Author: millennialmatriarchs

Celebrating Sapodilla: GI Tag for Amalsad Chikoo

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Not long ago I wrote about the Kuchchhi Kharek or Date that was given a GI tag. Just last week another fruit from Gujarat has been given this tag, making it the third fruit from the state (after the Gir kesar mango and Kuchchhi kharek) to be tagged thus. This is the Amalsad chikoo or sapodilla.

We generally think of the chikoo as being a very ‘desi’ fruit with its grainy texture, caramelly flavor and colour, and sticky latex at the stem of the fruit. However, the origin of the fruit can be traced back to the Yukatan peninsula in Mexico. Its history goes back to ancient Mesoamerica where it was cultivated by the Mayans and Aztecs who used its sweet and nutritious pulp was a part of their indigenous diet. European explorers to this region discovered this fruit, and the zapote or chicle spread with them as they continued their explorations across Central America and the Caribbean, and then further afield, reaching Asia, Africa and the Pacific. The well-travelled chikoo adapted to different climates and cultures, thriving in tropical and sub-tropical regions, to become a ‘local’ favourite across different continents. Manilkara zapota (its botanical name) acquired local names like chicozapote, naseberry, nispero, soapapple, sapota, sapodilla, and chikoo.

As with most fruits, chikoo has its share of health and nutrition benefits. Several parts of India provide ideal soil and climatic conditions for cultivating chikoo. In fact India is the world’s largest producer of the chikoo which is also widely exported. There are also several varieties of chikoos grown here. But not every variety of chikoo has the distinction of gaining a GI Tag.

What is this tag and how is it obtained. A Geographical Indication (GI) sign is used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.

Geographical Indications are typically used for agricultural products, foodstuffs, wine and spirit drinks, handicrafts, and industrial products. In the case of fruits and vegetables the product needs to conform to certain parameters such as size, colour, number of seeds, flavour and aroma.

What is important is that the qualities, characteristics or reputation of the product should be essentially due to the place of origin. Since the qualities depend on the geographical place of production, there is a clear link between the product and its original place of production.

The use of place names to identify the place of origin of products goes back centuries. However the legal connotations of such names were introduced in the form of Geographical Index by the World Trade Organization in 1994. In India, the GI tag system came into force in 2003. Darjeeling tea was the first product in India to get a GI tag. But since then the awarding of GI tags has been active, and as of July 2024, there were 605 products with GI status, spread across agricultural, natural, manufactured goods, and handicrafts.

One of the main objectives of the GI tag is to protect and preserve traditional goods and crafts, and the communities that make them. It functions as a seal of authenticity to highlight that a product claiming to be from a certain region is in fact from that region, is produced by people living in that region, and that it meets certain quality standards set up to ensure this. The GI status also offers legal protections since only registered or authorised producers are allowed to use the tag. The GI registration allows registered parties to launch a lawsuit for infringement against unauthorised parties using the tag.

The GI tag values the traditional skills of artisans, unique ingredients, and region-specific delicacies, and agricultural produce. The attraction of a GI tag is that it is believed that it will give the producers a better status and the ability to get better price for their products.

In India, the process of obtaining a GI tag is rigorous, and often takes time. It begins by submitting a physical application by an association of persons producing the goods to the Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai, which is under the purview of Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

 The information in the application needs to prove the historical and regional antecedents of the product. In the case of agricultural produce, details required include the exact area, the cultivar, how it’s grown, how long it had been linked to the region, and agricultural factors that make the ingredient unique. The approval process can take anywhere between one and three years to get the tag, sometimes even longer. For example, it took eight years for the Erode turmeric and Basmati rice to get their GI status. The GI tag is only valid for 10 years, which means that producers have to renew their application to keep the status.

The Amalsad chikoo is not the first chikoo to get the GI tag. It was preceded by another chikoo variety called the Dahanu Gholvad Bordi Chikoo in 2017.This variety cultivated on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border was recognized for its unique sweet taste, soft creamy texture and high nutrition value attributed to the high calcium content in the soil of the area. This region has been a hub of chikoo cultivation for over a hundred years; also it is possible to harvest the fruit here round the year.

Now the Amalsad chikoo joins the club. It was awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in recognition of its “unique characteristics and deep rooted connection to the region”. The chikoo gets its name from a village in Gujarat’s Navsari district. However the region recognised by the GI covers 51 villages in Gandevi taluka, 6 in Jalalpore and 30 in Navsari which together produce about 30% of Gujarat’s chikoo yield. The region has ten chikoo cooperative societies which contribute substantially to the export of this fruit.

The application for GI certification was made jointly by the Gujarat Council on Science and Technology (GUJCOST) and Navsari Agricultural University (NAU). GUJCOST carried out research on proof of origin of the fruit cultivation in Amalsad while NAU worked on the special characteristics of this chikoo variety. This variety is recognised for its exceptional sweetness, fine texture, and long shelf life compared to several other varieties of India. The region’s unique soil composition, coupled with traditional farming practices passed down through generations have contributed to its quality and reputation. The GI certification acknowledges “the distinct quality, taste, and cultivation methods that make Amalsad chikoo a symbol of excellence in Indian horticulture.”

