Dear children,
Make use of time, let not advantage slip, Beauty within itself should not be wasted; Fair flowers that are not gather’d in their prime, Rot and consume themselves in little time
-- Shakespeare

It is very important to understand the value of time. Time is precious, and it cannot be saved in a bank. When it is lost, it cannot be regained. Time management is therefore of prime importance. It decides how we plan and manage our lives. It helps us to organize our day.
Get up every morning with the determination to make the most of your day. Use your time well, whether for your studies, your sports or for fun. Learn to enjoy whatever you are doing. Fill your time with hard work, laughter and fun.

THE AMAZING SENSES
What's that smell? Do you hear that noise? Taste this! Look at me! Feel this, isn't it soft? When you hear, or even use these phrases, you probably don't stop to think about why we use them. Well, it's because of our senses. Without us even knowing, our sense organs (nose, eyes, ears, tongue, and skin) are taking in information and sending it to the brain for processing. If we didn't have them, we would not be able to smell, see, hear, taste, or touch anything! Talk about a boring life.
Our senses are the physical means by which all living things see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Each sense collects informaton about the world and detects changes within the body. Both people and animals get all of their knowledge from their senses, and that is why our senses are so important.
All senses depend on the working nervous system. Our sense organs start to work when something stimulates special nerve cells called receptors in a sense organ. We have five main sense organs. They are the eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and skin. Once stimulated, the receptors send nerve impulses along sensory nerves to the brain. Your brain then tells you what the stimulus is. For example, your sound receptors would be bombarded by billions of sound waves. When these signals reach the part of the brain called the cerebral cortex, we become conscious of the sounds.

Your Sense of Sight
From the moment you wake up in the morning to the time you go to sleep at night, your eyes are acting like a video camera. Everything you look at is then sent to your brain for processing and storage much like a video cassette. This is a very simplified explanation, but as you read on, you will discover why the sense of sight is actually considered the most complex of the five senses.
How Your Eyes Work
Take a moment to locate an object around you. Do you know how you are able to see it? Would you believe that what you are actually seeing are beams of light bouncing off of the object and into your eyes? It is hard to believe, but it is true. The light rays enter the eye through the cornea, which is a thick, transparent protective layer on the surface of your eye. Then the light rays pass through the pupil (the dark circle in the center of your eye) and into the lens.
When light rays pass through your pupil, the muscle called the iris (colored ring) makes the size of the pupil change depending on the amount of light that's available. You may have noticed this with your own eye if you have looked at it closely in a mirror. If there is too much light, your pupil will shrink to limit the number of light rays that enter. Likewise, if there is very little light available, the pupil will enlarge to let in as many light rays as it can. Just behind the pupil is the lens and it focuses the image through a jelly-like substance called the vitreous humor onto the back surface of the eyeball, called the retina.
The retina, which is the size of your thumbnail, is filled with approximately 150 million light-sensitive cells called rods and cones. Rods identify shapes and work best in dim light. Cones on the other hand, identify color and work best in bright light. Both of these types of cells then send the information to the brain by way of the optic nerve. The amazing thing is, when they send the image to the brain, the image is upside down! It is the brain's job to turn the image rightside up and then tell you what you are looking at. The brain does this in a specific place called the visual cortex.
Protection
Because the eye is such an important and complex part of our body, we have many features which protect the eye. The eyebrows are the strips of hair above your eyes which prevent sweat from running into them. Eyelashes help keep the eye clean by collecting small dirt and dust particles floating through the air. The eyelashes also protect the eye from the sun's and other light's glare. The eyelids sweep dirt from the surface of the eye. The eyelid also protects the eye from injury. Tears are sterile drops of clean water which constantly bathe the front of the eye,keeping it clean and moist.
Imperfect Eyesight
Not all people have perfect vision. People who can see things up close, but not far away are considered to be nearsighted. This happens when the light entering the eye focuses on a point in front of the retina. On the other hand, people who can see far away objects but not those that are up close are farsighted. Farsightedness occurs when the light that enters the eye focuses on a point behind the retina. Whether a person is nearsighted or farsighted, glasses or contacts help that person to see things much more clearly!

