Why do birds stand on one leg ?

Have you ever seen birds standing on one leg. Of course yes. If you have not, well, time to look around you and see how beatiful and mysterious our nature is. Coming back to one leg striking pose, it vividly prompts us to compare them with Yoga poses (which most of us seldom do even in imagination).

Of course these avians looks perfectly balanced, serene and in tranquil state with an occasional professional glance, towards us. Their gaze seems to be speaking to us like "Can you do like this - stand on one leg for so much time". Jokes apart, lets get to the reason for this behaviour.

The reason for this adaptive pose is to regulate the heat loss of their bodies. Upper body is covered with feathers so its always warm from outside temperature variation. As their legs are bare, so they are prone to outside mercury changes and consequently, they become pretty cold. So, by bringing one leg up, the bird don't lose as much heat and they stay warm and comfortable for long.

TRP - What does it mean

We have all heard about TRP ratings of a program in news or papers or advertisements. Have you ever wondered what does it mean and how are the ratings calculated. Lets find out.

What exactly is TRP ?
TRP stands for Televison Rating Point is a tool to judge the viewership of any channel or programme for a period of 30 days. It gives an index of the choice of people and thus helps in recognizing the popularity quotient among different age groups.

How is it calculated ?
There are two methodologies used for TRP calculation :

A device called as People's Meter is attached to a TV set in a few thousand viewers houses across varied demographies. This device would store all relevant statistics about the viewership and sends the data to a central server periodically. After a month, an average is taken to judge the ratings score.

Another way of calculating the TRP is via picture monitoring technique where a specific signal is transmitted through satellite channels at particular intervals, which is then decoded at a central server station.

Who calculates TRP ?
In India it is calculated by INTAM (Indian Television Audience Measurement)

Shree Attukal Amma Devi Temple

The Attukal Bhagavathy Temple is a famous temple at Attukal in Trivandrum, Kerala. Goddess Bhadrakali is the main deity in this temple. Bhadra means good and Kali means goddess of time. So, she is often referred as Goddess of prosperity, time and salvation.

Attukal Pongala is the main festival of this temple. It is a 10 day festival (Feb - Mar) months, which begins on Karthika star with the deity adorned with Kappu (Bangles). Millions of women gather and prepare Pongala (rice cooked with Jaggery, Ghee, Coconut etc.) in the open in small pots to please the mighty Goddess - Sri Attukal Amma. This annual festival has figured in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest gathering of women for a religious activity.

Attukal Devi is often worshipped in 3 forms :

Maha Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge)
Maha Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth)
MahaKali/Durga/Parvathy (Goddess of Power)

Mythological Stories about Temple
The story of Kannagi, who was married to a wealthy merchant, Kovalan. After marriage, Kovalan spent all his riches on a dancer, forgetting his wife but later when we was penniless, he came back to his wife. Kannagi had 2 precious anklets, so they went to King of Madurai to sell one of the anklet. At the same time, the Queen's anklet was stolen, so when Kovalan tried to sell it to King, they mistook his for thief and killed him.

When Kannagi heard the news, she got very angry and went to King with the second anklet, and proved that the mistaken anklet was not of Queen. It is said that such was the anger of Kannagi that she burned the city of Madurai. It is said that Kannagi attained salvation later and resided on Attukal temple, as Goddess Kodungallooramma (bhadrakali/Kannagi).

Another story says that Sri Attukal Devi is Bhadrakali, born from the third eye of Lord Shiva to kill the demon king Daruka.

May Attukal Devi Amma bless all of us with her grace, divinity and ashirvadam, and help us conquer our inner demons so that we can always be blissful and righteous in our lives.

Mookambika Devi Temple

Mookambika Devi Temple is situated in Kollur village of Udupi of Karnataka state. The abode is situated in the foothills of Kodajadri Hills and surrounded by River Souparnika.

The mighty Goddess is revered by many Keralites and people of Tamil Nadu. She is called "Shree Adiparashakti" as she embodies powers of 3 Goddesses - MahaLakshmi, MahaSaraswati and MahaKali Devi. The ancient temple was built around 800 AD, which makes it one of the oldest temple.

