Parallel Universes

The idea of parallel universes provides a possible resolution to the 'grandfather paradox' that might otherwise cause problems for time travellers. If we travel back in time and change history, we launch ourselves into a new future in a parallel universe - but we have no effect on the present one from which we started out.

Scientists of the future may well pursue a new form of futuristic technology based on quantum effects. Such applications could include quantum teleportation, by which a quantum particle can be teleported from one point in space to another; and quantum computation, where calculations can be carried out which would take many years on a conventional computer. Although we now know how to measure time very accurately, have we come any nearer to answering the basic question 'What is time?'. A BBC science report..read more..

Static electricity generated Argument! or the great Indian JUGAAD!

It is not the power of Gandhi or Gandhigiri ! Neither the currency converter in the Nokia phones! Today I noticed this news item in The Statesman supplement of North Bengal and Sikkim.Read and give a thought..is it possible?


KOLKATA, Nov 27: The next time you need to charge your mobile phone and there’s no electrical plug or electricity at hand, you may want to try and recharge it using a currency note instead. Just make sure you use a Nokia mobile phone.
Weird though it may sound, but that’s how it is. One just needs to switch-off the cellular device and take out the battery. Now the special identification magnetic strip (silver coloured) on a Rs 10 or Rs 100 currency note is inserted between the charging points on the battery (brass) and the connecting points in the phone and the battery are put in place. Thereafter one only needs to switch-on the mobile and pull the currency note back.
Phew! The phone is fully charged again in seconds without using electricity.
Neither scientists and teachers nor those Nokia officials however, were able to explain the phenomenon. A senior teacher from Netaji Nagar College, Mr Surojit Mullick said sometimes when the battery is taken out, some of the charge is restored. But he could not account for the fact that the charge remained there for a long time. Senior scientist, Mr Dipankar Home, also said a detailed study is needed to analyse the phenomenon. “Sometimes it depends on the material. If the material is of high conductivity, it may recharge the lead cells. But to explain any such things one needs to test the material used in the battery as well as those in the notes,” he said.
A spokesperson company only said that it was just not possible. “Even senior scientists have rejected any such possibility,” she said. President of the
India Cellular Association, Mr Pankaj Mohindroo, however trashed the claim. “Don't even believe the claims. It's all rubbish. Sometimes when rubbed against electrostatic substances a battery gets charged due to the high amount of static electricity produced,” he said.

'Shah Rukh is a reincarnation of a Bengali dancer'

For some dreams, one lifetime is not enough. So says Shah Rukh Khan in the movie, Om Shanti Om, in which he dies as a struggling junior artiste but reincarnates as a successful Bollywood superstar. In real life too, it may be a similar story, if an American doctor, who specialises in reincarnation research is to be believed.

Walter Semkiw, an occupational medicine physician practising in San Francisco, believes that Shah Rukh Khan is the reincarnation of a dancer and actress called Sadhona Bose - who starred in a few films of the 1930s and ’40s. Bose’s most successful film was Raj Nartaki, released in 1941. But after that, her career flagged and she was eventually reduced to begging.

Sounds bizarre? There’s more. Semkiw’s book, ‘Born Again’ features reincarnation case studies of a number of international celebrities, including numerous Indian personalities, ranging from Amitabh Bachchan to Jawaharlal Nehru. For instance, according to Semkiw, Bachchan is the reincarnation of American actor Edwin Booth, who was considered one of the finest Shakespearean actors of Victorian times, while Bahadurshah Zafar, the last Mughal king, was reincarnated as Jawaharlal Nehru.

Semkiw’s book, which was released last year, has evinced considerable interest, with even Shah Rukh reportedly saying that while his religion did not permit him to believe in a past or future life, he still wanted to see Sadhona Bose’s pictures.

But how did Semkiw come to his conclusions about the past lives of so many people? He says that it was through a combination of psychic sessions as well as a lot of background research. “It all started when I consulted Kevin Ryerson, a famous trance medium. I found that Kevin was able to channel an Egyptian spirit guide named Athun Re, who, I realised over the course of multiple sessions, had the ability to make accurate past life identifications. However, since my background is in science, I needed evidence to be convinced that whatever matches were being told to me were 100% correct,” he says.

One does wonder, however, if the good doctor, though well-intentioned, might have been led on by say, the medium that he was consulting? “Such skepticism is understandable,” says Semkiw, “since I also started out as a hard-core skeptic. But during the course of the sessions, the matches involved individuals in history that were so obscure and so hard to get information on, that there was no way that the spirit guide or the medium, for that matter, could have made the matches without accessing some spiritual source,” he says.

What finally convinced him, says Semkiw was when the name he received as an answer was researched and facial features, personality traits, talents etc matched, there were invariably striking similarities. Amitabh Bachchan, for example, says Semkiw, not only shares a love for acting with his supposed past life persona of Edwin Booth, but also has similar personality traits, which have been passed on from one lifetime to another.

Incidentally, Edwin Booth was the brother of John Wilkins Booth, who is infamous in history as the man who shot Lincoln, although Edwin himself, was determinedly apolitical, saying that politics simply did not suit him - a feeling Bachchan might sympathise with.

Not just that, Edwin Booth’s family has also been reincarnated as people who are close to Bachchan in this lifetime, claims Semkiw. Jaya Bachchan, for instance, has been identified as Mary Mc Vickers, Edwin Booth’s second wife, while Rekha is believed to be Edwin Booth’s first wife, Mary Devlin.

