The Alternative runs a regular internship program for school and college students to work as part of its content production, editorial and outreach team. Students get involved in multiple activities that run in parallel as part of the digital newsroom process — from producing news bulletins to editing, publishing and audience engagement.

How long does the internship program go on?

The Alternative’s editorial internship programs go on for 2-3 months, as decided between the editor and the intern. The programs run from a minimum of 8 weeks to a maximum of 14 weeks.

What does the Editing internship work entail?

Writing and Editing Interns at The Alternative (TA) play an anchor role in creating and producing content across the focus areas of The Alternative. They play the valuable role of helping run a smooth professional web content platform that has quality content presented in forms optimized for the web.

Publishing work entails reviewing and revising articles everyday and packaging them into formats that are reader-friendly and optimized for online reading. Activities taken up by the publishing interns include proofreading of content, article layout design, slideshows/audio-visual format preparation, tagging and keyword optimization.

What does the audience development internship work entail?

Audience Development Interns at The Alternative play the challenging role of ensuring that all content on TA engages the widest number of interested audiences online.

Audience Development work entails engaging social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and Quora online, re-publishing on curation platforms and aggregation sites and following up on conversations and discussions on the site, community mailing groups and forums.

What commitments does the Internship entail?

The duration of the internship can go from 8-14 weeks. Interns are asked to commit to a 12-hour weekly schedule of their choosing upfront.

The Alternative recognizes the various academic and professional commitments that form a part of the intern’s educational pursuit, and is open to altering schedules for individual needs. TA expects in turn that the intern will suitably work the internship commitment seriously and be accountable for delivering quality work as per the schedules laid out.

What does a typical week in the internship look like?

The interns work in close co-ordination with the senior editorial team.

The week starts with an Editorial Planning meeting with the senior editorial team to recap the previous week’s performance online and discuss plans for the week including specials, campaigns and current running series online.

Weekday schedules are closely aligned to the real time publishing schedules and backend editorial and outreach processes followed by the publication. The intern will have a bunch of everyday assignments handed out via the content management and tracking system used by the editorial team. Finished work is turned in, in time for the next day’s content run.

A weekly round up meeting will be held, typically on a Saturday.

What can one learn as the Intern?

Interns receive a comprehensive idea of The Alternative’s philosophy and implementation tools and techniques to present, publish and manage content online.
Interns get a chance to understand deeper the world of sustainability and social issues and how to leverage online content and communities to tell impactful stories about the same.

Interns get to learn the tricks of the trade in online content management and social media and the utilization of social media to actively engage audience to lead more sustainable lives.

Can an Internship lead to paid employment?

Yes—TA could ask exceptional interns to join its team of paid contributors.

The hiring process is highly competitive, and we make no promises to prospective applicants. The most successful candidates are those who show consistent development through the course of their internships, proving their reliability by performing consistently, with quality and on time.

The Alternative provides professional references and letters of recommendation for all successful interns. In the past, interns have gone on to get journalism jobs at leading mainstream publications, admits to top universities and programs abroad, and jobs in renowned spaces – from enterprises in the space of sustainability to research organisations and non-profits.

Tell us more about yourself here. And send us a resume and writing samples to contribute@thealternative.in

Our interest however is not limited to the areas below. If you have an interesting story pitch or submission that you think would fit in with our focus and approach to sustainability, go right ahead, follow the submission procedure and send it to us!

Are you an apartment or a community champion?

Have you been witness to, or been a part of, the core team implementing waste management, water conservation or related sustainability initiatives in your community, apartment or ward? We would love to chronicle your experience of how you went about it and what the impact has been.

If there’s a pressing civic or social issue in your neighbourhood that needs attention and visibility, and you have a possible solution of what could be done, use our platform to spread the word.

Are you a film, book or art lover?

Are you a passionate film viewer who loves to dissect movies and appreciate nuances? Do you love reading books and talking about them? Do you believe the arts – both still and performing – hold a mirror to today’s times? Send us your reviews, opinion pieces and questions that a film, book, a performance or a work of art raised. Profile the life and work of traditional artists or modern ones looking to forge relationships between the past and the present in interesting ways. Given our publication’s focus, we look for perspectives from a socio- cultural lens.

Are you a history buff or a collector of old stories?

Do you have stories about your city that no one knows about? Do you know why we celebrate a particular festival, follow a particular custom, wear particular attires and how it has evolved over the years? We would love to hear stories of how past meets the present in our heritage and history sections.

Do you love to travel?

We want to capture your off the map experiences where you’ve chosen to stay at a home stay or an ecological hotel and relished the local culture. We want to feature your photographs of scenic views, endangered species and indigenous inhabitants unseen in glossy pages or seen through a novel and ethical perspective. We want to see your city while you re-discover it through your lens. We want to promote responsible choices and your stories of giving back to the community and region that you’ve taken from. We want to follow you on your seasonal jaunts, your crazy experiments at art, music, film and cultural festivals and places you sojourn to in the coming weekend.

Write to us on untravel – it could be about the destination, place of stay, a specific attraction or a story behind a moment, or the stories of the people from those places.

Raising kids? Or teaching them?

Share with us your experiences of bringing up or educating children in our Education and Development section. How do you teach your kids to be more responsible and sensitive (or how do your kids teach you)? Tell us about activities that you have engaged in with your child. Encourage your child to write about his/her experiences in our Student Voices section.

Do you feel strongly about social equity?

We believe that an equitable society is one where everyone – irrespective of gender, age, sexual orientation or abilities – is able to access space, opportunities and resources similar to what the rest of us have. Our Inclusivity section features personal voices of people who are differently-abled, the experiences of a friend, parent, sibling or an associate of someone who is differently-abled. We have a strong focus on gender equity and the nuances of gender justice in our country today.  We also have special sections that spread awareness around disability, autism, adoption, geriatric care and urban poverty.

Do you work with development issues on the ground?

We always love to hear from the practitioners in the space about the challenges, innovations and the realities of working with issues of social development on the ground. So, if you do have first-hand experience in working on the ground on social issues – urban or rural – do send us your experiences and views.

Evergreen sections

You could contribute to our enduring collections on The Alternative

• DIYS on creative ideas around waste
• Recipes made from seasonal, local and organic food
• Notes from urban farmers on growing your own food
• On two feet – running, cycling and other community sport in the city
• In the City travel – Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai
• Photo of the week
• Personal Histories in our Voices Section

But while you’re pigging out on galli chat or at an exotic holiday resort with the choicest dishes in the buffet, your health and the earth is taking a beating.

Your energy might be bursting and time only seems to stop but your stomach and bowels are probably at it’s sensitive best during this season. But that doesn’t have to mean only sada ghar ka khaana. Just by going local and seasonal with your food can ensure your health is free from artificial preservatives and mother earth is a little more relieved from pesticides and carbon footprint from your food miles.

Last season, our Green Foodie Recipe Challenge proved that some of the yummiest and diverse variety of dishes can come out of ingredients, vegetables and meat organically sourced, the contrary of which was a wide spread myth. Yet again, this season we’re challenging you to debunk the popular myth that Fruit Chaat and Caesar Salad are the only recommendations for your health.

We’re looking for recipes that are good for your health, good for the earth and good on your toddlers’ taste buds.

How to enter

1. Use seasonal fruits, vegetables and grains to make something wholesome, healthy and yummy this summer.

2. Send us your recipes with 2-3 photos to editor@thealternative.in with ‘A Slice of Summer’ in the subject line and title of the recipe.

3. We strongly encourage recipes that are local, traditional, use fresh ingredients and are prepared in healthy ways. Organic recipes and vegan recipes are welcomed, but are not a binding factor.

You win:

1. The entry with the maximum social shares on The Alternative will win a meal for two in a prominent restaurant in their city.

2. Editor’s picks from the contest get a chance to become featured food writers in the Alternative’s sustainable food section.

Contest rules

1. Submissions must be either entirely original or have an original twist to what is derived from elsewhere (the original core recipe should be credited and mentioned).

2. Participants can send more than one recipe for the contest.

3. Recipes must be sent as docs and pictures shared with us as jpegs only.

4. Each recipe should have the ingredients with quantities, cooking procedure and 2-3 photos.

5. A background story of the recipe, “what it means to you” is a big plus.

6. The Alternative (www.thealternative.in), with the contestant’s permission, can showcase the recipe online or offline.

7. Contest ends on 31st May, 2013.

The Green Foodie Recipe Challenge is a part of our theme of the month, ‘A Slice of Summer‘,  a journey through the season’s best of fresh, local, healthy and planet-friendly food. 

Ingredients:

watermelon – 2 cups cut into 1/2 inch cubes

feta cheese – 1/2 cup cut into 1/3 inch cubes

arugula – 2 cups

lemon zest – 1 lemon

lemon juice – 1 lemon

fresh ground pepper

Directions:

1. Add the cut watermelon, feta cheese and arugula into your salad bowl.

2. Add the lemon zest. If you don’t plan to serve right away, put the salad bowl in the fridge.

3. When you are ready to serve, add lemon juice and fresh ground pepper.

4. Toss and serve!

Fresh and crunchy Watermelon Feta Salad is ready to serve.

Be sure to get a piece of watermelon, feta cheese and some arugula in every bite! The watermelon is complemented delectably by the salty feta and peppery arugula. Yummylicious, truly.

You can vary the greens depending on your preference and availability. Baby spinach and watercress are possible arugula salads. Serve fresh to enjoy the flavors.

My friend and I loved it. I guarantee, you will too!

To food fiestas with friends

This recipe originally posted on Eatomaniac – a vegetarian recipe and food blog, is part of our theme of the month, ‘A Slice of Summer‘, a journey through the season’s best of fresh, local, healthy and planet-friendly food.

“Gar firdaus bar ru e zamin ast, hami asto hami asto hami ast ”

More than 400 years and Kashmir can’t be well described than Jehangir’s own words – If heaven exists on earth, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here!

Kashmir has always caught the fancy of travelers across the world. Undoubtedly distinct from all the other hill stations in India primarily being discovered by the Mughals and not by British (as a hill station, Kashmir itself has a history of being the homeland of Rishi Kashyap dating 5000 years ago) and due to special status, no entry of real estate sharks has preserved the original beauty of this surreal valley.

