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The making of tandoori tea is quite interesting! Let us see how to make it? It’s a special blend of tea half brewed along with a blend of Amol’s grandma’s secret aromatic spices. The empty kulhar (a traditional clay bowl without any handle) is roasted in the tandoor (Indian clay oven) till it is hot.  The tea is half cooked in a tin. The half-cooked tea is then poured into the hot kulhar and it froths over and gets fully brewed. The tea is served in clay cups also. The tandoori Chai was invented by Amol Dilip Rajdeo who runs India’s first Tandoor tea corner by the name ‘chai LaThe Chenab river is a major river that flows in India and Pakistan and is one of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is formed by the union of two headwaters, Chandra and Bhaga, which rise in the upper Himalayas in the Lahaul and Spiti district of  Himachal Pradesh state, India. Tandoori chai is a magical beverage which has benefits for heart, health, digestion, controlling blood sug...

Imagine you spend 17 years inside a small closet. One day, you realize that you can just open the door and hit the town! By the way, you have two to four weeks to live. It’s crazy right! Yeah, that's what happens in the life of cicadas! Female cicadas can lay up to 400 eggs. Young cicada nymphs hatch and dig themselves into the ground to suck the liquids of plant roots. And after 17 years, they march like zombies towards the nearest tree and start to climb.  where they climb out of their external skeletons and their adult winged form. The cicadas have no defense and virtually offer themselves to their attackers and soon all the predators are full to the point of bursting. Cicadas are also known for their buzzing and clicking noises. The insects use different calls to express alarm or attract mates. After mating, the adults lay their eggs and then their job is done. In just a few days. they will all die, and the forest will fall silent. It’s not clear why these cicadas have such dis...

The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. The Mona Lisa is believed to be the wife of Francisco del Giocondo, Lisa Gherardini. The 30 inches × 21 inches painting is an original oil painting on a white poplar panel and is owned by the government of France and is on the wall in the Louvre in Paris, France. The Mona Lisa painting has no eyebrows because it was the fashion in the Renaissance to shave them. Woman shaved their facial hair, including their eyebrows. Leonardo was an Italian, but he sold the painting to the king of France. Mona Lisa real name was Lisa Gherardini (born on 15th June 1479) based on their mid 16th biography of Leonardo da Vinci by Giorgio Vasari, many historians believe the painting is a portrait of Madam Lisa Giocondo, wife of a wealthy Florentine. It is from Vasari that the painting received the name Mona Lisa, also known as La Giocondo in Italian or La Joconde in French. Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint the ...

The medicines used nowadays are the result of advancements in science and technology. But in the olden days, people used animals or parts of animals, plants to cure diseases.  In ancient times mastic oil, an essential oil extracted from the resin (mastic gum) of the Pistacia lentiscus var chia, was used to cure ulcers. It was mainly used to cure stomach ulcers. The bile of pythons was also used to cure specific ulcers. Bloodletting was one of the treatments during that time for all ailments. It first started with the Sumerians and Egyptians but did not go on for long. Later Hippocrates and Galen, who were physicians told that there are four types of humors - yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. They explained that the four humors had to be in equal amounts in the body to stay healthy. So, if any ailment like a fever was there for a person, they would make a slit in a vein and let some blood (bad blood) flow out into a dish. Then they would apply medicinal plants crushed on...

Sometimes spending time with family and friends is important for your mental wellbeing, but sometimes you need time to be alone by yourself. You may be surprised by what scientists are saying about how solitude can make you stronger? Yes, researchers say that if you perceive yourself as lonely without friends, then you will feel alone. Other research found that lonely people were more prone to disease and immune problems. In fact, “no serious work is possible without great solitude.”   In a survey, 85% of those adults interviewed said they wish to have more time alone. Learning how to hang out with yourself reduces your stress. Solitude allows you to take a breath and enjoy some peace.  Researchers say that you can alter your negative view of your life so that you reinterpret the meaning of a distressing situation. It’s called cognitive reappraisal. Hope you understand and agree there are benefits to being by yourself, but how do you find the time for solitude?  You d...

