India likely to take up issues over hydroelectric projects with Pakistan

India, Pakistan will hold a two-day meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission in New Delhi, starting tomorrow (29/03/2018), to discuss various issues under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).

The six-member Pakistani delegation will be headed by Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah, while India's Indus water commissioner PK Saxena will head the Indian team and will be accompanied by technical experts and a representative of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), sources said.

This will be the 114th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), which should meet at least once a year as per the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), sources said.

India, Pakistan will hold a two-day meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission in New Delhi

A day ahead of the announcement of the PIC meeting, Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari categorically said that the Centre is making concerted efforts to stop "water sharing" with Pakistan.

Addressing the concluding session of Agri Leadership Summit 2018 in Rohtak in Haryana yesterday, Gadkari said, "During Partition, India got three rivers but we could not utilise our share of the waters, which kept flowing back to Pakistan. Now, the Centre has decided to stop the flow of the country's due share into Pakistan and utilise it to feed our parched lands."

The Indus Waters Treaty covers water distribution and sharing rights of six rivers--Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum. Water from the western rivers are reserved for Pakistan and eastern rivers for India.

- Shared from Internet News portal

இருண்ட வானம்...Rain Clouds

Lent gives us a chance to reflect on God's love

Lent is a symbol of the progression of our earthly lives towards their goal. It is an opportunity to reflect upon, with deepening appreciation, what the Lord Himself has done for us - the love beyond all measure with which He has loved us; to marvel at His saving work and, with thanksgiving and adoration, to behold the Cross which declares that we are saved, that, with Christ, we are victors.

Lent is a call to "come, consider the works of the Lord and the marvellous deeds He has done (Psalm 66:5)".

Referring to His Passion and Cross, the Lord Jesus foretold: "The Son of Man must be lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him (John 3:14)."

Jesus is referring to the incident in the desert when the people's disobedience brought a plague of deadly serpents upon them. Many were bitten and died (Numbers 21:6). God instructed Moses to fashion a serpent of bronze and put it up on a standard, so that all who looked at it, were delivered from the deadly toxin. Thus, the means of death was changed into life and healing. The antidote to the deadly poison is created from the venom itself.

This prophetic gesture, shown to Moses by God, points to how God will redeem and save the world from the deadly effects of sin, from our fundamental disobedience to God's Word and from our disastrous departure from His Truth.

Moses lifted up a bronze serpent and all who looked at it were saved from the lethal venom. Jesus Himself is lifted up on the Cross, and all who look to Him, with faith, are saved from everlasting death.

The Cross of Christ is the anti-venom, the antidote, to the destructive power of evil. The Cross of Christ declares the truth that evil will never win and that the Devil's fate is sealed.

Disaster had befallen our humanity and there was no remedy to the catastrophe that had overtaken us, on account of our stubborn rejection of God's love and grace. Nevertheless, the response of God to our self-inflicted plight, was the advent of His Son.

"God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ - it is through grace that you have been saved - and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus (see Ephesians 2:4-10)."

We were lifeless and He gave us His own life. We were prostrate in abject helplessness and He reached down to us, from the Cross, in infinite kindness and merciful love, raising us up, with Him, beyond the grasp of death. We were the Devil's prey but, by means of the Cross, the Lord has snatched us from the jaws of Hell.

The barren and bitter wood of horror and desolation is now the Tree of Life.

The One who hung upon the arms of the Cross has found and embraced us.

With mighty hand and outstretched arm, the Lord has saved and delivered us. His love endures for evermore (Psalm 136:12).

Let us never lose sight of these wondrous realities. Let us live constantly in the light of the truth of God's love for us (John 3:21) - His love "stronger than death (Song of Songs 8:8)".

- This article was shared from internet source.

Anti-Homeless Spikes in India following UK, China styles.

Financial Times reporter Simon Mundy set off a firestorm Sunday after sharing photos on Twitter of the new tactics India's HDFC Bank has taken up to deter the homeless from sheltering near one of its branches.

​Within hours, Mundy had hundreds of netizens responding to his tweet, calling the move a safety hazard.

HDFC Bank Fort Branch.

Some tweets - 

​"As other have pointed out, these anti-homeless spikes from HDFC Bank Fort branch are not only a depressing gesture towards Mumbai's many rough sleepers," Mundy said in a follow up tweet, using a common British term for homeless people, "but could also impale any pedestrian unlucky enough to trip and fall in this crowded passageway."

However, this isn't exactly a new practice, as Mundy later told the Mumbai Mirror.

"It reminded me of ‘defensive architecture' installed in London to prevent homeless people from sleeping outside commercial premises, which attracted a great deal of public controversy," Mundy told the outlet. "I noted [in subsequent tweets], however, that the spikes outside this HDFC Bank branch were far longer and sharper than those I had seen photographed in the UK and could cause grave injury to anyone who fell on them — there appeared a particular risk of this happening since the passageway outside the branch is narrow and crowded."

Taking note of the growing outrage, HDFC Bank informed the publication that it would be removing the spikes immediately.

