two months (June and July), is underway at Bhavale. The plot of land, 25 km from Thane, measures about 25 acres. Till last Sunday (13th July, 2008) ~9,000 saplings of various species of native, forest-friendly plants have been planted to cover about 2-3 barren hills in this area. That’s awesome, literally..! And just take a note of the target – A whopping 25,000 trees at this site during the current monsoon. All these plants have been sponsored by Kandivali Plant of Mahindra & Mahindra ltd, and supplied from their Plant at Nashik.

Hariyali is a Thane based NGO working towards protection and upgradation of environmental conditions in and around Mumbai. Hariyali, has to its credit, a plantation of massive number of trees across barren hills in the Yeoor range of Sanjay Gandhi National Park and a number of other sites around Thane and Powai area since 1996. In the past, it has also undertaken water / soil conservation by development of a number of lakes, check dams and bunds in these areas. It has played a key role in converting some of the abandoned quarries in the region into water bodies. The man behind this humongous effort is a noted environmentalist and nature lover, Mr. Punam Singhavi. Mr. Singhavi with his team of volunteers from Hariyali has been guiding the current campaign with a notable zeal.

We, a group of five, ended up planting about 30-35 trees, some of them being Banyan, Neem, Shatavari, Bamboo, Jamun etc. We finished by noon with our small contribution. All of us drained of water, drenched with sweat but filled with the satisfaction, headed back to our homes..! A fulfilling Sunday indeed..

The drive is on till the weekend of 26th/27th July, presenting a good opportunity to contribute our efforts!

On the other hand, Nilesh has been busy on execution and logistics for planting about 25 saplings near our ‘Den’ i.e. area around Mahesh Nagar, Nasik Road. This will add to our existing 200 trees planted there over the last five years. Our monsoon plantation efforts seem to be slowly coming back on track, after starting the season by dispatching about 80 saplings (a variety of native Indian ones) to be planted on a plot of land at Pandharpur.

Well… ‘Green chromosomes’ (thats what we have named our efforts) seems to be making a head start towards its contribution to a greener tomorrow…!

Saving the Ganga

Prof. GD Agarwal, 76, a noted environmentalist and retired professor, IIT Kanpur, started a fast-unto-death agitation on June 13, 2008 to oppose the construction of Hydel power projects on Ganga (Bhagirathi) between Gangotri glacier and Uttarkashi. The purpose of the agitation is to save the Ganga from the aggressive onslaught of strings of dams and hydel projects in Uttarakhand.

Just to introduce, Dr. Agarwal has worked in the capacity of
(i) Design Engineer, Central Designs Directorate, Irrigation Department, U.P.
(ii) Professor & Head, Civil (and Environmental) Engg. Deptt IIT, Kanpur, U.P.
(iii) Member Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi,
(iv) EIA Expert

The Uttarakhand state government had planned a series of hydel projects between Uttar kashi and Gangotri, a distance of 150 km.

- 480 MW Pala Maneri
- 381 MW Bhairon Ghati
- 200 MW Jad Ganga
- 600 MW Lohari Nagpala

The agitation appears to be logical considering some of the key facts
- The Himalayan region being, a seismically sensitive & quake prone area and a terrain being full of sedimentary rocks, must be treated differently when compared to other hydropower projects

- The preservation of the fragile ecological balance of this region must be given a priority considering its religious and tourism importance

- The huge ecological footprint of projects in this area and its LONG TERM impact on the overall flow of Ganga through northern India must be considered

- the actual success of the dams is questionable in view of the 'silt depositing' nature of Ganga & other Himalayan rivers. e.g.
o Repeated closing of Nathpa-Jhakri Dam on Satluj in Himachal Pradesh 4 years after its commission
o Environmentalists claiming that the Tehri dam, supposed to generate 1000 MW of power, is generating only 100 MW

- The World Wildlife Foundation has declared Ganga to be one of the ‘top ten rivers at risk’ in the world. Further, in 2007, the UN Climate Report indicated that the glaciers feeding the Ganga may disappear by 2030.

The BJP government in Uttarakhand finally bowed to the pressure and has temporarily scrapped the plans of building the Pala Maneri and Bhairon Ghati dams. However, as the work for Lohari Nagpala dam is already underway, on the decision of continuance of the dam, the state government put the ball in the Central Government’s court. The construction work of the Jad Ganga project in yet be commenced.

The union power ministry, on 28th June 2008, decided not to suspend the 600 MW Lohari Nagpala hydroelectric project being undertaken by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The union minister of state for power, Jayram Ramesh said the NTPC has already spent Rs 300 crore on Lohari Nagpala project and there was no question of stopping the project.

