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Tag: Water Conservation
Rajshri's River of Hope
May 28, 2016 By aalif
Most of us, when we read social media posts about a natural calamity like drought, we click angry-face LIKE and hit 'Share NOW', perhaps with a dark comment about government inefficiency. Some of us donate money. Very few volunteer time with an NGO. My friend Rajshri Deshpande went a step further: last month, she set out to single-handedly revive a river.
An audible groan runs through the Jet Airways afternoon flight to Aurangabad as the captain announces temperature at destination: 45 degrees. It's the kind of weather in which an actress-slash-model like Rajshri Deshpande should be safely within a cafe near her beachside home in Mumbai, sipping iced latte and discussing the European tour for her debut film 'Angry Indian Goddesses'. Instead, she is in a village some 350 kms away, mediating a quarrel between two villagers.
As she uses her tough charm to calm down both heated parties, you realize she faces a challenge even more ancient than drought – the human ego. A barter deal she had struck with the village dhaba for free diesel to run the hydraulic earthmover has hit rough weather. We are in Pandhri Pimpalgaon village 30 kms away from Aurangabad, standing on the banks of the river Bembla, or at least what used to be the 160-foot-wide river Bembla until 2002. It is now an arid dustbowl overrun with thorny scrub, so scorched even the dusk breeze stings our eyes. And here is Rajshri Deshpande, using her education as a lawyer, her talent as an actor and some milky sweet chai to resolve the problem so the stalled work for resuscitating the dead river can begin again.
An old villager remembers the beginning of the end came when the trees on its banks were chopped for wood. Every year after that, the riverbed retained less water. The perennial river soon had dry months in which spiny shrubs and cacti began weeding its riverbed. When the rains came, thorns clutched plastic trash and choked the flow. The loosed sediment slid down its banks and morphed the riverbed into the almost-indistinguishable rolling scrubland where we stand right now.
Rajshri Deshpande has taken it upon herself to reverse the process for this little river Bembla. The immediate plan is to clean out three large pits within the riverbed which can become ponds after the monsoon. While raising funds in the city, she has also asked villagers to pitch not only in their spare time but also a small part of the cost. The larger reason, she explains, is not so much to save costs as to have them feel invested and empowered. The biggest problem here, Rajshri says, is lack of motivation.
Farmers and their fields await the monsoon in Pandhri
When it comes to drought, most city-folk are like Jon Snow: we know nothing. Reading media reports we picture emaciated farmers' bodies scattered across deeply fractured lands. As journalist P Sainath points out in his darkly humorous classic 'Everybody Loves A Good Drought' the truth is drought comes in many forms, not all of which look like the clichéd 'endless parched lands', not all of them caused by the clichéd 'cruel monsoons' and not all of them causing deaths of clichéd 'starving farmers'.
The truth is different. In Maharashtra, as in many parts of India, drought is man-made, so an above-average monsoon is no guarantee drought will not recur. We may point fingers at the government's indiscriminate digging of water-sucking bore wells, poisonous urea-farming, destruction of ancient ponds, diversion of rivers for city-dwellers' electricity and water-guzzling sugarcane factories. But other fingers should point at the farmers themselves – at their focus on instant solutions for immediate profits. The cliché of cruel nature causing drought, I learn, is only partly true.
Secondly, thanks to heavy subsidies on dal, rice and wheat, most farmers do not actually die of starvation. This year, the government is providing free tankers of water twice a week to fill the ubiquitous 200-litre blue plastic barrels clustered like oversized garden gnomes outside every hut. With a little stretch, this is enough for the farmer family's essentials but not enough to support their extended family: the animals who starve with little fodder and lesser water every year. And for centuries-old farming communities, it is not enough to sustain their withering farms. Year after year, men and boys flee farms to work as construction laborers or, as Nana Patekar cinematically put it, to knock on the windows of your car to ask for loose change. This is the broader problem caused by drought. More often out of loss of will than lack of a meal, 6000 Indian farmers have committed suicide in the last four years.
