The Alchemist ...

...still haunting! I liked it in toto.. In fact it is not liking, it was a sort of self-identification. It was possibly because I didn't read many books or I happened to read that book when I was really ready to read something. Not exactly! The other books I came across didn't appeal me and I didn't even continue reading beyond a few pages.

...there is something that is very similar about the book and myself. Although I did not like the idea that I am similar to something that is just fiction, I have to admit that it is true! Dreams, Destiny, Universal language ...exactly my kind of stuff.

I cherish many sentences therein, but I don't have the patience to read it again, so I pick up those particular sentences I like and put them here, of course, with some concept classification. Habits die hard! A new kind of Content Indexing? Or perhaps very old...a concordance!


Dreams:
Dreams are the language of God p. 13

Whoever believes in dreams also knows how to interpret them p. 112

People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they will be unable to achieve them. P. 136-137 [I very much deserve my farm house dream. It might appear now that I may not achieve it at all. But I am waiting and watching for something to really happen! The Universe has to conspire to help me - the book says "When you want something , all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it" p. 23. I trust it. It happened to me thrice before.]

Never stop dreaming…follow the omens. P. 64

“No heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity. p. [137 ?]

Why don’t people’s hearts tell them to continue to follow their dreams? ..Because that’s what makes a heart suffer most, and hearts don’t like to suffer p. 138

[There appears to be some contradiction in the above two sentences. Did I understand it right? But in experience, both are true. Suffering seems to be a continuum. We do suffer because of having dreams and at times, if not always, it is literally an encounter with God and with eternity. It is my form of worshiping God!]

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve the fear of failure. P. 149 [also the fear of Success. May be I wish that it remains a dream and do not want it to become a reality. The moment it becomes a reality, it ceases to be a dream. Not only that the charm is lost, it becomes a burden. Dreams should never become true? I didn't join my dream job with AME because I didn't want to shatter it with real world problems]

I am not wrong ... the following sentences in The Alchemist also say something similar. That is why I liked this book. It is in tune with me.

I am afraid that if my dream is realized, I ‘ll have no reason to go on living p. 57

He had worked for an entire year to make a dream come true, and that dream, minute by minute, was becoming less important. May be because that wasn’t really his dream .may be it is better to be like the crystal merchant: never to go to Mecca, and just go through life wanting to do so. P.66 [Is it true with my farm house dream? It is hurting! I still have hope. Better late than never!]


The desert is a capricious lady, and sometimes she drives men crazy – p. 74
Arms are as capricious as the desert, and if they are not used, the next time they might not function. P. 113 [!? earlier it is compared to a capricious lady?)
In the desert disobedience means death p. 74
But the desert is so huge and the horizon so distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should remain silent. P. 76 [I remembered watching the sea from the ship (from Bombay to Goa in 1986)and the very next sentence in the book was this..]
Whenever he saw the sea, or fire, he fell silent, impressed by their elemental force. P. 76
Once you get into the desert, there’s no going back, said the camel driver, “And, when you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward. The rest is up to Allah, including the danger. – p. 81 [yeah! true with marriage and kids and partly with profession as well!]
Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees, he thought. P. 91
The dunes are changed by the wind, but the desert never changes. That’s the way it will be with our love for each other. P. 102 [I change flavors in Complan but never the complan, in good old days. But now it is Coffee - jars changed by offers]

Here and there, he found a shell, and realized that the desert, in remote times, had been a sea. P. 104

He had heard people speak of mirages, and had already seen some himself. They were desires that, because of their intensity, materialized over the sands of the desert. P. 105
This time the desert was safe, and it was the oasis that had become dangerous. P. 105
If I could, I’d write a huge encyclopedia just about the words luck and coincidence. It’s with those words that the universal language is written – p. 73 [Even I have tales to tell about luck and coincidence. I very much agree that the universal language is written with these words]

They believe that if they have to know, someone will tell them about it. It happened many times before. But this time the person is you. P. 109

When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I’ve discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve. P. 137

