Writing

Red Wattled Lapwing

I think I wrote a post on this beautiful bird long back. Its name is Red Wattled Lapwing. It gets this name from the blobs of red colored mass near its beak. In fact, this bird is very common here and if you happen to live near fields, barren lands and water bodies, you are most likely to encounter them. They are always on alert. Any preying bird or animal, is bravely and aggressively taken upon. They can be heard making alarming calls even during the night. They are said to be foraging even during moonlit nights. They lay eggs… Read More »Red Wattled Lapwing

Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla)

I first spotted this bird perched on a electric transmission wire. The area underneath was all shrubs. It was in the hot monsoon season. The bird has a very strange plumage pattern of brown and cream stripes. It’s name is Eurasian Wryneck and here it comes on migration. It belongs to the woodpecker family although it’s beak is not as large and dagger like as the other woodpeckers. It subsists on ants and insects which are found in the dead wood. It can rotate it’s neck by almost 180 degrees. When it senses danger, it makes a hissing sound. The… Read More »Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla)

Devi Lakshmi

Lakshmi means fortune. She is the wife of God Vishnu and is often called Shri. She is the goddess associated with good luck and temporal blessing. Although she is considered coexistent with Vishnu, she appeared in full glory at the churning of primeval ocean. Thus ocean is considered her father. She is usually portrayed as a woman of mature beauty, seated on a lotus, with a lotus in her hand and attended by two elephants who sprinkle water on her from their trunks. She is believed to incarnate herself as the wife of incarnation of Vishnu, thus worshiped as Sita,… Read More »Devi Lakshmi

Some snippets from childhood

I am 67 years old now and retired from the service 7 years ago. In the ample time at my disposal, the mind harks back and reel of memory rewinds on the spool of time and this time it stops at the days of my childhood. Our childhood was spent in the village called Manimajra. Nowadays it is in the Union territory of Chandigarh though at that time it was along with Chandigarh a part of Punjab. We were like most others in the village poor peasants with small landholdings. Parents were totally illiterate. In those days, nobody was serious… Read More »Some snippets from childhood

In Search of Chemist’s pure water

Chemist’s pure water which is formulated as H2O exists only in the theory. In the laboratory too, it has to be prepared from the water from the tap. The reason is its high polarity and very high dielectric constant which makes it a potent solvent. It can dissolve inorganic salts, polar organic compounds, acidic, basic and polar gases. It also carries suspended matter like clay particles in the form of colloids. Some of these are loosely suspended and separate out with time by sedimentation and other are stable and has to be destabilized by using defloucculants to settle them out. … Read More »In Search of Chemist’s pure water

Ashoka-The Great King

Ashoka-also written as Asoka and Akbar are considered as great and noble kings of the world. Ashoka belonged to the great Mauryan lineage of kings begun by his equally great grandfather Chandragupta Maurya. He succeeded to the throne in 269 B.C. Although according to Buddhist sources, Ashoka is said to have begun as a tyrant and usurped the crown by killing all his possible rivals, these may not be facts but speculations. After the war of Kalinga in the eighth year of his rule there was a complete change of heart. In his own words he accepted that 100000 men… Read More »Ashoka-The Great King

Bacteria in Oilfields

Bacteria can thrive on almost anything and adapt themselves to very diverse environments. They can subsist on substances like cellulose which we humans cannot assimilate. They can breakdown poisonous gases like hydrogen sulfide and absorb nitrogen from atmosphere and fix them into the roots of many plants which plants use as fertilizer. Bacteria can even breakdown crude oil. Crude oil consists of millions of hydrocarbons which are composed from carbon and hydrogen. These compounds range from the simplest molecule called methane made from 1 carbon atom to giant molecules containing even more than 50 carbon atoms. Many of these bacteria… Read More »Bacteria in Oilfields

Hanuman Ji

Hanumant or Hanuman is considered as the rare combination of wisdom and strength. He was loyal to the core to his Lord Rama and played a stellar role in Rama’s war against the demon Ravana who had abducted Rama’s wife Sita. In fact, many demons belonging to Ravana harassed the ascetics living in the jungles and Rama destroyed them. This enraged Ravana who to take the revenge abducted Sita coming in the guise of a ascetic coming to beg alms. While Rama and and his younger brother Lakhsman were roaming from one place to another in the jungles in search… Read More »Hanuman Ji

Devi Saraswati

She is the wife of Brahma and considered as the patron of arts, music and letters. As often in Indian mythology, She is also associated with the river of the same name which once flowed through modern Haryana of North India and is mentioned repeatedly in Vedic literature. The river is now non-existent of thought of as flowing invisibly. It is said to meets the two other great rivers Ganges and Yamuna at Prayag or Allahabad also called Sangam. But scientific evidence so far indicates that its path was from Shivalik hills through modern day Haryana and from here instead… Read More »Devi Saraswati

Mumbai Local

This is the picture of a local train at Victoria Terminus of Mumbai. These trains are the lifeline of the city bringing to and fro thousands of employees to the offices from suburbs homes. It is impossible to imagine life without these trains in this Mega city. The scene around this train is a rarity. Actually i took this picture on 26 January which is a national holiday in India and there was very less traffic on this day. These are electric trains and each train has about 700 to 900 seats. But at the peak hours there must be… Read More »Mumbai Local