Stitched2Save9

One year since I began blogging, to share the buzzing in my mind and especially if it was some little thing done to make a difference. Here is one big attempt at making me count........

I have always enjoyed working with my hands and if something meaningful came out of it then, super! I have been stitching stuff and subjecting my friends to it for a long time now. In fact when I gave my friend Deepa a bag for her birthday a couple of years ago she said, "Joe you gave me a bag last year too". I never thought I was stitching that much (except for the kids nappies). There never was a thought to scale up and I was happy doing the odd ones her and there.

Last year, my sister, DIANA CHERIAN and her students took on a task of stitching 1000 cloth bags, a project that is nearing its goal and the bags are being distributed in the neighbourhood, I am sure each of those bags will decrease the number of plastic bags in circulation. Simple math, many cloth bags will decrease many more plastic bags and this project is what inspired me to scale up! And this was the thought process - there is always a need for cloth grocery bags, I just have to make as many as I can and make it available to anyone, especially those who make sad excuses to accept plastic bags. I have to make bags that people can fold up and keep anywhere - in their laptop bags, purses, bikes or cars so that there would be a cloth bag at hand should there be an impulse to pick something spotted randomly. I should also make bags on request as long as it's upcycled material.

Stitched2Save9 seemed an apt name for many reasons .... one was the hope that 1 of my cloth bags would reduce atleast 9 plastic bags in circulation. As far as possible no new material will be used, it will be any old sturdy cloth. Upcycling is so meaningful, it is a good way to reuse to reduce our ecological footprint - one person at a time. So far the cloth used for the bags I have made include old bedsheets, curtains, dhupattas, kurtas and material rejected by tailors saying it was too little to make anything. My plan is 'keeping it simple'. While each bag will have some element of design, I do hope some can look trendy to meet the needs of every type of shopper! A lot of thought went into whether I should price the bags or just keep giving it away for free. I finally decided to price it nominally so it will be meaningful to me and the buyer. Of course I will be gifting a lot of people who will not only appreciate the effort but also use the bag many many many times over.

https://www.facebook.com/Stitched2Save9 is where one can see progress of my plans and a place where you can let me know whats on your mind!

 These little bags were specifically made on request as tambula bags given to visitors during this Dasara season.

 Easy-to-store-anywhere grocery bags - no more excuses for not carrying one of your own!

Bolster bags!! ... One big bolster cover made way for two neat grocery bags :)!

It is that time of the year again!!!

No! it's not some festive season and me sending out wishes. No! its not me sharing a great time I had or a disaster with some official or autodriver ..... It's that time of the year I have kept aside to send out a request to near and dear ones - a request to donate to Iksha. 

My family is a part of Iksha Foundation and we are involved in all its activities be it creating awareness or fundraising. Since it is difficult to request for donations year through I usually wait for the Bangalore 10K, register to run and use this as a good opportunity to run for my cause, create awareness and raise much needed funds. 

Last year, with the help of my ardent supporters I managed to raise just over a lakh, enough to support treatment for one child over a period of one year. All my donors were family and friends and their friends. I cannot thank them enough for placing their trust in me doing the right thing with their money. We are currently supporting treatment of seven children. The youngest was born in August 2011!

Iksha Foundation is only two years old and it will be a while before we get any corporate support and till then we are totally dependent on family and friends. 

..... the TCS Bangalore 10k is on 27th May ... another 16 weeks away .... and as I write to my family and friends I hope .... 

• All donate something :) ...... aaaaah!! what a scenario, but nothing wrong with being hopeful ....
• Some will have a figure in mind and donate .....
• Some put away 100 bucks a week for the next 16 weeks .... maybe 100 bucks a family member ....
• Some vouch for us and fundraise for us from their friends circle ..... 
• Some mark February to May in their calendar and make it an annual contribution .....
• the little drops of donation add up to atleast 2 lakhs this year ..... that's my target folks!! 

If you've read this and think you can donate .... pledge any amount .... I'll gently remind you when its time ;) ..... 

For those who want to know how I am a part of Iksha Foundation read this blog of mine from last year http://iamoneinabillion.blogspot.in/2011/04/iksha-and-me.html 

Resilience

Old I may be, but still smile when some song in the background sounds like lines from my life. For sometime now, it has been UB40's lines "Every hour of every day I'm learning more, the more I learn, the less I know about before, the less I know, the more I want to look around, digging deep for clues on higher ground" ..... No, it has not been my kids teaching me valuable lessons (they do in every action of theirs), this time it is my gardening attempt!


