BLOG.SURESHSRINIVAS.COM

Pro-Jamming

Karuna — Sat, 28 May 2011 20:21:28 GMT

PRO-JAMMING

FUN WITH COMPUTER PROGRAMMING (AUG 15th-19th)

Your kid's world is digital. They have iPods, use the computer for presentations/homework, browse/chat/interact with friends. That is a lot of fluency interacting with digital stuff. To take their digital fluency to the next level and work with designing, creating, and remixing I have designed a 1 week “Pro-Jamming” course. They are going to play in an experiential and creative way interacting with each other while programming.

I plan to use Processing, Scratch, GreenFoot, and Kodu to bring the fun into programming. I hope to get them excited about learning to program, sharing those experiences, and self-expression/creativity while playing.

Illustration 1: 21st century learning

They will be learning about Math, Geometry, Logic, Reasoning and more without even knowing. I hope to enhance both their left brain (analytical) and right brain ( artistic) and making them curious for more. In addition to the traditional R's, they will be learning 21^st century skills such as Information and Media Literacy, Thinking and Problem Solving.

About Suresh: Suresh Srinivas is a Principal Engineer at Intel and loves to hang out with kids and to bring the fun while teaching yoga, computer programming, or service. He is passionate about every kid learning programming.

OM

Karuna — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:44:00 GMT

This is a 1 min OM that I use in my yoga classes. The voice is K J Yesudas.

Yoga for All - Poem and Music

Karuna — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:41:00 GMT

Yoga for All

By Suresh & Anaga Srinivas

Someone stretching in the Sun

Is always a happy one

Ancient Traditions Galore

Practiced on the wooden floor

A dark memory

can be set free

The heart is fed

through giving that is sacred

Cloudless minds

The soul is released from its binds

Your ego becomes small

Yoga is the way for all

Anaga composed the music on the Piano for the poem "Yoga for All".

This clip has her singing and playing the piano for the poem

Happy New Year 2010 & Poems

Karuna — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:14:00 GMT

A very happy new year to everyone.

Here are a couple of poems that I worked on during the new year.

Knowing

By Suresh & Anaga Srinivas

Feel your breath

Reaching into your calming depth

Outside In and Inside Out

The breath flows like water from a spout

In the east, they call it the prana, the chi

Breathing it really calms me

Take a deep breath says the old adage

Activating your awareness blowing out your rage

A constant companion throughout your life

Attend to it and you will know no strife

Universal tools help manage your breath

Practice them until your death

Anger

By Suresh Srinivas

Holding a grudge

Will your heart budge?

Notice the anger as it rises

like a volcano blowing in surprise

Can you control it?

Yes if you can feel it

Observe the situation

In a solemn reflection

Discuss the feeling

and always listening

Request the need

Satisfying the greed

Let it slide off you

like water on a teflon coating

Blowing out the rage

Emerge from your cage

Computer Tools for Breathing, and Meditation

Karuna — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:19:00 GMT

There is scientific evidence that breathing affects the mind. Regular smooth breathing prevents stress. Breathing for your health and well-being requires you to breathe diapharamatically. This type of breathing is also called Belly Breathing. It is quite different from chest breathing. In the Yoga tradition, a variety of breathing techniques refered to as Pranayama are practiced or after the yoga asanas. Qi Gong in the Chinese traidtion has a variety of moving breath exercises.

I recently discovered several good tools that I run on my laptop and wanted to share those. These tools help me practice conscious breathing..

Mindfulness Bell. The first of these tools is a Mindfullness Bell. It is a free software that I downloaded off the Washington DC Mindfulness Community. This is like a buddist meditation bell and has options to ring on an hourly basis or very 15 minutes. There are wav files you can download to get bigger sounding bells. When the bell rings I try to close my eyes and focus on the sound of the bell until I can hear it no more. I was recently working from home and we had someone help us with some jobs at home. He was fascinated by it and kept refereing to how authentic the bell sounded. Check it out
Smooth Breath. This is a deep breathing assistant that installs on the computer. I downloaded it from CNET.com and they have verified that it is spyware free. It displays a soft slow moving animation at the bottom of the screen. I had to tweak the settings to get it moving at a pace that worked for me. It had plenty of shapes to choose from. Go ahead and try it. This software I was surprised to find was from a Portland Company called Coherence Resources Inc.

