Shanknaad of Ilkal guys to reduce Cracker burning

Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the finest festivals celebrated in India. It is a treat to watch the processions during the festival; especially during Ganesh Visarjan.

The procession always goes pomp. Music, dance, throwing colors, lights and burning crackers are very common during Ganesh Visrajan.

While we see the great enchantment in the processions of farewells of Street Ganesh idols. Individual house will not stay far behind. Every house bid adieu to their respective idols founded and worshiped in their house during the festival.

Individual house cannot afford orchestra, loud speakers. But most houses burn crackers to their financial capacity. They invite friends, relatives while leaving Ganesh.

Why reduce crackers

It’s  the burning of crackers, that has not just become an usual practice; but, the matter of pride for the individual families.

Burning crackers can be fun; but, if we think of the pollution, it is huge. When the number of people who burn crackers are huge, pollution will be automatically high. Though social workers and environmentalists spread a lot of lessons, but it’s of less use.

Apart from the awareness that environmentalists create, there are hardly any measures taken to reduce burning crackers.

Shanknaad

Shanknaad is not new; it is an age old tradition in India. Coonch, bells, anklets, small drums were the regular instruments in orchestra in any festival celebration in Hinduism.

The same old orchestra tradition was planned to bring to their residences by 5 environment caretakers in my town Ilkal. They collected 5 Coonch’s to initiate the process. They brought back this age old tradition to the town to reduce burning of crackers.

These guys took their Coonch’s  and address the people to stop burning cracker during Ganesh processions.  They blew these Coonch’s to produce good and loud ornamental voice in the Ganesh Visarjan procession in their house along with a few of friends and their neighbor’s houses.

Inspiration

5 friends went to trip to Ladakh few months before Ganesh festival. On their way back to home they visited Haridwar. In Haridwar, one among these five saw a big size Coonch in one of the shops and he got astonished to see its size.

He then inquired the shop owner about conch and got interested in buying it. The shop owner told him a rate of 5000 rupees; which, he thought, was too much for the Coonch. He blamed the shop owner for telling high rate, but the shop owner justified it’s rate and explained the guy about its quality, and offered him a pamphlet printed the announcement of rupees 1 lakh on proving his  Coonch’s duplicate.  

After giving pamphlet, shop owner blew the Coonch. It’s mesmerizing sound and loudness impressed the guy and he bought it. By watching this Shanknaad; the concept was incepted in another guy; and he explained the concept to his other friends. They were impressed and each of them bought a Coonch and stayed one day in Haridwar to learn blowing it from that shop owner.

Effect

Though the effect of this concept could not achieve huge success, but till now they have stopped cracker burning in 11 houses, which avoided burning at-least 15000 rupees of crackers accumulating those 11 houses.

Naga Panchami and new thoughts

Naga Panchami is a festival that is observed throughout India on the 5^th day of Shravana month. It has got its own significance in mythology, folklore and scientific basis.

It is a festival where, Snakes and serpents are worshiped by offering milk, flowers and sweets to the metaphors of serpents such as idols and images of snake god. Mythology says it is a day Lord Krishna got victory over snake king Kaliya to protect the people from poisonous cobra of the king.  Folk stories say farmers pray to snakes and offer devotion to snakes for not harming them and their families.

Scientifically; it is a metaphor of worshiping serpents and giving equal rights to snakes to live. This festival is celebrated in the monsoon season,during which snakes come out and, most of them will not be poisonous (not all though) and the festival means the innocent snakes are saved to balance ecosystem and to make sure the harmony of humans with other beings in the nature.

Fasting is observed a day before Naga Panchami; and, on the day of Naga Panchami, jaggery water or milk is offered to the idols or images of Snake god. In some places; people pour milk even to snake pits and they decorate pits with diyas and conduct activities such as Bhajans and firing crackers.

On this festival many sweets and other traditional snacks are prepared , which suits our digestive system during monsoon climate. Eating these sweets and snacks give good exercise to buccal cavity and helps teeth and the buccal cavity to be healthy.

New thoughts

It was in our school days, all children of our school are taken to Sri Vijay Mahantesh mutt located in my town Ilkal. Sri Vijay Mahantesh mutt is known for practicing the principles of Vachana literature. On this day mutt distributes milk to children as a metaphor the avoid wastage of milk (though people pour more jaggery water to idols in our place). The Mutt also encourages saving snakes and harmony with nature; except, for its opposition to wastage of milk. The step may seem extravagant to strong believers; but, it seems practical for me, despite being a believer in Hinduism.

Last year I was astonished by seeing a message from one of my friend who is working as a teacher in my school. He messaged me saying , he was happy for  he caught and made real snake to drink milk.

