The Book Club :: Women And The Weight Loss Tamasha

Spoiler Ahead!
Book       : Women And The Weight Loss Tamasha 

Author     : Rujutha Diwekar

My Rating  : 4.5/5

I like her writing and i like her arguments too. You'll invariably accept to what she says. Many myths busted and you actually feel that you're listening to her first hand and not reading the book.

A lot of pros - myths busted; Good arguments; Lots of sample diets(which are not restricting diets at all)

Few cons too like some diets(have complete egg including yolk) are contradicted somewhere else (only egg whites) etc

But i loved this book and will be reading again as a reference material.

The Book Club :: A Desirable Residence

Spoiler Ahead!
Book       : A Desirable Residence

Author     : Sophie Kinsella writing as Madeleine Wickham

My Rating  : 2.5/5

Now, I know that just the names of the authors have changed but when you'll read the Madeleine Wickham books, you'll realize that it’s not same as that of Sohie - even the writer's signature funny tones are missing

The novel was moderate; gripping and losing the grip at times. A fair one time read i say.

Toastmasters CC :: Project 4 – How to say it

Don’t Waste the Waste

Toastmaster of the day, fellow Toastmasters and guests.

A few years ago, I was travelling from Nagarkovil to Trivandrum in a bus. The constant humming of the bus was like buzzing of the bees and I dozed off somewhere during the journey. A little later, a horrible stench jolted me out of my slumber.

When I opened my eyes, I saw an ocean of garbage. The bus was in front of the Karamana Dump where miles and miles of land was converted into dump yard and the dump yard was brimming with activity. 

Few kids and ladies were scavenging to find the wealth out of waste. Dozens of birds, cows and dogs were busy burying their head inside innumerable plastic covers searching for a tasty dinner treat. Hundreds or probably thousands of flies & mosquitoes were gossiping and discussing about the latest addition to the dump and how easy it has become for them to spread a range of diseases. There were billions of microbes and germs too, swimming merrily in the toxic soup created by humans

I thought ‘How irresponsible are the people who dump waste like this. And then, a small but firm voice inside my head said - You are that irresponsible person.

Me! But I don’t dump waste here – But you do dump waste somewhere?

Well yes! I have to dump the waste somewhere isn’t it? Isn’t it? I ask you fellow toastmasters. With so much of waste generated in every home and the corporation not taking it away, what option do I have? And so I told the voice too. The voice now boomed in my head and said ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’

In the tussle between my mind and intellect, I know that my intellect is correct. Many of us don’t have time for breathing let alone thinking about the waste. Or maybe think about it but don’t care enough to do anything about it. Let’s dig deeper into this garbage and checkout what we get.

The waste generated in our home could be broadly classified as Wet waste and dry waste. About 95% of time, the wet waste is the food refuse, generally in the form of vegetables or fruits scrapes, leftover or spoiled food and items which has been dead since a long time – that is it has gone beyond its expiry date. We can cover it all in a plastic cover and throw on road when no one is looking or we can dispose it properly. All it needs is one conscious thought. One such method of properly disposing is composting which has been around since time immemorial. All these food, with a few exceptions can be composted. You can create composters using plastic bins, wooden cages or like what I have done-using terracotta pots.

All I do is dump food waste inside the composter and churn it once a week. Nature works on its own inside the composters and gives me compost every 4 months. This is nutrient rich organic matter that you could use for gardening but if nothing, throw it away, it will still nourish the earth. We've been living in our present house for the past 5 years now and till now, we haven’t thrown one bit of wet waste outside. Well, I dump the waste but in the composter and not on road or dump yard, and this is what I call, the smart dumping.

Congratulations! If you've taken care of wet waste, you've tackled about 60% of waste generated in your house. The rest 40% is the dry waste. Out of these, 20% are reusable and recyclable, 10% is toxic and the remaining 10% is refuse.

We are privileged and blessed to have such a good life that we have things to throw away! But be considerate about others. Donate your old books, cloths, toys, equipment which are in good conditions, to those in needy.

Wear your crazy, creative caps and reuse those old t-shirts or dresses to make something else like rugs or wipes. Convert plastic bottles into pretty planters and plant some plants.

For the rest of the things, make the waste collector you best friend who will clear your home of clutter like newspaper, plastic or glass bottles, tin or metal scrapes. And if you are in good terms with them, they will whisk away some mess like broken footwear or non-categorized scrapes.

We also produce some toxic waste from our house when we use certain necessary evils like medicines, batteries, paints, even electronics equipments. Be smarter about waste here. Don’t buy extra medicines or paints so that we don’t have to throw away extras and buy rechargeable batteries so that we don’t have to throw them at all. Dispose e-waste in specialized agencies only.

We are down to the last 10% and anything and everything, not covered in the above categories fall in here. Normally the refuse are small bits of paper, plastic, bits of rubber, hair, nails or sanitary refuse are left. It is tolerable to incinerate these waste or provide this to corporations or landfill but only till we find a solution to this too.