Sri Nagar, Pahalgam, Gulmarg and Sonmarg are known as good as the four metro cities in India and can be described as the commercial circuit of Kashmir.

On the backdrop of the huge inflow of tourists in recent years and subsequent commercialization of these places, these spots are yet relatively untouched and retain the authenticity of Kashmir’s beauty and hospitality.

Pic: Zahid Samoon / Wikimedia Commons

Gurez

Situated in the North Eastern region of Kashmir and about 140 odd kilometers from Sri Nagar, Gurez is considered to be one of the most picturesque valleys of Kashmir. Gateway of the ancient ‘Silk Route’, Gurez also incorporates the famous pyramid shaped ‘Habba Khatoon’ peak named after the Kashmiri poetess. Although the tourist related infrastructure is yet to be developed in this area, the accommodation facility is available in the main town of Dawar and the nearby villages.

The beautiful Kishen Ganga river flows through Gurez valley with its clear blue waters and rafting can be done here. However, except for the residents of Bandipore district, travellers need to take a special permission from the Director – Tourism Enforcement, Kashmir which includes verification from local police station. It is advisable to apply a month prior to your scheduled journey to Gurez.

Warwan Valley

The efforts to reach this heavenly valley are worth it as you have to cross the tricky Margan Top (from where the famous Nun Kun peak can be seen on a clear day). Another gem in the unexplored Kashmir, Warwan valley in Kishtwar district situated at an altitude of approx 7000 feet from sea level offers breathtaking vistas of greenery, waterfalls and clear skies.

A popular destination with foreign nationals in the 80’s, the Warwan valley is sandwiched between Kashmir and Ladakh.

Lack of electricity in this valley takes your soul closer to nature. On a moonlit night, one is enthralled by the sheer beauty of the snow peaks of Zanskar range and the shimmering Dariya-E-Chinab flowing through the valley with distant echoes of shepherds getting their ships back home.

The Inshaan village has couple of accommodation facilities – a dak bunglow under construction and a Forest Rest House. As with Gurez, you have to communicate your plan to the DFO, Marwah, a month in advance. Uncertainties prevail as FRH being the only accommodation for all VIPs visiting Warwan.

Here, the Kashmiri hospitality comes to act and any of the locals will accommodate you. The recently opened Vailoo-Inshan Road makes life easy as you can drive a vehicle (4X4 preferred) in the Warwan valley. Generally cut from the rest of the world for 7 months, best time to visit Warwan Valley is between May and October

Bangus/ Reshwari

Located in the sensitive Kupwara district, Bangus (or Bungus) valley can humble the best of the European meadows. There are two elliptical bowl shaped valleys with name of Bodh Bungus (Big Bungus) and Lakut Bangus (Small Bungus).

Generally tourists are allowed access to Big Bungus only. Situated inside a dense forest of the marvelous pines, the Bungus meadows are probably the most beautiful in Kashmir and an ideal place for camping (though it is not allowed and one is requested to be back to Reshwari before evening).

The green carpet becomes a captivating array of beautiful colours in Summer (especially in May) which is the recommended time to visit. The Bangus valley certainly epitomizes Kashmir’s heavenly beauty in the original way.

The only accommodation near Bangus Valley is the beautiful guest house situated on the banks of Mawar river in the Reshwari Village falling in the Handwara sub-division.

As they say, “Good things never come easy” If you happen to visit Bangus, you will not stop thanking your stars. Being a disturbed territory, you need to acquire a primary permission from the SP of Kishtwar to go to Bangus but the 17th Infantry Brigade reserves the right to allow the entry to Bangus. Once allowed, you won’t feel like coming back.

Doodhpathari

Probably the simplest to approach out of all the destinations described, Doodpathari (or Dodhpathir in local dialect) is situated at a distance of 40 odd kilometers from Sri Nagar. The name is derived from the abundance of milk in this area due to lush green meadows for the cattle. The shephards from the nearby villages get their cattle to graze here so that good quality milk can be procured.

Doodhpathri is a bowl shaped green valley with Shali Ganga river flowing through the meadows and makes a beautiful day trip destination from Sri Nagar. The JKTDC has also built a wonderful resort here. If not staying on a house boat at Dal Lake or Nagin Lake in Sri Nagar, it is advisable to stay at Doodhpathari tourist guest houses.

Are there any other lesser known destinations in Kashmir that you’ve been to? Do share in the comments section how your experiences have been with respect to access, security and the sheer beauty of travelling in Kashmir. 

Secret Ingredient: Chaat Masala!

Garam Masala is synonymous with Indian food in the West. I love it and can’t imagine a spice drawer without it. However, I want to talk more about today’s secret ingredient – Chaat Masala! I am a BIG fan of tart and tangy food. Tamarind is to die for and Chaat Masala is a close second Chaat Masala brings together some amazing spices that blend together and work like magic on the tongue. Some of the key spices are amchoor (dried mange powder), kala namak (black salt), cumin, cariander, dried ginger and hing (asfoetida). This is the key ingredient in the most popular streetfood in India – chaats. The chaat family includes paani puri, bhel puri, sev puri, dahi puri, dahi paapdi chaat, samosa chaat, ragda patty, fruit chaat and much more.

I love chaat so much and wondered if I could experiment with that flavor in other foods. And I have successfully done so! Given the rising mercury levels, today I will share my ‘Chatpata’ Dressing on a Cooling Summer Salad.

The Ancient Royapuram railway station

The sheer majesty and largeness of the Royapuram station beguiles any bystander. It also greatly magnifies its deformities. The paint on the walls has come out and the pillars are defaced. Graffitis and names of railway-employee-unions in uncouth writings stain the outer walls of the building.

The Royapuram Railway Station was once a focal point for trade. Built in 1856 and situated on the Western side of the Chennai port it was the centre for trade and commerce.

The station was declared a heritage site and last renovated in 2005 when the Indian railways completed 150 years of service.

Almost 300 people use the station to commute everyday. Panneerselvan, a local, finds it hard to understand the indifferent attitude of the government. “Even after giving it a heritage status the government has done nothing to better the building.”

The inside of the station displays a similar apathy. The lobby of the station is a large structure housing the ticket counter and a sitting area. One of the girders holding the ceiling has come out and dangerously hangs out as a pigeon perches on it.

The Station Master’s office seems more of a dried well with cobwebs on the edges. The other rooms in the building include a room for the signal man and a prison cell with iron gates which now has lost its purpose, taken over by the newly constructed RPF(Railway Protection Force) office. The RPF office is situated across the railway lines, as if the makers tried to detach it from the ignominy of the red building.

The station has 20 employees working in three shifts. Nagesh Rao the station master calls the problem a bureaucratic tussle. He says, “Once the station was declared a heritage site the Railways was not allowed to make any changes to the structure. The collector recently passed a directive stating that the building is not to be touched.”

Even after giving it a heritage status the government has done nothing to better the building.

“Any renovation is to done by the state government under the supervision of the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India),” he said.

Every 40 minutes a train passes by, breaking through the otherwise silent atmosphere. The hum of the cement mixers and the labourers on the other side of the station show signs of steady progress and modernity all around the station, in stark constrast to it.

Peepul trees stand in a belligerent attempt to grow through the structure. A lone pipe hangs out from the building which it hugged once and on the pipe, a peepul sapling stands in triumph.

The Royapuram station appears suspended endlessly in time, in a confused state of existence. Awaiting a sentence of being relegated to the past as a heritage structure or to find its presence in today’s pacing Chennai. But it’s the hiatus that is serving it a slow death.

Himachal Pradesh has seen an increase in demand by over 3.93 crore litres of water per day from its drinking water supplies in the 39 irrigation and public health (IPH) divisions in the state in 2011. To further add to the problem, rains in the state have been showing a decreasing trend and there have been particularly harsh years like 2009 when the state witnessed a deficit of 60% during the monsoon. In fact Bilaspur district registered a deficit of 83%, Solan district 70%, Kangra district 66%, Hamirpur district 65% and Lahaul and Spiti district 58%. There is no way of knowing when the water tanks are running out of water or when they should pump more in order to make up for the shortage. Or even measure the usage in various areas in order to judge the gap between requirement and availability.

Himachal Pradesh seems to intuitively suggest plentiful water. Yet the region was racked by water troubles due to inefficient management of the resource. Pic: wikipedia.

Recently, when AirJaldi hosted a workshop on wireless sensor networks and their environmental applications, we realised that wireless networks could help us better manage water in HP.

Before going into how they were used, what are wireless sensor networks? These are spatially distributed autonomous sensors to monitor physical or environmental conditions such as temperature, sound, pressure, etc. and to cooperatively pass their data through the network to a main location. These can be deployed over a specific area where a specific phenomenon is to be monitored.

This workshop was taken by Akiba from freaklabs who taught the participants how to use sensor devices and put them together to form a network in order to successfully correlate the data.

Arduino sensors used in the workshop

The workshop had a bigger purpose than to just teach the participants about sensor networks. And that was to use it to be able to solve the problem of water in the Dharamshala area of Himachal Pradesh. The workshop consisted of three major parts. The first part was the actual workshop to teach the participants about sensor networks using Arduino which is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. It is intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Participant working on an Arduino setup.

The second and third parts were actual sensor network deployments at the Tibetan Childrens Village (TCV) and Sarah Tibetan Center for Higher Learning. In both deployments, SONAR water level sensors were used to measure the water level in storage tanks fed by nearby streams; data that would then get uploaded to Cosm servers. These sensors were used to collect data on how much water is pulled daily and monthly as well as the average usage. They also captured insights to judge the situation and be able to successfully pump in the right amount of water from the surrounding rivers before we reach a situation where the tanks become empty.

One of the water tanks used for measurement.

The idea is to be prepared and never have the tank go empty. With this data we at AirJaldi hope to be able to implement this solution in other various places and also be able to use the sensor networks to solve water issues.

Wireless sensor networks can be used for various purposes and the proper implementation of the same is something that can help in solving a lot of everyday problems hampering the growth of the country. We hope to see wireless networks used a lot more in innovative problem solving for grassroot issues.