The biggest problem, Rajshri keeps repeating, is lack of motivation. There are farmers here who are dirt-poor, she says, but there are farmers who have money also. Our donations for water-tankers can help them temporarily, but next summer the farmers will be in the same place… and the water-tanker contractors will be much richer. To make a long-term change, the farmers need to revive their land and rivers. They need some motivation to do things beyond immediate gain. For that they need a little push from outside, just like we all do at times.
In fact, motivating herself to take on this project without money, resources or a team was the first challenge for Rajshri. This is what I found most fascinating about Rajshri's story: while many NGOs, non-profit organizations and volunteer teams are doing praiseworthy projects for drought-relief, hers is the story of how far an individual can walk with a little bit of faith and a little bit of insanity. But that was not how it began.
Initially, she contacted Nana Patekar & Makarand Anaspure's 'Naam Foundation' to take on the Bembla river project. They were stretched thin, they said, but offered her a Pokland earth-mover for free. Another NGO she approached quoted a heavily padded estimate to take it on as a turnkey project. Yet another asked for a 10% profit share from all funds she raised. The monsoon was approaching in less than two months so she finally took a deep breath and braced herself for whatever lay ahead.
Convincing the villagers of Pandhri and Pimpalgaon was her next challenge. It helped that Rajshri's mother had worked with the Zilla Parishad in nearby Aurangabad so she grew up in these parts; in the parochial village mentality, this Marathi-speaking and Marathi-swearing girl is 'aamchi mulgi'… our girl. But she still had to work against deeply embedded wrinkles of distrust. Broken promises by successive elected leaders – whose tenure was a snatch & grab race to collect as much money as they could before their five-year term ran out – had made the farmers cynical. On her first visit, an old woman hoarsely predicted to everyone in the village square that like others who had promised to help, Rajshri too would never return.
Dr Ajit Gokhale's workshop for the villagers in progress
But she did return, along with an environmentalist and natural solutions expert with two decades of experience, Dr Ajit S Gokhale. He set up a bench in the village field and demonstrated to the farmers using their own soil how urea-farming and tractor-tilling was killing their land.
But information, Dr Gokhale knew from his experience of helping 170 villages, is never enough to motivate. So he asked them his favorite trick question: Has the government done anything for you? In unison, the villagers chorused an angry NO! This was perhaps the only subject upon which they agreed across all caste, class and religion lines. Dr Gokhale smiled and asked: So who made the roads? Did you make them? The villagers were nonplussed by this new line of questioning: roads came from the government, of course. And do you create your own electricity? That too was from the government, they had to agree. The school your children go to? What about ration shops? And fertilizer subsidy? Slowly, the point of the questions began to dawn on them: Dr Gokhale was offering them the option to stop sitting on their haunches and blaming the government for everything wrong with their lives.
When he saw his point had hit home, Dr Gokhale changed tack. He asked: Are any amongst you helping anyone other than your own family? Something altruistic in which there is no thought for your own gain? The villagers squirmed. That, Dr Gokhale concluded, is the real reason for the drought – you don't think about your neighbor, your village land or even your grandchildren.
He reminded them of the dust-covered 'Yogeshwar Krushi' board he had seen while walking through Pandhri village; Pandurang Shastri Athavale's beautiful concept where the entire village also tills one patch of common land, the produce from which is used to help whoever has unexpected need that year. He advised them to revive that half-forgotten practice. Dr Gokhale's conversation worked like magic. In less than an hour, they went from helpless victims waiting for relief to citizens ready to take responsibility for their situation.
Next Rajshri picked her two local champions for the project. Dattabhau, at 55, is the senior, experienced and respected one. Having bought his first plot of land by pawning his wife's mangalsutra, he worked to educate his sons through engineering college and his daughter to an MA in English – so he's hardworking and future-oriented. Twenty-something Yogesh, on the other hand, is affable and talks with a smile. When most of the farmers were still skeptical, Yogesh was the one who spoke individually to at least listen to her.
But finally, it was the day Rajshri directly dialled veteran Marathi actor Makarand Anaspure to give the villagers a speaker-phone pep talk that they began listening to her with newfound adoration. (An unanticipated side-effect: Makarand mentioned that she was an actress, not realizing she had hidden this from the villagers until then.)
The Hydraulic Excavator provided by Naam Foundation. Tractors provided by the villagers.
