Brahma Kamal Nature's Magical Clock

Five days to go for the full moon on 26th May 2021. And lo, a bud sprouts today in our Brahma Kamal plant in Secunderabad!

How does Nature achieve this magical synchronisation? Come full moon and Brahma Kamal (scientific name Epiphyllum oxypetalum)  blooms. It blooms at night. You may browse our earlier story Brahma Kamal- The Plant With Intelligence to see sequence of pictures taken through a night.

For those readers who have not seen this magical flower, a fully formed bud before it blooms looks like this.

And when it first sprouts from the edge of a leaf, it looks tiny and not as spectacular. See the picture below, taken this evening.

Finally, it blooms at night. Picture below.

What amazes us is the clockwork synchronisation by Nature. Full moon give or take a day or two- and the flowers bloom. The magic continues. Here is another picture of a bud against the full moon in January 2021.

Postscript 22nd May 2021: While watering the plant today, I noticed that it is not one but four buds which are forming. Here is a short 30-sec video clip showing how the plant produces the other buds keeping the harsh summer Sun away.

Am sharing two more pictures showing 3 + 1 bud on different branches, but all the buds get natural sun shade in scorching heat of Secunderabad summer.

Postscript 23 May 2021: Another reader who is a keen gardener and an author sent the comment: "After reading your post on the Brahma Kamal I went to check on mine. There was a bud! 😱Waiting for the 26th". Thanks much Shyamola.

Postscript 27th May: Ek aur एक और , yes there was one more bud making it a sixer! Four bloomed on 27th, Full Moon +1, the remaining two will bloom on 28th i.e. two days after the full moon. Two other neighbours also had one bloom each on 27th. So, the full moon synchronisation seems to apply well. It was an overcast sky, so couldn't take a picture with the moon. Here is one of the six blooms at night, taken from different angles without flash gun.

Hope we were able to take your mind off the Pandemic. Even if it was for a few minutes, we are happy. 

Relax and enjoy the Nature around you.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

    -  Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ Secunderabad/ 21st May 2021

#BrahmaKamal #Flowers #MarvelsOfNature #MidnightBloom #PlantWithIntelligence #GhumakkadHarsh #GhumakkadHB #epiphyllumoxypetalum #queenofthenight #fullmoon #hownaturesynchronises #nature #secunderabad

Power of Volunteering to Tame the Second Wave

"Need oxygen cylinder for my mother urgently!"

Three hours later, "We lost her thirty minutes ago as we couldn't get a cylinder!"

"Urgent need of an ICU bed, patient critical".

We have seen such fervent and desperate appeal for help coming from all across India. The second wave of pandemic has been deadly and super fast in spreading. Sparing no city, no region or no cast. Taming the second wave has been a challenge. Given the population density in the cities, the health infrastructure could not tame the tide. But collective spirit and efforts of the people of India did it!

This story brings out the collective power of volunteering in taking the monstrous second wave head on. There are numerous volunteer groups and organisations doing a tremendous job. Documenting their effort may take time. But this short story is restricted to the efforts by BITS Pilani alumni who rose to the occasion and took the bull by the horn. The battle is continuing but the volunteers remain spirited.

Whether it is to search for life-saving resources in real time or providing oxygen concentrators or setting up ICU beds in rural areas, BITSAA (BITS Alumni Association) volunteers are doing it all. Many students of BITS Pilani have also come forward and contributing their time and energy. We are overwhelmed with their support.

In the words of Navkaran Singh who leads a team of more than 800 BITSAA volunteers for providing real-time response to SOS requests for life saving resources, "We started the Covid relief initiative with five volunteers to help fellow BITSians with requests related to hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, medicines, Plasma donations, etc. In the last 12 days, we have resolved 1000+ requests from a variety of sources. What started as an alumni initiative has turned into a war against Covid."