Your Sense of Smell
Have you ever wondered what you smell when you "smell the roses" in the spring time? What makes a smell is something that is too small to see with your eyeball alone. It is even too small to be seen with a microscope! What you smell are tiny things called odor particles. Millions of them are floating around waiting to be sniffed by your nose!
You smell these odors through your nose which is almost like a huge cave built to smell, moisten, and filter the air you breathe. As you breathe in, the air enters through your nostrils which contain tiny little hairs that filter all kinds of things trying to enter your nose, even bugs! These little hairs are called cilia and you can pretend that they sweep all the dirt out of the nasal cavity, which is the big place the air passes through on it's way to the lungs. After passing through the nasal cavity, the air passes through a thick layer of mucous to the olfactory bulb. There the smells are recognized because each smell molecule fits into a nerve cell like a lock and key. Then the cells send signals along your olfactory nerve to the brain. At the brain, they are interpreted as those sweet smelling flowers or that moldy cheese.
Our sense of smell is connected really well to our memory. For instance, the smell of popcorn can remind you of being at the movies with a friend or the smell of tar can remind you of riding in a car to the beach.
Humans have seven primary odors that help them determine objects. Listed below are the seven odors:
l Camphoric (Mothballs) l Musky Perfume(Aftershave)
l Roses (Floral) l Pepperminty (Mint Gum) l Etheral (Dry Cleaning Fluid) l Pungent (Vinegar) l Putrid (Rotten Eggs)
Your Sense of Touch
While your other four senses (sight, hearing, smell, and taste) are located in specific parts of the body, your sense of touch is found all over. This is because your sense of touch originates in the bottom layer of your skin called the dermis. The dermis is filled with many tiny nerve endings which give you information about the things with which your body comes in contact. They do this by carrying the information to the spinal cord, which sends messages to the brain where the feeling is registered.
The nerve endings in your skin can tell you if something is hot or cold. They can also feel if something is hurting you. Your body has about twenty differnt types of nerve endings that all send messages to your brain. However, the most common receptors are heat, cold, pain, and pressure or touch receptors. Pain receptors are probably the most important for your safety because they can protect you by warning your brain that your body is hurt!
Some areas of the body are more sensitive than others because they have more nerve endings. Have you ever bitten your tongue and wondered why it hurt so much? It is because the sides of your tongue have a lot of nerve endings that are very sensitive to pain. However, your tongue is not as good at sensing hot or cold. That is why it is easy to burn your mouth when you eat something really hot. Your fingertips are also very sensitive. For example, people who are blind use their fingertips to read Braille by feeling the patterns of raised dots on their paper.

Your Sense of Taste
Have you ever thought about why foods taste different? It's really quite amazing. Your tongue and the roof of your mouth are covered with thousands of tiny taste buds. When you eat something, the saliva in your mouth helps break down your food. This causes the receptor cells located in your tastes buds to send messages through sensory nerves to your brain. Your brain then tells you what flavors you are tasting.
Taste buds probably play the most important part in helping you enjoy the many flavors of food. Your taste buds can recognize four basic kinds of tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The salty/sweet taste buds are located near the front of your tongue; the sour taste buds line the sides of your tongue; and the bitter taste buds are found at the very back of your tongue.
Everyone's tastes are different. In fact, your tastes will change as you get older. When you were a baby, you had taste buds, not only on your tongue, but on the sides and roof of your mouth. This means you were very sensitive to different foods. As you grew, the taste buds began to disappear from the sides and roof of your mouth, leaving taste buds mostly on your tongue. As you get older, your taste buds will become even less sensitive, so you will be more likely to eat foods that you thought were too strong as a child.
What if you could not taste anything? Things like medications, smoking, not getting enough of the right vitamins, injury to the head, brain tumors, chemical exposure, and the effects of radiation can cause taste disorders.

