Month: June 2008
Meditation to handle emotional trauma
Meditation to handle emotional trauma
Monday June 2 2008 00:00 IST Express Features KOCHI
FREEDOM is the most difficult thing to obtain. When a nation battles for its political freedom,we call it freedom struggle.
A similar struggle for freedom from the fetters created by our own thoughts and emotional attachments is constantly happening. This is for most of us an inner struggle. This is not a trauma that can be relieved by swallowing some pills or going to a doctor.
Medical fields like psychiatry, psycho-therapy, clinical psychology and hypno-therapy are there but their curing is at the surface level – a temporary realignment of the chemical processes in the body with the help of medicine and psychiatric treatment.
At a much deeper level, the patient has got to be his own doctor. There is much of physical pain caused by emotional attachments to individuals, situations, places and things.
When the attachment is being formed – whether it is love for a person, a place or objects and things that evoke a happy feeling within and keep us in bliss – we are mostly not thinking about the changes that can happen.
The person we love may leave our life, may turn around with some sudden expression of hatred that could have been unbelievable to think about during those golden times of oneness, a twist in relationships that shake the very foundations of our faith and belief, even a natural catastrophe that can snatch away from us things and people we consider most precious – anything can happen.
Anything can happen because the Earth we live in is composed of particles of matter that are in a constant state of agitation and one moment is not like another moment.
Our attachment gets us lost in a very limited perspective, which we cling on to as it gives us joy. But change is the inherent nature of anything that we know of. It is non-negotiable.
Meditation is one way of helping ourselves. “Be like a lotus leaf where water simply rolls around,” says Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.
The help to get to that state of emotional detachment is right within. It is as close to you as your breath. Think of any emotional trauma or personal loss that you may be suffering from. Just take a deep breath and let it all out with the exhalation.
Do it as many times and as long as you need. Your breath is like a rope tied to a pail running through a pulley in the well, bailing out the murky waters of old emotional attachments we want to throw out.
When the well is cleared of the scum, it doesn’t run dry, but gets filled soon with fresh water breathing with life, oozing out from the Earth and pouring in from the skies too.
Experience the hidden treasure
Experience the hidden treasure
Monday June 2 2008 00:00 IST Express Features KOCHI
ANUBHUTI is about experience. You have personal and direct experience of many things in life.
Seeing a good painting or a bad movie, tasting good, bad and weird cuisine, smelling the pleasant and unpleasant, hearing terribly noisy music or the distant sounds of a chirping bird, feeling a hot shower, the chill of the air-conditioner and the rustling of a breeze when you stood by the window etc, can be classified as sensual experiences.
Based on what people, tabloids and television told you, these experiences could be branded by you as good or bad. You are great indeed if you have the ability to experience all this and also be aware of it when the experience takes place. However you ought to know, that there is a whole new experience, which has been elusive to you till now.
That is the experience of your self. You have enough objects around you to experience every moment of your life. It somewhat keeps you busy and many times happy too.
But you should know that your mind has been one-sided in its perception and has experienced only the outer world. It did not know that there is a flip side to its self. On the other side (inside) of your mind lies your self quietly.
Your mind needs to experience it, if only it could turn around a bit. Just like the satisfaction you derive in experiencing objects outside you, there is a very deep contentment that you would bump into when the inner self is experienced. This direct experience -Aporaksha Anubhuti – of this self can be the finishing touch to your spate of experiences.
There may not be anything more left to experience further. Remember you need your mind intact to experience this self. While experience of the senses outside brings happiness or sorrow to you, the experience of the self makes you blissful.
The outer experiences multiplies and scatters your thought pattern but the experience of the self will make your thought flow like a steady stream under the moonlit sky of a silent night.
Experiencing the self in no way can rob you of the experiences of the outer world, just that you will begin to experience the world with little more intensity. Strangely, you would stop calling your outer experiences as good or bad thereafter.
