At the Age 64 , She adopted her First Orphan…

September 22, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Thousands of orphaned children in India never find loving homes because the authorities take too long to declare them ‘free for adoption.’ Prabhavati Muthal, 79 years old and mother of two adopted orphans herself, has been fighting to get justice for these children all her life. We appeal to all our readers to support her by signing her petition.

“We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer ‘tomorrow,’ his name is ‘today’.”

― Gabriela Mistral

“Aai tu Aai saarkhi nahi disat, Aaji sarkhi diste. Mala ‘Mummy Papa’ hawa aahe”

(Mom you don’t look like a mom, you look like a grandma. I want my Mummy Papa!)

Mohini often used to say this to Prof. Prabhavati Muthal. Mohini was 5-years-old now and she had heard from her schoolmates that she had not come out of her mother’s womb but from a dirty sack, and because of that, her right arm was paralyzed.

Photo Credit: Tawheed Manzoor/Flickr

On November 30, 1996, Prof. Prabhavati Muthal had retired and was all set to relax for the rest of her life in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, after working for 35 years as a history professor. Her son was a well-known paediatrician at the local government hospital.

There was no orphanage in the town. Thus, unwanted and orphan (mostly newborn) babies landed in Dr. Muthal’s ward. Like all government hospital wards, this too was crowded. The nursing staff were always overloaded.

On March 30, 1997, a lady sarpanch from a nearby village brought a brutally battered newborn girl to Dr. Muthal. The baby was just 3 days old. She had been tied in a gunny bag and thrown in the garbage to die. Someone had found her and informed the sarpanch.

The girl was visibly injured. Her skull was fractured. Yet, for three days, the lady sarpanch had not provided her with any treatment nor had she informed the police. Consequently, the child became critically sick, developed a high fever and started convulsing.

Even then, the lady was reluctant to let the hospital keep the child and treat her. Dr. Muthal had to threaten her and force her to admit the child to the government hospital. On seeing how serious the child’s condition was, the lady sarpanch disappeared from the scene.

For weeks, the child hovered between life and death. One usually associates government staff with impersonal and callous behaviour, but the nurses at this government hospital rallied together to save the child. One of the sisters told Dr. Muthal: “God will not forgive us if we cannot save this child.”

Due to their untiring efforts, the child survived. But the prolonged battle for life had taken its toll. She was badly emaciated and cranky due to constant pain. She had major neurologic deficit, which left her right side paralysed. Feeding and cleaning her was an ordeal.

Prof. Prabhavati Muthal willingly took over this daunting task. With her selfless love and care, the child gradually improved. As she grew healthier, a beautiful face emerged. She looked so attractive that she was called ‘Mohini.’

Little abandoned but inncocent infants giggling at Kilbil, not knowing their fate

Her story attracted a journalist’s attention and she became well known. Many people, including a doctor, came forward to adopt her. Suddenly, the lady sarpanch re-entered the scene and demanded custody of the child.

The custody of orphan children is decided by the JWB or Juvenile Welfare Board (the name for the Child Welfare Committee before the year 2000). To everybody’s surprise, the local JWB gave Mohini’s custody to the same sarpanch, ignoring better claimants and the lady’s past suspicious behaviour.

Alarmed, Prabhavati approached the Sessions Court. After a prolonged struggle lasting over 2 years, the Sessions Court finally overturned the JWB’s order.

Prabhavati then decided to establish an orphanage so that Mohini had a place to stay. The orphanage, called Kilbil (chirping of birds), is now 16 years old.

Prabhavati Muthal with a 1.5-year-old child who is waiting to be made ‘free for adoption’ by CWC –

However, Mohini’s agony did not end here. The infuriated JWB avenged the situation by blocking her transfer to the orphanage for a year. Finally, her case was cleared by special order of the state government. The JWB continued to obstruct her rehabilitation. She was finally declared ‘free for adoption’ by the Session Court under section 7.3 of the Juvenile Justice Act after one more year.

