LAST TRIP TO INDIRAPURAM

I have come to Leena’s house at Indirapuram, on the fifth floor , Exotica East..I had stayed several years here and began blogging. I used to roam about in the country side where there is a river and small barrage. In the season, I used to buy mangoes . There is a vegetable market where all sorts of rare items , not available in the city , are available.

This house has open space in the east side and I used to see the sun rising . In the moonlit nights , myself and my wife would walk around the several blocks of houses in Exotica.

There is a Hanuman temple a little away where we used to pray.

Leena ad family are leaving for Australia on Sunday next and I may not be able to see them for a long time

TO AUSTRALIA

TO AUSTRALIA
My daughter Leena and her family had applied for migration to Australia , long ago. All formalities have been completed and they now got the visa.
The house in Noida and the costly furniture , have to be disposed off, which will take time. Once they are settled there , We will visit that strange continent of Kangaroos.
But the distance is too much. Now we can see them in a matter of hours.
Our close relative is settled there. Ravi’s relations are also there So they will not feel isolated.
I wish them all success!

EXCITING DISCOVERY OF A FOSSIL

Australia is a strange continent, with a number of animals, not found anywhere else.
Now, the fossil of an animal, anomalocaris, a soft-bodied marine beast, more than half a billion years old, has been discovered. A startling feature of this animal is that its eye, about three centimeters across, has 16,000 lenses, enabling the predator an accurate vision for locating its preys!
It was found in Kangaroo island in south Australia.

FICTION-HELPLESS WOMAN

I came out to take the newspaper. Who is this woman, lying on the steps,, apparently asleep?
I called my wife. She was furious and shouted at her: “Who are you? Go away.”
‘Amma, I am hungry; have not eaten for two days.”
I pleaded that we give her something to eat.
So she brought some rice and curry, left over from last night. She ate it in a hurry and was about to leave. I told her to wait.
We hurriedly consulted among ourselves. We were unable to get any maid and I thought it right to try her. If we find it OK, well and good; or else, we fire her.
“Did you not notice she is pregnant?. Who will look after the children?”
“I shall put her salary in the bank.”
Reluctantly, she agreed. It will be a great relief to my wife, harassed with domestic duties and her work in the office also; so she agreed.
The woman silently went about working, cleaning dishes, washing cloths, looking after the children going to school etc. We had an outhouse, which was given to her.
We did not learn much about her. She was reluctant to speak.
In due course, she delivered twins, both boys, very cute and fair, unlike the mother, who was dark as coal. I suspected that she had been cheated by some wealthy man, or by her employer.
I engaged a woman to help her, but soon she was working as before, unmindful of my wife’s caution. She worked in other houses too, to enhance her earanings.
The boys, whom I named Lav and Kush, were bright in their studies. Kush was good in sports as well and earned scholarship money as well.
We suddenly shifted to Australia, to be with my son Ashok, who was running an educational institute. I found life there very pleasing. As a retired teacher, I could find work easily. People were friendly and cultured. It was difficult to believe that they are the descendants of criminals.
The climate is harsh and dust is every where. Inside the hose it was very clean. As usual, my wife did the house keeping.
I was curious about the Kangaroos. God’s ways are strange. This animal carries the baby in a pouch attached to its belly!

Australia is a continent, with mountains, rivers, deserts and sea shores. Every Sunday we used to go out.
My wife began pestering me, about our son’s marriage.
“He may marry some native lady; why interfere in his affairs?”
“Oh, no.” She said.
Ultimately I gave in and Ashk agreed to come with us.
At Madras airport, we were received by Lav and our daughter Nidhi, who had become slim and tall. We were returning after several years and could hardy recognize her, with her modern dress and manners! She introduced a “friend,” and my wife was visibly upset. But Lav winked, to indicate silence. He lives in Madras, in his own flat.
“Where is Kush?”
“He is in the hospital for a check up. Doctors are unable to give any opinion. He has become very weak.”
“Shall we go there, right now?”
“OK”
It was shocking. His body very emaciated and there was a strange look in his eyes.
That night we started for Thiruvanthapuram and reached home by morning.
Where is our house? Instead we found a huge mansion with several bed rooms. They had deliberately kept it a secret from us; all by Lav, who seems to have a roaring business in Madras.
His mother lay prostrate in front of my wife and touched her feet. She began to cry.
“All by your blessing! If you had driven me away, on that fateful day, we would have been beggars…”

HUNG PARLIAMENT- ‘text/javascript’ src=’

Democracy presupposes bipartisan model, with a small number of independents or small parties which have only a vocal role, with no teeth to bite with.
Recent elections in England and Australia have demolished this system. Next month, elections are due in Bihar. Only a miracle can produce clear majority.
In India, the President can invite any one (even a non-member of the legislature) to form a government and he gets six months to prove his majority. This provision in our Constitution has been misused by the ruling party, to hoist its nominee as Chief Minister or Prime Minister of India.
I suggest that these posts be chosen by election by secret ballot.

