Category Archives: Writing

World Coffee Day

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I love coffee as it is evident from my posts and poem on this wonderful drink. And when I heard today was World Coffee Day, I had to write a post.

The International Coffee Day is a celebration of the coffee sector’s diversity, quality and passion as well as an opportunity for coffee lovers to share their love of the beverage and support the millions of farmers whose livelihoods depend on the aromatic crop. The day has been used as an an occasion to promote and celebrate coffee as a beverage, with events occurring across the world. Many countries around the world celebrate their own national coffee days at various dates throughout the year. In March 2014, the member states of the International Coffee Organisation agreed to organise International Coffee Day on 1 October to create a single day of celebration for coffee lovers around the world and the first celebration was celebrated in 2015 in Milan as part of the Expo 2015. The day is also used to promote fair trade coffee and to raise awareness for the plight of the coffee growers with many businesses offering free or discounted cups of coffee.

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According to one legend, coffee was discovered by the ancestors of today’s Oromo people in a region of Kaffa in Ethiopia who recognised the energizing effect of the coffee plant. However, no direct evidence that has been found earlier than the 15th century indicating who among the African populations used it as a stimulant, or where coffee was first cultivated. Another legend attributes the discovery of coffee to a Sheikh Omar. According to an old chronicle preserved in the Abd-Al-Kadir manuscript. Omar, who was known for his ability to cure the sick through prayer, was once exiled from Mocha in Yemen to a desert cave near Ousab in modern-day Wusab. Starving, Omar chewed berries from nearby shrubbery but found them to be too bitter. He tried roasting the seeds to improve the flavor, but they became hard. He then tried boiling them to soften the seed, which resulted in a fragrant brown liquid. Upon drinking the liquid Omar was revitalized and sustained for days. It was in Arabia that coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed, in a similar way to how it is prepared now and used used by Sufi mystics to stay awake. Shortly after, coffee became well known in Egypt, Persia, and Turkey as the wine of Araby and coffee houses started to open as the schools of the wise. Coffee farming on a large scale started in southern India and in 1560 coffee made its way through Europe and quickly became popular, until Pope Clement VIII decided that the drink must be satanic though under inspection, he gave in and baptised the drink and declared it a Christian drink. By the 1600s coffee houses sprung up all over Europe and the beans found themselves in America.

And today, this bean makes a daily journey from plantations to breakfast mugs across the world. Us humans have been preparing coffee for many presentations as drinks, candies, medicine, and some ancient civilizations even used it as currency! Coffee can energize you, warm you up, refresh you, keep you awake, and even catch you up with your loved ones.

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The theme of International Coffee Day 2021 highlights the mistreatment of coffee farmers, the danger they are facing for their living and the ultimate need to take collective actions. The money that coffee farmers are compensated for the beans they create is at an all-time low. The modern-day coffee farmers aren’t earning enough to supply themselves and fulfill the needs of their families and may need to switch away from making coffee altogether- putting the production of this beverage at risk. Today there is a worldwide oversupply of coffee which is pushing down the market price. At the same time the expense of coffee-production has increased which means farmers do not make enough income to survive. Though we are paying more for a cup of coffee, farmers are compensated just around USD 0.01 or one penny for a cup of coffee.

Caffeine is a stimulant that increases activity in the central nervous system. It can increase energy levels and alertness, plus it improves mental performance. According to a study in Harvard, coffee drinkers tend to live longer, plus they have a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Coffee is the second largest traded commodity right after crude oil, and the most consumed beverage, after water. Every society has its own coffee tradition.

Grab a cup of your favourite coffee and celebrate this wonderful and addictive drink!

The Elixer of Life: My Water Stories

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Water is essential for human beings to survive. Water carries nutrients to all cells in our body and oxygen to our brain. allows the body to absorb and assimilate minerals, vitamins, amino acids, glucose, and other substances, flushes out toxins and waste and helps to regulate body temperature. As a general rule of thumb, a human being can survive without water for roughly 72 hours or three days. And many experts have predicted that the next major world crises will be over water and suggest that growing water scarcity will drive violent conflict as access to water dries up for certain communities.

