Mother's Day 2014

Dearest Arjun, Ana and Krish,

Mother’s Day is coming up, and I thought I should tell you what I want. This way there’s no guilty panic or last minute purchasing of flowers. So, this is what I want, this year and every year after.

I want you to be a decent human being – but have Big Dreams.

I want you to be who you are, but don’t be a jerk.

Dream Big – and Work Hard at everything you do, because life is too short not to give it everything you’ve got.

I want you to ask for help when you need it. I want you to help others when they need it.

I want you to learn how to cook, do your own laundry, pay your bills and know how to clean a bathroom like me J

When you screw up, and you will, more than once - I want you to own it, because it’s the screw-ups that make the victories sweeter.

I want you to travel, because the world is huge and you are one part of it – and learn about different cultures.

I want you to know that even when we hate each other, I will never stop loving you. In fact, I can lay down my life for you every day of the week! I am always here for you.

I want you to play nicely with others.

I want you to feed your curiosity – and learn about new things and new languages.

I want you to find a way to do what you love, and realize that that might look different than you originally thought.

I want you to respect every human being’s right to be who they are.

I want you to know that you are flawed and you are extraordinary. There is no one else like you.

I want you to realize how lucky you are every once in a while even if only for an instant.

I want you to relax and not feel guilty about it – and also eat chocolate sometimes.

I want you to know life can be brutally hard sometimes.

PRAY – it helps you everyday!

I want you to know that you can choose happiness and light even when the dark side offers you cookies.

And I wouldn’t mind breakfast in bed.

Love,

Mom

Water and Sustainability – Obscure? Technical? Overwhelming?

As a common citizen with no technical background in water and environmental sustainability areas – how was I to understand, digest and further take action on the huge and overwhelming problems surrounding us? All these BIG problems related to Water and Sustainability! Water and it’s related problems are ubiquitous. Water is all around usand yet, water is not totally benign. It feels like the day of reckoning – where the effects of all past mistakes and misdeeds catch up!

As an example – some questions constantly come up: If we have water but our neighbors don’t, what can happen? Can we truly be water secure as a community? Inside community walls? And if the sewage around you is not treated and discharged into storm water drains and the rajakaluves – straight out into the lake, seeping into the ground, then are you really safe? Will that not come back to haunt you soon enough? And then, you see that lake frothing over each time you pass by it – and related stench and dirty outflow into the fields.

I did feel overwhelmed by the enormity of it all – and it all seemed too technical and too obscure. Somewhat like this!

I decided to do something about it. I applied to the subject of water – some skills from the corporate world. Initial due diligence helped form a mental picture– no judgments made, just information gathering. Then you start to look at the numbers and timelines and trends and barriers and drivers – assessing it like an approachable market. You dig deeper – figuring out the entire model – from start to finish – and the related industries and products and adjacencies and the whole landscape. Then you seek out experts and consultants and research–with years of experience in the space, only to validate your understanding. You then articulate it – as one would do about a product. And so you create a framework!  – and a Model cant be too far behind.

So here it is – the G C T model for Water Sustainability. When done correctly, this model leads to results.

G for Generation of Water – This is about creating a clean, sustainable source of water. This is nothing new – a Byzantine city used stone structures as condensers, depositing moisture from air to a basin,which connected to wells. 

Ancient temples in India were never built without tanks – Kalyanis – they have always caught rainwater. Guess rainwater was considered holy water! Generation includes ground recharging at different levels, rainwater harvesting and many such efforts.

C for Conservation of Water – This teaches you to treat water as a precious resource!

It is simply about using gadgets at home which reduce water consumption by 30 – 40% just by being there. In most countries, plumbing already has these checks in place. There is a little denial involved – very little change in lifestyle. A culture shift!  Also – it is about using various sources of water in tandem with each other to achieve effectiveness in conservation – including potable/ drinking water, grey water and black water.

Finally – T stands for Treatment and Safety of Water – This completes the cycle. Treatment can actually result in generation – G – and that is how it completes the cycle! 

Water Treatment gives you adequate methods to ensure that water is safe for consumption, but doing it in a responsible way. Treatment also includes sewage treatment and similar techniques which ensure use of every drop of water is used to it’s utmost limit and actually allowing a community to create a ‘zero waste’ environment. Really? YES – Really!

Staytuned – we will tell you some success stories next!

Calling our Water Warriors!