This rubbishes the purpose of the festival as snakes don’t drink milk ;and, even if they drink milk  milk will harm their life. Feeding milk to live snake will not serve the purpose of ecological harmony. Pouring milk , firing crackers near the snake pits will disturb the snake if they are present in the pit., they try to harm the pupil as part of its flight and fight mechanism.

It’s time to think new thoughts as much as possible;  let’s celebrate the festival scientifically to serve its purpose.

Happy Naga Panchami and Happy Shravana month.

Consistency is key

We all heard the story of rabbit and the tortoise, where rabbit start considerably on a high note, but still ends up in losing, whereas tortoise starts slowly but reaches the goal surpassing its pro-eminent competitor.

The story depicts the importance of being consistent throughout your journey towards goal.

People who are preparing for competitive exams definitely struggle to maintain consistency. They start with a great zealousness but, effort stumbles in between ; and,  it gets inflated again when the exam nears. These habits of studying certainly end up in a failure.

If we go through the videos of UPSC toppers they stress the importance of consistency.

Academic exams are like a sprint; in which most of us study seriously only for two to three days and obtain the certificate. Whereas the competitive exams are like a marathon. A marathon runner starts his mark and runs at a nearly same speed, maintains it and finishes the task. If he stops, he cannot finish the race. In the same way start the preparation confidently, never stop studying, be consistent and success will be on your hand.

Keep in mind

• Consistency helps you to attain mental stability

• Consistency helps to perform the exam in a very respectable way
• Consistency helps you in analyzing the situations and improves your decision making

• The revision will be much easier for those who studies consistently
• Consistency makes the study more interesting as you get more insights on the topic every time you study.

Significance of Last minute exam preparation

 एकं जीवनम्, एकः अवसरः                                                                                               यदाहं जीवामि , अहमाशंसे

One life one chance                                                                                                         while I live, I hope

They say “hope is always a good thing to have” but, the problem lies in giving up. Problem lies in the worry prevailing inside the mind.

History gives examples of the greatest warriors; who stayed away from the battle fields lacking final preparation.

There is a quote” If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done”

This quote rightly says it all.  A Scholar who lacks last minute preparation( generally called as) fails to deliver the results.

We can get as many as examples in cricket where one last ball has won the game for the team and same is true for the looser as well.

A predator exploits its last few seconds of its preparation to catch its prey.

Sakshi Malik fought really hard till the last minute and she created a history by winning an Olympic medal; whereas one final bad shot costs the medal to Atanu Das in Rio Olympics.

With examination that define Indian administration(UPSC) coming  way next week. Big aspirants should go smart and never miss a chance to polish your skills.

Every mark counts!

Keep in mind

•   Smart-work works and never think of hard work in the final moments. 
•  Just a glance will help before facing an exam.
•   Last minute preparation increases the confidence
•   It’s a kind of now or never situation , never neglect this precious time
• Techniques and technology help you to recall those already studied topics effectively.

Reprimand's of food wastage

The scorching sun rays burnt the green; but for the green, it is not difficult to bounce back in the garden city of India. The sprinkle of rain drops in the city made people get mesmerized in the cool breeze to put an end to fuming hot summer.

After end of summer;  one of my colleagues made an observation about increased food waste. The observation made me think, and I came to conclusion that it is confined to my working place. We used to put the remaining food in one rectangular tray; and, keep it outside our canteen on the terrace of the building.  The food in the tray was utilized by a herd of pigeons; which started using the food in the tray to fulfill their energy needs.

But, the rain made pigeons disappear from our office premises and the food we kept in a tray in the last week became wasted. For my personal interest I searched facts about food wastage; to find some astonishing facts which are listed below.

The food intended for human usage if discarded without consumption is called food wastage.

On an average, each human wastes 100kg of food each year.

In developed countries, most of the food is wasted at consumption stage.

The global wastage of food per year crosses 1.3 billion tonnes.

I find people leaving food in plates; especially, when they visit bigger restaurants. It’s really difficult to say the reason behind; but, one can suspect;  does it look prestigious for them to leave part of food in the plate. Is it the hotel to be blamed for not making food tasty or for giving more quantity; since, they charge more on food.

I recall one of my friends who was an employee in TCS. I never saw him wasting food from the day I saw him. I saw him eating food irrespective of the place, taste and sometimes even the quality; because his sole motto was not to waste the food.

 These facts made me to scribble a while to recall a few incidents I  experienced and heard of.

I was studying high school, getting scolded for not concentrating on studies was quite common for me. One day, I was pretty hungry; and filled plate full of rice and relish-able curry prepared by my mother. I switched on the television and changed the channel.  The rest was predictable, my mom scolded me which irked me a lot. I wash my hand in the plate full of rice and walked away. She called me and asked the reason for not eating food. I flung on her by saying “Not Hungry” and went away.

