Earth – Page 43 – Take off with Natarajan

Message for the Day……” You must remember that you are truly Divine…”

March 9, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

Embodiments of Love, consider for a moment, where from the rain comes. It comes from the clouds. Clouds come from water vapour, rising from the sea. Rain water becomes a channel on the earth, changes itself into a rivulet and merges into a big river, and finally reaches the sea as its destination. A pot made out of clay when broken, is cast on the ground, and in course of time, becomes clay again. Water from the sea joins the sea, clay from the earth, goes back to earth again, but why does a human being alone forget the source He came from? The only besetting evil in human being is the sense of ‘mine’ (Mamakara), the acquisitive and possessive feeling. This is the root-cause for all other evils. You must remember that you are truly divine. You inhale and exhale 21,600 times – it is a natural reminder of the message of ‘SO-HAM’ (I am God) which is the truth about your divine reality.

Sathya Sai Baba

Nine super-achieving women Bengaluru should be proud of …..

March 8, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, here is a list of 9 women achievers from Bengaluru who are recipients of the Namma Bengaluru Foundation Awards for the year 2015.

The Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) is an independent organistation and inclusive social platform founded in 2009, which is committed to the betterment of the city through collective social engagement.

Twenty-year-old Aishwarya Hebbar has made over 21,000 kids happier through her project Let’s Write Together. She collects pens discarded by school and college students around the city, and restores them so that kids who can’t afford stationery can write. –

Ashwini Angadi manages a trust that runs the Belaku Academy, a school for the visually impaired, working with differently abled children with an aim of integrating them with the mainstream. She has been chosen as the UN Special Envoy to receive the Youth Courage Award for Education and the Queen of England’s Young Leader Award in 2015. –

Suparna Ganguly ended the cruel practice of electrocution of stray dogs and co-founded Compassion Unlimited Plus Action – CUPA, an organization that took over the Koramangala dog-pound and over the years helped create a more humane world for strays. –

Gloria Benny put together a network of volunteers called Make a Difference (MAD) who would mentor children with skills and confidence and equip them for life after they left the shelter homes at the age of 18. –

Dr Rohini Katoch Sepat is the Director of the State Forensic Sciences Lab and has been instrumental in enabling the police force with technological advances such as the iBeat app and CCTV cameras on police vehicles to help the cops serve communities better. –

Geetha Ramanujam set up Kathalaya, The House of Stories, with a vision of making positive social change in education through storytelling. The International Academy of Storytelling set up by Kathalaya has trained over 70,000 people to become storytellers and touched the lives of over 5 lakh children over the years. –

Prarthana Kaul started Giftabled, an e-commerce venture that sells both gifts made by the disabled and merchandise for the disabled, thereby transforming many lives. –

Ashwani is a news reporter with RajTV, who brought Mavallipura landfill garbage crisis into focus. As a result of her efforts, health camps were conducted and drinking water facilities were improved. –

Lokayukta SP Sonia Narang’s strict action concerning extortion calls allegedly made to Government employees for bribes in return for immunity in corruption cases resulted in the filing of 5 FIRs and 11 arrests. –

Source…..www.thenewsminute.com

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Message for the Day…”No one should become desperate and give up Prayers…”

March 8, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

Sathya Sai Baba

Truly, the prayers of the great act as an invitation even for the advent of the Lord. In the external world, when the subjects need any convenience or help, they approach the rulers and inform them of their request. So also, in the internal state, when there is no possibility of achieving and acquiring devotion, charity, peace, and truth, the great and good people who desire to achieve them pray to the Lord within themselves. Then, listening to their prayers, He Himself comes into the world and showers His grace on them. Ramayana and Bhagavata reveal that Lord Rama and Krishna incarnated as an answer to the prayers of the sages. Thus prayers should be offered again and again for the realisation of the task. No one should become desperate and give up prayers if they don’t result immediately in the advent of the Lord.

The Mysterious Caves of Mustang, Nepal……

March 8, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

The Kingdom of Mustang, bordering the Tibetan plateau, is one of the most remote and isolated region of Nepalese Himalaya. Once an independent Buddhist kingdom, Mustang was annexed by Nepal at the end of the 18th century, but retained its status as a separate principality until the 1950’s when the area was more closely consolidated into Nepal. Because of its sensitive border location, Mustang was off-limits to foreigners until 1992. The relative isolation of the region from the outside world has helped Mustang preserve its ancient culture which is more closely tied to Tibet than to Nepal.

