Nalini's Space: Your every activity matters

Nalini's Space: Your every activity matters: In the days of my parents, healthy food was cheap and unhealthy food expensive. But now it is totally other way around. Healthy food is expe...

Health in your hands - Do it.

 My father though was very highly qualified educationally and professionally, each time he had to do something new, he would do with an eagerness of a child and not with fear of an adult. 

My parents did not deter me when I too followed the same path. And I provided an environment for my children too to make their own self.

For the past few months, I felt challenged as a mother. It began when I saw the video of how they dip a bunch of wilted green leafy vegetable in a bowl of chemical solution and that turned fresh looking. The other event was when I read the report from the research on Cauvery water by a team from IIT Madras. It spoke about how filled the water was with drugs affecting the brain and a lot of metallic residue.

It made me realise that telling my children - “Do not eat chips and packed food. It is unhealthy” and then feeding them these fruits and vegetables saying it is healthy was such a farce.

My emotions as a mother could not tolerate that and I began to question, probe, introspect, meditate and prayed.

It took me months to arrive at a practical and readily feasible solution. Surprisingly it is too very economical

I am now in the process of spreading the awareness and as a Management professional, building new Business models.

I will summarise in short so that you all too can implement in your home.

A Doctor whom I consult for my daughter told me, “madam, your daughter has less potassium”. That immediately triggered the thought process where I remembered a video wherein they told that the Banana peels when soaked in water overnight makes the water potassium rich and meets the needs of the plants.

This is a phenomenon which is called Osmosis 

You might have tasted the taste of Tulasi when soaked in water.

I put 1 and 1 together and I plucked leaves of the herbs that we grow in our garden, and peels of the vegetables that I buy from “natural farming” and soaked it in water overnight and we drink it in the morning. 

Recent Update - 8th Apr 2023

I am yet to validate it medically

Check this link too - I think they must have validated it 

https://food.ndtv.com/health/how-to-make-alkaline-water-at-home-a-refreshing-tonic-for-weight-loss-1697319

Take care. Nutrient filled diet need not be expensive 😊

Plastics - Compostable or Uncompostable

Plastics - everyone is talking about it

What are they talking?

•  It is the last product extracted from petrochemicals and so it is very cheap
•  Lightweight with a high strength-to-weight ratio
•  Can be manufactured inexpensively and mass produced
•  Water resistant
•  Shock resistant
•  Thermally and electrically insulating

Just as Internet brought a big revolution in Information world, Plastic brought a big difference to the society. In fact many parts of computing devices are made with plastic.

What else are they talking?

Plastic cannot be decomposed easily.

Is it true?

No

Then what is the truth?

There exists microorganisms that decompose plastic

 https://ecobnb.com/blog/2017/09/plastic-eating-fungus-pakistan/

What else is the truth?

Plastics are digested by Wax worms

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/06/waxworms-caterpillars-eat-plastic-pollution-but-could-also-hurt-bees/4952495002/

Then why is that solution not used?

People are scared that too many waxworms will get into the world and eat the bee wax and disturb the Bees population

Our Solution

Just as Cockroach farm is there in China for decomposing food waste, we can make Waxworm caterpillar farm

Another stop cheating ourselves from saying that apiculture gives pure honey. During non season time, the farmers feed the honeybees with sugar water only !

My thoughts on Agriculture

 This post is from my experience with teaching agriculture and being in that field for past 5 years

Farmers, by themselves, especially the small and marginal farmers prefer chemical free growth as the pesticides and fertilisers are expensive

Agriculture is not only crops but includes everything like

Growing flowers and deoative plants

Give us clothes to wear

Give us clothes for other purposes

Give us paper

Fragrances and flavour

List will go on and on

Today the world is not knowing how to manage climate change, viruses, children and so on

We will be able to see through this only if we are willing to work together

Our correspondent, Mr. Mohana Sundaram sir of Sri Gurukulam, Nallur, Hosur told us, for sustainability, Home makers should grow their own vegetables.

I realise what an in-depth thought it is…

Then, you may say what will farmers grow? 