In researching cases, says Semkiw, he found many instances where ambitions that were not fulfilled in a previous lifetime were being completed in the next. “The best example is that of Hollywood actress Halle Berry, who has been identified as the reincarnation of 1950s actress Dorothy Dandridge,” he says.

Besides having a strong facial resemblance, the two had other similarities too. Both were born to black parents in Ohio - Dorothy died in 1965, while Berry was born in 1968. Berry, in fact, also went on to make a movie on Dorothy. During the course of the movie, she became best friends with Geri Branton, who was also Dorothy’s close friend and who claimed that she was taken aback when she first saw Berry, “because she was so much like Dorothy.”

One of Dorothy’s dearest wishes was to win an Oscar, which she never did, because a certain amount of prejudice existed against blacks in Hollywood at that time. However, years later, in 2002, Halle Berry became the first black woman to win an Oscar. “Finally, as Halle Berry in this lifetime, Dorothy Dandridge fulfilled her goal,” says Semkiw.

Having researched these cases, what does he now feel reincarnation is all about? “I believe that the knowledge of reincarnation is necessary for all of us,” says Semkiw. “Knowing that we will reincarnate will help people realise that they can be Christian in one lifetime or Muslim in another. Once that happens, then hatred and warfare will cease to exist and we can come to understand that from lifetime to lifetime, our purpose is mainly to experience various life situations that keep on evolving our souls.”

Rationalists will, no doubt, scoff. But believers will probably take comfort from Semkiw’s contention that an unfulfilled life needn’t be a tragic waste. As the line goes, picture abhi baaki hai.

atul.sethi@timesgroup.com

Safety Pin

It all started one afternoon.. Walter Hunt had to think of a way on how to pay back a fifteen dollar debt. He was sitting at his desk just twisting a piece of wire while trying to think of how to pay back his debt. He sat twisting wire for three full hours and realized what he had created. He called it the safety pin. He although did not invent the safety pin he just improved it.The man whom Hunt had borrowed the money from was the one who gave him the piece of wire and told him he would pay him four hundred dollars for all the rights to whatever Walter Hunt created. In exchange Walter Hunt sold him the safety pin and all the rights to the device for four hundred dollars. The reason this man wanted Walter Hunt to create something was because Walter Hunt was a inventor. This safety pin wasn't the first pin, but it was the first one with a clasp to keep from poking.

The first safety pin was invented by the ancient Greeks, Italians, and Sicilians. It had two things wrong with it one it had no clasp and second it had no spring at the end to help put it in place. The safety pin was designed to help pin things together. The safety pin is used for many things kind of like a temporary button, zipper, or it can hold a rip or babies diapers. The safety pin was very useful to all people. It will continue to be useful in every day life. Walter Hunt's improvement was very helpful to all. All it took to create this device was a piece of wire, imagination, and a little time.

Death of a Sperm whale

It was one of my winter visit to my home(Andaman-Panchavati).One day (feb-2002)I heard that a sperm whale was spotted nearby by the morning walkers,I took the cycle and rushed to the stony beach were the sperm whale was washed away by the tide.I found it dead but not stinking,and no evidence of any injury in its body.


I returned to my home to take my camera to click some snaps.When I returned the lower teeth of the whale is missing and the blood from its body was all around.Poachers and smugglers know about these things better.Now while surfing the net I found about the uses of these teeth .They make scrimshaws out of this.The tooth extracted from this whale may be sitting in the showcase in some corner of the world.No dignity even in Death of these mammals!

Hitler received up to 1,000 fan mails every month: Report

LONDON: Believe it or not, the amount of fan mails sent to Adolf Hitler rivalled that of The Beatles.

This inference can be drawn from the contents of many of the upto 1,000 letters a month written to the Nazi ruler -- the mails have been unearthed by German historian Henrik Eberle who published them in his new book.

The book, titled Letters to Hitler -- People Writes to its Leader , contains contents of the letters which included not only fawning pledges of allegiance but bizarre requests from ordinary Germans for permission to bake cakes named after the Nazi leader, The Independent reported on Tuesday.

Although they were written only early in Hitler's career, shortly after he was released from jail in 1923, they show that he was already being deluged with fan mail.

The daily cited a telegram written by one Walter Zickler, dated June 1925. It pledges "unalterable allegiance and unshakeable faith in "Adolf Hitler", on behalf of the "College of German Farmers".

"How does HE stand regarding the question of alcohol?" asks Alfred Barg, in a letter written to Hitler in May 1925.

To Barg's letter, the dictator's deputy Hess replies nine days later: "Herr Hitler does not drink any alcohol, except for a few drops on very special occasions. He does not smoke at all."

Another letter written by a loyal National Socialist baker asks for permission to bake a new variety of cake which would in future be honoured with the name "Hitler Cake". Hess refused because Hitler's strategy was to strictly avoid ‘kitsch’ publicity gimmicks.

The most obsequious mail came from Nazi Party members. One letter from a Nazi official says, "We don't want anyone else in government, we want only Adolf Hitler." (PTI)

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MAN in MANHOLE

Man goes to sleep in manhole

Kolkata: A deranged man on Thursday went down a manhole and slept there before being lured with the promise of bread to come out.


The man, who later gave his name as Keshav, was spotted by people entering the manhole naked at around 3:00 pm.

