Ghumakkad in Hindi means 'the wanderer'. That is what I am. On the move any time anywhere!
This blog chronicles Ghumakkad's travels/teachings/learnings around the globe as picture stories. In addition, there are Picturesque Quotes (PQs) created using my pictures. Enjoy it.
If you have also been to the places/topics described here, please feel free to add to the content.
Your comments/ suggestions are welcome.
These are migratory birds which come to India for winter months.
Some of them can be seen feeding while others are in flight. Rest of the visualisation and interpretation is left to your imagination.
The picture shown below needs your caption.
You could be the Winner of KBG-52, the 52nd edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad, the online Nature and Travel Contest hosted by Ghumakkad.
Be your creative best and shoot your response. Best three captions will be the Winners of KBG-52!
For the first-timers on KBG, you can respond using any of the six channels below:
Leave a comment on this post
Send email to hbindia@gmail.com
Respond on the FB post
Comment on Instagram @ghumakkadhb
Comment on Twitter @HarshBh21184761
Send a WA message. If you want your WA number to be added to Ghumakkad's list, send an email.
The timing of the KBG Contest is chosen to suit the readers in most of the time zones across the world.
Hope we have helped you in overcoming the Covid boredom to some extent. For those interested in reading more about Demoiselle Cranes, you may browse our story titled Morning Roll Call.
KBG-51 came with a new format. No tough questions, no Google searches. Just look at the picture and suggest a caption! It showed an uprooted tree. One single picture generated more than 50 captions. For complete list of the captions and the winning entries, click KBG-51 here. One of the winning captions is reproduced below:
Thanks for participating and all the best for KBG-52!
Stay connected, stay safe.
- Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 26th Feb 2021.
पुनर्जीवन - are some of the prize-winning captions given by the readers for KBG-51 Contest. The contest featured pictures of two uprooted trees which had sprung to life again. There were many life lessons to be learnt from the pictures. Credit goes to the readers for their insights and interpretations.
The new format of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad online contest drew overwhelming response. We received more than 50 captions for the two pictures featured in KBG-51. We thank all the readers who responded.
Winners
The Jury had a tough time selecting the winning captions. Winning captions superimposed on the picture of fallen and uprooted trees follow. Few captions were suggested by more than one reader. Our congratulations to all the winners. We take pleasure in introducing each of the winners briefly.
Wing Commander Yella Prakash Rao is a helicopter pilot, bird watcher, nature lover and keen photographer. He has won the KBG Contest earlier also. Neelam Sawant is an Army spouse who loves travelling and gardening. Both of them suggested the caption 'never say die'.
Mukul Bhargava is an entrepreneur, outbound enthusiast and full of life with a good sense of humour. His caption 'bend it like Beckham' was unique.
Commander JVR Moorty is former Principal of a Sainik School and is widely travelled. A great story teller, he livens up any group with his wit and humour. His caption in Hindi तू जितना भी कर ले सितम , हँस हँस के जिएंगे हम - can be roughly translated as 'You can oppress us as much, but we will continue to live with a smile'.
Col NN Pashupathy is an engineer who loves gardening and writing. Most of the trees in Eagle golf course were planted during his tenure. His coffee table books on history of Telangana and Temples of Telangana are classic. Aarja Kohli is a marketing professional full of compassion for the downtrodden as well as the animals. She has won the KBG contest earlier too. Both suggested 'we fall only to rise again'!
Air Commodore Parag Sharma is a former combat pilot. Keen traveller and Nature lover, he has won many KBG contests in the past. Pradeep Sethi is an engineer from BITS Pilani who loves travelling and meeting and helping people. Both of them suggested resurrection पुनर्जीवन।
Commander Ajai Bhumri, an engineer from IIT Roorkee is an avid painter now settled in Canada. His handlebar moustache continues to be his trademark! His line in Hindi ज़मीन के साथ साथ, ओ साथी, हाथ मिलाता चल - means 'O dear, keep moving while hugging the earth'!
