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Indian Art Style

• Rajasthani miniature art

Rajasthan is one of the pioneer seats of miniature painting in India. Rajput painting, also known as Rajasthani painting, is a style of Indian painting evolved and flourished in the royal courts of Rajputana, India. Each Rajput kingdom evolved a distinct style but with certain common features. Rajput paintings depict a number of themes, events of epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Krishna’s life, beautiful landscapes and humans.

Miniatures in manuscripts or single sheets to be kept in albums were the preferred medium of Rajput painting but many paintings were done on the walls of palaces, inner chambers of the forts, havelis, particularly the havelis of Shekhawati, the forts and palaces built by Shekhawat Rajputs. The colours were extracted from certain minerals, plant sources and conch shells and were even derived by processing precious stones. Gold and silver were also used. The preparation of desired colours was a lengthy process, sometimes taking weeks. The brushes used were very fine.

• Pattachitra

‘Pattachitra’ is a general term for traditional, cloth based scroll painting based in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. In the Sanskrit language, ‘patta’ literally means ‘cloth’ and ‘chitra’ means ‘ picture’. The pattachitra style of painting is one of the oldest and most popular art forms of Odisha.

All colours used in the paintings are natural and the paintings are made fully in the old traditional way by chitrakaras who are Oriya painters. Pattachitra is manifested by a rich colourful application, creative motifs and designs and portrayal of simple themes mostly mythological in depiction. The traditions of pattachitra paintings are more than a 1000 years old. Pattachitra paintings resemble the old murals of Odisha, especially those from the religious centres of Puri, Konark and Bhubaneswar regions, dating back to the 5th century BC. The best works are found in and around Puri, especially in the village of Raghurajpur. The theme of Oriya painting centers round the Jagannath cult and the Vaishnava cult. Since the beginning of pattachitra culture, Lord Jagannath, who is an incarnation of Lord Krishna, has been the major source of inspiration. In the 16th century, with the emergence of the Bhakti movement, the paintings of Radha and Krishna were painted in vibrant shades of orange, red and yellow. There are typical scenes and figures like Krishna, Gopi’s, elephants, trees and other creatures portrayed in these paintings. Krishna is always painted in blue and Gopis in light pink, purple or brown.

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Indian Folk Art

• Warli paintings

Warlis or Varlis are an indigenous tribes or adivasis living in the mountainous as well as coastal areas on the Maharastra-Gujarat border and surrounding areas. They have their own animistic beliefs, life, customs and traditions. As a result of acculturation, they have adopted many Hindu beliefs. Their extremely rudimentary Wall paintings use a very basic graphic vocabulary a circle, or triangle and a square. Their paintings were monosyllabic. The circle and the triangle come from the observation of nature, the circle representing the sun and the moon, the triangle derived from mountains and pointed trees. Only the square seems to be a different logic and seems to be a human invention, indicating a sacred enclosure or a piece of land.

The ritual paintings are usually done inside their huts. The walls are made of a mixture of branches, earth and cow dung making a red ochre background for wall paintings. Warlis use only white in their paintings. The white pigment used by them is a mixture of rice paste and water with gum as a binding. As the brush, they use a bamboo stick chewed at the end to make it as supple as a paintbrush. The wall paintings are done only on special occasions such as weddings or harvests. Warli art is the cultural intellectual property of the tribal community. Today, there is an urgent need for preserving this traditional knowledge in tribal communities across the globe. Now, Warli painting is registered with a geographical indication under the intellectual property rights act. With the use of technology and the concept of social entrepreneurship, tribals established the Warli Art Foundation, a non-profit company dedicated to Warli art and related activities.

• Cave paintings in India

Almost all early painting in India survives in caves, as very few buildings from ancient India survive. The history of cave paintings in India or rock art range from drawings and paintings from prehistoric times – beginning around 30000 BCE in the caves of Central India, typified by those at the Bhimbetka rock shelters – to elaborate frescoes at sites such as the rock cut artificial caves at Ajanta and Ellora, prevalent as late as the 8th – 10th century CE. The frescoes of Ajanta are paintings in the Ajanta caves, which are situated near Aurangabad in Maharashtra. The caves are carved out of large rocks. Inside many of the caves are frescoes. Frescoes are paintings which are done on wet plaster in which colours become fixed on the walls and ceilings at Ajanta.

The paintings reflect different phases of Indian culture from Jain tirthankar Mahaveer’s birth to his Nirvana in the 8th century AD. The frescoes have degraded slightly due to the effect of flash photography. Photography here is not banned. The paintings depict themes of court life, feasting, processions, men and women at work, festivals and various natural scenes including animals and birds and flowers. The artists used shading to give a three-dimensional effect.

Similarly, beautiful frescoes have been found at the Bagh caves, 150 km away to the North of Ajanta. Though the themes in these paintings are both secular and religious, they do depict some aspects of Buddhist life and rituals. One of the most famous paintings show a procession of elephants. Another depicts a dancer and women musicians. These have been influenced by the Ajanta style of painting. These frescoes show a strong resemblance to the frescoes of Sigriya in Sri Lanka.

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Graphic design

Graphic design is the process of visual communication and problem solving through the use of type, space and image. The field is considered a subset of visual communication and communication design but sometimes the term ‘graphic design’ is used interchangeably with these due to overlapping skills involved. Graphic designers use various methods to create and combine words, symbols and images to create a visual arts and page layout techniques to produce a final result. Graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (design) which are generated. Common uses of graphic design include identity, publications, print advertisements, posters, billboards, website graphics and elements, signs and product packaging. For example a product package might include a logo for other artwork organised text and pure design elements sketches images shapes and colour which unified the piece. Composition is one of the most important features of graphic design specially when using pre existing materials or diverse elements.

