Wednesday, April 15, 2009

How to draw a cow

I've decided to start a process of sharing some of the insanely brilliant insights of the purest citizens of India,the people in the lands far flung,in the middle of nowhere, I came across as I work,something more useful I figured than just sharing my views on the degeneration of IQs in the cities.

I've been working with a bunch of people[the Indian Youth Climate Network(IYCN) to be precise] who went on the road from Chennai to Delhi through villages and small cities in 3 battery charged vehicles,one vegetable oil fuelled buggy and a solar panelled truck recording people's initiatives to battle climate change.
You would be surprised by the absolutely contagious spirit of the super positive people empowering themselves all over the country...from killing their usage of LPG completely,to fully solar electrified establishments,to devicing methods to make their water potable without waiting for any govt to move it's freaking ass!

To give you some context,after Indira Gandhi's great Green Revolution (which you must remember from your geography books)which piled our fields with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the 'green' revolution left the soil completely infertile(just that what we never read about it)...just like a drug abused body which needs rehab quite desperately.
Some people have started the healing process and it has been my pleasure to document the 50 odd hours of footage shot on the road!We don't hear about these people,have you realised? Just like we don't hear about the entire continent of Africa ever in the news till they play cricket there!

I actually woke up to the 72% of our population who have no faces,no voices in our media because of this road trip.

Now,for the people who're still wondering about who funds this kind of a tour in the first place,could I please announce that the air around you is changing because of global warming. Some people are waking up to it and doing something about it,while others who still think it's a cause meant for those activists on the streets are probably going to be in for a rude shock when this recession really kicks in. And well if you're part of the urban ghetto and can't get yourself out of bed and don't feel energised to do quite anything,here's a cause to puzzle over if you're quite done with figuring the meaning of life.

I intend to document the solutions found on this road trip gradually on this blog for those interested in reading more,but let's start with us,the urbane who are just not helping,starting with the Nano.
When I heard about the TATA Nano coming out in the numbers it was claiming to come out in,I felt completely helpless. Here, we were trying to push zero carbon or battery operated cars,and while our budding automobile designers in an Eames' NID were still busy building fuel guzzling hot rods for their chance to go abroad on an exchange program,Ratan Tata was releasing a bunch of cockroaches called Nanos on the streets to increase the average individual's carbon footprint.
so now we'll have more cars on our superb roads
more people letting go of riding buses or trains because they now have cars
more cars bought per household
more petrol being used
more petrol needing to be shipped in
..this list just won't end.

anyway, a couple of days after this thought,I heard about someone already putting a plan into place with a super vision,
this is Shai Agassi,talking on TED....have a look



















and this is where you can see instantly how this guy has made govts go for change!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This makes me remember of this !!
http://xkcd.com/437/

I love XKCD

Milann Tress John said...

i love them too...
http://xkcd.com/93/