Education – Page 44 – Take off with Natarajan

The Museum of Tomorrow, Rio de Janeiro….

December 22, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The city of Rio de Janeiro has opened a new “experimental museum” called the Museum of Tomorrow devoted to exploring the possibilities of a sustainable future through interactive artifacts that bring science, art, technology and culture together, housed in a magnificent spaceship-like building that is set to become the center-piece of a larger regeneration project of the Porto Maravilha neighborhood. The building’s most eye-catching element is the large cantilevered roof that juts diagonally into the sky from the old port near which the building sits.

Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who has created iconic buildings across the world, including the Athens 2004 Olympic Stadium, Museum of Tomorrow includes sustainable design initiatives, incorporating natural energy and light sources, such as using solar panels to supply power to the building, and water from the bay to regulate its internal

Photo credit: Marcelo Sayao/EPA

The institution encompasses 5,000 square meters of temporary and permanent exhibition space, including a 400-seat auditorium, as well as a 7,600 square meter plaza that wraps around the structure and extends along the dock. The overhanging roof is 75 meters in length and 10 meters high, and is capped with solar panels that move to follow the position of the sun. The roof is supported by curving white ribs. A half circle-shaped window tops the entrance.

The museum’s exhibits will address issues including: population growth and increased life expectancy, consumption patterns, climate change, genetic engineering and bioethics, the distribution of wealth, technological advances, and changes in biodiversity.

Photo credit: Bernard Miranda Lessa

Photo credit: Thales Leite

via Design Boom

Source…..www.amusingplanet.com

Natarajan

The Rooftop Racetrack ….

December 20, 2015December 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The Lingotto building in Turin, Italy, is a massive half-kilometer long reinforced concrete structure, five stories tall, that once housed the largest and most modern car manufacturing plant in Europe. Located in the heart of the city, its original owners —Fiat—made clever use of the available real estate by building a high-speed test track on the building’s unusual banked rooftop, where thousands of Fiats underwent testing once they came out at the end of the assembly line.

A Vespa racing event on the roof of Lingotto’s Fiat Factory, organized by Red Bull in 2011. Photo credit: www.motoblog.it

Built between 1916 and 1923, the building was the brainchild of Italian engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco, and was one of the first buildings of its size to rely heavily on reinforced concrete. Space constraints imposed by the railway lines nearby and the shape of the terrain, forced Giacomo Mattè-Trucco to develop a building that went vertically up and ended in a simple yet ingenious looped rooftop test track with two banked turns. The track is reached by spiral ramps at either end of the building that thread their way up through floor after floor. These ramps are braced by reinforced concrete ribs that radiate from the columns around the central well like the ribs on the underside of water-lily leaves.

The manufacturing plant’s assembly line itself was unusual, and the test track was an integral part of it. Production started at the ground floor and continued sequentially up through the upper floors. As each floor passed, the cars approached their final shape until they emerged as a finished product at the rooftop where they were ready for testing. While the banked sections are impossibly tight making high-speed testing unfeasible, rumors persist that concepts and racing engines were also tested here, including the one-off 1954 Turbina, with its projected 160mph top speed.

The Lingotto Factory produced 80 different models of car putting out an average of 200 daily from it’s opening until the 1970s, when it was eclipsed by the modern Mirafiori plant. The last Lancia Delta rolled out of the factory in 1979. Three years later, the factory was officially closed.

The Lingotto building was eventually converted into a modern complex with concert halls, theatre, a convention center, shopping arcades and a hotel. The rooftop track was retained and can still be visited today on the top floor.

A Vespa racing event on the roof of Lingotto’s Fiat Factory, organized by Red Bull in 2011. Photo credit:www.motoblog.it

Photo credit: John and Melanie/Flickr

Photo credit: Jacqueline Poggi/Flickr

Photo credit: Marcus Winter/Flickr

Sources: Jalopnik / BBC / Wikipedia

Source….www.amusingplanet.com

Natarajan

Image of the Day…” Blue Marble Earth Image …”

December 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently captured a unique view of Earth from the spacecraft’s vantage point in orbit around the moon.

“The image is simply stunning,” said Noah Petro, Deputy Project Scientist for LRO at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The image of the Earth evokes the famous ‘Blue Marble’ image taken by Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during Apollo 17, 43 years ago, which also showed Africa prominently in the picture.”

In this composite image we see Earth appear to rise over the lunar horizon from the viewpoint of the spacecraft, with the center of the Earth just off the coast of Liberia (at 4.04 degrees North, 12.44 degrees West). The large tan area in the upper right is the Sahara Desert, and just beyond is Saudi Arabia. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America are visible to the left. On the moon, we get a glimpse of the crater Compton, which is located just beyond the eastern limb of the moon, on the lunar farside.

LRO was launched on June 18, 2009, and has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the moon. LRO experiences 12 earthrises every day; however the spacecraft is almost always busy imaging the lunar surface so only rarely does an opportunity arise such that its camera instrument can capture a view of Earth. Occasionally LRO points off into space to acquire observations of the extremely thin lunar atmosphere and perform instrument calibration measurements. During these movements sometimes Earth (and other planets) pass through the camera’s field of view and dramatic images such as the one shown here are acquired.

This image was composed from a series of images taken Oct. 12, when LRO was about 83 miles (134 kilometers) above the moon’s farside crater Compton. Capturing an image of the Earth and moon with LRO’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) instrument is a complicated task. First the spacecraft must be rolled to the side (in this case 67 degrees), then the spacecraft slews with the direction of travel to maximize the width of the lunar horizon in LROC’s Narrow Angle Camera image. All this takes place while LRO is traveling faster than 3,580 miles per hour (over 1,600 meters per second) relative to the lunar surface below the spacecraft!

The high-resolution Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on LRO takes black-and-white images, while the lower resolution Wide Angle Camera (WAC) takes color images, so you might wonder how we got a high-resolution picture of the Earth in color. Since the spacecraft, Earth, and moon are all in motion, we had to do some special processing to create an image that represents the view of the Earth and moon at one particular time. The final Earth image contains both WAC and NAC information. WAC provides the color, and the NAC provides high-resolution detail.

