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Showing posts from 2008

In search of a bit of soil

Call of the land SOIL is the thin layer of earth's crust which serves as a natural medium for growth of plants. This is a formal definition of soil. So soil is the birthplace for plants. And plants are essential for the life of all other life on earth including humans. Reasons are known even by children – plants transform CO 2 to oxygen that we breath; they absorb greenhouse gases and keep earth cool. Plants are at the lowest rung of the food chain—all herbivores like cows, goats, deer and sheep live off plants and all carnivores like tigers, lions live by eating the herbivores. We humans usually eat plants and herbivores. Thus we may say—soil of mother earth is the cradle of life. I am a thinking person, a person away from soil, away from doing things by hand, a person whose main job is thinking. And inevitably I live in a large city where roads are paved and concrete buildings aspire to touch the sky. I miss the soil, the open soil. In my childhood, w...

Get heart

Cost of a heart The heart pumps blood carrying food to the cells throughout the body, beating approximately 72 times per minute. If the heart ever ceases to pump blood, the body begins to shut down and after a very short period of time will die. With the average heart rate of 72 beats per minute the heart will pump about 10 litres per minute which is called Cardiac output. For a normal, non-athlete man of average age of 70 years, the cardiac output of the average human heart over a life time would be about 1 million litres. And the heart beats tirelessly for about 2.7 billion times in a lifetime of 70 years. I first met with hearts while playing cards. I was in school then. I somehow liked the beautiful red symbol. Exchanging hearts was not so openly common during those times. Today we see all pervading use of the symbol around. All and sundry, young and old alike fearlessly don shirts daubed with blood red heart. While growing up I lost my heart unknowingly ...