..That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon” p. 139

The boy remembered an old proverb from his country. It said that the darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn p. 139

Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time. (an Arab proverb) p. 164
Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it’s all written there. ..Maktub- p. 77
Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own. p. 16
When someone sees the same people every day,…they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. And then they want the person to change. P. 16
People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it is better to be with the sheep who don’t say anything. And better still to be alone with one’s books. They tell their incredible stories >at the time when you want to hear them. P. 20

Anyone who interferes with the destiny of another thing never will discover his own. P. 143

Simplicity:

It’s the simple things in life that are the most extra-ordinary; only wise men are able to understand them. P. 15

Master Work could be written simply on an emerald. But men began to reject simple things, and to write tracts, interpretations and philosophical studies. P. 133

When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed p. 141 [I don't know why I felt like putting this sentence under simplicity but somewhere I am convinced]

Incidents - dangerous and disastrous:

One day, the earth began to tremble, and the Nile overflowed its banks. It was something that I thought could happen only to others, never to me. P. 79 [I felt exactly the same way when earth trembled during Latur Earth quake and When we jumped out of the Burning Gautami Express]

All this happened between sunrise and sunset, the boy thought. He was feeling sorry for himself, and lamenting the fact that his life could have changed so suddenly and so drastically. – p. 41 [It reminded me of my Father's death. Everything was over in a single day! I have the same feeling whenever I see a road accident]

a Dash of ash ...and a Dot of silver!

...to enliven a beautiful pink saree. Taking respite and retreat from routine with hobby ideas. Fabric painting is a sure way of reducing weight. Yes! You don't feel like going into the kitchen at all!
It is an ideal off-season occupation. Not only for me. Even for the farm women. It could be a good source of non-farm income for them and we can support them by buying/marketing! After all, such goods are not as perishable and as bulky as their farm produce!

Yet another edible wild plant ...

I came to know of this just by accident. It is none other than our bright pink flowered coral vine. It's tubers are edible!

Its common names include Bellsima, Chain-Of-Love, Confederate Vine, Confederate-Vine, Coral Bells, Coral Creeper, Coral Vine, Corallita, Coralvine, Dilngau, Flores Ka'dena, Hearts On a Chain, Honolulu creeper, Kadena De Amor, Love Chain, Love-Vine, Mexican Coral Vine, Mexican Creeper, Mexican-Creeper, Mountain Rose, Mountain-Rose coralvine, Mountain-Rose Coralvine, Queen's Jewels, Queen's Wreath, Queen's-Jewels, Rohsapoak, Rosa De Montana, Sandwich Island Creeper

Thanks to Google Books ...

...it helped me find the much required missing link, the taxonomic name. I only vaguely remember the Telugu name. Batani. But the term `batani' more commonly refers to garden peas and it has, as expected retrieved cookery websites. When I used bataani and flower it retrieved cookery websites which dealt with garden peas and plaintain flower used as a vegetable. But, there was one Google Book result - Biodiversity in India - which contained the term `batani teega'. Yes! that is the local name and when I searched with that term I landed on its scientific name - Antigonon leptopus, the key to the wealth of world's literature on the plant in question.

The mysterious gate and the bright pink flowers

In an attempt to practice `substitution technique' (the one mentioned in TMWSF book and elsewhere, I turned to the Table Calender with Thomas Kinkade's paintings. This one was gifted by my sister years back. (kaam aata bolke!. I am spending minutes (hours?)getting myself diffused into the landscapes (lighscapes? for he is the Painter of Light).

The next day as usual when I went into the balcony, I noticed something new! New not because it wasn't there before, but because I noticed it anew. It was an Iron gate, exactly like the one in one of Kinkade's paintings,that too in the same angle as it was in the painting. But of course the similarity ends there.

I imagined planting beautiful creepers and shrubs near the gate. Showing this picture could I motivate those human pests, the children living in the park, to take to gardening. In case I gain some escape velocity to get myself to that spot and address the children, what plants would I recommend. Not something from the horticultural exhibitions. It has to be a wild one, to be sustainable. I thought of Clitoria ternatea with its beautiful wild blue flowers. Then I remembered the bright pink flowered creeper smothering the vacant plot adjacent to my sister-in-law's house. This has been my favorite plant during my childhood. I know it's name. It starts with A and it has letters n, t, ...h? No..

