Broken Bangles: Putting Together Life and the World

  (Clay licks of Amazon; image source: Wikimedia Commons) Hi traveller,  If you are enchanted by the splendid sights of nature and want to experience the ultimate charm of a rainforest, you must travel to the Amazon Rainforest. Furthermore, it will be the journey of a lifetime if you explore the mysteries of the forests. Here is a plan for this trip and the places you must visit.  Charles Darwin once described the Amazon Rainforest as “a view in the Arabian Nights.” The sunbeams filtering through tree branches (what the Japanese call komorebi), the light giving a godly glow to the hundred hues of the green forest, colourful birds and more magnificent Indigenous tribes, the adorable views from the forest canopy towers and lodges, the meandering mighty river, Amazon, its mist-covered surreal mornings, the giant lilies and tarantulas, the clay licks teeming with exotic animals, the list of wonders goes on and on.  The Amazon rainforest covers nine countries. You cannot...

(Image source: B. Lennart Persson, flickr.com) Ikebana is a noble hobby that involves flowers and everything else in life. It is more than putting some flowers and twigs in a vase. This article explores its philosophy and meaning. The Meaning of Ikebana Ikebana is like meditation; it has a deep spiritual quality to it. The beauty of this art form is that anyone can practise it, and it can become part of our ordinary domestic life, transforming mundanity into something extraordinary. Ikebana means arranging flowers, but the exact meaning is making flowers alive. It has a deep connection with the Buddhist approach to life. Ikebana did not lose its charm for the fair mind, and in a recent book, the author, Yuji Ueno, called it ‘The Zen Way of Flowers’. There is another name for Ikebana that reveals its spiritual undertones- Kado. Kado means the path of flowers. Learning and understanding this art is a profound spiritual journey to undertake. The Origin of Ikebana A Buddhist monk, Ikenobo,...

You are a farmer with a tract of land where you cultivate your crops. You spend a lot of money buying fertilisers. The farm is full of weeds, but the labour required to remove them is above your means. Here is an alternate path for you to enrich your soil with nutrients and have the weeds removed free of cost.  Invite a poultry, goat, or dairy farmer to graze his animals inside your farm after you harvest your crop. These animals spend their lives on your farm f or a month or two . The animals eat the weeds, solving a problem you will have in the next cultivation. Their excreta falls upon your farmland and provides it with free fertiliser. Once they leave, you can start ploughing your land. The manure is mixed with the soil homogeneously. And now, you can plant a new crop.  One simple plan like the above represents the term circular economy or circularity in an eye-opening way. Circularity is not limited to this modest example. Its implications are huge. It is a virtuous circ...