Message for the Day…” You must Hold on to the Name of God Under any Circumstance …”

June 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

In the young-of-the-monkey type of devotion, the child must rely on its own strength to protect itself —wherever the mother jumps, the child must attach itself to its mother’s belly and hold on, even if pulled apart! So too, the devotee must stand the tests of the Lord and hold on to His name under all conditions, tirelessly, without the slightest trace of dislike or disgust, bearing the criticism and ridicule of the world and conquering the feelings of shame and defeat. An exemplary example of this type of devotion is Prahlada. In the second path, just as the kitten simply places all its burdens on the mother cat, so too, the devotee completely trusts the Lord and surrenders to Him. The mother cat holds the kitten in its mouth and transports it safely through even very narrow passages. Lakshmana is the example of this path. These two are sometimes referred to as devotion with effort (bhakthi) and self-surrender (prapatti). The former a hard path, while the latter a simple or safe path.

Sathya Sai Baba

Standing tall: Charles Correa’s ICONIC buildings….

June 18, 2015June 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

India’s greatest contemporary architect Charles Correa died on Tuesday night at the age of 84. He was best known for his “open-to-sky” designs, which were reflected in some of his famous projects.

Rediff.com takes a look at some popular buildings that got the Correa touch.

1. Islamic Centre, Toronto, Canada

Toronto’s Islamic cultural centre stands out because of its stunning glass dome. It shares a patch of parkland with the Aga Khan Museum.

Correa designed the structure in partnership with local studio Moriyama & Teshima Architects to provide a cultural centre for the Islamic community. Photograph: deezeen.com

2. Champalimaud Centre for The Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal

Champalimaud Centre rings a bell, doesn’t it? Yes, here’s where Lalit Modi’s wife was treated for cancer in 2014.

This research and diagnostic centre with its state-of-the-art facility is a work-in-progress.Photograph: Carlos Luis M C da Cruz/Wikipedia

3) Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, New York

Designed by the legendary Correa, the building has a red granite base and a double-height penthouse porch at the top, which houses offices of India’s permanent representative, deputy permanent representative, a minister and political coordinator, six counsellors, a colonel-rank military advisor and several other secretaries.

It is just down the road from the UN Headquarters in New York. Photograph: Julio Ferrer/Flickr

4) Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalay, Sabarmati Ashram

The museum at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad was designed by Correa. It was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru on 10 May 1963. Photograph: Sanyam Bahga/Wikipedia

5) Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur

This arts centre built in 1992 is dedicated to India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

It is a contemporary building based on the archaic notion of the cosmos — the navgraha (nine planets) mandal, according to Correa’s website (charlescorrea.net). Photograph:
Sahil Latheef/travellingsahil.blogspot.com

6) Vidhan Bhavan, Bhopal

Correa designed Vidhan Bhavan in Bhopal, in Madhya Pradesh. It overlooks courtyards and gardens — there are gardens within gardens divided into nine squares, according to Correa’s website.

He also designed the Bharat Bhavan. Photograph: archnet.org

7) Kanchenjunga, Mumbai

Kanchenjunga is one of the most luxurious apartment blocks in the city located at the upmarket Peddar Road. The interlocking duplexes in the building are somewhat like the Permanent Mission of India to the UN structure in New York.

8) Cidade de Goa, Goa

This five-star beach resort, a few minutes drive from Panaji, is built on a sloping site which descends down to the beach on a river. Photograph: Cidade de Goa/Facebook

9) British Council, Delhi

Built in 1992, the new building of the British Council houses a library, an auditorium and an art gallery. These elements are arranged in a series of layers, recalling the historic interfaces that existed between India and Britain. Photograph: Courtesy British Council

10) Portuguese Church, Mumbai

One of Mumbai’s oldest churches, the Portuguese Church (The Church of Our Lady of Salvation) was redesigned by Correa in the 1970s. The shell roofs are ventilated at the top and the skylight in the baptistery is by noted Indian artists M F Husain.