•Skills

A graphic design project me in work to stylisation and presentation of existing text and either pre existing imagery or images developed by the graphic designer. Artistic pieces can be incorporated in both traditional and digital forms which involves the use of visual arts typography and page layout techniques for publications and marketing for example a newspaper story begins with the journalist and photo journalist and then becomes the graphic designer job to organise the page into a reasonable layout and determine if any other graphic element should be required. In a magazine article or advertisement often the graphic designer or art director will commission photographers or illustrators to create original pieces just to be incorporated into the design layout or the designer may utilise stock imagery or photography. Contemporary design practice has been extended to the modern computer. Nearly all popular and ‘industry standard’ software programs used for graphic design since the early 1990’s are products of Adobe systems incorporated. They are Adobe Photoshop (a raster based program for photo editing), Adobe illustrator (a vector based program for drawing), Adobe InDesign ( a page layout program) and Adobe Dreamweaver (for webpage design).

Another major page layout tool is QuarkXPress (a product of Quark Inc. a separate company from Adobe). Both QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign are often used in the final stage of the electronic design process. Raster images maybe edited in Adobe Photoshop, logos and illustrations in Adobe illustrator and the final product may be assembled in one of the major page layout programs. Most graphic designers entering the field since 1990 are expected to be proficient in at least one or two of these programs.

my work

Another one

•Occupation

Graphic design career paths cover all ends of the creative spectrum and often overlap. Employment within graphic design in walls workers performing specialised tasks such as design services publishing advertising and public relations. The main job responsibility of a graphic designer is the arrangement of visual elements in some type of media. The main job titles within the industry can vary and are often country specific. They can include graphic designer, are director, creative director former animator and the entry level production artist. Depending on the industry served commerce responsibilities may have different titles such as DTP associate and graphic artist But despite changes in the title graphic design principles remain consistent who start the responsibilities may come from early to specialised skills such as illustrations photography animation or interactive design. Today’s graduate in graphic design students are normally exposed to all these areas of graphic design and I guided to become familiar with all of them as well in order to be competitive. Graphic designers will face strong competition when applying for positions for organizations look for candidates with convincing talents and college level education post of field requirements consist of having strong portfolio and bachelors degree first of graphic designers can work in a variety of environments while many will work in companies devoted specifically to the industry such as design consultancies or branding agencies, others may work in publishing, marketing for other communication companies. Increasingly, special sense the introduction of personal computers to the industry commerce many graphic designers have found themselves working in non design oriented organizations as in house designers. Graphic designers may also work as freelance designers, working on their own terms, prices, ideas etc. A graphic designer reports to the art director, creative director or senior media creative. As a designer becomes more senior, he/she may spend less time designing media and more time leading and directing other designers on broader creative activities such as brand development and corporate identity development. Senior designers are often expected to interact more directly with clients, for example taking and interpreting briefs.

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Painting techniques

Techniques in watercolour paintings

#Washes

The most basic watercolour technique is the flat wash. It is reduced by first wetting the area of paper to be covered by the wash, then mixing sufficient pigment to easily fill the entire area. The pigment is applied to a sloping surface in slightly overlapping horizontal bands from the top down. Once complete, the wash should be left to dry and even itself out. Don’t be tempted to work back into a drawing wash, the results are usually disastrous! A variation on the basic wash is the graded wash. This technique requires the pigment to be diluted slightly with more water for each horizontal stroke. The result is a wash that fades out gradually and evenly.

#Glazing

Glazing is a similar watercolour technique Do a wash, but uses a thin, transparent pigment applied over dry existing washes. Its purpose is to adjust the colour and tone of the underlying wash. Non-staining, transparent pigments such as Rose Madder (or Permanent Rose), Cobalt Blue and or Auroline are ideal for glazing as they can be applied layer after led to achieve the desired effect. Be sure each layer is thoroughly dry before applying the next.

#Dropping in colour

This technique is simply the process of introducing a colour to a wet region of the painting and allowing it to blend bleed and feather without interruption. The result is sometimes and predictable but yields interesting and vibrant colour gradations That can’t be achieved by mixing the pigment on the palette.

#Wet-on-wet

Wet-on-wet is simply the process of applying pigment to wait paper. The results very from soft undefined shapes to slightly blurred marks, depending on how wet the paper is. The wet-on-wet technique can be applied over existing washes provided they are thoroughly dry. Simply wet the paper with the large brush and paint into the dampness. The soft marks made by painting wet in wet agreed for subtle background regions of your painting.

#Dry brush

Dry brush is almost the opposite watercolour technique to wet in wet. Here a brush loaded with pigment (and not too much water) is dragged over completely dry paper. The marks produced by this technique are very crisp and hard-edged. They will tend to come forward in your painting and so are best applied around the centre of interest.

#Lifting off

Most water colour pigments can be resolved and lifted off after they have dried. Staining colours such as Phthalo or Prussian blue, Alizarin, Windsor red, yellow or blue are difficult to remove and are best avoided for this technique. The process for lifting of his simple – wet the area to be removed with a brush and clean water, then blot the pigment away with attached. Using strips of paper to mask areas of pigment will produce interesting hard-edged lines and shapes.

This is one of my watercolour paintings. I love experimenting with the medium.

