Meaning: This noun refers to a light food made from a mixture of beaten egg whites and other ingredients that is baked in the oven.
It can be either sweet or savoury.
Origin: This word has its origin in the French word soufflé, from the past participle of souffle, meaning "to puff up". This, in turn, is from Latin sufflare, from sub (meaning "up from under") + flare ("to blow").
Example: His chocolate soufflé is always incredibly delicious and light.
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Step into the magical world of childhood with acclaimed English author Katherine Rundell, whose adventurous stories have captured the hearts of many young readers in recent years. Read on to discover more about this talented author and her enchanting tales.
Katherine Rundell is a celebrated multiple-award-winning English author whose poetic verse makes words dance on the page like sunlight on a rippling stream. With a heart full of adventure and a mind brimming with creativity, she crafts stories that ignite the imagination of young readers and transport them to magical worlds.
Born in 1987 in Kent, England, Rundell spent her formative years in Zimbabwe and Brussels. Following her undergraduate studies at Oxford, she was chosen as a Fellow of All Souls College, where she completed her doctoral thesis on the renowned metaphysical English poet John Donne. Last September she published the book ‘Super infinite The Transformations of John Donne’, in honour of the 450th anniversary of the poet’s birth. This critically acclaimed work won her 2022’s Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. Rundell who is in her mid-thirties now, started working on her debut novel ‘The Girl Savage’ the day after she turned 21. Drawing on her carefree childhood in Zimbabwe, and the devastation of her family relocating to Belgium when she was 14, her debut novel narrated the story of a free-spirited girl called Wilhelmina Silver who has spent most of her childhood on an African farm and is sent to a boarding school in England following the death of her father.
As an imaginative and adventurous storyteller, Rundell intricately weaves her intriguing and quirky personal interests into her characters, whether it is her love for tightrope walking or roof walking or her fascination with the Amazon. Her characters act as an extension of her inner child and her stories (that are generally aimed at middle-grade readers) combine elements of action, adventure, and magical realism. Her tales take the readers on a journey to faraway lands, where they can explore the mysteries of the world and discover beauty in its hidden corners. Some of her most well-known works include ‘The Rooftoppers’ which won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2014, and ‘The Explorer’, which was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award in 2017.
Choosing children’s literature
When Katherine Rundell first began writing children’s books, it was not because she saw it as her ultimate destination. Rather, she viewed it as a stepping stone, a path to follow in the footsteps of her literary idol Jane Austen. Rundell was acutely aware that her authorship was not at the level she aspired to, and so she turned to the world of children’s fiction as a training ground. But as she has grown and developed as an author, she has come to realise that the genre is so much more than a mere proving ground. To suggest that children’s literature is simply a place to polish her skills before moving on to “real” writing is a notion that she now passionately rejects
Reading: A way to cope with the loss
Reading is almost exactly the same as cartwheeling: it turns the world upside down and leaves you breathless says Katherine Rundell Reading was a cherished pastime for Randell, especially because it helped her during some of the most difficult years of her life. It was a stressful time for the family, and Rundell was only nine or 10 years old when her parents were caring for a foster sister who was terminally ill. The experience of losing someone so young was deeply saddening and profoundly painful for the author. Yet, she found solace in books devouring them with an insatiable- appetite. Looking back on this time she believes that it was no accident that she writes for the age she was when she experienced such heartache. Despite the pain, Rundell drew those she loved closer and cherished the things that brought her joy, namely, the power of storytelling.
Embracing the wonder of childhood
Rundell’s stories are more than just mere escapism; they are tales that inspire and challenge young readers to think deeply and feel connected to the world around them. Her books are important because they offer a glimpse into the human experience that is both universal and uniquely personal. She captures the essence of childhood wonder and joy but also the fear and uncertainty that often come with growing up. Her stories speak to the resilience and ingenuity of the human spirit and encourage readers to embrace their sense of adventure and explore the unknown.
