Introduction:-

Vinayaka Chaturthi is a very auspicious and promising occasion for Hindus. Like all other festivals celebrated in India, Vinayaka Chaturthi is also celebrated on different dates every year. In 2020, Vinayak Chaturthi was celebrated on 22nd August and in 2021, it is 13th June. Vinayaka Chaturthi is also known as Ganesh Chaturthi, Vinayaka Chavithi and Ganeshotsav. This festival drops on the 4th day of Shukla Paksha in Bhaadrapada (according to the Hindu calendar Bhaadrapada is the sixth month and as per the Gregorian calendar, it features the month August- September.) The literal meaning of Vinayaka Chaturthi is asking God to fulfil any desire one has. Each lunar month has two Chaturthi Tithis. It is believed that both the Chaturthi Tithi belongs to Lord Ganesha. The Chaturthi after Amavasya or new moon during Shukla Paksha is known as Vinayaka Chaturthi.

Why is Vinayaka Chaturthi celebrated? 

Lord Ganesha is god of wisdom, good luck, auspiciousness, he is the dealer of problems and obstacles, wealth and health. Lord Ganesha is the child of Lord Shiva (God of Destruction, Meditation, Yoga, Time and Dance; The Destroyer of Evil) and Goddess Parvati (Goddess of Power, Energy, Devotion, Marriage, Motherhood, Children, Fertility, Love, and Harmony). 

This day highlights the monthly birthday of lord Ganesha. This is a very auspicious day as good fortune and traditionally invoked at the beginning of any new venture or the start of travel.

Birth of Lord Ganesha:- 

Ganapati wrote the Epic Mahabharata:-

How do people celebrate Vinayaka Chaturthi? 

1. Devotees observed an all day long fast on this day. It is considered good if you wake up early in the morning and take bath. 
2. For disputes related to property, devotees should offer silver in a square shape to Lord Ganesha on this day. 
3. By placing the idol of Lord Ganesha made up of neem, peepal or mango leaves at the entrance of the house brings positivity in the house.
4. Devotees worship the idol of Lord Ganesha made of crystal as it cures the Vastu dosh of the house

If you will move your eyes down this record you would be so surprised to find out that these items a lot older than you believe they would be. This batch complies with introspection on what is significant to us in our daily life. I believe that these are the considerable and biggest inventions/discoveries of all time & hence I am gathering them in one blog. 

1. X-ray photography

An X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a very short length (range 10-0.01 nm- nanometres). German Physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, was researching cathode rays when he realized that these generate another or different form of rays (when they hit the glass or the Cathode Ray tube). He called X-ray 'X' because X is a mathematical term for solving anonymous equations. As he didn't know anything about it and he just discovered this, he named this incredible discovery "X-ray". 

After discovering the X-ray, in interest, he passed through card, paper, and fabric and it generates fluorescent and can be utilized to create an image in a barium coated photographic plate. Then some other day, he was experimenting with something that includes human tissues he asked his wife to place her hand on the plate and found out that x-ray passes through the flesh but not through the bones or her ring. He didn't know the disadvantages of X-Ray yet. Now in modern life, X-rays play so crucial role in the medical field and we comprehend if a bone is fractured. 

2. Electric Stove

Earlier, electric stores were operated by running electricity through a resistance coil, the coil heats up and also heats the iron plate placed on the vessel and food inside it. Now the electric Stoves use glass-ceramic tops instead of iron. The electric stoves were slow to function because only a few people had a key to electricity at that time. A fully electric kitchen was disclosed at the Chicago world fair. In the 1920s electric stoves became a considerable competition to the gas stove. The first person for an electric store was awarded to William Hadaway. 

3. Powered hearing aids

Back then, Power hearing aids were carved from wood and were carved to resemble the ears of animals known to have acute hearing. There were many tries made to develop up powered hearing aid using the newly invented storage battery at the time, but the first most successful power hearing was 'Akoulallion' by Dr. Miller R Hutchison. The early designs were very bulky, and were very expensive, as well the battery life is very limited and so was the range of frequencies. 

4. Steering wheels

Alexander Winton was a very enthusiastic cyclist and was also the possessor of Winton automobiles, he had also been attempting to replace the Tiller on his car with the system designed on a bicycle steering. He then came up with the circular wheel with the tube running down to the steering box link to all four wheels. The mechanism in the steering box summarized the rotation of the wheels into linear action and gave drivers gain control of their vehicles. 