Techniques in other kinds of painting

paints

As the name implies, pigments are already mixed with oil (usually linseed) in the tube, which makes for slow drying and easier blending. Clean up with turps or preferably and odourless solvent. Can be used straight from the tube (impasto) or thinly for underpainting or glazing. Usually used over canvas or board prepared with an acrylic or gas so undercoat. Retouch varnish may be used to even out the shine when finished. All other vanishes should not be applied until the paint has cured (around 6 months). Oils pretty much maintain their mixed colour once drive for, unlike water based paints which tend to dry darker or lighter than when wet.

#Poster colours

Poster colours contain a binder which remains water soluble when dry. Pigments used are generally of a courser quality than water colours and are therefore more opaque, specially pastel shades which are achieved by mixes that include white. Can be wetted again for further blending. Framing is usually as for water colours.

#Pastels

Here the pigments have been moulded into sticks using distilled water and a minimum of binders. Some are wrapped in waxed paper to prevent breakage. They come in square and round sticks and in pencil form full stock usually used on tinted pestle paper which has a texture (or ‘tooth’) to hold the dry granules of pigment. Spray fixatives prevent rubbing, button to dark in the pestle work. Framing is behind glass with the mat board to prevent the work from touching the glass.

#Acrylic painting

Painting executed in the medium of synthetic acrylic resins. Acrylics dry rapidly, serve as a vehicle for any kind of pigment, and are capable of giving both the transparent brilliance of watercolour and the density of oil paint. They are considered to be less affected by heat and other destructive forces than is oil paint. They found favour among artists who were concerned about the health risks posed by the handling of oil paints and the inhalation of fumes associated with them. Because of all these desirable characteristics, acrylic paints became immediately popular with artists when they were first commercially promoted in the 1960s.

This is one of my acrylic paintings.

#Tempera painting

Painting executed with pigment ground in a water-miscible medium. The word tempera originally came from the word temper, which means ‘to bring to a desired consistency’. Dry pigments are made usable by ‘tempering’ them with a binding and adhesive vehicle. Such painting was distinguished from fresco painting, the colours for which contained no binder.

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Anniversaries (as of 2020)

•75th anniversary of end of World War 2 (1st September 1939 – 2nd September 1945 )

It involved vast majority of the world’s countries forming two different military forces – the Allies and the Axis. The Allied won causing the fall of Nazi Germany and also death of Hitler. It was the deadliest war in world history.

•100th birth anniversary of Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was an American author and a professor of biochemistry at Boston University. Born on 2nd January, 1920 in Petrovichi, Russia. He was well known globally for his science fiction works including ‘I, Robot’, ‘Caves of steel’, ‘End of eternity’ etc. Some of his stories have been made into movies.

• 200th birth anniversary of Anne Bronte

Anne Bronte was an English novelist and poet and the youngest of the famous Bronte sisters. She was born on 17th January, 1820 in Thornton, UK. Some of her works include ‘The tenant of Wildfell hall’ and ‘Agnes Grey’.

•500th death anniversary of Italian artist Raphael

One of the Renaissance period painters, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino was born on 6th April, 1483 and died on 6th April, 1520. St. Peter’s Basilica is one of his works. His notable artworks include ‘The school of Athens’, ‘The Sistine Madonna’ , ‘The marriage of the virgin’ etc.

•250th birth William Wordsworth

The very famous poem, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ poet William Wordsworth was born on 7th April, 1770 in Cockermouth, UK. He was an English Romantic poet.

•200th birth Florence nightingale

The English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing was born on 12th May, 1820 in Florence, Italy. She worked hard and determined as a nurse and earned the title ‘Lady with the Lamp’.

•150th death anniversary Charles Dickens

•250th birth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven

He was a German composer and pianist whose music ranks amongst the most performed classical music. Till date he remains the most admired composers in the history of western music. He was born in December 1770, Bonn, Germany.

•Breakfast club is 35 now.

1985 The 1985 comedy and drama movie that has been a teenagers must watch since it’s release in 1985.

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Evolution

When you think of evolution the first name that comes to one’s mind is that of Charles Darwin. However, the fact is that he was not the first person to put forward the idea of evolution. Lamarck had suggested it earlier but the concept was not popular. In fact zoology professor Robert Grant lost his job because he supported Lamarck theory! An anonymous work titled, ‘The Vestiges of creation’ was ridiculed. It was Charles Darwin who first made the theory acceptable and he was able to do so because he supported it with a huge amount of evidence. Darwin, an English naturalist put forward his theory in a book titled ‘On the origin of the species’. He established that all species descended from common ancestors and that the different species evolved through a process he called natural selection. Darwin’s theory gained acceptance because it was able to explain the diversity of life.


Ramapithecus belongs to an extent group of primates that lived from about 12 to 14 million years ago. Fossils of Ramapithecus were discovered in India and Africa beginning in 1932. Fossil evidence suggested that it had a short face, heavy jaws and enamelled teeth like hominids. Its importance lies in the fact that it was regarded as a possible ancestor of Australopithecus and therefore of modern humans. Later for sale finds indicated that Ramapithecus was more closely related to the orangutan and Ramapithecus is now regarded by many as a member of a group known as Sivapithecus.


It has been long known that humans share a common ancestor with apes but it was only in the last 30 years that techniques for develop to provide strong evidence in support of the theory that humans are more closely related to chimpanzees than they are to gorillas orangutans or Gibbons. The DNA of a chimpanzee is 98% identical to that of a human being. However our bodies adapted for walking on 2 legs. This is possible because the lower portion of the human body evolved to facilitate load bearing and balancing while walking upright. Chimpanzees not only share most of our genes they seem to be able to handle tools and they are able to grasp language pretty well too. Now researchers have found that we share a similar brain pattern when communicating. But in spite of these similarities there are clear differences in body structure intellect and behaviour.


