Malegaon, Nashik

Malegaon Ka Cool Drink.






Malegaon Ka Super Heroes.



Malegaon Ka Ice Cream.





Malegaon Ka Generation next





Malegaon Ka Rozi Roti





Malegaon Ka Overload Auto




Malegaon Ka Boring Channel - PTV Home



Malegaon Ka Bar Man.



Malegaon Ka Now Running.

Malegaon Ka...

Malegaon is nothing like the city, media has created in the minds of Arnab's angry people. It's a city full of hard working people. It's a bustling city with Mumbai's energy but set in a far laid back part of the country. So it's no wonder that a whole city has been painted as a villain.

Like all places, it has its share of mischief mongers but it's a shame that this city where you will find a spirit that you will probably find only in Mumbai has been tainted. Like the mandatory villain in the skull cap that you find on most Marathi film posters, Malegaon has been painted as the villain but the truth is that these people are our silent, hard working heroes.

India. Aapko Malegaon ka Salaam.

MHB Colony, Malegaon

Dr Salman Farsi. The Unani Doctor from Govandi who was picked up by the police after the Malegaon blasts.

Blasts in Malegaon, damage in Govandi.

We still don't know who planted the bombs that went off a few months back in the Khau Gallis of South Mumbai. Mumbai Police has not been able to crack the case yet. And unlike in earlier blasts, no one has been blamed and arrested for the bombings yet.

They have not arrested anybody because 7 people like Dr Salman Farsi were arrested following the Malegaon blast and had to be released on bail (and will most probably be legally free in a few months) because the court found them innocent.

This time, the cops will have to work hard for a change and find real culprits.

You can read the stories of the men and their families here: How do you keep the faith? By Sai Manish. Tehelka Impact story about 7 Muslims from Malegaon who spent 5 unjust years in jail including our own Arthur Road jail.

These images, the extra shots are from the home of Dr Salman Farsi in Malegaon.

Dr Salman Farsi and his wife, who is also a physician ran a clinic is Govandi when he was picked up after the blasts. While he was away in jail, his wife moved to Malegaon, Dr Salman's hometown. For days after he was picked up, cops would visit the frightened family and ask where Dr Salman was hidden while everyone knew that he was jailed. She then moved to Malegaon and in a quiet MHB colony, started life afresh with her three children.

Dr Salman came back home to a pleasant surprise. A nice neighbourhood clinic and the cosmetics he saw she was also selling made him smile. That's not a traditional Unani label. But he had missed 5 of the most important years of his children's lives.

Their library:

Abdassa, Kutch

Barefoot Geologists of Kutch Series

Indhoni. The Halo of the Kutch Women
and an Essential Fashion Accessory.

Thanks to the Barefoot geologists, the women in Abdassa Taluk do not have to travel miles for drinking water. Most wells are within 5 minutes from their homes. But they still have to be carried home.

And since this is Kutch, they do it in style. Here are their Indhoni.

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And here are the barefoot Geologists at a well they built.

Budiya, Abdasa Taluk, Kutch

Barefoot Geologists 4

Village 1: Budiya. The windswept village.


The Kutch coast is windy. The mostly fishing village of Budiya sits right on the coast. Whatever little rain falls here is evaporated by the harsh sun and whatever remains by the wind. The silver linings are the Pavan-chakkis or the Wind turbines that convert the wind to electricity.

The ceaseless wind also give the beautiful children of this village, this windswept hairstyle that I had blogged about earlier and the images are worth repeating.

All that the barefoot geologists had to do here was divert the rainwater to an appropriate spot with the right soil formation to sponge the water underground.

That was the easy part.

The tough part of the job is maintaining the well and that is managed by the locals themselves. The well is treated like a temple. Or since the village is a Mohammedan one, let's call it a mosque or a dargah. The approach and the surroundings are swept clean. No littering is allowed. Footwear is banned near the well and do and don't board that maintain cleanliness are everywhere. Violators are fined.

The same care goes to the channels that direct the water.

After living for ages without access to sweet fresh water, they know the true value of clean drinking water.

Bhuj

The 16th Century Barefoot Geologists of Kutch.

Before the colonial powers, electricity, dams and other technology came along, it seems like our ancestors were pretty clever when it came to using whatever little knowledge they had to make use of the most important scarce resource of them all - water.

There are several that can be listed but one good selection of those stories can be found in a book by Nitya Jacob called Jal Yatra.

One story that is missing in that book is the story of Hamirsar. The artificial lake that forms the heart of Bhuj and reason for its existence.

Hamirsar. A 100 years back.

The return of Common Sense.

Hamirsar must be the only clean lake found in the heart of an Indian city at the moment. The water is actually clean. You cannot smell it and that can be shocking for any city bred Indian who sees the lake. These Kachchis must be a different breed from the rest of us, except for this. 'Pooja Items'.

However, a decade back, this lake was just like any other lake in an Indian city. A relative of Hussainsagar or Ulsoor lake. The poor Hamirsar was dead until the earthquake shook the people of Bhuj. The lake was cleaned up and revitalised after that.

How Hamirsar was built.

To feed rain water into the Hamirsar lake must have involved an army of people following the instruction of some brilliant mind or minds. It is named after the founder of Bhuj, Rao Hamir. It is his son and his successors who actually built the lake and extended its catchment area. This is a rough map of the system that brings in the water from the surrounding hills. It's a system of small reservoirs, channels, and tunnels. Care is taken to avoid saline rocks that can contaminate the water. This worked for nearly 450 years.



The system fell into disuse in the second half of the last century. Wells, water pumps and other modern methods reduced the water inflow into the lake. This coupled with our legendary love for cleanliness ensured that the lake was almost killed when the earthquake struck Bhuj 10 years back.

What followed was one of the most interesting rebuilding exercise any region of India has seen. Kutchis stopped and listened to the ground beneath their feet. They realised that there was common sense and sustainability in the system that helped create the city of Bhuj in the first place. They revived the Hamirsar Lake System.

The Barefoot Geologists of Kutch are only following the same example set by their forefathers, 450 years back.