But I wasn't sure if it could be propagated by cuttings. I felt miserable. The much talked about `knowledge' is the limiting factor!

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.

My Thoughts on Semantic Networks

I wasn’t sure if it was by some kind of intuition or just a wild guess that I discovered the Artist in Rufus Gurugulla, when I met him first at a painting competition. He was there to photograph the event. He is a crop artist and made several art works with seeds, including a portrait of George Bush. I am sure he would have completed Obama’s by this time.
During our conversation he asked me one simple question, “Do you know any plant producing blue coloured seeds?”. The moment `blue’ is mentioned, what flshed in my mind was `indigo’, soon followed by a train of doubts – is it the bark which imparts the blue colour, that also only after processing? Thenn what would be its seed colour? Could it be blue? Then leaves also could look little bluish green? Does it contain anthocyanin? Does anthocyanin impart blue colour? I was confused.
The question was addressed to me as I was perceived by him as an agricultural expert. But the question was received by the information professional in me. I took the earliest oppurtunityto look for it on internet.
The seemingly simple question was not all that simple. I did retrieve a few useful references but I definitely required a better way of searching, some search query like – (crops or trees or plants) and seed colour is blue. There it is! I am now convinced that the elaborate topic maps we were frantically trying to build are worth the effort. Hither to they seemed to be like elementary school English work books containing `is a’ and `has a’ kind of phrases. To be honest I had a feeling that people are unnecessarily complicating things. But of course technology advances only after several vain efforts have taken place.

That’s how the `blue seeds’ case has convinced me. But the `neem seeds’ case was far more than convincing. It was rather compelling. I so desperately needed a concept map that I got tempted to train someone and put on the job immediately. The story behind this `neem seeds’ case goes like this. One of our close relatives, a software engineer asked me if I can help him procure `neem seeds’. I tried my personal contacts and got a couple of useful links. But they were far from sufficient. My internet search yielded lists of addresses selling and buying various related products and raw materials. But I needed something more specific. Luckily I could manage to arrange a get together of the people I know, over the weekend and I remained a facilitator for the knowledge sharing to take place.
I was so glad that I could co-ordinate that mile stone event bringing people from different sectors together, like pieces of a jig-saw puzzle. A couple of them were software engineers looking for greener investment options, one was a dealer in agricultural inputs, another was agronomist, and the other person was a government official committed to the welfare of grass root level farmers and artisans. The others who followed the discussion with rapt attention represented the general public and expressed the concerns of the old, current and new generations.
The group was so heterogeneous that although the topic of discussion was the same, the viewpoints were very different. It was like the story of blind men and the Indian elephant. If only knowledge/information with each one of them is mapped and merged, a comprehensive picture would emerge, to which more and more content could be added like in snow-balling. Such a map, once developed would/should answer questions like, who is growing neem and who is selling neem and neem products, Are they growing in a small scale for local consumption or as a plantation, Or there is someone organizing neem seed collection and supplies them? If so, how much quantity and at what price? Such type of searching should be made possible by emerging technologies and initiatives. Building topic maps and concept maps with semantic relations is a step in this direction.
In these maps, each concept will be an entity and will be linked to all other related entities by means of semantic relations. For example, `neem’ is a concept, to be more specific – neem plant, neem seed, neem plantation etc. Biopesticides is another concept. Neem `isUsedAs’ a biopesticide. Biopesticides `areProducedBy’ `soandso company’. Mr. X `isDealerOf’ biopesticides `producedBy’ the company `Y’. Mr. X `has_degree’ in agriculture, `is a student of’ ANGRAU and `is_a_friend_of’ Mr.Z, who `isOwnerOf’ so and so company.

