Making a living

One of the thoughts that occupy me is how can one make a living in an eco-friendly and sustainable way. I wont go over-board and over-idealistic, consider me a middle-of-the-road guy. I am not anti- progress or anti-industrialization, however I keep thinking...there must be a way...

Several years ago while teaching a course in Armenia I found a student wearing a necklace made of dried coconuts! Don't take it lightly, the necklace belonged to her grandmother and was 40 YEARS OLD!! I remember when we were young we were fascinated by the "Kunni" seed കുന്നി കുരു (Arbus Precatorius).

The Kunni Kuru is often collected along with Manjadi Kuru ( മഞ്ചാടി കുരു ) Adenanthera pavonina
. We used to make necklaces out of them. This led me to wonder about using other seeds... and guess what I found? A website dedicated to Botanical Jewellery. Now all I have to do is to find buyers.

Btw, did you know that the Kunni Kuru was used to measure Gold and there were even gold coins based on the weight of a Kunni Kuru? But watch out, they are poisonous!

Adenanthera pavonina മഞ്ചാടി കുരു

A guest from America

Image Courtesy, The Smithsonian Institution, Plant Image Collection.

At the HBR we have a visitor from America who has taken up more or less permanent residence there. Swietenia Mahagoni. She..how can someone whose name rhymes with SWEET be a HE?.... arrived in India in 1795. The word, Mahagony apparently derives from Sanskrit where Maha महा means Great and Gony comes from Guna गुण which means qualities. How a visitor got re-christened and what was her name before she was re-christened remains a mystery. India seems to have welcomed the visitor with our traditional hospitality and she has even entered the herbal pharmacopeadiea.

For a technical description of our guest, click here.

When you are on the premises, it is easier to recognize from the picture below

The River

The Meenachil River is the most important river in kottayam. It winds around Kottayam and is both the source of its drinking water (not far from the HBR) and the source of its early trade and commerce, when Kottayam was the hub of the spice route called "Hill Produce" or Malancharakku (മലനചരക്കു ) as it is called in Malayalam.

Click on meenachil link on the right to know more.