The police and fire brigade arrived after being alerted, but they could not find him as he had crept into a sewer connecting two manholes and had fallen asleep.

"The manhole, where the man entered, is connected through a sewer with another manhole 30 metres away. The man was sleeping in the sewer and so we could not find him," officer-in-charge, Hastings police station, Ashoke Banerjee said.

Keshav, who first refused to come out, later agreed after being given bread to eat, Banerjee said.

He was immediately rushed to hospital.

He said that he was very ‘annoyed’ with the police for having ‘disturbed’ his sleep.

Tea vendor paid Rs 8 lakh as income tax

JODHPUR: A vendor who sells tea and snacks in Rajasthan's Pali district has paid Rs eight lakh as income tax after officials found his undeclared assets worth Rs 25 lakh.

The vendor, who has his stall at Rohit village on Jodhpur-Pali road, paid the amount on Wednesday after income tax department sleuths found the undeclared assets.

Meanwhile, the IT sleuths recovered Rs one crore cash during raids from a Gutkha manufacturer here.

The raids were conducted at the premises of the businessman located in Jodhpur, Mumbai, Udaipur, Kota, Bikaner and Ajmer

During the raids, jewellery worth several lakh rupees were also found from four lockers owned by the businessman.

Import Indian bridegrooms for Russian brides

New Russian magic mantra to reverse alarming fall in the country’s birth rate
-Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: Desperate to reverse a steep decline in their numbers, Russians are coming up with some bold ideas on how to overcome Russia’s demographic crisis.

A Russian feminist has proposed a radical solution to the falling birth rate — importing Indian bridegrooms for Russian girls. Maria Arbatova, writer and TV moderator, who married an Indian businessman a few years ago “after 25 years of keeping marrying Russians”, thinks Indian men make ideal husbands.

“They are crazy about their family and children,” she said presenting her new book, ‘Tasting India’, here. “What is more, Indians, like Russians, are Indo-Europeans, and many Sanskrit and Russian words have the same roots.”

Indian bridegrooms can help ward off a Chinese demographic invasion in Russia, says the feminist: “If we do not balance off the Chinese with Indians, Africans or aliens, by 2050 China will annex Russia’s Siberia up to the Ural Mountains.”

Russia has a population of 142 million spread across a territory five times the size of India. Its population is shrinking at one-third of a million a year. Under a federal programme launched this year, women who give birth to a second or subsequent child are given certificates worth $10,000, which can be used for education, mortgage or pensions. Monthly support payments to young mothers have been raised from $28 to $60. Afraid that the Government measures are not enough, the Governor of Ulyanovsk has suggested his own way of getting Russian couples to have more babies.

This Wednesday, Ulyanovsk residents will enjoy an extra day off work that the Governor decreed to give them more time to produce babies. The holiday, officially called “Family Contact Day”, was quickly renamed by locals as “Day of Conception”. That day the people will be invited to join a festival, “I Love You”, while teams of gynaecologists, midwives and psychologists will fan out to all parts of the region to advise women on having babies.

September 12 has been chosen for the new holiday so that babies conceived that day may be born on June 12, Russia’s National Day. Couples who hit the target date win prizes, including refrigerators, TV sets and washing machines. The main prize is an Ulyanovsk-built all-terrain vehicle called Patriot.(The Hindu)

THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE FUTURE: JULES VERNE

The above cover art suggests various predictions of the author Jules Verne. Among these was spaceflight which is suggested by the sketch of the astronaut at the upper left. JOURNEY FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON was published in 1863. Some call it the "first believable novel of the future ever written" because of its attention to scientific accuracy. Consider the following amazing predictions by Verne in his novel which came to pass:

The United States would launch the first vehicle to go to the moon.

The shape and size of the vehicle would closely resemble the Apollo command/service module spacecraft.

The number of men in the crew would be three.

The vehicle would launch from Florida near the present location of Kennedy Space Center.

A competition for the launch site would ensue between Florida and Texas which actually was resolved in Congress in the 1960s with KSC as the Flordia launch site and Houston, Texas as the Mission Control Center.

A telescope would be able to view the progress of the journey. When Apollo 13 exploded, a telescope at Johnson Space Center witnessed the event which happened more than 200,000 miles from Earth.

The Verne spacecraft would use retro-rockets which became a technology assisting Neil Armstrong and his crewmates in their journey to the Moon.

Verne predicted weightlessness although his concept was slightly flawed in thinking it only was experienced at the gravitational midpoint of the journey (when the Moon and Earth gravity balanced).

The first men to journey to the Moon would return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean just where Apollo 11 splashed down in July of 1969 one hundred and six years after the initial publishing of Jules Verne's FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON.

DEAD PEOPLES ASSOCIATION

"I'm here. I'm alive," Lal Bihari told revenue officials after discovering he was listed as deceased in 1976. "That may be so," an unruffled clerk replied, "but according to my books you're dead." It took Lal Bihari 18 years to get his life and his land back. During that time, he added the word Mritak, or Dead, to his name and to prove that he was living sought arrest, tried to run for parliament, kidnapped the son of the uncle who had stolen his property, threatened murder, insulted judges, threw leaflets listing his complaints at legislators in the state assembly and demanded a widow's pension for his wife. Each time he was either beaten up by police or rebuked for wasting officials' time. Unable to make headway, Lal Bihari The Dead sought the company of other ghosts in Uttar Pradesh and found an entire underworld of the deceased and dispossessed. A dozen of them demonstrated outside the Uttar Pradesh assembly to publicize their fate, demanding an official investigation into land registry transactions to prevent others from being robbed. Lal Bihari is not sure how many members there are in his Association of Dead People. He's vague about its constitution, it has no funds and no one of importance is paying any attention--at least for now. But in his home district of Azamgarh, 220 km southeast of the state capital, Lucknow, Lal Bihari and his association have become a magnet for the dead souls of the region. He receives letters and secret visits from victims or their relatives hoping he can restore their property. "I've heard about you from friends," wrote a young man late last month. "Exactly the same thing happened to my aunt when her husband died. Can you help?"

