In a quarter of a century, Kerala has leapfrogged from being a fully literate state to a state with total primary education.
The government would declare the new status on April 18, said Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb. The status means almost 100 per cent of its eligible citizens have passed class IV examination or its equivalent.
As a next target, he said, the government plans to achieve total higher secondary education or its equivalent in the state in the next three years.
“Under the equivalency programme, age is not bar for studying,” the minister said at a meeting held at a Literacy Mission function meeting held at the District Planning Committee hall, here. Abdu Rabb said that the government would help anyone interested in joining the programme.
“Those who do not speak Malayalam can also join the equivalency programme,” he said and added that workers from the state were able to get promotions in West Asian countries because of the programme.
Special Syllabus
The education minister said the government was working a new curriculum for children with intellectual disabilities.
“It will be introduced in the next academic year,” he said. The government has cleared a proposal to set up centres for persons with intellectual disabilities in Kasargod and Parappanangadi in Malappuram district. Abdu Rabb said that the government would consider a proposal to start institutes in northern districts to impart language proficiency among English teachers.
The minister felicitated athlete T K Jyoti Prasad, who won gold at the national and state school games this academic year.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / February 23rd, 2015
Mili says she loves the way the jazz musicians broke free from format, yet stayed rooted to the core.
A host of film songs, jazz gigs and independent music later, Mili Nair stands on the cusp of another milestone: her debut album as singer and songwriter, writes Esther Elias
Mili Nair’s moment of epiphany dawned in the darkness of a vocal booth in Kodambakkam. She’d just written down Vairamuthu’s lyrics, and learnt its simple tune, when A.R. Rahman and Mani Ratnam walked in. As they sat down and listened to her render ‘Keda Kari’ for their film Raavanan, a dream reel scrolled in Mili’s head of all the magic the two had woven together… Roja, Bombay, Alaipayuthey, Guru… “I couldn’t believe that I, at 24, was standing in that room, singing for them! That moment gave me my calling; I knew I was here for a reason.” Five years and a host of film songs, jazz gigs and independent music later, Mili stands on the cusp of another milestone: her debut album as singer and songwriter.
Born to Keralite parents and raised in Pune, Mili grew up a single child with music as her companion. “I was a late talker, so I was humming before I could say words,” she laughs. Like all “good South Indian children”, she was sent for Carnatic music classes, but secretly built an ear for her mother’s collection of English music, everything from Abba and The Beatles to Christopher Cross. Her mornings began with choir rehearsals and after school, she’d hop next door to her music classes in a little cottage full of upright pianos left behind by English nuns. “I knew quite early on that music would be my life,” says Mili, but for a short while, as a teenager, when that dream almost didn’t come true for a lack of resources, her heart fell. “When music did return, I realised anew just how precious what I’d taken for granted was.”
It was only in Bangalore as a student of journalism at Mount Carmel, did Mili find jazz. All the while training in Trinity School of London and Royal School of Music’s classical music syllabi, a friend lent her a Chet Baker instrumental CD, and it was love at first listen. “I loved the way the musicians broke free from format, yet stayed rooted to the core. It instantly changed my thinking as a singer. I started seeing my voice just like an instrument, capable of all that freedom of improvisation!” Mili went on to sing covers of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Dee Dee Bridgewater alongside her usual repertoire of rock and pop at gigs across Bangalore, until one day renown bassist Keith Peters, heard her sing and offered to back her. “I was stunned, but went along with it, and learnt more about exploring my voice with Keith, than ever before.”
In the thick of making life as a jazz musician, Mili never quite foresaw Rahman knocking at her door. She still doesn’t know how he found her, but that window of opportunity with him opened numerous doors into playback singing. From ‘Ippadiye’ for Yuvan Shankar Raja in Poojai, to ‘Nee Sunno New Mono’ for Harris Jayaraj in Nanbenda, ‘Oh Penne Penne’ for Anirudh Ravichander in Vanakkam Chennai, ‘Parakka Seivai’ again for Rahman in Ambikapathy, and the song she’s best known for, ‘Meethi Boliyaan’ for Amit Trivedi in Kai Po Che, Mili is thrilled with the music that’s come her way. She’s also just finished recording the title track of Mr. X, a Bollywood film with Jeet Ganguly as music director, where she’s sung a duet with director Mahesh Bhatt (“What a rockstar!”). “I’ve been blessed to have music directors who understand my voice,” says Mili, “They call me for that particular sensibility of a jazz singer, and allow me to be me.”