Through her stories, Rundell shows young readers the power of creativity, resilience, and empathy, and why these qualities are essential to making the world a better place. The success of her books is a testament to the power of storytelling to inspire and transform young minds. Through her beautiful and imaginative works, she has created a legacy that will continue to inspire generations of young readers for years to come.
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For some, spending long arduous days walking and climbing the rugged terrains and summiting peaks is a way to recharge themselves. For them, vacationing is not walking across the golden sands of a beach, rather it is undertaking the adventurous sport of trekking. Let’s read up on trekking, a sport that can be your stepping stone to its advanced, adventurous version of sport called mountaineering.
It is probably here that it all began. At the summit of the world’s tallest mountain- the 29,031 ft tall Mt. Everest.
Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest in 1953. Although Everest was attempted before, the duo became the first to stand at the crest of the world’s highest mountain. And in no time, the rush to ascend the peak started and continues till date.
If we sift through the pages of history, the first recorded hike was undertaken during the second century. Roman Emperor Hadrian, ascended Mt. Etna to see the sunrise from its summit. Even now, Mt. Etna is a favoured trekking spot among the trekking community.
For some, climbing mountains, spending long arduous days walking and climbing the rugged terrains, is a way to recharge themselves. For them, vacationing is not walking across the golden sands of a beach, rather it boils down to an adventurous climb on a mountain. We call the adventurous sport trekking. How about learning more about trekking?
Trekking
The thrill to trek and summit the mountains evolved into the adventurous sport we call trekking. Trekking can be defined as walking for several days or weeks on a multitude of terrains, all the while carrying your “world” of essentials with you in your rucksack. You end the day by camping at dusk at camping sites.
How to start
One can get initiated into trekking with hikes. Hikes are small walks undertaken in nature that last a day. At the end of the day, you return to the place when you started the hike. Once you build up your physical strength, you can undertake small treks that last two days or more. As you get better at it, you can change your goals and start eyeing higher perks. Always choose a reputed trekking or adventure club for your treks. Alternatively, you can join the neighbourhood trekking or adventure clubs to embark on hikes or treks. Further, many mountaineering/adventure institutes in India offer courses on the sport. For someone who is serious about climbing, this can be a good place to start with. The trekking seasons will vary depending on the kind of trek you want to undertake. Jammu and Kashmir (Ladakh, Zanskar). Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Darjeeling, Northeast states, the Western Ghats and the Nilgiris are some of the popular regions in India where you can trek.
Gear and physical fitness
For a trekker, the trekking gear is everything. It is something that should never be compromised. Because on the mountains, your gear becomes your lifeline.
Equipping oneself with the proper gear viz. shoes, gloves, right bag, climbing equipment, and so on will make one’s trek safe and easy. The trekker also has to be self-sufficient and should be able to carry the essentials in their bag. It goes without saying that one needs to be extremely fit to climb.
Challenges
Like any adventure activity, trekking also has its own challenges. Weather can change unexpectedly as you climb up the mountains Altitude sickness, dehydration and sunburn are the other emergencies one can come across. A bad footing can be very risky and so is any encounter with wild animals. Following the advice of the trek leader and keeping to the trek trail will help avoid unnecessary problems Lear about the weather conditions before embarking on the trek and prepare yourself accordingly. One of the cardinal rules is to start early to arrive early at the camping site
Why trek
And why do we climb? Why do countless trekkers put themselves through this arduous and painful experience of braving difficult terrains and climates to scale a mountain? Ask any trekker, and the answer will never be the same. But one thing is agreed upon. Trekking helps one disconnect from the outside world and connect with nature and oneself. In fact, it is a journey one undertakes inwards. Be it the indigenous communities you encounter on your trail to the flora and fauna, everything leaves its mark on you. When you come back after a trek, you wouldn’t have just climbed a mountain, but you would have learnt many lessons. The mountains humble you and instill in you a new appreciation of the world and its ways. So are you stoked enough to give trekking a try?