Like other eastern districts in Uttar Pradesh, Azamgarh is overcrowded. Land, the only source of income and status for most residents, is scarce. Holdings are getting smaller, divided and subdivided as families grow larger. Rich and poor find it difficult to resist stealing land from an absentee uncle, cousin, nephew, widow or any weak and vulnerable relative. The quickest and simplest way is to bribe land records officials--it costs between $1 and $50, depending on the size of the plot and the wealth of the farmer--declare a person dead and grab his share of the property. "It is a clever ploy," says Lal Bihari. "You don't get your hands dirty by committing murder, and yet the person is as good as dead."

This teacher hasn't taken leave for 34 years

A Government school teacher in Himachal Pradesh has been doing his job so seriously that he has taken no leave in the past 34 years.

As a reward, the State Government has decided to give Todar Ram, 57, a two-year extension in service after he retires later this year from the Government Secondary School Gurkhota in Mandi district, some 160 km from here.

"We have also decided to approach the Guinness Book of World Records to verify our records and consider his achievement (for inclusion)," said Nirmala Sharma, deputy director in the primary education department at Mandi.

Ram, who won a national teacher award a few years ago, belongs to Andretta in the Balh valley of Mandi district. He has taken no leave other than the Sunday weekly offs, school vacations and Government holidays.

"I served for around 28 years in the hard mountainous region of Kullu Valley and had to often walk long distances in the hilly terrain to reach school but I didn't ever take leave," says Ram.

Himachal Pradesh has one of the highest literacy rates in the country at around 80 percent.

NOKIA-IMPORTANT -FAULTY BATTERY ALERT

NOKIA FAULTY BATTERIES

Dear Nokia Customer,

This is a product advisory for the Nokia-branded BL-5C battery manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006. This product advisory does not apply to any other Nokia battery.

Nokia has identified that in very rare cases the affected batteries could potentially experience over heating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge. Nokia is working closely with relevant local authorities to investigate this situation.

Nokia has several suppliers for BL-5C batteries that have collectively produced more than 300 million BL-5C batteries. This advisory applies only to the 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006. There have been approximately 100 incidents of over heating reported globally. No serious injuries or property damage have been reported.

Consumers with a BL-5C battery subject to this advisory should note that all of the approximately 100 incidents have occurred while charging the battery. According to Nokia's knowledge this issue does not affect any other use of the mobile device. Concerned consumers may want to monitor a mobile device while charging that contains a BL-5C battery subject to this product advisory.

While the occurrence in the BL-5C batteries produced by Matsushita in the time-period specified is very rare, for consumers wishing to do so, Nokia and Matsushita offer to replace any BL-5C battery subject to this product advisory.

The BL-5C batteries which are subject to the product advisory were used with the following Nokia models or separately as accessories:

Nokia 1100, Nokia 1100c, Nokia 1101, Nokia 1108, Nokia 1110, Nokia 1112, Nokia 1255, Nokia 1315, Nokia 1600, Nokia 2112, Nokia 2118, Nokia 2255, Nokia 2272, Nokia 2275, Nokia 2300, Nokia 2300c, Nokia 2310, Nokia 2355, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2610, Nokia 2610b, Nokia 2626, Nokia 3100, Nokia 3105, Nokia 3120, Nokia 3125, Nokia 6030, Nokia 6085, Nokia 6086, Nokia 6108, Nokia 6175i, Nokia 6178i, Nokia 6230, Nokia 6230i, Nokia 6270, Nokia 6600, Nokia 6620, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6631, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6682, Nokia 6820, Nokia 6822, Nokia 7610, Nokia N70, Nokia N71, Nokia N72, Nokia N91, Nokia E50, Nokia E60

“Nokia” and “BL-5C” are printed on the front of the battery. On the back of the battery, the Nokia mark appears at the top, and the battery identification number (consisting of 26 characters) is found at the bottom.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK..

PRAYER PIN HEADS

Convicted forger A. Schiller was serving his time in Sing Sing prison in the late 1800s when guards found him dead in his cell. On his body they found seven regular straight pins whose heads measured the typical 47/1000ths of an inch or1.17 millimeters in diameter. Under 500 magnification it was found that the tiny etchings seen on the heads of the pins were the words to The Lord's Prayer, which is 65 words and 254 letters long. Of the seven pins, six were silver and one was gold - the gold pin's prayer was flawless and a true masterpiece. Schiller had spent the last 25 years of his life creating the pins, using a tool too small to be seen by the naked eye. It is estimated that it took 1,863 sepatate carving strokes to make it. Schiller went blind because of his artwork.

INTERESTING

1.Starfish don't have brains. (its a star!)

2.If coloring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green .(not a green cola!)

