The Mayan is a civilisation that existed many years ago. They were good at astronomy and their calculation of the lunar cycle was very accurate. Thus it is beleived that their prediction that the earth will come to an end on 21st december 2012 will also be true. Moreover many other facts also leads us to beleive that the earth may end in 2012. Some of them are the sun storms which are destroying satellites, the date of armageddon predicted in the bible etc. Einstein has said that human life will end four years from the time the honeybees have gone from this earth. As the honeybees population is now decreasing it is estimated that the earth will end by 2012. The Mayan were people who considered science and religion alike. They used lot of arithmetic calculation for their rituals. And thus a study of all their calculation shows that they were people with more knowledge about the universe and the various constellations etc in olden times. What ever may be the predictions, the rate at which the modern civilisation is using up the natural resources it is not very far for the world to end.
The Somnathpur Temple
The somnathpur temple is one of the beautiful sites that I visited. This temple is the only temple Where pooja is not performed to the deities. There is a calmness and peacefulness in the temple, and it gives us also mental peace. The architecture of this temple is Hoysala architecture. The temple lies near the river Kauveri. It is a small village in Karnataka. Though it takes a long time to reach there, once you are inside the temple premises you no longer want to come away from there. The pillars and the vihara of the temple are beautifully designed. We could sit there the whole day admiring the sculptures, and the designs on the ceiling. It makes you wonder how people were able to do such wonderful works witout much of the machinery that is available today. Many movies have been shot there. Only after visiting the place I understood that a place of worship should be like that, filled with tranquility and divinity. The whole temple stands on a raised platform shaped like a star, and there are three sanctums inside. The carvings on the ceilings are wonderful, and the sculptors responsible for this great work are truly people with remarkable skill. Only when you see it for yourself you will be able to appreciate the work of the chisel and hammer of these historic sculptors.
The Unpredictable Price Of Gold
From times immemorial women seem to have possessed a facination for the yellow metal. Though today’s modern girls are not so interested in gold jewels still the craze for gold has not subsided. For a common man possessing a few grams of gold was a great feeling. And in Tamilnadu , people have the custom of giving gold jewels to the bride. But in the recent past due to the unstability of the dollar value, and many other reasons the price of gold seems to be increasing in leaps and bounds. Every day it was inceasing by 25 to 50 rupees. Now atlast it has come to somewhere around 1578 rupees per gram. Neither the rich nor the poor are affected by this price, because the rich can always afford it, and the poor are not bothered as they don’t buy it. The people in the middle class are the most affected, especially those who have to buy jewellery for the marriage of their daughter have to spend much more than their budjet due to this price hike. As long as people do not change their attitude towards jewellery, they have to also face consequences of this gold price.
Spoon Feeding
Today’s children face a lot more stress, than their previous generations. One reason for this is their parents are well educated. These parents want their wards to perform well in all the fields. This attitude makes them sit with their children and teach them everything. We find many parents taking one month leave because his or her child is appearing for the board exam. The children are not allowed to think of their own. The parents spoon feed all the answers, essays, letters everything. The child has to simply learn the given material byheart and reproduce it on the exam paper. After growing in this manner, the child is not able to think, or act on his own even after reaching 12th standard or college. He is dependent on his parents for even filling up a simple application form or writing a leave letter. Such youth are of no use to a growing nation. So parents should realise this and should stop imposing their ideas on their children and they should give the freedom for the children to learn things and grow on their own. Indirectly we are only training our children to be good clerks. They will not be good leaders. Thus every parent educated or not should realise this and bring up their children with lots of confidence and general knowledge which will help them in the long run.
Concept Of Husband And Wife
In India the concept of marriage has been that the man is the head of the house, and the woman is the child bearer. So for many years woman have lived with this attitude always serving the men of the house be it their father, husband or son. But with woman getting educated and working in posts equal to men, this attitude is slowly changing and they want equal rights in all fields. So like the western countries they want their husband to share their work load in cooking, looking after the children, cleaning etc. Though most of today’s youth are very understanding and help one another, still the boy after having seen the way his father was treating his mother or his grandfather starts behaving in a similar way after some years of marriage. This is the cause of many family problems. The girl after having got used to the boy helping her all the time now feels that he has changed , and so starts complaining or thinks that he is not interested in her any more. So to stop the failure in many marriages the boys should understand that his wife is of a different generation and when he wants her to dress up like western girls he should also behave like a western man sharing all her loads. Only then there will be happy marriages and happy families.