EAST AND WEST, NORTH AND SOUTH<a href='http://www.blogsurfer.us/

There is always a contrast not only between the West and the East, but also between the North and the South.

The Northern hemisphere is rich; the South poor. North America wanted to abolish slavery, the South opposed it.

In India, Northerners hate the Madrasis and we heartily reciprocate the sentiment.  When it is cold winter for us, it is hot in South America and Australia.

Gujarat in the West is extremely conservative, very industrious and people united.

In the East, people are politically revolutionary, quarrelsome and very advanced in literature, culture and philosophy. Gujarat could not produce a Tagore or a J.C Bose.We do not have a single Advani in Bengal. Americans are capitalists; Communism is in Asia onlly.

All great religions like Budhism, Christianity and Mohammedanism were born in the East. Karl Marx was born in the Wet. up in the West.

Take any subject: East AND WEST ARE ALWAYS POLES APART!

WORLD POPULATION, TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND NOW=’text/javascript’ src=

Figures of world population has been taken from Wikipedia (1999) and Thomas Milner’s book “Physical Geography” written more than two hundred years ago

As on 1999         As per Milner’s book
Asia               3.8 billion          320million
Africa            840 million       70million
Europe          710million        170million
North America 514million    45million
South America371million
Australia        21million            20million (Oceanica)
TOTAL           6 billion              620million

620,00,00,000 to 60000000,00,00,000
From a mere 620 million, it has increased to 6 billion!
Unless, the United Nations takes this serious problem in all seriousness and with the utmost urgency, the world order will collapse.

IPL AUCTION – ALL FUNNY IMAGINATION

Shashi Tharoor is always in the news.

First, it was a reference to cattle class in the airlines. It made the twitters busy.

Then the word “interlocutor” made people search in the dictionary.

Now Lalit Modi wants him prosecuted. BJP WANTS HIM DISMISSED.

I think it is all “much ado about nothing”.

As I am totally unfamiliar with the sports column in newspapers, I do not understand the issues involved.

Cricket was a gentleman’s game. Only England and Australia played that game. In those days, it was the sailing ship which took six months to reach Australia and the game was played on board, to while away the time. What they brought back was “ashes”.

Things have changed a lot and now the players are auctioned like slaves in New York market, before slavery was abolished.

That gives me ideas. Why not auction our Members of Parliament?

First, I must float a company like the old “East India Company” which was a commercial enterprise in name only. Actually, they conquered the whole country.

My secret firm, with at least one crore rupees per share, will welcome all businessmen and political parties and mafia kings to buy shares. It will have a private detective force, to collect all details about those contesting elections, to estimate their price.

It will engineer splits in all parties and encourage rebel candidates, dummy candidates and also booth capturing, rigging and all such activities, now being attempted by clumsy uneducated hooligans. They will be given proper training, so that even TV reporters will not be able to smell what is going on. The aim is to produce a hung parliament, with maximum unattached individuals, where our firm can make trillions of rupees, by auctioning them. Don’t you believe it? Even CIA may offer a few billion dollars!

All profit made by our firm will be deposited safely in Swiss banks.

Keep it a top secret

CATCH-22 SITUATION FOR OBAMA

 Obama is in a catch-22 situation.

He cannot leave Afghanistan as it is, for fear of it being captured by terrorist forces.

If he strengthens his forces, it will lead to a worse tagedy. After wasting a huge sum of money, when the US is already bankrupt, shedding the blood of innocent soldiers and civilians, as was done in Vietnam, the result will be the same.

After an unwanted war against English brothers, demanding freedom for thirteen colonies in America, Briton became bankrupt. They had no money even to feed the inmates in jails. So it was decided to send them to Australia, given to the Crown by Captain Cook.