Since then Dattabhau and Yogesh, along with a handful of village volunteers, supervise the clearing of the riverbed in night and day shifts. It's been two weeks, and straw-haired Dattabhau who walked with a limp when work began, now sprints with youthful excitement.
He has reason to be: in ten days, they have completed one pit and soon, when the work is done, it will support two villages: Pandhri and Pimpalgaon, with a combined population of 2500. By official statistics, around 80% of them are small farmers with less than five acres for their cotton, soybean, millet, jowar, bajra and pomegranate fields. But for Dattabhau, all of them are faces he has known his entire life. If they manage to complete all three pits before the rains, the water will also benefit a zopadpatti (slum) nearby. And just maybe, if the rain gods are benevolent, then the five toilets in the village can be reopened so they don't have to go every day for a long 'morning walk'.
As Dattabhau lithely climbs a concrete backwall across the dry riverbed, he points me its cement slab: This wall is government work… means total duplicate work. Where they need ten bags of cement, they use two bags. That's why this happens… He shows me gaping holes with exposed twists of metal rods, and then adds with pride: By government rate, our river project would cost Rs 30 lac, with our work it will be not more than Rs 3 lac. Ten times difference…
Later, I discovered this little Bembla river shares its name with another larger, more infamous Bembla river in nearby Yavatmal, which became an icon of corruption for its massive, misguided dam project which remains incomplete even after 25 years. The biggest irony: after spending Rs 1857 crores, the Economic Times reported that the project is providing water to a mere 1,200 hectares – which is the exact size of Pandhri and Pimpalgaon villages put together! When Dattabhau estimated a ten-time difference between his costs and government costs, he was way, way off.
Rajshri with her champions. Dattabhau stands second from left. Yogesh second from right.
At dusk, we sit on a charpoy overlooking Yogesh's field, and a small crowd gathers around. Rajshri tells them she is arranging for a medical camp with the help of a hospital in Aurangabad whom she contacted through her older sister, a doctor. She needs them to let her know through Yogesh which kind of doctor they need to visit them. The conversation flows into dinner at Yogesh's two-room corrugated-roofed house. Like most village homes, it has porous walls: neighbors and children wander through and join conversations and meals without questions asked. Rajshri discusses the next steps over dinner: once the digging work is done, they should plant trees on the banks, to complete the reversal of the original degradation process.
One of the guests' cellphone bursts into devotional song. Light-eyed pomegranate farmer Thombre picks up and speaks rapidly in Marathi. He shyly offers his ancient Nokia phone to Rajshri tai. The call is from a woman who heard about the Bembla river work, asking if Rajshri can come to help their village next.
'If you motivate one village,' Rajshri says to me as we leave, 'it becomes an example for others. And in future, villagers like Yogesh and Dattabhau can manage it themselves. I will help from outside. It may not be easy, but it can be done.' When you consider that a river which ran dry for fifteen years is being revived in a little more than a month, you realize this is not 'Savior Barbie' optimism, nor is it too faraway a dream.
At night, after the village babies have rocked off to sleep on their swinging cotton hammocks, after the nightly hari-katha song of the village women in the Vitthal temple porch has fallen silent, Rajshri checks one last time with Yogesh and Dattabhau to see which villagers are going to monitor the work for tonight.
"Yogesh, next year I want to see a bumper crop in your field," she says, as she sits in her car. Thombre asks shyly if they can talk to Makarand Anaspure once again from her phone. She laughs. But tai… only to thank him… for his support… We should thank him, no? Thombre stammers. Everyone laughs as the car starts.
The battered car is throbbing warm even though the air-conditioning is a full noisy blast. Rajshri Deshpande adjusts the steering wheel and braces for the eight-hour drive to Mumbai, as she has done seven times in the past month. But she knows the more difficult challenges await her back home. So far, through family, friends and a personal contribution by Masaan writer Varun Grover and director Neeraj Ghaywan from their National Award money, she has raised Rs. 1,25,000; somehow she will have to get the remaining money. There are other problems too, some undreamed-of: like the one where a stranger came to surreptitiously take pictures of their worksite to con people online for donations: what can one do in such cases? She takes a deep breath and straightens her rearview mirror. In the distance, Dattabhau watches as the car turns past their tree-canopied Hanuman temple onto the highway: the highway from where the fast-moving world will soon slow down to marvel at the miracle of an ancient river come back to life.