They are simply experiences. When you could experience the dynamism of outer life and the silence of the inner self, you will come to a full circle in life. This full circle of experiences makes you complete and full. That fullness is the ultimate purpose of your life.
Swami Akshara http://www.swamiakshara
Big bin: Tackle the trash
Big bin: Tackle the trash
Tuesday June 3 2008 00:00 IST Express Features KOCHI
WITH the introduction of the bylaw on garbage, most Kochiites heaved a sign of relief.
However, unlike many issues where the authorities have more responsibility than the citizens, waste management is an issue that has to start at home.
While the Corporation has finally got its act together by bringing out the bylaw, it remains to be seen whether the law will translate into reality.
Waste management is an easily organised task if done systematically.
The Corporation’s new rules state very clearly that you’ve got to segregate waste, otherwise Corporation workers will not collect it. You can start by using two buckets- one a green one normally supplied by the Corporation and the other a white one which is used to contain all non-biodegradable waste.
Non-biodegradable waste includes all paper items, plastic containers, kits, toys, pencil sharpenings, juice packets, pet bottles, diapers, napkins and the like.
Biodegradable waste includes kitchen food waste, vegetable and fruits peels, plants, grass and weeds. Use a newspaper at the bottom so that the bucket will remain clean and the person collecting the waste can easily clean the bucket off the residue.
The non-biodegradable waste can be further segregated into: a) Recyclable waste: Plastics, paper, glass, metal, etc. b) Toxic waste: Old medicines, paints, chemicals, bulbs, spray cans, fertiliser and pesticide containers, batteries, shoe polish. c) Soiled waste: Hospital waste such as cloth soiled with blood and other body fluids.
(Toxic and soiled waste must be disposed of with utmost care.) Certain things can be kept aside to be sold to the man who buys old items. These items include newspapers, used bottles, magazines, carry bags, old exercise books, oilcans, etc. This is one form of segregation which can be done as a routine.
In fact, much of the household waste can be separated daily into different bags for different categories of waste such as wet and dry waste which should be disposed of separately.
Dry waste consisting of cans, aluminium foils, plastic, metal, glass, and paper can be recycled. One should also keep a bin for toxic waste. Wet waste which consists of leftover foodstuff and vegetables can also be put in a compost pit and the compost can be used as manure in the garden.
Waste management: See how they do it
Waste management: See how they do it
Tuesday June 3 2008 00:00 IST, ENS KOCHI
Now that we have a bylaw in place to ensure that the waste is segregated before disposal, we decided to ask a few councillors and Corporation officials to check out how they manage the waste generated at their homes.
TK Shamsuddin, chairman of health and education standing committee, buries the biodegradable waste on the premises of his house. Non-biodegradable waste is burnt. Being the health and education standing committee chairman, Shamsuddin is responsible for the waste disposal management.
Mayor Mercy Williams has set up a small waste treatment plant at her house. “The plant was constructed a year ago and it is very effective,” the Mayor said.
The aerobic compost plant in Ponnurunni division which is represented by Deputy Mayor C K Manisanker is a model to others. “In my house, untreated biodegradable waste is used as manure. We burn paper and other things. If there is a large quantity of waste it is taken to the aerobic plant. The plant has been functioning here for the last six years,” he says.
There was no garbage crisis at the Ponnurunni division when the city was finding it difficult to deal with garbage.
Melly Joy, councillor from Edakochi and former standing committee chairperson, uses the waste as feed for poultry. “There are only three members in my family, therefore not much waste is generated. Paper waste is burnt on the house premises itself,” she said. Anitha Jyothi of Elamakkara is also doing the same. She said that the amount of waste generated from her house is very little.
“Biodegradable waste is buried on the premises of the house while paper waste is burnt,’’ she said.
Corporation opposition leader A B Sabu who represents Poonithura, a division which shares border with Tripunithura municipality, said that the waste generated in his house is also buried.
“As my house is a few kilometres from the city, there is not much problem of waste disposal. Besides, we have set aside an area in our compound to dispose of biodegradable waste,” Sabu said.