‘Free For Adoption’ means that a child’s parents or guardians have relinquished their parental rights or have had them terminated in a court of law. Once this has occurred, a child is then ‘legally free’ to be adopted by another person or family member. Any orphan or abandoned or surrendered child, declared legally free for adoption by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), is eligible for adoption.

“Most of the couples prefer small babies so that they can enjoy each milestone of the baby while growing up. If a child is not made ‘free for adoption’ soon, then mostly they don’t get adopted and lead an affectionless life,” says Prabhavati Muthal.

Unfortunately, in Mohini’s case too, all the prospective adoptive parents had given up by the time she became ‘free for adoption.’ No one was willing to wait for years and fight court battles just to adopt a physically impaired child.

When nobody came forward to adopt her for more than a year, Prabhavati decided to adopt Mohini herself and become a mother to a 4-year-old child at the age of 64. –

Kilbil had now become the home of many abandoned children. Vasundhara (Vasu) was one of them. Just a few days old, Vasundhara was found in one of the movie theatres of Chandrapur. She did not have one ear. Every adoptive couple wanted a beautiful and flawless child and so did not adopt Vasu. It was Vasu’s 11th year in Kilbil. She was supposed to go to a remand house for juveniles once she became 12. Prabhavati couldn’t let this child go and so, once again, she took the legal guardianship of Vasundhara.

Vasu and Mohini are sisters with the same mother now!

At the time that Prabhavati was looking to adopt Mohini, the law required that to contest a case, you must be the ‘aggrieved party.’ This means you should be affected somehow by the case — it is only then that you have the ‘locus standi,’ that is, eligibility to participate in the judicial dispute.

Prabhavati had none, but she could participate in the dispute because lawmakers then (1986 version of the Juvenile Justice Act) had wisely put in Sec 7.3, which said:

“The powers conferred on the board or juvenile court by or under this act may also be exercised by the high court and the court of session, when the proceeding comes before them in appeal, revision or otherwise.” – Juvenile Justice Act 1986. Sec. 7.3 Chapter II

The word ‘otherwise’ opened the window for any conscientious citizen to seek redress from the Sessions Court purely on merit of the case, bypassing technicalities like ‘locus standi.’ The same clause also allowed the Sessions Court to declare Mohini ‘free for adoption.’

It is vital to keep this window open for the orphans, because they have no one to look after them. The orphanages that keep the children and the parents who adopt the children are really ‘beneficiaries’ and not truly ‘aggrieved.’ They have no real stake in any individual child.

The only victim of a wrong decision (or lack of decision) is the orphan child. The child is therefore, the only truly ‘aggrieved. –

Unfortunately, this Section was deleted only for orphan babies in the newer editions of the Act. The implications are tremendous for the orphan children, because now the CWC has absolute power over orphan children. There is no effective, accessible mechanism to correct its mistakes, misdeeds and inaction. –

Please help Prabhavati make a representation to the government authorities to suitably amend the Juvenile Justice Act and include a clause like Sec. 7.3 of 1986 Juvenile Justice Act in the present Bill for orphan children by signing this petition

. Prabhavati has also penned the story of her struggle in a book titled Adhantari. This book has bagged an award from the Maharashtra government. –

If you wish to help Prabhavati in her struggle for justice for these kids, or wish to donate for Kilbil, or want to adopt a child, please email at kilbil.mvm@gmail.com. You can buy Adhantari (the book is in Marathi) by writing to the same email address. Prof. Muthal is also looking for writers who can translate the book into English.

About the author: A mechanical engineer, Manabi Katoch has been brought up listening to Tagore’s poems and stories, so she is kind of an emotional person within. She loves writing poems and stories on social and political issues. Few of her poems can be viewed on www.poemocean.com and satires on www.mindthenews.com. She has worked with Wipro, Frankfinn and Educomp in the past.

Source………Manabi Katoch….www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan

Image of the Day….Best Seat in the World…!!!

September 22, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The central bugle of our Milky Way galaxy shines brightly above the vast ocean of lights of Yaqing Temple in China.

View larger. | Jeff Dai submitted this photo of the Yaqing Temple, Sichuan, China. He calls it ‘Lights or Stars.’ Visit his Flickr page.

