Day: December 21, 2021

The Delivery That Smitten Everyone-The Flower Delivery

Introduction=

For every special occasion whether formal, informal, official, unofficial people usually find it appropriate to carry flowers with them. And as the culture where it is considered respectable and suitable gained popularity the business that flourished with florists diving into new world of trade and commerce is flower delivery. It is the service provided by many different companies both online and offline for people to order and send flowers to a distinct party to show their love, care and support.

Occasions=

The exchange of flowers usually takes place in occasions, like-

  •  Attending a party (public or personal)
  • Gifting them on special days
  • Sharing the happiness for big days (promotion, weddings, etc.)
  • Wishing good luck
  • Grieving or presenting condolences
  • Biding goodbye

History=

Very few are not aware of the fact that sale of flowers has been happening now for centuries and just the method or mode of delivery have changed with no modifications in the imperativeness that flower delivery holds. In the earlier days without the facility of any kind of mail service people took flowers themselves even for long journeys. As the progress started to happen now telegrams were being used for sending flowers on the other side. With courier service then came the dealing of flowers in the same city by phone. And currently online platform has given new heights to trade of flowers.

Modifications=

With advances in technology day after day, it became important for florists to improve their style of work as well. This modification mainly came in the field of supplying the flowers to the customers. With technological enhancement the providing of flowers through online portals became easy and efficient and in demand. It was significantly observed that consumers were now more interested in ordering online for it gave them more choices, better discounts and timely delivery all at the comfort of their homes.

Summing Up=

As there is a constant progress taking place in various fields in the contemporary world a change in pattern of getting flowers for different occasion was also destined. With the phenomenon of self love gaining fans, a new trend of getting flowers for themselves is apparent. Folks in today’s world do not wait for some being to get them flowers rather they go out and buy it for themselves. As new fads come and go the carrying of flowers to most occasions remain unaffected as it is the flower delivery that smitten everyone.

Photo by Jonathan Nenemann on Pexels.com

Impact of Covid-19 on Indian Tourism

The lockdown imposed by the countries has shaken different economic sectors to its core and one of the most affected and devastated sector is tourism industry. According to the report of World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), 100.8 million people lost their jobs which is 31% of the total jobs in this sector due to Covid-19 pandemic. It contributed 10.3% to the global economic GDP which is expected to lower down by 31%. It restricted the movement of various modes of transports such as aviation, railways, buses etc. It has caused reduction in human activities which in turn has affected the hospitality sector that goes hand in hand with the tourism industry.


Talking of Indian Tourism Industry, it is one of the largest service sectors including transportation, hospitality, food and beverage and associated tourism products which is famous for it’s hospitality, welcome, cultural heritage, lifestyles, variety of food and varied geography. The foreigners are largely attracted with the heritage and religious buildings, coastal areas, beaches, temples and a lot many which are yet to be discovered. Apart from these natural sight-seeing, many associated activities are also created so that people coming to this place also give a look at these such as adventure sports. It fascinates the tourists and also give them an enriching and life time experience. It may look as a very side-lined activities but contributes hugely in the promotion of tourism industry in India.


Covid affected this industry very badly which contributed to the global economy significantly and provided employment. Before the pandemic, it was flourishing day by day and touching new heights. The nationwide lockdown imposed by government of India restricted people to roam around freely and gather at one place to control the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2. It also suspended all tourist visas which is now changed time to time with different terms and conditions. The rules and regulations are now not that stringent but there are personal preferences and choices also which matter a lot. It largely depends that how people perceive of that place which they are yet to visit or are visiting. They may think like this that maybe the country they want to visit has lifted all the restrictions but that was the hub of the infection in past times. It was the most affected nation with the novel coronavirus and the healthcare services and system provided are also not that advanced. Also, people present and residing there are also not fully vaccinated which creates the chances of getting contracted with the virus. All these factors are summed up and creates fear in their mind and their fear does not allow them to visit that place.


This is may vary with other countries who have advanced healthcare services, fully vaccinated citizens and which was also not very badly affected with the virus but then there are people who don’t want to take any chances even the slightest one.