I am looking into a couple of more devices. One of them is called Resperate. It is a simple device that has 3 components, a breath sensor, a headphone, and an analyzer. It is basically teaching how to do deep breathing and getting the breath to under 10 breaths a minute. The other device that I am thinking about for my yoga class and also for sleeping at night. My daughter who is 8 years old often has trouble falling asleep. I have tried to teach her belly breathing and that sometimes helps. But this device seems to have the right technique. It is called Nightwave and it projects a soft blue light on the cieling of the darkened bedroom. The

CAM Practices

Karuna — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:41:00 GMT

CAM refers to diverse medical and health care practices that are not considered part of conventional medicine. For example these include accupunture, yoga, ayurveda. How these systems are used lead to different classification. Alternative Medicine is used in place of conventional medicine, Integrative medicine combines CAM treatments into conventional medicine, and Complementary Medicine uses CAM treatments alongside conventional medicine.

NCCAM (the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine) recently released a report on the 2007 statistics on CAM use. 38% of adults use some form of CAM. This is 4 in 10 people. That is close to 130 million US adults.

Looking at this statistics closely I found that if we take deep breathing, meditation, and yoga combined together account of 28%. And it shows a 4% rise from 2004. I havent determined if the combining is a correct thing to do you.

I recently sprained my neck. In addition to using Advil to reduce the inflammation. I added several complementary therapies and was able to improve my condition in a couple of days. In the past I have had these go on for over a week.

I used Rheumavedic oil and had it massaged it on my neck. Rheumavedic oil is an Anti-Rheumatic and Anti-inflammatory Musculo-Skeletal Pain Reliever based on an Ayurvedic combination.
I also used a Herbal Therapy Pack called Natural Balance. You stick it in the microwave for a few mins and used it on my neck. It has a number of herbs and has a very good smell to it.
I also learned about accu pressure points underneath my ear and between my shoulder blade and spine.
I incorporated some simple yoga neck exercises.
I added anti-inflammatory herbs like turmeric, and ginger aggressively to my diet.

Teaching Yoga

Karuna — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:19:00 GMT

In 2007 I was finding the benefits of yoga to be very valuable to me. I felt like I need to teach and give it way in 2008. Intel was celebrating it’s 40 anniversary and our CEO had challenged us to contribute 1 million hours of volunteering. Intel as a company achieved this goal on Dec 4 2008.

I took a certification with Street Yoga to teach Yoga to at-risk youth. I also took a certification to teach Yoga in Prisons with Living Yoga. Both of these are local Portland non-profits that I decided to dedicate my second half of the year for volunteering too. In addition I also taught 15 kids at my daughter’s school Catlin Gabel as part of the after-school care. I also taught as a substitute teacher at Intel.

Intel Involved Matching Grant Program

In 2008, Intel expanded the volunteer matching grant program which was primarily for educational institutions to include qualified non-profit organization. The rules were simple:

· A minimum of 20 hrs had to be accrued by Intel employee

· The employee cannot receive any monetary benefits in exchange for volunteer services.

More details are at www.intel.com/community/iimgp.htm

Teaching Yoga at Work

My first brush with teaching was at work. My yoga teacher at work Alison was sick and she called on me to lead the class. I fretted over whether I could do this. I spent time putting together a program. I couldn’t get the audio working. Everyone liked it. Since then I have subbed for Alison several more times. One class I remember was on 9/11 where we extended silence to almost 10 mins.

Teaching Yoga to Homeless Teens

The Street Yoga training was attended by 21 people. streetyoga.org/portland-summer08-training. It was a pretty intense course. I teamed up with Justine to mock teach. One thing that I remember vividly is Cat acted out as a teenager who refused to do anything. It was very challenging to say the least.

Soon after the training, I started to volunteer at Outside In www.outsidein.org/aboutus.htm. This is a social service agency dedicated to serving low-income adults and homeless youth

I have been teaching Yoga at Outside In for the last 4 months and it has been an incredibly humbling experience.
Every class is different and I learned the following from teaching to this population:

It’s about the Kids. I try to ask each of them what they want to work on and try to incorporate it into the routine. In one class In one class I had a group of students many of whom I had taught before. I got them to each lead a full sun salutation. They each had their own unique styles and I learned a lot that day.

