Arti Jaiman on Pitara Kids Network

What is a virus?

Sat, 16 May 2020 10:28:31 +0000

Viruses are these tiny, invisible structures that cause infections. They make us sick. There are millions of viruses in our environment but only about 5000 have been identified by scientists. The ones you may have heard of are the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV and the Novel Coronavirus or Covid-19.

What do viruses look like?

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Do you think that a virus is some creepy, crawly thing? It is not. A virus is a non-living thing. It is invisible to the human eye. A virus is one hundred times smaller than a bacteria, which is why most viruses cannot be seen even under a microscope.

Why are Human Voices Different?

Wed, 15 Mar 2000 12:11:25 +0000

Imagine a scenario. A criminal is being tried in court. He denies saying something. The prosecution brings a recording, saying they have his confession on tape. As the accused vigorously denies the voice being his, an expert shows just why the voice could be no one else’s.

A fictional scene? Perhaps, but it is a reality that no two persons in the world have exactly the same voices. Do you know why this is so?

Makar Sankranti

Sat, 14 Oct 2000 08:48:54 +0000

The colourful kite-flying festival of Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan, which falls on January 14 each year, marks the end of a long winter and the return of the sun to the northern hemisphere. Hence the name Uttarayan.

According to Hindu astronomy, it is on this holiest day in the Hindu calendar, that the sun enters the zodiac of Makara or Capricorn, heralding the northern journey of the sun. The day is also of special significance, because on this day, the day and night are of equal hours.

Gurpurab – the birth of Guru Nanak

Sat, 16 Nov 2002 23:08:31 +0000

The Birthday of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, is traditionally celebrated on Kartik Puranmashi, or the full moon day of the month of Kartik.

According to the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Guru Nanak Sahib was born on 15th April, 1469 at Rai-Bhoi-di Talwandi in the present district of Shekhupura, now Nanakana Sahib in Pakistan. Since the birthday falls on the full moon day of the month Kartik, that is the day that Sikhs all over the world celebrate the birth of their first guru.

Why do Doctors Examine the Pulse?

Tue, 14 Nov 2000 13:23:52 +0000

If you place the first three fingers of your hand on the inside of your wrist, a dull throbbing reverberates through your hand. Da-dub, da-dub, da-dub. Very reassuring, these gentle thuds, that remind us that our bodies are kicking along, and that, at least at last touch, we’re alive and well.

By pulse we mean the regular throbbing of arteries caused by the successive contractions of the heart. During the action of the heart there is a pause. During this pause, the wall of the aorta contracts. The aorta is the great trunk artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body.

What is Cloud Seeding?

Fri, 11 May 2001 03:21:04 +0000

There was a time when a farmer would sit out in his field, watching a lonesome cloud float away, taking with it the last hope of a much-needed burst of rain. As humans take control over more and more natural processes – not necessarily for the betterment of civilisation – rain too seems to have finally been leashed in.

Just like a farmer throws seeds on ploughed land to harvest plants, clouds can also be seeded with chemicals to induce rain! But to understand how cloud seeding works we must first learn some basic facts about the weather.

Which Insects Live the Longest?

Mon, 27 Nov 2000 07:47:29 +0000

Take a look around. Which insects do you see? A fly sitting on your computer screen, a mosquito buzzing in your ear just as you drop off to sleep, a butterfly flitting about in the garden outside, or how about the ants that made off with the remains of a dead moth?

Most of the insects we see around us have rather short lives. A few hours, a few days, that’s about how long most insects last. We don’t notice them dying out because they’re promptly replaced by a new bunch. Yet, some insects live comparatively really long lives.

R.K. Narayan

Sat, 24 Jun 2000 00:38:39 +0000

Nearly 70 years ago, India’s greatest living writer in English, took out a brand new exercise book and wrote in it: “It was Monday morning.”

With those four words, Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan (just R.K. Narayan to most) took off on a journey to that oddly populated fictional continent called Malgudi, with the young boy Swami and his eclectic mix of friends.

“The very first line I wrote was ‘It was Monday morning.’ And then I had an idea of a railway station, a very small railway station, a wayside station. You’ve seen the kind of thing, with a platform and trees and a stationmaster.

Why do some Rivers Flow Underground

Mon, 17 Apr 2000 12:28:40 +0000

From ancient times, people have settled down along the banks of rivers, since they provide water to drink, to irrigate their fields, and to use as waterways to go from one place to another.

But hidden away, below the earth, are rivers that we rarely see, until they surface near the sea, or when they merge with another river. Some have names and are talked of with a sense of mystery, but many are nameless streams that flow through the nooks and crannies of the earth.