5. Washing Machine

Washing clothes were "The American housekeeper's hardest problem", but this situation was solved by modern technology- Washing Machine. In 1858, hamilton Smith patented a rotary washing machine. Cylindrical, with 'agitated water' and revolving paddle, it was the first step towards modern machines. Others followed from other manufacturers, some blending the machine with the mangle. The early machines were still hand-cranked, but it was not long before motorized versions became accessible, either with fuel-burning or electric motors. 

Hurley Company first produced the "Thor" designed by Alva Fisher. This was the first electric washing machine to be largely sold and it had a book with it advising about the self-reversing gearbox that avoided the clothes from becoming compacted during the process of washing. Sometimes it failed as it was new and unprotected at that time. 

6. Refrigerator

The refrigerator helps us in food storage and slowing the development of bacteria. Baltzar von platen and Carl Munters were learners at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. There, they invented and developed the gas-absorbing refrigerator.  Unlike modern fridges, it did not require electricity driving a compressor, but depended instead upon an ingenious process whereby a refrigerant gas is put through a series of changes of state. In von Platen's process, ammonia mixed with water is heated until the ammonia evaporates. This gas is then approved through a condenser, which supervises heat away from the pure ammonia until it becomes liquid at a much lower temperature than when mixed with water. This liquid is then passed through brine and cools it, which in turn chills the unit. The ammonia is then returned to gas and reabsorbed into the water so that the process can begin again.

7. Elevator

American Jesse W. Reno came up with the idea of an "inclined elevator" at the age of sixteen and patented the idea in 1891. It was not the first idea of its type because an invention had been awarded earlier for a steam-driven design, but this was never built. In 1895 Reno's moving stairway was built as an attraction at New York's Coney Island amusement park.

The term "escalator" was not attached to the invention until Charles Seeberger combined scala (Latin word for "stairs") and elevator, the name of a device invented some years previously. Seeberger redesigned the escalator, and it was built in the Otis factory, New York. This became the first commercial escalator, winning first prize at the Paris Exposition in 1900. The Otis Elevator Company bought the rights to both Reno's and Seeberger's designs and became the world's leading escalator manufacturers.

He continued to invent, and after a rejected bid to redesign New York's subway system, he moved to London, and with his new company, began manufacturing a spiral escalator for the London Underground train network. This was less successful and never used by the general public.

8. Electric fan

Being too hot must have been a major problem for people before the late 1800s. As soon as electrical power was introduced, inventors started to work on ideas for the electric fan.

Dr. Schuyler Skaats Wheeler (1860-1923) was the American engineer responsible for creating the personal two-blade desk fan-an an invention beloved of anyone who has ever held down an indoor job in the summer months. Invented by Wheeler at the tender age of twenty-two, the fan was made of brass, with no protective caging surrounding the rotating blades, resulting in a product that was both stylish and dangerous in equal measure.

However, like most inventions of that time that used electricity, when they have first introduced these fans were the reserve of the rich and the powerful. It was not until the 1920s when industrial advances meant that fan blades could be mass-produced from steel, that prices started to drop and the ordinary homeowner could afford one.

Aside from his fan, Wheeler also became known for employing a large workforce of sightless people. He noticed that his sighted employees who were skilled at winding coil did so without ever looking at their hands. He blindfolded himself to see if he could wind coil without looking and found that, with a little practice, he could. The number of blind individuals in the population had increased as a result of World War I. Wheeler set up a department at his factory that employed only sightless men and women, putting them on a par with their sighted contemporaries.

9. Motorcycle

When the German inventor Nikolaus Otto produced the first four-stroke internal combustion engine in the late nineteenth century, he inspired Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) and Willhelm Maybach (1846-1929) to produce an exciting form of transport. The concept was every parent's worst nightmare: to combine a strengthened but still dangerously unstable "bone crusher" bicycle with a gas engine.

Two-wheeled, powered transport was not itself a novelty. Steam-powered bicycles had been around since 1867, and the Michaux-Perreaux steam bicycle with its front wheel larger than its back wheel and the steam engine mounted under the saddle went into production in 1868. But when Daimler and Maybach produced their gas-based version in 1885 they unveiled what was to be recorded by historians as the world's first motorcycle. Maybach drove the prototype from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim, a distance of nearly 2 miles (3 km), reaching a speed of 7.5 miles per hour (12 kph). While modern motorbikes resemble powerful jet engines on wheels, with leather jacket-clad riders confidently astride them, the original two-wheeled motorcycle had additional safety wheels protruding from each side of the chassis to provide a stable riding platform. Only in later models, as riders mastered the techniques of controlling fast movement on two wheels, were the stabilizers dispensed with.

Despite its cautious beginnings, the motorcycle has evolved into a highly adaptable road vehicle. In the twenty-first century, the need to minimize carbon footprints will only further increase the popularity of this environmentally efficient invention.

Introduction:- 

Apara Ekadashi is a very auspicious and encouraging day for Hindus. Like all other Hindu festivals enjoyed in India, Apara Ekadashi is also celebrated on different dates every year. In 2020, Apara Ekadashi was celebrated on the 18th of May. But 2021, this bright occasion is on the 6th of June. Apara Ekadashi is also Achala Ekadashi and Krishna Ekadashi. Apara Ekadashi drops in Krishna Paksha on the 11th day in Jyeshtha (according to the Hindu calendar Jyeshtha is the third month and as per the Gregorian calendar, it features the month May- June.) The literal meaning of Apara Ekadashi is- Apara: limitless. It is believed that on this day devotees who keep a fast get limitless blessings and love from the lord Vishnu. Apara Ekadashi is known by various names across India. In Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, and Haryana- it is known as ‘Bhadrakali Ekadashi.’ Goddess Bhadra Kali is cherished on this day. In Odisha- ‘Jalakrida Ekadashi’ and is celebrated in honor of Lord Jagannath.

Why is Apara Ekadashi is celebrated? 

There was a king known as Mahidwaj, he was a very kind, pious, and good person. He had a younger brother Yajra Dhwaj, who was greedy, deceptive. He killed Mahidwaj due to greed and hatred towards him. He then tossed out his remains under a Peepal tree. Because of this Mahidwaj couldn't attain salvation and his spirit remained there. He used to trouble and haunt everyone who used to pass the tree. One day, a sage Dhaumya was passing through the tree and he noticed or understood the spirit and asked his validity and existence there. When he was conscious of the reality. The sage himself observed a fast of Apara Ekadashi (for blessings of Lord Vishnu, he is the preserver and protector of the universe.) for Mahidwaj's salvation. Lord Vishnu blessed him and hence, Mahidwaj was unrestricted and he attained salvation. 

Shri Krishna narrated the prestige and significance of Apara Ekadashi to King Yudhishthira (eldest son of Pandu).

How is Apara Ekadashi celebrated? 

1. On this day, devotees of Lord Vishnu wake early in the morning and observe an all-day-long fast (for three days) to get rid of their past sins and bad deeds and can end their cycle of birth and death and can attain salvation. (Moksha) 
2. Tulsi leaves with fruits, flowers, and sweets are offered to the Lord. 
3. Devotees recite the story of Apara Ekadashi. 
4. After artis, prasad is distributed and Vishnu Sahastranama is recited. 
5. The devotees take a bath in the holy river in the month of Kartik. 
6. The fast doesn't only include controlling eating but also, remembering the god and worshiping and keeping the mind free from all the negative thoughts.

“The Earth is what we all have in common.” 

—Wendell Berry

World Environment Day is celebrated on the 5th of June every year. This day is dedicated to creating awareness and understanding associated with the environment and its protection. World environment day is being celebrated since 1974. This is an incredibly important day for us humans to do something to maintain our environment. This is also the UN's very valuable and promising day. There are many factors that are influencing the environment in many mean dailies. The theme for 2021 World Environment Day is 'Ecosystem Restoration'

“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.”

—Leo and Tolstoy

How are we dependant on the Earth and the environment? 

Environment plays a very significant role in our strong and healthy life. The Earth is a residence for all living beings or species and we are all dependant on earth. 

