This is attitude

This is attitude IF AN EGG IS BROKEN BY AN OUTSIDE FORCE..A LIFE ENDS. IF AN EGG BREAKS FROM WITHIN…… .LIFE BEGINS. GREAT THINGS ALWAYS BEGIN FROM WITHIN .

This is attitude IT’S BETTER TO LOSE YOUR EGO TO THE ONE YOU LOVE. THAN TO LOSE THE ONE YOU LOVE ……. BECAUSE OF EGO

This is attitude WHY WE HAVE SO MANY TEMPLES, IF GOD IS EVERYWHERE ? A WISE MAN SAID : AIR IS EVERYWHERE, BUT WE STILL NEED A FAN TO FEEL IT .

This is attitude WHEN YOU TRUST SOMEONE TRUST HIM COMPLETELY WITHOUT ANY DOUBT……. AT THE END YOU WOULD GET ONE OF THE TWO : EITHER A LESSON FOR YOUR LIFE OR A VERY GOOD PERSON(Hillary and Tensing in picture)

This is attitude LIFE IS NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ACT TRUE TO YOUR FACE …….. IT’S ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN TRUE BEHIND YOUR BACK

This is attitude SOLDIER : SIR WE ARE SURROUNDED FROM ALL SIDES BY ENEMIES , MAJOR : EXCELLENT ! WE CAN ATTACK IN ANY DIRECTION.

This is attitude THE WORST IN LIFE IS “ATTACHMENT ” IT HURTS WHEN YOU LOSE IT. THE BEST THING IN LIFE IS ” LONELINESS “ BECAUSE IT TEACHES YOU EVERYTHING AND, WHEN YOU LOSE IT, YOU GET EVERYTHING.

This is attitude “You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away.” -Arlene Blum

This is attitude “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Chinese proverb

This is attitude “The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.” Ben Herbste

Bharat Ratna: Some Reflections

The Bharat Ratna, or the `Gem of India', is our country's highest civilian award. Instituted in the year 1954, the Bharat Ratna is conferred "for exceptional service towards advancement of Art, Literature and Science", and "in recognition of public service of the highest order".

Since its inception, the Bharat Ratna has been conferred on 41 dignitaries who distinguished our national life. (The award for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was later withdrawn following the controversy whether he is still alive or not). Mother Teresa got the award as a naturalized Indian citizen whereas two other non-Indians have been bestowed the honour: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in 1987 and Nelson Mandela in 1990.

There is a widespread assumption that political compulsions have often been a determining factor in the choice of the awardees. The awards were given posthumously 11 times: while some received it soon after their demise, some others got it much later after their death. The Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who died in 1950, was conferred the Bharat Ratna 41 years later in 1991! Gopinath Bordoloi who also died in 1950 was conferred the honour posthumously in 1999. Dr. Ambedkar received the honour in 1990, thirty-six years after his death while Jayaprakash Narayan, who died in 1979, got it in 1998. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was given the award in 1992, thirty-four years after his death!

A look at the forty names will tell you that most of the recipients were those in public life who influenced our national life in varied ways. The first to receive the Bharat Ratna was none other than Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, followed by C. Rajagopalachari and C.V. Raman. In the illustrious genre of freedom fighters and national leaders are: Pt. Nehru, Pt. Pant, Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Bhagwan Dass, Zakir Husain, Dr. B.C. Roy, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Vinoba Bhave, Gulzari Lal Nanda, Aruna Asaf Ali, Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, V.V. Giri, K. Kamaraj, M.G. Ramachandran, et al. Three members of the Nehru family ' Pt. Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi ' received the honour. Dr. M. Visweswarayya, Dr. D.K. Karve, Dr. P.V. Kane, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and Prof. Amartya Sen have been illustrious recipients of this prestigious award. C. Subramaniam, J.R.D. Tata and Satyajit Ray enhanced the prestige of the award by receiving this honour, so did M.S. Subbulakshmi, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Lata Mangeshkar and Ustad Bismillah Khan.

As can only be expected, controversies have bogged the Bharat Ratna for long. There are names that we all think should be there but are missing while at least some choices are debatable. Every year, there are campaigns to canvas for X, Y or Z. Some `leaders' have gone on record asking, if A and B could be given, why not us, are our contributions any less, as if in a detergent campaign! Yet others or their cronies have gone to court seeking redressal of their grievances! A few have questioned why foreign nationals should be conferred India's highest civilian award. Some murmurs have also been around as to why artistes, musicians, film personalities, etc. should be given the award when there are separate national awards for these categories. Quite a few protests have been voiced, insinuating that political compulsions ' read vote bank politics ' have decided choices of the awardees from time to time.

