Flower Carpet :: Unbelievable..

Every two years, the Grand Place in Brussels is decorated with over 700,000 “Begonias” that are arranged into a beautiful carpet design. The design of the carpet to be made is prepared in advance and later the entire thing only takes four hours to execute. Unbelievable.

Officially, the first Floral Carpet as its present-day form was created in 1971 on the Grand-Place by the landscape architect E. Stautemans. Stautemans, who was born in Zottegem, and graduated from the Ghent Horticultural College, had been experimenting since the early 50's making simple small carpets, more like rugs, mainly consisting of begonias but realized that floral carpets would be an excellent vehicle for the promotion of his beloved begonias which he had always worked with, both technically, economically and aesthetically.

After years of attempts and calculations, this architect, who was inventive and imaginative, and knew how to make the most of the numerous resources of begonias, became an expert in the creation of superb floral carpets with sophisticated colors and complicated designs.
His fame spread and he was asked to make carpets not only in Belgium but worldwide (Cologne, Hamburg, Luxemburg, Paris, London, Breda, Amsterdam, The Hague, Vienna, Valencia, and as far afield as Buenos Aires and Colombus, Ohio).

Some of these carpets were bigger than the ones created in Brussels (77 x 24 m), like the 1973 masterpiece at Sint-Pietersplein, Ghent that reached a gigantic 164 x 42 m. However, as E. Stautemas himself says, "Nowhere is the carpet more beautiful and distinguished than in the unique, ancient surroundings of the Grand-Place in Brussels".

Click To Enlarge >>

 

Link>>

http://www.flowercarpet.be/frdernanne.htm

The Fourteenth magnificent Flower Carpet is to be made at Grand-Place of Brussels in 2010. The invitation is already online for the Weekend of the 13th to the 15th of August 2010.

Invitation Link>>

http://www.flowercarpet.be/site/main.php?lg=en&otm=3&mtm=1&hst=_01&pg=141

 

So who is taking the flight to Brussels to see the 2010 Flower Carpet..

Bandra Worli Sea Link

 

The Bandra Worli Sea Link, an engineering marvel and the first ever open Sea Bridge of its kind, is one of the most complex and advanced construction projects implemented in India. The Bandra Worli Sea Link is a 8-lane twin carriageway built over the Mahim Creek, in Mumbai, India which will reduce the travel time between the two points from 60-90 minutes to 6-8 minutes.

Special features :-

• The bridge took 2,983 days, 2.57 crore man hours, 3,000 men from 11 countries, a bill of Rs 852 crore to come into existence. It was conceived 46 years ago and will be inaugurated on 30/06/2009 by Smt.Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of UPA.
• It was first time in 1963, the US-based planning firm Wilbur Smith, in a report titled Planning of Road System for Mumbai Metropolitan Region recommended a road through the sea from Versova to Nariman Point. In late ’90s the said report which was gathering dust all these years was discovered by the incumbent Government. (claimed by Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.). Officially the construction of the Bandra-Worli Sealink was announced only by the Congess-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government on October 1, 2000.
• The contract for Rs 400 crore was bagged by Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) and was handed over for construction only in May 2001. By this time many environmentalists and fishermen had moved court against the project which caused excessive delay in completion of the project. The Sea link has been constructed by the Hindustan Construction Company and its foreign partner, the China Harbour Engineering Corporation. HCC has the responsibility of maintaining the bridge during the damage liability period of five years.
• The sea link’s basic design was changed time and again even after the construction had begun due to which the cost escalated to Rs 815 crore and subsequently to Rs. 1,650 crore.
• The bridge at the Worli end was pushed 150 meters into the sea, away from a fishing village. The main Bandra cable-stayed part was changed from a single-towered, eight-lane bridge to double-towered, with two four-lane bridges.
• The Bandra Cable Stay section of the BWSL spans 600 m in length and towers to a height of 126 m (equivalent to a 43 storied building). The Cable Stay system comprises 2,250 km of high strength galvanized steel wires which support the Cable Stay Bridge weighing 20,000 ton.
• The sea link is a state-of-the-art alternative to the Mahim Causeway, a 1930s colonial-era bridge that is today the main link between Mumbai’s western suburbs and its southern part. Presently the motorists have to cross signals to reach Worli from Bandra whereas the sealink will provide a smooth 15-minute drive.