As Mr. Nitin Gadkari said the other day, “Grow bio fuels”, grow native crops in Permaculture way

Jai hind ! Vlazhga Vazhamudan

Your every activity matters

In the days of my parents, healthy food was cheap and unhealthy food expensive. But now it is totally other way around.

Healthy food is expensive and non healthy food cheap

This has happened because the market adapted to the consumer’s tastes and trends.

Please realise the impact we have done with our ignorance. 

• Children less than 5 years are dying of cancer. 
• Cauvery river is contaminated with drugs and heavy metals
• Infertility on the rise
• List goes on

Be conscious of what you choose. Choose what is healthy and not what looks good

I remember a mother telling me that her son was refusing to eat Atta bread because it is brown and dirty. And wanted to eat maida bread as it is white in colour and so good

Arise, Awake and stop not until we reach the goal

It is still not too late.

We need to leave behind a world for our children

Traditional Rain water harvesting

 Earlier, especially in Chettinad, homes had built in rain water harvesting system.

The water would be collected in the courtyards and the excess water would be channeled to out of the house

There would be channels taking the excess water to the Eri

Meanwhile, before the monsoon sets in, the farmers would remove the clayey silt from the eri. This enables water percolation.

It’s a pity that today’s city planners do not think of water drainage and this leads to water clogging in the roads and the Tar road gets damaged.

Let’s teach this to our children and youth.

They may come with some unique and wonderful solution

This water collection goes to our Oorani and Kanmaai thru this rain water channel. 

This photo is Mr. Lakshman of Maruthi Greenfield's native home. Beautiful isn't it?!

Zero waste

 Dear all,

You all must have heard from your parents and grandparents on their lifestyle. They did not have centralised waste disposal system and they managed very well. Much much healthier than us

My mother told me that she and her neighbour would compete with each other as to who sweeps the garden first. Tamarind leaves would have fallen down and the person who sweeps first gets the leaves for the manure pit

Then Urbanisation happened

Today, our society is once again working on generating zero waste.

Many of you all may have heard of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4ZtsTXELBM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50FlE5x4qJY

Also, we all know the power of EM solution

There are solutions, we need to adapt them to our situation

First, we must spread awareness to one and all.

Our children are the best to do it.

Planning programs through my "Malarum Thottam - An Indian Family Initiative"

Please support us them

Jai Hind! Valzhga valamudan

From Zero to Hero

When the child is born, it does not have an ego i.e. the children has not formed a picture of himself/herself

As they grow up to be come teenagers, they begin to develop their ego and struggle to form an ego i.e. "An Identity" of themselves. Who they think they are. 

It is quite a turbulent phase for them and their caretakers. Both at home and school.

In twenties, they tend to settle down with the society with the ego/identity/who they think are having been developed.

Please be with them on their journey and help them develop a Positive and Thriving ego

#globalindiantech #malarumthottamaifi #myopenskoolfromindia

Am educator cum mother

Nalini Ramadoss Rajan

Being parented

Some wanted to know what is the meaning of “not growing the child”.

I have mentioned in one of my previous posts that every child is a gift, wrapped up with layers of wrapping paper. The difference between a man made gift and the divine’s gift is -> Divine gift will unwrap itself. All we need to do is observe it unwrap.

As we observe, the child will grow into an adolescent and youth. And as they grow we are also made aware of their purpose in this world.

As parents, our job is not to ensure that they fail but rather give them freedom to grow and gather life experiences. We need to be there to pick them up when they cannot get up by themselves I.e. allow them to try to get up by themselves as much as possible.

The above gives powerful life experiences. Good thing about learning in childhood is that the damage is easily reversible which is not so easy once they grow up to be adults.

My parents and me

I am now writing this series of “My parents and me”. In this I will share how they parented me. Hope it will help you all as parents.

Many ask me “Nalini how do you manage so much variety of activities” To this my answer is -> The key is in how I was allowed to grow from a child to a youth and then an adult

My mother did not grow me. She just watched me grow. She told me a lot of stories which had moral values and appealed to day to day life. My response to those stories were -> I built my boundaries within which I had to live...

My father loved my mother very much and respected her too.

Both of them did not treat me as a daughter but as their child.

All this impacted me. More in the next series