Dr Agrawal is now seeking the closure of the Rs 2,800 crore Pala Maneri project saying it would completely cage the holy Bhagirathi river in its 13.5 km long tunnel. He has now decided continue his fast in New Delhi to put pressure on the Central government.

It may be noted that Uttarakhand has a significant hydro-potential of 15,000 MW, out of which only 10% has been tapped, the way out could to adopt a central path i.e. Alternate sources of power like nuclear, thermal or solar power could be explored. Besides, potential of some of the smaller rivers in the region could be harnessed, without causing SIGNIFICANT changes in their flow. There seems a contentious absence of national level media on an important issue like this.

Though, the shelving two dams comes as a victory to the environmentalists fighting for the cause, the efforts must be continued to keep the agitation alive against the Lohari Nagpala dam. A thorough review of the planned development should be undertaken and any alterations in the size, design or structure could be considered so as to prevent any further damage to the ecology and sustain the economic interests as well.

You can click the below link to file an online petition to support the cause highlighted by Prof. GD Agarwal on his fast-unto-death Satyagraha, as it enters its 18th day now.

www.petitiononline.com/tpsy2008/petition.html

Read a mind numbing story on this issue...

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main39.asp?filename=Ne190708the_ganga.asp

Trip to Uttarakhand

‘Vacation--Travel--Nature—Adventure—Fun’... the words are always running randomly and freely inside my mind… And they are as common as the words ‘Girls—Flirt—Love--Freedom--Fun’.. Though, both these species of words are always regularly hunt by the predators like 'Career-Assignment-Stress'... :) I guess, this is due to an overdose of this ‘run of the mill’ lifestyle and the constant search for existence of MY OWN SPACE inside the small 60 sq ft bullpen and a less than 1 sq ft space inside a crowded Mumbai local train...

After a number of failed plans earlier, almost frustration from that ‘we-need-to-do-something-to-de-stress’, and a lot of pondering, we zeroed down on Rafting in Rishikesh… ”Finally…!” that was the only word I managed to utter at that time..

We booked for a 2 days - 2 nights rafting camp (Camp Rapid-fire) located on a beach by the Ganga at a village about 30 km from Rishikesh. Google, as usual, offered a great help and we clubbed a couple of days’ excursion to the Jim Corbett National Park with this rafting trip. A couple of weddings in Rajasthan was just enough reason to get us packing our bags. After juggling between attending wedding functions and roaming around in Chittorgarh, Pushkar and Ajmer inside the Land of Maharajas, we moved to the Land of Sages (Devbhumi)

Rafting down the River
After finding our way along the Ganga through holy Haridwar and beautiful Rishikesh, when we reached the camp, it was already late morning and the white beach sand was really hot. The waters were flaunting a mighty current and were icy cold, as the glaciers start melting with advancing summer. We merrily got ready for our first rafting trip that noon, as we were taught how to paddle and how to keep our cool inside the cold waters, in case we fell off.

The Ganga travels a distance of more than a couple of hundred km to reach Rishikesh. A 24 km patch of Ganga between Marine Drive (Yes! For you, Mumbaiites, there is one more outside Mumbai!) and Rishikesh is a great place for amateur rafting (Grade III to IV out of VI, as the professionals call it). To our surprise, Non-swimmers and novices could also enjoy rafting in this patch of the river.

The river rapids have been named at their creative best, like Black Money (a noted Industrialist has a house besides this one), 3 Blind Mice (3 major sequential rapids coming your way unexpectedly), Cross fire, Roller Coaster (is a level 4 rapid and the most thrilling), Tee off (a small rapid before the Golf Course, another major one).

While cruising (rowing, actually) along the deeper patch of the river and turquoise (literally!) waters, mystique Shivaliks offered a magnificent backdrop to the river water…A fine feeling takes over when you surpass those small whirlpools and ‘Eddies’ (bigger whirlpools!) unscathed and feel your life jacket wrapped around! Though, the best part comes when you listen to the foaming water gushing through the small terrains, inviting you into it.

The jerking and jolting raft inside the rapid is simply overwhelming. That ‘Something-inside-your-stomach-feeling’ when one is rushing down the wave-slope… that ‘I-am-at-your-mercy-river-feeling’ when negotiating those tougher rapids… and that refreshing feeling from the frequent splash of the cold waters. I guess just thinking of this can help me burst some stress for the next few months :)

There is a 20 ft high cliff along the river before Rishikesh and is considered safe for diving.. Well I dived for the first time from such a height… Again, a moment of freedom captured in that free fall after countless nervous moments before the jump! :)

Some other rafting locations in India
India once again proved that it is really Incredible, as we learnt that our country has one more variety to offer. It is so many rafting locations, making the sport possible throughout the year including monsoons.