Australopithecus was an early hominid which is now extinct. Fossil evidence suggests that these individuals lived from approximately 4- 2 million years ago after evolving on the continent of Africa. Sense the fossils were recovered from south Africa they were called south African man apes or australopithecines. Australopithecines are believed to have been around 1 to 1.5 metre tall and probably fed on leaves fruits and the remaining of dead animals. Their brains were larger than those of apes but smaller than human brains while their teeth would like human teeth it is believed that Australopithecus eventually evolved into modern humans.


Neanderthal man first appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago and migrated to the rest of the world around 100,000 years ago. The name Neanderthal comes from Neander valley where an early skull was found. Neanderthals would different from other species of early man. They were much taller and very strong for stop the brains were actually larger than ours are today. They were marvellous hunters. They often used caves as their homes. They were adept at fire making and probably cooked their food routinely. Neanderthals buried their dead. The Neanderthals died out by around 30,000 BC.
Cro-Magnon man lived some 40,000 -10,000 years ago. Their remains were first found in France in 1868 and then throughout other parts of Europe.

Cro-Magnon man was anatomically identical to modern humans and deferred significantly from Neanderthal man who disappeared in the fossil record shortly after Cro-Magnons appearance. Cromagnon man was tall and had an erect posture. He had a prominent chin a surprising forehead and skull shaped like hours. These man was killed hunters toolmakers and artists. Cro-Magnon man was a true human and looked just like us. He is represented by the remains of 5 individuals found in March 18683 adult males one adult female and one child.


•First family.
In 1975 Donald Johansson discovered the remains of at least 13 individuals of all ages at her there in Ethiopia. The sizes of the specimens varied greatly and Johansson believed that they all belong to a single species Australopithecus afarensis in which men were much larger than the females.

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Paradox…

A logically self contradicting statement is a paradox. Also known as antinomy. You can say it is a sentence that runs contrary to one’s expectations. Actually it’s just a smart mess. It does have valid reasoning but leads to a self contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion. It might seem absurd but is kind of the ultimate truth. That’s what makes it all the more interesting.

Let’s see some of the many interesting paradoxes that exist and try to understand them.

•Achilles and the tortoise 🐢🏃

One of the “greatest” there is. It was put forward by the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea in the 5th century BC. It so happens that the great hero Achilles challenges a tortoise to a footrace. Being the hero that he is, he allows the tortoise a headstart of 500m. No doubt, when the race starts, Achilles is at a must faster speed than the tortoise such that by the time he has reached the 500m mark, the tortoise has only walked 50m further than him. When he has reached 555m mark, the tortoise has walked another 0.5m, then 0.25m, then 0.125 m and so on. It is a chain of such infinite small distances with the tortoise always moving forwards while Achilles always has to catch up. Now, logically, Achilles can never overtake the tortoise. Except, of course, intuitively he can overtake.

Don’t think of it in terms of distances and races but rather as an example of how finite value can always be divided an infinite number of times, no matter how small its divisions might become!

•Birthday paradox 🎉🎂

This is personal favourite. It is maths based by the way. Probability to be specific. You have already heard of this probably. It goes like this that in a group of 23 randomly selected people there is a 50% chance two of their birthdays match. Interesting? Wait. In a group of 367 random people there is a 100% possibility atleast two of their birthdays match. Sounds like such a small number. It counts as a paradox because we can’t handle such numbers.

•Crocodile paradox 🐊

A crocodile snatches a young boy from the riverbank. Pretty common situation right? Anyways, his mother pleads with the crocodile to return the boy. The crocodile being in a fun mood, wants the mother to guess if he will return the boy or not. Takes one guess to get the boy out safely. It looks simple – the mother guesses he will return the boy, if she is right she gets the boy, if she is wrong, the crocodile gets the boy. If she answers that the crocodile will not return him, however, we end up with a paradox!

If she is right and the crocodile never intended to return her child, then the crocodile has to return him but in doing so breaks his word and contradicts the mother’s answer. And if she is indeed wrong and the crocodile did intended to return the boy, the crocodile must then keep him even though he intended not to, thereby also breaking his word. It’s a brain twisting dilemma.

•Paradox of fiction 🎟️📕

Are you fixated with the harry potter characters? You ofcourse have a crush on the Marvel or DC comic characters. Oh or did you cry when Augustus died?

So here is the paradox. Point 1 People have emotional responses to characters, objects, events etc. which are fictitious. Point 2 In order to be emotionally moved, we must believe that these characters or events by no way exists in real. Point 3 No person who takes characters to be fictional at the same time believes that they are real. All three of these points one at a time can be true. If any two points are considered to be true then the third must be false or else produce a contradiction. There exist various proposed solutions to this paradox such as pretend theory or thought theory or illusion theory.

•The card paradox 🃏

This one is a little bit similar to the crocodile paradox. A little. So I say we have a card with us. On one side, the front side, “the sentence on the other side of this card is TRUE” written on it. You flip and “the sentence on the other side of this card is FALSE”. You take one as true and it leads to a paradox!

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Anniversaries (as of 2019)

150th birth anniversary

•Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation is an inspiring person, who shaped world history. Gandhiji stands out among the great men of the world as a symbol of non violent resistance to political and social repression. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2nd, 1869 in Gujarat. He became the leader of a movement that attracted millions in the struggle for freedom. He was strong advocate of non-violence. India got freedom on August 15th, 1947. Gandhiji was assassinated on January 30th, 1948.

