I am fortunate to have heard the melodious rendering of the timeless abhangs of Samarth Ramdas, in the album 'Dhyaan Laagale'. The singer is Sanjeev Abhyankar, and the music director is Kedar Pandit.
About a hundred years ago, there lived in the town of Wai, on the bank of the Krishna river (in Satara district of Maharashtra, then known as the Bombay Presidency) a jeweller named Shyam Saraf. He lived with his parents Narayan and Jayabai, his wife Surekha and their children Govind and Kavita. Narayan had inherited the jewellery shop from his father, and had run the business for over forty years. As a boy, Shyam spent much of his spare time at the family's shop. By observing his father at work, Shyam learnt the art of making ornaments, presenting finished ornaments to customers, valuing jewellery pieces that people brought for sale, and the other finer aspects of an enterprising jeweller. When Narayan felt Shyam had enough experience to run the business on his own, he retired from the business. For the last few years, Shyam had looked after the shop. He earned enough to cover the family's expenses, and also to save for a rainy day. In those days, it was a custom for every pe...
How much do YOU think a tree is worth?? And how does one measure the value and then convert the result to monetary terms? Here's one way..... When Sue Rostas, Communications Officer for the Kooragang Wetland Rehabilitation Project, received a letter from Carrington Public school student, Michael Wilson, it set her thinking. Michael asked what was the economic value of a tree. He suggested we assume a value of $1 a day for the amount of oxygen that a tree produces. A tree thus produces $365 worth of oxygen per year or a total of $36,500 over 100 years (and that's not allowing for inflation!) Sue wondered how close to the mark was this assumed dollar value. A few phone calls to Assoc. Prof. Tlna Offler, University of Newcastle, and Bill Nethery, State Forests of NSW, plus some library work revealed some startling but often overlooked facts about the true value of trees. Michael's assumption had in fact greatly underestimated the value of trees. The true value (considering on...
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