· It’s about the Yoga. . There was one class where a student had gotten out of prison and he had learned yoga in prison and wanted to continue his study and came to the class. I realized that this gives them a shared experience with the larger community. Another challenge I sometimes have is the kids try to bring up other things. I try to get the focus back to the Yoga. Cell phones have been a challenge lately. In one class I had half a dozen calls come through. I try to make it a point to remind kids to turn it off.

· It is about Breathing. I teach different techniques. One time one of the kids asked me why breathing is important. I remind them about how it helps balance the parasympathetic system.

· It is about regularity. I have tried to go as regularly as I can and I see the same kids and am able to know their names. There are some regulars but the class mix changes often.

· It is about incentives. I try to bring fruits every time. I usually take fruits every class. It was incredibly humbling to see kids wanting more of it since they don’t get it often. After I heard that I make it a point to take some everytime. For the holidays I brought box of chocolates. The kids also get incentives from Outside In.

· It is about service without expectations. I try to not expect anything back but some times something that someone remarks sticks with me and motivates me. One kid recently remarked to me that I had very interesting techniques and was flattered when he said that this was the best yoga class he ever had. I have had occasions where I recognize them but they don’t recognize me outside.

· It is about the clothes. I started to become aware that while I was in my yoga clothes, the kids were often in jeans, and some still had their shoes. I started to wear jeans to my classes. I can tell when the kids have difficulty with some of my stretches that way.

· It is about the individual experience. I emphasize the non competitive aspect. There are some kids who are extremely flexible and want to try the crow or a full split. I try to give different options for them (tree at ankle, the calf or a full tree etc).

Teaching Yoga to Lower School Studentsa

I made a proposal to the Lower School Principal my daughter’s school Catlin Gabel about teaching a Yoga Program. This moved a lot quicker than I thought. I drafted the idea on Aug 21 and the school in the after-school program under Ginny Malm sent out the information to parents on Aug 27. It was a 7 class introduction program and the idea was to introduce the children to the different aspects of Yoga. I called it Yoga Fusion.

I pored over 100’s of great children’s books and came up with a curriculum that incorporated poems, stories, and a different theme each week. I even had OM work for the kids. The class started on Oct 2 (Gandhi’s birthday and also the UN International Peace Day).

When class started I had 15 kids enrolled. There was a very good mix and every grade from first to the fifth was represented. Lisa the Catlin Gabel librarian was helping me with the class. Lisa teaches them Yoga during their morning recess every week. She is also great at helping me get the kids going in the right direction.

Class #1. This class was an introduction to what Yoga was. When I asked the children what yoga was, I got all kinds of great answers. I taught them some of the basics and introduced them to half and full sun salutation. I also taught them about the Yoga value of "Truth" using Gandhi’s childhood story. When I asked the class who Gandhi was, a first grader responded saying he is the man who used words to fight! He was already describing non-violence.

Class #2: This class was about Breath and Mimicry. The students learned to breathe through the yoga postures and then imitated animals, and objects. One of the imitations I had them do was the Golden Gate Bridge (inspired from Babar’s Yoga for Elephants). The poem this time was from the book "Twist" about "Breath"

Class #3

This class was about saluting nature. We re-emphasized the sun salutations. Then I taught them the half moon salutation. I and my daughter had made up a new nature salutation called "Rain Salutation" to salute the main stay of our portland weather.

Class #4

This class was all about movement and flow. We had a guest lecture introduce Tai-Chi and the movement flow in Tai Chi. This was my Intel Colleague Jian Hui Li who was visiting from China. I started the class off with a poem

I wind through the broad golden valleys

joined by streams

joined by creeks

I grow ever wider, broader, and deeper

I am the RIVER

I then introduced them to flowing through cat/cow’s. Flowing with threading the needle, flowing with sun salutations, flowing with moving bridge. The kids were flowing effortlessly. It was great to watch.

