Adventures of Raghu - a wild wild night!

Tomorrow was Raghu’s last exam. 10 days of constant exams had Raghu waiting to get it all over. He had just finished reading his last chapter in Social Sciences and looked outside into the darkness through his room window. It was 11pm. Everybody at home was asleep except him. He went over to his window, opened the window shutters and breathed in the freshly scented night air. His mother had planted Raat ki Rani (‘Night Blooming Jasmine’) and Champa trees in the garden downstairs many years ago. Being close to his room, he loved breathing in the scent of these flowers.

He looked up at the sky, the moon was big and full, with not too many visible stars.

“I wonder if people actually go crazy on full moon nights? They say hospitals get many more emergency cases coming in on full moon nights you know.” said Raghu half to himself, half to Raghav who was reading a book on his bed. Raghu’s brother, Raghav, who shared the room with his brother, looked up from his book towards Raghu – “That’s just a big myth man, they’ve done studies and found there is no truth in this.”

Raghu leaned against the window railing with his head in his hands, quietly looking outside. Everything was so quiet, when suddenly he heard crickets chirping. They were a noisy bunch! ‘Crick, crick crick….’ “That’s one, two, three……”Raghu began counting. Raghav had stopped reading his book and looked at Raghu rather amused. “Hey Raghu, count the number of chirps the cricket makes in 25 seconds.” “Why?” said Raghu rather surprised at his brothers sudden interest. “Just Do it! I’m timing you.”

Raghu started counting and stopped when his brother told him the time was up. Raghav had a glow in his eyes, which was usually there when his brilliant mind had a piece of information that others didn’t know about. ”Do you know the temperature outside Raghu?” Raghu was really bewildered and a little annoyed. His brother seemed to have really lost it! “Look it up on the internet! How will I know?” said Raghu. “Well there's another way to find it.” Said Raghav. “Take the number of chirps you just counted and divide it by 3, then add 4 to it.” Raghu made the calculation. “That comes to 28.” Said Raghu, a little excited at what this number meant. “28 Raghu, is the temperature outside in Celsius” Raghu checked the laptop to find that the temperature outside was in fact 28 degrees Celsius. ”WOW! That’s so cool!” shouted Raghu. “Yes, people used this in the past to determine the outdoor temperature. There’s also a reason to it, which I’ll tell you another day.” Said Raghav as he got back to reading his book after the distraction.

Just as Raghu stood thinking of this fascinating discovery his brother had just told him of, he heard a long howl of a street dog. “I always feel like there are ghosts around when I hear dogs howl Raghav.

Do you think they’re howling because there are spirits nearby on the full moon night?” Raghav laughed. “You’ve read too many scary stories Raghu!! There is no such thing. Dogs have descended from wolves, and wolves used this as a technique to communicate with their herd and define their territory. That’s why dogs howl too, not because they saw some ghost!” Raghu smiled. “There are so many myths Raghav that sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s a myth and what’s a fact. I wonder why people create such myths Raghav?” Raghav smiled like the wise elder brother he was. “The eeriness has a certain interesting feel to it Raghu. Facts can be too scientific and boring for people, so they create myths about different happenings in nature which create interesting stories to tell!!”

As Raghu and Raghav were chatting, they didn’t notice when suddenly a bat flew into their room.

Raghu and Raghav saw the bat flying in the room and panicked. They started running around shouting and screeching - “Duck Raghu, otherwise he’ll hit your head!”………..”Aaaaaa” both boys were screaming so loud their mother heard the noise and came to their room. When she saw the bat, she told the boys to become still, not panic and closed the lights. Within a few minutes, the bat flew out and they shut their room window. “Boys, bats can see best in the dark and they are not blind as popular myth suggests. Also bats will not try to hit your head as people think, so don’t worry and panic so much next time! They’ll quietly fly out.” She sat a few minutes with the boys, heard Raghu’s stories of the night with much interest and told them to shut the lights and go to bed to be well prepared for the next days exam. “Goodnight mother” said Raghu as she began closing the door behind her,  “What a wild night it’s been!!!”

Know a little more:

Full moon myths and madness:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=8265957

Crickets and how their chirps determine the temperature:  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-cricket-temperature/

Why dogs howl at night?

http://dogcare.dailypuppy.com/myths-dogs-howling-1656.html

Bats: http://www.incrediblebats.com/batinfo.html

Adventures of Raghu - Think before you trash it!

The afternoon rains had just ended and a beautiful cool breeze was blowing through Raghu’s room window.

One could hear a variety of birds chirping, insects buzzing here and there, dogs barking in the vicinity and an occasional vegetable vendor calling out to people to buy his vegetables. Meera had come over to Raghu’s house to work on their school science project on recycling. They had to make 'something useful' out of recycled material and were busy  researching ideas on what they could make.