“From the Earth, the daily moonrise and moonset are always inspiring moments,” said Mark Robinson of Arizona State University in Tempe, principal investigator for LROC. “However, lunar astronauts will see something very different: viewed from the lunar surface, the Earth never rises or sets. Since the moon is tidally locked, Earth is always in the same spot above the horizon, varying only a small amount with the slight wobble of the moon. The Earth may not move across the ‘sky’, but the view is not static. Future astronauts will see the continents rotate in and out of view and the ever-changing pattern of clouds will always catch one’s eye, at least on the nearside. The Earth is never visible from the farside; imagine a sky with no Earth or moon – what will farside explorers think with no Earth overhead?”

NASA’s first Earthrise image was taken with the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft in 1966. Perhaps NASA’s most iconic Earthrise photo was taken by the crew of the Apollo 8 mission as the spacecraft entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve Dec. 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts — Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders — held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.”

Source…….www.nasa.gov

Natarajan

Message For the Day….” Follow Sabari’s Example , who always thought of Rama and His happiness…”

December 20, 2015December 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Follow at least one of the nine modes of devotion (Sravanam, kirtanam, etc.). It doesn’t matter how wealthy or learned you are; God is concerned only with the sincerity and purity of your mind and heart and the wholeheartedness and genuine nature of your love. Valmiki was a hunter. Nandanar was of a low caste. Kuchela was a poor man. Dhruva and Prahlada were five-year-old lads. Sabari was a tribal woman, illiterate and uncivilized. But all of them won God’s Grace in abundance, because of their wholehearted devotion, love and surrender. Follow Sabari’s example, who always thought of Sri Rama and His happiness, and dedicated all her thoughts, words, and deeds to Him alone, such that her every action was transformed and sublimated into the highest penance (tapas).Meditation does not mean sitting idle in a particular posture, like posing for a photograph. Like Sabari’s life, your life must become a continuous meditation wherever you are, and whatever you do.

Sathya Sai Baba

This Man Left His Job, Sold His Car and Took a Loan – Just to Make India Clean !

December 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

This cleanliness warrior resigned from his job to take the battle against garbage to cars, autorickshaws, buses, and other vehicles. His car trash bins will give income to slum dwellers while helping keep our roads clean.

India is developing fast — roads are jammed with cars, cellphones are ubiquitous, and there is talk of smart cities emerging all over the country.

But are we behaviourally developed as a nation? We still lack civic sense and spit on walls, we don’t show up for our appointments on time, we deface our historical landmarks, we rarely stick to queues when waiting, and we litter our streets indiscriminately.

Abhishek Marwaha was one of us until three years ago when he read somewhere: ‘”A person who throws his trash actually throws his humanity.”

Abhishek Marwaha

He then started making a conscious effort to keep his surroundings clean. His friends made fun of him when he kept dumping used tissues in his pockets or in car back pockets while travelling, instead of throwing them outside the window.

“I used to work in a travel technology firm and travelling to different countries used to be part of my job profile. I realized that we are more conscious of our habits when abroad (like littering, spitting, honking, etc.) but we tend to be careless when we are here in India. So all we need to do is one simple thing to bring a wave of change. Let’s behave in our own country the way we behave in any other foreign country,” says Abhishek.

One day, while having lunch, he found that his lunch bag was worn and could be used as a trash bin in his car. The idea stayed with him and he began to design a trash bin that is easily accessible in a car or any vehicle, even while driving. Once the design was ready, he started making cheap trash bins in bulk and contacting vendors.

This mission to keep India clean has today resulted in the launch of Abhishek’s online store, ujosho.com, which sells the first ever car trash bins in India.

The word UJosho is derived from the Japanese word ‘josho,’ which means ever victorious. Abhishek added a ‘U’ to indicate that we can all be victorious in the battle against littering if we do our bit to keep the nation clean.

Swachh bin for cars

“There are an estimated 25 million cars in any Tier 1 city in India. The problem of garbage will continue to haunt us as the trash thrown from cars chokes the roadside drains and contributes to water logging and floods during rains. There is an immediate need to educate and encourage people to use this simple trash bin in their cars so that many of these issues can be resolved without intervention of civic authorities and with proper and positive participation from each one of us,” adds Abhishek

The car trash bins that Abhishek sells are not machine made. He aims to provide earnings to slum dwellers by getting them to make these trash bins by hand in bulk.

He has also experimented with giving away these bins to beggars for free and was delighted to see them selling these to car owners at traffic signals.

“You don’t have to hold a gun at the border and save the country to be truly patriotic. You can bring about change by changing yourself, your habits and your surroundings. Even if 10% of our population shares this view, it can make a difference. Maybe what I am doing is minuscule, but it will hit the root cause of the trash problem,” Abhishek says with great zeal.

According to Abhishek, installing and using the trash bin in vehicles will be good because:

1) It will help bring about a behavioral change among adults and children with respect to cleanliness, littering and spitting.

2) It will support civic authorities in ensuring optimum use of manpower in cleaning roads.

3) Trash chokes the roadside drains and contributes to water logging and floods during rains. Car trash bins will help prevent that.

Though the car trash bin is a first-of-its-kind product, Abhishek does not want to patent the idea as he wants it to spread widely. He wants other people to replicate it and make it more cost effective if possible.

Happy Customers!

“We also encourage people to share their ideas about cleanliness on the ‘Idea’ section of our website. If we are able to make a product from that idea, we will then give royalty on every sale of that product,” says Abhishek

To know more about Abhishek and his products, you can visit www.ujosho.com

Source….Manabhi Katoch in http://www.the betterindia .com

Natarajan

” The Man who led Chennai’s Rescue Effort …”

December 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

IMAGE: Soldiers join the rescue efforts in Chennai. Photograph: MoD/Twitter

‘Coordination between our 50 teams, each with a strength of 45 men, played a key role in rescuing flood-affected people in Chennai. In all, we succeeded in rescuing over 20,000 people.’

