HAPPY NUT

 Pistachio

The pistachio (Pistacia vera) is a flowering nut tree with a long and illustrious history dating back to 7000 B.C. A unique feature of pistachio nut is that as it ripens and outgrows its shell, the shell splits open, giving it the appearance of a smiling face 🌝. For this reason, the Chinese refer to the pistachio as the 'happy nut'.

Originally a native of Asia Minor and Syria, the pistachio travelled from Syria to Italy in the first century A.D. and from there, spread throughout the Mediterranean region. Because the nuts were nutritious and did not spoil easily, they were a favourite with early explorers and traders, and were frequently carried by travellers along the ancient Silk Road connecting China with the West. 

In the mid-19th century, the pistachio reached the United States. Today, Iran is the world’s leading pistachio producer, followed by the USA, Turkey and Syria. 

The pistachio tree is a broad, bushy one that grows to a height of 20-30 feet. The fruits grow in clusters like grapes. The edible portion, which we know as the nut, is the seed. When the fruit ripens, the shell turns from green to yellow or red and splits partly open, with an audible pop. The pistachio's semi-split shell, which at the same time serves as a convenient form of packaging. 

The pistachio is also one of the two nuts specifically mentioned in the Bible. This is in Genesis chapter 43, verse 11, when Jacob instructs his sons to take back some of the best products of Canaan to Egypt. 

Since ancient times, the pistachio has been used by various cultures as a culinary ingredient. Its delicate sweetness makes it ideal for desserts 🍨 and pastries 🍰. 

In the Middle East, it is used to make baklava, a rich, sweet pastry of Turkish origin that is filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with honey 🍯. Further it is a key ingredient of pilafs and other rice dishes. 

In India, the pistachio is an integral part of the diet, especially in the winter months in Northern India. It is used to make numerous popular drinks and desserts such as kesar pista sharbat and pista kulfi. It is grated and used to garnish sweets such as rasmalai and burfi as well as desserts like pista ice-cream. 

INDIA'S FIRST FEMALE IAS OFFICER

Anna Rajam Malhotra

The distinction of being India’s first female IAS officer belongs to Anna Rajam Malhotra (1927–2018), a feisty woman who broke many barriers and held her own in a man’s world, earning respect in official circles for her efficiency and dedication in the course of a long and distinguished career. She served as a role model for future generations, inspiring countless women to take up the challenge of the civil service, after her.

Anna Rajam George was born on July 17, 1927 as the second of five children of Anna Paul and O. A. George, an educated progressive-minded couple hailing from Pathanamthitta district in south Kerala. A few years later, the family moved to Calicut, where George set up a small publishing business.

After completing her schooling and graduation in Calicut, Anna moved to Madras (now Chennai) to do her Masters in English literature from the Presidency College. She then worked briefly as a clerk at the AG’s office in Madras. In 1950, she decided to attempt the Indian Civil Service examination, and cleared the written round. Next came the interview, conducted by a distinguished board consisting of four ICS officers, headed by the UPSC chairman. They tried to dissuade her from joining the IAS, suggesting that she opt for the foreign service or central services instead, as these were “more suitable for women”. But Anna was determined not to be fobbed off with easier options. She convincingly argued her case and entered the IAS in 1951, choosing the Madras cadre. 

During the rigorous IAS training, Anna neither got nor expected any concessions as a woman, but performed all the exercises her male counterparts did, including shooting and horseriding. Anna’s next challenge came when she joined duty, reporting to the Chief Minister of Madras, S. Rajagopalachari (known as Rajaji). Rajaji, who was opposed to the idea of women entering public service, did not want to give the new recruit a field posting, as he believed that she would be unable to handle law and order issues. He offered her a post in the Secretariat instead. Once again Anna refused to back down and argued that she was as good as any man, pleading for a chance to prove herself. Eventually, she was posted as Sub-Collector of Hosur district. This proved to be an eventful posting, filled with challenges that gave her ample scope to prove her mettle –including encounters with wild elephants and smugglers. As promised, the young SubCollector handled everything competently, prompting the same Rajaji to subsequently change his stand and praise her publicly as an example of progressive women. 

After the adventurous stint in Hosur, Anna was posted back to Madras, where she went onto work under seven chief ministers over the years. Subsequently she was transferred to the central government and held key positions in the revenue, finance, agriculture, and education and culture ministries. At each stage, she had to fight ingrained gender bias from male colleagues and the public. But her indefatigable will - helped her to meet every challenge. Nothing – not even illness – could keep her down. 

The story goes that as Additional Secretary for Agriculture under PM Indira Gandhi and a key figure in the Green Revolution, she accompanied the PM on an 8-state tour to review food production, despite being hampered by a fractured ankle. She also worked with Rajiv Gandhi on the Asian Games project in 1982.

Even as Anna was conquering new frontiers in her career, a romance was steadily brewing with her batch-mate, the brilliant IAS officer, Ram Narain Malhotra(who later became governor of the Reserve Bank of India). But this was the 1960’s, and both knew that the ultra-conservative society of the time would not take kindly to the union of a Punjabi Hindu and a Malayali Christian. So they waited – await that was to last a quarter of a century. It was only in 1977, when Malhotra after completing all family responsibilities and was working as the executive director of the IMF in Washington D.C., that they got married. Anna was then 50 years old. However, she had no regrets, telling friends that getting such an extraordinarily humane and good-hearted life partner had been “worth the wait”. 