The GI tag is not only enhances the reputation of this chikoo but is a recognition of the traditional agricultural practices of the local horticulture community; this also boosts their business while giving them a level of legal protection. For the rest of us, it is one more incentive to enjoy a chikoo shake, ice cream, or simply chilled slices of this delicious fruit this summer.

–Mamata

Woolly, Woolly

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The recent weeks have seen a number of news items starting with ‘Woolly…’. That is not very normal—the phrase ‘woolly-thinking’ is too archaic to be used as a pejorative across the lines in Parliaments.

But this bandying about of the word is neither from debates nor about shearing of sheep and records set therein.

The references all come from the world of science.

The first set of references stem from experiments of mixing mutations from the extinct mammoth and extant mice to create a woolly mouse! No, creating mice, woolly or otherwise, is not the purpose of the group of scientists which is working on this. The ultimate objective is to actually re-create the woolly mammoth itself. This is only a small intermediate step.

Now who would want to do such a thing, and why? Well, a company appropriately called Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences is behind this. Colossal refers to itself as a ‘de-extinction’ company. In a throwback to Jurassic Park, this company has retrieved the DNA of the 8-ton giant woolly mammoths which walked the earth over 4000 years ago from permafrost. They have mixed this with the genes of mice through complex gene-editing processes and have, after over three years of trials and experiments, created litters of normal sized mice which however have the ‘long, wavy, woolly hair of the mammoth’. They also have fat metabolism that mimics that of the giants. Colossal sees these mice as the first step in the route to actually re-create mammoths. They plan to work up to editing Asian elephant genes to express the traits of the woolly mammoth, and introduce the stem cells into an elephant embryo. The embryo would then be implanted into the womb of a female elephant, and lo and behold, a mammoth would be born to her!

For those who thought only a few years ago that this was the height of woolly thinking, well, maybe with the birth of the woolly mice, they are re-thinking!

Apart from the mind-boggling technical prowess required however, there are many debates about the ethical and environmental dimensions of ‘de-extinction’. (A TED Talk by Stewart Brand titled ‘The Dawn of De-extinction: Are you Ready?’ offers interesting insights).

The second set of woolly references is nothing so controversial. It is the recent discovery of a flowering plant whose flowers, rather meanly, have been called Woolly Devils. The plant or the flowers don’t seem to do any harm to anyone, but have been so dubbed because the flowers are hairy-looking, have florets which resemble devils’ horns, and the plant has been discovered in the desert in Chihuahua  (an ecoregion that covers areas of northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S., including west Texas, parts of New Mexico, and southern Arizona) along some paths in in an area known as the Devil’s Den. The plant belongs to variety known as “belly plants”—because scientists find it comfortable to study them while lying on their bellies! 

How unfair it is to name this newly-discovered plant (Ovicula biradiata) as Woolly Devils is borne out by the fact that scientists think they may produce chemicals of medicinal value.

Only time will tell where the quest for the woolly mammoth leads, and what benefits the woolly devil brings us.

In the meantime, we can pray for an end to woolly thinking.

–Meena

Freedom of Imagination Makes a Book

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A few years ago an exhibition at a Research Centre at the University of Chicago was titled But is it a Book? The exhibition broke down the classic elements of ‘bookness’ like format, shape and binding.

The walk-through exhibition had a number of objects that through history were considered as ‘books’, ranging from a clay tablet made in the 3rd century BCE to a modern audiobook. But are either of these books? It was up to the visitor to decide. The exhibition posed a series of questions: “Does a book need to have pages? Does a book need text?” It was up to the visitors to decide. And each decision led the decider down a different path.

If some adults find the journey of exploring and discovering what makes a book, and furthermore, what makes a good book interesting, this exploration is even more adventurous when we enter the realm of children’s books. It is generally accepted that good children’s books are a blend of engaging storytelling, relatable characters, age-appropriate language, vibrant illustrations, cultural diversity, emotional depth, interactive elements, and timelessness. Each of these elements is deep and has numerous facets. And there is no magic formula; even if all these elements are present, it does not guarantee that the outcome is a ‘great’ children’s book.

Perhaps one element that is not explicitly listed, and which may be the key, is the ability of the author to think like a child; to recall how the world seemed as a child—the sense of mystery and discovery, the sense of wonder and anticipation, the sense of being insignificant and powerless in a world of adults…And to translate these complexities into a story that feels true to its young readers, wherein the spark of their imagination is ignited, to explore their imagination, and develop their creativity.

These are the guiding tenets of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), an organization which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together. The mission of the IBBY includes the promotion of international understanding through children’s books, giving children everywhere the opportunity to have access to books with high literary and artistic standards, and encouraging the publication and distribution of quality children’s books, especially in developing countries.

The IBBY also promotes the celebration of International Children’s Book Day. This is celebrated every year on 2 April, to mark the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, whose fairy tales have been an integral part of the childhood of many generations.