‘The NDRF, an exclusive dedicated standalone multi-disciplinary disaster response force, is the only one of its kind in the world.’

NDRF chief O P Singh on how his organisation helped rescue and relief in flood-ravaged Chennai.

National Disaster Response Force Director General O P Singh refuses to be drawn into any controversy regarding the unprecedented release of over 29,000 cusecs of water from the Chembarambakkam reservoir on the night of December 1, without having alerting the state government, the police or the power utility services.

Water experts believe this release was the main reason for the floods that devastated Chennai with the situation being made worse by the heavy rainfall.

Singh, is a 1983 cadre Indian Police Service officer. As head of the NDRF he was responsible for the rescue of nearly 50,000 civilians during the disastrous flooding of Sringar in September last year. His organisation’s work during the Nepal earthquake earlier this year was much appreciated by the governments of Nepal and India. The NDRF was formed by an Act of Parliament in September 2014.

He spoke exclusively to Rashme Sehgal for Rediff.com

You had 50 NDRF teams working night and day to rescue people through this crisis. What has the NDRF learning curve been from this?

What we witnessed in Chennai is the phenomenon of urban flooding. It is very different from rural floods or floods in semi-urban areas. Its special feature is that as water levels start to rise, the water begins to flow in a very swift manner. This kind of urban flooding we are witness to can be described as a very recent phenomena.

We witnessed it in Mumbai ten years ago. Jammu and Kashmir was our first experience of intense urban flooding.

How did you go about tackling the situation in flood-hit Chennai?

We are the only official disaster response team in the country. We have a strength of 12 batallions of 15,000 men drawn from the Central Reserve Police Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Border Security Force and the Central Industrial Security Force who join us for a period of deputation lasting five years.

The first two years are spent providing them very intensive and highly professional training in how to handle disaster situations in different areas, whether it be the collapse of structures, search and rescue, deep underwater diving, underwater communication, medical first responder and also how to deal with biological, radiological and nuclear emergencies.

Coordination between our 50 teams, each with a strength of 45 men, played a key role in rescuing the flood-affected people in Chennai.

In all, we succeeded in rescuing over 20,000 people.

If you spend two years training them, then why should they revert back to their earlier cadre three years later? Doesn’t all this intensive training go waste by this kind of reversion?

That is a very valid question. If you permanently keep them (in the NDRF) then they might lose their motivation. We are thinking of keeping them for a longer period and are considering the possibility of extending their deputation from five to ten years.

We are also looking at a possibility of allowing 12 per cent of our force to be kept in the NDRF on a permanent basis.

You need to remember that this is an exclusive dedicated standalone multi-disciplinary disaster response force. It is the only one of its kind in the world. They focus only on disasters and nothing else.

When there are no disasters, we spend our time trying to empower the community because the community is the first responder to a disaster. We also interact closely with the police, the fire brigade and also provide training to organisations like the NCC (National Cadet Corps), the National Service Scheme and the home guards. We are capable of reaching a disaster within 20 minutes.

Were you able to reach Chennai within 20 minutes of the flood occurring?

In Chennai, our 50 teams flew in from Bhatinda, Guwahati, Patna and Pune. We had already pre-positioned some teams around Chennai and were receiving regular reports from the Indian Meteorological Department.

You had pre-positioned your teams around Chennai prior to the massive flooding?

We had four teams that had been pre-positioned. We had teams in Cuddalore and Kanchipuram and had two teams in Puducherry. Within two to three hours of being informed about the heavy rainfall and about the release of water from the reservoir, our local battalion stationed in Ernakulam was there.

What were the immediate steps you took?

Our first steps were on how to evacuate the people who were marooned. We had to put them in boats and take them to a safer location. For that we needed divers, life jackets and boats.

In some areas there was eight to nine feet of water. Chennai airport was submerged in eight to nine feet of water. Several localities were completely submerged.

The second major problem we faced was the breakdown of power resulting in a major communication failure. People’s mobile phones had gone dead. There was also the apprehension was of people getting electrocuted.

The other problem we faced that even though people were marooned, they were not willing to leave their homes.

Why was that? Did people feel that in their absence, their homes would get looted?

People living in ground floor houses agreed to get evacuated, but those living on the first floor moved to the second floor and then onto the roof.

The settlements along the banks of the river Adyar which were all low lying areas, saw huge amounts of water collect there. Our teams found it very difficult to navigate these areas.

More than 300 people died in these floods.

A large number of these deaths took place in some hospitals because of the power failure. The ICU units in the hospitals were affected because of the lack of power.

Our 50 teams were using Quick Deployable Antennae (for satellite communications) which is a portable system and can be used both in the digital and analogue mode. But this QDA is an internal system that can be used only by us.

But on our helpline, we were getting information via SMS, e-mails and Whatsapp, and also from television channels. I was stationed in Chennai and constantly telling my response team to reach the area from where the alert had been sounded. I was acting as a link between the victim and the parent or others.

Obviously, during the flood, people were on edge, they had become nervous and very jittery. I had to keep assuring the public. It was a huge challenge to communicate and reach out to the people especially since the power facilities were down.

But our men were working round the clock. I would like to cite the example of one rescue mission that my men undertook of a woman called Deepthi who was in her final stages of pregnancy and living in the Ramapuram area. Two NDRF sub-inspectors Bijumon and Satish reached out to her in a boat, but could not load her onto a boat.

She had to finally be rescued by a chopper. The two jawans helped her climb onto a water tank from where they helped her climb her onto an IAF helicopter being flown by a team led by Wing Commander Simon and Squadron Leader Venkatraman.

The lady gave birth the next day to two twin girls and her father Mohan Raj sent me a letter commending the work done by the NDRF and hoping his twin grand-daughters would join the NDRF one day.

The NDRF received praise in Chennai, but the NDRF received criticism for its rescue operation work during the floods that hit Kashmir last year.

No, I don’t think so. The terrain of Srinagar is completely different from the terrain of Chennai. Srinagar is an extremely mountainous area. The Jhelum river had spilled over and mixed with the Dal Lake and the entire area looked like a vast sea.