Source….www.rediff.com

Natarajan

Charles Correa… India’s Greatest Architect…

June 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Over the centuries, a sense of the sky has affected profoundly our relationship to builtform. This is why in Asia, the symbol of education has never been the Little Red Schoolhouse of North America, but the guru sitting under the tree. – Charles Correa

One of India’s greatest contemporary architects, Charles Correa passed away at 11.45pm on Tuesday in Mumbai at the age of 84. He has made some remarkable contribution in the field of architecture post independence, and has been an influential urban planner and activist. But there are so many people who don’t know about him and his career. Hence, here are few points you need to know about Charles Correa.

1. He was an alumni of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Charles Correa completed his schooling in Mumbai from St. Xavier’s College, University of Bombay with science stream. After that he did his Bachelors in Architecture from University of Michigan and masters form the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

2. He has won over 10 national and international awards including Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour

His talent and hard work had won him many laurels and prestigious titles. Some of them are Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri, Chicago Architecture Award, The Premium Imperial from Japan Society of Arts, gold medal by Royal Institutes of British Architects etc.

3. He was the chief architect of Navi Mumbai

The new city which was built across the harbour is now an urban growth center of 2 million people in extended part of Mumbai with superb planning and architecture. Correa is responsible for the entire layout and meticulous planning of the entire region which is now one of the most expensive real estates in the country. It’s is a beautiful city and he designed it.

4. He was always considerate to the needs of the urban poor and came up with a lot of low cost housing designs like ‘Tube House’

The “tube” house was first prize winner in an All-India competition for low-cost housing organised by the Gujarat Housing Board. These row-houses provided the same density -and larger living space per family. The area is formed so that the hot air rises and getaways structure at top, setting up a convection streams of characteristic ventilation. Inside the units there are no entryways; security being made by the different levels themselves, and security by the pergola-network over the inward patio. A narrow house form designed to conserve energy!

5. He was the first chairman of National Commission of Urbanization

His work was noted for his use of traditional techniques in his designs. In 1985, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi appointed him as the Chairman of the commission.

6. He believed in sustainable source of development and cared for the environment

In 1984, he founded the Urban Design Research Institute in Bombay, dedicated to the protection of the built environment and improvement of urban communities. In the course of the most recent four decades, Correa has done spearheading work in urban issues and minimal cost shelter in the Third World.

7. He was pro ‘open to sky spaces’

He utilized the significance of open-to-sky spaces to exploit the hotter atmosphere outsider toward the west. His utilization of the chhatri, or overhead covering, makes negligible safe house from the sun in the most blazing piece of the day, while permitting clients to appreciate being under the open sky.

The utilization of this component is found in his most praised early work, the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, a remembrance exhibition hall to Mahatma Gandhi in the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad that was finished in 1963. A measured building made up of 6 x 6 meter units, the modules are masterminded to exchange between those that are shut off by pyramidal rooftops and those that are interested in the sky. Without glass, the units are characterized by dividers and open spaces, making sections between them to lead starting with one presentation space then onto the next. The materials are those of the encompassing structures of the ashram: block dividers, stone floors and tiled rooftops. The spaces are gathered around a focal water court to cool the structures in the bone-dry warmth.

8. He was given the title of ‘India’s Greatest Architect’

Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) billed him as “India’s greatest architect” when it mounted an exhibition on him in 2013.

9. Some of his Indian designs

Mahatma Gandhi Memorial at the Sabarmati Ashram, Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, British Council in Delhi, Kanchenjunga Apartments in Mumbai, Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, Salt Lake City in Kolkata are few of his many spectacular creations.

10. Some of his international designs

The Champalimaud Centre in Lisbon, Aga Khan Museum in Toronto etc. are few legendary buildings he has designed.

India lost a valuable gem. May his soul rest in peace.

source….www.storypick.com

Natarajan

Image of the Day…Tropical Storm Bill from ISS…

June 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Tropical Storm Bill From the International Space Station

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly), currently on a one-year mission to the International Space Station, took this photograph of Tropical Storm Bill in the Gulf of Mexico as it approached the coast of Texas, on June 15, 2015. Kelly wrote, “Concerned for all in its path including family, friends & colleagues.”

