Light it up this New Year’s Eve

When the clock strikes 12 this 31^st of December, you don’t want to be stuck in a gloomy, dimly lit place. You need to be under a clear sky... lit by a million lights. Here’s our list of top 5 places in the world where you should be this New Year’s Eve.

1.       London, UK

       When we are talking time and we are talking London. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the BIG BEN. Around 2.5 million people will gather around the huge monster of a clock and wait for the bell tower to ring. As the clock strikes 12, an 8 minute firework will light up the skies of London. Greet your fellow 2.5 million with a clipped accent & say ‘Happy New Year’

2.       Dubai, UAE

Last year the Guinness Book of World Records saw a new entrant. Designed by an American pyrotechnic Phil Grucci, this six minute fire & light show was planned over 10 months. The 160 storey Burj Khalifa lit up, delighting everyone last year and we are sure it will be equally exciting this year. A “Kul am wa antum bi khayi” won’t hurt... that’s Happy new year.

3.       Hong Kong, China

The Symphony of Lights- already offers visitors and locals a fantastic display of lights all year long. Come New Year and you get to see that and much more. What’s interesting is that the Pearl of the Orient has only started celebrating New Years in the last 6 years and has already managed to be the hottest destination to be. Fireworks were invented in China in the 7^th century, so they are the masters really. Drop in a “Gong Hey Fat Choy” with humility and you know you just wished a Chinese a Happy New Year.

4.       Rome, Italy

Like music and dance? Then this is your destination. The legendary street parties are filled with complimentary street sips, strangers greeting each other better than friends do, and dancing under the light of flashing fireworks. Don’t forget to wear a red underwear on New Year’s Eve, it’s the emblem of New Year luck in Italy. And yeah... it’s Buon Anno.

5.       Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

When we draw up a list of best party places, how can one leave the Samba-people out? 2 million people wait for you at the Copacabana beach, which fills up with bassy dance music, beer bunks, and a horizon lit up with fireworks. New Year fashion is important here, wear the symbolic whites (peace), green (health), purple (inspiration), yellow (prosperity) or Red (romance). Feliz ano novo is the word.

And if you are home bound, don’t forget to draw up your own little Rio De Janeiro in your house. Light the place up and make it bright. And don’t let a power cut kill the joy. Ensure that inverter's & generator's in your house keep the lights ON all through and keep the night bright.

Setting the mood ‘Light’

Out of the 5 senses that man boasts about, the sense of sight is probably the most cherished. And ‘Light’ is the essence of this sense.

This blog is about setting your mood right with light... They say the right type of lighting can create an ambiance, soothe or warm up the mood and most importantly, define spaces. And the wrong type of course can make you sleepy and irritable.

Here are a few things to look at when you are lighting your space up...

General or ambient 

The general light is your ‘one click... whole house goes boom’ light. They usually come from one central source, like a ceiling fixture. You could play with these by adding multiple sources covered by a loop. A combination of switch-ons from the ceiling will leave certain parts of the house lit and some dark, creating an interesting ambience. You could also add dimmers to these lights and play.

Dim down the light and cozy up with your special someone and watch a movie. Bright up one side of the room putting spot light on the singer on the karaoke night.

Task Light
Are you the ones who works from home... too? Then task lights are something you should know about. These illuminate work spaces and the balance between light sources is critical. The task light should ideally be complemented by a house light or an ambient light so that moving your eyes from light to darkness won’t lead to eyestrain.  

White lights help in reading better and increases the time spent at work.

Accent 
Add some drama into your room with some accent lighting. This type of lighting is excellent for highlighting focal points or your favorite items in the room. Be careful not to over light or under light. After choosing the spot and angle of lighting, ensure that you add to your effort by choosing the right bulb.

Add accent lighting to the back of a big statue and feel the halo. Focus that light from the bottom on your center table and feel the divine glow from a non-existent globe.

Light truly is an element that plays such a crucial role in our lives. Even setting the right mood. But there is more, much more to light than this. In the very function of survival (thanks to photosynthesis and all that you learnt as a kid), light plays an important role. Power is the epicenter of development and progress, from allowing kids to read in the night to machinery functioning for adequate production.

We at Mahindra group, the tractor & multi-utility vehicles major in India, realized this and forayed into Power Generation in 2002. Our generators are designed to provide Fuel Efficiency, Better load acceptance, Minimal vibration, Low noise levels, and Low maintenance costs. Our commitment to quality has won us the prestigious Frost & Sullivan “Voice of Customer” award for the most preferred Genset Brand in the telecom segment and in the Customer Enhancement category. Mahindra Powerol was also recognized as Power Brand 2011 & Master Brand 2012.