UncategorizedBollywood, Calamity, Drought, Earth, Faith, Gaia, India, Inspiration, Inspirational, Nature, NGO, Spirituality, Water Conservation
An inspiring true story that shows just how simple it can be for one person with an idea to make a difference.
Aabid Surti is an odd character. A few years ago, the angular, bearded author was invited to meet the President of India to receive a national award for literature at a ceremony in the capital, New Delhi. He politely declined. Absorbed in writing the first draft of his new novel, he cited the reason that he did not have time. But what he has made time for every Sunday for seven years now, is going door-to-door in Mira Road, a non-descript suburb of Mumbai, with a plumber in tow, asking residents if they need their tap fixed for free!
As a distinguished Indian painter and author, Aabid has written around 80 books but no story so moved him as the truth about water scarcity on the planet. "I read an interview of the former UN chief Boutros Boutros Ghali," he recalls, "who said that by 2025 more than 40 countries are expected to experience water crisis. I remembered my childhood in a ghetto fighting for each bucket of water. I knew that shortage of water is the end of civilized life."
Around the same time, in 2007, he was sitting in a friend's house and noticed a leaky tap. It bothered him. When he pointed it out, his friend, like others, dismissed it casually: it was too expensive and inconvenient to call a plumber for such a minor job – even plumbers resisted coming to only replace old gaskets.
A few days later, he came across a statistic in the newspaper: a tap that drips once every second wastes a thousand litres of water in a month. That triggered an idea. He would take a plumber from door to door and fix taps for free – one apartment complex every weekend.
As a creative artist, he had earned more goodwill than money and the first challenge was funding. "But," he says, "if you have a noble thought, nature takes care of it." Within a few days, he got a message that he was unexpectedly being awarded Rs.1,00,000 ($2,000) by the Hindi Sahitya Sansthan (UP) for his contribution to Hindi literature. And one Sunday morning in 2007, the International Year of Water, he set out with a plumber to fix the problem for his neighbors.
He began by simply replacing old O-ring rubber gaskets with new ones, buying new fixtures from the wholesale market. He named his one-man NGO 'Drop Dead' and created a tagline: save every drop… or drop dead.
Every Sunday, the Drop Dead team – which consisted of Aabid himself, Riyaaz the plumber and a female volunteer Tejal – picked the apartment blocks, got permission from the housing societies, and got to work. A day before, Tejal would hand out pamphlets explaining their mission and paste posters in elevators and apartment lobbies spreading awareness on the looming water crisis. And by Sunday afternoon, they would ensure the buildings were drip-dry.
By the end of the first year, they had visited 1533 homes and fixed around 400 taps. Slowly, the news began to spread.
In March 2008, director Shekhar Kapur, who was working on his own water conservation film, heard about Aabid's efforts and wrote on his website: 'Aabid Surti, thank you so much for who you are. I wish there were more people like you in this world. Keep in touch with us and keep inspiring us. Shekhar.'
Local newspapers began to write about Drop Dead, which prompted a further flood of grateful emails and spontaneous messages. One of the most heartfelt messages was from superstar actor-producer Shah Rukh Khan, a longtime fan of Aabid's work as a comic book creator. After reading the newspaper report titled 'City of Angels', he wrote to Aabid: "…It sounds like one of the little big things my dad would have done. Strange that I have enjoyed [your comic] Bahadur in my childhood and enjoyed reading your tap story so many years down the line… when I am father myself. God bless you and yes, I believe in angels after reading the newspaper."
In 2010, Aabid Surti was nominated for the CNN-IBN CJ 'Be The Change' Award. In the same year, a television crew from Berlin flew down to follow him on his Sunday rounds which continued come monsoon or shine.
It's hard to say how much water he has saved with his mission, given that the faucets he fixed could have continued leaking for months, and maybe years, had he not rung the doorbell one Sunday morning. But conservatively, it could be estimated that he has single-handedly saved at least 5.5m litres of water till date.
