The Mystery of Blue

How did people many, many, many years ago have clothes that were red, orange, purple, pink...? Where did colour come from? Here's a story that goes back over a thousand years to a time when dyers and weavers made colours out of flowers, leaves and roots, to create beautiful shades of cloth. It is the story of Kunku and her pigeon friend, Chandrakali, who want to make blue. How do they do it? An evocative story about dyes and how they are created. The bright, bold pictures, the motifs and prints fill the book with the feel of fabric and a sense of colour.

Available in English, Hindi,Tamil, Bangla, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Gujarati, Malayalam

To order from Tulika publishers (Chennai), click here

Did you know that the forest is Warlis' Big Bazaar??

When you need something, say a cute toy for your sis' birthday, where do you go?? To the nearby supermarket or shopping mall. Right!! And there, you buy your toy while your mum stuffs the trolley with all kinds of non-biodegradable plastic junk she thought she needed but never needed… I know… coz I do the same thing.

When Warlis (Warlis are tribals that have lived in the Sahyadri mountains in north Maharashtra since time immemorial) need something, they don't go to the supermarket. No, there are no supermarkets where they live. They go to the forest, the bountiful forest. Amazing! Amazing! Everything the Warlis need is available in the forest. Can you believe that??

When they need building materials for the construction of their huts, all they do is chop their way through the green tangled topography. There, they select timbers for the frame structure of their huts. Tell you, they are real pros when it comes to deciding on the best matured trees that will last for generations. The panel walls of their huts are made from Karvi reeds, a very tall shrub that is most used plant as building material in Warli land. A mud and cow dung plaster covers the panels. Mud and cow dung are major building materials used for flooring, plastering, roofing tiling.... Slushy, or not? For the thatch roof, they use paddy straw. And guess what? Yep, there are no leakages and seepages!! How do they manage that?? Well, they replace the straw of their roof every year. Mind you, the old thatch doesn't go for the land fill… it goes as precious manure. Awesome, isn't it?

Everything the Warlis use is a product of nature. It is true. If you don't believe me, why not take an inquisitive peek inside the home sweet homes of these amazing forest residents. And here, you are in for a green shock. Utensils are fashioned from earth, wood or pumpkins. Leaves are stitched into cups for serving food. Baskets are woven out of bamboo. Ropes are produced from bark fibres. Mats are created from palm leaves. Raincoats are designed from leaves and bamboo. Musical instruments are manufactured from bamboo, gourd, palm-leaf, hide-skin and horns of dead animals. Toys like carts are carved from wood, and marbles from seeds.

From the forest, Warlis also get free food, a wide variety of wild plants that are nutritious, tree-ripened and delicious. But don't be fooled into thinking all free foods from the forest are yummy. Some are horribly poisonous and need to be cooked to get all the toxic substances out. Therefore before tucking in some of those wild greens, check out with a local instead.

Getting bored? Well, I just wanted to add that when Warlis want to paint, they don't need to make a dash to Venus Traders for an expansive canvas. The canvas for their art is right at home. It is the wall of their Karvi huts. Guess you anticipated this bit!! Anyway, before they start their pictures, they must give the wall a thorough wash with wet cow dung. No, don't worry; they don't reek of smelly toilets. PHWOAR!!!!!! They smell just heavenly. In this, red mud is smeared to give the wall a brownish finish. With a brush made from chewed bamboo branches, they draw designs inspired from nature with a thin rice paste. WOW!!!!

So, what do you say, Warlis could teach a thing or two to the greens??

Index award 2011

Ecological Tales from India nominating for Index Award 2011: Design to Improve Life.

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Did you know world's first vet was Indian?

Yes, of course. His name was Shalihotra and he was born on Saturday, April 24, 2352BC (Vedic Age). Amazing! What a coincidence!! The last Saturday of April is every year celebrated as World Veterinary Day!

By the way, in that era, there were already many physicians who specialized in the care of animals. And guess what? Shalihotra was the greatest of them all. That is why we - I mean a few of us- still remember him today and consider him as the father of Indian veterinary sciences. Now straight from the horse's mouth: Sushruta, the earliest surgeon of the recorded history (600 BC) would have been Shalihotra's pupil. Hey, don't you have any horse sense? The dates don't match!

Shalihotra was an expert in horse care and wrote the Haya Ayurveda. It is a huge manuscript having more than 12,000 Sanskrit shlokas on the care and management of horses. So fabulously out of the ordinary that it has been translated in many languages!! It tells all you ever wanted to know about your favourite animal, its anatomy, physiology, diseases and what not. Credit also goes to Shalihotra to discover how to determine the age of a horse by looking at its teeth. No doubt, Salihotra became one of those dead famous guys and till today, in many corners of India, Salotri stands for a horse doctor!!

In his work, Shalihotra also documented the use of medicinal plants in treating animal diseases. The skillful doctor described in his veterinary treatise several of those grisly techniques used in surgery to probe gruesome innards. Yep, in Ancient India, surgical treatment of animals was well developed. Mind you, it went beyond dressing and bandaging. They could treat horrible things like fistula, hemorrhagic enteritis, haematuria… Sickening, eh? They could graft, they could treat fractures and dislocations and all that without anesthesia. So how are you feeling now?

