My “eco-friendly” Friend Ganesha

Yes it’s just the first week of July and a couple more months for one of our vastly celebrated festivals and personally my favorite festival, but I think it’s the right time for me to make this write-up and spread a word about eco-friendly Ganapati idols.

 

Significance in short:

Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated by large communities to mark the birth or rather his rebirth to lord Shiva and Parvati. Ganesha is the god of prosperity and good fortune. It’s a festival which is celebrated for ten days by Hindus not just all over India but all over the world. A festival which is being privately celebrated since the Shivaji era and became a public festival in 1893, courtesy Lokmanya Tilak! Before the start of any journey we loudly chant “Ganpati Bappaaa!” and we definitely get back a louder “Moryaaa!”

Now and then:

Ten days of beautiful Ganapti idols’ sights, from a couple of feet small to three-storey building sized idols, decorations exorbitantly expensive but a treat to the eye and the long and noisy visarjan nights are just unforgettable. But what has been forgotten is the fact that traditionally Ganapati wasn’t celebrated the way it today is. The idols would be sculpted and carved out of earthen or natural clay and decorated using little things from home, flowers and after the festival the idols would be returned back to earth by immersing in natural water bodies.

There is something else that we haven’t forgotten and we aren’t completely aware of it but chose to ignore it- Usage of POP idols and other toxic chemicals for decorating these idols. The growing size of idols induced crafters to use POP because it is easier to make idols out of it and make them colorful rather than clay.

Scientific explanation:

 

The visarjan of such POP Ganesh idols converts the POP to gypsum, which breaks down very slowly in water, increases its hardness and degrades the life carrying capacity of water bodies. It forms a waterproof layer at the bottom of the water body. The rampant use of harmful paints, usage of metals like cadmium, lead is wreaking havoc in the environment and contaminating seas, lakes and ponds. 

This is what happens to every single POP made Ganapati idol every single year! When will we learn?

Furthermore, it can impact you too via the consumption of fresh water from lakes, seafood and fish. The impacts can be narrowed down to problems related to heart, kidneys, liver, circulatory and central nervous system. 

Avoid the above explanation:

In simple words, tackling the scientific gibberish – visarjan of clay idols is returning what is earth’s whereas visarjan of POP idols is pressurizing the earth to intake what is man-made and harmful for its well being.

We resort to such a harmful act at the cost of the beauty He has created.

Solutions in action:

Other than the use of traditional clay idols, other suggested solutions which are in action:

A brass idol which can be re-used

Immersion of a clay idol in a bucket.

• Use of a permanent Ganapti icon made of stone and brass, used every year and a symbolic immersion only.

• Recycling of plaster idols to repaint them and use them again the following year. 

• Ban on the immersion of plaster idols into lakes, rivers and the sea. 

• Creative use of other biodegradable materials such as papier-mâché to create Ganesh idols. 
   

 
Our Lord Ganesha is friendly-by-nature; why not make his idols nature-friendly too?






Click on the following link for List of stores of ecosensitive Ganesh idols from Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad

If you stay in Kandivali, Borivali or Dahisar, here's the Rotararct Club of Dahisar Coast's initiative for you!

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The latest Mario in town

 
Who is he?
 

He wears the Number 10 jersey, is one of the gifted footballers who are short in stature, sprints very quickly with or without the ball at his feet, bamboozles defenders and juggles the ball past them with utmost ease, assists not just the goals but the team’s wins entirely, possesses great skill when it comes to converting freekicks, can deceive keepers with those delicate chip shots or give them no chance whatsoever with a powerful bullet, he turned a star for his club but yet to achieve any notable success with the national team – sounds like Lionel Messi, doesn’t he? Well, that’s what he was coined by pundits- German Messi!

Franz Beckenbauer said that Mario Götze "has the same assets as Lionel Messi in terms of his technique and understanding of the game.

