Invaders In My House During My Absence!

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I noticed this insect/wasp roaming near the opening for the cylinder rack often after I came back from our tour for nearly a month.   I was telling my husband that it must be building its nest again somewhere under the cooking counter.  I was lazy to bend down and check.  I did so today and saw this! It is quite big.  It was not visible easily.  I had to put my head inside near the cylinder to check and then after seeing such a huge one, decided to click and show the world, the tiny insect's hard work!

This is not the first time it is building its nest in our house.  

Nearly a couple of months back, it had tried to build its nest here but I removed it because I was afraid the insect might cut the cable. It was on the cable which was connected to the Kent water purifier gadget.  So I removed it with a knife.  The nest was small, but a small cream coloured worm was inside, alive.  I felt bad seeing it.

Its first nest! Looks like a mud pot! The red mud must be from the flower bed! Looks beautiful with a folded edge!

The wasp! Wiki has got a clear photo here  It looks similar to our insect. I didn't see her carrying any mud in her mouth...maybe she was carrying inside her tiny mouth! How much hard work!

A close up of the insect in our house.  I haven't seen it carrying mud in its mouth anytime! The Wiki link's insect seems to be similar to this one but this nest is different and looks like a 'designer' one! She too looks beautiful!

Must be a month's hard work!

The nest in another angle!

Now, I wonder whether to leave it as it is and wait for the insect to grow up and fly away or should I remove it? It is standing/sticking on the wood.  It might spoil the wood.  Feel sorry when I saw it today.  Humans are bad! Son says let it be there for some more time and see if the worm flies away.



The inside of the nest, is here!

Unforgettable Experience With Nature!

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I was off blogging for a month.  Now, will start writing about our trip to California during the period.  Our visit to the Muir Woods was one of the best experience during our trip.  This is my son's favourite area.  He goes trekking often to this park.  The first trip he took us was to this place. It was a pleasant experience. These redwood trees have become my favourite trees now!

This Park is situated 12 miles on the north of San Francisco and is spread over 240 acres of land near the Pacific ocean.  These trees are found near the ocean bordering the coastal region of America.  They need moisture throughout the year.  The fog which forms during the winter in the ocean, spreads to the forest and keeps them damp through the summer too. 

Another link says: The average age of the coastal redwoods at Muir Woods is between 600 to 800 years, with the oldest being at least 1200 years old. This is still young for redwoods as they can live up to 2200 years. Being long-lived and large in size, they play a significant role in carbon, nutrient, and water cycling in the forest, helping to support an abundance of plant and animal life.

Wiki says:

Before the logging industry came to California, there were an estimated 2 million acres (8,000 km²) of old growth forest containing redwoods growing in a narrow strip along the coast. By the early 20th century, most of these forests had been cut down. Just north of the San Francisco Bay, one valley named Redwood Canyon remained uncut, mainly due to its relative inaccessibility.
This was noticed by U.S. Congressman William Kent He and his wife, Elizabeth Kent, purchased 611 acres (247 ha) of land from the Tamalpais Land and Water Company,  $45,000 with the goal of protecting the redwoods and the mountain above them. Read more in the link.  He named the woods in the famous naturalist's name John Muir.

Now, to my view of the forest:

The straight tall trees grow for more than 300 feet tall.  And they have very thin branches with small sized leaves. The trunks become broader through years.  It was a pleasant feeling walking in between these tree.

The old trees have got huge trunks! Click on the pictures to have a better view pl.

Pl.click on the photo to read clearly.  Interesting read.

Passages like these help even the people who come on a wheel chair to enjoy this forest/park.

New trees grow around the burnt one after forest fires, from the roots. 

The fallen old tree becomes nutrient supplements in the long run.  The whole area is damp which helps to protect the trees from drying up during summer or drought which is there now.  I read this in some link: "The importance of a tree does not diminish after it has stopped living. It is a common saying here at Muir Woods that only half the life a tree is spent standing, while the other half is spent on the ground."

The new tree coming out from the root of an old tree!

People stand here and take photographs!

I noticed many trees growing like these...in groups!

The cross section of a Redwood tree.  Very interesting information is written here! You can read the details clearly in this video.

I saw this tree near the car park which is near the entrance.  No vehicle is allowed inside.  We have to walk.  I noticed green moss on the branches.  

Since winter was nearing, birds were not to be seen.  I saw some small birds near the car park.  

There was a gift shop, a cafe, and a restroom inside the forest/park.  I think I saw cyclists inside! Read more about other details in the wiki link or this link. 

I came across another link also, which is interesting.

Hmmm...I wonder for how long this forest will survive among us, destructive humans.  Thousands of new saplings are planted here by nature lovers it seems.  Hope the tribe increases in future.  