I began early in September after shaking off a lot of "gardening baggage". Plants in 3 pots began from seeds and two were plants my dear parents sent from 350kms away. All seemed to be going good till some fauna discovered my flora .... They began with the coriander, onto the methi, my maharaja prasarini and now my tulsi (all four with great medicinal properties). All that remains in 4 pots are nice green stems and of course, healthy pigeons, squirrels and rats :(


Resilient are those who grow anything green. It's not as natural as it seems, I learnt! Resilient are those pigeons, squirrels and rats that get past physical barriers and brave life forms like my kids and I who are present a few feet away and nibble my greens. But I discovered - the most resilient of them all is this ficus on the edge of our balcony - it has been pulled out n number of times, it has been doused with neem oil, salt and no love - yet it grows back, stands there watching my antics. Ironic it is!! The only good out of this is my 5 year old seeing the connection between us, our plants and the animals - he knew a song about 'the connection', now he sees it too ....


I would not know which resilient I would want to be but I know this much, if you want to stand up and want to be counted, resilience is one quality you need - you just need to bounce back and try again - like I will ..... just like all the green thumbs, the fauna & flora surviving in the city with a special mention of the ficus.

A beginning

The last post was anything but "making me count". So I thought to myself .... alright what can I do, where can I start? I needed to do something that was sustainable and mattered 'somewhere' other than a feel good factor for Joe. 


It really nips the list when I expect to undertake a project sitting at home. But decided to take a baby step and terrace garden. I can almost here someone laughing hysterically and some others sniggering. Maybe I should give a little history to explain my total lack of confidence. The daughter of parents who spend most of their day digging, planting, plucking, erecting supports and sunshades for creepers, you would expect a green thumb if not a whole green fist (by theories of genetics and evolution) but unfortunately whatever I touched - died :( ..... even a cactus :(. Looks like some genetic mutation handed me a 'brown' thumb.


I have decided to try again and this time post results, good or bad. I cleaned the empty pots on the balcony (they had remains of their previous tenants :( ). I just watered empty pots for a couple of days (well may as well get into the habit before I put plants in there!) and now I need to figure out what goes in there. I plan to enlist the support of my five year old, whatever the result maybe there will be some lesson learnt (for both of us). I am open to suggestions (considering it is a blank slate now any suggestion will be enthusiastically lapped up). I must add, I did visit a workshop - Oota from your thota - that promoted gardening in urban spaces, to take in as much as I could before my 'venture'. A friend who was a part of this programme had posted "stop making excuses" on her facebook. I realised that is what I needed to stop doing - stop procrastinating. 


Here I go. Watch out for updates. Keep those suggestions coming.

Don't try to understand the city planners!

Be warned, excessive use of exclamation marks!! I am an advocate of citizen responsibility, I feel citizens need to fulfil their responsibilities and do more where they can. That being said, these planners do everything in their ability to breed citizen apathy and they just suck out my positiveness at times and I don't like it one bit!!

Don't try to understand the city planners!

The more you try the more unbelievable the state of the city seems! But I seemed to have deduced this much - each one (the bureaucrat and his sidekicks) when rotated to each department have a target amount to make and plans for the changes to the city accordingly. Why else in this city that overflows with experts in each field (water, town planning, garbage, traffic management, etc etc) do we have one big mess all the time? Deaf ears - whoever must have coined that phrase definitely had these characters in mind. 

Just do a Google on something like "pedestrian safety" ...... you will find articles from the 80s and 90s with the same issues, same suggestions .... the figures for pedestrian deaths are shameful for a city like ours - on an average 40% off all traffic related deaths in the past decade!!! Those who know me now know I have a good reason to be a terrified pedestrian!

Garbage!! call it what it is - why say solid waste management when all that is done is remove it from one persons doorstep and dump it on somebody elses'? This happened in this city even when I was a baby, I'm sure they even had "white paper" "road maps" "brainstorming" (wow! how advanced for government agencies to be doing something like this!!) even then to plan for the city's garbage!

