yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

“Where does the trash go?” Encouraging youth to take actions for a better climate Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) organized a series of 2 day events at multiple locations to raise the awareness of the youth on climate change under its Agents of Change program with the objectives to:  A.    Raise voices of the Indian youth on climate policy leading up to and at COP 20. B.    Strengthen network to support the long term strategy of youth engagement in climate policy targeting COP 20 and 2015 climate agreement. C.    Strength local chapters in selected urban areas to influence climate policy at the local, state and national level. Placed below is second of the three stories on IYCNs Agent of Change project.  Mu sic, cricket ball sized globes tossed towards the audience and the frankness of his language and body language during his presentation had the audience wanting more. Such an original and interesting manner to talk of w...

“Act if there is no tomorrow.” Indian Youth on the track of the climate dialogue After a basic introduction I was keen to know more of Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCNs) Agents of Change project.  This since: A.    Climate change as a topic, while not rocket science, is surely a challenge to engage people in. B.    Design of the workshops was interesting in the reach it offered. C.    This was a ‘different’ approach to environment education ( and awareness ) then the one I am familiar with. Placed below is first of the three stories on IYCNs Agent of Change project.   S upriya Singh, the president of the IYCN ( Indian Youth Climate Network ) was to lead a delegation to COP 20 at Lima in a few weeks. We sat on an early and endearing Shillong winter over cups of piping hot tea, during the workshop, and she talked of IYCNs remarkable journey - 2009 onwards. This was our first meeting and questions were easy to come by - Wh...

Minal and Vikram ( thanks again! ) gave a pack of cards and we have since played with them enough to ensure that most of them ( other than the jokers ) are pale avatars of their original self. That was the evening cards and games kind of made a re-entry in life.  Games Cards I used to play in younger days and they had an association with summer holidays. This association was akin to one which today walking has with rains – both when independent are welcome but when together they, for some reason, increase the fun many fold. Games played alone, in teams and those like ‘ Judgement ’ where one played independently and kept track of the points.  "Jenga distorted" by Guma89 - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jenga_distorted.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Jenga_distorted.jpg Jenga was fresh for me when I saw it at Minal and Vikram’s place, that very evening. What I recall ...

Evening walks in the Osmania University take me to the - endearing to eyes and friendly to the spirit - Landscape Garden many a time. It is here that I have come across noisy enthusiastic parakeets and very slim hornbills. The only day I have walked with the camera I enjoyed with a tree – going up, caressing its trunk, marveling at the colours and shades of leaves, flowers and more that lay scattered around its feet,  wondering how calm and friendly it stood and more! The clicking also left me with a host of questions – What interactions does it have with its neighbours? Which bird species it provides food and shelter to? How do the students who come to study in the garden perceive it? How do seasons affect it? How common or uncommon it is in the campus and the landscape?  What does Pradip Krishen have to say of the species? This is a 'friendly to climb' tree and how I love it! Branches that give a feel of its vast experience. Branches that ca...

Attended a talk by Dr. Rajaram Sharma – at a function organized by Teacher Plus recently as a part of its 25 th year celebrations. ~ In the lines below what I attempt is to capture select elements that stayed with me, touched some chord somewhere within and not a draft or ‘note’ on his talk. Probability of the text not doing enough justice is high but I risk it none the less. I have also made attempts to place thoughts (most of them on wildlife conservation) that visited me as I heard and later wrote. ~ Lousy job One of the lines that has since stayed - if at the end of a talk or a lecture one feels that the person has answered all questions and cleared all doubts the speaker has in all probability done a lousy job! A talk by a teacher, or else, should make one think and I thank Prof. Rajaram Sharma for bringing this out when people, all around, seem to have solutions when many a time they have not even heard the person out! I recall a one to one meetin...

Musings as one rolled on the tracks  ** Kuch aisa sula diya rail gadi ne, Mano kisi karibi ke god me sir ho, Uth ke darwaze se mehsoos ki Khoobsoorat sham – alhad, khud me mast aur apni aur bulati, Phir tare aye Peeth pe let kar hi unhe nihara ja sakta hai – baat chit ki jaa sakti hai, Train ke haule haule hilne se  - aur mooh pe hawa lagne se Maza to aati hai Aur neend bhi kya khoob aati hai ** Crossed the lovely Krishna and Tungabhadra, Both appeared busy - unlike me at times on the window at others the door, From Darters basking to herons awaiting fishes, From sand-mining using bullock-carts to fishing using coracles, People chatting, washing clothes, going somewhere, bathing, doing nothing,  Why did we have only dead-pan names in school days No trips to rivers ? No chats with people interacting with rivers ?  ** Earlier posts on railway journeys  Moving on rails ...

Wildlife in a City Pond Written by: Ashish Kothari Illustrated by: Sangeetha Kadur Published by: Pratham Books First English Edition: 2014 A friend wrote this, of the book, on facebook "... brought back memories of a few mornings spent wandering around here..." and what little doubts I had of procuring it were brushed aside. Not many books succeed in make that connect with readers.  I believe that there is over-kill of information and exercise or module based books in the gamut of conservation and environment education. We need to have interesting stories (besides of course the regular interactions and facilitation of platforms for these interactions) to make the younger ones aware of the environment and enthuse them to conserve it. As a friend says “we are a nation of stories and story-tellers and that is what works”. Stories that ideally talk of corresponding action as well. This is the kind of book that perhaps one had been looking for! The i...

This article finds space in July - September 2014 issue of Hornbill  I visited the Siju Eco Camp, located on the banks of the Simsang river across the Siju Wildlife Sanctuary, Meghalaya, during first week of February 2013, with colleagues. A part of Samrakshan’s eco-tourism initiative, our objectives were to organize an in-house workshop for team members and allot time to look for birds. Samrakshan has taken up interesting and unique initiatives to conserve the habitat. These range from participatory elephant monitoring program to one on Community Conserved Areas. Samrakshan, a NGO registered as a Charitable Trust, works towards conserving biodiversity values in an equitable and just manner. Its Baghmara field-base was initiated during 2004. Pitcher Plant (Memang Koksi), South Garo Hills : Pankaj Sekhsaria Simsang from the hanging bridge at Siju : Pankaj Sekhsaria First the birds... A Blue Whistling-Thrush Myophonus caeruleus had made the Siju Eco Camp its ...