An Arch to Captivate You

Mankind has used arches to celebrate battle victories or events and to welcome the victorious warriors home. In recent times arches are created to welcome visiting dignitaries to a city or a nation. Nature also creates its own arches. We bring you the story of one such natural arch.

Your favourite Captions Contest is back! Kaun Banega Ghumakkad (KBG) is slowly inching towards the Platinum Jubilee edition. We are here with KBG-73, the 73rd edition of KBG! Does the picture of a natural arch trigger your imagination? If yes, give it a caption and win KBG-73.

This picture is courtesy our daughter Akanksha who had recently visited the Arches National Park in Utah, USA. Called 'The Delicate Arch', it is one of the most visited and photographed sandstone formations. Thank you Ashi for the picture.

For better visualisation of your caption, here is an enlarged picture of the Arch without the contest logo.

Does the Arch not look very fragile? Fifty two feet tall, does it appear about to collapse on one leg? It would interest you that the sandstone arches in that Park are 65 million years old. The Arch has been created by constant erosion due to wind, ice and water. The Arch has been depicted on a postage stamp commemorating Utah's centennial anniversary of admission to the Union in 1996. The Olympic torch relay for the 2002 Winter Olympics also passed through the Arch. So much for a brief history of the Arch.

Now go ahead and give a caption for the above picture featuring The Delicate Arch fast!

How to Submit a Caption

For the first-timers on KBG, you can respond using any of the six channels below:

1. Leave a comment on this post
2. Send email to hbindia@gmail.com    
3. Respond on the FB post
4. Comment on Instagram @ghumakkadhb 
5. Comment on Twitter @HarshBh21184761
6. Send a WA message. If you want your WA number to be added to Ghumakkad's list, send an email.

So folks, get going and give your caption pronto! If you feel like, you may submit more than one caption.

Previous Contest

KBG-72, the 72nd edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad Caption Contest had featured a picture of two African Lions lazing around in the savannah of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, East Africa. Our picture story titled 'Lazy Lions' included all the captions submitted by the readers of KBG-72. The story also features embedded videos to give you a feel of being with the lions in its natural habitat. Two of the creative captions of KBG-72 are reproduced below:

Hope we have succeeded in diverting your mind away from a world torn with war and strife. Ghumakkad aims to spread joy and cheer all around like our logo shown below. Thank you Ramya Sriram for such a creative logo.

Now, be your creative best and shoot your response. Most catchy captions will be the Winners of KBG-73! All the best.

Thank you all the readers for your continued support.

Stay connected, stay safe.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 14th April 2022

#thedelicatearch #archesnationalpark #sandstonemarvel #travelisfun #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #takeabreak #captions #powerofobservation #craetivecaptions #utah #usa #nationalparkservice #hiking #erosionofsandstone #naturesownarch #twokidsandpoetry #preservation #ecology

Patterns and Shapes of Leaves

 Nature- the master designer.

Nature the creator.

Nature if abused and hurt, can also become the destroyer. For Nature's punishment in the form of man-made floods you may read our story 'The Flood Fury'.

In this post we bring you Nature's creativity as seen in the leaves of plants, creepers and trees. 

All the pictures have been taken in our yard or neighbourhood in Secunderabad India. Of course, it is not an exhaustive compendium of plants and trees. But just a sample for you to appreciate Nature's variety. Can you name all the leaves in above picture?

Leaves convert sunlight to the nutrition needed by the plant or tree for its growth and sustenance. We all learnt that in the school. Does photosynthesis ring a bell? Well, sunlight is crucial for survival of all life on earth. Well, this is not meant as a science class in school.

We are sharing the pictures of some of the leaves below. You can check how many names of the leaves did you get it right? Enjoy.

That was the leaves of monsoon Lily with bright yellow flowers twice a year!

Nature's brush paint is not always green! See the following two pictures.

The Contest

The leaf of Umbrella Palm was the subject of KBG-63, the 63rd edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad, our online captions contest.

