Photo Credit: John Mason
Bird of the Day: Juvenile Somali Ostrich (Awash National Park, Ethiopia)
Photo Credit: John Mason
From Behind the Wheel: “Hey Diddle Diddle the Cat and the Fiddle”
Ernakulam
Kailasanatha Temple – Kanchipuram,Tamil Nadu
Photo Credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
Kailasanatha temple is the largest and most important of the temples built by Rajasimha, the last king of the first Pandyan empire. Dating from the 7th century, this is one of the oldest temples in Kanchipuram and is a rare example of the Dravidian style. A wall of fifty-eight small shrines further encloses the main shrine. Continue reading
Reviving an Iraqi Oasis
Thirty years ago, Iraq’s Mesopotamian Marshes were referred to by biblical scholars as the Garden of Eden. Fed by the iconic Tigris and Euphrates rivers, for more than 7,000 years this enormous marshland of over 6,000 square miles (twice the size of the Everglades National Park) provided a bountiful home for both wildlife and humans. A large population of indigenous people, the Ma’dan Tribes known as Marsh Arabs, had thrived there for centuries. But in the political conflicts of the 1990s, Saddam Hussein attempted to eradicate them by destroying the marshes on which they depended for survival. The canals and embankments that both diverted the river water away from and prevented it from entering the area caused the marshes to shrink to less than 10% of its original size, transforming the remainder into a parched, lifeless desert; forcing the wildlife and the people to leave.
We are happy to write that the story doesn’t end there. Continue reading
Whales In Perspective
Abrams, publisher of the book above, was also publisher for another conservation-friendly artist featured on our pages. They have a series of books that showcase wonders of nature in spectacular fashion, and we encourage a visit to their site by clicking the image above:
Photographer and conservationist Bryant Austin’s breathtaking photographic project Beautiful Whale is the first of its kind: It chronicles his fearless attempts to reach out to whales as fellow sentient beings. Continue reading
San Jose, CA
Bird of the Day: American Robin
Beauty Of Munnar
Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
Munnar is a major tea producing area of South India. Over time Munnar became the headquarters for several tea plantations scattered throughout the High Ranges, and the need to service these estates led to the growth of Munnar town. With the attending “Hill Station” tag Munnar became a centre for tourism as well as plantation life. Continue reading
The Great Paddy-City Migration
For those of us living and working in Rising Asia, much in this book either rings true from experience or is eye-opening about things that may be lurking just around the corner, out of sight. Kerala is a long way from Lahore, in every sense. But at least the basic notion–that the world has only in the last year or so become one in which a majority of us are urban dwellers for the first time in human history, and not long from now it will be a super-majority–can be felt in Raxa Collective’s back yard. The great migration from paddy to city is noisily happening all around us each day. What of it?
Mr. Hamid has alot to say about that, good, bad and ugly. An interview he conducted to discuss the book can be heard in this podcast. The book is likely to anger some, but it has received positive reviews, even from often-tough critics:
“Mr. Hamid reaffirms his place as one of his generation’s most inventive and gifted writers.” –Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Bird of the Day: Striated Heron (Kakum National Park, Ghana)
Photo Credit: John Mason
Coffee’s Contentments
In the mid-1990s I moved with Amie and our two sons Seth and Milo from Ithaca, NY in the USA to Costa Rica for my first post-Ph.D. venture, working with the governments and business leaders in each country of Central America. The project combined a few then-young strategic and economic development models–competitiveness, economic clustering, and sustainable development–with several of their luminary proponents from Harvard Business School and at the Harvard Institute of International Development. My job was to take those ideas and apply them to my area of expertise as a newly minted Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Sustainable Tourism Development was the terminology applied to this hybrid. In 1996, the third country in my regional rotation was El Salvador, after Costa Rica and Nicaragua. I have not had reason to think of El Salvador lately, but a nearly-lost article in my to-read-later folio popped out today:
Aida Batlle is a fifth-generation coffee farmer and a first-generation coffee celebrity. On the steep hillsides of the Santa Ana Volcano, in western El Salvador, she produces beans that trade on the extreme end of the coffee market, where a twelve-ounce bag may cost twenty dollars or more and comes accompanied by a lyrical essay on provenance and flavor. These beans have made Batlle an object of obsession among coffee connoisseurs and professionals–the coffee equivalent of a European vigneron–and she is willing to play the role, if it helps raise coffee’s status. Continue reading
From Behind the Wheel: Aristocratic Alchemy
Mumbai
Gold Ornaments
Photo credits: Best Of Kerala
Throughout history the people of Kerala have had a special affinity for gold ornaments compared to people in other parts of India. Keralites love gold and the state is noted for a variety of gold designs made by traditional goldsmiths. Due to the influences of modern-day fashions the current trends are quite different. Continue reading
San Francisco Bay Trail, CA
Bird of the Day: House Finch
Really, Ecuador & China?