Jeff Dai submitted this photo to EarthSky – taken September 9, 2015 – and wrote:

Lights or Stars? Today most city skies have become virtually empty of stars. But there is someplace beyond your imagination. Pictured above, the central bugle of our Milky Way galaxy shines brightly above the vast ocean of lights of Yaqing Temple. Located at Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province of China, Yaqing temple lies in an isolated valley with 4,000 meters above sea level. The monastery is associated with the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. With more than 30,000 Sangha members now, it’s the largest concentration of nuns and monks in the world.

This is a single exposure image, No photo montage, additional filter and black card.

Read more about the Yaqing Temple and Monastery

Posted by Deborah Byrd …www.eathskynews.org

Natarajan

” WHY DON’T COMMERCIAL AIRPLANES HAVE PARACHUTES FOR PASSENGERS?…”

September 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Seatbelts and airbags in cars save passengers lives. Parachutes save people who, for a variety of reasons, exit a plane in mid-flight. So why aren’t parachutes provided to passengers on commercial airline flights, in case of emergencies?

Because they almost certainly would not save anyone’s life.

Parachuting Basics

When your average daredevil skydives for fun, the plane is typically travelling at between 80 and 110 mph when the skydiver jumps. Tandem and accelerated free fall (AFF) jumps occur between 10,000 and 13,000 feet, while static jumps can be as low as 3,500 feet.

Student divers choosing the easiest, tandem jump, where the newbie is physically and securely attached to an experienced instructor, are still required to undergo “a half hour of basic ground instruction.”

Braver neophytes who wish to fly untethered will have to endure:

Four to five hours of intense ground instruction, including learning body flight maneuvers and hand signals that instructors use to coach the student as they fly alongside.

For an AFF jump, although not harnessed together, freshman flyers are accompanied by two instructors who “hold onto the student’s harness until” it’s deployed.

Those who choose a static line jump also have to take four + hours of training prior to the jump, although the parachute is deployed as the rookie flyer leaves the aircraft.

When skydivers leave a plane, they do it alone or in small groups. When successive groups will be jumping, they try to keep separated by anywhere between 500 and 1500 feet; this is often accomplished by waiting until the preceding group is “back under the tail to 45 degrees behind the airplane” or several seconds in between groups.

Experienced skydivers can make even riskier jumps, although when descents begin at higher than 15,000 feet, “the risk of hypoxia and being significantly affected by altitude” increases dramatically and divers are less able “to make effective safe decisions at critical times.” Therefore, divers who jump from 15,000 feet or higher carry supplemental oxygen.

Further, each parachute weighs around 40 pounds and the equipment is expensive. To be fully outfitted with “rig, main, reserve, ADD, altimeter, jumpsuit, helmet [and] goggles” can run between $5,900 and $9,000.

Commercial Airplane Basics

Perhaps the most popular commercial jetliner is the Boeing 737 family. Its 737-800 can carry nearly 200 people (including the crew).

Although speeds can vary slightly, the 737-800 travels at approximately 600 mph when at its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Cruising altitudes are assigned by air traffic controllers and are usually up to 39,000 feet, except for longer flights that may fly higher.

Individual Parachutes Won’t Improve Passenger Safety

Doing the math . . .

Passenger Training

Since four hours of training just to board a plane is unrealistic, passengers would have to read and execute detailed skydiving instructions including how to properly strap the chute on in order to benefit from the parachute. Not everyone is good at following detailed, technical instructions even when time and stress aren’t a factor. In a situation where the plane is going down and one has only a moment to get the parachute properly strapped on (likely while keeping an oxygen mask firmly attached and perhaps also needing to keep the seat belt on to keep from being thrown about in the cabin), it’s unlikely most would be able to even get this far.

Every Man for Himself

Unless passengers wanted to fly suited up and tethered for a static jump, parachuting from a commercial airplane will be an AFF jump; however, unlike the conditions that students get – training and trained instructors to assist, commercial passengers will just have to learn as they go.

In addition, they will have to keep calm and proceed in an orderly fashion, which will require most to patiently wait their turn to exit. This is not likely to happen.