Alongside film music also arrived the offer of a Coke Studio session with Amit, where the vocal powerhouse in Mili came forth in all its glory in ‘Badri Badariyan’ and ‘Yatra’. “Singing with him is the sort of work that fulfils your soul. The calibre of musicianship that plays with Amit is that splendid,” she says. For a year now, she’s been gigging with Amit and the band across the country, at college events and music festivals like NH7, one of the latest venues being in Pune. “The energy there was just insane! People were screaming song requests, and climbing over barricades to reach us. For me, that was a homecoming of sorts.” In the midst of the whirlwind that Mili’s life had been the last couple of years, she found herself one evening at a concert in Bangalore listening to a drummer named Hamesh. They got talking, about music, of course, and are today married and settled in Chennai with a home full of music and their earnings spent on buying even more music. “Music is the marriage,” smiles Mili.
At home, one day three years ago, resting between shows and studio sessions, Mili picked up a small keyboard lying around at home and fiddled a melody that popped into her head. She explored the musical idea a little further and gradually, it blossomed into a full-fledged song. “I found music come to me in most unexpected moments this way. And it doesn’t come with lyrics first because I feel far better through music than words; a bass line or guitar phrase will drop by and I’d have to follow it around for a while, nurture it into fullness.” Over these years, Mili’s stacked up a collection of songs that range from jazz to blues, rock and pop, rarely performing them live, but running them by musician friends for “that magic that happens in collaboration”. All of life thus far has shaped this album, says Mili. From Bollywood, she’s learnt of how the music industry works, and from independent jazz performances, she’s honed that maturity of feeding off fellow musicians’ creative flights. Her work enters studios soon and will reach the world later this year. “Doing music where you can be yourself, truly is divine,” she says.
Latha Ajith works with glass to great effect, producing traditional stained windows to designer pieces
Nothing about the building just off the Container Terminal road at Cheranellore suggests Krish Glass and Glazing. It is only when, inside the building, Latha Ajith points in the direction of her office we get an idea of the work she does. Each wall is made of glass panels each showcasing a different technique of glass work – painted, stained, embossed – one very different from the other.
Glass is an unusual choice of material to work with, for a woman and on this scale. “The closest I came to working with glass was at my husband’s steel storage units making plant where glass is bent for storage units such as the ones used in bakeries. I saw bent-glass so I had no clue about how it was done.” A visit to a trade show in Mumbai opened her eyes to the wonders of glass. She was struck by the creative options it offered. Glass made her curious and she started asking questions about it. At every trade show she attended with her husband she asked questions at the glass stalls. “After I finished asking questions about techniques in one stall I would move to the next and then to the next. Finally I would quiz myself on what each technique was and virtually learnt the process by myself.”
Latha is one among very few women in India who have glass as their business. “Even at trade fairs there aren’t too many women.”
Her passion for glass grew to such an extent that she set up a unit to fashion glass – stained glass, treated with acid, mixing processes, etching, colouring, fusing glass and fabric or glass and glass – Krish Glass and Glazing in 2004 and a showroom Krish Glass House in 2010. “Whatever I learnt, I learnt on the job.” Her initial plan was to start a dealership but she gave up considering the risks involved which included breakage during transportation.
A trip to Ghaziabad, known for its glassmaking units, got her the equipment and the workers with the know-how.
Latha’s manufacturing unit has huge, hulking machines which bend, mould and shape glass; in one part workers go about cutting glass while elsewhere in the compound is a huge China-made machine which laminates fabric with glass to stunning effect.
On the first floor an artist meticulously puts together a stained glass picture, glass by glass using Belgian glass. A huge flex print of a Ganesha seems to oversee the process. “Flexes are made in order to replicate them in glass, based on which a ceramic mould is made for embossing,” Latha says.
Glass is a popular option with interior designers and architects since it is cheap and aesthetic. Churches, from various parts of the State, comprise a major chunk of her clientele requiring stained glass panes, windows and backgrounds for altars.
Recently she got involved in the restoration of aged glass too. In a square basin lies a stained glass panel soaking in what looks like water. “The stained glass panels are more than 200 years old, from a church in Kottayam. They tried getting it cleaned at many places before finally coming here. I asked them to leave it here. It took some experimentation but it is working. We will get the panels clean.”