100th birth anniversary

• The year 2019 marks the 100th birth anniversary of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme. He was born on 12th August, 1919. Dr. Sarabhai has put India on the international map in the field of space research. In 1962, he became chairman of the Indian National committee for space research. The establishment of the Indian space research organisation, also known as ISRO, was one of his greatest achievements. Dr. Sarabhai died on 30th December 1971.

500th death anniversary

• Leonardo da Vinci was perhaps the most widely talented person ever to have lived. He was a consummate painter and sculptor, a great inventor, military engineer, scientist, botanist and mathematician! He lived during the Renaissance in Italy and while working in Milan as an artist, he began writing texts for his students and apprentices. His notebooks covered more than 1000 pages of observations and illustrations. They remained unpublished for more than a century and were printed only after his death. He was born on April 15th 1452 and died on May 2nd 1519.

150th anniversary

• The period table gives us information about element symbols and atomic weights. It brings order to information about the chemical elements and helps chemists to understand why elements react as they do. The milestone in the development of the periodic table was set by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, who is acknowledged as the ‘father’ of periodic table though the title is also claimed by the German scientist Lothar Meyer. Today, the periodic table organizes the elements by order of increasing atomic number.

150th year of publication

• 2019 marks the 150th year of one of the greatest novels ever written – Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’. This classic work from Russia was first published in the book form in 1869. Tolstoy took almost 7 years to finish this epic work and a Russian magazine named ‘Messenger’ serialised some portions of it during 1865-67. But the full novel came out as a book only in 1869. The story woven around Napoleon’s invasion of Russia covers a period of over 15 years. The unique literary style and the historical context make ‘War and Peace’ a monumental work.

125th year of publication

• Is there anyone who isn’t familiar with the famous character ‘Mowgli’? Hopefully none. The main character of the evergreen ‘Jungle Book’, a collection of stories written by Rudyard Kipling is a huge part of our childhood. ‘The Jungle Book’ was first published in 1894.

100th anniversary

• The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was a turning point in our freedom movement. The British troops under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer, opened fire on unarmed Indians on 13th April 1919. This event took place in the heart of Amritsar. Hundreds were killed and thousands injured. This was followed by widespread protests across a grieving country. Many Indians became convienced that the British had to be paid back in their own coin that violence has to be met with violence. The 100th anniversary of that cruel incident fell last year.

300th year of publication

• Daniel Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ has fascinated readers around the world for the last 300 years. Daniel Defoe was an English writer, famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe that was published in 1791. One reason for it’s popularity is that it us packed with excitement and adventure, with sailing ships, stormy seas and guns. Without doubt, Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ established a realistic style of fiction and set the tone for modern novels.

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Small yet distinct

The word ‘country’ makes one think of a large land mass. However, not every country is huge. There are some countries that are really small in size. They are so tiny, that some of them can even be covered by foot! Some of these countries can fit entirely within the city of another country. The smallest country in the world, the Vatican City, for example, can fit into the city of Rome, capital of Italy. Many of these countries are only small in size. With their wealth and natural resources, they can even compete with any of the larger countries. So, here’s a showcase of some of the small, yet distinct countries.

• Vatican City

Vatican City is the world’s smallest fully independent nation state. It is also the smallest by population. Situated on the western bank of the Tiber river, the Vatican City’s 3.2 kilometre border is landlocked by Italy. The Vatican City has served as the official home of the pope of the Catholic church since 1377. However, Vatican City was not declared an independent state until the Lateran treaty of 1929 which created the independent state of Vatican City for the Catholic church. Today nearly 75% of the Vatican’s citizens are members of the clergy. Along with the centuries old buildings and gardens the Vatican maintains its own banking and telephone systems post office pharmacy newspaper and radio and television stations. Its 600 citizens include the members of the Swiss guard a security detail charged with protecting the Pope since 1506. The most significant building in Vatican City is Saint Peter’s Basilica. It is the Italian language that is used by most of those located within the state however the official documents are written in Latin.

• South Korea

Compared to the giants of Asia like India and China, South Korea is much smaller in size. Its total area is 100,032 square kilometres. South Korea has one pf the most homogeneous populations in the world which are thought to be descended from several Mongol tribes that migrated from central Asia. Tourism is a fast growing industry in South Korea.

• Portugal

Portugal is a sovereign state in Western Europe. It comprises of the continental part of Portugal on the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula and the small archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Hungary

The name “Hungary” may very well come from the medieval Latin word ‘Hungaria’ which translates as “Land of Huns”. Another source states that the name is derived from the Turkish words on ‘Ogur’ meaning ‘ten arrows’ or ‘ten people’

• UAE

The United Arab Emirates is a constitutional federation of seven Emirates; Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. The federation was formally established on 2nd December, 1971. The UAE’s oil reserves are the seventh largest in the world while its natural gas reserves are the worlds seventeen largest. The Dubai police fleet includes Lamborghini, a Ferrari and a Bentley. This is to allow them to catch speeders who can outrun other cars.

• Dominican republic

The island of Hispaniola, the second largest island of the Antilles in the Caribbean contains two separate countries, the Dominican republic and Haiti. The Dominican republic is the only country in the world to have an image of the Holy Bible on its national flag.

• Panama • Georgia • Ireland • Iceland • Sri Lanka • Costa Rica • Bhutan • Switzerland • Belgium • Israel • Fiji • Qatar • Jamaica • Singapore • Maldives …to name a few others.

