Affiliations to Organic produce in Bangalore, Karnataka

Pointers to organizations having to do with growing / selling / marketing organic. 

Gathered form pamphlets that I came across during my late 2012 visit to the beautiful city of Bengaluru 

1. Pure and Sure  www.PhaladaAgro.com 
Sy No 92/5, Kannalli, Segehalli Cross, 
Magadi Road, Blore - 560060 
+91 - 80 - 2853 6762/63/64 

These products are available at Reliance, Auchan and Godrej Nature's Basket 

They sell Organic Spices, Dals, Oils, Flours, Rice and more...

2. ICCOA - www.iccoa.org / www.indiaorganictradefairs.com 

951 C, 15th Cross, 8th Main, Ideal Homes Township, 
Rajeshwari Nagar, Blore 560 098
+91 - 80 - 28601183, 28607200 
info@iccoa.org 

ICCOA aims at becoming a Knowledge and Learning Center for all facets of organic argiculture and argibusiness by providing information services, advice, and market linkages to organic stakeholders. 


Other Pointers 
3. Tribal Health Initiative
Sittlingi, Harur Taluk, 
Dharmapuri Dist. Tamil Nadu - 636 906 
+91 - 4346 299061 / 299025 
office@tribalhealth.org
www.tribalhealth.org

Aims that people of Sittilingi Valley and Kalrayan hills lead a better quality of life. 

4. Srinidhi Nysargika Thota 
Devanahalli 572128, Tumkur, Karnataka 
+91 - 0816-2268811
appu.krishnamurthy@gmail.com 

Nandhana Spirulina - Nature's most powerful food for all

5. RainyFilters.com - save rainwater 
Anya Enterprises 
1 - S - 17 - 1141/11 1st Floor, Shreyas Chambers Building
Kulur Ferry Road, Chilimbi, Managalore - 575 006 
Aravind's Cell: 97411-24627  

6. Organic Dairy - Akshayakalpa Farms and Foods 
+91 - 08134-250047 
gns.reddy@akshayakalpa.org 

US School System Lingo

Sep 2014 

IEP: Individual Education Plan

UFEN: Urban Family Engagement Network Project 

MSP: Measure Student Progress 

FEAT: Family Engagement Action Team 

PLC: Parent Leadership Corps OR Professional Learning Community OR Parent Learning Community 

Anchor Competency - Ultimate Skill or skills that are our goals 

Stanford EducatioN Center = (Here). The central office for Seattle Public Schools Staff and Operations (Named after former Superintendent John Stanford)  

Meyers Briggs: A personality testing system that "types" people along 4 parameters 

PAC: Parent Advisory Committee 

Disaggregated: Data Broken down by sub group 

SES: Socio Economic Status  

OSPI: Office of Superintendent Public Instruction 

HOTS: Higher Order Thinking Skills (related to Bloom's Taxonomy) 

BLT: Building Leadership Team (every school has one. IS supposed to include admin staff, teachers AND parents) 

LC: Learning communities 

STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths 

JIGSAW: Technique for breaking down larger amounts of information to share across a group 

IA: Instructional Assistance  

504: Legal Medically fragile Accommodation 

No Candles Diyas in Bday parties starting 2014

Until last year, I followed suit like everyone else and my two kids birthday parties were never complete without a birthday cake and beautiful candles adorning it! Once Renu Pal Bhabhi asked me why I used candles and I replied - well because everyone else does so and plus kids love to blow them out! It was not an answer she was going to get settled with! What followed was a discussion and finally a decision from my end - never to blow candles at my kids birthday parties again. I tried to put that reasoning into words after gathering from a few websites and editing.

Finally I copied and printed this on to a word doc, laminated it and have left a laminated copy at the Kent Hindi Temple - for anyone else who might like to borrow it; if celebrating birthdays at the temple while avoiding to blow candles!  

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Why aren’t Diya’s accompanying the cake? 
Following the universal  law of life,  everything on this planet is composed  of  five  basic  elements  or the  'Panchamahabhutas'. Loosely translated into English, these are: Akash - Space, Vayu -Air, Jal Water, Agni - Fire and Prithvi - Earth. It is thus true that all natural life including plants, animals and humanity at large are a combination of all these five core elements which are the essence of all life and existence.  One of these five - Fire or Vedic God Agni is also the purifier andour witness. Agni is therefore worshiped as the omniscient God.

Lighting  a  lamp  symbolizes  new  life,  new  beginning or spreading  knowledge. For  this  reason blowing out a Diya  is considered inauspicious or negative. To blow it  with our breath would be considered even more impolite and disrespectful to the very basis between us and the Divine.

On a lighter note you could see it as a contest. Fire might find it offending to be 'blown out'; as it usually has dominance over Wind, taking strength from it as it scorches and runs wild!

So why not blow candles like everyone else?
In today’s times, throwing parties and blowing out candles is a normal  practice  everywhere. It  is unknown  how  and  when  it started. But, certainly these practices do not have any ethos or a basis of any religion; neither Hindu dharma nor any other faith.Also  when  we  blow  out  candles, unknowingly  tiny  bubbles  of saliva leave our mouth and settle on the cakes’ top layer.

Tell me -why on earth should I be serving you unnecessary stuff with your slice of this scrumptious delicioso vegan cake? :)

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Yoni Ki Baat (YKB) - 2014, Seattle

Returning back from Yoni Ki Baat -2014 tonight (a loose adaptation of the Vagina Monologues), I am wondering what was it in my mind that led me to make up my own stories of YKB being a vulgar, filthy and hi-society women centric show, who had nothing better to do to pass their extra time or money.