Take one mug full of pulp and the sheet you get is thin and dilapidated; take one and a half and the sheet you end up making is thick at the edges and thin in the centre. Take one mug full and a tiny sliver more and youT get the perfect 100 GSM sheet of handmade, recycled paper. This is something I learnt from The Kalyanmayee Paper Factory.

The paper factory is situated in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi and is part of the Airport Authority of India’s CSR policy. Their work at the factory is remarkable. They collect paper from 80 airports around India and convert it into usable stationary for the AAI. I was impressed by the NGO’s commitment to sustainability – besides recycling all paper, it only uses harvested rainwater from its factory’s in-house catchment areas and the drained water is then used as a solvent for the pulp.

The factory made great products but no one really knew about it. That’s where I decided that I’d start. In order to publicise the factory I should bring people in to see what they do and allow them to buy their products. And then I wondered if it could be a better idea to invite school students during the summer holidays for an internship. Students learn about the interesting and meticulous process of paper making; they feel for the work they do.

They made great products but not many people knew about it.

This is how the “The Kalyanmayee Project” came about. We were 18 students who worked 5 hours for 15 days. We designed and made our own products and then sold them later on. The money generated is donated to an NGO chosen by the students of the batch. With two batches of internships completed to date, we have managed to generate about Rs. 11,000.

We started with wanting to create awareness about the work the factory was doing, however as the internship progressed further, the aim became far deeper; to instill the need for recycling and environmental sustainability within students. The internship program had students working for not only production of products but also had the job of making a documentary and blog where students would talk about the work that they did.

As the internship progressed further, the aim became far deeper; to instill the need for recycling and environmental sustainability within students

By 2012, the internship had a big name in Delhi amongst students. So much so that I had to hold interviews to screen the students and choose a select few. Being a student myself, I somewhat enjoyed the authority I held. The 2012 batch was a bit more enthusiastic. Their enthusiasm led to incorporating full schools into the Kalyanmayee program. The Shri Ram School started collecting waste paper from staff rooms and administration offices and sent it to the factory in return for printer friendly paper for their internal use.

Some came to cut their holidays, some to make new friends and some even came to beef up their resume for colleges to look at. However I am happy to know that at least a some of them were inspired.

The students who came here each had their own agenda. Some came to cut their holidays, some to make new friends and some even came to beef up their resume for colleges to look at. However I am happy to know that at least a some of them were inspired. These inspired students will now be heading the 2013 internship this June.

Here’s a video story on the project:

You can learn more about the Kalyanmayee project through their FB page. 

Student Voices is a running weekly section featuring the voices of school students and the world they’d like to imagine, create and  be a part of. 

If you are a school student and would like to contribute to Student Voices, write to us at editor@thealternative.in.

Atithi Parinay urges you to step out of your urban boxes (both physical and mental) and spread your cramped soul to 4 Acres of lush green land set amidst mango, coconut & banana plantations. Surrounded by the Western Ghats, Atithi Parinay is located along the interiors of the Konkan coast in the peaceful surroundings of Kotawade, just 15kms from Ratnagiri & Ganapatipule.

Atithi Parinay offers travellers the chance to come home to the cozy comfort of eco friendly cottages with hot piping traditional food made by the locals of the region. Truly a woman’s touch one might remark, but the homestay is the joint venture of the mother-daughter duo of Vasudha Sahasrabudhe and Medha Sahasrabudhe.

A visitor attempts to climb a coconut tree at Atithi Parinay

Mrs. Vasudha Sahasrabudhe started her career in entrepreneurship at 56 with her daughter although hospitality has been a natural forte for her. The warmth of the hospitality can easily be credited to the atmosphere she has set up with the host locals and guests from all over the world.

The tree houses, tents & cottages homestay can visibly be attributed to Medha Sahasrabudhe’s interior designer skills. With a course in “Ecology and Environment” from the Ecological Society, Pune, Medha always dreamt of having her own resort.

We talk to her about how she realized this dream in a sustainable homestay like Atithi Parinay.

Can you share your story of setting up Aithi Parinay? Your background and motivation for starting this venture.

We started Atithi Parinay in January 2012. It all started when one of my friends randomly asked me to start a home-stay while visiting Ganapatipule. The idea seemed interesting but I was not so sure of anything else. And then, for the next 6 months we were discussing how to go above it.

This property was developed by my father. He was a landscape contractor, and wanted to come and settle here. We were settled in Pune at that time. My father passed away in 2008. And I started coming to Kotwade frequently. We always used to come here for our summer vacation, as my natives are from this village.

We started off with 2 rooms in our own house. The response from guests was really encouraging. Motivation came from smallest of incidents – One of my cousins came over for lunch and he liked the setting so much although he himself comes from a small town. It was not new for us as we were visiting this place since childhood, but for someone from a different place this place seemed very relaxing to unwind.

I always loved the countryside and nature so a one year PG Diploma in “Sustainable Management of Natural Resources & Nature Conservation” followed with the Ecological Society of Pune. The love for plants and agriculture was always there but the course changed my perspective for organic agriculture, responsible tourism and the work done in the space.

What are the 5 aspects of responsible travel you have worked on and what it took to implement?

We wanted to expand in 6 months’ time after we started, and we made up our minds to make all the accommodation and dining area with sustainable material. Local labor was used for the construction and traditional materials were used in construction of tree house and cottage.

With regard to food, we source most of the vegetables, rice and milk from our own farm or source it from the nearby village. The food served is local vegetarian Maharashtrian cuisine that is made by local people.

Founder of Atithi Parinay, Medha Sahasrabudhe with the locals and a guest at the homestay

Initially, the food and accommodation ideas were not acceptable by villagers and some travelers. Villagers used to mock off my ideas when I wanted to make thatched roof or mud walls. “Zamana aage jaa raha hai, aur aap piche” (the world is moving forward and you’re going backwards) was their comment. It was disappointing at first but I stuck to my plans.

Also, the food supplier from the village, I really had to convince him about local food, and this is what is important to serve. Make our food a brand in itself.

We also do not serve mineral water in our resort, thus, reducing plastic waste.

What has been the impact of your venture – on the local people, environment, the place itself, traveler sensitization and anything else you’ d like to stress on.

We have not reached a point where we can impact local people in big way. But yes, we have given employment to about 12-15 people in the village. We are slowly educating villagers about waste management, pollution in the nearby river etc. It will be a while to see the results but we are off to a promising start. Some smaller homestays have also sprung up that uses the same model. We’re happy that we are providing direction to some more people with the same motivation.

Visitors at one the nearby virgin beaches indulge in bird watching

Can you share experiences/anecdotes from travelers who’ve visited?

We have just returned to Mumbai after a heavenly holiday at Atithi Parinay near Ratnagiri. Our stay was pleasant from the minute we entered AP. Back to nature feeling with wonderful hospitality. Very clean rooms and toilet. The naturally green surroundings with clean fresh air was a blessing. Enjoyed the Maharashtrian veg food immensely, care was taken to introduce us to authentic fare. Would love to repeat our visit after the monsoons. Beaches like Aare Waare was just out of this world. Enjoy with friends, elders and family a wholesome holiday.

- Chitra and Prakash Rao

We stayed here for two nights. A lovely farm stay surrounded by trees and filled with birdsong.
Medha the host is very welcoming and took us for a tour of the nearby village and helped us to buy organic mangos. The food is excellent and just like home cooked food. This is a great base too for exploring the nearby beaches as well as visiting Ganpatiphule. However, once you are on the property you don’t feel like leaving!

- By Mark (New Zealand)

We were a family of 8 and booked 2 tents and 1 tree house for 3 nights. A very relaxing and refreshing stay indeed.
Reaching there – This was a challenge even with Google maps. A long scenic drive through the ghats – it took us 8 hours from Mumbai. Medha was very patient and can provide directions with her eyes closed.

Stay – Fantastic. Quiet. Clean. Comfortable bed and blankets. Towels and bed sheets are replaced once in 3 days. Room/Bathrooms cleaned every day.
Food – Perfect to our taste – Traditional Konkan style with an extremely hospitable cook attending to every food requirement.
Host – Medha is an outstanding host and made us feel comfortable during our entire stay. Her practical attention to detail is echoed by her well trained team. I remember when we requested a carom board, she went all the way to Ratnagiri to buy one.

Spending time:

1) At Athiti Parinay – Morning walks, badminton, and darts, toddler toys and books as well.

2) Around Athiti Parinay – Beaches, Temples, and Forts. Also visit the cashew factory near Athiti Pariney gates.

Overall, a fantastic stay with an outstanding host, clean and green surroundings, and home cooked food.

Thanks Medha!!

- Shwetha

Contact: (02352) 240121, info@atithiparinay.com. Visit them at http://www.atithiparinay.com/

Untravel Weekends is a feature series on resorts, homestays and guesthouses that are built and run on the foundations of responsible travel by means of nature conservation, using alternative energy, reducing waste, recycling, rain water harvesting, organic farming, sourcing and feeding into the local economy or promoting indigenous cultures. 

Thirty kilometers from Mekhri circle, is 300 acres of pristine nature.

Just an hour’s drive from home – so near and yet… far from the madding crowd.

Farm fresh vegetables.

Riding into the wind, with a three year-old’s soft arms and face pressed against me.

The grasslands. Enjoying nature, relaxing and fooling around with the sheep and goats.

The last remaining grasslands in the region – let’s take a pledge to save it. Say NO to the proposal for a commercial theme park/film city.

The Avocado fruit looks like the image on the right. According to this article on Avocado production in India, Avocado is grown in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Sikkim. Avocado has been hailed as “the most nutritive among fruits” and regarded as “the most important contribution of the New World to human diet”. You can check the nutritive value of Avocado in the same article. According to the article, the Avocado pulp is “rich in proteins (up to 4%) and fat (up to 30%)… Avocados have the highest energy value (245 cal/100 g) of any fruit besides being a reservoir of several vitamins and minerals.” Avocado is also considered to be among the Top 10 Anti-Aging Foods. Very interestingly, allthe ten anti-ageing foods listed in this linked article are derived from plant-based sources! Now, doesn’t that say something!