In 1985, Anna was given the charge of the Nhava Sheva Port Trust located in Navi Mumbai’s Raigad District. It was a very tough assignment, but Anna fought all odds to complete it before time in May 1989. Today known as the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), it is India’s first and largest fully computerised container port. In recognition of her sterling achievements, Anna Malhotra was awarded the country’s third highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan, in 1989. Her husband, R. N. Malhotra, also received the same award the following year. Even after retirement, Anna did not settle down to rest, but took up a challenging assignment –that of director of the Leela group of hotels, overseeing its many projects – that kept her as busy as before. This remarkable woman passed away on September 18, 2018, at the age of 91.

NEVER STOP LEARNING

Learning till Death

After having been sentenced to death, Socrates, Greek philosopher, was languishing in prison. 

One day he heard a fellow prisoner singing a beautiful lyric. Socrates went to him and asked the prisoner to teach him that lyric. The prisoner was surprised and asked Socrates why he, who had been sentenced to death, wanted to learn that song.

Socrates replied, "I will be happy if I could learn one thing more before I die!"

It is said, "Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching". 

American author Brian Herbert once said, "The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice". 

The human being is very much a social person, and learning always happens, either directly or indirectly in interaction with other people.

Learning is the ability to do something better. And it is a life-long process.

As children, we are sent to schools and colleges to learn. 

"Why learn?", you may ask. 

We learn because it equips us with all that is needed to make our dreams come true. It transforms us into good human beings and better citizens. Remember the saying, "If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you."

WORDS WORTH READING

God and You 

☆ When you pray for others, God listens to you and blesses them, and sometimes, when you are safe and happy, remember that someone has prayed for you. 

☆ Prayer is not a "spare wheel" that you pull out when in trouble, but it is a "steering wheel" that directs the right path throughout. 

☆ Just as car's windshield is large and the rear view mirror is small, our past is not as important as our future. Look head and move on.

☆ Friendship is like a book. It takes few seconds to burn but it takes years to write.

☆ All things in life are temporary. If going well, enjoy them; they will not last forever. If going wrong, don’t worry; they can't last either. 

☆Old friends are gold! New friends are diamonds! If you get the diamond, don't forget the gold! Because to hold a diamond, you always need a base of gold!

☆ Often when we lose hope and think this is the  end, God smiles from above and says, "Relax dear, it’s just a bend, not the end!

☆ When God solves your problems, you have faith in his abilities; when God doesn't solve your problems, He has faith in your abilities. 

☆ Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles; it takes away today's peace. 

VACCINATION

The First Vaccine

In the 1790s, English doctor Edward Jenner was looking for a cure for a terrible disease called smallpox. Back then, no one knew about viruses. But many people had noticed that dairy workers, who milked the cows, almost never got smallpox. They did often catch a mild disease, called cowpox, from the cows. Jenner wondered, could the cowpox somehow be protecting them? 

To test his idea, Jenner collected some cowpox pus from a cow. He rubbed a tiny bit into a scratch on the hand of his gardener’s 8-year-old son. The boy got a slight fever, but that was all. Then came the real test. Jenner injected the boy with live smallpox germs. The boy did not get sick at all. It worked!

The idea of protecting patients by letting them catch a (hopefully) mild case of a disease had been around since ancient times. It was risky—some patients got very sick. But Jenner had found a new twist. A de-activated germ could protect just as well, and with less danger. He called this technique “vaccination,” from the Latin word for cow, vacca. Today, with the help of Jenner’s vaccine and others, smallpox has vanished from the world.

DO YOU KNOW

 Why should you change engine oil?

Engines are designed to allow oil to enter into areas around the piston and valves. As you continue driving your vehicle, the oil in your engine eventually wears out, breaks down and becomes contaminated. As this happens it becomes less and less effective at absorbing heat and lubricating the important parts in your engine. Running your vehicle with dirty oil causes its parts to begin to grind together. This causes damage, creates noise and allows heat to build up. When you begin to notice the colour of the oil getting darker, freshen it up. General recommendation for an oil change is every 5,000-8,000 kilometres.

MYSTERIES OF THE WORLD

 Giant stone balls of Costa Rica 

They vary in size from as small as a tennis ball up to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons. Almost all of them are made of a hard, igneous stone not local to the region.

Deep in the jungles of Costa Rica, back in the 1940s, workmen clearing dense jungle for a United Fruit Company banana plantation were amazed to find dozens of large stone ball-shaped objects, many of them perfectly spherical.

The stones are believed to have been carved between 200 BC and 1500 A.D. Most stones are no longer in their original locations. The culture of the people who made them, disappeared after the Spanish conquest.

Numerous myths surround the stones, such as they came from Atlantis, or that they were made as such by nature. Some local legends state that the native inhabitants had access to a potion able to soften the rock.The spheres are perfect, or very near perfect in roundness. How did primitive people with crude tools manage to sculpt huge artifacts like these with such great precision, and why? The giant stone balls of Costa Rica remain a mystery.