Image Credit: NASA

Source….www.nasa.gov

This 20 year old website Hosts Just One image Everyday…Has Millions of Fans !!!

June 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Twenty years ago, two astrophysicists – Jerry Bonnell and Robert Nemiroff – created Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). The website is simple and harkens back to the days of the early web: Every post is just one image and a bit of text describing the photo, with links out to sources of information.

During its first year, in 1995, the site received about 12 visits a day. Today they’re way past a million daily visitors, according to The Verge.

The two are active researchers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. How did they become guardians of the treasured website?

“So we were getting these emails that had these image attachments, sometimes about the Hubble Space Telescope, sometimes from something else, and the people sending these emails had no idea what that was. It would say, ‘Look at this, it’s colorful and something astronomical. Isn’t that cool?’ So we thought maybe something we could do was take these images and explain them one after the next,” Nemiroff told The Verge’s Sean O’Kane.

How do they chose what to feature on the site? Well, it’s a bit of personal preference:

Robert Nemiroff: I just like the stuff where you look at it and say “Wow, what’s that!” I’m somewhat jaded after 20 years. It has to work for me before I try to make it work for other people.

Jerry Bonnell: I seem to be a sucker for the big, beautiful spiral galaxy images.

Back in those days cameras with high-enough quality to take great space pictures weren’t as plentiful. They were genuinely worried that they’d run out of images to post.

As Nemiroff said:

Before we posted our first image we debated this, Jerry and I, as to whether we were going to run out of images in a few days and then say, “Well that was stupid.” But actually there were many images around even back then. And NASA’s Ranger series took tens of thousands of images of the lunar surface, so if we had to we could just start putting up other pictures of the lunar surface. “Here’s another crater that’s a little bit different than yesterday’s crater.” But we never ran out of images.

And Bonnell:

I used to have to be more proactive. I would explore what was online and available in the NASA archives online, and I would also make occasional trips to photo libraries that I could find at Goddard and NASA headquarters and look at the prints.

Now, the two-person team gets hundreds of submissions of images from their millions of fans. They still do all the work just the two of them, though:

I usually do the beginnings of the weeks and Jerry does the ends of the weeks, and Wednesday can go either way.

I will do several in a row. I’ll do most of my week maybe on Thursday or Friday, sometimes on Saturday or Sunday. Sometimes I’ll leave Wednesday to the night before in case there’s some kind of breaking news. Jerry will do the ends of the weeks, he usually waits until the night before, and works on it during the afternoon.

To celebrate the anniversary, the two re-created Johannes Vermeer’s paintings The Astronomer and The Geographer using more than 5,000 APOD images that have appeared during the last 20 years.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2015 June 16

APOD

If you like space you can follow the APOD stream in many ways: Twitter account; Google+ page; on Facebook; on Instagram, in apps, and asubreddit.

source….Jennifer Welsh in .www.businessinsider.in

Natarajan

Message For the Day….” Remember , it is the “way of living” . the path of virtue , that keeps you in the MEMORY of People long after death …”

June 14, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Lord Krishna declares in the Bhagavad Gita, “There is nothing in the three worlds that I am obliged to do, nothing unaccomplished that I have to accomplish, but I am still engaged in activity (karma)”. Lord Krishna says this, for, if God is inactive, the Cosmos will come to a grinding halt. You too, must take the lead and follow it. Translate your strength into activity along the path of duty. The young follow the lead of elders. So elders must consistently hold on to ideals and work towards their realization so that the entire universe can attain prosperity and peace. Mother Earth teaches her children this lesson of service and sacrifice. Good conduct must be the main key to the life of every being. Remember, it is the ‘way of living,’ the path of virtue, that keeps you in the memory of people long after death.

Sathya Sai Baba

Amazing Vertical Take Off…Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner…!!!

June 13, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

IT has to be seen to be believed.