Class #5

This class was all about alignment and incorporating it into flows. I taugh them to watch sholder alignment in cat/cows and downward dog. They practiced Triangle Pose and learning about trying to stay within two glass walls. We then incorporated many of these alignment postures into a half and full moon salutation. I also introduced the concept of Yoga Mudra and taught them the different mudras – Anjali, Jnana, Vishnu

Class #6

I was out of the country for this one. I had assigned OM work for the kids. They spent the time with Lisa. I had assigned different OM works for the different grades. They took the time to brainstorm as well as work on their OM works.


Grades 1 1. Read a Children Yoga book 2. Draw your favorite posture 3. Bring it to class (with your name on it)	Grades 3 1. Research one Yoga Posture of your liking (like Tree, Dog etc). 2. Draw the posture and on the side write down how to practice the posture correctly 3. Bring it to class
Grades 2 1. Research a Sitting down Posture (Hero, Happy etc) Draw the Posture & Bring it to Class	Grade 4 1. Research one Yoga Posture Sequence (like Cat/Cow or Sun Salute) 2. Draw the Sequence and on the side write down how to practice it correctly. Include breathing in your description 3. Bring it to class
Grade 5 1. Research different styles of Yoga (Hatha, Ashtanga) and Salutations (SunA, SunB, Moon) in them. 2. Create your own nature Salutation 3. Draw the Sequence, and Describe how to do it. Describe the inhale and Exhales. Bring it to class 4. [Optional] Create or Find a poem to go with your nature salutation

Class #7

This was a fun class. This was community style class. I first got the kids to stretch and the first through third graders formed a circle and practice sun salutation with Lisa. The fourth and fifth graders joined with me and we did the full moon salute. There were fewer kids in the class due to sickness or due to conflict with Nutcracker suite.

Each of the kids went up and led the class in their favorite posture. For the first graders it was triangle and tree. They had made some really cool drawings as well.

The highlight was the fifth graders. They created a new Salutation. They called it the "Pond Salutation". It starts with a Tree, goes down to Frog, then moves to Fish, next to Swan, coming back out to Frog, and goes back to Tree on the other side.

I was simply blown away by the creativity of the kids.

How I lost 25 lbs, reduced my cholesterol/triglycerides in a natural way

Karuna — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 08:35:00 GMT

About a couple of years ago I was introduced to the amazing books on health by Andrew Weil. I started to follow many of the principles he laid out in his “8 weeks to optimum health”. Our family was already following some of these in our daughter’s diet. I was raised a life long vegetarian and had gotten my cholesterol tested a number of years ago and it was normal then.

The 2007 Annual Medical Exam
I had money left in my flexible spending account (which mostly goes to visits for my daughter and wife) and decided to have my annual medical exam. I went in thinking that I would be reasonably healthy. I was shocked that my triglycerides were very elevated. They were 225 mg/dL and the normal should be below 149 mg/dL. My overall cholesterol was also slightly out of the normal range. It was 228 mg/dL and the normal range is < 220 in India or < 200 in US. I also found myself to be in the overweight category with my BMI exceeding 25 kg/m 2 and the normal BMI being in the range from 18.5 to 22.9.

Plan & Lifestyle Changes
It was a wakeup call and having seen other family members suffering with numerous health problems. I decided to take a two pronged attack. I decided to change my diet and also simultaneously decided to get more exercise. Our family was already practicing several healthy practices like use of Olive Oil (and no trans-fat products), as well as use of Organic.
It took me about 1-2 months to make the changes and I changed gradually. I incorporate a number of techniques from a variety of books. Andrew Weil’s Eight Weeks to Optimum Health, Gillian McKeith’s “You are What you Eat”. I picked up a number of other books from the library and developed myself. I found a common theme in many of these that I try to summarize.

I changed my diet in the following way:

Increased my intake of Fruits and Vegetables. I started choosing Organic and/or Local Produce.
Increased my intake of other whole grains (Oats, Quinoa, Buckwheat).
Increased my intake of Sprouting Lentils (Moong) and Beans (Garbanzo, Adzuki)
Increased water consumption (green tea, regular water)
Increased my consumption of Soymilk, Ricemilk. I also tried Hemp Milk, Oat Milk.
Reduced or Eliminated my White Rice Intake.
Reduced or Eliminate consumption of animal based fat and protein (milk, cheese, ghee, eggs).
Reduced my caffeine intake to be 1 cup a day in the morning
Reduced my portions primarily during dinner.
Incorporate Healthy Snacks such as Dry Fruits, Fruits, and Nuts.
Pack my own lunch almost every single day and choose healthy restaurants for eating out.