On the contrary, a welcome suggestion has been made that we should go beyond the political realm and honour those who brought glory to the country by their tireless services in diverse fields, those who brought a smile on the faces of many Indians, those who made a difference to the lives of millions of average Indians, those who made us proud of being Indians, those who proved to the world and to their own countrymen as well that we are capable of taking on the best in the world. The man behind the Green Revolution, Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, the guiding spirit of the White Revolution, Dr. Verghese Kurien, the architect of the Konkan Railways and the Delhi Metro, E. Sreedharan, are some who would add luster to the Bharat Ratna by any standards. There are also those who have created wealth for the nation, and those who brought laurels to the country by their pioneering work in various fields like agriculture, education, environment, medicine, industry, science and technology, information technology, literature, spiritualism, etc. The suggestion goes that by honouring them, we will only be gratefully acknowledging their multifaceted contributions to the country. (Please feel free to make your own suggestions about prominent Indians who should be honoured with the Bharat Ratna.)

Some forty odd years ago, President John Kennedy spoke eloquently while signing a Proclamation conferring the Honorary Citizenship of the United States of America on Sir Winston Churchill thus: "By adding his name to our rolls, we mean to honour him ' but his acceptance honours us far more. For no statement or proclamation can enrich his name now ' the name Sir Winston Churchill is already legend." We have amongst us Indians several such living legends who will enrich the Bharat Ratna once we confer the nation's highest civilian honour on them. It may be argued that they are legends in their own lifetime, but as a grateful nation, it is essential that we honour them and place on record our profound appreciation of their significant achievements and contributions. To leave them out will not belittle either their stature or their status but it will be in the fitness of things that we accord them the highest honour of the land.

An aside ' one conspicuous name missing from the roll of the Bharat Ratna is that of the Father of the Nation! For that matter, the one, acknowledged as the greatest man of the Twentieth Century, also did not get the Nobel Prize! Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is no less a Mahatma for these aberrations, though!

Fascinating Natural Phenomena

Aurora Borealis

Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful events to occur in our world, the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, has both astounded and amazed people since it was first discovered. This phenomenon occurs when the sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth’s magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth’s atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometers above the earth’s surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras, northern and southern. 

Red Tides

More correctly known as an algal bloom, the so-called Red tide is a natural event in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column and can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. This phenomena is caused by high levels of phytoplankton accumulating to form dense, visible clouds near the surface of the water. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers. 

Sailing Stones

The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones. 

Supercells 

Supercell is the name given to a 

continuously rotating updraft deep 

within a severe thunderstorm (a 

mesocyclone) and looks downright 

scary. They are usually isolated 

storms, which can last for hours, 

and sometimes can split in two, with one storm going to the 

left of the wind and one to the right. They can spout huge 

amounts of hail, rain and wind and are often responsible for 

tornados, though they can also occur without tornados. 

Supercells are often carriers of giant hailstones and although 

they can occur anywhere in the world they’re most frequent 

in the Great Plains of the US.

Penitentes

These amazing ice spikes, generally 

known as penitentes due to their 

resemblance to processions of white-

hooded monks, can be found on 

mountain glaciers and vary in size 

dramatically: from a few centimetres to 5 metres in height. 

Initially, the sun’s rays cause random dimples on the surface 

of the snow. Once such a dimple is formed, sunlight can be 

reflected within the dimple, increasing the localized 

sublimation. As this accelerates, deep troughs are formed, 

leaving peaks of ice standing between them. 

Mammatus Clouds 

Also known as mammatocumulus, meaning "bumpy clouds", they are a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. Composed primarily of ice, Mammatus Clouds can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction, while individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system.

Gravity Waves

The undulating pattern of a Gravity Wave is caused by air displaced in the vertical plain, usually as a result of updrafts coming off the mountains or during thunderstorms. A wave pattern will only be generated when the updraft air is forced into a stable air pocket. The upward momentum of the draft triggers into the air pocket causes changes in the atmosphere, altering the fluid dynamics. Nature then tries to restore the fluid changes within the atmosphere, which present in a visible oscillating pattern within the cloud.

Hums

"The Hum" is the common name of a series of phenomena involving a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming noise not audible to all people. Hums have been reported in various geographical locations. In some cases a source has been located. A well-known case was reported in Taos, New Mexico, and thus the Hum is sometimes called the Taos Hum. They have been reported all over the world, especially in Europe: a Hum on the Big Island of Hawaii, typically related to volcanic action, is heard in locations dozens of miles apart. The Hum is most often described as sounding somewhat like a distant idling diesel engine. Difficult to detect with microphones, its source and nature are unknown

Ice Circles 

A rare phenomenon usually only seen in extremely cold countries, scientists generally accept that Ice Circles are formed when surface ice gathers in the center of a body of water rather than the edges. A slow moving river current can create a slow turning eddy, which rotates, forming an ice disc. Very slowly the edges are ground down until a gap is formed between the eddy and the surrounding ice. These ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes.