Technology has made it possible to carry around our computers. From the age of Mark-I and ENIACs , we’ve paved way for today’s laptops and palmtops. Ease of use, portability, sleek designing, light weight, information at the fingertip are aspects that rate the laptop on high terms in technological advancements. With many companies, models and colours, laptop industry is booming. Laptops selling like hot cakes at affordable prices is definitely one of the significant events of the 21st century in the field of affordable scientific advancements.
Could you imagine a world without the colour green? A world bereft of its forest and ground cover- devoid of vegetation?! Trees have become so essential a part in our lives that thinking of a world devoid of them is almost impossible! From everyday needs of food and furniture to stuff like paper, rubber etc, it is trees that help us in every way. Reducing pollution, keeping the soil bonded, providing shelter for the birds and animals, trees have been one of the best helpers man ever knew for generations!
Nothing ever turns fruitful till a man dares to dream! Moshe Safdie’s Habitat ‘67 is one such creation- a brilliant rethinking of a conventional apartment building that Canada showcased as its entry in the Montreal World Expo ‘67. Appearing like a randomly arranged pile of boxes, the habitat building was severely criticized and great lauded for its innovation and spirit of daring in envisaging it. Pre-fabricated units never found a better advertisement and communal living a better advocate than through this marvelous creation of Moshe’s!
The Interpreter of Maladies, a Houghton Mifflin publication, is a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri that won her a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in the year 2000. Also helping her covet the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and The New Yorker’s Best Debut of the year, Jhumpa’s anthology of nine short stories discuss the lives of Indians and Indian Americans. Their day-to-day struggles are portrayed with a great insight into the human mind and in a language that is delightful to read. Each story is brilliantly narrated and the depth of the plot and style of unfolding it are something to be lauded about! The Interpreter of maladies- a great read!
Be it a sheaf of papers that need to be kept rolled or loose hair to be tied- rubber bands come in to the rescue! Although initially, our Victorian predecessors never really used anything but ribbons to ‘tie’, the rubber band soon caught up and made its way into our everyday life. Fancy, colourful and extremely user friendly, the rubber band also is very economical to use. If not for it, we’d still be complaining of having to tie ribbons on our hair, paper, packets and whatnot!
A million songs may have been learnt, a million new compositions emerged- but the words of the nursery rhymes still ring with clarity while the rest lay forgotten or near that! Twinkle Twinkle, Humpty Dumpty etc are words that people the world over relate with and grow up on a diet of! Sing-song way, easy-to-remember lyrics, a very visually-provoking writing style that plays the rhyme like a reel in one’s mind etc, were the watchwords of these nursery rhymes. So whether you remember where the nearest eatery is or not, “one-a-penny two-a-penny hot cross buns” are something you shall never be lost about!