The current there was very sharp and we had to use choppers. The flood water ended up dividing the old Srinagar city from the Dal Lake area. Our teams ended up rescuing 50,000 people in the operation.

Chennai used to be a dry city. But the incessant rain, unregulated construction and the release of a huge amount of water from the Chembarambakkam reservoir caused this deluge.

To go back to my earlier question, what is your learning from this deluge?

I believe we have to strengthen our response measures to meet disasters. But the long-term strategies would be to pay much greater attention to prevention and mitigation strategies. These will involve flood mapping and satellite imagery. But most important, we need to pay much greater attention to regulate development in our cities.

To take the example of Chennai, which as a city can be divided into three parts. No new construction must be allowed in the vulnerable parts of the city. The state government must take strong measures in this. I believe after witnessing two major floods that all urban construction must be regulated.

In terms of mitigation strategies, we need to construct water channels to drain out the water. More important, we need to revive the water channels that have been destroyed. We need to take very strong steps on this score.

Cities must develop resilience to face heavy rain and for that we need to take institutional measures to ensure that there can be no encroachment on marshlands, our traditional tanks and lakes that have shrunk must be restored and all the waterways that had been constructed to drain excess water must also be restored to ward off future threats.

Source…….Rashme Sehgal in http://www.rediff.com

Natarajan

Places Where Three Time Zones Meet……..

December 18, 2015December 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

When Italian mathematician Quirico Filopanti first sounded the idea of time zones in his book Miranda! published in 1858, he proposed that the world be divided longitudinally into 24 equal time zones, where each zone differs from the last by one hour. But the real world is rarely that simple. Influenced by political, geographical and social changes, the world adopted a much more complicated system where time zones differed by three-quarter, half and even quarter of an hour. Today there are as many as 40 different time zones.

With so many different time zones around it’s imperative that some of them would meet at more than one point. There are exactly twenty-two places, according to various sources, where more than three time zones meet. Some of them are obvious, such as tri-point boundaries between nations observing different time zones. The strangest ones are located in Australia because the way the country’s different states follow time.

The time zones of Australia and the three state corners where three time zones meet.

Australia has three time zones, but from spring until autumn when New South Wales and South Australia adjust their clocks for daylight-savings, two additional time zones appear that horizontally break up the country’s two easternmost time zones into four. These time zones, which differ from each other by 30-minutes, meet at three different places. The most popular of them is Cameron Corner in the outback of eastern Australia, where the boundaries of states of Queensland, South Australia, and New South Wales meet. The other ones are Poeppel Corner (located at the corner of Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory) and Surveyor Generals Corner (located at the corner of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory). Standing at any one these locations allows any person to be at three different points of time at the same time. To take advantage of this anomaly, more than a thousand people descended on the tiny settlement of Cameron Corner on December 31, 1999, so they could celebrate the arrival of the new millennium three separate times.

Marker at Cameron Corner. Photo credit: Kris H/Flickr

Marker at Cameron Corner. Photo credit: Geoffrey Rhodes/Flickr

Marker at Poeppel Corner. Photo credit: Mark161/Panoramio

Marker at Surveyor Generals Corner. Photo credit: jeza1/Panoramio

Another interesting place where a bunch of time zones meet is Antarctica. Being located on the South Pole, where every line of longitude meet, you might be tempted to think that all time zones meet here, but this is not the case, as time zones rarely adhere to geographical divisions. Because of the extreme day-night cycles near the times of the June and December solstices in Antarctica it is difficult to determine which time zone would be appropriate. Instead, researchers working on various stations in the Antarctic Circle observe time zones of the country the station is owned by, or the time zone of their supply base. For example, McMurdo Station and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station use New Zealand time due to their main supply base being Christchurch, New Zealand. Many areas —those labeled in red in the map below— have no time zone at all, and follow Universal Time, by default.

Photo credit: Phoenix B 1of3/Wikimedia

Sources: CN Traveler / iO9

” Do Walking Palm Trees Really Walk…” ?

December 18, 2015December 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

A recently published article on BBC’s website mentions a certain palm tree that has allegedly developed a rather unique ability unbecoming of a plant —the ability to walk. The palm in question is Socratea exorrhiza, also nicknamed the “Walking Palm”. The bizarre idea stems from the fact that scientists are unable to explain the tree’s strange stilt-like roots. Found in tropical rainforests of Central and South America, the Socratea exorrhiza develops long and sturdy roots that grow outwards from the base of the tree, several feet off the ground, and take root in the soil around, giving it the appearance of multiple legs. It wasn’t long before people started to believe that these roots actually act like legs enabling the palm tree to literally walk in the forest.

Photo credit: www.palmpedia.net

The amazing story of the walking palm tree has been told by rainforest guides to tourists for years, and appears in many sources both in print and on the web. It is said that the tree “walks” from shade to sunlight by growing roots in the direction it wants to travel, and then allowing the old roots to slowly lift into the air and die. This allows the tree to slowly move towards the side where the new roots are growing. The process is said to take a couple of years, while one palaeobiologist suggesting the tree moves two or three centimeters per day.

It’s such a fascinating story that many tend to believe it, like our palaeobiologist from the Earth Science Institute in Bratislava. Unfortunately, the walking tree is a myth.

The idea of the walking tree was first suggested by John H. Bodley in 1980 who thought that such an ability allows the palm to “walk away” from the point of germination if another tree falls on the seedling and knocks it over. This way, the tree can move away from obstacles that are major hazards for immature palms.

Biologist Gerardo Avalos, director of the Center for Sustainable Development Studies in Atenas, Costa Rica, and —according to LiveScience.com— one of the world’s top experts on the Socratea exorrhiza, published a detailed study of the palm and its root in 2005 where he observed that the walking tree can’t walk because its roots don’t move. A few roots on one side or another may die off, but the trunk itself remains rooted to the spot.

Some people want to see the Socratea exorrhiza walking. Alas, no such time lapse movie exist.

