Professor S N Tirpathi said usually a sensor of this calibre costs around Rs 1-2 crore in the international market, but the scientists at IIT-Kanpur have made it in just Rs 50,000.
A traffic policeman wears an anti-pollution mask to protect himself from growing level of air pollution in New Delhi. (File | PTI)
Kanpur :
Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology here said they have developed an air pollution sensor which they claim costs much less than similar instruments worldwide.
The sensor will measure the level of harmful gases, including ozone and nitrogen oxides, said professor S N Tirpathi.
The professor said usually a sensor of this calibre costs around Rs 1-2 crore in the international market, but the scientists at IIT-Kanpur have made it in just Rs 50,000.
Testing of the sensor will be done in June and if it passes the test, then the sensors will be installed in 150 cities of the country, he told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday.
The first 25 sensors will be installed at IIT-Kanpur campus, while 15 sensors will be installed at IIT-Bombay, the professor said.
After the testing of data, 50-60 sensors will be installed in Varanasi, Tripathi said.
He said the success was gained in developing a reliable and cheaper monitoring sensor under a India-US project.
The Union government’s Department of Science and Technology has contributed Rs 6 crore for the project, Tripathi said.
During a press conference, the institute’s dean research and alumni professor, B V Fadi, said the continuous increase in the level of pollution in the country is a cause for concern.
“So everyone has decided that they will work together to decrease pollution,” he added.
Quoting a report of the WHO, he said 1.60 lakh people died worldwide last year due to pollution and the death rate is increasing.
IIT-K alumni association president Pradeep Bhargava claimed that in the next phase of the project, countries like Singapore, Japan, China and the UAE will also be included.
He said former students of the institute living in these countries will work on the project.
Naga sadhus make a formidable image but it might come as a surprise to most that these ascetics take enough care ‘beautifying’ themselves, which can sometimes give a bride dressing up a complex.
Naga sadhus make a formidable image but it might come as a surprise to most that these ascetics take enough care ‘beautifying’ themselves, which can sometimes give a bride dressing up a complex.
Before each ‘shahi snan’, Naga sadhus do the traditional ‘sattrah shringar’ (17 adornment), one up on the ‘solah’ or 16 shringars traditionally associated with a married Hindu woman.
The night preceding the shahi snan, Naga sadhus begin the ‘spiritual and physical shringar’, which begins with cleansing rituals and concludes with smearing the entire body with ash. The whole process takes 7-8 hours. Every Naga sadhu stays awake the whole night, first praying to Shiva and the deity of his akhara to purify his soul, and then begins readying himself.
If a woman dresses up to look attractive, a Naga sadhu adorns himself for a union with the divine Ganga. The sadhus perform all the 16 shringars that a woman does, and an additional 17th: the smearing of ash or ‘bhabhoot’ all over their body.
Once they reach the bathing ghats, their excitement peaks, and even the most senior of these sadhus can be seen frolicking in the river water like a child in the arms of his mother, says Mahant Narendra Giri, Niranjani Akhada secretary and president of Akhil Bhartiya Akhada Parishad.
He explains that unlike others who bathe to purify themselves, the Naga sadhus first purify themselves through prayer and only after ensuring that they are ‘shudh’ from inside do they go for a bath in the Ganga.
He says each Naga sadhu smears his body with holy ash and grooms his ‘Panchkesh’ (hair of his body) before proceeding for the dip.
“Like a married woman applying a bindi, sindhoor and kajal, a naga sadhu after attending to his ‘panchkesh’ applies the sacred roli, tilak and chandan. If a woman wears jewellery, a naga ascetic too wears garlands of rudraksh. He wears a kada (iron bracelet) instead of bangles and carries a ‘damroo’, ‘chimta’ and ‘kamandal’ as other adornments,” Narendra Giri says.
He says though a Naga sadhu does not wear clothes, he often puts on a loincloth or kopin and ‘naagphani’ as a concession to the world.
Shri Mahant Aradhana Giri of Shri Sanyasini Dashnaami Juna Akhada, says, “No doubt the shringar of a Naga sanyasi is tougher than that of a woman. A Naga sadhu purifies his body and soul before the shahi snan in the river because he is aware that millions of others will bathe in the same water after him and it is for this reason that he comes out after just one dip or two.”
THE SATTRAH SHRINGAR
1. Tilak
2. Chandan
3. Braided hair
4. Kajal
5. Chimta, Damroo, Kamandal
6. Rudraksha garland
7. Kundal
8. Smear of roli
9. Kada
10. Amulet of Rudraksha
11. Ring of iron
12. Panchkesh
13. Waistband of Rudraksha
14. Iron/Silver rings
15. Chandan
16. Langot/Kopin
17. Bhabhoot
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Lucknow / by Sandeep Kumar, Hindustan Times, Prayagraj / February 05th, 2019
Men, it’s time to rejoice! Lucknow’s famous clothing line ‘Ajara’, known for its designer ethnic and wedding wear, has finally launched a male line. The clothing line which was earlier exclusive to females has now branched into the male world on their 1st birthday and we can almost hear the men taking a sigh of relief.