This is a very pragmatic approach and this is how people associate and discuss things during conversations. I saw the need for such mapping when there appeared to be some comedy of errors about an IIT guy (read it as person, the jargon and parlance have their own role in semantics) who turned to eco-friendly initiatives. They were in fact two different persons, one growing/gathering neem seeds and the other one needs them as raw material for a biopesticide unit. It is fine if they happen to know each other, but if they don’t there is a critical missing link.
I am not quite sure how searching could be based on such a map, but I would say that it is certainly a better format for `who is who’ in a particular domain at different levels. Such maps can be built collaboratively and can be updated during the `getting-to-know’ and `ice-breaking’ sessions of seminars and training programmes.

Coming back to the familiar literature search scenario, we once received a search request for `pests and diseases of neem’. It sounded very interesting to see if neem gets affected by pests and diseases. But it was not as easy as it was interesting. All we could do was to search the databse with something like (Neem OR Azadirachta) AND (Pests OR Diseases). We retrieved several thousand references and we didn’t definitely expect that many pests and diseases affecting neem. The thing is that the list includes references of pests and diseases of all crops wherever neem is used for plant protection. But somewhere tucked within this long list were a few tens of references where neem was the thing affected. Out of curiosity and also knowing that no other method would work, we ventured to scan titles of all the references, with our trained eye spotting the odd ones out. But this cannot be done every time and can no longer be the solution. We ought to have something like Neem `isUsedToPrevent’, `isUsedToControl’ so and so pest/disease or Neem `isAffectedBy’ so and so pest/disease.

This problem is no more an information professional’s problem. It is now everybody’s problem. The moment someone searches something on internet they face this situation. Many people and many companies are working towards a solution for this kind of `false drops’. Several projects are being funded like how in olden days kings used to support alchemists to convert iron into gold.
Semantic technology, however is an imperative in today’s context and breakthroughs are a must. In the domain of agriculture, AGROVOC has been taken as the starting point to develop an Agricultural ontology. There were several studies and attempts to convert AGROVOC into a concept server by employing some rules and models. But now FAO has decided to do it manually and assigned the task to ICRISAT. The task is to classify all the concepts into one (or sometimes more than one) Top Concepts such as Time, Measure, Activities, Substances, Location, Subjects, State, Objects, Organisms, Phenomena and entities. Some of these concepts are very much in tune with Dr. S.R. Ranganathan’s PMEST concepts. Later we discovered that this grouping is similar to the one that is followed by `Knowledge 2008’ portal.

Under each Top concept, the terms and concepts are organized into hierarchies. Existing hierarchies are reviewed and only those concepts that have either an `is a’ relation or an `is an instance of’ relation are retained in the hierarchy and others are placed under their respective super classes. Sometimes a third kind of relation `whole part’ is also given as a BT (Broader Term) / NT (Narrower Term) relation. Relations between hierarchies are defined by RT relations which are refined by means of semantic relations like `has synonym’, `has spelling variant’, `is used for’, `has goal’, `is object of activity’ etc.
There will be several terms describing a concept, of which one is the preferred form and is chosen to be the descriptor., while all others will be non-descriptors leading to a descriptor. But in the case of plant and animal names, both the taxonomic names and common names are given as descriptors in AGROVOC, and are linked by `is same as’ relation.

Barbequed Brinjal - vankaaya pulusu pachhadi - iguru pacchadi - a traditional dish of A.P.

Select a large brinjal (big variety), wash and wipe, coat with oil, and barbeque it on kumpati ( a traditional charcoal stove) by turning it on its sides. After it becomes tender, remove from heat and peal it after a little while. Open to see if it is free from any insect damage and mash it. To this add little salt and turmeric powder. Mix this pulp in tamarind juice. Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan and first add a few (about 10 pieces) gummidi vadiyalu pieces (ash gourd fritters) and then half teaspoon fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, 2-3 dry red chillies and a pinch of asafoetida. Also add finely chopped green chillies and cilantro leaves. Add the seasoning to the brinjal-tamarind mix and immediately cover the lid to conserve the flavour. Little jaggery can also be added as per taste of people with a sweet tooth. For people who either do not like or not supposed to eat tamarind or jaggery, the barbequed brinjal pulp may be seasoned with chitti vadiyalu (black gram fritters), a tea-spoonful of split bengal gram seeds, split black gram seeds and dried red chilles. Finely chopped chillies and cilantro may be added for extra taste and freshness.

