Of Friendship with Humans, Plants, Animals KBG-80

 Another Valentines Day. Emoji of hearts, arrows, cupid and the like have flooded the media. But Ghumakkad has always said that Nature is your best valentine. Care for Nature, she will take care of you! 

Our cover picture conveys the same message. It shows a Bhutia pup in Meghalaya being cuddled by a dog-lover! Unconditional love by the animal! That is real valentine.

We have carried numerous stories conveying this theme. Re-sharing some of the stories if you haven't browsed it earlier.

The first story titled 'Friends and Facebook' portrays the 'friends' which we acquire on social media. Such friends, are they real? Rabindranath Tagore's quote below conveys it all.

Nature creates friends among the species of birds and animals. Like the Cormorant and the Turtle in the picture below. Please read turtle for tortoise in the picture.

The story titled 'Mutualism by Nature' showcases many animals and birds mutually dependent upon each other.

Covid Pandemic brought many challenges like we could not celebrate Diwali with friends and neighbours. Why not celebrate it with the birds? Read our story 'Celebrating Diwali with Birds'. Picture of a Common Coot says it all.

Another story titled 'Valentine Beyond Humans' emphasised the theme of the present story. See the picture below.

'Plants and Flowers as Valentines' was our story for V-Day 2021. See the collage below.

The Contest

When another Valentines Day arrived, it re-ignited our previous thoughts and stories. We had selected a picture of college friends for KBG-80, the 80th edition of our online captions contest Kaun Banega Ghumakkad.

The Contest received overwhelming response. We thank all the participants for their creative captions which are listed below.

No.	Name	Caption for KBG-80 Contest
1	Zafar Naseem	"Atoot dosti”, Unbreakable friendship.
2	VV Ramani	May not meet frequently but never go apart
3	Vinod Dhanuka	Gazing together in Future
4	Vinod Agarwal	Harmony in Silence
5	Vijay Uppal	Friends are brothers from different mothers
6	Veeky Baths	The best gift of life is friendship!
7	Suchitra Chaudhuri	Friends are like dopamine. Instant spirit lifters.
8	Shekhar Murthy	Timeless Bond
9	Shekhar Murthy	Eternal Voyage
10	Sanjay Patnaik	Friends in real world are real... Else, it's a showbiz...
11	Rohini Tiwari	Yeh haath zindagi bhar galey se lagey rehte hain!
12	Ritu Bhargava	Seek the companionship of virtuous friends rather than virtual friends.
13	Ritu Bhargava	Good times, happy memories and crazy friends.
14	Rekha Bhargava	मँह से कुछ ना बोल , झप्पी ने खोली पोल।
15	Rekha Bhargava	मिल गई दुनिया की दौलत , यारों की प्यार की झप्पी से ।
16	Rashmi Bhargava	Friends don't let friends do silly things alone
17	Ramdas B Dhavare	Birds of the same feather flock together.'
18	Ramanand Baliga	The three idiots!
19	Rajendra Singh	Hum sath sath hain
20	Raghu Trivedi	Teen jism magar ek jaan hai hum.
21	Raghuraj	Tera Haath Mera Saath
22	Radhika Sareen	Time doesn't come back, but friends do…
23	Radhika Sareen	कुछ भी हो, दोस्त तो दोस्त ही है
24	Radhika Sareen	साथ है स्वार्थ नहीं....
25	Prashant Jadenavar	New Generation! New Dreams! New Expeditions! New Revolution!
26	Poonam Bhargava	A multi-faced gift of God to everyone!
27	Poonam Bhargava	If you have even a few good friends, your riches know no bounds!
28	Nirmal Bhargava (86y)	जैसे चांदनी गगन में,जैसे खुशबू चमन में, वैसे दोस्ती जीवन में
29	Peter de Padua	Together we stand, supportive and strong.
30	Nidhi Bhargava	Difficult to find a true friend, easy to "BE ONE"
31	Nidhi Bhargava	दर्द मे मरहम, कांटों में फूल, अंधेरे  मे टिमटिमाता दिया...ऐसे हैं दोस्त
32	MV Vasudevan	Though Friday ends, But FRI-ENDS for forever!
33	Manju Khetan	ये दोस्ती हम नहीं तोड़ेंगे छोड़ेंगे दम मगर तेरा साथ न छोड़ेंगे।
34	Anonympus-4	Bum-chums
35	Anonymous-3	Co-conspirators
36	Mamta Bhargava	Friends are our lifeline!
37	LS Bhargava	Being friendly is the key of positivity and togetherness.
38	Jyoti Dixit	Friends together gather wisdom and experience.
39	J Ramamoorty	Hum panchi ek daal ke.
40	Gopu K	Together we from secured Open Terrace to challlenging Open World....Stay together to Conquer.......
41	Deepak Jena	Friend has no end.
42	Deepak Jena	Distance and time can't break them apart.
43	Deepak Jena	Friendship isn't a big thing it's a million little things.
44	CD Sawant	Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Chhodenge.
45	C Raghuram	Kal, aaj aur kal, sabse haseen doston ke saath bitaye huey pal
46	BR Natarajan	Friends do not ask the way if it's for hell or heaven
47	Bharat Ladha	दिल की बातें
48	Bharat Ladha	दीदारे यार
49	BC Jayaprakash	"Friends are relatives you make for yourself."
50	Avinash Tiwari	Yaar aaj sham kahan chalen?
51	Anoop Singh	Jhaphi unlimited!
52	Anonymous-2	Friends till the end....
53	Anonymous-1	साथ है तो कुछ भी असंभव नही
54	Amandeep Kaur	You can’t do epic stuff with basic people, vibe attracts the tribe.
55	Amandeep Kaur	The Monica, Racheal and Phoebes of the college
56	Ajai Bhumri	दोस्ती की वजूद से दुनिया चल रही है। ना मंजूर हो तो खुदा से पूछ लो।
57	Aayush Paroolkar (11 years)	The Three Musketeers.

The Winners

Our Jury has selected four winning captions as highlighted in the table above. We congratulate the winners with their brief profiles below.

Veeky Baths is a regular participant in KBG Contests. He has won the contest several times. Veeky holds a PhD and is a Professor at BITS Pilani Goa campus. His research area includes cognitive neuroscience. His caption appealed to the Jury instantly

Rekha Bhargava is an alumnus of Birla Balika Vidyapeeth Pilani and Delhi University. She has been a teacher. She loves travelling and meeting people. A regular participant in KBG Contests, her caption in Hindi brought out what bear hugs among friends mean!

Radhika Sareen is an electronics engineer from BITS Pilani who has worked with TCS for three decades. A keen traveller she is a regular participant in KBG Contests. Her caption in Hindi brought out the selfless aspect of a true friendship. It caught the Jury's eye.

Peter de Padua writes creatively and has won several KBG Contests in the past also. A former Wing Commander of IAF, Peter is a water sport enthusiast. His caption signifies the strength of a friendship and won the Jury's appreciation.

Once again we congratulate all the winners.

Hope the KBG series of contests have helped you to divert your mind away from the boredom of Covid pandemic. Our next series of contest will bring a new theme.

Stay connected and thanks for browsing.

    -Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ Secunderabad 15th Feb 2023

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