R2 D2 spotted at Subash Nagar Metro Station.

 R2 D2 spotted at Subash Nagar Metro Station.

 Lovable and iconic robot R2 D2 of Star Wars fame was spotted this morning at Subash Nagar Metro Station. 

Just could not resist taking a photo as proof of the event, 

 

Commendable Initiative - Morning Walk Vignette.

Commendable Initiative -  Morning Walk Vignette. 

During my morning walk, for quite some time now, I have noticed a lot of activity going on near the Eastern Gate of Forest Development Corporation Of Maharashtra  (FDMC).

Once during my morning walk on a cold winter morning, through the same Eastern gate, I had walked up to Ambazari Lake. That experience was simply out of this world.

I had written about it in my post @   https://www.facebook.com/pmvelankar/posts/3476277409263217

While coming out I saw this area of activity at close quarters. It was obvious that some sort of park or garden was in the making. Various plots were made ready for planting, walking tracks were planned and laid out. For decoration, brightly painted used tyres were being placed strategically and some seats were also being installed.

A couple of days back could not control my curiosity and entered the place. 

As you enter, a terracotta-coloured wall with Warly paintings greets you. It is done quite artistically and looks good. 

Terracotta coloured wall with Warli paintings.

At this place, a very unique type of garden and nursery for Air Purifying Plants (APPs) and Medicinal & Aromatic Plants (MAPs) has been created. 

As per the information given by some officials present, There are almost 70-80  varieties of APPs. Number of MAPs is less than AAPs. Could be anywhere about 30 to 40   

Work is still going on and it may take some more time before remaining work of tiling of walk-ways and other things is completed. Even so, what has been accomplished is praiseworthy and impressive.

Some photos of the garden of Air Pureying Plants and  Medicinal & Aromatic Plants are given below.

Panoramic view of the garden. Benches have been placed for relaxation.

Another view of Air Purifying and Medicinal & Aromatic plants Garden. A portion of tiled walk-way can be seen.

Each plant bed has placard displaying its botanical and common name. The placard also informs the unique characteristics of the plant. For example, placard displayed in front of 

"Areca Palm"  Photo given below.

Placard with Botanical and common APP name -"Areca Palm". 

Unique characteristics of Areca palm.

Only a small part of the garden seems to have neared completion where all the plant beds/holders have been painted, brightly coloured tyres give a decorative look, tiled walk-way passes along the plant beds.

It looked beautiful. One can imagine how beautiful the garden will look when it is fully completed. 

Almost completed plant bed in Air Purifying and Aromatic plants Garden.

Nicely laid tiled walk-way, coloured plant beds and holders, decorative painted tyres.

Mininursery is near hut with the terracotta-coloured wall. 

Mini nursery of Air Purifying and Medicinal & Aromatic Plants in the Garden.

 

Finally, there is a billboard placed on the wall giving names of all those responsible for this unique and commendable initiative.

Once completed it will be a beautiful place to visit. Its location away from the hustle and bustle of the crowd as will ensure a quiet and serene ambience. Going around the APP and MAP plants will be a great learning experience.

OUR MANT MANY THANKS TO ALL OF THEM

FOR THIS COMMENDABLE INITIATIVE.

The Hurricane Lamp.

The Hurricane Lamp.

Hurricane Lamp Blog is dedicated to 

- Ajeet and Anuj, who never had to study in its light,

And Leela & Kaya. Maybe they have not even seen the real thing.

In some resorts, I have seen hurricane lamps fitted with low-wattage electric bulbs,  strung along with other lights to give a rustic or rural ambience.  

Their effort amuses me. 

Because they fail in their effort due to the overwhelming 21st-century surroundings, about which they can do nothing. 

Recently, again came across these lamps. Here, there was no effort to present them as a source of light. They were painted with a golden colour. They had opaque gold-coloured masks instead of a transparent glass chimney. These lamps were simply used as decorations.  (Photo one)

Gold coloured hurricane lamps with golden masks in place of the glass globe as decoration.

Looking at these lamps sent me down memory lane when hurricane lamps were the main source of light in almost every home. I am sure in spite of government efforts to provide electricity to every Indian home, even today, there are millions of homes where hurricane lamps are the main source of light. 

I grew up in villages without electricity, where hurricanes and other types of lamps were the main sources of light. All of them used kerosene as fuel. 

Photos of some of the light sources of those days are given below. 

(Photo two)

This type of lamp in Marathi was called chimnee(चिमणी). Hundreds of designs. Hundreds of types of material. Rarely used by the rich. It was most common with the poor, as it was comparatively cheap, and consumed the least amount of fuel compared to anything else.  