Manu Bhatnagar, an alumnus of BITS Pilani loves gardening. Her backyard attracts visitors like deer and foxes in USA. Brig Pradeep Siwach, PhD is a former Vice Chancellor of many private universities in India. An ace photographer, he has published books on birds of India. Both of them thought of Phoenix as the caption.
The Jury
We thank the Jury for taking time off and selecting the winners. Manik Srivastava and Neeta Bhargava- both love Nature and do their bit to preserve the environment, widely travelled both are Naval spouses and live in Secunderabad.
Manik a teacher with more than 30 years experience, had also suggested a caption before she was invited to be on the Jury. सजदा - meaning prostration- the caption suggested by her, needs special mention. See the picture below.
Here is the complete list of captions as suggested by the readers.
Once again, congratulations to all the winners of KBG-51.
The readers' enthusiastic response has encouraged us to continue the new format of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad contest.
We close with a PQ- picturesque quote about the trees.
Thanks for participating. Hope we brought some smiles during the pandemic!
Next edition i.e. KBG-52 is coming soon!
Stay connected.
- Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/24th Feb 2021
Even if you answered no to both the questions, you can still try!
KBG-51 comes with a new format. Not as tough as it used to be.
It is simple. Look at the pictures and suggest a suitable caption. It could be a short quotation as well. If it is a quotation, please quote author's name. But only one caption per reader please.
Be your creative best and shoot your response. Best three captions will be the Winners of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad KBG-51!
For the first-timers on KBG, you can respond using any of the six channels below:
Leave a comment on this post
Send email to hbindia@gmail.com
Respond on the FB post
Comment on Instagram @ghumakkadhb
Comment on Twitter @HarshBh21184761
Send a WA message. If you want your WA number to be added to Ghumakkad's list, send an email.
The timing of the KBG Contest is chosen to suit the readers in most of the time zones across the world.
Hope we have helped you in overcoming the Covid boredom to some extent.
Those who missed KBG-50, the previous edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad, we had shown a dry thorny branch in one of our flower beds. Readers were to answer what was the purpose of the thorny branch? We received many correct answers. It was to protect the flower and the plant from rodents and other predators. The winner's announcement of KBG-50 is reproduced below. All four winners happened to be women. More power to the women of the world!
Thanks for participating and all the best for KBG-51!
Hope 2021 will not be as stressful! Stay connected, stay safe.
- Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 19th Feb 2021.
Or birds, plants, trees, fruits and other living things?
Why not?
Because valentine is all about love, caring, concern and well being of the other person. We do the same for our plants, trees, flowers etc. Therefore, Ghumakkad's valentine is the entire environment which includes all living things.
Sharing few pictures taken in our yard on the eve of Valentine's Day 2021.
Am sure you feel the same way! In addition, all our readers also deserve to be Ghumakkad's valentine. Many thanks.
Happy Valentine's Day to you.
- Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 14th Feb 2021/ Valentine's Day
Everyone doesn't get such a chance when the Prime Minister (PM) recognises your work and mentions it publicly. Even if you are not mentioned by name, so what? It is your work which gets recognised.
This is the story of a fellow BITSian whose social venture in Hyderabad was mentioned by the PM recently in his monthly talk Mann Ki Baat मन की बात.
Devender K Ahuja graduated in Electrical Engineering from BITS Pilani in 1975. After successfully running Ahuja Engineering for more than 30 years, he and his daughter Shruti ventured into Solid Waste Management. IICT had developed technology for converting vegetable waste into electricity and bio gas using bio-methanation. Ahuja Engineering Services (AES) thereafter designed and set up a plant at the largest vegetable mandi- Bowenpally wholesale market- in Hyderabad. The plant is a perfect example of PPP model of governance. See the visuals below.
Visual courtesy TOI.
This 'waste to energy and fuel' story was mentioned and applauded by the PM. See the video below and listen to PM's voice appreciating the waste disposal plant.
Readers may view a TEDx talk about the efforts of AES here. The concept of waste to energy is explained in this video.
We did a quick conversation with the social entrepreneurs. Excerpts:
How does it feel to be mentioned by the Prime Minister himself?
