She was a phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight; A lovely Apparition, sent To be a moment’s ornament: Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; Like Twilight’s, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; A dancing Shape, an Image gay, To haunt, to startle, and way-lay. …

At the world’s dawn The black cow of cosmic night lies With the ruddy cow of morning The Father rapes his virgin daughter Agni, the hunter, shoots his arrow The Father, a frenzied foaming bull, runs Spilling his seed upon the ground The daughter runs south. Ripened by Agni, the progeny’s patter begins. “Fire is a hunter.” It sustains and …

Turtles and tortoises have been on planet Earth even before the dinosaurs. They are that old. The difference between a turtle and tortoise is that the turtle stays in water while the tortoise stays on land. But both creatures have one thing in common: they live to a ripe old age, from 120 years to almost 200 years! Some of …

The city is celebrating Mother’s Day primarily with banners and posters. For, the idea of buying presents for moms just doesn’t find favour with youngsters. NECESSITY is the invention of all mothers. As so many moms seek ‘all things good and wonderful’ primarily for their little ones, they remain at the receiving end. No, not in the unending queues for …

MOTHERS are often taken for granted because they are always there for you. The thought that one should verbalise one’s emotions on a specific day takes a little getting used to. But, thanks to media hype and multinationals’ selling strategies, there’s a way to celebrate each and every day—Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day etc. Multinationals use all sorts of …

Dogs have a better sense of smell than we do because the physical structure of a dog is better adapted for scenting odours. In dogs this sense has remained keen, while in man it has become comparatively dull. Dogs use scent in feeding, detecting enemies, recognizing mates and offspring and in rivalry. The chemical sense of smell is called chemoreception …

Dogs have been at people’s side for longer than any other animal. But a lot of their actions can only be explained by their past before they were tamed by humans. For example, you may have noticed that a dog turns round three times on the spot before setting down to sleep – this may be because its ancestors had …

When someone falls from the fourth or fifth floor, and survives, we call it a miracle. When a cat falls from that height, we watch astonished as it lands on all fours, pauses, then straighten up and walks away looking just a little fazed. What would you call this, a miracle or God’s grace? Any guesses why cats survive while …

Bats use high-pitched sounds to find their way about. They are nocturnal animals. That is they move about by night. So they have developed their hearing to such an extent that they can find their way by a method known as echo-location. The blind-flying abilities of bats were first studied by Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799). He surgically removed the eyeballs from …

The night vision of owls is 100 times as keen as that of human beings, because their eyes are especially adapted for seeing in the dark. But most are almost color-blind and the pictures they receive are slightly blurred. This is because their eyes contain more rod-shaped receptor cells than cone-shaped ones. Operating in bright light, cone cells sharpen details …