Phyllanthus niruri - Keezhanelli

Phyllanthus niruri known as Keezhanelli in Malayalam springing in the rain in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

The south west monsoon has set in.

Keezhanelli standing in a pit of laterite soil brimming with rain water.

There was stillness while collecting the seeds of Keezhanelli after the monsoon had moved from Kerala to other parts of India in 2017.

The tender leaves of Keezhanelli are ground into a paste using coconut milk and given to those convalescing from jaundice and liver ailments.

This was part of the traditional knowledge handed from generation to generation in Travancore.

Keezhanelli is also known as 'stone breaker' in common parlance.

On Guru Purnima

A sunny day, a gentle sea

A day to be reminded of ...an ocean of knowledge... ancestors... memories... gratitude..which have helped weather many storms when put to practice. 

Before the worship making a payasam with rice, jaggery, coconut milk, aromatic spices...

Aromatic spices leaves. before roasting and  powdering

A Platycerium gives forth new fronds on Guru Purnima day.

A Platycerium in Thiruvananthapuram Kerala

When a Gloriosa superba blossoms on Guru Purnima day... leading one to conversations towards the Kathopanishad. 
*They perceive that indescribable highest bliss as ‘This is That’ How shall I know that? Does it shine by itself or does it shine by another light*.

Gloriosa superba blossoms in Thiruvananthapuram Kerala

Gloriosa superba is known as 'Agnishika' in Sanskrit, 'Kalihari' in Hindi and 'Menthoni' in Malayalam. All parts of the Gloriosa superba are poisonous. The underground stems which are tubers are extremely poisonous due to the presence of toxic alkaloids like colchicine.

Reference: *transalated from Sanskrit - Valli ii of the Kathopanishad

Traditional Knowledge: A traditional comfort food - Chakkavarati

... from a Varrika Plavu, an Artocarpus heterophyllus in Kerala

The Jackfruit tree - Artocarpus heterophyllus, a native of the Western Ghats, known as *Plavu* in Malayalam used to be seen in abundance in most homesteads in Kerala. The numbers have dwindled with concrete structures replacing many homesteads. The wood is used as timber. The fruit is known as *Chakka* in Malayalam. In some parts of North India, the fruit of Artocarpus which has an altogether different texture and taste is known as *Kathal* in Hindi. In Sanskrit it is known as *Atibrhatphala*.

A variety of Artocarpus heterophyllus in Kerala is known as the *Varrika Plavu* and its fruit *Varikka Chakka* is sweet with a distinctive comforting flavour. During some seasons the *Varrika Plavu* bears its fruit *Varikka Chakka*, on the top branches making it difficult to pluck without dropping the heavy fruit on the ground.

A variety of Artocarpus heterophyllus - 'Varikka Plavu' bearing its fruit 'Varikka Chakkas' on its low lying branches in a season

Rubbing coconut oil one one's hands, on the knife for cutting, helps in smooth removal of the fruit, seeds and removing the stickiness from the inedible white long fibrous parts which hold the big fruit together.

A cut ripe fruit with the inedible white long sticky fibrous parts which hold the fruit together

It takes a lot of time and patience to remove all the edible parts and segregate the inedible parts

The Varikka Chakka is used in making a plethora of sweets like payasams, chakkavarati, and ela appams made in a banana leaf.

The seeds are removed and the fruit is sliced before making Chakkavarati

A big plate of full cut fruit, after cooking with jaggery and spices on a low flame, in a wide thick-bottomed cooking vessel with constant stirring for an hour and a half yields a small bowl of Chakkavarati.

Eating just a spoonful of Chakkavarati is comforting. Using a dry spoon makes it last long.

A spoonful of Chakkavarati, sometimes a bit more, helps in dealing with the cravings that sometimes come after taking the medications for serious mental illness.

What is the *how* that *they* will be treated in the Advance Directive

... for mental illness, is a legal *lasso* for *knowledge transfer*...right to life?

1.This *knowledge* of *how* is very well known to some *they* a small sub-set of population in India who have been treated/admitted > the *40* Mental Hospitals, Government hospitals, autonomous, mostly private mental health centres offering psychiatric treatments. This small sub-set who have the *knowledge* is a miniscule number of 65 million Indians with serious mental illness.

2. *Knowledge transmission* by the Government of India through intensive awareness campaigns on >*how* *they* will be treated for mental illness to the rest of the population in India> through *awareness campaigns mental illness* in cinema halls, multiplexes, markets, malls, schools, colleges, universities, in its colonies, near water wells and water taps where women congregate, routes in different terrains where women collect firewood, in buses, in trains, on highways, at toll centres where tax is collected,…is ominously missing.

3. *Knowledge transmission* by the Government of India on>*how* *they* will be treated for mental illness to the large set of the population through *awareness campaigns for mental illness* in television, radio, FM .…is not happening.
 
4. *Knowledge transmission* through intensive awareness campaigns Mental illness despite repeated appeals to the Ministry of Health of the Government of India over the years is not happening. 

5. There is munificence in *knowledge transmission* by the Government of India, to the population of India for Cancer, HIV/AIDS, reproductive organs, lungs… 

6. So what is the *how* unknown to most of the people in India 

7. So an *advance directive* mooted, trumpeted, propagated and being compared to a *living will* by some learned people (what moral values they learnt in their process of learning is questionable) for *how* to be treated, when most people in India do not know that treatments exist for mental illness…

8. In a will you *know* what you are bequeathing and to whom. A will comes into force after one’s death. 

9. In an Advance Directive, you are bequeathing your *knowledge* , your *traditional knowledge* , to the entities ... some yet to descend on us, rescue us, with their smooth talk, smiles, words, perfect looks, glamour… and glycerin induced tears. 

10. Advantageous to whom? And to protect …whom? (Yippee… let’s dance…mental illness is exercising legal capacity...contract...right to life...legal lasso)

11. Who would be the *entities*> gaining, making money from the *traditional knowledge transfers* through the Advance Directives? 

12.Which pool of knowledge would this traditional knowledge be going to?

13. SO far no *shared benefits* to those who bequeath *the Advance Directive*, the people of India with mental illness, on the road to becoming mentally ill, attempting suicides… 

14. If an advance directive comes into force after giving it to the >...entities does the Advance Directive translate into giving away one’s Right to Life when one is still alive?


Response to: Tell me please, pretty please before my *father* or *mother* are turned into *nominated representatives* what is the *how* in the Advance Directive.

http://amotherandcaregiverinindia.blogspot.in/2014/11/tell-me-pretty-please.html

The *Knowledge deficits* in The Rights of Persons Disabilities Bill 2014 India- Part One

1. Where did all the *knowledge inputs* given in the process of making this Bill go?

2. In the trash can?

3. Or *knowledge* transfers to where and whom?

4. Free * Knowledge* transfers to the learned people with academic degrees to write their reports, books, studies, thesis, newspaper columns … without acknowledging their contributors? No *shared benefits* to so many who gave their *knowledge inputs* which have been kept out of this Bill.

5. This Bill refuses to acknowledge the years of neglect following the Census of India, 2001 which clubbed persons with mental illness together with persons with mental retardation >with all the benefits of rehabilitation showered on persons with mental retardation by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

6. This Bill refuses to acknowledge that the rehabilitation of those with serious mental illness in India was left to the impacted families and few organizations.

7. This bill refuses to acknowledge that Mental illness was counted separately in the last Census of India 2011 and not clubbed together with any disability.

Response to: Piecemeal Employment of mental illness in the Rights of Persons Disabilities Bill 2014 India, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment which is with the Standing Committee in the Parliament of India