Tradition won...at `Brinjal Festival'

Tradition won! and We won!! ...with tradition!!! ...at the cooking contest conducted by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at the Regency College of Hotel Management on 7th March, as part of their `Brinjal Festival' held at Shilparamam on 8th March. It was very nice of Shri. Rajesh Reddy, Principal of Regency College of Hotel Management for allowing us (myself and my daughter to use our`kumpati' and allotting us a special area away from the hustle and bustle of the cooking lab crowded with stoves and people.

Kumpati is a traditional barbeque/stove made of iron or mud. Our friends bothered to bring it down from the attick when I floated the idea of traditional cooking concept for the cooking competition. Many were enthusiastic to take part in the cooking contest but could not make. I could not let the concept go and I myself ventured to participate and sent my recipe via e-mail just before the deadline.

photos are from www.sailusfood.com

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

I hardly read books. But I heard about this book before. Not just heard, I even discussed about this book. But... When? With...whom? I am still struggling to recollect.
The concept is pretty familiar. In fact that is what I did years before, although I didn't sell any Ferrari. I did it in my own scale and did exactly the same what was outlined in the book (but for those food restrictions).What is special about this book is its style. A set of dry do's and don'ts convincingly and compellingly woven into the fabric of a fable. Use of stories is quite common, but in this book, the entire content can be decoded from a simple story, which serves as a mnemonic.
I am planning to narrate this story to children and ask them to paint it. Get ready to see the pictures here soon! If I commit here, I don't whack this idea!!

A gentle reminder ...

...not to ignore myself and my family. Smt. Sundari, my friend, philosopher and guide, handed over me a book to read. Although little hesitant to take it considering my time constraints, I agreed to read it as I was anyhow planning to read Sai Saccharitra for my son's success in his ensuing exams. I felt happy that Baba knows that I would prefer to read a new book instead of the regular paarayana book. And I almost jumped with joy when that book turned out to be the Telugu translation of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.

Dry spell - in my blogging

With the approaching deadline for the AGROVOC revision and refinement project, I kept myself away from blogging for over one month. The most interesting thing that happened during this period was my month long vacation in my own home. I had hired a cook (s)! One lady used to come in the late evenings and her daughter used to come in the mornings. The cook was introduced by our maid servant and they could co-ordinate with each other so that my intervention was not required. It saved lot of my time and the best part was that my daughter could communicate directly with the cook and got what she wanted. I devoted the time thus saved to loiter in my balconies and drawing room, tinkering with pranayama and yoga to restore my immune system which is on rocks in the recent past.

Sankranti was celebrated with puran poli's and the chill winter evenings had the warm flavor of garlic. Soon the winter subsided giving way to `sabu dana kichidi' with a delicate flavor.

I cannot imagine a world without Wikipedia!

It helps me know a lot!
It is my `pedaraasi peddamma' - a mythical old woman knowledgeable in everything and willingly helps people (usually the prince in the folk tales) by sharing knowledge and information.

A proud moment

It was indeed a proud moment for me when I received the packets of `hope', the cluster bean and lady's finger seeds from none other than Shri Ch. Sreerama Murthy, the owner of Kurnool-based Sri Rama Seeds Corporation. This ever enthusiastic and entrepreneurial farmer oozes confidence and readiness to try new things.

Is there any one to try `farming' at least after seeing `Real' people like Sreerama Murthy?!! I still remember the film `nuvvistanante nenoddantaana'. Films are not only for entertainment! They are for inspiration as well!!

When we visualize a farmer we would probably see something like this!


But, I and I am sure many others would like to see a farmer like this.



Mainstreaming agriculture!! Agriculture as a `CULTURE', as a lifestyle.