Okay Men, answer my questions, isn’t it difficult to find something that is not only comfortable but fashionable? Something that makes sense when you wear it, but also makes you look and feel good, it’s difficult right? There are plenty of options for women in ethnic, like saree, salwar-suit, lehengas and shararas. As if that was not enough, there are options like ethnic gowns and dresses.
But what do we have for men? Not enough, evidently. Not enough, but not anymore!
With Ajara’s new male line, you can find anything and everything that you require or can think of! The name ‘Ajara’ is a Sanskrit word which when loosely translated, means ‘Everlasting’. ‘Ajara’ with its name wants to create a clothing line that is always in vogue and accessories too.
Because at the end of the day styles change, fashion comes and goes but elegance and class never get old! Which is exactly what ‘Ajara’ promises to its patrons.
Already a well known and trusted name in the fashion community, Ajara is trying to bring comfort, class and elegance in the forefront. Most of the work they do and the styles they carry are done organically, you get exquisite handmade pieces that are designed with passion and love.
Ajara has adopted a village near the city, which is visited by their team of experts, who teach the local women the craft of embroidering, and sowing. The women then work on luxurious pieces of fabrics that are also sourced locally and made using the finest material. Which is later sown together by design experts, giving you a flawless design that fits and feels as luxurious as can be imagined. Surprisingly, even after the entire process, the designs remain reasonable and pocket friendly.
Ajara has also launched an amazing range of fragrances and bath & body products that are exquisite and heavenly, and will change the way you feel about yourself.
So, if you are looking for a gorgeous piece that will make you stand out and be the centre of everyone’s praises and envious looks, give Ajara a visit. Maybe you’ll find yourself falling in love with the fashion wonderland and getting lost in all the luxuries!
Resplendent with the flavour of Kumbh, the ongoing 10-day-long Lucknow Book Fair is drawing denizens in hordes.
‘Atal’ tribute to Vajpayee In a tribute to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, has named its new variety of lemongrass ‘CIM-Atal’. Having represented Lucknow inParliament for five consecutive terms, Vajpayee passed away in August last year. The institution’s director Dr AK Tripathi claims that true to its name, the new variety of lemongrass is firm and resistant to moderate changes in farming conditions as ‘Atal’ means firm and constant. Moreover, the plant gives a constant high yield of aromatic oil. Besides, ‘CIM-Akshay’, ‘CIM-Sukhda’, ‘CIM-Suvas’ have also been evolved from basil (tulsi) to be released and distributed to farmers for cultivation and being high yield varieties, these will contribute to consolidate farmers’ income.
Fair with ‘Kumbh flavour’ Resplendent with the flavour of Kumbh, the ongoing 10-day-long Lucknow Book Fair is drawing denizens in hordes. Cultural performances, ‘traffic security week’ and many other attractions have been set up at the fair. Called ‘Ankuram Shiksha Mahotsav’, the festival is being managed by a civil society group ‘icareindia’. A satrangi exhibiton is also being organised with the participation of government primary and upper primary schools from 11 districts — Agra, Aligarh, Basti, Maharajganj, Etawah, Mathura, Kheri, Kannauj, Balrampur, Ayodhya and Lucknow in the festival. The Kumbh festival has been going on since January 14 and has been set up on an unprecendented scale.
Lucknow ready for Metro In a matter of days, the first phase of the Lucknow Metro will kick off from the airport to the other end of the city, covering a 23-km stretch from February 15. The ambitious project of connecting the city’s ends is two-and-a-half months ahead of its deadline. As of now, the Metro will only ply on the 8-km route from the airport to Charbagh. Recently, ‘Metroman of India’ E Sreedharan, who is also the principal advisor to Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC), inspected the North-South Corridor — from the airport to Munshipulia — with a team of the corporation and endorsed the work carried out. Following another inspection by Commissioner Railway Safety between February 20-23, the project would be ready for commercial runs.
Marquee bubbling with Oudhi culture Lucknow residents woke up to the soulful notes of Raag Bhairavi and ‘Jago Mohan pyare’ rendered by noted classical singer Shruti Sadolikar, who performed at the ‘Safed Baradari’ in a concert at dawn on Sunday. Presenting timeless melodies for an enthusiastic audience at 6am, Sadolikar enthralled music connoisseurs with her ethereal voice at the ongoing Sanatkada Festival in an ode to the Oudhi culture that is quintessential to Lucknow. The event was a day-long celebration with food and a mushaira and a qawwali session in the evening.
