Creeper “Madhavi Lata” has grown into “Laughing Buddha” at our house!

Creeper “Madhavi Lata” has grown into a 30 feet high “Laughing Buddha” along the façade of our house, facing the main entrance. And according to Chinese folklore a “Laughing Buddha” facing the entrance of the house brings lots of luck and prosperity to all the household members!!! In the above picture you can see a portion of our house with gigantic “Madhavi Lata” creeper in the form of “Laughing Buddha”.

“Madhavi Lata” is a woody high climbing vine with clusters of very attractive fragrant flowers. The flowers have very attractive shape and the fragrance is very strong, pleasant and resembles a fruity perfume. The fragrance is said to improve sensuality and emotional comfort. The plant and its name have long and interesting history, of which I wrote in my blog on 25th October 2009. You may read this article titled “Madhavi Lata” by clicking on the following link:

http://srisrilara.blogspot.com/2009/10/madhavi-lata.html

And “Laughing Buddha” is actually known as Hotei or Pu-Tai in China. He was a very kind and popular Chinese monk who lived over thousand years ago and has become a significant part of Buddhist and Shinto culture. Because of his benevolent nature as a monk, he came to be regarded as an incarnation of the Bodhisattva. His large protruding stomach and a broad smile have earned him the nickname of “Laughing Buddha”. The “Laughing Buddha’s” images are said to grace Chinese Temples, houses, restaurants and are said to be found everywhere in China. Today many forms of “Laughing Buddha” are sold as deities even in Hyderabad. It is widely believed that placing various types of idols of “Laughing Buddha” in the house are very beneficial!

The form of “Laughing Buddha” growing in our house has made us all happy! and has prompted me to write this article.

Five Fridays and Five Weekends this July is not after 823 years as reported by several newspapers!

Suddenly this morning several newspapers carried news that after 823 years a July month with five Fridays, five Saturdays and five Sundays has occurred. The news is nonsense. Please see for yourself in the calendars of 2005, 2011 and 2016 I have furnished below. The calendars of these three years are identical. It means July with five Fridays and five weekends occurred in 2005 and then again after 6 years in 2011 and would occur again after 5 years in 2016! Where is the question of 823 years!

Most newspapers today are not only biased but are sometimes stupid and report such false news. Or they are not able to project correctly some tricky interpretation of 823 years by the wise numerologists who make a living by projecting some rare numerical occurrences!

Please do not believe news from substandard newspapers, specially the local newspapers and most Telugu TV channels of “ANDHRA” Pradesh. They distort news to benefit their patrons and criticize their opponents. You may have to read a number of newspapers and their conflicting reports and then come to your own conclusions! 

Dear Politicians of Telangana, Congratulations!

Dear Politicians of Telangana,

Congratulations! for coming together for the cause of Telangana Statehood, after breaking free from the shackles of generations of cunning and evil rulers. Wish you can make all our dreams come true very soon! 

And shame on you betrayers of Telangana, mostly Goonda Politicians who are not joining these freedom fighters. I warn you that your slavish obedience for alms from those who have misruled and mistreated us will ruin whatever little good reputation you and your families may have, you will be branded as villains and jokers. It is not too late for you to follow the right path, may GOD bless you with wisdom to support us. 

~ N. Raghu.

Snakes, Scorpions, Insects and Me.

Yesterday evening I was teaching our five-year-old granddaughter the utility and usage of a microscope using slides of a mosquito and an ant. Then I got the idea of writing this article about my experience with snakes, scorpions and insects. For several years we lived amidst these creatures; or have come across them often and remember those times. By experience; I do not mean from any serious or scientific point of view, but just the way we coped with them.

As I wrote earlier, I was associated with the coal mining town of Kothagudem for over 27 years. As a child I was there for 11 years and then all through high school and college I spent my vacations there and I also worked at Kothagudem for some time. We stayed in a huge company bungalow with a large garden in front of the house and an equally large backyard. The house had plenty of trees and plants. The front of the house had wire fencing on all three sides with Mehandi plants all along the fence and the rear side of the house had a walled compound. The distance between these company bungalows was large with wild trees and bushes between them. Birds, squirrels, lizards, garden lizards, frogs and a variety of insects, butterflies, dragonflies, ants, termites, etc. could be found in plenty in our compound. Towards dusk hundreds of birds would come on to the trees in our house making a very loud noise and settle down for the night. Such noise also existed briefly in the mornings before the birds flew out in the western direction for food. After securing our dogs inside the house our gardener used to sometimes let the people from nearby huts to leave their hens in our garden so that they would eat the termites. Termites usually preyed on the bowers of creepers and plants making them collapse.

Immediately after a summer rain or with the commencement of seasonal rains several varieties of insects swarmed the house in the evenings. As the lights in the house are switched ON the flying insects came in followed by the crawling ones. The flying ones circled the lights and ultimately fell on the floor and the crawling insects were ready there on the floor to devour them. All we had to do in this situation was to switch OFF all the lights inside the house and keep the lights outside the house ON. Then all insects would fly out of the house to the lights outside, when we would shut the doors and windows of the house and switch ON the lights inside and stay indoors. And outside it would be a riot of insects and a big feast for the crawling creatures, frogs and lizards. The next morning there would be insects spread all over our open verandah and outside the house.

Then there were the lovely and friendly ones with which we played a lot like the large variety of small and big colorful butterflies, dragonflies, fireflies and the red velvet mite.