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So with all the importance of water, it is certianly an essential part of our lives. In many parts of the world, water can be hard or soft and most water that is piped is usually soft water, which is treated and only has chorine and sodium. I am super finicky about the taste of water and probably because of the water I am used to, both while growing up in Mumbai and now in Singapore, which is treated chrolinated water, I can’t drink or find it hard to drink any other type of water. So here are some water stories from my life.

A representation of the water cooler we used to carry. Source

When we were younger, we used to travel by train during our summer holidays to visit our grandparents, first only to Bengaluru and then to Chennai first and then to Bengaluru. This is way before bottled water flooded the Indian market and on a train travel, the only water you had was either the water you carried with yourself in large cans or coolers or what you were able to refill in stations enroute. So we would carry as much water as we could from home in large five or 10 litre cans and this was common with pretty much everyone doing the same. This water would finish up roughly about halfway into the journey and we would have to fill it up from one of the stations, usually in Andhra Pradesh. The water would usually be hard and have a brackish taste to it and I would stop drinking water. If I was very thirsty, I would badger my mother to buy me a drink or something else to quench my thirst and if nothing was available, then a sip or two would all that I could stomach. Luckily the period of low to no water would not be too long and we would reach Bengaluru soon and as soon as we reached home, I would gulp water from the largest glass available.

In fact in our home in Bengaluru or Bangalore as it used to be called then, we had two sources of water – one from the well in the house which was slightly hard and the second which was piped in by the city from the Kaveri. I always preferred the Kaveri water and would always tell my grandmother to keep that water for drinking. This water would come in once every other day and when it came in, it would be a process to ensure it was pumped up to the holding tanks so it could be used for cooking eating and drinking while the well water was used for other needs. In fact, on our most recent trip to Bengaluru, my aunt’s house also had some kind of semi-hard water and I just could not bring myself to drink it. This trip was a very short one and we spent a fair amount of time outside visiting family in the city, so I didn’t have to drink it a lot, but the relief I felt when coming back to Bombay and drinking normal water was so immense that everyone who saw me rush to the kitchen to drink water as soon as we reached home had a hearty laugh at my expense.

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My maternal grandparents house in Chennai was another matter and there was no source of any soft water. So holidays there used to be a torture for me because there was no alternative source of water I could use. I soon learnt that if the water was ice cold, the taste could be masked and I could drink it, so that’s exactly what I did. Now, I am someone who normally does not drink cold water, but when in Chennai, I would ensure that there was sufficient cold water available so I could use that cold water for drinking and for even brushing my teeth! Our trip to Chennai used to be for a week, after which we would travel to Bangalore for the rest of the holiday, so it was not too bad.

Another story, similar to the above comes from the time when I was around 15. We were on a school trip to the beach town of Bordi which lies almost at the border between the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The whole class X cohort was on the trip, and was a combined Girl Guides and Social Services service trip. In Bordi the water was so bad that pretty much none of us drank the water. And this was the late eightees, so we didn’t have much in terms of pocket money and would restrict ourselves to one bottle of a soft drink a day which we would empty into our water bottles. Girls with a larger amount of pocket money would have purchased more than one and all of us were so glad to be back in Bombay where we could drink water to our heart’s content. This three day trip has been in my memories for more than three decades now because I can still remember the feeling of thirst and now being able to drink water because it was so bad. Like what I used to do in Chennai, when the thirst got too much to bear, we would drink a couple of sips of the hard water and then stop.

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So these were my water stories. Water is the true elixir of life, with over 71% of our planet and up to 60% of our bodies made up of water. Without water, life will cease to exist and for this reason, we must learn to preserve it for the future generations.

