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

Last week a friend offered us 'packaged' Lassi ( when we declined aerated drinks ) and my immediate response was - surely we are not having those in Banaras, People coming to the town are guided by its God places, we have been guided by its Food places, much like birds and mammals our movements are guided by availability of food, though unlike them it is for reasons other than survival,  Lassi is one 'food' which gives immense pleasure and we have often been spotted pedaling around town to partake some during varying times of the day, and seldom has the ratio of people to kullads been 1 : 1, Like a lot else in life Banarasis take their Lassi seriously, debates on the best places in town to savour Lassi are not uncommon, one often encounters angry- loud responses, Stories abound of how - during the past - the sellers used to be strict of their Lassi not being wasted and used to - not very politely - tell customers to drink water in the kullad ( after th

Nature education in schools: Where do we stand?   Thanks are due to the team at Teacher Plus and the hosts and co-participants of the event for this piece published in August issue of Teacher Plus. At a recent gathering on nature education, participating school teachers raised pertinent questions, some of which I discuss briefly below. A majority of teachers were part of schools that have ‘nature’ higher on the list of values they ascribe to than ‘competition’ and boast of campuses which other ( read regular ) schools can at best dream of. Outdoors.   Most of us agree that the ‘outdoors’ present a far more conducive setting for nature education than the ‘indoors’. However, the ‘outdoors’ also warrant a different and seemingly more difficult set of skills. Walking around and recognizing, touching, smelling, tasting leaves and learning of their usage from people whose lives they are an intricate part of – all the while keeping the students hooked - is different from

" In pursuing an understanding of the human-fungus connection, I realized that one of my favorite ancient cultures treasured mushrooms just about as much as I do. This little synergy delights me to no end, especially because the Romans approached mushrooms with all the flashy, semi-glorious and semi-reprehensible behavior that was a major hallmark of their culture. " Mushroom Anna More on her blog here ~  Rains have the mushrooms do what they are good at, mushrooming ~  Earlier memories pertain to the local names providing humour : બિલાડીની ટોપ, कुकुरमुत्ता ~ During days in Meghalaya and Mizoram stories of hunters losing lives on account of eating 'wrong' mushroom species were not rare ~  Then, of course, the debate of whether consuming them made one 'non-vegeterian' ~  As of now, some of us find them cute ~  And they appear to appreciate our efforts at mulching ~ 

~ Fallen beauties ~ More than a few trees we have  Be it numbers or species diversity Biased towards some we are  Like the Pakhads near the dairy But there is one tree which stands out  Near the school we see it stand tall  Its flowers say it all  How I wish I could climb the tree And see them up there  Or lie with them  As they elegantly caress the ground  Fallen beauties these  Graceful even after the tree lets them go