Your Sense of Hearing
Like your other sense organs, your ears are extremely well-designed. In fact, they serve two very important purposes. Do you know what they are? You were probably able to figure out that your ears help you to hear sounds, but what you probably did not know is that your ears also help you to keep your balance.
How You Hear
When an object makes a noise, it sends vibrations (better known as sound waves) speeding through the air. These vibrations are then funneled into your ear canal by your outer ear. As the vibrations move into your middle ear, they hit your eardrum and cause it to vibrate as well. This sets off a chain reaction of vibrations. Your eardrum, which is smaller and thinner than the nail on your pinky finger, vibrates the three smallest bones in your body: first, the hammer, then the anvil, and finally, the stirrup. The stirrup passes the vibrations into a coiled tube in the inner ear called the cochlea.
The fluid-filled cochlea contains thousands of hair-like nerve endings called cilia. When the stirrup causes the fluid in the cochlea to vibrate, the cilia move. The cilia change the vibrations into messages that are sent to the brain via the auditory nerve. The auditory nerve carries messages from 25,000 receptors in your ear to your brain. Your brain then makes sense of the messages and tells you what sounds you are hearing.
How You Keep Your Balance
Near the top of the cochlea are three loops called the semi-circular canals. The canals are full of liquid also. When you move your head, the liquid moves. It pushes against hairlike nerve endings, which send messages to your brain. From these messages, your brain can tell whether or how your body is moving.
If you have ever felt dizzy after having spun around on a carnival ride, it was probably because the liquid inside the semicircular canals swirled around inside your ears. This makes the hairs of the sensory cells bend in all different directions, so the cells' signals confuse your brain.
What Did You Say?
Did you know that some people have trouble hearing and others cannot hear at all? Well it's true. When a person can't hear well, a hearing aide can sometimes help them hear better. However, people who are entirely deaf have to rely on all their other senses to help process all of the information from the world around them. They are deaf because of an illness or they were born that way. You can also lose your ability to hear at an early age by listening to things that are very loud. Scientists measure loudness in decibels.

EnvirOnment ZONE
Air Pollution
Have you ever heard someone say they are going outside "to get a breath of fresh air"? Have you ever tried to imagine what life would be like if the air were so dirty that people couldn't "get a breath of fresh air"?
How does air become dirty? Your car produces emissions that go into the air. The factories that made materials for your car produce more emissions. All over the world, millions of cars and millions of factories emit soot, ashes and chemicals into the air. Still more of these substances come from garbage that is burned and chemicals that are sprayed.
The result is air pollution. Sometimes you can smell pollution and sometimes, when the air looks hazy or smokey, you can see it. But sometimes it's invisible.
Invisible or not, air pollution can cause a lot of damage. Even a little air pollution can make your eyes burn and your head ache. It can tire you out, blur your vision, make you dizzy, and make it hard for you to breathe. Air pollutants can also affect asthma and make it easier for you to catch a cold or the flu. Air pollutants have also been linked to some cases of serious disease such as lung cancer and heart ailments. In fact, some scientists believe that air pollution costs Americans billions of dollars a year in doctor bills and unearned paychecks due to pollution-related illness.
People are not the only ones hurt by air pollution. Plants surrounded by polluted air may not grow. Fish and animals may die. Statues and building materials may be discolored or corroded (eaten away).
Fighting Air Pollution
Industries must now control emissions from factories. New technology both in pollution prevention, emission reductions, and improved manufacturing methods cut down emissions and removes pollutants from emissions.
Cars now come equipped with something called a "catalytic converter" for the engine system. The converter changes the harmful hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide that a car produces when it burns fuel into harmless carbon dioxide and water. Since a car with a converter uses unleaded gas converters also reduce the amount of lead in the air.
Some states and communities require emission control systems in cars to be inspected every year to make sure they are working properly. This discourages drivers from removing catalytic converters from their cars, or from pumping leaded gas into a car that should only use unleaded. In most states it is against the law to switch from unleaded to leaded fuel, or to tamper with catalytic converters.
New problems
Air quality is improving, but more work needs to be done. Scientists now believe that some problems are more serious than they first thought. For example, researchers are studying harmful effects of acid rain. When some emissions from factories and cars mix with sunlight and vapor in the air, they change into acidic compounds. These compounds can travel long distances in the air. Then they can fall to earth with rain, snow or dust. When they fall on lakes, they can turn the water acidic, like vinegar. In some lakes, all the fish died because the water became so acidic.
Another problem scientists are learning more about is indoor air pollution. The air inside your house may be more polluted than the air around a factory! Indoor air pollution can come from oven fumes, hair spray, cigarette smoke, insect sprays, fingernail polish, carpet cleaners and other ordinary household products. Even the dirt and rocks around a house can cause pollution if they contain radon. Radon is a radioactive gas that occurs naturally in some soil. It is colorless, odorless and tasteless, but some scientists believe it causes lung cancer.
Sometimes the simplest cure for indoor air pollution is just to open a few windows. More complicated methods may involve installing exhaust fans or plugging up holes in a house foundation so radon cannot seep through.