International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) emphasizes the significance of high-quality literature for children and the creativity it fosters. It highlights the love of reading that unites children worldwide. In high-quality children’s books, the reader’s imagination is kindled and developed. These books help children to explore their imagination, to develop their creativity and to see the world in a new way.

Each year a different National Section of IBBY has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of ICBD. It decides upon a theme and invites a prominent author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world and a well-known illustrator to design a poster. The host country for this year’s ICBD is the Netherlands. The theme for 2025 is The Freedom of Imagination. This derives from the belief that good books invite readers to interpret the words for themselves, making the story their own.

The poster for the theme is designed by two Dutch creators of children’s books, and the message of the theme is highlighted with the last sentence of the poem The Language of Pictures: Make pictures for my poem, and please feel free: these words belong to you even though they came from me.

Reading about this brought back memories of a wonderful project that I was involved in, many years ago, and which was sparked by the same message.

As environmental educators at the Centre for Environment Education, my team and I had diverse opportunities to develop creative teaching-learning resources for teachers and children. Perhaps the most exciting of these was a project to develop children’s books on four different themes: Pollution, Forests, Waste, and Conservation of Natural Resources. The form, format and presentation was left for us to decide. This presented an exciting blank canvas, as well as the challenge to be creative while still retaining the educational objectives for each theme. The outcome was the decision to develop books in four very different formats: a magazine format for Pollution; a collection of folk tales from the region for Forests; a quirky mystery story for Waste. But when it came to Natural Resources we were stumped! What was a manageable way of covering the wide range and scope of the theme?

Much brainstorming later this took the form of verses through which we could take “poetic liberties” by bringing together different natural resources. To make it more fun, we decided to do this alphabetically. Hence the title ABC…Naturally. And so the R page could have a verse with the words: rivers, rainbows, reptiles, roots, rainforests, resources, recycle, reuse and reduce.    

With such a motley assortment of words in place, there arose the next challenge. How would an artist illustrate these verses? As adults we are so conditioned to ‘labels’ and fixing of labels in ‘appropriate places’; this would need a huge leap of imagination. But Eureka! Children could make these leaps effortlessly. And so, we walked into a school and handed it over to more creative minds! We simply gave different children the verses, and gave them the Freedom of Imagination to interpret the words through their pictures, as they saw fit. The result was an incredibly rich and many-layered tapestry where disparate elements seamlessly fell into place. ABC…Naturally became a shared work, with every child feeling a sense of ownership and pride at being a ‘creator’. It was a true reflection of the freedom of imagination! It was also a validation of the belief that good books invite readers to interpret the words for themselves, making the story their own.

As someone who was deeply engaged in every part of this process, I am excited that the IBBY is celebrating International Children’s Book Day this year by providing a similar opportunity to

children across the world. IBBY Netherlands has launched an International Illustration Competition to encourage children worldwide to use and express their imagination and creativity by creating works of art inspired by the theme The Freedom of Imagination and the associated motto: “Make pictures for my poem, and please feel free: these words belong to you, even though they came from me.”

Details are available on https://www.ibby.org/fileadmin/user_upload/icbd/icbd_2025/ICBD_2025_international_illustration_competition_-_regulations.pdf

https://www.ibby.org/awards-activities/activities/international-childrens-book-day/icbd-2025-sponsored-by-the-netherlands#:~:text=The%20theme%20of%20the%202025,’

–Mamata

The Perfect Breakfast

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Cooked rice soaked overnight in water, and the rice and water seasoned and enriched with various additions. This was the traditional breakfast in many rice-eating parts of India including all the Southern states, and in the East, including Odisha, West Bengal, Assam Jharkhand etc. Across the border, it is equally popular in Nepal and Myanmar and Bangladesh too. In fact, it was Kishwar Chowdhury, a contestant of Bangaldeshi origin who brought it to the world stage when she made a gourmet version on Masterchef Australia.

Two generations ago, even in cities, this was the standard morning fare. In Tamil Nadu, the rice was soaked overnight and the next day, mashed up, buttermilk was added, as also curry leaves, green chilies etc. My mother and her brothers had this almost every day before being sent off to school. It was healthy, nutritious, kept the stomach full for a long time. Also this ensured that rice was never wasted. And importantly, saved the mothers a load of work in the busy morning.  The nutritional value and taste of the soaked rice item is often enhanced by adding drumstick leaves, ginger, cumin, curd, lemon, a tadka, etc. There is even a sweet variant made by adding sugar or jaggery.

And this was the standard in homes across these states. Not just students but famers, workmen and others started the day with this.