In the lead-up to the Paris Air Show, which begins on June 15, Boeing has set the bar high after releasing a video of its newest version of the Dreamliner aircraft — the 787-9 — performing some impressive aerial moves.

But it’s the takeoff which has everyone talking as the passenger jet makes an almost vertical ascent seconds after leaving the ground.

The steep climb looks impressive, though it has its doubters.

Boeing 767 pilot Patrick Smith told CNN: “It looks like the takeoff is at a near vertical 90 degree angle — trust me it’s not.”

He said a 787 with passengers making a 20 degree pitch-up on takeoff would be pretty strong.

“Presumably the plane was very light because it wasn’t carrying any passengers, probably had a very light fuel load, no freight, so it would have been able to perform a steeper than normal ascent — but not to the extent the video seems to show,” Smith said.

That’s steep ... the Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 takeoff

That’s steep … the Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 takeoff Source: Supplied

video clip..

Source….www.news.com.au and http://www.youtube.com

Natarajan

Jamshedpur’s Plastic Roads…An Eye Opener for all Indian Cities…

June 13, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Disposal of waste plastic is no longer a problem in the steel city with Jamshedpur Utility and Services Company (JUSCO) using bitumen technology on waste plastic, ranging from polybags to biscuit packets, for constructing roads.

JUSCO, a 100 per cent subsidiary company of Tata Steel which maintains and provides municipal services in Tata command area of the city, has constructed 12-15 kms road in the steel city as well as Tata Steel Works besides widening 22 roads using the environment-friendly technology of utilising waste plastic.

As far as we know, Jamshedpur is the only city in eastern India where bitumen technology (Dry Process) patented by Thiagarajar College of Engineering (TCE), Tirupparankuram, Madurai, has been implemented on accumulated waste plastic for the first time”, Gaurav Anand, Senior Manager (Quality Assurance) of JUSCO, said today.

Claiming that there is no maintenance cost involved for the first five years, Anand, who is an environment engineer, said that for every stretch of such one km long and four metre wide road, one tonne of bitumen costing Rs 50,000 is saved.

The use of bitumen has been reduced by 7 per cent ever since JUSCO began using waste plastic in road construction work, he said, adding that the quality and longevity of roads made of waste plastic-aggregate-bitumen was two times better than bitumen road.

Describing plastic tar road as a “new pathway”, Pratyush Dandpat, Deputy Manager (Quality Assurance) of JUSCO, said that the technology turned out to be successful.

Besides being water resistant, it has better binding property, higher softening point, can withstand high temperature and higher load, has lower penetration value, costs less as compared to bitumen road and has no toxic gas emission, Dandpat said.

Though there is great demand for the technology, including from Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand governments, but “we do not have any plan to commercialise it but to serve society. We have even received a request from Nigeria, which wants to replicate it in their country”, Anand said.

Due to the JUSCO initiative, the city will now have strong, durable, eco-friendly roads which will also relieve the residents from the sight of heaps of plastic waste.

Source…www.indiatimes.com

Natarajan

“Here’s why no one has found a trace of missing Flight MH370….”

June 13, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

A Texas A&M University professor and his team in Qatar have a mathematical theory about why search crews have found no trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 more than a year after it went missing.

Dr. Goong Chen, whose research on this theory was published in the American Mathematical Society’s journal, argues that the plane could have nosedived into the Indian Ocean at a 90-degree angle and remained somewhat intact as it sank to the bottom.

At 1:30 a.m. on March 8, the plane carrying 239 people dropped off air-traffic-control screens, less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Flight MH370 is the fact that, despite experts tracking the plane’s satellite pings to the southern Indian Ocean, searchers have never found a debris field or oil slicks from the supposed crash.

Texas A&M noted that in the case of Air France Flight 447, crews recovered thousands of pieces of floating debris from the Atlantic Ocean just days after the plane crashed in 2009.

Chen explains that if the plane were to enter the ocean at another angle, it would have created a large “bending moment” from the external force of hitting the water, causing the fuselage to break up.