Know Your Heritage
Pattadakal
Chalukyan rulers were not only empire builders, but great patrons of art whose encouragement prompted the artists and craftsmen to experiment and innovate in different architectural styles and giving it a new dimension. It is in their period that transition from rock-cut medium to structural temples took place.
Pattadakal located in Bijapur district of Karnataka was not only popular for Chalukyan architectural activities but also a holy place for royal coronation, 'Pattadakisuvolal'.
The oldest temple at Pattadakal is Sangamesvara built by Vijayaditya Satyasraya (AD 697-733). The other notable temples at Pattadakal are the Kadasiddhesvara, Jambulingeswara both attributed to 7th century A.D. while Galaganatha temple was built a century later in the style of rekha nagara prasada. The Kasivisvesvara temple was the last to be built in early Chalukyan style. The Mallikarjuna temple was constructed by Rani Trilokyamahadevi to celebrate the victory over the Pallavas by Vikramaditya II. She is also credited to have built the Virupaksha temple influenced by the architecture of the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram. The Virupaksha temple later served as a model for the Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna I (757 -783 A.D.) to carve out the great Kailasa at Ellora.
However, the last addition at Pattadakal was made during the reign of Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna II of the 9th century A.D. in form of a Jaina temple, locally famous as Jaina Narayana, with its two lower storeys functional.
The sculptural art of the early Chalukyas is characterised by grace and delicate details. The ceiling panels of the navagrahas, dikpalas, the dancing Nataraja, the wall niches containing Lingodbhava, Ardhanarisvara, Tripurari, Varahavishnu, Trivikrama bear ample testimony to the sculptor's skill as well as the cult worship in vogue. The narrative relief illustrating certain episodes from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata and Panchatantra fitted well with these grand religious edifices.
The Sangamesvara, Virupaksha and Mallikarjuna temples at Pattadakkal exhibit to a large degree the southerly elements in their vimanas, as crystallized in the contemporary Pallava temples.
The main vimana of the Sangamesvara is of three storeys. The lowermost storey is surrounded by two walls, the inner and outer, the second storey being an upward projection of the inner wall, while the outer wall encloses the covered circumambulatory round the sanctum
The Virupaksha is a large complex consisting of a tall vimana with axial mandapas and peripheral sub-shrines round the court, enclosed by a wall with gopura-entrances in front and behind, all designed and completed at one time. As such, this is the earliest extant temple-complex in the Chalukyan series. The massive gopuras are also the earliest. The compound-wall of the complex, following the plan of the group itself, has on its coping kuta and said-heads, suggestive of a derivation from the Shore-temple at Mahabalipuram-a device which gives the impression of a lower storey when viewed from a distance.
The Mallikarjuna, built immediately after and close to the Virupaksha, is a smaller temple with a four-storeyed vimana with a circular griva and sikhara. It has more or less a similar plan.