Parachuting Equipment is Bulky

Adding just parachutes (not counting helmets, altimeters, etc.) for each passenger would add another 8,000 pounds or so to the flight’s weight. In addition, that equipment would take up space, that is already at a premium.

Parachuting Only Makes Sense if Something Happens in Mid-Flight

The only feasible time for people to jump from the plane is while it’s cruising. However, most fatal airline accidents occur on airplanes during takeoff and landing.

Consider that between 2003 and 2012, only 9% of all fatal accidents on commercial flights, seven total, occurred while the plane was cruising; moreover, at least one of those accidents happened as a result of wind shear or thunderstorm. This is a situation where parachuting is extremely dangerous even if you’re an expert.

So even if parachuting were feasible from a jetliner, the conditions in which parachutes could theoretically save lives are almost never apparent in fatal commercial accidents. But even if they were, it still wouldn’t be a good idea.

Jetliners Cruise Very High and Very Fast

At 35,000 feet (three times higher than a typical jump) every passenger would need high altitude equipment (HALO) that includes an oxygen tank, mask and regulator, flight suit, ballistic helmet and altimeter just to manage the thin air. Or they could just pass out from hypoxia and wake up later, hopefully when the parachute automatically deployed at under 15,000-20,000 feet.

Of course, none of this would matter since the plane is moving so fast (600 mph), and it is so large, that many passengers would almost certainly smash into it and suffer debilitating if not fatal injuries.

Whole Plane Parachutes May Save Lives

There is hope, however. Over the past few years, many small planes have been equipped with whole-plane parachutes that slow the craft’s descent. As of late 2013, the largest planes equipped with these safety devices carry five people, but plans are in the works for putting them on larger crafts. As one manufacturer said, “There is no doubt that big commercial airlines of the future will be equipped with some kind of parachute recovery system.”

Bonus Airplane Crash Survival Tips:

Sit in the back with the cool kids. According to several studies, “passengers near the tail of the plane are about 40 percent more likely to survive a crash than those in the first few rows up front.” The other advantage is that most passengers choose not to sit in the back. So unless the plane is full, you might get the row of seats to yourself.
However, other research into surviving plane crashes indicated that “those [passengers] who sat more than six rows from an exit were found to be far less likely to survive.” So if the plane doesn’t have a rear exit, that’s something to be factored in.
If you do happen to fall out of a plane at 35,000 feet (without a parachute), Popular Mechanics has some advice on how to survive the fall: “The concept you’ll be most interested in is terminal velocity. As gravity pulls you toward earth, you go faster. But . . . you [also] create drag . . . . and [eventually] acceleration stops. Depending on your size and weight, and [other] factors . . . your speed at that moment will be about 120 mph [this takes about 1,500 feet. At about 22,000 feet] You sputter into consciousness [hypoxia had knocked you out from shortly after you exited the plane]. . . . Take aim . . . . Glass hurts, but it gives. So does grass. Haystacks and bushes . . . and trees aren’t bad, though they tend to skewer. Snow? Absolutely. . . . Contrary to popular belief, water is an awful choice [to cushion the fall]. . . . With the target in mind, the next consideration is body position. To slow your descent. . . spread your arms and legs, present your chest to the ground, and arch your back and head upward. . . . Relax. This is not your landing pose. . . . . [To land, assume] the classic sky diver’s landing stance – feet together, heels up, flexed knees and hips.”

According to the Geneva-based Aircraft Crashes Record Office, between 1940 and 2008 there were 157 people who fell out of planes during a crash and without a parachute and lived to tell about it. A full 42 of those falls occurred at heights over 10,000 feet! One such incident involved a British Tail-gunner whose plane was shot down in 1944 during WWII. He fell over 18,000 feet without a parachute. His fall was broken by pine trees and soft snow. After his “landing” he found himself completely fine, except for a sprained leg. Things didn’t initially improve for him as he was quickly captured by the Germans. Apparently the Germans were more impressed by his near death experience than his nationality, because they released him the following May after having given him a certificate commemorating his fall and subsequent survival.

Source….www.today i foundout .com

Natarajan

” The British Flying Jeep….” !!!

