Education for Sustainability

The talk given by Mr.Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for HRD on 29th July
2009 at Teen Murti house, was really `Manna' to an
environmentalist's ear. The crux of his talk was that
`Environment Education' should be at the center of education,
all other knowledge can follow. All scientific data and processes are
available with nature.

"Bring science into education; all aspects of science can be learnt
from nature. Science taught in correlation with nature is understood
best.

"Education for sustainable development in an era of climate change,
calls for a change in mindsets. The need is to reach out to communities
and have a dialogue. Teachers within the community will have knowledge
at ground level".

" Teaching of a subject must be holistic. Environmental issues can
be effectively linked to say, automobile engineering. Teaching of music
can take off from nature…."

" Communicating with nature creates a sense of preservation of
nature at the heart of education…"

"The government's aim is to connect all villages of India in the
next three years. This can lead to leapfrog in education. We must be
ready with relevant content in the meantime."

Heart of all content is nature.

Solar Eclipse 2009

Here is a visual journey of the total solar eclipse in New Delhi.

The Nehruplanetarium at Teenmurti was surrounded by parked cars in hundreds well before 6 AM on 22nd July 2009. The Sun is about to rise and the video camera of an enthusiast or of some TV channel is hoping to catch it first!

Young and old alike are waiting for the solar spectacle to unfold.

At 6.40 AM this is how the sun looked to the naked eye.

But the screen put up on Teen Murti lawns showed a different picture!

The secret was to cut out all other light by looking through the unexposed portion of an X-ray film. Some school girls were seen distributing the X-ray films to those who wanted them. Many were also looking through the X-ray film spectacles sold for the purpose. I decided to put an X-ray film in front of the view finder of my digital camera. Here is what I saw.
At 6.44 AM on 22nd July 2009

At 7.19 AM on 22nd July 2009

That was truly a "once in a life-time" experience!

Monsoon Raindrops

This year Gurgaon and entire Haryana is experiencing the monsoon in "Raindrops" and not sheets of rain like it did last year.

The promising clouds disappeared as soon as a few drops fell into the earth. Even the jade plant who does not need much water to grow seemed to treasure them like jewels!

The yellow lilies I planted two years ago bloomed all on a sudden as if to welcome the rain with open arms!