The Captions

KBG-63 Contest received overwhelming response from our readers. More than 400 readers browsed the contest story. We received 46 creative captions which are listed below in alphabetical order. We thank all the participants.

Sl.	Name	Caption for KBG-62 Contest
1	Ajai Bhumri	पहली नजर में प्यार हो गया.
2	Ajai Bhumri	प्राकृतिक सुन्दरता सभी की पहली चाहत.
3	Amandeep Kaur	Wohhhhoo
4	AP Sharma	Harmony in Symmetry
5	Avinash Tiwari	Suryakiran सूर्यकिरण
6	BC Jayaprakash	Ulta pulta...I am unique
7	Bharat Ladha	Nature is balanced if we don't destruct.
8	BR Natarajan	In Graphic Design Nature is the ultimate. Others can only imitate
9	Deepak Jena	Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.
10	Deepak Jena	Natures beauty comes in all sizes, not just in single size.
11	GB Sethi	Geometry Box gives two dimensions, providential geometry in nature has perfected in three dimensions - us to learn?
12	GR Sreenivasan	Nature's beautiful creations are beyond description.
13	Haripriya Bathula	Phyllotaxy! (Arrangement of leaves on a plant stem)
14	Haripriya Bathula	Perfection in an imperfect world!!
15	Jaishankar	Green radiance
16	K Thyagaraj	Nice picture
17	LS Bhargava	Law of nature- equity, balance and symmetry.
18	Manju Khetan	Wow, beautiful patterns in nature to find fractals.
19	Manu Bhatnagar	Careless perfection for joy and wonderment
20	Naresh Kumar	Spokes.
21	Naresh Kumar	Spinning wheel
22	Nidhi Bhargava	परमात्मा सबसे बडा कलाकार है, उसकी हर रचना बेजोड, बेमिसाल है
23	Pierre D'Silva	In nature, symmetric and asymmetric are both beautiful!
24	Poonam Bhargava	उत्कृष्ट रेखागांडित! प्रकृति सर्वोपरि
25	Prabhat Jindal	We have to learn so much from Nature
26	Pradeep Siwach	Prakriti ka Chakra प्रकृति का चक्र
27	PRR Rao	Awesome!
28	Radhika Sareen	समानता से एकता
29	Radhika Sareen	What if our PALM has such  symmetrical lines...whole world will be together....
30	Radhika Sareen	Nature's Geometry Box
31	Rajendra Singh	Nature, the supreme Art Teacher.
32	Ramanand Baliga	Spokes of the green cycle
33	Rashmi Bhargava	Art of nature
34	Rekha Bhargava	प्रकृति के रेखा गणित के आगे सब गणित  फेल हैँ ।
35	Ritu Bhargava	There is no better designer than nature.
36	Rohini Tiwari	Yeh kaun Chitrakaar hai... jiska yeh chamatkaar hai!
37	Shereen Sultana	Khudrat ka karishma
38	Siba K Patnaik	Gift of Nature!
39	Suhas Kedar,  Vaishali Kedar and  Sandhya Thakare	Nature's way of reconnecting people.
40	Sujata Das	The universe is pure geometry. Beautiful shape twisting around  over space-time.
41	Vandana Bhargava	अलग होकर भी जुड़े रहने में सुंदरता है।
42	Veeky Baths	In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect.
43	Vinay Prasad	Nature is the mother of symmetry, geometry, shapes!
44	Vinod Dhanuka	Multi-layered creativity
45	Yogesh Verma	Jeevant
46	Ratnaja Gogula	The Big Bang!

Winners of KBG-63

Our Jury has selected four captions as the winners. The winning captions along with a brief intro of the reader are given below. We congratulate all the winners of KBG-63.

Avinash Tiwari loves golf, gardening and music. A former Col of Indian Army, he is a War Veteran of 1971 war. Having done enough route marches with his troops, he detests long morning walks except on the golf course. He is a regular contributor and winner of KBG contests. His one word caption सूर्यकिरण meaning Sun rays was the Jury's immediate choice.