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Mysteries (II)

Part one was : http://eduindexnews.com/2020/09/14/bermuda-triangle-and-other-mysteries/

• Indian rope trick

India is a land of countless mysteries that have puzzled the rest of the world. Perhaps the most enduring of these mysteries is that of the ‘Indian rope trick’. In the classic version of Indian rope trick, a rope is thrown into the air where it remains rigid. A young boy then climbs the rope, only to disappear at the top. The performer quickly follows him only to disappear when he reaches the top of the vertical rope! Shortly after, pieces of the boy’s body fall from the sky and land on the ground at the bottom of the rope. A few seconds later, the performer is seen climbing down the rope with a blood stained knife in his hand. On reaching firm ground, the performer utters a magic word and the rope falls limp to the ground. He then gathers up the pieces of the boy’s body and bundles them under a sheet. Within seconds, the sheet is lifted and the boy appears completely whole and unharmed! Travellers to India have described this amazing trick for over 600 years, but there is considerable doubt as to whether the trick is fact or fantasy.

• Shroud of Turin

The shroud of Turin is reputedly the cloth in which Jesus Christ was wrapped and buried. The shroud is 4.34 meters long and it bears the image of a man with wounds similar to those suffered by Jesus Christ. The shroud is unquestionably old. Its history is known from the year 1357, when it surfaced in the tiny village of Lirey, France. Today, it is kept in a silver chest in the Cathedral of Saint John, the Baptist in Turin, Italy, where it has been since 1578.

Does the shroud really show the face of Jesus? No one really knows. Although, many scientists have expressed doubts about the accuracy of the image, millions believe it to be divine and it has been a religious relic since the middle ages.

• Loch Ness monster

As far back as the 17th century, people have reported seeing a monster in the Loch Ness in Scotland. Loch means lake in Scotland. This is the largest freshwater lake in the UK. But, rather than being known for its size, it is famous for the mysterious legend of the Loch Ness monster or Nessie.

For thousands of years, people have reported catching glimpse of a huge creature. This creature is said to have a small head, a long neck and an immense body with flippers. Some people have shared photos they claim to have taken of this huge creature. The legend is so great that even scientists have been intrigued and many have conducted experiments and come up with theories to try and explain what people could be witnessing.

One explanation is that the monster could be a prehistoric creature called plesiosaur, an animal that has been considered to be extinct. Maybe one of these creatures managed to survive in the Loch Ness Lake, who knows?

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Curiosity (science)

• Why do we wake up from sleep?

Sleep is essential to give the brain and nerves some rest. While we sleep, our bodies too, get a chance to recover from the fatigue caused by daily activities. When we are well rested, both physically and mentally, we wake up. Sometimes, we wake up because we feel cold or hungry or because a bad dream has made us afraid.

To sum up, we all have an internal body clock that tells our brain to wake our bodies up after a certain amount of time. However, some things or situations such as noise, temperature in the room or sunshine interrupt our sleep and wake us up too.

• Why doesn’t glue stick to the insides of the bottle?

The regular white glue that we use is made up of a variety of chemicals that are either sticky or stretchy. White glue also contains water. Water acts as a solvent that keeps the glue liquid until you want it to stick. When you put glue on a piece of paper, the water in it is exposed to air. The water eventually evaporates and as it does so, the glue dries and hardens and holds the things that need to be glued, stuck together.

When the glue is inside the bottle, there’s not enough air inside the bottle to cause the water to evaporate to make the glue sticky. The bottle protects the glue from the air and keeps the glue runny. This is also why if you’ve ever left the top off a glue bottle for a while, the next time you try to use the glue, it would have dried up.

• Why do the lights of a distant town appear to twinkle?

When you are traveling at night, the lights of towns in the distance appear to twinkle. This is because of the constant movement of air above towns. The air above towns is warm, as a result of the heat given off from buildings. Warm air keeps moving up to be replaced by cold air which then gets heated and rises. This constant movement of air is known as turbulence.

When we are near a town or in it, we don’t notice the turbulence because it is quite small and the lights are nearly. However, when we are some distance away, the lights are far away too. They appear as only pinpricks. The warm and cold air that make up the turbulence above the town have different densities and light passing through the layers is bent at different angles because of this difference. As a result it appears as though the lights of the distant town are twinkling.

• Why do clouds have different shapes?

Clouds are made up of tiny droplets of water vapour or ice particles or both. The shape of the cloud depends on its height and temperature. Cumuliform clouds are shaped liked mushrooms and are formed when rising warm air cools as it goes up. Stratiform clouds come in flat, dull layers and are formed when air sinks in a high pressure area, creating a layer of cold air near the ground that doesn’t rise or rises only very slowly. Cirriform clouds are clouds that have risen on a front or tropical cyclone and frozen into ice crystals at very high altitude. They look like thin hair. The shape of cloud also depends on the time of the day.

Towards evening, clouds tend to be thinner and flatter than during daytime. Changes in wind patterns also change the shapes of cloud.

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Curiosity (animals)

• Why don’t woodpeckers get a headache?

Have you ever seen woodpeckers striking trees with its long beaks? Woodpeckers hit the trees 20 times per second. Yet they don’t get a headache or any other head injury. The reason for thus is that woodpeckers are born with a helmet for the brain, which is formed of strong, thick muscles and sponge like bones in their skull. A woodpecker’s body too is specially designed to absorb the impact of the hit.

A millisecond before a woodpecker’s bill strikes on a tree dense muscles in the neck contract. Some of the force radiates down the neck muscles and protect the skull from a huge impact. A compressible bone in the skull offers a cushion effect too.

• Why aren’t spiders caught in their own webs?