Hurricane lamp.  More light than chimnee(चिमणी). Much bigger glass chimney firmly fitted in the lamp between the top and bottom support, and a helical metal wire cage. It was more costly. More fuel consumption. Highly portable. Universally and most extensively used as a light source. Only the light source is least affected by the winds. Apparently, designers claimed that even hurricane-strength wind would not extinguish the wick, hence the name " hurricane lamp". 

Table lamp. Various types. Table lamps gave comparatively more light as compared to the hurricane lamp. Costlier than a hurricane lamp, also more fuel consumption. Used mainly on the study table by my father. The glass chimney was more elaborate, longer, narrower and taller. 

Petromax. brilliant illumination, as bright as day. A luxury item. Mostly to be found in the homes of the rich. Expensive, excessive fuel consumption, added cost of the mantle (chemically treated fabric pouch), which was the light source. The light-emitting mantle can be seen in the photo above. Mantles were quite fragile and likely to break, and needed to be replaced. 

We were not rich, far from it. To this day, I wonder how we came to own such wonder, to be used only a couple of festival times a year or on very special occasions.   

In our home, we had all the types shown above. We had 3-4 चिमणी lamps, 4-5 hurricane lamps, one double-wick table lamp and of course, as mentioned, a Petromax. 

Come evening, as the darkness fell, these lamps were lit and placed throughout the house.

 Lighting the lamp and chimneys was no problem; remove the glass, light the chimney and replace the glass.

For hurricane lamps, the lamp had a side/ thumb lever ( see photo), which had to be pressed down. Pressing of this lever lifted the complete glass assembly by about an inch, creating a sufficient gap for a lighted match to be inserted through the glass assembly to light the wick. After lighting, the side/thumb lever was raised, which lowered the complete glass assembly down. Now the lamp was ready for usage. 

By regular usage and through experience, we knew how to place the chimneys for best utilisation. One chimney each was always placed throughout the night in the bathroom and toilet.

In the morning, All the lamps were collected and after putting them out, kept in one out of the way place. Putting them out was simple; follow the lighting procedure in reverse, blowon the wick and put out the flame. 

Except for petromax, all these types of lamps used burning cotton wicks using capillary action of the burning cotton wick dipped in kerosene as fuel. 

The burning wick, along with light, also gave out smoke. How much smoke it gave out depended on many factors. This smoke formed soot layers on the glass chimney of every type of lamps, be it चिमणी, hurricane lamp or the table lamp. To get maximum light, the glass chimney had to be maintained spotlessly clean, and the wick had to give the least amount of smoke. 

The best light and the least amount of smoke was given by the wick if the shape of the flame was in a semi-circular shape, like the shape of the rising sun. This ideal condition was rarely achieved as uneven burning of the wick due to many reasons resulted in the flame of the burning wick looking like an inverted crescent moon. At these extended ends, flames always emitted smoke, blackened the chimney and gave reduced light. As a corrective measure, wicks had to be trimmed.  

To get the best out of the lamps called for daily maintenance of lamps. This meant glass chimneys had to be cleaned every day till they were spotlessly clean. The wicks had to be frequently trimmed. Unlike glass, chimney trimming of wick was not required every day but was need-based.

Cleaning glass chimneys of 3-4 chimnee,   4-5 hurricane lamps and one table lamp made about 10 glass chimneys in all. 

Cleaning all of them was a time-consuming and laborious process. This was looked after by my mother. 

With four growing children, cooking, washing, cleaning utensils, sweeping the house and doing all the household chores, she had a very tough time. There were days when she just could not find time or energy to do this, and the difference in light quality was felt once the lamps were lit.

I was the eldest of the siblings. I used to help my mother in whichever and whatever way I could. By the time I was around 10 years of age, maintenance of all the lamps was handed over to /teken over by me.

First, I had to remove all the glass chimneys from all the lamps. 

Removing and replacing the glass chimneys of chimnee(चिमणी) and the table lamp was straightforward. Just pull them up from the holder and replace them once they are cleaned.

Removing and replacing the glass from the hurricane lamp was a bit involved process. Knowing parts of the hurricane Lamp will make it easier to follow the process.  See Red Hill Photo 

To remove the glass chimney, first I had to pull up the ventilation cap, holding a metal loop fitted on top of the ventilation cap (unfortunately not shown in the photo but clearly seen in an earlier photo). Once the ventilation cap was up, I had to tilt the complete chimney assembly to the side opposite to the side of the fuel tank cap. It could not be tilted the other way; trying to do so would cause damage to the delicate wire cage. Once tilted I simply pulled the glass chimney out of the wire cage. The reverse procedure was followed to replace the glass chimney. 

I started the maintenance of lamps by removing the glass chimneys from all the lamps.

