Being an ardent reader of this column , was encouraged to write an article here. Was for long looking for a topic to write. Today happened to have a visitor for an official discussion. Somehow immediately after sitting , she started a general conversation. OF course, have met her a few times in the past , but in infrequent intervals . We do generally have a formal talk before starting the technical discussions.

But to day it was different. We almost spoke in general for about half an hour before starting the main technical discussions . The range of topics were so wide and were based on her and my experiences and our different sources of reading.
It started with her experience at the airport , where she had sat to have some snacks. She found that many people were throwing bottles of water , just after having a gulp or two. There were two things observed here. One is adding to the plastic waste , as they could have as well drank from the direct source of water available nearby and avoided buying the bottle of water. They could have alternately carried the water with them and use it fully and then dispose it. As water is such a precious commodity nowadays, they could have done better in avoiding to waste it.

We also discussed how in some countries, the hotels charge you for wasting food , stating that , even though by paying the money , we get the food, since we do not have the right to waste it.

The topic now turned to how we dispose the waste generated at our home. She said that in her house, she washes the milk packets after taking the milk out and then dries them and collects and hand over to her maid who makes some money out of it. Then we discussed about how we do not take care about segregating the waste at our end , which can go a long way in proper disposal of waste.
She is using a growbags at home. Puts some mud in it and then puts the vegetable and other wastes and then alternates them and keep the bag covered. After a a few days , the bag is ready for keeping aside for compost to get ready. She then uses the bag as a pot and plants seeds and has now a big roof garden now with a variety of small plants with flowers and vegetables.
Then the topic turned to traffic on the roads and our health and exercises. Her son does namaskarams everyday as an exercise , in addition to doing thoppukaranam and kuttukaranam. Also added in the list of exercise is walking in the evening from office to home. The reason given is to save time , as a few kilometers ride taken two hours due to the traffic and also she is lucky to have a calmer side lanes to walk and also the climate in the evening is pleasant.

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