Spiders spin their webs in a circular pattern that is spotted with sticky glue. When an insect brushes against these drops – each thread can carry several dozen per millimetre – it gets stuck and the spider rushes over to inject it with venom or cocoon it in silk. The question of course is how does the spider escape its own glue tracks? The answer lies in the fact is that the web is the spider’s home and it knows its way around the glue traps. There are some threads in the web that have no glue on them and the spider is careful to move only on these threads. It is also believed that spiders use an oily coating on their legs to protect themselves from getting stuck in their own webs!

Colourless rainbow

There are some rainbows that are colourless. They are called fogbows and are formed when the sun shines through a fog. The drops of water in the fog are too small to split up light into it’s different colours, so the fogbow is white in colour.

• What do we know about left handed animals?

Most people are right handed, though about one in ten among us is left handed. Animals like chimps, hump back whales and even toads favour one hand, paw, claw or fin over the other. Chimpanzees use both hands with ease, but have a preference for the right hand. Toads also prefer their right side to perform differ functions. Polar bears on the other hand, are left handed.

Some species of parrot such as the sulphur- crested cockatoo are entirely left handed, while others, including the king parrot are mainly right handed. The majority of parrots – including the budgie, galah and rainbow lorikeet use both claws comfortably. Female cats are more inclined to be right handed while male cats favour their left paws. The same is true for dogs. Interestingly, dogs wag their tails to the right when relaxed and to the left when agitated!

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Vaccination and COVID-19

How long has it been since we went to school met our friends or had a family dinner at some restaurant? Since March 2020, we have all been advised to stay home and sanitise ourselves in order to stay safe. Sanitizers and masks have been added to our daily use products, all because of one tiny yet dangerous virus Covid-19!

The world is now waiting anxiously for a vaccine against this dreaded virus. Researchers around the world are working round the clock to develop vaccines to combat the pandemic. Currently, more than 165 vaccines against the corona virus are under process and 27 vaccines are undergoing human trials. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic. Today, scientists all over the world are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year.

• When did the efforts start

Efforts to make a successful Covid-19 vaccine began in January 2020 with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV -2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus.

• India and vaccine against Covid-19

Like many other countries, India too is immersed in the efforts to develop successful vaccines to counter Covid-19. Thirty different Indian companies are trying to produce a vaccine to fight the infection. 7 out of these have received approval from the World Health Organization. These vaccines are in different stages of testing and clinical trials now.

COVAXIN

COVAXIN is developed by Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech International Limited in collaboration with ICMR and NIV, Pune. This is the first vaccine from India to get regulatory approval. The vaccine makes us an inactive version of a virus to spike up production of antibodies in the host body. It recently initiated Phase I and Phase II of clinical testing.

ZyCoV-D

ZyCoV-D is being developed by Zydus Cadila based in Ahmedabad. The Phase I trials of the vaccine have already begun. Extensive research was done regarding the same in collaboration with medical labs in Europe and US.

• Russia and vaccine against Covid-19

Russia is one of the countries worst affected by Covid-19. The country has been pushing extensively for a Covid-19 vaccine for quite some time now; Russia too is a part of the race to produce the world’s first Covid vaccine. It is possible that Russia would be ready with its first domestic corona virus vaccine soon. The clinical trials were conducted by the Gamaleya National Research centre of Epidemiology and microbiology. There seem to be no reports of side effects on the volunteers. All the participants showed immunity and the country is planning for the serial production of the vaccine by September. By the beginning of next year, Russia hopes to manufacture several million doses of corona virus vaccines per month.

• Oxford University’s efforts to develop a vaccine

The university of Oxford has partnered with AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical company to develop an adenovirus vector vaccine to combat Covid-19. The vaccine prototype is currently in Phase III of testing. Trials of the vaccine developed by Oxford University show it can trigger an immune response. The vaccine which has so far been found to be safe and effective is expected to be made available for the masses by the end of 2020. This vaccine would also be the first such vaccine to have a large scale testing in India. The observatory data for this vaccine is expected to be available by November this year. The company has tied up with Pune based serum institute of India to mass produce the vaccine once the company gets required approvals and licensing from medical boards.

• Some methods used to make vaccines for Covid-19

Different scientists across the world try different techniques and formulas to develop vaccines. The Oxford researchers have put small sections of the corona virus genetic code into a harmless virus that infects chimpanzees. They appear to have developed a safe virus that looks enough like the corona virus to produce an immune system. Some other scientists have used pieces of raw genetic code, either DNA or RNA. When these are injected into the body it would start producing bits of viral proteins which the immune system can learn to fight. There is also work on corona virus vaccines called ‘plug and play’ vaccines. This method is new and less tested.

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Beverages from scratch…

• Wine

Wine is as old as civilization itself and it has a significant place in many ancient cultures. Many experts agree that wine probably dates to 6000 B.C., to Mesopotamia where wild vines grew in abundance. The popularity of wine eventually spread to Egypt, along the Nile Delta. Wine came to Europe with the spread of the Greek civilization around 1600 B.C. It was an important article of Greek commerce and Greek doctors including Hippocrates, were the among the first to prescribe it. The Greeks also learned to add herbs and spices to mask spoilage.

Starting about 1,000 B.C., the Romans made major contributions in classifying grape varieties and colours, observing and charting ripening characteristics, and popularizing the growing of vines and manufacturing of wines. As time progressed, the wealthy enjoyed the fruits of the vine. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe’s wine industry was saved by the church as monks planted vines to provide wine for Mass. Before long, France emerged as a leader, with some of the world’s finest wines.

