"Waterfree technologies"

Being in California means you encounter "green" themes and motivations all the time. My office is no different. I am all for being green, but I do have to draw the line at the bathroom door.

The mens bathroom in my office is different in that the pipe from the flush to the urinal is absent. The urinals have "Falcon Waterfree Technologies" inscribed on them.

The way to use the urinals is as follows. One pees in them like in any other. The trick then is to stop yourself from pulling on the flush handle, because nothing will happen. That's it.

I would like to know what exactly this Waterfree technology is. The urinal looks, functions and smells like any other urinal without water, and that's a problem. I'd like the guilty satisfaction of flushing down my urine with a couple of gallons of water.

Have I encountered the most enterprising company in the world that actually sells (probably at a premium) ordinary urinals as something that has advanced technology?

On another note, the toilets are still "old fashioned" with a water flush. The day they go "Waterfree" will be my last day in this company.

Fame and Fortune

I received an email out of the blue a few weeks ago from a magazine editor in Singapore asking me whether they could use some of my Monterey pictures from flickr for an article they were working on.

My aspirations as a photographer are a Freudian truth (whatever that means) and I promptly replied giving my consent. It was for a new magazine called Lexean, which they claim is a cross between GQ and Economist. Yup.

The editor had also enigmatically mentioned a "non-commercial fee" which I later learnt actually meant "nothing".

Anyway, I have not heard from them in a while now, and have to assume that my photographical ambitions will have to wait. They were probably dissuaded by the big boxes my brother drew around a speck of dust in my pictures with the words "This is ruining your photos".

Thanks buddy. I should probably start using Photoshop.

Now what

TN gets almost 2/3rds of Cauvery waters while Karnataka gets 1/3rd.

Once all the breast beating is over, can we please stop for a second and think of what to do next? Getting a larger share is a lost cause. TN has more than enough clout at the centre to influence any future decision, while we only have our Mannina Maga to show for in "Central politics".

This is my hypothesis. There is enough water in our share for both industry and drinking supplies. There is however not enough for agriculture.

How about we change the utilization of all the agricultural land that cannot get enough water? Let us build industrial parks, satellite towns and the like and attract manufacturing and services like never before. Of course this will attract more people, and a bigger strain on water resources, but surely this will defer the pain? Building an industrial base is the only way to eradicate poverty on a mass scale, as exhibited by every non-poor country (excluding the oildoms). In the meanwhile, let us plan on a comprehensive water management strategy. If Chennai can do it under Jayalalitha, so can we.

All of us - urban people, poets, journalists, writers, "activists", politicians - are guilty of romanticising an agrarian life, while the reality is anything but romantic. This will also enable our people to break out of subsistence farming, which any farmer will readily tell you is not something he wants his children to do.

Changing the utilization of these lands will, in addition, also free us from the eternal curse called "hereditary property dispute" which has resulted in lakhs of acres of inefficient farm land due to microdivisions.

Hernando de Soto (a Peruvian economist) argues that most poor people in countries like India are actually very rich. The problem is that they cannot transact on or monetize their assets as easily as their First World counterparts can.

An enlightened government can actually make something positive of this award. The enlightenment is the missing piece.

"Winter"

California is spoiled silly. Having lived in the midwest, I know what "winter" is like there. Zero or subzero temperatures are routine, and this is in Fahrenheit, not Celsius. I spoke with a friend in Chicago today, and with another friend in Columbus on Sunday, and the temperatures are about -10 F there. The temperature here in "winter" does not get below 50 F during daytime. And this causes the local new channels to warn people about the "cold spell"!