Do you know?

 1) Carbohydrates in food are our body’s main source of energy.

They are plentiful in sweet things and in starchy food such as bread, cakes and potatoes.

Carbohydrates are burned by our body to keep it warm and to provide energy for growth and muscle movement, as well as to maintain basic body processes.

The average adult needs 2000 to 4000 calories of carbohydrates a day.

2) Space suits protect astronauts when they go outside their spacecraft. The suits are also called EMUs(Extra-Vehicular Mobility Units).

3) Dogs have far superior hearing than human, capable of hearing sounds at four times the distance.

4) An elephant’s brain weighs four times as much as the human brain. However our brains are far bigger in relation to our bodies than those of any other animal.

5) Lions cubs are looked after by several females until they are big enough to fend for themselves.

6) Sharks do not have a single bone in their bodies. Instead they have a skeleton made up of cartilage, the same type of tough, flexible tissue that makes up human ears and noses.

7) A leopard’s tail is as long as its entire body. This helps it with balance and enables it to make sharp turns quickly.

8) Green fruits help make your bones and teeth strong.

9) Dark green vegetables contain more vitamin C than light green vegetables.

10) Whales support many different types of life. Several creatures, such as barnacles and sea lice, attach themselves to the skin of whales and live there.

11) The cabbage encloses nearly as much water as the watermelon. Watermelons contain 92% water whereas cabbages have 90% and carrots 87%.

12) Only one planet rotates clockwise and that’s Venus.

13) Hornbills lay just one egg a year.

14) The biggest bear is Alaskan brown bear, which grows to 2.7m in height and weighs up to 770kg.

15) The sun bear of Southeast Asia is the only tropical bear. It is the smallest bear and a very good climber.

16) Somalia is the only African country in which the entire population speaks the same language, Somali.

Folktale

 THE MIRROR

A humorous Korean Folktale

Long ago, a young farmer married the daughter of a wealthy family.

One day, he was called away to a far city to conduct important business.

“What may I bring you?” he asked his wife.

“A comb,” she replied at once, thinking how lovely it would look in her long black hair.

As soon as she had said this, however, the young woman became sad.

She knew that her husband was most forgetful.

How could he possibly remember to buy her a comb?

Then she looked up and saw that the new Moon had risen high in the night sky.

Its silvery crescent was exactly the shape of the comb she wanted.

“Look there, Husband,” she said. “If you forget what I asked for, you must look up at the Moon. The curve of its crescent will remind you of my comb.”

The young man promised to remember.

Once in the great city, the farmer found that his business dealings were more complicated than he had imagined.

Many days passed before at last he could think about returning home.

Just as his wife had feared, he had forgotten about her gift.

Then he looked up and saw that the full Moon had risen high in the night sky.

Its shining sphere recalled his wife’s request.

“I am to bring her something shaped like the Moon,” the young man thought. “What is it?”

The poor fellow racked his brain, but it was hopeless.

He simply could not remember.

Finally, in desperation, he decided to go to a nearby shop. Thinking that perhaps the shopkeeper could help, he explained, “I am to buy a gift for my wife that looks like the Moon.”

Although the shopkeeper thought this odd, he began to search his shop.

At last he held up a hand mirror and exclaimed triumphantly, “Here! This must be what she wants. It’s round and silver, just like the Moon.”

The young farmer had never seen a mirror before, because they were most rare.

But since his wife was from a rich family, she would undoubtedly know what it was, and so he made his purchase.

No sooner had the farmer arrived home than his wife asked for her gift.

Imagine her surprise when instead of a comb, he handed her this unusual object.

Looking into the mirror’s smooth, shiny glass, she was further astonished to see the face of a lovely young woman.

“What is this, Husband?” she cried. “I ask for a comb, and instead you bring home a pretty girl!” 

In a fit of anger, the young woman ran to her mother.

“See here, Mother!” she said. “My husband hasn’t brought me a comb at all, only a strange young girl.”

Her mother snatched the mirror and gazed into it.

“Why, Daughter, that’s not a girl. It’s a wrinkled old woman.” She, of course, was looking at her own reflection.

At that, the wife began to insist that she saw a pretty young girl.

The mother was equally firm in her belief that she saw an old woman.

The two began quarrelling loudly.

Hearing the commotion, the farmer’s young son hurried over, a bowl of rice in his hand.

The child picked up the mirror and looked curiously at the glass.

What should he see but a strange boy holding his bowl of rice.

Letting out a wail, the child demanded that the stranger return the rice at once.

“Give it back!” he shouted.

