I live in a house which is housed in a enclosure. There are 3 rows of houses on 3 sides, 4th is an open walk. In the centre is a pucca square slightly at a lower level than than the verandahs. In the time of heavy rains, it is full to brim with rain water and looks like a pond. Mostly forced bachelors live here. Many mongrel dogs also inhabit the verandah.
Once I thought that if the authorities dig it and cement it it will become a very good pool where the residents including ladies can swim and enjoy and give water to Sun God.
Anyway two mongrels live in the compound and are very contented because everyone throws food morsels at them often. One is male and another who is younger is a bitch. There was a time when there was blood coming from the female parts of bitch and all around drops were scattered. It happened for many days.
The day it was over, she was not to be seen anywhere. Her companion was sitting alone though not looking depressed because he takes more interest in food than carnal pleasures. We discovered that the bitch is roaming with other dogs outside the compound.
Why did she not chose the one who was with her day in and day out? Why did is elope with distant dogs? Why did she come back and receive the same comradeship from the male?
The scene from the balcony of my apartment in the third floor of the building is breathtaking. It harks me back to my childhood. The place where all these apartments have come up were fields earlier. There were rills with gurgling water running through the path which led us from our home into our land.
Now this patch which is remaining reminds me of those times. There are fields in which the cattle graze when the land is fallow. In the rainy season, the cattle roll in the mud and after that go to bath in the pond of water.
This pond looks like a shard of mirror. It is a narrow strip of water. I was surprised why the pond does not get dried. Still there is water. This time I found the answer.
There is a river not far from our place. It is called Ghaghar. It is not a big river like the other mighty rivers of Punjab. In the past, as I have mentioned, there were small streams which ran through the area and distributed the water for irrigation to the landowners on the rota basis.
I have presumed that all those stream must have become extinct but I was surprised to see one in which pristine water was flowing and leading towards the pond and beyond.
There is a narrow path made from the constant walking of the people. It is narrow strip of bald land. People who are walking on the path look tiny specks from our home. During the high sun, the water simmers and it becomes difficult to look at it directly.
From the height of our home, the pond seems to like a broken piece of mirror-placid. But a closer look indicates lots of activity taking place there inside it. Buffaloes wallow in it.
Besides you can see the cormorants and ducks smoothly swimming over the water surface. Water continuously exits the pond from other side.
There is algae over a part of it. The same algae called cyano-bacteria or green algae which is on the surface of the earth since times immemorial when no other form of life existed. This is the same algae which is the precursor of life that is present on the earth.
On the other side is a preserved patch of woods where eucalyptus and poplar trees grow along with undergrowth. There are trodden paths running and getting lost inside these woods. These remind me of the poem “the road less taken” by Robert Frost.
I don’t know how long this patch of remaining land will last. I fear the day is not far when the demon of concrete will overtake it. In the last I present a picture of laborers carrying dried wood stick bundles on their heads for firing their hearths and sitting around the fire for keeping the winter at bay.
Let us talk more about the mongrel pair I mentioned in the last post. There is a custom here in our company that loudspeaker begins to blare singing praises of the company, at about eight thirty in the morning reminding employees that it is office time. It is followed by a religious songs.
What is happening, as soon as the loudspeakers blare, this pair of dogs begun howling and weeping very badly. Since the laxity in the company is increasing day by day and things are taken loosely in the name of giving freedom to employees, the portents of bad days do not seem to be very distant.
Does this means that howling of dogs is a apocryphal sign? Something about the days to come.
We know her as Draupadi, the stellar role she played in the epic series “Mahabharata” made by Doordarshan India. That was the role which has many shades of positive and negative. Draupadi was a complex woman who was the wife to five Pandava brothers.
Legend had it that she wanted a complete man like Narayana as her husband. But in the mortal world, such a person was impossible to exist. So God gave her five husbands who had been endowed with limited qualities. Combined they became a person very near to what is wanted to be her husband.
She had travails also and became the pawn in the quarrel between two cousin families. She was ogled by many lecherous kings and was rescued from their vices by Bhima who loved her more than all the brothers, although it was another matter that she liked Arjuna most. She was pawned by her mighty husbands in the game of dice among the hostile cousins. They lost her to Kauravas, who insulted her in the presence of elders. She then vowed and plotted to take revenge.