So coming back to the point of this story, what is the Avocado and ‘butter’ connection… When you slice the fruit from the center, you find a seed in the middle and the white/yellow portion on the two halves.This white or yellow portion is the Avocado pulp or the ‘butter’. You can scrape off this pulp and use it to butter your toasts and sandwiches. Avocado butter spreads evenly, has a pretty neutral taste, and feels d i v i n e in the mouth. You can spice it up with herbs and toppings of your choice. How about checking out one recipe?

Enjoying an Avocado-butter Toast with Sautéed Mushrooms

The recipe for Avocado-butter toast with Sautéed Mushrooms is contributed by Amruta. It’s amazingly simple. We never imagined before that this could also be one way of eating the Avocado fruit! Here’s the recipe – simple, delicious, and nutritious!

Sauté the mushrooms (we used organic cold-pressed Safflower Oil from 24 Letter Mantrato sauté) with salt as per taste and keep aside.

Toast multigrain Vegan bread (we used a variety from Bagels & Bakes).

Scrape the butter from the Avocado fruit and spread it generously on the toasted bread. Do not scoop the butter; scraping it instead helps to spread the butter evenly.

Load the toast with the sautéed mushrooms and apply dashes of ground black pepper.

Your avocado-butter toast with sautéed mushroom is ready. Isn’t it divinely yum?!

Smoothies, Salads, Ice creams, Dips

Avocado tastes good in smoothies, salads, ice creams, and as dips as well. You will find many recipes on the internet. Here are some lined for you; click the links to learn more.

Avocado smoothie from ‘Natural News’
Avocado salad from ‘Veggie Wedgie’
Avocado ice cream from ‘A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise’
Avocado dip from ‘Vegan on the Prowl’

Purchasing Avocado

Avacado is easily available in many fruit stalls and supermarkets in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Sikkim as they are grown there. One regular-sized fruit costing anything between Rs.15/- to Rs.30/- can suffice for one meal for a family of four if we can put it that way. Outside the states mentioned above, you may have to pay a slightly higher price. Also, if you want to extract the butter from the fruit, please make sure that the fruit is ripe. The outer covering should feel soft when the fruit is ripe. You can also purchase the fruit with a hard outer covering and ripen it at home by wrapping the fruit in newspaper sheets and placing in a dark spot overnight or for however long it takes for the fruit to ripen. Usually, the shop you buy from will be able to give you an estimate of the ripening time.

And by the way, you can grow your own Avocado too!

Rithika from The Green Stove tells you how to do that. Click here to find out!

This recipe has been republished from Vegan India! is a part of our theme of the month, ‘A Slice of Summer‘,  a journey through the season’s best of fresh, local, healthy and planet-friendly food. 

This post is a part of ‘A 100 new ways to see Bangalore‘ series . 

Participate in the contest by sending us pictures with a short description of how your experience of the city – arts, food, ecology, social inclusion, heritage, management/administration, hospitality and conservation – is the most unheard of and legen – we’re waiting for it – dary! 

Entries before 15th May stand to win an exciting Bangalore experience from our sponsors – PoshVine! 

The lake

B. Hoshalii is located near Sompura Gate on Sarjapura Road, Bangalore Urban District. The area of the lake is 18 acres. The main issues before the organization were dealing with many brick manufacturers and infrastructure companies in the area who use the red/top soil, sand and marum/ hard soil through illegal mining. The organization took bold steps in July 2013 in arresting such illegal activities which were detrimental to the lake restoration program. Another major challenge was to identify and develop feeder channels ( Rajakaluve) of the lake by involving local communities All the efforts of the organization and local communities lead to a successful restoration of the lake which was dead for almost 25 years.

The lake champions 

TRDC (Tropical Research and Development Centre) is a non profit (Est. 1994) established in response to protect the degradation of our natural resources. From 2012, the Organization has taken the initiative to protect and develop restoration of lakes in Bangalore. The importance of lakes as an ecosystem has been neglected in the past in various areas of Bangalore. This has led to the lakes becoming environmental wastelands where the water resource is lost and there is subsequent degradation of surrounding vegetation and wildlife. It is, therefore, the aim of TRDC in cooperation with various stakeholders and partners to restore these lakes to their original condition and improve the livelihood of communities dependant on the scarce resource.

How are they restoring the lake?

TRDC works with various stakeholders such as Grama Panchyats, Revenue Authorities-Tahasildar, BDA, Corporate bodies,Karnataka Pollution Control Board etc. As part of this project we have partnered with SABIC Research and Technology Pvt Limited, Bangalore, Yamare Panchayat and local communities in order to design and implement the project. Since this lake comes under Panchyat limits, it is necessary to work them with very closely in terms of releasing the encrochments and also getting local community support. During the implementation, we closely worked with various line departments such as BESCOM, Police and DC office Bangalore Urban District.

Lake Restoration / Conservation Activities implemented

Way forward

The cost of the first phase of lake restoration is around Rs 44. lakhs which is far less than lake restoration spending by the Government. We are making this project as model project so that we hope that Government and corporate bodies would take interest in number of cost effecient lake restoration projects in Bangalore.

With the major restoration programme nearing completion, we are currently making the lake as a recreational place for the local communities and waiting for the rain for the lake to fill up again !!! and also for tree planting activities.

The Mobile Vaani network has pioneered a novel concept of using low end phones to enable even poorly literate people to share voices with each other – people can call into a number and leave messages for their community, or listen to messages left by others.

Running over an intelligent IVR platform cloud hosted at IIT Delhi, the network in Jharkhand has been running since almost a year that now reaches out to over 30,000 families who call more than 2,000 times each day to create and share content with their communities.

Mobile Vaani is now looking for partners who want to run similar networks in their local geographies. Community radio stations, media organizations, and the social and CSR sectors will find this most useful. They are opening up their technology platform at extremely discounted rates for the partner program, which will enable community engagement for people to share opinions and aspirations on various developmental and cultural issues.

They also offer to train partners to run a local Mobile Vaani chapter efficiently, and guide the trainees with best practices that they have evolved to tie up with other stakeholders including local government departments and civil society organizations who can help communities.

the objective is to build Mobile Vaani into a large network run by partners and make it financially sustainable. The idea is to bring local and national advertising, developmental messaging funded by philanthropic organizations and governments, and local entrepreneurial activity to make the network sustainable and scalable. Collectively, the vision is to build a Facebook for rural India that allows the people to express themselves and connect their voices with appropriate stakeholders to bring accountability and transparency in service provisioning, and lead to large scale social impact.

Mobile Vaani Network Architecture

About Gram Vaani

Gram Vaani, meaning ‘voice of the village’, is a social technology company based at IIT Delhi. Started in 2009 with the intent of reversing the flow of information, that is, to make it bottom-up instead of top-down. By using simple technologies and social context to design tools, they have been able to impact communities at large – more than 2 million users in over 7 Indian States, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Namibia and South Africa.

Gram Vaani’s office in Ranchi

Thirty rural radio stations have been able to manage and share content over mobiles and the web, corrupt ration shop officials in Jharkhand were arrested due to citizen complaints made on our platform, women Sarpanches in Uttar Pradesh shared learning and opinions on their work with senior goverment officials, and citizens were able to monitor and report on waste management in 18 wards of Delhi to hold MCD officials accountable for their work.

Gram Vaani has been awarded the Knight News Challenge in 2008, the Manthan Awards in 2009, the Economic Times Power of Ideas awards in 2010, the Rockefeller challenge in 2012, the Rising Stars in Global Health award in 2012, the mBillionth South Asia Award in 2012, and were finalists in the Ashoka Changemakers and Vodafone Mobiles for Good competition last year. Gram Vaani works with organizations all across India and in other developing parts of the world.

State-level workshop

Mobile Vaani is Gram Vaani’s answer to building a social media platform equivalent to Facebook/YouTube/Twitter for rural areas. We have built an intelligent IVR (interactive voice response) system that allows people to call into a number and leave a message about their community, or listen to messages left by others. These messages range from updates about local village events, to folk songs and cultural updates from the communities, feedback on government schemes, and discussions about topics of importance including the state of education and health in rural areas.

Being purely voice based, Mobile Vaani immediately becomes accessible to poorly literate communities. With a combination of applications running on the platform including social networking, citizen journalism, social messaging, and local governance, the goal is to scale the Mobile Vaani network across the entire country.

Visit http://mobilevaani.in to learn more about the partner program.

A series is typically a collection of six articles over a period of 1 month based on a specific theme

Can I do a series if I’m new to TA?

You can write a series only if you have written for us before or have substantial journalism experience with other publications

Is the publishing process different for a series?

You and our editor will first agree on a theme and the overall scope of the series. From there, the process is similar to publishing an individual article.

Can I get assistance from the editorial team?

The editorial

What are the incentives to write for The Alternative?

Reaching out and influencing like minded people, to live sustainably and engage in social good. We promote our writers’ articles across various channels. Free access to paid events, workshops and conferences, Interaction with celebrated writers at Writer events are just some of the reasons to write for us.  To learn more, visit our Write For Us page

What are the other incentives to write for The Alternative?

Producing effective online content, free access to paid events, workshops and conferences, Interaction with celebrated writers at Writer events are just some of the reasons to write for us.  To learn more, visit our Write For Us page.

What are the different channels that you use for communication?

We are very active on our social networking pages FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest . We also have a weekly newsletter that reaches out to a huge database

What is a theme?

Every month, TA will focus on a specific theme. In addition to publishing articles based on the theme, we will also run contests and social media activities around the theme. Connect the Dots, our monthly event will also be focused on the same theme to bring the conversations and our engagement online to engagement on the ground.

When will I know about the theme of the month?

We will share the theme of the month on the 20^th of the previous month. We will communicate the overall outline, key areas of focus and allied activities to support the theme.

What is the featured article of the week/month?

An article that receives the maximum reactions (comments, likes, shares) on The Alternative and all of our social media pages will be awarded the “Featured article of the week/month” title

Who is the featured writer of the week/month?

A writer who has received maximum reactions (comments, likes, shares) on for his article(s) on The Alternative and all of our social media pages will be crowned as out “Featured writer of the week/month” title

What is the Editor’s pick?

