Pedestrians+top+list+of+accident+victims

Pedestrians+top+list+of+accident+victims

Environmental, Health, Safety and Community: We need to visit Bundelkhand!

Environmental, Health, Safety and Community: We need to visit Bundelkhand!

We need to visit Bundelkhand!

White+drops+elude+Bundelkhand served as one of the Headlines of Times of India in June 2011. Not restricted to the year 2011, we see similar tag and headlines in time regularly for every state and city. Do we want a bolder headline for PUNJAB? Are we thinking why we face these situations time and again? Are we in spite of this status caring to avoid these situations....The state of Punjab is reported to exploit 170% of ground water and in either of the seasons, be it summer or winters, urban and rural residents do not get water for more than 5-6 hours a day.

Have we ever thought? how would we treat ourselves, if we the residents of Punjab state were asked to live for one week in Bundelkhand?

Would we have recreated canals for us? Would we have established expensive pumps in the region to extract water for ourselves?

My questions here are in reference to the current harvest of cars that we currently reap.

While bicycling back to my house today at 08:30AM today in Mohali (S.A.S. Nagar), i saw the above pasted scenes.

"There are 8 cars to 5 houses on an average. Every owner uses an average of 40 liters of fresh water everyday in order to wash their cars, which means an average of 320 liters for 8 cars This water could serve for drinking purpose for at least 10 people on a day.

Mohali's population is approximately 174000 based on the 2011 census. I tried to search for the number of cars registered in the town too, but without success. However, looking at the factual scene around me almost every morning when i go without the ambition of being a stringer, similar pictures as above, is- what i find.

Do the residents of this town need to be awakened to the grim water situation by taking them on a trip to Bundelkhand???

Environmental, Health, Safety and Community: Biscuits!

Environmental, Health, Safety and Community: Biscuits!

Environmental, Health, Safety and Community: Envisioning a safer future

Environmental, Health, Safety and Community: Envisioning a safer future

Environmental, Health, Safety and Community: Envisioning a safer future

Environmental, Health, Safety and Community: Envisioning a safer future

Envisioning a safer future

Caring Communities

Henrik Valeur, a Danish architect delivered a lecture at the Chandigarh College of Architecture in 2010 October. While speaking in his lecture on the occasion of Le Corbusier memorial lecture, at Chandigarh, he said that, "One of the reasons for the environmental crisis is the massive use of cars, especially in the West. It is very difficult for me, coming from the West, to tell you not to drive cars, but if you repeat all of our mistakes the consequences could be catastrophic. At least it seems to me that the planning of Chandigarh favors the car at the expense of more eco-friendly forms of transportation. The reason is probably that Le Corbusier - and many others - saw the car as a symbol of modernization, and not a symbol of pollution and congestion, as we do today. The fact that these challenges could not have been imagined only fifty years ago, constitute a profound paradox of architecture – that we are creating visions for the future, but our visions are based on and informed by the present, and the only thing we know for sure about the future is that it will not be like the present."

His humility lay in the fact when he pointed out that Copenhagen could learn a great deal from Chandigarh in terms of making the urban environment greener, but maybe Chandigarh could learn something from Copenhagen in terms of traffic planning.

His vision of a safer and caring community seems to have been noticed by the Punjab and Haryana high court, here in Chandigarh on Friday, September 23rd, 2011. One year, after, Architect Henrik Valeur, showed a spark to the city planners, based on which the Court directed the Union Territory administration to declare one of its sectors as vehicle-free zone to keep a check on growing vehicular congestion in city. "To begin with, declaring Sector 17, as vehicle-free can be the best idea," suggested a division bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ajay Tewari.

There is optimism in this judicious direction of the Punjab and Haryana Court and hope for the future which has a vision for having safer communities in Chandigarh, India as shown by a foreign architect in our Land.

When Ruins continue to serve as a "Support system"

When Ruins continue to serve as a "Support system", a photo by arshinder on Flickr.

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility also needs to incorporate respect for our existing Ruins. Where the current "ruins" exist, these have been the cauldron of winning strategies for us in inheritance.

arshinder's photostream

arshinder's photostream on Flickr.

Some Pictures from my travels

Biscuits!

Today, i drove down to Rangilpur, a small village in Ropar district of Indian Punjab. The road was difficult with several potholes and then i came across a patch where there was labor laying the road anew.

Shiela was walking on this road, coming from the opposite direction to my car. Suddenly, the grit on her face while she walked on the stones striked me. I thought, what could be her age, stopped my car and had several questions for her.

Shiela is here in Punjab from a village Panota, which is perhaps beyond Delhi or Mumbai. Shiela knows the name of these two large cities in the country. She lives not her with her parents but her sister and her brother-in-law.

I had a sea of questions for the little girl who does not know her own age. Do you go to school Shiela, i asked? Do you like to play? What do you eat?

What is different that you eat over here, I asked, because i was expecting an answer from her, that would say, she ate more vegetables or more chapati, but to astonishment, What Shiela ate DIFFERENT here than at home was "Biscuits".

Shiela, who is eight has been brought here to Punjab to look after her one and a half year old nephew. Her sister said that they did not get enough money in their own state thus did not know about biscuits there, here they get more money so they can buy Biscuits!