“My paper proves that the belief of the walking palm is just a myth,” Avalos told Life’s Little Mysteries.”Thinking that a palm tree could actually track canopy light changes by moving slowly over the forest floor … is a myth that tourist guides find amusing to tell visitors to the rainforest.”

The myth was also debunked in the December 2009 issue of Skeptical Inquirer. “As interesting as it would be to think that when no one is around trees walk the rainforest floor, it is a mere myth,” it read. The article also cited two detailed studies that came to this conclusion.

Researchers are still unsure what role these unique stilt roots play. Some suggest that the multiple roots allow the tree to be more stable in swampy areas, or when there is too much debris in the ground as they can avoid it by moving their roots. It has been suggested that stilt roots allow the palm to grow taller to reach light without having to increase the diameter of the stem, thus investing in less biomass in underground roots than other palms. Of course, none of these theories have ever been confirmed. More importantly, nobody has seen these palm trees walk.

Photo credit: Sandor Weisz/Flickr

Photo credit: www.palmpedia.net

” பீடுடைய மாதம்- மார்கழி!’….

December 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

மாதங்களில் நான் மார்கழி என்று மாதவனால் பெருமை பெற்று மனிதனை உயர்வழிக்கு அழைத்துச் செல்லும் மார்கழி மாதம். தேவலோகத்தில் வாழும் தேவர்களுக்கு தை மாதம் முதல் ஆனி மாதம் வரையில் பகல் பொழுதாகவும், ஆடியில் இருந்து மார்கழி மாதம் வரையில் இரவாகவும் கருதப்படுகிறது. இதில் பகலை உத்தராயனம் என்றும் இரவை தட்சிணாயனம் என்றும் அழைப்பார்கள். இவ்வாறு பார்க்கும்பொழுது மார்கழி மாதம், தேவர்கள் விழிப்பதற்கு ஆயத்தமாகும் விடியற்காலை நேரமாகிறது. அக்காலத்தையே பிரம்ம முகூர்த்தம் என்கிறோம். இந்த மாதத்தில் அதிகாலையிலேயே எழுந்து நீராடி தெய்வத்தை வணங்கினால் நோய் நீங்கி, குடும்பத்தில் ஐஸ்வர்யம் பெருகும் என்பது நம்பிக்கையாகும். அதனாலேயே இம் மாதத்தில் எல்லோரும் அதிகாலையில் எழுவது என்பது வழக்கமான நடைமுறையில் ஒன்றாக இருக்கிறது. இதற்கு ஒரு அறிவியல் காரணமும் உண்டு.

மார்கழியில் அதிகாலைப் பொழுதில், (4.30 மணி முதல் 6.00 மணி) வளி மண்டலத்தில் தூய்மையான ஒசோன் படலம் பூமிக்கு மிகத் தாழ்வாய் இறங்கி வருகிறது. ஓúஸôன் என்பது அடர்த்தியான ஆக்ஸிஜனாகும். அதை சுவாசித்தால், நோய் எதிர்ப்பு சக்தியும், ஆரோக்கியமும் கிடைப்பதால் உடல் இயக்கம் எளிதாகிறது. ஆகவே அதன் பலனைப் பெற இம்மாதத்தில் பெண்களை காலையில் கோலமும் ஆண்களை பஜனை பாடல்களை பாடவும் செய்தனர் என்று அறிவியலார் கூறுகின்றனர்.

மார்கழி மாதத்தை சூன்ய மாதம் என்பர். சூன்யம் என்றால், ஒன்றுமில்லாதது எனப் பொருள். நம் வாழ்க்கை ஒன்றுமில்லாதது, நிலையற்றது. இந்த வாழ்வை அர்த்தமுள்ளதாக்கிக் கொள்ள வேண்டுமானால், சரணாகதி எனும் உயர் தத்துவத்தைக் கடைபிடிக்க வேண்டும். லௌகீகங்களுக்காக இல்லாமல், ஆன்மீக நிகழ்வுகளுக்காக மட்டுமே என்று இம்மாதத்தை முன்னோர் ஒதுக்கி வைத்தார்கள். நமது உடலையும் உள்ளத்தையும் நல்ல விதமாக ஆக்கிக்கொள்வதற்கு உரிய மாதம் மார்கழி மாதம். இம்மாதங்களில், சுபநிகழ்ச்சி நடத்தினால், வழிபாடு பாதிக்கும் என்பதாலேயே, இம்மாதங்களில் அவற்றை நடத்தாமல் தவிர்த்தனர். இதற்காகவே, ஆண்டாளும், மாணிக்கவாசகரும், திருப்பாவை, திருவெம்பாவை பாடி, நமக்கு வழிகாட்டியுள்ளனர்.

சிவபெருமான் உண்ட நஞ்சை அவர் கண்டத்திலேயே தடுத்து, அந்த நஞ்சு அவரைத் தீண்டா வண்ணம் காத்த கார்த்யாயனியை வேண்டி தங்கள் கணவரின் நீண்ட ஆயுளுக்காக இம்மாதத்தில் வருகின்ற திருவாதிரை அன்று விரதமிருக்கிறார்கள். இதையே பாகவதம் மார்கழி மாதத்தில் ஆயர் மகளிர் கார்த்தியாயினியை வழிபட்டு, அவியுணவு உண்டு கண்ணனை அடைந்தார்கள் என்றும் கூறுகிறது. கன்னியர் இந்நோன்பிருந்து கார்த்தியாயினி தேவியை வழிபட, தகுந்த கணவன் கிடைப்பான். சுமங்கலிகள் கடைப்பிடித்தால், தம்பதியர் ஒற்றுமை கூடும்.

மார்கழி மாதத்தை, மார்கசீர்ஷம் என்று வடமொழியில் சொல்வர். மார்கம் என்றால், வழி – சீர்ஷம் என்றால், உயர்ந்த – வழிகளுக்குள் தலைசிறந்தது என்பது பொருள். இறைவனை அடையும் உயர்வழியே சரணாகதி.