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Recently, the European Commission came up with a proposal to create “buzz lines”, essentially a network of ecological corridors for pollinators. This is seen as an important step towards arresting the alarming decline of pollinators. But why is this decline alarming and why should we be concerned? Come, let’s find out.
What are pollinators?
Pollination is the process by which pollen – a powdery substance-moves from the male part of one flower to the female part of another flower. This movement results in fruits, seeds, and young plants. Pollination occurs in some species when wind or water carries the pollen. However, most plant species require the help of pollinators. These pollinators a wide range of creatures such as bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, birds, flies, and bats-fly from one flower to another for various reasons such as food, shelter, and looking for materials to build nests with. When they flit between flowers thus they end up carrying pollen with them and transferring them to other flowers.
What is causing their decline?
There has been a decline in the population of pollinators, including bees and butterflies globally. While the “excessive use” of pesticides and other chemicals is said to be responsible for much of that decline, there are a lot of other factors too. “Invasive pests and diseases, such as mites and viral and fungal pathogens” play a role in decreasing pollinator numbers. As human activity and infrastructure development increase, pollinators have had to grapple with loss of habitat too. Adding to such aspects are loss of genetic and species diversity and also the negative impact of climate change. The scenario for pollinators look pretty grim right now.
Why are they important?
Pollinators are the ones keeping the planet going, with their crucial ecological function. A huge part of the fruits and vegetables we eat and agricultural crops raised are the result of pollen transferred by pollinators. So, they are vital for food globally. Not just that. Even timber and our clothing are dependent on them since they help the likes of cotton and wood-bearing trees grow. Which means, by helping with food and other industries, pollination services are worth millions of dollars worldwide in addition, the natural habitat they help create supports all kinds of plants and animal life. The billions of plants and trees that grow across the globe clean air by taking in carbon dioxide and giving us oxygen. Further they also prevent soil erosion. So, when the population of pollinators including bees and butterflies, declines, it can cause both an economic and an ecosystem collapse. It has been found that low-income countries lost significant income and crop yields from pollinator deficits, pointing to an economic threat. And without ecosystems, the human race may have no hope of survival. Here’s proof. A study found that that 3% to 5% of fruit, vegetable, and nut production is lost due to inadequate pollination, leading to an estimated 427.000 excess deaths annually from lost healthy food consumption and associated diseases”.
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Literary scholars have always alluded to the fact that there are many plays by brilliant English playwright William Shakespeare that have not seen the light of day and Cardenio might be the most popular of them all.
Most scholars suggest that The History of Cardenio often simply called Cardenio was written in 1613. As it is one of Shakespeare’s later contributions, it is (like many of his later plays) believed to be co-authored.
In the last stages of his career, Shakespeare is said to have been working with a writing partner, English dramatist John Fletcher. The two of them co-wrote ‘The Two Noble Kinsmen’ in 1613 and prior to this had also joined forces to write a history play, ‘Henry VIl’l which is also known as ‘All is True’.
Cardenio
The argument of dating the play to 1613 is supported by the fact that the records of the treasurer of the King’s chamber to King James state that two payments were made to Shakespeare’s drama company King’s Men in 1613 for plays called “Cardenna” and “Cardenno” These two records are presumed to refer to the same play (Cardenio) as rules for spelling were not standardised in Shakespeare’s time. Therefore, these records are taken as evidence that Cardenio was written around 1613.
The titular character of this play is also a recurring figure in one of the most influential works of Spanish literature Miguel de Cervante’s Don Quote. Written and published in 1605, the first English translation of this Spanish classic came around 1612. Therefore, it is fairly safe for us to assume that Shakespeare and Fletcher would have taken inspiration from this translated version of the novel.
Never published
For some reason, John Heminge and Henry Contell did not include Cardenio in the First Folio (1623), which was the first significant compilation of the English playwright’s works. As a result, the play was never published or made available to the general public.
