AMAZING NATURE - THE FLOWERS OF THE CANNONBALL TREE

 

AMAZING NATURE

THE FLOWERS OF THE CANNONBALL TREE

NAGALINGA PUSHPA

Botanical Name: Couroupita guianensis

 

Currently blooming in Namma Ooru Bengaluru are the Stunning flowers of the Cannon Ball Tree colloquially called “The Nagalinga Pushpa” Flowers.

 

The Shiva Linga; The Snake Hood and the Lotus base:

          A rarity in nature are the flowers of the Cannon Ball tree, no other flower bears such a striking resemblance a stunning formation of the Stigma, Stamen and Petals.

             The Stamens of the flower seem to represent the 1000-headed Cobra Snake in Hindu Mythology, protecting the Shivalinga - the Stigma, surrounded by pink or red petals that resemble the Lotus.

            The tree was named Couroupita guianensis by the French botanist Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet in 1755.

          Hindus revere it as a sacred tree because the petals of the flower resemble the hood of the Naga, a sacred snake, protecting a Shiva Lingam, the stigma. 

          The Flowers are large, up to 6 cm wide and brightly colored, there are six petals in shades of orange, pink and red. The ring of stamens at the center arch upwards and look like a snake’s hood.

         During peak, blooming season the entire tree trunk is buried in strongly scented flowers and is a remarkable sight.

          Another oddity are the fruits of this tree, which resemble a cannonball. They fruit is spherical with a hard brown woody shell and reach diameters up to 25 centimeters or about 10 inches, giving the species the name Cannoball tree.

         The tree grows to a height of up to 25 meters or approximately 110 feet.

         The Cannonball Tree is native to the rain forests of Guiana. In India, the tree introduced from South America has been adopted as sacred to Hindus, who believe its hooded flowers look like the nāga, and it is grown near Shiva temples.

 

• Bengali: নাগলিঙ্গম nagalingam • Gujarati: કૈલાસપતિ kailaspati, શિવલીંગી shivalingi • Hindi: नागलिंगम् nagalingam, तोप गोला toap gola • Kannada: ಲಿಂಗದ ಹೂವಿನಮರ lingada hoovinamara, ನಾಗಲಿಂಗ ಪುಷ್ಪ ಮರ nagalinga pushpa mara • Malayalam: നാഗലിംഗം nagalingam • Marathi: कैलासपती kailasapati, नागलिंगम वृक्ष nagalingam vrksa • Odia: ନାଗକେଶର nagakesara, ନାଗେଶ୍ୱର nageshwara, ନାଗଲିଙ୍ଗ nagalinga • Tamil: நாகலிங்கம் nagalingam • Telugu: నాగలింగ nagalinga, శివలింగపుష్పం shivalingapushpam • Tulu: ನಾಗಲಿಂಗ nagalinga 

 

 

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THE SPECTACULAR BRONZE SHOWER TREE IN THE IISc CAMPUS

 

THE BRONZE SHOWER TREE

(BOTANICAL NAME: Cassia moschata)

IN THE CAMPUS

OF THE

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE

BANGALORE

 

HERALDING THE ONSET OF SUMMER

THE BRONZE SHOWER TREE (BOTANICAL NAME: Cassia moschata)

IISc Campus, Bangalore.

                           

 

The 400 acre wooded campus of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore is a “Botanist’s Delight”, with over 800 species of flowering plants and trees blooming around the year. The lush green vegetation, the stunning range of flowers and a variety of birds and butterflies has rendered the campus a dream setting for nature enthusiasts and conservationists.

                                    Aerial View of the Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore

It was Mr. German Botanist and Garden Designer G.H. Krumbiegel, the then Superintendent of the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, who was initially involved in landscaping the campus. There were several others after him who continued his legacy and one among them was B S Nirody, who was also largely responsible for transforming the campus to what it is today.

Today the campus is an astonishingly beautiful lush-green oasis, with its own distinctive microclimate and ambience, thanks to the landscape architects of yesteryears and to their abiding love for plants. An in-house nursery and garden with a dedicated team of gardeners maintains and nurtures the green oasis.

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), often called the Tata Institute, after its benefactor and founder Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, by local residents, is one of Bangalore’s enduring landmarks. The lush green vegetation of the campus provides the Institute with an environment, which is the envy of those who reside in the midst of the urban chaos that characterizes Bangalore today.