ஆண்டாள் பொழுது புலர்வதற்குமுன் எழுந்து தமது தோழியர்களை அழைத்து ஆற்றில் நீராடி, அங்குள்ள மணலினால் பாவை போன்ற உருவம் செய்து, மலர்கள் சூட்டி, அப்பாவையை கெüரி தேவியாக பாவித்து, “பாற்கடலுள் பையத்துயின்ற பரமன் அடிபாடி’ பாடித் துதித்து பின் ஆலயம் சென்று வழிபட்டு நோன்பு நோற்றாள். அவளுடைய அன்பை உணர்ந்த ஸ்ரீரங்கநாதர், ஆண்டாளை ஸ்ரீரங்கத்துக்கு அழைத்து வரச் செய்தார். ஆண்டாள் ஸ்ரீரங்கநாதனின் திருவடிகளை வணங்கி நாகணையை மீதேறி பெருமாளுடன் சேர்ந்து அவருடன் ஒன்றானாள். உண்மையான பக்தியின் மூலம் ஆண்டவனை நிச்சயம் அடைய முடியும் என்று, இந்த கலியுகத்திலும் வாழ்ந்து காட்டியவள் ஆண்டாள். அவள் செய்த நோன்பையே பாவை நோன்பென்று குறிப்பிடுகின்றனர்.

இம்மாதத்தில் வரும் திருவாதிரை விரதம் சைவர்களுக்கு இன்றியமையாதது. மார்கழி மாத திருவாதிரையை இறுதி நாளாகக் கொண்டு, பத்துத் திங்கள் திருவெம்பாவை நோன்பு நோற்கப்படுகின்றது. பத்தாவது நாளான திருவாதிரை அன்று அதை நிறைவு செய்வார்கள். இவ்விரதம், இவ் வருடம் 26.12.2015 அன்று கொண்டாடப்படுகிறது.

இந்த மார்கழியில் சிவபெருமானும், ஏனைய தேவர்களும் பூமிக்கு வந்து தவமிருப்பதாக ஐதீகம். சிவபெருமான், சிதம்பரத்தில் நந்தனாரை ஆட்கொண்ட நாள் திருவாதிரைத் திருநாள்! மார்கழித் திருவாதிரை நாளில் நடராஜப் பெருமானை வழிபடவேண்டும். திருவாதிரை நாளில் உமையம்மை, பதஞ்சலி முனிவர் கண்டு மகிழ, சிவபெருமான் திருநடனம் ஆடினார். தாருகாவனத்து முனிவர்களின் செருக்கை அடக்கி, அவர்களால் ஏவப்பட்ட மதயானையைக் கொன்று, அதன் தோலை அணிந்து, முயலகன் மீது வலது காலை ஊன்றி இடது காலைத் தூக்கி நடனமாடி, முனிவர்களுக்கு உண்மையை உணர்த்தியதே “ஆருத்ரா தரிசனம்’ என்று சொல்லப்படுகின்றது.

அசுர சம்ஹாரத்திற்காக பகவான் பூலோகத்திற்கு மூன்று கோடி தேவர்களுடன் எழுந்தருளிய “வைகுண்ட ஏகாதசி’ இம்மாதம் 21.12.2015 அன்று கொண்டாடப்படுகிறது. கலியுகத்தில் நம்மாழ்வாருக்கு முன்னதாக வைகுண்டத்திற்கு சென்றவர் யாருமில்லை என்பதால் வைகுண்ட வாசல் மூடப்பட்டிருந்ததாகவும் பின்னர் வைகுண்ட ஏகாதசி அன்று அது திறக்கப்படுவதாகவும் ஐதீகம். இந்த வைபவத்தை முதன்முதலாக திருமங்கையாழ்வார் திருவரங்கத்தில் ஏற்படுத்தினார் என்பர்.

மார்கழி மாதம் இருபத்து ஏழாம் தேதி திருப்பாவை 27 ஆம் பாடலில் “கூடாரை வெல்லும் சீர் கோவிந்தா’ என்று தொடங்குகிறது. “பாற்சோறு மூட நெய் பெய்து முழங்கை வழி வார’ என்று 27 ஆம் பாடலில் சொன்னவாறு இன்று எல்லா விஷ்ணு கோயில்களிலும் நெய்வழிய சர்க்கரைப் பொங்கல் நிவேதனம் செய்து “கூடாரைவல்லி’ என்று விசேஷமாகக் கொண்டாடுவர்.

ராம நாம ஜபத்தினையே தனது உயிராகக் கொண்டிருக்கும் அனுமன் அவதாரமும் மார்கழியில்தான் நடைபெற்றது. கீதை அருளப்பட்டது மார்கழி வளர்பிறை 11 ஆம் நாளாகிய ஏகாதசி தினத்தில் தான். அன்றைய தினத்தை “கீதா ஜயந்தி’ எனச் சிறப்பிக்கப்படுகிறது. மார்கழிப் பெüர்ணமியன்று “தத்தாத்ரேயர் ஜயந்தி’ தினம். மேலும் தொண்டரடிப்பொடியாழ்வார் பிறந்த மாதமும் மார்கழியே.

மார்கழி மாத வியாழக்கிழமைகளில் மகாலட்சுமி பூஜையை ஆண், பெண் இருபாலரும் செய்வர். இதற்கு “குருவார பூஜை’ எனப் பெயர். இப்பூஜை செய்வதால் சகல ஐஸ்வர்யங்களும் கிடைக்கும்.

மார்கழியில் விரதம் இருப்பது உடல் நலத்திற்கு மட்டுமல்லாது மன வலிமையை வளர்க்கவும் உதவும். இந்த ஒரு மாதத்தை இறை உணர்வுடன் சிரத்தையாய்க் கழித்தால் அதனால் வரும் உன்னத குணங்களும், உடல் மற்றும் மன நலன்களும் நம் வாழ்நாள் முழுவதும் நம்முடனிருக்கும். இந்த வாழ்க்கையை சிறப்பாய் வாழவும், நம் குறிக்கோள்களை நோக்கிய பயணத்தை விரைவுபடுத்தவும் மார்கழி நமக்குத் துணை செய்யும். பக்தி மார்க்கத்திற்கு வழிகாட்டும் மாதமாகவும், வீடுபேறு எனும் மோட்சத்தினை அடைய உதவும் மாதமாகவும் முன்னோர் கருதியதாலேயே இதனை “பீடுடைய மாதம்’ என்றனர்.

