48 hours and 28 km later

NAIMESHA THAKUR

Special ArrangementFor a memory That will last a lifetime

TOPICS
lifestyle and leisure
holiday or vacation


It’s worth the blood, sweat and tears after climbing Kumara Parvatha

Amid the rolling hills, lush greenery, and the thought that tigers roam free here, a 28-km trek to Kumara Parvatha, in the Pushpagiri ranges of the Western Ghats, is an investment of two days for a memory that will last a lifetime.

Despite being warned that the jungles are home to snakes, tigers, and elephants and that the trek difficulty level was 4/5, which includes steep inclines and some rock-climbing, there is perceptible excitement among the trekkers-to-be.

We all start with a copious application of sunscreen, don our hats and secure our bags at the Kukke Subramanya Bus Stand, which is about two and a half hours from Mangalore.

The trekkers are given an emergency kit to be worn around the waist and a hiking pod. The kit contains a few tablets, a reflecting mirror, a whistle, a sachet of ORS and a few other basic things, in case one of us drifts away from the group.

For us city folk, trekking was never going to be easy. We are advised to pop dates into our mouth and not chew them — this way, they would release capsules of sugary energy gradually, much needed during our trek. The profuse sweating, limited eating, and the walk is like a detox process for us.

While passing through the rough upward slope of dense jungle, a stretch that lasts around three hours, the canopy of trees shields us from the blistering sun. Out of the jungle, and on the rolling slopes, the glare of the sun takes its toll in full. A small house, in the middle of nowhere, provides us with a welcome respite, water refills and lunch.

At sunset, the lush green mountains and the huge rocks are swathed in the warm glow of a glorious orange sun. A gentle breeze blows on us refreshingly. There is a man-made viewpoint from where you can gaze forever at the mesmerising mountain range. As we move on, tiger territory is announced with a cow carcass strewn across our path.

Before the night gets darker, we reach the top of the mountain, set up a fireplace with logs and dry grass acting as tinder, pitch our tents, and use water from a nearby spring to cook. Our sensation of triumph is temporary, as the guide announces that the day-long trek has brought us only to the base of Kumara Parvatha.

At 5.30 am the next day, under a rising sun and a cool mountain breeze, we start again. The floating clouds look just out of reach against the bright horizontal streak of the horizon. The sweat and blood, our small bruises and wounds from the previous day, is already worth it.

After trekking through jungles and some rock-climbing, we reach the mountain. Stone shrines, dedicated to Lord Shiva and other gods, dot the peak. Drama awaits us as we descend the slope. During the trek across the jungle, we had spotted a big King Cobra between two trees, and later tiger dung with a tiger fur ball. Now, our guide reminds us that animal movement starts at 6.30 pm. We race against the setting sun, crossing the jungle in a single file, with only torches to guide us.

Our imagination is on overdrive, ears pricking up at every sound and translating it into fear. Loud thumping sounds we assume are from charging elephants, and we stand still waiting for it to cease. Finally, we are back.

In the safety of the city, we allow the warmth of triumph and achievement to lull us to sleep.

Only One Move :: Awesome Short Story

A 10-year-old boy decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.
The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move.

... “Sensei,”(Teacher in Japanese) the boy finally said, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?” “This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei replied.

Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament.

Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.

This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out.

He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened. “No,” the sensei insisted, “Let him continue.” Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament.

He was the champion. On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.

“Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?”

“You won for two reasons,” the sensei answered. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.”

The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.

:: Moral of the Story ::
Sometimes we feel that we have certain weaknesses and we blame God, the circumstances or ourselves for it but we never know that our weaknesses can become our strengths one day.

Each of us is special and important, so never think you have any weakness, never think of pride or pain, just live your life to its fullest and extract the best out of it!

Interview (campus placement-ONGC)

I am going to share my experience of the interview during campus placement (ONGC)at NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY RAIPUR on 30 JANUARY 2012.
There were four interviewers which will be numbered I1,I2,I3,I4.(they were seated from left to right)
Here it starts;
                                      I was anxiously waiting for my turn and one can easily guess by my gait that i was completely tensed (which i do not want to be).Then a very good friend of mine came,held my hand and uttered these words which instantaneously uplifted my confidence "Remember one thing;there are only two possibilities that could happen ,either you get selected in the company or you get to study in Germany (by this time i was planning to pursue MS). ". These words in that situation proved to be very helpful (since knowing the possibilities cleared my mind from the fears)and i thank GOD for selecting him(my friend) in the same company as my colleague.