In the summer of 2013, the state where Aabid lives is expecting its worst drought in 40 years. Months in advance, the Chief Minister Prithviraj Chauhan has warned citizens to begin conserving water. While ministers lobby for drought-relief packages worth millions of dollars, Aabid sees his own approach as simple and inexpensive.
As he rings another door-bell on yet another Sunday in Mira Road, seven years into his one-man mission, he says: "Anyone can launch a water conservation project in his or her area. That's the beauty of this concept. It doesn't require much funding or even an office. And most importantly, it puts the power back in our own hands."
I would call him a modern-day angel; I am lucky I get to call him dad.
UPDATE (MAY 2013): Much has changed for dad since this post. He was given the Sparrow Award for conservation and funding to continue his work. He also received funding from the Rotary Association and a few other organizations, and offers to spread the news further. This blog post itself went viral and got dad featured on DailyGood as one of the Everyday Heroes. Global Voices Online further translated this post into Italian, French, Spanish, Malagasy & Greek!
In April 2013, he was once again invited to meet the President of India, for his Drop Dead project.
This time he went.
Journal, Shah Rukh KhanActivism, Community, Environment, Family, Green, Heroes, Impact, Inspiration, Inspirational, Life, Nature, Spirituality, Water Conservation


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For more information, find him through his site Media Wyse or connect with him on Twitter @MediaWyse.
Remember that scene in Minority Report when Tom Cruise is running through the mall and he's being relentlessly targeted by retail offers based on biometric feedback? Even though that film was based in an imagined 2054, that kind of hyperlocalized targeting is available now, and it's done with BLE Beacons.
Beacons are the latest evolution in the landscape of IOT. As small as a quarter, these are wireless Bluetooth-powered location-aware transmitters that provide increased geo-targeting through apps or smartphones. Retailers or just general brick-and-mortar locations can install beacons throughout their stores and venues, then hypertarget their audience with offers and marketing messages.
The number of beacons deployed in the United States is projected to pass 400 million by 2020. In 2016, beacons influenced over $40 billion in retail sales. In short, beacons are a big deal – and if you are a retailer not using them, you could be at a competitive disadvantage.
* What Beacon Technology is and how it can be deployed effectively.
* The strengths and weaknesses of the two major beacon wireframes, Eddystone and iBeacon.
* Best practices in implementing and measuring an effective beacon campaign.
* How beacons work great in generating "Micro-Moments" for Brands & SMBs.
* Case studies on current novel uses of beacons in eCommerce and retail.
* Why beacons are here to stay, and recommendations on beacon vendors.
Beacon technology provides a frictionless experience to enhance existing marketing campaigns. It stands to be the new battleground for mobile retail success. Arm yourself by attending this presentation from one of the leading IOT experts in the US.
« Are You Sabotaging Your Sales Efforts?


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Does My Auto Insurance Cover Me When I Drive Someone Else's Automobile?
by Wilhelm Schnotz & Reviewed by Ashley Donohoe, MBA - Updated April 08, 2019
Nobody plans to get into an accident when they're driving, particularly when they're behind the wheel of someone else's car. If you end up in a wreck while you're driving another person's vehicle, it may take a little longer for your insurance companies to sort out who's liable for coverage, although you're ultimately covered by your friend's automotive policy in most circumstances.
Since insurance usually follows the car rather than driver, if you have an accident driving a friend's car, your friend's policy usually should cover it. Your own car insurance acts as a secondary policy in this case.
Insuring Cars, Not Drivers
Although your driving record partially determines your rates when you insure your vehicle, in most states automotive policies are attached to the car regardless of who drives it. Because of this, unless there's mitigating circumstances that cloud the matter, you'll be covered by the car's insurance regardless of who owns it. You'll need to have the owner's permission to use his car, as most insurers won't step up if you take a car out for a joyride and wreck it.
Secondary Policy Coverage
If you have automotive insurance of your own, your policy provides secondary coverage for any accidents you may get into while driving a car you don't own. Essentially, this arrangement requires the car's policy to serve as primary insurer, and handle claims to the limits of its policy. Your policy then covers anything not covered by the primary insurers. As with any other claim, your policy will only provide coverage as outlined in your policy when it works as a secondary insurer.