Have you experimented with light & interiors lately? Share with us in the comments section below. 

Lighthouses of the World

Today, lighthouses remain a mere monument that depict untold and sometimes cooked stories of history, valor and the supernatural. Functionally relevant or not, lighthouses do manage to capture human imagination. From its erstwhile role of being a navigational aid, marking out dangerous coastlines and assisting aerial navigation, they have today reduced to backdrops for selfie's. The increasing cost of maintenance and availability of modern navigational equipment like strobes have let to decline of these majestic structures.

This blog takes you on a world tour and introduces you to some of the most magnificent lighthouses from across the world. So if you are a traveler, add these to your bucket list, if it isn't already there.

1.    Jeddah Light

With the claim to be the world’s tallest lighthouse, this concrete and steel marvel stands tall at a staggering 436 feet in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

2.    Perry Memorial Monument

This huge granite structure is a Peace monument commemorating the Battle of Lake Erie that took place near Ohio’s South Bass Island. Built in the year 1915, this lighthouse is the tallest in North America

3.    Yokohama Marine Tower

This steel skeletal marvel is in Yokohama, Japan. The 332 ft. structure has the observation deck at the height of 100 meters. Another unique feature of the tower is its light characteristic which flashes every 20 seconds alternating between green and red.

4.    Ile Vierge

Meet the tallest stone lighthouse in Europe. It’s also is one the tallest traditional lighthouses in the world. Standing at 82.5 mts, the lighthouse is located in Finistere in France.

5.    Madras Light House, Chennai

So the last one is reserved for the lighthouse closer home. Opened in 1977, this lighthouse houses the meteorological department and was restricted to visitors. This is the only lighthouse in India with an elevator and also the only one within city limits.   

Probably one of the most massive man-made structure of light, and definitely the most beautiful, lighthouses are a rarity today. But the sight of one reminds us of the role light plays, to provide direction and keep ones hope of reaching their goals alive. Light truly is metaphorically at various levels.

We at Mahindra group realized this and forayed into Power Generation in 2002. Our generators are designed to provide Fuel Efficiency, Better load acceptance, Minimal vibration, Low noise levels, and Low maintenance costs. Our commitment to quality has won us the prestigious Frost & Sullivan “Voice of Customer” award for the most preferred Genset Brand in the telecom segment and in the Customer Enhancement category. Mahindra Powerol was also recognized as Power Brand 2011 & Master Brand 2012.

Have you visited a lighthouse lately? Share with us in the comments section below. 

VISIT THESE PLACES DURING DIWALI

Some celebrate Diwali at home. There are many who run away from cities worrying blocked roads, traffic and crackers. This Diwali is strategically placed just before the weekend this year. If you haven’t already planned it, here are a few quick suggestions. Places to visit during Diwali:

The Golden Temple with a golden draping of lights is a sight worthy of watching. If you are a DSLR junky, then this is the place to be. The edge of the lake is fringed with countless oil lamps, lit by devotees and the reflection of the lake, looks like the gods are reciprocating.

A similar sight will be seen in the city pegged as one of the most spiritual places on earth... Varanasi. You will see the bank of the holy river ganga light up with a million oil lamps, each oil lamp representing the belief of a soul.

If you love merging celebrations & temples, then you should definitely visit Kolkata. Kali Puja, which is mandatory sight during Diwali, makes one witness with huge false gates being lit up with LED lights. If you wish to see the gates of heavy (an artist’s rendition) while you are alive, then Kolkata is the place to be.

The Pink City loses its association with one color and takes a multi-color avatar during Diwali. The Hawa Mahal turns into a bright color pack in the night of Diwali.

And this is the last place that you would guess. Go Goa now... Be in Goa to witness the biggest and the scariest effigy of the demon Narakasura as they burn it at dawn.

Tell us the place you would visit this DIWALI in the comments section below. 

Don’t take these facts lightly...

Yes, the headline’s an attempted pun at our favourite topic: Light. With the Mangalyaan doing rounds of Mars, we sense an attitude to learn in the online space. So here we go with our fun facts about light.

1. LIGHT AND THE FLASH ARE RELATED

Light takes 1.255 seconds to get from the Earth to the Moon. That’s faster than, well everything. The only thing/person/character that can stand a chance to compete with that is Flash... or, can he?

2. LIGHT AS A MEASURING TAPE?

Distances in space are so vast that the fastest thing in the Universe – Light – is used to measure them. Now imagine someone running light to measure the distance between 2 planets.