Rupa Ganguly
So this difficult role was performed by Rupa Ganguly who was just 21 years old at the time. After that, she acted in some Bengali films. She also worked in a TV serial Krishankali which was based on the novel of same name by famous Hindi writer Shivani. After that she also appeared in many TV soaps.
But now her another talent has been revealed. She is a singer. That she is a very good singer is attested by the Best Singer award she bagged for lending her voice to two Rabindra songs in the movie “Abosheshe” released in 2011. In addition to this she has sung an album of 10 songs. It is called “Anek Diyechho Nath”.
As a chemist, since my college days, I am reading about atoms, molecules, ions and macromolecules. Whatever goodies nature serves us are composed of billions of these atoms arranged in a certain manner .
Nanotechnology, is a field of technology, which aims to restrict the manufacturing of things upto few hundred molecules. At this scale things have properties critically different from the bulk form. For example, gold on this scale has very different color from the usual. This colour loved by women all over the world irrespective of economical status.
Another novel feature of nano materials is the dramatic increase in surface area. Due to this materials start acting as catalysts for many chemical reactions. This helps in making it possible for a reaction to happen at normal conditions.
One nanometer (nm) is one billionth, or 10-9 of a meter. A typical carbon-carbon bond lengths or the spacing between these atoms in a molecule is in the range 0.12-0.15 nm. A DNA double-helix has a diameter around 2 nm. On the other hand, the smallest cellular lifeforms, the bacteria of the genus Mycoplasma, are around 200 nm in length. To put that scale in to context the comparative size of a nanometer to a meter is the same as that of a marble to the size of the earth. Or another way of putting it: a nanometer is the amount a man’s beard grows in the time it takes him to raise the razor to his face.
Size of a typical atoms is 10-10 meters. So a nanometer contains about 10 atoms. Want to go more deeper into the wonders of God. An nucleus is about 10-14 metres. So a nanometer will contain 10000 nuclei. Still go smaller, proton is about 10-15 metres. So a nanometer will have 100000 protons. Now comes the ultimate pygmies of atomic world: leptons and electrons. These are along with electrons are the new fundamental particles. Their size is 10-18 metres. A nanometer will have 1000000000 leptons and electrons.
How God manages the things at such unimaginable levels both diminutive and mammoth? No one can fathom. And that which we cannot fathom is the God.
Corn along with rice and maize are the basic grains used all over the world. They evolved in different parts of the world in different climates and conditions. Wheat for example is said to have been originated in Middle East. Rice requires plenty of water for cultivation and thus grown in the areas where rains are heavy or other sources of water are easily available. Here we are talking about the evolution of corn.
Evolution of the parent wild varieties have taken place through man’s method of selective breeding over the centuries. The history of modern-day maize begins at the dawn of human agriculture, about 10,000 years ago. Ancient farmers in what is now Mexico took the first steps in domesticating maize when they simply chose which kernels (seeds) to plant.
These farmers noticed that not all plants were the same. Some plants grew larger than others, or maybe some kernels tasted better or were easier to grind. The farmers saved kernels from plants with desirable characteristics and planted them for the next season’s harvest. This process is known as selective breeding or artificial selection. Maize cobs became larger over time, with more rows of kernels, eventually taking on the form of modern maize.
Evolution is said to be gradual and slow. But in the case of corn, it evolution occurred in a burst of fairly small time. After a long search, the scientists became sure about the ancestor of maize. Its name is Teosinte. Plants are totally dissimilar in physical appearance but their DNA is very similar and two can be easily crossed to produce modified intermediate varieties. Samples bear an unmistakable resemblance to modern maize.
Following shows a collection of sizes and shapes of cobs beginning from the earliest.
Second picture shows the comparison of Maize and Teosinte plant and cobs from which Corn has evolved over thousands of year. The hybrid corn resulting from crossing the two is also shown at bottom.
The author is thankful to the following link for the two diagrams and ideas
Sikh gurus made visits to Assam during their peregrinations all over India for preaching the lesson of brotherhood, love and amity, and peace. Ninth Guru, Guru Teg Bahadur, visited Assam during 1668 February and stayed in Dhubri town.