The Mysterious skeleton lake is a high-altitude glacial lake in the Uttarakhand state of India. It lies in the lap of Trishul massif. Located in the Himalayas, the area around the lake is uninhabited and is roughly at an altitude of 5,020 meters, surrounded by rock-strewn glaciers and snow-clad mountains. The Mysterious skeleton lake is also known as Roopkund lake. Roopkund is a popular trekking destination. The size of the lake varies substantially, but it is seldom more than 40 meters in diameter (1000 to 1500 square meters in area) and is frozen in the winter. The coordinates 30°15`44``N 79°43`54``E and average depth are 3 meters (9.8ft). Why is it called skeleton lake? Roopkund is widely known for the hundreds of ancient human skeletons found at the edge of the lake. The human skeleton remains are visible at this bottom. Research generally points to a semi-legendary event where a group of people was killed in a sudden, violent hailstorm in the 9 th century. Because of the human ...

A s we all know the crocodile is a purely carnivorous species. Can a crocodile survive without meat? Do such crocodiles exist? Yes, Meet Babiya, the vegetarian crocodile that lives in the Anantapur lake temple in Kerala and doesn't like non-veg at all. quite interesting right! This male crocodile is almost 60 years old.  Even though the pond is filled with fish, it does not feed on it. It feeds only on the rice and jaggery given in the temple. Crocodiles have been sighted here for the past 150 years but only one crocodile is sighted at a time. People also believe that there has been a crocodile in the temple since the British era. The crocodile was once shot by a British officer, soon another one  appeared in the next few days Nobody knows where it comes from as there is no river or lake around and Babiya has been guarding the temple for the last 60 years.  And surely, the Babiya crocodile is a miracle of nature! Credits: Shree Varshini

 The cotton gin, the machine for cleaning cotton of its seeds, was invented in the United States by Eli Whitney in 1793. The cotton gin is an example of an invention directly called forth by immediate demand. The mechanization of spinning in England had created a greatly expanded market for American cotton, whose production was inhibited by the slowness of manual removal of the seeds from the raw fiber. Whitney, a Massachusetts Yankee visiting a friend in the South, learned of the problem and quickly solved it with a device that pulled the cotton through a set of wire teeth mounted on a revolving cylinder, the fiber passing through narrow slots in an iron breastwork too small to permit passage of the seed. The simplicity of the invention which could be powered by man, animal or water caused it to be widely copied despite Whitney’s patent; it is credited with fixing cotton cultivation, virtually to the exclusion of other crops, in the U.S. Impact of the cotton gin in India. ...

We all know the yellow corn but we didn’t know about the black corn let us see! Black corn is native to Peru. It is often known as Aztec corn or Mexican corn. Black Aztec is an heirloom corn variety, it has deep purplish or black kernels. Black ones contain a plant pigment called anthocyanins. Why it is black? Black corn occurs when any of several saprophytic or weekly parasitic fungi grow on corn plants in the field. Alternaria, Cladosporium, Aureobasiduim, and other species are frequently found on these discolored or black plants. Black corn has jet black kernels with a slightly purplish hue. Black corn does stain and even removing the husks dyes your finger purples. Black corn is one of the most potent vegetable sources of antioxidant-rich color pigments. Purple-shaded black corn is good for reducing diabetes, obesity, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer also. Credits: Pooja

What happens instead of rolling downwards, things go uphill? Never heard of any such thing. Well, let me introduce you to a magnetic hill in India. Magnetic Hill lies on the Leh-Kargil-Srinagar National Highway in the Trans-Himalayan region at an altitude of 14,000 feet, with the Sindhu river running on the eastern side of this hill. May to October is the perfect time to explore. What makes this hill unique? Yeah, when cars are left with the engine off, they can roll up at a speed of 20km/hr on this hill and are often called just "Gravity Hill", "Magnetic Hill", "Magic Road" or something similar. Authorities have put up a billboard in the area where the car must be parked in neutral. Then you can explore!  Yes, local people believe that it leads to heaven but scientists explain it by theory of gravity and optical illusion, yet not clearly concluded! It is always advisable to check into a hotel at Leh City and drive to the hill from there. There are also ...