September 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

WWII Files: The British Flying Jeep

How many of you science fiction buffs have fantasized about zipping around town in your very own flying car? Sure, a trip in a helicopter or airplane has now become the standard or even mundane mode of long distance travel, but imagine taking your very own flying machine on a trip across town, presumably with The Jetsons’ theme song blasting in the background. With advances in modern technology, it is only a matter of time right? What may surprise you though, is that way back in 1942, twenty years before Americans were meeting George Jetson and marveling at The Jetsons‘ flying car, the British Military actually had their very own flying jeep.

It was right smack in the middle of the Second World War and the military needed to find a way to airdrop more than messages, medical supplies or rations. They wanted to sky dive off-road vehicles to provide transportation for their infantry soldiers and other military personnel. They had previously tested the Hafner Rotachute, a rotor equipped parachute towed by an airplane with the objective of delivering armed soldiers more precisely to the battlefield, and they figured they could apply similar technology to a large vehicle.

So they looked to Raoul Hafner again. Hafner was an Austrian engineer – a contemporary and admirer of Juan de la Cierva, that Spanish pioneer of rotary-winged flight – with a passion for helicopters. Hafner first designed the Rotachute and later conceptualized its spin-off the Hafter Rotabuggy. While both machines used rotor technology, the Rotachute was actually a fabric-covered capsule with room for one pilot and a notch for his weapon with fairing in the rear and an integrated tail. After various modifications, the first successful launch occurred on June 17, 1942 from a de Havilland Tiger Moth. Taking off, the airplane towed the Rotachute on a 300 foot towline and released it at an altitude of 200 feet. A rough landing necessitated further improvements in the form of a stabilizing wheel and fins to improve stability.

In the case of the Rotabuggy the question was how to build a vehicle that they could fly and drop from a height without causing damage. They did some tests using a regular (non-flying) 4×4 wartime jeep- a Willys MB- loaded with concrete and discovered that dropping it from heights up to a pretty impressive 2.35 metres (7.7 ft) could work without damaging the unmodified jeep.

With durable jeep in hand, they then outfitted it with a 40 ft rotor as well as a streamlined tail fairing with twin rudderless fins. For added toughness, they attached Perspex door panels, while stripping it clean of its motor. Inside they installed a steering wheel for the driver and a rotor control for the pilot and other navigational instruments. So visually you had the now-bantamweight jeep in front with two guys inside, a driver and a pilot, a rotor on top and a tail bringing up the rear. Welcome to the Blitz Flying Jeep!

In November of 1943, the flying trials started at Sherburn-in-Elmet, near Leeds. The first challenge was how to get the jeep up in the air. As so often happens with first attempts, during the first test flight the jeep literally failed to get off the ground. It ended miserably as they used a lorry to tow the flying jeep but it couldn’t get enough speed to lift the Willys MB airborne. During the second attempt, the jeep was towed by a heavier and more powerful Bentley automobile and it flew, gliding at speeds of reportedly about 45 to 65 mph. Later, they tested the jeep behind an RAF Whitley bomber, managing to achieve an altitude of about 122 meters (approximately 400 ft) in one ten minute flight in September of 1944.

While the records show that in the end the Flying Jeep worked very satisfactorily, there is an account of a witness who observed a rather shaken and exhausted pilot emerge to lie down relieved after one terrifying test flight. Apparently it had taken superhuman effort for him to handle the control column on that particular flight, which led to a rather scary, bobbing and weaving, bumpy ride. When the jeep finally dropped safely to the ground, the driver took over. After the vehicle came to a stop, reports say the ensuing silence was protracted, then the pilot was helped out to a spot adjacent to the runway where he lay down to rest and collect himself.

Although the Flying Jeep machine was improved with upgraded fins and rotor functionality, perhaps it was just as well that its further development was abandoned after military gliders, like the Airspeed Horsa, that could transport vehicles, were introduced.

