http://wiki.sunson.in/ 2010-09-06T21:54:26+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/ http://wiki.sunson.in/lib/images/favicon.ico text/html 2009-09-16T19:19:56+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/aquaculture?rev=1253128796&do=diff Aquaculture Integrated aquaculture can be advantageous in multiple ways: * Nitrogen rich water for irrigation if fish grows in the pond * “Porukku” soil rich in decomposed fish droppings can be used as manure later * Fish as a source of income to break-even cost of pond construction text/html 2009-08-10T06:46:23+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/books?rev=1249886783&do=diff Books When I was about 7 years old, I was painted a picture that its “cool” to be studying books and so on. Unfortunately, that idea never worked on me. Frankly, I did try to go to libraries with my awesome 'atthai' (who, has gifted me nothing but books since I was a kid). I did read all of them, but I never sought books even though its said to be cool. text/html 2009-05-07T15:29:46+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/carnatic?rev=1241710186&do=diff Carnatic Music Carnatic music is an impromptu style of live music with its roots from ancient vedic music. Its a pretty neatly organized, systematic set of rules with focus on improvisation and that's what appealed to me about it. I've been self-learning about carnatic music since the past 4 years or so with about 5 months of formal training from K.N.Shashikiran that I discontinued due to lack of time for formal training. I typically end up grokking stuff over intense practice sessions, albe… text/html 2009-07-20T07:42:04+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/computers?rev=1248075724&do=diff Computers Early Days A significant part of my life has thus far been revolving around computers. It all began when I was shown a computer at school. It had a floppy drive and they showed 'digger' game. To the 10 year old's heart, that was so attractive. The instructor was running his own 'training' company that wanted to introduce computer education to schools. Our school had big inhibitions because the instructor insisted on an “Air conditioner” for the PC room. They never made it. I asked t… text/html 2009-05-05T17:56:45+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/deepti?rev=1241546205&do=diff Deepti I met Deepti at work while I used to work at Amazon and we got married while I worked at Amazon itself. She used to live in Kanpur before she moved to Bangalore for work. She works for Amazon's A9. text/html 2010-03-08T04:06:39+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/documentaries?rev=1268021199&do=diff Documentaries Here are a list of documentaries that I recommend Peak Oil, Economics and Environment * End of Suburbia * A Crude Awakening * The Crash Course * I.O.U.S.A. * The 11th Hour * Flow - for Love of Water * Global Gardener * Poison on the Platter * The World according to Monsanto text/html 2009-05-18T04:04:51+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/evolution?rev=1242619491&do=diff Evolution evolution, bookref, science Someday, there would be very interesting practical experiments hrtr to teach evolution to children, especially the power of Natural Selection. Maybe something like This cool experiment. Right now, this will just introduce the reader to a bunch of very interesting books by Dawkins that I can say changed me significantly and got me very interested in understanding the natural world further. One of my wishes is to teach evolution to children. Afterall, wha… text/html 2010-09-04T03:48:20+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/fukuoka_farming?rev=1283572100&do=diff Fukuoka Farming Inspired by the Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka's “Zen” style of farming and having seen practically excellent results from doyens who have been using this style in India (such as Mr.Raju Titus), we're going to start an experiment in zone 1 to do no-till zero-farming. text/html 2009-05-05T17:12:21+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/gardening?rev=1241543541&do=diff Gardening If you came here looking for my food production pursuits, check out Permaculture. Background I have a 700 sq.ft. garden area at home. Though its an apartment, since my house is the only one with access to this garden, the prior owner of the house had bought off this 'common area' from the rest of the various flat owners. So that essentially means, the 700 sq.ft is all for my experimentation! text/html 2009-08-10T12:04:05+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/kuruvai09?rev=1249905845&do=diff Kuruvai 2009 Wishlist of Projects * P1 - We need a pump by the end of the cycle * P3 - How about a Shelter (powered by sustainable electricity?) to supervise and rest? * P4 - Can we buy Cattle? Goals * Publish Kuruvai 2009 yield and cost data * Update Tree Planting with a status before and after the cycle * Publish water remaining data at rain water harvesting text/html 2009-12-19T20:05:58+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/music?rev=1261253158&do=diff We all do agree that today's music has been strongly influenced by the music of the past. But when we talk past, we should also talk our entire past, isn't it? Every known civilization has had some form of music and dance. The fossil record traces of mankind's tryst with Music goes way back to the days when we were busy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_musicology sending the mammoth to extinction>. And then the ice age passed... not without impacts. We were shrunk to a population of a… text/html 2009-05-18T03:52:05+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/nature_observations?rev=1242618725&do=diff Observations from Nature I'm going to jot down tid bits, trivias and stuff that I learnt out of pursuing a curiosity. Deliberately, there shall not be any conclusions made. Plants will never say no to sunlight Plants take in only 5% of incident light due to the inefficient mechanism by which chlorophyll works... Heat is bad. Sunlight is not. --- 2009/05/06 09:30 text/html 2010-01-27T05:49:55+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/organic_paddy?rev=1264571395&do=diff Organic Paddy Updates * 2010-01-27 * Gandakasala is ready for harvest, albeit 2 weeks behind schedule! A soil spoiled by nitrogen fertilizers needs time to recover and as expected, our yield is also much lower than what long-time organic farmers get. We expect about 15% crop loss due to erratic rains. But, many in the neighbourhood lost their entire crops. This only goes to show that Native varieties are the most simplest and best suited for our climatic conditions. * Since no mechani… text/html 2010-09-04T03:43:48+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/organic_paddy_2?rev=1283571828&do=diff Organic Paddy 2 Overview We'll plant Jasmine Thai rice and Salem Samba using raised beds in zone 2 and zone 3. To know about our experimental effort to grow using fukuoka style natural farming, see the fukuoka farming page. Updates * Sep 01: Raised beds created * Sep 03: Both variety seeds procured and sown text/html 2010-09-04T03:28:56+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/our_farm?rev=1283570936&do=diff permaculture, todo Our Farm See on google maps. Our goal is to grow as much food materials as possible to meet our daily needs. The means of achieving that is by being as low tech as possible in the long run (meaning lesser dependence on any non-natural forms of energy). This naturally gives rise to the use of permaculture principles to guide our design. text/html 2009-08-25T10:38:04+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/peak_oil?rev=1251196684&do=diff Peak Oil —Kenneth S. Deffeyes; Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage; p. 149,157-8. This page will include my findings, thoughts and writings on the topic of energy. It will also include stuff from my earlier blog posts on peak oil. text/html 2009-05-05T18:22:48+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/peak_oil_unconference?rev=1241547768&do=diff Goals * Meet like-minded people who share a concern about peak oil and are looking forward to doing 'something' about it * Create awareness The unconference * Where? * Who volunteers and for what? * Collateral * Posters Stuff to cover Wake up call * Uses of petroleum, role of oil in day-to-day life - india perspective. * what is peak oil? * The story of US's own peak * The Hirsch Report text/html 2009-10-29T15:24:36+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/permaculture?rev=1256829876&do=diff permaculture, bookref Permaculture "If we throw Mother Nature out the window, she comes back in the door with a pitchfork" --Masanobu Fukuoka People often tend to hear about Permaculture. It has been my own arduous journey in trying to understand permaculture. I concur, the arduousness was simply because I was stuck to one view of how the world should work. It made complete sense, when I realized, Business As Usual can't go on for too long. text/html 2010-02-15T01:26:29+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/pond_diaries?rev=1266197189&do=diff Pond Diaries Feb 14, 2010 Hello folks. Hows the summer warming up? The water has receded and the second level in the pond is now <http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunson/4357373577/ becoming visible>. Once the second level becomes reasonably dry-enough, I'll start helping plants grow up in the second level. text/html 2010-02-09T09:36:28+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/rain_water_harvesting?rev=1265708188&do=diff Rain Water Harvesting Our farm is a tiny acreage (1.86 acres) farm. Irrigation needs are typically only from feb to jul while the rest of the year is fed by the Cauvery river and reasonably copious rains during the monsoon. 