Back to resources

Uncommon Ground – Tilling The Urban Soil

Uncommon Ground | Jun 19, 2009

Urban farming enthusiasts believe it is the best way to green the city, while providing a little food security too.
It is remarkable how much you can grow in a small space with very little fuss. My colleague Vishwanath, who himself has demonstrated the viability of growing paddy on his small rooftop garden, taught me to grow vegetables in the boxes in which truck batteries are sold! Sitting pretty on the terrace, they provide an environment safe from bandicoots to grow consumables.
And the joy of having something that is grown around us, and plucked fresh for the kitchen, is indescribable, the experience priceless. And of course, the food tastes much better, too.

View PDF

More like this

Uncommon Ground

Uncommon Ground - Good Growth, Bad Growth

A question: is this economic slowdown improving the value of the environmental economy? As a family, we are not much into buying things recklessly. Although we live very well, we only buy things that we know will be used. My motherin-law and my son take this to a sort of extreme. They will only have […]
Mar 27, 2009 | Article

Uncommon Ground

NEW VISION - Uncommon Ground

Uncommon Ground brings together titans of industry and leaders of civil society to explore eight themes that are highly relevant for our future development. Based on RohiniNilekani’s 2008 television show. the conversations explore the middle ground between the ideological divisions that often polarize the business and voluntary sectors. View PDF
Oct 16, 2011 | Book Review

Uncommon Ground

Uncommon Ground - Greening The Toilet

The past century of sanitation has been an environmental and financial nightmare for the world. It is supposedly the 100th anniversary of the modern lavatory, though there is some dispute about when the modern flush toilet as we now know it was invented and by whom. Nevertheless, for the billions around the world who take […]
Jun 5, 2009 | Article

Uncommon Ground

Building a Social Muscle via Mediation

This is an edited version of the CAMP IDEX mediation webinar on ‘Building a social muscle and finding common ground.’ Adversarial behaviours dominate our lives, but the culture of collaboration is growing. Justice Kurian Joseph, Sriram Panchu and Rohini Nilekani discuss how mediation can help society find common ground in this session, moderated by Krishna […]
Nov 5, 2020 |