                             The Tata Statue and Memorial at IISc. Photo Courtesy Dr. K Sankara Rao

The Institute has grown over a century on a large tract of land (now about 400 acres), gifted by the then Maharaja of Mysore, His Highness Shri Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, in March 1907. The Institute formally came into existence on 27 May 1909 when the British Government issued the Vesting Order. The lush greenery of today, which has come to be the Institute’s characteristic feature, is the result of planting and nurturing by generations of lovers of nature. In fact, the campus of the Indian Institute of Science is among the oldest and the largest preserves of the botanical wealth of Bangalore.

                                THE BRONZE SHOWER TREE at IISc

Currently blooming in the Campus is this showy handsome tree – The Bronze Shower Tree, Botanical Name: Cassica moschata, with a spectacular display of brilliant orange-copper-yellow cascade of flowers in long pendants. Appropriately named the BRONZE SHOWER TREE.

Probably the only Bronze Shower Tree in the entire campus.

Located in the Eastern Side of the IISc Main Building.

 

 

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THE ANNUAL FOUNDER’S DAY FLOWER SHOW AT IISc

Honoring the Founder on his 182^nd Birth Anniversary

 

JAMSETJI NUSSERWANJI TATA

BORN: MARCH 3^rd, 1839

 

JASMETJI NUSSERWANJI TATA

 

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (1839-1904) was a true visionary, who even before the dawn of the 20^th century, understood that the progress of this country depended crucially on higher education. The Indian Institute of Science owes its origin to the patriotic and far-sighted businessman who was convinced of the need for a national level institution devoted to original investigations in all branches of learning and their applications for the benefit of humanity in general and India in particular. Almost alone in his generation, he realized that if the economic foundations of Indian society were to be secure, science and technology must be harnessed to utilize the vast natural resources of our country. Although he was a Parsee and his interests were centered in Bombay, his spirit rose above the restraints of race and creed.  He belonged to the whole country and did more for its material regeneration than any Indian of modern times.

J.N. Tata died in 1904, but the scheme to set up the Indian Institute of Science was pursued by his two sons Dorab and Ratan Tata aided by B.J. Padshah. Both the sons declared their intention of honoring the cherished desires of their father. The House of Tata’s has over the span of a century, continued their close association with the Institute.

A century later, IISc has evolved into India’s most important center for research and postgraduate education in science and engineering. An institution that has been tempered by time and history and yet retained its position as an institution of excellence.

Fifty yards from the entrance of the Main Building stands a noble statue of the Founder, Mr. Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, holding in one hand a replica of the Institute, the cherished child of his imagination, (This statue was sculpted by the well-known British sculptor Gilbert Bayes).

 

At his feet is a memorial Tablet bearing the following inscription:

 

 

Thus, in sweet and peaceful surroundings which the great Indian unhappily did not live to see, his bronze embodiment stands for all time, giving daily inspiration to those eager students who may pass it on their way to the sources of learning which his far-sighted munificence created.

The Annual IISc Founder’s Flower Show, begun sometime in the 1950s, is arranged in front of the J N Tata Statue and Memorial and in the Quadrangle of the Main Building. A dedicated team of Gardener’s, led by IISc Horticulturist Mr. Sridhar puts up a spectacular flower show as a befitting tribute to our Founder.

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THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS OF NAMMA OORU BENGALURU

 

THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS OF NAMMA OORU BENGALURU

Botanical Name: Tabebuia avellanedae

It is winter here in Namma Ooru Bengaluru and its Cherry Blossom time.

It is that time of the year, when the Tabebuia trees bloom with their showy Pink Trumpet Flowers and paint the City Pink.

Tabebuia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae. Tabebuia is native to the American tropics and subtropics from Mexico and the Caribbean to Argentina. Most of the species are from Cuba and Hispaniola.

The name Tabebuia entered the botanical literature in 1803, when António Bernardino Gomes used it as a common name for Tabebuia uliginosa, now a synonym for Tabebuia cassinoides,

Tabebuia is an abbreviation of "tacyba bebuya", a Tupi name meaning "ant wood"

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A PHOTO TRIBUTE TO PROF RODDAM NARASIMHA 1933-2020

 

A PHOTO TRIBUTE

TO

PROF RODDAM NARASIMHA

1933-2020

 

                    Parents: Shri R.L. Narasimhaiya and Smt. Leela Devi

                                                   A Young Roddam Narasimha

                           A Young Roddam Narasimha as a PhD Student at CALTECH

Dr. Roddam Narasimha Receiving his PhD at CALTECH

Photo Courtesy – Bhavana - RNCaltech-007-web.jpg (423×560) (bhavana.org.in)