So, the conclusion which comes out from considering all the facets, it will not be wrong to say that tourism industry suffered badly. There are many people who lost their jobs, livelihood and much more in these difficult times which cannot be put into words. The suffrage of these people cannot be felt and articulated. Only they know the struggles which are happen to take place every day and the pain it causes. Apart from all these, there are also people who now fear to take a tour which is obvious also. The fear will not be vanished in a day or two. It will take time and so its revival largely depends upon the methods opted by their country officials and the country which they want to visit. It will take more time compared to other industries to restore its former glory.

The origin of Glass- Why they are transparent?

Archaeological findings suggest that glass was first created during the Bronze Age in the Middle East. To the southeast, in Egypt, glass beads have seen found dating back to about 2500 B.C.E. Glass is made from a mixture of silica sand, calcium oxide, soda, and magnesium, which is melted in a furnace at 2,730°F (1,500°C). Most early furnaces produced insufficient heat to melt the glass properly, so glass was a luxury item that few people could afford. This situation changed in the first century B.C.E. when the blowpipe was discovered. Glass manufacturing spread throughout the Roman Empire in such quantities that glass was no longer a luxury. It flourished in Venice in the fifteenth century, where soda lime glass, known as ‘cristallo’, was developed. Venetian glass objects were said to be the most delicate and graceful in the world.

How glass was made?

It all begins in the earth’s crust, where the two most common elements are silicon and oxygen. These react together to form silicon dioxide, whose molecules arrange themselves into a regular crystalline form known as quartz. Quartz is commonly found in sand, where it often makes up most of the grains and is the main ingredient in most types of glass. You probably noticed that glass isn’t made of multiple tiny bits of quartz and for good reason. The edges of the rigidly formed grains and smaller defects within the crystal structure reflect and disperse light that hits them. But when the quartz is heated high enough, the extra energy makes the molecules vibrate until they break the bonds holding them together and become a flowing liquid, the same way that ice melts into water. Unlike water, though, liquid silicon dioxide does not reform into a crystal solid when it cools. Instead, as the molecules lose energy, they are less and less able to move into an ordered position, and the result is what is called an amorphous solid. A solid material with the chaotic structure of a liquid, which allows the molecules to freely fill in any gaps, this makes the surface of lass uniform on a microscopic level, allowing light to strike it without being scattered in different directions.

How glass is transparent?

Why light is able to pass through glass rather than being absorbed as with most solids? You may know that an atom consists of a nucleus with electrons orbiting around it, but you may not know that an atom has a lot of empty space. So, light passes through these atoms easily without hitting any of these particles. Then why aren’t all materials transparent? This is because, the different energy levels those electrons in an atom can have. Consider an atom of an iron, an electron in it initially assigned to move in a certain orbit. But if it had the enough energy; it could reach the exited state and jump to a closer orbit. So, one of the light photons passing through can provide the needed energy. But there is one thing; the energy from the photon has to be the right amount to get an electron to the next orbit. Otherwise, it will just let the photon pass by, and it just so happens that in glass, the electrons are placed so far from each other, that the photons of visible light can’t provide enough energy for an electron. Photons from ultra violet light give just the right amount of energy, and are absorbed. That’s why you can’t get a suntan through glass. This amazing property of being both solid and transparent has given glass many uses throughout the centuries.

In the 1950s Sir Alastair Pilkington introduced ‘float glass production”, a revolutionary method still used to make glass. Other developments have included safety glass, heat resistant glass, and fiber optics, where light pulses are sent along thin fibers of glass. Fiber optic devices are used in telecommunications and in medicine for viewing inaccessible parts of the human body.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Environmental issues harmful to human beings, animals and plants.They are environmental issues like pollution, deforestation, climate change, Ozone depletion, waste management.

MAJOR TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:-

* Climate change

* Deforestation

* Ozone depletion

* Biodiversity Loss

* Acid rain

* Human overpopulation

* Global warming

CLIMATE CHANGE:-

Climate change is the long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns in a place. It is both natural or artificial.But most of the it is because of humans.By burning of fossil fuels and natural gases like oil,coal which causes the release of green house gases leads to the alternation of climate.

