Loreto Nepal shines brightly and stands strong!Elsie Gabriel

Loreto Nepal shines brightly and stands strong!

Elsie Gabriel

 

[Elsie Gabriel is the founder of the Young Environmentalists Programme trust NGO and a Climate Reality Mentor trained by former vice President of USA Mr.Al Gore.She is an award winning author, a certified Green teacher and a post graduate in Environment law. She is an alumni of Loreto Convent Asansol and Loreto College Calcutta India where she graduated with honours in the subject of Education, after which she joined the Mass Communication course in Sophias college Mumbai.]

More than forty smiling bright faces welcomed us, at the Loreto Dharan Nepals  Educational development Center in July 2015 during our social service visit to the center.

 

The aftermath of the traumatic summer earthquake tremors were still being felt off and on, but the members of the entire Loreto center community were holding strong and confident as ever. The Loreto sisters are a happy and hard working community in Dharan, led by Sister Flora, Sr.Purnima and Sr.Aruna. You can see concrete results of their dedication and training of the student community who live with them in the hostel. From academics to behavior management, the students displayed  warm and active personalities, enriched with love and prayer.

The timetable is well organized for the hostelites to wake up praying and studying. they also take turns in cooking and cleaning, which equips them to be better experienced women in the future. The girls later go to the local afternoon school, very neatly dressed and well groomed.

 The sisters of Nepal also provide educational  and private day care services for ages 1 to 5,helping working and studying mothers from the local community find extra time.

 

The center is productive yet involves plenty of challenging work. We were happy to reach out to the students and talk to them about the climate change and rehabilitation, the earthquake tremors and its effects .And that it was all part of nature, we also showed them a Climate Reality Presentation where they saw disasters from all over the world happening due to global warming, this helped them see disasters from a more higher perspective and how it effects people equally all over the world.

 We also conducted a talk on the ‘Productive Cloth bag revolution’, on how each one could make one and help stay away from the plastic bags. Stitching one also involved art and craft as well as brought out talent in a person. We distributed cloth bags and silk scarves for the students to get an idea of the productive work they could also conduct.

We rewarded some students  for good behavior shown throughout the year, which  Sister felt is also an important part of the learning process for all students.

We as environment social workers focused on a few days of short but intensely satisfying therapeutic recreation activities for the children which included gardening activities with sapling plantations and reinventing the farm by providing piglets, ducks and hens. During these sessions we found that good team spirit existed.

One could clearly see that the Loreto philosophy of education in Dharan had founded upon strong behavioral support and student accountability. We saw a holistic approach to education that provided the foundation for success and survival in every aspect of a young person’s life, developing good social and behavioral skills.

We also sang songs with the children after dinner and we found the children to be very talented and focused.

 On the last day we cooked a special supper for the children on the wood fire. It was a humbling experience and gave us an insight that the seniors learn to cook here, enabling them to play active and successful roles in families and society.

 

The multidisciplinary approach at The Educational Development Center placed an emphasis on individual, student-centered learning techniques to help young people complete grade-appropriate course requirements and fulfill their highest level of academic achievement. We found that a special mathematics teacher gave tuition to the students  and coached them for the examinations.

Every night before going to bed, one would hear hymns in praise of God, sung out with so much love and dedication, and gratitude towards life. Every night that we joined them, I would peek through my shut eyes, only to see such innocent faces filled with hope and love, standing in perfect rows, their eyes tightly closed singing away to glory, as the stars blessed them from above in the central portico of the Loreto Fortress.

I encourage you to contact me if you like what you have read about the Loreto Convent Nuns and if you as an alumni could help support the Loreto Convents,it would be great to hear from you. elsiegabriel@gmail.com

What more can one ask for in the world, the wealth of love and contentment is all that we really need in life, after all! These are the lessons we came away enriched with. God bless Loreto!

 

'Women in time to come will do much'  Mary Ward had rightly said.

Loreto Chorus

To East and West of that fair Isle
Where the first Loreto stands,
Loreto's banner now doth fly in many distant lands,
In sunny Spain, on Africa's strand and
Under the Southern Cross
And Westward ho, where rainbow hued
Nigeria's waters toss.

CHORUS

Loreto's banner gaily floats
In lands both East and West
Loreto's name each girl reveres
And holds it ever blest.

But first Loreto found a home beneath our Indian skies
Where now o'er plain and mountain peak
The well loved banner flies.
Loreto's standard bearers we
In girlhood springtime gay
O may we e'er be loyal and true
To the school friends of today.

And when our school days ended are
And our varied paths divide O may the ideals of our youth
Still ever be our guide;
High ideals of purity, of duty and of truth
Learnt while we bore Loreto's flag
In the sunny days of youth.

