A visit to CSIR AMPRI Bhopal

Hailing from the family of Government officials in different departments , one thing is what you understand , government does work and the area of work is huge.. the normal public may not be able to vision the scale at which government organisations work!

This is also a reason I am always interested in places like Museums, Science Centres and many such government funded places.. Since past 8 years whenever I used to pass through the AMPRI (Advanced Material and Processes Research Institute) Main gate, I always used to wonder what work must be going on inside!

As luck would have had it, I came in contact with a gentleman Mr. Vijay Nathiley, working in AMPRI, courtesy my posts on social media, and he informed me about the CSIR Open day when the institute is open for the general public to come and visit the centre.

I reached the auditorium just when the meeting of the officials and the celebrations in the auditorium was about to end, which meant I was on time to start my visit to the machine areas. I also met quite a few dignitaries in the meantime, one name that I remember is Mr. Suyash Dwivedi who handles Wikipedia India.

Then my visit started, a few scientists also discussed about various technologies that CSIR is involved in a) Management of Solid waste b) Management of Ocean waste and the waste that is disposed in the oceans etc. What I could conclude is there is a lot of research work going on, related to lot many topics, maybe its the lack of funding thay the reaearch doesn't happen the way it happens in foreign countries. Secondly maybe the institutions and the government in particular, need a stronger marketing department to make people aware of the innovations and make them saleable! 

Attached are a few photographs of my visit... Couldn't take much pics because was busy trying to understand it.. especially since its not my field of work!

                                       Plant from which Sisal Fibre is derived. we often see this plant in jungles and places where there is abundance of greenery. I could never imagine this simple plant could prove to be so useful!

                Products made of Sisal Fibre

Products made from Sisal Fibre. This fibre is easily dyeable, is smooth and has a good tensile strength!

This table top looks similar to plywood but is actually made of FLY ASH+ fibres made of Banana and Jute. Fly ash is a huge industrial waste which if combined with some fibres to make such useful utility products ..is really good.. thanks to such researches, we are able to manage our industrial wastes effectively. There were products like Tiles made from Marble ash too.. but I forgot to take pics of the same.

This is Devansh (son of Mr. Vijay Nathiley Ji) who was with me during machine visits. It was real nice to be in the company of a child who aspires to be an Astronaut in future. Wishing all the very best to Devansh and I so wish, all schools to take their students to such places to make them aware of the possibilities of work in all areas even using waste and also help them find out if they themselves would be interested in such kind of researches! After all we do need effective and efficient waste management methods and we need them at cost effective rates too!

Lets empower educate and give varied opportunities to our gen next!

The wait at the traffic signal and the scornful looks

The wait at the traffic signal almost always seems eternal.. even its just for a few seconds! And I conveniently assume that this holds true for everyone..

And all this bad feeling comes for waiting just for a few seconds -  which we usually waste while scrolling through our smartphones, while chit chatting with friends, while roaming around, while surfing things on the internet on laptop or tablets, while sitting in front of the television and so on!

But why do we never feel happy that 'Okay, Today I waited at the signal, and boy..it was good for my life, I am ALIVE!'

Today I was waiting at a traffic signal, the red light had just started and it was showing 56 seconds when I stopped my vehicle.
A sedan on the left handside of my vehicle, kept honking the horn BADLY...infact very badly it was a constant honking without a break.. I looked through my windscreen to see if the signal indicated giving freeway to people on the left.. to my sheer disappointment , it did not show that!

Then I wondered if there was an ambulance behind the gentleman.. due to which he was getting so edgy.. again I was disappointed.

Still I thought, maybe the person has some real serious issue.. which is why he is honking the horn since past 30 seconds.. now the seconds count was 26.. I somehow managed to squeeze my vehicle slightly to the right and the Sedan Owner got a way.. 

Now comes the biggest disappointment - He instead of being thankful, was giving me this ultra indecent scornful look with his big eyes. Okay I am not a Women empowerment activist.. but basic courtesy is something that I feel if followed can make everyone look decent ..even if they basically aren't!

Anyways let me come to the point.. 
So the gentleman could conveniently move ahead of me 
1) Overtaking me from the LEFT handside
2) Crossing a Red light after honking a horn constantly for 30 seconds..
3) Not wearing a SEAT BELT
4) Giving a disrespectful look to a lady 

And the reason of the look was perhaps.. as what I could make out was

"Dumb female, she herself is waiting at the RED LIGHT, and expects important VIP people like us to wait !! And understands that I need to go, only after constant honking of the horn.. Illiterate female!"