Soaking cooked rice overnight leads to mild fermentation and promotes the growth of healthy bacteria. It lowers the glycemic index and increases mineral content. A paper in a respected scientific journal avers: ‘Soaked rice is rich in B6, B12 vitamins and is a source of beneficial bacteria which helps in digestion and boosts immunity. The given samples of normal cooked rice and overnight soaked cooked rice are tested for carbohydrate, crude protein, fat/oil and fiber content. The rice which was overnight soaked cooked rice was found to have more nutrient content than unsoaked cooked rice. There is an increase in energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate, fiber content and minerals. Eating fermented rice for breakfast was an old custom among the farmers. It has been proved that overnight soaked cooked rice acts as a healthy breakfast and would play an important role in the health of today’s young generation.’*

The benefits of soaked rice are now being recognized and celebrated. Odisha has taken this to heights by declaring a Day for this: Pakhala Dibasa was declared on 20 March 2011 and is marked every year by Odias everywhere. (Pakhala is Odia for soaked rice). It is appropriate that Odisha should take the lead in doing this, for the dish has a hoary history in this state. There is very early documentation of pakahla including a recipe of prasads at Lord Jagannath Temple of Puri dating back to the 10th century. There is also a mention in the Odia poems of Arjuna Das in his work Kåḷpålåtā composed during 1520-1530 CE.

And yes, in keeping with the tradition, this is another dish contested between Odisha and West Bengal!

Time to remind ourselves that health does not come from a box, nor all knowledge from the internet. Nutrition is right there in the humblest ingredients in our kitchens, and our grandmothers know a lot too!

So in honour of Pakhala Dibasa just gone by last week, and to mark Utkal Diwas (today, April 1), let us resolve to have a soaked rice breakfast at least once a week. This is especially good in the summer, as it has cooling properties.

Here is to happy, healthy breakfasts!

–Meena

*Neha Sharma M, Gayathri R, & Vishnu Priya V. (2018). Assessment of nutritional value of overnight soaked cooked rice over unsoaked cooked rice. International Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences, 9(3), 515–518. Retrieved from https://ijrps.com/home/article/view/4150

Colours of Childhood: Crayons

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A recent weekend spent with a toddler revived the memories and joys of crayons. While playthings and pastimes have changed considerably, especially in this digital age, there are some that continue to retain their charm. Crayons are among these.

Opening a fresh box of these colourful sticks neatly lined up with their wrappers, has been a special feeling, over generations. The distinctive smell from the paraffin used in their making, equally triggers memories, long after childhood. According to a Yale University study the scent of Crayola crayons is among the 20 most recognizable scents to American adults; coffee and peanut butter are numbers 1 and 2!

The attractive colours and the smell almost triggers an urge to bite into one. And, certainly, most toddlers are often more interested in tasting the colours, rather than drawing with them!

What makes crayon? A crayon (or wax pastel) is a stick of pigmented wax used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from pastels, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder such as gum arabic, and from oil pastels, where the binder is a mixture of wax and oil.

While these wax sticks as we know them date back a few hundred years, the technique of using wax with colours was a method known to Ancient Egyptians who combined hot beeswax with coloured pigment to fix colour into stone. Ancient Greeks and Romans used wax, tar and pigment to decorate ship bows and for drawing. The first crayons, used for marking, appeared in Europe, and were made with charcoal and oil, and hence were in a single colour—black.

Crayons in their more recognizable form were invented in the United States in 1903. They were developed by a company called Binney and Smith who were originally manufacturers of red iron oxide for painting barns and lamp black which had a number of applications including making rubber tyres black.

In the early 1900s the company moved on to making marking crayons for commercial use. These were used as waterproof markers in factories but they contained toxic substances and were not suitable to be used by children. The company then entered into the school market with slate school pencils and dustless chalk. Here they saw that there was potential for the use of colouring tools for educational use in the classroom. Based on feedback from schoolteachers Edwin Binney and his wife Alice developed wax crayons. They mixed waxes, talcs and pigments to form non-toxic sticks which were wrapped in paper, making these safe and mess-free. They put these on the market in 1903 under the brand name Crayola. The name was created by Alice as a blend of craie, the French word for chalk and ola from oleaginous (oily paraffin wax). Ola was also a popular ending for products at that time. The first boxes had 8 coloured crayons (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, black, and brown), and sold for 5 cents, in yellow-and-green boxes which were labelled ‘school crayons’. For the next 45 years, the colour mix and the colour names remained unchanged.
While later many companies began manufacturing crayons, the word Crayola became synonymous with crayons and continues to be so to this day.

For the first forty years, each Crayola crayon was hand-rolled in paper wrappers with distinctive labels and names. Automated wrapping started only in the 1940s. Over the next hundred years Crayola introduced packs of 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, and 96 crayons. There have been over 400 Crayola colours created since the crayons were launched. The company now manufactures 120 standard crayon colours. In addition, there are specialty crayons like metallic, gel and glitter crayons.

The history of naming the colours is a reflection of the changing times and perceptions. While the set of 8 colours remained unchanged for the first 45 years, by 1949, with 48 colours in the box, the palette included colours with more imaginative name such as thistle, periwinkle, carnation pink, bittersweet, cornflower, melon, salmon, and spring green. With the addition of new crayons taking the number up to 64 the colours included Copper, Plum, Lavender, Mulberry, Burnt Orange, and Aquamarine. The psychedelic spirit of the 1970s was reflected with the addition, in 1972, of fluorescent colours: Chartreuse, Ultra Blue, Ultra Orange, Ultra Red, Hot Magenta, Ultra Green, Ultra Pink, and Ultra Yellow.