In the society I live, just merely bringing up the Y word is bound to raise a ton of eyebrows. Those who bring up this word - even in just close female-only settings are bound to be labelled with words such as shameless or lajja-heen. In the tabooed Indian society where I grew up, it was okay (and sadly is still) to stare or even comment and wink at girls passing by, or position at nukkars strategically where men can get a good view of it, mostly not 'it', but just the garment alone. Say when the girl stoops to pump air in her bicycle tires. But and yes BUT! - it is  totally unethical by women to even utter the word.

Coming back to the Y ordeal. The way I was raised, girls coming from decent homes never brought up words of this category - and never never ever in such a public forum. For if they did, what would happen to the respect of errr, depending on 'whom-were-they-being-taken-care-of-by' - say parents: applicable prior to marriage...., that of husband and in laws: applicable post marriage..... or even the respect of their kids ... applicable at later stages of life. So important is the responsibility of ensuring no body's respect is hurt by the women's senseless remarks, and so heavy that burden - that between the daughter, wife/daughter-in-law and mom, there is no space left for the women herself.

Was this a male dominating society the reason that led me to think - what would women form YKB know about true love and relationships; about giving your 200% to your home, husband and kids and still constantly being showered with complaints; about natural child birth, nursing and raising kids, about the frustrations of wearing multiple hats - as you leave workplace and enter home - and each hat having no correlation with any other worn since that morning! And boy I was wrong!

There are women no different than you and me, and in many ways suffered more than you and I ever did. Rape victims - victims having their trust betrayed by their own near and dear ones; abortion victims - forceful abortions are no less victimizing to a would-be-mother; divorce victims after 2+ decades of happy marriage life - what other than a 'victim' do you expect me call such women - having given up her best years, and most productive time and energy to that one man, who leaves her at an age when she needs his emotional and moral support the most. And then there are those, just like you and me - having gone through those immeasurable moments of shame and confusion during our puberty ages and others who have gone through pain and suffering of nursing added with loneliness and depression in attempts to give the best to their child comprising their own sleep, health and well being. Its one thing to read about Nirbhaya in the media, have your guts churn and your fists clinch with anger - and it's a total different thing to actually have a person standing in front of you as she unfolds her darkest moments.

When I attended YKB - 2013, I was left speechless short of words to express myself. I relived my dark moments - when as a teenager I walked through the narrow roads of Turab Nagar wearing a thick khadi kurta with a even thicker duppata unfolded to make layers over layers of fabric, and with perhaps enough oil dripping from my hair  to boil a cup of tea. My head bent down starting at the potholed road, afraid lest my eyes accidentally met someone else's. Reciting Hanuman Chalisa in my head as I would see from the corner of my eyes - the stare from five shopkeepers on either side, scanning my entire being from top to bottom. I relived my first travel in a Delhi bus when I was standing and had a man double my age deliberately touchied my leg with his. Finally I developed some form of courage during college years, especially on those bus journeys between Bareilly and Ghaziabad - which on rare occasions were even all by myself. I relieved those times - when on countless occasions I had punched the guy next to me with my elbow, who pretending to dose off would have inch by inch expanded his four limbs in directions mysteriously all leading in my direction. After all these years the pain has finally gone, but the memories are all still fresh. A huge chunk of India, especially Northern India and even more specifically my hometown Ghaziabad - is a city full of such 'high quality' b*, that even today being a mom of two myself and well into my 30's - my own mom has my blind dad accompany me as my 'protector', if I ever have to step out of the home after dusk in an emergency situation!  

This year, as I sit down reflecting, I do not have enough words to thank Rita ji and other founding members of Tasveer and Aaina, who started YKB eight years ago and have given the women of Seattle and of Asian origin a platform to share their life's darkest secrets, to re-live their saddened pasts and emerge stronger - to not succumb to cowardice or become suicidal, but rebound, march forward choosing courage over fear and life over misery. All these women - every single one of them are more courageous than the rest of us, to have united together to help us unlearn, and teach anew that our pasts are not meant to be hidden, closeted and forgotten. But rather our pasts are to help us become even stronger as women, as caregivers and as parents. As we remind ourselves to believe in our daughters, we also teach them to be bold, stand up for themselves, for their rights and for all the things that matter to the women the most!

तुम्हारे नाम का

देह मेरी , हल्दी तुम्हारे नाम की ।

हथेली मेरी , मेहंदी तुम्हारे नाम की ।

सिर मेरा , चुनरी तुम्हारे नाम की ।

मांग मेरी , सिन्दूर तुम्हारे नाम का ।

माथा मेरा , बिंदिया तुम्हारे नाम की ।

नाक मेरी , नथनी तुम्हारे नाम की ।

गला मेरा , मंगलसूत्र तुम्हारे नाम का ।

कलाई मेरी , चूड़ियाँ तुम्हारे नाम की ।

पाँव मेरे , महावर तुम्हारे नाम की ।

उंगलियाँ मेरी , बिछुए तुम्हारे नाम के ।

बड़ों की चरण-वंदना मै करूँ , और 'सदा-सुहागन' का आशीष तुम्हारे नाम का ।

और तो और - करवाचौथ/बड़मावस के व्रत भी तुम्हारे नाम के ।

यहाँ तक कि कोख मेरी/ खून मेरा/ दूध मेरा, और बच्चा ?
बच्चा तुम्हारे नाम का ।

घर के दरवाज़े पर लगी 'नेम-प्लेट' तुम्हारे नाम की ।

और तो और - मेरे अपने नाम के सम्मुख लिखा गोत्र भी मेरा नहीं, तुम्हारे नाम का ।

सब कुछ तो तुम्हारे नाम का...

नम्रता से पूछती हूँ .... आखिर तुम्हारे पास...क्या है मेरे नाम का?

- Forwarded Message