• It is projected that the bridge will carry 90,000 of the 1.3 lakh vehicles that travel from the western suburbs to South Mumbai. The drive from Bandra to Worli using the sea link may be over in 7-10 minutes, which covers appx. 6 KMS over the sea.
• The authorities will charge a one-way toll of Rs 50 for every car/LMV, Rs 75 for mini-buses, and Rs 100 for heavy motor vehicles like buses and trucks.
• The Bandra-Worli sea link would be equipped with state-of-the-art systems for traffic monitoring, emergency support and an automated toll system.
• The illumination of the bridge done at a cost of about Rs 9 crore will be an added attractiveness to the bridge.

 

Enjoy your ride…..

Lotus Temple

The Lotus Temple in Delhi, India is known so, due to its flowerlike shape, is a Bahai’s House of Worship . I have been there long time back, but would rate it as one of the best monuments to visit while someone is in Delhi.

Some interesting features of the Lotus temple are :-

It was completed in 1986 and serves as the Mother Temple of the Bahai’s in the Indian subcontinent.

It is inspired by the lotus flower.

The design is composed of 27 free-standing marble clad "petals" arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides.

Bahai’s scripture states that no pictures, statues or images be displayed within the House of Worship

There are nine doors of in the Lotus Temple which open onto a central hall, capable of holding up to 2,500 people. The central hall is slightly more than 40 meters tall and its surface is made of white marble. The Temple along with the nine surrounding ponds and the gardens around comprise 26 acre of land.

Since its inauguration to public worship in December 1986, the Lotus temple has attracted attracted more than 50 million visitors, making it one of the most visited buildings in the world. About four million visitors visit the place of worship each year i.e about 13,000 every day or 9 every minute.

As with all other Bahai’s Houses of Worship, the Lotus Temple is open to all regardless of religion.

No musical instruments can be played inside. Furthermore no sermons can be delivered, and there can be no ritualistic ceremonies practice

The site is in the village of Bahapur, in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

The architect named Fariborz Sahba, was an Iranian, who now lives in Canada. He was approached in 1976 to design it, later oversaw its construction and saved money from the construction budget to build a greenhouse to study which indigenous plants and flowers would be appropriate for the site. International Federation for Religious Art and Architecture, based in the United States, conferred upon Mr. Sahba the award for "excellence in religious art and architecture for 1987".

The major part of the funds needed to buy this land was donated by Ardishír Rustampur of Hyderabad, who gave his entire life savings for this purpose in 1953.

In 2000, GlobArt Academy of Vienna, Austria, granted its "GlobArt Academy 2000" award in recognition of "the magnitude of the service of Taj Mahal of the 20th century in promoting the unity and harmony of people of all nations, religions and social strata, to an extent unsurpassed by any other architectural monument world-wide".

 

Do not miss to visit it on your next visit to Delhi…

Open Living Statues Championship

 These are pictures from “”Yevpatoriya”” Open Living Statues Championship, Ukraine.

Yevpatoriya ,Ukraine,  is a Black Sea port, a rail hub, and a vacation and health resort. Yevpatoriya stands on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Kerkinitida, founded in the 6th cent. BC.

In the 1st cent. BC the area was captured by the Pontian king Mithradates VI (Mithradates Eupator), for whom the city is named.  The name of the city is sometimes transliterated Evpatoriya or Eupatoria.

The championship takes place annually in May between the 1st and the 7th and is open to all countries.

Peel: World's Smallest Car.

The Peel P50 is a three-wheeled microcar manufactured by the Manx Peel currently holds the record for the smallest-ever automobile to go into production. It was first designed and manufactured around 1965.

Some features of Peel:-
· It is 54 inches (1,372 mm) long and 41 inches (1,041 mm) wide.
· It has an unladen weight of 59 kilograms (130 lb).
· The P50 used a 49 cc with a top speed of approximately 61 kilometres per hour.
· The car initially manufactured had no reverse gear.
· Designed as a "city car" for Ripley's by the London-based Peel Engineering Company.
· It costs about 25,000 U.S. dollars to produce.
· The Peel P50 is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest road legal car ever produced.