A neighbor, likewise hearing the noise, rushed over.

“Show me the bully who has stolen your rice,” the old man said, “and I will take care of him.”

He peered into the mirror, only to see an angry grandfather staring back.

“Why, you terrible old man! Taking food from a child!”

And the neighbour pushed back his sleeve, preparing to deliver a mighty blow. 

He had no sooner raised his fist than the mirror slipped from his hand and fell to the floor, shattering into a hundred bits of glass.

Article

 Influence of companions in life

Our companions play a very important role in our lives.

They also shape our character and personality.

It is said that we become the average of the five people we choose to stay with.

Therefore, the selection of our companions or associates has to be done very carefully and consciously.

In the great epic Ramayana, there is a story that demonstrates the effect of our associates on us.

When king Dasharath announced the crowning of Ram as the next king, queen Kaikeyi was equally happy as she loved Ram as much as she loved her own son Bharat.

But later, Manthara, her maid, poisoned her thoughts.

 She told Kaikeyi that she should make use of the boon that Dasarath had granted her.

She should stop him from crowning Ram as the king, so that her own son could be the next king.

Kaikeyi asked Dasarath to grant her the boon and asked him to crown Bharat as King and send Ram away on exile for 14 years. 

This shows how our associates can influence our decisions and thinking.

The people we associate with even determine our relations with others. Just as Manthara’s association separated Kaikeyi from her loved ones and brought her down in the eyes of her near and dear ones, we too can become a victim of bad association.

The separation of Kaikeyi from Rama also symbolises that when we decide to let bad advice control us, we get separated from God and goodness.

In Mahabharata, we see that the Pandavas triumph in the war whereas the Kauravas got defeated.

This is because of Kuru’s association with Shakuni. While the Pandavas chose Lord Krishna as their advisor, the Kauravas had Shakuni as their associate.

 In the battle of life, whether we emerge as the winner or loser, whether we become successful or not is determined by whether we choose Lord Krishna (goodness) or Shakuni (ignorance) as our leading example.

Karna is another personality in the Mahabharata.

He was the son of the Sun God.

He had astonishing capabilities, but became a villain in everyone’s eyes just because of his association with Duryodhana.

He used his powers for Duryodhana and he let himself be controlled by Duryodhana’s negativity.

Another personality is Ashwathama, the son of Drona (the teacher of the Pandavas and the Kauravas).

He too chose to be with Duryodhana and directed his powers in the wrong direction.

Such is the influence of our companions on us.

Therefore, we need to be careful while choosing our friends.

We cannot avoid negative people around us.

Kaikeyi too couldn’t avoid Manthara, but she should have ignored her words and provocations!

As the famous saying goes, “A ship does not sink because of the water around it, but because of the water that gets into it.”

Likewise, even if we are around negative people, if we let ourselves get controlled by their negativity, then it can harm us.

So, even if we are around negative people, we should make ourselves strong enough to stay unaffected.

Good association can make our lives so much better and positive.

 

Great personality

 

                       Sardar Patel --- Iron man of India

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel

31 Oct 1875 ~ 15 Dec 1950

He was born at Nadiad in Gujarat.

He was married at age 16, matriculated at 22 and passed district pleader’s examination to practice law.

After his wife's demise in 1909, he travelled to London in 1910 to study and enhance his career as a lawyer.

Returning to India in 1913, he rose to be a leading barrister in criminal law at Ahmedabad.

He was noted for his chivalry, westernised clothes & championship in bridge at the elite Gujarat Club.

In 1917, his life, lifestyle and appearance changed with influence of Gandhi.

He quit Gujarat Club, dressed in simple white clothing and began to eat with his hands.

From 1917 to 1924 he served as first Indian municipal commissioner of Ahmedabad and was elected municipal president from 1924 to 1928.

In 1918, he led mass campaigns of peasants, farmers & landowners of Kaira, Gujarat, against decision to collect full annual revenue taxes despite crop failures caused by heavy rains.

In 1928 he led landowners of Bardoli in resistance against increased taxes.

His efficient leadership of Bardoli campaign earned him the title Sardar.

Like Gandhi, he emphasised need to foster Indian self-reliance and self-confidence.

He disagreed with Nehru on adapting socialist ideas to Indian social and economic structure.

His belief in free enterprise gained him trust of conservative elements that helped with collecting funds for activities of Indian National Congress.

During 1930 Salt Satyagraha he served 3 months imprisonment.

In 1931 he presided over Karachi session of the INC. He was imprisoned in January 1932.

Released in July 1934, he marshaled the organisation.