I changed my physical activity to;

Incorporate Yoga into my weekly routine. I started with 2 days per week and grew it to 6 days a week. I also started to incorporate breathing and meditation into my routine.
Walk with Family or Co-Workers to try to get 30 mins of walking. In the beginning I tried to get some exercise before every meal. This included using my elliptical machine for 20 mins in the morning.
Bike to work (most days in the summer). It was 12 miles each way.
Steam Bathe at least 2-3 times a week (mainly after my Yoga) in the gym.

Support and Progress

My family was very supportive during this process. My wife Bindu cooked delicious meals with the above changes. She also reduced her animal based fat and protein. The vanilla flavoring in the Soymilk she didn’t like. We did find a good soy milk which she liked. My daughter Anaga learnt Sun Salutations and participated in the 1 million Sun Salutation. She frequently accompanied me to my Monday Yoga Classes.

I also felt very supportive at work. Intel had in 2008 started a Health of Life program. Health for Life is a three-step program that includes a baseline health evaluation, completion of an online Health Risk Assessment, and a meeting with an on-site personal health coach to develop a confidential, individual health action plan. In addition they offer free classes in the gym on Yoga and Aerobic Exercises. I utilized the program and got myself checked in about 10 weeks. My weight had dropped by 9 lbs. More remarkably, my triglycerides and my cholesterol were both under normal range. My health coach from Mayo Clinic
helped set goals and monitored my progress.

I contined to progress during the summer and continued to develop myself like trying a variety of different yoga practices, starting some tai-chi practice. I I enrolled in a program organized by a local non-profit NWVeg which is an education and empowerment group focused on Nutrition, Chronic Disease Prevention, and the Food Choices.

Summary and Future

I just completed my 2008 annual exam and the results came in. The progress is not as dramatic as in the first 2.5 months. They were pretty good still. My triglycerides came down by almost 50% (to 114) from a year ago. I reduced my cholesterol by 20% (to 183) and my weight by 15% (152). That in short was how I lost 25lbs, reduced my cholesterol and reduced my triglycerides. I feel a lot more energy and I believe that the choices we make in our food and physical activity have a direct effect on our health. I have created a set of recipes including several new soups and will be happy to share it with anyone that is interested.

One of the areas I was disappointed with was that my HDL did not progress as well. It seems that I have to incorporate strength training exercises and eating more nuts such as macadamia nuts. I have started Tai Chi and hope to include Chinese Qi Gong in 2009 as well. Let us see how the year progresses.

Yoga, Mindfulness, and Health

Karuna — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:38:00 GMT

In the Indian newspaper ‘The Hindu’ I was surprised and thrilled to see an article that Yoga will be taught compulsorily to all School Children in India. This remark came from the Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss. This is part of the national school health program. I only hope they make it fun and exciting for the children and not rote that they end up disliking. I have been teaching Yoga to children and if you get them going in the right direction, they have a blast with it.

I hope under Barak Obama, in the US we incorporate the elements of food, health, and exercise (particularly yoga) into the regular school or after school program.

Yoga for Children
In recent years, a number of organizations have been working on incorporating yoga, and mindfulness in schools. Two of them that I have looked into are Yoga Calm and Inner Kids. Yoga Calm relies on Yoga techniques to help children with Attention Deficit Disorder and other challenges. Inner Kids teaches mindfulness and encouraging them to look within.

Yoga in India
During my recent trips to India, I had the opportunity to practice Yoga in a couple of different places. In Bangalore while accompanying my dad for a walk I noticed a small Yoga studio. I went inside and talked to the teacher to see if I could practice with them for that week. It cost me 500Rs (about 10 dollars) for 5 classes. I noticed several differences between the US classes and this. For starters there were many more men than women (it is reverse in the US). There was an emphasis on movement and incorporating prana yama to make it richer. On the flip side, the emphasis on rote repetitions made it less interesting after just a week.

I then had an opportunity to practice on my own at the temple town in Srirangam. It is a majestic temple and I was pleased to be able to practice sun salutions and meditation at the Kambar Mandapam the site where the great Tamil poet Kambar is supposed to have recited his Kamba Ramayanam poetry.