World Tourism Day

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Today, more than ever, tourism across world has been devastated. Today is World Tourism Day, a day dedicated global tourism. The day has been celebrated since 1980 on September 27 because it was on this date in 1970 that the Statutes of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation or the UNWTO were adopted. Considered a milestone for global tourism, the purpose of the day is to raise awareness on the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide.

In 1997 at its 12th session in Istanbul, the UNWTO General Assembly decided to designate a host country each year to act as the Organization’s partner to celebrate World Tourism Day. In 2003, in Beijing, it was decided to follow a geographical order starting from 2006 and it would be rotated between Europe, South Asia, Americas, Africa and the Middle East. The idea of the World Tourism Day was mooted by the late Ignatius Amaduwa Atigbi, a Nigerian who was finally recognised for his contribution in 2009. The timing of World Tourism Day is particularly appropriate in that it comes at the end of the high season in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of the season in the southern hemisphere. The colour of World Tourism Day is Blue.

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Over the decades, tourism has experienced continued growth and deepening ‎diversification to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. ‎Modern tourism is closely linked to development and encompasses a growing number ‎of new destinations. These dynamics have turned tourism into a key driver for socio-‎economic progress.‎ Today, the business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, ‎food products or automobiles. Tourism has become one of the major players in ‎international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income ‎sources for many developing countries. This growth goes hand in hand with an ‎increasing diversification and competition among destinations.‎ This global spread of tourism in industrialised and developed states has produced ‎economic and employment benefits in many related sectors – from construction to ‎agriculture or telecommunications.‎

The contribution of tourism to economic well-being depends on the quality and the ‎revenues of the tourism offer. Tourism has the potential to contribute, directly or indirectly, to all of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, it has been included as targets in Goals 8, 12 and 14 on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, sustainable consumption and production and the sustainable use of oceans and marine resources, respectively. Sustainable tourism is firmly positioned in the 2030 Agenda. Achieving this agenda, however, requires a clear implementation framework, adequate financing and investment in technology, infrastructure and human resources.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive social and economic impact. Both developed and developing economies have been hit. And marginalized groups and the most vulnerable have been hit hardest of all. The restart of tourism will help kickstart recovery and growth. It is essential that the benefits this will bring are enjoyed widely and fairly. International tourist arrivals have dropped drastically in 2021, down 85% from data sourced between January and May this year.

Therefore, the theme of the 2021 World Tourism Day has been to focus on Tourism for Inclusive Growth. This is an opportunity to look beyond tourism statistics and acknowledge that, behind every number, there is a person. The host country for 2021 is Cote d’Ivoire who will be celebrating tourism’s ability to drive inclusive development and the role it plays in promoting respect while generating opportunities for many millions across the globe.

I for one, am waiting for the end in sight and can’t wait to start travelling again, as I am sure almost everyone reading this is. So, let’s all do our part so we can start getting our fix again!

International Day of Sign Languages

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According to the World Federation of the Deaf, there are approximately 72 million deaf people worldwide. More than 80% of them live in developing countries and collectively use more than 300 different sign languages. Each country generally has its own native sign language, and some have more than one. Some sign languages have obtained some form of legal recognition. Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign languages have developed as useful means of communication, and they form the core of local deaf cultures. Although signing is used primarily by the deaf and hard of hearing, it is also used by hearing individuals, such as those unable to physically speak, those who have trouble with spoken language due to a disability or condition, augmentative and alternative communication, or those with deaf family members, such as children of deaf adults.

Sign languages, also known as signed languages are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulations in combination with non-manual elements. Sign languages are full-fledged natural languages with their own grammar and lexicon. Sign languages are not universal and they are not mutually intelligible with each other, although there are also striking similarities among sign languages. There is also an international sign language, which is used by deaf people in international meetings and informally when travelling and socializing. It is considered a pidgin form of sign language that is not as complex as natural sign languages and has a limited lexicon.