Reunion: From left to right:  Anatol Roshko, Gary Brown - his Caltech colleagues.   And Hans Liepmann –PhD Supervisor

Roddam Narasimha Extreme Left - Aeronautical Engineering Department IISc

Prof Roddam Narasimha and Team at Balasore

Monsoon Experiments

Prof Roddam Narasimha @ IISc

Prof Roddam Narasimha receiving the Bhatnagar Prize from

Vice President B D Jatti

Prof Roddam Narasimha receiving the Padma Vibhushan from

President Pranab Mukherjee

Prof Roddam Narasimha and Wife Mrs. Dr. Neelima Narasimha

Prof Roddam Narasimha and Wife Mrs. Dr. Neelima Narasimha

at the IISc Archives Exhibition on the Open Circuit Wind Tunnel

From Left - Prof Roddam Narasimha, Prof Satish Dhawan, Prof S Ramaseshan and Mrs. Nalini Dhawan  - Farewell Function to Prof Satish Dhawan at the IISc Gymkhana 31-07-1981

With Defence Minister P V Narasimha Rao – LCA – 1985

With Colleagues at the Experimental Cloud Tank Chamber at JNCASR, JAKKUR, BANGALORE, INDIA

FAREWELL PROF RODDAM NARASIMHA

CARTOON BY

 

B G Gujjarappa/Bulletin of Sciences

Bhavana.org

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GANDHJI AT IISc

 

GANDHJI AT IISc

SPEECH AT INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, BANGALORE [July 12, 1927]¹

I was wondering where do I come in? There is no place here for a rustic like me who has to stand speechless in awe and wonderment. I am not in a mood to say much. All I can say is that all these huge laboratories and electrical apparatus you see here are due to the labour—unwilling and forced—of millions. For Tata’s thirty lakhs did not come from outside, nor does the Mysore contribution come from anywhere else but this begar² world. If we were to meet the villagers and to explain to them how we are utilizing their money on buildings and plants which will never benefit them, but might perhaps benefit their posterity, they will not understand it. They will turn a cold shoulder. But we never take them into our confidence, we take it as a matter of right, and forge that the rule of “no taxation without representation” applies to them too. If you will really apply it to them, and realize your responsibility to render them an account, you will see that there is another side to all these appointments. You will then find not a little but a big corner in your hearts for them, and if you will keep it in a good, nice condition, you will utilize your knowledge for the benefit of the millions on whose labour your education depends. I shall utilize the purse you have given me for Daridranarayana. The real Daridranarayana even I have not seen, but know only through my imagiation. Even the spinners who will get this money are not the real Daridranarayana who live in remote corners of distant villages which have yet to be explored. I was told by your professor that the properties of some of the chemicals will take years of experiments to explore. But who will try to explore these villages? Just as some of the experiments in your laboratories go on for all the twenty four hours, let the big corner of your hear remain perpetually warm for the benefit of the poor millions.

                                                                 

I expect far more from you than from the ordinary man in the street. Don’t be satisfied with having given the little you have done, and say, ‘We have done what we could, let us now play tennis and billiards.’ I tell you, in the billiard room and on the tennis court think of the big debt that is being piled against you from day to day. But beggars cannot be choosers. I thank you for what you have given me. Think of the prayer I have made and translate it into action. Don’t be afraid of wearing the cloth the poor women make for you, don’t be afraid of your employers showing you the door if you wear khadi. I would like you to be men, and stand up before the world firm in your convictions. Let your zeal for the dumb millions be not stifled in the search for wealth. I tell you, you can devise a far greater wireless instrument, which does not require external research, but internal— and all research will be useless if it is not allied to internal research— which can link your hearts with those of the millions. Unless all the discoveries that you make have the welfare of the poor as the end in view, all your workshops will be really no better than Satan’s workshops, as Rajagopalachari said in a joke. Well I have given you enough food for thought, if you are in a reflective mood, as all research students ought to be.

In concluding, he [said that] they must keep the lamp of their love for the motherland and her children always bright, trim, and steady. And as they did that, so they deserved the knowledge and the advantage they were deriving from the Institute.¹

1.This paragraph is from The Hindu , 13-7-1927

2. Forced labor 21-7-1927

^{The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Pages, 210-211, Vol 39, 4 June, 1927-1 September, 1927}

Young India, 21-7-1927

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IISc ALUMNUS PAYS A PERSONAL TRIBUTE TO PROF SATISH DHAWAN ON HIS 100TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

                                         SEPTEMBER 25, 1920 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

Prof Prabhakara V Choudary PhD FRSC (IISc Alumnus, MCBL), Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience and Psychiatry & Behavioral Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 USA. 