Natural ionizers

...Salt Crystal Lamps


Salt crystal lamps release healthy negative ions from the surface as the lit bulb warms up the salt lamp, to cleanse and improve the quality and freshness of the air.
Our surroundings are dominated by the technology of so called 'conveniences' of computers, televisions, copy machines, printers, microwave ovens, air conditioners etc. These conveniences emit excessive amounts of positive ions into the air we breath, which can result in mental and physical exhaustion. Placing a salt crystal lamp near our computer helps to reduce fatigue and electromagnetic pollution created by all such equipment.

I read about these lamps in `eenadu' and had put this information together after some research on internet. In the wake of climatic change problems, we better turn to such solutions. `satakoti daridraalaki anantakoti upaayaalu'!!

I always think of the most eco-friendly way of celebrating a birthday, if not a wedding ...but a wedding anniversary could be. These lamps are an ecofriendly alternative for the usual gifts. It would be even more ideal ... when we want to say to someone..`get well soon'!

sayonara...Gudrun!

We miss you!

No one can ever fell a tree ... if they see this

I made time to post this at 5 a.m. or else I may lose track of it. It is still in the corner of my mind to hunt for THAT favorite cartoon of mine, the tree angrily uprooting a sky scraper in a mood of revenge. That was very hilarious. But this one is very heavy ...bleeding!


I found this picture and link at http://waffleanddaub.wordpress.com/:
The 2008 Ken Sprague Fund’s annual political cartoon competition was on the theme of of global warning and our threatened environment. This cartoon was one of the prize-winning entries, drawn by Tawan Chuntraskawvong of Thailand.

More pictures at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/jul/23/climatechange.scienceofclimatechange?picture=335854762

Patriotism Resuscitated

`Atithi Devo Bhava' ...India could manage to send at least some of her guests back safely. India will now be remembered for terrorist attacks ... we can no longer invite any foreigner to our country nor we can take them around here confidently.

It is high time that all of us unite and take responsibility of our own land instead of leaving it in the hands of politicians. We were engaged in selfish pursuits. Teaching values became out of context. Talking about patriotism became out of fashion. What has all this resulted in? Lack of seriousness! Apathy!!

Youngsters are whiling away time in entertainment and wasteful indulgences. Middle aged people are weak and more sick than the old. All sorts of problems are falling upon us. Natural disasters, road accidents and terrorist attacks are threatening our lives. `Living' has become even more threatening.

Transformation is imperative. Let us all take up the onerous responsibility of inspiring the young generation to plunge into action. Instill a spirit of heroism. It has nothing to do about academics or degrees. To save people around, one needn't be a police officer clearing all the competitive exams.

Preparedness, attitude and some amount of training are required. We may not be able to stop or avoid destruction, but we may face situations with courage.

November ...too eventful

...to post something. There were too many things and too less time. Ms. Gudrun's visit to ICRISAT, together working on terms and concepts adding more and more to the already long list of bookmarks. They are by no means just`book marks'. They are `foot prints' to follow. Working with her was a wonderful experience. I particularly liked her style of working. I can't help it! I talk only about her these days and it has become a household name and everyone around me know her by name, including my friends and my daughter's friends, for she too had the chance to spend a day with her when we took Ms.Gudrun to Birla mandir (temple), Kala mandir(shopping mall, Shanbag (Hotel) and Mangatrai (THE pearls shop - my favorite places. (AGROVOC habits die hard! I couldn't resist adding those qualifiers, especially when Birla Mandir and Kala Mandir sounded similar when placed side by side.

Coming back to working with Ms. Gudrun...It is really wonderful. Just how it used to be ... years back while working with Prasannalakshmi and Dr.Nwanze on Busseola fusca project.

The Award Winning Woman Farmer

For the last couple of days, I was contemplating how I would celebrate Dussera this year. Eureka! What else would be more apt than featuring a successful woman farmer to mark the occasion of Vijayadasami (The Tenth day of victory) and worshipping Goddess Durga (embodiment of feminine and creative energy)!