3.There are more chickens than people in the world(millions and millions!)

4.No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.(so, what!)

5.In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture of white paint and a little thinner is
used in place of the milk.(when they finish the preparation for the shoot, it is curd!,thats why!)

ULLU MATH BANANA !

When the bananas failed to produce the desired effect, police fed Sheikh Mohsin rice, chicken and local bread.

Finally the necklace, which appeared on an X-ray taken on the suspect, was excreted and retrieved.

Mr Mohsin will appear in court on Monday in the eastern city of Calcutta, and could face a prison sentence.

Police say he snatched a gold necklace worth £550 ($1,100) from a woman as she shopped for toys on Saturday.

When cornered by police, he swallowed the necklace.

The suspect was fed 50 bananas on doctor's advice, after the X-ray dealt a blow to his denials.

But only after a further meal did he yield the necklace, Calcutta police deputy commissioner Gyanwant Singh told AFP news agency.

A sweeper was paid to retrieve the exhibit from the toilet. Mr Mohsin was asked to wash it.

source: BBC South Asia

HOW OUR BRAIN READS.

PASHUPATINATH TEMPLES

There are TWO Pashupatinath temples in the world.One is in Nepal-everyone know this,another,Ashtamukhi Pashupatinath Temple in Madhya Pradesh(Mandsuar District).The Priests of Nepal Pashupatinath Temple were traditionally appointed from the South of Vindhyachal.

The unique feature of this temple is that only four priests can touch the idol. The priests are always from south India. This tradition is supposed to have started by Sage Shankaracharya in sixth century, ostensibly to stop human sacrifice which was prevalent in that temple.

The more official view of Indian priests being stationed at Pashupatinath is because when the King passes away, the entire Nepali people are supposed to stop religious services and enter a year long period of mourning. As the Pashupatinath needs to be eternally worshipped, Indians were brought to make sure that the Pashupatinath is worshipped even at the time of official mourning.

Brahamanism is strictly practiced by them.Eastern Indian Brahmins take Fish/egg in their meals,Nepali Brahmins(not all brahmins) take fish/eggs/mutton for granted.Tamil Nadu Brahmins adher to the Vedas and never shed their sweat to earn.Most of them are educators, priests,engineers and scientists.

As Brahmanism spread to South from the North,purity is maintained now only in the Southern part of India.Flexibility of Hinduism entered into the practice in the North & Eastern parts.

Tamil Language traveled to Sri lanka and Singapore from TamilNadu,now it exists there in its pure original form.

Buddhism originated from India and now retain its charm in the South-Eastern and North-Eastern Asian Countries.

I think you got the moral of this post.Everything looses its charm in its locality!

ANACONDA JOB

What do you think about your job?






Did you compared your job with of these men!

Vanilla-product of an Orchid

RAMAMANGALAM, 35 kilometres from Kochi, is a sleepy village. But here is being scripted a success story, in a quiet, unobtrusive manner. Where vanilla is there is the smell of money. Ramamangalam is today perhaps the only village in the country where vanilla, the aromatic cash crop, is being cultivated in an organised, scientific manner. More interestingly, it was the first village in the country to be chosen as a model village by the Spices Board for cultivating vanilla, way back in 1991. And ever since, the farmers of this remote village have strived to achieve success.
"Initially, there were only 14 farmers when we decided to cultivate vanilla on an experimental basis, this after a lot of persuasion by the Spices Board officials," reveals K.V. Mathai, a retired banker and secretary of All Kerala Association for Vanilla Cultivation and Marketing, Ramamangalam.
In fact, Ramamangalam was chosen as a model village purely by chance. T. K. Kesavan, the then Assistant Director of Spices Board's Muvattupuzha office, was looking for a village to try out this cash crop. As many of his attempts to find a willing group of farmers and a village literally found no takers, Rajesh, one of his subordinates, requested him to approach the villagers of Ramamangalam, a fertile place situated on the banks of the Muvattupuzha river. This he did and was successful to find a group of willing farmers.
Since they began this cultivation nearly 12 years ago, none of them had any sort of basic idea about vanilla. They were armed only with limited information, that provided by the Spices Board officials. But, despite several such impediments, all the 14 farmers were willing to undertake this experiment on their own plots of land. They were blessed with boundless energy and bountiful enthusiasm, which helped them to tides over all sorts of problems in the initial years. The results were truly rewarding and gratifying. It was an affirmation of their belief that Nature never betrayed those who had a genuine concern for it.

Kerala, from time immemorial, has laid out a red carpet to various types of cash crops. And, even though due to many reasons, some of those cash crops have from time to time shattered the dreams of farmers across the State, vanilla has been a success story, at least so far.
Today, this cash crop has brought fortune to the simple villagers of Ramamangalam. This otherwise nondescript village now has almost 500 farmers, the highest in the country, who are fully immersed in this cultivation. The village is also the highest producer and supplier of natural vanilla in India. Of the annual production, which is around 200 tonnes, Ramamangalam's share is a mind-boggling 120 tonnes.
When in 1991, Ramamangalam decided to step into the world of vanilla cultivation, the farmers were quite unsure of its future. The main worrying factor was that they had to wait for long three years for the plant to flower. To top it all, the artificial pollination had to be done by the farmers themselves. Then in 1994, when the first crop was ready, the farmers faced another hurdle. They had no clear idea about the marketing of the crop. This led them to an essence extraction company, at Kadayiruppu, where the authorities, after a lot of persuasion, decided to accept the crop for Rs. 100 per kilogram. But the next year, the company refused to buy the crop, stating that the crop did not command a good price in the international market.
This spurred the farmers to learn how to process raw vanilla bean. They then sold it to traders from Kumily, who in turn packed the dried vanilla bean in single packets and sold it to the foreign tourists who often stopped at Kumily en route to the famous Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. That year the farmers sold the processed bean to these traders at Rs, 1,600 per kilogram.
Credit for initiating the villagers, who earlier had a bitter experience in dealing with cash crops like rubber and cocoa, should go to the late V.P.Chacko, former president of the Ramamangalam panchayath. Mr. Chacko, a retired schoolteacher, was one of the 14 villagers who volunteered to experiment with this new cash crop.