"There are daily planning and review meetings going on every night from 10-12. The kind of enthusiasm of the team is infectious. If you feel that you have seen the most enthusiastic team in your life, please join our WhatsApp group for a day and see the passion of the volunteers to resolve each and every request. It seems like everyone's life depends on that request. We have seen more deaths in the last 12 days than what we have seen in our lifetime. What remains the same every day is the enthusiasm to save another life. Thank you to all the volunteers and all the Alumni who have supported us in whatever way possible. Your small contribution has saved a lot of lives in the last two weeks." 

Go Navkaran go! He is not alone. Alumni across all batches and geographies have come forward to do their bit. Following table summarises some of the initiatives by BITSAA volunteers. The list includes links to respective websites where you can browse further details and contribute if you feel like. We would love to augment the list based on readers' inputs. Please feel free to reach out to us on hbindia@gmail.com .

Initiative	Purpose	BITSian Volunteers in Action
BITSAA Covid Relief Imitative	To help fellow BITSians/families find pan-India resources for hospital beds/ICUs, oxygen cylinders and concentrators, ambulances and medicines in real time	Akash, Saksham, Kalyan, Chandrakala, Sneha, Rahul, Arkapriya, Kathesh, Palak Oswal, Subham, Kunal, Srikar, Ankit, Mayank Anchilia, Navkaran and team of 120+ active volunteers including students working 24x7
HelpUPBreathe	To provide oxygen concentrators and cylinders to the needy in Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow and other towns in UP	Siddharth Seth, Pratyush Rawal, Rishabh Mehrotra, Astha Dhayal and team
Breathe-India.org	To supply oxygen concentrators to the needy across India	Sharat Chaudhary, Anu Khendry, Pankaj Vaish, Arun Chatterjee, Vinita and team
Nirmaan.org	To provide 200 oxygen concentrators and 150 ICU beds in 15 villages in Telangana	Mayur Patnala and team
MOFA Medical Oxygen for all.	To support the medical oxygen needs of tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns across India	Anish Sinha, Anchal Goel, and a team of eight volunteers.
OxygenForIndia.org	To deploy 40,000 reusable oxygen cylinders and 20,000 oxygen concentrators in 20 urban and rural centers across India.	Diwakar Pingle, Ramanan and team
Pilani Atmanirbhar Resource Centre (PARC)	During Covid, to provide oxygen concentrators and allied equipment to the needy in Pilani, Rajasthan. PARC otherwise works for community development around Pilani.	Sunil Nanda and team
Donate Plasma (Postscript 18 May: Since discontinued as per ICMR's announcement)	To mobilise plasma donors and connect with the needy. Being done in association with Dhoondh.org and NSS, BITS Pilani.	A team of BITSAA Volunteers and students
Oxygen Concentrators for BITSians and families	To provide oxygen concentrators for BITSians, families and the needy in Jaipur and Hyderabad.	Kailash Gupta (Jaipur) and Ashok Agarwal and Sanjay Khendry (Hyderabad) and teams
HyderabadNeedsOxygen	To provide oxygen supply to the needy in Hyderabad in association with Nirmaan.	Praneeth, Sai Rama, Anshool, Venky, Avinash Reddy and team
Oxygen Plant for Pilani	To set up a dedicated oxygen plant for Birla Sarvajanik Hospital in Pilani	Hanuman Bengani, Rakesh Sharma, Sanjay Guha Arun Kumar, Jayant Sogani and team

Am sure similar stories by alumni of other institutes and friends coming together are aplenty. Collectively we can tame the second wave successfully. We will.

Postscript: 18 May: Plasma drive has since been discontinued based on ICMR's recent announcement. Thanks K Srikanth for pointing it out.

Postscript 20th May: The work of BITSAA volunteers has been covered by the media. See the picture below from Amar Ujala, a Hindi daily in UP.

BBC Radio has also featured the efforts of our Volunteers' Relief Support Initiative. 