Our correspondent in Uttar Pradesh / namita.bajpai@newindianexpress
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Nation / by Namita Bajpai, Express News Service / February 05th, 2019
The UP State Archaeological Department is going to establish a museum at iconic Chattar Manzil, which would house artifacts unearthed at archaeological sites across Uttar Pradesh.
The UP State Archaeological Department (UPSAD) is going to establish a museum at iconic Chattar Manzil, which would house artifacts unearthed at archaeological sites across the state.
The museum would come up after the ongoing beautification and strengthening work is over at the Chattar Manzil.
“We have big plans for Chattar Manzil, which has high potential for being a tourist hub. Construction of a dedicated museum is one of the many plans in store for this nawabi era structure,” said AK Singh, director, museum, who also holds charge of UPSAD.
UPSAD officials said the museum would house artifacts including furnaces, arrow heads and cultural components dated BCE (before the Common Era) 1800 and 1000, unearthed during various excavation works at various historical sites in the state.
Stone and bone artifacts, terracotta beads and other important cultural components too will be placed in the museum, said officials.
“It will be a chance for the people to peep into the world of our ancestors and forefathers,” added officials.
As per plan, the museum would have different chambers displaying artifacts from separate excavation sites. One of these is Dadupur (between Gomti and Sai River) — one of the biggest excavation sites in UP.
In Dadupur excavation, the department had recovered iron artifacts including arrow heads.
Similarly, artifacts from the famous Jajmau mound in Kanpur would also be an attraction at the museum. These would include evidences of pre-Mauryan and Kushan period. Copper coins, seals, terracotta beads, granaries, burnt bricks would also be displayed, he added.
Besides, artifacts unearthed from sites like Hulaskhera, Soni, Raja Nal ka Tila, Malhar, Naidih, Rajdhani Tila and others too will find place in the museum.
source: http://www.hindutantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Lucknow / by Rajeev Mullick, Hindustan Times, Lucknow / February 05th, 2019
There is probably no poet (like Montrose) in the whole range of Anglo-Indian Urdu poetry who shows this rare combination of writing elegant verses both in Urdu and English with equal facility and skill”
Benjamin David Montrose ‘Muztar’
Benjamin David Montrose “Muztar”, about whom mention was made in an earlier article in the newly released book Beloved Delhi by Saif Mahmood, was a far greater personality than one thought, thanks to the painstaking research of the late George Heatherley, a descendant of Alexander Heatherley “Azad”, the Ghalib era Urdu poet.
In Delhi, on his annual visit from Perth in 2012, Heatherley had brought with him an extract on the life of the Scottish poet by Dr Ram Babu Saxena, who wrote extensively on the Indo-British Poets of Urdu and Persian. But one got to see it only recently, and it’s worth repeating. “Born on Christmas Eve 1855, the poet bore the same name, Benjamin Montrose, as his father who came to India as a captain in the troops of the East India Company and was shot dead in Patna during the “Mutiny”. His mother died when he was about three years old and he was brought up by relatives, some of who lived in Jaipur. Alice Garg, who runs an NGO, is one of the descendants.
Her mother’s name was Vicky Montrose, daughter of Agnes Montrose, who was a great Jaipur socialite in the 1930s, as noted by my father whom she nearly married. Muztar’s Ustad, Dagh Dehlvi was the son of Nawab Shamsuddin Khan of Delhi and a contemporary of Ghalib. He is the Alexander Pope of Urdu, known for his wit, biting satire and sophisticated verse.
Benjamin David Montrose travelled extensively as a young man and married Rosalind Smith of Mirzapur in 1887. In 1898, he settled down in Allahabad. He had five children ~ Robert Bruce, George Micheal, Henry Micheal, Daphine and Mildred. To quote the extract: “Montrose was an artist and a photographer by profession, who wandered about a good deal visiting, among other places, Simla, Darjeeling, Calcutta, Jaipur, Delhi, Mirzapur. He was genuinely interested in his work and it is said by his daughter that he visited Italy to study art and to see all the various institutions and pictures galleries. He did considerable work for the EI Railway. He also painted the stage screens and scenes for the Coral Theatre, Allahabad.
“Besides this, Montrose did the portraits of the Nizam, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, the Maharaja of Rewa, the Nawab of Rampur, the Maharaja of Balrampur, and other princes “who treated him with great consideration”. His painting of Edward VII on an opal was exhibited at the Simla exhibition in the last century and was greatly appreciated.”