When all the glass chimneys were out, I had to clean them. 

For cleaning, wood ash was used. There was plenty and an unending supply of wood-ash. This was because all the food was cooked on a wood-burning, typical mud choolha (चूल्हा) of those days. I used to put about a teaspoonful of ash in glass of chimney, hurricane and table lamps. A half spoonful was ok for the chimney of the chimnee(चिमणी).

 A pad made out of a discarded piece of cloth was put on the layer of wood-ash and the pad, with slight pressure, was rubbed all around the chimney. After about a minute of rubbing, when all the wood-ash was removed and the remaining traces of ash wiped clean with another piece of cloth, the chimneys were spotlessly clean. If not, the process was repeated till such time they were clean. 

If trimming of the wick was required, for the chimnee(चिमणी). and table lamp glass chimney was removed first, after which the burner assembly had to be removed, wick extended. If there was soot on the wick, it was removed. Wick was then trimmed so that it was in line with the burner edge,  

Trimming the wick of the hurricane lamp was again a bit involved 

The glass chimney had to be removed first. With a complete glass chimney, assembly and the wire cage tilted out of the way, the burner assembly with wick holder could be removed from the lamp. Once the burner assembly was removed wick length was increased by turning the wick adjustment knob clockwise. When the wick was sufficiently clear of the burner assembly, first, all the soot deposits from the wick had to be removed. Then the wick had to be trimmed with scissors in such a way that it was exactly in line with the wick holder. Once trimming was done burner assembly was replaced.

When all the glass chimneys were cleaned, if required, trimming of the wick was done,  maintenance of the lamps was complete, and they were ready to be lit and give light for another night.

Initially found it a burden. As time passed, I started taking pride in the fact that all the glass chimneys were spotlessly clean and gave good light to carry on work and for studies.

I marvelled at the simplicity of operation of hurricane lamps. While searching for images of a hurricane lamp, I saw an image showing airflow within the hurricane lamp, its frame, the burner and the glass chimney. This was the first time I knew about it. It was the work of a genius to design such a complex light-giving machine which was so simple to operate, was so portable and worked in all sorts of windy conditions. 

On and off, I looked after our lamps for four years. 

For the first 10 years of my learning, from 1st standard to the 10th board examination, was done in the light of this wonderful light source. Studies in its light stopped only when I went to Sehore to stay with my uncle and was admitted to the first year of Intermediate in Government Degree College Sehore.  

The life of a lamp cleaning 10-year-old boy from Kannod is a far cry from the life of a 78-year-old retired IAF fighter pilot in Nagpur.

God has been most kind throughout this fantastic and incredible journey of almost 70 years.  

Morning Walk Vignettes - Metro Rail.

 Morning Walk Vignettes - Metro Rail. 

Almost most of my morning route, almost 4 Kilometers out of about 5 Kilometers, runs along the Aqua Line Metro Route.

Almost all of it under the metro tracks. So there is no opportunity to take a snap is the metro itself on the run.

 A lot of time there was a chance to take the snap but by the time I got the camera out unlocked it, the metro was long gone. Now at the likely spots, I keep my unlocked camera handy.

One day got a chance. Took the photo

 Metro along my morning walk route.

Had a close look at the photo. Metro looked boxed in by the buildings. It looked as if it has no freedom of movement. Can not take me where I want to go. 

Photo rejected. 

Decided to continue to be ready with my phone in my hands. 

 Luckily got the chance this morning as the metro rail was passing right ver Hingna T point.

Metro over Hingna T point.

Looked at the result.  Metro did not look hemmed in. It had freedom of movement. Seemed as if It can go anywhere.

Got the snap I wanted. No more keeping the camera ready :-)

Big Thanks for "follow- up" on a job well done.

Big Thanks for "follow- up" on a job well done. 

Most of the time I complain about 'Chalta hai' and  'could not care less' attitude of the civic authorities.

Now for a change, I am thrilled to write another bag thank you blog to the very same civic authorities after my blog of 28 Jan 21.  ( blog link: https://velusr.blogspot.com/2021/02/big-thanks-for-follow-up-on-job-well.html )

This is again about the unbroken one kilometre plus footpath.  

I had written about bushes and weeds growing by the edges of the footpath, branches of thorny "Ber" bushes were particularly troublesome as they covered large width of the footpath. This was very inconvenient in a smooth passage,  as being thorny these had to be avoided and one had to step left /right or altogether get off the footpath.

This morning to my very pleasant surprise I found going on the footpath very smooth. those troublesome thorny branched had been cut/ pruned. Even the trees on SH 340 where the branches were hanging very low have been cut/pruned. See Photo

To all those civic authorities doing this job a BIG thankyou for us Nagpurians.