113 cms of rain fall in just 3 months. Catch it or lose it - that's basically our problem. text/html 2009-05-10T04:59:40+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/ramblings?rev=1241931580&do=diff You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?” – George Bernard Shaw The 'power' of Humanity I have no hope in humanity. The justification for lack of hope is the existence of the billions of God believers on this planet. text/html 2009-10-20T05:42:09+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/samba09?rev=1256017329&do=diff Samba 2009 Highlights * Pond constructed. See rain water harvesting for details. * 850×450 sq.ft. - ~5% of land area * 3 stepped pond with storage capacity of over 8.15 lakh litres * 28,795 cu.ft. of red soil unearthed and used for constructing the pond's banks, a broad varappu for growing coconuts around the boundary and two elevated platforms for constructing a shelter later in the future. * Total of 5 inlet/outlet pipes across the farm - 4 in zone 1 * Pond filled up and cha… text/html 2010-09-04T03:37:01+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/samba10?rev=1283571421&do=diff Samba 2010 Highlights * Organic Paddy 2 * Jasmine Thai and Salem Samba using raised beds * Water arrived on August 28th * Water self sufficiency * While our motive of not over-farming or over-producing remains, we realized it is vital to have water to ensure trees get their life support supply of water. We tried using the pond and we even bought a pump but all of that wasn't sufficient well into the dry-season. Watch this space for more updates. text/html 2009-09-09T16:50:00+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/simple_living?rev=1252515000&do=diff Simple Living I have only one long term, continuous goal in life. To live simply. What is it to live simply? It is to live this moment of being alive, knowing one's human nature and its ability to inflict harm. Our nature is shaped by evolution. the prime force acting upon evolution is natural selection. While evolution has also thrive by co-operation, the ultimate purpose of that co-operation is selfishness too. Unfortunately, this selfishness has never lead to living a happy life. It only p… text/html 2010-06-01T05:01:46+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/sketching?rev=1275368506&do=diff = Sketching = I love sketching and I have renewed my sketching interests by buying a Wacom Bamboo Pen graphics tablet. You can check out my sketches from my flickr 'Sketches' photoset. text/html 2009-08-10T17:13:37+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/society?rev=1249924417&do=diff Society The notion of “Society” seems as important to humans as “Swarms” are to the bees and the ants. I believe, humans are no special and we're pretty much yet another species trying to carve a living in the struggle for life. Humans are a pretty young species and yet there has been something special about humans that has allowed them to efficiently grow as a species. text/html 2010-02-09T07:15:39+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/start?rev=1265699739&do=diff Home About this wiki This is a part of the wiki that is accessible to the outside world. I use this wiki to make some scribblings, reminders, ideas, rants - some of which I want the world to read, some of which I don't want the world to read. Here are a bunch of loosely organised things, in no specific order, about me / about stuff you might be interested in reading about. text/html 2009-06-06T12:04:02+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/status_report?rev=1244289842&do=diff Status Report permaculture Goal To use existing, widely-used known methods to obtain a yield for sustenance while incrementally increasing soil fertility and diversity. Current status * 2 Acres of land * river and monsoon fed water * mono-cropped with gingelly text/html 2009-08-14T01:51:36+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/sustainable_water_pump?rev=1250214696&do=diff Sustainable Water Pump Some basic rules * Materials: No dependence on any kind of materials that cannot be obtained locally by oneself without needing another person's help * Working: Must make use of locally available energy * Safety: Must be safe for installation in a the locality * Durability: Must be able to withstand local weather conditions and potential abuse by children and animals. text/html 2009-09-09T14:12:04+00:00 http://wiki.sunson.in/tree_planting?rev=1252505524&do=diff Tree Planting Trees on the Pond Border * Coconut Trees - 30 * Plantain - 20 Trees on the Pond third * neem - 4 * pungai - 2 * mango - 3 * jackfruit - 2 * guava - 3 * lemon - 2 * citron - 2 * gadaaranga - 2 * pomegranate - 3 * jamun - 3 * Seetha Pazham - 3 * sapota - 3 * papaya - 3