An article that need not have necessarily created a buzz amongst our readers but yet caught the Editor’s eye for its content will be voted as the Editor’s pick

How do I know that people are reading my article? Do you keep track of readers?

Yes, we have an advanced tracking system in place that integrates information like clicks, likes, shares and other reactions that an article gets on our website and all our channels of communication

Will you share the feedback from readers with your writers?

Yes. You will know if you and your article have been received well if you have been selected as the Writer / Article of the week / month

How do I ensure that my article will be accepted at TA?

Quality of content is very important to us. So ensure that you adhere to your writing guidelines while sending us you piece

The articles seem very Bangalore-centric. Can I write from other locations?

Yes! The Alternative is based out of Bangalore but we have contributors from across the world

Are there other opportunities at The Alternative that I can be a part of?

Absolutely. We regularly host events on sustainability and also support events hosted by other organisations that we partner with. You can volunteer/ visit any of them. For periodic updates about The Alternative’s events and programs, check our website under???

If I write a column on The Alternative, do I have the freedom to choose the content?

As a Columnist for The Alternative, you do have the freedom of content, as long as the readers are positively reacting to the column

Can I be an Editor? What are my privileges?

?

I am a student. Can I write for The Alternative?

Yes you can. There are two ways in which you can contribute. There will be a school/ college channel through which you could send in articles. If your story is extraordinary and accepted well by our editorial team, you could look at contributing directly to TA. We will promote you to TA’s regular pool of writers and you can write (and get paid) independent of your school/ college

What are the incentives for student-writers?

Writer/ editor workshops, contests, free invitations to paid events?

Who are the people who work for The Alternative?

Will I still get paid to write?

Based on the following factors, we will decide if a writer will get paid or not

-       Content quality of the pitch

-       Form of the pitch – Article or Series

-       Length of our engagement with the writer

-       Your writing experience outside TA

What are the other incentives to continue writing for The Alternative?

Going forward, we want to showcase our writers’ accomplishments as much as we can, be it on our social media channels or other online platforms.  Article of the week, writer of the week, Editor’s picks will get special mentions on our website. We will also be featuring the most popular articles in our weekly newsletter that goes out to a large set of like-minded people.

How does my relationship with TA evolve?

We reward our writers who regularly write for us. A long term writing commitment will bring about a change in our style of engagement, remuneration and the marketing for your article.

Do I get paid for my story?

• Ø The quality of the pitch or the submission from the writer
• Ø The length of our engagement with the writer. Simply because, the longer you have written for us the better we will be able judge the pitch.
• Ø Your writing experience outside The Alternative.
• Ø The form – Whether it is a pitch for an individual article or a series.

What is the payment process?

We will have a written, scanned and signed contract with all of our writers signed one-time. By the 5^th of every month, you will be paid for all articles written by the 25^th of the previous month. You will be shared a receipt of the payment as soon as the transfer is complete. Please reach out to us in case your payment is not received in the next 2 days for us to resolve it by 10^th.

Are there different levels at which I can write for The Alternative?

Based on the number of articles that you contribute, we have 5 levels of writers at The Alternative (explain each one of these levels??)

-       The Contributor (Individual/ series)

-       The Commissioned writer

-       The Columnist

-       The Campaign editor

-       The Section editor

Does my story really create an impact on the readers??

What is the points system for writers on The Alternative??

Can I see another writer’s points?

No, you cannot. The points are indicative of where you stand as a writer and not really to compare the success of your article with another

1. Solve the attention economy problem

All writers on the web must remember one thing – that all readers on the web are distracted folks. They don’t read, they scan. They scan through headings, sub-headings, picture captions, hyperlinks, data and numerals. They scroll back and forth, trying to figure out where to start and when to end. There is only 1 word to describe readers on the web: impatient.

And this is the challenge that web writers must overcome, by keeping things short. Keep your post to a maximum of 700 words in length. It is much easier to write a 1,300 word piece than it is to keep it to a crisp 400 words. But brief, we must be. And for every 200 words, give us one photo.

2. Be visual

Visuals are critical to tell a good story. Take the time to get a good set of authentic pictures to accompany your piece. Sending us generic, poor quality, unfocused images just makes publishing the piece a much more long drawn process. We are very particular about picture credits and attributions here. And we completely abhor plagiarism and dubious copyright protected images. Wherever it is important, also include video links to the piece.

3. Always write for one reader

Ideally you should have only one reader in mind when you are writing a story. You are not going to be able to satisfy a 16-year-old’s curiosity and a 30-year-old discerning reader’s need for information in the same piece.

Have your main reader – where she/ he stays, socio-economic info, likes, dislikes, where she/ he shops and for what, goes for a weekend break, leisure spend in your head when you write. How educated is he/she, what biases them, what she/he is afraid of.

Complete this sentence for every story – “I want this story to ____” Ideally, you should have only one goal, and never go beyond two. If there are many goals, try and spin the story as a series, each installment focusing on one of those set of goals.

And when you read the final draft of the story, does your takeaway/reactions match the goal mentioned above? If not, can the story be rewritten? The tense, the words, the style changed? Maybe more images or videos added? Bring it closer to the intended goal.

5. The title says it all

On the web, you live and die by your headings. The headline is a critical part of the story. It is what users see first and react to. It is what leads them to click or not click. A good headline is –

- Snappy and (where possible) witty.

- Has a conversational tone, is easy to read. It is not verbose and long.

- Has SEO friendly keywords – names of important people, events, current topics. Tries to guess what people are searching for.

- Where possible, it is framed as a question, an inquiry, rather than a statement or a pronouncement.

6. Use subheads

One proven device for keeping a reader moving forward through an article is to insert subheads (subheadings) every few paragraphs. Just as a well-written heading can draw a reader into a story that he or she might otherwise skip over, subheads provide a visual road-sign for readers, alerting them that something different and potentially interesting is coming up.

7. Get the tone right

We are not prophets of doom. They were anyway doomed to die for the world to go on. So, stay away from terrifying your readers, predicting judgement day, guilt tripping them or adopting a holier than thou approach. In the world of sustainability, none of us have figured out the holy grail. Shock them with facts, data, photos or analysis instead.

Do not tread on the ‘downtrodden’ or the ‘poverty-stricken.’ Use respectful and sensitive terms to describe the communities you are talking about.

The poor, the impoverished and the underserved are not waiting for us to arrive and lift them out of their situation. Empathize and don’t sympathize.

Do not exaggerate. Be even both in praise and critique. Someone who does ‘good’ does not by definition grow a halo automatically around their heads. Use data, objective references, a measure of size and scale to have a frame to what you are talking about. And always contextualize.

8. Stick to short paragraphs. Varying sentences

Do not exceed 6-7 lines per paragraph. Regular paragraph breaks give visual relief and make it easier to read longer stories.

Within each paragraph, vary the length of the sentences to avoid monotony. A staccato style sentence followed by a longer one, for example.

9. Keep it simple and crisp

- You are writing for the readers, not for yourself. Your objective is achieved when the readers understand you the first time they read.

- Do not be verbose; do not use complex words and sentences when simple structures can convey the same meaning. Convey your meaning in as few words as possible.

10. Include the punchline (editors will take you out for a beer for sure)

-        A punchline is usually a one-line summary of the story. It is also thought provoking, sometimes it questions, sometimes it is open-ended, but mostly it leaves your readers with good “food for thought”.

11. Don’t see those red lines? We do – all.the.time

Thanks to wonderful tools like Microsoft Word, one can actually make out when there are typos and grammatical errors in your composition. Once you have written copy, take a break. And come back and read it. Correct it for common mistakes before you dash it off to the editor. Here are 15 grammar goofs you would good to avoid like the plague.

Ironically, know what stands at #1 on The Alternative’s submissions goof list? NGO’s that are changing the world. Yes, change is hard to come by.

12. Be focused

- Minimize distractions when writing stories. It might sound obvious, but this point is all too often overlooked and you end up with phones buzzing, IMs popping, Facebook alerts, Twitter updates and whatnot. Numerous studies have proven that multitasking is a myth. People are hardwired to do only one thing at a time. So do it well. Take breaks between writing to catch up with your Facebook friends. But when at it, be at it!

UK English is the house style. Set your word style to the same and avoid sending us copy with colors, travelers or neighbors.

Introducing people  - Write the full name in the first reference, such as Brad Pitt. In subsequent references, please use the last name of the person. ‘Pitt was of the opinion that fame makes you feel permanently like a girl walking past construction workers.’

Abbreviations - Except for a few well known abbreviations (eg. UN, NGO), expand on first reference. Subsequently, abbreviated forms can be used.

Numbers. Use the word for numbers between zero and ten. Any number above ten is expressed as digits (11).

First to tenth centuries, the 11th century, a 29-year-old man, a man in his 20s, 20th anniversary, in a 100 years’ time

Dates. Month, day, year in that order, with no commas:

July 5th
Monday July 5th
July 5th 2005
July 27th – August 3rd 2005
July 2002
1996-99
2002-05
1998-2003
1990s
June 10th and 14th
December 14th and 25th

Currency. Place the currency before the amount. Rs. 300.

Capitalisation. Use small letters while referring to the designation – chief minister, prime minister etc. But Prime Minister’s Office, High Court, Supreme Court. Capital letters when referring to the full name and designation – BWSSB Chairman Gaurav Gupta. Use capitals sparingly. Don’t capitalize something just because You Think It Is Important.

Avoid adjectives. It is better to describe situations and allow readers to make their own judgements. For example, describe the way a school functions and let the reader decide whether it is a ‘good school’.

A or an? Use an before a silent H: an hour, an heir, an honourable man, an honest woman; a hero, a hotel, a historian (but don’t change a direct quote if the speaker says, for example, “an historic”).– not changing the quote the norm in papers? cos it may place the source unnecessarily in bad light, unless it was intended that way? Aarti

Act – Capitals when using full name, eg Right to Information Act; but lower case on second reference, eg “the act”, and when speaking in more general terms, eg “we need a radical freedom of information act”; bills remain lower case until passed into law.

