Three In One

Three In One

Scourge of Ebola

I am deeply saddened by the news that a four months old baby, Faya, who died of Ebola outbreak in South East Guinea is buried in layers of plastics by strangers; family members too scared to offer 'Touching' goodbye.

Cobwebs, Before and After

Cobweb-Photograph

Cobweb-Graphics

The Currency, Universal

The universal currency
is of all the currencies

bought and sold

assiduously.

The Lies.

Of commission.

Of omission.

With no compunction.

                    charu

Back Yard Trees, Reflected

Back Yard Trees-Reflected

If I have half as much clarity as the photograph when I reflect on myself I think, I should be satisfied.

All Is Lost-A Tale of Survival

This is a movie of disquietude on a soundless and seemingly infinite ocean. 

A story of a man who survives turbulence after collision with the help of a survival kit and a map plied with ingenuity. 

 We are only told that the man is about 7000 miles off the coast of Sumatra and it is a story of eight days.  We do not know his name nor do we know why he is on high seas. There is no other cast except the sailor, Robert Redford and thus no dialogue. That intensified the effect. 

The hull of the boat is ruptured after a collision  with  floating debris of storage container. While he repairs the damage and bails out the water from sinking boat a storm hits. 

The rest, one has to see the film to appreciate the ferocity of the ocean and the courage of a lone man to fight it. I have seen few adventure and endurance movies. But I found this to be survival story in its purest form.

If nothing else one can at least appreciate the ordeal the earlier voyagers like, Marco Polo and Vasco Da Gama may have suffered on high seas. And in those days they did not possess survival kits either. 

My hats off to their courage to circumnavigate the globe .......

Pristine Day

On this day the sky reflected beautifully in the clear standing water in a park along my walking path.

Pristine Day

Pebbles

The building in which our health-club is situated, has put up a new tree in a pot containing very dark smooth as silk pebbles. They vary in shapes and sizes.  I fell in love with them. I took the picture and graphic-ised it.

Pebbles

Sheer Sheer

Sheer Sheer

Gathering Clouds

Click the link for a Hindi song by Shreya Ghoshal

Gathering Clouds

Kabhi Jo Badal Barse

'Jooking'

Lil Buck Jooking

Anyone for a new dancing style? It is called 'Jooking'. Check it out.

http://news.yahoo.com/katie-couric-interviews-lil-buck-214704149.html

Two Tone Cat Named Venus

First I thought the cat was painted. But how one can paint different color eyes!!! I adore this cat. For more pictures copy/paste following link on the browser.

Two Tone Cat Named Venus--From Yahoo news

https://gma.yahoo.com/photos/meet-venus-the-majestic-two-toned-faced-cat-slideshow/

A Puddle

A Puddle

Proof - सुबूत

सुबूत 

पूछते क्यूँ हो हमसे क्या हाल है

कहते हम अगर बेहाल है 
कहोगे जबतक उठता हीं जनाजा  
बेसुबूत ये मानना मुहाल है 


                                       चारू 

Wimbledon Final 2014--Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic

Well I was glued to tele yesterday for four/five hours; lost time.
Sadly RF lost. But not without cause. It was a lackluster match. 

RF's racket was not meeting the balls resoundingly like they normally did. He was playing safe and not taking risks.Thus it was a dull match. I will call this Tennis  "A Match of Caution" as I told my grieving niece. 

RF's coach, Stephan Edberg advised him to get to net. But he hardly scored a point there. And yet he kept coming and kept losing points. He was serving badly. His first serves were not getting in. Also the last but one game in fourth set which changed his luck for better was not his win, but Djoko's loss. Djoko gave it away. Once RF's luck changed he put some luster in his strokes. But then, Djoko was too good.  

Sun is setting on RF due to age. I wonder he will come up this far next year. Let us wait and see.

Djoko would have been brilliant had Fed played his usual.

Pale Blue Dot-Our Place in the Cosmos

In 1978, USA sent a satellite "Voyager 1" in space on a fly-by mission to view our planets up-close and photograph them for the first time, and then continue its journey beyond into interstellar space.  At the time Carl Sagan, the most famous astro-physicist of our times and adviser to NASA, convinced the agency, to turn the camera of the satellite towards earth for the one last time, to take its picture just before leaving our solar system.  After 36 years, "Voyager 1" just did that, four months ago.  The photographs of the Earth and the Moon, taken from beyond Saturn were published by NASA.

In 1980, Carl produced  "Cosmos",  an entrancing TV Series, most widely watched by the public around the world (perhaps, it should have been called, 'Everything you want to know about our Universe").  At the end of the series, he had made a profound concluding speech that was so relevant then and is more so, now.         

Recently, Ann Druyan, Carl's widow, produced "Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey", a follow-up to the earlier "Cosmos"  It was hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astro-physicist and director of the New York's Hayden Planetarium.  This series was just as exciting.  At the conclusion of the new series Carl's speech from the original was revisited.  It is truly prophetic; a must see and listen video. 

Federer Vs. Raonic 2014

Picture from IndiaTimes
An old photo

I just finished watching 2014 Wimbledon semi-final. Milos Raonic advanced to face Roger Federer (my heartthrob) after defeating Nick Kyrgios, a new upper-n-comer Aussie. MR showed promise but...

RF won 6-4,6-4,6-4.

Generally the match was dominated by aces only. 

First I thought to play by aces initially is a good strategy. It saves players' time and energy which they can expend only when needed at the crucial time. But MR had no game other than aces which made it a dull match. At rallies which were very few, may be two or three, RF clobbered MR.

All in all not a thrilling match. RF's talent was no tapped. I was disappointed.

Alas!

Thunder-Bolt

Thunder Bolt

Tibetans-Gene Inherited

Picture from BBC News-Tibetan altitude gene inherited 'from extinct species'

Tibetans have inherited a special Gene from a species called the Denisovans who lived between half a million to fifty thousand years ago. The special gene allows them to tolerate height. It thins their blood and thus makes them insusceptible to height related sicknesses. Tibetans live at very high altitudes. 

I am not surprised that Tibetans carry a special gene.  After all it is a matter of survival. What surprised me is that how the scientists connected the Tibetan Gnome aberration to the extinct species Denisovian's gene sequence. Harder still is to believe that the Denisovian gene sequence was established from a tiny fragment of a girl's little finger bone found somewhere in Russia. 

Now that is science!

A Rain Song-Bengali Robindra Songeet

We have been drenched with rains so much lately I had to post a Rain Song in language I love.

ওই-যে ঝড়ের মেঘের কোলে
বৃষ্টি আসে মুক্তকেশে আঁচলখানি দোলে॥
ওরই গানের তালে তালে   আমে জামে শিরীষ শালে
                   নাচন লাগে পাতায় পাতায় আকুল কল্লোলে॥
                             আমার  দুই আঁখি ওই সুরে
          যায় হারিয়ে সজল ধারায়   ওই ছায়াময় দূরে।
ভিজে হাওয়ায় থেকে থেকে   কোন্ সাথি মোর যায় যে ডেকে,
          একলা দিনের বুকের ভিতর ব্যথার তুফান তোলে॥

Apparitions

Apparitions