The landscape is also unlike anything that is to be found anywhere else in Nepal —deep gorges carved by the Kali Gandaki River, and strangely sculptured rock formations. The cliffs’ face are pitted with an estimated 10,000 ancient cave dwellings, some of which are perched more than 150 feet above the valley floor. No one knows who dug them, or how people even scaled the near vertical rock face to access them. Some of the caves appear almost impossible to reach even to experienced climbers.

Photo credit: National Geographic

Most of the caves are now empty, but others show signs of domestic habitation —hearths, grain-storage bins, and sleeping spaces. Some caves were apparently used as burial chambers. The several dozen bodies that were found in these caves were all more than 2,000 years old. They lay on wooden beds and decorated with copper jewelry and glass beads.

In other caves, skeletons dating from the 3rd to the 8th centuries, before Buddhism came to Mustang, had cut marks on the bones that may have been inflicted during the practice of sky burial, where the body’s flesh is sliced into small pieces and left to be eaten by vultures. Sky burial is still practiced in many remote regions in the Himalaya.

Archeologists believe that the caves in Mustang were used in three general periods. They were first used some 3,000 years ago as burial chambers. Then around 1,000 years ago, they became primarily living quarters, perhaps to escape battles and intruders into the valley. Finally, by the 1400s, most people had moved into traditional villages and the caves became places of meditation. Some of these caves were turned into monasteries such as the Luri Gompa, the Chungsi Cave monastery and the Nyiphuk Cave Monastery, all of which were built around and inside the caves.

Luri Gompa is one of the most famous in Mustang. The monastery is set on a ledge, at least a hundred meter high from the ground, in one of the many natural pillar like sandstone structures. A winding footpath climbs all the way from the bottom of the valley to a single entrance door that leads into two interconnecting chambers. The outer chamber contains a shrine, while the inner chamber —the main treasure of Luri Gompa— is beautifully decorated with a series of paintings depicting Indian Mahasiddhas — saints who were said to have achieved siddhi, or extraordinary powers by meditation. No documentation pertaining to this mysterious gompa or monastery has been found, but the wall paintings appear to be have been made in the 14th century or even earlier.

Photo credit: National Geographic

Photo credit: nepaladvisor.com

Photo credit: David Rengel/Washington Post

Luri Gompa. Photo credit: Bob Witlox/Flickr

Frescos in the ceilings of Luri Gompa. Photo credit: library.brown.edu

Sources: Nat Geo / library.brown.edu / www.oneworldtrekking.com

Source……..www.amusingplanet.com

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Message for the Day…” Get rid of Desire and Hatred and experience the Divinity inherent within …”

March 7, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

Who is Lord Shiva, and where is He to be found? Many answers are given, including Kailash as His place of residence. The true answer is, ‘Isavasyam Idam Sarvam’ (All this is pervaded by Isa). He is omnipresent. There is no place, object or being where God is not present. Correct your outlook and recognise this unity in the apparent diversity around you. When God is omnipresent, what need is there to go in search of Him? The search is meaningless. If one gets rid of attachment and hatred, one will experience the Divinity inherent within. This is the sadhana (spiritual exercise) one has to do today – to get rid of desire and hatred which conceal the God within. Many people ask: “Swami! Show us the way.” All you have to do is to go back to the source from which you came. Where is the need for seeking the way? The Bhagavatha has declared that it is the natural destiny of every living being to go back to where each one came from.

Sathya Sai Baba

” Bond Between Parent and Child is Universal ….”!!!

March 7, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

The minute you become a parent, your whole world is dedicated to making sure you’re child (or children) is safe, feels loved and grows to become wise to the world. In the adorable photos below, you can see creatures of all shapes and sizes rearing their young in the wild. Not only will these photos make you feel warm and fuzzy – they’ll also show you that the bond between a parent and a child is universal, regardless of the physical form it takes:

parent love

Source…..www.ba-bamail.com

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Breaking stereotypes: ‘We are stronger than we think’ !!!

March 6, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

We had asked you, dear readers, share your experience if you’re a woman who has broken stereotypes.

Here, Vandana Chaudhary shares her story.

Vandana Chaudhary

I am Vandana Chaudhary, 33 years, and presently live in Vizag.

I have always enjoyed sports like badminton and cricket.

I also run marathons occasionally. But cycling, and that too 80 kilometres, is something I never fathomed in the wildest of my dreams.

It all started in August 2013, when I first bought my Firefox (MTB) and enjoyed riding it casually on Dolphin hill (my residence).

In the first few months, I could barely do 4 to 5 km at a stretch, without running out of breath.

Gradually, I improved my timing and was able to do 12 km (with a steep elevation) within six months.

However, I never thought I was good enough to participate in a cycling tour, which had professional cyclists as participants.

In December 2014, the ‘Tour of Eastern Ghats (TEG)’ was organised.

It was time to send in our names and I was still in two minds if I would be able to ride half the distance, let alone complete it.

Nevertheless, with immense encouragement from my husband (Anand V), I decided to give it a shot, with my humble six geared cycle.

Vandana Chaudhary at the start line

On the D-day, while standing at the starting line, I felt terribly intimidated by shiny, sleek Cannondales, Treks and Meridas around.

My heart sunk further, when I saw all of them zooming past me on their 24-geared bikes.

With low spirits already, I decided to continue, slow and steady, with my hubby following me in our black Santro.

Every time I would slow down, he would shout out aloud a word of encouragement like , “C’mon Vandana, you can do it, you are almost there”.

When the group stopped for a quick lunch, I was the last one to reach.

Post lunch, many participants decided to drop out due to exhaustion. That’s when I decided, it is not important to win the race, but it’s important to complete it.

I started with rejuvenated vigour and cycled my way through the fields, mountains and lakes. All this while, Anand trailing me and cheering me.

At one point of time, the organisers asked me to stop and use the towing truck, like others had as it was getting too late.

Sensing my disappointment, Anand stepped up and said, “She will not give up even if it meant riding in pitch dark”.

In the end, I proudly wish to reveal that there were just three of us who completed the entire route, the other two being Naval officers.

That day, for the first time I realised, what a little bit of will power and self belief can achieve

I still feel a sense of pride when I think of how I decided not to give up despite the darkness, pain and exhaustion.

“We are stronger than we think” — I will never stop believing this!

Photographs: Kind courtesy Vandana Chaudhary

Source…….www.rediff.com

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India’s Water Warrior Has a Solution for India’s Droughts. The Best Part – We Can Play a Role Too!

March 5, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

Ayyappa Masagi has successfully implemented water conservation projects across states, industries, farms, and homes.

For anyone who is worried about India’s water crisis, Ayyappa Masagi’s solution is simple – conserve. This man – popularly referred to as Water Magician, Water Gandhi, and Water Doctor – firmly believes that by the year 2020 India can manage its water resources well and be a water-efficient country. And if Ayyappa has his way, the country may just end up achieving this goal.

Ayyappa is famous for reversing the fortunes of thousands by getting them to practise rainwater harvesting and water conservation.

He has also recharged more borewells and constructed more lakes than probably anyone else in the country.

But he hasn’t always been actively involved in conserving water. In fact, for many years, Ayyappa was an engineer for Larsen and Toubro (L&T), before he started working in this field. Ayyappa was born into a family of poor farmers in Gadag district in Karnataka. And it is his experiences with agriculture that made him study water in his later years.

“In my childhood we faced plenty of water problems. I used to wake up with my mother at 3 am to go and fetch water. This used to happen so often that I took an oath to try and conserve water every day. In fact, throughout my growing years, I thought of ways to conserve water,” he says.

Ayyappa went through many struggles before he could get an education and get employed. His mother sold her gold so he could complete his diploma in mechanical engineering. He worked at BEML, Bengaluru, before joining L&T, where he worked for 23 years.

During his years in L&T, Ayyappa found it hard to resist the call of the earth.

He gave in and purchased six acres of land in a village in Gadag.

“In this dry region, I planted crops like rubber and coffee. I wanted to prove that one could grow these crops with whatever rain one gets. Though I was successful in the first two years my crops soon dried up due to a severe drought. The year after that, they were destroyed by floods. Though people mocked me at that point, I didn’t take it to heart. I was determined to find a solution,” he says.

This is how Ayyappa started researching how water, which is abundant at least once a year, can be conserved for the dry season. In his quest for answers, he met with experts like Anna Hazare and Rajendra Singh of Rajasthan.

After a long study, Ayyappa realised that recharging borewells and practising non-irrigational agriculture methods were the answers to the water problems farmers faced.

“I decided to use my farm as my own R&D lab. I implemented these techniques and reaped a good harvest in the two subsequent years, in the face of flood and famine. I was encouraged by the success and started spreading the message about borewell recharging and non-irrigational agricultural techniques. I tested these methods on the farms in my neighbourhood and found they worked there as well. This is what prompted me to reach out to more people,” he says.

Gradually, he quit his job at L&T and decided to work towards making India a water-efficient nation.

“We always blame nature. But that is unfair. It is we who have encouraged uncontrollable development and encroached upon land. Then how can we complain when a place like Chennai receives the rain meant for a year in three days?” asks Ayyappa.

In 2004, Ayyappa received the Ashoka Fellowship for his conservation efforts.

A year later, he established the Water Literacy Foundation, in a bid to reach out to more people and spread the message of conservation.

In 2008, Ashoka approached Ayyappa to start a for-profit wing of the Water Literacy Foundation. This is how Rain Water Concepts was launched.

Today, he finds solutions to water problems based on the size of the farm, the availability of resources, and the person’s budget. Ayyappa has orchestrated thousands of conservation projects across 11 states. He has also created over 600 lakes in the country, for which he found mention in the Limca Book of Records.

Ayyappa’s ideas are simple. He considers the earth to be the biggest filter. He captures the water, filters it and then stores it underground. His pit-based rainwater harvesting system is a structure made of boulders, gravel, sand, and mud. When it rains, water trickles through the gravel and sand. It slowly charges the subsoil. This process continues and ensures the soil is always charged with water. This method also prevents water from evaporating.

He also specialises in watershed management, inter-basin water transfer, recycling of water, etc.

“Do you know how much water every person wastes while having a bath? This water is not bad water. It can actually be reused,” he says.

Ayyappa not only provides services to individuals but to corporates and other educational institutions as well. He has also managed to create a community of ‘water warriors’ who practise his methods and educate others about them.

“Our country doesn’t need grand plans like river-linking to tackle the problem of water shortage. In fact, that project is an unnecessary expense for the government. If we need to save water, every farmer and ever organisation should plan ahead. And if they do, this country will soon become water-efficient,” he says.

Ayyappa Masagi can be contacted at waterliteracyfoundation@yahoo.com

Source…..Meryil Garcia in http://www.the betterindia.com

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Hundreds of South Koreans Visit Ayodhya Every Year. This Is Why…!!!

March 5, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

The holy city of Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, plays host to hundreds of South Koreans every year – who come to pay their tributes to the legendary queen Hur Hwang-ok. According to legend, queen Hur Hwang-ok, also known as Princess Suriratna, was the princess of Ayodhya before she went to South Korea and married King Kim Suro of Karak Clan in 48 AD. It is believed that she reached Korea on a boat, and was the first queen of King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya. She was 16-year-old when she got married and is considered the first queen of Gaya Kingdom.

It is because of the presence of her monument in Ayodhya that around 60 lakh people of the Karak clan consider the city as their maternal home. The memorial was first inaugurated in 2001 in Ayodhya and more than a hundred historians and government representatives, including the North Korean ambassador to India, were present during the ceremony. Seven million Koreans, representing the Kimhae Kim clan, Hur clan and Incheon Yi clan, trace their ancestry to the royal union.

In South Korea, her tomb is located in Kimhae and there is a stone pagoda in front of it. It is said that the pagoda is made of stones that she brought from Ayodhya.