His three hundred thirty-first martyrdom day was celebrated here on the twenty-sixth of November 2006. He was tortured and killed by Aurangzeb, the Mughal king of India as he refused to embrace the Muslim religion.
Sikhs came from far off places like Canada, the UK, Bhutan, Nepal, and other parts of Assam like Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tinsukhia, Digboi, and Guwahati; the district of Dhubri looked like a mini Punjab on these days.
Muslims attacked Assam in 1669 in order to extend their control beyond Guwahati. This means that Guru was also here at that time. The command of the Mughal Army was in the hands of Raja Ram Singh who was a very pious person.
In this fight, Ahoms led by the legendary Ahom General Lachit Borphukan fought valiantly with the Mughals and defeated them thoroughly. It was decided that the Mughals would not cross Brahmaputra( Luit) and the river will mark the boundary between the two. Guru, it is recorded played a vital role in bringing peace among the warring parties.
Ah, Assam again. We had a colleague there whose name is Pranab. He is a true blue Ahom as far his looks are concerned because he does not look one bit like Indians. He resembles Mongolians. In fact, we can cite him as a proof that Ahoms indeed came to India from outside.
He always chews the raw betel nuts called “tamul” in local language. His teeth look dyed brown-black due to this masticating activity. He generally supports very small hair on his head. He is very avaricious about food and money. In fact, he never parts with a penny.
But, no one can deny that he is a rather anomaly as far as the attitude towards work and punctuality is concerned. In fact, he is always hovering near the office even on the holidays. He reels off very juicy stories, scandals about almost every person. Stories seem to be so authentic. Who has love affairs, extramarital affairs, affairs with colleagues, who smuggled women into his room, he will tell you all. That so and so driver tried to take liberties with the female officer he was taking to other office. Who and who stayed back late in the night on the excuse of doing extra work but did the extra activities. He will fire your imagination and you will begin to ponder about what he has told. Sometimes, you will begin to feel frustrated why was not I a character in this binges.
No only those who worked in office were the actors in his stories, even he will tell stories about tea shop owners, their womenfolk. Really, he is purveyor of juicy stories.
Sunderbans, the very name sends the imagination reeling about a amphibian land in the south of Kolkata spread over the maze work of islands created by Ganga, Brahmputra and Meghna rivers. These rivers which seem to abandon their discipline and break up like a fan in this land. It is labyrinth of channels encircling the islands which contain the most fertile soil in their upper crust.
The name seems to be associated with the conspicuous sundari trees which are called Heritiera macrophylla by the botanists. But Mughals, as narrated by Amitav Ghosh in his beautiful novel “The Hungry Tide”, called it Bhati Desh which means Ebb tide country. This became Bhatir Desh over time.
It is the land which is so surreal that there is no line of demarcation between reality and imagination. There are eighteen islands which is why it is also called “Atharo Bhatir Desh”, the land of eighteen lands. There are tigers which can swim miles and miles after their quarries. Crocodiles and dolphins abound here.
There is one chapter in the famous book “Midnights Children” by Salman Rushdie in which three young soldiers of West Pakistan who were the part of army sent to East Pakistan and committed heinous crimes like their army, after getting lost, land up in a boat in this Jungle. Rushdie then go on to weave a superb web about the description of the place. He tells that in rainy season, the Jungle seems to grow literally before the eyes. The fruits from the Nipa Palms fall and crack on the ground. In no time the ants swoop on the fruit juice. Since the light never reaches inside many parts, there live snakes which are transparent. Jungle begins to take a complete control of your mind and you forget about the time dimension. Clearly it is the work of great creative imagination of the writer but the author builds these things making base as some real stories.
The Jungle is so dense that if one goes inside, he will forget about the concept of time. The jungle has the power to suspend the time. The land is famous for the mangroves which grow copiously and sometimes discard so much dead leaves and wood that they seem to be doing harakiri or suicide, if it were not for the crabs who live there and work as scavengers. They are the janitors who see to it that everything is spic and span or tickety-boo.
