A Summer Afternoon!

Hi Guys,

It was boring in the afternoon, due to the usual power shedding. I was hearing songs from my iPod and unusually I was not interested in listening to the songs. So, I just took my camera and went to the garden in the hope of snapping a squirrel.  I tried to capture them in the camera, by throwing some biscuits. They were not willing to give me a pose. They took a piece of biscuit and as soon as they saw me, they raced away.

Anyway I got some good images and will be sharing with you.

House fly in the cloth lane!

A small custard apple that fell of the tree. Mom was complaining that lot of fruits were falling down very early.

Starting stage of a Custard Apple

An abandoned Spider web

A Dragon fly. I never expected to see this one. It was very patient. It never flew away from the spot.

A Closer Look of the Dragon fly

A crow and a Squirrel searching for food.

The link for the web album is Summer- Picasa Web Album

Happy Viewing!!!

Earth Day Special!

Hi Guys,

I am suffering from cold due to the sudden climate change. Hence I was unable to write about the climate change on World Earth Day (22-4-11) and about my favourite books on World Book Day (23-4-11), which I thought of earlier. Anyway, I decided to write about Earth Day, even though it is over.

This year, we celebrated the 41st Earth Day on April 22. Introduced in 1970, in the United States, Earth Day is intended to create awareness about Earth’s natural environment.

Missing Sparrows

I was alone in my home on the Earth Day, as my parents had gone to attend a function. I woke up by around 7 am and as I woke up, I realized I was having a sore throat. After drinking a cup of self-made bitter coffee, I opened the front door to pick the newspaper. To my surprise there were two house sparrows in the veranda. They were equally surprised and flew out swiftly. It has been sometime since I saw sparrows around my home.

During my childhood days (some 10 years ago), there used to be sparrows all around. House Sparrows are tiny attractive birds. I still remember waking up in the morning and seeing sparrows sitting on the window grills. It used to be wonderful sight. I used to wait for my school bus outside and flock of sparrows used to sit on the road eating the grains spilled by Lorries carrying bags of rice from the nearby rice mill.

Mobile Phone towers are said to be a main cause for vanishing sparrows. These days it is even difficult to spot a sparrow in a village. Lot of articles have been written in the magazines about the decrease in the strength of House Sparrows.

Sudden Climate Change

There has been a sudden climate change in the past few days here. It doesn’t look like summer season with the temperatures wavering around 30 degree Celsius. Usually there will be summer rains, due to the intense heat. But this one is different as the rains are due to change in the sea conditions.

Looking back at the past few years, we can say many accounts of changing climate or extreme climates. Clearly, the reason behind all the climate change is the dangerous Global Warming.

Earth Day 2011

This year’s Earth Day was concentrated on the theme ‘A Billion Acts of Green’. Lot of ideas are provided in the Earth Day website about how we can reduce emissions, increase oxygen levels and decrease global warming. Viewers were asked to take pledges and top pledges were

• Eat more Local Food
• I will bring my own reusable shopping bags to the store
• Switch off the tap while brushing

Visit the Website http://www.earthday.org/ to know more about the Earth Day.

Happy Reading!!!

Power Shedding - An integral part of life in Tamil Nadu!

Hi Guys,

I was reading the post Horrible Power cuts that I wrote just about a year ago (24-4-10). It seems the situation was much better then, than how it is now. These days there are nearly 3-4 power cuts each day. One announced 3 hour power shedding and many other surprise power cuts. The total amount of power shedding sums up to nearly 4 hours per day.

Government is taking no steps for improving the situation. Power cuts have become an integral part of life in Tamil Nadu. The duration of power shedding has been constantly increasing over the years. In the recent election manifestos, both the leading parties of the state announced a big list of freebies. The astonishing list included Grinder, Laptop, free land and many other things (I can’t remember). But neither of the parties promised to improve the state of power in the state. Did they fail to remember about the power shedding, as there is no power shedding in Chennai. It is another mystery, why they are not willing to carry out power shedding in Chennai.

As I read the previous post I wrote on Power cuts, I remembered about the Koodankulam Nuclear Project. Does anybody know what happened to the project? I have not seen any media coverage about the project these days. Earlier, they used to write about it, at least giving a clue of the state of the project. Is it still being constructed? Hope the project is still going on.

Earlier there used to be media coverage about the issue. Newspapers and magazines used to publish articles criticizing the government for taking no efforts and would make some suggestions to the government for improving the situation. These days they don’t even care about it (one reason maybe that both people and government didn’t even care about it).

It is such a shock to see that no one is opposing the increased power shedding for over a year or so. One plausible reason is that they have started to accept it and believes that nothing can be done to improve the state of power.

Wake Up, People!

