Soft Drinks

 The Coke Capital of World

Chiapas- A state in southwest Mexico, famous for its dense green rainforests, mountains, mangroves, and Coca-Cola. Yes, Coca-Cola the drink that is known in almost every part of the world. But why is it famous for Coke? Let's find out.

 

Coca-Cola- The company that gave a whole new taste of drinks to the world started its production in 1886 as a health drink containing coca leaves and cola fruit. Due to urbanization and changes in lifestyle, the company slowly shifted from the health drink sector to caffeinated soft drinks. Soon, the drink became a household name in almost every country. However, we cannot ignore the side effects of these drinks. They are full of sugar, preservatives, and harmful chemicals. The drinks are responsible for many diseases, including diabetes, heart problems, kidney complications, tooth decay, cavities, and so on. Shockingly, a person in the Chiapas region consumes about two liters of coke per day, the most in the world on the basis of per-day consumption. Many people, including children, are suffering from type 2 diabetes and heart problems, plummeting the lifespan of an individual exponentially. It all started when Coca-Cola set up its bottling plant in the San Cristobal municipality in 1994. Since then, the government has given them permission to use over a million liters of groundwater per day. Slowly, the groundwater became scarce and the remaining water was contaminated with chlorine and other harmful elements. The cost of packaged water was higher than that of coke, and with no other options left, people started consuming coke instead of water. The government has taken some steps to control the problem, but they are ineffective, The citizens claim that, with the help of corrupt politicians, the company renewed its license to use groundwater, despite the fact that the region is suffering from a water crisis.

Hopefully, the problem will be resolved soon, and the people will receive justice against the corrupt system that affects their lives.

Thank You, 

Sarthak P. Khode 😊

Radhanath Sikdar

 The Forgotten Mathematician

India is the land of knowledge. Many of the world's great scholars are from India, like Aryabhata, Ramanujan, C.V. Raman, etc. Some of them break onto the world stage but some remain disguised, and today in this blog we will talk about one such person, mathematician Radhanath Sikdar.

 

8848 meters—Mount Everest's height. But have you ever wondered who was the first person to accurately measure the height of this massive mountain? It was the Indian mathematician Shri Radhanath Sikdar whose efforts and name were overshadowed by the British. Let's discuss the life of the brilliant mathematician.

 

Sikdar was born in 1813 in Jorasanko, near Calcutta, into a middle-class family. Sikdar has been interested in mathematics since childhood. He pursued his BA degree from the Presidency College, Calcutta, in 1832. He came into the limelight when, in 1832, the then surveyor general of India, George Everest, came in search of a mathematician for his Great Trigonometrical Survey of India (GRT). John Tytler, the professor of mathematics at the college, suggested the work of Radhanath Sikdar. Soon, Radhanath joined GRT at a salary of thirty rupees per month. He gained the trust of Everest, who soon became his favorite colleague. He started his measurements to map the height of Mount Everest in 1852. While measuring, he took readings from six different locations. After the compilation of all the data, he finally presented his result in 1856, concluding that Mount Everest was the highest mountain in the world by overtaking Kanchenjunga. Interestingly, the height measured by Sikdar was exactly 29,000 ft. (8839 m), but the surveyor of India, Scott Waugh, thought that people may think of the height as a rounded-off figure so he added an extra two feet to arbitrate it. 

 

In 1955, recalculations and observations yielded similar approximate results as Radhanath Sikdar's, ultimately determining the height of Mount Everest at 29,029 feet, or 8848 meters.

DID YOU KNOW ?

The height of Mount Everest is increasing at rate of 4mm per year. 

Thank You,

Sarthak P. Khode 😊 

Gargoti : The Mineral Museum

 My visit to Gargoti

Today, I would like to share my experience when I visited India's only gem, mineral, and fossil museum, 'Gargoti', back in 2018. Initially, our visit was not planned (to be honest, I didn't know about this place at the time), but we were passed by a board about Gargoti and its offerings. As curiosity peaked, we decided to comfort our eyes by visiting. Upon arriving at our destination, we found the doors closed. As the excitement was plunging, suddenly we were greeted by the head guide of the museum. Though nobody was there, we got a golden opportunity to see everything peacefully and nicely, as we were the only four people in the museum: the guide, my father, my sister, and me. Upon entering, the guide revealed a large, shiny, grey, and beautiful statuette of Bharatmata, carved from a single rock. Behind the statue was a souvenir shop, which was not so 'pocket friendly'. Then we saw the main gallery with lots of bright, sharp, and colorful stones, gems from Brazil, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Peru, Bolivia and India (mainly from the Deccan Plateau), As told by our guide, these stones took almost 400 to 500 years to get into this form. For me, the most exciting part was the little piece of stone from the moon and the 24-carat pure gold piece, which were cased in airtight shelves to prevent any further reaction. Zeolite was also eye-catching. 

 

Mr. K.C. Pandey initiated these collections as a hobby forty years ago. We wandered around the museum for about two hours before heading to Nashik. Although the museum was very informative, nice, and easily accessible, visitor footfall is low compared to other normal museums. For me, it's the best museum I've seen so far.

 

Oops ! I forgot to tell you the meaning of its name : The name 'Gargoti' translates to 'Cold Stone', a combination of two Marathi words: gaar, meaning cold, and goti, meaning stone.

Thank You, 

Sarthak P. Khode 😊