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Linguists consider both spoken and signed communication to be types of natural language, meaning that both emerged through an abstract, protracted aging process and evolved over time without meticulous planning. Sign language should not be confused with body language, a type of nonverbal communication. Linguists distinguish natural sign languages from other systems that are precursors to them or obtained from them, such as invented manual codes for spoken languages, home sign, baby sign, and signs learned by non-human primates.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises and promotes the use of sign languages and makes clear that sign languages are equal in status to spoken languages and obligates states parties to facilitate the learning of sign language and promote the linguistic identity of the deaf community.

The proposal for the International Sign Day came from the World Federation of the Deaf or WFD, a federation of 135 national associations of deaf people, representing approximately 70 million deaf people’s human rights worldwide. So the International Day of Sign Languages or IDSL is celebrated annually across the world on 23 September every year along with International Week of the Deaf to raise awareness of the importance of sign language in the full realisation of the human rights of those who are deaf. September 23 was chosen because it was the day the World Federation of the Deaf was established in 1951 whose main goal is the preservation of sign languages and deaf culture as pre-requisites to the realisation of the human rights of deaf people.

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The resolution establishing the day acknowledges that early access to sign language and services in sign language, including quality education available in sign language, is vital to the growth and development of the deaf individual and critical to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals. It recognizes the importance of preserving sign languages as part of linguistic and cultural diversity. It also emphasizes the principle of “nothing about us without us” in terms of working with deaf communities.

The International Day of Sign Languages was first celebrated in 2018 as part of the International Week of the Deaf while the International Week of the Deaf was first celebrated in September 1958 and has since evolved into a global movement of deaf unity and concerted advocacy to raise awareness of the issues deaf people face in their everyday lives. The day plays an important role in preserving the rights of the deaf community and seeks to maintain the status of sign languages as playing an intrinsic role in the world’s linguistic and cultural diversity, emphasising the importance of good education in sign language, as it is vital to the growth and development of deaf individuals.

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The Theme for the International Day of Sign Languages 2021 is We Sign for Human Rights. The other daily themes for the International Week of the Deaf People are Cherishing Deaf History on 20 September, Sustainable Deaf Leadership on 21 September, Sign languages for All Deaf Learners on 22 September, Intersectional Deaf Communities on 24 September, Deaf Culture and Arts on 25 September and Human Rights in Times of Crisis on 26 September.

I’ve been interested in learning the sign language and maybe this day will spur me to learn it. There are many sign languages across the world and I think the American Sign Language or ASL is probably the most commonly used in the world. Singapore uses the Singapore Sign Language or SgSL which was influenced by the Shanghainese Sign Language, American Sign Language, Signing Exact English and locally developed signs. India, on the other hand uses the Indian Sign Language or ISL, said to be influenced by the American Sign Language.

Loving Kindness: Everyone counts and matters

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In the last almost one and a half year of meditating, I kept hearing the phrase loving kindness over and over again. I have done the meditation many times, but have been very curious about this and it’s origins, so I decided to find out more.

So what is Loving Kindness? It comes from the word Maitri, a Sanskrit word which in Pali is equivakent to Metta and means benevolence, loving-kindness, friendliness, amity, good will and an active interest in others. The cultivation of benevolence is a popular form of Buddhist meditation and is a part of the four immeasurables in Brahmavihara or the divine abidings meditation. Some small sample studies on the potential of loving-kindness meditation approach on patients suggest potential benefits, however, peer reviews question the quality and sample size of these studies.

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Today more than ever, we seem to be living in a world which is characterised by a us versus them mentality. Everywhere, xenophobia and racism seems to be at a peak and we seem to think those who are different than us, or those who disagree with us are not on the same page as us and so should be treated with disdain and be considered as the enemy. This in turn makes us dislike the others, wanting them to not have good lives and all the negative emotions that eventually will turn us into bitter human beings. And then because we dislike and are jelous of people so much, we spiral into lonliness, and this lonliness can happen even if you are surrounded by people. If you can’t engage people authentically, then you are lonely, there is no two ways about it.

