Anagha Speaks

The Economic Times in October 2011 carried a very intriguing article on 'Geo Engineering', which I have been unable to put out of my mind for the past few weeks. After reading the article, I felt the arguments that we all are making to fight Climate Change may very well change their context in face of the various proposed Geo Engineering techniques that can be applied for cooling Mother Earth! Scientists are currently working on such techniques that will ensure that we keep away the 'heating' solar radiation from reaching the earth. Techniques like installing mirrors in the space to reflect solar radiation or seeding the upper stratosphere with sulphate aerosols or simply salt water to reflect the sun's radiations back into space. Further, other techniques that will ensure more absorption of carbon dioxide by trees and oceans are being proposed and tested for results. Some of these include infusing the oceans with calcium hydroxide so that they can take in more a

Last week a small article had appeared in the Times of India on a very unique idea - The Slow City Movement. (to read more http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Big-idea-for-small-towns/articleshow/10373055.cms). This article has prompted this Blog post and I wish to introduce this possibility for all of us think about "slowing down". The Fast Food movement that is seen across the world is countered by proponents of a Slow Food Movement. The ready-to-cook, processed Fast Food is found to create many health problems, including obesity and Diabetes, even in young children. The Slow Food Movement, on the other hand, promotes food that is cooked over a period of time, retaining the nutrition and taste of the ingredients, while giving the eater a sense of satisfaction and fullfilment. The Slow City Movement is such an unique concept that enlarges the philosophy of Slow Food to communities and towns, essentially talking about the Quality of Life and

Ganesh utsav is just over and streets are in the process of regaining the sanity (?) that they had prior to the festival in Pune. Last week, everyone (that is, every middle class person who drives a car), was talking about the inconvenience of the streets - the large pandals, the distracting banners and generally an atmosphere where groups of people were together on the streets. The result was obviously, traffic jams, delayed travel times and generally high level of frustration! Despite tha above, I cctually feel that the ability of Indian cities to 'multi' use its streets is amazing. The conversion of streetscapes from plain to festive, overnight, is something that amazes most people abroad. The informality of the use of our streets, or their 'adaptability', is something most cities in the West try and fail, while we have it here in our Indian cities. Of course, you will argue that conversion of streets is fun, but what about the traffic jams! But I will counter arg

A very apt and relevant perspective was shared by a scientific friend of mine on the blog that I posted yesterday – about Indian Women, Stress and Indian Cities! Due to the typical science research limitations, this research may not find scientific publication, but will shed some light on why Indian Women are found to be the most stressed in the world! Of course, my friend also acknowledges the perspective that our physical space and its ‘ill design’ adds to the stress, but he contends that the reason for Stress is in our Genes! In a nutshell, this is what he writes and I rephrase (for easy understanding) and also quote some of his theories based on genetic testing of Indian women: In us, there is something called as Serotonin (Say-Row-Tow-nin), a neurotransmitter, which basically carries messages from the source to the brain. Now, why are we suddenly talking about Serotonin, you will ask? The simple reason is that the Serotonin system is respo

I recently read an interesting study article published by CNN sent to me by a Belgian friend, who, unfortunately, happened to meet me in Pune at my busiest time of the year! All through our lunch together, I was either receiving calls, responding to calls or furiously writing emails on my Blackberry. And when he found this article on Indian women, stress and their time commitments, he immediately forwarded it to me. Here is the article in a nutshell: " (CNN) - A recent study released by the Nielsen Company that examines the consumer and media habits of women in emerging and developed countries has found that women in India are the most stressed. The Women of Tomorrow Study, which examined 6,500 women across 21 different nations from February through April 2011, found that an overwhelming 87% of Indian women said they felt stressed most of the time, with 82% claiming they had no time to relax. Indian women are not alone. The vast majority of Mexican (74%) and Russian (69%) w

Walkers and lots of walking space! On our last night in Stockholm, the students and faculty of the Royal University of Arts, treated us to a special Swedish music and dinner at a Rowing Club. After the day long conference at the school, we were taken for an hour long boat ride, to watch the islands of Stockholm. We, about 50 of us, disembarked near the Rowing Club, a very quaint and wood log cabin, right on the water. All around us, the Stockholmers were enjoying the summer evening, some fishing, some boating. It was wonderful to see the leisure and an attractive appeal of the ‘rural’ right in the centre of Stockholm. Walking in Twilight @ 10:30 pm After 2-3 hours of fun and revelry, we were urged by all our Stockholm friends to take a walk along the water front, to reach our hotel. Most of them accompanied us too. For Puneites, a ‘short’ walk would mean 15-20 minutes, right? Well, the short walk turned out to be good 40 minutes to our hotel. But I was not complaining, as the

If you love to ride a bicycle and are often nostalgic of the days when Pune was a cyclists’ city, Copenhagen will give you the pleasure of watching millions of bicycles on the road, jostling with tourists along its busy streets.   I and Poorva reached Copenhagen late night on Friday, May 27, 2011, having a multi-modal journey into the city. (Why multi-modal is a story in itself, which I can share over a cup of coffee sometime later). We emerged from the metro station, a little apprehensive, since we yet needed to find our way to our hotel and it was already past 10:30 pm. We need not have worried, as it was a Friday summer night and the streets were full of people, walking, cycling, having fun over pints of Carlsberg beer. We walked down the pedestrian shopping street, with musicians along the way, with small crowds surrounding them, listening to the melodious tunes emanating from accordion, an occasional flute and sometimes a saxophone. The upturned hats with tips in front of the m