Postscript 29th Dec 22:

"During the Covid pandemic when numerous people lost their lives, Ram Nagina Tripathi was responsible for ensuring that the departed were provided a respectable final journey including cremation. There were long stretches of time during the peak period when he stationed himself at the crematorium to ensure that human beings got a respectable send off. Ram Nagina Tripathi is from the 1978-83 batch of BITS Pilani. He recently retired as Chief Engineer from the Uttar Pradesh Government. "

We salute the spirit of volunteering during Covid by Tripathi.

We close with a quotation by Mahatma Gandhi who said that "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others". 

Once again hat tip to each of the volunteer-led initiatives featured above and to countless others who are not featured in our story.

Together we will. Jai Hind.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ Secunderabad/ 17th May 2021

#covid #pandemic #2ndwave #india #volunteering #powerofvolunteering #riseup #wewill #hailvolunteering #bitspilani #bitsaa #alumni #bitsians #rockingvolunteers #tamingthe2ndwave #togetherwecan #ghumakkadharsh #ghumakkadhb #bitsstudents

Taming the 2nd Wave with Your Mind

The second wave of the pandemic has shaken the world. It has cast a gloom in India with medical supplies, oxygen, beds and ICUs running out. There is so much negativity in the media, that you are compelled to feel distraught and depressed. But we know that the only way to come out of anxiety and depression is to feel and remain positive. 

Ghumakkad wants to divert your mind from the 2nd wave to Nature. Nature near you. Change of seasons, arrival of spring, new leaves, new life. Colours of Nature. Nature through pictures. All the pictures have been shot either in our yard or a small lake nearby. Enjoy the colours and feel positive. Tame the second wave of the pandemic with your mind!

End of spring in Hyderabad brings early summer. The grape season ends and we wait for the mangoes- the king of fruit! Few pictures of mango tree and the first harvest from our yard.

Fallen flowers create Nature's carpet. The golden flowers of woman's tongue tree weaved a circular carpet around the tree. But why this name? Because the seeds inside the wide and long bean-shaped pods rattle endlessly. Apologies to all the women of the world! See the picture below.

Similar to the golden carpet, Ghumakkad had observed a pink carpet on the golf course. The pink carpet triggered KBG-56, the online Caption Contest of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad series. See the picture below.

The contest evoked almost 40 different captions from readers across the globe. All the creative entries are listed below for wider readership. We thank all the participants.

Sl.	Name	Caption for KBG-56 Contest
1	Vinay Prasad	Shower of Blessings!
2	CD Sawant	Tare Zamin par
3	Veeky Baths	‘That Floral Feeling’
4	Raghuraj Bhargava	Itna Na Kar Abhiman Tu Mitti Main Mil Jayega
5	Manju Khetan	गुनगुना रहे हैं भँवरे खिल रही है कली कली।
6	Ritu Bhargava	Blooms of spring make my heart sing.
7	Sujata Das	आज सब के रंग में रंग मिलाना है।
8	Neeta Bhatnagar	Yeh kisne phool phool par kiya shringar hai Yeh kaun chitrakar hai
9	Neelam Sawant	Bliss
10	BC Jayaprakash	What's in a name PINK PIXIE ya SMARTIPANTS. You, Brazilian beauty, light our lives through the year
11	Pradeep Siwach	Rang de mora angna.
12	Deepak K Jena	No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.
13	Alka Siwach	Fiza Gulabi
14	Deepak K Jena	From the end spring new beginnings
15	Aarja Kohli	Find joy in the ordinary
16	Kausalya Govindan	Spring showers in pink!
17	Bharat Ladha	कैसी भी तपिश हो । रहो सदा खिले खिले।
18	Rashmi Bhargava	Live life in full bloom.
19	Surendra Bhargava	Flowered red carpet!
20	Amandeep Kaur	Gir ke bhi khoobsurat!
21	Rajendra Singh	Give me Red!
22	Vinod Dhanuka	Joys > Sorrows
23	C Raghuram	Celebrate the Bride - a spring of colours, ignore the thorns
24	Poonam Bhargava	जीवन हो जितना भी सीमित, रहे रंग से भरा सदा!
25	Ajai Bhumri	बोगनबिलिया सिखाए, अपना रंग बदलाए, दुखों में भी सुख की किरण जगाये.
26	Chaitanya Shiroor	“Let us all be in the pink of our health"
27	Avinash Tiwari	Baharon phool barsao main golf pe aya hun. (On 17th fairway. I usually go under these bushes)😄😄
28	Mamta Bhargava	Blooming flowers are laying down a red car[pet welcome for something positive on the way!
29	Susmita Ganguly	Red Carpet
30	Nidhi Bhargava	सृष्टि में रंगत छाई, फूल खिले ,डाली- डाली मुस्काई लो बसंत ऋतु आई
31	Rohini Tiwari	Hum bikhar kar bhi chaman saja jayeinge.
32	LS Bhargava	बहार आई फ़ूलों की बरसात लाई।
33	GB Sethi	Harmony - Phool aur kante
34	Param Bhatia	Beautiful even when I fall!
35	Shashikant Mundra	इसकी तरह सदा रंगीन तबियत रखो
36	Anonymous	फूल-ए ज़मीं
37	Anonymous	धरती फूल-ए समाए