By the time Karra Sakuntala was awarded the States Best Woman Farmer Award, she had only one year of experience in Agriculture. She resigned her government job as a Teacher and started working on thier 20-acre farm. She has a vermicompost unit and conducts awareness programmes at her own cost to other farmers in aspects of sweet lime cultivation. She headed the District Sweet lime Growers association and was also awarded by several agencies. She says that she is not interested in wasting her time applying for bank loans.

Following is the newsclipping from Eenadu Tuesday Oct. 7 2008

The plant which drives snakes away

While I was fancying the idea of living in an arboretum, becoming one with nature spiritually (but sharing knowledge in the real world scenario) ... hisssss `snakes' jolted me to the ground reality. However, I was trying to make a case in favour of my arboretum lifestyle, convincing myself, that if at all one has to die, dying of a snake-bite is far more eco-friendly and non-violent than getting crushed in a road accident.

In the meanwhile, when my son was narrating the beautiful monsoon landscape of Karimnagar I was very happy that he started admiring the outside world, with his head turned from computer monitors and TV screens. Although the fear of snakes was lurking inside, I tried to remain silent till he himself mentioned about `snakes' during one of those landscape description sessions over the cell phone. He coming face to face (feet to face!) with a snake threw chills over my spine and I promptly asked him to stop going to that place.

As it usually happens with most teenagers, he comforted me that his friend has planted `some tella usiri ' plant in and around his house and it is quite safe being there. That gave me a clue and in my Internet search I found a news story in Hindu paper describing its use in Adilabad area. Thanks to that news item as it also gave the scientific name of the so called snake repellent plant.

It is Trifolium repens. Now I have the key to the worlds knowledge of this plant. This is the power of the `binomial classification' coupled with today's communication technology.

Use of this plant against snakes is not overwhelmingly reported, although it is mentioned on a few occasions. The plant is also associated with bees. . . Also ..with L.U.C.K. It is lucky to find one with a fourth leaf... I didn't share this nugget of information with my son.. for obvious safety reasons.
(The plants my son saw were said to be more bushy and big-sized than those seen in the Trifolium repens pictures on the net. Could it be a different species or subspecies.. or just a geographical variation?)

Ref. Many lives lost due to snakebites S. Harpal Singh
Lack of awareness in rural societies believed to be reason for the fatalities
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/01/02/stories/2008010257090300.htm

More about the luck aspect at http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-four-leaf-clover.htm

Prickly pear is edible!

Yes. If not for humans, it is so for cattle. But the fruit of course is edible. Recently I read about this particular kind of Opuntia which is thornless. To my delight, I found this plant standing green and healthy in the Dharma Vana Arboretum nursery and I believe that this plant has great potential in providing nutrition security to semi-arid regions as it can sustain cattle. I found a lot of literature on the possibility of using this plant as a livestock feed while looking for a suitable photograph to accompany this post.


The above photograph is from the blogspot, (http://mesilla.blogspot.com/2007/04/spineless-cactus.html) which gave a very nice account of the plant and also Luther Burbank, "The Plant Wizard." Burbank was born in 1849 and had no schooling beyond 6th grade, but he did have an intense fascination with plant breeding. He is credited with creating over 800 strains and varieties of plants, including the "impossible" plumcot, which he called "a cross which man said could never be made."

Mr. William Frederick Durr all set to plant his dream

My visit to the Dharma Vana Arboretum Nursery, turned out to be a memorable experience, with Mr. William Frederick Durr, Director of the Arboretum taking us around and showing us various interesting plants with utmost patience and passion. The nursery itself looked like an arboretum as he is preparing to plant over 400 acres of land earmarked for an arboretum devoted to semi-arid tree species.

We were first greeted by heaps (hillocks) of compost derived from coconut shells and we felt very happy to see coconut waste being utilized productively. Our attachment to coconuts stems from the fact that we hail from Godavari district famous for coconut plantations. Coconuts are `currency' for us. We saw several kinds of several plants. We saw bamboos planted color after color making a sort of `tunnel'. Lotus and water lillies are grown in cement rings placed in a water tank. Each variety is planted in a ring to maintain isolation. Already there are white, yellow and purple ones. It would be a marvelous sight when the entire tank is filled with colorful lillies in circles.

