My fond farewell to Goa University MSc (Botany) students (2011-13)

I taught a compulsory course paper BOC 102: Bacteria, Fungi, Viruses and Plant Pathology (Theory and Practicals) to the present batch of M.Sc. (Botany) students in Semester I (June-Oct 2011), just before I retired from the service of Goa University, on superannuation, on 30 Nov 2011. It was the last batch of students that I taught at Goa University. I believe, these students have now completed their learning component and will be writing final semester examinations in the coming week.

I used both black-board and well-illustrated/described power-point presentations, abundantly and continuously, as teaching aids. All ppts were given to the students as take-home reading material. Besides, mycology literature web-links were provided as additional reading materials. With assistance of research students, I conducted practical classes every week twice using freshly grown fungal specimens gathered from various habitats. The course was given in the first semester from July to October and being the rainy season, fungi were available in plenty in their best fruiting stages. We used pond water, decaying plant debris and moist-chamber incubated herbivore dung as continuous source of live fungi to study different taxonomic groups, at all the time. End of the semester, an illustrated and compiled lab-journal was submitted by each student. I took the students on a fungus-collecting field-trip to Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary in Sept 2011 and observed that they are so eager to learn. It was a good opportunity for them to see the fungi growing on natural substrates such as live leaves (foliicolous), fallen decomposing plant-leaves (litter), tree trunks (including lichens) and even on running streams (aquatic fungi). The fungi gathered included mushrooms, puff balls, cup-fungi, earth stars and a variety of microfungi. Students brought the samples and examined in detail in subsequent lab sessions. Overall, the students did quite well in the course. None missed the classes.

This is a very fine batch of post-graduate students; very disciplined, good at learning and above all quite inquisitive about the subject. For reasons beyond my ability, we had no formal parting at Goa University at the time of my retirement. I take this opportunity to wish them good luck to forthcoming examinations and all well in their future endeavours. 

D. Jayarama Bhat

‘Hanuman Jayanthi..........’

‘Hanuman Jayanthi’, the 'birth of Maruti’ is celebrated today, the 15^th day of Shukla Paksha in the month of Chaitra as per Hindu calendar. Today is also the ‘Chaitra Pournima’. Hanuman, an ardent devotee of Bhagwan Rama, is worshiped for his deep faith and devotion to Shri Rama who is revered for his unending compassion, courage and devotion to values and duties. Hanuman, son of Vayu (wind God), is said to be immortal. He is the symbol of strength, energy, truth and loyalty.  The Ramayan is the story of triumph of good against evil.

‘Ramakien’, glory of Shri Rama, is Thailand’s national epic, is based on Valmiki Ramayan from India. This work had greatly influenced Thai culture, literature, art and drama. The walls of Wat Pra Kaew of Thai Grand Palace in Bangkok, where the temple of Emerald Buddha is also located, are beautifully emblazoned with 178 mural paintings representing the entire story of Ramakien, dating from late 18^th century.  The Ramakien is considered as one of the masterpieces in Thai literature. It is still vastly read and taught in the country’s schools.

Hanuman is one of the central characters in epic Ramayana. He also finds references in mythological texts such as Mahabharata, various other epic literatures and some Jain writings. In Ramayana, Hanuman has been described as a humanoid ape. He searched and found Sita, the wife of Rama, in Ashokavan of Sri Lanka and later participated in Rama’s war against King Ravana.   Shri Rama was a great human being, embodiment of noble values and virtues. 

I and my wife visited the Grand Palace in Bangkok in August 2013 and spent a day seeing the Ramakien mural paintings on the walls of Wat Pra Kaew. The pictures that we took at Grand Palace in Bangkok are most amazing and some of them shown below are self explanatory!

 

D. Jayarama Bhat

 

 

 

‘Fairy ring’ forming mushroom fungus.............

 

My friend Dr. V.V. Sarma of Pondicherry University initiated a brief on ‘fairy ring’ forming fungi. I am writing below a 'fairy ring' that I and my wife saw last year in Thailand.