Among or between? Contrary to popular myth, between is not limited to two parties. It is appropriate when the relationship is essentially reciprocal: fighting between the many peoples of Yugoslavia, treaties between European countries. Among belongs to distributive relationships: shared among, etc

Brackets  – If the sentence is logically and grammatically complete without the information contained within the parentheses (round brackets), the punctuation stays outside the brackets. (A complete sentence that stands alone in parentheses starts with a capital letter and ends with a stop.) “Square brackets,” the grammarian said, “are used in direct quotes when an interpolation [a note from the writer or editor, not uttered by the speaker] is added to provide essential information.”

Be sensitive. Given we are a platform that publishes on sustainability and social issues, one of the uppermost concerns in our mind is that we don’t marginalize issues further by how we refer to them.

Use positive language about disability, avoiding outdated terms that stereotype or stigmatise. Terms to avoid include victim of, suffering from, afflicted by, crippled by (prefer person who has, person with).

Disabled itself can be replaced with ‘challenged.’ Some terms to be avoided with acceptable alternatives in brackets are wheel chair bound (uses a wheel chair); invalid (disabled person); mentally handicapped, backward, retarded, slow (person with learning difficulties); deaf, dumb and blind (deaf and speech-impaired, hearing and speech-impaired).

Take care using language about mental health issues. In addition to such clearly offensive and unacceptable expressions as loony, maniac, nutter, psycho and schizo, terms to avoid — because they stereotype and stigmatise — include victim of, suffering from, and afflicted by; “a person with” is clear, accurate and preferable to “a person suffering from”. Never use schizophrenic to mean “in two minds”. And avoid writing “the mentally ill”— people with mental health issues or mental health challenges.

Use able bodied rather than normal to refer to those without special needs.

Elderly – Do not use to describe anyone under 70, and say elderly people (or even better, older people), never “the elderly”

Caste sensitivities: Avoid using harijan. Dalit is acceptable . Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe are the official terms.

NEVER use any of these terms as adjectives – handicapped, gay, homosexual, blind, deaf, mute.

Off-topic content, which makes people wonder why they are reading the article on The Alternative

Like: content that has nothing to do even remotely with sustainability, fictional content

Non-original content, which isn’t uniquely created by the author

Like: Plagiarised content, recycled submissions.

Unverified content, which violates our editorial code of conduct and ethics (read about our editorial code of conduct)

Offensive content, which violates The Alternative’s terms of use

Like: vulgar content, racial slurs, salacious content.

Untrustworthy content, that reflects poorly on us and you

Like: Promotional content, carelessly produced content where no one has bothered to take the effort, plugs.

Respect people’s time – yours, ours and our audience’s.

To my mind, laws on accessible architecture are poorly enforced. I, and my fellow disabled are very skeptical that real changes will be forthcoming, unless both abled and disabled can fight the issues. The serious problem for me is that only disabled people seem to be placing high value on accessibility.

“Many of my acquaintances in outside disability communities seem to only know the word ramp” Pic: http://accessability-india.blogspot.in/

Barrier-ridden public spaces result in social isolation for many wheelchair users, for example, which find it difficult or impossible to venture beyond their houses or neighborhoods. For an activist and academician in a prestigious college, it took almost 25 years in getting a ramp and toilet. I still cannot go to the staff room, administration office as well as principal’s office (please understand the issue of power). The college has started work on elevator very recently.

You can imagine the horror when you think of issues such as education and health. Faced with both apathy on the part of the state to conform to accessibility laws and with societal ignorance (many of my acquaintances in outside disability communities seem to only know the word ramp), many of us prefer to stay at home and lose the opportunities to connect with the world of the “able-bodied.

I often, (who has the resources) experience my day to day life as problematic as going to the market has no understanding of access. Day before yesterday, I came back without buying fruits as the only ramp was there has been broken to park the car. Or if you want to be a masochist, you can go to Fab India, the choice is either to stay in the car and the guard brings in what ever is possible (Also read Kamayani’s mail on Westside’s anti-disability, anti-wheelchair policy).

Notwithstanding the difficulties associated with built environment, my suggestion was to bring in a cautionary note. It is true that the built environment is not disable friendly but wheel chair users do know escalators are not wheelchair friendly. We should protest but we need to know the nature of the assistive devices. Notwithstanding the personal responsibility, I feel that we don’t value life of disabled people. As feminists, we need to re think and take access as one of the critical issue that we need to fight.

Theoretically, we do respect the rights to all humans equally despite any physical / economical / social / mental / psychological differences. But it cannot be a lip service. I feel making inclusive spaces for disabled and aged citizens should be binding. India’s ratification of the United Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“CRPD”) marks a significant step in the development of Indian disability law. According to Article 2 of the CRPD, “reasonable accommodation” means “necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms”. Unlike earlier interpretations of the term which were limited to buildings, roads and transport. The UN Convention broadens the very concept of accessibility. It includes facilities and services provided and open to the public, the urban and rural areas, indoor and outdoor facilities. Public facilities like Canteens, administrative services and sports and recreational facilities are as important as classrooms and laboratories.

The concept of accessibility also includes information and communication technology, to include services and communications. Article 9 on accessibility addresses an overarching concern for the effective implementation of obligations for persons with disabilities – that of accessibility. In this regard it takes a broad approach to the issue, addressing not only physical accessibility but also accessibility of information. Article 9 also highlights the need for accessibility issues to be considered early on, for example right at the time of procurement or deployment of information and communications technologies. As per the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the existence of barriers constitutes a central component of educating the students with disability. Under the Convention, disability is an evolving concept that “results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.” That’s the least a democratic country must do.

As an activist, I do use the idea of the temporarily able bodied (TAB), which is an indicator of the precariousness of human existence, and is extremely helpful in destabilizing the binaries of health/ill health, non-disabled/disabled. However, the margins which divide us into categories are realistically wobbly, such that constant replication is needed to keep them in check. In a similar way as we perform our gendered/disabled/sexed/impaired identities, we also need to perform what is expected of a healthy body, so that it is not tainted with bodily breakdown. The negation of binary thought opens up the realm of continual negotiation, within which it might be possible to work towards a truly inclusive society.

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At the Sankalp Unconvention Summit 2013 in Mumbai, Kahn shook up the audience with the strong view that grants should not mix themselves up in the social enterprise world. The two – grant funding for social enterprise (given to venture funds to pass on) and venture funding for social enterprise shouldn’t mix, he said firmly.

Kahn, partner at the Godrej Agrovet-backed, agriculture technology-focused Omnivore Capital Management Advisors, is against the hype around the word ‘impact investing’, attempts to monetise all social enterprises, and the tendency to mistake a small business for a start-up.

Mark Kahn. Pic: Sankalp Forum

We caught up with the Harvard Business School Baker scholar on the sidelines of the Sankalp Unconvention summit, to discuss impact investing and more:

The Alternative: You expressed a dislike for the term ‘impact investing’. What about it annoys you?

Mark Kahn: What worries me about the term ‘impact investing’ is that the hype around it greatly exceeds the fundamental impact it is having. That it is a multiple of the actual impact. The hype around a Facebook or a mobile telephony was proportionately lower because they are getting 500 million users, a billion users. The actual impact such investing is having is pretty modest. There’s just more smoke than fire.

Is there really a difference between impact investing and commercial investing? Any fund that helps another business succeed makes an impact anyway. So why differentiate?

Philosophically, that’s my question too. All venture capitals coming into a business and helping them become real have some impact. The question is – how much? I think the biggest impact you can have is to build the biggest possible business that one can. If you asked me in the 1980s, would I have invested in a bunch of south Indian guys borrowing money from their wives to start a company in the information technology sector or in building smokeless stoves, I think the answer would be putting money behind a Nandan Nilekani and have an entire generation of youth getting jobs. You would have helped families from the lower middle class become upper middle class.

The best way we can have an impact in India is by creating big companies that employ people, that create jobs and wealth. For this, we have to look for products, services and business models that are truly world-class. At Omnivore, we have narrowed our focus to the agricultural sector because the fundamentals of that sector are independently strong.

The transformation of the Indian diet, the growing income, the social mobility, the need for convenience backs the demand side. On the supply side, there is a difficult productivity situation, high labour cost, and diminishing land bank.

The fundamentals are so strong that big businesses can be built to address this demand-supply mismatch. We are trying to invest in the biggest companies possible.

TA: Omnivore Capital made news recently for investing in Guwahati-based pork integrator Arohan Foods, the first investment made in a North East based company. Was it geography?

I didn’t invest in Arohan Foods because I wanted to be the first venture capital fund to invest in northeast India. I invested in Arohan Foods because I have these three Assamese guys who are educated up to the maximum extent possible in the Indian education system – best schools, IIM (Indian Institute of Management). They have great work experience, one had experience with Kotak Mahindra Bank, one has worked with Tata Chemicals. They have all been professionalised. We have the credibility of a terrific team.

You are looking at a huge problem, right? We are sitting here in ‘khichdi’ land and saying, “what is this pork thing?”

 TA: True. Farming in India is mostly about agriculture, not animal farming…

MK: Yes, in India, dairy is acceptable as farming, poultry is somewhat fishy and pork is off the radar. But pork is as relevant to the people in the northeast as rajma chawal is to a Punjabi or idli sambhar is to a south Indian. Pork is core to the diet of people in the northeast. You wouldn’t believe this but there are many farmers in southern Punjab and Haryana who are growing pigs and selling them to these farmers in the northeast. Commercial farmers who have seen an opportunity are going at it in a big, big way. Because they recognise that there is a huge demand.

The northeast is getting wealthier – you have the inflow from the diaspora in the form of remittances, northeastern kids working in software companies and BPOs (business process outsourcing units), some are living abroad and they send money home. There are many who are making money and returning home. We truly believe that the northeast is going to be the fastest growing region in this country.

We truly believe that the northeast is going to be the fastest growing region in this country. Pic: Arohan Foods

TA: You seem to dislike being called an ‘impact investor’ because you are very clear you are a for-profit business. Is that true?

MK: We are a private, business-minded technology venture fund that focuses on agriculture. I don’t hate the term ‘impact investor’. I just don’t like the hype. And I don’t like this model of hybrid returns. This, “I am going to give 8% returns to my investors”. Because it’s very hard to get returns in the first place. If you talk about a scaled down version of returns, you are not going to get anywhere close to that. And you will sour investors on any sort of risky capital venture. I think you should just shoot for the moon and then when you hit a mountain, you are in a good shape. When you are not even aiming for the mountain and it crashes to earth, it is not a good thing.

