ALTER IDEM

Only sixteen, but it seems to me like I started this blog aeons ago!!! Yesterday, I read in the newspaper that Karnataka stood second in the country when it came to deforestation. From 2021-2023, we lost 460 sq km of green cover. We have no right to complain about animals and birds invading our space... My annual ' story share ' is from the Jataka tales - reiterating the fact that we humans have always been insensitive about the creatures who share the planet with us. As long as we get what we want, we do not care/ think about their needs.  The story 👇🏼 On a mango tree beside a river lived a monkey king with his subjects. During the mango season, the monkeys ensured that no fruit fell into the river - they did not want humans to know about the fruit. Humans, they feared, would destroy them and their habitat for the delicious fruit. One day, a mango fell into the river unnoticed by the monkeys. Downstream, it caught the attention of a king who was bathing in the river. He ...

September 15th 2010 was the first time that I had acknowledged Engineers' Day on Facebook - by sharing this piece of neglected history at the head of the Agumbe ghat....  These stones represent a part of civil engineering that is seldom appreciated or acknowledged (surveying) - and, that was my logic behind sharing. Now, Facebook reminds me about it every year!! The distance from this point to Shivamogga is about 90 kilometres (almost equal to the 55 miles, 1 furlong and 122 yards carved on the stone). Hence, I am assuming that the stones have been untouched for nearly two centuries (1839 carved on the stone)..... From 1802 to 1871, the British undertook multiple surveys of conquered territories in India - to gather topographical, botanical, crop, soil, and other such data - to tax us and supposedly to govern us better. These stones look like benchmarks on the roadway connecting the upper regions with the coast. 'RC & co' probably refers to the team that con...