Hariyali Teej aur Mehandi

Hariyali Teej is an important festival in Sawan month. Ladies keep fast, do pooja and apply mehandi on their hands. See my grand daughter with mehandi on hyer hands.

My picture gallery

Learn even from your enemies

Learning is an art. Every moment of life is a moment of learning. We learn from our parents, our relatives, our friends, our teachers, our leaders, even from our enemies. When Ravana fell down in the battle, Ram advised Lakshaman to go to him and learn his wisdom. Ravana was a great scholar, but due to various circumstances he became enemy of Ram. Now when he is dying, Ram says that we should learn from him his wisdom, or else it will go with him and human race will loose a great chance to be wise.

Good things, bad things

Our life is full of activity. There is no time when something or other is not happening in and around us. When good things happen to us we feel happy, but when bad things happen we feel sad. It is very simple to understand. It is very natural also.

We want only good things to happen to us. But it will always not happen just like that. We will have to work for it. We should look at life with a positive attitude. While saying or doing something we should think about the effect our words or actions will create on others. If the effect is going to be bad we should avoid saying or doing that thing. People ask me what good it will bring to us? I say, every action has a reaction. If we say or do good things to other people then other people will say or do good things to us. This is the theory of Karma. God Himself said this in Gita.

Sometimes it happens that inspite of our saying or doing good things to others they say or do only bad things to us. Here we should go to the theory of re-birth. The present behaviour of other person might be the reaction of our past actions, in this birth or previous births. Reaction to our present action will come in future and it will be only good.

Why people become violant on trivial issues?

I saw this message on a blog. I liked it. A small message, in fact an expression of concern on the increasing violence in society. Read it and share your concern.

"Newspapers are always full of cases of road rage, Delhi is at the top. People on slight provocation become violent. Some of them even do not hesitate to killing other person. Teachers beat their students to death. Children kill their parents. Wives kill their husbands and husband their wives. What is happening in Indian society? Where love has gone?

I feel so much distressed. What do you feel? "

Visit the following link. There is also a poll where you can vote.

Shun violence, only love

Neem (Divine Tree) and Sultry Heat

This summer’s sultry heat in Delhi has been very inconvenient for me. Prickly heat and itching on whole body have kept me indoors. I tried almost all prickly heat powders available in the market but all proved ineffective. Then someone suggested to take freshly picked Neem leaves with water, first thing in the morning. I did it and problem has been almost cured. Summer is still bothering me but not to that extent as it was before taking Neem leaves.

I thought, I should share this experience with others. I also want to include in my post some information on Neem (Wikipedia).

Neem (Azadirachta indica, syn. Melia azadirachta L., Antelaea azadirachta (L.) Adelb.) is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of two species in the genus Azadirachta, and is native to Burma,India and Pakistan, growing in tropical and semi-tropical regions. Other vernacular names include Azad Dirakht (Persian), Margosa, Neeb (Arabic), Nimtree, Nimba (Sanskrit), Vepu, Vempu, Vepa (Telugu), Bevu in Kannada, Veppam in (Tamil) and Indian-lilac. Neem is a fast growing tree that can reach a height of 15-20 m, rarely to 35-40 m. It is evergreen but under severe drought it may shed most or nearly all of its leaves. The branches are wide spread. The fairly dense crown is roundish or oval and may reach the diameter of 15-20 m in old, free-standing specimens.

Neem flowers close-up

Usage

In India, the tree is variously known as 'Divine Tree',"Heal All","Nature's Drugstore", "Village Pharmacy" and "Panacea for all diseases". Products made from neem have proven medicinal properties as: antihelmintic, antifungal, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antiviral,and antifertility etc. It is particularly prescribed for skin disease (Puri, 1999).

• Neem twigs are used for brushing teeth in India and Pakistan. This practice is perhaps one of the earliest and most effective forms of dental care.
• All parts of the tree (seeds, leaves, flowers and bark) are used for preparing many different medical preparations.
• Neem oil is used for preparing cosmetics (soap, shampoo, balms and creams).
• Besides its use in traditional Indian medicine the neem tree is of great importance for its anti-desertification properties and possibly as a good carbon dioxide sink.
• Neem oil is useful for skin care such as acne, and keeping skin elasticity.
• Traditionally, patients suffering from Chicken Pox sleep on the leaves in India owing to its medicinal value.

Horticultural usages

Neem is a source of environment-friendly biopesticides. Among the isolated neem constituents, liminoids (such as Azadirachtin) are effective in insect growth-regulating activity. The unique feature of neem products is that they do not directly kill the pests, but alter the life-processing behavior in such a manner that the insect can no longer feed, breed or undergo metamorphosis.^[3] However, this does not mean that the plant extracts are harmful to all insects. Since, to be effective, the product has to be ingested, only the insects that feed on plant tissues succumb. Those that feed on nectar or other insects (such as spiders, butterflies, bees, and ladybugs) hardly accumulate significant concentrations of neem products.

Uses in pest and disease control

Neem is deemed very effective in the treatment of scabies although only preliminary scientific proof exists which still has to be corroborated, and is recommended for those who are sensitive to permethrin, a known insecticide which might be an irritant. Also, the scabies mite has yet to become resistant to neem, so in persistent cases neem has been shown to be very effective. There is also anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness in treating infestations of head lice in humans. It is also very good for treating worms (soak the branches and leaves in lukewarm water and then drink it).

Culinary use

The tender shoots and flowers of the neem tree are eaten as a vegetable in India. Neem flowers are very popular for their use in Ugadi Pachadi (soup like pickle) which is made on Ugadi day in South India.

Neem is also used in parts of mainland Southeast Asia, particularly in Cambodia (where it is known as sadao or sdao), Laos (where it is called kadao) and Vietnam (where it is called sầu đâu). Even lightly cooked, the flavour is quite bitter and thus the food is not enjoyed by all inhabitants of these nations, though it is believed to be good for one's health.

He went to school for a betterlife, teacher took away his life

Indra Sameer is a teacher, a lady teacher, a woman, but while taking an exam on July 26 she beat a student Arpit Kavadia following which he died. She was reportedly offended by Arpit's legs dangling outside his school desk and beat him mercilessly. Arpit's explanation that his legs are long and desk short, and he was not able to fold his legs did not satisfy this woman. She is now absconding. School authorities have terminated her services. Police have registered a case of murder against her. An unbearable loss for the Kavadia family in Udaipur.

Arpit's aunt want to know, ''Should a child be beaten so brutally just because his legs were dangling outside? Is it fair to inflict this kind of punishment on our child? What kind of a teacher is she?'' A student told, ''After the teacher had beaten him twice with the stick, Arpit asked her if she had punished him enough and whether he could sit down. This angered her even more and she started thrashing him even more strongly,''

Angry students of the Alok School where Arpit studied protested through the day demanding the teacher's arrest. They claim Arpit was a very well behaved student and he had done nothing for the teacher to lose her temper so violently.

Even if the law catches up with her and she pays the price for her brutality, the grief of loosing their teenaged son is likely to haunt Arpit's family throughout their lives.

Sometime back I saw on TV, a lady police constable, beating a man in police station because he was drunk and had misbehaved with a policeman.

What is happening to motherhood?