In this type of situation, there would likely be a field of floating debris on the surface of the water.

But a vertical entry would be much smoother, with a smaller “bending moment.” The plane’s wings would have likely broken off immediately, but since they’re heavy, they probably would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

So if the plane nosedived into the ocean, it could have sank somewhat intact and landed belly-up on the ocean floor, according to the research paper.

The ocean’s current would have guided the plane to its resting place at the bottom. Lightweight debris like seat cushions and passenger belongings probably wouldn’t be able to float to the ocean’s surface if the plane’s body sank intact.

The plane stalling from a steep climb, aircraft mechanisms malfunctioning, and the plane running out of fuel could have caused MH370 to plunge into the ocean at a sharp angle, according to the research paper.

Chen and his team created simulations of what the descent might have looked like:

MH370 Malaysia Airlines plane simulation

Texas A&M University at Qatar / Notices of the American Mathematical Society

The plane entering the water at this angle wouldn’t have created the same large waves as an entry at a lesser angle. Big waves would have likely caused more break-up of the plane at the surface.

The animation below shows the supposed distribution of pressure. The paper notes that aviation experts say that how a plane enters the water determines how it breaks up.

Texas A&M University at Qatar / Notices of the American Mathematical Society

In other scenarios Chen and his team looked at, the plane’s angle of entry would have created bigger waves and more pressure, which likely would have caused the plane to break up more near the water’s surface.

Texas A&M University at Qatar / Notices of the American Mathematical Society

Illustration showing a diving water entry.

Texas A&M University at Qatar / Notices of the American Mathematical Society

Illustration showing a rolling water entry.

Chen and his team concluded that based on the various scenarios they mathematically examined, a nosedive is the mostly likely explanation of what happened to the plane. If the plane had entered the ocean at a different angle, the paper notes, search crews would have likely found debris by now.

Texas A&M University at Qatar/Notices of the American Mathematical Society

“This particular assertion is speculative but forensic,” the paper concludes. The team noted that they based this theory on computed data, aviation precedents, and atmospheric and ocean surface conditions.

The disappearance of MH 370 is one of the most bizarre and tragic aviation mysteries of all time. Investigators have not offered any conclusive explanation as to what happened to the plane after it disappeared from radar.

Australian officials announced last month that teams are expanding the MH370 search area in the Indian Ocean. They said that if the plane isn’t found there, they’re not sure where else to look.

Source….Pamela Engel in http://www.businessinsider.in

Natarajan

Super Villages of India…

June 12, 2015June 12, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Once in my college hostel lift, I bumped into a fellow hostel-mate who was wearing a T-shirt that showed a village couple dressed in traditional Rajasthani attire and sporting farming tools in their hands. While I complemented her on that T-shirt, her reaction hurt me a little. She said it depressed her that people are making money by selling T-shirts showing backward side of India.

I could not retort to her then, but I guess this list will make her and others who think less of our beautiful countrysides, understand that if anything at all, we should feel proud of living in a country with such amazing villages that are doing exponentially well for themselves and for India at large. Indian villages are deeply rooted in their traditions and some are dangerously blinded by them, agreed. But then that does not mean we should overlook the ones that are flourishing at a faster pace than some of the most famous of Indian metro cities.

So here goes.

Kasol- The Mini Israel of Himachal Pradesh

The scenic beauty, pristine hills, pleasant climate, and low habitation are the reasons why it is becoming one of the favourite destinations for backpackers. And the increasing number of tourists has finally led to the installation of an ATM machine in the village.

-The village is flooded with bars, internet cafes, and guest houses. But regardless, the beautiful scenery of the village remains intact and breathtaking.

-It witnesses a large firangi crowd consisting mostly of Israelites and owing to this fact, it is also informally referred to as the mini Israel of Himachal Pradesh.

Hiware Bazar (Maharashtra)- Possibly the richest village in India!

-Hiware Bazar has transformed its sad history into a successful present under the able guidance of Popatrao Baguji Pawar, who came to power as the sarpanch (village head) of the village in 1989.