What is Physiotherapy?

Tue, 04 Jul 2000 15:55:06 +0000

If you’ve ever been laid up in bed because of a broken leg, or with an arm in a cast, you’ll know how limp that limb feels when it is finally out of bandages. That’s because the muscles in that particular part of the body have not been used for so long that they’ve ‘forgotten’ how to function. They need to be re-taught their work, and this is where physiotherapy comes in.

Physiotherapy is that branch of medicine, which makes use of physical agents or exercises to treat a disease or an injury. It is also called physical therapy.

World's First Space Tourist

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 13:04:28 +0000

May 11: The world’s first paying space tourist is back on earth after a week-long joyride in space. On Sunday, May 6, American millionaire Dennis Tito and two Russian cosmonauts landed back on earth, as their space capsule gently parachuted down onto the barren steppe in Kazakhstan.

World’s First Space Tourist [Illustration by Shinod AP]

Emerging unsteadily from the capsule, the exhilarated 60-year-old Tito, who is also a former NASA rocket scientist, said the trip was the culmination of a lifelong dream.

A Boisterous Bedtime Read

Mon, 02 Jul 2001 13:17:05 +0000

Mister Jeejeebhoy and the Birds
Author: Anitha Balachandran
Illustrator: Anitha Balachandran
Publisher: Young Zubaan Books

Author and illustrator Anitha Balachandran’s Mister Jeejeebhoy and the Birds, just published by Young Zubaan is a delight to the ears! Hey! But it’s a book! Exactly. A book that, as soon as I opened it’s luscious orange cover, immediately let loose a cacaphony of “bustling, hustling, crinkling, crackling, creaking” sounds, and much more.

This delightful book follows two young girls, Diya and Tara, who come to live in their aunt Ninamasi’s house, and discover a world that is obviously on it’s own trip. For this reason perhaps, the neighbourhood kids don’t play with them. Outside, there’s the scrumptious world of Mister Jeejeebhoy’s sweet shop, where catastrophe is waiting round the corner. Can Diya and Tara save Mister JeeJeebhoy’s sweet shop? Do they finally make friends? Jump into this auditory delight, perfect for a bedtime read full of exaggerated sounds, and find out for yourself.

Ali Sardar Jafri

Tue, 23 Jan 2001 19:43:13 +0000

He was a poet who spoke out for the poor. He was also one who truly believed that India and Pakistan could be friends, if the countries tried hard enough. From the time he was arrested for writing against British rule in India, to when he climbed onto the famous Lahore “peace” bus with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last year, Ali Sardar Jafri spent his entire working-writing life speaking out for what he believed in.

The Gift of Wonder

Fri, 22 Dec 2000 09:04:06 +0000

Eleven years ago, under the sequinned sky on a warm summer day, on the roof of his palatial home in the town of Vrindaban, my grandfather introduced me to wonder. As I lay on a mattress surrounded members of the family, my grandfather or “Nana” as I used to call him, asked me to look at the sky and try to spot the patterns and the constellations. “What does that look like?” he would ask, pointing to the Little Bear. “Um, a cart?” I would hesitantly venture. And he would chuckle and acknowledge what I had seen. He never denied my experiences. If it was a cart I said I had seen, as far as he was concerned, it was a cart.

Every dog has his bark

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 11:34:33 +0000

August 17: The next time your pooch goes ‘woof’, listen closely. He could be saying “I’m hungry”, or “You’d better take me for a walk fast, or I’m going to do it right here on the carpet.”

Japan’s third-largest toymaker, Takara Co. Ltd, has just launched a hand-held electronic device that gauges a dog’s moods by listening to its bark.

Every dog has his bark []

The ‘Bow-lingual’ has a mike attached to the collar which sends a voice print via infra-red beams to the owner’s canine emotion pager, which has a small liquid crystal display that shows how the dog feels.

More fuel to the CNG fire

Tue, 24 May 2005 13:26:52 +0000

August 16: It’s a nightmare either way. Too little, and we have thousands of autorickshaws and bus drivers in Delhi waiting for their turn to fill their fuel tanks with the new eco-friendly CNG or Compressed Natural Gas. Too much, and we have the gas pipe of a bus bursting when a careless attendant over-filled a tank at the Bhikaji Cama Place mother station.

On the other side, Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik is now championing the cause of low-sulpher diesel, and more recently, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), which we use as cooking gas. He is grumbling that gas wells have dried up.

Indian Shooters Combat Racism

Wed, 24 May 2006 20:52:51 +0000

The Indian squad that just won the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in the UK, has brought back more than just 13 gold, six silver and eight bronze medals. They’re also carrying some bad memories. According to the Indian shooters, who included Jaspal Rana and Mansher Singh, the behaviour of their British hosts bordered on racism.

