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. 

Tensionless Wish-list

Life is a bucket of wish-lists ;but, every wish cannot be under happening true-list. Every-time one or the hindrances or circumstances make us divert; or else, give a red signal to wish lists. Sometimes it is force-full and sometimes it is mandatory.

  

Every-time If the circumstances favor and give a chance to lead days as #BefikarUmarBhar. Our bucket List favors.

1..  Being in the field of science and living in the era of innovation, it’s always a preference; and, truly will be under the bucket list of everyone to lead life innovatively. Especially; when it comes to job, everyone needs change, new assignments each day is what the priority amongst bucket list. Despite of getting handful of salary to settle the normal life, everybody feels ; somewhere, their job is routine and dumb, they should lead the innovation everyday to be happy. This will be the first among bucket list.

 

.2. Bothering’s of life that smother our happiness increases as we grow old. This is the reason why we always feel to get back to our childhood. Everybody loves to be like a child; children have no bothering’s, no worries, no envy on others, no place for good or bad things. Children's  life will be like a white paper, write a poem or simply scratch on it; here, everything is accepted and appreciated. Childhood is a dream that will never come back. There are no chance of getting back our childhood; but, it will be everybody's bucket list.

3.       3.Sports and amusement play a pivotal role in refreshing our lives; everybody loves to play games of their interest, love listen to music all day; watch movies until tears burn in the eyes, travel a long distance to a pleasant place, roam in forest without fear and protection, climb the surfaces like a gecko, run like the Forrest-gump character of the movie, dance whenever and wherever the mind feels. Swim in water entire day like a fish,  this is the ecstatic bucket list.

 

4.      4.   Time is always a factor, imagine that,  we try reaching our workspace in time; even if we  face head torturing traffic. We get early to reach early. Exam time study night-outs. Working incessantly without time to sip coffee. Run back to home after 9 hours of work, Get married after 25 years of age, get retired when you reach 60 years retire, get ready to eat Profanity from children and grandchildren. Time is one of the main constraint for everyone. If time moves as per our wishes!.  Good times are always a bucket list.

5.     5.  While we walk down through the life; we observe beggars wearing the shirt with full of windows. We see few people thriving for food ,water, shelter.

     We see a blind man facing difficulty in crossing roads, a mad fellow strewing their hairs, an old fellow waiting to get help from some youngsters, a child losing its way and crying to find the way or any persons familiar to its face.

      We observe  people meeting with accidents, shedding their blood on the road and weeping for help to get back to normal. Couples struggling to serve their kids due to poverty. It will be evrybody's  bucket list is to join hands with everyone in the society who arei n some problem and whose life strewn.