-The village was hit by a severe drought in 1972 because of which villagers had started to shift out from Hiware Bazar to other neighbouring areas. But when Pawar came to power, the village started to experience good changes like ban on addictive substances, and encouragement of rainwater harvesting and cattle farming.

-It is thanks to this good transformation, the per capita income of the village increased from Rs 840 in 1995 to about Rs 30,000 in 2012, and this development has now resulted in as many as 60 millionaires in the village.

Punsari (Gujarat)- A village with all the essential modern facilities

All the people of the village are provided with a 24 hour Wi-Fi facility.

-Schools are equipped with CCTV cameras and digital technology is used to impart education.

-The villagers are given accidental cover of Rs 1,00,000 and medi-claim cover of up to Rs 25,000.

-A 20-litre can of clean drinking water can be availed for just Rs 4!

-The impressive model of the village has also been appreciated by the delegates of Nairobi who are planning to replicate and implement the model design of Punsari in the villages of Kenya.

Mawlynnong Village (Meghalaya)- Asia’s cleanest!

-The waste matter in the village is dumped in dustbins that are made of bamboos. The waste is then thrown into a pit, and finally ends up being used as manure.

-Plastic bags and smoking- strictly banned.

-People who litter around are fined. Those who cut trees are also fined (although that is a rare sighting here).

-The Khasi society in the village follows the matrilineal system whereby, property and wealth are transferred from the mother to the youngest of her daughters, who is also entitled to keep mother’s surname. Also, it is not an unusual thing to see women running shops here while their men tend farms.

-Literacy rate- 100%

Chappar (Haryana)- Birth of girl child is celebrated with sweets here

-It is an extremely happy change considering the fact that Chappar is located in Haryana, the Indian state notorious for having the lowest girl ratio.

-After many years of facing suppression, the women of the village have stopped hiding their faces in long ghoonghats (veils).

-And yes, the sarpanch here is a woman known by the name Neelam.

Ziro- Included in India’s tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Pine trees decorate the hills in this region and mountain rice cultivation is rampant across the entire town.

-It is home to Sidheshwar Nath Temple. The linga in this temple, which was discovered by a wood-cutter named Prem Subba in the year 2004, is a whopping 25 ft in length and 22 ft in width. It is one of the many key attractions of this beautiful town.

-Ziro is home to the interesting people of Apatani tribe, who unlike most other tribes are non-nomadic. The old women belonging to the tribe can be seen sporting facial tattoos and extraordinarily big sized nose plugs. And their this kind of get up has a back story dating back to pre-modern times.

-It is believed that decades ago women from Apatani tribe were considered most beautiful in all of Arunachal Pradesh. So beautiful that apparently men from other tribes had started to steal the Apatani women. And so the women took refuge in tattoos and big nose plugs, which made them less attractive. Today however, this custom is not practiced.

Dharnai (Bihar)- It is Solar powered!

-With the efforts of Greenpeace India, a 100 KW solar-based micro grid was installed in the village, which now provides 24 hour electricity to homes and commercial operations.

-Having survived as many as 30 years of dark nights, Dharnai is now India’s first fully solar powered village.

Tarkarli (Maharashtra)- Has the state’s only scuba diving training centre

Tarkali is increasingly becoming popular as a picturesque beach destination. The sea water is so pristine that on some clear days, one can easily see up to depths of 20 ft in the waters.

-Dolphins are a usual sighting here.

-Ramnavmi Utsav is famously celebrated in Mahaparusha temple of the village each year.

-The village has the state’s only scuba diving training centre!

There is a lot of beauty in our own home. It is about time we notice and appreciate it.

Source…. Ananta Sharma in http://www.storypick.com

Natarajan

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Message for the Day…” You must Hold on to the Name of God Under any Circumstance …”

Message For the Day….” Remember , it is the “way of living” . the path of virtue , that keeps you in the MEMORY of People long after death …”

Amazing Vertical Take Off…Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner…!!!