Good Morning Ji

We Indians seem to be not tired at all in sending Good Morning messages. I was watching a show, where they talked about these GM messages slowing down the internet and they went on to say our population helps in adding to the problem

We have plenty of people typically new comers to the internet keen to share the knowledge which they have just gained as enthusiastically as only they could be. On top of it these are the people who are part of family groups or their own Alumni groups. They have so much of time the limit of 5 forwards per turn is just not a deterrent.

While it is easy to blame them for slowing down the internet, we have to look at their compulsions for doing what they are doing.

1. They are typically reached a state of mind of a retiree and are finding lots of time at their disposal.

2. They have moved away from a routine and need to occupy themselves with activity

3. Smart phone makes their life easier to connect with people

4. Calling may not be an option as they don't know what the other person is doing

5. Reading as a habit has died down

6. TV is dominated by the lady of the house

As we get, we forward, we are so confident that what our friend has just shared is the absolute truth and most believable news. Our confidence in what we receive makes us forget that February has typically 28 days and all days come four times a month and stupidly think it comes only once in 823 years. Common sense be koi cheese hai bhai

Many of us are not aware of the rules framed under the IT Act and innocently forward fake news too, putting ourselves in the danger of being punished for our probable innocence.

Based on the community, we have now designed ‘message for the day’ Starting from Monday till Sunday with a God’s image/symbol added to the well designed message. You can be rest assured these are forwarded with impunity and needless compulsion.

Thanks to the developers of messaging platforms like WhatsApp we have disappearing messages just to ensure chat thread is cleaned up on regular basis. Due to these needless forwards many an admin is forced to set the group with disappearing messages. Only con is we might miss out on important communication as they too get disappeared.

Family groups which have a mixture of age groups have a different kind of problem. If they restrict forwards, compulsive people feel suffocated, what remains is the greetings for birthdays and anniversaries. An admins job becomes very delicate in such situations as it is family after all.

If we dont forward will we miss out on something, absolutely nothing, we feel keeping in touch is posting good morning messages. No that is not true, we can find many ways to share information as to how we manage a day.

• We could talk about our family and encourage other to do so

• We could share the joy of good tidings within the family and get friends to respond

• We could exchange meaningful banter based on the closeness with the other person

• Avoid topics on politics and religion in a group as all of us may not share the same ideology

• Alert friends about how a neighbour/self got cheated in the ‘online’ age and how they could learn from this experience

• Encourage the silent to express (they choose to be silent when there is too much of junk shared)

• Puzzles/riddles are a good way to engage all age groups, they respond too

• Talk about your activity and how you keep yourself engaged this could motivate others to emulate

• Ensure short communication to make it easy to read and comprehend, avoid long stories

• Share jokes not pictures (cartoons), pictures occupy larger space in the recipient’s phone

• Vulgarity, abuse is avoidable in all groups

We have to make it a habit of the following:

• Sending Good Morning messages is not the only way to tell your friends that you are alive and kicking

• Forwards are not a measure of your intelligence or social commitment, so avoid forwarding everything and anything

• Cross check the news/incident/event before you forward

• You can ‘react’ instead of ‘replying’ to messages which you receive, saves space

• Spread cheer instead of sorrow/grief

Ji, let us stop slowing down the internet, let us improve our bonding with family & friends, Trust this effort of mine will make at least one person change his messaging habit.

Cheers n bye

Manure the man-kind

Manual scavenging is banned in India, however that fact has not deterred people to hire men to clean up the septic tanks at their homes and elsewhere. This in spite of the fact there are mechanical solutions being available.

World has moved forward in this area and have found ways to deal with human excreta. India is just now moving from defecating in the open to building toilets at home. What was considered as a practice (defecating in the open) is being seen as a shameful act now, thanks to the Swachh Bharath movement initiated by the government of India.

We have mechanical evacuation options available to empty the septic tank, however, either due to

lack of knowledge or for emergency reasons people engage in hiring humans to urgently clean up the tank, to ensure the home atmosphere is clean. Tragic death of 6 people near Chennai is just an example how, short sightedness leads to fatal situation.

How is the world dealing with this problem, lets look at thickly populated country like China. China has moved a long way in dealing with this problem and have designed septic tanks for every home, depending on the number of people and toilets available. These tanks not only collect the ‘Black water’ (Water coming from the commodes) but they process the water and collect methane gas from the same. This collected methane gas can be used for cooking and heating purposes. Human waste is considered to be high yielding in terms of gas generation.

These septic tanks are a boon where there is no centralised collection of sewerage. Most Indian cities do not have under ground drainage system, today constructing UGD is an expensive idea, as the sewerage once collected has to be processed at a collection centre (Pump House) and depending on the size of the city pump houses may have to be located in multiple locations in the city.

It is necessary to mandate installation of septic tanks which can capture methane and prevent any future hazard to the mother earth (cemented tanks have a life span of 10-15 years and there after can start leaking and pollute the soil around the area, resulting in potable water sources getting polluted. Some of the better known septic tank bio digesters have 25-30 years life span. These are typically designed to work on fit and forget concept.

The collected methane can be used to light a stove for cooking, heating etc. Methane removed and processed water is very good for gardening or farming. In Many locations where the Sewerage treatment plant water is used for lawns and farming, the green carpeting is healthy and lush.

In a country like India, human life value is considered negligible it is important a suitable legislation is mandated to install Septic tank bio digesters in all places which have no access to under ground drainage system. Any violators who are found guilty of polluting the surroundings should be severely punished.

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