- Himachal Pradesh - River Chenab in Lahaul, the Satluj near Shimla, the Ravi near Chamba and the Beas near Kullu offer immense whitewater rafting possibilities
- Jammu & Kashmir - It also happens in the Indus and Zanskar in Leh-Ladakh region
- North East - I have recently been reading that, parts of Brahmaputra take even a pro for a raft (ride!)
- Karnataka – A 9 km stretch in river Kali at Dandeli near Goa
- Maharashtra – A 9 km patch in the waters of river Kundalika fed by waters released from Mulshi Dam and Bhira damat (At Kolad, about 3 hour drive from Mumbai on Mumbai-Goa highway)

Bonfire on the Beach
Kayaking, Beach volleyball, a night walk through the mountain tracks under a starlit sky were just a few of the added windfall moments in the camp. But the icing on the cake came with a hip swinging ‘n’ singing session, complete with bonfire at the camp beach…

A bonfire in the cold river sand, another group of strangers, were creating an ideal setting for some game.. So after a few rounds of ‘Dumb Charades’ (some hilarious acting for movies like ‘Kshitij’, ‘Yeh hain Jalwa’ and 'Pataal Bhairavi’.. The dumbest part about Kshitij being nobody could recall the Hindi name for Horizon for almost ten minutes…) we went on to play ‘Truth or Dare’…

The ‘Truth or Dare’ went into few ‘detailed’ stages, as we gleefully drew some warmth from the burning wood and continued the confession sessions well into the dawn with just a couple of lanterns lighting up the place (err…barely lighting up the faces of everybody)..!

Corbett and the Wildlife
After a two hour nap that Bonfire dawn, cool and fresh, we left for Ramnagar, the town nearest to Jim Corbett National Park. I always keep wondering about this natural alarm which wakes me up so early and fresh, but sadly gets activated only when I sleep outside, under the sky.

We had our bookings at the Dhikala Forest Department guest house. Dhikala being centrally located in the park, our trip to the guesthouse was a virtual safari. As we were taking our first lessons about behaviour inside the jungle from our assistant, langoors, spotted deer, sambars and peacocks were emerging from the woods. Later on I learnt that, there are more than 40,000 deer and about 700 elephants inside the park and are pretty common sightings!

This Dhikala guesthouse is built on the high banks of river Ramganga… It offers a stupendous view of the river bed, almost 2-3 km wide, from the backyard of the guest rooms. The river was dry but one could just imagine the view in monsoons… The place is classic and well maintained, offers a variety of choices in food and has a natural ambience of its own.

Crouching Deer and Hidden Tiger!
On our first safari, we caught a glimpse of the tiger just for a few seconds on our way to Dhikala. On sensing a safari elephant roaming nearby, he leapt out of a muddy place into grasslands nearby. I feel, taking an elephant safari inside the jungle just raises your chances of sighting a tiger, as you can reach places inaccessible for Maruti Gypsy and this too without making much of a noise. In the later two safaris, our guide sensed that the tiger was really close and somewhere around, but he kept on evading us for the rest of the trip. Though, it was a fascinating learning to sense the presence of a tiger with the calls of the langoors, barking deers and some pugmarks…

Believe it or not, at the end of it, it didn’t really matter that we saw a tiger just for few seconds… As the tranquility of the river banks… the dense Sal tree jungles… the picturesque grasslands… different shades of colour green jostling for space in the background… tens of different sounds of birds at a time… number of sighting of herds of elephants, deer, peacocks, crocodiles & ghariyals and a variety of birdlife… all of this was really enthralling…! A pair of good quality borrowed binoculars proved to be the best accessory we could carry with us, though I felt a strong need for a good SLR camera…

Uttarakhand and Ecology
After traveling along the entire southwest border of Uttanrakhand, it was heartening to see the ecological sense of people there. They are definitely better preservers of environment. The staff at the rafting camp and at Corbett seemed pleasantly rigid with the ecological rules. Corbett National Park, I guess, is the only place I have seen in India, free of littered plastic bottles other artificial waste. Corbett is said to be the only reserved forest in India where tigers in the wild, last counted at 164, are growing in numbers…

The trip was full of hilarious moments, though it would require me to write entire chapters on each of them like, Bulls' 2 Eyes at the Dart game… Our dogfight for the cute girl at the bonfire… Kisse Dry pit toilet ke… Nilesh and the 20 ft cliff Jump… Nilesh and DD finally gelled and how... Anand saw a shooting star for the first time… etc… :)

Some planning and haggling… A bunch of ‘hungry-for-adventure and carefree’ friends… A couple of enchanting destinations… A camera… A pinch of humour… A dash of train / road journey… I guess that is a Perfect recipe of a memorable vacation..!

While I pen this down, I am still having that familiar feeling… ‘Even though its been just ten days, feels like it was really ages ago, when I had left a little early from the office to catch the train and embark on that journey…’

Na