Sharing the Gift of Vetiver
- An Aromatic, Medicinal and Bio-remedial Miracle Grass -

On the 7th of August Big Medicine’s Udaipur Shakti Works Project received a generous trove of Karnataka vetiver cultivars from Dr. Ramakant Harlalka, founder/CEO of CG Herbals . We were delighted with the synchronicity that our first gift of an aromatic and medicinal plant was the multi-talented vetiver and it came in perfect concurrence with the Udaipur monsoons.

Vetiver is a fragrant tropical grass native to India and related to other tropical aromatic grasses such as lemon grass, palmarosa, nagramotha and citronella. Unlike most grasses, vetiver roots grow inward and downward, rather than expand to the sides. The root is quite large and can reach very deep into the ground (up to 2-4 meters!). This root structure makes it very easy to control and an excellent plant to combat erosion.

Prior to getting the vetiver gift, Premilla Dixit, co-director Big Medicine and architect of our Greening Indian Education project, had been urging us to get in touch with the International Vetiver Network and adopt the use of the grass as a part of our eco-restoration program in Udaipur. She recommended that we plant it at the Udaipur Shakti Works Center for Ecology, Health and Performing Arts for starters since siltation around the Udaipur lakes from soil blown off the surrounding denuded Aravalli mountains has been a chronic problem for at least two decades now. Read the rest of this entry »

All night Urs celebration at neighborhood mosque.

Urs is a contraction of Uroos, the dissolution of an individual in God, and is a Sufi song-drenched observance of the death day of a particular mosque’s tutelary saint or ‘pir’. Urs celebrations can continue all night and in the bigger mosques for days on end.

The man standing in the rear is actually dancing as if possessed and many others will also rise and pirouette in ecstasy in the course of the event. Don’t know where the Taliban got their musical allergies or prohibitions, because the Muslim world here is a constant fountain of song and fine musicians command great respect. Read the rest of this entry »

BRIEF ACCOUNT OF MAPLE ORGTECH’S FIRST INTRO
OF EM TECH TO GREEN UDAIPUR LEADERS

Meeting I:

Purpose: Introduce possible high profile demonstration site for EM technology adjoining Udaipur’s top international tourist resorts

Time: July 21st, 4:30~6:00 PM

Participants:

Mr. Sunil Trivedi, West India Marketing Manager, Maple Orgtech

Mr. W. David Kubiak, Development Director, Udaipur Shakti Works (USW) and greeningindia.net

Mr. Bhanwar Lal Kabra, USW co-director and project land manager

Location: USW project land on Lake Pichola

Discussion: Public demonstration use of EM tech on USW project land to aid organic medicinal plant park development (accelerating composting of lake weeds, improving microbial soil life, etc.); cleanse municipal sewage water that passes alongside land before it reaches the lake; and purify the water in the natural swimming pond.

Meeting II:
(organized by USW)

Purpose: Introduce Effective Microorganism research and technology to a gathering of relevant Udaipur environmental leaders for possible inclusion into their respective projects

EM Briefing with USW’s Green Eklingji Network
Read the rest of this entry »