A short 3 km uphill trek will get you to the Shenbaga Devi falls. It is one of several water falls that feed the Kuttralam falls about 5 km downstream. All these falls are deified with temples built near/around them.

Source of Kutraalam Main Falls.

Clean green litter-free landscape (a rare sight in Tamil Nadu - unfortunately!).

Not a single speck of litter for the entire stretch -- compared with the eye sore of trash pollution everywhere in the city down below.

Accompanying about 1/3 of the journey up is this rapidly flowing creek (though doesn't look like it in the photo), crystal-clear water, run-off from the water falls up ahead.

The water falls (one of five that feed the kuttraalam falls about 5 km downstream). Small but with decent force - feels like you're being pelted by sacks of rice; towards the center it pins you down.

Site: Velapar Murugan (வேலப்பர் முருகன்)
Map: +9° 51′ 2.40″ N, +77° 35′ 54.00″ E, 500m.

This is located en-route to Theni from Madurai city, past township called Aandipatti. There is also a small road side rest-stop/temple – DharmaSastha (தர்மசாஸ்தா) located here along the way, at 339m. We got a generous helping of piping hot brown sugar pongal prasadam wrapped in clean banana leaves there (donate some money for their service!).

The priests in the destination temple, Velapar Murugan, and the area itself is from a community of native/indigenous tribal folks (ஆதி). The perform puja chanting was distinctively different in their native Tamil dialect (neither Sanskrit nor classical Tamil). We went off season so the whole trek was quiet and to ourselves.

The last quarter stretch of steps to the top.

The temple.

About 2 km walk on a narrow and rocky dirt trail, past the temple, some berries - kalaakaay (கலாகாய்) up high on the tree tops. The ripe ones look and taste a bit like navaa-pazham.

The three local kids who accompanied me on this trek, feasting on kalaakaay after going through all means to get at these branches from the tree tops.

Traditional water catchment / reservoir (நடு முதலைக் குலம்) on outskirts of Madurai.

Above picture zoomed in. Folks going to Kali temple. They're carrying offerings of sprouted grains on their heads.

Click to zoom.

I caught this procession of folks in the distance, on the way back from a visiting a remote rural temple. They are going to the local Kali temple. Usually this is done on every powarnami (full moon day). But this one is special, as it comes right after Navaratri celebrations. They’re carrying mulai-paari (முளை பாரி; pots with sprouted grains; click on the photo to zoom in) on their heads, which after offering to Kali, they’ll let it float off in the water. It’s a way of thanking and seeking blessing for the upcoming cycle of harvest (which happens in Pongal time).

The above is a traditional water catchment, eco-friendly (as opposed to today’s trend of uprooting the local ecosystem by building dams). Stretches for a few kilometers. You can gauge how old it is from the name itself – “nadu muthalai kulam” (”நடு முதலைக் குலம்” – “lake where crocodiles are found in the middle”). There are no crocodiles today, nor do I think there were any even in the last 50 years. Considering that this season the monsoons have been meagre in Tamil Nadu, catchments like this are their (and our) life bread and butter.

Here they are, some of the birds (and other winged creatures) of the neighbourhood, in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.

These two are an odd pair that sit on the papaya tree right outside my window (I'm on the second floor, so it's level with my window). They return here without fail for the night, for the past two years that I've come to observe them. They're absolutely *loud*! They start almost right on the hour, every hour, between 2am - 6am, for about 5 minutes duration.

The local kids tell me this is a kuyal.

But then they also tell me this is also a kuyal...

Don't know what this is, frequents the mango trees, has a pleasant and far-reaching sound.

Indian mynah's. Quite raucous, have quiet a range of variety in their vocals.

Indian mynah.

Woodpecker. More than few times we've caught it loudly hammering away in the early morning on the windshield of our car.

Some sort of hummingbird. Very tiny, fast, hardly stays still.

Peacock. Lots of them roam the grounds in the early morning hours.

Peacock.

The common Indian green parrot.

They were sitting on this tree that bared these strange seeds/fruits, looked and felt like small fuzzy tennis balls.

We went hunting for parrot nests.

Closeup of parrot nests.

Tailorbird.

One of the local kids finding and showing me a tailorbird's nest.

Leaf edges stitched together like a tailor.

We spooked a bunch of bats sleeping on a banyon tree.

Bat.

Monsoon clouds over a new highway under construction. Madurai.

“This year we had a good monsoon season.” The sort of thing my parents (in India) would say when I call them. If you live in interior Tamil Nadu (or for that matter interior anywhere), you don’t have to be a farmer, to feel the anticipation, anxiety, and the prayers of the people for the monsoons. It’s one thing to see it on the news, and it’s another to see people always talk about it (at the tea stall, your vegetable vendor, driver, etc).

Meanwhile we have people in the cities who don’t give a damn about the environment and the greenhouse effect. Snobs who sit in the USA and make fun of these farmers rituals, while driving their greenhouse causing super-sized vehicles and super-sized houses.

We should at least take time to remember where the food comes from (at least do so in Pongal, the one celebration that makes you remember that; just like Thanksgiving Day does in the USA).