Poems for You

My Dreams and Time

Dreams of gold
And life in luxury
Amidst pretty faces
Spending lavishly
As if money grows on trees.

Wish to be a bird
And go on a tour
Beyond all the man made barriers
Free of cost!

Princely and happy dreams bring a short lived smile
Open my eyes to find all things disappear
Miserably clings on to the memory
And spends the whole day thinking about it
Wasting time, that’s so precious!
I watch time slipping away
But effortless efforts takes it even further
Regrets fill me up the next day
But none to blame for it anyway,
Except for that someone called me...

Atom Taro,
Don Bosco H S School,
Diphu

My best friend, books -

I have best friends named books,
On to which I want to cling on like on hooks!

There are many kinds from fiction to art,
Stories that spill from the author’s heart.

From love to mystery,
Books are never - ending passion, growing like a tree.

Reading is an adventure that never ends,
Us to a brighter future it sends!

Books are our education’s stem,
Life would be cold and half without them.

I have best friends named books,
On to which I want to cling on like on hooks!!!

Abhilasha Deka,
Lakelad Copper Beech Middle School,
Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
United States.

Rani Gaidinliu (1915-1993)
Born on 26th January, 1915 at Longkao (Nungao) Village in the present Tousem Sub-division Tamenglong District, Manipur (NH-53), Rani Gaidinliu was a charismatic girl even at her tender age. Her father Lothonang Pamei and mother Kachaklenliu saw their surely little daughter Gaidinliu as peculiar and different from among their other children. She was the 5th among her six sisters and a younger brother.
At the age of 13, Gaidinliu became restive and her mind was tormented as she saw the prevailing social and political condition in the western hills of Manipur under the British Regime. At this juncture, she came to meet Haipou Jadonang at Puilon (Kambiron) Village of the present Nungba Sub-division, Tamenglong District who had now emerged as the undisputed leader in the area. Influenced by the ideology and undaunted determination she became the principal follower of Haipou Jadonang that in 1927 the revolutionary movement against the British rule was started. The revolutionary movement of the western hills of Manipur popularly known by historians as Naga Raj movement received a great momentum when 100 guns were brought from Cachar, Assam and propagation was made to boycott British taxation and forced labor. But as the movement gained a zenith height to strike, Haipou Jodonang was arrested and subsequently hanged on 29th August, 1931 at Imphal jail by the Britishers.
The mantle fell on Gaidinliu to lead and continue the revolution. She went underground along with her followers. A fierce gun fighting took place at Hangrum village in the north Cachar hills with the British army and the big village was later set ablaze by the colonial soldiers. A prolonged and hot pursue took place and Rs. 500/- reward was announced for information leading to her arrest. Her people in Manipur, Cachar, North Cachar and Naga Hills of Assam stood firm behind her.
Unfortunately, she was arrested from Poilwa (Pulomi) Village (present Nagaland) on 17th October, 1932 by the British Army led by Captain Mac Donald.
It was said that she bit the hand of a commander who tried to arrest her by which injury and pain the captor left her but a after much struggle she was finally arrested. She did not yield to the might of her captors.
When India became free, Rani Gaidinliu was released on P.M. Nehru's order from Tura jail on 14-10-1947 after serving the prison term of 14 years in various jails in Gauhati, Aijawl, Tura, Shillong and elsewhere. She was however not allowed to return home at her native village in Manipur that she stayed at Vimrap Village of Tuensang with her younger brother Marang till 1952. It was a tearful re-union of sister and brother when they could not communicate well in their mother tongue at that time. (Due to long separation of nearly 2 decades).
When Rani Gaidinliu was at her native Longkao (Nungao) Village in Manipur, she could not tolerate the threat to her life and religion “Heraka” posed by the Baptist based NNC movement. She went underground once again in 1960 along with her 400 followers and soldiers called “Kampai”. Many of her followers were killed at Man-du (Bandu) village near Tousem during a long encounter with NNC soldiers that she had to hide at Magulong cave near Barak (Agu) bank for 3 years.
She came overground in 1966 under an agreement with the Govt. of India. During her stay at Kohima, she was conferred “Tamrapatra Freedom Fighter Award” in 1972, Padma Bhushan (1981), Vivekananda Seva Award (1983) and she returned to Longkao (Nungao) in 1991 till she passed away on 17.02. 1993 at her ripe age of 78.
The Governor of Manipur, His Excellency Chintamani Panigrahi, Home Secretary of Nagaland, Officials of Manipur and many people from all parts of the North Eastern region attended her funeral function at her native village on 29.2.1993. At Imphal, the Chief Minister of Manipur R.K. Dorendro Singh, Deputy Chief Minister, Rishang Keishing and many people paid floral tributes and a general holiday was declared by the State Government. Rani Gaidinliu was also conferred “Birsha Munda Award” Posthumously. She was an outstanding lady of Political, Social, Religious and humanitarian dimensions. At her later age, she worked for the unity of her people and to find a dignified homeland through peaceful means of democracy. Rani Gaidinliu was great socio-religious leader and Veteran Freedom Fighter. She was a living Goddess, a legendary figure and a revered mother symbol of the oppressed people.