Birds
A bird can precisely be described as feathered biped. Birds, being warm blooded vertebrates, have a body temperature that is more or less independent of external temperature. Moreover, they have non conducting feathers coated throughout their body to maintain a constant temperature. Feathers also play a role in controlling their flight and are an important means for their identification. Their strength lies hidden in their well-built breastbones and muscles; those though possess air cavities, yet are strong enough to enable them to cross even ocean barriers during migration. This is enhanced by their spindle shaped body and tail acting as radars.Their senses of sight and hearing are so well developed that their eye sight can be changed from that of a telescopic view to that of a microscope in a fraction of seconds. Their nesting habits blend with their aviation habits so that their eggs and young ones always remain protected. Being voracious eaters of insects, nuts and seeds, caterpillars, mice, debris and what not, they form an inevitable link of food webs. Quite often, they carry out clean-ups in our yards. About 8600 species of birds are known to exist in the whole world, with India having the most diverse fauna of birds.
Attitude Determines Success
Our achievements in life are never the gifts of fate and luck but of the attitude we show towards the problems we face. No one ever lived a perfect life on earth and never will. Biographies of all our great men vividly expose the impact be optimistic in life.
The best example can be cited from the life story of Stephen Hawking, the great British Physicist who came up with the theory of Big Bang and predicts that universe will end up as a huge black hole.
He suffers from a rare and incurable disabling disease, Amylotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The disease was diagnosed in his early twenties. He soon recovered from the initial shock to realize that nothing could dampen his spirits. He pursued his studies in Oxford and moved to Cambridge for his Ph.D. his disintegrating health was never an obstacle in his inspiring journey to the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, once held by Sir Isaac Newton. He keeps himself busy with seminars, meetings and conferences. He even penned books on his findings and theories that hit the market as best-sellers. The software, Equalizer, developed by Walt Woltosz is what helps him communicate with the world. His life story has turned out to be an unequalled example of what indomitable human spirit can achieve in spite of discouraging handicaps.
Some Post-Copenhagen Thoughts
Copenhagen Summit on global climate changes stripped open the arrogance and negligence of the developed countries on the issue. Developing countries too, on the other hand, are constrained from adopting massive cut-downs in their CO2 expulsion as it may entail economic and social insecurity on them.
Some of the predictable outcomes of uncontrolled CO2 expulsion and global warming can be listed as drastic and dramatic changes in the rhythm of winds and climate thereafter, loss of ecological balance, death of rivers and glaciers that may force man to engage in warfare for water in future and rise in sea level, sinking islands and low lands thus bringing an end to the life in those lands.
In this scenario, it is high time to realize that each and every man on earth can have his own contributions towards reduction in per capita CO2 expulsion and in turn, reduction in global warming. All that one has to do is to be cautious about one’s activities that might add up to the green house gases and the aftermath it is going to create.Increasing efficiency of fuels and machines reduces wastage and pollution. Aforestation has to be attended to with immense significance as food scarcity has reached our doorsteps.CO2 sequestration and fixation in increased biomass achieved through aforestation is another practical solution to the problem.
Sleep- Something You Can’t Miss Out
Sleep is the boon of nature to all living beings to relax and revive. It is something inevitable for the normal functioning of mind and body.However, enchanting stories of relentless efforts leading to triumph make parents force their children into long stretches of sleepless nights in an urge to achieve excellence. The greedy parents deliberately forget the stress it poses on the mind and body of their kids. Ironically, the extra effort that these children put in at the cost of their sleep mostly turns out to be counter-productive.
Apart from this, the trend among today’s adolescent is to stay awaken late night and wake up late, for which it is not the stress of studies but the fantasy worlds exposed by television and late-night parties to be blamed.This change in patterns of sleep has enforced radical effects in their life style and routine. A number of studies are being conducted world wide on adolescent sleep needs and patterns which indeed holds some relevance in present day society. Deprival of sleep leads to behavioral problems and deteriorating performance in studies which has been found to eventually result in depression and increased rate of adolescent suicide. Changes in hormonal balance and inability to metabolize glucose can be counted only as a tip of an ice-berg. Sleepless nights gift you with lethargy, perplexed thoughts and inability to control emotions.