Jaishankar is a creative writer, blogger and Nature lover. He is a Colonel in Indian Army. He has won several KBG contests in the past. His crisp caption 'Green Radiance' was so apt for the picture.

Naresh Kumar is an alumnus of NIT Srinagar and IIT Delhi. After retiring from the Navy as a Commodore, he served as the CMD of Hindustan Shipyards Ltd at Vizag. Presently he is an advisor to IIT Jammu. Naresh loves to travel and play golf. His caption 'Spinning Wheel' corelates the green spokes of the palm leaf.

Pradeep Siwach PhD has been Vice Chancellor of several universities after retirement from Indian Army as a Brigadier. A keen photographer, Pradeep is loved by his students and colleagues alike. He has won the KBG Contest several times. His caption प्रकृति का चक्र Prakriti Ka Chakra meaning Nature's Cycle reinforces the theme of the picture and the contest.

You may have noticed that all four winners this time are from the Armed Forces. It is just a coincidence and not by design. It brings out their creativity. Who says Fauzis are not a creative lot?

We thank both the Jury members Manik Srivastava and Neeta Bhargava for their time and continued support.

Not Just Leaves

Nature's design capabilities go beyond the leaves of plants and trees. When it comes to flowers, Nature's magic multiplies manifolds. We will bring you another edition of KBG focussed exclusively on flowers. A sample follows.

We end with a PQ- picturesque quote by Alexander Mc Queen.

Once again we thank you for your continued interest and support to KBG Contests. Without you, we would have been nowhere!

Stay connected.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/30th Sep 2021

#Umbrellapalm #symmetry #nature #patterns #shapes #leaves #naturesartstudio #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #lockdownfun #takeabreak #captions #powerofobservation #craetivecaptions #pqs #picturesquequotations #naturetheteacher #learningthroughpictures #secunderabad #observeandlearn #naturesgeometrybox #spinningwheel #suryakiran #greenradiance

Creating Symmetry Without A Geometry Box

How to draw symmetrical shapes using a geometry box? We all learnt it in the school.

But Nature creates shapes and patterns without any tools, instruments or aids like a geometry box. See the picture below of a leaf of Umbrella Palm. Is it not perfectly symmetrical? Nature's own art studio! Give the picture a caption and win the 63rd edition of KBG- Kaun Banega Ghumakkad- your own online caption contest!

Here is another view minus the Contest Logo to help you visualise the caption better.

Once again, give the above picture a caption. You could win KBG-63.

How to Submit a Caption

For the first-timers on KBG, you can respond using any of the six channels below:

1. Leave a comment on this post
2. Send email to hbindia@gmail.com   
3. Respond on the FB post
4. Comment on Instagram @ghumakkadhb 
5. Comment on Twitter @HarshBh21184761
6. Send a WA message. If you want your WA number to be added to Ghumakkad's list, send an email.

Now get going and give your caption pronto! If you feel like, you may suggest more than one caption.

Hope we have helped you in overcoming the Covid boredom to some extent.

Previous Contest

KBG-62, the 62nd edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad Caption Contest featured a picture of leaves partially eaten up by caterpillars during the monsoon.

This picture fired the imagination of 300+ readers! We received more than 30 captions. For a complete list of the captions and the winning entries, click the story 'Need and Greed'. Two of the winning captions of KBG-62 are reproduced below.

Be your creative best and shoot your response. Most catchy captions will be the Winners of KBG-63! All the best.

Thank you all the readers for your continued support.

Stay connected, stay safe.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 22nd September 2021

#Umbrellapalm #symmetry #nature #patterns #leaves #naturesartstudio #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #lockdownfun #takeabreak #captions #powerofobservation #craetivecaptions #pqs #picturesquequotations #naturetheteacher #learningthroughpictures #secunderabad #observeand learn