DEFORESTATION:-

Deforestation is defined as removal of large amount of trees from forest and destroying agricultural lands for human deforestation is one of the major problem causes soil erosion,no rain, disturb water cycle and natural habitats.

OZONE DEPLETION:-

ozone depletion, gradual thinning of Earth’s ozone layer in the upper atmosphere caused by the release of chemical compounds containing gaseous chlorine or bromine from industry and other human activities.ozone depletion cause increase in uv radiation leads to skin cancer,eye cataracts,immune defeciency.It also affect plants growth and reduce agricultural productivity.In survey of 2020 17 percentage of ozone is destroyed.

BIODIVERSITY LOSS:-

Biodiversity loss includes the extinction of species worldwide, as well as the local reduction of species in a certain habitat, resulting in a loss of biological biodiversity loss is caused by habitat loss, invasive species,ove exploitation, climate change and global warming.some example for biodiversity loss is extinction of plants and animals.Redicing rate of amphibians are some examples.

ACID RAIN:-

Acid rain, or acid deposition, is a broad term that includes any form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall to the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms.Acid rain is caused due to the chemical reaction with sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides introduced in air.It pollutes air and soil.It have impact on soil, freshwater cause killing aquatic life forms.It cause corrosion of steel structures.

HUMAN OVERPOPULATION:-

Human overpopulation means that human population becoming very large.It is mainly in developing countries like India,china . Human overpopulation is because of birth rate is higher than that of death rate.Human overpopulation leads toenvironmental issues, silently aggravating the forces behind global warming, environmental pollution, habitat loss, the sixth mass extinction, intensive farming practices and the consumption of finite natural resources.

GLOBAL WARMING:-

The excess heat in the atmosphere which causes the rise in temperature is called global warming.Global warming is mainly caused by climate change, industries and the green house gases.It is serious threat to life on earth in the forms of widespread flooding and extreme weather.Reduce water supply, Decrease agricultural yields , rise in temperature and drought.It is harmful to all living organisms in the earth.

“Earth is like a pressure cooker it controls itself only to limit If it exceeds everything is destroyed”.

The Scrupulously Portrayed Erudition of Online Gambling

Prologue=

Gambling is the act of betting money on various platforms with the intention of earning more than the bet. This act is basically judging the chances of winning of a particular team or happening of an event so as to bet on that probability and make money out of it. A lot of people bet for the easy money that gambling brings in for them, while other might do it just for fun, and still others are just addicted to it after a certain period. Online gambling is the on the web, technological and virtual gambling that is fast gaining fans in the contemporary world.

Annals=

The way people betted was not always online, it was face to face in the old times where people betted with real cash to a bookie. With the improvement in the know-how of the internet, the upgrading of the gambling to the virtual space was an obvious result. It is agreed that it was in 1990s that civilians became aware of the detail that internet could be used for betting and not too late in 1996-1997 many online spaces and portals with the intention of promoting virtual betting came in existence, and since then, the fan following of this has been on a rise.

Legality=

Online gambling is a subject under the governance of the state law in India. It is not therefore illegal but there is no such act or provision relating only to it. Therefore, it is many-a-times dealt with Information Technology Act, of 2000. Various states have their own laws regarding gambling-

  • Nagaland- The Nagaland Prohibition of Gambling, Prohibition and Regulation of Online Games of Skills Act, 2015
  • Sikkim- Sikkim Online Gambling Regulation Act, 2008
  • Kerala- Kerala Gaming Act, 1960
  • West Bengal- West Bengal Gambling and Prize Distribution Act, 1957
  • Rajasthan- Rajasthan Public Gambling Ordinance, 1949

Winding Up=

In the day and age where it is becoming difficult to earn a living with rising unemployment and continuous price rise, gambling can prove to be a major source of income. Although there are reservations among some sections of the society regarding the act of betting but with expertise and experience in any field it is not knotty to earn a living through online gambling. The illegality leads to hideous betting thereby depriving government of its taxes. Legality is thus, a necessity.