When the going seemed to be getting a bit complicated by the day, the villagers formed a collective in 1995. Christened the All Kerala Association for Vanilla Cultivation and Marketing, it has today 150 members with representation from across the State. They also bring out a very educative, bilingual booklet on vanilla regularly.
In the beginning the farmers tried this crop in their multiple crop farmlands. Only two hectares of land was earmarked exclusively for vanilla. The success and popularity of this magic crop has forced the farmers to convert nearly 500 hectares, across the country, for this crop. In Kerala alone, Vanilla is grown in 200 hectares of land, with Ramamangalam alone setting apart 75 hectares for vanilla cultivation. Apart from Kerala, many other States like Gujarat, Karnataka,Tamil Nadu and Tripura have also started vanilla farming in a big way.
The future of Vanilla is truly fascinating, since, of the total global consumption only 20 per cent is natural Vanilla and the rest is synthetic. And with the application of Vanilla in clinical treatments like aroma therapy and increased use in confectionary and beverages, the future of vanilla holds good
For the vanilla farmers of Ramamangalam, the big break came in 1996 when AVT McCormick offered to accept raw vanilla bean at Rs. 500 per kilogram. It was a great reward and a morale booster for the villagers who had put their hart and soul into this venture. Today, with the vanilla green bean commanding a steady four-figure price per kilogram, the cash boxes of these enterprising farmers of Ramamangalam have started ringing. And, initially, if the farmers had to approach the buyers with a fervent appeal to accept their yield, today the story has taken a turn-around with all the buyers reaching this remote village twice a week to grab the harvest. In fact, it has the highest concentration of Vanilla farmers in the entire State, perhaps even the country. And for a one-day seminar held recently here more than 500 delegates participated, which was ample proof of the growing enthusiasm among the vanilla farmers.

EVERYONE IS A CROREPATI IN THIS VILLAGE

There’s always been talk of the trickle down effect of India’s economic boom. But few would have reckoned that a trickle gushing into a village near Delhi would have inundated it with crorepatis — more than a thousand of them. Two years ago, Radadhana in Sonepat district, about 50 km northwest of Delhi was a paddy-growing village where bullock carts jostled for space on its dusty tracks. The tracks are still dusty, but now Skodas, Hondas, Endeavours and other SUVs jostle for parking space on them. The homes made of bricks fired at the local kiln are gone, replaced with hurriedly made and often garishly painted three-storey mansions fitted with ACs. Gone are men lolling about in kurta-pyjamas in the off-harvest months. Now sharply dressed people strut around in branded jeans. Seeing the demand jump, store-owners in Sonepat, about 15 minutes away, have let out space for showrooms to well-known clothing brands. What happened isn’t hard to see, although the magnitude of change is mindboggling. Farm-dependent families, even with holdings as large as 10 acres, on an average made a profit of a lakh at the end of each annual paddy season. But then Delhi property prices soared. The zameen here didn’t yield sona, the land itself turned to gold, thanks to the Midas touch of realtors. When developers first approached villagers in early 2005, fat offers started at about Rs 20 lakh per acre. "Money started raining on the village. A person who had never seen a bundle of Rs 1 lakh, suddenly earned Rs 50 lakh," says Suresh Saroha, a government official from this village. Then land prices started galloping and an acre of land went for more than Rs 1.40 crore in Radadhana, which is tucked barely two km off GT Road. "The total land of the village is 2,800 acres of which about 2,000 acres have been acquired by builders at an average rate of Rs 50 lakh per acre. The village has a population of 7,000 grouped in about 1,400 families. Barring some 200 families of backward classes who are landless, every family must have a net worth of over Rs 1 crore," says sarpanch Manoj Saroha, doing a quick back-of-a-postage stamp calculation. What has this windfall done to villagers? "We are yet to come to terms with the effects of this deluge of hard cash," says Sanjay, a man in his mid-thirties. The villagers get VIP treatment at stores in the area. "Radadhana has become a brand name. Wherever we go, we are treated specially. The mere mention of the village’s name is enough to give a jolt to the attendant," he says. (source-Times of India)

ABOUT TEA

The discovery of Tea is as amazing as the consumption of it worldwide.Some believe that it was discovered by the Buddhist monks who traveled in to China to preach Buddhism,they consumed tea decoction to keep them awaken all through the tough journey and preaching.Another story speaks about a Chinese Emperor who accidentally discovered the properties of these leaves when some of it fell in to the boiling waters for his bath(I don't know, why it always falls in to boiling water,like it happened with the discovery of Silk!).Anyway, the Tea Ritual of Japanese is worth considering,elaborate tea ritual for spiritual,physical wellbeing is practised by the japanese.(zen practice.)
Some earn by tasting tea,they are professionals who identify and classify tea as per the taste and flavour.The Tea Tasters Academy in Coonoor in the Nilgiris offers training for new entrants.
imagine sitting in a picturesque place sipping and tasting Tea and be paid for it ,is it not amazing. But it is not as easy as we think..years of experience can only make a Tea taster.

