 I am an engineering student. I read the
article "Unequal and Unhealthy" which appeared in the Gobar Times issue dated
May 31. The astounding facts and stark revelations are heart rendering. I like the factual
way in which the article was composed unlike other articles that play on emotional
factors. However, I would like to see some "possible solutions" offered and
"who is to be blamed" sort of thing.Jayadevan
Via email
I went
through your website and I think it’s great! I have just created an educational
weather website for kids (www.weatherwizkids.com) and would love for you to add it to your
site, if you like it.
Crystal Wicker
USA
I am an I.I.T student working
with an organisation called Prayas. We organise workshop for school children. We have a
one-room school here and around 30 children till class 8th come in the evening. We play
for an hour and studies go on for another one hour. These children belong to a lower (so
called) society and few of them are still deprived of proper school education. I saw your
website and it has lots information on environment issues. I don’t know how I can
incorporate such a sensitive issue to the young children can you suggest some ideas?
Himanshu
I.I.T Kanpur
GT replies: We have
children’s books, which you could read out to your class. In fact, why don’t you
check the environmental education programmes on the Centre for Science and
Environment’s website (www.cseindia.org). Apart from other things, you can learn to
do practical experiments which children find very interesting. CSE runs a number of
programmes for creating awareness, raising abilities and helping everyone make a move from
awareness to action. Why don’t you read about all this on the site? You can join the
Gobar Times Environment Network which will give you free, informative posters and also the
Gobar Times Educator’s Network (G:NET). CSE also conducts eco tours, workshops,
lectures and presentations.
Probably the only eco-friendly way
of using a plastic bottle is to fill it with water or pebbles and put it in the cistern of
your flush, to reduce the discharge of water every time it is flushed.
Laxmi Narain Modi
New Delhi 110 030
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 I am puzzled at the two large sized ads for "Four Square
Cigarettes, Live Life Kingsize" in the last issue of your magazine. They are, in my
view, totally out of place in a magazine aimed at 12-year-olds, and claiming to be
environment and health oriented. If they are meant to discourage smoking, I missed the
message.
Dorothee
Via email
Greetings and well wishes on the fifth year of Gobar Times. Even though it is meant
for children aged ten and above, my seven-year-old son grabs my Down To Earth as soon as
it comes to take away his Gobar Times. He reads it carefully and clears his doubts from
me. He reads it with the same interest and enthusiasm as he does his schoolbooks.
I was worried to see an ad of a popular cigarette brand on the cover page (and again as
a hoarding on page 67!) of the issue dated May 31, 2003. Was it the photograph of a city
hoarding cleverly disguised as an advertisement or just the reverse?
MA Devadas
No. 4, Ground Floor
Gangai Amman Koil Street
Royapettah, Chennai-600 014
GT replies: Sorry that both of you missed the
symbolism behind the photo (maybe because of the way the hoarding and slum looked like two
separate pictures), which we thought was self-explanatory. The hoarding, which urges the
reader to ‘Live Life Kingsize’, is ironically at the entrance of a slum, where
the inmates are denied even the basic amenities of life. The two are also stark contrasts
between the comfortable lives we lead in our city homes and the slum dwellers, who fight
every day for everything from water to health care (which we take for granted). The rich
exploit a major chunk of all the planet’s resources and the poor end up paying more.
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