It feels like life has come a full circle. All our hard work, persistence and conviction is finally getting acknowledged. Thanks to our PM, this important yet neglected issue of waste management has taken centre stage. The implementation in this area has been slow by both government and private industries, so having the PM himself congratulating our work is very satisfying.
When did it all start and what are the hurdles that you faced?
It all started when my younger daughter Shruti came back from the US after completing her Masters & leaving the Job with AT&T in 2012 to explore opportunities in India.
She was not inclined to carry forward our business of executing electrical contracts. We encouraged her to become an entrepreneur and to look for new problem areas in the Society. She took about a year brainstorming various ideas. After visiting various poultry farms she homed on to the issue of poultry litter disposal. From there on we started working on ‘Waste to Energy’ and named our venture as ‘Trash to Treasure’. She faced a lot of hurdles having chosen a not so glamorous field of waste management. Becoming an entrepreneur and that too a young woman posed additional challenges. Lack of awareness and regulatory enforcements in the area of waste management are other issues we faced. However, with PM's validation of our work, hopefully this will change now. (Ed: see a 25-seconds clip of the plant below)
In addition to Bowenpally Vegetable Mandi, what other installations have you done in the country?
It has been seven years now on product development. We have a fully baked turn-key waste-to-biogas plant solution for food waste/kitchen waste/vegetable waste. We have done more than 20 installations all over India successfully. We also have an R&D laboratory and are preparing for other areas of waste management.
People at your age think of retirement. How did you deal with this transition from electrical contracts to waste management?
This venture became my ‘second innings’. More importantly, I was able to retain all my staff and have successfully trained them in fabrication and operation of biogas plants. It’s very satisfying to provide employment to so many people and to provide them with new skill set as well.
Environment is everybody's responsibility. But most people don't think so. How did you overcome this mind set?
This mindset of people started to change from 2014 onwards when Mr. Modi started the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan as a national mission. It’s still a long way to go, to build more awareness, and for people to really ‘own’ their waste and not think that waste is someone else’s issue. However this is a global problem and world over the number of biogas plants are not as high as they should be. Technology is not an issue but problems around waste segregation, waste mafia exist. We are encouraging more transparency in the system and providing proven technology solutions. Our solution ensures that segregated waste can be treated onsite in a decentralized manner so that it never gets mixed up with dry waste and does not end up in our landfills. We are slowly seeing this mindset change. Hopefully next few years will see faster adoption and implementation of such solutions.
One criticism against such waste treatment plants is that they consume lot of water. What do you say?
We recycle the slurry in our plant. It reduces overall consumption of fresh water significantly. Of course the slurry as our byproduct is an excellent manure for plants and trees. (Ed: See the video below)
Going ahead what are your plans for future?
The future will see the use of biogas as compressed fuel (CBG) for vehicles as well as piped gas (Bio PNG). We are gearing up towards this end. We will also be offering turn-key biogas plants for industrial wastes such as poultry litter, slaughter house waste and other agricultural wastes like palm oil bye-products, bamboo, elephant grass etc. All these have a high potential to convert into clean fuel.
Postscript: We are delighted to share another recent video clip हरी भरी बिजली meaning 'Green Electricity' posted on YouTube on 20th June 2022.
Once again, our congratulations to Shruti Ahuja and her team for constantly innovating newer ways to preserve the environment.
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We thanked the entrepreneurs. Isn't their journey so inspiring? Indeed it is. But it raises few questions?
Why do engineers shy away from working as engineers? Most become managers, teachers, bankers, software programmers, analysts and so on. We need more engineers like Ahuja who have successfully applied their engineering knowledge and skills to solve larger problems of the society like waste management.
Why don't engineering students do projects and internships in organisations like AES where they can learn application of knowledge. Germany and Japan have 100 times more apprentices/interns every year compared with India. Food for thought for all.
Well, let us return to our theme of saving the environment. Environment and its preservation is the responsibility of all of us. Let us do our bit to keep the environment clean and green. We can help in many ways like generating awareness or cleaning the lakes etc. We are sharing below links to some of our earlier stories concerning the environment.