The first interviewer opened the door and called
I1: ACHALLA (my surname)
Me:Yes sir.
I1:Come in
(went inside and wished them Good Morning)

I3:Satya,Please take your seat.
Me:Thank you sir.
I3:Tell me about Yourself
Me:My name is ........(and gave my introduction of my parents and siblings.)  
I3:Who is your rolemodel?
(I paused for a few seconds and answered)
Me:Sir, Dr.A.P.J.Abdul kalam
I3:So you must have read the book 'WINGS OF FIRE'
Me:Yes sir.
(He then asked a few of questions regarding the biography of Dr.kalam to which i answered  a couple of them )
I3: Who do you want to be a successful person or a good person?
Me: Sir, a successful person
I3: why?
Me: Sir, I know i am a good person and success gives me confidence.So, i want to be a successful person.
I3:What is your biggest achievement?
Me:When i completed my NCC  with "c" Certificate, i felt it is my Biggest achievement.

I4:Ravi, you are from ANDHRA Pradesh ,right?
Me:yes sir.
I4:there's been an issue going on in AP for the past few years,do you know about it?  
Me:yes sir, it is about TELANGANA.

I4:What is your opinion?  
Me:No sir. (i was about to give the reason and he stopped me and suddenly there was a serious expression on his face)

I4:Are you interested in sports?
Me:Yes sir.

I4:What is your opinion about the tennis finals of yesterday?
Me:I didnot watch it sir.

I4:What sports do you like?
Me:Sir, I regularly play cricket.

I4:What happened to the INDIAN cricket team recently?
Me:Sir, they lost to Australia 4-0.

I4:So,what should the INDIAN team do?
Me:they should practice a lot, sir.

I4:What about the senior players,should they remain in the team ?
Me:No sir.They should step aside and  guide the freshers so that instills confidence and allows the freshers to play well.

(now the technical part)

I4:What is pollution?
Me:Defined pollution.

I4:What is Climate change?
Me:Started with definition of climate and he stopped me.(wrong answer was given by me).

I4:How do you control pollution?
Me:(explained the methods like) by using control equipment.

I4:You keep this answer with you till the evening and do not disclose it.(At this point,it appeared to me he was being sarcastic while saying it)
Me:(kept quiet).


I3:Achalla,what is Bearing which you see in all the machinery?
Me:(Defined bearing thrice, to which he finally  agreed the third time).


I2:Shankar,What are the mountings of diesel engine?
Me:(answered after pause ,by giving the name of a single mounting).


I4:Satya, there are four other competitors with you.whom do you feel is the best competitor among the four?
Me:sir, (___xxxxxxx__) (and was ready to support my answer to which he stopped me.)


I3:You can leave now.
Me:Thank you ! sir.
                                                     

Seminar topics

1. ABS
2. MODERN FURNITURE
3. AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING
4. OFF SHORE WIND TURBINES
5. MOTORBIKE MAINTENANCE
6. MAGNETIC REFRIGERATION
7. CVT- CONTINUOUS VARIABLE TRANSMISSION
8. CAM LESS ENGINE VALVES

IGNITED MINDS

IGNITED MINDS- Unleashing the power within INDIA

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen ABDUL KALAM (DOB-15 OCT.1931) recipient of PADMA BHUSHAN (‘81), PADMA VIBHUSHAN (‘90) AND BHARAT RATNA (‘97). A well known scientist, worked with DRDO,ISRO and the Government of INDIA.

                                                          Ignited Minds (Apr.2002)is an attempt to awaken the potential hidden among the young in INDIA so that DEVELOPED INDIA can be achieved. In short -Thinking is the capital, Enterprise is the way and Hard Work is the solution. Ignited Minds is about developing that conviction in ourselves and discarding the things that hold us back. 

          Dream, Dream, Dream ;

          Dreams transform into thoughts

          And thoughts result in Action.

After a helicopter crash (Sept.2001) A.K delivers his speech and rests in his room and dreams about the five major personalities: Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Emperor Asoka, Abraham Lincoln and Caliph Omar. Dreams have the power of creativity and this leads to think about the dream and thus thoughts result in action. Spirituality must be integrated with education, together they have the ability to establish the highest power of knowledge.

ROLE MODELS: learn from the role models, Respect them but do not imitate them. For children up to the age of fifteen-Parents and teachers should be their role models and this has an impact on the future of the country.

