Envirofit-the sooner, the better

I always suffer from my trips to the 'big city', in this case, Kochi, a good two-three hour jaunt depending on the roads-which are dependent on the weather, and traffic. It usually includes the sight of at least one overturned car, truck, or auto-rickshaw. Yesterday it was a jack-knived truck flipped on its side, now acting as cornucopia, spreading rivers of the gravel it had been transporting over most of the highway.

Besides the aches from the jostling of what feels more like trails than super-highways, what I suffer from most is a splitting sinus headache. I can only wonder at the tolerance of the urbanites who live in the kind of pollution that Indian cities are renowned for, and particularly the lowly auto-rickshaw driver-who probably contributes to the problem more than the rest put together.

Of course, I don't have to travel that far to become asphyxiated. The local town (a mere 10-minute drive) is just as bad on a mini-scale. And this is not from industry, but purely diesel buses and cars, and the ever-ubiquitous rickshaws.

I am encouraged to see that help is on the way from Envirofit International. They have developed a "Direct In-cylinder (DI) fuel injection retrofit kit for two-stroke engines that is cleaner and more fuel efficient than the replacement four-stroke engines." This kit"reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 76%, carbon dioxide emissions by 35%, and hydrocarbon emissions by 89%. At the same time, fuel use is reduced by 35% and oil by 50%."

Right now, it looks like they have only been adopted in the Philippines, I wonder how long it will take for India to catch up. I pray that it will be today.

Bonanza Elephant Sightings

I still become absurdly, inordinately, thrilled and delighted whenever my path crosses that of an elephant. Even when I know I should expect to see them as they amble back to their basecamp at the local temple, I feel happy. Yesterday, however, I saw a few unexpected ones on the two hour trip to Kochi, and that added to the excitement.

The best sighting of all was during a monsoon-like downpour. One joyous elephant was aswaying, aweaving and abobbing, grinning his delight at this unexpected bath. The view was akin to watching young children throw themselves into the hilarious joy of puddle-jumping.

My initial thrill is always followed by a wave or sadness and remorse. To see the very noble and highly socialized elephant all alone, sublimated as man's beast of burden seems unfair and wrong.

And the elephants are rebelling, although I am not sure that it will ultimately work to their advantage.

While the rest of India burns from soaring temperatures, our little corner of Kerala has stayed relatively cool and soggy from all of the unusual rainfall.
This has resulted in more worms/millipedes/earwhigs being driven from the soil and hanging out on my front porch, and really vicious mosquitos, fortunately still free from the chikungunya virus. But more alarming is the spate of elephants running amok, killing their mahouts and anyone in their path.

This is being attributed to the early monsoon-like weather, which has caused them to musth earlier. When males (16-60 years old) enter this three-month cycle, they are highly unpredictable and can suddenly become violent. The catch-22 that makes them even more dangerous is there is no way of knowing that they are in musth until they go on a rampage. I fear that these magnificent beings will be unreasonably punished. I can only hope that the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals follows them closely.
Read more at The Hindu

Gecko scout

Perhaps I should have been a zoologist- observing avian and animal life here, all the way down to tiny ants and creepy crawlies, keeps me endlessly intrigued and amused. This morning I was following a gecko track his breakfast in the form of a nice juicy ant until gecko felt me watching and shrieked and ran for cover behind my mirror. I thought he was used to me since he creeps out and watches me apply makeup every morning. Geckos are endlessly curious.

Even funnier is when you catch them in the middle of something. They immediately freeze-as if that gives them some sort of invisible veneer . An incredibly guilty look comes over their face. (Aw mom, I didn't do it, he did!) You can see the wheels turning as they try to ascertain if it be friend or foe, and if foe, where it stands on their scale of danger. Eventually they skulk or scurry away depending on the outcome of that thinking process.
Lolgecko!

I LUVZ myz tomatoz-

I can't believe I am writing like this-curse you lolcats!

"Blog in your native Indic script
Convert English characters to Indic script as you type! Learn more about transliteration
on Blogger."

This is the message that Google placed next to my previous 'worm graffiti' post, no no, not invasive at all, are you Google?

Worm Graffiti-I stand corrected- Millipede Graffiti

Another reason not to eat prawns, they belong to the same sub-kingdom as millipedes and worms.

These actually look like letters in Malayalam, are American worms hanging around in Times New Roman?