Yes, "Matural" Disasters! It wasn't a typo. Its something I coined for natural disasters made by man directly or indirectly. With the recent mud slides in Seattle, sink holes suddenly appearing in Florida and random earthquakes in places not on the fault line, why are we wondering how these are happening? Isn't it loud and clear?
Drilling, dredging, fracking, digging deeper for subways, making taller and even taller skyscrapers, sonic booms or whatever it is that is making hundreds or thousands of birds to falls dead or fish to wash ashore dead, or oil spills into our waters or other man made horrors considered accidents when some experiment or thrill goes wrong. Ever wonder what this is all about? Isn't it scary to think that people can conjure up ideas for our gain by destroying the very ground we stand on? Especially since it's the only ground we all have?

Everyone thinks its the fault of the other when we can collectively take a stand. We have to learn to want less, be lesser slaves to materialistic things, feel and breathe more holistically and lead simple lives. Is this hard? Maybe in the beginning but if we take small steps, we will soon realize the pleasures from them and soon this will lead to giant strides in areas we would never have thought to make a difference alone.

Going organic

Well,I thought I was the perfect mom!! Had the solution to my problems with kids and their daily sniffs and allergies. All I had to do was to go organic and we would lead a perfect life!!Voila!!!How cool!!!
With that armour, I went shopping.... With a husband who came to the US with me and 2 small kids in 1997, to do a masters, and had just started his new career in a profession that did a complete 180 to his former one, in his late thirties, didn't give me much wiggle room to splurge on the expensive organic foods!
Life is tough when you have to make a choice in feeding the best that you know to your kids and to have to pick up the commercially grown, GMO and pesticide laden fruits and vegetables...But, like every mother, one learns to work with the options given.

With all the hoopla over the President signing the Monsanto Protection Act, not knowing what kind of grocery produce I am going to bring home, it is going to be a scary future for us and all the generations to come. With that said, daily life does not stop. So, a few changes without breaking the bank should do for now. Here is what I do...

When buying organic, I look at what my family eats the most and see if that is affordable. If not, then, I look at local farmer's market and if that is pricey too, then, my next option is a smaller grocery chain like Trader Joe's  who are more conscientious than the bigger conglomerates. This habit of looking into every thing I buy for consumption and household needs does require some planning and driving to different stores but if it is carefully planned and with repetition, it becomes economical on the carbon footprint as well.

Regarding house cleaners, I buy the phosphate free dish washer detergent ( $2 from Walmart) and other non chlorine cleaning sprays that are naturally derived from Walmart and then the refill from the discount store Costco. I know that goes against my principles of being organic to buy from some of the very companies who market GMO products but we are just a regular middle income household who needs to do the best for our family, working with what we have. So, I don't feel bad about it.

Interested in signing the petition to our President? Here it is...

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/obama_signs_monsanto_protection_act_time_to_label_gmos/

"suffering comes from being attached to the outcomes"
Said by MrDearing of Stanford's Institute of Design
As paradoxical as it sounds, he said, "If you stop worrying about the outcomes, you will achieve a better outcome."

The above is from an article in the New York Times. Everyone says that we should follow our dreams and passion and live the way you want. But, it is  not a bed of roses for everyone and there are a lot of hardships and oe has to be prepared for it. So, dream and follow it but be aware of the reality of things and be prepared for it. Read moire here

'That poverty does not allow you to realise even modest dreams.'

The above line is from an article in The Hindu

The article is about two young men, of Indian origin, one of whom grew up in India as a son of a police officer in Haryana and studied in the University of Pennsylvania and then worked as an investment banker in the US and Singapore for three years. Matt, the other young man, migrated with his parents as a teenager to the US and studied at MIT. Both joined UID project and became good friends as flatmates in Bangaluru,India. They both decided to live on less than $100 a day and experience what approximately 400 million people in India who live below poverty level go through daily.

A good article on their experiences and life lessons learned. Read more here

Primary change

It started at first with my older son getting sick very often. From the time he was a few months old, he was getting severe colds and ear infections along with high fevers. The doctors said it was just a common childhood illness and a few bouts of antibiotics should do the trick. They assured us that it would be over by the time he was 5 years old. Well,I couldn't wait for that age to come!Before we knew it, he was 5 and we were still struggling with ear infections.The pediatrician said it would be fine at 7 and then 9 years of age.
So, fed up with him being on OTC and antibiotics till he was almost 10,we decided to take him for some alternate therapy. We learned of a homeopathic doctor in our neighborhood and decided to try that. Wow!!!WHY DID I WAIT TILL HE WAS 10!
The transformation in a day itself was like winning a lottery ticket!!! My son's cough and cold decreased in a day and he started getting better. Now,its more than 5 years and we have not gone to the pediatrician other than for his yearly physicals. I dread to think of all the medicines,prescription and OTC that we pumped into him.
Anyway,that feels like a long time ago.
On our quest to finding reasons for his recurrent coughs and allergies led to finding out that the answers were right in our hands.The foods we were eating, the cleaners we were using, detergents,soaps, medicines.....everything seemed to play a part in it.
Thats when we decided to start making changes in our lifestyle. More to come :-)

Inertia!!

Have been wanting to start a blog for a while now but I have a huge issue with starting something. I need an external pull or push to start!!
Recently, I read a blog by a friend Vijaya- boy, what beautiful language!! It really inspired me to start what I have been wanting to do although I must admit I don't have her language skills.
Anyway, what I have been wanting to blog about is that we have become a materialistic society and its just getting worse every day. I want to simplify my life and see the beauty of things as is....
As an architect and interior designer, I must say I have been a part of this mess too. All these years, when working for companies or on my own, all I would think about was to construct without giving a thought to the adverse effects of the building on the environment or even the allergic effects it has on the people residing in it.
Staying at home with kids for a few years now, my mind has opened to a whole new world of what these materials are doing in terms of allergies and damage to the world.
Therefore,I decided to make small changes at home and see the difference it makes in my families' life. I am beginning to see change already. So,I thought of penning down all what I am doing to slowly change my life and decrease the burden on mother Earth and share this with anyone who cares to read this. Thank you for reading.
SG