 

 

Enter the Dragon and tickle your taste buds at the Asian cuisine festival hosted by Master Chef Zong Shou Chen at Trident BKC!

Enter the Dragon and tickle your taste buds at the Asian cuisine festival hosted by Master Chef Zong Shou Chen at Trident BKC!

 

Elsie Gabriel

 

 

 

If you are looking for some real authentic Chinese food, simply head to the Trident at the B.K.C Mumbai. I sure did enter the Dragon food festival and was swept away with the fresh and luscious oriental specialties. I was happy to have been invited by the 022 at the Trident Mumbai and  welcomed by Chef Jeevan Singh who graciously explained the fineries of the Chinese spread. The open cooking alleys spread with colours and smells of China could only be curated by the master himself-  Chef Zong Shou Chen!

 

I loved my tete a tete with the master as we kept hitting the google translate each time to converse. I found it quite fascinating and the entire google conversation actually stirred up quite an appetite after all. The master loves Shezuan as his favorite Chinese style of cooking and he also translated that he is super happy with the great response he was getting. His smiles and face expressions take it all away as he surveys his kingdom of the endless spread, with a pleasing frown. He pleased us by offering glazed baked crispy pork and of course the water chestnut in Chinese style was my best. You don’t need to know the language to find love in the food, do you?

 It is here that the guests fall in love with life, all over again! Delicate chandeliers adorn the entrances and neatly cut staircases take you to the all day dining inhouse bay. Being one of the most reputed BKC hotel, The Trident here knows how to treat and pamper their guests to their heart’s content. This luxury hotel  is equipped with the best of recipes along with the most valued team of chefs.

The Oriental culinary tour of items displayed before your eyes from all over Asia was amazing. For instance the Butanese style vegetarian momo’s were drop dead delicate. Light oriental cuisine is perhaps the real way to treat yourself as the lip-smacking aromas infuse within your tastebuds only to enhance your appetite without leaving you too full. No overpowering tastes, just subtle hints keeping the flavours of the salmon and pork all so simple.  

I loved the use of fresh herbs and light cooking.The steamed Salmon with assorted vegetables were simply exotic. The festival is on till the end of the month, so pamper your eyes and palates with a wonderful spread of soups, starters, main course and desserts. The Trident is really world class and it never fails to disappoint me, ever!

PS-The Wine wall ascends and descends each time you watch the array through the glass lifts, only because the wines are stored showcased beautifully adjacent to the lifts plying up and down to the floors. It’s a sight to behold,you have to simply visit the place to take in the opulence!

Squirrel Monkeys of the Amazon Forests. Wilderness is where I belong.....Elsie Gabriel

Squirrel Monkeys of the Amazon Forests. Wilderness is where I belong.....Elsie Gabriel

 

 

 

Researching this Cebidae primate was over whelming. These common squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) at the Rio Negro, Amazon near Manaus, Brazil; were the friendliest lot I had ever seen. May be they found something in common with me, after all.

The Amazon forest  in South America is the most fascinating store house of the worlds carbon kingdom, you could ever imagine. It is an intricate archipelago of narrow green ribbons of forest, punctuated by the Amazon river and its tributaries.If you ever hit for the South American discovery, do not leave out the Amazon forests, enjoy the earth in it smost natural state,believe me.

 

Well, let me tell you more about these little squirrel monkeys. The crown lineage of the squirrel monkeys appears to have diverged around 1.5 million years ago. Imagine!!

This new world monkey does not use its tail for climbing, although when you watch it move, you observe it kind of uses it as a tool and balancing pole of sorts to help him jump from one spot to another. Their movements in the branches can be very rapid.

They live together in groups. These little chimps kept giving out vocal calls, warning sounds to the rest of the troupes, I guess they were either protecting themselves or calling in the rest of the gang to show me off. I guess the later.

They are so tiny and hairy, but alert at all times. Their small body size also makes them susceptible to predators .Squirrel monkeys are omnivores, eating primarily fruits and insects. Occasionally they also eat seeds, leaves, flowers, buds, nuts, and eggs.

The Amazon jungle is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth and a World Natural Heritage site.  I drowned myself in its grandeur and was captivated by its wonder. It's dense forests made for excellent hiking trails, intense smells and foilage kept drawing me into the thickest depth of the jungle life I have ever experienced. I just didn’t want to leave.

Wilderness is where I belong and God am going back!! Every night before I sleep I say a prayer for the rainforests of the world, may they multiply, may they be left alone; and may they continue to provide us the essence of life-Oxygen! Reuse,Reduce,Rethink and Replenish.We belong to the forest, the forest does not belong to us?! Respect Forests…

If you liked what you just read, do not forget to please share it and follow my blog to travel into the wilderness along with me....