Yoga and Religion

Although Yoga originated from India from the Hindu Religion, Yoga is very secular and people from any faith can practice it. The Yogi’s discovered it as a way to enhance. There is growing scientific evidence as well as blending of yoga principles into a variety of different systems.

I began to be aware that several of the Hindu rituals have aspects of Yoga integrated into them. One of them is the Sacred Thread Ceremony that Brahmin boys have. The core Pranayama and Dhyana of Yoga has been incorporated into a daily ritual that is practiced to this day. It has however become a ritual and the breath aspects of Yoga are not well practiced even though that was the intent of the founders.

Breathing and Health

I was teaching some breathing techniques in my Yoga class. One of my students wanted to know how it helps us. Let me explain.
The human autonomous nervous system is divided into Sympathetic and the Parasympathetic Systems. In layman's terms, the sympathetic system is the responsible for the "flight or figh" response and the parasympathetic system is responsible for the 'rest and being' response.

Deep breathing helps us by increasing the response of the parasympathetic system. In our modern life the sympathetic system is overexcited and we al constantly in a 'doing' phase. With deep breathing (such as belly breathing, alternate nostril breathing etc) the parasympathetic system takes over.

There is also evidence to suggest that the stress hormes and cholestrol decreases with regular deep breathing.

Yoga has a systematic treatment of breathing refered to as 'Pranayama'. Prana is the life force. In Chinese it is called Qi. The Chinese system of 'Qi Gong' emphasizes deep breathing as well.

Yoga Medical Research

There is a growing body of medical research on Yoga. One of the aspects of Yoga is around Meditation. Richard Davidson http://videos.med.wisc.edu/videoInfo.php?videoid=936 has some interesting scientific evidence. Jon Kabat Zinn's research demonstrates the impact of meditation on psoriasis treatment.

Vegan vs Vegetarian: The South Indian Culture Perspective

Karuna — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:31:00 GMT

How does the Indian Culture view the difference? I wanted to share my perspective as one of South Indian Origin and having recently traveled to South India. I have been a life long vegetarian and recently been exploring a vegan life-style.

Travel
When I boarded my Cathay Pacific long-haul flight from San Francisco to India, I noticed that Cathay offered a variety of vegetarian options. They included an Asian Vegetarian, an Indian Vegetarian, Western Vegan etc. I wanted to know if the Indian Vegetarian was vegan. They couldn’t tell me. I went ahead and ordered it to check it out. I believe the first meal I ate was vegan, I was not sure about the rice, so I passed on that. I found that the salad, the fruit, and the curry (potato curry and a garbanzo curry) were all vegan. I passed on the butter spread. I noticed that even the creamer was non-dairy on this leg. On the next leg, I was not as lucky. The main dish was a Palak Paneer which had cottage cheese in it, the creamer this time around was also dairy based, I got 2 slices of Naan Bread and I was pretty sure that it was toasted with butter.

On my domestic travel in India, I chose the Indian Railways. At the train station in Bangalore, I noticed that I could get a number of cold drinks that were vegan (fruit juices, soda) but the options for hot drinks were zero. The coffee was pre-mixed with milk and sugar and so too was the chai tea. For snacks there was plenty of fresh fruit (try the delicious sapota) but processed food vegan options were zero or pretty close to it. The caterers could not tell me if it had any animal based products. Some of them looked at me a bit strangely when I probed them on that.

Family
All of my family are vegetarian, so I thought it would be easy for me. But it turned out to be much harder. While there were plenty of good vegan options, being completely vegan was much harder. In summary I felt like it was easy being a 85% vegan but difficult being 100% vegan.

On my first day in Bangalore, I stayed with my wife’s brother’s family and my sister-in-law a nutrionnist was my host and she had silk soy milk on hand. It was easy to get a good vegan coffee. She made dosas (lentil pancakes) for lunch and it was completely vegan, the side dish was a chutney also vegan. It turned out to be a good vegan day.

