throwback thursday - TBT #11

on may 28th, 1937, the volkswagen car company was established in germany.

it was born as a result of hitler's intentions to have a 'people's car' that the german public could afford. the first car prototype, built to hitler's specifications and obejctives (by ferdinand porsche and his team) was called the 'kdf-wagen', which would later evolve into the iconic beetles.
with the onset of the war, the production turned to military vehicles and used slave labour.

the post-war revival of the company, made possible largely due to the intervention of the british army, is a whole other story.

thus began das auto !

image provided by the german federal archives to wikimedia commons - Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1988-019-16 

mundane monday - #53

potpourri on the table... 

why is it that fragrances and memories are so connected ? why do a favourite fragrance and a fond memory both make us close our eyes and take a deep breath ? 

what are the scents that kindle your memory ?

throwback thursday - TBT #10

may 14th is the day that the world's first vaccine was given - by Dr.Edward Jenner to an eight year old boy called james phipps. the year was 1796. edward jenner is the father of immunology, and his work paved the way to save millions of lives through preventive medicine.

the word vaccine itself comes from 'vacca', the latin word for cow - based on dr.jenner's research of using cowpox for preventing the occurence of smallpox. it took 200 years though, to eradicate smallpox entirely from the world.

throwback thursday - TBT #9

may 7th is the birthday of Rabindranath Tagore -  poet, artist, philosopher and thinker. he was the first non-european to be awarded the nobel prize for literature, in 1913.

he was knighted by the british in 1915 but renounced it in 1919 after the jallianwallah bagh massacre in amritsar.

his verses have been chosen as the national anthem of two countries, india and bangladesh.

seen below is a photo of rabindranath tagore with einstein, taken in 1930.

we had to read tagore's famous verse "where the mind is without fear" back in school, and it has remained etched in my memory ever since.

another of tagore's famous songs in bengali, "ekla chalo re" was used as the theme song for the indian government's 'clean india (swachh barath) mission' launched in 2014. click here to hear the beautifully rendered version by kishore kumar, one of india's much loved singers.

mundane monday - #52

 i was looking around the house for something to take a photo of, and it suddenly struck me that i hadn't introduced to the world my very latest friend, companion and partner who has been in my life the past few weeks.
and so, without further ado, i present to you the lovely hp chromebook 14. yup, in my favourite turquoise. (just look to your right and left in the blog, and you'll see how much i like the colour :) )

so far, i've been really liking the experience of using it. i have to mention though that i have been a devoted chrome and google user for quite a few years now, so except for slight differences in the keyboard, my transition from pc to chromebook was pretty smooth - its definitely not for those who may need to use specific software and such. but pretty much all i do with the pc, i do it on a browser and so i had been convinced for long that it would be a right fit for me.  (i'll leave it here, since i dont intend to make this a full fledged review. but if you have any questions about it feel free to ask !)

among other things, the weather has turned good. and i mean open-up-the-doors-and-windows good. and if that doesn't give me the much needed nudge push (and shove) to spend more time outdoors, i dont know what will.