DesiPundit

We are raising $5000 to help Pardada Pardadi buy a machine that makes sanitary pads and support two of the school’s graduates as they start a pad-making business. The goal is to create a self-sustaining business that sells pads at around 25 rupees for packs of ten.

Jenny and Dave at Our Delhi Struggle are raising money for seed capital for a worthy project aimed fulfilling oft-ignored basic needs of poor women in India [hat tip: Binerry].

Big dams have always invited the wrath of environmentalists and nature lovers.In the name of development, we may soon loose two of the beautiful waterfalls in Kerala. Suryasree asks us to write to the minister of environment in Kerala to save these places.

The project when implemented would also adversely affect 80 families belonging to the Kadar tribe. The bio-diversity of the area would be destroyed for ever. But what if 80 or 800 families are affected? What bio-diversity you’re talking about? What we need is energy to the tune of just 163 MW (experts say the project would generate 26.7 MW only).

Above all the extinction of two beautiful waterfalls, Athirapally and Vazhachal. I don’t think that there isn’t a single one amongst us who would not love retreats to nature; love spending some soothing, rejuvenating days in the lap of nature. Get revitalised and rejuvenated, the natural way.

Chandni speaks her mind on the Food crisis and shares some simple ideas on using food well.

The issue hit home for me, because I know I can do better with quantities. While not consciously, being the “new” cook that I am, I don’t have a very good sense of proportions. So more often than not, the dal is always extra, and sometimes vegetables too.

The good thing is that the boy and I take left overs to work for lunch, so now, we really don’t waste or throw away food any more. But I know its extremely easy to fall in to the trap…I say so because I’ve been through it. Stuffing one bowl of dal/veg in some corner of the fridge and remembering it 4 days after…It takes little to remember such things…if we really want to make the effort.

Nitin has a public interest message for Karnataka voters - please cast your vote tomorrow!  He has also included links to help you find your polling booth and to check your name in the voters’ list.  There are also links to the helpline numbers you can reach.

So if you are reading this blog and are eligible to vote in the Assembly elections, please go out and vote !

Sonal Singh talks about pre-marital HIV/AIDS testing and the surrounding  issues.

No one should be put at risk for HIV/AIDS infection. After all, even though now infected persons can lead full and healthy lives for many years, it is a dangerous disease that not only an individual has to live with for his/her entire life, but also dumps emotional and financial burden on his/her family. Yes, definitely a premarital HIV test is necessary.

…..Firstly, the UN guidelines state that NO ONE (not the central government, not the state government, not the doctor, not the nurse, not the counsellor, not the brother, sister, father, mother, wife, child – NO ONE) can force an individual to test for HIV/AIDS. Okay. So you can’t do mandatory testing.

Scanman makes an appeal for donations to help Gayatri Ramesh, a 28 year old mother of two. Gayatri is undergoing chemotherapy to treat her leukemia, however she needs a bone marrow donor and donations for the transplant.  More information on how you can help Gayatri can be found in this website.

As a first step we have initiated a Bone Marrow donor search worldwide to find a suitable donor, which may take around 3 months. The estimated cost of the treatment,even at a cheapest center is around US$ 250,000/= ( One Crore Indian rupee).( In some centers in United States the cost will be more than $500,000(> 2 crore Indian Rupee).

In the wake of the Mumbai molestation, bloggers ponder the larger issue of attitudes towards women in our society.  Charukesi wonders why anyone would blame the women for partying.

Call me naive, call my faith in people misplaced. I ought to have expected something like this? And taken precautions - stayed away from any crowded place instead of wanting to watch the fireworks light up the sky over the beaches for an hour?

Annie refuses to be cowed down by the attitude that women somehow invite crimes against them.

I will not stop buying ‘provocative’ clothes. I will not be modest. I will not behave. I will not treat the night as a na-mehram I cannot be seen with. I will not change my stride to side-step the maps of our molestation. I will not call a violation by any other name. I will not make unwanted rules for myself.

Tare Zameen Pe looks poised to be Bollywood’s Christmas bonanza gift as it receives rave reviews in its first week. Pragni adds a real life story that well mirrors the movie.

When I was in Std. II A, there was a guy who sat behind me. Jay Shah. He was tall, lanky, and had shaggy hair that fell all over his face. He lived five buildings away from me and traveled in the same bus. His Mom used to tell me all the time to sit with him more, spend my lunches with him and “influence” him.

And Ashwin is all praise for the debutant director Aamir Khan.

..needs guts to choose this subject on back of 3 back to back blockbusters. But Aamir made the movie, which not only entertains, but also makes you laugh, think, look creatively. On the whole, a satisfying movie.

Sridala remembers discovering, as a new mother, that even other young women looked down on her. Like her, I can also never understand our attitude to motherhood - it spans the entire spectrum from deification all the way to discrimination and derision.

I could see her struggle to find something to say to me. This despite the fact that we had many friends in common; that we were more or less in the same area of work; that we studied in the same places for nearly four years. That was when I was first struck by the attitude that some people – among them many women – have to those who have just had a child. The general attitude seems to be that if you’ve just become a mother, your brains must be leaking out with the breast milk and no conversation that does not include bodily functions, is possible.

Suman, the blogger otherwise known as Alpha is climbing Kilimanjaro, the world’s highest free-standing mountain. In addition to conquering the mountain, she plans to raise money for low-cost, high-impact engineering projects in Mali.

This is done under the aegis of Engineers Without Borders. Help Suman in her cause by donating.