That’s where the practice of Loving Kindness comes in where it about cultivating love as a strength, a muscle, a tool that challenges our tendency to see people, including ourselves as disconnected, statically and rigidly isolated from one another. Loving-kindness is about opening ourselves up to others with compassion and equanimity, which is a challenging exercise, requiring us to push back against assumptions, prejudices, and labels that most of us have internalised.  

According to a study from 2008, mutual trust can catch on and spread between racial groups just as quickly as suspicion can. So just as quickly as we are conditioned to hate someone, we can easily learn to trust someone we perceive as the other.

One does not need to practice Buddhism to practice Loving Kindness and the meditation technique is fairly simple. The meditation can be used to boost well-being and reduce stress with those who regularly practice it able to increase their capacity for forgiveness, connection to others, self-acceptance, and more. Intially the technique feels very weird, but as with everything else we do, as we practice it more, we will get better at sending and receiving love and kindness both to ourselves and to others.

During the loving kindness meditation, you focus benevolent and loving energy toward yourself and others. There are many well-documented benefits of traditional meditation, but as with other techniques, this form of meditation takes practice. It can be difficult and sometimes leads to resistance since the average person is not used to this level of giving and receiving love. Some published studies have noted that this meditation technique may be useful in the management of social anxiety, marital conflict, anger, and coping with the strains of long-term caregiving while other research has suggested that the loving kindness meditation can enhance the activation of brain areas that are involved in emotional processing and empathy to boost a sense of positivity and reduce negativity.

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While there are different ways to practice Loving Kindness, here’s what works for me. Sit in a comfortable position at a time when you are likely not to be disturbed. This will take as long as you need, so even a few minutes will do. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, relax your muscles and take a few deep breaths. Imagine yourself experiencing complete physical and emotional wellness and inner peace. Imagine feeling perfect love for yourself, thanking yourself for all that you are, knowing that you are just right, just as you are. Focus on this feeling of inner peace, and imagine that you are breathing out tension and breathing in feelings of love. Repeat three or four positive, reassuring phrases to yourself. Phrases like “May I be happy”, “May I be safe”, “May I be healthy, peaceful, and strong” or “May I give and receive appreciation today”. You can also use phrases that speak to you personally and are unique to yourself.

Once you have repeated your chosen phrases, bask in feelings of warmth and self-compassion for a few moments. If your attention drifts, gently redirect it back to these feelings of loving kindness. Let these feelings envelop you. You can choose to either stay with this focus for the duration of your meditation or begin to shift your focus to loved ones in your life. Begin with someone who you are very close to, such as a spouse, a child, a parent, or a best friend. Feel your gratitude and love for them. Stay with that feeling. You may want to repeat the reassuring phrases. Once you’ve held these feelings toward that person, bring other important people from your life into your awareness, one by one, and envision them with perfect wellness and inner peace. Then branch out to other friends, family members, neighbors, and acquaintances. Extend feelings of loving kindness to people around the globe and focus on a feeling of connection and compassion. You may even want to include those with whom you are in conflict to help reach a place of forgiveness or greater peace.

When you feel that your meditation is complete, open your eyes. Remember that you can revisit the wonderful feelings you generated throughout the day. Internalize how loving kindness meditation feels, and return to those feelings by shifting your focus and taking a few deep breaths.

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To get the most out of your Loving Kindness meditation, when you start, use yourself as the sole subject during meditation. As you get more comfortable with the imagery and loving phrases, you can begin to add the visualization of others into your practice. Adding others into the meditation boosts feelings of forgiveness and helps you to let go of rumination for an increased sense of inner peace. And as you develop a regular practice of meditation, you may want to set a timer with a gentle alarm if you’re concerned about spending too much time in focus.

Any meditation will help with feelings of anxiety and make you more zen, but the Loving Kindness meditation, over time will alleviate feelings of resentment, generate forgiveness to yourself and others and allow you to be able to deal with people, specially those you are in conflict with.