Career Highlights:

With club:

Borussia Dortmund

A product of their youth academy, Götze took the golden opportunity given to him by Coach Jurgen Klopp with both hands and cemented his place in the first team in the latter half of 2009-10 Season. He immediately became a prime figure in the midfield and adopted the playmaking role beautifully. Assisting 15 times and scoring 6 goals in the 2010-11 Season, Gotze guided Dortmund to the title. Götze held the Golden boy award in 2011 which was once held by Messi, Aguero, Fabregas and Rooney 

Although he played only half the 2011-12 Season, still he managed to win another title with Dortmund.

With the signing of Marco Reus from Borussia Monchengladbach, him and Götze formed an impeccable partnership and emerged as one of the best attacking duos in Europe in 2012-13. They had19 league goals (Reus 11, Götze 8) and 15 assists (9 and 6 respectively) combined, which meant they were directly involved in over half their side’s 62 league goals last season.

Franz Beckenbauer spoke about Reus and Mario Götze saying, "...as a classic duo there is nobody better than the prolific Reus and Götze."

Götze was a crucial 1^st team member for Dortmund which reached the UEFA Finals after 16 years! Had he played in the all-German finale against the Bavarians, his impact would’ve altered the course of the game in Dortmund’s favour. It’s debatable though.

Götze secured a transfer to Dortmund rivals Bayern Munich when they triggered the €37 Million clause in his contract. He is the latest Mario at Allianz Arena!

With national team:

Götze made his international debut in 2010 at 18 years of age. Reus has secured a fairly regular starting berth, Götze was eluded of it. Although he has deserved a place in the playing XI, nobody can be blamed for his irregular game time. Loew has a huge talented battalion at his disposal with the likes of Ozil, Muller, Kroos, Reus etc. However, just 21 years of age- Götze is here to stay, improve further and probably carve his name in history for sure!

5 things you ought to know about this little magician:

• Götze's first goal for Germany came against Brazil at the age of 19 years and 68 days and he became the joint youngest goalscorer for the German national team in the post-war era along with Klaus Sturmer in 1954.
•  The German transfer is set to make Götze the most expensive German player of all time. 
• He’s called “Super Mario”, but unlike ladies man Balotelli he still lives with his parents in a modest house close to Dortmund. 
• Recently, he was listed 34th in "The 100 Best Footballers in the World" byThe Guardian.
• Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has revealed that Pep Guardiola wanted to sign Neymar but Bayern suggested the purchase of Mario Götze from Borussia Dortmund instead.

This article that I've written has been published on the following site! Do read, it may vary a little due to the website's editing. Please click on the following link.

Sportskeeda: Playerof the season nominees: mario-gotze


Bread and Butter Football: the latest mario in town

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A WhatsApp-free world

Obviously, this scenario is hard to imagine for you, and if you can then definitely you don’t have a smartphone. This article is just about ifs and buts, because WhatsApp and other WhatsApp-like apps are here to stay!

Note: The usage of the word “WhatsApp” in this write up implies “WhatsApp and WhatsApp like applications”!

Imagine.

A pleasant morning, you wake up and as usual, the first thing you do after opening your eyes is check your phone for messages especially WhatsApp chats and realize the application took its last breath last night and has gone broken world-wide and you can no longer use its facilities. Well, although hard to digest eventually the feeling sinks in and you start thinking of all the implications and consequences of such a global catastrophe. Basically, you are back to the Stone Age!

SMS:

This is what I meant by Stone Age. First thing you realize is that you will be charged a rupee per SMS because SMS packs became extinct with the free messaging advent! After getting one, still it’s just not like WhatsApp! No live chats and no double tick marks!

Calling:

Live chats replaced calling to a certain extent. With no WhatsApp, you might just hear the voices of your best friends although you used to chat everyday! I’m fairly certain that many of the people you used to WhatsApp with, will no longer be in contact with you. It will be too expensive to be in touch with you. You might just realize the efforts a few friends may take to be in touch with you!

Bluetooth:

If it isn't a file up to 12 MB, I'm not sharing it - coz that's what WhatsApp permits me. Some of us might not realize this but now we just simply upload pictures and music on our WhatsApp groups rather than sending it to a friend via Bluetooth who then transfers it to another and then so on! So with WhatsApp not in the scene, Bluetooth will spring back to life! 