Source….www.today i foundout.com

Natarajan

” LA has turned to most unusual methods to protect the city’s water …”

September 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The sea of 96MILLION plastic balls that LA hopes will save it from drought: Reservoir is covered in an ocean of black spheres to stop 300million gallons of water evaporating

Black plastic balls were this week released into the 175-acre Los Angeles Reservoir in Sylmar, California
They are designed to cover the water, prevent evaporation and protect it from dust, rain, chemicals and wildlife
The polyethylene balls, around the size of an apple, cost 36 cents each and are black to help deflect the UV rays

With no apparent relief to California’s record-breaking drought, Los Angeles has turned to more unusual methods to protect the city’s water.

Officials recently released 96 million floating ‘shade balls’ into the 75-acre Los Angeles Reservoir in Sylmar, California.

The black plastic balls are designed to help protect the water against dust, rain, chemicals and wildlife, as well as prevent 300 million gallons of water from evaporating each year.

With no apparent relief to California’s record-breaking drought, Los Angeles has turned to more unusual methods to protect the city’s water. City officials recently released ninety six million floating ‘shade balls’ into the Los Angeles Reservoir to cover the complex’ water

The balls work by floating on the surface and blocking the sun’s rays.

As well as protecting against evaporation, they also prevent the chemical reaction that creates the carcinogenic compound bromate.

For most people, exposure to bromate – created from naturally-occurring bromide in water -is unlikely to be cause problems.

But some people who ingest large amounts of bromate have suffered nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

The balls also form a protective barrier across the surface that helps keep birds, animals and other contaminants out.

Dr Brian White, a now-retired Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP biologist), was the first person to think of using shade balls for water quality.

The idea came to him when he learned about the application of ‘bird balls’ in ponds along airfield runways.

His in-house solution has been used in LADWP’s open-air reservoirs since 2008 to block sunlight, prevent chemical reactions and curtail algae blooms.

The balls, around the size of a large apple, cost 36 cents each and are black because it is the only colour that is able to deflect UV rays.

They balls work by floating on the surface and blocking the sun rays to prevent the water from evaporating. By doing this, they also prevent the chemical reaction that creates the carcinogenic compound bromate.

They are currently in place at Upper Stone, Elysian and Ivanhoe reservoirs, and come with the added benefit of reducing evaporation off the reservoir surfaces by 85 to 90 per cent.

Mayor Eric Garcetti joined officials yesterday to release the final 20,000 shade balls as part of the region’s $34.5 million water quality protection project.

‘In the midst of California’s historic drought, it takes bold ingenuity to maximize my goals for water conservation,’ Garcetti said.

‘This effort by LADWP is emblematic of the kind of the creative thinking we need to meet those challenges.’

The polyethylene balls are expected to save $250 million when compared to other, similar techniques to protect the water.

These include splitting the reservoir into two with a bisecting dam; and installing two floating covers that would have cost more than $300 million.

‘In addition to cutting back on the need to chemically treat our water to prevent natural occurrences like algae, these shade balls are a cost-effective way to reduce evaporation each year by nearly 300 million gallons, enough to provide drinking water for 8,100 people for a full year,’ added Councilman Mitch Englander.

Pictured is an aerial view of the reservoir showing the shade balls in position. The polyethylene balls are expected to save $250 million when compared to other, similar techniques to protect the water

Dr Brian White, a now-retired LADWP biologist, was the first person to think of using shade balls for water quality. The idea came to him when he learned about the application of ‘bird balls’ in ponds along airfield runways.

Source…..www.dailymail.co.uk

By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 04:49 EST, 12 August 2015 |

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Clear Skies Over the United States… A View from International Space Station

September 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

On Sept. 17, 2015, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured images and video from the International Space Station during an early morning flyover of the United States. Sharing with his social media followers, Kelly wrote, “Clear skies over much of the USA today. #GoodMorning from @Space_Station! #YearInSpace.”

Tuesday, Sept. 15 marked the midpoint of the one-year mission to the space station for Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. The average International Space Station expedition lasts four to six months. Research enabled by the one-year mission will help scientists better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight. This knowledge is critical as NASA looks toward human missions deeper into the solar system, including to and from Mars, which could last 500 days or longer.