The people who live there have adapted themselves to the treacheries of the jungle. They invoke the Goddess “Bonbibi” before going to jungle to gather the honey and wax. The jungle is lorded by Dekkan Rai, who stalks in the form of tiger. The legend is that Dekkan rai ruled over the entire Bhatir Desh but he became obsessed with human flesh. According to story, he accosted a convoy of boats which had come there for gathering valuables from jungle, he promised them to give the untold gifts of honey and wax in liu of one human flesh. As planned by the convoy, they left one person behind and when Dekkan rai came to eat him in the garb of tiger, but he prayed to Banbibi, who then with the help of her brother fought and defeated Dekkan Rai. In the end it was decided that Dekkan Rai will rule only the dense jungle.
That is why, whenever inhabitants cross over to jungle, they worship not only Bonbibi but also the Dekkan rai, the tiger. It is the place where the womenfolk wear the white saris like widows when there menfolks go to jungle for hunting and gathering honey and wax.
The rivers which have spawned these islands bring with them so much fertile soil from Himalayas that they seem to be playing a game of erecting and erasing the islands at will. Many islands are said to have been buried and no longer exist now. New ones can be born anytime.
There exist so many biomes which harbour myriad kinds of flora and fauna. Storms break where minutes before it was so still that everything looked like a still picture.
It is not far away from Kolkata and yet it is entirely a different world, breathtaking and beautiful and at the same time extremely harsh and unforgiving to the inhabitants.
Hiuen Tsang, Chinese scholar after being in India is going back. Time AD 627-643, on the fabled Silk Route. Apart from his knowledge of Buddhism, his rucksack contains an extraordinary fruit called Mango.
The name in hindi AaM is derived from Sanskrit word AMRA which seems to be the loan word from Dravidian and is related to Tamil words for Mango like “mamaram”. Portuguese were responsible for transferring the name to the West. It is growing in India since 4000 years at least.
Moguls were great connoisseurs of the fruit. Akbar got 100000 mango trees planted in Lakhi Bagh (Lakhi: 100,000, Bagh means Garden) near Darbhanga Bihar India. Others who relished the fruit were Shahjahan and Noor Jehan, Aurangzeb, Sher Shah Suri. Raghunath Peshwa got large numbers planted all over Maharashtra.
Main Constituents:
Citric acid and related compounds are responsible for sour taste. Several terpenes have been found in unripe fruit..
Ripe mango contains volatile compounds like alpha terpineol, ocimene, limonene, 3-carene etc. Yellow colour is due to beta Carotene.
Nutrients
Mangoes are rich in potassium, about 8% carbohydrate with 1.6 % dietary fibre. Very rich in vitamin A , C, B-6, calcium, iron, and magnesium.
Some famous Indian Varieties:
1: Alphonso or Hapoos King among the mangoes. Named after Portugal admiral D Afonso de Albuquerque. Deogad in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra has got the GI tag of genuineness.
2: Dasehri It is birth place is Malihabad in Lucknow. Soft, succulent and mild.
3: Banarasi Langda It was born in an orchard belonging to a Langda (lame) fellow and thus got this name.
4: Himsagar Fibre less, creamy and full of pulp. Pride of Murshidabad in West Bengal.
5: Fazli Quite big in size, famous in Malda of West Bengal. Late maturing.
6: Chaunsa: From Bihar. Full of Flavour. It is pressed into mouth and juice is sucked.
7: Gulab Khaas Native of Jharkhand. It is graceful mango
8: Kesar
Aromatic fruit of Junagadh Gujarat. Giving a tough fight to Hapoos. Plantations are on foothills of mount Girnar.
9: Bedmi:
Taste depends upon the plucking time.
10. Totapuri: it is abundant in southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka.
11: Sindoori: it gets its name from the vermillion colour of the skin.
12: Banganapalli/ Bagan Phali/ Safeda From Andhra’s small town Banganapalli. Sweet, yellow and fibre less.
13: Himam Pasand/ Humayun Pasand A cross made from Banganapalli and Malgoa. It is very popular in Deccan.
14: Chandrakaran: it is delicacy from Kerala. Sweet and sour. Quite costly.
Free Thoughts by Ranjit Singh 