When there is a ‘project’, she works in the unit till the piece is packed, loaded and transported. There have been times like when the Last Supper scene on glass shattered while being packed for transportation. “It was the day before Easter and the client wanted it that day but he understood when I called and told him what happened. Within a few days I got it redone and had it delivered.”
At times such as these she stays back late and works along with her team. “Whatever we have done has been a team effort.” Although she has a creative team she is involved in the designing and innovations.
Krish Glass House near Edappally Toll is a testimony to her effort. Glass embossing is her pride as she shows each piece – a Ganesha, a pair of horses, abstracts – “there is so much that can be done with glass and the different ways in which it can be used.”
According to Latha, artistically worked on glass has many takers, it being a cheaper option and aesthetically appealing. Some of the other options , she says are cladding, flooring, partition, as wall pieces, tiles and even fabricating entire walls in the material. “There is so much one can do with glass,” she says. Latha, it appears, is not done with innovating.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Shilpa Nair Anand / February 18th, 2015
Theatre House inside the New Theatre complex. Photo: Nita Sathyendran / The Hindu
Theatre House in Thampanoor, which is over 80 years old, retains much of its original features
Those who have been to New Theatre would, perhaps, be familiar with the quaint old house, tucked away in a corner of the expansive compound, to the right of the iconic building. Known simply as ‘Theatre House’, this one-storied building in traditional Kerala style architecture with Tamil influences, was once home to the late P. Subramoniam, pioneering director and producer of the Malayalam film industry. By virtue of Subramonian’s and his Merryland studios’ association with the industry, Theatre House could well have played a role in the story of Malayalam cinema itself.
“If I remember correctly, the house was built in 1935-36, around about the time the theatre itself came up,” recalls octogenarian Leela S. Pillai, only daughter of Subramoniam. “I was barely two or three years old, when we moved from my grandmother’s home in Chala to Theatre House. My youngest brother was born after we set up home here. It was actually great fun to grow up here given that the theatre is just across the yard. I remember how we children used to hop across to watch the action on screen, particularly whenever the songs came on. Of course, we had to surreptitiously crouch inside the door, in case father caught us at it!” she says with a laugh.
Leela, her parents and brothers lived at Theatre House for almost a decade, before moving home once again and she says that it has been in continuous occupation since then. “It was for a while occupied by my eldest brother and his family and then given on rent for a few years. At one point of time, the artistes who acted in Merryland Studio productions were also put up here,” says Leela, who has been living in Theatre House with her family, on and off, since the mid 1970s. Presently, her daughter Krishna and grandson Vignesh stay with her in the well-kept house.
Lord Krishna carved on one of the gables of the house. Photo: Nita Sathyendran / The Hindu
As it was then, a beautiful statue of Lord Krishna made of clay – said to be as old as the house itself –welcomes visitors to Theatre House. Inlaid front of the statue and behind it are Chettinad tiles, arranged in the pattern of kolams. Although weathered by rain and shine and the many footsteps that have traipsed over it over the decades, the tiles, still retain the signature red hue of the clay found in the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu.
A kolam made of Chettinad tiles. Photo: Nita Sathyendran / The Hindu
The front façade too hasn’t changed much since the house was built 80 years ago. The tiled roof still has two gables on each side, inside which figurines of Lord Krishna and Lord Murugan have been carved on wood; the carving of Murugan on the right side of the building is obscured by the branches of the stately, old jackfruit tree that grows in the garden. “The gables had carved wooden borders too but they have since fallen off,” explains Leela.
Up the unpolished granite steps to the veranda and you’ll immediately feel like you are in an island of calm amid all the hullaballoo outside. The mosaic flooring (that was laid over the original cement flooring sometime in the 60s) and the timber ceiling polished with age offers an immediate respite from the heat outside. The family has also kept the original wooden windows and doors intact; each window frame, inside and outside, has glass panels painted with a flower and leaf pattern.
The living room with it high wooden ceiling is the centre of attraction of the house and is neatly arranged with a mix of original and colonial art deco furniture. Gracing the walls are several paintings of religious iconography such as a Tanjore painting of Lord Murugan [“embossed in Germany”] and a pencil and charcoal drawing of Lord Krishna, both of which Leela believes have been hanging in the same place since the beginning. There are also a couple of portraits on the walls, including a large one of a young Leela with her parents.