Lost and forgotten
Many scholars and researchers have come up with theories to justify why this play was not included in the First Folio and how or why it got lost.
One of the possible answers for excluding it can be that it was written in collaboration, but the folio does include co-authored plays such as Henry VIII and Two Gentlemen of Verona, so this cannot be the reason.
Another suggestion is that they did not include it as they did not have a written copy – because the manuscript was destroyed in the fire that burnt down Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on June 29, 1613. Or perhaps the play, fresh from its early performance at the King’s court in 1613, was new enough that no copy had been made of text and that the only text of the manuscript was in the Globe when it burnt to the ground. Although it is hard to specify how Cardenio’s original text was lost, it is certainly fascinating to know how through the years numerous playwrights, actors, and directors have tried to reconstruct and recover this play.
In 2009, British academic Bernard Richards reconstructed Cardenio on stage. More recently in 2011, English director Gregory Doran crafted his own version of the play for production at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre.
Musing about Cardenio in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2009, Canadian novelist Stephen Marche said “This work would have been a direct link between the founder of the modern novel and the greatest playwright of all time, a connection between the Spanish and British literary traditions at their sources, and a meeting of the grandest expressions of competing colonial powers…”
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Do the names Sudan, Martha, and George ring a bell? And, what is common to them? Sudan, a male northern white rhinoceros; Martha, a passenger pigeon and George, a Hawaiian tree snail were all the last of their kind (none of them is alive today). Thankfully, the world has been alive to the concerns of extinction for a while now. Which explains concerted conservation efforts globally to ensure we do not forever lose species as an unfair consequence of our own actions. Population decline in several species has been reversed, while some have been stopped from going extinct. But should our focus be only on species teetering on the edge of extinction and whose numbers are plummeting? Come, let’s find out.
Nature is limitless. Or, is it? Even as recently as the 19th Century, extinction at sea was deemed impossible. “given the reproductive capacity of marine organisms and the impracticality of overfishing”. Species such as the passenger pigeon, the northern cod (a type of fish), the plains bison, the American chestnut (a deciduous tree), and the eastern white pine were once considered super-abundant, and their decline/disappearance, inconceivable. But the reality in all these cases has been different. And points to the fact that common species face decline and extinction too.
It’s wise to remember that several species on the brink of extinction started off as abundant or common. Abundance offers only a “partial buffer” against extinction, and the focus should be on the rate of decline because abundant species “are not immune to decimation”. For instance, a study of North American birds uncovered that “three billion birds on this continent within the past two generations” were lost. The focus on common species is as important as on rare ones because “the shifts in abundance of common species can translate into sizeable shifts in ecosystem functioning”.
Take the case of birds. Given the amount of “insects they eat, the flowers they pollinate and the seeds they disperse”, a sudden and drastic decrease in the population of a common species can spell disaster in an ecosystem. Apart from this, studies show that encounters in the natural world-even a butterfly in a garden- improve the mental health of humans. When common species go, so will our chance of such encounters.
While rare species do require the attention they get,” the extinction of Commonness” should be prevented. And this can be done when we “monitor nature closely, guard against complacency and invest for the long term.”
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Most people think that sand is plentiful, but sand is a non-renewable resource. The demand for it actually exceeds supply and the rate at which we are using it, we will soon be running out of it. Let’s find out how sand is formed and about the effects of indiscriminate mining of sand on the environment.
Formation of sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. It is found on beaches and deserts. It is formed by the breaking down or erosion of large boulders by wind or water.
Sand is a very important mineral. It can be used to make concrete which is used in buildings to help support the structures. It is used to make glass, computer chips and to store nuclear waste. It can also be used as a mixer with salt to prevent the formation of ice on roads.
Sand mining
The extraction of sand is called sand mining. Sand can be mined from sand dunes, beaches and even dredged from river and ocean beds.