Image Credit: NASA

Source…www.nasa.gov

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Hats off to this Lady …A Mumbai Baker Made A 35 Kg Ganesha Idol From Pure Chocolate To Feed Underprivileged Kids….

September 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Festivals indeed occupy an important place in our lives and they bring our family and friends together. But aren’t we supposed to spread happiness and share our joy with the world too?

This year, from Spiderman to Bahubali, we stumbled upon some of the most innovative designs of Ganesha idols.

But, this wonder woman, Rintu Kalyani Rathod, chose to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi in a totally different way.

She has her own bakery, ‘Rini Bakes – Bake my Dreams’ in Mumbai. Apparently, this wonder woman made a 38 inches tall chocolate Ganesha with 35 kg of chocolate in 50 hours.

After 5 days, she has planned to immerse Ganesha in milk, feed the chocolate Ganesha to hundreds of underprivileged kids and spread happiness in the lives of those kids.

This is what this amazing lady said on her Facebook post:

“It pains me tremendously to see the way our environment is exploited in the name of devotion. I just couldn’t bare the sight on the beach after the visarjan. Drunk people dancing on the streets on vulgar film songs blaring from loud speakers is not devotion.

I am a commercial designer turned designer baker. I decided to make my idol from chocolate last year. We immersed the idol in milk and distributed the chocolate milk among the underprivileged kids prasad. 1100 people took the prasad last year. It was a 28 kg, 32 inches tall idol. Real visarjan is done by bringing smiles on the faces of little kids not by polluting our waters.

This year my idol is 35 kg and 38 inches tall. It took me 50 hours to make it. Hope to distribute prasad to many more people this time, so bappa can stay in them forever. After all, bappa’s favourite place to reside is inside us, nowhere else.”

Isn’t this the perfect way to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi? After all, happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give.

If you really believe in God, then do your bit. Be a better person and celebrate the spirit of mankind.

News Source: Facebook andShuvro Ghoshal in www.storypick.com

Natarajan

” Fixing Taps to Save Water In India”…

September 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Author and painter Aabid Surti may have won awards for his writing and art, but he has also made a mark in another field: water conservation. For the last seven years, the 77-year-old has spent his Sundays going to apartments in Mumbai, and volunteering to fix leaking taps.

The Alternative, a Bangalore-based website seeking to chronicle and support social development in India, is currently running a campaign on sustainable water conservation called Catch Every Drop (#catcheverydrop). At The Alternative, Kirti introduces us to Aabid Surti’s work:

The 77-year-old celebrates Sunday like none else, picking a building in Mumbai’s far-flung suburb Mira Road and, with his plumber and a volunteer in tow, searching it for leaking taps to plug. Free of charge. His reward? “A lot of water saved. And sometimes, an offer for lunch,” he says simply. Surti’s non-governmental organisation, Drop Dead, has just one employee – him.

Aabid Surti, from Aalif Surti’s blog (CC BY-NC 3.0).

Aabid Surti’s son Aalif Surti (@SuperAalif) has told the story of how it all began:

“I read an interview of the former UN chief Boutros Boutros Ghali,” Aabid 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.

Of course there was the issue of covering costs:

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 for his contribution to Hindi literature [an award from the government of Uttar Pradesh]. 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.

Not only does the project help save water, it empowers the community:

As Aabid 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.”

Now Aabid Surti would like similar initiatives to be started in others parts of India, so that as much water as possible is saved.

Written byAyesha Saldanha www.globalvoices.org

Natarajan

Japan’s Atlantis? The unsolved underwater mystery….

September 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The Yonaguna monument. Picture: Robert Schoch

WHEN scuba diving instructor Kihachiro Aratake plunged into the water off the coast of the Japanese island of Yonaguni in 1986, he discovered an incredible sight.

Six metres below the surface lay a series of monoliths that he described as appearing to be “terraced into the side of a mountain”. The huge rectangular formations had strikingly perfect 90 degree angles, including straight walls, steps and columns.

Over the following years experts descended upon the site in a bid to determine whether the structure was natural or man-made. Yet to this day, it remains a great unsolved mystery.