” ‘If you have the passion to start something, do it immediately. Don’t wait for tomorrow.’…Says P.C.Musthafa, from Wayanad Kerala…

December 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

‘When we became a Rs 100 crore company in October, we celebrated in grand scale. We have grown from producing 10 packets a day in 2005, with just my cousin managing the kitchen, to 50,000 packets a day with 1,100 employees in 10 years.’

‘If you have the passion to start something, do it immediately. Don’t wait for tomorrow.’

Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com listens to P C Musthafa’s incredibly inspiring story.

This is the story of a 42-year-old man from a remote village in Wayanad, Kerala. His father was a coolie. His mother never went to school.

This is the story of a man who failed in Class 6, but went on to join the Regional Engineering College (now the National Institute of Technology), Calicut and the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore.

This is the story of a man who decided to become an entrepreneur and employ people from rural India.

Today, fresh idli and dosa batter made by P C Mustafa’s company ID Fresh reaches homes in Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mangaluru and even Dubai.

Childhood in Wayanad

I grew up in a small village called Chennalode near Kalpatta in Wayanad.

The village was so remote that we had only a primary school. It had no roads or electricity. We had to walk at least four kilometres to go to high school so most of the kids dropped out after primary school.

My father Ahmed stopped studying after Class 4 and worked as a coolie on a coffee plantation. My mother Fathima never went to school.

I am the eldest and I have three younger sisters.

Failing in Class 6

I was not interested in studies. After school every day, and on weekends, I preferred helping my father, a daily wage worker, instead of doing homework or studying.

There was no question of opening the books at night as there was no electricity at home, only kerosene lamps.

Though I was below average in all other subjects, I was good at mathematics. After I failed in Class 6 I lost interest in going to school.

A school master steps in

My father asked me to join him as a daily wage worker. My maths teacher, Mathew Sir, didn’t like my dropping out of school one bit. He spoke to my father who agreed to give me one more chance.

Mathew Sir asked me a question, ‘Do you want to be a coolie or a teacher?’ I looked at him and could see the difference between my father and my teacher. ‘Sir,’ I answered, ‘I want to be a teacher like you.’

When I went back to school, I had to sit with my juniors. All my friends were in a higher class. I felt so humiliated that I became attentive in class.

I was very weak in both English and Hindi. Seeing me struggle, Mathew Sir helped me after school.

From a failure to a topper

Sir’s help worked. I came first in the Class 7, surprising all the teachers. There was no looking back after that.

I stood first in the school in Class 10.

In those days, I had only one ambition: I wanted to be a maths teacher like Mathew Sir. He was my role model.

From a village to a city

Till I completed Class 10, I had not stepped out of Wayanad. For college (junior college was known as pre-degree those days), I had to go to Kozhikode (Calicut). My father didn’t have a problem but didn’t have any money to fund my education.

I got admission at the Farooq College in Kozhikode where my father’s friend, who had suggested I study further, arranged for a free meal scheme in the college charity hostel. I was one of the 15 students who were offered free stay and food, as we could not afford to pay.

There were four hostels in the college and we had to go to different hostels for breakfast, lunch and dinner as we were on charity.

Naturally, other students looked at us with disdain. That upset me. It was like we were eating somebody else’s food. Some students made fun of us. It was not a pleasant experience, but I had to swallow the humiliation for the sake of my education.

Looking back, I feel the college management did a great job by taking care of poor students like us.

Coming from a village, I was very weak in English. It was a big handicap in college where all the lectures were in English. A good friend of mine used to translate everything for my benefit. I also worked extremely hard and felt even more motivated when I scored good marks.

Engineering at REC, Calicut

I wrote the engineering entrance exam after my college and was ranked No 63 in the state. I got admission at the Regional Engineering College (now the National Institute of Technology).

When I look back, I feel three factors helped me.

I had the potential as I was good in Maths. I was a hard worker. And the third and most important reason was that God was with me.

I was very lucky to have secured such a good rank. I got the opportunity to study what I really liked — computer science. There was no one to guide me in those days except God Almighty.

Life was not that bad at REC. I got a scholarship and also took a student’s loan. I didn’t have to pay any tuition fees and only had to take care of the hostel fees. That was a big relief. Unlike other students, I had to be very careful about spending money, but that was okay.

I had no dreams to be an entrepreneur then. I wanted to be a well-known engineer. I worked hard and did well in studies. When I graduated in 1995, I got placed at Manhattan Associates, an Indian start-up in the US.

First flight

After a few days of working at the start-up in Bangalore, I got an offer from Motorola. It was a dream offer for a person from a remote village in Wayanad. After working for a short period in Bangalore, I was sent to Ireland.

As a young boy, I stepped out of Wayanad for the first time to study in a college. Now, for the first time in my life, I boarded a flight and went out of the country.

The flight took off at 6.30 pm. I looked down and saw Bangalore. I will never be able to forget the image: The aerial view of Bangalore.

Missing India

Though I loved Ireland and the Irish people, I missed my people and country a lot. I also missed Indian food, as there were no Indian restaurants there. I was used to praying five times a day, which I found difficult to do there.

After three months, I got a very good offer from CitiBank. I jumped at it and moved to Dubai. In 1996, a salary in lakhs was quite something. The first thing I did after I paid off my loan was to send Rs 1 lakh in cash to my father through a friend. I was told he cried seeing so much cash in a bag sent by his son.

He paid off his debts and started planning my sister’s wedding. One of my sisters had dropped out after school, but the others went to college. In 2000, I also got married.

A home for his parents

Soon, I built a house for my parents in our village. The people in my village, who had seen me as a small child, could not believe the change in my life. Many kids in my village now look up to me. They also dream of achieving something big in life.