The 1990s saw the retirement of eight old shades and their replacement with new ones–Cerulean, Vivid Tangerine, Jungle Green, Fuchsia, Dandelion, Teal Blue, Royal Purple, and Wild Strawberry. The decade also reflected the response to cultural sensitivities. In 1999, the name Indian Red was changed to Chestnut because educators believed that children would think the name represented the skin colour of American Indians rather than the reddish-brown pigment found near India.

In 1993, to mark its 90th birthday Crayola invited the public to name 16 new Crayola crayon colours. Some of the winning suggestions included Asparagus, Macaroni and Cheese, Timber Wolf, Cerise, Mauvellous, Tropical rainforest, Denim. Pacific Blue. Granny Smith Apple, Shamrock, Purple Mountains Majesty, Tickle Me Pink, Wisteria and Razzmatazz. The last name was the suggestion of 5 year-old Laura Bartolomei, who was declared the younger Crayola colour winner.

In 2000 Crayola’s first online consumer poll to name the favourite Crayola colour was held. Blue emerged as the all-time favourite, and six shades of blue made up the list of top ten colours!

Crayola marked its 100th anniversary by once again inviting crayon users to contribute names. With increasing diversity in schools and growing awareness of being ‘politically correct’, in 2020 Crayola introduced a new line of 24 colours named Colors of the World to reflect the multicultural skin tones of people around the world.

Thus Crayola remained on top of the game by always being dynamic, responsive, and participatory to reflect the signs of the times, as it were. Crayola continues to be synonymous with crayons, not only in the USA, but now across the world. I remember when we were children, and our local palette limited to the standard box of 12 colours from Camel or Camlin, our great dream was to be gifted with multi-layered jumbo box of Crayola crayons by a relative coming from the USA!

Today perhaps the choices of art materials and techniques have increased, but the fascination with crayons certainly has not decreased! There are Crayola crayon collectors who are always searching for samples of rare or discontinued colour pieces. And America celebrates National Crayon Day on 31 March every year, to celebrate the colourful history of these simple sticks that have provided generations of children with hours of creative fun.

–Mamata

The Leaves Come Drifting Down

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At the moment, leaves are the bane of my life.

They drift down in their tens through the day. The lawns, porch and verandahs are no sooner swept that they come drifting down to make a mess, yet again.

And Saturday, when Bangalore was hit with unexpected torrential rains, our house almost flooded because fallen leaves had covered the water outlets on our terrace and there was a good six inches accumulated before we realized it and cleared the outlets. A few more minutes and the water would have entered the house.

But in general of course, who doesn’t love leaves: the variety of the shades of green, their shapes and sizes, the shadows they cast, the way they rustle in the breeze or when birds and squirrels play among them.

There are some people who take this love and appreciation to aesthetic heights. They are the leaf-artists.

Some people of course consider the leaf itself as art.’ There is artistry to a leaf that I find hard to put into words. In looking at leaves, the colours and veining, the patterns and textures, I get a good feeling. Leaves are nature’s artistry on display’, says Hank Erdmann, a leaf-photographer.

Others use the leaf as the medium. These leaf-artists express themselves through various creative expressions using leaves. This spans leaf printing, leaf carving, leaf painting and leaf collage. All of these are based on highlighting the leaf’s natural colours, shapes and textures.

It is likely that leaf-art is as old as our cave-dwelling ancestors. One can easily imagine our grandnmother picking up a leaf and carving a design on it with a sharp stone. And from these projects must have emerged the use of leaves as a medium for writing on—palm leaves were used for writing since the 5th century BCE in India. The ephemeral nature of the medium however has not left much proof of art on leaves.

But two contemporary artists have taken leaf-art to a new level.

The first is the Colombo Ecuadorian photographer, Yinna Higuera. Her recent collection ‘Traces’ is a series of portraits of rural Ecuadorian women, made on banana, cocao, coffee and other leaves. The collectoin documents the lives of these women, and portrays their link with nature and its cycles. The exhibition has been shortlisted for a Sony World Photography award, 2025. This is based on the technique of ‘chlorophyll printing’. The images are printed leveraging the leaf’s photosensitivity, merging photography with nature. This is an alternative photographic process where photographic images are developed on natural leaves through the action of photosynthesis, and goes back to the 19th century.

Another artist making waves (or gentle breezes) with his leaf art is Lito, a Japanese artist. He uses a completely different technique. He carefully selects a leaf, makes an intricate drawing on it, and painstaking carves it. The scenes often depict animals, birds and landscapes. Lito makes one leaf-carving every day! For him, this is not just a means of artistic expression, but also a way of managing his ADHD. It helps him focus, be calm–he sees it as a form of meditation. And importantly for him, leaf-carving is a means of earning a livelihood.