Meera was on the computer, surfing 'recycled craft' while Raghu was taking a short break to do his favourite activity - look outside his bedroom window. “Raghu did you know the Rock Garden in Chandigarh has been made from recycled material?” said Meera excited as she surfed a site that spoke about the Rock garden. “Hmmm….” said Raghu busy looking at the variety of birds outside busy searching for food and water. There were two pigeons wandering around on the small balcony above his window looking for food to feed their little ones, the crows cawing and drinking water from a little puddle that had formed on the front porch,

two little sparrows that seemed to be fighting over a tiny worm, parrots flying around busily searching for some grains and a tiny hummingbird fluttering around on a nearby branch also seemingly in search of nectar.

“Hey Meera! I’ll be back in a minute.” said Raghu, cutting Meera in between her speech about the Rock garden as he rushed downstairs. Raghu went straight to the kitchen, took out some old bread pieces from the refrigerator, a small bowl full of water and went outside to put these out for the birds to eat.  Meera looked out from the window above a little amused, yet annoyed at Raghu's sudden distraction. “It isn't very good to feed all the birds bread Raghu!" called out Meera as she started walking downstairs to find some grains she could put out.

As she came downstairs she saw Raghu’s mother carrying a box of empty Bisleri and Coke bottles.

“Meera, I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’m going to go throw these outside" said Raghu’s mother. “But aunty, these are plastic and cannot just be thrown with other waste. They need to be recycled” said Meera, revising what she had just read. “Yes, I know Meera, but how should I recycle them?” “Aunty can I please have a look.” Meera, looked at the 6 empty plastic bottles and smiled.

“Aunty, please give me the bottles, I promise to do something useful with them” said Meera excitedly. “Sure dear, go ahead” said Raghu’s mother happy at the thought. Meera went outside to Raghu. “Raghu, I have an idea for our project. Let’s make different types of bird feeders from plastic bottles!”

This idea caught Raghu’s fancy as he stopped and looked at Meera happily. He was not much of an artsy person and was bored with the idea of making art pieces or pen holders out of plastic cans and found this idea truly exciting. “Wow! Meera, you smarty pants! So how do we go about it?” asked Raghu.

"We will make a few feeders where we cut holes in the centre of the bottles big enough for birds to fit in and feed on the grains and others that we fit a wooden spoon through so that little birds can sit on it and eat the grains. Also we'll make a few tiny holes at the bottom so rain water can drain. For the Hummingbirds we'll have to make sweet water and fill it in the bottles. Their feeder will have a small tray with holes from which they can suck the water.

We'll hang some of them on a rope between the two tree branches outside your room and hang the others at different places around your garden. We can also use different kinds of grains in each of the feeders and watch what types of birds get attracted to which feeder. That way we'll get to enjoy watching the birds from your window and take relevant photos for our project!"

Raghu was thrilled. "Come on let's get to work Meera!" said Raghu as he shot upstairs eager to get started. Meera laughed. Inspiring ideas that were useful in the outdoors always worked to get Raghu rolling!

Balancing screen time and green time

Finding it hard to get your children off their gadgets and going outside to play?

Maybe it’s time to take the “If you can’t beat em, join em!” approach which is what the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) seems to be taking.

A constant challenge for parents to balance the role of technology in their kids lives with the simple pleasures and enormous benefits of outdoor play, an NWF report explores the positive benefits of technology and outdoor exploration. The report doesn't try to scare parents about how much time their kids are spending with technology. Instead, the authors offer ways that kids' media habits can both positively and negatively impact health, learning and social development.

So how do parents use technology to get kids moving, exploring and interacting with the outdoor world around them?

Here are some of their tips:

- Use technology to help plan or inspire your next outdoor adventure.

For example if you are going somewhere outdoor, you can work with the children to come up with more information about the place/outdoor activities to do, so that the experience becomes a lot more meaningful and increases their excitement and curiosity.

- Keep a record of outdoor experiences with the help of electronic photos, videos or an electronic journal of adventures

- A technology themed adventure can provide an equal balance between technology and nature.

Such as the app Ubooly ( www.ubooly.com/rangerrick ) lets kids turn a walk in the park into an interactive experience with scavenger hunts, nature hikes and mindfulness games.

- Use technology to learn and play outdoors - let kids use their gadget's camera to try to capture the most amazing nature shot. Or let them surf the Web to look up the tree or bird that they saw in the park.

Bottom line: Technology is here to stay, so why not embrace it and utilize it as a tool to help your children fall in love with nature?

So take some time out, unplug, disconnect and get your kids to connect with the outdoors, not shutting them off from their virtual world but rather helping them find that balance between their virtual and real world.

So Let's Pledge to Be out there! 
Watch the NWF video below -

References:

http://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/recreation/how-to-get-kids-and-their-gadgets-outdoors/article_5bdd69fa-8fc3-5fd7-af96-39067c336cc7.html

http://www.nwf.org/Be-Out-There/Why-Be-Out-There/Balancing-Technology.aspx