In a report in The Hindustan Times, the Secretary General of the National Rifle Association of India, Baljit Sethi recalled the day when India won all four gold medals. “Every time the Indian flag went up, the murmers increased…I could make out from their expressions that they were appalled at the clean sweep by India. I brought this to the notice of the President of the Commonwealth Shooting Championship, Graham Hudson of New Zealand, and a senior official, Peter Anderson of Australia. I told them that they (the English) still feel that Indians are their slaves. They were pushing us (into) a corner so that we could not win medals.”

UFO in Kolkata?

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:56:00 +0000

Where: Kolkata, West Bengal, India

October 30, 2007 : In a city as passionate about football as it is about Rabindra Sangeet and rosogollas, an unlikely visitor made a flying visit. An unidienfitied flying object or UFO was spotted in Kolkata’s skies early Monday morning. The fireball, which was filmed by a Kolkata-based executive, seemed to move very rapidly and kept changing its shape.

When the film footage was shown on television, it showed the fireball changing shape from a round object to a triangle to a straight line. It is this which has the scientists at the Birla Planetarium scratching their heads, who are fascinated by this “extremely interesting and strange object.”

Care for your Dog

Thu, 27 Jun 1996 15:11:34 +0000

The immense joy a dog brings to a family is unparalleled. The thrill of coming home to the deliriously happy barking of a dog is one of the few moments that makes owning a dog such a magical experience. The dog often becomes the one member of the family whose love for each person in the family is unconditional and unflagging.

Yet, owning a dog has its pitfalls. Or, to put it more positively, responsibilities. Responsibilities that, ultimately, parents must be willing, and able, to take, irrespective of whether their children will take on some of the attendant chores.

Jumbos have some oily fun

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:12:29 +0000

August 9: It’s a slippery situation that has officials of the Oil India Limited (OIL) in Assam religiously muttering the Ganesh Mantra. The public sector company owns and operates the world’s oldest oil producing wells here and they’re helpless against the antics of wild elephants who love the swooshing sound of oil spurting in Digboi’s oil fields.

Jumbos have some oily fun [Illustration by Shinod AP]

According to a report in The Indian Express, the wild tuskers move around freely in the oil fields, often opening crucial valves in the pipelines that connect the oil wells to the refineries.

Stage Surprises – A Party Game

Tue, 20 Apr 1999 23:08:11 +0000

Here’s a great game when you have several kids around. Whether it’s two children at home or ten at a birthday party, Stage Surprises is great fun.

Write the names of animals or objects on slips of paper. Put the slips in a shoe box. Place the shoe box in the centre, with the children seated around in a circle. Now, play “passing the parcel” passing a cushion to music. Whenever the music stops, the child with the cushion in her hand may pick up a slip.

Bird Flu Virus Returns to Asia

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:49:11 +0000

Where: China

December 18, 2008: The deadly Bird Flu virus is back, and hundreds of thousands of chickens are being culled (killed) across Asia and Africa to stop the virus from spreading. The H5N1 virus is commonly referred to as Bird Flu virus since it spreads through birds. It can be fatal for human beings, especially those that are exposed to birds such as poultry.

Bird Flu Virus Returns to Asia []

In China, over 370,000 chickens have been culled in the country’s eastern province of Jiangsu. In India, a similar exercise is happening in the western state of Bengal. The virus has also surfaced in Egypt, where it killed a little girl, and in Cambodia and Taiwan.

Beef in McDonald's Fries

Sun, 11 May 2003 04:19:04 +0000

May 11: Fast food giant McDonald’s seems to be frying in its own fat once again – quite literally at that. Last week, an Indian-American lawyer, Harish Bharti took the fast food giant to a US court for lacing its french fries with beef flavouring, a chemical compound that mimics the taste of beef fat. Millions of Hindus from across the world freely munch its french fries believing them to be vegetarian.

Beefing up Bharti’s case is information provided in Eric Schlosser’s recently published book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of An All-American Meal.

Anchor rips through phone and internet cable

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:56:32 +0000

Where: The Mediterranean Sea

December 22, 2008: A ship’s anchor slammed into the ocean bed, ripping apart an undersea cable that connected millions of computers and telephones. Cut somewhere between Sicily and Tunisia, in the Mediterranean Sea, the cut ends of the cable are being searched by an undersea robot. The robot will bring the cable ends up to the surface, where they will be joined on a ship.