So I am going to re-calibrate. And appreciate each leaf as it drifts down to land on my verandah. Before muttering irritably at it!

And to end, here is a poem on leaves by Sarojini Naidu, whom Mamata wrote about a few weeks ago:

Like a joy on the heart of a sorrow,
   The sunset hangs on a cloud;
A golden storm of glittering sheaves,
Of fair and frail and fluttering leaves,
   The wild wind blows in a cloud.

Hark to a voice that is calling
   To my heart in the voice of the wind:
My heart is weary and sad and alone,
For its dreams like the fluttering leaves have gone,
   And why should I stay behind?

–Meena

PS: Today there are even Leaf Engraving Machines, ‘specialized for intricate leaf designs, perfect for crafting unique art pieces!’

The picture is from Lito’s Instagram page, art_dailydose

International day of Happiness: Caring & Sharing

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In recent times there have been a number of articles about experiments/initiatives to create ‘safe’ places for GenZ achievers where they can simply meet others of their ilk, and as one piece put it “form communities of shared interests and ideas, far away from the superficial posing of the digital world”.   

It is thought provoking, and indeed saddening to read about these. Caught in the frenetic pace of a work culture where people feel they do not have the ‘luxury of time’ that they perceive friendship demands. As one person put it “Colleagues can never be your friends in a competitive space; besides you don’t want to see them in your private time and space”.  The frequent moves from job to job, even place to place, the “stress” of meeting targets, and the long hours spent in cyberspace where the screen is king, leave little time and energy for meaningful human interactions. There is a sense of isolation, leading to a precipitous plunge towards the ultimate act of giving up everything, including one’s own life. What a very sorry state of affairs. Such futility, such a waste of the best years of one’s life. “Burning out” at an age when they should be blossoming into vibrant human beings. 

I feel so blessed that I grew up, and came of age, in an age of friendship. A time when ‘Time’ was a gift freely given and shared between human beings, and not the ubiquitous screen. When families caught up on the day’s doings and happenings over the evening meal, talking face-to-face. When the school days ended with playing with neighbourhood friends at whose homes we were fed and pandered to, as they were in ours. Graduating to college where new friendships blossomed in canteens and bonded through bunked classes. College was indeed the cradle for what was later to be described as the ‘all-round development’ for which today there are Life Coaches. Not to forget a course offered at Yale University called Psychology and the Good Life which is basically about teaching college students how to be happy! A course that “teaches” that feelings of happiness are fostered through socialization, exercise, meditation and plenty of sleep!

A bigger reminder of how far away we have come from those days is the designation of an international day by the United Nations which is called the International Day of Happiness.

The idea for the International Day of Happiness was proposed by UN advisor Jayme Illien in 2011. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which recognised happiness as a “fundamental human goal” and called for “a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all peoples”.

In 2012 the first ever UN Conference on Happiness took place, and the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which decreed that the International Day of Happiness would be observed every year on 20 March. The resolution was initiated by Bhutan, a country which recognized the value of national happiness over national income since the early 1970s and famously adopted the goal of Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product. All 193 United Nations member states have adopted the resolution calling for happiness to be given greater priority.

The day was celebrated for the first time in 2013. This day aims to highlight the importance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of people around the world. 

Every year, on this day, the United Nations publishes the World Happiness Report which explores the latest research on the importance of benevolence, empathy and trust as vital drivers of both individual and national happiness. It also announces the theme for the year.

The theme for the International day of Happiness 2025 is Caring and Sharing. This is a reminder that lasting happiness comes from caring for each other, feeling connected and being part of something bigger. The theme brought for me a flashback to my years of work in a workplace where this was the very theme that ran through every day of every year. I remember how this was also the name of the precious meeting space and time that the ‘girls’ called their own—one where, in addition to “theme sari days” there was an open and non-judgemental sharing of angst, anxiety, dilemmas and doubts, highs and lows, laughter and tears. This engendered a seamless blending of many generations, and the mutual caring and sharing that made our lives so rich. This was the ‘safe space’ where bonds were built; bonds that endure even when time and distance have separated us physically.  

A more inclusive gender-neutral space and time was the twice a day tea-table time. Tea table became the venue for easing in the newcomers; teasing and ribbing the old-timers; there were no hierarchies and no bosses. The agenda was whatever the mood of the table—sharing, admonishing, admiring, agonising and venting, and yes, laughing a lot.

It was an important support system in so many ways. After just 15 minutes, one returned to one’s desk feeling much better. You weren’t the only one who struggled to keep going as you juggled work and home; your child’s behaviour was not as worrisome as you imagined it was; and yes, in-laws happened to the best of us! It was not only about chit-chat and food; it was where serious discussions took place—about work and work culture; about the state of the world and the nation; about books read and films seen, people met and to be met. It was where so many “aha” moments happened. Above all it was a sense of sharing and caring that permeated.

It is sad that people today are craving such time and space, and above all the comfort of sharing and caring. It is sad that we need a reminder that the world is a better place when we connect and care about the people around us.