 

Nikit Surve - the Scatman! Disecting and studying Leopard poo to track the diet/ecology of leopards in SGNP Mumbai.

                   Nikit Surve- the Scatman!

Elsie Gabriel.

 

 

Of course, I have seen the Leopard which appeared diagonally in front of my building arena in Hiranandani Powai Mumbai about six months ago. All I could do as a lay person and environmentalist, was to shoo people away from the scene and call the authorities, pave way to give the leopard some dignity and respect; as it was on it’s own home ground. It was no use crowding around and clicking pictures, or gawking at it, collecting a large gathering around it. The leopard was not in a circus, it was in its own jungle surrounded by us creatures, humans!

copyright pics SNGP/Elsie Gabriel/Nikit Surve

The man and animal conflict has risen in fact with more cases showing up, as experts attribute this to human encroachment of forest land.

The shrinking natural habitat of wild animals like deer, rabbits, and jackals has been forcing them to enter human habitations sometimes, where they come in conflict with human beings competing for space and food.

At many places wild life suffers loss as people hound the beast and then kill it to spare from its expected attacks. With climate change and deforestation, more and more of the poorer sections of society get the bitter end of the bargain, like in the case of the Arey hutments.

Today, 30th June 2015, watching Nikit Surve, a masters student from the Wild life Institute of India was very enlightening. Nikit unveiled his research methods on leopards to obtain the density and census of leopards in SNGP; and to also estimate the density of wild prey in SGNP as well as its diet and domestic preys. Nikit has carried out a study of the different aspects of the ecology of leopard which was all studied at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park Mumbai from December 2014 to June 2015.This study was conducted under the supervision of Dr. S.Sathkumar, Dr. K.Sankar, and Dr.Vidya Athreya in collaboration with the park authorities and the Park director Vikas Gupta.  

 

Nikit and his teams used ‘camera traps’ deployed both sides of the trails and ‘Distance sampling’ with the help of  ‘line transects’ among numerous other methods all around the periphery of the park including the Arey Milk colony, the Manpada  Yeoor belt and  Nagla zone of Borivli . For this he said that they even collected Leopard scat [feces] to analyze the leopards food habits. “Prey density outlined where leopards were moving for prey. Along with marking transects, pug marks, scats and tracks, cameras at ideal locations were placed to study the ecology of the leopard habitat.”Added Nikit, as he showed several captures of the team washing Leopard poo and documenting findings from its contents to prove it's diet chart.Thererfore I proudly call him the Leopard Scatman!

copyright Pics Nikit Surve

 

“This study is excellent, we can now manage the park in a more systematic manner and also help with  mitigation where the leopard-human conflict is concerned. We appeal to the public to be sensitive towards the leopards and not sensationalize the creatures.” said Vikas Gupta, director, SGNP congratulating Nikit and his team. Therefore in conclusion at least thirtyfive leopards feeding on wild pigs, stray dogs, civets, jungle cats,macaques, langurs, deer, sambars and other preys like Hare and Mouse Deer exist in the SNGP. According to the study findings, 24% of prey base is stray dogs alone, total domestic animals prey base including dogs is 43% while the remaining prey base of 57% is from the wilderness . Nikits presentation of his pictorial findings were very entertaining but factual.This is the first time a density estimation has been done of the leopards of SGNP.

So, if you ever see a leopard, do not be alarmed, infact any wild life animal, simply walk away. Do not provocate the animal,or gather in large crowds. The leopard was accorded full protection by awarding it the Schedule I status in 1983 which gives it the highest protection in India.

Do not take the matter in your own hands. Call the forest department or BMC or Police to help. Do not pressurize the forest rescue team to capture the wild animals, you never know if there are young ones being left behind for poachers. You also never know if you are creating a space for bigger wild animals to come in. You may call the Forest rescue team where ever you are or simply the police and if in Mumbai call the Sanjay Gandhi National Park control room: 022- 28866449.

 

 

[Elsie Gabriel is the founder of Young Environmentalists Programme Trust and Mentor Climate Reality leader for Al Gores climate change education. Expert Environment Law and Mass communications Elsie is a certified Green Teacher.You may contact 9967347511/elsiegabriel for more EVS ecucational trails and presentations on climate change.]

Roti, Kapda and Makaan!” A diet queens delight! Elsie Gabriel

“Yahaan Har Cheez Bikaoo Hain,” says Sneha Raisoni, owner of  this store cum cafe. “This is our take on the 3 basic essentials of life - Roti, Kapda and Makaan!”