From Dubai to India

In 2003, after having lived in Dubai for so long, I decided to return to India. There were three reasons for the decision.

I wanted to come back and spend time with my parents.

I wanted to study further. Though I had a very good GATE score, I couldn’t study after my engineering due to financial constraints. After working for a few years, I decided to study business administration.

The third reason was that I wanted to give something back to society.

There are so many smart youngsters in our villages who are not getting a good break in life. I wanted to give them that opportunity so that they too could come up in life. And the best way to help them, I thought, was by providing them with jobs. In order to do that, I had to be an entrepreneur.

Quitting a well paying job

It was one of the toughest decision I have ever made.

My father was horrified. So was my wife’s family. But one person supported me wholeheartedly, my cousin Nasser. As did my wife.

I am very close to my maternal cousins. We grew up together. They also came from very poor families. Unlike me, they didn’t go for higher studies.

Nasser ran away from home to Bangalore where he started a small kirana store. He gave me the courage to listen to my heart. He said, ‘If it does not work out, you can go back to work anytime. Quitting the job was the end of the world. But you shouldn’t feel that you didn’t try to do what you wanted to.’

The funny thing was I knew I wanted to do something but had no idea what it would be. I came to back to India with a savings of Rs 15 lakh (Rs 1.5 million).

Idlis and dosas

I met with my first objective by going to my village every weekend to be with my parents.

Instead of studying technology, I decided to do an MBA as I found management more interesting. I gave the CAT exam and got admission at IIM-Bangalore.

Even while studying at IIM-B, I would constantly discuss business plans with my cousins.

Shamsuddin, one of my cousins, had seen dosa batter being sold in plastic bags tied with a rubber band in nearby stores and suggested we make and supply dosa batter. That was an Aha! moment. I decided to invest Rs 25,000 and start a company immediately.

Five of us cousins — Nasser, Shamsu, Jaffer, Naushad and me — decided to join hands. The partnership was such that I had 50 per cent share in the company and the other 50 per cent was with the four of them.

We found a small place of around 550 square feet and started with two grinders, a mixer and a sealing machine.

ID is identity, not idli dosa

We were discussing names when a cousin suggested ID for idli dosa. We named the venture ID Fresh as we planned to supply fresh dosa and idli batter.

Our initial target were 20 stores in the neighbouring area. If we were able to sell 100 packets a day in six months, I would invest more and buy more machines.

We didn’t employ anyone; my cousin was in charge. We started very small with just 10 packets a day. Initially, the shopkeepers were not willing to keep a new brand. So we gave them a special offer — cash after sales.

When the customers asked for ID repeatedly, other stores also wanted to stock our product. But we stuck to the first 20 stores and waited to touch the 100 packet figure. By the ninth month, we were selling an average of 100 packets a day.

Making profits from day one

The best part of our venture was that we were making profits from day one. None of us took any salary initially. After paying the rent of Rs 500 and crossing off the expenditure of buying rice, dal, etc, our profit was Rs 400 in the first month.

Once we reached the target of 100 packets, I decided to invest Rs 6 lakh (Rs 600,000) and move to a bigger kitchen of 800 sq ft with 2,000 kg capacity, which is 2,000 packets with 15 wet grinders.

Nasser was handling the kitchen alone so we employed five people, all of whom were our relatives.

Joining as the CEO

In 2007, I got my MBA and officially joined as the CEO in charge of marketing and finance. Till then, I was only remotely participating in the operation along with my cousins.

In two years, we increased the capacity to 3,500 kg a day. The number of stores we partnered with increased to 300, 400. We now had 30 employees working for us. We were operating our kitchen in a residential area till then.

As the demand increased, we decided to have a proper manufacturing plant in an industrial area. We were making a decent 10 to 12 per cent profit every month.

In 2008, I invested another Rs 40 lakh (Rs 4 million) and bought a 2,500 sq ft shed in the Hoskote Industrial Area. We imported five large wet grinders from America and customised them to fit our requirements.

In 2008, we added parathas to our list of products. We will soon introduce vada batter and also rava idli batter.

At ID Fresh, we only deal with natural fresh food. We do not add any preservatives to any of our products.

Expanding operations

In 2012, we expanded to other cities like Chennai, Mangaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. My friends and relatives joined me to take ID Fresh to the next level. We follow a partnership model in other cities, with a local manufacturing plant in each city. Each partner becomes a shareholder in the parent company.

In 2013, we started our operations in Dubai. We see the maximum demand for dosa batter in Dubai and are not able to match the demand.

Our experience in Bangalore helped us. We use the same raw materials, the same manufacturing process and the same business model everywhere. Expanding to other cities was a bit tough though, since we are not locally present there.

We are not looking at any other international market right now. India is such a huge market and we have so much to explore.

Rs 100 crore company

Today, we produce around 50,000 kg in our plant. The total investment must be around Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million) and our revenue is Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).

When we became a Rs 100 crore company in October 2015, we celebrated in grand scale. We have grown from producing 10 packets a day in 2005, with just my cousin managing the kitchen, to 50,000 packets a day with 1,100 employees in 10 years.

Employs only youngsters from rural areas

When I recruit someone, I ensure he is from a rural area. He has to be smart, honest and committed. Those who work in the plant make around Rs 40,000 a month.

Biggest challenge

The biggest challenge any start-up faces is getting the right people, the right team. I was lucky to have my cousins with me.

But balancing work and personal life is by far the toughest challenge.

Future plans

My aim is to make ID the most popular and trusted brand in the fresh food segment and make it Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) company in the next five to six years.

By then, I am sure we will be able to employ at least 5,000 people.

Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs

If you have the passion to start something, do it immediately. Don’t wait for tomorrow. I had the passion to be an entrepreneur, but it took me a few years make that decision. I still regret the delay. I wish I had started five years earlier.

My words may sound like management jargon, but it is very important to maintain the quality of the product to be successful.

The three things that worked for us were that we were in the right city with the right product at the right time.

Photographs: Courtesy ID Fresh

Source…..Shobha Warrier in http://www.rediff.com

Natarajan