Who should ideally be giving that look.. ME!
Yes I should have looked at him scornfully and perhaps used some ultra decent address too.. Right?
But then I thought..a person who gives a damn to his own life.. should not be looked at with hatred, but with PITY..!

If I see someone crossing the signal, not wearing a seat-belt or not wearing a helmet.. I never worry Why the Police isn't out there checking them and penalising them? 
Instead I feel pity for the parents or the family that is behind them.. probably the people who take traffic rules for granted take 3 other things also for granted 
1) Their own life 
2) Their family's life after they go
3) The life of other people NOT RELATED TO THEM, by driving recklessly.. If you don't care for yourself or your family..its completely fine... 
But please care for the Mankind.. and also the Womankind!!

So here's to the thorough Gentleman I gave a way today....
I pity you and your family. God bless you!

(If you are reading this post and if this is somehow related to how you behave on the roads, boss you are being pitied at!

CURAE!

Save the Rivers! Save water

Yesterday and day before yesterday my social media handles viz. Facebook Twitter and even Whatspp Display pictures; were inundated with photos of people posing for the "Rally of Rivers" campaign, with people posing with the banner and blue coloured T-shirt.

I myself am a big fan "Sadhguru" and the "Isha Foundation" though I have not yet joined any of the Yoga courses initiated by them, but I do intend to do it sometime in near future. 

What I really want to find out is, how many of these people are actually following the very basic steps needed for saving water and hence rivers? Its not just a foundation's responsibility or some minister or teacher or officer or some NGO's duty to keep reminding us , and keep doing efforts to save the environment! We are all grown up people, who can be and should be held accountable for our actions - for good or for bad!
I've enjoyed (spent would be the wrong choice of word) in Rajkot which is an important city of the Kathiawaad(Saurashtra, Gujarat) region, and if I remember it exactly, way back in the early 90's, come February and we used to start to 'Purchase' water. YES!! This is not an exaggeration, people hailing from Kathiawaad, Saurashtra will very easily be able to relate to this huge expenditure! Every 3rd day a small "chakdo" would have to be called. It had this small motor for which the electricity connection was provided from our place and that pump, helped carry water from the "chakdo" to the water tank fixed on the first floor of our house. 

(Image courtesy - alamy.com)

As it is my parents have been super miser when it comes to spending water (Trust me they are the same till date!) And since we were purchasing water, it was all the more a compulsory thing to 'save water'.  Papa and Mamma had allotted - Brush - 1 tumbler, Bath - half bucket, water for gardening (strictly 1 bucket and mug had to be used), headbath twice a week and so on. And one could not make changes to that! And yes, if we saved water even 1 tumbler of water, we got incentives! And that was - lot of good words and statement 'yeh aadat aage jaake bahut kaam aayegi tum logon ko'

So here are a few basic steps that I do, and I feel everyone can do are 

1) Always carry your own water bottle (filled with water). Researches are going on at a large scale to prove that bottled water may contain traces of carcinogens, and despite of knowing that fact, we cannot give carcinogens as a gift to our loved ones...can WE?
2) Never keep the tap running especially while brushing your teeth or taking a bath/ The age old technique of using a tumbler or a bucket to do normal chores of washing and cleaning always works wonders in reducing per person water consumption. 
3) For cleaning the cars - provide your domestic help with a bucket and water instead of pipe which gives constant running water. A running pipe wastes a lot of water. 
4) Keep a big vessel in kitchen to wash vegetables, fruits and for miscellaneous chores. If possible put Potassium Permanganate to it, to remove the chemicals and pesticides. 
5) The water left in the glasses by the guests needs to go to the pots in the garden. The water left out after pochha also used to go to the garden, since using phenyl was not a norm everyday, instead rock salt was used.
6) A 5 minute shower uses up a whopping 25 litres of water, so if you like taking showers, maybe you could reduce the time spent, and use a fancy bucket and a mug and maybe add bath salt too, so that it doesn't look drab or uncool!

Currently I stay in an area where there is plenty of water supply, and at times I do feel like splurging and that's when I use a running water pipe in my garden!

Its not that I don't have a good water supply, but its just that I want atleast 24x7x365 water supply for my son and his gen next! As the native american proverb says: 

Hasta Pronto !