Nano might be the world’s cheapest car, but the world’s smallest car is Peel 50 !!

Tirupati Crown

 

The two and half foot high diamond studded golden crown weighing about 34 kg worth about Rs.45 crore was offered to the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala , Mr. Gali Janardhan Reddy.

The Tirumala temple had received several hundreds of huge offerings worth ranges from several lakhs to about 10 crore during this century but this offering was the costliest.

 

Some interesting facts about the Crown:-

1.A total of 32 kg of 'aparanji' (pure) gold was used.

2. The crown is studded with 70,000 diamonds weighing 4,000 carats.

3.The crown has a huge 890-carat emerald from Africa engraved in the centre which alone costs around Rs 10 crore.

4.The crown was manufactured by Keertilal Jewellers of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu took nine months to fashion the diamond-studded crown.

5. This is the most expensive donation since 16th century after the Vijayanagara Kings in the 16th century. The kings ruled from Hampi not far from modern day Bellary.

6. The total number of crowns placed with the Lord has gone up to seven.

7. Mr. Gali Janardhan Reddy who donated this Crown to the Temple is minister for Tourism with the Government of Karnataka and promoter of Brahmani Industries Limited , an integrated steel plant being set up in Jammalamadu in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh.

Nuts

A tour bus driver is driving with a bus load of seniors down a highway when he is tapped on his shoulder by a little old lady. She offers him a handful of peanuts, which he gratefully munches up.
After about 15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and hands him another handful of peanuts.
She repeats this gesture about five more times.
When she is about to hand him another batch again .... he asks the little old lady,
'Why don't you eat the peanuts yourself.'
'We can't chew them because we've no teeth', she replied.
The puzzled driver asks,
'Why do you buy them then?'
The old lady replied,

………………..

………………..

'We just love the chocolate around them.'

Iran's Disputed Election

Following up from last Friday's entry about Iran's Presidential Election, Tehran and other cities have seen the largest street protests and rioting since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Supporters of reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, upset at their announced loss and suspicions of voter fraud, took to the streets both peacefully and, in some cases, violently to vent their frustrations. Iranian security forces and hardline volunteer militia members responded with force and arrests, attempting to stamp out the protests - meanwhile, thousands of Iranians who were happy with the election outcome staged their own victory demonstrations. Mousavi himself has been encouraging peaceful demonstrations, and called for calm at a large demonstration today (held in defiance of an official ban), as Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has just called for an official inquiry into accusations of election irregularities.

Some more pictures can be seen >>>

So what do you think…are we living in a peaceful and a better country, called India?

Your comments are welcome...

I Am Thankful….

1. For the husband who snores all night, because he is at home asleep with me and not with someone else.
2. For my teenage daughter who is complaining about doing dishes, because that means she is at home & not on the streets.
3. For the taxes that I pay because it means that I am employed.

4. For the mess to clean after a party because it means that I have been surrounded by friends.
5. For the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
6. For my shadow that watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine.
7. For a floor that needs mopping, and windows that need cleaning because it means I have a home.
8. For all the complaining I hear about the government because it means that we have freedom of speech.
9. For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation.
10. For the noise I have to bear from my neighbours because it means that I can hear.
11. For the pile of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear.
12. For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been capable of working hard.
13. For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I am still alive.

AND FINALLY ....... For received e-mails/blog comments/blog followers because it means I have friends who are thinking of me, at least!!!

Rupee Symbol : Wake Up India.

The Government of India has invited the public to suggest a symbol for the Rupee. Just as the Dollar is universally denoted by $‚ the government thinks the Rupee should also have its own unique symbol that captures a sense of India’s history and culture.

All of you can vote for some of the symbols suggested. The Economic Times has taken the initiative by suggesting 19 suggestions from its team of designers. Economic Times has promised that it will present all these symbols ‚ along with the ET viewers’ preference‚ to the Ministry of Finance . You can also design your own symbol and mail it to editoret@indiatimes.co.in

I am even surprised at myself that I have never thought about it..so I voted as soon as I read about this in ET..

So dear friends…..do not miss this opportunity…VOTE NOW..