A.K’s Favourite Books:

1.     MAN THE UNKNOWN (Body and Mind)-Dr.ALEXIS CARREL

2.    THIRUVALLUVAR’S THIRUKKURAL

3.    LIGHT FROM MANY LAMPS (HOW WE LIVE)-LILLIAN EICHER

4.    HOLY QURAN

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now”-Goethe.

Visionary teachers and scientists – this chapter states that Vision is the most important for the development. A.K’s favourite teacher Prof. Totadri Iyengar.

Aryabhatta- Aryabhattiam (2 parts).Discovered the value of “pi” as the ratio of circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Bramhagupta- Bramha Stupa  Siddhanta. Given solution of intermediate equations to different degrees.

Bhaskaracharya-Siddhantasirohmani and evolved the value of zero.

Kalam says that for the betterment of a nation Vision should be established and for this to occur, Spirituality with education (ancient sciences should be given paramount role) should be taught.

PURA-Provide Urban Facilities In Rural Areas.

Tamil poem by Awaiyar:

It is rare to be born as human being

It is still more rare to be born without any deformity

Even if you are born without any deformity

It is rare to acquire knowledge and education

Even if one could acquire knowledge and education

It is still rare to do offerings and tapas

But for one who does offerings and tapas

The doors of heaven open to greet him.

‘When u speak, speak the truth; perform when you promise; discharge your trust…withhold your hands from striking.and from taking which is unlawful and bad.’

“I do not care for liberation, I would rather go to a hundred thousand hells,’doing good to others (silently) like the spring’, this is my religion”- SWAMI VIVEKANANDA.

                   Nature has always been a best friend to man. The point is he should realize it before it is too late.

For a people of a nation to rise to the highest, they must have a common memory of great Heros and exploits, of great adventures and triumphs in the past. All nations which have risen to greatness have been characterized by a sense of mission. The most important and urgent task before our leadership is to get all the forces for constructive change together and deploy them in a mission mode.

“Wisdom is a weapon to ward off destruction. It is an inner fortress which enemies cannot destroy”-Thirrukural.

Knowledge is acquired through education, information, intelligence and experience. KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN THE PRIME MOVER OF PROSPERITY AND POWER. The acquisition of knowledge has therefore been the thrust area throughout the world. The knowledge society has two important components driven by societal transformation and wealth generation.

Core areas : IT, BT, ST, Weather forecasting, Disaster management, telemedicine and teleeducation.

“Determine that things can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way”- Abraham Lincoln.

Five areas of Core competence-

1.     Agriculture and food processing

2.    Power (Electricity)

3.    Education and health care

4.    Information Technology

5.    Strategic sector-Nuclear, Space and Defense Technology.

REACH-RELEVANCE AND EXCELLENCE IN ACHIEVING NEW HEIGHTS IN EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

CORE- CENTRES OF RELEVANCE AND EXCELLENCE.

We need to dapt the implementation of our programmes and policies into a mission mode to succeed. The abundant natural resources, human and material, remain to be fully utilized. Value addition should be an important step for the development of a nation.

“The horse that flew-chidanand Rajghatta.”

Start by risking your own position for a mission. Either I deliver or I go. prepare for the Endeavour. With effort and perseverance you will always succeed.

We need to realize that missions are always bigger than organizations, just as organizations are always bigger than the individuals who run them.

Cosortium amon the companies and the unity among the nation-like before the independence makes our nation a super power.

“Song of youth”

How exercise benefits the brain (wrf the hindu 17-12-11))

To learn more about how exercise affects the brain, scientists in Ireland recently asked a group of sedentary male college students to take part in a memory test followed by strenuous exercise.


First, the young men watched a rapid-fire line-up of photos with the faces and names of strangers. After a break, they tried to recall the names they had just seen as the photos again zipped across a computer screen.


Afterward, half of the students rode a stationary bicycle, at an increasingly strenuous pace, until they were exhausted. The others sat quietly for 30 minutes. Then both groups took the brain-teaser test again.


Notably, the exercised volunteers performed significantly better on the memory test than they had on their first try, while the volunteers who had rested did not improve.


Meanwhile, blood samples taken throughout the experiment offered a biological explanation for the boost in memory among the exercisers. Immediately after the strenuous activity, the cyclists had significantly higher levels of a protein known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which is known to promote the health of nerve cells. The men who had sat quietly showed no comparable change in BDNF levels.


For some time, scientists have believed that BDNF helps explain why mental functioning appears to improve with exercise. However, they haven’t fully understood which parts of the brain are affected or how those effects influence thinking. The Irish study suggests that the increases in BDNF prompted by exercise may play a particular role in improving memory and recall.


