Ideas on ideas

A set of 55 ideas on ideas at http://www.slideshare.net/rsm/55-ideas-on-ideas - I liked about 5 to 10 of them but this one - I liked most.

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas” George Bernard Shaw

My Incubating Ideas!

As the new academic year is approaching, it is time for me to draft my own syllabus for the year and hence I took a re-look at my incubating ideas. With the Internet stage set for regional content, I considered my Telugu_Agriculture_Content ideas first.

Ready ...One ..Two..and Go!

**First ever Bibliographic Database of Agricultural Literature in Telugu **

I had actually started building it and I wanted it to be formally launched at S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, during our Alumini meet. But that Alumini meet didn't happen to date. I cannot incubate the idea any further and I am announcing it right here.


**"English to Telugu" and "Telugu to English" Dictionary of Agricultural Terms, with thematic arrangement.**

It is going to be a hybrid between a thesaurus and a dictionary.

This has been my idea since 2-3 years, and it has become partially real, with me getting the AGROVOC translation project. (people say watch your ideas, they become your actions. It turned out to be true). But this assignment was slightly different from what I had in mind. It was more like `AGROVOC in Telugu' rather than a `Thesaurus of Agricultural Terms in Telugu'. So, now I would take up the second one and I plan to include the regional and dialectical variations as well.

I propose to bring this out in two versions - a Concise Print Version and an elaborate & interactive Online Version. Since, I do not need any software support for the first one, I am starting it right away. It is going to be a handy reference tool for NGOs, Press and particularly to Scientists for their Radio & TV programmes and for their Farmer's meetings. The most probable user would of course be myself and I can speed up my translation assignments.

**Microblogging**

My distant, if not remote vision is that it forms the basis for microblogging (via mobiles) among farmers across continents. So that is another thing I dream of! To get farmers bitten by the `Blogging' bug.

And of course there are my regular seasonings - Puzzles, Posters, Parody songs, Puppet shows etc. to garnish these farmers' blogs.

**Animations and TV programmes**


Once I open this Pandora's box of `My ideas', two `jacks-in-the-box' are certain to pop up (1) 2-D animations showing the progress of a disease/damage, pest-predator interaction etc. and (2) the last but not the least idea is to have a TV show - `Raitu Mahila' with Suma style of anchoring.

This Summer ...Sundrop comes to my rescue...

It comes to my rescue with its Peanut Butter! Rather with its Peanut Butter Jars!! It made one of the boring summer chores pleasurable...filling of water bottles! Although I managed to avoid it most of the time as a child, I could not do so as a house wife. In theory `yes', it could be done by children or other family members. But in practice, it is not the case always. In some homes where systems are rigidly followed, I saw children not emptying the bottle at all, as they are supposed to fill it as soon as they drank from them. That is more dangerous!

Somehow, I was never happy with regular plastic bottles. I couldn't be sure of their cleanliness. Earlier I was using earthen pots. Later I was using a small steel binde that could sit inside a fridge. I had two of them so that I could swap them in and out. Last year was an year of `tupperware' and I instantly fell for the square bottle (very easy to clean) with a lid of my favorite shade of blue. This year I took a vow not get lured by tupperware any more as my husband has dubbed it as `tappudu ware' as it is spoiling our economy. Also, the bottle holder in my refrigirator has broken long ago. It is easier to buy a new fridge than hunting for a spare part. I had to manage by some means and there they are...the cute little bottles with colorful no-nonsense lids and clarity close to glass bottles. They are short and could slip straight into any of the compartments including the deep freezer. So...convenient. Being wide mouthed, they could be filled easily from the water filter or even from the binde instead of managing bottles with narrow mouths and long necks. With the narrow ones, I used to make sure that I had a bucket below to contain my imperfection. Moreover these bottles are as good as glass tumblers and contain just enough water for one gulp. No question of those irritating half-filled bottles lying here and there or occupying the valuable fridge space.

An Oasis of Time ... in the desert of vacation!

Vacation ...not for Mothers! For them, it is overtime with the additional duty to put up with the SOUND of cartoon characters on TV and the SIGHT of games on the computer, simultaneously. Suddenly the locusts (only two ...but meant a swarm to me)migrated to their aunt's place and I got ALL the Time and Space I wanted. I could watch whatever programme I wanted, do whatever I liked for whatever length of time and more importantly, could cook to my OWN preferences. But at the other end, there is a double-dose. I tried to console myself and I visualized my Sis saying `Problem Plus Problem = Solution'. So, could that be extrapolated to Children + Children = ...not necessarily ...at least not always!

(ever since, I read Alchemist I am interpreting everything in terms of dreams, deserts and oases. It is time to read another to undo the `Alchemist effect')

More about those vibrant beads...

My friends who just returned from a trip to Nepal, told me that they saw all the married Nepali women wearing these vibrant beads in red or green. I started hunting for a good picture of these beads over net and to explore the significance of these beads and I thought the facts are worth sharing.

These beads are called Pote beads and are essential for almost every Nepalese woman. They come in a rainbow of colors, and are usually the supporting strands for a tilhari, either as a necklace or as a belt. The tilhari necklace indicates that its wearer is a married woman. The silver part of this necklace is called a tilhari. Tilharis always consist of seven finely worked beads, three of which are rounder and four are flatter. They may be of silver or of gold and are strung on a rod of metal or of wood.


On the wedding day the groom places a tilhari around neck of the bride, and it symbolizes the wish and prayer for his long life. It is called Resha & Tilhari ?? I guess Resha refers to the pote bead strands. Resha means rope (origin: Arabic) I learn't it from a baby names site.

Only Newari (and select few other Nepali tribes) brides are allowed to wear this to symbolize marriage.

The Wish Granting Beads!

It is only a few years back that I came to know about Akshaya Tritiya as an auspicious day to start something new. Programmed by those gold shop ads on TV and newspapers, I too happened to buy some gold. It was fun to go to a gold shop on that particular day and share the spirit with other women over there. The first year I had been to my favorite Mujtaba jewellers, I bought only a pair of earrings. (I felt really sorry for the salesman who spent his time in showing things to my specifications. He deserved more!) But that was only a beginning, and I ended up buying a couple of necklaces later that year. Did Akshyaya Tritiya play the trick? Or it was just a coincidence that I, as a responsible mother was building some collection for my daughter. At least, I could take Akshaya Tritiya as an occasion (excuse?)to venture into a gold shop. But the situation soon changed with the hype getting more and more pronounced. There were media reports about the not so fair deals on that day, and we could go for gold shopping on any day other than the Akshaya Tritiya.

This year, the Akshaya Tritiya advertisements could not woo me. I resigned all of them with a more matured outlook and I was clear in my mind that now my priorities are yoga and acquiring a lot of positive energy. But after all, the day meant something special to me in last few years!

... my friend (more a philosopher and guide) presented me with a bunch of green vibrant multi-stranded beads form the Manokamna Temple, Nepal. Here they are! My wish granting beads, combining the concept of jewelry and energy, as an Akshaya Tritiya surprise, that too from (near) the Manokamna Temple.