The Winners

Our Jury then picked up five winners. The winning entries along with a brief profile of the winners are appended below. We thank both the Jury Members namely Manik Srivastava and Neeta Bhargava.

Vinay Prasad: Vinay is an alumnus of BITS Pilani and a keen photographer. He heads a defence ancillary in Hyderabad making precision assemblies for guided weapon systems. His short caption was the Jury's first choice.

Alka Siwach: An Army spouse, Alka loves Nature, mountains, travelling and reading old history books. She likes to visit small towns with old trees and buildings. Her short and simple caption Fiza Gulabi फिज़ा गुलाबी meaning 'The pink atmosphere' was catchy.

Param S Bhatia: A Navy Veteran, Param is an aerospace engineer and a wannabe Ghummakad :) Always inspired by people who have the courage to do things differently. He says he is still learning the art of always staying happy! Param's caption captured all aspects of the picture.

Ritu Bhargava: Ritu lives in Bhilwara, Rajasthan and loves to write. She says KBG Contest has given her the best platform to express herself. Her rhyming caption was liked by the Jury.

Amandeep Kaur: Amandeep is a many times winner of KBG contests. She holds an MBA(Fin) and works with a US company in India. She loves to interact with people. Her caption is simple and appealing. Her caption in Hindi गिर के भी ख़ूबसूरत means 'Beautiful even though fallen'.

Once again our congratulations to all the winners of KBG-56.

We hope through our story, we have been able to take your mind off the Pandemic. The second wave of Corona is very depressing. We can control it through SMS- maintaining safe distance, wearing a mask and sanitising our hands frequently. We can then tame the 2nd wave with our mind. See the picture below.

We had shared a number of stories related to Corona during the 1st phase of the pandemic earlier. You may browse our related stories listed below:

Covid Couldn't Deter Us

Take the Virus Head On

I Got A New Life- Corona Survivor's Tale

Breaking Free in Lockdown

Bouncing Back In Lockdown

Every Day Is A Sunday

Stay home stay safe

Lockdown Is...

Shrinking Urban Lakes- Impending Disaster- includes video clips

Baya Weavers Create Magic - see the video clip

Cheer up folks, remain spirited. The Pandemic too shall pass.

Stay home, stay safe.

Remain masked.

See you soon.

     -    Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/2nd May 2021

#nature #springishere #hyderabad #telangana #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #powerofobservation #lockdownfunathome #beatthecorona #lockdown #stayhomestaysafe  #captions #bougainvillea #coloursofspring #craetivecaptions #pqs #picturesquequotations #naturetheteacher #coloursofspring #virtualtravel #secondwave #2ndwave #tamingthe2ndwave #mind #bepositive