Reduce Your Carbon Footprint: My Green Commutation

Making the commute green is the best way of going green. At times I have to go to the nearby places. Sometimes I have to go to the places just a few blocks away. So for going I have the option of our family car, a motor bike, a bicycle and my legs. Legs and bicycle are the greenest modes of commutation. So I use them the most and go green. In other words using the active modes of commutation is to go green.

I live close to the place I work and use the telecommunication to interact with people rather than visiting them in person. That saves a lot of unnecessary energy.

And the best option to go to the far away places is to use the public communication system. It is always easy to venture out in the car or in a motorbike or even catch a cab. And it is uncomfortable as well as difficult to get into the public transport. But I bear this much of difficulty so that I could go green and at the same time do a lot of benefits for myself. This helps me a lot to improve my fitness level as well as my psychological status. It helps me to integrate physical activity in my day to day life and save a lot of money by being less car-focused. It is a fact that using the public methods of mass transport uses less energy than individual commutation.

Also it is good to understand the concept of "single occupant vehicles" as reducing the number of such vehicles helps us all. It improves health, reduces the need to build additional roads, lesser costs for maintaining the existing roads, creates greener communities and at the same time makes the environment better for all.

I think that people never understand another benefit of using the public transportation. When I am not driving then I have some more free time. At that time I can make some phone calls, type some text messages and also get time read a newspaper. Sometimes I even get time to prepare for the meetings. I can even get time for socializing. I can chat with the fellow commuters and that certainly makes my mind fresh. And at the same time it is good for the community. It reduces traffic congestion, air pollution, noise. Lesser health care costs are another benefit for the community as well as for the individual. And more importantly there will be an increased sense of security as there will be more people on the road. Also the personal communication between the people will increase.

I believe in ride sharing when I commute with my car. I have some of my neighbors who work nearby my office and some on the route. So that way I drop them out at their work places whenever possible. That way I share prices of the gas and parking. And at the same time I get some moments to socialize with them.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint: My Ways Of Keeping My Bathroom Green

My bathroom is green. The floor of my bathroom is made up of recycled tiles. These tiles are made up of waste glass from windows, mirrors, bottles, jars etc. They also contain some non-toxic and non-hazardous industrial wastes such as special clays, feldspar, granite dust, sand, and silica. During the laying of these tiles I ensured the use of non-toxic sealers.

The toilet is well lighted as I have two large skylights. And for the light at night I have installed compact fluorescent bulbs. A lot of power is saved that way.

I have taken a lot of care in saving water in my bathroom. There is a dual flush toilet installed and also some low flow water faucets in the basins. And my habits are also green. I do not keep the tap open while I shave and brush the teeth. The shower head is also low flow one. But the best thing that I do is that i take shorter showers. The water drain from the bathroom has been diverted to use the waste water in the garden. And the best advice from me is to put a sealed bottle inside the flush so that less water is wasted.

To talk of the shower curtains: I have done away with the plastic curtains and instead use linen curtains. Also I make the least use of toilet paper. And the paper that I use is recycled.

My bathroom is clean and I use some green methods to clean them. I do not use the toxic detergents and the disinfectants. I use vinegar and baking soda for cleaning my bathroom and at the same time I use the soaps instead of the detergents.

After bathing I use the lemon water to rinse the body after taking the shower. It acts as a good deodorizer. And at times for heavy deodorizing effect I use orange peel powder. I use soaps instead of using bath gels and shampoos as they are economical in the sense that less of soap will have the same effect as more amount of gels and shampoos. I avoid using the anti-bacterial soaps as they contain triclosan which is an endocrine disruptor. Also it reacts with sunlight to produce dioxin, a highly carcinogenic and toxic family of compounds, and can react with the chlorine in our drinking water to form chloroform gas, a probably human carcinogen. I avoid heavily packaged products and I prefer to buy the local made products wherever possible because they consume less energy during transportation.

For the water heating purposes I have tank less water heaters in my bathroom. They are very green indeed. They consume less electricity. Also in addition to that they take less space and they have very less waiting time - doesn't it sounds beneficial for those cold winter mornings!

And my interiors of the bathroom are colored white and there are many reflecting surfaces, four mirrors in it. Well this is for the fact that my low power light source does the same work that a higher powered bulb would do in a conventional bathroom.

The pipes that I use for the drains are not of PVC but instead I use the cast iron pipes. They are greener and at the same time do not give out harmful toxins into the water. Also they have recycle value.

Also more importantly I regularly check the water pipes and the drainage pipes so that there are no leaky end and joints - as small things count!