Initially it was proposed that the Yonaguni Monument was built when the area was above sea level some 10,000 years ago. So could ‘Japan’s Atlantis’ be a remnant of a preglacial civilisation that was eventually inundated?

Or could it be the result of an earthquake, putting it at 2000-3000 years old? Experts disagree.

As the structure was mapped out over the following years, more details came to light. Divers found what appeared to be a huge arch, as well as temples, carvings, paved streets and a large pyramid-like structure measuring 76 metres long at its base.

Masaaki Kimura, a marine geologist at the University of the Ryukyus in Japan who has dived at the site more than 100 times over the past 20 years to measure its formations, is convinced they are the remains of a city that sunk due to seismic events.

He has identified 10 structures off Yonaguni and a further five related structures off the main island of Okinawa, with the ruins spanning an area of 300 metres x 150 metres.

“I think it’s very difficult to explain away their origin as being purely natural, because of the vast amount of evidence of man’s influence on the structures,” he said.

The monoliths. Picture: Robert SchochSource:

“The largest structure looks like a complicated, monolithic, stepped pyramid that rises from a depth of 25 meters.

“The characters and animal monuments in the water, which I have been able to partially recover in my laboratory, suggest the culture comes from the Asian continent. One example I have described as an underwater sphinx resembles a Chinese or ancient Okinawan king.”

Other evidence that experts believe confirms it’s man-made include two round holes and a row of straight, smaller holes, which are interpreted as an attempt to split off a section of the rock.

However, the Morien Institute, an archaeological non-profit research group, conducted an expedition there in 1997 led by Dr Robert M. Schoch, a professor of science and mathematics from Boston University.

Dr Schoch, who has also conducted field research at sites in Pakistan, Egypt and the Canadian High Arctic, argues that it’s primarily a natural rock formation.

“I’m not convinced that any of the major features or structures are man-made steps or terraces, but that they’re all natural,” he wrote in his book Voices of the Rocks.

“It’s basic geology and classic stratigraphy for sandstones, which tend to break along planes and give you these very straight edges, particularly in an area with lots of faults and tectonic activity.

‘The Turtle’ formation at Yonagumi. Picture: Masahiro Kaji, WikicommonsSource:

“…The structure is, as far as I could determine, composed entirely of solid ‘living’ bedrock. No part of the monument is constructed of separate blocks of rock that have been placed into position.

“This is an important point, for carved and arranged rock blocks would definitively indicate a man-made origin for the structure — yet I could find no such evidence.”

He said it was possible that humans had since made modifications to the formations.

“We should also consider the possibility that the Yonaguni Monument is fundamentally a natural structure that was used, enhanced, and modified by humans in ancient times.”

Patrick D. Nunn, Professor of Oceanic Geoscience at the University of the South Pacific, has studied these structures extensively and also believed they were natural, saying: “There seems no reason to suppose that they are artificial.”

This was backed up by archeologist Richard J. Pearson, who argued that while stone tools and small camps were found at Yonaguni possibly from the 2500 BCE, they were small communities who were “not likely to have had extra energy for building stone monuments”.

Will we ever know for sure?

Source….www.news.com.au

Natarajan

Message for the Day…. ” Don’t Forget the Truth that there is a Higher Power which is Driving You…”

September 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Sathya Sai Baba

In the twilight of dusk, one mistakes a thick rope for a snake. When the place is lit, only rope remains – the snake was never there. A momentary delusion caused the appearance of the snake and the absence of the rope. This phenomenon is called Maya. Maya makes you imagine the presence of what is not there and believe in the existence of that which is nonexistent. The combined power ofPrakriti, Avidya and Maya (Phenomenal world, Ignorance and Delusion) makes people forget their true nature. People often imagine that they accomplished many things, and believe that all their achievements are entirely due to their own efforts and capabilities. They forget the truth that there is a higher power which is the driving force for action as well as the results thereof! This is the effect of delusion (bhrama). To help get rid of this delusion and enable one to comprehend the inherent divine nature, the ancients suggested prayers.

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Message for the Day…. ” Don’t Forget the Truth that there is a Higher Power which is Driving You…”