Many years before such a reminder became necessary, Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt who was the President of the United States during the Great Depression and World War II shared these words of wisdom:

Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could have in your personal life and in your work; the ability to love others. Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively. After a short time, a very short time, there would be little that one really enjoyed. For what keeps our interest in life and makes us look forward to tomorrow is giving pleasure to other people.

–Mamata

Ants and their Homes

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For every one of us, there are about 2.5 million of them. Yes, that’s how much ants out-number us. They inhabit every corner of the world other than Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, and some islands.

We humans swing between appreciation of these insects for their qualities of team work and hard work, and irritation when they invade our homes or kitchens. The ants probably swing between the same two emotions—appreciation of the humans who feed them, and disapproval of clumsy or mean humans who step on them or kill them.

Beyond human approval or disapproval, ants have a huge role in the ecosystem. They serve as seed dispersers for plants, hosts for a wide range of associate organisms, and act as both predator and prey. The role of ants in nutrient decomposition and soil turnover is enormous–they are estimated to excavate up to 13 tons of soil per hectare annually and increase local nutrient availability by a significant order.  Moreover, they create and maintain of microhabitats for a variety of other organisms.

The subject of today’s piece is their homes. They make their homes in a variety of places, and these structures are made with an enormous amount of labour by thousands of the creatures working together.

Most species of ants are soil-nesters. Soil meets their needs for food, moisture and protection. Since these ants move a lot of soil in the process of building their nests, they provide a valuable service to the soil-based ecosystem they occupy by their tunnelling and de-compacting of the soil. Some soil nesting ants construct a simple nest with one vertical tunnel, which has branches on either side for ant food, eggs and larvae. But other ground nesting ants build elaborate below-ground galleries going several metres below ground, with a network of interlocking interconnecting tunnels.

Wood-nesting ants are the next category. Carpenter ants are the best examples of these. They nest in wood that is rotting, dead, dying, or with a high moisture content. The ants bore into the wood and make elaborate nests. They do not eat the wood but deposit the wood they bore outside the nest. While they usually build outdoors in trees, it is not unknown for them to build in wooden structural elements in our houses.

There is category of ants which are called opportunistic nesters. These will nest almost anywhere, including under rocks, concrete slabs, air conditioners, inside holes in walls etc.

Ant nest

A fourth category, which are most visible to us at the moment are arboreal ants which construct nests on trees using leaves. These light red ants Oecophylla smaragdina, popularly known as weaver ants, stitch together individual leaves using larval silk to form nesting cavities.  The nests are round-oval and use leaves of different sizes ranging from 8-32cm. About twenty leaves are used to make each nest. These ants are aggressive in defending their territories, and a colony may take over an entire tree with nests distributed throughout.   Incidentally, these ants, called “Rukkung” in Arunachal Pradesh, are consumed in various forms in some of the North-eastern states.. 

I see these every evening on my walks—the falling leaves in this season leave the trees bare, which make the nests very visible. And marvel at the intricacy of the nests and the hard work that goes into each of them. What wonders there are around us, if only we take a minute to look!

–Meena

Broken Frames, Broken Lives

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Today, each one of us harbours doubts and fears about the rapid rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI), smart robots, driverless cars etc., especially whether these will take away jobs from people and give them to machines.

This has happened with every new technology since the industrial revolution. Maybe the time of maximum anxiety around technology and jobs was in the late 1700s to early 1800s, a time when quite a few people in the UK depended on the cotton, wool and silk industries for their livelihoods. This was based on the labour of framework knitters, who like some of our weavers even today, worked in their own homes. Though the hours were long and they got small wages, they were at an equilibrium. 

In the early 1800s, there were around 30,000 knitting-frames in England. But change had already started to set in. Change of fashion (men moving from stockings to trousers) and increasing exploitation of weavers by the middlemen were two major factors. But perhaps the most important was the mechanization and wide-frame machines that were coming in to make production faster. Production moved from homes to factories with this mechanization.

As more and more people lost their livelihoods, anger and frustration boiled over, and mill-owners and the new machines were targeted. The scale of the sabotage that occurred in England between 1811 and 1816 was beyond anything seen before.  In the peak three months of the riots, 175 of these new frames were broken per month! The people involved in these riots and destruction called themselves ‘Luddites’. The origin of the name is not quite clear, but some said it was after Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver who in 1770 was supposed to have smashed such machines.

Governments then, as today, were heavy-handed. Their response to the riots was to pass the Frame-Breaking Bill in the House of Commons in February 1812. The Bill was drastic– it proposed transportation or the death penalty for those found guilty of breaking stocking or lace frames. Not everyone was happy with the draft Bill– in the House of Lords, the poet and social campaigner Lord Byron argued against it saying that it was placing the value of life at “something less than the price of a stocking-frame”.  But such passionate appeals did not help, and the Bill was passed.