Maqbul Hussain Ahmadpuri of the Nizam’s dominions wrote in the Urdu magazine Hyderabad Deccan in July 1930 that Montrose was also attached to the Dramatic Company of the Parsi Nauranji as a writer of advertisements and handbills on a salary of Rs 50 and that when the dramatic company visited Mirzapur in 1893 he used to participate in mushairas held in the house of Moulvi Farand Ali, Vakil. Here his paintings also attracted attention and Beni Madho, a rich Mahajan, employed him on a salary of Rs 100 (which was considered fabulous at a time when the buying power of money was more than a hundred times of what it is now). After that Montrose opened a studio in Allahabad and among the portraits he painted was one of the Raja of Manda who was so delighted that he bought it for Rs 200 and also made a present of Rs 1,000 to the painter.
Montrose wrote poetry, English and Urdu, with great ease and distinction. His poetical surname was “Muztar”, and he is stated to have said that he stayed in Delhi ten years and that he learnt the language and art of poetry (from Dagh) there. In the letters of Dagh, references to Montrose are made.
In the letter dated 21 st April, 1898 addressed to Moulvi Naimul Haq “Azad” of Sheikhupur, Dagh enquires from him about the whereabouts of Mr Montrose his pupil. “Montrose was greatly devoted to Dagh and there are numerous references to him in his maqtas (last line of the ghazals). He could compose extemporaneously and one of his impromptu hemistiches was done to complete another hemistich by Dagh.
“The Ghayas ul Muztar (by him) is an elegy on the death of Dagh. It was printed in 1915 at Allahabad (though the Ustad died at Hyderabad in 1905 aged 74). It is a Mukhummus and contains 102 stanzas ‘Bund’. He generally follows the English arrangement of elegies such as that of Milton but has closely followed the Urdu model in his compositions and sentiments. He complains of the tyranny of the sky, personifies the Rose (Gul) the Nightingale (Bulbul), Fidelity and Poetry and they lament over Dagh’s death.
“Montrose was a prolific writer and he composed four dewans, which are in his handwriting and which are preserved in his family. The Razi Haqiqat is a masnavi in Urdu, versifying the Last Supper. It was completed in 1906 and was published subsequently by the Newul Kishore Press of Allahabad. The pamphlet is also called ‘Khatum ul Tuam’.
A short extract reads: “On the 14th day of January, 1906, while lying in my dying bed I thought of finishing the Sacred Version of the Last Supper of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Urdu Verses, with all the veracity and sincerity of the Holy Gospel, except with some digressions my Muse would fain have indulged in, which might have been taken for annotations and commentations to the Holy Supper. This sacred longing had all along been the highest pinnacle of my ambition and earthly desires ere I came to naught. The Sacred awe with which I was then overcome lulled me to a death-like sleep wherein I heard a voice saying: ‘The cloud that veils and shrouds thy mortal hopes…I shall remove’.
“It was perchance the voice of the Man of Sorrows that brought such a change in me that notwithstanding my infirmitly and feebleness I left my bed of sickness with supernatural strength and fortitude to invoke my Muse for the Sacred Strain. More than half of the Work (version) was thus accomplished during midnight hours and the final recovery of my health and strength preceded its completion through the Grace and Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Montrose also brought out two volumes of English poetry ~ one on the War of 1914-18 and the other in a pamphlet entitled Spiritual and Temporal Poems published in 1917 at the Commercial Press, Allahabad. The book of poems contains A Hymn to Mary, the Blessed Mother. The Easter Giftor The Penitent Magdalen, Reflections on the Immortality of the Soul. The Woman of Chanaan, Satan’s Solioquy, St. George Before Apollo, Julian the Apostate and the Temple of Jerusalem, the Solioquy of Robert Bruce of Scotland. “There is probably no poet in the whole range of Anglo-Indian Urdu poetry who shows this rare combination of writing elegant verses both in Urdu and English with equal facility and skill”, according to his admirers. Montrose, who was known to Nehru and Firaq, died aged 75 in 1931 and his wife in 1935.
However, it is not known if his descendants still live in Mayo Road, Allahabad, where Firaq Gorakhpuri too lived during his professorship days in the famous university there. When Dagh died Montrose instinctively wrote these pensive lines: “Ek Dagh tha tau woh bhi tau Muztar guzar gaya/Baqi bacha hai kaun ab Hindostan mein” (who else is left in India now)? A grateful pupil’s tribute to his ustad sent in 1905 from Allahabad to distant Hyderabad of the Nizam.
“That was how,” said the late Ausaf Ali of Hamdard University, Delhi, “Benjamin Montrose maintained a cherished Urdu Shairi tradition”. Dr Ali saw Montrose as a majestic, old townsman in his childhood.
source: http://www.thestatesman.com / The Statesman / Home> Supplements> Section 2> by R.V. Smith / New Delhi / January 17th, 2019