At the end of the second world war, again they were desperate to get rid of the colonies,  because the Emperor became bankrupt.

Why do we teach history, if we do not absorb the lessons from past follies?

Mahabharat war was against adharma; at the end, none remained to see dharma established.

Take it from me: war is no solution. There is no harm in talking to the Devil.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

PHILOSOPHY SHOULD LEAD SCIENCE

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

 Any high school student will tell you that leaves of plants use carbon dioxide of the atmosphere and water absorbed by the roots to make starch in the presence of sunlight for use by the cells of plants. As a layman, certain doubts arose in my mind which I discussed with senior students and a professor in university. I should confess, instead of clearing my mind, it only helped to confirm my thesis that every cell in the plant (except dead cells !) re-uses the CO₂ and H₂0 , released during respiration, for synthesizing starch. This is purely a philosophical conclusion,as I lost touch with the world of science in March 1957 after B.Sc. examination.I shall enumerate some of my points :

1)      The extremely tender, minute root tips are always growing and require continuous supply of starch.In very tall trees,the distance from top leaves to the root tips may be as much as 300 metres.There is no proper mechanism for transport of starch over such distance,unless we can locate different channels for upward movement of water and downward movement of starch in dissolved form, right from root tip to leaf tip and back. Xylem and phloem tissues are mentioned as responsible for this movement,but in trees like teak, jackwood etc all tissues inside the bark except perhaps a thin  layer of cortex, are absolutely dead and impervious to water, being filled with wood oil and compressed by the weight of the trunk. That is why we are able to make furniture,boats,ships etc with wood. Actually, the clever tree is making use of the dead cells as a skeleton-like support for its branches and leaves ,the latter being mercilessly dropped after making use of them!

2)      In Silent Valley in Kerala, I was shown a very tall tree, hollow inside, with two convenient natural holes, one at the bottom and the other at the top. We can see the sky, looking up from the bottom hole! The tree is alive. How is water and starch transported when xylem and phloem are absent?  

3)      In Australia, ring cutting was extensively resorted to, for felling trees. The bark and a small part of cortex was removed by making an eight inch deep cutting round the trunk at the bottom. After about six months, the tree falls down dead. This clearly proves that the outermost live cells are responsible for water transport.

4)      We plant rose cuttings. The cells on one end develop into a shoot and cells on the other side produce roots .Plant cells are remarkably versatile.Every cell can split and produce all chemicals required for making a duplicate cell . It is impossible to believe that a root cell will wait for starch to come from leaves, when raw materials are available as a result of its own respiration, and it has the necessary technical know-how for making even complicated proteins. Do we not re-use waste in a space station? Are we cleverer than plants?

5)      There is no way for a plant cell , except in the leaves, to get rid of CO₂ produced during respiration. When I, earlier, circulated my doubts in this regard, via email,I got only one response .The botanist had only one word-‘diffusion’ to desciribe the process. In the humans, is it enough if we just say ‘respiration’? We study all detailed mechanism in human physiology. In the same way, should we not describe the method used by plants to obtain oxygen and get rid of CO₂? The professor also said the same thing.As adjoining cells are also producing CO₂, how is diffusion possible?The area surrounding the roots will become saturated with CO₂.The root will die. The conclusion is inescapable: cells are recycling water and CO₂ produced during respiration.

6)      When mango fruits are produced in bulk during the season,the number of leaves are actually curtailed! Will farmers curtail production of food grains when it is required in bulk? Laburnum tree becomes almost yellow with flowers in the season, leaves hardly visible. How is starch produced when leaves are reduced?

7)      Bamboo, papaya tree etc are hollow,in the case of the former, there are segments,each one a waterproof compartment . Coconut tree mysteriously carries gallons of water to make toddy. If you cut the tree, not a trace of water is found. Are trees using nano technology?

8)      In my view,the main function of leaves is to pump water up for which lot of energy is required.Naturally,they make large quantities of starch which attracted the attention of botanists who hastily came to the conclusion that only leaves are concerned in this process.

9)      Maximum number of fish thrive in the deep oceans eating planktons which make starch in strata which receive practically no sunlight.

In view of the above, I feel more research is needed before we come to a firm concusion about the mechanism for production of starch and its transportation.

Today, institutions like NASA have all the technical capabilities to study this issue which should not be left to the comparatively ill equipped botanists.