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What does Software Engineering and Bird
Chirping have in common?
They come together in the person of P.S. Sivaprasad.
 A
Software Engineer by profession, Sivaprasad is one of the
few who have recorded the sounds of magpie robin, white-breasted
kingfisher, malabar whistling thrush, the shama and the hill myna.
He has it all on a tape, titled - An audio guide to the birds
of South India.
This idea took shape in 1976. Initially, the recording was done
using dynamic microphones. But this led to extraneous noise. He
then decided to use a fabricated parabolic reflector to focus several
waves to a single point. Sivaprasad’s quest for birds took him on
an extensive travelling schedule. In 1991, the Smithsonian Institute,
Washington, USA, offered him a project to record the voices of birds
in India. Three years later, through a friend in the U.K., the engineer
released the audio guide in London.
The cassette contains sounds of 66 different species of birds along
with a brief commentary and a booklet to assist users. Interestingly,
the background sounds in each recording have been described.
CALENDAR
COUNT
A penchant for the unusual has led Ramakrishnan (an employee
at the Patent office), to collect old pictorial calendars.
He has a collection of more than 10,000 calendars. Of his collection
more than 8,000 are Indian (of which nearly 2000 portray Hindu gods
and goddesses). Pictures or illustrations of landscapes and natural
scenery number around 3000. Photographs of models, art forms, computer
graphics, landmarks, men and women and antiques make up the rest
of his collection.
He hunts around for calendars both old and new from companies,
which release calendars and from old paper shops. A familiar face
at waste paper marts and companies, Ramakrishnan began this unique
hobby in 1995.
The works of Raja Ravi Varma, (one of the first names in
Indian painting and a pioneer in introducing Indian art into calendars)
occupy a pride of place in the collection. Also, works of
S.M. Pandit and V.K. Baraskars are part of his collection.
He plans to organise exhibitions of his collections or set up a
gallery. He dreams of entering the Guinness Book of World Records.
EDEN ON
YOUR ROOFTOP
When you visit Exnora International at Giriappa Road,
T. Nagar, there’s a surprise for you on the rooftop.
M B Nirmal, founder of Exnora International, has
put up a rooftop garden. A module for home farming. To serve the
dual purpose of meeting the fruit / vegetable needs of the residents
and simultaneously reducing household waste.
 No
manure needed. The only materials used for the garden are either
rejects or trash. Condemned tyres, poles, pipes and pots have been
used to raise vegetables, greens and a few varieties of fruits.
The produce can range from bitter gourd to beans, capsicum to
lady’s finger, tomatoes to bananas.
Exnora’s model shows us the possibilities of developing 16 types
of gardens, growing 14 varieties of vegetables and a dozen green
plants. More than 25 unemployed youth have been trained in this
area.
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5:52:27 PM 