 

I had just then joined Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand, as a Visiting Professor, in the first week of June 2013. We were provided accommodation in the University guesthouse quarters within the campus.

The Mae Fah Luang University campus is one of the most beautiful and picturesque places in Thailand with well-laid asphalted roads, neatly grown huge avenue trees, artistically cultivated flowering plants, well-maintained expansive lawns and a number of water-conserving ponds and artificial lakes. It is a residential University with apt ambience for students and teachers to live, study and teach/learn. Accomodated in this charming campus, I and my wife seized the opportunity and took long walks almost every morning. Rainy season had already set in and the weather was very nice.

End of June 2013 on a wet Sunday, during our early morning walk, we noticed a few whitish-brown, fairly big mushrooms appeared below a rain-tree (Samanea saman), just outside our quarters. As walked further, I was pleasantly surprised to see numerous big, initially creamish-white and later turned brown, well-grown mushrooms with white huge annulus sheath hanging from the neck of the stipe, but all appeared in a large circular ring form below another rain-tree, near the guesthouse reception centre. My wife was exited to see this rare site of a beautiful ‘fairy ring’. Immediately, I called two research students of MFU, Mr. Phonguen and Ms. Linda, who were working on taxonomy and diversity of basidiomycetous fungi for their Ph.D. under the guidance of Prof. Kevin D. Hyde. Within 30 min, they arrived at the site of the fairy ring and commenced their mycological studies. They took photographs, measured the diameter of the fairy ring, carefully picked up a few mushrooms for lab studies and scribbled plenty of notes in their field notebooks. I too clicked a few pictures. I had seen fairy rings a couple of times earlier in the forests of Western Ghats in southern India but this was certainly a big one and a very happy encounter which I could show and explain to my wife. Ms. Linda promised that she will get back to me with the correct name of the fungus when she had completed her studies.  

Fairy rings are not very common but formed by ectomycorrhizal mushroom-forming fungi in the forests, grasslands and meadows. It is the appearance of mushrooms of a single species in a circular ring shape. Radial growth of the vegetative part of the fungus underground and rainy wet soil conditions facilitate appearance of the mushrooms in a ring shape, year after year. The present ring was of about 5 meters in diameter and appeared at the base of the rain-tree. I am sure that we will be seeing the fairy ring at the same site, perhaps a slightly bigger ring,  this year also.

Several species of basidiomycetous fungi are known to form fairy rings. I was told that the present fungus could be a species of Amanita or Calocybe. I don’t know. A few pictures that I have taken on that day are given below.

 

 

 

D. Jayarama Bhat

Azad Housing Society family members visited ‘Sahakari Spice Farm’on Sunday, April 21, 2013

Summer months; children in the Society have annual vacation. Some of us thought why not organize a brief day-long ‘outing’ to an interesting place where all can go and spend time together for a while. We felt that such an outing will be very relaxing, fun, educative and curious to all of us. Accordingly, we decided to pay a visit to ‘Sahakari Spice Farm’ in Ponda, Goa, a popular tourist site, on Sunday, April 21, 2013. Two of our Society members, Dr Uday Kakodkar and Dr I.K. Pai coordinated the programme.

The 'Sahakari Spice Farm' is located on the Panaji-Bengaluru National Highway in Ponda, Goa and 35 km from Panaji. It is an extensive areca farm, intermixed with coconut, banana, cocoa, and various spices such as black pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, clove and all-spices. Being well-irrigated and well-organsied, the farm is a lush green site, in spite of mid-summer.