Did you catch Whitefield Rising’s INKtalks Water event at Jagriti on Saturday April 5th ? You know I am just another concerned Whitefield citizen – just like you! I want to mention that I was ecstatic to see the turnout on Saturday! Thank you for spending your morning with us, and for all your questions and concerns throughout the event!

Firstly – if you have not done so already, we urge you to complete the water survey. I have decoded some initial statistics for us – here is our story today…

• Nearly 50% of us buy tanker supplied water – we are not really self sustained!
• 80% of our borewells are greater than 600 ft deep – if you recall Alok of T-Zed told us that his borewells are in the range of 120 to 200 ft. We are digging deeper, spending more resources.
• Our average water consumption is between 400 – 1000 liters per person/ per day – as opposed to average government estimates at 150 liters per person/ per day!

While we all worry about the deteriorating water conditions in Whitefield – the good news is that the solution is in our hands! And another piece of good news is

that if we do our piece, and tell others about it – we can inspire them to take their steps! Whitefield Rising is your platform as there is success in numbers!

• The presentations for the water event are available over here.If you want to assess your community’s re-charge, harvest, grey-water/eco-STP proposal, we are here to help! We can offer (some of us, pro-bono) opinions and share our
• experiences.

If you are about to start a re-charge, harvest, grey-water/eco-STP project, we want to hear about it, blog and broadcast your efforts and successes on our website.

• If you want to join hands to work on the ‘larger picture’ – including start conversations with BWSSB, work on cleaning up our wonderful lakes and more, please write to water.warriors@whitefieldrising.org

Below are the speakers contact details for you – feel free to reach out to the experts. But do circle back about your efforts to water.warriors@whitefieldrising.org to help us help you 

Topic	Speaker	Contact
Little Drops of Water – we want Water Warriorsl!	Kiran KhannaNitya Ramakrishnan	kiran@whitefieldrising.org  +91 9739713111nitya@whitefieldrising.org +91-9741351304
Masagi’s War For Water	Ayyappa Masagi	Founder, Rain Water Conceptsrainwatermasagi2000@yahoo.co.in  +91-9448379497
Lifecycle of a Water Drop	Sekar Srinivasan	Founder, Ecoserv Solutionssrinivasan.sekar@ecoservsolutions.in+91-99001022008
Sewage Stories	Rajesh Shah	Head, Peer Water Exchangeshahrv@gmail.com +91-9740322557
Our Early Successes	Arvind KeerthiAlok Kuchlous	arvind.keerthi@whitefieldrising.org +91-9342502992kuchlous@gmail.com +91-9902012104
A Larger Impact	Mala Subramanium	CEO, ARGHYAMmala@arghyam.org +91-9620945800
Wake the Lake	Suresh Nair	snair63@yahoo.com +91-9845042117
Varthur Lake – What will it take?	Anuradha Hegde	Consultant, Action Research Consultinganuradhahegde@gmail.com +91-9845044818
The Government as a Stakeholder	Manjunatha Prasad	Consultant, Action Research Consultingarconsultin@gmail.com +91-8277336679
Low Energy STP	Tharun Kumar	Director, Paradigm Environmental Strategiestharun@ecoparadigm.com +91-7259002986

The Story of a Water Warrior- Getting Started!

I want to start by telling you a little about myself. I am just a regular corporate citizen. My family moved to Whitefield a little over 5 years ago. As time went by, I grew increasingly concerned about our overall water situation. All signs were around me – to be noticed and to be enacted upon! The frothing smelly lake, the water tankers, the super-advanced methods being used for water treatment across all communities, Cauvery or no Cauvery, water borne diseases and mosquitoes – and ominous warnings about the possible 2023 Bangalore evacuation because of lack of water.

Throughout the year – I would see the ubiquitous water tanker and think – why are we getting our water from miles away for our regular consumption?

From where are they getting these tankers? Somebody within driving distance has water to spare and we need to buy it from them? And just how do these vendors justify large amount of transport related leakages? Do these water tankers give a certificate of water quality?

Then what you see during the rains is a watery mess! Floods happen really fast –  and water is unable to drain out. Why are we water logged and flooded on our main street? Where are the storm water drains? Don’t they function? Should the big vents lining the roads be filled with sewage? What happened to the famous Rajakaluves of Bangalore?

As I got more and more interested, I started learning more. Did you know that borewell technology did not exist in India in the 1960s – but now I see those large borewell drilling equipment everywhere. These are called super rigs.

A few years ago they used to hit water at 200 ft or so, now they are going as deep as 1000 ft to get anything. And the quality of water is totally suspect. Why is ground water deteriorating in quality?