Dr. Durr scouts mountains and valleys for the `lost species'. He rediscovered several species that are once declared to be extinct and saved them from real extinction. His mission is indeed a great and timely effort in the wake of people talking about `climatic change' and species extinction.

My Arboretum ideas

My Arboretum Ideas

From: sugunasrimaddala, 5 minutes ago

My Arboretum Ideas

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My Arboretum ideas

The thought of my visit to Dharma Vana Arboretum has spurred some new ideas with respect to knowledge building and sharing as well as mainstreaming of trees.

The new avatar ... of Teaching

When I saw my daughter prepare Teacher day greeting cards, I just discovered that the day doesn't relate to me in any way as my days with teachers seemed to be a very distant past. I didn't take `Teaching' as my profession either. I don't teach my children either (they are not teachable?!). So, I rather try to `Inspire' than to `Instruct'.

I had put an end to my contemplation with a deep sigh and continued with my duties. And at the end of the day, `The Teachers Day' did relate to me - when my boss asked me to prepare a quick ppt based on-line turorial to train the new team members of the project we are working 0n.

My news- Radio down to earth

Surge in FM use came after mobiles began to provide radio facilities

Narender pulloor 2008 Deccan chronicle August Wednesday 6th p. 2.
AIR introduced an exclusive programme for farmers named - Kisan vani - sponsored my Ministry of Agriculture with the assistance of ...
7.15 top.m. to 8.15 pm.

News bulletins, Phone-in programmes, quiz, weather reports, market rates and interviews of progressive farmers

Telangana dialect

Regional Sugarcane institute and Rice research station of Rudrur in Varni mandal interact with farmers through FM radio.

Mr. L. Jalapathi Rao - Senior agricultural scientist

Mass media wing of the agriculture department is provoding training to FM radio personnel

Quiz programmes and gifts to winners.

`Praja Rajyam' swells!

The results count for `Praja rajyam' increased to 28,700 in about just 24 hrs!

Praja rajyam - Preme Lakshyam, Seve Margam - Tag line

To me, the Tag line Preme Lakshyam, Seve Margam [ love is the goal, service is the path], is half disappointing and half convincing. More than convincing. `Seve margam' is very apt! Succinctly describes his `blood donation' campaign and also reflects Mother Theresa's approach, on whose birthday he announced the party's name.

It should have been `Pragate Lakshyam' (The goal is development' and the next component is perfect!

Phenomenally overwhelming!

My goodness! 6,840 results for `praja rajyam' google search! 425 blog posts! It is not even 30 hrs that the word is known to public. I was late by about 30 hrs, although I grabbed the earliest possible opportunity to share Chiranjeevi's photo, sorry Painting. Nevertheless, this exercise helps me gain the pulse of public and how they use ICTs to communicate and respond. This insight helps me to fine tune agricultural ICT programmes.

Three, Two and One! The party name is ... Praja Rajyam

Everyone around me was counting days, and then got glued to Television on the evening of 26th. Excitement and suspense were in the air and more so for Chiranjeevi's fans! My thought went to my classmate who was a die hard Chiru fan and challenged me once to paint his picture on the cover of a weekly in her hand, while I was busy painting the pests affecting sugarcane crop. We used to display information on crops and pests in the village, during our RAWE (Rural Agricultural Work Experience Programme) programme.

And the party name is 'Praja Rajyam '. More details available on net.



From that day onwards, portrait painting has become a handy way of expressing my concerns and/or contribution to any event.
(This is the portrait of DR. S.R. Ranganathan, considered to be the Father of Library Science', whose books we used to like more than novels. His ideas were so contemporary - or rather timeless - that they hold good for times to come.
I believe that Semantic Technologies find a way to march forward with his clue of PMEST - Personality, Matter, Energy, Space and Time.