Tuesday, June 09, 2009
The man with a green thumb
Ahmedabad: He is a man with a green thumb. Jitendra Patel, an environmentalist known for his penchant for planting trees, is now busy transforming a dry creek into a thickly wooded land replete with fruit and spice-bearing plants.
He has taken up this Herculean task in Derol village in neighbouring Sabarkantha district, about 80 km from Ahmedabad. He has purchased the land to transform it into a nature lover's paradise."This new park is coming up on 68 acres of land and rests on a dried-up creek on a riverbed refill and is similar to my Tirupati park," Jitendra Patel, a civil engineer by qualification, told IANS.
Patel had earlier planted more than 200,000 trees in his Tirupati Nature Park in Mehsana district, 100 km from here.
"I believe nature is a kind mother and trees are sacred objects. You respect nature and she will keep you healthy. It is the way our life functions and we must understand at all times that we are part of nature," says Patel.
He is a recipient of the prestigious Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi Vruksha Mitra environmental national award, which carries a cash prize of Rs.50,000.
Born into a farming family and a diploma holder in civil engineering, 47-year-old Patel says, "The main charm of the place lies in its creeks and estuaries. This is where modern man, exhausted as he is from pollution and tension, can enjoy the freshness of nature far from the madding crowd."
"A combined effort of a farmer within and an engineer without helped me design my dream," Patel says.
The park promises to be a refreshing getaway for people from towns like Himmatnagar, Modasa and Disa.
"It won't be long before the area will be agog with the chirping of migratory birds and wildlife - even crocodiles and snakes, if the forest department allows me to bring them here. I am fond of snakes, they are good friends."
Apart from a building, the open areas consist of a nature trail, space for camping, a future botanical field, and recreation and training programmes.
According to Patel, the park has almost all varieties of fruit - bananas, oranges and almonds. There are as many as 150 spice trees and ayurvedic plants commonly found in the Balaram-Ambaji wild sanctuary in north Gujarat and in high altitude areas in northern and southern India.
"I want to plant one million trees here," says an optimistic Patel.
Patel has also built 15 check dams to meet the water needs of the Derol park. Solar energy will be used to run the park.
The park sits on a one-metre deep garbage fill, which is a reclaimed part of the creek. Several projects, including landscaping, a water reservoir and recreation centres are the main attraction of the garden.
"We have more than 200,000 plants to make the park green," said A.K. Patel, a former joint director of agriculture who shoulders the responsibility of the plantation drive jointly with Jitendra Patel.
"Through the collaborative efforts of the National Orchard Board as well as people, the park intends to demonstrate the reversal of pollution and is bent on providing a thickly wooded area," he said.
Inspired by Jitendra Patel's enthusiasm, Banaskantha district official R.J. Patel has now approached him.
"I have invited Jitendra Patel to turn the large tracts of barren areas in Banaskantha into a green belt as he has done elsewhere in Mehsana and Sabarkantha district. I have asked him to plant 10,000 neem trees," R.J. Patel said.
Labels: environement, people, trees
Music on the streets!
New Delhi: Adheer Ghosh, 20, is very busy like many other Delhi University students who are juggling daylong extra-curricular activities in addition to academics. But there is a distinction in this young guitarist's weekly schedule - a two-hour session when he conducts music workshops for street kids at Shastri Nagar in north Delhi.
Ghosh is a volunteer with Music Basti, an initiative of young musicians of the city to interact at a forum with street and homeless children.
At present these informal interactive workshops are conducted for small boys under the age of 12 at a non-custodian boys hostel at Sarai Basti, supported by NGO YP Foundation.
"I enjoy the sessions, it's an interactive informal forum. Each time I take something back with me," Ghosh, a third year English-honours student at Kirori Mal College, told IANS.
Ghosh is a part of his college music society Musoc and is also member of Five8, a popular youth band.
"The first time I came it was just to watch and the experience of watching these kids bubbling with enthusiasm and asking questions about how an instrument works was an eye-opener," Ghosh admitted.
Since July 2008, when the project began, there have been 12-odd sessions.
"This is the coming together of musicians with a purpose - while the music is competent professional music the audience here is not the usual gig," said Suhail Yusuf Khan, a sarangi (Indian string instrument) player of the Advaita band.
When Khan pulls out his instrument and plays a soothing raga or sargam (pattern of notes), it seems to have a calming effect on the otherwise boisterous kids.
With gleaming eyes and rapt attention they listen, ask questions about the music and how the strumming sounds the way it does - soon they too croon along, singing songs originally composed by Advaita.
Muhammad is an eight-year-old staying at the Uma Pandey children's home run by NGO Aman Biradari. The boy is a regular at the sessions and specially enjoys listening to the sarangi.
"I like it here, I used to roam around in the streets earlier, now I got admission in a school," said the enthusiastic child.
"I like it when they (the young musicians) play. I look forward to it - the music gives a sense of peace of mind," Muhammed told IANS.
Avinash Bhagel, a violinist and member of Musoc, who has helped conduct a couple of the workshops, pointed out: "Their interest is overwhelming. They grasp things quickly and remember - things that often an accomplished musician can't get."
The concept of using music as a forum to interact with underprivileged children is the brainchild of Faith Gonsalves, a student of history at the Lady Sriram College.