Ambulocetus
Ambulocetus natans Although Ambulocetus looked like a furry crocodile or a giant otter, it was actually an early whale.
Meaning of scientific name
"walking whale" (natans = "that swims").

Ambulocetus ("walking whale") was an early cetacean that could walk as well as swim. It lived during early Eocene some 50-49 million years ago. It is a transitional fossil that shows how whales evolved from land-living mammals. Having the appearance of a 3 metre long mammalian crocodile, it was clearly amphibious, as its back legs are better adapted for swimming than for walking on land, and it probably swam by undulating its back vertically, as otters and whales do. It has been speculated that Ambulocetids hunted like crocodiles, lurking in the shallows to snatch unsuspecting prey. Chemical analysis of its teeth shows that it was able to move between salt and fresh water.
Statistics
3m long.
Physical description
Although Ambulocetus looked rather like a huge otter, it was in fact one of the earliest whales. It had a long, low body with short, powerful limbs. Its back legs in particular seemed to be used for propulsion, and its feet had long, probably webbed toes (each ending in a tiny hooflet). Its tail was slightly flattened, like that of an otter, to help it swim. Its eyes and nostrils were on the top of its skull, allowing it to see and breathe whilst partly submerged, and it had a fearsome set of teeth.
Ambulocetus did not have external ears. To detect prey on land, they may have lowered their heads to the ground and felt for vibrations.
Distribution
One fairly complete specimen and several partial skeletons have been found in Pakistan.
Habitat
Swam in the estuaries and rivers on the northern shores of the Tethys Ocean separating Africa and Eurasia.
Diet
Carnivorous - eating quite large animals.
Behaviour
Ambulocetus was not as agile in the water as an otter, and seems to be adapted for ambushing large prey, which it then drowned. Its skull shows adaptations for holding large, struggling prey underwater. Its ear bones also show that it did not have external ears but instead used the same method of hearing as modern whales do - picking up vibrations through the jawbone. It may have used this technique to listen for prey walking along the shore by resting its head on the ground.
Conservation status
Extinct.
History
Ambulocetus lived 50-49 million years ago and was descended from land-living carnivorous hoofed animals such as the dog-like Pakicetus.
Closest relative
Most closely related to modern whales, because it shares underwater adaptations with them: it had an adaptation in the nose that enabled it to swallow underwater, and its periotic bones had a structure like those of whales, enabling it to hear well underwater. but also related to cloven hoofed animals (artiodactyls).
The Ambulocetus fossils were found in Pakistan by anthropologist Johannes Thewissen. When the animal was alive, Pakistan was a coastal region bordering the ancient Tethys Sea.