I would like to mention about Lauren Singer here. Have you heard about her? She is 29 years old and lives in New York City. She made a conscious decision to live waste free life about 4 years back and she has reduced the waste output so much that four years’ worth waste of her trash fits into a jam jar. If she can, we can too.

Remember, waste is not the waste. Only the waste which is wasted is a waste. So don’t waste the waste.

The Book Club :: The Present

Spoiler Ahead!
Book         :    The Present

Author       :    Spencer Johnson

My Rating    :    2/5

A book which tells you:

To be in present;

When you want to be happier and more effective

Focus on What is right now

Respond to what is important today

Learn from the Past

When you want to make the present better than the past

Look at what happened in the past

Learn something Valuable from it

Do things differently Today

Help create the future

When you want to make the future better than the present

Imagine what a wonderful future would look like

make a realistic plan

Do something today to help it happen

Realize your purpose;

Explore ways to make your work and life more meaningful

That's the extract from the book and it is good but i missed on how to do all these?

If there could be some exercises/activities that one can do to achieve these - i would have loved it!

The Book Club :: Finding Audrey

Spoiler Ahead!
Book        :     Finding Audrey
Author      :     Sophie Kinsella
My Rating   :     3/5

i love the author's writings and i always connect very easily with the lead of the story coz they are like me(generally).

However, here, that was not the case. The story board is good but not as gripping as her other novels. Also, in the end, i didn’t get what actually happened with Audrey. One can guess here but still...it was missing

Toastmasters CC :: Project 3 – Get to the Point

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Water Water Everywhere

And all the boards did shrink

Water water everywhere

Nor a drop to drink.

Toastmaster of the day, fellow Toastmasters and guests.

These words are from the famous poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ written by Samuel Taylor. It talks about the harrowing experience of a sailor who has returned from a very long sea voyage. The sailor was thirsty, stranded in the ocean with millions of gallons of water all around but sadly, not a drop to drink.

Imagine, you are stranded in the sea, thirsty but not a drop to drink. Such a sad picture! But wait a minute, you don’t have to be stranded in the sea to be in this miserable situation. Imagine yourself in your own house, 50 years from now because the manner in which we are handling our water resources will make it a precious and limited commodity. So limited and valuable that countries will be fighting for water and not for religion or petroleum.

In fact, if we do not mend our ways, it is enough to wipe the human civilization. Does that sounds too far-fetched? Let me give you an example. The Sindu-Saraswati civilization which flourished during 3000-1700 BC vanished with the drying up of Sarasvati River. Though researchers are debating on many possible reasons, the drying up of major water resource is considered to be the top culprit.

Water pollution is a global problem. There might be many things which the Govt., the municipality or the resident’s association could do. But when we point one finger towards someone, the other 3 points back at us so let’s look into the damage we cause and at least one tip for the damage control we can do.

The problem could be broadly classified into - Pollution of water bodies, depleting groundwater and wastage of available water resources.

But I don’t pollute the water bodies. I do not dump anything in the river or pond. Really! Let’s see, have you ever thrown waste or garbage on the ground? Chances are high that they are washed by rainfall into drains and making their way into river/lake or pond and eventually into ocean. So what can I do? Simply stop dumping waste. Be smarter about the garbage. Segregate the waste and dispose it properly and responsibly.

Groundwater Depletion is a bigger issue. What the eyes cannot see, the heart doesn’t grieve over. One cannot easily predict the state of the groundwater table and thus it makes the situation tough. The oil, gasoline, and other pollutants could easily leach and pollute the groundwater. There’s more – Let’s assume that the groundwater resource in location A gets contaminated. Because we cannot see the connection between location A and location B, there are high chances that groundwater at location B gets contaminated as well. Strangely, even if there is no direct connection between these two points, the water can still seep through permeable surfaces and soil to affect the water at location B.

What can we do to prevent this? Again, be smarter about the waste. Certain types of waste like medicines and batteries when in contact with water can leak and easily pollute the water. We sometimes don’t have proper ways of disposing these wastes. Buy medicines responsibly so that you don’t have to throw it. And for the Batteries, the answer is simple – find an alternative. Do not buy the normal throw away battery. Buy the rechargeable ones. Its costly yes, but it’s a one-time investment.

Assuming that a person uses 2 batteries a month. That makes 24 a year. If the 20 people sitting in this room decide to buy the rechargeable ones, we save about 500 batteries from filling the landfill which is quite a good number

And this brings me to the final point of today’s talk – Avoid wastage of water resources. Look around in your surroundings – Do you see any tap left unattended, close it. Is a tap leaking, repair it. Fool the flush by sinking in a stone which will reduce the water in the Flush tank. We don’t need so much of water to flush. Don’t open water tap to its complete power just to wash your hands – research’s show that about 50% of water that is wasted is actually untouched.

Store the discarded soapy water from washing machine and use it as a first base to wash your bathroom, terrace or car. The water used to boil eggs or potatoes could be used to water the plants. The water used to wash vegetables could be used as first rinse for used utensils.

These tips are small but effective, easy but mighty. Small steps are like little droplets of water which starts as a drizzle but gets converted to torrential rains. Remember, it is the little drops of water that make the mighty ocean.