Vanny Gani
The Awakening of the Stars, a novel in the mystical fiction category & Aerial Roots a drama and comedy about the author grandmother.
View Rights PortalThe Awakening of the Stars, a novel in the mystical fiction category & Aerial Roots a drama and comedy about the author grandmother.
View Rights Portal— An extraordinary story of migration — Contemporary history of the 70s and backgrounds to India, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany He was the son of the Sikh priest, a successful 400-meter runner and, eventually, a migrant. In 1979, Bagicha Singh turned his back on his homeland and set off with a head full of dreams on the long, turbulent overland journey from India to Germany. It was the year the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the Islamic Revolution raged in Iran. A year whose aftermath continues to shape the world to this day. More than 40 years later, his daughter tells the story of Bagicha's adventurous journey. The result is a touching document on origin, contemporary history, and the meaning of migration.
Thousands of people say things such as “I have no time”, “when did life pass me by”, or “I have nothing left to live for.” According to the WHO, nearly 700,000 people commit suicide every year, and conditions such as depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and lack of purpose are increasingly rooted in our societies, blocking our view to a life full of light and possibilities. In the age of instant connectivity, we have never been as disconnected, unmotivated and empty as we are now. In these pages, you will find 10 practical tools that will help you get unstuck, find your way through pain, and reconnect with your purpose towards a plentiful life. The book is divided in three sections that help you understand what is valuable about life, what we can give to the world as human beings, and how we can embrace challenges, increase connectivity with each other and increase our awareness. This book invites you to enrich your own life, through reflections that help you go deep inside, and examples of how others who when through similar experiences, got through them to live a happier, meaningful, and purposeful life.
The demand for plant-based industrial raw materials has increased as well as research into expanding the utility of plants for current and future uses. Plants are renewable, have limited or positive environmental impact and have the potential to yield a wide range of products in contrast to petroleum-based materials. Plants can be used in a variety of different industries and products including bioenergy, industrial oil and starch, fibre and dye, rubber and related compounds, insecticide and land rehabilitation. This title offers a comprehensive coverage of each of these uses. Chapters discuss the identification of plant species with desired traits, their cultivation to obtain the needed raw materials, methods utilized in producing different finished products, current and future research in crop production and processing and the present state and future prospects for the industry. Providing the first systematic review of industrial crops and their uses, this book will be an important resource for students and researchers of crop science and agricultural policy makers.
Air pollution has become a major global issue due to rapid industrialization, human population growth and increasing urbanization. The various sources of atmospheric pollutants, both those created by human activity and those from natural physical and biological processes, have become the focus of much scientific research and analysis. An understanding of how these many pollutants are affecting air quality is essential in order to design strategies to mitigate them. Written by a team of international experts, this book aims to provide a broad overview of the issues surrounding air pollution and how to control and monitor pollution levels. Beginning with a brief background on the subject, the book moves on to discuss global emissions, with an emphasis on megacities and their effects. Possible pollution control measures and methods of air pollution measurement and modelling are also explored. The book ends with descriptions of the various indices used for assessing air quality with a focus on human health impacts, and a discussion on policy making to control air pollution. The book will be useful to students of environmental science and atmospheric science, as well as environmental consultants and researchers interested in air quality . Key Features: Comprehensive introduction to the primary causes of air pollution today with an emphasis on growing urban populations and megacities Discusses both anthropogenic and biogenic emissions and their effects on human health and the environment Gives an overview of indices used today for assessing air quality and describes current methods for air pollution monitoring and modelling Discusses new technologies for mitigating the effects of air pollution and policy making for implementation of controls
With well over 6,300 articles, including over 500 new entries, this fourth edition of The Encyclopedia of British Film is a fully updated invaluable reference guide to the British film industry. It is the most authoritative volume yet, stretching from the inception of the industry to the present day, with detailed listings of the producers, directors, actors and studios behind a century or so of great British cinema. Brian McFarlane's meticulously researched guide is the definitive companion for anyone interested in the world of film. Previous editions have sold many thousands of copies and this fourth edition will be an essential work of reference for enthusiasts interested in the history of British cinema, and for universities and libraries.
Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy: A Global Citizens’ Report on the Corporate Control of Technology, Health, and Agriculture details how global philanthrocapitalists like Bill and Melinda Gates and affiliated entities work to monopolize and privatize sectors of land use, food production, and public health on a global scale. This anthology calls to account problematic initiatives that serve to corrode the integrity of democratic institutions, often under a banner of future-oriented innovation. This book lays bare the destructive power of overly capitalistic systems that enable mass human suffering and environmental catastrophe via the entanglement of private investment and public policy. “Vandana Shiva is one of the great minds and truth tellers of our time. This book is a chilling and meticulously documented expose of the reckless and ultimately devastatingly dangerous use of philanthropy by a likely well intentioned technophile capitalist clueless about the needs of living people and the living Earth. A must-read warning for anyone concerned about justice, Earth, and the human future.” 一 David Korten, Author of When Corporations Rule the World; The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community; and Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth. “In Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy, Dr. Shiva has once again laid bare the emerging threats to our democracy and living planet. Shiva states a compelling case that the digital barons are the new landlords, wielding their unregulated wealth and evading democracy in an attempted takeover of global agriculture. Authoritative contributors further elucidate the dangers of genetic theft, protraction of the Green Revolution legacy, and terrifyingly bold genetic extinction technologies. The reader is left mortified and fully convinced that “Land Back” to Indigenous communities and a return to agroecology is the path to a livable future on planet earth.” 一 Leah Penniman, Co-Founder of Soul Fire Farm, author of Farming While Black
A synthesis of more than three decades of interdisciplinary research and practice, Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change, provides evidence-based solutions to some of the world’s most pressing crises in global ecology, agriculture and public health. Featuring the work of Navdanya, an organization founded by Dr. Vandana Shiva that promotes agroecology, seed freedom, and a vision of Earth Democracy that seeks justice for the Earth and all living beings, this work serves as a guidebook for agriculture scientists, policy makers, environmentalists and every individual who cares about their own health as well as the vitality of the planet. Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture, provides a detailed analysis of the multiple planetary dilemmas we face due to chemical and industrial agriculture, including land degradation, water depletion, biodiversity erosion, climate change, agrarian crises, and health crises while also focusing on practical and evidence-based solutions. Those solutions include methods of using biodiversity-based organic farming to regenerate soil, conserve water, increase climate change resilience, and ensure food security in rural populations. As editor, Dr. Shiva takes an organized approach to these wide-ranging topics and provides practical knowledge that can inform the future of agriculture and sustainable food systems. With detailed scientific evidence, Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture shows how an ecological agriculture based on working with nature can regenerate the planet, the rural economy and our health.
"Time Traveler Kreta" is a science-fiction children's book that tells the effects of our consumption habits on the climate crisis to children aged 8 and above, through the adventures of two alien friends, Kreta and Shiva. While the text is based on the climate crisis, topics such as sustainability, how the world works, time and space, exploration, scientific and technological progress are also covered. The adventurous Earth journey of Kreta and Shiva progresses in a fictional reality that emerges with the narration of scientific data about the climate crisis and ends with proposals for solutions. Kreta, an inquisitive and excited time traveller, want to embark on every adventure without thinking about the end and thus become an experienced time traveller. Once Kreta gains enough experience, they will find their profession and acquire new skills. On the other hand, their friend Shiva is a mature, somewhat lazy, poet alien cat who tries to rein in Kreta in every adventure. Kreta and Shiva travel to the planet Earth to meet humans, but they encounter strange creatures that are not human-like: dinosaurs! Yes, they find the Earth, but they are at the wrong time to meet people. They don't get along well with the dinosaurs and leave Earth, but Kreta is determined to find humans. When they try their luck once again, this time, they go to the 2070s of the world. Despite technological progress, they encounter a dark and hot planet where oxygen and water are scarce. In the world of the 2070s, among robots and other strange creatures, they finally find a human being: Omer. What they learn from Omer, an engineer specializing in climate research, surprises Kreta and Shiva. In the 2070s, the world is struggling with the effects of a big problem called climate change, and this problem cannot be solved. In the light of this information, a brand new task comes before Kreta and Shiva. This mission is to go back to the 2010s, the deadline when the climate crisis can be averted, and deliver a video message to the people. When Kreta and Shiva reach the world of the 2010s, they accidentally land in the middle of Omer's birthday party. Their aim is to deliver the video message to Omer, but during the party, they fail to do so, and they start following Omer. Both at the birthday party and while they follow Omer, Kreta and Shiva witness the culture of waste in the World of the 2010s: huge vehicles designed for people's tiny bodies, aeroplanes, plastic packaging used to present gifts, decorations, single-use plastic serving plates and glasses and vast amounts of waste food... Kreta and Shiva understand why they have been teleported to this date when problems of the 2070s could have been prevented. Kreta and Shiva eventually find Omer in an enormous hotel where his Youtuber mother is visiting for a launching event. They have funny moments when they introduce themselves to Omer. Yet, they manage to deliver the video to Omer and tell him about the problems that will happen in the future. However, when he watched the video, Omer realizes that the problem cannot be solved immediately. He thinks that he cannot persuade other people, either alone or as a child; he cannot change their consumption habits. He tries to ask his mother for her support, but he can't make his mother, who is always busy, listen to him. Kreta and Shiva decide to stay a little longer and help Omer, and they achieve their goals in the launching meeting of Omer's mother. They manage to show the video to thousands of people. The fact that most of the viewers are children is a great advantage because they understand the climate change problem best. Children do not remain silent to the call of the message and take action for the Earths future. The book's pedagogical structure and the scientific data on which it is based were established with experts in these fields. The reading of scientific data was done by the engineer members of the Sustainability Steps Association. The reading in the pedagogical context was carried out by PCG Teachers. The video mentioned in the story is embedded in the book via QR code and can be watched with English subtitles on Youtube.
