Tuesday 31 July 2012

WHAT WOULD MAKE GANDHI'S SALAD BOWL?

 
 (Mediterranean and Native American Invasion in our Vegetable Diet)

               
                 I was discussing with a friend of mine on a restaurant, lately. It all started with me picking on him about his food habit. He was having Chinese, I remember, and I was having south Indian. He interestingly hit me back with a question ‘What ingredients my food has that yours doesn’t?’ Ironically, I had no answer to tell him. Not only that we had same vegetables on our plates, but they were all foreign in origin.

                 Having read Jared Diamond’s “Guns, germs and steel” I already had an idea of Native American vegetable species dominating other vegetables all over the world. It was, basically, an European point of view who had been having vegetables originated from Mediterranean and Mesopotamian (Parts of Iran) regions. From an Indian point of view, the domination is adjoined by European vegetables as well.

Thursday 26 July 2012

GANDHI ON TECHNOLOGY


TRANSLATION OF AN EXCERPT FROM ‘INDRAIYA GANDHI
BY JEYAMOHAN



             To look at Gandhi in the context of technology is to understand that he was a man who had his doubts on modernism and looked beyond that….

       ….When once asked ‘Do you hate machines?’ ‘No’, answered Gandhi ‘While my body on itself is nothing but a meticulous machinery How can I dismiss it? My spinning wheel or even this toothpick, for that matter, is a machine. I hate not the machines, but this growing passion for machines. I hate the passion for the machines which work upon diminishing man power. Some talk about machine which could spare man power when thousands of people are thrown jobless on the streets. Yes, I want the human toil and time to be spared not just for a sect of people but for the humanity. I want the wealth to be accumulated not just in few hands but for all the people in the world. Today machines favor putting handful of people on top thousands.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

GREYED OUT OF MIND?

(ECLIPSING OF SEQUENTIAL THOUGHTS OVER EARTHQUAKE PREDICTING INTUITION1)
                 
                        The day after Christmas 2004, it was an ordinary morning for all of us but the pet dogs, until we learned about nasty tsunami that had just struck East Indian coastline. Running amok and howling they seemed restless. We are housed at least 7 km from nearest seashore for any kind of signs to be felt apparently. Later, I came to know from my friends that we are not the only to witness this extraordinary pet behavior. Although I’ve heard about animal intuitive prediction of natural calamity before2 this direct witness urged me to learn more about this phenomenon. This phenomenon has been observed throughout the history and has heavily tinted our folklore. And this phenomenon has been venerated and harnessed adeptly by many Human societies3 familiar with and are prone to natural calamity
                   

                    The question that rises at once on one’s mind is ‘How is this possible?’ Well, the researchers have a great deal of struggle with answering that one and the claims are as diverse as, explaining it as an inborn capability which are genetically embedded, to, much familiar hypothesis of associating the behavior with senses4. The next question would be ‘Why is this capability restricted to animals?’ Inclined towards hypothesis of natural calamities being sensed by the animals, I’d try to answer the second question in this article with backing of scientific facts.