Erosion at the cemetery

Erosion and garbage at the Pattoor cemetery

As you drive West on the busy road  from General Hospital towards Pettah / Chakka, the cemetery at Pattoor hits you right in your eyes, as the road forms a narrow kink here. The road can neither be realigned or widened because of this cemetery. Now the cemetery is affected by erosion during the monsoon and dumping of garbage along its periphery. Earlier, 'The Friend in Society' building was partially demolished to widen the road on the Eastern side of this site. Click here to see the building before demolition and after.   

Puppet Show

Kerala has a dubious distinction of having a high suicide rate - almost 3 times the national average. Here a group of puppeteers at Vylopilli Samskriti Bhavan, Trivandrum, use puppet play to counter this trend. Other themes covered were, the evils of drinking, the benfit of good education, etc.

Amusing signs

Lube or Loop? A signboard on NH 47 at Kazhakuttam

The direction in which the state is going!

The direction in which God's Own Country and The Land of Memories is going

Rains in Trivandrum

The monsoon set in in its full glory on 3rd June. Being a Monday and first day of school, there were traffic snarls everywhere. Low lying areas were also inundated. 

Shops had little business on this rainy day,  but shopfronts were convenient shelters.

Honey and Mango Festival at Kanakakunnu

Kanakakunnu is usually a beehive of activities. This time, however, there were real beehives as part of the Honey and Mango festival. A great initiative and generally well organised. The entry fee was a nominal Rs.10. However, there were the usual problems of parking, poor layout etc. The crowd was manageable on Saturday morning. Wonder what it would have been in the evening.

It was great opportunity to see, pick, taste and choose many varieties of mangoes and honey.
Next time the organisers should think of better layout and parking facilities. (or should there there be offsite parking with pick up facilities?)
Another dangerous practice was workers carrying heavy crates of mangoes through crowds of visitors. Couldn't they have separate access for loading and unloading? 

Urban Forest in 100 square feet at Asian School of Business

The campus of Asian School of Business at Technocity is already well known for its energy efficient design. Now in an ambitious move, ASB has tied up with Afforestt a social business driven by young engineer Subhendu Sharma to have an urban forest in a thousand square feet. It is expected to have a 100 year equivalent growth in 10 year. See news report: http://bit.ly/13TEVIb.

ASB patron Mr George Thomas plants a sapling while Mr.Subhendu Sharma watches

Look out for updated photoes on the growth at: http://bit.ly/1coXT0x