 

In all, 44 members, young and old, of the Society joined in this trip. A hired, special bus sailed us to the Farm at 10:30 am in the morning. We were welcomed in a traditional way with garlands and tilak to the Farm. A serene ambience under the dense canopy of areca trees, to begin with we were offered organically prepared health drinks, kokum juice and/or lemon-grass tea, which instantly quenched our thirst . Next, a well-trained guide took us around and nicely explained the various plantations and spices grown in the farm. It took about 1½ hours to go around and see the various herbs, spices, nuts, fruits and learn the details. We enjoyed watching the live demonstration of areca tree-climbing by skilled personnel. Some of us enthusiastically experimented the tree-climbing. It was a great fun! We were brought back to an airy, spacious, and canteen-attached all-weather shed of traditional roof and tiles. It was a wonderful place to settle, relax and eat. First, we were served with cashew fenny as an appetizer, followed by a sumptuous lunch in traditional Goan style. Indeed, it was a luxurious lunch with a number of items to eat, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Leisurely we ate and enjoyed the food, time and place at will. A traditional dance troupe performed Goan dances as we eat our lunch. After lunch, children ran around, jumped and played a lot. We returned back to our home by 5:00 pm.

Truly, the 'outing' was very nice and we will remember this always!

 

 

 

D. Jayarama Bhat

We celebrated ‘VISHU’ festival, today....!

 

Today, April 14, 2013, ‘VISHU Sankranti’ (Sauraman Ugadi), is the beginning of New Year for those of us originally belonged to Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in Karnataka State. Prior to linguistic reorganization of the Indian states, these two districts were in the administrative domain of Madras Presidency and shared most of traditions and cultures of north Malabar in Kerala.  Today, entire Kerala State and all temples therein celebrated Vishu festival in a very auspicious and grand manner.

We got up early morning today, we washed the whole house, took bath and kept ’Vishukkani’, meaning – decoratively arranged home-grown fresh vegetables (tendli, chillies, etc.), fruits (mango, pomegranate, banana and jamun), coconut and flowers (hibiscus, jasmine, etc. ) and a few coins on a silk shawl-laden wooden plank in the puja room. Lighted lamps were kept on either side of the vishukkani. Vishukkani is the first sight to be seen and reciting a few verses of Ramayan is said to be very auspicious on this day. We worshiped our family deities, did arathi and then took breakfast. Adding to the festivity, we will have 'payasam' and ripened mango ‘rasayan’ for lunch. On this day, we wish that coming days will be very delightful to everyone. Indeed, traditional festivals and cultures add lot of values to our life.

On this happy occasion, we wish everyone good luck, happiness and prosperity.

D. Jayaram Bhat

Research opportunities in Mycology

There are opportunities for any good student of biology who wants to do PhD on mycology in Kunming, China (must have a MSc in life sciences already). It will be on mushrooms. The institute will pay about 8000 RMB per month. Kunming is in southern China, weather will be good and it’s cheap to live there.

One to two PhD opportunities are available to any good student (with MSc in Life Sciences) in Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand. It will be on taxonomy and phylogeny of micro-fungi. They will pay about 8000 Bahts per month. Chiang Rai is in northern Thailand, a beautiful city. Its rather fine to live there.

Those interested may contact Dr Kevin D. Hyde, Institute of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University,  Chiang Rai, Thailand, with intimation to me.

 

D. Jayaram Bhat

We performed an ‘Ekadash rudrabhishek pooja’ at our house on Sunday, 7/4/2013

Bhagwan Shri Vishnu, in Ramavatar, lived as ‘Maryada Purushotham’, i.e. embodiment of a perfect and ideal human being. In Ramayan, it has been said that Bhagwan Shri Ram, before crossing the high-Sea to Lanka, established a Shiva-Lingam at Rameswaram and performed ‘Rudrabhishek Shiv pooja’ to express his devotion to Bhagwan Shiv and seek his blessings, for prosperity. This pooja where Almighty Shiv, worshiped in his ‘rudra’ form, is eloquently hailed in ancient vedic writings and by saints and sages as one of the greatest poojas - aimed at removing all ill effects and afflictions and further attaining peace, prosperity and happiness.

