A cursory glance across the hallowed hall of our democracy’s factory makes you think – Firstly, it is smaller than I remember seeing on TV and then, Wow, most MPs are not dressed in the characteristic white, many are sporting bright orange, brilliant blue and sparkling green.

Okay, now let us get serious.

There are only 1200 billionaires in the world and they collectively make enough money to end world poverty four times over.

Why has pledging money to save the planet become difficult? Who is taking how much of a hit with emissions reduction? Why are developing countries crying fowl…

So Day 5 ended in a stalemate, while Day 6 saw a draft text emerge from an existing draft text from the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (LCA) line of talks. Day 7 , being the first day of the High-level segment where ministers put their heads together, was looked upon with great hope.

In the opening session of the 18th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC, Australia called for a strong Kyoto Protocol II, while Columbia urged the execution of a rules-based system that ensures that everyone is involved and ambitious. But what I heard, loud and clear, was the call for developed countries to step up their game. Representatives of parties from Nauru to Venezeula pressed for developed countries to take on higher mitigation targets and greater responsibilities towards mobilising climate finance.

What must it take to go live on an international TV news channel and claim to be someone you are not? Or distribute fake copies of a leading daily claiming the end of the Iraq war? Or walk into an oilfield auction and bid on oilfields worth millions without a penny in your pocket?

Don't worry, the people who did these things were only trying to save the planet. In their own morally ambiguous sort of way.

So this weekend, even the most committed of Delhi’s die-hard shoppers were seen venturing out with some trepidation. Why? Well, the rains seemed to be catching them unawares, with streets turning into rivers in a matter of minutes. And yet, it was just some weeks ago that we were declaring a drought in the NCR. Astrologists and meteorologists alike are called upon to quell the puzzlement. The answer may not lie that far away. In fact, it might lie in the Middle East.

Forrest Gump was well aware of the might of his super famous slang phrase. Shit Happens, after all, is the existential truth of all our lives. But we, in Urban India, are living it to an extreme (and literal) extent. I realised this colossal truth while reading the riveting Excreta Matters by Sunita Narain. The book is about how ‘urban India is soaking up water, polluting rivers and drowning in its own waste’.

It is called the ‘Future We Want’, but forget about wanting, no one has admitted to even liking anything it has to offer! I am talking about the outcome document that was signed by government honchos from countries—both rich and poor, developed and developing--at the end of the Rio+20 summit last month.
    

I am very, very confused. Alright, stop sniggering you already knew that, and help me sort out my thoughts.

I always thought that I will practice before I preach. This has served me well in my first job as a teacher of undergraduate engineering students. I left teaching to practice 'environmental engineering' before I went back to teaching and research.

   It all started with (a) Blink. I finally decided to finish reading Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant, brilliant book that compels us to take rapid cognition seriously. You see, I have this horrid habit of starting a book and more often than not, abandoning it just when I am about to finish reading it. I’d told myself I’ll not pick up The Tipping Point, another magnificent world decoder by Gladwell till I am done reading Blink. But I did give in to my temptation and yes, I am now reading both.

A modern day historian I love to read calls India a ‘salad bowl’ nation. The same wise guy points out that our currency note has its denomination written in seventeen different scripts. Yes, seventeen! Each representing a separate culture with its distinct heritage and history. And the rupee only touches the outer layer. Scores of diverse languages, customs and most significantly, mindsets, spill over if you only scratch the surface of this land of ours. And, We, the Indians, have always been conscious of our separateness. So, isn’t this ‘idea of India’ as a unified whole, kind of bizarre?

How many times have you pondered on the way you deal with problems? It is interesting to see how human civilization tackles problems. Some times the problems are contained and inactively suspended. Sometimes we like to meet the problems head on and finish them. The second approach is used when we have a solution to the problem. Sometimes we circumvent the problem. This approach is used when the problem appears to be huge and we can find a way to avoid it. There is one another possibility and that is we immerse ourselves in the problem and transform the situation.

Phew! This has been a month full of excitement and exhilaration with a few moments of tension thrown in for all of us. The fifth Green Schools Programme Award ceremony, launch of our new activity book as well as our brand new website—what else do you expect?!  By the way, do make sure you grab a copy of the book and check out our site. No one minds a pat on the back, right?

Like forests, tigers, minerals and groundwater, schools too, will now be meticulously ‘mapped’ by government agencies.