• Food 
• Water
• Clean Air
• Fuel
• Shelter 
• Clothing 

Let's go into the details:- 

1. Food: all the food web begins from the plant present around us (they are the primary producers). For the method of photosynthesis, the plant utilizes sunlight to change Carbon dioxide from the air and water and breaks it down into simple sugar (made by Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen) the plant then stocks the sugar in various parts of their body like roots, stem, and leaves. As we know that the plants during the process of photosynthesis takes the Carbon dioxide in and release oxygen. This not only assists us also the environment, as it equalizes the gases and keeps the earth's climate stable. Plants and trees also support the environment by cooling down and deliver clean and fresh air and oxygen. We consume meat as well. 

2. Water: Earth includes 70% water and the rest is land however only 1 or 2% water is fresh. The water we drink gets to us from rivers, lakes, and also groundwater. There are 4 reasonable and basic techniques to clean the water for making it drinkable.

1. Coagulation and flocculation: This is the process where chemicals are put into the water to destabilize the stabilized charged particles. It mixes the particles and makes them into a bigger chunk. 
2. Sedimentation: this encourages the settling of bigger particles. 
3. Filtration: the filtered water is approved through a filter to discard the components such as dirt, dust, bacteria, parasite, and virus which are broken up in the water for promising hygiene. 
4. Disinfection: chlorine is used to kill all germs, bacteria, parasites, and viruses.  Fluorine is also added to prohibit tooth decay.

3. Clean air: Trees encourage us to clean the air. Trees eradicate carbon dioxide existing in the air around us and diminish the greenhouse gas effect. It consumes all lethal and fatal chemicals (like carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ammonia, and ozone) through their stomata or trapping it on their leaves and barks, they filter the air. They also enhance atmospheric moisture. Planting trees is one of the delightful things you could do to protect our environment. A big and grown tree approximately absorbs up to 48 pounds (21.77 kg) of carbon dioxide per year. Also, one tree can produce practically 260 pounds of oxygen each year. Trees supply us with fresh oxygen to inhale and exhale. In one year, an acre of mature trees can deliver ample oxygen for 18 people.

4. Fuel: fuels are found in the Earth's crust and contain carbon and hydrogen, which can be burnt for energy. There is no evidence of how much fuel is there. Yes, fossil fuels are given rise to from the decomposing of plants and animals.

5. Shelter: shelter is an architectural design or structure that safeguards us and the environment. Shelters are made up of many materials like bricks, wood, cement, stones. Where do we get their elements from?

6. Clothing: clothes are made up of many different types of material like cotton, leather, linen. Which are extracted from nature! (There are polyester, rayon, and others that are considered manmade.)

Factors affecting the environment:-

1. Pollution: pollution has been one of the major/biggest problems. Let me keep this straight- polluted environment is very harmful to live in. Because it is unfortunately unfavorable. Pollution is a product of man's action! Soil pollution is a part of land degradation which comes under environmental degradation Indirectly. Soil pollution is caused by chemicals or by any other variation. Soil pollution kills plants and animals. 

Air pollution: air pollution causes acid rains, climate changes, extinction, smog, respiratory health problems (can lead to chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, and other diseases.), and even skin damage.

Water pollution: acid rains which are linked to air pollution, it turns lakes, rivers acidic which kills fishes and other animals. As I told you that we consume the water coming from the rivers, lakes, etc. Water pollution also affects our health. Pollution affects everything including food chains. 

Lastly, plastic pollution: affects both the plants and animals living in that particular area. It makes it harder because plastic is non-degradable!

Deforestation: deforestation means removing the trees permanently to place something there. As I already told you how important trees are for us. I believe we should follow the rules of nature and shouldn't go against them. Deforestation affects the environment in many ways as well. It affects the climate of the earth as I told you trees help in maintaining the climate by balancing the gases! soil erosion, fewer crops, flooding, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere takes place.

Overpopulation: overpopulation also affects us and the environment too. Because of overpopulation, fuels and resources are exhausted, deforestation (when a country or a place is overpopulated, forests and trees are cut down to make factors and building there.), water pollution, soil pollution, plastic pollution, noise pollution, and global warming!

Global warming: global warming is extended heating of the earth's climate, due to human activities, fossil fuels burning, it increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere. Global warming leads to an increase in extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, cyclones, blizzards and rainstorms, and many more.

also read: our earth without trees