NOEL ELLIS' GOOGLE BLOG

  Like every year, this year too I have taken upon myself to distribute 100 + tree saplings to all those folks who want to grow one plant in their lifetime. People show a lot of enthusiasm when I tell them that seedlings are available. People start calling to book them immediately. There could be no better way to celebrate “the world environment day.”   In the civilian world, punctuality has lost its significance. I give the distribution of saplings a fauji touch. People are given a one-hour slot, when one is generally in the garden. “You come late; the loss is yours” is my tag line. People understand, once a time has been given by Colonel Saab, he will stick to it. Still, a few pitch in a personal request with flimsy reasons like I am working, I am not well, I had to take my child to hospital etc. It is not in their DNA to be on time. I understand it and be flexible.   People don’t understand that to grow a seedling it takes so much effort. No one sees it. Very...

  These days pest control has become an important part of our daily lives. Though cockroaches and mice do not scare us, their occurrence in the house gives an uncomfortable feeling. Their mere presence appears that the home is unhygienic. Of course, they spread diseases, which is not an acceptable thing.   As the summers started to peak in the Sun City, these vermin found their way out of the dungeons and holes.   Cockroaches must be feeling the heat inside the gutters. The most adventurous kinds make their way up through drainage holes and explore places which they hadn’t tread before. The brown and winged creatures, with long whiskers, are trampled upon the moment they are spotted. A hit with a chappal is instinctive, but these guys escape.   Though the “Nau Tapa”, which is an annual phenomenon of extreme heat in the Thar desert, these guys find refuge in homes where adequate food and water is available.   Be that as it may. I shall talk ab...

  As days go by in a re-attired life, one sits down and recalls childhood days sometimes. What fun it used to be!   Those days, an air gun was the “boy-toy” in the house. The school campus where we used to stay was teeming with snakes, rats lizards, pigeons & partridges. Cobras would enter the “hen pen” and swallow their eggs and even strike a cock/hen. I am not using the word rooster, because we were taught it that way. The air gun used to come in handy.   The backyard being an open area had a lot of places for rats to hide. These rodents sometimes used to come indoors and frolic, toppling cups and saucers, eating food kept in the ‘Doli’, a wire mesh cupboard as good as a fridge of the good old days. They loved to feed on grains called “murgi-dana”, which used to be stored in drums for our poultry.   The cats were also the culprits to invite mice into the house. They would catch one and bring them to their kittens. Kittens loved to ‘toy’ with them....

 SPIDER LILY 🤍DIL KHUSH🤍

 Three new Adenium colours

    When I was in school, mathematics troubled me. Dad’s colleagues took pains to help me learn the subject. I would go to their homes and get tutored and shall ever remain grateful. We were the “on-desk generation” and not the online one.   Those days, tuition was not appreciated because students were charged money. Later, private tuitions and coaching centers came up. Now it is an organized industry. These days coaching has become a must to crack competitive exams. However, its commercialization doesn’t gel with me. Kota is an example.   It was time to prepare for the NDA written exam. Our school teachers made sure that subjects were drummed into our heads. They would sit till the wee hours of the morning teaching us. That was their professionalism. They worked double harder than us, for us.   Now comes the preparation for SSB. The atmosphere and curriculum of the school helped us prepare for the coveted test. Ex-students would guide us. Still, n...

    For decades, India has been fighting an enemy far more elusive than cross-border infiltrators and terrorists. This particular adversary doesn’t assault with tanks or launch missiles. Instead, its weapons are WhatsApp groups, telegram, shady coaching centres, and sealed envelopes exchanged in dark alleys simply known as the "Paper Leak Syndicate."   After one scandal too many pushed the public to its breaking point, New Delhi finally made a radical call: Hand the examinations over to the Armed Forces. The entire country gasped. The coaching industry fainted. As for the students? They knew that their future was in safe hands now.   Phase 1: Designing the Blueprint   The toughest task of drafting exam papers fell to a top-secret committee comprising of the Vice Chiefs and training heads of the Army, Navy, and the Air Force. To guarantee absolute secrecy, the questions were formulated inside an underground bunker so classified that even the Prim...

  In school we had a “wet canteen”. As a kindergarten kid, we were forbidden to eat any eatables from there as items were impure and adulterated, that’s what the parents told us. Why? I still do not know, when the whole school with about 750 hostelers used to eat anything and everything sold there. I was not allowed to visit that tuck shop.   We would pass by the shop and workers would sit outside making the tastiest ‘besan di barfi’. We could spend hours watching the process. The ‘bhunoing of besan’, adding ghee, laying it in trays, slicing them and displaying them. Let me confess, we didn’t know the difference between desi ghee and dalda. The smell of the mixture used to enchant me. But alas, if someone reported to Dad or Mom that their son was seen there, it would invite a thrashing.   The child within me never could resist. Hostlers had pocket money to flaunt with, your's truly never got any. Plus, those guys could take items on credit. I dare not open an ac...