So my another article is about a well known evil practice of society, dowry system. It the most common problem in every family whether it’s the poor, middle or rich class of the society. The marriage is considered as business and terms and conditions are mentioned. It sounds like a contract, the better the boy and family is, the higher is the price.

The history of dowry system is old. At the time of marriage of a daughter, the presents are given as dowry to her husband and family so that she can live happily there with all the luxuries and comforts. But unfortunately it has turned into an ugly and unfair practice.

One of the worst part of this practice is that if a girl brings less dowry she is harassed by her husband and in laws of the family. No one supports her at that time and the girl takes major steps which can risk her life. Most of the girls try to hide this from their parents so that they don’t get tense about the situation and handle everything alone. Parents are even pressurised to fulfill the demands from time to time.

The custom of dowry has crossed every barrier and has got it’s roots in the society. Although there are strict laws which have been made and imposed on the culprits too but people are not taking it as a lesson in their lives. Many ngo and women organization are also working for the enforcement of these laws strictly and encouraging the women to speak up.

We as the citizens, marching towards the new millennium, should also strive for the discontinuation of this evil practice. The boys should try to change the mindset of the families that marriage can’t be done as business and girls should try to make understand their parents that dowry is an unfair practice, not a tradition.

Hope this was helpful. Thank you all my readers!!

This article is about green revolution and the use of HYV seeds. The green revolution in India began in the mid 1960’s marking a transition from traditional agriculture in India and the introduction of high yielding varieties of seeds and the associated agricultural techniques . The need for introducing the Green Revolution in India arose due to a shortage of food-grains in India in part due to the legacy of colonial regime.

Need of green revolution – The government of India post – Independence wanted to make India self dependent on terms of food grain production and these efforts coincided with the development of high yielding varieties of seeds of wheat developed by Norman Borlaug and his associates in Mexico.

Food shortage – The situation in terms of fulfilling nutritional needs of Indians was worse before the green revolution in India. In the British colonial period the grain supply was dependent on British trade and high trade price led to affordability issues for Indian people in accessing food.

Impact of green revolution – The green revolution did effectively solve India’s problem of food grain shortage after it was introduced, it was a boon to India’s agricultural production. The green revolution in India started with great promise and made immense contributions in boosting agricultural productivity with HYV seeds, and the introduction of new methods of agriculture.

Endnote – There can be no guaranteed assurance that using high yielding seeds will increase yields exponentially, which also can be dependent on agricultural practices and environmental elements. A balance must also be found between traditional techniques and modern farming science as also with natural growth. Hope you will like it.

Thank you!!!!

• Honey bees have five eyes
• Bees have been producing honey for at least 150 million years
• A cave painting depicting an androgynous figure robbing honey out of the hive was found in the Cave of the Spider in Valencia, Spain. It is estimated to be 15,000 years old.
• Honey stored in air tight containers never spoils. Sealed honey vats found in King Tut’s tomb still contained edible honey, despite over 2,000 years beneath the sands.
• 80% of the pollination of the fruits, vegetables and seed crops in the U.S. is accomplished by honeybees.
• A queen is the largest bee in the hive. She can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day, twice her own body weight per day.
• Bees have to fly over 55,000 miles to make 1 lb. of honey.

• Worker honey bees are all females. Males do not know how to even feed themselves and their only reason for being in the hive is for reproducing with the queen. The males do not have a stinger and they are kicked out of the hive in the autumn, because there are no uses for them.
• Honey bees are very clean .They want their hive (which they made themselves, hexagon by hexagon) to be immaculately clean. If something dirties their hive, they will immediately get the offense out. The only honey bee in the hive that uses the bathroom inside the hive is the queen. She never leaves the hive, so her faithful workers get her mess right out. Bees will also make sure that when their time comes, they will die outside of the hive.
• There is only one queen per hive. The queen lives 2-3 years. The queen is made, rather than born. Worker bees will feed larvae royal jelly for a certain period of time. The royal jelly is secreted through the heads of the worker bees and is fed through their antennas to the larvae. The royal jelly has so many vitamins and nutrients it will allow for the larvae to become queens. Since there can only be one queen per hive, the potential queen bees will fight to the death until there is one queen remaining.

• Honey bees, like their name  implies, are the only insects to make honey. Bumblebees make a honey like substance, but it tastes nothing like the sweet honey we know and love. They also make this in very small quantities. Honey bees though make honey in surplus so bee keepers are able to take a certain amount without hurting the bees or depriving them of food.
• Honey bees never sleep! No wonder worker bees have such a short lifespan!
• Honey bees are the only insects that produce something that humans eat. It is also the only food that never goes bad! Its sugar content is too high and because it is naturally anti microbial, (Anti fungal, anti bacterial, anti everything nasty) which is why it’s also such an incredible healer.
• The honey bee colonies each have a distinct odor which allows for them to identify the members. Often times bee keepers will need to assimilate colonies. A way to do that would be to place bees from each colony into a paper bag together. The paper bag should have a divider so each colony stays in its own side. Being in the container together the smells will mix and they will not be able to recognize the other bees as enemies due to their familiar odor.
• The Queen bee lays up to 2,000 eggs per day! She can also select the gender of the larvae. Most larvae that will be produced will be female..