3. Good looking... And then they talk

Age old joke, “Why do people appear intelligent until they start speaking?, Because light travels faster than sound...”. And that’s probably also the reason why you see lightning before you hear the thunder. Probably... no... that is the reason why.

4. You have 8 minutes to get up

Between the sun deciding to shine on you and you deciding to wake, you have exactly 8 minutes and 32 seconds. That’s the time that the sun rays take to reach the earth

5. Around in the world in just one name

By the time you take your name, light can travel around the world more than 4 times. Ever wondered about this before introducing yourself to someone? 

WHEN MONUMENTS GO VAIN

Facebook DP’s and Instagram pages are filled with selfies. Call that the mood of the social space or vanity at its peak.  The right angle and right exposure, a bit of red and a tinge of blue changes the way the image looks. Even Narcissist would have seemed humble if he was alive today.

Going by the trend, we thought of paralleling it to something equally beautiful as us humans. If we humans are god’s more beautiful creation, there are some marvellous man made creations that look stunning. They look beautiful in broad day light too. But let’s take a hypothesis. If the monuments were to assign their filters to their own selfies, how would it look like? Here is a sneak peak of the monuments rolling deep in vanity.

The epitome of love located in the city of Agra looks beautiful in the day with its pristine white play of marbles. As the sun sets, the tender touch of rustic orange kisses the white marbles. With the sky as the background and a beautiful landscape in front of it the play of red and yellow filters makes the monument look beautiful.

The Colosseum in Rome has a grungy look. Its massive size and broken walls have a story to tell. Lit with yellow light and in the backdrop of the skies, the Colosseum looks like a half eaten cheese cube in the night.

The Machu Pichu in Peru lit in blue light looks like some powerful beast arising. The contours and curves in the god’s most beautiful bump on this earth, when lit in manmade blue powercans looks magnificient.

If lights can swell up the look of already beautiful monuments, imagine what it can do to your house. The blue corner to rest, the orange one for positivity and the sun lit part of the house for pure energy. Many houses don’t depend on these lights for doing up their houses and keep depending on buying inventory. The main reason being the power failure. But times have moved fast. Small sized and low noise dg sets provide power for these pockets of power cuts. Long gone are the days of huge monster machines which sound like a grungy bike being raced by a rude rider. These new age dg sets are power efficient, pollution free and less noisy.

So, plan up to create another wonder within your house. Play up with light and use dg sets to say goodbye to power cuts. 

Let there be light

Light... the word and the concept both are familiar to us. So much so that we all take it so ‘lightly’ (pun unintended). The powerful version of energy that lights up our lives has relevance in multiple folds for our existence.

Let’s rush back to the school where we were introduced to the concept of photosynthesis. Lights are the dope for chlorophyll to produce oxygen, which inturn is the fuel for rest of the organisms to run. The sun rays bounce off the earth to heat up the atmosphere, so that we and the other living organisms don’t... well freeze to death a.k.a ‘Turning Popsicle’.

Visible light is important to us, because it is intimately involved in the common process of helping us to see things. The red light on the traffic signal, love messages on the mobile device, that pretty girl at the coffee shop, your new dream office and your kids getting married. Light plays a passive but a very important role. 

While the days are filled with natural light from the grand source sun, lot of innovation had led to cheaper and more convenient forms of creating light while the sun sleeps on our side of the world. From carbon button lamps, to the conventional incandescent light bulbs, to portable flashlights to big halogen lamps, the world has been lit by these man-made avatars of the light emitting sun. Recent research and protest by energy conservationists have also led to the invention of CFL bulbs and LED lights, which consume less power but emit enough light.

The latest fad around light is being furthered by the camera junkies. Every person with a smart phone today is a mini photographer with photo sharing social sites being their exhibition halls. Light exposures: over and minimalistic, shadow play and silhouettes shot out of palm sized devices are turning the world into a beautiful story.

What else defines the relevance of light than the fact that your good looking selfie was thanks to... good light play.

Light is a positive word. From functional relevance to relevance in vanity, it is prevalent in all walks of our lives. So much so that the positivity it emits made us use it as an apt adaptation for philanthropy. Lighting up lives.

LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE AND ITS IMPORTANCE

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor of light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for general lighting. Basically, LEDs are just tiny light bulbs that fit easily into an electrical circuit. But unlike ordinary incandescent bulbs, they don't have a filament that will burn out, and they don't get especially hot. They are illuminated solely by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material, and they last just as long as a standard transistor. 