Well-trained and skillful doctors treated animals with most care. Remember Indians have always believed in Vasudeva Kutumbakam, men and animals belong to one same big family. So most physicians trained to treat human beings were also trained in the care of animals.

Did you know elephants were already worshipped in the Indus Valley Civilization?

Wow! That is a mammoth news! But how on earth do archeologists know that? Hmmmm…. By looking at the artifacts that have been left behind by the soooo very ancient Harappan people!

Look at this!!!
It is a seal from the Indus Valley.
Buddy archeologists will tell you it is a fair guess that elephants inhabited the Indus Valley. Dense forests populated by wild animals would have hugged the banks of the Indus in Harappan times. Elephants would have been quite common as it is one of the most vividly rendered animals.

In the Rig Veda, the book of the Vedic people (by the way the Vedic people were not Aryans that invaded India but the very people who created the Indus Valley Civilization…. Yeah, there are some facts that old historians got wrong!), there is mention of hastipa or elephant keeper. Which just goes to prove that man had already learnt to tame the big grey mammal. Tamed doesn't mean domesticated. Elephants would have been caught in the wild and subsequently tamed for several purposes: agriculture, forestry and transport over land.

And look at this cute elephant figurine!
It is one of the few elephant figurines from the Indus Valley that shows red and white stripes painted across the face of the elephant. Historians will tell you that this cute statuette provides evidence about the custom of decorating tamed elephants for ceremonies and rituals. One might also guess then that elephants were worshiped, but remember the truth… nobody really knows, not even the 'diggers-up-of-the-past'!

Do you know all there is to know about river dolphins?

Here I have got a piece of information for you. And let me assure you not many people know this fact. It is about dolphins. Guess what? Dolphins are found in Ganga River. It is true. But they are not the usual Bottlenose Dolphins you see in SeaWorld shows. They are rare river dolphins.

The river dolphin's most striking characteristic is a long snout called beak that exposes pointed conical teeth arranged in rows. That makes him look almost like a gharial (crocodile). What's more, river dolphins are as primitive as those nasty reptiles! Yep, river dolphins are amongst the most primitive mammals, as archaic as crocodiles, sharks and turtles.

In the world, there are just 4 species of river dolphins and we are lucky to have one such cetacean (group of marine mammals) swimming in the sacred waters of the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Unfortunately, the fishy problem is that Ganges River dolphins are endangered. During last century, freshwater dolphins whose range covered Nepal, India, and Bangladesh were in thousands. Today, less than 2000 dolphins remain. If nothing is done, 10 years could wipe out an animal that has survived millions of years!!

Oh dear, Gangetic dolphins seem to have a challenging journey ahead. Do you hear me? We've gotta be ready for action. For clues, read The Challenging Journey in our fabulous collection of Ecological Tales from India.

Do you know all there is to know about Rajasthani huts?

The Thar Desert that covers the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent is one of the most amazing deserts in the world. It is an astounding piece of land, not because of the beauty and grandeur of its sand dunes, but because it supports a staggering population of 23 million brave people. That makes the Thar Desert the most densely populated desert in the world with a record population density of 83 persons per km2 versus 7 in other deserts.

The desert might be a cool place for camels and desert beetles!! But what about human beings? How do those 23 million men and women cope with the scorching summers, teeth-chattering winters, dusty sand storms, and mind-boggling blasts of wind (no, not the ones you are thinking about!) of the desperate Thar Desert? Surely they must have found ways to cope with the inhospitable climate!? OK, they may not dig underground burrows to hide from the heat of the day like desert turtles…. Of course not! But then what do they do? Simple, they have designed houses that perfectly protect them from the sizzling heat, the bitter cold, and also from those tempestuous desert winds that blow at a speed of 130km per hour.

To keep the atmosphere inside the hut as cool as possible in summer and as warm as possible in winter, the walls of the Jhumpas are built with mud and are about 4-5 feet high. Mud is an admirable insulator against the inhospitable climate. Mud is warm in winter and cool in summer. Moreover, it is a versatile building material, it is fire-resistant, it insulates from noise, it is more hygienic (mud absorbs toxic gases), it is cheap, easily available, reusable, environmentally benign, and it can stand forever if it gets periodic maintenance. The walls and floor of the huts are plastered with clay mixed with cow dung. Yuk! No, not at all!! It doesn’t pong!!

The roof is conical and thatched with local grasses. Also, to keep the temperature inside as human-friendly as possible, there isn’t any opening except the low entrance door. Most often the huts are circular (12 feet diameter). That is to withstand the high velocity howling desert winds.

Not only these little huts insulate perfectly against the vagaries of the weather, and cost very little, but they are also most eco-friendly as they use local resources and are entirely biodegradable. That is why in a village when wells go dry, people simply abandon their huts and go away. They will go and build new ones wherever there is water. One more thing, these huts are absolutely photogenic. What do you think??

Sizzling news that can toast your brain. Guess what? Mud houses are on the come back internationally. There is interest in reviving mud house constructions all over the world.