He, however, gi

4. You let go of your stuff with gratitude for the usefulness they served.

Most decluttering books want you to just ruthlessly get rid of stuff without much closure. Kondo
presents a way that acknowledges your things’ usefulness with a sense of appreciation for what they did
for you - like those fuzzy slippers that kept your feet warm and cozy in the winter time. And this will help
you to have a more mindful decluttering experience.

Cons:

1. This process may not be realistic for larger spaces or families.

This guide is written from the point of view of a single woman in her early 30’s who lives in a small flat in
Japan. Her method would probably work better for people with small spaces. It may not be realistic for a
family with three children and two big dogs in a big four-bedroom house in the suburbs. Thus, it would
be unrealistic to thoroughly declutter and organize in one shot if you have a larger home with children
and pets. It could certainly be done in a weekend if you’re willing to hire help or you’re moving away
and you have the pressure to declutter because of moving day deadlines. Otherwise expect to do the
KonMari Method in stages.

2. Category sorting may not be as effective if you have a family.

It may work better with one individual family member’s stuff at a time as opposed to everyone’s clothes
collectively for instance. Unless there are a small amount of things in that category so the sum of
everyone’s books for example is more manageable to organize it may work out. But, if you have a
household of five, it would be nearly impossible to sort out a lifetime of all individual family member’s
clothes in one shot - unless you hire help or get volunteers on board. There’s just not enough hours in
the day if you have a large house with a large family.

3. Untagging clothes and immediately hanging them in your closet doesn’t always make sense.

Again I disagree with this if you have kids. They may outgrow them sooner or actually grow into them in
the future. You may chose to regift the unused clothes in the future. With clothes, you almost have to
organize these by age.

Or you don’t know if you really need what you bought. You may already have something similar and
would like the opportunity to return the item. It’s probably better to keep tags on for a finite period of
time.
4. The book doesn’t address how to deal with children’s toys.

There’s no way you can declutter thoroughly because children grow and they will always have new toys
or activities come in and out of their lives depending on what stage of growth they’re at. Sure, you can
make that choice - you either make the decision to declutter their stuff to a T, but be aware stuff will
always be coming in and do you really have the time to ruthlessly declutter? Or you’d have to have
organization storages and systems in place to manage the flow that comes in and out. And with kids,
you’d have to involve them in the process to in deciding what sparks THEIR joy, what to keep and toss.

This book does contain some good advice that may work for your lifestyle, but I wouldn’t consider it full-
proof. If you’re single, or a couple with a small pet in a tiny apartment it may work. But if you’re a large
family in a larnations and in the interest of fairness to the students, the Board has decided to re-conduct
the examinations...,” it said.

It added, “Dates of fresh examinations shall be posted on the CBSE website within a week.”

According to sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Union Minister Prakash Javadekar and
expressed unhappiness over the paper leak.

Two FIRs

The Delhi Police on Wednesday registered two FIRs in the case relating to the leak of two question
papers.

“We have registered two separate FIRs under IPC Section 420 [cheating] and 406 [criminal breach of
trust]. The case has been transferred to the Crime Branch for further investigation,” Chief PRO of Delhi
Police Deependra Pathak said.

Police said they received two separate complaints at the Madhu Vihar Police Station.

Cabinet nod for national testing agency

Nistula Hebbar reports:

Mr. Javadekar has promised strong action against the guilty. “We have taken cognisance of the CBSE
paper leak. It seems some kind of a gang is behind this. A special team is investigating the matter and
the guilty will not be spared,” he said.

“The examinations are conducted across the country but this has been reported only from a few schools
in Delhi. The Cabinet has given approval for a national testing agency and it will come into effect from
next year to ensure leak-proof examinations,” he added.

In its February 2018 verdict, the court set a six-week deadline for Centre to evolve a scheme “exclusively
for implementation of the award” determined by it.

With the Central government not coming out with a scheme on the Cauvery issue within the six-week
period stipulated by the Supreme Court — which ended on Thursday — the Tamil Nadu government has
decided to approach the court with a contempt petition.
This was decided at a meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami with
senior Ministers and officials at the Secretariat on Thursday. Advocate General Vijay Narayan was also
present at the meeting, which lasted 40 minutes.