• To make one pound of honey it would take 556 workers and 2 million flowers. 50-100 flowers are pollinated during one collection trip. About one ounce of honey is all it takes to give the honey bee enough energy to fly around the world (although the farthest they usually fly away from their hive is six miles).
• Honey never spoils. No need to refrigerate it. It can be stored unopened, indefinitely, at room temperature in a dry cupboard.
• Due to the high level of fructose, honey is 25% sweeter than table sugar . . 
• Honey is created when bees mix plant nectar, a sweet substance secreted by flowers, with their own bee enzymes.
• To make honey, bees drop the collected nectar into the honeycomb and then evaporate it by fanning their wings.
• Honey has different flavors and colors, depending on the location and kinds of flowers the bees visit. Climatic conditions of the area also influence its flavor and color. NZ’s Rata honey is nearly white, Manuka honey is rich ginger-brown and Black Beech honeydew honey is dark brown.

• To keep their hives strong, beekeepers must place them in locations that will provide abundant nectar sources as well as water.
• In the days before biology and botany were understood, people thought it was a special kind of magic that turned flower nectar into honey.
• Honeybees are one of science’s great mysteries because they have remained unchanged for 20 million years, even though the world changed around them.
• The true honey bee was not known in New Zealand until 1839, when an English woman  Miss Bunby, introduced the European honey bee species we have today, Apis mellifera. The Americas didn’t have honey bees until they were introduced by Spanish, Dutch, and English settlers near the end of the 17th century.
• Did you know that bees have 4 wings?
• The honeybee’s wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.
• The queen bee is the busiest in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength. She will lay about 1,000 to 1,500 eggs per day, without sleeping.

• In the cold winter months, bees will leave the hive only to take a short cleansing flight. They are fastidious about the cleanliness of their hive.
• Honeybees do not die out over the winter, but reduce numbers by throwing out the old, the weak and drones. They feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months and patiently wait for spring by forming a tight cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm. They may forage on sunny days and collect nectar and some queens will lay, but less.
• It takes 35 pounds of honey to provide enough energy for a small colony of bees to survive the winter.
• Nurse bees work inside the hive. Their job is to make royal jelly, feed and clean the larvae, queen and drones.
• House bees clean away the dead, make wax and comb, heat/cool the hive, receive nectar and make honey, put it into the comb, sealing it with wax.
• A honeybee visits between 50 and 100 flowers during one collection flight from the hive.
• In order to produce 1 kg of honey, about 4 million flowers must be visited.

• A honey bee flies at about 24 km/h (15 mph).
• One bee colony can produce up to 150kg of honey per year.
• An average worker bee makes only about ½ to 1 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
• At the peak of the honey-gathering season, a strong, healthy hive will have a population of approximately 50,000 bees.
• It would take approximately 1 ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world.
• Honey is the primary food source for the bee. The reason honeybees are so busy collecting nectar from flowers and blossoms is to make sufficient food stores for their colony over the winter months. The nectar is converted to honey by the honeybee and stored in the wax honeycomb.
• In New Zealand, we have almost 5000 beekeepers, most are hobbyists with less than 5 hives.
• Honey contains vitamins and antioxidants, but is fat free, cholesterol free and sodium free!

• Not a spinach lover? Eat honey – it has similar levels of heart-healthy antioxidants!
• One powerful antioxidant called “pinocembrin” is only found in honey and propolis.
• For years, opera singers have used honey to boost their energy and soothe their throats before performances.
• Honey has the ability to attract and absorb moisture, which makes it remarkably soothing for minor burns and helps to prevent scarring.
• Honey speeds the healing of open wounds and also combats infection.
• As recently as the First World War, honey was being mixed with cod liver oil to dress wounds on the battlefield.
• Modern science now acknowledges honey as an anti-microbial agent, which means it deters the growth of certain types of bacteria, yeast and moulds.
• Honey and beeswax form the basics of many skin creams, lipsticks, and hand lotions.

• Queen Anne of England, in the early 1700’s, invented a honey and olive oil preparation to keep her hair healthy and lustrous.
• According to Dr. Paul Gold, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, “people remember things much better after they’ve consumed glucose, a form of sugar found in honey.”
• Beeswax is made from tiny glands on the worker bee’s abdomen and melts at 62 -65 degrees C.
• Honey is nature’s energy booster! It provides a concentrated energy source that helps prevent fatigue and can boost athletic performance.
• Recent studies have proven that athletes who took some honey before and after competing recovered more quickly than those who did not.
• Honey supplies 2 stages of energy. The glucose in honey is absorbed by the body quickly and gives an immediate energy boost. The fructose is absorbed more slowly providing sustained energy.
• Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water; and it’s the only food that contains “pinocembrin”, an antioxidant  associated with improved brain functioning.