Krya

A convenient diaper

Preethi — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 04:25:05 +0000

Last fortnight we looked at the horrors of disposable diapers for the baby and mother earth. A quick summary of the inconvenient facts are: and For the longer version, please read the original blog post here. For those struck with a mixture of guilt and hopelessness, hope still waits, in the form of...

An Inconvenient Diaper

Preethi — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:40:37 +0000

We are parents to a wonderful 13 month old. And not ashamed to admit that we were queasy about the prospect of diaper changes before the arrival of our daughter. As adults we live in a sanitised world with zero tolerance for weird smells of any stripe. We are always reaching for fragrant products (in...

Mosquito Monogatari.

Preethi — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 17:14:19 +0000

I live in mosquito land. Every monsoon evening, clouds of DDT swirl around the air sprayed diligently by the corporation workers to stem the mosquito population. Every store I go to has a new product being launched that guarantees a reduction in mosquitoes. Electric bats are used by the security folks in every apartment complex,...

Jaws 4: Swish, brush, massage and rinse (for great teeth)

Preethi — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:19:06 +0000

A graphic photo of animal testing by an oral care brand prompted an impassioned plea on my part to my network. I have given up commercial toothpastes and toothbrushes for over a year now and make my own toothpowder. I find animal testing for toothpastes incomprehensible, yet it continues to exist as a standard practice...

What lies beneath – digging in the world’s trash cans: Part 1

Preethi — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:54:40 +0000

A graphic photo in The Hindu recently inspired this two part blog post. As we walk around Chennai, we often have to navigate mounds of garbage. Garbage has a mysterious way of reappearing in double its size after it has been hauled away just a night before, and I cannot help being intrigued by the...

The Zen of Shaving

Srinivas — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:02:56 +0000

Somerset Maugham observed that “in each shave lies a philosophy”. In 2009, Haruki Murakami introduced me to this aphorism when he applied it to his daily ritual of running. Murakami went on to write that “No matter how mundane an action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes contemplative, even meditative”. Extending...

Republic day Raffle

Preethi — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:45:15 +0000

We are proud to support Siri Pulipaka’s innovative fund raiser for the Vaidehi Ashram for destitute girls. Siri is a 28 year old software professional who lives in Bangalore, and writes a fantastic food blog called Cooking with Siri . On the first day of 2012, Siri spent spent her day at the Vaidehi Ashram...

The why and how of your own urban garden

Preethi — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:27:20 +0000

Just like there’s a billion dollar business idea and a New York Times bestseller in each of us, so too lurks a farmer in each of us – with the urge to grow beautiful living things. Scientists with clever sounding PhD thesis topics have tried to explain this urge to grow new life in different...

A sustainable business card and the joy of working with your hands

Preethi — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:59:29 +0000

The quest for a sustainable card has come full circle. To recap, we started with no cards, and then made a self printed card which we had written about here. Perhaps this reticence to get going and print 200 shiny laminated cards off the first printer we found, came from our days of working in...

Ant Attacks!

Preethi — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:37:13 +0000

A few days back in the evening, I opened my laptop and saw a long line of fierce red ants doing a merry QWERTY dance. It was nothing short of a campaign of shock and awe by these formicidae. At first I thought it was a new low for these ants to colonize my laptop...