One of the sacred methods of worshiping of Bhagwan Shiv is ‘Ekadash rudrabhishek pooja’. In this pooja, Bhagwan Shiv is worshiped in his eleven forms of Rudra. Rudra-japam is recited 11 times. Rudrabisheka pooja is reciting of rudra-japam and pouring different ingredients (milk, honey, ghee, curd, coconut water, sugar, flowers, tulsi and bael leaves) on the sacred Shiva Lingam; following the abhishekam, the Almighty is beautifully decorated with flowers, tulsi and bael leaves. Bael leaves are very sacred and it is believed that Goddess Lakshmi resides in them. The Shiva-Pooja commences with worship of Bhagwan Ganesh, followed by puja-sankalp and kalash-staapan. Following these initiations, shri rudrabhishekam is performed. This is followed by Astothara Pooja and Nivedyam. Finally Mangalarathi is performed. The pooja is followed by anna-santharpan to friends, neighbours, relatives and family members. Reciting ‘Om Namo Bhagavathe Rudraya’ and ‘Om Namah Sivaya’ is very auspicious and fitting during Shiv Pooja.

We performed ‘Ekadash rudrabhishek Shiva pooja’ at our house on Sunday, 7/4/2013. Our son, Krishna did the pooja under the supervision and guidance of Sri Vinayaka Bhat, priest of Curca Nagesh temple and a team of other 3 priests. Reciting of rudra-japam took about 2 hours. Arathi was at 12:30 pm and followed by lunch. We also took this auspicious occasion to felicitate two noble personalities, viz. Dr J P Tiwari, Senior Professor and Nephrologist at the Goa Medical College, Bambolim, Goa, and Sri M.S. Upadhyaya, progressive agriculturist and a relative from our native place, for their dedicated service to society at large. About 90 people including our close friends, neighbours and relatives graced the occasion.

 

Jayaram Bhat

 

 

Our home garden

April-May months are spring in Europe and hot summer for us, in India. One would look for juicy fruits in the afternoon, to beat the heat. We have grown a few flowering plants and fruit-bearing trees in our small garden and, to our delight, all are yielding a variety of coloured flowers and fresh juicy fruits. The trees, flowers and fruits are symbol of affection, devotion, contentment and abundance.
Our ancient sages and saints often said, ‘Vruksho rakshathi rakshithaha’, meaning - if we care them, trees and nature will protect us. That is, if we don’t think positively and simply disrespect the nature, there may not be contentment and happiness in life.

First, fruits:

We have three varieties of mango, Amrapali, Ratna and Totapuri, all organically cultivated. Our trees are 3-8 years old, yielding crop fairly well this year. Amrapali, a hybrid between Neelum of south and Dashehari of north in India. The fruits are fairly big in size, green to cream-coloured, thick-skinned and with golden-red, fleshy, sweet, fibrous pulp inside, when ripe. In taste, I would rate Amrapali as ‘king of mangos’. Our ‘Ratna’, a hybrid of Alphonso and Neelum, is also  yielding well this year. Round fruits, each about 300 g in size, are golden-yellow in colour and audaciously sweet when ripened! The ‘Totapuri’ is only 3 years old and first crop this year. The fruits are conspicuously beaked and large in size. We have enough to satisfy ourselves and to share with friends.

 

 

We have 2 varieties of banana (elachi and kejee), a red-coloured pomegranate (Punica granatum) and a fleshy and juicy white to cream-coloured  aromatic jamun (Syzygium jambos). Our sapota and guava are just coming up; may take a year more to yield in plenty.  I and my wife are spending some good time caring our trees, organically. Watering the plants is my wife's daily take. These lovely plants are responding to our pulse and affection, with good yield. What else we would look for......?

Our jamun tree is very, very special; a very high yielding tree with hundreds of fruits. The branches are alarmingly bent with heaviness of fruits in bunches. Indeed, enough to satisfy all children of our Society.

 

(D. Jayaram Bhat and Vasanthi)