Happy Reading!!!

Lessons I learnt Blogging!

Hi Guys,

This is my 100^th post and it’s really amazing that I have written 99 posts before this. It all started as a fun and now blogging has become an integral part of my life.

Early Days

I started this blog during the early days of my third semester. I already wrote the history of my blog during the blog’s first birthday. After I started my blog, I was not sure about what to write. I was just writing for the sake of posting something. If you look at my earlier posts, I would have written a lot about cricket and nothing else. There were nearly nil readers and it was maddening. Some of my classmates really helped then. They would read all the things I write and they cherished my efforts. I learnt the lesson – Everything appears simple, but nothing is easy. Consistent hard work and dedication is needed. 

Turning Point

Three months passed so and the thought of quitting the blog was slowly getting into me. I didn’t write for 3 weeks and suddenly some funny incidences that took place around me inspired me to write Animal Week. That night, my brother called me and he was very happy with what I wrote. He said it was too different from my previous posts and it was very captivating, despite the mistakes I had in my writing (he still does correct my mistakes and thanks for helping me bro). That night, he spoke with me for an hour about the post and how it could be improved and at the end of the conversation, there was a new spark inside me. So, I learnt the lesson – Never Give Up. You can never succeed without failing a few times.

Concentrating on Other Things

Another 5-6 months passed so. I was getting feedbacks from my brother and friends. But other than that there were not many readers. I started refining the appearance of my blog. I added my blog to many blog directories. I started following others and they started to follow me. The number of visitors started increasing day by day. Also reading other blogs meant that I learnt a lot from them. The lesson I learnt this time – You always need help from others to survive, no matter how strong you are.

Spreading Information

Around my blog’s first birthday, I came to know about the working of Nitrous Oxide boosters and wrote about it after some research. It was widely welcomed and it is one of the most popular posts till now. During the monsoon season, there was flood in the Vaigai River and the river was flooding after nearly 10 years. I decided to write on that and it was an instant success. All the visitors were native people of the city, but now residing outside the city. Some of the posts about much-admired movies were also instant hits and they continue to remain at the top of the most read posts. Lesson – Write about things people wish to know. They visit expecting new things.

So, I am writing my 100^th post today. Thanks for all your support and keep supporting.

Happy Reading!!!

IPL Jerseys!

Hi Guys,

A few days back IPL 4 started and after a superb world cup, it is definitely hard for the IPL to make an impact. For most of the matches, the stadiums were only half filled. High ticket prices are also a reason. The jerseys are most of the teams are irritating and so I will write about the jerseys.

Delhi Dare Devils

Their earlier Black-Red was good; Dark Blue-Red was nice. This time, they have lost most of their players and with newer players, they have got new sponsors. Their jersey is shocking, with Dark Blue color and white curves all over the jersey. It is as if the jersey is covered with nets. The team sponsor has got a major portion. The jersey seems as bad as their new team.

Kochi Tuskers Kerela

This is one of the most comic jerseys of the IPL. I think Kochi’s idea might be to scare their opponents by using their jersey. Full of orange and shades of Violet. Whoever designed this jersey must have got a very creative brain. 

Sahara Pune Warriors

Not a bad jersey, but something is missing. It is more like the jersey is copied from the Kiwis. The sponsor’s logo does not suit the jersey. There are places when the logo is too bright compared to the jersey. The jersey is dull and lacks energy.

Other Teams

Their Black-Gold jersey (they wore in IPL-1) was one of the best jerseys of IPL. It is sad they changed it to Dark Blue-Gold. 

Of the other teams, RCB looks good, thought they were superb without the blue stripes.

CSK looks as usual, blazing in their yellow jersey with lion roaring.

Mumbai Indians also look as good as ever with the blue jersey. So does Rajasthan Royals and Punjab.

Deccan Chargers also haven’t changed their jersey, though they could have done something to create an energetic look.

Bleeding Blue

It is also interesting to note that, 5 teams are wearing different shades of blue. Many teams changed from black to blue. I think, sentimentally blue is considered to be a lucky color. Not only in cricket, but in most of the sports, the jerseys will be blue in color.

Popup Ads

Seeing the jerseys, there are lot of sponsor logos all over. They are like Pop up advertisements. Logos are present above thigh, over the chest, on the back, above the sidearm, in the helmet. My doubt is, how to leading brands expect people to see such a small logo.

Happy Reading!!!

After Rain!!!

Hi Guys,

There was an unexpected shower in the early hours today. The climate was cool when I woke up and then the sun came out as usual. I went around my garden and took some photos of the effect of rain. Here, I share some of the photos.

Water accumulated in the floor.

I noticed some ants sticking to the wall. They were not moving, but were carrying some white identical object. It must be the ant egg. Ants are said to predict rain and they carry their eggs before the rain.

