Switching off lights for earth hour

I had switched off all the electrical equipment at home for an hour between 8.30 p.m and 9.30 p.m on 27th March, 2010 to show my support for earth hour

I not only switched off all lights at home, but also messaged more than 50 friends and relatives to do the same. A few called back to say that they did the same. Some called up to say that they switched off everything but kept TV on and a few switched off everything except one light as they had small kids at home.

As it was quite hot inside the house (since all fans were off), we all went out for a walk. I was happy to see that a few people in my area were doing the same. Some had switched off all lights and were sitting on the front porch.

who says cell phone is not harmful

Watch the video on how Pop corn is made usign cell phone signals

http://www.koreus.com/video/telephone-portable-mais-popcorn.html

My photo on Deccan herald

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http://deccanheraldepaper.com//svww_zoom.php?Artname=pdf/2008/05/13/20080513t_004100003&ileft=612&itop=781&zoomRatio=130&AN=20080513t_004100003&path=0

Click on the image to see the the same photo

Me and my nephew Samarth are in today's deccan herald paper

Going green

Every year, Employees of Sun Microsystems dedicate a week for Global volunteering program. India Engineering Center (IEC) is also very active during this week. One of the events as a part of the Volunteer program, was to clean up the plastic waste at 'Sangama', a popular picnic spot at the intersection of rivers kaveri and Arkavati. Close by is a 'MekedaaTu', another famous getaway from Bangalore. Lot of tourists visit these places every year and leave a lot of plastic waste. Employees of Sun along with volunteers from 'Clean and Green' go on a cleaning program along the banks of river kaveri. Last year (2007), we all had been to Muttatthi and this year they had chosen 'Sangama'. Along with my family (mom, wife, sister and nephew) I joined the team of volunteers at Sangama. The place was a big mess with plastic covers, bottles, gutka packets etc. A group of 60 volunteers worked for 3 hours in the scorching heat to collect 220 KG of plastic waste. The plastic waste was handed to a plastic company in Kanakpura who use it for laying tar for road.
Last year we had collected 303 kgs of plastic at muttatti. You can read about it on April 14 2007 - Mega Acitivity @ Muttathi

The same day evening, I had to attend a wedding reception. I met a few friends at the wedding and told them about the clean and green activity and they appreciated our effort. In most of the South Indian weddings, the guests are given 'Tamboola' (coconut and beetle leaves) as a tradition. It is believed that the guests who attend the wedding should not be sent empty handed and hence there is a tradition of giving tamboola. The practice is to give the tamboola in a plastic cover. My friend told me that in the wedding, they had decided not to use plastic and hence they gave the tamboola in a paper bag, with a very nice note on it. The note requested people to reduce the usage of plastic. click on the image to read the note.
Read A letter to Reliance Industries

Save the Tiger

Less than 1500 tigers are left in india now and at the current rate of deforestation and poaching the day is not too far when the beautiful cat and all other wildlife will be extinct.
Please add your name and email to the "SAVE THE TIGER" Campaign started by NDTV-Sanctuary and do your bit for the tiger and the forests of india.
The tiger needs all the support it can get..Please forward it to all your friends for support.

Here's the link to support the campaign.
http://sanctuaryasia.com/save_the_tiger_campaign.php


For more details

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/savetiger/sthome.aspx

Bangalore Rains

It has been raining continuously in the past few days in Bangalore. Rains are good signs, but can Bangalore handle so much rains. Infact Bangaloreans fear rains.
Rains brings Bad roads, overflowing drainages, pot holes, traffic jams, flooded roads, power cuts and lot more agonies. Bangalore is one of the world's most preferred destinations for IT, BPO and call centers. This city has created jobs for lakhs of people. There is money flowing everywhere. Govt is collecting a lot more taxes. But where is all the money going. Why is Bangalore infrastructure so bad. I won't talk about how Govt should wake up to improve infrastructure. This gets discussed every day in the media. I just hope that something will be done to address issue and we can enjoy the rains in the coming days. We used to enjoy the rain a lot when we were kids. I hope that our kids too enjoy the same. Bangalore should take cue from Mumbai which receives a lot more rains than Bangalore and that too for months.
Just a glimpse, of what happened to our roads last week.

Silk board junction

A letter to Reliance Industries

I posted this comment on Reliance website. If you agree with this, or have anything to add to this, please leave a comment on this blog. May be someone in Reliance will realize the importance of preserving our environment and act soon.

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Hi
This comment is regarding the Reliance Fresh stores. First of all, Congratulations on the big success of Reliance Fresh stores.
I stay in Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bangalore and go to Reliance Fresh store in my locality regularly. What I have noticed is that, at your store there is a lot of usage of Polythene bags. There are big rolls of Plastic covers kept for the convenience of customers, which is being used thoughtlessly. I have noticed that hundreds of customers visit the stores during evenings and on an average every customer buys more than half a dozen variety of vegetables and fruits. As polythene bags are freely available, people segregate their vegetables and fruits separate plastic bag. At the billing section, all these items are added to 2 or 3 more plastic bags. As the customer leaves the store, he/she is walking with nearly 10 plastic bags. This is definitely not environmental friendly. We all know that plastic is non degradable. I would request the big organizations like Reliance to think about our environment and not promote the use of plastic at this scale.
Lets preserve our environment for our future generation.

Some Recommendations from my end:
1. Use Paper bags instead of Plastic.
2. Give polythene bags to customers only on demand.
3, Spread awareness amongst people and ask them to get their own shopping bags.
4. At reasonable cost (less than Rs 5/-), sell good paper or cloth bags which can be reused for shopping, You can have reliance Ads on these bags which will even help you promote your store.

Regards,
Nagendra HK

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