My recent visit at Kaziranga National Orchid and Biodiversity Park in Assam

On 15 December 2021, I had the opportunity to visit Kaziranga National Orchid and Biodiversity Park which is located in Golaghat district, Assam. Kaziranga is world famous for one horned rhino. It is known to all that tourists from different parts of the world visit the Kaziranga National Park to watch one horned rhino as well as many other animals’ and birds. Also pristine beauty can be seen in the place. Kaziranga is 230 Kilometres away from Guwahati and takes around 5 hours to reach by car. The surface road is very good. In Kaziranga there is an Orchid Park which is also an important place to visit as many things can be learned from the Orchid Park. In this article, a few points about the Orchid Park are highlighted so that readers can get an idea in this regard. Also those who are interested can take up research study. As already mentioned, the author visited the Orchid Park on 15 December 2021 and Mrs Sumitra Rabha local facilitator has explained each and every plant in general and special orchids in particular lucidly. It is pertinent to mention that Orchids in the world can be divided into two groups – monopodial or sympodial based on their habit of growth. Monopodial orchids such as Phalaenopsis, Renanthera and Vanda have a main stem which grows year after year as Cattleya, Cymbidium have a main Stem which terminates growth at the end of each season. A new shoot then grows from the base forming its own bulbous stem called pseudo-bulb which eventually flowers. The pseudo-bulb or thickened stem are very useful devices for the storage of food and water and function like bulbs. In addition to the epiphytic orchids, there are also ground orchids or terrestrial orchids which grow like ordinary plants with their roots in soil. Most of the temperate zone orchids are terrestrial and tropical orchids are epiphytes (orchidsasia.com/orcintro.htm). Orchids constitute 9 percent of our flora and are the largest botanical family of higher plants in India. It is estimated that about 1,300 species (140 genera) of orchids are found in India with Himalayas as their main home and others distributed in Eastern and Western Ghats. The following is the distribution of orchids’ species in different regions of India.
a) In North-Western Himalayas 200 species are found
b) In North-Eastern India 800 species are observed
c) In Western Ghats 300 species exist.
It is pertinent to mention here that in North-east India due to different climatic conditions the largest group of sub-tropical orchids are found. Some orchids endemic to Indian species are so ornamental and in demand that they have been over exploited. Some species in general like Arundina, Cymbidium, Coelogyne, Dendrobium, Paphiopedilum, Renanthera, and Vanda are almost extinct. The provisional list of 150 endangered plants of India includes many orchids like Acanthephippium sylhetense, Anoectochilussikkimensis, Aphyllorchis montana, Arachnanthe clarkei, Arundina graminifolio,Cymbidium macrorhizon, Dendrobium densiforum, Didiciea cunninghamii, Eriacrassicaulis, Galeola lindleyana, etc., (orchidsasia.com/orcintro.htm).
The Orchid Park in Kaziranga is spread over to an area of six acres located at Durgapur village in Golaghat district and is considered as the largest Orchid Park in the Northeast. In the Orchid Park, there are more than 500 varieties of wild orchids, 132 species of sour fruits and leafy vegetables, 46species of bamboo, 12 species of cane and many other plants. Some of the names of flowers/orchids which attracted me to mention here are in Assamese called ‘Baghar Dari’(Tiger beard) botanical name is Black Bat flower/Devil flower (this is simply flower not Orchid) and Dancing flower and some of the Orchids are Kopu phool (Assamese), botanical name is Rhynchostylis retusa (also called Foxtail Orchid). Kopu Phool/ Kopu flower (Foxtail Orchid) is the state flower of Assam. In addition, other varieties of Kopu Phools which can be seen in the Park are Aerides odorata (Assamese name -Bhato thuthiya kopu), Cymbium aloifolium (in Assamese Mota kopu) and Dendrobium aphyllum (Assamese name Halikithutia kopu). And some other botanical names of Orchids as observed in the Orchid Park are Coelogyne fimbriata, Phalaenopsis mannii, Phalaenopsis labbii, Phalaenopsis malipoensis, Eriabi flora etc.
So, I request the readers please visit Kaziranga National Park for watching the rhinos and other animals and birds, also visit Orchid Park.
I thank Thomas Cook Ltd which is an Indian travel agency, headquartered in Mumbai, for arranging the tour meticulously.