Tomb of Heo Hwang-ok in Gimhae, South Korea

Source: Wikimedia

Describing how she landed in Gaya when she first met the king, she said that the heavenly lord (Sange Je) appeared in her parents’ dreams and told them to send her to the Korea as the king had not found a queen yet. Legend states that the queen died at the age of 157.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to South Korea in May last year, the two countries agreed that a bigger monument of the princess will be built in Ayodhya. Recently, during a meeting with the Korean delegation, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav said that the memorial would be constructed according to the Korean architecture. He asked Kim Ki-jae, President of Central Karak Clan Society, to provide the design of the monument so that the government can proceed.

Featured image for representation only. Source: Flickr

Source…….Tanaya Singh in http://www.the betterindia.com

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Chennai floods have passed, but this city crew continues its clean up …

March 3, 2016NatarajanLeave a comment

Image: Chennai Trekking Club volunteers

More than 30 young people were assembled on the banks of the Adyar River next to Surya Nagar in Kotturpuram early in the morning on March 2. Armed with orange gloves and white rags, they were on a cleaning mission as part of the Chennai Trekking Club’s efforts to clear the area of all non-biodegradable waste.

According to Peter Van Geit (44), the founder of the Chennai Trekking Club, “This is the 14th session of the cleanliness drive that we are carrying out in the city. The waste that is seen on these banks has not been dumped by the locals but has been washed in during the floods. There were thick layers of garbage here but now it has reduced as we have been cleaning this place for the past two weeks.”

On the other side of the river, heaps of garbage still dot the bank, and the river runs an alarming black colour. “We can reach the other side of the river but the land is too steep for us to clean it up. The water is black in color as many illegal sewage connections are connected to the river,” said Peter.

Most of the waste that can be seen on the slope consist of cloth, glass bottles, plastic bags and other household trash. Peter and his team of volunteers have been gathering together all the non-biodegradable waste for transportation to the common dumping ground in Pallikaranai by trucks of the Chennai Corporation. –

The Chennai Trekking Club began the cleaning drive in the city two months ago, in the aftermath of the Chennai floods. “We started the relief work in different places like Cuddalore and Pulicat. Many slums were in a very bad condition and all the drainage water was inside their homes. We were helping them out in Cuddalore and Pulicat. Later, we decided to start cleaning near the Adyar and Cooum rivers in Chennai.”

The cleaning drive came about as a result of a shared passion among the club’s members for the environment, says Peter. “The Chennai Trekking club carries out trekking trips to beautiful natural locations like virgin forests, mountain ranges, rivers or lakes. Nature is very close to our hearts. So that’s where we started. It also helps to create awareness and reach out to thousands of people and sensitizing people about the issues.”

Building awareness, Peter feels, is an urgent task, as waste disposal is a crucial problem for Chennai. “There are 6000 tonnes of garbage which leaves the city every single day. Most of it ends up in water bodies, rivers and the ocean, which are our lifelines. Chennai has the highest per capita waste generation in the country. There is no segregation of waste in the city and all of it is accumulated in Pallikaranai, one of the few wetlands remaining in India. 90% of our garbage footprint can be reduced immediately by segregating dry (recyclable) and wet (compostable) waste at our home.” –

For the volunteers, many different reasons have drawn them to the initiative. Roopa, a doctor said, “I joined this initiative to help people in cleaning the place but it has changed many things for me. Now, I go home and try keeping the place clean and segregate the waste.”

Bensh, an engineer, said that he comes from an agriculture background and was drawn to an earlier tree plantation initiative. He later joined the cleanliness drive as he thinks it is the social responsibility of the people to do such things. For Mohan, it is about making new friends and enjoying time spent usefully in cleaning such places.

In the past, the group has carried out cleanliness drives in Chitra Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Pallaikarnai and few tree parks.

Peter Van Geit began the Chennai Trekking Club about eight years ago. “I’m a very active person in sports. I wanted a platform to connect. I set up a website and started sharing stories and images of trips and in some time people started joining me for cycling, swimming, running and trekking trips.” Now, the Chennai Trekking Club has more than 27000 members.

Besides their current cleanliness drives, the Club also carries out tree-planting initiatives, an annual coastal clean-up drive, workshops on nature, restoration of historical sites and organic farming. It also organizes trekking trips on weekends, swimming classes, triathlons and marathons.

Inspired by their example? Surely a task as large as cleaning up the city could use many more volunteers.

Source…..www.thenewsminute.com

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