The Government would have expected all such riots to stop after the Bill. But exactly the opposite happened. The riots actually became more violent and rioters started using arms. The logic was that if they were going to be punished by death or deporatation for breaking frames, then they might as well do something that really deserved such drastic measures. A popular rhyme at the time was “you might as well be hung for death as breaking a machine”. A few mill owners were in fact killed. Government response also got harsher and several Luddites were hanged.

The climax of the Luddite Rebellion took place at midnight on Friday 28 June 1816. Sixteen men raided the factory of Heathcoat and Lacy at Loughborough, with around 1000 sympathisers cheering them on.  They destroyed nearly all of the fifty-five lace-frames.  Subsequently eight men were sentenced to death and two were transported.

The protests died down after that. Mechanization marched on, and the thousands who were involved in their traditional occupation lost out.

Technology will come. But how do we make the changes so we can reduce the negative impacts? How do we make the world a more inclusive place? Surely we cannot let history repeat itself!

–Meena

Photo-credit: historicalbritain.org/

A Woman of Many Parts: Sarojini Naidu

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In a week when women are being celebrated, and their achievements extoled, it is fitting to remember that in every era of history, in every part of the world, there have been women who have broken boundaries and glass ceilings, and have excelled in numerous fields. This is a good week to celebrate a woman who combined seemingly contrary abilities, and played a significant role in several fields of endeavor. This is Sarojini Naidu.

Textbooks traditionally describe Sarojini Naidu as the Nightingale of India. But she was far more just a singer of songs. A poetess, patriot, fierce nationalist and freedom fighter, politician, eloquent orator, inspirer of masses, perfect hostess, and a feminist and firebrand leader in every sphere.

Sarojini was born on 13 February 1879 in a Bengali Brahmin family, the eldest of eight siblings. Somewhat of a prodigy, she entered the University of Madras at the age of 12; she composed 1000-line poems at 13. After graduating in 1895 with the highest rank, she was awarded a scholarship by the Nizam of Hyderabad, and she spent three years in England, studying at King’s College London, and later at Girton College in Cambridge. During this period she also became involved with the suffragist movement in England. She returned to India in 1898 and married Dr M Govindarajulu Naidu whom she had met in England, (the inter-caste marriage attracted opposition) when she was 19. By the age of 25, Sarojini was mother to four children. Her first major collection of poems was published when she was 26. She had literary fame, and a comfortable lifestyle in Hyderabad where she played the perfect hostess.But this was hardly a deterrent to what was to be an extremely active political life.

Sarojini and Gandhiji shared a special relationship. She had first met him in 1914 in London just as the First World War had broken out. That was the start of a long and close bonding between the two. Sarojini was one of the few who could joke about, and with, Gandhi (she nicknamed him Mickey Mouse!). The two exchanged witty repartees, and reproaches, which were totally free from malice. She could stand up to Gandhi and never hesitated to speak her mind. Yet she remained one of his staunchest supporters all her life, and revered him as a guru.

Sarojini Naidu was drawn to Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement and in 1924 travelled across the world to spread the word about the movement. She was a sought after public speaker. In 1925 she became the first Indian President of the Indian National Congress. She was a front-line participant in the Independence movement. Her participation in the Salt Satyagraha and the Quit India Movement was deemed as ‘anti-British activity’ and she was imprisoned several times for this.

Sarojini Naidu believed that the nationalist cause could not be separated from the movement for women’s rights. She helped establish the Women’s Indian Association along with Annie Besant and a few others, in 1917, which championed women’s right to vote. The same year, along with Annie Besant she went to London to represent the case for women’s franchise before the Joint Select Committee.

She was elected to the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution of India. After India achieved independence on 15 August 1947, Sarojini Naidu was appointed governor of the United Provinces, making her the first woman governor in the country. She remained in the post until she passed away on 2 March 1949.

Sarojini Naidu’s contribution to the freedom movement and to the early years of our new republic was marked by her total dedication combined with her boundless energy and multi-faceted brilliance. This was summed up thus by her fellow freedom fighter Jawaharlal Nehru: She began life as a poet, in later years when the compulsion of events drew her into the national struggle, she plunged into it with all the zest and fire she possessed…. whose whole life became a poem and a song and who infused artistry and grace in the national struggle, just as Mahatma Gandhi had infused moral grandeur to it.

Despite her active political life Sarojini’s literary output was also prolific. She published several volumes of poetry, and held ‘salons’ which attracted an array of intellectuals. She led a hectic and productive life despite suffering from a variety of ailments throughout her life. Her zest for life was undiminished till the end, when she passed away at the relatively young age of 70.   As she wrote to her youngest child a few years earlier: One is not so concerned with a long life as with a ‘merry one’—merry as the sum of worthwhile, rich, full, interesting, and who can say that mine has not been and is not in that sense ‘merry’ as well as long?

On a more serious note, several years earlier when she was in Yervada jail, Sarojini wrote to her daughter Padmaja Naidu: In the course of a long and most variegated life I have learned one superlative truth…that the true measure of life and oneself lies not in the circumstances and events that fill its map but in one’s approach and attitude and acceptance of those things.

An inspiration, and a role model indeed!

–Mamata