The main reason sand is extracted is to make concrete, which is in great demand because of the booming construction industry. River sand is considered the best for this purpose. It has jagged edges and is not rounded like desert sand. It also does not contain salt like beach sand. But since there isn’t enough sand on river beds, sand found on beaches and creeks is also used after removing the salt.
Harms the environment
Sand plays an important role in protecting the coastal environment. It acts as a buffer against strong tidal waves and storm surges by reducing their impact as they reach the shoreline.
Indiscriminate river bed mining harms the environment. It also leads to the deepening of rivers, change in the course of rivers and soil erosion. The river-plains become more vulnerable to flooding. Riverbed mining also affects groundwater recharge and the foundation of bridges, causing them to collapse.
When sand is taken away, all the life forms and biodiversity it supports also get destroyed. Indiscriminate beach and ocean mining have caused entire beaches and whole islands to disappear.
Where is sand mining rampant?
Illegal sand mining is rampant in developing countries like India and China, where construction is on the rise. Rich countries import sand from poor and developing countries. Singapore, for instance, is expanding its physical borders by importing sand from poorer countries like Cambodia, which, as a result is losing its beaches.
In India, mining licences are issued to contractors. The licences limit the quantities of sand that can be taken and the locations from where it can be mined. Sand mining policies are framed by state governments in India. Unfortunately, these laws are usually not enforced. There is hardly any monitoring either.
Serious crime
Markets for sand in India are dominated by sand mafias, criminal enterprises that mine and sell sand illegally. Although illegal sand mining is a serious environmental crime, there is little awareness about it. As it’s a rural issue, urban people are unaware of it unless they see it happening at a beach where they are holidaying. Also, many don’t want to register an official complaint against such illegal activities as it can be dangerous.
The UN took a long time to wake up to this issue’. The first-ever UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) round-table on sand sustainability took place in October 2018 at Geneva, where I, as a keynote speaker, made a virtual presentation on the issue: A sustainable policy on sand trade should be a part of the political agenda of national governments everywhere.
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In 1918, the United States Navy began using zip fasteners in the clothing and other gear of its men during World War I. By the 1920s, zips could be found in all kinds of clothing, footwear, bags and suitcases. The zip finally arrived on the world scene when fashion designers began using it for haute couture.
The zip was the creation of American inventor Whitcomb Judson. He liked wearing high boots that were all the vogue in 1893, both among men and women. The boots had long shoelaces which took ages to do up. Judson designed a fastener which he called a ‘clasp locker’. It had a slider to link hooks and rings but was clumsy and frequently jammed. The invention was not a success.
It was only 20 years later, in 1913, when Judson employed Swedish engineer Gideon Sundback that the zip took on its present form-two fabric strips with metal or plastic teeth that locked when the zip was pulled closed and unlocked when it was opened.
Judson did not live to see the success of his invention. He died in 1909.
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In 1925, after graduating from high school, Earl S. Tupper set out to make his fortune. A farm boy from New Hampshire, USA, Tupper started a successful business in tree surgery and landscaping. But Tupper Tree Doctors went under during the Great Depression. Tupper found a job in DuPont’s plastics division. A year later, he left to form his own plastics company, supplying gas masks to American troops fighting World War II.
After the war, Tupper turned to producing plastic consumer goods. The plastic available then was brittle, smelly and slimy, so he first invented a process to change polyethylene slag, a by-product of petroleum, into a plastic that was not only durable and solid, but clean and clear. However, what made Tupper’s plastic containers revolutionary was an air- and water-tight seal.
By 1946, Tupper was selling a variety of plastic containers in a range of colours, but sales weren’t brisk. It was when he adopted the method two local salesmen were using, to sell Tupperware worldwide, that his profits skyrocketed. They introduced the products to housewives at a ‘party’ hosted by one of the women at her home! Tupperware Home Parties became a national, then an international, phenomenon in the 1950s. It enabled Earl Tupper to sell his company for $16 million in 1958.
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