‘WORLD CULTURAL FESTIVAL’, held during 11-13 March 2016, on the floodplain banks of river Yamuna, New Delhi, by ART OF LIVING FOUNDATION......

I and my wife watched fully, the inaugural (1^st day: 11^th March) and concluding (3^rd day: 13^th March 2016) sessions of ‘World Cultural Festival’ organized by the ‘Art of Living Foundation’ of spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji..., held on the floodplain banks of river Yamuna in New Delhi and broadcasted live by DD Bharati (1^st day) and Samskar (3^rd Day) TV channels. The sessions, a grand and impressive display of varied Indian and world cultural programmes, were a memorable treat to the eyes and minds of those who participated in person or saw them fully. Thousands of artists performed varied cultural events on a single sprawling platform. Honestly, two eyes were not enough to watch the event......! As the programmes unfurled continuously for more than 3 hours each day in the evenings, I sent SMS to a number of my friends and relatives and asked them to watch because it was a rare treat to witness, perhaps once in a life time....!. Thousands of people, from 171 nations across the globe, from all walks of life which included traditional artists, intellectuals, politicians and ardent followers of AOL participated in the event.....!

As curtains were drawn for the programme yesterday late evening, I was baffled to note that all prime TV Channels and leading news papers of our country didn’t care to broadcast or report on this unique and grand world cultural fete, with a positive mind-frame! How come this became a non-event or controversial to these broadcasters...?  Our Honorable Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modiji inaugurated the programme, in the august presence of Deputy Speaker of Rajya Sabha and a host of cabinet ministers and numerous world leaders.  The concluding session was presided over by the Honourable Chief Minister of Delhi Sri Arvind Kejriwalji, again in the august presence of Speaker of Lok Sabha and a host of cabinet ministers and numerous world leaders.... Each and every cultural event, fond messages read by numerous world leaders and the divine address of Sri Sri Guruji are recurring in my mind today with positive energy.....   

Whole last week and prior to commencement of World Cultural Festival, almost all prime TV channels (except Zee TV) cried foul so loudly that the event will destroy the ecology and biodiversity of river Yamuna and its floodplain surroundings. The National Green Panel and a number of activists made a hue and cry on this issue. Everyone spoke so authoritatively on the possible destruction of ecology and biodiversity in the floodplains of river Yamuna. I was confused because it is my knowledge that such an event will not destroy the ecology so easily and NGP’s objections were to some extent unfounded. Any naturalist, with basic but holistic knowledge of ecology will realize that a few trees and shrubs growing sporadically in a given ecosystem do not constitute the overall biodiversity. In fact, it is the trillions and trillions of microorganisms, i.e. bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes and a vast array of microscopic to small-sized worms that make the bulk of biota of the region’s biodiversity. It is not possible to destroy the ecology so easily by a 3-day festival event. The National Green Panel didn't peruse the issue in its totality and they looked only from an angle of plant community. Instead of objecting, the NGP should have taken the request of AOL as an advantage to restore the floodplains with greenery, after the WCF event. In any case, Sri Sri has assured that AOL will assist in the restoration of the greenery along the river Yamuna...

What is the net effect of WCF? Let us look at this passionately...... The vast knowledge of our culture and heritage is widespread across the globe through those attended the programme. People will go back with fond memories of the event. I appeal the prime TV channels and main news papers to broadcast our heritage showcased through cultural extravaganza such as the world cultural festival fully, at least in the future.... We have many good things to tell to the rest of the world...... 

D. Jayarama Bhat  

Our house is re-painted recently; now looks nice.....!

We got our house re-painted, interior and exterior, and floor re-polished, recently after 13 years of our occupancy. I remember that the initial painting at the time of construction of the house with cream interior and lavender exterior with terracotta bordering, was very methodical, well-done job and endured so long. Over the years, there were quite a bit of additions and deletions on the walls and roof which, together with wear and tear of the weather, deteriorated the wall-paints and demanded a comprehensive repainting. Therefore, we went for a thorough re-painting.....

As this exercise unfolded, we understood that re-painting of a house is no small job.....! It is indeed a big, exhaustive exercise. Firstly, we dismantled everything in the house. The house-hold materials were removed, packed in plastic bags and shifted to another room or compacted at different places in the same rooms. It was quite hectic for me and my wife and we took almost 2 days to pack the materials. The wall-hangings, showpieces, mementos, numerous toys that got accumulated by our children and now being used by our grand-child, sizable quantity of my fungal reference books, utensils, tables, chairs, kitchen utensils and everything....! For a while, the house was in a disarray. I and my wife perched in one room in the house for several days until we got the whole house re-painted and re-organized.

The process of wall repainting is quite elaborate and at times daunting. Retired from service and sitting at home, I observed the whole process of repainting. The old faded and deteriorated wall paint was first scarped using a wire brush or scrapper.  The wall-cracks were opened and re-filled with a crack-filling cement material. The surface imperfections such as dents, holes, depressions, cracks were filled or applied with a coating of wall-putty which is a wall-adhering material. This was followed by an elaborate wall-scrubbing process which resulted with eruption of a mild dust storm of powdered, dusty wall-putty inside the house.  I and my wife used facial masks to avoid inhalation of dust and possible dust-allergy. We cleaned the floor every day, soon after the workers left in the evening but the wall-putty powder rained all through the nights until the primer was applied. Though the dust induced repeated sneezing, fortunately we didn't face any allergic problem from this dust.

The smoothed wall was coated with a primer as a base on which the wall paint was applied subsequently. The raining of wall-putty powder stopped following application of primer. Next, 2-3 coats of wall paint was applied. I guess, it was a water-based emulsion.

There are numerous shades of colours. I believe there has been lot research on providing needful colour combinations onto the walls. Colour charts spell out numerous such colour combinations, depending on one’s taste. We left this to our children to choose appropriate colours, both exterior and interior, and they indeed did well. Eventually we now have ‘wheat sprige’ for interior and ‘burnished sun’ bordered with ‘geranium’ as exterior paint.

There are several reputed paint-manufacturing companies in the Indian market. We went for the brand Asianpaints. I am aware of other paint manufacturers are equally good and very competing with their quotes. All wall-paint manufacturing companies, including Asianpaints claim that their paints are good, competitive in price and resistance to vagaries of weather and especially against algal and fungal growth. This latter aspect, I am not very sure. I am a specialist on fungi and fully aware that controlling fungal growth on a wet wall surface is not that easy. Though microscopic, fungi are grow and subsist on organic matter by elaborating a variety of enzymes.  During rain or when there is lot of humidity and reasonably warm temperature, fungi grow everywhere on the wall paint which is a water-based emulsion. That is how we see patches of fungal growth on wall surfaces. It is not at all easy to control fungal growth. Fungi secrete a variety of enzymes from their filamentous body which digest the paint resulting with the wall paint loosing texture and dexterity.

Meanwhile, we also got the house-floors, partly marble and partly mosaic, mirror-polished. This is also an equally elaborate process. At the end of the day, the whole exercise resulted with even, smooth, shining walls and floors. Indeed, our house now looks grand....!

D. Jayarama Bhat

 Our house before re-painting

Our house after painting (under morning Sun)

 

Our house after painting (as seen in the evening)