 

 

                                                                  Prof. Satish Dhawan

                                               IISc Centenary Commemorative Stamp

EXCERPTS:

Thank you for kindly reminding me about the happy occasion of Professor Satish Dhawan’s 100^th Birthday! I enjoyed reading Jyotsna Dhawan’s fitting tribute to him – an illustrious story, very well narrated by Prof Dhawan’s adoring daughter!

 

Several people associated with Prof Dhawan, especially the young ones of that era, share a deep sense of admiration for him. I happen to be one of them, with very fond memories of Prof Dhawan as my hero and role model! I have yet to meet a person that could match Prof Dhawan’s on-the-spot problem-solving ability, superb leadership qualities, administrative acumen, and love for and dedication to IISc, his colleagues and the IISc community at large, regardless of rank. He was “One of a Kind, Indeed!”

 

Given his extremely busy schedule as both a scientist and an administrator and his many responsibilities that entailed extensive travel around the world meant frequent and long absences from home, IISc. Upon his return, Prof Dhawan would promptly take a walk around the campus, be it early morning or late evening, sometimes with a short cane in his hand – probably as a pointer I would suppose, invariably accompanied by Mrs. Dhawan and/or the Estate Officer. During these inspections, he would recommend necessary changes/modifications/repairs as and where required. Implicit in his instruction is that the assignment be completed ASAP so that he could review and make changes as the work progressed. He was extremely accommodative and open-minded, taking suggestions for the long-term benefit of IISc’s sylvan surroundings for the community at large.

 

I tumbled upon my first opportunity to experience, first hand, Prof Dhawan’s dynamic management style, in the context of the construction of a new building to house the offices and classrooms for the just-established Molecular Biophysics Unit (MBU), led by the legendary scientist, Professor G N Ramachandran. Within a few short months, a brand-new building came up in the parking lot across the main street in front of the then Microbiology and Cell Biology Laboratory (MCBL) building, and lo and behold - our parking space was lost!

 

As a short-term solution, Prof Dhawan had instructed the Estate Officer to designate the front port of our department building as a ‘temporary’ parking space for two-wheelers and prepare the land on either side of the port for parking of four-wheelers, until a permanent parking lot could be developed on the vacant land adjacent to the new BMU Building on the same side of the street. However, neither the Director nor the Estate Officer was aware that  the MCBL Seminar Room-cum-Library was located directly above the porch and that the noise from kick-starting two-wheelers would disrupt on-going academic activities in the room above.

 

As expected, everyone in MCBL was annoyed by the disturbance, following which I volunteered to broach the subject with department officials, alas, in vain! It was then that I decided to seek a meeting with the Director on this matter. My colleagues did point out that – “We’re not too sure you’ll get an appointment”! Nevertheless, I went ahead, met the Personal Assistant (PA) to the Director and explained to him the reason for my seeking a meeting with Director. I. of course, never got the appointment to meet the Director, but lo and behold, our grievance was resolved. The following morning, two-wheelers looking for parking in the MCBL porch were greeted with a “SILENT ZONE’ signboard, which also directed them to an alternate parking facility nearby. This is just one small example of Prof Dhawan’s quick thinking and decision-making, based on facts, even though it meant reversing his earlier orders.

 

There are several such examples that illustrate the rare qualities of Prof Dhawan that set him apart from the rest of IISc “Scientist-leaders” of comparable stature. In my opinion, it would be worthwhile to reminisce at an opportune time our collective experiences with Prof Dhawan and compare them with our experiences with some of his successors, and a predecessor, Sir CV Raman. 

  

The last time I have had the pleasure of seeing my revered friend and mentor was in 1988, at his home. As usual, he was very gentle and kind, readily recognized me, enjoyed recollecting our shared experiences, and promised to let me know whenever he was in Delhi next, prompting that he was no longer a frequent traveler. Unfortunately, I left India soon afterwards and hence could not see him again.  Nonetheless, I will always remember and cherish my good fortune of my association with the proud and distinguished Son of India, Prof Satish Dhawan, the ever-smiling personality, brimming with confidence and encouragement!

 

With these delightful memories, I join you and the millions of his admirers to celebrate Prof Dhawan’s Birth Centennial.

  

 

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