He was imprisoned again in October 1940, released in August 1941 and imprisoned once more from August 1942 until June 1945.

After independence, he was deputy prime minister, minister of home affairs, minister of information and minister of states.

His enduring achievement was integration of princely Indian states into Indian Union & political unification of India.

He was intensely loyal to Gandhi.

He was the last to privately talk with Gandhi, who was assassinated just minutes after his departure.

Within two months of Gandhi's death, he suffered a major heart attack, which he attributed to grief of demise of his mentor

His health declined rapidly through summer of 1950.

After suffering a massive heart attack (his second), he died on 15 December at Birla House in Mumbai.

He was posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna in 1991.

From 2014 his birthday is celebrated as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas.

He was called Iron man of India for the following incident in his life. This incident was narrated by him in an interview given by him to a magazine.

“Sturdiness has been a part and parcel of my life. Physically, I fast twice a month. In those two long days of fasting, I refrain from food and water. Even at the psychological level, I prefer to live this robustness. I remember, during my childhood, once a boil erupted under my armpit. In those days, for such treatments people used to visit a particular person, who heated an iron rod and put it on the boil. When I visited the man for the same, he averted since I was too young. However, I insisted to do it quickly before the rod turns cold. Finally, when that person could not muster courage, without waiting for him, I did the treatment myself.”

Statue of unity

NO ONE IS USELESS

 No One Is Useless

Once there was a man who did not make it to university.

His mother got him a wife.

After the wedding, he worked as a teacher in a primary school.

Due to the lack of experience, he was squashed by the students in less than a week.

When he returned home, his wife dried his tears. She comforted him with these words.

“You should not be too sad about it. Probably there is a more suitable job waiting for you out there.”

It was in his thirties that he became a counsellor in a

school for the deaf and mute.

Later on, he opened a school for the disabled.

A few years later, he set up a chain of stores in different cities and provinces, selling apparatus and equipment for the disabled.

He became a multi-millionaire.

One day he asked his wife, “When I was looking bleak at my own future, what’s the reason that you had so much faith in me?”

His wife gave him a simple reply. She said, “When a piece of land is not suitable for planting wheat, we could try planting beans. If the beans are not growing well, we could try planting fruits or gourds. If the vegetation is not economical, we can instead scatter buckwheat seeds. These seeds will one day bloom into flowers. On this land itself, there will be at least one seed that will germinate and grow.”

 

We must never lose hope in our life.

WORKING WITH SINCERITY

 Working with sincerity

A traveller once visited a temple that was still being constructed.

He had come from abroad, so he was curious about the activity there.

He saw a sculptor sculpting an idol of God.

This was something that he had never seen before, so he went closer to the sculptor.

He noticed a similar idol lying nearby and, not understanding why there was another one, he asked the sculptor, “Are you doing this as you need two similar idols?”

“No,” said the sculptor, continuing his work. “We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage.

”The gentleman examined the one discarded and found no apparent damage.

“What is the issue ?” he asked.

“The nose of the idol has a minor flaw” replied the sculptor, while continuing his work.

The gentleman asked where it was to be installed.

The sculptor replied that it was to be installed on a pillar twenty feet high.

“As it is so far away, who will notice?” the gentleman asked.

Stopping his work, the sculptor looked up at the gentleman, smiled, and said, “I know it and my Creator knows it!”

Working for oneself with sincerity is the best way to pursue anything, be it a hobby or a profession.

 

Festivals

 

Bhau beej / Bhai dooj

Diwali festivities end with Bhau beej or Bhai Dooj; the day when sisters pray for long & happy lives of their brothers. Bhai Dooj is also called as Yama Dwitiya or Bhai Tika. Brothers and sisters share their love for each other with an Aarti, meal and gifts. This is the second day of Shukla Paksha of Kartik month.

There are two main stories behind celebrating Bhau beej / Bhai dooj

1) The first one is, the God of Death, Yama Dev visited his sister Yami (Yamuna river) who was overjoyed and welcomed Him by performing Aarti and Tika ceremony. Moved by Yami's affection and love, He declared any brother who would visit his sister, and receive Aarti/Tilak on this day should not fear death.

2) Another popular belief is that Shri Krishna (after demon Narakasura's death) returned victoriously and visited His sister Subhadra on the second day of Kartik month. Subhadra, who was overjoyed upon seeing her brother, welcomed Him by performing the Aarti ceremony and applying Tika. She had showered Shri Krishna with flowers and then offered Him sweets. Sisters perform similar traditional ceremonies, even today.