The petition is likely to be filed on Saturday, and Principal Secretary (Public Works) S.K. Prabakar will
visit New Delhi, along with chairperson of the Cauvery Technical Cell R. Subramanian, according to a
government source.

Time frame

On February 16, delivering its judgment, the Supreme Court set a deadline of six weeks for the Centre to
frame a scheme for the implementation of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal
(CWDT) given in February 2007.

The court, while dealing with appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the final award,
had also stated that “no extension shall be granted for framing of the scheme on any ground.”

Explaining that there is no other option for the State government than to file the contempt of court
petition, the source hoped that such a move would force the Centre to fulfil its legal obligation, as
mandated by the court.

On reports of the Centre planning to seek clarification from the court with regard to the meaning of the
term, “scheme,” as mentioned in the February 16 judgment, the source said there is no need for such a
course as Section 6A of the Inter State River Water Disputes Act makes it clear how a scheme should be
framed to implement decisions of a water disputes tribunal set up under the law.

In a nutshell, the section explicitly mentions that the proposed scheme may provide for “the
establishment of any authority (whether described as such or as a committee or other body),
composition, jurisdiction, powers and functions of the authority.”

Meanwhile, Tamil television channels reported an offer of resignation by three Members of Parliament
of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam – P. Kumar, A. Arunmozhithevan and G. Hari -
over the issue.
Pointing out that he was not aware of their move, A. Anwhar Raajhaa who represents Ramanathapuram
Parliamentary constituency told The Hindu that he would also follow suit in the event of any direction
from the AIADMK leadership.The CBSE issued a notice with reference to the two papers: “The Board has
taken cognisance of certain happenings in the conduct of examinations as are being reported. With the
view to upholding the A Kerala village’s struggle against land acquisition highlights the larger debate on
striking the right balance

Some time in the 1990s the Colombian anthropologist Arturo Escobar produced a text titled
Encountering Development. It was searing account of the attack on the native peoples of his continent
by the power elites who had commandeered it. An Indian economist nourished by the idea of the
liberating impact on the country of the Green Revolution and conscious of the role of the policies of the
Nehru era in ending over a century of stagnation under colonialism, I had not given it much importance
at that time. So it came as surprise to read of events in a corner of Kerala that corresponded quite
closely, albeit on a far smaller scale, to what Escobar was alluding to.

Keezhattur’s case

In the village of Keezhattur in Kerala’s Kannur district, a section of farmers is holding out against the
announced, but yet to be implemented, acquisition of their farm land. This is to enable a bypass for the
national highway that already exists. Long-cultivated farmland is to be layered over with concrete to
construct a motorable road. The farmers agitating against the acquisition have come together under the
banner Vayalkillikal which translates to ‘birds of the field’, flagging the assault on nature that it
represents. They speak not only of the economic loss that the acquisition means to them but their
opposition to the loss of habitat, water sources and other natural capital that they value for its own
sake.

Two aspects pertaining to the situation must be stated at the outset. First, not all the farmers are
unwilling to sell their land. Second, there is a strong presence of a political party, the Communist Party
of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), which is not only aggressively abetting the land acquisition but also
attempting to break the opposition to it. No action has been left uncontemplated. The samara pandal, a
temporary shelter from the heat, erected at the site by the farmers agitating against the takeover was
burned down and the house of Suresh, their leader, was stoned at night by goons who made a cowardly
getaway on motorcycles. That the opponents of the agitation are members of the CPI(M), which rules
Kerala today, gives them an unfair advantage. Under the circumstances it must take immense courage
to just mount an agitation. The Malayalam media is often not just close to but actually part of the
political establishment. High economic rewards are said to be associated with managing the transfer of
the land to the final builder and there is the ever-present threat of violence. The present State
government has not shown itself to be sympathetic to those who wish to hold out. It has not even
publicly asked that peace be maintained, leave alone restrain its cadres on the ground. All this is of a
piece with the general attitude of the CPI(M) towards those who oppose its plans. It was observed at
Nandigram, West Bengal in 2007 when the government of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had tried to
acquire farm land to be handed over to an Indonesian chemical firm.
When alternatives exist