According to a story by the Associated Press, experts from France Telecom Marine sent the robot called ‘Hector’ down to the sea bed to start the search for the broken ends of the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable (which stands for South Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4). This cable links South East Asia to Europe via the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East. Repairing the cable will take time, because the ship’s anchor could have dragged the cable several kilometers from its usual position.

Rainbow Flowers

Mon, 12 Oct 1998 01:13:55 +0000

Here’s a great way to see where all that water in your vase actually goes.

Items required:
You’ll need a jug of water, four clean glasses, four different coloured inks or food dyes, scissors & white flowers (carnations work out very well, try tuberoses too.)

What to do:
Pour one inch (about half a finger high) of food colouring/ink into each glass (Each glass should have a different colour). Now add an equal amount of water to the glasses.

Plans to shut Guantanamo Bay prison

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 03:23:37 +0000

Where: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

December 19, 2008: The controversial prison camp, Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, may finally be closed. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered that plans be made to close the prison that houses “alien combatants” accused of supporting terrorist activities against the United States.

Often colloquially referred to as Gitmo (a spoken version of GTMO, which stands for Guantanamo), the Guantanamo prison was set up just after the September 11, 2001 attacks in which terrorists hijacked planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center buildings in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and one plane that crashed because passengers tried to overcome the hijackers.

Wet behind the ears: Mumbai floods again

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:07:49 +0000

Where: Mumbai, India

June 25, 2007: A kid of five would tell you that it rains in June. Especially in Mumbai, which being on the coast, takes a soak before the rains make their way to inland cities like Delhi.

Yet, year after year, with unfailing precision, Mumbai goes under water. Knee deep water, with floating trash, stinking dead rodents and million toxic bacteria.

This year, it has been no different. The Indian Express reports that five persons were killed, subways got flooded, trains were running late (or not at all), trees were uprooted and roads were under three feet of water. Wading in waist-deep water, Mumbaikars (as the residents of Mumbai are called), carried a sick person to hospital, attempted to get to work, and tried to keep the water out of their homes.

Potatoes get you in the pink of health

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 05:34:08 +0000

Where: Spain

June 25, 2007: Word’s just in: potatoes are good for you. But, you may still have to hold off on those fries you’ve been eyeing. Turns out, potatoes are best eaten in a cold salad, and not drowned in oil.

A team of Spanish researchers say that eating potatoes could have a beneficial effect on the body’s immune system. They’re rich in vitamin C and B-complex, have good doses of minerals like iron, calcium, managanese, magnesium and phosphorus, and believe it or not, are great for the tummy.

Swine flu flies to all corners of the earth

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:43:04 +0000

Where: Worldwide!

April 30, 2009 : Swine Flu has claimed the life of its first victim in the United States of America, a small child who lives near the Mexican border. With this, it appears that the world is on the brink of a virus attack, the Swine Flu.

It all started in Mexico, in South America, where people started getting sick with, and dying of, the H1N1 or Swine Flu virus. What makes it even more difficult to control, is that the symptoms of the virus are a lot like just regular flu. There’s fever, perhaps a sore throat, body ache, stiffness in joints, perhaps a bit of diarrhoea and vomiting. The only way to confirm if a person has contracted the Swine Flu virus is to get a blood test done in a laboratory.

Couch pet-atoes

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 08:07:19 +0000

Where: Lucknow, India

July 18, 2007: First it was kids. Now, it’s the dogs. Middle class families across India are plagued by obesity. In other words, from the master to his pooch, everyone is fat, and very likely sick.

According to a report in The Times of India, doctors at the Government Veterinary Hospital (GVH) in Lucknow estimate that nearly one in every three pet dogs in the city is falling sick because of the kind of lives their owners lead.

First Pope To Set Foot in Mosque

Fri, 24 Jan 2003 08:57:46 +0000

May 11: Pope John Paul II created history by setting foot in the Omayyad mosque in Damascus on his historic visit to Syria recently. He is the first Pope in Christianity’s 2000 year history to enter a mosque.

First Pope To Set Foot in Mosque [Illustration by Shinod AP]

And it isn’t just some ordinary mosque that the Pope stepped into, reports the Hindu newspaper. The site of the Omayyad mosque has a religious history predating Christianity, and goes back more than 3000 years.

Indian elections 2009: a symbol of people power

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:05:03 +0000

Where: India

May 6, 2009 : When a nation of over one billion citizens wakes up every five years to elect its leaders, the entire world turns to watch. The “world’s largest democracy*”, India, went to the polls on April 13, 2009, to elect members of the 15th Lok Sabha (or House of Commons, in the Indian Parliament). In a one month-long process, which will end on May 13, 2009, over 714 million voters** will be eligible to vote.