Dirty, Sacred Rivers explores South Asia's increasingly urgent water crisis, taking readers on a journey through North India, Nepal and Bangladesh, from the Himalaya to the Bay of Bengal. The book shows how rivers, traditionally revered by the people of the Indian subcontinent, have in recent decades deteriorated dramatically due to economic progress and gross mismanagement. Dams and ill-advised embankments strangle the Ganges and its sacred tributaries. Rivers have become sewage channels for a burgeoning population. To tell the story of this enormous river basin, environmental journalist Cheryl Colopy treks to high mountain glaciers with hydrologists; bumps around the rough embankments of India's poorest state in a jeep with social workers; and takes a boat excursion through the Sundarbans, the mangrove forests at the end of the Ganges watershed. She lingers in key places and hot spots in the debate over water: the megacity Delhi, a paradigm of water mismanagement; Bihar, India's poorest, most crime-ridden state, thanks largely to the blunders of engineers who tried to tame powerful Himalayan rivers with embankments but instead created annual floods; and Kathmandu, the home of one of the most elegant and ancient traditional water systems on the subcontinent, now the site of a water-development boondoggle. Colopy's vivid first-person narrative brings exotic places and complex issues to life, introducing the reader to a memorable cast of characters, ranging from the most humble members of South Asian society to engineers and former ministers. Here we find real-life heroes, bucking current trends, trying to find rational ways to manage rivers and water. They are reviving ingenious methods of water management that thrived for centuries in South Asia and may point the way to water sustainability and healthy rivers.
Just as Peter Ackroyd's bestselling London is the biography of the city, Thames: Sacred River is the biography of the river, from sea to source. Exploring its history from prehistoric times to the present day, the reader is drawn into an extraordinary world, learning about the fishes that swim in the river and the boats that ply its surface; about floods and tides; hauntings and suicides; miasmas and malaria; locks, weirs and embankments; bridges, docks and palaces. Peter Ackroyd has a genius for digging out the most surprising and entertaining details, and for writing about them in the most magisterial prose; the result is a wonderfully readable and captivating guide to this extraordinary river and the towns and villages which line it.
In late 20th-century India, Christian-Hindu dialogue was forever transformed following the opening of Shantivanam, the first Christian ashram in the country. Mario I. Aguilar brings together the histories of the five pioneers of Christian-Hindu dialogue and their involvement with the ashram, to explore what they learnt and taught about communion between the two religions, and the wide ranging consequences of their work. The author expertly threads together the lives and friendships between these men, while uncovering the Hindu texts they used and were influenced by, and considers how far some of them became, in their personal practice, Hindu. Ultimately, this book demonstrates the impact of this history on contemporary dialogue between Christians and Hindus, and how both faiths can continue to learn and grow together.
An Unorthodox Pilgrimage Along India S Rivers Flowing By Himalayan Glaciers, Dusty Mofussil Towns, Impenetrable Forests And Hundreds Of Tiny Villages, India S Sacred Rivers Harbour Legend, Foster Myth And Exert A Powerful Spiritual Attraction. Drawn By Their Irresistible Mystique, Bill Aitkin Set Out To Discover The Seven River Goddesses For Himself. Not Wholly Prepared For The Range Of Moods He Found Them In-Rivers That Boiled Over With A Furious Metallic Hum Or Were Maternal And Languorous In Their Flow, Rivers That Were Cold And Aloof Or Were Gentle And Seductive In Their Jade Loveliness-He Nevertheless Soon Succumbed To Their Blandishments. Along The Way He Also Learned To Cling To The Footboard Of A Bus, Grappled With Vedantic Unconcern, Failed To Comprehend Krishnamurti, Walked Through Tribal Villages With An Oleaginous Politician In Gold-Embroidered Slippers, Toyed With The Idea Of Becoming Sadhu, Changed His Mind When He Fell In Love, And Questioned The Myth Of Indian Spirituality& Spanning Thirty Years Of Journeying, Seven Sacred Rivers Is An Absorbing, Witty And Informative Travelogue Which Also Serves As A Survival Guide To An Undiscovered India.
The Earth has vast reserves of ocean water. Around 97 percent of total water is found in the oceans and, simultaneously, 70 percent of the earth’s area is covered with oceans. The world’s generally all sea; mountains; lakes; and the snow and water emerging from the mountains; all get accumulated and meet in the oceans. The oceans found on Earth are monisms in our solar system. No such oceans are found on any other planet. Oceans have a whole world filled with mysteries and diffusion. Every living thing in the ocean is there to create amusement for us. Despite so much research, several mysteries of the oceans remain unsolved. The oceans, rivers, lakes, and trees are very important to us and our environment as they provide us with fresh and clean water and food. Rivers flow from several origins. These origins can be lakes and mountains. Almost every river meets another river or ocean at the end of its journey. The river which meets the main river is called the tributary. The area through which a river passes is called its catchment area. To maintain the level of the river and its flowing speed, it is necessary to make sure that we don’t exploit the catchment area. Many rivers become the cause of floods in many places in the monsoon season. If the river is large, then it can affect a large area. The rivers that carry a lot of topsoil with them often form deltas. Many forests grow on the banks of the rivers, including several species. Many fish have adapted to living in the rivers as well as the seas, like the Hilsa and salmon fish. For thousands of years, rivers have played an important role in the lives of human beings, and this is the reason why many important towns and cities are located on the banks of rivers. We love our rivers; we pray to them, but we also pollute them. We use the river for drinking, and bathing, as a means of transportation and entertainment. We also use it to generate electricity, and then we throw the waste into the rivers. This is not taking advantage, but in this way, we are ruining our future. We started using rivers as a means of transportation 3,300 years ago. This happened when people floated a boat for the first time on the river Indus. From that time till now, we can see several rivers used as a means of transportation. Some of these rivers are the Ganges, Nile, and Mississippi Missouri. We catch a lot of fish from these rivers, which also help us with irrigation. It is often said that our world resides in a small seed. In the same way, a small seed has a whole tree inside it. These trees and plants are our first mothers. Their leaves, flowers, roots, fruits, and seeds are a part of our daily diet and provide us with nutrition. Without these trees, our world is incomplete. They provide us not only with food but also with oxygen. They absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. They also provide shade for the animals and a home for the birds. Some plants are also used for medicine, mostly herbs. Neem is a good example of medicine. The roots, leaves, seeds, and bark of the Neem tree are all used to make medicines. Plants and trees control the atmospheric temperature. You must have noticed that the places with a lot of trees are mostly pollution-free and have a cool temperature. We all know that without trees, life is impossible. If no trees are left, then our beautiful planet will become dry and lifeless. We should understand the need to plant trees. Our ancestors gave us a green environment, and we should give the same to our future generations. In this book, detailed information has been given about our oceans, rivers, and lakes, and a brief description of life-giving trees has been given. After reading this book and understanding the role these natural resources play in our lives, we may understand their importance. In Mahatma Buddha’s words, "The trees are magical beings in this world. They provide shade to all, even to those who come with axes to cut them down.”
