Celebrating Meaningless Days!

Celebrating Meaningless Days! Please do not wish me (at least) on birthdays!!

 

Somehow, I am not convinced with the theory of accidental origin of life (forwarded by science). The accidental life spread across in the form of organisms! Each of which struggles to exist, tries to reproduce and express pain while failing to retain the body. There is something that cannot be explained with just a theory of accidental origin facilitated by a peculiar thermodynamic or chemical moment.

All the theories of creation, forwarded by religion, stamps human beings as central of universe and depicts that creation is made around and for them. It is also not convincing, since there are thousands of organisms in this world itself, which we do not know. They are also going through the same dilemma of birth, survival and expiry.

So, there is something still not clear. It does not make sense to mark or celebrate something which unknown/undefined.

Time cycle is another falsehood, which we introduced for better planning and certainty. Though we limited time around the rotation of celestial bodies near us, it is in fact not measurable. The cycles of days, months or years are being accused by us. Measuring an anniversary of an event make no sense other than fooling ourselves in the world of consumables. It’s not only that, it is stamping over importance on a living being which is going to leave shortly.

Ignoring the ignorance on birth or irrelevance of time cycles, still, I could not find a reason to celebrate/observe. There are thousands or millions in the world, who are facing severe injustice due to the social stages. Sticking to existence by keeping loyal to power centers (goliaths) for safety and ignoring the tears makes me a traitor. While every moment burns, what is the point in marking the passage. I really hate a wish.

Birthdays should remain as age marking events on official records. Marking the meaningless event and receiving wishes based on it makes me irritated. I keep wishing others on birthdays (occasionally) to have peace, in the assumption that they like it. If anyone gets irritated on the wishes (like me) please let me know, so that I will not wish any more.

Is LPG behind epidemic fever and rise of cancer in Kerala ?

Way to LPG and some concerns !

Convenient source of energy for cooking was one of our targets, always. I am attempting to walk through some of the sources I witnessed and is trying to give a look back. Below observations are purely within the context of Kerala, where you can not resist the quest for tasty and properly cooked food.

Native Energy Sources

Twenty years back, our house holds in Kerala used several native techniques to find energy for kitchen. Wood, leaves, small branches of trees, scrap wood (resulted from furniture manufacturing etc.) and cow dung were very popular among common source of energy. Basically all of them were burned to produce heat energy for cooking food. 

Native sources had an inherent problem on its storage and maintenance. Cooking materials have to be collected and stored in convenient ways to use it handy. It involved, cost, time and effort. Moreover it used to produce mostly black fumes and used to make kitchens black rooms (regardless of the light and love it emits).

Solar Energy

To some extend, some of us even tried to make use of solar heat to cook food. Reflection techniques were used to concentrate heat on vessels to cook food using it.

Though there were many theoretical and scientific reasons to go for solar heat for cooking, its inconvenience and unavailability of it during all seasons made it unpopular. Most of the places, it found itself the place of solar water heater only.

Electric Energy

Electricity in full strength was not a common stuff among rural India till recent times. The conventional water heaters seems to be the first to enter kitchen. They were not so profitable and due to safety concerns they became less popular over a period of time. Electric Ovens, Induction Cookers, Electric Rice Cookers, Kettles etc. tried to pitch in.

Electric cooking devices were not able to replace traditional stoves from kitchen as the interesting and traditional cooking practices and procedures were very much tied to the good old veteran. So, more or less the electric equipment was treated as a re-heating device or a tool for baking/preparing non malayalee food.

Kerosene

Public distribution system in Kerala was very strong, once upon a time. Regardless of political colors, most of our ancestors believed that we are social animals and common facilities makes sense. Kerosene was one of the important things included in ration system along with the food items like palm oil, sugar, wheat and rice. It seems kerosene was included to be used in lamps as electricity coverage was less. Later, different varieties of kerosene stoves became common in our kitchens; some places it even replaced the traditional stoves. This trend might have helped us much in rainy seasons and should have been a boon for people in coastal belt (as they also started using it for their motor boats).

The storage of energy and its availability was acceptable to us. But the smell of it and its effect on flavor our beautiful food was not that welcome.

Coal

Coal was never a easily available stuff in Kerala and was never famous as energy source for kitchen.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) 

LPG started getting into the kitchen of wealthy people initially. As the oil companies started exploring the business involved in profitably disposing their bye-product, LPG became a common element in our kitchen. Sooner than later, it became the primary source of energy for our kitchen. From the bye-product, due to the demand for it, it got the status of one of the main products for oil companies. Along with that the idea of white sophisticated kitchens, open kitchens also pitched in. Our kitchens are as beautiful or even beautiful than our drawing rooms nowadays. After ensuring that we are used to it and assuring that LPG had won clearly over other energy forms for kitchen, oil companies started exploring the profit over it by increasing price and associated charges.

Anyways, the convenience to store energy irrespective of climate and venue and the easiness and acceptability of handling it made it one of the essential commodity for us.

Some concerns on side effects of LPG, which needs to be studied ...

In my observation, LPG became a clear winner and it almost replaced most of the other forms of cooking energy sources we used. I feel, with the visual acceptability and virtual neatness it bought, it also bought its own issues.

The first and foremost issue it bought should be the cleanness of surroundings. While LPG made our kitchens clean, it made our surroundings dark and buggy. Earlier, we used to use most of the plant wastes and raw materials for cooking. We used to collect them and used to maintain them effectively to use it for cooking. This used to keep our surroundings clean and healthy. After the arrival of LPG, all such needs vanished and we are now not giving enough attention to these assets. This results in unhealthy water clogging and paves ways to increase of bugs and micro organisms in general. At a high level this can also be seen as one of the main reasons of the epidemic fevers spreading all over Kerala in rainy seasons.

Another issue may be on the value of fumes the old kitchen used to produce. This may not be relevant now, as the structure of our houses changed a lot to fit the LPG and the color it brought in. I strongly believe that in old days, the fumes the kitchen produces should have been an agent to control bugs, cockroaches and other house hold insects. As the materials were produced by plants and animals in the surroundings, burning of them should not have created much harm to the environment. As forest fire used to bring energy to the forest, natural fire should have been good for the overall health of the locality.

An aspect which needs to be studied in detail is the impact of additional elements LPG brings to our environment. LPG is collected from some distant places, being developed by several chemical and physical processes before arriving to us. It should definitely be having enough molecular combinations that are not familiar to our nature - it becomes unnatural in that way. The blue flames and the colorless fumes it produces also should have been oxidizing the unnatural elements and will be in the air around us. What are the chemical combinations it brings in? Are the adaptable to our nature? Are they having an negative impact on our health? Do they have any role in the rising amount of cancer in Kerala? For the sake of beautiful kitchen are we hosting a dangerous companion with us? I feel more studies has to happen on the impact of LPG fumes to the nature (which is not familiar to it).

..a known devil is better than an unknown angel.