Sign the UN petition to end hunger now
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) started an online petition to put pressure of governments to end hunger. The petition will be presented to governments at an event taking place in Rome, Italy on 29 November 2010.
You can sign the petition and put pressure on politicians to end hunger. And you can help put even more pressure on politicians by asking family, friends and colleagues to sign the petition.
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1 minute read | 77 words
Junk food -- just what the doctor ordered?
For sometime now I have held this belief that we need to market healthy food to kids as if it were junk food. I sometimes ‘joke’ that if we were to stop our children from eating spinach and carrots along with chips they just might find the former two a little more attractive.
I have actually noticed that kids who are not at all happy to eat vegetable will often happily eat a baked dish loaded with vegetables.
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2 minute read | 215 words
The Great Indian Economic Rope Trick
The mantra “world’s-second fastest-growing-economy” is often thrown at every problem this country faces as if it were a solution. It reminds me of the ‘mere pas ma hai’ dialogue from ‘Deewar'. I must admit that if you are wealthy and live in an upmarket area of a metropolis, it is easy to miss the big picture. We are swamped by air-conditioned malls, multiplexes, BMWs, fancy toll-roads, huge corporate hospitals, swanky airports; clearly we must be making rapid progress, right?
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5 minute read | 932 words
![Packing suggestion for multi-day self-supported cycling trip [1.0]](DSCN0124-m.jpg "Packing suggestion for multi-day self-supported cycling trip [1.0]")
Packing suggestion for multi-day self-supported cycling trip [1.0]
After I came back from my recent self-supported Manali to Leh cycling trip many people wanted to know what I carried on the trip. So here is a list based on what we carried. There were two of us, and we figured that some of the items could easily be shared, so we did not carry two of every thing (I think there are some exceptions to this, but I guess that advice could be another post).
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4 minute read | 717 words
#cycling, #bicycle touring packing list, #cycle tour in india, #cycle touring, #manali to leh cycling
Manali to Leh — Self-supported cycling trip
Ride report form September 2010 Ride dates: September 4th to 14th, 2010
Two riders: Sanjay Jaiman and Ajay Jaiman
After years of thinking about it and weeks of planning we finally did it. Close to 600 kms of cycling from Manali to Leh (because Tanglang La was closed and we had to take a detour at Debring and go via Tso Kar and Mahe bridge).
We rode with all our gear including clothes, sleeping bags, tent, stove, utensils, food, water, cycle spares on our cycles – an estimated weight of about 25 kgs (not counting the weight of the bikes, pannier racks, and bags.
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1 minute read | 171 words
#cycling, #adventures, #featured, #cycle tour in india, #cycle touring, #manali to leh cycling, #bicycle adventures, #cycling in india, #indian himalyas, #manali to leh
Hiking in the Spiti valley
In June I traveled almost the entire length of the Spiti valley in the ‘European backpacker’ style. Using local buses (non-a/c with non-reclining seats), hitching rides, and hiking– from village to village and from monastery to monastery; eating in ‘dhabas’, staying in village homes, monasteries; making new friends (some of whom were perpetual travelers – they do not have a stable snail mail address)…
It is an absolutely incredible way to see the countryside.
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1 minute read | 162 words
#photography, #photo-features, #adventures, #featured, #himachal pradesh, #spiti valley, #hiking, #trekking, #indian himalayas
Affluenza?
affluenza, n. a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more…
An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the relentless desire for more material success and economic growth.
PBS has a diagnostic quiz. Take the Quizto find out if you suffer from this condition.
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1 minute read | 57 words
Top 40 Outstanding Nature Photographs - a set on Flikr
The International League of Conservation Photographers, a fellowship of the top professional conservation photographers working today, was recruited to nominate nature photographs that the member photographers considered to be ‘the best,’ in whatever way they chose to define it, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day
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1 minute read | 47 words
Going to Ziro!
Ziro is a quaint name for an unknown town hidden in the undergrowth of the deep jungles of Arunachal Pradesh – a state that is itself tucked away in the north-east of the country and is clearly not on the tourist map. Just the kind of place I long for
A rather upright hill in the middle of an expansive, flat valley that jostles with lush green farms and endless bamboo groves, houses this little guest house.
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3 minute read | 439 words
#photography, #photo-features, #travel, #north-east india, #wilderness, #arunachal pradesh
Digital photo-documentaries by underprivileged kids
Some years ago I had an opportunity to work with underprivileged kids across of India. One project that I really enjoyed was working with them to create a photo-documentary of their world.
Most of these kids had never seen a camera before, let alone handle one. However, they were off to a flying start within minutes of being handed over a digital camera.
You can see the photo-documentary produced by kids in rural Karnataka, however the kids in remote Ladakh or Arunachal Pradesh had equally fascinating stories to tell.
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1 minute read | 133 words
#photography, #photo-features, #multi-media, #kids, #documentary
Musings on self-supported cycle travel
I like the idea of self-supported cycle travel. It gives you a feeling of freedom, almost liberation from the constraints of ‘tourism’. Or at least that is what I thought. To put it to test, the first order of business was to acquire pannier bags (the bags that hang on the sides of the cycle). And then a pannier rack, on which the bags are attached. Once I had mounted the bags and done a couple of short local test rides, I felt I was ready for a real test ride in the mountains.
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4 minute read | 684 words
#cycling, #adventures, #cycle touring, #self-supported cycling, #bicycle adventures, #cycling in india, #adventure travel
Gurgaon Ki Awaaz Community Radio celebrates three months on air
On Thursday, February 25, 2010, Gurgaon’s only community radio station celebrates three months of round-the-clock broadcasting to a community that has remained voiceless throughout the transformation of Gurgaon from a sleepy cluster of villages 20 years ago to a much vaunted “Millennium City”. The only civil society-led community radio station in the entire National Capital Region, Gurgaon Ki Awaaz is a platform for and by marginalized community groups in Gurgaon, especially communities living in villages in and around Gurgaon, migrant workers and inner city residents for whom the gloss and glamour of malls and glass-fronted office buildings is simply a testament of the uneven development that has taken place in this town.
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3 minute read | 502 words
#media, #community-radio, #gurgaon ki awaaz, #samudayik radio station