Earth is our Business takes forward the argument of Polly Higgins’ first book, Eradicating Ecocide. This book proposes new Earth law, but it is also about something more than law: it advocates a new form of leadership which places the health and well-being of people and planet first. Polly Higgins shows how law can provide the tools and be a bridge to a new way of doing business. She argues, in fact, that Earth is the business of us all, not the exclusive preserve of the executives of the world’s top corporations. Expanding on the proposal in her first book to make Ecocide an international crime, this book sets out the institutional framework for sustainable development and international environmental governance. It proposes new rules of the game to transform our economies, energy supplies and political landscape in a radical, but practical, way. The implications of Polly Higgins’ proposal are far-reaching and profound. Like her award-winning first book, Earth is our Business is written for anyone who is engaging in the new and emerging discourse about the future of our planet. Instead of merely examining the problem, Earth is our Business sets out a solution: new rules of the game. They are, says Polly Higgins, a new set of laws based on the sacredness of all life. Included as appendices are a draft Ecocide Act, a proposal for revising World Bank investment rules, and the indictment used in the mock Ecocide Trial held in the UK Supreme Court in September 2011.Eradicating Ecocide won The People’s Book Prize for non-fiction in 2011. --- Another indication of Polly Higgins, the author’s, growing world recognition is her inclusion with some of the world’s foremost environmental activists and philosophers in a feature film that sheds light upon the new Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, which has been presented by Bolivia to the United Nations for recognition. The film also features Dr. Vandana Shiva, David Holmgren, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Starhawk, Cormac Cullinan, Father Bob Maguire, John Seed and others http://indymedia.org.au/2013/06/03/united-natures-press-release
At the height of the British Raj, Major Francis Browne, British Resident in the Princely – semi-autonomous - State of Jerupore, is travelling with his family across the burning Rajasthan desert, when his only surviving child Emily falls gravely ill. At the point of death, she revives when an enigmatic Hindu saddhu, Shiva Singh, comes to treat her. Francis dismisses this as mere coincidence, but his wife Louise believes the sadhu has saved Emily's life, and wonders if he could also cure her of the barrenness that has afflicted her since Emily’s difficult birth. Shiva Singh is a radical sadhu, a Brahmin who denounces the caste system and the priesthood and calls for a 'purification' of Hinduism. It is for this reason that a young Brahmin girl, Nirupama, who has narrowly escaped being killed by her family for loving a lower-caste man, becomes one of his most devoted followers. Shiva’s growing influence among the lower castes and dispossessed infuriates the upper castes in the state, who see a threat to their power and privilege. There is a danger of unrest and riots, which concerns the Resident as much as the Maharaja's advisers. At the same time, Louise Browne longs to meet the sadhu again and seek his help, although Francis warns her not to, and in any case Shiva remains upcountry, far from the capital. When she unexpectedly meets the Indian woman who was her husband's mistress and has borne his child, however, Louise resolves to disobey him. Shiva Singh comes to the city of Jerupur at last and Louise goes secretly to hear him speak. Immediately afterwards, upper caste men attack the sadhu's followers, and in the ensuing riot, both Nirupama and one of the attackers are killed. Shiva Singh is arrested on a trumped up charge of murder. The Maharaja wants him tried in Jerupur, but for that he needs the Resident’s consent, for Shiva is a subject of British India. Convinced he has committed no crime, Major Browne at first refuses, believing the sadhu is innocent and knowing he will certainly die if he is tried in Jerupur. But the Maharaja has information with which he can blackmail him, and rather than be disgraced, the Resident surrenders, despite the reproaches of his conscience and the frantic protests of his wife. The sadhu is quickly tried and executed in the traditional manner, trampled by an elephant. But widespread revulsion against the barbarity of his execution leads the Viceroy to replace Major Browne and arrange for the Maharaja to be deposed. In their new, lower, post, Louise bears another son, and reveals to her husband that the sadhu had assured her she would do so. But there is another, stranger, revelation that is gradually borne in upon the reader as the story progresses : Shiva Singh’s life seems uncannily like that of Christ – and the sadhu seems to have known it would be.