"We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to the public by the installation of the spikes at our Fort branch as part of the recent renovation carried out there," HDFC said in a statement. "While the installation is legal, we should have been conscious of the possibility of inconvenience to passers-by, especially children and elderly."

"We should have been sensitive. We are having the spikes removed on priority," it added.

Concrete spikes under a road bridge in Guangzhou city, Guangdong, China

Metal studs outside private flats on Southwark Bridge Road, London.

Winter Cherry - Siberian Shopping Center Fire.

В торговом центре Кемерова произошел пожар
Информация о том, что в торгово-развлекательном центре (ТРЦ) «Зимняя вишня» в Кемерове произошел пожар, стала поступать около 14:00 по московскому времени в воскресенье, 25 марта. По предварительным данным, возгорание произошло на последнем этаже четырехэтажного здания торгового центра, где в том числе находится кинотеатр и детский развлекательный центр. Сотрудники экстренных служб сразу же перекрыли движение транспорта в районе места происшествия.


In the shopping center of Kemerovo there was a fire.
Information that a fire broke out in the shopping and entertainment center (SEC) "Winter Cherry" in Kemerovo, started comming around 14:00 Moscow time on Sunday, March 25. According to preliminary data, the fire occurred on the top floor of a four-story shopping center building, including a cinema and a children's entertainment center. Emergency officers immediately blocked traffic in the vicinity of the scene.

Another news portal reports -

HELL ON EARTH 

Dozens of kids among 100 feared dead as blaze tears though Russian shopping mall forcing desperate victims to jump to their deaths

Witnesses claim a fire alarm did not go off in the building when the blaze broke out in Siberia

Heritage history: the Nalukettu houses of Kerala

a nalukettu veedu

Tradition is making a comeback amongst millennials today. Fueled by the need to belong and to be part of a heritage there is a widespread revival of age-old customs across India. Coloured by sepia-toned memories and a strong sense of nostalgia, getting ‘back to our roots’ is in vogue, especially among NRIs seeking to buy properties in India.

This heightened longing for the good old days has been instrumental in bringing back many classical architectural styles, and one of them is the nalukettu veedu in Kerala.

Design of Nalukettu

Nalukettu means four blocks and a typical house built in this fashion would be divided into a north, south, east, and west block.

The naalukettu was a typical feature of the Kerala tharavadu tradition, where joint families lived together for generations with a patriarch and matriarch overseeing all their affairs. At the centre of the house is a nadumuttam, which is an open courtyard that served as the focal point of interactions between the family as well as various household activities and festivities. The larger and wealthier families had ettukettu or, the rarer, pathinaarukettu houses featured eight and 16 blocks with two and four courtyards respectively. All of these houses were built following the principles of ancient thachu shastra or the science of carpentry and developed during the 18th and 19th centuries, a time when the Nairs and Namboodiris dominated the society with their power and wealth.

These aristocratic families who prided on their lineage and the name of their tharavadu would build extensive naalukettu homes that would feature a grove with a snake mound to facilitate the popular worship of snakes, a basil leaves plant installation made of stone or brick, and even a pond for the exclusive use of the family. Naalukettus can be sprawling, entirely built on the ground floor or can go up to three storeys high.

- contents shared from internet source.

நையாண்டிப் பாடல்

ஒரு நபரையோ நிகழ்வையோ கேலி செய்யும் நோக்குடன்நகைச்சுவை 

தொனிக்கப் பாடப்பட்ட நாட்டார் பாடல்கள் நையாண்டிப் பாடல்கள் அல்லது கேலிப்பாடல்கள் எனப்படும்.

நையாண்டிப் பாடல்கள் பொதுவாக சமூக சீரமைப்பு நோக்கிலும் வளர்ச்சி நோக்கிலும், அவை மீறப்படும் போது எழும் சீற்றம் காரணமாகப் பாடப்பட்டவைகளாகக் கருதப்படுகின்றன. ஆயினும் இதற்குப் புறம்பான காழ்ப்புணர்ச்சியும் பல பாடல்களை ஆழ்ந்து நோக்கும் போது தொனிக்கிறது.

எ.கா:

1. பொருத்தமில்லாத திருமண சம்பந்தம் ஒன்று பேசப்படும் போது

காக்கொத்தரிசாம்கண்ணுழுத்த செத்த மீனாம்போக்கற்ற மீரானுக்குப்பொண்ணுமாகா வேணுமாம்.கச்சான் அடிச்ச பின்புகாட்டில் மரம் நின்றது போல்உச்சியில நால மயிர்ஓரமெல்லாம் தான் வழுக்கை.

2. அந்நியர் ஆட்சியின் போது அதற்கெதிராக

என்ன பிடிக்கிறாய் அந்தோனிஎலி பிடிக்கிறேன் சிஞ்ஞோரேபொத்திப் பொத்திப் புடி அந்தோனிபூறிக் கொண்டோடிற்று சிஞ்ஞோரேகோண ஆகாண மலையேறிகோப்பிப் பழம் பறிக்கையிலேஒரு பழம் குறைஞ்சதெண்டுஓலம் வைச்சான்வெள்ளைத் துரை

- Text content taken from wikipedia.