Water is not as available as it used to be and it is not completely benign. As an example, in my community we felt a growing need to treat water –to prevent water related issues. Everything – from our pipelines to our appliances to our health can get affected.

V Balasubramanian, the former Additional Chief Secretary of Karnataka said that there are over 300,000 borewells in Bangalore city alone – and the ground water drawn is almost three and a half times the water available to recharge the same area!

This means that we keep taking and taking – without giving back! How can this be sustainable? Does this seem like sheer injustice to you? Somebody is not thinking this through!

So what next? Keep in touch to hear more thoughts.

Summer 2013 Update

The school year is out! Yaaaaaaay - and the Khanna kids came out looking pretty good! 

Of course we think that all 3 are super cool and a lot of fun. Each one has a distinct personality and this picture captures them completely.

• Ana is the princess, and gets her way all the time.
• Krish is Ana's 'Mary's little lamb' - following her lead in most things. Except when it comes to any mechanical flying object - which he obsesses about in every waking hour. He is 4 yrs old but can already tell you the visible difference between the F2 Typhoon and F3 Tornado. (fyi - these are fighter jets) 
• Arjun is the 'crushed one' - among the 3. But he has managed to find his following - with Ace Khanna, who literally licks his footsteps. 

And this is what their schools had to say:

Krish is happy and affectionate. He is a leader to his peers - in a kind and helpful way. He has a vivid imagination and is very physical as well. He loves new ideas and different experiences - never shies away. He is musical minded - forever playing a beat under his breath as he works in class.

Ananya's report card at school looks great - she is an "A" student doing well in Math, French and Environmental Sciences. She has gorgeous handwriting and loves art - I will ask her to write you letters or make cards if you give me your snail mail address - she loves doing that! Ana has a green belt in Taekwondo and she is trying to become an ace swimmer - a little reluctantly :( Ana's teachers tell me that she has a glorious voice that needs to be trained - I will try to help her with it. I want her to take up Hindustani classical vocal. Do you have any better suggestions?

Arjun' academic report card showed a marked improvement in all round performance this year. Admittedly, it was a difficult transition for him from IB to ICSE curriculum. He scores A++ in enthusiasm - he loves school and his set of friends! :) :) He scored straight "A" in Math, Science and Computers. He participated and won for the school in various track and field meets. Arjun also won his first football championship this year. He already has a red belt in Taekwondo and aiming for brown belt this year. He is playing the tabla with a lot of gusto - learning from panditji every Sunday. (for this - he is a little reluctant :( )  

Please continue to bless them and give your good advice - it takes a village to bring up a child! Here is wishing all of you a lovely and lazy summer - and come visit Bangalore soon!

Cheers,
The Bangalore Khannas

Overextended bladders

This write-up has been some time in the making. This is an issue that gets to me 20 times a day. One thing I notice incessantly going on all around me with studied determination - in the most populous and busy areas of the town - no matter what time of the day - men peeing publically! Ironically, it is less prevalent in the scantily populated areas- I am yet to see a guy up to his business near secluded Varthur lake. I can conclude that there is a need to feel safely surrounded by teeming masses while publically urinating- totally understandable, dont you think? After all, privacy should be the last thing on your mind when the urge to pee strikes...
But why am I noticing it so specifically? I have seen it before, haven't I? This is not unfamiliar. Public urination is quite the norm in India - happens all the time. Peeing against a wall, peeing against a tree, peeing as they squat, peeing as they stand, hell- peeing standing on their heads... men do it publically all the time. So why am I just a little shocked?
Is it the sheer numbers? Has the number of pee-ers increased substantially in the last 13 years that I have been away? The well- known burgeoning middle class of India - have they been reproducing like rabbits? - and specifically producing public pee-ers? Surely it is the population density - while occupying a little over 2.5% of the land mass of the world, India supports over 15% of the world population.
Another well known fact that may be impacting this - the skewed gender ratio. More males than females - and hence, more standing pee-ers who are more noticeable to an average observer passing by. Proud mothers produce male offspring and also possibly train them to be as obvious as possible when struck by the slightest need to empty their bladder.
I am sure another factor also is the intrinsic lack of patience in the populace. Whether you are in the middle of traffic or navigating your beaten down car down a pot-holed road or on an abandoned road with nobody else but that other car which is a mile away - they will honk at you! Move on, they tell you -- we don't have time for your safety related shenanigans. What is the most that can happen to you? You may go down with your car into a ball of flames? Oh well!
When it is morning, they can't wait for it to be lunch time... when it is lunch, they can't wait to get into bed! It is always the promise of the future that eggs them on - there is no time to realize that right here, right now - we are in the present -- and it is an intolerable, smelly mess that we have created or added to! So, when it comes to the slightest whiff of a drop or two of pee descending into the bladder -- they have to get it out! Right here, right now!
Also I wonder - is it subliminally cultural? Is it macho to pee in public? Is it a male bonding mechanism? In which case, there must be an implicit pact that if a guy wants to express his high level of comfort and familiarity with another, they pee together in public. Because another phenomenan is that there seem to be multiple pee-ers locating themselves close to each other. Do they know each other? Or do they just cluster together because birds of the same feather flock together?
And then - the biology aspects of this. Kidneys filter about 2 liters of waste products from the body every single day. So, does that mean - Indian males have too many diuretics in their diet - elevating the desire to urinate? Either way, it has got to be a male thing - because I have never seen a female join the legion of public pee-ers. The reason to explore the diuretic angle is that I compare their bladder control (or lack there of) to that of my seven yr old boy - who has the ability to hold it in until he gets to a pre-specified peeing area - aka a bathroom or lavatory or restroom.
Of course lastly, the civic angle - or the lack there-of! But that may be the last thing on everyone's mind. Especially when confronted with the biology aspect of the situation.
Just some casual observations - no further comments and no call to action!

