Does the Environment really need your protection?
Dear Jal Rakshaks ‘Environmental Protection’ is the new buzz word – in policy, text books, corporate manuals, CSR agendas, political manifestos, NGO Objectives……. Anywhere and everywhere….the slogan is – ‘ PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT’. And yet…the ‘Environment’ continues to get a raw deal everywhere– villages spring up in forests, animals disappear; mining holes appear in ancient mountain ranges, mountains become bare; streams dry up, rivers turn into nullahs; wells give water of all colours & smog envelops us...
read morePray for those who are suffering
Oh God! I’m feeling miserable! It’s 12.30 in the night, as the rain pours incessantly, suddenly the sight of those black polythene sheet covered hutments that I had seen just last week, flashes across my eyes. In my mind I saw the old man telling me about daily wages in UP, the young kids playing around and begging to be photographed , the goat chewing placidly and the young men teaching us how to steal the pavement hand-rails…..and suddenly it hit me…….this was a tragedy I was watching unfold. I remembered that...
read moreMy dearest Chulbuli Pandey – a letter to the Yamuna river in flood
My dearest Chulbuli Pandey, Aah! Yamuna meri jaan – kya dabangg cheez ho tum ! Ekdum se aisa jhatka de diya, ki sab ko hilaa kar rakh diya! Kyun chhamiya – itna gussa kis baat ka ?? Like Shahrukh ‘Don’ Khan’s ‘Junglee Billi’ - in one fit of anger you’ve demolished all delusions we had about being your masters! We thought we’d tamed you – we Zero sized you, by damming you up; weighed down your frail body by dumping all our kachra in you – and sat happily in our ivory towers thinking – bhookhi billi kya...
read moreThe Annual Monsoon Mess – Can we do something to prevent this?
Dear Jal Rakshaks Indians down the ages have celebrated the first showers of the Monsoon rain. It brought with it the promise of a bountiful yield, joy and prosperity all around. It has been a major source of inspiration for Indian folklore and creative arts. Even today, it has the power to make or break governments and economic indices in India. From time immemorial, the monsoon has been coming every year - and yet it always seems to catch us unprepared. Infact, it seems that planning for the monsoon excess was better in the ancient...
read moreDid you read the newspaper today?
There were 2 articles that caught my attention—one was the shutting down of water supply from UP to Delhi by 10,000 protesters in Ghaziabad to force the government to accept their demand for reservation ( Complete Story ) The other was a ‘Water Donation’ drive by residents of different localities in NOIDA and Delhi. ( Pg 8, Delhi Times TOI June 14, 2010 ). Residents ‘donated’ atleast one litre of water each which was collected in a mini-tanker and distributed in nearby slums. The first was a bolt of thunder—to jerk us out of our...
read moreWhen Water Hyacinth Becomes A Visual Delight !
Dear Jal Rakhsaks, Advisors & Partners Yesterday, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, came to the Neela Hauz lake to check on the status of its revival. She walked around, peeped over the flyover’s handrail and said – this looks nice and green. But where’s the water? The water was under the ‘nice and green’ – the hyacinth that was choking the lake! When she was told this, she took a snap decision – “till the Commonwealth games, don’t touch the area -let the hyacinth be – atleast it makes the area look...
read moreThe Neela Hauz Will Live Again!
The Bridge over Neela Hauz is now nearly complete. I thought it was time to step up the pressure on PWD to remove the soil dumped in the lake. So I called up the Engineer-In-Charge of the project – Mr. Karunanidhi – to ask to meet with him. Before I could say anything he excitedly said, “Madam, I have been trying to call you for the past one week! I want to meet you – I have a surprise for you” I met him on Friday evening and after talking for some time in his office, he took me down below the bridge to show me – “The Engineering...
read moreInvitation to Dedication Ceremony of the JAL SANCHAY ABHIYAAN
Dear Jal Rakshaks It gives me tremendous pleasure to invite you all for the Dedication Ceremony of the JAL SANCHAY ABHIYAAN – a movement to recharge approx 40 million liters approx. to Delhi’s groundwater using ONLY dried and abandoned tube wells. This is yet another milestone achieved by JAL RAKSHAKs like you. Your leadership, initiative, commitment and attitude of enabling productive partnerships has helped turn discarded tube wells – an investment of Rs. 3-5 lakhs of public money – into PRODUCTIVE PUBLIC...
read moreSTOP WATER OVERFLOWS AND ADOPT RAINWATER HARVESTING
JAL RAKSHAK’s STOP WATER OVERFLOWS AND ADOPT RAINWATER HARVESTING CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVE 1) To create and build capacities of JAL RAKSHAKs in all 30 pockets (sectors) of Vasant Kunj 2) Under the leadership of the JAL RAKSHAKs, to make each of these pockets a. Water Tank Overflow free and b. Rainwater Harvesting enabled. JAL RAKSHAK PROFILE For this campaign the JAL RAKSHAKS will be: 1) Current members of the JAL RAKSHAK community 2) RWA members from various pockets of Vasant...
read moreThank you for giving us back our faith in ‘the system’
Thank you Dr Hussein for giving us back our faith in ‘the system’…. The students of St Mary’s School are a persistent bunch!! They called up a few days back to say that they wanted to come back to the Neela Hauz to “Check on its restoration status and fight with whoever necessary to make it live again”. Their comment got me worried. Should our children grow up with this belief that they need to ‘fight’ for what is their’s by right? Should they grow up with no faith in the ‘system’ – government, elders and all those...
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