A book like no other, this extraordinary document is a tribute to Shiva, the Adiyogi, by a living yogi. A chronicle of the progenitor of mysticism by a contemporary mystic. 'Shi-va' is 'that which is not', a primordial emptiness; Shiva is also the first-ever yogi, Adiyogi, the one who first perceived this emptiness. Adiyogi is symbol and myth, historic figure and living presence, creator and destroyer, outlaw and ascetic, cosmic dancer and passionate lover, all at once. Here science and philosophy merge seamlessly, so do silence and sound, question and answer, to capture the unspeakable enigma of Adiyogi in a spellbinding wave of words and ideas that will leave one entranced, transformed.
Madness didn't destroy her; atoning for it might. Looking Glass Gods, Book 3 Ra has ruined everything. Returning to life through "œrenaissance" was her first mistake. Magical excess was her second. Now she must face the consequences of her reckless conjuring. Her beloved Ahr is dead by her hand, and the comfort she'd found in gender-rebel Jak seems lost to her forever. Ra takes solace in punishment—and in communion with her punisher, the mysterious and merciless MeerShiva. But Shiva has spun a skein of secrecy over centuries—secrets about Ra's origins and the origins of the Meer themselves. And as the secrets begin to unravel, someone else's magic is at work from the hidden realm. Someone with the ability to redraw the fabric of the world itself. As the picture becomes clearer, Ra must face some harsh realities: not everything is about her, and punishment isn't enough. She must stand before Jak and try to atone for what she's done. But seeing Jak will reveal one more secret Ra never saw coming—and one that may mean her own undoing.
Dena Moes, her husband, and their preteen daughters shouldered backpacks and walked away from their American life to criss-cross India and Nepal for eight months. Their journey led them to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the tree where the Buddha sat, and Amma the Divine Mother. From the banks of the Ganges to the Himalayan roof of the world, this enthralling memoir is an unforgettable odyssey, a moving meditation on motherhood and marriage, and a spiritual quest, written with humor and honesty—and filled with love and awe.
“Natural Journey” aims to remove the old-fashioned tension between art and science in order to approach nature’s shapes and colors with astonishment and without being distracted from the main task: to learn from it and listen to its call in the midst of the climate crisis. Botanical illustration is the art that allows us to enter the world of plants through our senses. But it is also a scientific record that provides botanists and scholars with subtle and precise representations that no technological device can reproduce. A botanist, an illustrator and a journalist are touched by the journey led by other women who inspired them with their environmental sensitivity and awareness. When reading “Natural Journey”, you will be taken into a pleasant walk through six types of plants whose names take after their identifying characteristics. “Travelers”, some inspire and others move (without legs or wings), “dangerous”, even lethal, colors and characteristics that define them, “deceitful”, traps and camouflages to get what they want, “rebels”, those who dodge the rules, undisciplined, stubborn and defiant, and “hungry” from the Plant to the Animal Kingdom, nutrient-capture strategies, “flamboyant”, as emerged from delirium. The book also contains each plant’s data sheet and mapping.
This book is intended to meet the academic requirements of the subject Environmental Science for graduate and postgraduate students of various Indian Universities. This book covers the syllabus of M.Sc. Environmental Chemistry, Environmental science of graduate, postgraduate and also of MBA classes. This book has a holistic approach to the subject for easy and logical comprehension. A comprehensive and balanced coverage of the entire syllabus is the speciality of this book.
One hundred and one inspiring stories of the notable men and women who shaped the world with their ideas, their genius, their creativity or courage. From super scientists to clued-up creatives, from writers to dreamers, these profiles explore the life of each personality in detail, with gorgeous illustrations. This educational book includes worldwide famous figures, as well as lesser-known personalities, but all very inspiring for children.