The Swiss mini gun C1ST, produced in Switzerland is considered the world's smallest working revolver. The revolver measures 5.5 cm long, 3.5 cm tall and 1 cm wide, weighing only 19.8g. Ammunition is a 2.34mm rimfire, also produced by Swiss Mini Gun. There is a key ring holster that comes with the gun when it is bought and can be clipped to a belt loop.  However, the fact that a firearm this tiny works makes gun regulators quite nervous. For instance, the bullets are so minis cues that firing a cartridge essentially smashes the bullet, and being that it fits in the palm of your hand or inside your shoe, it's also highly concealable. Many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, forbid the importation of the Swiss Mini Gun due to the ease of concealing the revolver.   Swiss Mini Gun is recognized by Guinness World Records as making the world's smallest working revolver, their model C1ST. It is a double-action revolver and has all the same features as a...

 The Chenab River is a major river that flows in India and Pakistan and is one of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is formed by the union of two headwaters, Chandra and Bhaga, which rise in the upper Himalayas in the Lahaul and Spiti  district of  Himachal Pradesh state, India. The length of the river is 960 kilometers. It flows through the path areas in India: Lahaul – Chamba – Kishtwar – Thathuri – Doda – Ramban – Akhnoor.  The bridges above the river are the Chenab rail bridge (the world's highest bridge),chiniot bridge. The other name of this river is Chanderbhaga. The Mouths of this river are Sutlej River, Indus River, Panjnad. Sanskrit's name of this river is Asikni. The waters of the Chenab was allocated to Pakistan under the terms of the Indus waters treaty. India is allowed non-consumptive uses such as power generation. The Chenab river is extensively used in Pakistan for irrigation. Its waters are also transferred to the channel of the Ravi ...

  W e all have heard about white eggs, brown eggs, but a recent case in Malappuram, Kerala highlighted eggs with a weird appearance. Yeah, chickens on a farm in Kerala started laying eggs with green-colored yolks. What’s even weirder is that the poultry farm owner confirmed that they taste like regular eggs! Scientists at Kerala, Veterinary and Animal Sciences University conducted a case study to find out the secret behind the green-colored yolk. The scientists believed that it was due to the feed, so they provided feed given by the university to the hens.  Within two weeks, eggs changed color and now the green color of the yolks has completely changed to yellow at his farm. The specimen hen brought to the university also has started to gradually lay yellow-yoked eggs.  Then Shihabudheen revealed that he hadn’t fed anything particular to the hens, but some natural herbs that commonly grow in house yards in Kerala like Kurunthotti (Sida cordifolia, a medicinal herb), and...

 Antarctica is known for producing large icebergs, as they break off from ice shelves and ice sheets. The Sentinel-1 satellite from the European Space Agency scanned the area on May 13 and confirmed a giant free-floating iceberg breaks away from the shelf and named it A-76. These ice-breaking events are known as calving. Calving is a term for the mechanical loss of ice from a glacier edge. Calving is most common when a glacier edge moves into the teer. The edge of the glacier moves into the ocean or a lake, it becomes unstable as it is no longer supported by solid land. A large chunk of ice can break off, creating a floating mass of ice (an iceberg). This finger-shaped block of ice is around 170 kilometers (105 miles) long and around 25 kilometers (15 miles) wide. The 4,320 square kilometers (1,660 square miles) iceberg has been named A-76, after the Antarctic “A quadrant where it broke off. It is currently the largest iceberg in the world”. Scientists don’t think that human-indu...

  The avocado, a tree likely originating from South- Central Mexico is classified as a member of the plant family Lauraceae. The fruit of the plant is botanically a large Berry containing a single large seed. The scientific name is Rersea Americana. The benefits of Avocados are, it is a source of vitamins C, E, K, and B6, as well as riboflavin, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, and potassium. They also provide lutein, beta carotene, and omega-3 fatty acid. Avocados contain high levels of healthy beneficial fats, which can help a person feel fuller between meals. Avocados are cultivated in the tropical and Mediterranean climates of many countries with Mexico as the leading producer of avocado, supplying 32% of the world total. There are many varieties of avocados. The Avocado tree also has a long history of cultivation in central and South America, likely beginning as early as 5000BC. A water jar shaped like an avocado, dating to AD900, was discovered in the pre- Incan ...