Did you ever wish to be in a place where you would open a cabinet and take any book if you fancy and return it at another time after you are done with it. Or for that matter place one of your own books that you have finished reading for another book lover to enjoy. No questions asked, no string attached and unmanned.
There is one such place that I know. Its the Katara cultural village in Doha, Qatar. There are quite a few shelf like these for used books that would promote the habit of reading.
There is an International school where the choir of which my daughter is part of practices on a regular basis. The other day I decided to go around with my phone camera while waiting for them to finish singing.
The environment within that school is very different from the school that I went to… albeit many years ago. It is even somewhat different from the school my daughter attend these days.
The school, I am referring to here is not under pressure of large number of students like Indian schools and that allows them to have a lot of open spaces. Pupil do not feel constricted either inside the class room or outside. The walls are painted with scientific formulae and quotable quotes.
I am sharing a few photographs and those should give some idea of the message I want to convey. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and therefore I leave you with these pictures to do the talking.
I keep posting images in my Instagram account and my user name is Sumandebray. Please check this out sometime.
Nature is known to inspire and influence human being’s
creative mind since time immemorial. The interlocking disc design of the museum
by Jean Nouvel is inspired by the desert rose.
Desert rose is the colloquial name given to rose-like
formations of crystal clusters of gypsum or baryte which include abundant sand
grains. [Wikipedia] The flattened
crystals has a great resemblance to petals of rose.
Holding in her hands
Last weekend me and my daughter went to the museum gift shop
and bought a sizable piece of this desert beauty. We were quite excited with the new
toy and had a quick photo session to treasure the
moments forever.
Posing with a yellow rose
The desert rose may also be known by the names: sand rose,
rose rock, selenite rose, gypsum rose and baryte (barite) rose.
Napoleon had cautioned long ago that "Mankind's worst enemy is fear of work". But centuries have passed but the fear of work doesn't seems to go away.
One of my ex-colleague used to question "why we need to complete this today while we could do it tomorrow?" Another one's philosophy was to leave office early if you happen to reach for work late. "one should not be late twice in the same day" he used to advice.
But the winner is one who left office in the morning because his boss wished him "have a great day!" Obviously he had figured it out that he could not be in the office and have good time.
I looked high and low all these days to find a word that would describe this attitude towards work. On the 6th of March 2018, I got this word sent to me and I am glad to share with all who were not aware of it.
Everyone would unanimously agree today that the
need for saving water is no longer an option, it's our responsibility towards
the generations scheduled to arrive in our planet in the future. When we say
generations, it is not limited to a specific race, species or lifeform. The
earth belongs to all.
Life is a balance between what we can control
and what we cannot. There is however, another dimension to this old sayings…Life
is also a balance between what we should try to control and what we shouldn’t.
While any idea to conserve water, #CuttingPani, is potentially a noble
initiative, we should interrogate it with all seriousness to make sure that it
would not send wrong signal. Inadequate consumption of water will have negative
implications leaving the world with a generation of dehydrated people, quite
similar to the anorexic population of today.
Our bodies are made up of about 60% water, more
or less and constantly loses water through its excretory system. This needs to
be compensated and the commonly recommended quantity is eight 8-ounce glasses
per day amounting to about 2 liters. Not many of us reach this target on regular
basis and some health gurus are of the opinion that majority of the population
are on the brink of dehydration.
The other extreme of this spectrum is “water
intoxication”, which occurs due to excessive water intake resulting into
abnormal brain function and could be fatal in extreme cases. Although not as common,
when it takes place, the excess water dilutes blood sodium levels and causes
fluids to move inside cells, which then swell producing potentially
life-threatening effects.
I believe, the message transmitted upfront need
to focus on drinking more water while the appeal for “drinking water
conservation” remains subtle. Restaurants and businesses could start using
smaller glasses allowing people to ask for a second helping if they are very
thirsty. That way we do not propagate the message of “Drink less and Save
more”.
Few odd ideas for conservation of water usage
from various aspects of our daily chores could be as follows. All of these
without touching the drinking water segment and avoiding a wrong psychological
message:
There has been no significant development in the
way we wash our clothes ever since washing of clothes has been in practice.
Making washing machine more water efficient is
one way but there could also be machines that washes using microwave
technology. One need to take on the mighty soap lobby to succeed though.
We could also develop clothes that doesn't catch
dirt. We should be able to brush it clean like most animals does. After all our
apparels are supposed to be second skin.
Could we not develop utensils that repels grease
so that it needs little or no water to clean them?
Can we not make grease trap mandatory in our
houses and not limit those to restaurant kitchens.
Our bathtubs could come with dedicated meters
built into its body that would measure every time it was filled and charge us
at a higher rate.
Why can we not make the tap water potable and
ensure that the plumbing network is sanitized regularly so that we do not
hesitate before drinking.
We can also make technology less expensive so
that we could use pneumatic waste clearance technology in our WC so that the
demand of water is minimized.
We need to plant more trees as this is the only
way to produce more water.
Let’s have #cuttingpaani with a pinch of salt.
Hello,
I just signed the petition, “#CuttingPaani” initiated by #Livpure. I think this is important us and the coming generations. Will you sign it too?