I visited my in-laws next in Mysore. As soon as I arrived my mother-in-law wanted to give me coffee. Knowing that there wasn’t going to be a vegan option, I politely said no. At dinner was an excellent spread. Again most of it was vegan. There was an excellent salad with sprouted moong beans, fresh onions, cilantro, and pomegranate seeds. It was great. The lentil (toor dal) soup was also completely vegan. The other side dish was a curry made with Bitter Gourd was also vegan. The Pulka was an vegan. The only things on the table that were not vegan were the dessert which was a diary based and plain yogurt. I didn’t take either of them and my mother-in-law was disappointed and encouraged me to try a little bit of the dessert at least. I gave in to that request.

Next day during lunch she remarked that I was ‘departing from the way of my ancestors. I felt she had trouble relating to what I was trying to do. I decided to give a little lecture on both the health and the ethical factors. I tried to convinced her that reducing or eliminating milk was going to good for her osteo problems too.

I visited my dad next. I told him that I have stopped milk and yogurt. Most of the meals we prepared together were vegan. One day due to heavy rains, milk was not delivered, so I took the opportunity to introduce soy milk coffee to my dad. I also combined sprouted beans (peas or moong beans) to several dishes while introducing my dad to the nutritional benefits of sprouts.

Friends

We often have friends visiting us. One of our recent visits was from friends of ours at Seattle. They were vegetarian of Indian Origin but not vegan. We got into discussion about vegan diets. One of the arguments put forth was why was I messing with a food tradition that is hundred of years old. Similar argument to Michael Pollan’s eating foods that your grandmother or great grandmother would recognize. I had to point out the differences in the way the cows are raised (their feed, their treatment, growth hormones, antibiotics). I also pointed out that the genetic mutation to digest milk protein was an evolutionary aspect and given the wide range of protein options available to us, it wasn’t essential to have milk.

Cost
Milk costs 50c for 1 quart but Soy Milk is much more expensive order of $2 for regular and about $4 for organic. During my trip I had packed some cartons of Organic Kirkland Soy Milk which was much cheaper in the US.

I also found that the cost of eggs and meat was much higher mainly due to the the lack of factory farming. One of my friends told me that the accumulation of milk in dairies were through small (including individual) owners bringing their milk. The primary purpose of the dairy was the pasteurization and the distribution network. Economically more people would eat vegetarian food even though they were omnivores.

Vegan Indian Dishes

Breakfast Options
Upma – Farina or Rava with boiled vegetables. Varitions with Semolina, broken wheat, oats..
Pongal – Rice and Split Moong Beans with ginger, black pepper, and cashews.
Dosa – Lentil and Rice Pancakes. Plenty of variations to get Ragi Dosa, Rava Dosa, Oat Dosa
Idli – Lentil and Rice Dumplings.
Oatmeal with Local Fruits (Sapota, Pomegrante, Mango, Guava) and Nuts (Cashews, Peanuts)

Lunch Options
Main Dishes: Curried Lentil Soups (infinite variations with different vegetables, and curry variations).
These are called “Sambar’s”, A thinner soup called Rasam is also common. There are over a dozen different
Rasam options.
Side Dishes: Paruppu Sili, Bittergourd Curry, Steamed Beans with Moong Sprouts and boiled

Dinner Options
2 Pulka’s with Garbanzo Bean Curry
2 Chapatis with cabbage curry
2 Pooris with Potato Sagoo

Summary
Travelling in south India is easy for vegetarians. The culture understands this. There are restaurants that are vegetarian. There are plenty of vegan options in the foods. However being a strict vegan is a lot harder since things like ghee (clarified butter) are added during seasoning. Also many of the desserts have diary in them. Another issue is the lack of labeling to list the ingredients so it is hard to tell what certain dishes actually contain. I did not cover North India, in my opinion the dishes have more diary (eg paneer, kofta cream) and the breads are also seasoned with ghee.

The Transformation of a Culture - The Plastic Revolution

Karuna — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:19:00 GMT

The moment I stepped off my middle seat on Cathay Pacific long-haul flight from San Francisco to Bangalore to take a break I was astonished at the amount of plastic consumption. As I stood near the food service area a steady stream of my fellow passengers most of them of Indian Orgin were pouring by. They wanted an orange jiuice or an apple juice or just plain water. Some of them had plastic cups in they hands they were eager to dispose off and get more clean plastic cups. I was starting to become aware of the enormous use of plastic cups on the flight. I was making mental calculation of the number of cups we would have used. 500 passengers at 15 or so cups per person. The Indian Culture which had historically been a green and sustainable one was already transformed.