City grappling with garbage – Kochi – Express News Service report
City grappling with garbage
Tuesday June 3 2008 00:00 IST ENS K Surekha
There’s no end to the garbage woes of the city.
A day after the compendium of bylaws to govern the solid waste management process came into effect, heaps of garbage can be seen piled on the roadsides. Bundled in plastic covers that display the names of many a store and supermarket in the city.
The bundles are an indication that people are not aware of the segregation of biodegradable waste from the non-biodegrable. Most homes in the city have been asked by the corporation to put the waste in separate bins (red and green that are yet to reach a majority of homes).
“I paid Rs 70 for the bins and haven’t got them, I burn most of the waste in my compound because the workers don’t collect the waste on a daily basis and keeping the waste near the gate for hours is unhealthy and inauspicious. When it pours this will surely breed diseases,” says Sreebala, a housewife at Mavelipuram Colony in Kakkanad.
In most homes the garbage is left near the gate at the mercy of crows and rats. If people who collect the waste are nowhere to be seen, where will the residents throw the waste? In some flats the workers collect the garbage religiously but the plastic and the rest are mixed together.
“The people who come to collect it are irregular and the stench in the apartment drives everyone crazy,” says Minu Mathew who resides in a flat at SRM Road.
It is the same at many other apartments. Some civic conscious people do take pains to divide the waste in two bags. But the plastic waste is collected only once in a blue moon. People living in limited spaces find it difficult to keep the waste at home for long. And they don’t feel like paying the monthly fee of Rs 30 to the Corporation.
Unless the Corporation takes measures to clear the waste on a daily basis, the residents will have no go but to dump it in the neighbour’s vacant plot, stealthily leave it by the wayside, or throw it into canals and backwaters that are already stagnating with waste. After all, Keralites are more bothered about personal hygiene than their surroundings.
There’s a big hoarding at the entrance of Shenoy Road saying a word of thanks to the people who’ve managed to keep the road so dirty.
“It’s up to the residents to complain to the concerned people and get the waste collected daily. We’re collecting all the waste and after segregation, processing it at the Brahmapuram plant,” says Mayor Mercy Williams.
Now most of the shops in the city have done away with plastic bags and the waste management is better, she says.
In a city that has a population of 16 lakh and a floating population of over a lakh, the number of waste bins in the streets and on the highways are few and far between. Going by the waste seen in and around the city, the Corporation will have a tough task to maintain a clean Kochi.
The fine way to a clean city
The fine way to a clean city
Monday June 2 2008 04:46 IST ENS
KOCHI: The waste management bylaw introduced by the Cochin Corporation for a Zero Waste Kochi came into effect on Sunday.
The bylaw clearly defines the citizens’ role in assisting the civic body and lays down the penalty for violation of its norms. Kochi is the first city in the state to implement such a bylaw.
To create awareness among the people of the city, the Corporation has allowed June as a grace period, during which time offences will invite only 50 percent of the fine. Fines will be exacted from July 1.
The use of plastic has been banned. A fine of Rs 500 will be exacted for production, distribution, procurement, sale or transportation of banned plastic products.
A second offence will invite a penalty of Rs 5,000, and a third offence Rs 10,000. A fourth offence will mean a fine of Rs 25,000 and six months imprisonment. Solid or liquid waste should not be dumped in public or private properties or in water bodies.
Bathing, spitting, urinating and defecating, slaughtering of animals and vehicle washing in public places is prohibited. The penal provisions of the bylaw are applicable not only to residents of the city but to visitors also. Residents will pay a monthly fee of Rs 30 to the Corporation for removal of segregated waste from houses.
Institutions which generate a large quantity of waste have to set up their own waste treatment systems or pay a fine of Rs 5,000. Rs 250 will be charged for littering in public places, for not keeping one’s house/building premises clean and for not segregating and handing over waste for disposal.
- ← Previous
- 1
- …
- 18
- 19
ClicksandWrites 