"I really love music and wanted to use a different medium to interact the kids," Gonsalves said.
These sessions according to Gonsalves, serve a dual purpose.
"Most NGOs focus on teaching maths, Hindi, English to the children - which too is really commendable. Through these music interactions, the kids can learn music and the sessions are also meant for recreation," Gonsalves said.
The music played at these sessions is not the popular Bollywood jamboree; it is in fact a blend of Indian classical and western music.
Music Basti has a simple process to volunteer for anyone interested. To extend any help - musical and non-musical, one can send an email at musicbasti@gmail.com with personal information and details of how they would like to volunteer or work.
"After talking to them and seeing if they can interact with kids, we accordingly set them up. Any form of volunteering requires commitment, even if it is a one-off thing and the interaction needs to be tailored to the age and interest of the kids," Gonsalves added.
In 2009, Music Basti hopes to conduct workshops in multiple locations in the city. Workshops were on till November 2008 conducted on a bi-monthly basis after which they were suspended for the winter - when many of the student volunteers had exams.
"We hope to conduct workshops at least three times a month in a location. It is a small project; any expansion will be gradual."
The reason is that all the volunteers are mostly college students or working individuals who are doing this part-time.
But the whole lot appears very optimistic and determined.
"It takes just two hours each week - there is no reason not to do it," Adheer said.
"We may not have the logistics to give each kid an instrument on which he can learn, but we do generate a lingering positive interest in a few children," Gonsalves added.
Nandshri Chawkri (Gujarat) At the shrine of Hazratwala Pir here, one can find hundreds of clocks hanging at any given time - all offerings made by pilgrims after their wishes came true.
People from all communities have been coming to pray at the shrine of the Pir, widely known as Ghari Baba, for more than a century.
"This mazaar (mausoleum) is more than 100 years old. Individuals offer clocks to the Baba once their wishes are fulfilled on time. This has been the tradition here. These clocks indicate the right time of wish fulfilment," Haribhai Patel, one of the trustees, told IANS.
Situated on National Highway 8 between Ahmedabad and Vadodara, the shrine attracts attention because clocks of all shapes and sizes adorn its walls.
"Around four to five clocks are offered to the baba every day," Patel said.
Patel and other workers of the mazaar, about 100 km from Ahmedabad, are happy that the shrine is frequented by Hindus and Muslims alike.
"There is no distinction of caste and creed here. Anyone can come and offer flowers and clocks to the Baba," said Patel, a Hindu himself.
The trust gets funds for maintaining the shrine from donations made by devotees and from the annual festival held in December. Abdul Fahim, 48, has been visiting the shrine for the last eight years. A truck driver by profession, he has come all the way from West Bengal to offer a clock to the Baba.
"My wish was fulfilled by Baba and that's why I'm here to offer him a clock," Fahim said.
Khalid, a Vadodara resident, had also come to pray at Ghari Baba's mazaar.
The 30-year-old said he has been coming to the shrine since childhood.
But a worker at the shrine said: "Majority of the people visiting this place are Hindus."
Asked what they did with the hundreds of clocks given by devotees, Patel said: "We give away these clocks to schools. But they have to come with a letter from the school authority."
Labels: belief, clock, religion, weird
Malappuram: It was a phenomenon that had gone unnoticed for several years, even by the residents. But now a village in Kerala with over 200 twins and a few more on the way is in the limelight.
"None of us was aware of this phenomenon and now many have started thinking of this. There is also a new association for these twins," said Kunju Marikar, president of the Nannambra panchayat (village council) under which comes Kodinhi village that boasts of the record.
Of the 20 wards that fall under the council, Kodinhi has seven wards, each having a population of around 2,000.
"The surprising thing is that this phenomenon does not prevail in other wards of the panchayat," Marikar added.
Following the attention to the village, Pullani Bhaskaran, 51, the father of a pair of twin boys aged 16, formed the Twins and Kins Association (TAKA), exclusively for the parents and the twins.
"We have recently formed an 11-member executive committee and have begun registration of twins. So far we have zeroed in on 230 pairs of twins and we are trying to rope in all the twins irrespective of their age. We feel the number could swell to more than 300 pairs," said Bhaskaran, a contractor.
According to the information collected by TAKA, the 85-year-old Mohammed Haji is the oldest living twin, with his sibling having died a few years ago. The oldest living twins are 65-year-old Pathukutty and Kunji Pathukutty.
The latest pair (both boys) were delivered May 6 by Ramla, 24. TAKA's inquiries have revealed a few more are on the way.
Yusuf, an autorickshaw driver, has three pairs - all girls. His wife delivered the first pair seven years ago and the third pair about three months ago.
"We are happy and my wife and my two tiny girls are hale and hearty," said a pleased Yusuf.
A team consisting of G.R. Chandak from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, and Kaumudi Godbole, of the Centre for Human Growth and Development, Pune, met about a dozen pairs of twins of the village last November and examined their food habits and other factors.
However, the villagers say they have not heard from the team since then.
"We have not heard from them. Now what we are doing is to document the entire details of all the twins. Our preliminary findings show that among the twins, girls lead the pack. The maximum number of twins is in the age group of 5 to 15. Shortly we will come out with all the details," said Bhaskaran.
Labels: kerala, State, twins, village
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