PANCHAAMRITAM 284
(pancha is five in
samskritam; amritam is nectar)
Poornima /
Kali Yugabda 5117 / Manmatha Aipasi 10 (October 27, 2015)
ONE
Built around 2,000 years ago,
one of the oldest in the world, Kallanai Dam exemplifies the amazing
engineering marvels of India. The Dam, across the Kaveri River in Tiruchirapalli District (Tamilnadu, Bharat) by
Karikala Chola, is also called the Grand Anicut. It was constructed to divert
the river to the delta districts thereby boosting irrigation and avoiding loss
of crops due to floods. The dam though very old
has a strong foundation and a solid structure. It is still in excellent
condition and is used as a major irrigation dam in Tamil Nadu. The dam has also
been an inspiration for many recent modern day dams due to its amazing
engineering. Due to its impressive architecture, the dam attracts a lot of
tourists every year. The unique structure of the Kallanai dam involves large
stones sunk in the Cauvery river to divert the water flow to the fertile delta.
It is believed that floods to an extent of about 1,86,000 cusecs have been
discharged through this anicut with minimal or no damage.The dam is made of
unhewn stone and is 1,080 feet long and 60 feet wide, across the main stream of
the Cauvery. The area is irrigated by the ancient irrigation network of which
the dam was the centrepiece, covering about 69,000 acres. By the early 20th
century, the irrigated area had increased to about 1,000,000 acres.
(www.thebetterindia.com).
TWO
Indian
scientists are working on a top secret project under which the smartest
military weapon of the 21st century is being developed which is named after
Hindu goddess Kali. In Scientific terms,
KALI stands for 'Kilo Ampere Linear Injector'. The world's deadliest weapon
system works this way: If an enemy missile is launched in Indian direction, it
will quickly emit powerful pulses of Relativistic Electrons Beams (REB) and
destroy the target in no time. Unlike laser beams, it does not bore a hole in
the target but thoroughly damages the on-board electronic systems. and bring
them down right away. According to scientists the KALI is far deadlier than
so-called laser weapons that destroy by drilling holes since this process
consumes time. Its efficiency has pushed our scientists to look forward to
inventing a high-power microwave gun to destroy incoming aircrafts and
missiles, based on the same method. (Based on a report By Shri Mrityunjay Chaubey in
www.defenceNews.in, September 7, 2015).
THREE
The
Halba tribal community comprising 10,000
living in 110 villages of 52 'gram' panchayats in Rajnandgaon
district (Chattisgarh, Bharat) has pledged not to marry their
daughters or keep any relationship with households that do not have toilets.
Following the pledge, a campaign "agar sauchalaya nahi
toh beti aur roti nahi denge" (No toilet; no daughter or bread) has been
launched in the entire district to motivate people, predominantly tribals, to
build toilets in their homes. Incidentally, this district, which is the home
constituency of chief minister Dr Raman Singh, is soon going to achieve 100
percent open defecation free status. Lauding the initiative by the
community, Mukesh Bansal, collector of Rajnandgaon, said that it was a
commendable effort. He wished that every single family in the district gets
motivated from this initiative and works towards freeing Rajnandgaon from open
defecation. (Based on a report by Smt Anuja Jaiswal in THE TIMES
OF INDIA, November 4, 2015).
FOUR
Bharati serves hot meal everyday to 70 poor
elderly destitutes in his house in Bhim Nagar in Thiruchirappalli (Tamilnadu, Bharat) for the
past 10 years. Once an interior decorator, this unmarried person felt bad at
the sight of many old people roaming around uncared for. He asked all those to
come to his residence for food. 500 turned up. He fed them but asked them to
bring their ration card the next day. This way he could fix the genuine
beneficiaries, which is 70 a day. He cooks the food and serves in the couple of
rooms in his house. Over a period, he
left his profession and poor feeding became his life mission. But Bharati says,
“I do not view this as annadaanam. I look upon everyone whom I serve food as my
parents. I lost my parents even as I began earning a salary”. He secures old
age pension for some of his guests. On Deepavali day, he offers them new dhoti,
saree etc. As the word sread, help began trickling in; some donate cash, some
in kind, including cooking gas. Bharati is desirous of starting 10 more centres
in the town if families decide to celebrate birthdays etc., by helping poor
feeding. He says, in this manner, the target can be achieved without any
assistance from the government. (Basd on a report in DINAMALAR, September
25, 2015).
FIVE
Sripada Srisai Lalita Prasida, 13-year-old studying
in class 9 at DPS Damanjodi, Koratpur district (Odisha, Bharat), has won the
Community Impact Award at the Google Science Fair in the 13-15 years age
category for developing a water purifier that works using waste corn cobs.The
award carried $10,000 (Rs. 6.5 lakhs) as prize money and will be mentored by
Google to build the project. In her experiment, Prasida found that waste corn
cobs are able to adsorb contaminants like salt oxides, detergent, suspended
particles, coloured dyes, oil, grease and even some heavy metals.The website
says, "Corn cobs fitted to bamboos buried on the floor of the pond and
allowed to remain there for two to three weeks, would be useful for cleaning
water in ponds, tanks and rivers. This method is also useful in cleaning
overhead water tanks of individual households and communities. (Based on a report in TOI TECH, THE TIMES
OF INDIA, September 23, 2015).
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