From today’s Guardian (click the image above to go to the source):
Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China’s insatiable thirst for energy. Continue reading
Bekal Fort
Photo Credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
Located in the northern part of Kerala in the Kasaragod District, the 17th century Bekal Fort is one of the largest and best preserved forts in the state. This imposing circular laterite structure rises 130 ft above sea level and stands on a 35-acre headland that juts into the Arabian Sea. The fort consists of a centrally located 30 foot high observation tower, which affords a grand view of the blue sea and the green palm forest. There are underground tunnels leading to the Sea. Continue reading
Painter’s Progress
There does not seem to be a weak link in this chain: From Scratch consistently delivers. Earlier samplings were, with few exceptions, mostly interviewees who we know about and admire at the intersection of conservation and commerce. Chuck Close, pictured to the right in a self-portrait from 1994, is another exception in terms of theme. But like his paintings, his role as entrepreneur is a matter of perspective: seen from one distance, then like any great entrepreneur he combines determination with creativity to do what he must do, even in the face of adversity most of us cannot even imagine. From another distance, his distaste from the commercial dimension of his chosen calling appears anti-entrepreneurial (but of course this is why he is among the most celebrated living artists). He is a mirror opposite of all the things we find distasteful and dreadful about the so-called “art world.” Click the artist’s image to go to the interview:
When we see a painting hanging on the hallowed walls of a museum, we get a sense of an artist’s technique and imagination, but we don’t get a sense of the process and hurdles that artist faced on the way to critical acclaim. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: African Village Weaver, female (Kakum National Park, Ghana)
Photo Credit: John Mason
Flavours Of Kerala – Pickles
Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
Pickles are an important part of Indian cuisine, especially in Kerala. There are numerous varieties of pickles, locally called achar, in Kerala’s traditional meals. Lime, Mango, Gooseberry, Carrot, Chili and Garlic are among the favorites. Several types of Achar are usually a must in Kerala’s Sadya meals served on the banana leaf during special occasions. Continue reading
From Behind the Wheel: Lorry, Meet Jack.
Nano-Journey
India is unique, says Thomas Chacko after his mega carathon
When Jules Verne wrote his novel Around the World In 80 Days 140 years ago the protagonist Phileas Fogg has to manage a circumnavigation of the globe by myriad types of transport, including by elephant during his crossing of India. He wouldn’t have dreamt of a tiny motorized vehicle like the one pictured above.
Author and motorcar enthusiast Thomas Chacko didn’t try to mange the world in 80 days, only India herself. Chacko, a Keralite, documented his journey in “real time” using the entertaining blog Mano et Nano, as well as a book, Atop the World, after the conclusion of his 26,500-km journey in a Nano car to all the state capitals, as well as the Union Territories, and the far corners of India. The journey, which began on May 3, 2012, concluded on July 20, last year.
In an interview with The New Indian Express Chacko commented:
Only one other country can compare with India, in terms of terrain, and that is the USA. We have beaches, mountains, hills, forests, deserts, swamps and canyons. You don’t have to go out of India to see and experience all this. Apart from that, no country has as many languages or communities. India is unique. Continue reading
Organikos 