How was it green before you may ask. .I thought about that question. I will try to contrast what people would do before with what they were doing now. There seldom was the need to use throwaway plastic items like a a spoon when your fingers could handle the job. Paper or Plastic plates were not necessary, a nice banana leaf.was sufficient and it degraded well or even better would be a good meal for a cow or a goat.

The Plastic Bag Revolution
It was common for people to go to the market with resuable cloth bags. These days seldom do you see people doing that. They walk empty handed and shop at the super market. Even the small street fruit hawker has a good pile of plastic bags to peddle.

My dad had called to me to get him a couple of items from Bangalore. I went to his favorite store, Nilgiris. I only picked up a couple of items. I politely refused the paper bag they were eager to put those items in. As I checked out of the store, the young lady who was by the door cried in surprise "plastic bag togalise sir". I told her that I already had one which my earlier store visit had peddled to me. Toomba Chickdu sir, dodadu togali sir, she exclaimed. I was thinking if she got paid by how many plastic bags she moved. I shoved the couple of items that I purchased into that little plastic bag and was on my way. I paid attention to my fellow shoppers, none of them were carrying cloth bags and they were eager to get their groceries doubled bagged in good old plastic.

A person next to me had 4 1/2 liter bags of Nilgiris milk and 2 1/4 liter bags of Nilgiris curd. All in plastic. How would this have worked before? The milkman would come on his bicycle carefully balacning two bigs cans of milk. He would give a shout out. Someone from the family would rush out with a stainless steel utensil. No plastic ever came into the distribution. One of the savign grace with the advent of plasti was, the elders would carefully perserve the plastic milk bags cleaning them to sell it for recycling.

The Sharing Experience

Thiis time around I decided to do put myself in the mdidle of an experiment to avoid getting any plastic items into my hand. Not to buy any plastic water bottles or to take plastic bags and to take more sustainable and shared (trains, buses) forms of transportation.

Right at the airport I chose the Airport Bus which costed only Rs 125 for the 40 min ride from the Airport to the City compared to an individual A/C Taxi that costs Rs 800. Buses in Bangalore are always very Unfortunately very few people took the bus, there were only 4 of us on the bus and I wondered if it was really sustainable. I got chatting with a fellow passanger and told him of how I had made arrangement to get a home connection from the bus stop. He was travelling the same way and wanted to know if he could ride with me. Excited about the prospect of getting We got to the bus stop. The bus driver made multiple calls for our home connection.

As I travelled on the train, I chose to not use A/C. My ticket to Mysore was a mere Rs 52. I even wondered if the price was sustainable. The moment I got into the train it was very well populated. It felt every bit sustainable.

The Food Distribution

I was here for more surpsies, my fellow passanger decided to buy some rice dish from the caterer. The caterer duly gave
each of them a plastic spoon, to my amazement, they threw the plastic spoon right out of the window and decided to eat
the food the old fashioned sustainable way with their hand. It dawned on my the double whammy, not only were they consuming the plastic spoon (by throwing it away) but they were also consuming water to wash their hand. The transformation of the no-green was complete

Yoga Mala

Karuna — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:22:00 GMT

Quoting from Global Mala "The purpose of Global Mala is to unite the global yoga community from every continent, school or approach to form a "mala around the earth" through collective practices based upon the sacred cycle of 108 on Sept. 21st and 22nd, Fall Equinox as the yoga world's offering to further the UN International Peace Day."

My teacher told me about it and I found out that it is happenning in Portland at the Pioneer Courthouse Square from 1-3:30pm. Should be interesting.

Yoga Service in the Community

Karuna — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:07:00 GMT

Street Yoga and Living Yoga are two non-profits in the Portland area that are bringing the power of Yoga to people who dont have easy access to it. Street Yoga is focused on homeless youth and Living Yoga on Prison inmates. They both are having fund raisers that are upcoming. Go ahead and support them

Fall into Gratitude for Street Yoga
Lving Gala Fundraising for Living Yoga

Welcome

Karuna — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:31:47 GMT

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.