Is it absolutely necessary to build a bypass through the paddy fields of Keezhattur? By at least one
account it is not. The Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad, which as its name suggests is a body devoted to
bringing scientific reasoning to bear on public issues, has presented to the Kerala government an
alternative. This involves building an elevated expressway that would leave the paddy fields of
Keezhattur undamaged. The government must treat this proposal with seriousness and educate the
public on all aspects of the issue. The point to note is that a north-south highway across Kerala already
exists. For a State that is not particularly wide, the coverage of this existing road should be deemed good
enough given the environmental damage that a new one would entail. The National Highways Authority
of India (NHAI) responsible for highway construction in the country ought to be sensitive to both the
geographies of the different regions and the aspirations of the people who populate them. Insistence on
a national standard for our highways is a form of dogmatism. It makes little sense to insist on roads of
the same specification in Kerala with its fragile ecology of laterite formations and scattered population
and the less densely populated alluvial plains of northern India. We should aim at the highest attainable
quality of road across the country but cut according to the lay of the land.

At Keezhattur the local CPI(M) cadres have dubbed the protest against the land acquisition as ‘anti-
development’. This is proclaimed on billboards at periodical intervals leading up to the fields all the way
from the main road. It is abject propaganda. The agitating farmers have categorically stated that they
are not against roads, only that they wish to avoid to the destruction of not just cropland but an entire
ecosystem that encompasses the Western Ghats, the hillocks and food-producing wetlands. They have
also stated a moral responsibility to future generations.

While much of this might appear mere sentimentality to the hard-boiled economist, even he is likely to
ask the straight question: What awaits those who reach the northern extremity of the State once this
bypass has been built? This is not been asked yet, leave alone answered. Keezhattur is already close to a
highway to which there is a motorable road, though perhaps a somewhat narrow one. And a narrower
access to the highway is the price you would have to pay if you want to conserve natural capital, and a
set of farmers has already indicated that they are ready to pay the price. But maybe even the farmers
are not morally entitled to take the final call in this matter. There is always the greater common good to
be reckoned with that limits the claims of private ownership. We are all only trustees of the natural
world. The paddy fields of Keezhattur are the commonwealth of the people of India to be preserved as a
source of food, for which by the way a road is not a substitute.

ALSO READ

Vayalkilikal, CPI(M) on a collision course

The Chief Minister’s call

It is indeed difficult to read the mind of the Pinarayi Vijayan government on this matter. It has remained
aloof when it has not been disingenuous in its response. The Home Minister has said that the State
government is merely responding to the demands of the NHAI. Well, it must not do so passively. It must
not grant consent to the project in its present form. At a uniquely non-party political rally held at
Keezhattur on March 25 Suresh Gopi, Rajya Sabha member from Kerala, said that he had spoken to the
national leadership of his party, the BJP, and that they are by no means adamant on the issue. Further,
in an extraordinary gesture he offered to “touch the feet” of the Chief Minister to seek a review of the
present plan. Everything — economics, natural conservation and concern for food production in a State
where paddy cultivation could become extinct if current trends continue — points to the need for
statesmanship on the part of Mr. Vijayan. He could listen to his party members and, wielding state
power, win the battle against an unarmed group of agitators or he could hear the birds of the field at
Keezhattur and win the hearts and minds of his people.

Pulapre Balakrishnan is Professor, Ashoka University and Senior Fellow, IIM Kozhikode

ves the government time till August to come good on its promise, and warns that he will resume his
protest in September if his demands are not conceded.

Six days after he began an indefinite hunger strike at the Ramlila Maidan, social activist Anna Hazare on
Thursday called it off after the Centre gave assurance on fair crop prices for farmers, appointment of
Lokpal and electoral reforms.

“The government has agreed to fix a minimum support price which is 50% over and above the total cost
incurred by a farmer for producing the crop,” Mr. Hazare said.

The 80-year-old said he was giving the government a six-month deadline to implement his demands,
which also include appointment of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states. “If the government
fails to comply with the assurance, I will be back again in September and continue the protest. It should
be done within the time-frame,” Mr. Hazare stated.

Union Minister of State for Agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat accompanied Maharashtra Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis to the protest site to convey to Mr. Hazare that the government has agreed
to his demands.
Mr. Fadnavis offered a glass of water to Mr. Hazare to break his fast. “The Prime Minister has accepted
Anna’s demand,” Mr. Fadnavis said.