Other new studies have reached similar conclusions, among both people and animals, young and old. In one interesting experiment published last month, Brazilian scientists found that after sedentary elderly rats ran for a mere five minutes or so several days a week for five weeks, a cascade of biochemical processes ignited in the memory center of their brains, culminating in increased production of BDNF molecules there. The old, exercised animals then performed almost as well as much younger rats on rodent memory tests.


Another animal study, this one performed by researchers in the Brain Injury Research Centre at the University of California, Los Angeles, and published in September in the journal Neuroscience, showed that if adult rats were allowed to run at will for a week, the memory centre of their brains afterward contained more BDNF molecules than in sedentary rats, and teemed with a new population of precursor molecules that presumably would soon develop into fully functioning BDNF molecules.


Perhaps the most inspiring of the recent experiments is one involving aging human pilots. For the experiment, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine asked 144 experienced pilots ages 40 to 65 to operate a cockpit simulator three separate times over the course of two years.


For all of the pilots, performance declined somewhat as the years passed. A similar decline with age is common in all of us.


Many people find it more difficult to perform skilled tasks – driving an automobile, for instance – as they grow older, says Dr. Ahmad Salehi, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford and lead author of the study.


But in this case, the decline was especially striking among one particular group of men. These aging pilots carried a common genetic variation that is believed to reduce BDNF activity in their brains. The men with a genetic tendency toward lower BDNF levels seemed to lose their ability to perform complicated tasks at almost double the rate of the men without the variation.


While the pilot experiment wasn’t an exercise study, it does raise the question of whether strenuous exercise could slow such declines by raising BDNF levels, thereby salvaging our ability to perform skilled manual tasks well past middle age.


“So many studies have shown that exercise increases levels of BDNF,” says Salehi. While he notes that other growth factors and body chemicals are “upregulated” by exercise, he believes BDNF holds the most promise.


“The one factor that shows the fastest, most consistent and greatest response is BDNF,” he says. “It seems to be key to maintaining not just memory but skilled task performance.”


Salehi plans next to examine the exercise histories of the pilots, to see whether those with the gene variant, which is common among people of European or Asian backgrounds, respond differently to workouts.


In people who have the variant and less BDNF activity, “exercise is probably even more important,” he says. “But for everyone, the evidence is very, very strong that physical activity will increase BDNF levels and improve cognitive health.”

Muscles that remember (wrf the hindu dt:17-12-11)

If you start by being active when young, the memory is stored by your body to be pulled out for later use.


If you can cover 10 km in 1.20 hours at a brisk walk, you definitely fall under the 'fit' category. And based on facts, three days a week and three months of cardio respiratory fitness would fetch such results.


But what surprised and intrigued me was that my sister - who is about 20 kg above her ideal BMI (Body Mass Index) and has not been within sniffing distance of any fitness programme for more than 10 years - did this 10 km in 1.20 hrs rather effortlessly.


This was because her body didn't perceive brisk walking as exertion; and that's because of muscle memory. She was a sportsperson during her younger days.


Like motor learning


Now, is muscle memory stored in your muscles? Of course not; memories are stored in your brain. Muscle memory is similar to motor learning, which is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor activity into memory through repetition. When that movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that activity eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort.


When it comes to gross motor skills like movement of large muscles or major body movements like walking or running, the extent to which one exhibits gross motor skills depends largely on muscle tone and strength. The foundation is laid when a child starts learning these movements and then consolidates them. As a matter of fact, we walk today because of that motor memory.


It's a little like learning to balance on and ride a bicycle. If you learnt to do that at the age of 6-7, and then never touch a cycle till age 35, you still don't have to relearn anything. Your body will balance and ride it effortlessly compared to another 35-year-old adult who didn't learn to cycle as a child. And guess what? That person's chances of learning to ride are pretty bleak.


So the important pint here is to put in train children the right way at the right time so that the chances of their being unfit later - the years when it is crucial to stay fit – declines. Given the concern about increasing childhood obesity and consequent health issues, all it takes is to just play right.


Stages of physical development


Birth to 6months: Reflexive and spontaneous movement


6 months – 2 years: Rudimentary movements


2–6 years: Fundamental movements


6–12 years: Sports skills (gymnastics, tennis, martial arts)


12–18 years: Growth and refinement


18–30years: Peak performance


If you are a parent


Encourage your child to take part in sports


If the child shows interest in a specific sport help him/her pursue it


Look at other options if the sport is not available in school


It is difficult to balance academics and sports. But, what if your child is a prodigy? Remember Sachin Tendulkar