Link for the VOTE>>

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/rupeesurvey.cms

Special Picture

 

For all those who wondered what was special about this foto, here it is:

This is a digitally altered image which shows the same person in different forms.. and you thought all Chinese looked alike!!  Come on guys, give me a break..look more CAREFULLY !!!

For a larger image, click on the Image itself !!!

Funny Picture: Men Will Be Men

Watch what’s happening in the picture carefully. A not to be missed funny clip.

Some has said it right, “”Men Will Be Men””. Hey guys, any plans to improve ourselves…

Check This out>>> (Watch “”Carefully””)

I am likely to fall off my chair laughing on that…

Old Friends..

That was for all my “”””OLD”””” friends..

And just another thought for my ""OLD"" friends>>

What makes saintliness in my view, as distinguished from ordinary goodness, is a certain quality of magnanimity and greatness of soul that brings life within the circle of the heroic.

Harriet Beecher Stowe(1811-1896)

Green PDF : Help The Environment

The word is changing and so are ideas. The green PDF is another such idea which is catching up. Thought in simple terms it prompts us not to print the PDF document but the clarity of the campaign brings back into focus “”what we know but do not do.””

The thought process in the campaign seeks to remind corporates and companies as to make a special effort to avoid printing the unnecessary PDF documents. A pop up attached with the PDF documents jumps our whenever the PDF document is downloaded to remind the reader not to print the document.

The detail of the campaign can be read at >>

http://www.greenpdf.com/graphics/TheGreenPDFRevolution.pdf

And hey…Please DO NOT print the report..

Environment: Trees

Save Tree ::: Trees Save !! This picture says so much with just 4 words.

As the old says goes, “”A picture is worth a thousand words”” !!

The picture shows what we need to protect our environment…

Here are some interesting facts about the co-relation of environment and trees:

• It is now the in thing and cool to “be green”. This lesson is becoming more and more crucial today by day.
• The rates of rainforest destruction are 2.4 acres per second, 149 acres per minute, 214,000 acres per day and 78 million acres per year. Just to put things in perspective, as you read this sentence, an area the size of 78 Olympic sized swimming pools would have been cut down.
• Trees are the most important natural resource we have, supplying us with oxygen while eliminating CO2 levels from the atmosphere.
• Trees help companies reduce greenhouse gases so trees are working for all of us i.e about 1000000000 people worldwide that attend work in an office environment everyday.
• One ream of paper equals five pounds (about 2.2 Kgs). The average world office employee uses around 7 reams of copy paper each year. This fact has set the world’s average paper consumption at 123 pounds of paper per person each year.
• This average is causing one billion trees to be cut down each year to satisfy the world’s paper demand.
• Trees remove 100 to 120 billion tons of carbon each year from man-made sources like (cars, trains, planes, etc).
• Trees moderate climate, improve air quality, conserve water and also harbor wildlife.
• Trees cut down energy costs- air conditioning and heating costs are lower in shaded areas or areas surrounded by trees.
• The process by which paper is manufactured is harmful to the environment as well. All the steps of paper manufacturing process- from logs to chips to pulp to paper- all emits heavy levels of CO2 into the air by using large amounts of electricity and chemicals.
• Adobe Reader has introduced Green PDF documents which are electronically circulated articles that are not allowed to be printed.

This is what we all can do to save paper and in turn save trees:-

1) Use both sides of paper whenever and wherever possible.

2) Read articles by way of Green PDFs: don’t print them.

3) Encourage others , especially children to save paper.

4) Save paper wherever you can.

5) Use the internet to your advantage: send Emails, invitations for communication.

6) Do not use pencils which have wood covering their lead. Lead pencils are available with polymer covering.

HIV :: Aids Warning.

AIDS Warning!

SENIOR CITIZENS
ARE THE NATION'S LEADING CARRIERS OF AIDS!

AIDS like>>>

HEARING AIDS

BAND AIDS

ROLL AIDS

WALKING AIDS

MEDICAL AIDS

GOVERNMENT AIDS

MOST OF ALL,

MONETARY AID TO THEIR KIDS!

I love to see you smile.

Not forgetting HIV …what i just meant was >> “Hair is Vanishing”

….Its a warning !!!