A Hungry 'Black line'

At a winter morning a ’black line’ was seen climbing up a distant leafless tree. The line was about ten feet length. On seeing through binoculars the black line turned out to be a snake! Yes, it was a Black Rat snake that was climbing up the tree to catch and devour the little birds that were perching on its branches! This Black Rat snake is an excellent climber. A climbing wonder!

The Wild Lily of Monsoon Rains

‘The Glory Lily’ flower is enchanting with its beautiful colors and curled arrangement of petals. Its botanical name itself tells about it: Gloriosa superba. I find it in the wild on the roadside bushes – only at a certain period of time of the year. Yes, it is seen here in the North East monsoon season only – that too for a few days only! I usually search for its first bloom in the monsoon and pat myself for having found it out first in the season. I am doing this search for this wonder lily each year for the past fifteen years. But peculiarly I could not spot it in the previous year. The reason is that the rainfall was inadequate!

The Keen Observation of Apes' Habits

Now there are many modern medicines that are the derivatives of crude drugs obtained from the parts of plants. Many such derivatives have also been now synthesized without accessing to plant sources. But the ultimate credit goes to our ancestors who had keen observations. They had watched and studied animals taking unusual plants peculiarly, at certain times (of illnesses), and reported about that and about the advantages the animals gained after such intake. Recently the African apes (chimpanzees) are in the news:

1. They swallow leaves to expel out worms.

2. They take soil to make the plant leaves already ingested have anti-malarial properties.

3. They take the pith of a tree for constipation to get purgation.

It is also said that the native people living next to the forests inhabited by these apes, have similar medical habits as that of the apes! This indicates that the benefits of wonderful keen observations of ancestors are being still availed by these people!

The Way the Wonder Medicine reaches a Patient

Medicines are panacea to people who are suffering both physically and mentally. In older times a cure was not near for a particular illness. Many medical scientists tried in various ways to find it out. It took a long time to discover it – only a few of them succeeded in it. The cure-offering medicines were first subjected to trials in animals and then tried on humans. If they were found not compatible or efficient, their newer derivatives were found out, and these were tested again. When these trials turned out to be successful, the formulation of the medicine was shaped out to get it in a convenient form - a tablet, syrup, an ointment or an injection. Then the medicine was produced in large quantities, and that too was later made affordable to all the classes of people. Now a cure for the illness is available. The illness has to be now found out (diagnosed) and confirmed first by a doctor and then the medicine shall be selected and prescribed by the doctor. The pharmacist shall dispense it as advised by the doctor. So, whenever or wherever one finds a medicine, it should be given its due respect. Behind it lie the hard work of the Scientist who discovered it and the effort of the Company that produced it. A patient sees it as a God-sent helping hand. If such a wonder medicine lies unused with you donate it to others who need a cure with it – before it crosses its expiry date.

Excavation of Secrets of Stone Henges

One of the today's news that I read is exciting to me: the site where the Stone Henge of Salisbury, Wiltshire, stands is getting excavated by the Archaeologists! It is done to unravel the secrets about their erection and function. In my older blog post dated July 16, 2007 displayed down here, I have invited Archaeologists to study the Stone Henge site. Now I am glad that they are doing it now. I eagerly wait to get the wonders excavated out of the Stone Henge site.

The Bright Saturn Identification

As the moon goes on revolving around the Earth, at one of its positions the Earth lies in between the Sun and the Moon. At night, in this position we see from earth our moon fully – a round Full moon. Similarly, the planet Saturn revolving around the Sun was seen as a round and bright - ‘Full Saturn’ on 24^th February 2008 (Earth was in between the Sun and the Saturn). It is said that this full and the brightest Saturn can be seen next only in 2015. But we can still now identify the planet easily but with lesser brightness. It is seen at night in the constellation of Virgo in the eastern skies or just above your head. It makes a triangle with two bright stars of the constellation each one of them positioning in the corners of that triangle – which can be imagined by connecting these corner points (objects) with imaginary lines. This triangle has its apex in the North and the base towards the South. Of the base-forming celestial objects, that one on the eastern corner is our Saturn! The planet will be visible so up to July this year in the night skies.

The Water Bird and its Brood

One fine morning after a shower of rain the rain water was flowing down the storm water drain. I saw a dark bird of a chicken size swimming against its flow. Now two tiny softies glided down the slope of the bund and hopped on to the water one after the other, and swam after the bird! They were the chicks of that bird! I wondered about the abilities of these softies to swim soon after hatching out. The bird is a ‘White-breasted Waterhen’. Both the male and female of this species of bird accompany each other in catching flies under the cover of bushes, along the sides of waterways. Their calls can be heard both in the mornings and evenings as rumbling sounds. The calls are like this: 'kooodoorrrrdoo.kuraaughkkuraaughk' - this is repeated rhythmically. When they are unaware, one can watch them walk along wagging the tails from side to side and turning their heads this and that side often. On giving a slight sound or movement, they run and fly away into the bushes just like pea-fowls do. They withstand urbanization and are specially adapted when provided with bush cover and waterways to thrive on. It is a wonder bird to look out in our neighborhood.

A Wonder Word Definition Searcher

As computer technology is fast developing, the web-users have to update their knowledge about using the new technologies. What is it? Why should it be used? And when should it be used? These are the questions that tease the minds of web-users, especially those of non-technological people. One wonderful website comes to the rescue of web-users. Yes, it is http://www.webopedia.com. Simply type the technological word in its box of SEARCH and click Go! button. You get the narrative definition and details of it. No need to waste time in finding it in the search results of any search engine: you get it in a single pick! Webopedia is a word specific 'Wonder engine' indeed!

The Mighty Drizzling Rain

Each rainy season I see that a continuous sharp drizzling is mightier than a heavy downpour! Yes, after such a drizzling the blue metaled-roads in the city have pits - due to its bombarding action on the sand content of the roads. It levers out the sand particles and loosen the gravels. The heavy vehicles that ply on the road do the rest of the job - a pit is formed on the disintegrated road.