Confronting mortality

I believe I have been living my life as if I have all the time in the world - and to an extent, so do my loved ones! Procrastination is frequent and rampant. Lack of appreciation even more so. Add into the equation our endless battles - Mars vs. Venus, Generation X vs. baby boomers, whats our kids generation called anyway? - Gen Y? Type Alpha vs. Type Z and also the power struggles within - to prove who's boss!
And then when it suddenly strikes - without any warning - death! It is numbing. It blows the mind. It is reality - the only thing real and certain about life is death. And yet, it is inexplicably sad. It HAS to come - sooner or later.
We will all be confronted by this soon enough - death of a parent. I lost my father when I was too young. And in retrospect - I did not really get it at all! I did not understand the magnitude of my loss. I remember I felt this constant hollow in my stomach - I equate it to insecurity now. But back then I could not put my finger on it. I definitely appreciate it when they say ignorance is bliss!
Now - I am older, I hope I get it. I hope I can handle it better. But when confronted by death yet again - it was as numbing, as unacceptable. We lost A's father to his long drawn battle with health issues. Part of me wants to offer gratitude that he was spared more pain - but the other part is constantly asking 'why me? why now?and what next?'. Suddenly the whole relationship feels wasteful - because it feels like unfinished business. There are still so many things I wanted - from this relationship. There are so many upcoming events I was hoping we would share - the event of life!
And I discovered that, death is an equally important event of life! Intuitively, I would want to quickly acknowledge it and deal with it - like removing bandaid. But that is probably not good for me at a subliminal level. And Hindu rituals probably take that into consideration. What follows the death of a human being is a long process - a whole set of rituals that basically drive the fact home. And all this has nothing to do with the person who passed on but it is meant for the surviving family and friends. This is a set of age old, highly supported, sincerely practiced rituals that start from bidding farewell to the mortal remains of the departed by cleaning and preparing of the body for cremation - with great involvement from family members. It is not something carried out at a funeral home by morticians. It is led by a priest but it is physically conducted by family members. I feel that it is morbid and disturbing.
Then comes the actual cremation - offering the mortal remains to the purity of sacred fire. Another lengthy process.
Following that is an unending set of rituals and customs carried out by the family members over a span of days - if not weeks and months. We decided to keep it short - in accordance with Dad's wishes. But it is clearly a process of mourning. And mourning is not allowed to be personal. It is a public and shared process. It consists of many steps where a person is guided to share the grief and talk about it. The rituals ask for involvement of the person's siblings, children, grandchildren, womenfolk, friends - the whole ecosystem seems to get involved. It is about introspection and articulation. A process of thinking, feeling, converting thoughts and feelings into action.
Some of these rituals have been bastardised - for economic gains. But most of the process remains intact under layers of tradition and begs you to find it's value and meaning.
To me it is a reminder of how precious time and relationships are. It also provides a fresh and crystal clear lens to look at my life, my blessings, my ecosystem. I still feel numb and get that 'unfinished' feeling. But the rituals may be helping in their unexplained, mysterious ways.