Save the Planet Earth

The planet earth is dying all around us at a pace that has not been seen from the time of extinction of Dinosaurs and the major cause of this is the human greed. We continue to pillage the forest cutting down trees, extract ground water much faster than it can get replenished, extract fossil fuel from the earth that takes millions of years to form at a rate that it will not possible for the earth to recoup.  The scientists say that the extinction of mammals and vertebrates in the last century alone is equivalent to 800 to 10,000 years of extinction without human interference.  The earth’s biodiversity is being depleted at an alarming rate by humans and if allowed to continue at this pace then we would lose many of the benefits of biodiversity within the next three human lifetimes.

It is as though that we are sawing off the branch we are sitting on and being aware of the consequences of the actions being taken. We humans are sure in for a very bumpy and a hard ride in years to come if we do nothing to reduce the damage being done to the planet earth. Heat waves due to global warming has people sweltering, water scarcity in many part of India, devastating earth quakes around and so forth already have started to happen and would keep intensifying year on year and hence we humans have to take urgent steps to prevent or curtail the onset of the 6^th Extinction , which some scientists say has begun.

Leonardo Dicaprio in his acceptance speech at Oscars this year stated this “Making the Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this amazing award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted”

I do concur with the statement made by Leonardo and so do all those who love nature… we should not take this planet for granted and all of us have to collectively act  in order to ensure that earth is able to recoup itself from all the damages being done to it on a continuous basis  instead of dying out on us !!! 

Washing dirty linen in public

The definition of the phrase “Washing dirty linen in public” is to discuss personal and private matter in public and I guess most of us have been taught not to do that right from the childhood. But this does not apply to celebrities who just do this so as to garner media coverage on to themselves even if means that they lose their privacy. A classic example of this phrase is the ongoing  spat between Actors Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Raut about their alleged relationship.

This has been dominating the social media and the news media with each slapping legal notices on to each other. Our starry eyed public is lapping up these spicy tidbits that are being released in spurts akin to new movie releases. The legal issue has taken an ugly turn to such an extent that each of the actors are washing their dirty linen in public that should have been privy only to them. The electronic media is going gaga over these tidbits and it is the trial by media instead of waiting for the civil court judgment. Cannot blame these media houses with them wanting to increase the TRP’s are publishing unverified items such as emails and images and are keeping the people engrossed in this spat.

In a recent development few emails that has been supposedly written by Kangana Raut to Hrithik has been leaked ( Read here) to the press and it has created quite a storm and as per these mails it seems Hrithik is innocent. But Kangana’s legal team states that genuineness of these emails has to be ascertained as they claim that the actresses email has been hacked and she is not the one writing these mails. Further today an image of Hritik hugging Kangana in a suggestive manner is circulating in the electronic and social media making this case even murkier. With each passing day the case is becoming murkier and accusations flying around these two people. This happens if one tries to wash their dirty linen is public

Your thoughts and comments on this enfolding drama are welcome

Kabini Diaries -03 ----Indian Rollers or the blue jay

Nagarhole forest or Kabini has got scores of Indian rollers and here are couple of images of them taken by me during my visit there.The male bird’s acrobatic display with twists and turns during the mating season has earned it its name Rollers and these birds prey on insects, scorpions, small reptiles. They are known to follow tractors In rural India for disturbed invertebrates.

 

Indian Rollers are quite colorful and are present in large number throughout India. Several states of India have chosen the Indian Roller as their state bird.

Indian rollers are associated with legends and it is said to be sacred to Lord Vishnu. Hindi name for this bird is Neelkanth ..means blue throat and is associated with Lord Shiva who also is supposed to have blue colored throat. Though Indian roller is known as neelkanth, it has brownish neck and blue crown whereas the European rollers have blue tinges on the neck.

SURGE PRICING BAN --- IS IT A BOON OR A BANE TO COMMON MAN ???

Indian consumers have been living with the Surge pricing structure on commodities and services for quite some time and suddenly when the Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal came down hard on cab operators Uber & Ola for their surge pricing the whole nation has woken up from its slumber and debates are raging about this pricing structure. There was no reaction when the Karnataka & Maharashtra governments enforced similar curbs on the cab operators.

 Most of us know that the pricing is based on the supply and demand in the market and for a consumer to get these at the time of demand has to surely pay higher than the next person. This is how the free markets works and I do not think that the government has rights to curb this practice. I am personally happy that there is a curb on surge pricing since it does save me considerable amount of monies but then how does it ensure him of the service or the product at the times of demand. Let me take an example of a cab service at Chennai where I reside on the outskirts… during the morning and evening rush hours you would normally not get an cab as the demand is very high with office going persons and during these times if I am lucky to book a cab using their application then it gives me an option of continuing with the confirmation for extra pricing and this could range from 1.2x to 3x. Now if I feel that this is too much I would have to wait for a long time to get a service at normal fare… choice is entirely mine and not the governments. If at all government uses their muscles to ban this surge pricing then they should also ensure that they have made provisions of good public transport system and infrastructure which is lacking terribly in most metros of India. In Chennai consumers are willing to accept the surge pricing for Ola cabs as the auto rickshaws charge even higher rates which are at times over 3X.

With the ban on surge pricing on the cab operators in three states let us see the state governments of other metros also take similar actions. If the surge pricing ban  is totally enforced for cab services then next step  by the government is to curb similar practices in commodities market, Cinemas ,Airlines, Hotel industry and so forth and let us see if this would work out for there would be a definite outrage from all the traders for sure. Only time would tell if the ban on such practices is a boon or a bane.

Illusion of a Ghost

Last couple of weeks there has been quite a few interactions with my college batch mates on newly formed WhatsApp group and memories of those care free days being exchanged now has regaled nearly 100 of us on the group.

One interesting incident that happened during the college stay does crop up on my mind is of a ghost scare running around the hostel block while I was in my 3^rd year of engineering. During the hot summer months few students would sleep in the terrace of the hostel and on one such moonless night a fellow student woke up with a start massaging his sleepy eyes and it was then he noticed a hazy figure in white as though hovering above the terrace floor at parapet level. He then let out a scream in fright and hearing this the white clad figure dashed towards the staircase and vanished into the hostel. The noise woke up most students on the terrace and they started chasing behind the figure that had an ample start from these sleepy fellows. By the time they had reached the stairwell the mysterious figure had vanished and most of us in the hostel were now awake due to all this commotion and the boy who had started all this said that he saw a ghost floating in the air and it vanished because of his scream. On hearing these all of us armed with hockey sticks and whatever we could grab in our arms went about the entire hostel in search of this figure which had vanished without a trace.

Similar incident kept happening on and off during the semester and in spite of making all attempts to apprehend the culprit proved futile. The buzz in the hostel was that this mysterious person is a ghost since it was seen shrouded in white all times. Finally after few days one of the students (unable to recollect the name of the student) admitted that the figure is him and not a ghost. He was in fact standing on the water tank which is in level with the parapet with his dhoti over his head and was urinating and the scream by the boy and others waking up made him run back to his room.When questioned as to why he did not admit this earlier, he replied that he was worried that all of us would thrash him before even he could state his story so he kept quiet and joined the other students in search of this elusive person. 

All of us had huge laugh with relief for there was no ghost in the hostel and this incident remains etched in memory though the names have been forgotten for it happened nearly 38 years back.