P.S.: I looked for a reply to Destination Infinity's question.  I found this answer:

" The trees' lives are measured in centuries, not decades like other trees. Many reach 600 years of age, though some trees have been found that are as old as 2,000 years old. New trees can grow from seeds, but many sprouts grow from the stump of cut or fallen trees." (link) Google showed images of fruits too. I am not very sure of them, though.

EDITED TO ADD: (3.12.14)  Came across this interesting link now.  It explains how water reaches the top of the TALL redwood trees! Please read.  It is interesting even for me!

'Redwoods have a system of interconnected wood cells for carrying water. The hollow, short, thin cells are stacked intricately to form an incredibly tall column, extending from the roots through the branches and stems to the leaves....'

This Person Is One Of Our Country's Unsung Heroes!

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I have never heard of Kailash Satyarthi until his name was declared for this year's (2014) Nobel Peace Prize.  This media person also says so!  Instead of our government or media recognizing him, a Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized him and awarded him, the Nobel peace prize alongwith Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai. 'Satyarthi, 60, and Yousafzai, 17,  were picked for their struggle against the oppression of children and young people, and for the right of all children to education, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.'

Now, I see his face in all the news papers and news channels, day in and day out!  His name was considered for this award for the past 5 years, it seems.  Still, nobody, even Barkha, Arnab or Rajdeep, our famous news gatherers mentioned anything about him.  Satyarthi (his 'bachpan bachaao aandholan') had saved around 80,000 children from Child labours in mines, quarries and other hard places at great risk to himself.  Every teashop, match making or small provision stores engage children.  Many of them are Bihari children...sometimes parents send them out for work out of poverty or the children leave home and start working at a young  age.  Satyarthi said in an interview yesterday that parents should give respect to their children and heed what they say.  The children should be happy in their homes/with their parents.  Then they won't run away and land with greedy people. 

Satyarthi was born in 1954 at Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh.  He did his graduation (Electrical Engineer) in Vidisha and then did did his Post graduation at Bhopal.  He said in an interview that he did this to please his parents.  He became a Lecturer and worked for a few years in a college in Bhopal.  Wiki says:

n 1980, he gave up his career as a teacher and became secretary general for the Bonded Labor Liberation Front; he also founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Mission) that year. He has also been involved with the Global March Against Child Labor.

Another link says this about him.

NEW DELHI — Many years have passed, but a police chief named Amitabh Thakur can remember the precise moment when he first set eyes on Kailash Satyarthi, who won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

Mr. Satyarthi was lying on the ground, bleeding profusely from the head, while a group of men converged on him with bats and iron rods. They worked for the Great Roman Circus, which was illegally employing teenagers trafficked from Nepal as dancing girls. Mr. Satyarthi, a Gandhian activist in a simple white cotton tunic, had come to free them.  As he approached the scene, the chief realized he was interrupting a savage beating.

 Born about six and a half years after India won independence, Mr. Satyarthi, 60, was so deeply impressed with Gandhi’s teachings that, as a teenager, he invited a group of high-caste local bigwigs to a meal prepared by low-caste “untouchables”; the invited guests boycotted the event and then shunned his family. Deeply upset, the boy dropped his Brahmin family name in favor of Satyarthi, which means “seeker of truth,” according to an account on his website.

This link says how his family of a daughter and a son with his wife supported him throughout his work all these years.

This is a story of a child labourer in a quarry, who was educated by Satyarthi.  We can come across many stories like this in the following days!

Another link says this about him:

Among those who celebrated on Friday was Mohammad Manan Ansari, who began working at a mica mine at 6, digging ore that would sell for 5 to 20 cents a pound. Mr. Ansari, now a college student in his late teens, recalled watching as a small friend was crushed by falling rocks in one of the mine’s tunnels. He said he would be grateful to Mr. Satyarthi for the rest of his life.

“My happiest moment was when Bachpan Bachao Andolan workers came and saved me,” he said. “Now Kailash’s Nobel is the second happiest moment of my life. I can’t explain my joy in my own words.”

Satyarthi is the seventh Nobel peace prize and only the second Indian winner of the Nobel Peace Prize after Mother Teresa in 1979.  

The NDTV interview with Satyarthi is here.  The interviewer is not very good, though. 

Let us all celebrate him! We need more people like him here, in India, people who have guts to serve others instead of their own families like us.

Photo courtesy: google

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A Post About 'this n that'!

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I had planned to write about Kashmir after I read this article in 'The Hindu'
titled, 'Twenty-four years after he left Kashmir in the wake of violence, Sandeep Raina returns to find a home he had all but forgotten'.  I became very emotional and remembered the days we had been to Kashmir in 2004 i.e. 10 years back.  I remembered writing about our Kashmir visit and it was my 2nd post.  First post was about our 'Amarnath Yatra'.   I had written our experiences in a diary then.  Son insisted to start writing blogs.  And he opened a page for me.  My blog-writing started!