Water sticking to the leaves!

A close up view!

Water sticking to the buds!

Drops about to fall

View the complete Picasa web album here.

Happy Viewing!!!

Suport Anna Hazare!!!

Hi Guys,

The past few days have been very eventful as 72 year old Anna Hazare started the fight against corruption in India. His demand was to setup a Lokpal (ombudsmen*) to deal with the corruption in Government offices. He started fasting on 5-4-11 and ended it on 9-4-11 after our Government promised to set a committee headed by our finance minister that will draft an effective Lokpal bill. But, in my point of view I doubt that it won’t be formed soon.

Looking back at last 60 years, the corruption levels has been reaching new highs. We are bribed everywhere. If you have to finish a work in any public department or office, then you have to give bribe. This has agitated the people so much. This was the main reason why many youngsters and even school children supported Mr Hazare. It’s heartening to see the support.

So, who is Mr Hazare? Fighting against corruption is not the only battle that Anna Hazare has taken part. He has been at the Indian army for 15 years, after the Indo-China war in 1962. He then retired from army at the age of 39 and returned back to his village, Ralegaon Siddhi a drought prone village in Maharashtra. There he grouped the people to from organizations for getting water.

He then wanted to remove alcoholism from his village, as he thought if there is no alcohol, then the economy would improve. He along with the youths forced the owners to shut down the liquor shops and then people who continued to drink were punished for the sake of their family. 

As years passed, Anna Hazare continued to improve the village by implementing watershed management, promoting milk production, enriching people by education and removing untouchability. As a result, Ralegaon Siddhi became a model village and Mr Hazare was awarded Padma shri in 1990 and Padma Bhusan in 1992.

His fight against corruption began in the initial 90’s and continues till now. His battle has been accepted widely by the public. Though government accuses him of false charges and arrests him sometimes, people are in his support. His battle has led to the resigning of some corrupt cabinet ministers in the past. He was also influential in forming the ‘Right to Information Act’ which was implemented at Mumbai in 2003.

He was awarded World Bank's 2008 Jit Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service. World Bank’s award committee said, ‘Hazare created a thriving model village in Ralegan Siddhi, in the impoverished Ahmednagar region of Maharashtra state, and championed the right to information and the fight against corruption’.

It’s great that we are having a person like him in our country. The good thing is people have started supporting him and if this grows with time, we can believe India will become a better country in future.

Let us support the great man!!!

*Ombudsmen – It is a Swedish word. It refers to a intermediate person who acts a mediator between the person and the public servant. It is becoming famous in organizations worldwide.

Happy Reading!!!

Things that crossed my way!

Hi Guys,

It’s nearly 10 days since I wrote my last post. I was busy with my internal exams and also was engrossed in World cup cricket matches.

Cricket Celebrations

It was an unforgettable Saturday. A day that will be etched in all our minds. A day when the dream came true. The celebrations following the win were also memorable. There were crackers and fireworks all around. The newspapers celebrated the victory with so much of enthusiasm. It was then that all the state governments started to announce crores of prize money to the cricketers. The question that came to my mind was ‘Do the cricketers really need it?’ They are already earning crores in IPL and moreover the money they earn in ads is unbelievable. Comparing with them, the prize money is so small. But the money belongs to the people. Think, how much can be done with this money. So, what I feel the money is going to be wasted ultimately.

Elections – A week ahead

We are getting our state assembly elections in a week and I’m really delighted since it is going to be the first time, I’m going to take part in one of the country’s pride – Democracy. It is also really heartening to see that all my classmates are looking forward to cast their vote. So, people who say that young people don’t care about the elections, please change your mind.

Election Commission has been really strict in following the rules and as a result, we don’t even feel like we are nearing elections. There are no banners, no pamphlets, no flags, etc. It is really incredible.

The Shining – Stanley Kubrick (1980)

Two days ago, I watched this horrific thriller movie. Based on Stephen King’s novel named the same, this movie deals with a family who stays in a hotel at Denver during the winter season as caretaker. Everything goes fine, before Jack Nicholson turns crazy and starts to hunt his wife Shelley Duvall and little son Danny. Do they survive it?

The poster says it all

The background music is really scary and it is the biggest plus of the movie. Even you get scared for ordinary scenes. The acting of the trio is also remarkable. Particularly the little boy captures the viewer's heart. To be true, this was the first time I have been so haunted seeing a horror movie.

Manufacturing of Pencils

I came across this wonderful video in youtube. It is a video if Staedtler’s pencil manufacturing. A pencil is simple in its appearance. See this video to know the things behind the manufacturing of pencil.

That’s it for now!!!

Happy Reading!!!