Did you know that an ancient Persian fable credits a lady of the court with the discovery of wine? This princess lost favour with the king and attempted to poison herself by eating some table grapes that had ‘spoiled’ in a jar. She became intoxicated and fell asleep. When she awoke, she found that she felt much more relaxed and stress free and wine was discovered!

• Coffee

According to legend, an Arabian shepherd named Kaldi found his goats dancing joyously around a dark green leafed shrub with bright red cherries in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Kaldi soon determined that it was the cherries on the shrub that were making them act this way. After trying the cherries himself, he learned of their powerful effect. These were coffee berries and monks at a local monastery started using a drink made of these berries to stay awake during extended hours of prayer. And so, coffee was born.

The ancient Ethiopians made balls of crushed coffee beans and fat to give them energy during long journeys. The coffee we are familiar with originated in Arabia, where roasted beans were first brewed around A.D. 1,000. Later, coffee was brought to the rest of Asia from where it was taken to Europe by a merchant from Venice.

Did you know that the name coffee is derived from the Arabic term ‘gahwa’ which means ‘that which prevents sleep’?

• Tea

Did you know that tea is 5000 years old? According to legend, it was discovered in 2737 B.C., by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidently blew into a pot of boiling water. The emperor was interested in the new liquid, drank some, found it very refreshing, and tea was created!

Tea consumption spread throughout Chinese society reaching into every strata. In time, drinking tea became part of the social and cultural life in the far East and India. Tea was introduced to India by the silk caravans travelling from the Orient to Europe. It was a Buddhist priest who brought the first tea seeds from China to Japan. In Japan, tea received almost instant imperial sponsorship, and spread rapidly from the royal court and monasteries to the other sections of Japanese society. Dutch traders and Portuguese missionaries brought tea into Europe and tea became an extremely fashionable drink in the court of Charles II of England. Tea has played a very important role in the history of England for it brought fortune to the British empire and at the same time, it was a tax levied on tea that led to the loss of her colonies in the New World.

Today, tea is grown on tea estates, and 70% of the tea we drink is grown in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Argentina and China. Amazing, we drink virtually the same tea today that the Chinese emperor drank the day he discovered it!

• Carbonated soft drinks

Do you love fizzy soft drinks? Well, even the ancient Romans loved to drink the bubbling waters of mineral springs and they believed that this water was very good for health as well. Later, scientists discovered that it was the carbon dioxide in the water that caused these bubbles and tried to find a way to introduce this gas into plain water to give the same effect. Thanks to the efforts of such scientists as Joseph Riestley and John Nooth, this feat was accomplished and carbonated water was available for sale by the end of the 1700.

The next step was to flavour this sparkling water. In 1784, citric acid was developed from lemon juice and by 1833, carbonated lemonade was on sale in England. Soon, other flavours were introduced and in 1886, Coca Cola entered the market and created soft drink history.

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Food from scratch…

• Noodles

A 4000 year old bowl of noodles unearthed in China is the earliest example ever found of one of the world’s most popular foods. Noodles have been a staple food in many parts of the world for at least 2000 years. But who inverted the noodle? This is a hotly contested topic – with the Chinese , Italian and Arabs all staking a claim.

•Ice cream

The first ice cream was probably made by chance when someone left some milk outside on a cold night and it froze!

Alexander the great enjoyed ice cream made with milk, fruit juice, honey and snow in the 4th century B.C. and the Roman emperor Nero ordered ice to ne brought from the mountains and combined it with fruit toppings. The Chinese also had a method of making ice creams and some believe that ice cream came to Europe from China.

It was Quintus Maximus, a roman general, who first wrote down a recipe for ice cream. Marco Polo brought the Chinese recipe to Venice after his visit to Peking. The king of England, Charles I is supposed to have offered his chef a handsome reward to keep his ice cream recipe a secret!

You favourite ice cream cone was invented by a pastry maker Ernest Hamwi in 1904, at the World Fair in St. Louis. He put a scoop of ice cream on his pastry when an ice cream seller in a neighbouring stall ran out of dishes- and it became an instant hit!

• Chocolate

Cocoa, from which chocolate is made is said to have originated in the Amazon atleast 4000 years ago. The origins of chocolate can be traced back to the ancient Mayan and Aztec civilization in central America, who first enjoyed ‘chocolatel’, a much prized spicy drink made from roasted cocoa beans, the Aztecs believed that the cocoa tree was a gift from their God, Quetzalcoatl. According to legend, He had been banished by the other gods for giving the tree to mankind, but he promised to return to them one day.

The Spanish, led by Hernando Cortez, invaded Mexico in the 16th century. When the Aztecs saw Cortez, they believed their god had returned and welcomed him with a golden cup of chocolate! When Cortez returned to Spain in 1528, he loaded his galleons with cocoa beans and equipment for making the chocolate drink. Soon ‘chocolate’ became a fashionable drink enjoyed by the rich in Spain.

It was in 1847 that solid chocolate, as we know of today, was made by Fry and sons of Bristol by mixing sugar with cocoa powder and cocoa butter and your favourite treat was born.

• Chewing gum

Thousands of years ago people chewed gum in it’s natural form. The most common ancient chewing gum was tree resin lumps, but people chewed various sweet grasses, leaves, grains and waxes also. The first commercial Chewing gum was made and sold in 1848 by John Bacon Curtis. He made a sticky, rubbery material from the spruce tree which could be chewed. In the 1860’s, Thomas Adams began selling chicle, a gum from the sapodilla tree of Mexico’s Yucatan desert.

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