No more stalking (Not literally):

The curse of the "Last Seen at...". How do you know if your best friend is not sleeping? Your girlfriend/crush is chatting late night? How do you know your messages are being ignored? How do you know you can no longer WhatsApp someone coz they don’t have their internet pack? – “Last Seen”! Who hasn't tried dodging being "Seen" by their stalkers! At last they came up with a option to hide it!

Planning issues:

How about going for trek? Or dinner plan? - Make a group, add everyone and then we'll figure out the itinerary! With no group chatting, perhaps conference calls will resume, or a live meeting in real! The fun of chatting with 10s of people in all groups- School, College, Best friends etc will be sorely missed! There is always this one guy who is active in all the groups and just cannot shut up talking right! Also, your smaller group within your larger group for your exclusive plans- no more of this!

Conclusion:

WhatsApp is a luxury most of us are habitual and “not using it” while having a SmartPhone is inexcusable! It’s a boon in the form of socializing easily at your finger tips. It’s an integral part for some totally dependent on it. No doubt WhatsApp brings us closer to people far away but sometimes it creates a distance among the near ones! It's an excuse for not making phone calls now.

Just a friend's wall!

I was off WhatsApp for a couple of weeks and I was at the end of a lot of criticism for being "unsocial" while some assumed I didn’t have internet on my phone or those who knew, called me crazy for not using WhatsApp in spite of having net!

What was different was that I didn’t look at my phone and find a couple 100 messages unread on groups, the phone’s wasn't buzzing continuously, a dozen people refrained from contacting me since I was off a free messaging platform - trust me that's a relief and maybe well-chosen dozen did in fact take efforts to use non-WhatsApp means to reach me - trust me that's very comforting to know!

No matter how good android apps get, the traditional calling or rather “meeting” your friends can never and shouldn’t be replaced!

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A Hopefully Rainy Father's Day!

Well, its Father’s Day so I’m making this short write up for the Best Dad in the World- Didn’t I just consider everybody’s Dad?

My definition of a Father:

As a baby, well obviously I don’t remember. But if I did, it would’ve been the memory of a guy with a beard who would throw me up in the air, catch me again and still I’d never be scared!

As a kid, he was my first favorite superhero, someone I would want to take leave from work and play with me- I would go to the extent of blocking the door with a chair and hold fort all by myself!

As a teenager, he was a person who stood by me always although in the background when friends, school, college, sports etc came into the bigger picture!

Well that’s it I’m still a teenager! 

He might be your Daddy, Baba, Pappa, Bapu, Appa, Pops etc but still he's your buddy, the first sports teacher for a guy and the first guy in any girl's life!

  

Significance of this day:

Plain and simple, it’s the day when you gift your dad something, take his blessings, a return monetary gift and perhaps a dinner with the family!

In depth and still not complicated, it’s the day you get a chance to thank your Father for anything and everything, for being the strong pillar in your life, guiding you through hurdles and doing the best thing he does- always watching out for you.

In reality:

It was school time when we would make greetings with drawings of animals that would look Extra-terrestrial for the occasion! Well now, we seldom forget its Father’s Day, we don’t celebrate coz of lack of time, we hardly show him gratitude and with so many commitments in our routine life we don’t share, talk or spend time with our Dads.

Change things this Father’s Day!

Luckily it being a Sunday this time there’s a lot that you can do. Firstly, eliminate all non-family plans. Take his blessings, wish him, thank him! Secondly, be simple in your celebrations. It’s all about expressing your affection, not showing it off! Do an activity that will involve interaction so avoid movies, go for brunch, a sport perhaps- I chose swimming, or just talk and share with him, make him feel special with something different, it’s his day! He has fulfilled all our expectations. It’s our turn to do things he won’t expect us to do and put a big fat smile on that face! 

Don't forget, you're getting busier and he's not getting any younger- so cherish every moment with him!

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