Next time you reach for a shiny red apple think again. The apple in the photo was originally shiny red. What you see is the effect of just soaking it in water for 1/2 hour. At first I thought it was the water, so I did the same using filtered water, got the same result. Just to make sure it’s just the wax coating I dipped it for few seconds in boiling water and took it out… not only was the wax (and that white coloration) gone, but you could smell the molten wax in the hot water. I did the same experiment with apples that weren’t polished – they did not give that yucky white coating. For shock-effect try this yourself, you’ll never reach for a polished fruit again, steer away from them!

The whole point of soaking it in water (as you should do with any fruits/vegetables) is to remove any pesticide residues. But who knows how much of pesticide is preserved under that wax coating? and the damage it is doing to your body? not to mention what kind of wax is it (wax itself being a petroleum byproduct)? Health problems are alarmingly high – like allergies, organ failure (liver, kidney,…), birth defects, neurological damage, etc…. People hardly know to make this connection.

Let’s not forget about  the chemical daminozide (aka Alar), that was used on apples until it was banned in 1989 after studies found that it produced tumors in mice. It was sprayed on fruits to regulate their growth (affected flower-bud initiation) and affected quality of harvest in storage. It was also used on cherries, peaches, pears, grapes, tomatos, and peanut vines [see: Wikipedia]

Of course… they’ll tell you it’s “safe” (like they always do), as they’re more interested in selling “shiny red apples” over the competition — those shiny red apples attract several times more customers. They’ll even make claims of “organic” wax coating. But why even bother with any coating? Because people are still instinctively driven to buy the shinier apples (or for that matter any fruit/vegetable that is unnaturally shiny). Hope this photo will change your mind! It’s much safer to go for the more natural duller fruit.

See this video, “The Slow Poisoning of India”:

It’s exactly what I was looking for – a kind of organization that could inspire the youth on environmental concerns (i.e, not just “educating” them – we have enough of such “rote” education). Such that they go out of the way to help in afforestation, use renewable energy, refuse plastic bags, etc.

Jagi Vasudev – My Impressions

The “Sadhguru” Jagi Vasudev is more of a new age thinker than an enlightened sage (that his title makes him out to be).

Though his personality failed to impress me, what did impress me is the efficiency with which he ran his organization, and his approach of integrating nature with yoga which was quite refreshing compared with series unsuccessful or half-baked attempts by other recent “gurus”.

But then why care about his personality? I suppose the problem lies with us, where we project people into gurus and then try to find personality flaws (let alone character flaws). I think character/personality are as irrelevant as the personal attributes of say Andrew Grove (he chairman and founder of Intel) and the success Intel. As long as one looks at Jagi Vasudev (and other “gurus”) as any other person like you and I (or as a business venture), then one can appreciate that he has been very successful and far reaching his environmental efforts.

I’ve also read some of his writings (like his book “Flowers on the Path”, articles, and talks) and felt some of it was simply just not mature (compared with material from spiritual masters like Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekananda, Osho, Bhagavad Gita…). His analogies are quite off tangent, if not a bit outmoded, weird, and often times downright corny. He is very unassuming — but sometimes I feel he overdoes it (if you overdo your unassumingness, is it still being unassuming??).

But no matter, I like what he and his organization is doing (which by the way seems to be very well run, efficient, organized). He has a way of attracting passionate, sincere, dedicated people to do charitable work – like protecting the environment.

Why even the criticism? well simply put, anyone with a title of “sadhguru” is asking for it (that title is traditionally reserved for the über-guru; it’s enough that there are so many gurus; but now sadhgurus also?). I believe the ability of Hindu culture to consistently produce razor sharp spiritual giants (monks, gurus, sages,…) lies in the fact that there is no dearth of intense scrutiny. Quality control. Like Mata Amritanandamayi says, nations will crumble if people don’t criticize their leaders (her response when she was asked about criticism).

What ever happened to fountain pens? They’re environmentally friendly. In protecting the environment it’s these small acts that make the most impact. Fountain pens are cool. And they don’t leak (that’s way overrated). Go buy one! You can go with the good old reliable school kid’s Hero pens (you can get it for about $1 in just about any street corner in India). Or, I’d say treat yourself to a high quality fountain pen. If they use disposable ink cartridges, you can get a converter cartridge – which lets you take in ink from an ink bottle.

I like the Lamy Safari (good quality, at just $20). The pen is a bit oddly shaped, but once you get used to it, the comfort is unbeatable. Note that Lamy nibs are one point higher than a normal nib (something I discovered later; that is, Lamy F nib writes like an M nib of other fountain pens).

See Also

• Trash/Pollution.
• It’s the small things that really make the big difference.

Why do you need to see this video? so that you can pass it on to your friends, and have them pass it on to their friends…. only when people stop buying, the clothing industry will switch to alternatives. There are great alternative insulating and feel-good fabrics like: Thermolite, Thinsulate, Polartec, Micro-Fibre, Micro-Suede, etc. which are lighter, cheaper, and have higher heat insulation than wool or fur (the later is more of “fashion” than having practical value).

See Also

• Vegetarianism
• Video Clips

I expected more from the movie, i.e. more material to be presented. But whatever it presents, it does so strongly and it gets the message across to the masses. There’s nothing new about global warming, but this film puts global warming as a front-page concern, rather than something which is just there. So if you haven’t seen this film, you must!

Not to mention that it is a documentary, produced in Hollywood, that actually hit the theaters. That shows in itself that global warming is an issue everyone needs to pay attention to — and do their part however small and insignificant it may seem it makes a big difference.