With snake pits in the vicinity of our house, sighting of snakes outside the house was common. They also came into our compound and sometimes into our house. Once they are sighted in the house it was sure death for them. Especially every summer as it is very hot in their pits they came out and into our compound and house for insects and we had to be very cautious at such times. The scorpions too would come out in large numbers in summer. I remember an incident when three big scorpions were killed in front of the house within minutes one evening. There were our dogs to warn us of the movement of these creatures. We relied on our watchman, the family of our domestic help staying in the servant quarters and the people from the huts behind our house to take care of such situations. When snakes were killed, they used to be burnt outside the house after placing a copper coin in its mouth!

There were some very close encounters with the snakes, I will just mention two. Once when my father was going out of town we bade him farewell at the porch. And as we went in we found a large snake coiled at the center of a bedroom where my sister, then aged about ten was sleeping on a cot at a corner. We were not in a position to wake her up and we did not want to frighten the snake out of its position for the fear that it might get on to the cot. As our servants began to group up people to tackle the snake my sister woke up and casually walked out of the room to our utter relief. Later the servants trapped and killed the snake. The other incident pertains to me. Once at my factory some important data was required and as none of us had it with us I decided to retrieve it from the documentation our Japanese collaborators left with us. This documentation was in a box in our electronics spares stores. The box was at a height and I was handling it from a lower height without being able to look into the box. I took out few books and as I was about to take out more books to search for the required data something sprang out of the box brushing over my hand. As it jumped out and fell on a huge cardboard box I realized that it is a five feet long cobra snake. It soon vanished behind many boxes in that store room. I rushed out of the room. The next day we called a snake charmer to catch the snake and to our surprise he caught six snakes in that room!  

Today living in the center of Twin Cities, I am far away from the situations of the past. But the interesting experience from the past is fresh in my mind to educate and entertain my curious and enthusiastic granddaughter.  

Why doesn’t it rain in Hyderabad, as in the past?

JUNE has come to an end, it is a month since rainy season has started but there have been no rains in Hyderabad, just a drizzle of few minutes, on perhaps five occasions. The monsoon is sometimes showing up in the dark clouds and the cool breeze but without a drop of rain.

I wonder why it doesn’t rain in Hyderabad as in the past. I remember very well the rainy seasons of my school days. We used to have plenty of rains; I am saying this based on many memories of those rainy seasons. It used to rain mostly in the mornings or in the evenings. In the morning the rain used to start before dawn and sometimes last until little over school starting time. In such cases our school along with many other schools used to declare a holiday expecting poor attendance or fearing a school building collapse! If it is raining heavily before school time I used to call up the school to confirm a holiday and if that is not possible call up a friend close to the school and enjoy a holiday. And in the evenings it used to start raining from some time before the school is let off. This was a very regular pattern. I always carried a raincoat in my school bag.  

The past makes me wonder why it doesn’t rain in Hyderabad as before. I have no answer. The meteorological department keeps my hopes high with lots of optimism. The rains may come later, mostly due to turbulence in the Bay of Bengal rather than the South West monsoon. And give us some relief we deserve after a severe summer and fill up our City’s water supply sources to some extent so that we may continue to get 45 minutes water supply! every alternate day!

“Monsoon Rally – 2011”, brings back fond memories of my Car for 18 years!

Yesterday, a Vintage Car Rally – “Monsoon Rally 2011” was held at Hyderabad on Tankbund. The Fiat Classic Club Hyderabad (FCCH) participated in the rally with 11 Fiat Cars of 1950’s and 1960’s. This event brought back fond memories of the “Fiat -Premier Padmini Deluxe Car, ADL 2210” I owned for 18 years.

Those were the days of only two brands of Cars in India, the Ambassador and Fiat. Driving in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad was a pleasure, with just a fraction of the present traffic and no parking problems. Today driving in the city has become cumbersome and irritating with chaotic traffic and high levels of pollution.

The photographs attached to this article speak about the long and memorable attachment we had with this Car. This Car is with a Petrol Engine of capacity 1089 cc, 40 bhp (Ord.) and 48 bhp (S1), Torque of 70.6 Nm at 3000 rpm, a wheel base of 2340 mm, length of 3905 mm and width of 1460 mm. Seating and driving comfort were quite good and more than all the purpose it served for 18 years is excellent and the fond memories it left are forever!

People fume as fuel prices are regularly hiked by a helpless/hopeless government.

The price of Petrol, Diesel and Cooking Gas has increased enormously and specially in the past few months, as can be seen in the above charts. The government says that the rise in fuel price is inevitable as they cannot manage any further subsidy. The import costs and production costs of the State owned oil companies are regularly going up and the government has no other alternative other than passing on the burden to the people. The government’s decision will rein in the fiscal deficit and free up revenues for other programmes and will help our oil companies to make profits. The timing of such price-rise announcements is very interesting; they are made after elections in some States or between scams and problems when life and future of the government/leaders seems comfortable.

Unfortunately our government cannot control the fallout of their hike, an uncontrollable inflation. The direct rise in Petrol and Diesel costs will affect every vehicle owner and the sharp price rise in the case of Cooking Gas will affect every common man’s pocket. All major sectors like Transport, Automobile, FMCG, Textiles and so on will get affected. As a result of every such increase in fuel cost, the price of all items starting from the early morning cup of coffee or tea to a nightcap would increase proportionately or mischievously. That is the price of vegetables, food grains, beverages, fruits, transportation and what not; nothing is exempted from some rate of increase. And unfortunately there is nothing the Government can do in this regard, other than being a silent onlooker to the suffering of its people and taking the blame, of which they are never bothered until next election time!

President Ronald Reagan once said: “Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.”

Naturally the common people of India are fuming!