The living room leads off to bedrooms on either side, the prayer room and the dining room, which are more or less its miniature versions, high ceilings, mosaic floors, wooden widow frames et al.
It seems that the only part of the house that has been renovated is the kitchen and dining area and that too only a couple of years ago. “It had a beautiful sloping jali made of wood. We had to tear it down because the slats were infested with mice and were a haven for marapatti [Asian palm civet],” explains Leela. “The dining table came much later. Initially, the entire family used to take our meals sitting on the cement floor,” she recalls, as we make our way back to the small garden in front.
“There used to be a deep rivulet which ran in front of the garden. My father was afraid that we kids would fall into it, so he had it diverted to the back of the property,” says Leela.
(A fortnightly column on houses in and around the city that are more than 50 years old.)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Nita Sathyendran / Thiruvananthapuram – February 20th, 2015
With the first rocket launch in Thumba, Kerala played a major role in the setting up the country’s space programme and the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), said Kerala Governor and India’s former chief justice P Sathasivam.
“Scientists and engineers here play a lead role behind many successful space missions in the country, but they are the last to be honoured,” he added while honouring the scientists of Isro establishments here on Tuesday for the success of the experimental flight of GSLV Mark-III and Mangalyaan mission at a felicitation meet organized by the Space Engineers Association (SEA).
He stressed the need to focus on space science and satellite technological development in enhancing the applications in remote sensing, transportation, better cropping, communication and telemedicine. Quoting Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian space science, he said the fruits of technology should be utilised for the betterment of mankind.
He likened the Isro to Supreme Court judges’ assembly, both have representation from across the country. SEA, a 1,200 member association of space engineers, had aptly honoured the brains behind the various successful space missions, including GSLV with its indigenous cryogenic test, PSLV, LVM-3 and Mangalyaan, he said.
VSSC director M C Dathan, liquid propulsion systems centre (LPSC) director K Sivan, Isro inertial systems unit (IISU) director P P Mohanlal, Isro propulsion complex (IPRC) director D Karthikesan and VSSC former director S Ramakrishnan were among those who were felicitated.
The project directors and associate project directors of various launch vehicles and top scientists of various divisions of Isro establishments, including NRV Kartha, Unnikrishnan Nair, S Arunan, BK Venkatraman, R Umamaheswaran, P Vijayakumar, G Ayyappan, R Ramavarma, S Venkateswaran, Koshi M George, P Ratnakara Rao and C Joseph, were also honoured.
The felicitation programme took off with the screening of a documentary by VSSC’s technical documentation and archival division on the milestones achieved by the Isro establishments, including India’s proven PSLV launch vehicle, the maiden interplanetary mission to Mars ‘Mangalyaan’ and launch of India’s next generation launch vehicle GSLV Mk-III on December 18 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, etc. It also focused on further space flights of the next PSLV launches to place the remote sensing series satellite IRNSS 1D on March 9 this year, other PSLV launches and advanced GSLV Mark III with indigenous cryogenic engine.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Thiruvananthapuram / TNN / February 18th, 2015
The launch of the first public road transport service on February 20, 1938, in the erstwhile Travancore will be recreated after 77 years on Friday, from East Fort to Kowdiar Square and back in a double-decker bus.
The bus will be flagged off by Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) CMD Antony Chacko at 11 a.m. as part of the ‘Bus Day’ celebrations by the Kerala State Road Transport Employees’ Association (KSRTEA) with the theme ‘healthy public transport for public health.’
Sree Chithira Tirunal, the then ruler of Travancore, inaugurated the service 77 years ago. He, along with Col. Goda Varma Raja and other members of the ruling family, were among the passengers. E.G. Salter, Assistant Operating Superintendent of London Passenger Board, drove the bus.
A fleet of 33 buses and a huge crowd joined the celebrations as the bus moved on. The first bus was operated from Thiruvanantapuram to Kanyakumari on February 21, 1938.
From England
Initially, the department imported Comet chassis for 60 buses from England and they were fitted with Frank Perkins-made diesel engines under the direct supervision of Salter. The experimental design of the body created by Salter became the standard design of the rest of the buses, say archival reports.
The early buses were like saloons with 23 soft leather seats. There were 10 First Class seats in the front. The schedules, fares and bus stops were fixed and published. A parcel service was also started. The services were extended to Kochi in 1949 and to Malabar, in 1956. The KSRTC came into existence in March 1965.
People’s representatives, top officials of the corporation, socio-cultural activists, and trade union leaders will be on the bus. The KSRTEA is trying to rope in the members of the ruling family of the erstwhile Travancore for the trip.
Bus Day is being observed as part of the second phase of the “Save KSRTC” campaign. KSRTEA general secretary C.K. Harikrishnan urged the public to shun private vehicles and to travel on KSRTC buses on Friday.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities. Thiruvananthapuram / by S. Anil RadhaKrishnan / Thiruvananthapuram – February 18th, 2015
The famed Machad Mamankam also known as ‘Machad Kuthira Vela’, one of the major festivals of Valluvanad, was celebrated at Thiruvanikkavu Temple at Wadakkancherry, near here, on Tuesday with fervour and pomp.
Processions carrying huge models of horses (poikkuthira) made of bamboo planks and hay, decorated with colourful silky clothes and other ornaments, were taken out by various desams in a charged atmosphere.
Percussion ensembles also drummed up excitement as people from various ‘desams’ carried the horses models.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / February 18th, 2015
pioneer:K.V. Mathew started the now famous Chennai Book Fairin 1977 —Photo:V. Ganesan
K.V. Mathew, who died on Friday, leaves behind a vast library at his house and generations of book lovers.
The man who nurtured the Madras Book Fair from its initial days breathed his last at his house in Luz on Friday afternoon.
On February 4, Mr. Mathew had celebrated his 87th birthday, said his nephew George, a school headmaster.
“His passion for books was unimaginable and he would encourage youngsters to read,” he said. Mathew was responsible for starting the now famous Chennai Book Fair in 1977, and later the Student’s Book Fair.
Born in Mavelikkara in Alappuzha, Kerala, Mr. Mathew began his career in 1945 as a salesman with Christian Literature Society (CLS), and became its sales manager.
After 25 years at CLS, he joined BI Publications as its regional manager in Chennai. He retired from BI at the age of 83, after which, along with three other friends, he started the Ecumenical Book Services, a publishing house for nursing textbooks.
He was founder secretary of the Ecumenical Fellowship in Madras, which organised the Human Christmas Tree. His wife Mariamma Mathew was former nursing superintendent at CSI Kalyani Hospital.
He also penned an autobiography, You Turned My Wailing into Dancing , and a book on jokes, Chuckle Till You Buckle .
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – February 15th, 2015
Perumbavoor G. Ravindranath in the room where he composes and teaches his students. Photo: Athira M. / The Hindu
Carnatic vocalist-composer Perumbavoor G. Ravindranath draws inspiration for his flights of creativity from his ‘music room’
“I enjoy solitude when I compose…,” says Perumbavoor G. Ravindranath with a smile. His retreat is a non-descript room in a building in the same compound of his house, ‘Anjaneya’, near Sasthamangalam Junction. That room, at the rear of his century–old ancestral house, is where he takes music classes and makes music. The rest of the house is now occupied by an advertising company.
The composer who gave us soul-stirring melodies in movies such asThoovanathumbikal, Innale and Sneham and who scored music for many devotional albums, says he has always had a separate room to pursue his musical flights. “I picked up this habit of being with myself during my All India Radio days. Those days, when I had to make new tunes, I would come home and do it sans any disturbance. That working style stayed on and after that it became difficult for me to compose if somebody else sits with me! Initially one of the rooms in my old house used to be my music room and after we shifted to this new house, a hall upstairs was converted to my working space. But after a surgery, it became difficult for me to climb the stairs and from then on this small room of my old house is where I find my space as a musician,” he says.
Be it for teaching or composing, he prefers to sit on the floor. So, near the door is laid a reed mat on which he sits, that too facing the portrait of his guru, the late Balakrishna Iyer. “I want to see his face when I take classes or compose,” says the 71-year-old.
On a raised, wide platform are kept his good, old, favourite organ, the sruthi box, books with music notations and a tape recorder. In fact, there are two other tape recorders in the same room. “I know times have changed and there are modern ways to record and listen to music. But I still belong to the old school when there was audio cassettes and tape recorders. These recorders are intact and so too the cassettes in which are stored the works of my favourite musicians. Also whenever I get a new tune, I sing and record it in a cassette. When my students come, I play it for them, leaving it to them to improvise,” he says.
