Roach remedy
Reader K.V.S. Krishna’s letter on the cockroach menace (MM, November 1st) made me recollect a very safe and easy remedy to eradicate cockroaches by using a very simple cockroach bait. It was Harry Miller who suggested this simple bait and he asked the public through the columns of the Indian Express many years ago to use it and get rid of the cockroaches, instead of using harmful and expensive chemical sprays.
To make the bait, use a small plastic bowl or a sheet of plastic and put in or on it one teaspoonful of atta (wheat flour) or maida, two teaspoons of glucose – if not available you can add sugar – and one teaspoon of boric powder (easily available in any chemists’ shop).
Mix all the ingredients well and add a very small quantity of milk to knead into a thick dough. It will be very sticky, so add very little milk to make a stiff dough. Then make small pellets of the dough – the size of a peppercorn or a sundakai. Place these pellets on lids of used plastic bottles or pieces cut out from plastic bags and leave them in places the cockroaches frequent – dark corners under the sink or in the deep recesses of shelves etc. And believe me, very soon you will find dead cockroaches.
This is a very simple and very effective remedy which we use regularly at home with excellent results to get rid of cockroaches.
A word of caution: If you have pets in the house, please make sure they don’ t nibble on the pellets and, more importantly, keep small children away.
I would love to have feedback, if any.
R. Jayaraman
gomiajayaram@gmail.com
Botantical thoughts
Nidhi’s piece on the ‘new park’ reads well and appears a balanced status report. I shall look forward to catching up with it when I’m next in Chennai.
But as I have voiced before, I am more concerned about the new plants introduced into this garden from other parts of the world. I was talking recently (over the phone) with Professor K.V. Krishnamurthy (formerly of the Department of Botany, Bharatidasan University, Tiruchchirappalli, and now living in Bangalore) and he too voiced a similar concern. The point to be noted is that Prof. Krishnamurthy is a world authority on Southern Indian plants and has recently published a book, Tamizharum Tavaramum, in addition to many other contributions to the botany of South India.
Meanwhile, I hope the Government will support the maintenance of the quality of the garden in November 2110 as it would have been on 24 November 2010! Too many projects have suffered lack of maintenance support in the past.
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Reader D.B. James has derived Purasawalkam from poo-arasu (Thespesia populnea, Malvaceae). This is incorrect. Purasawalkam (purasa-pakkam) gets its name from purasa (plasa, Sanskrit; Butea frondosa, Fabaceae). A solitary purasa tree survives well within the Gangadareswara Temple precincts even today in Purasawalkam. Some consider purasa as the stala-vriksa of this temple, whereas others consider Hiptage benghalensis (previously Hiptage madablota, Malpighiaceae; madablata, Sanskrit; I cannot recall the Tamil name immediately) as the stala-vriksa of the temple.
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In my note on the botantical gardens of Madras (MM, December 1st), the date of start of Anderson’s noplary is incorrect as published. It is not 1789, but 1791.
Dr. A. Raman
Charles Sturt University
PO Box 883
Orange, NSW 2800
Australia
No food, please
While many Chennaiites are happy to see that a large green garden has been put in place in the heart of city, they are, however, unhappy to hear from media that Government is planning to make arrangements for restaurants and parking spaces for vehicles. This will only prevent a pollution-free park.
People visit parks to enjoy fresh air and surroundings with greenery. People come to a park not to eat or park vehicles. Government must drop the idea of making the park a meaningless one by permitting eateries inside. Visitors must use the garden as a garden and not like Marina Beach, for all sorts of nuisance.
S.R. Rajagopal
7/12, Peters Colony
Royapettah, Chennai 600 014
Pavement designs
The article by Prof. N.S. Srinivasan on the plight of elderly pedestrians (MM, November 16th) highlights the sufferings by elderly persons in the city due to lack of proper planning and enforcement of traffic rules by the authorities. Elderly persons follow traffic rules more than others, but the authorities do not pay attention to their difficulties on the road.
First of all, the pavements on either side of roads are so high and lack sliding steps at both ends. At present, elderly persons are unable to climb on to the pavements, resulting in many of them opting to walk on the roads, thus risking their lives.
Pavements must be neatly laid without potholes and dumped materials to encourage pedestrians to walk on them. Further, pedestrian crossings must be ensured for safe crossings with the help of traffic officers, as it is very difficult for elderly persons to use subways to cross the roads.
C. Lakshmi Narain
4, Kondi Chetty street
Chennai 600 001
Menon in Madras
Those who watched President Obama’s suave handling of students’ questions at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, in November would be all admiration for, above all, his geniality and bonhomie.
My mind went back some 48 years ago when V.K. Krishna Menon visited Presidency College, Madras, and addressed us students in the gallery hall on the first floor next to the English Department.
He was one angry old man, brusque of manner and crusty of demeanour. Two PG students who were head and shoulders above the rest of us in knowledge and English ventured to ask our visitor about India’s defence debacle in the Indo-China war of 1962.
Menon’s short fuse immediately blew up and he snapped at the two youths in a very rude way. One of the duo was the present Home Minister P. Chidambaram and the other N. Ram of The Hindu!
What a contrast was President Obama’s interaction with the students. Whereas President Obama epitomised Lincoln’s Gettysburg address ‘With malice towards none; with charity towards all’, Menon was quite the opposite.
C.G. Prasad
9, C.S. Mudali Street
Kondithope, Chennai 600 079
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