SEVEN WONDERS.

UNESCO is the world authority on these heritage sites.Now some people decided to steal the show.Why should we decide some as seven wonders and leave other heritages as of less importance.I can't understand this! There can be only one Taj Mahal in the world.It is as important to us as the Statue of Liberty is to Americans.We cannot compare one monument with the other.Anyway it was decided and the media published it.These are the seven new world wonders.

1) The Taj Mahal

2) The Great Wall of China

3) The statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro

4) The Incan ruins of Machu Picchu

5) The ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico

6) The pink ruins of Petra in Jordan

7) The Coliseum in Rome

SIVAJI-The Boss

TWISTER !

FACE OFF !

SUPER STAR!

FAN TASTIC!

A world without WHEELS

Did you noticed,the important and topmost invention of mankind THE WHEEL is slowly disappearing.Now we can generate elecricity without the wheel using solar panels,LCD panel digital watches can show time without it,without rotating or moving parts we can listen to music nowadays ,hard disk to memory chips,think...! take notice you will find more.But the transportation is solely dependent on wheels until we have slug cars,yes Magnetic Levitation Trains are there!We are about to complete the full circle,wheel less -wheel-wheel less.Till now wheel is the topmost invention in all mechanical applications.Nature itself goes on cycles,from Atom to Universe everything moves on cycles.Indian logic also derived the idea of re-birth/reincarnation from it.Water cycle is a good example from nature.Hello! Iam in need of your comments so that i can improve this blog with more eyeopeners.I am trying to post original materials and photos which are relevant and useful to the readers.

Precious Dzi stones

Centuries ago, Tibetan monks began searching Buddhist symbols from a strongly banded black Onyx/agate stone in the distance of the Himalayas . They firmly believed that the strong positive energy can ONLY be found in Strongly Banded Onyx or Agate stone because they believed that mysterious energy exists in there because they are harder and last longer than rocks which have millions of years of "life" close to "eternity". Stones were shaped when they chanted blessings over them. Magic happened: Patterns emerged while the stone was polished. Circles and swirls appeared as if their praying and blessing rewarded. These stone beads were handed over around the far reach of this isolated country. Legends began to circulate far away from the monasteries who produced them. Locals believed that these amazing "eyes" were thrown down from heaven to give protect to their land and livings, add energy to its owner to keep away from physical disasters and bring GOOD KARMA.

SURROGATE SPIDERS

Mud dauber wasps are often seen at the edge of mud puddles collecting mud to construct their tublar nests. Organpipe mud dauber nests are partitioned off with mud and each cell is provisioned with several paralyzed spiders and implanted with an egg. After eggs hatch, larvae feed on captured spiders with larvae maturing in about three weeks. Larvae spin a cocoon and overwinter. Males may guard the nest while the female forages. Mud cells may be constructed in deserted nests of the black and yellow mud dauber.
Female black and yellow mud daubers paralyze spiders, pack them into the cell with their head until full, lay one egg and seal the cell. Larvae are pale yellowish about 3/4 inch long when fully grown. Pupation occurs within a cocoon inside the cell. There are two broods with hibernation in the cocoon. Female blue mud daubers take over a mud nest, open a cell by moistening the clay with water and emptying it of spiders and the other wasp egg. They then deposit their own paralyzed spiders, lay their own egg and seal over the cell. Hosts are mostly black widow spiders.
Solitary wasps (mud daubers) are very different than the social wasps (hornets, yellowjackets and paper wasps). There is no worker caste and the queens must care for their own young. Mud dauber wasp queens use their sting to paralyze their prey (spiders) rather than to defend their nests. These wasps are non-aggressive and rarely sting unless touched or caught in clothing. (source:Ohio University fact sheet)

INSPIRED BY THE NATURE

The hook-loop fastener was invented in 1941 by Georges de Mestral, a Swiss engineer. The idea came to him after he took a close look at the Burdock seeds(like the kuroh of sikkim) which kept sticking to his clothes and his dog's fur on their daily walk in the Alps, during the summer. He examined their condition and saw the possibility of binding two materials reversibly in a simple fashion. He developed the hook and loop fastener and submitted his idea for patent in 1951. De Mestral named his invention "VELCRO" after the French words velours, meaning 'velvet', and crochet, or 'hook'. The uses and applications of the product are numerous. Today, the VELCRO mark is the subject of more than 300 trademark registrations in over 160 countries.Silent velcro is a new innovation of the american army research labs .The old velcro makes noise which is undesirable in a combat/ secret missions.

AMBER GRIS

People from the coasts of New Zealand to Andaman know about it. It’s a fortune, if they stumble upon it. A solid, some times greasy material which floats in the sea and reaches the shore. It’s a whale vomit, only from a Sperm Whale.This is used in the perfume industry as fixative.Some consider it as tonic or aphrodisiac.A man got four Kilos (It was Rs.ONE Lakh per Kilo in the 80s)of this in my village,but he was a drunkard..he got cheated by a trader,he got only 20000Rs.