TA: There’s been a lot of talk here about ‘patience’ on the investor side. But don’t enterprises perform better under pressure?

MK: I think you need to have an expectation of financial returns. Where patience comes into play is the recognition that we are not going to get our exit in three years. Five years is more what you can expect. Six years is better.

We see private equity funds looking for exits in three years but getting out in five.

Our wait period is eight years. But that doesn’t mean there is any less pressure on the entrepreneur. It’s just that there is more runway.

TA: You said grants make enterprises lazy. So which segments do you think grants should be restricted to?

MK: What I think is giving grants to venture funds is bad. It’s like whisky in your coffee. A little bit is okay, a little more is less okay, three shots is not okay, and at some point, you are drinking whisky and not coffee. You are adding coffee to whisky.

I think it’s a very dangerous thing for venture funds because essentially venture funds should be run with a sharp eye on returns. I am fine with the idea that some enterprises should be grant funded. But that shouldn’t flow through a venture fund.

A mobile service relating to sexual harassment should not get a dime of venture money. Because I don’t think it should be monetised. I think that should be freeware and that should be given to every possible woman. There are certain businesses that should be free.

I know people are all excited about hybrid returns. “It’s a non-profit but it also makes money.” No. It is not a great thing. I think when we start blurring these lines, we incur regulatory wrath and invite other problems.

In India, farmers are not going to sell their land, because land has nothing to do with agriculture any more. It has to do with the optionality around urbanisation pushing up prices.

TA: Farm labour is increasing moving away from farm today. In that scenario, how do you foresee the growth of the agricultural industry?

MK: There will be a massive shift of labour away from farming to other sectors. When a farmer has a son who gets a job in a bank, the family starts diversifying into other sources of income. I think that’s a good thing. The fact that 55% of our population is wedged to a farm is a massive waste of the potential of a population. We need to create jobs for these people. We need to make sure this is not turning into a massive bank of unemployed human capital. This shift won’t change the growth of the agricultural economy.

What will, is the extent to which capital substitution takes place. We have seen how investments are related to mechanisation and automation. The farmer is recognising that he’s not a farmer full-time. I always joke about the Punjabi farmer – one son is in Noida, one son is in Gurgaon, one son is in the ‘Punjabi suburb’ known as Vancouver. For that farmer, mechanisation is the only way he can hold on to his land. In India, farmers are not going to sell their land, because land has nothing to do with agriculture any more. It has to do with the optionality around urbanisation pushing up prices. So farmers who sold their land previously feel like suckers today.

TA: Coming back to Arohan Foods, in what areas will you help them?

MK: I am a former agri business executive. One of our main sponsors is Godrej Agrovet, which is India’s largest seed company and largest poultry company. We will help Arohan Foods with everything, right from talent acquisition to distribution network, helping them get business-to-business customers like supermarkets and quick-service restaurants, which dealers they should work with in different states, especially outside northeast. I will be personally very involved in their research and development programmes. The skill I am looking for is subject matter expertise. We are the same as technology venture capital funds in Silicon Valley. It matters more that you spent a couple of years knowing how to code. We seek the agricultural equivalent of how to code. If the skill is there, we can add a lot of value to the business.

TA: What kind of innovation have you seen in the agritech space in India? In recent times, innovation has been mostly improvisation of existing technologies rather than new discoveries…

MK: I think there’s a bit of both. You see a lot of adaptation. And that’s okay. If you can adapt a technology from the West to India, good for you. That was Jain Irrigation Systems. They built a huge company doing that, adapting Israeli technology and selling to Indian farmers. So I would invest in them over and over and over again, especially from a venture perspective. There is a lot of stuff that is being done here, for the first time in this kind of market. When I look at Skymet Weather Services, which is our first performing company, they are one of the best weather forecasters in this country. It’s hardcore analytics, instrumentation, dynamic modelling, statistical modelling, it is truly innovative.

Frontal Rain Technologies is creating the most affordable supply chain software that can work with all these small and medium agri businesses and baniyas.

In some cases, it is pure raw innovation, and in some cases, it is adaptation. Both are viable and India will have a mix of both. I agree that there is not as much raw innovation as there should be. But I think that’s a function of the university system being undercapitalised and the development system being undercapitalised. But hopefully we will start seeing changes there. I think the government has got more serious about that in the past five years.

TA: Were there any enterprises at Sankalp summit that interested you?

MK: Barrix Agro Sciences, which won the contest in the agriculture category, is a very good venture. They are trying some new formulations. Their technology is not widely penetrated in India. Having a player that is truly focussed on it is a good thing.

TA: How many enterprises are you currently in talks with?

MK: We just did our fourth deal. We will be closing two transactions in the first quarter (April-June). We have a couple other signed term sheets. We’re busy.

TA: So, do you really think social enterprises are transforming lives?

MK: Some are. See, there’s a difference between a start-up and a small business. It is a very big distinction that is often lost in these discussions. There are some lovely small businesses. For example, a shop making gorgeous ties for men. They have one store…maybe even three. But they are a small business.

Then there is the start-up. A start-up is a small business that evolves its business plan in such a way that it can scale to reach millions. Like Tzinga, the energy drink. It’s venture-funded. It started from nothing but now it has millions of customers. That’s a start-up. The problem in some cases of these social impact businesses is that they are not start-ups. They are small businesses.

Small business is a wonderful thing. The world thrives on small businesses. But you shouldn’t put venture funding into a small business that can’t scale. It’s like putting rocket fuel in a Maruti 800 car.

TA: Is the impact more tangible in the agriculture sector than say, in healthcare or livelihood sectors?

MK: Healthcare and agriculture both have huge opportunities, because they are products and services, they are regulated but not too regulated like education is too regulated. Livelihood is not my domain.

The good thing about agriculture is that you can solve crazy difficult problems and create large businesses doing them and it is well-suited for this kind of investing. I think health is the same thing.

The Alternative were online media partners at the Sankalp Unconvention 2013.

Linger Getaways guesthouse in Coorg

Do Just Nothing!

That’s what the folks at Linger Getaways promise and happily deliver to the city breds looking for a quiet escape into the hills of Coorg and Chikmaglur or the beaches of Gokarna in Karnataka.

Linger was born with this passion in mind. It intends to make vacations more about losing yourself than about getting your money’s worth in a hectic itinerary. To be surprised by the nature’s bounty yet to be explored, to slow down, enjoy the journey and just do nothing. But why do just nothing? Perhaps, because Sameer Shisodia, who founded Linger, has been very conscious of travellers (formerly who comprised mostly of their friends), in any way, redesigning the natural structures and culture of the places he set up at.

Beyond serenity and a scenic view, Linger consciously believes in reducing traveller footprint that has reduced many a exotic and unseen places to tourist bubbles. While people are allowed to be at Linger, they can explore the local culture and trails of the region in it’s natural state and warmly blend into it.

Here Sameer tells us about their experience in giving more to travellers by doing less.

What is your background and what motivated you for starting this venture? What is your story of setting up the resort?

For starters, it breaks our hearts when someone calls these resorts. We honestly haven’t figured out a good tag yet, so are sticking to “Guesthouses”

After I quit the last start-up I had co-founded, my wife and I had started building a cottage on the small estate we’d bought in Coorg, and a few friends who went over liked the experience of staying at a gentle paced, locally designed guesthouse which afforded them to see the place without any tourism filters on. The idea behind Linger was born and through a series of good fortune and a network of friends, we’ve added three more locations since. Vijay came on board as we got serious about the second property at Balur Estate that came our way purely through good fortune and goodwill.

What are the 5 aspects of responsible travel you have worked on and what it took to implement them in the guesthouse?

The primary one would be to be true to the place – local knowhow in creating it, local food, customs and people. We hire our staff locally. Secondly, we believe vacations should not create stress. We encourage folks to see the place ‘the slow way’, plan less and “do nothing”. We do not let guests pay us at the property – it’s like home while there – and do not keep a tab of what they’ve ordered from the kitchen. Thirdly, travel should be about discovering, learning not consuming. We make places comfortable without changing their character.

Mud houses made from local materials

We also like to stay low density. We must not stress the land, water, resources around the place we are in. And hence, no plastic bottles are allowed at Linger. We also want the people working with us to benefit, be proud of their place, its food, its history and communicate the same with our travellers.

What has been the impact of your venture – on the local people, environment, the place itself, sensitizing travellers and anything else they’d like to stress on?

The response to the “do nothing” notion has been phenomenal. People have also readily pushed their mental notions of what a weekend vacation is and walked/read more, or overcome the fear of the dark, or insects, tasted new food and not been worried about “seeing everything”. Many have appreciated our unique way of bottling water, learned the local language a bit, even interacted with our neighbours and understood plantation activities a bit more. We do see a lot more travellers than just plain tourists now, and that’s heartening!

Most of the staff is starting to appreciate their own place a lot more and is sensitive to a greater degree about not just using plastic but also a host of other issues.

A traveller lingering at Linger’s Gokarna getaway

Can you share some interesting experiences/anecdotes from travellers who’ve visited?

A regular at our properties had visited a very nice place in North Kerala recently. They were up early and asked a friendly staff member for a cup of tea, and were told the kitchen would open only at 7:30am. They called me up post breakfast just to let us know how much they’d gotten used to Linger – they’d have been asked for tea as they got up!

Another friend (most of our guests become friends!) had gone over with their extended family, and a senior gentleman made it a point to tell us how the place reminded him of his childhood days, and that he was very comfortable having dinner in his veshthi. That was a major learning for us and we build the place around such attributes – to soothe and befriend and not to wow and intimidate in any respect – be it our guests, or our staff.

stay@linger.in

Call: +91-95900-50001

Do you run a local homestay, guesthouse or resort to sustain responsible tourism or have been to one recently? Write to us about it at editor@thealternative.in 

White Print is one such venture that aims at mainstreaming the visually challenged by bringing mainstream topics of lifestyle, entertainment and politics to their finger tips. White Print also seeks contributions from the community to share their voices, opinions and stories and is looking to build a powerful business model based on the unexploited terrain of Braille advertising in India.