Circumstances of Loan
The owner's insurance only extends to casual use by other people not listed on the policy, so if you rely on your buddy's ride to get around town, you may not be covered. If you frequently use the car, such as borrowing it twice a week to get to work, or if you're loaned the car for an extended period, like borrowing it for a summer, the car's owner may need to list you on the policy as a driver. Consult with the car's insurer to determine its limits of casual use.
Considering a Nonowner Policy
If you don't have insurance and you borrow a car from someone with skimpy insurance coverage, you'll be personally on the hook for any damages that occur in an accident when you're driving. If you'd like to protect yourself beyond the measly policy on the car, you can purchase a nonowner policy.
In this case, you'll name yourself as primary driver on a policy, but wouldn't attach a vehicle to the policy. So if you're in a wreck, this policy provides secondary coverage.
Progressive: Non-Owned Car Insurance
Geico: Common Myths About Auto Insurance
Car Insurance Comparison: Auto Insurance Coverage When Driving a Friend's Car
Wilhelm Schnotz has worked as a freelance writer since 1998, covering arts and entertainment, culture and financial stories for a variety of consumer publications. His work has appeared in dozens of print titles, including "TV Guide" and "The Dallas Observer." Schnotz holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Colorado State University.
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What Does 10/20/5 Insurance Mean?


Where will Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank go?
A destination that the couple might choose for its significance is Verbier: Eugenie and Brooksbank first met each other at this Swiss ski resort in 2010, during the Duke of Yorks 50th birthday celebrations. Indeed, they are frequent visitors to these mountain slopes, and Eugenies parents, the Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York, jointly own a chalet here.
The princess may balk at the idea at spending her honeymoon in her parents house, but there are plenty of options available. A chalet rental, perhaps? But then theres the W Verbier, which would not only reinforce the newlyweds socialite credentials, but also claims what is possibly the best position in town, just opposite the Médran gondola.


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Q: Computing the order of $[9]_{31}$ in $(\mathbb{Z}/31\mathbb{Z})^*$ A part of Aluffi's "Algebra: Chapter 0" exercise II.4.12 suggests computing the order of $[9]_{31}$ in $(\mathbb{Z}/31\mathbb{Z})^*$. Sure, I could just multiply $9$ a few times until I get $1$ as a remainder (and thus derive that the order in question is 15), but is there a better way?
A few thoughts of mine:

*

*Firstly, $[9] = [3]^2$, so it'd be sufficient to prove that $[3]$ is a generator (and indeed it is). But I was unable to do this efficiently.

*Another attack direction is that, since $31$ is prime, one might note that $(\mathbb{Z}/31\mathbb{Z})^*$ is cyclic and, having $30$ elements, is isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}/30\mathbb{Z}$. Maybe we could derive something meaningful by inspecting some isomorphism $\varphi$ between the two? I tried deriving what should it do to the elements of $(\mathbb{Z}/31\mathbb{Z})^*$, and I was able to figure out how it behaves on the powers of $[2]$, but it didn't bring me closer to understanding what it does to $[3]$ or $[9]$.

So shall I just accept my fate and consider this to be an exercise in multiplication and division with remainder?

A: By lil' Fermat and Lagrange's theorem, all non-zero elements in $\mathbf Z/31\mathbf Z$ have order a divisor of $30$. So the order of $9$ is among
$\;\{2, 3,5,6,10,15,30\}$.
It is not very long to check that, $\bmod 31$,
\begin{gather}9^2\equiv -12, \quad 9^3\equiv -12\cdot 9=-108\equiv 16,\quad 9^5\equiv -12\cdot 16=-192\equiv -6,\\
9^6\equiv-6\cdot 9=-54\equiv8, \quad 9^{10}\equiv 36\equiv 5,\quad 9^{15}\equiv 5\cdot -6=-30\equiv 1,
\end{gather}
so $9$ has order $15$.

A: This is a variant on Bernard's answer, mainly to show one way to reduce the amount of computation (which isn't a lot to begin with) needed to identify the order.