The lifespan of an LED surpasses the short life of an incandescent bulb by thousands of hours. Studies reveal that LED bulbs produce less carbon than older bulbs, which can be very useful to get rid of the ill effects of global warming.

These energy saving bulbs have a very long life, and they are able to remain consistent despite of long-term use. In other words, they are not easily hampered, even if you are using them for long hours. So, one can buy the bulbs according to their preference, those which do not need to be swapped frequently.

Light-emitting diodes are used in applications as diverse as aviation lighting, automotive lighting, advertising, general lighting, and traffic signals. LEDs have allowed new text, video displays, and sensors to be developed, while their high switching rates are also useful in advanced communications technology. LED grow lights have been one of the best innovations in farming as it helps improve the different aspects of gardening. There are interesting applications also which uses LED bulbs such as UV-LEDs for the sterilization of water and disinfection of devices and to enhance the photosynthesis in plants as a grow light. 

LIGHT GRAFFITI

Light graffiti also called light writing, light painting, and light art is simply long exposure photography using lights to create objects and add effects into the photo that are not actually there in real life. It is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera.

By moving the light source, the light can be used to selectively illuminate parts of the subject or to "paint" a picture by shining it directly into the camera lens. Light painting requires a slow shutter speed, usually a second or more. Light painting can be done interactively using a webcam. The painted image can already be seen while drawing by using a monitor or projector. Another technique used in the creation of light art is the projection of images on to irregular surfaces (faces, bodies, buildings etc.), in effect "painting" them with light. A photograph or other fixed portrayal of the resulting image is then made.

A variety of light sources can be used, ranging from simple flashlights to dedicated devices which use a fiber optic light pen. Other sources of light including candles, matches, fireworks, lighter flints and glow sticks are also popular. A tripod is usually necessary due to the long exposure times involved. Alternatively, the camera may be placed on or braced against a table or other solid support. A shutter release cable or self timer is generally employed in order to minimize camera shake. Color Gels can also be used to color the light sources.

                                    

MIRAGES

Mirage

We generally hear interesting stories about weary travelers trudging across a seemingly never-ending expanse of desert to what they think is a lush oasis or people traveling on a hot afternoon notice a puddle of water which melts into thin air when approached. This optical phenomenon is known as mirage. The term mirage originates via the French word ‘mirage’ which originates from the Latin mirari, which means ‘to look at, to wonder at’.

Fata Morgana

A mirage is generated by two layers of air at different temperatures. Since cold air is denser than hot air, the boundary between the layers can refract (bend) light, especially if the light hits the boundary at an extreme angle. This effect can be commonly seen on asphalt roads during the summer. The black color of the road gets the air above it hot very quickly, creating a sharp temperature gradient in the air – the first ingredient of a good mirage. This is often referred to as a highway mirage.

Inferior Mirage

Mirages can be categorized as “inferior” (meaning lower), “superior” (meaning higher) and “Fata Morgana”, one kind of superior mirage which appears above the water. The phrase comes from the Italian version of the name of the sorceress Morgan Le Fay.   An inferior mirage is called ‘inferior’ because the mirage is located under the real object. Inferior images are not stable. Hot air rises, and cooler air being denser descends, so when the layers mix, it gives rise to turbulence. A superior mirage occurs when the air above the line of sight is colder than the air above it. Superior mirages are in general less common than inferior mirages, but when they do occur, they tend to be more stable. These mirages are quite common in Polar Regions, especially over large sheets of ice with a uniform low temperature.

Superior Mirage

Researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas have created a working cloaking device which has the ability to make objects disappear. The novel design makes use of sheets of carbon nanotubes (CNT) which has unique properties to conduct heat and transfer it to surrounding areas that makes it an ideal material to exploit the so-called “mirage-effect”. Just like a mirage, this steep temperature gradient causes the light rays to bend away from the object concealed behind the device, making it appear invisible. The research results also provide useful insights into the optimization of nanotube sheets as thermo-acoustic projectors for loud speaker and sonar applications, where sound is produced by heating using an alternating electrical current.

The optical phenomenon of a mirage of an astronomical object is most commonly observed for objects like the Sun, Moon, the planets, the bright stars and very bright comets in which light rays are bent to produce distorted or multiple images. The most commonly observed are sunrise and sunset mirages.

Desert Mirage

For those who have never spotted a mirage, there is no need to trek to the desert to see a mirage: they are very common on roads. The most spectacular mirages occur in wide expanses of flat land as too many hills, dips or bumps will prevent the refracted light from reaching your eyes.