The quant little place is tucked away at the Sena Pati Bapat Marg’s Raghuvanshi Mills complex and is a sure delight to the dreary eyes. Bright yellow walls, ceiling full of umbrellas,bright pajamas on sale and some more bright quirky articles for sale for your home interiors, all so well juxtapositioned with some good food as well. It sure is a healthy combination for the shopping souls.  

I loved the ‘Pante Khoi Swey’, A  twist on the Burmese gravy dish with the Indian Jeera flavour and coconut milk, and ofcourse the stuffed little buns with salsa and Green mint chutney also uplifted my soul after several meetings for the day.Let me warn you everything is blissfully vegetarian.

The Khus Khus jar with Humus and  herbs is a “ Diet Queens’ delight, I wanted to re christen it right away! Someday I want to steal a jar of these multilayered layered  vegetarian bliss all served in a glass jar and simply have spoon full’s while riding to work.

I loved the Nimbu paani and the edible spoons full of chutneys, the Somasa curry is a  delight if you like to try something out of the way.

Its a simple vibrant place with a lot of soul, with enough space for one to read a book or simply pen down your thoughts. Its up on the second floor with huge glass windows overlooking the  Mangoe trees outdoors.All this in the middle of town, Yeah go check it out.

Why do you think its called Roti Kapdaa aur Makaan, of course its not fine dining!! It is ultra contemporary!  Go there, just unwind, sit back, and forget that you are at a restaurant. Relax and order away some dishes you may have never eaten before. Its yours for the asking! I loved being there and taking in the high energy ambience. My soul was refreshed for sure.
And I must say Neha, you are one brave gourmet Entrepreneur-Go Girl!
 

"We are not God. The Earth was here before us and was given to us." Says Pope Francis in his Encyclical on Climate Change released by the Vatican today June 19th 2015

"We are not God. The Earth was here before us and was given to us."

Says Pope Francis in his Encyclical on Climate Change released by the Vatican today June 19^th 2015.

By Elsie Gabriel.

 

 

"We are not God. The Earth was here before us and was given to us!" Says Pope Francis in his Encyclical on Climate Change released by the Vatican today June 19^th 2015. Yes,the news has spread far and wide. As head of the Church, the papal call out to unite for the environment is a clarion call.

Pope Francis, further very bravely talks about industrial waste overtaking the planet, calls for renewable fuel subsidies and energy efficiency, global environmental deterioration and says that we have mistreated “our common home’ the planet, in his Encyclical on Climate Change released by the Vatican today June 19^th 2015.

The Green Pontiff is being hailed as the green proactive catholic chief with great pride. But do you actually know what an Encyclical actually is? The Encyclical, actualdefinition in the Roman Catholic Church says it is a letter addressed by the pope to all the bishops of the church.

So in this 192 pages document released from the Vatican, Pope Francis lays out the argument for a new link between science and religion, to advocate the fight against climate change.Pope Francis very well comes to the point straight away saying in this document to his people, “Now, faced as we are with global environmental deterioration, I wish to address every person living on this planet. In my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium I wrote to all the members of the Church with the aim of encouraging ongoing missionary renewal. In this Encyclical, I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home.”

In another quote the Pope goes on to state, "The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish."

The Pope's Encyclical on 'Climate Change' is a big deal for those of us in the ecology, environment and sustainability fields. It's a massive boost and may help move societies all over the world to real action from empty words.

The 'environment education for the youth and community' is what I dedicate my time to working for every day, a beautiful vision for a sustainable and thriving future is what I see, more powerful green young citizens is what I can fuel.

Pope Francis is a Green Pope and his message of ecology is what we all can embrace. This is fantastic on behalf of the Pope because it’s not about religion or politics any more, it is now all about proactive awareness on a war footing to help save our planet from climate change.

I think it is the renewal of the green faith, a call to embrace the moral imperatives of everything from car pooling to temperature control, check consumption, planting trees, animal rights to solar panels.

I am all set to embrace this ecological conversion, Christian or not, the earth needs you to be her faithful! The Pontiff goes on to call the earth his sister, “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.”

Pope Francis could not have chosen a better time with countries gathering this year end to chalk out a plan of cooperation on climate change this December in Paris, rightly saying- "Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last 200 years."

What wrong have the ‘poor’ done to suffer from climate change? Food shortage, hunger, disease, sickness and inequality, all because the careless contribute towards climate change.  We are all children of the same God, aren’t we??

[About the writer-Founder of the Young Environmentalists Programme trust Mumbai India and Climate Reality Mentor trained by former VP USA Al Gore. Elsie is also a writer for the last 18 years on environment education and has authored a book called Get Out Get Going Outdoors which promotes bonding with nature outdoors. She is also a certified Green teacher and post graduate in environment law. She lectures on climate change and EVS in academic institutions. ]