Later he bought a bicycle,four buffalos and built a small house,ie. another story! I saw a SpermWhale drifted to the shore one fine day, but it was dead .The Wild life Department Personnels came to give a decent burial to the whale,it was an himalayan task! with two Elephants deputed for this mammoth work,taking the whale of a time.unable to lift.The dead mammal was stuck to the sands.This indecent burial with sand dumped over it started giving out the bad smell around for a long while..

BALL LIGHTNING

Lightning & thunders threaten human beings, our instinct towards
natural threats are ingrained in our psyche, since our ancestors lived
in caves and jungles. This one is more sophisticated form of
lightning. Normally it is believed that lightning doesn’t enter
closed rooms, but ball lightning is of different genre. It can enter a
closed room, can pass through a glass pane or wall. Some people from
North Sikkim had an encounter with this kind of lightning, I heard that
an Infant had severe burns due to this, when the ball hovered over
the sleeping child and disappeared suddenly. Scientists world over
unable to come to a conclusion about the origin of this ball
Lightning. Some say it is caused due to nuclear
Fussion/fission, because of the charged atmosphere during a cloudy
rainy day.-PONDER WONDER!

YOU CANT BE SCEPTICAL

Can you predict the name of your wife long before the marriage, how many children will you have? What you will you do for a living? etc.Some believe, answers to these questions can be found through Naadi Astrology .It is popular in Tamil nadu as Brighu Samhita of the North India. Ancient Rishis(Sage Agasthya) wrote treatise on every human occupants of this blue planet. Not only this but also the date/age at which a person will consult these predictions. When I went to Annamalai University I heard about it and want to give it a try (even though I don’t believe in Astrology or any such things).Vaitheeswaran Koil(the temple village)is nearby and I took a bus to reach there.They ask ten questions about you,turning the Thaad Patris one by one,to find out which one matches with your details, may be they are using some sort of deductive method. Later the person (trained in guru sishya mode)went to get the Right Thaad Patri .My quest was to know how they predict.The result Ajooba –Achamba !!!!! I don’t recommend this, but if it is time, you will be pulled towards these kind of Astrology,as they say.

Now let us look at the other side of it..These predictions may act like auto suggestions in our mind ,the more we have faith the more it happens as they said.Its OK about the future,but how he found that I was born in an island! AJOOBA.

MONETARY CONFINEMENT

I met a person on board the ship MV Nicobar to Andamans.While talking to him he casually mentioned that he is going to Andamans in search of a job,and he is from West Bengal.Later he told me that he earliar went to Hong Kong for the same,but didn"t got any suitable job there.He served a sentence for six months in a HongKong jail for a fight with a local Citizen.He continued saying that it was an intentional fight , he recieved later about 18000 Rs. equivelent of HongKong money for every month he served in the jail,which is a good money! I wondered the mans idea of earning money.I never ever heard such an idea for earning money,but he told me that a good number of Bangaladeshis are doing this in HongKong.They try to shoplift or beatup some one on the street to get punished. Its ACHAMBA!

JAPANESE RUPEE-not Yen

Japan occupied some parts of Burma(British colony)and Andaman Islands during the Second World War,they minted currency notes for local use in Burma and in the Islands,.ie.in the denominations of 1, 5 and 10.Here you see the ONE RUPEE, yes Rupee ! note.Japanese Government ..One Rupee Note ..ajooba or achamba..Incredible India !

OLD IS GOLD-nappi & kinema.fermented food

Shrimps(boosi jinga) are delicacy in the south Asia.It is eaten cooked,dried and even fermented.Yes, fermented .Shrimps are mashed into a paste and buried for several months. The fermented shrimp are then dug up, in some countries ,fried and hard-pressed into cakes. While all shrimp paste has a notoriously pungent aroma,(like the KINEMA) that of higher grades is generally milder. Shrimp paste is used differently in different Asian cultures and can vary in smell, texture and saltiness. In Andaman the Karen people of Burma origin ,make this and we call it NAPPI.People use it as a Thadka(seasoning) for anything from vegetable to dhal.Fermented food is part of our culture wherever we live.How people learned it? AJOOBA

BLOOD THIRSTY FEMALES

Its AJOOBA(wonder)and ACHAMBA(wonder in nepali) to know that only the female Mosquitoes suck blood from our body and spread diseases.It reminds me of a lesson which we studied in class XI"Female are deadlier than Male".They need the proteins found in animal and human blood to reproduce. The males, on the other hand, get their nourishment from plant nectars.You may ask why Iam writing only about PARASITES.wait the next one will be on food.

TONGUE TWISTER:I Live in the Sea inside her mouth

I bought a kilo of Tharini-fish from the fisherman,while cutting (washing)the fishes I saw something strange..a crawling insect like thing coming out of the mouth of a fish,I felt like throwing all the fish,but as I use to remove the whole head(normally we dont eat the head of small fishes)i continued my work ,unable to understand this..After a month I read some where about the exact thing ,may be in the"Believe it or Not".Now the mystery revealed and it was ACHAMBA THE AJOOBA.This alien as a baby enters into the fish,stays in its mouth,grows,eats out the tongue of the host and replaces the tongue and lives happily forever sucking the blood of the host,working as the tongue.The fish bechara host ka maara. I didn't missed the chance to click a snap next time when I encountered this parasite.