After fifteen minutes When I came back home, my father called me and showed me the plate full of rice in which I washed my hand. He rebuked me and made me eat the same rice. Then my parents explained me the importance of rice.

In India, Parents teach their children, sometimes by scaring. One thing that most parents say to their child is “Don’t waste food” and they scare them by saying they will tie the wasted food on the child’s head.

My old roommate used to weep whenever he eats lemon rice; especially if it is towards the fag end of the month. He used to praise his mother for preparing lemon rice for the breakfast form the previous night’s left over rice.

One of my acquaintances told that her mother used to give water mixed with chili powder and salt as combination with rice, idly, dosa, roti; instead of preparing tasty curry. She told it was the punishment if they waste the food.

In one or the other way our elders teach us the importance of food. But still food wastage is a never ending problem.

Care before you share

In this smart phone era,social media is playing a pivotal role in spreading the knowledge. Social media is playing an equal role like other Media.  

It is the gift of science and technology; that made the world smaller and easier to snatch anything in the finger tips. But! Along with the positive subjects that improves our lives, knowledge about facts, positive emotions, achievements, and breaking news, humor, fine-arts etc; people, often share uttered nonsense like “ Found a snake in Mazaa” “ Superstitions about HIV”, fake news, porn, scary matters. One such share is the image below, I  have seen a lot of these images shared in social media .

The image is truly paraphrased as they are separate images of Trypophobia and giant water bug which is carrying its eggs ready to be hatched on its wings for reproduction.

Though it is true that these bugs sting is painful, but these bugs found only deep in the water waiting for their prey.

Social media has no restrictions; here, anybody can share anything. Not just sharing, but using social media is also devoid of restrictions of use. If we think what loss this kind of shares will cause?  We should think social media can reach children, pregnant women, heart patient, feeble minded person. These scary materials may affect them badly.

Think the truth behind the matter before sharing.

More than all; Science and technology is for the welfare of the society; but, not to scare or fool the people.

Please! Care before you share.

For information of Giant water bugs https://bioperceptions.wordpress.com/2015/12/20/giant-water-bugs

Smile- The Evidence of Happiness

Happiness is the gift of life; that we get every moment and at every step we land in our lives. People often enjoy in their own way to feel happy. A girl might feel happy when she gets a gift from her boyfriend. The happiness is a feel that sprout out purely from the heart and result is a small smile on face with jewel like expression, charm, and delight.

Incidents always make us feel better and happier. Imagine a situation of riding a two wheeler without a helmet; covering only skull in a traffic; and, you encounter with a beautiful girl with fair skin color, pink lips, long black hair,sparkling eyes, tall.

If she is facing difficulty to cross the road due to the dense number of vehicles passing around her ; and, you stop your bike to allow the girl to cross the road . This will make her feel happy. While crossing the road; she shouts loudly to say thanks to you. This will make any  rider feel happy for stopping for a beautiful girl and to smile of happiness on his face.

When our age crosses 24-25; it’s very common that our parents talk of our wedding,  our friends and relatives tease us by taking the reason of marriage. They take an imaginary name of the beautiful angel/ warrior coming in our lives that make them feel happy. In such situation, if our parents; especially, if the mother takes a name of the girl/boy who is already in our heart, it makes us feel more happier and it brings a cute grin on our face.

An absent minded fellow carrying a bag with loads of cash in it and he stops in a cold-drinks shop. He forgets the bag in the shop; which, he realizes in a short span of time. He rushes into the same shop with tensed feeling, filled with anxiety and splash of sweat on his face and tears in eyes. When he asks the shop owner about the bag and get it back  along with coke to relax and rejoice; the anxiety in the mind runs faster than Usain bolt . But the  smile on face after saying thanks, is a smile of relief and good luck. 

While walking in the forest with your loved once to get relaxed from the stress of the work; and, suddenly a raindrop falling on your lip followed by the sprinkle of breeze. When the loved once realize it and wipe the drop on your lip with love to give a feel of warmth and comfort followed by a kiss on the cheek make us  feel happier and a smile on the face avert automatically.

When a cute little angel (small baby girl) of age five rushes towards you and meet with a small collision. This will make her feel bad to tell you a sorry, and she runs away  by producing the sound from her silver anklets, which can bring happiness and  a twinkle in the face filled with a chuckle of joy.

When win comes to us after ample of struggle and burden. When a girl proposes, when the unexpected gift is received, when help came from an unknown hand. When we are rewarded for the good work done and many more incidents in our routine life can give us happiness and a cute smile on our face is the evidence of happiness.