We caught up with the 24 year old Mumbai entrepreneur, Upasana Makati on email.

What inspired you to start this venture that’d lead to more social inclusion for the differently abled in the society?

Well, entrepreneurship has always been an element of my personality. After I graduated and pursued a course in Canada, I came back and took up a job in a PR company. However, it never seemed right and with every passing day I wanted to do begin my own venture. In this cluttered world, I wanted to do something unique that was untouched. One day, I wondered to myself about the numerous reading options available to a sighted person. However when I actually thought about the same with reference to the visually impaired community, I could think of none. I began to research from that very day and after three months into the research, I decided to quit my job and completely commit myself to the venture.

Can you tell us a little about the existing demand for a lifestyle magazine in braille in the context of the literacy rate among the visually challenged in India today?

There are 12 million visually impaired people in India, of which 56 lakh are literate. A lifestyle magazine in our opinion would be well received by people since it offers great variety. Topics ranging from travel, beauty, short stories, humor to politics is something that anyone right from a college student to a working adult would enjoy.

Since White Print is the first of its kind in the country, we believe it would be enjoyed by most.

It is wonderful to read that a section of the magazine would be also open for readers’ contributions. Although braille literature and reading material have been existing for a while in India, but the visually challenged have for long been treated as passive consumers. How do you hope to change this?

With White Print, readers have showing their excitement and enthusiasm towards contributing for this section. Passion flows through their voice I reckon this would be a platform and a medium through which the community will be able to share their talent with their peers.

If given an opportunity with easy accessibility, I do not think the community will shy away from contributing to the magazine.

Just 24 years old, Upasana Makati – the Founder & Publisher of White Print – is looking to make a breakthrough with mainstream publishing and advertising for Braille readers.

How easy/difficult was it to find investors or funders for this magazine in the light of the prospects of its profitability model?

The magazine is not a charity venture. In order to derive funds for running the same, we have approached a number of companies to advertise with us. Braille advertising is something that is not been done before in India and I believe it is a step ahead in the field of advertising too.

Ads in the Braille are primarily text heavy and hence it is a challenge to bring advertisers on board who are used to being dependent on attractive visuals and graphics.

For the inaugural issue of White Print we have Raymond on board who has sponsored content in the Fashion & Lifestyle section of the magazine. The company talks about the Spring Summer Collection’ 2013.

Is this venture also looking at social inclusion by employing an editorial staff team of visually challenged writers or is it regular text being transformed into Braille?

Being a start up company we aren’t in a position to hire anyone as of now. However, we would love to in the near future. Currently, regular text is being converted into Braille through a software at the National Association for the Blind, India.

Having said that, there is a section dedicated to reader’s contribution and we are welcoming content about anything that interests them. It could be a poem, article, opinion piece etc.

Will there be an online version that will be readable for all?

Not in the phase – I of the venture. White Print is born out of the need for having a physical magazine and hence we would like to promote that

The Indian Army ranks among the world’s largest armies with its active personnel hovering around the 1.3 million mark. The Indian Air Force is the fourth largest air force in the world ranking only behind USA, Russia and China. India in 2012 spent an estimated $46 billion on its armed forces which constituted about 2.5% of its GDP.

The perception of the Indian military among its public, excluding some of the strife torn places, is generally positive. In popular culture, the military is shown to come out always with flying colours against its aggressor (which usually tends to be one western neighbouring nation!). Even the much publicized Adarsh scam in 2011 which involved corruption by several defense personnel or the more recent Agusta Westland scandal which involved kickbacks to a retired Air Chief Marshal have failed to dent the upbeat image of the armed forces. Whether it is the insulated nature of our armed forces or the palpably high corruption index of our politicians, Indians generally believe that the armed forces are more upright and disciplined.

Every year on Republic Day we honour the brave men and women who fought valiantly for the nation with gallantry awards. Their stories of heroism often bring tears to our eyes as we see the family accepting the award posthumously. But after those few moments of empathy, we turn away, literally. The memory of brave men and women who guard our borders and protect us day in and day out is but fleeting. We tend to remember them only when they lay down their life in the service of the nation and our remembrance as a society is at the most perfunctory.

Our government does provide a host of benefits and emoluments to our ex-servicemen though I believe there is quite a lot that still could be done. The Ministry of Defence has a Directorate for General Resettlement under the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare. The information on the website, to my surprise, is quite welcoming.

Of the $46 billion spent on armed forces in 2012, about $3-$3.5 billion is spent on ex-servicemen. Much of this money is spent in disbursing pensions and disability payments. The MoD’s Annual Report states that for 2011-12, 4000 scholarships to the tune of Rs. 18,000 per year were made available to the wards of ex-servicemen, who were pursuing professional degrees. Close to 60,000 armed forces personnel with quite a large number of them in the age range of 35-45 retire every year and the ministry has schemes to upgrade their skills so as to make them employable again while also encouraging them to become entrepreneurs. The government also has employment reservations in several central government and state government jobs. And most importantly, fully financed health care is provided to all ex-servicemen and their dependents. Such a healthcare system is established through a network of Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) polyclinics and government hospitals spread across the country. Table 1 below gives a quick snapshot of the key benefits given by the government to our ex-ex-servicemen.

Table 1 Benefits for ex-servicemen

I do fervently hope that these schemes and policies are having their desired effect and helping our ex-servicemen transition into civilian lives. Our brave soldiers and their families deserve our commitment and support both during their active service and more importantly after their retirement.

I believe that in order to bring sustained focus and higher accountability, the Department of Ex-Servicemen, currently run by a bureaucrat, should be under the aegis of the existing Minister of State for defense or a separate Minister of State portfolio created under the Ministry of Defense.

Our servicemen serve in strife torn areas, both domestically and as part of peace keeping missions internationally. Hence, more focus is required in providing post traumatic care for our active and ex-servicemen. Pic: Julien Harneis (Wikimedia Commons)

As part of the GI Bill, a landmark law promulgated welfare for WWII veterans, where funding was increased to veterans that led to a dramatic increase in the number of veterans enrolling in colleges and universities. The force multiplier effect of having more educated people in the society only aided to speed up long term economic growth. One can only imagine the potential if the youth of today, by virtue of their service to the country, were rewarded with a similar educational benefit and the force multiplier effect that would have on our economy. Our servicemen serve in strife torn areas, both domestically and as part of peace keeping missions internationally. Hence, more focus is required in providing post traumatic care for our active and ex-servicemen.

Hospitals solely dedicated to the care and recovery of our ex-servicemen will not only help centralize our medical resources but also greatly help in furthering research and development in mitigating physical disabilities suffered in the course of war and also in understanding mental issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  It is also important that the services of these trained, disciplined and committed individuals are channelled as some part of an active voluntary service in their respective communities.

The Armed Forces should be an attractive career option with adequate systemic support to those individuals who wish to serve short tenures. And this systemic support should just not be to the engineers and officers but also extended to the numerous technicians, draughtsman, and operators etc. who serve in our armed forces.

Maybe our ad makers for the armed forces can show, apart from the adrenalin filled images, the softer side of our armed forces and how it continues to care for them even after they have retired from its service. The effort and the message should be poised towards long-term sustainability; perhaps something along the lines of, “The spirit has been kept alive”.

The Slice of Summer Series

Wondering if healthy and yummy go together and how? Nutritionists, food bloggers and moms talk about how to ‘Get kids to tuck in healthy this summer.’ Travel no more in the heat to procure those inviting tomatoes. Urban farmers talk about ‘Growing Goodness‘ in your own balcony. Plan your healthy summer: Vibrant salads, refreshing drinks, fruity desserts and light meals are stocked in our Green Foodierecipe section. Discover the season’s beat: organic food bloggers and foodies scourge the city to give us the season’s best healthy picks – from jams and pickles to healthy signature dishes at restaurants, festivals, specials in shops, patisseries etc

The Green Foodie Summer Recipe Contest

Use seasonal fruits, vegetables and grains to make something wholesome, healthy and yummy this summer. Send us your recipes with 3-4 photos to editor@thealternative.in with A Slice of Summer in the title. Recipes must be sent as docs and pictures shared with us as jpegs only. We strongly encourage recipes that local, traditional, use fresh ingredients and are prepared in healthy ways. Organic recipes and vegan recipes are welcomed, but are not a binding factor.

Tell us your summer good food story

Had a thoroughly satisfying experience of traditional/healthy/wholesome/organic summer food that you’d like to share? Send us a piece to editor@thealternative.in. Get featured in our Slice of Summer section. Here’s to happy eating and healthy living all sunny summer and beyond. – The Alternative

Bangaloreans experience a late afternoon shower from inside a bus at Shivajinagar Bus Stand…

This post is a part of ‘A 100 new ways to see Bangalore‘ series . 

Participate in the contest by sending us pictures with a short description of how your experience of the city – arts, food, ecology, social inclusion, heritage, management/administration, hospitality and conservation – is the most unheard of and legen – we’re waiting for it – dary! 

Entries before 15th May stand to win an exciting Bangalore experience from our sponsors – PoshVine! 

My 100 New Ways to see Bangalore in the last 3 years largely included following the Ugly Indian on Facebook, their interesting take on solving the garbage in public space problem in the city and creating a model for everyone to adopt as explained on their website - http://www.theuglyindian.com/

Moreover I had the pleasure of witnessing these two specific events of the Ugly Indian around my place of work and residence and it is amazing to see Bangalore being provided an alternative to solve one of the fundamental civic problems while helping the citizens have fun at the same time. Whoever thought garbage and broken street walls could be that much fun.

Picking from 2 events of the over 100 that I have witnessed online:

Spotfixing at Oracle

The Booboos at Koramangala

This post is a part of ‘A 100 new ways to see Bangalore‘ series . 

Participate in the contest by sending us pictures with a short description of how your experience of the city – arts, food, ecology, social inclusion, heritage, management/administration, hospitality and conservation – is the most unheard of and legen – we’re waiting for it – dary! 

Entries before 15th May stand to win an exciting Bangalore experience from our sponsors – PoshVine!