MY MAGIC WORLD OF HEAVEN

Did you know about India's one and only Floating Post Office? Are you surprised? (Image courtesy: Mike Prince / Wikimedia commons)          You can find this fascinating and beautiful post office floating on the waters of gorgeous Dal lake in Srinagar. It is one of the important attractions of Kashmir which is not only visited by locals for posting letters but also by tourists at large. The stamps here feature the image of Dal Lake, which is a kind of tribute to this nature's work  of art.            The floating post office was inaugurated by Omar Abdullah in 2011, the former Chief Minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.          The post office premise features a philately museum that features a huge collection of unique stamps and showcasing its fascinating history. Also there is a souvenir shop from where one can buy postcards, stamps, local items, greeting cards and books on Kas...

Annual rings (Image courtesy: Amanda Tromley)                If we examine the trunk of a tree that has been chopped down, we will see first of all the outer ring of the bark which acts as a sort of waterproof coat for the tree. Inside the outer covering come a number of concentric rings.                  Each one of these rings represents a year in the life of the tree. The space between the rings is the wood which the tree produced during one year.                 By counting the number of rings we can tell when the tree was born. These rings also indicate the dry periods the tree lived through as well as wet periods. In dry times the rings are very thin. In heavy rain fall years the rings are thicker. Image courtesy: Christian Schnettelker               Slender course of wood can be t...

         Karni Mata Temple   (Image courtesy: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra /  wikimedia commons )            "Temple of rats" Oh! very interesting one. isn't it?                Karni Mata Temple is also known as the "Temple of Rats" is dedicated to Karni Mata near Bikaner in Rajasthan, India. The temple is famous for the approximately 20,000 black rats and out of all the thousands of rats in the temple there are a few white rats known as holy rats or kabbas. They are believed to be the manifestations of Karni Mata herself and her four sons.                  When any of these rats die, it never produces any sort of foul smell and if a single rat is killed in the temple, it must be replaced with a rat of similar weight and size, made of gold.

We have all heard of the Great Wall of China. But have you heard about the Great wall of India, the second largest wall in the world? Kumbhalgarh fort wall   ( Image courtesy: Heman kumar meena / wikimedia commons )             It is built in 500 years ago and it guards the ancient fort of Kumbhalgarh, located 80 km north of Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. It is the second largest fort in Rajasthan after Chittorgarh fort and also the UNESCO World Heritage Site included in Hill forts of Rajasthan. The fort wall extends to the length of 36 kilometers and is popularly known as the "Great wall of India".

                Hornbill   (Image courtesy: wikimedia commons )                    Like the toucan, the hornbill has an extremely large beak. The beak is different because it continues above the bird's head to form a sort of knob that looks like a helmet. There are forty five different species of hornbills, with loud, croaking voices and flapping wings. Their strong beaks can break the shells of the hardest nuts, but they will also eat fruits, insects and small animals.                   Most hornbills build their nests in a hollow tree. The male bird imprisons the female inside her nest by walling her in with dried mud while she hatches the eggs and cares for the young until they can fly. He leaves a small slit in the mud wa...

Sahara desert  (Image courtesy: fr:Utilisateur:Jgremillot / wikimedia commons )                 Although it is difficult to believe, there are fish living in the desert. Several important expeditions have gone to the Sahara to uncover the mystery of these fish which are sometimes found scores of meters down.                The most famous is the lungfish which lives in the larger African rivers. When these rivers overflow their waters can spread out to desert regions to form small lakes or ponds. When the lake dries up the lungfish buries itself in wet mud where it can live for months on end, especially if it goes deep enough to find an underground layer of water.               Lungfish are among the most ancient bony fishes and are very like those which lived 20...