I didn't have a single comment for the first post and the second one got 1 comment in 2010 from my friend 'Swaram'! Well, I had started getting good number of comments later but Swaram came back and read my old posts and this second post got a first comment from her! I didn't know how to go further and so just left it with the 2nd post. Then my son pushed and insisted to read others' posts and write comment in them. He said that 'if your comment kindled some interest in the writers, they might visit your blog too and drop a line'.  I knew I was not a very good or interesting writer then,  but did what he asked me to do...read others' posts and dropped comments. I restarted writing again in 2008 after a '4 year' gap! It was about 'Vividh Bharati's Sangeet Sarita' my favourite radio programme. So, it is 6 years of official blogging now! Kashmir post was in September 2004 and I started blogging again in July 2008! We can take July or September for marking the 'starting of the blog' time! I can't say 10 years of blogging but 6 years!  People seem to like my posts and so, read and comment now!

Let me go back to Kashmir post now.  I had concluded the post in 2004 like this:

'We left the place with a lump in our throat. Kashmir should have been so beautiful before the terrorist activities started. Now we see poverty, though the people have brave happy faces even now. Hope the politicians help them and their children to see happiness in the future at least, instead of troubling them with their selfishness.' 

Now, apart from the politicians, nature has devastated Kashmir.  It might take a long time for this State to recover.  Will the CM take proper action at least now?  I hope the writer of the article, Raina, goes back to Kashmir soon. 

Here, in our Tamilnadu our CM has become ex-CM and is in jail now on corruption case.  On one side, I feel that this is a good precedence in our political history.  Nobody can escape judiciary even after winning the last election with a thumping majority.  The Finance Minister in her cabinet, Mr. O. Pnneer Selvam will be the 'new' CM! Jayalalitha cannot contest elections for another 10 years.  So, her political career is over.  Well...she might bounce back if she gets a 'stay'! She hasn't got any proper opposition party here to fear! DMK is nearly gone.  Congress and BJP hadn't got any hold in Tamilnadu, ever! They had to piggiback on these Dravidian parties always!

Hope some miracle happens to Tamilnadu and some good leader pops up from somewhere to pull up the economy of the State soon. 

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Disney's 'Million Dollar Arm', English Movie Review!

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When I started watching this movie, I didn't know anything about the subject of the movie! I watched blindly.  Slowly, it caught my serious attention! The story is about 2 village boys being trained as baseball players, that too in America!

I liked the hero of the movie, Jon Hamm, who resembled young Robert De Nero! This also made me to continue watching in the beginning.  Then, after some 45 mts., the story caught up my interest! Now, to the story:

J.B. aka J.B.Berstein is an American sports agent who is on the brink of losing all his money and looking for new baseball players.  Once he was watching in TV, some reality shows and came across Indian cricket which is India's famous sport.  He notices players bowling with good speed, though there is no connection to Baseball's throwing of the ball.  Still, in a desperate move, he conducts a reality show in India called 'Million Dollar Arm' and comes across 2 Javelin throw players who won the first and second place in the competition. Though we, Indians are not baseball players, he takes them, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel to America for training as baseball players.  

The story moves further to show how J.B. trained them, first mechanically and finding no positive result, started treating them like family and his friend Bella, who is a Medical student helps him in touching Rahul and Dinesh emotionally.  He sits with them during their pooja and yoga time, to make them feel comfortable and at home.  The training had to start from scrap, i.e. even the language, English.   The whole atmosphere was different for the players and with the help of Amit (Pitobash), who acted very well, J.B. gets the required results.




Both the boys, Suraj Sharma as Rinku Singh (the 'Life of Pi' hero') and Madhur Mittal ('Slum Dog Millionaire' actor, Older Salim) as Dinesh Patel have acted very well. 

The actors Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel:

The original Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel: 

The movie is like a typical Indian movie with romance (J.B. and Bella!) Comedy (a character called Amit who did quite well) etc. along with a few songs in the background! I would have liked to watch some more training programmes which would have made everybody interested in the movie. 

AR Rahman's music is OK and I liked a couple of songs, though not extra ordinarily good like many of his songs.  The background music is good. The fag end of the movie's background song is one of Rahman's Tamil song, which is a lovely song. The link to the other songs I liked in this movie is here: (click on this link pl.)

Well...you can watch this movie once at least, I assure you, you will enjoy!



P.S.: Who knows? One day Abhishek Bachchan might sponsor a Baseball team! I liked the theme of the story! It can happen again!

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