Mac under the Mango tree

Hi Everyone -- I trust everyone is doing OK. My prayers are always there for everyone's well-being. Happy Pongal Wishes to all. In this article, I will share little about the importance and history of this festival.     Why Pongal Celebrations?  This festival honours the "Sun GOD" and commemorates the Sun's northward voyage . It also signifies the end of winter.   The festival is named after the ceremonial "Pongal", which means "to boil, overflow" and refers to the traditional dish (rice) prepared from the new harvest of rice boiled in milk with jaggery (raw sugar). To mark the festival, the pongal sweet dish is prepared, first offered to Sun God and goddesses. It is celebrated to THANK nature, farmers, cows, agriculture and GOD...... Food and cattle are a vital part of this celebration  Some more historical story: Why Cows? :) According to a legend, it all started when Shiva's bull, Basava, delivered a wrong message to humans. Instead of d

Hi Everyone -- I trust you, family and friends are doing OK.  My prayers are always there, for everyone's well-being. Omicron cases are being reported towards upward trend, and it is spreading faster. Please take care of yourself, and family. Healthy Life is always Wealthy Life. In this blog, I am going to share little bit about my experiences from WFH - Work From Home.   Again, it is purely my personal experience and I thought of sharing this to world, hoping that it will help someone. I am sure, everyone is doing WFH for last 2 years. Then, what is here to share? :)...  OK!. It is about, "where" we work from home ..... I have experienced two things, and I thought of sharing this. 1. Work From Outside Home (WFOH) Below pic is from my WFOH, along with nature and moon.   2 . Work From Inside Home (WFIH) Below pic is from my WFIH, where my family helped a lot.    OK, Let us do deep-dive. :) Work From Inside Home - WFIH: I took one room completely and started locking whe

 Hi Everyone -- I trust you, family and friends are doing OK.  My prayers are always there for everyone's well-being. I know, many people shared their covid experiences.  In this blog, I am going to share my true experience as a bystander for a covid patient (my brother-in-law). Little different from my farming blogs, but I thought it is worth sharing. During the peak pandemic, my brother-in-law was infected by Covid.  First few days, he was taking normal fever tablets, but it was not working, hence admitted into a private hospital in Nagercoil, Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu. Everything was going fine for first 2-3 days in hospital, he was given injections and tablets, but slowly oxygen  level started going down. Hence they started giving oxygen for him. Everything was going OK so far, first few days. On the fourth day morning, while I was in my active meetings with my teams, my sister was trying to reach few times. As I was in meeting, I did not pick up the call. But, this time

 Hi Everyone -- I trust you, family and friends are doing well.  In this blog, I am going to share little bit about my diwali weekend activity. It was a good long weekend and it helped me to plan better. Let me add some value to our environment and society during this Diwali. Ok, what is it about? Planting Palm Trees : It is called "Panai Maram" in Tamil or Palmyra palm tree as per google.. :)  Here is the fruit from palm tree in raw form, it is called "Ice Apple". These days, people make juice (i.e. Nongu sarbath) from this and it is becoming very famous. I decided to plant around 100 trees. My day started at 5.30 am. Typically all farmers get up very early and they get into farms early. :).. Farmers work hard, farming is like serving to people.  We finished all the work by 2.00 pm. Along with Palm trees, I did plant many Neem trees too. Myself and folks working in farm, we started collecting all the palm seeds and packed in sacks. Unpacked in target place and sta

Hi Everyone -- I trust you, family and friends are doing OK.  In this blog, I am going to share little about my casual conversations with the workers in farm, while they were working very hard.  What is it about: Happiness and Dreams. Please see below picture.  Workers (Contractors) are actively peeling coconut shell in my farm.   We harvest coconut once in 50 days. Once plucked from tree, they are all brought to a common place and then we invite contractors to take out the shell and then give the coconut to traders by per kg basis. Old days, harvesting used to happen by climbing. i.e. Persons used to climb the tree, and pluck from there. Now a days, everything happens from ground itself. i.e. In a long stick, sharp knife is attached and from ground itself they pluck coconuts. OK, coming to the discussions... When I entered my farm, they were busy peeling. I was watching for few minutes without asking any questions. I was just simply watching, noticing the focus of those folks, perf

Hi Everyone -- Hope everyone is doing OK and staying safe. In this blog, I am going to share little bit about Honey and Honeybees from my experience. Also, the importance of trees and flowers. Please see below picture: Both are honey!.   Have you ever noticed the thickness and color difference in Honey?  We always buy from brands like: lion honey, dabur honey etc. Do you ever think, what is behind the brand honey?. Where do they procure and how do they procure? Is it pure natural?..... mmm....  You may or may not have answers... In my farm, we used to have one person visiting and setting up beehive wooden boxes. He used to setup the boxes in many places i.e. under the big trees ; he will leave the farm for few weeks and then come back to collect honey. Whenever he collects honey from those boxes, he used to give us one or two liter from that directly.  The taste, so yummmy.... . After this, I never tasted honey from branded or processed one. Couple of years ago, someone entered the far

 Hi Everyone -- Hope you are doing OK and staying safe. Covid second wave did hit many people in India. Thanks to everyone, who helped others. Take care of yourself, family, friends and colleagues. In this blog, I am going to share about "growing papaya at home" and the happiness it gives. You would feel the happiness when it yields. You would be even more happy, when you share the fruits with your family members,  neighbours or relatives. It is a great short term crop, if you are a farmer. It gives output within a year for sure.  I have shared my papaya growing experience in my earlier blog . https://blog.prabakarpaulsami.com/2020/05/what-is-winning-attitude.html A well known fact about this fruit:  A  cup of papaya when had on an empty stomach is known to clear the digestive tract of toxins and smoothen the bowel movement due to the presence of digestive enzymes. It is also known to keep away digestive disorders like bloating, upset stomach and constipation.  It is a rich