Deepavali has always begun with vadas fingerprinted with my amma’s hands. The crests of the prints burn more so they are nicely contrasted. They also fill your stomach for the day, I have had a bad relationship with food for a long time, but these past few weeks they have shot up. I like to eat, eat without limit until I feel full and sleepy, which is when I feel good.
Pigeons sleep/hide/stay on the ledges as the city breathes in the smoke of deepavali.
Somewhere on the wetlands at the Poondi Neer Thekkam (reservoir). I’m riding in the front of a 4 wheeled mini truck, with 2 other passengers and a kind driver. My face is grimy from over 300 kms of driving on the bike, and 30 seconds of an accident somewhere 40 minutes before this picture was taken. All the cool wind of the just-rained highway could not make me feel calm as I begin to unravel, in my mind, the implications of the disabled second passenger on the truck, Karmegam.
The most calming evening of the week, was when this young visitor chose to sleep in my lap. Sometimes he moved my arms to coop inside and sleep, sometimes his hind legs would slip and fall for me to coop him back up. Caring like this is something I’ve not done in a long time.

The days appear to fly away. I settled into a routine that made me skip my weekly note last week. There was a lot happening, there were many kinds of work happening in the collectives and inbetween all this, I hear something in a passing conversation where we were deciding where to eat dinner: I hear, said as a joke about me, but something I’ve not stopped thinking about… anyways he [me, adhavan] doesn’t have the time for all that [relationships, love, socialising]

I do not enjoy the rituals of the online swipe-comment-date world. Nor do I like the fact that I have to tell all that to an application to play match maker. It is a weird feeling. I do not enjoy loud spaces, I cannot remain there without a conversing companion, so I wonder… what does one do in these times without hinging on apps? Pun intended, haha.

  • I was reading a collection of Ambedkar’s writings to prepare myself to work on the India State Legislature Archives, something that the Constitutional Observer is making. It is an attempt to bring together state legislatures into one place, and make engaging with the state legislatures, in their own languages easier. I’m working with Vivek on this. You can search and read across the combined archives here at the archive.org collection


    Would you like to contribute / use this archive? Reach me at [email protected]. I’ve been thinking of researchers, lawyers and journalists who would be interested in using this archive as research material for ongoing and new work.

    Map of currently archived state legislatures and other states which are being downloaded and added

  • I was at the farmer’s Institute at GKVK Bangalore, to enquire about a Millet Products Training workshop. I was amazed by how accessible it was. I have not been inside many public universities. So I have not had the happiness of having access to such huge spaces, contrast this with MAHE, where we were access checked at many different points, with security present everywhere.

Inside FTI, GKVK
A well inside
To enter MAHE, you need to show your ID, then you need to show your ID again, you see people forgetting their ID, then you need to wear your ID, then you need to show your ID to the panoptican super zoom camera they have installed on top of buildings, then you need to nod to the security guards in each building, who stand at the entrance,
To enter GKVK, you enter the gates, then you ride around, trying to find your way, then you see people walking in a certain direction, then you can ask people for directions, then you enter FTI and say hello at the office.

  • Living Labs Institute hosted a workshop during DLHS Mahe’s Maitri festival. We facilitated a 3 hour version of the Mapping to understand socio-ecological phenomena course. Using the Yelahanka Kere and its close relationhip with the campus, located merely 400ish meters from the lake boundary, with most of the inbetweens being remnants of past grasslands, present wetlands, orchards, owners [ Lucky Ali ] and debris.

    Just outside MAHE Blr, a drain becomes a wetland on the top, leading to the lake a few hundred meters away. Passing through multiple compounds, but the drain remains, the water flows;
    Construction debris is dumped right next to the drain
    A well inside, a beautiful, magical blue. I write about this magical blue previously
    S wonders what the age of this magnificent tree is.
    There a few random palms left from the previous occupations
    The transect we walked
    A probably early 2000s view of what the region was. Eicher map, shared by Vivek Mathew
    A probably early 2000s view of what the region was. Eicher map, shared by Vivek Mathew

  • Our trip to Chennai ended abruptly just before Thiruvallur. I did not know I was passing Poondi, but I kept seeing water on the left. There were fields, and there were herds of cows here and there. A cow emerged onto the two way road, and a car emergency braked. I was able to slow down significantly but had to hit the rear to stop fully. I had S with me, and a top box loaded with luggage. The roads were wet from rains, and I could not break within the distance. I learnt what it means to have an increased breaking distance with ABS on a slippery road, and what it means to break with more weight than normal on the bike.

    It was never a full water body that we say. We saw submerged land, fields inundated and wetlands, with grass and trees while on the road, while the rain water must have accelerated the case. See the grids gradually being inundated, I wonder how these fields are used over seasons, and what the farmer’s livelihoods are during monsoon, when their fields are flooded.
    The end of the white line is where the accident happened
    The full poondi reservoir, or the satyamoorthi sagar
    A few kilometers before
    Have you seen a gopura like this?
    A fully loaded Karmegam.
    A truck, fully loaded with Karmegam.

  • I was interested in the Poondi reservoir’s history and I searched for ‘Poondi’ in the State Legislature Archives

    In a debate in the Madras Legislative Assembly in Independant India, on the 5th of March 1948. K. Venkataswami Nayadu says: debate can be read here

    It is already two years since this Government have come into power and we would like to know how really the villages are affected and how the Harijan uplift is helping that communjty and so on. Sir, what I feel at the moment is, threeimportant things have to be done if really our countrysshould prosper. Wirst of all, we must have sufficient water-supply. There is a feeling that no improvement has been made in respect of rural water-supply and that the watersupply that people in the villages get is neither good nor sufficient for their needs, L know, Sir, there isa water-supply fund but we should see that. work 1s done rapidly so‘that, really the villages may be helped. In this connexion, I would, like to request the Government to take up the water-supply of the Tirumalai Hill station, near Tirupathi and see that good water-supply is given to that famous religious centre. It is a place where lakhs and lakhs of people are going and what they get is only unfiltered water and unless the Government come to our rescue we wiltnot be able to give them that water-supply that 1s-mecessary. People from various parts of the country go there and if sometimes an epidemic occurs there will be great loss of life. I have already requested the»Government to help us and the Government is taking sometime over it and I would request our Endowments Minister, the Hon. Premier, to give up all red-tapism and take up this work on hand and see tkat water-supply is given at least in the next year. Sir, during the war when there was so much difficulty, the Satyamurtisagar or Poondi Reservoir was started and so it should not now be difficult to take up this small water-supply scheme. Perhaps it may cost 20 or 30 lakhs. I am pointing this out as an instance to show that here is a case where there is money but only the Government should give the personnel. to sve that a good water-supply is given.