The room is also more like a temple for him with religious images – photos and idols – of all faiths occupying the walls and an almirah in a corner. “I am extremely religious and I pray to the deities of all religions daily.” There is a photograph of his mother, the late M. K. Bhargavi Amma. With a legion of disciples, many of whom have made a name in music industry, Perumbavoor is happy that all of them even today come to learn from him. “I am rich in terms of my disciples. I don’t take regular music classes now, but some of my senior disciples come to learn and I never say no to them. Among them are singers like G. Venugopal, Vidhu Prathap, Jyotsna, Sudeep Kumar, and Ravishankar. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when they sit with me in this room and learn,” he says.
(A series that explores the workspaces of creative people in the city and its suburbs)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Athira M / Thiruvananthapuram – February 06th, 2015
S. Vishwanath, who has been promoting water harvesting, stresses on the need to be water literate.
Water, the invariable backdrop of Kerala life. Be it the rains that lash out two seasons every year, the placid backwaters, or the many rivers that straddle through this narrow stretch of land, water is central to the defining image of Kerala.
It thus comes through as a strange contradiction that at 25 litres a day, Kerala scores low, lower than even Rajasthan, in the per-capita availability of water. The answer to this paradox lies squarely in not knowing how to manage this most precious of our natural resource, properly.
S. Vishwanath is someone who has been campaigning for long for a change in the way we think, or do not, about water. Based out of Bangalore, Vishwanath, a civil engineer and urban planner by training has been working, writing and communicating on issues related to water conservation and water sanitation in urban areas. “Access to good quality water is strongly tied-in with public health, economic activity, and the quality of life,” says Vishwanath.
As our cities grow bearing the brunt of overpopulation, access to clean water is emerging as a new concern. The only way to deal with it, according to Vishwanath, is to harness water through its manifold sources, rain water, ground water, and even waste-water recycled. “A city like Thiruvananthapuram with nearly consistent monsoons has a lot of potential for rain water harvesting,” says Vishwanath, who has been successful in promoting water harvesting designs in several household and commercial complexes in Bangalore. Adding to this, Vishwanath and his team at the Rainwater Club, have commissioned a working model, minimalist in design, that converts urban rooftops to agricultural spaces where food, including paddy, could be grown, fed fully on recycled waste water.
Kerala has the highest well density in India and is a treasure if maintained well. But keeping this ground water and other local water resources usable and free of contamination is an allied challenge. This is where the sanitation systems come in. Sanitation, according to Vishwanath, is as much an urban problem as it is in rural areas.
“Dumping of raw sewage and waste water without treatment into local streams and rivers, disposal of solid waste into drains and canals all contaminate our ground and surface water reservoirs,” cautions Vishwanath.
“A city like Thiruvananthapuram with nearly consistent monsoons has a lot of potential for rain water harvesting.”
The sad plight of the Karamana river is a classic case of our callous negligence. As a reverse example, Vishwanath talks about Mahaweli Ganga, the river that cuts through the town of Kandy in Sri Lanka. “It’s an urban river. But there the water is pristine and pure. Strict laws and their enforcement combined with clever water management practices have made the Mahaweli the lifeline of Kandy”. Vishwanath wonders why this cannot be the case with the Karamana river.
Outside of legal ways and government enforcements, Vishwanath feels, long term change for the good can come only through dissemination of information and spreading awareness on water. “When we are water literate we will take individual actions to conserve and protect water resources. We will create community action to ensure its cleanliness and not allow greed to overcome sustainable use. We will create institutions and arm them with finances and accountability so that they too help in ensuring that available water resources are taken care of,” he says.
Vishwanath is the director of Biome solutions, an architectural firm that designs and build homes and institutions using earth as the primary construction material, inspired by the principles of Laurie Baker. He also works as an advisor to Arghyam, a public charitable foundation that has funded over 120 projects on water and sanitation all over India.
For information on Rainwater Club: http://www.rainwaterclub.org/
Vishwanath delivers a lecture on ‘Towards a sustainable city: Water’ today at University Women’s Association Hall, Jawahar Nagar, at 5 p.m. today.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Anand Narayanan / Thiruvananthapuram – January 21st, 2015