Traffic and roads, I guess the lesser said the better! One day they build something that looks like stormwater drains, calls them "magic boxes", build huge road humps, calls them "flyovers", spends crores on them and now are breaking them down (in a span of a couple of years, if I may add) to build an "elevated highway" .... in the name of smooth traffic flow they make roads one-ways, cut trees to widen roads (which eventually end up as a bottle neck further ahead) and then go and allow parallel parking .... spend money on auto lanes, elevated pedestrian crossing and pelican lights, only to do a Houdini in a matter of months ... go on! do your things people, its not your money you are spending anyway!!! .... this is "lesser" said.

There have been a few agencies where good has been done. One day when I am feeling a little less catty and the claws are sheathed, I will definitely mention them (I also try to keep the blogs as short s possible :)). 

I am not too fond of these city planners (I know! it is so obvious), they make me spew venom because what good could have been done little by little for my Bangalore over the years has been made one big Everest in each sector of city management. More opportunities for the next set of you-know-whos to come and make "plans" and their buck of course. 

Looks like for the time being citizens sit back and watch. For those who believe prayers might work, lets begin with, "please give those planners some brains or even a hearing aid"!!!

Shades of GREY

Shades of grey is what my husband referred to corruption as. It has, for a long time, been a topic that would be spoken about anytime of the day. Recently a columnist for who I have great respect said if anybody is corruption free he is a 'satya harishchandra'. I was a little disappointed with her but she just stated the truth. It was while I was narrating her article that 'shades of grey' happened.

Black - have I taken my wallet out and slipped anyone money to get work done my way illegally? No. Dark grey - yes - a constable asked me for 'entry' fee at the Karnataka/ Tamil Nadu check post, my boys were asleep in the car and there was no way I was going to ask "why?" or "receipt engey?". Now I can think of so many shades of grey I was a part of - the money we paid to the lawyer to get our home registered included some under-the-table-money, the money the apartment paid the plumber to get a water pipe connected included some under-the-table-money, the pendrive a constable 'requested' when he had to get our verification documents to the HO "floppy corrupt aguthey" .... The list may not be that long but yes I have been a part of some grey shade - and I must say it is just not a good feeling admitting that. And yup! Shades of grey are subjective to go easy on one's conscience (if there is such a thing), I'm sure all politicians think of corruption as light grey if not white - after all, it's for the country's 'development'.

My husband (and I and the family mentally) was recently acquitted in a false traffic offence case. All that because this cop wanted was 5000 Rs for *long story* and when he realised he was not getting a pie he went on to show us how deep the rot ran. It took us 5 years and many many court hearings to be grinning from ear to ear. I very much doubt if us going to court even tickled the cop (though the husband says the cops present at many hearings were pulled up severely by the judge) and no matter what anyone says "waste of time, money, blah blah", that feeling - one of not giving in and standing for what we believe tops everything and makes the whole exercise worthwhile (I speak for the husband also because at the end of the day - he did all the running around and was in the middle of it).

While I will not openly admit how hopeful I am that things will change someday, I am aware that if I accept things as they are and put myself in a shade of grey - that is what my kids are going to believe is a way of life. I hope I can choose to live a shade of grey closest to white if white is not possible, I'd choose that as a way of life.

Did you know? Do you take a stand?

I try keeping abreast with current affairs (if it can be called that because most of the time it feels like stale beer with new packaging) and every time I read an article or watch the news (very rarely these days because they don’t report anymore they contort) a voice in my head has something to say. Always. It cannot be turned off but the good thing is that it has a mute button (I can almost hear my family and friends’ sigh of relief) and it is not always negative. The voice has a bunch of questions, some reasoning to stop those questions and in all likelihood forget the issue, especially if it is something as mundane as a new government reversing decisions made by the previous government. But this voice is not always for or against a topic. But if I take a stand, it will need some debate and persuasion of make me think otherwise. 

I have witnessed both extremes, not informed to taking a stand – people being totally unaware of something like a municipal election but groaning about the useless elected representatives versus some vitriolic letters to the editor / blogs when one takes an extreme stand. 

The reason I ask the question, did you know? do you take a stand? is because I feel even if it doesn’t change things, you are in some way involved in a process. Like (in a really small picture) being informed and having a point of view on day to day civic and environmental issues means you can be involved sometime or to get something done for yourself you don’t have to attract middlemen or be taken for a ride. Thought this might be something to think about ...