As noted in Bernard's answer, the only possible orders for the nonzero elements of $\mathbb{Z}/31\mathbb{Z}$ are the divisors of $30$, i.e., $1$, $2$, $3$, $5$, $6$, $10$, $15$, and $30$. Since $31\equiv3$ mod $4$, $-1$ is not a square mod $31$. Therefore, since $9$ is a square, its order cannot be even. (If $9^{2n}\equiv1$ mod $31$, then $9^n\equiv\pm1$ mod $31$.) So in order to conclude that its order is $15$, it suffices to rule out $3$ and $5$ as orders. (The only element of order $1$ is $1$.)
Note that $9\cdot7=63\equiv1$ mod $31$. Now $9^2=81\equiv-12$ mod $31$, so $9^4\equiv144\equiv20$.  Since $20$ is neither $9$ nor $7$ mod $31$, we can conclude that neither $9^3$ nor $9^5$ is $1$ mod $31$.

A: This is a solution inspired by the hint given in the book by Aluffi and does not necessarily invoke Lagrange's Theorem since it has not yet been mentioned at this point of the book where this exercise is given.
Since $31$ is prime, $(\mathbb{Z}/31\mathbb{Z})^*$ is cyclic of order $30$, so we can use the result in Chapter II, Proposition 2.3 where the order or every element in a cyclic group divides the order of the group (otherwise, ignore this and just apply Lagrange's Theorem) so that the possible orders of the elements in $(\mathbb{Z}/31\mathbb{Z})^*$ are $\{1,2,3,5,6,10,15,30\}$. But the order of $9$ cannot be even for otherwise the order of $3$ would be a multiple of $4$ which is not possible since $30=2\times3\times 5$. Thus $\lvert 9 \rvert = 3,5,15$ (as noted in the other answers).
Now consider the equation $x^7-9=0$ in $\mathbb{Z}/31\mathbb{Z}$. If $c$ is a solution then
$$\lvert 9 \rvert =\lvert c^7 \rvert = \frac{\lvert c \rvert}{\text{gcd}(7,\lvert c \rvert)} = \lvert c \rvert$$
If $\lvert 9 \rvert = 3$ then $9^3\equiv (3^3)^2 \equiv (-4)^2 = 16 \not\equiv 1$.
If $\lvert 9 \rvert = 5$ then $c^5=1$ and $c^7=9$ implies $c^2=9$. Since $9\times 7\equiv 1$ then $c^3=7$. By considering $c^6$ we have
$$ 18 \equiv 49 \equiv 7^2 = (c^3)^2 = c^6 = (c^2)^3 = 9^3 \equiv 16$$
Thus the order of $9$ cannot be $3$ or $5$ so $\lvert 9 \rvert=15$.

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Portia De Rossi Pregnant – Ellen DeGeneres Agrees To Baby to Salvage Marriage – Report
CelebritiesEllen DeGeneres
By Siyana Riley	 Last updated Jul 24, 2014
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi may have been on the verge of a divorce a few months ago, but the couple is now trying everything under the sun to salvage their marriage. A new report from In Touch Weekly claims that Ellen is even willing to have children if that's what it takes, especially since Portia has wanted them for so long.
In Touch's source explains, "Ellen never wanted children, but she is going along with it because she's desperate."
The source also adds that Portia came up with a very creative and emotional way to convince Ellen to have kids with her, explaining, "Portia made a video montage of Ellen with the kids she's interviewed over the years. It really choked Ellen up. Portia hugged her, whispering, 'You'd be the best mother ever.'"
Look, I'm all for a Portia and Ellen reconciliation, but how exactly would this source have witnessed such an intimate moment? If this happened, it would have happened in the privacy of their home, I'm sure. Portia's already insecure, so she's not going to risk being humiliated in front of a bunch of people she doesn't know. So unless these tabloids have the housekeepers and maids setting up secret nanny cams around their house, I have a hard time comprehending their insight into the personal details of Ellen's and Portia's love life.
But of course, even with that being said, I have a feeling that Ellen and Portia may not put off kids forever. Their marriage might be in trouble, and Portia may be dealing with substance abuse issues, but plenty of sources have stated that they are finally warming to the idea of a new addition to the family.
Siyana Riley
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