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

We should act now and we should act fast. There are many ways in which we could make a difference. There are perhaps a zillion ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint. Starting today i will provide a way every few days that would help us reduce the carbon burden on our earth and help it keep green. 
Pledge for a Green Earth.
Before reading further please switch off all the unnecessary lights and fans and other electricity consuming devices that are kept on. Take a deep breath.

Earth Day : April 22

Today is Earth day. Each of our effort matters. Can't we take an oath to celebrate each day of the year as Earth day? It is earth which gives us everything everyday. Now it is our turn.

Love Earth

Let us join our hands to pledge to work in every way possible and redouble our efforts to reduce our carbon foot print on this planet. We should remember that it is not just us who stay on Earth but there are billions of species who call Earth their home.

For The Lovers of Sunday.

Sometimes it is just another Sunday. You get up in the morning and you are busy thinking of ways to be lazy for the rest of the day. And in the evening when you call it a day, you are busy and really busy. You are one among that tried and frustrated lot who is clever enough to know that in a few hours you get Monday, that would steal all the pleasantries of your “busy- being- lazy” self enjoying Sunday. 

Monday is just another day. It is a green grinning jealous evil, panting to bite your bum red. With all my Monday bashing I keep my adamant desires burning – do not even try to read in between the lines- desires to curse the Monday for the whole day. But you never know why you accept Monday with this sort of sick prejudice. It’s all work and no play.

Tuesday is just another day that comes with its own set of maladies. It takes the tumescence out of the freshness that somehow crept into Monday from the engorged Sunday. You long for another Sunday. Also you get amazed at the hard work that you do all through the long Monday just to get rid of one pretty day Monday. Somebody should have made you get rid of all six days. But that is the silly paradox of Tuesday. You remain pale.

Wednesday is just another day. I would rather call this day the day of acceptance. You accept the reality that you are heading into the middle of the week and there is nothing that you could do to help yourself. I mean you could hardly punch your way through the days into Sunday.  Love thy own self. Love thy work.

Thursday is just another day. Where you are somehow tired physically, but your mind gets raunchy. Your fingers are overactive and you never mind tiring through the day. Now you are somewhere where you know that you are through the better part of the week. This day makes you see crimson in everything. You blush a lot and sometimes make others blush. You have people calling you naughty.

Friday is just another day. Where you are busy, but the clock seems slow. You look tired but you somehow keep the springs under your feet. You admire yourself but still you don’t know why you choose one of your flauntier shirts. You caress your hairs but you never go any near to the self inflicted orgasm. Instead some way you fake them for yourself to at least remain in the notion of happiness.

Saturday is just another dayhh! Your muscles are sore but the springs under your legs are stout. Your shirt is tout, you feel sleek. In some mysterious ways you remember all the good things, life seems more lovable and living seems more likable. You welcome everyone with a pout. You find that your shoulders and your waist is more into singing. You wear your smile whole through the day.  You nod your head to everything and anything that you come across.

And then you enjoy the evening to get into sleep. When you wake up- you get Sunday which is just another day..

Bromances and brokeback !

Bromances and brokeback !

This wonderful fun-read is from a blogger across the border. Just enjoy reading this fun filled comments that she has collected and compiled. Thumbs up for Tazeen!

So Cricinfo tweeted this photo with a “So much love in the Pakistan team” caption earlier today.

and the Pakistani twitteratti responded with this photo saying what about this one?

Pakistani tweeples thought that the picture with Ajmal and Akhtar was more bromance whereas the one with Sachin and Sehwag was more ... errr. Brokeback.

I asked people to come up with captions and here are some of the more interesting ones.

@shiringul “if I lose my head, it's your ass on the line!”

@a_bong "I got your back ..."

@ammaryasir Sehwag: "Pedicure?" Tendulkar: "Ahaa, usual preparation for the big match against Pak"

@absarshah 'Sucking the marrow out of life"

@kamranbukhari “Ass, gas or grass, nobody rides for free”

@alexpressed “baout yaraana lagta ay!”

@fayyazahmed Tendulkar: "Cover my behind, will ya?"

@Ahmad_Malik “After an intense batting session, Sehwag helped Sachin take care of his guard problems.”

Click here to read the rest of this beautiful post.

Agent Provocateur: Dirty tricks by Congress

Agent Provocateur: Dirty tricks by Congress: "Spiteful act, deplorable deed The Congress is just not reconciled to the idea of Gujarat, more specifically Narendra Modi, showing the way..."