Adi Shankaracharya, renowned spiritual guru, had done immense worship to Goddess Saraswati. When the Devi appeared, he asked her to come with him to Kerala, as there was no temple of her presence at that time. Goddess agreed on one condition and promised that he should take her to destination but while travelling, he should not look back.

While travelling, Shankaracharya was consistently hearing Devi's Padasaram (Anklet). Suddenly, the tingling sound stopped and out of confusion, he looked back, only to realise that the promise was broken. However, as Devi was very pleased with his worship, she agreed to come with him, as well.

It is said that Devi would come to Chottanikara Temple in Kerala every mornings and would return back to Kollur Mookambika Temple by midday.

Another story is Goddess Parvathy had killed a demon called Mookasura (Mooka means dumb - one who cannot speak) and hence, Devi attained the name Mookambika Devi.

May Goddess Mookambika Devi Amme bless us all with positivity and contentment in our mind, body and soul and assist us or make us adept in conquering our internal demons.

How to visit the temple ?

If you are coming from Kerala, you can take Intercity Express which goes till Mangalore Central. Then take Matsyagandha Express and get down on Mookambika Road Byndoor station. Take taxi to temple which costs approx 700rs as it is only 28 km from here.

What does ATM means for our watches ?

ATM, unlike Automatic Teller Machine, stands for Atmospheres. It is a rating used to determine the water resistance measure for a watch. This universal ratings have been decided by ISO (International Standard Organisation for Standardisation). All watches carry these ratings either on top or bottom side of the dial.

Following are the ratings and sea level depth comparison, which has been defined  :

3 ATM= 30 meters (100ft) depth

5 ATM= 50 meters (160ft) depth

10 ATM= 100 meters (330ft) depth

20 ATM= 200 meters (650ft) depth

Wait a minute - there's an important fact which people misunderstand. And that is the above ratings does not mean that for a 5 ATM resistant, if you deep dive 50 metres down sea level, your beautiful watch will not become a paper weight, for rest of your life.

In fact, the environment in which these ratings are defined, are in still water. However, in real life, when we move in water, the pressure levels increase multifold and there are ample chances of water seeping inside.

So, considering the practical scenarios, here are some of actions that can be safely recommended :

3 ATM— can be used for walking in rain, very light shower

5 ATM— can be used for Shower/bath

10 ATM—can be used for Water sports, swimming in the sea

20 ATM—can be used for Snorkeling

Milestones - What does it represent ?

At a point of time, we have all done long road journeys - via car, bus, train etc. I remember, in my childhood, going on a road journey would be a thrilling experience - watching people across the street, vehicles whooshing in opposite direction - noting down the names of the places, stopping every now and then for a cup of tea or breakfast/lunch/dinner, looking at the speedometer - one for speed and second for number of kilometers traveled from source. I know many of us would second that feeling, even now.

This is about one of the things that appear during those road journeys - an integral part of any road - milestones.

One thing in a milestone is the color code on the top crescent. Well, it does have a meaning and a representation.

Yellow strip on a milestone indicates that we are on a National Highway.

Green strip on a milestone indicates that we are on a State Highway.

Black, Blue or White strip on a milestone indicates we have entered in a big city or district.

Orange color on milestone indicates that we have entered in a village.

What does train numbers imply?

Have you ever wondered whether there is any pattern of Indian Train numbers - well, there is indeed one !!

All the train numbers is a 5 digit numeric and each digit signifies a pattern. Here are more details :

First Digit : The first digit always represent the train type
0 --> Special trains like summer, holiday
1 or 2 --> Long distance trains like superfast or express trains
5 --> Passenger trains with conventional coaches
6 --> Memu service
8 --> Premium Express Trains

Second Digit:The second digit represents the railway zone.

Third Digit: If the first digit is 0, 1 or 2, the second digit is 2. The third digit identifies the railway zone where the train is maintained

Fourth and Fifth Digits : Are random numbers