On the issue of electoral reforms, such as inclusion of the right to recall and reject, Mr. Hazare said that
the government has forwarded it to the Election Commission of India as it comes under their
jurisdiction.

Mr. Hazare, who began his Jan Andolan Satyagraha on March 23, lost over 5 kg of body weight and his
health was deteriorating.

A man who hurled a shoe at the stage was detained by the police. “The protest ended peacefully and all
the protesters left the Ramlila ground on their own,” said Anto Alphonse, Additional DCP. usefulness
they served.

Most decluttering books want you to just ruthlessly get rid of stuff without much closure. Kondo
presents a way that acknowledges your things’ usefulness with a sense of appreciation for what they did
for you - like those fuzzy slippers that kept your feet warm and cozy in the winter time. And this will help
you to have a more mindful decluttering experience.

Cons:

1. This process may not be realistic for larger spaces or families.

This guide is written from the point of view of a single woman in her early 30’s who lives in a small flat in
Japan. Her method would probably work better for people with small spaces. It may not be realistic for a
family with three children and two big dogs in a big four-bedroom house in the suburbs. Thus, it would
be unrealistic to thoroughly declutter and organize in one shot if you have a larger home with children
and pets. It could certainly be done in a weekend if you’re willing to hire help or you’re moving away
and you have the pressure to declutter because of moving day deadlines. Otherwise expect to do the
KonMari Method in stages.

2. Category sorting may not be as effective if you have a family.

It may work better with one individual family member’s stuff at a time as opposed to everyone’s clothes
collectively for instance. Unless there are a small amount of things in that category so the sum of
everyone’s books for example is more manageable to organize it may work out. But, if you have a
household of five, it would be nearly impossible to sort out a lifetime of all individual family member’s
clothes in one shot - unless you hire help or get volunteers on board. There’s just not enough hours in
the day if you have a large house with a large family.
3. Untagging clothes and immediately hanging them in your closet doesn’t always make sense.

Again I disagree with this if you have kids. They may outgrow them sooner or actually grow into them in
the future. You may chose to regift the unused clothes in the future. With clothes, you almost have to
organize these by age.

Or you don’t know if you really need what you bought. You may already have something similar and
would like the opportunity to return the item. It’s probably better to keep tags on for a finite period of
time.

4. The book doesn’t address how to deal with children’s toys.

There’s no way you can declutter thoroughly because children grow and they will always have new toys
or activities come in and out of their lives depending on what stage of growth they’re at. Sure, you can
make that choice - you either make the decision to declutter their stuff to a T, but be aware stuff will
always be coming in and do you really have the time to ruthlessly declutter? Or you’d have to have
organization storages and systems in place to manage the flow that comes in and out. And with kids,
you’d have to involve them in the process to in deciding what sparks THEIR joy, what to keep and toss.

This book does contain some good advice that may work for your lifestyle, but I wouldn’t consider it full-
proof. If you’re single, or a couple with a small pet in a tiny apartment it may work. But if you’re a large
family in a larger space you’ll have to pick and choose what works otherwise outsource some of the
work. What I found most helpful is going through your things to find what sparks joy and sorting by
category. Other than that, it’s each each to his or her own.

Follow Lori Rochino on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lorirochino

Lori Rochino

I help simplify life to make room for things that matter. I blog about simplicity, lifestyle and small space
design at lorirochino.com.

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address@email.comBoard exami2. Sorting by category instead of by room can save you time.

Most home decluttering guides suggest using the room-by-room approach to decluttering, whereas this
guide suggests sorting by category. Instead of cleaning out the kitchen first, then bathroom and so on,
you’d choose one single category, like “books” or “clothes,” gather them up from all the rooms in your
home, put them in one holding area and then decide what to keep or get rid of in one space.

With the book category, you would gather recipe books from the kitchen, novels by your night stand,
coffee table books, children’s books and put them all on the floor in one room in the house. Then you
would sort them out all at once. This allows for more focus, less context switching and less decision
paralysis.

3. The emphasis is keeping only what “sparks joy.”

Most organization books focus on decluttering, and with good reason. Go to any typical American family
home and you’ll notice we just have too much stuff. Asking yourself “What sparks joy?” will help you
better decide what to keep, and also give you a greater appreciation for what you have.

sanctity of th