Lighting up lives

Diwali is the festival of lights. And it is interesting how we light up our houses. Clean it to ward off the evil, decorate it with lamps to welcome to the goddess. But there are seldom few, but a definite few who go to the next level and think of lighting up humanity. They take the pain and a considerate effort to ensure that lives other than theirs are lit during Diwali.

We love lists, and here is a list of 5 things that you could do during Diwali to light up someone’s life.

1. Play Angel

Gift Street kids old working toys. Their playmates are empty tins and water bottles. The GI JOE’s and Barbie lying hopelessly in the corner of the room would find owners who would love them more than you do.

2. Play Grand-Kid

Rush to an old age home and put up your goofiest avatar. Make a wrinkled face smile. Get paid in smiles and blessings.

3. Be the unofficial mithai wala

Distribute sweets amongst the building watchman, pizza delivery boy, sweeper and all those people who long for a nice tasty treat. You could do without it, atleast your doctor thinks so.

4. Donate Clothes

While you dress in your swanky new dress, there are people on the streets who walk around in torn, dirty linen that just about covers them. Donate clothes that you don’t wear anymore but would love to wear though.

5. Sponsor a child

What better way than lighten up a child’s future? Sponsor a child’s education and track his academics. 

Beyond playing list diggers, we also thought we could feature some individuals who did light up lives during Diwali.

Meet Shruti Singh, a 20 something from Mumbai, who decided to empower some women this Diwali. Shruti, an artist herself, took sessions on diya painting for these women from Murbaad village and motivated people to buy these diyas through her social media page. She took the project forward and taught street kids to do the same too. More power to you Supergirl.

 

Another girl, Nirali Shah played Santa for some street kids. On a usual day this day-time lawyer and weekend teacher asked these kids to write things that they want in a piece of paper. Closer to the celebrations, these kids got visited by Santa Shah herself... with a bagful of gifts that they had asked for, followed by a party at her house. 

So what did you do to light someone’s life? Share with us by participating in the our contest... https://www.facebook.com/MahindraPowerol

Ye Diwali... Different Diye Wali

To be honest, Diwali diyas can be boring. This year too, you will remove that old plastic cover that contains all the old mud diyas, wash it, dry it and reuse it. But I am sure that after you read this blog, you won’t really do that...

• Looks rustic... smells good

Rustic looks always works. From furniture to decor items, the look that wrought irons and wooden splinters give to the room can seldom be matched. Here’s our way of creating a rustic looking candle. Pick up some cinnamon sticks, stack them together in a circle and tie then up with thin jute ropes. Place a scented candle in the middle and there you have your scented rustic candle.

• The old wine bottle, with no wine left

Gulped up that wine to the last drop? Don’t throw the bottle away. Paint up the old bottles with glitter and inserting lights inside and watch the bottles that made you buzz... buzzing.

• Plastic Spoons Lantern

Move aside paper lantern, welcome used-material lantern. Pick up used spoon and break the head away. Stick them together with super glue, tapering down. Put a light inside and there you have your used plastic spoon lantern.

• Bulb-wick-light

Yes, yes we know bulbs are not eco-friendly and that’s exactly why we are recommending this. Replace them with CFLs or LED, and bore a hole in their base. Pass a pipe through and remove the filament holder. Fill it with oil and block it with a wick. Wrap a twine and paste the end of the twine on the rim of the glass. You have a beautiful lamp ready.

• Light Inside

Why should light be restricted to the outside? Hide the string lights in between your curtains and turn the inside of your house into a colourful version of the mood outside.

Do you have suggestions for us on how you could use light’s better and innovatively for Diwali? Leave your comments in the section below.

The lights are fancy... and so are you...

Fancy lights attract everyone. Long gone are those days where a flat white or yellow light filled up our rooms. People are getting adventurous. From different colors, to types to environment, they are using light in all different forms. Here are a few very interesting ways in which you could decorate using lights. 

Note: please be careful where you put them, keep them away from kids, ensure live wires and not open.

1. Take a huge oversized mirror and sprinkle it with basic white light and you would feel like a celeb in their vanity van (Image: Design*Sponge)

2. Take some strands of different color lights and put them in an empty jam or glass pickle jar... You would be amazed at how that boring jar converts into something special (Photo: Chiot’s Run)

3. If you have a garden and the garden has some trees, then wrap the trunk with lights and switch it on in the night... Grab a chair and sit under that tree and you would reach your favourite holiday destination.

4. Create this for your kids if they love fairy tales. Paint a tree on their wall and stick string lights with transparent adhesives. Light it in the night for them to create a story of their own. (wesleephere.tumblr.com)

5. Empty wine bottles are useful too. Take them, strap with ribbon and stuff led lights right in... and there you have your new night lamp. (Image Courtesy: Flor)

So if you have more such ideas about decorating your house with lights, leave it here in the comments section. 

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.

                                    

Aurora

The word ‘Aurora’ comes from the Latin word which means ‘sunrise’. An aurora is a natural light display in the sky found particularly in the Artic and Antartic regions. This phenomenon occurs due to the collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres; also known as the ‘Aurora borealis’ and ‘Aurora australis’ respectively.

                                              

Aurorae are classified as diffuse and discrete. The diffuse aurora is a featureless glow in the sky that may not be visible to the naked eye, even on a dark night. It defines the extent of the auroral zone. The discrete aurora are sharply defined features within the diffuse aurora that vary in brightness from just barely visible to the naked eye, to bright enough to read a newspaper at night.

               

The Northern lights are a result of collisions between gaseous particles in the earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun’s atmosphere. The connections between the Northern Lights and sunspot activity have been known since 1880. Since the temperature above the surface of the sun is millions of degrees Celsius, collisions between gas molecules are frequent and explosive. Free electrons and protons are thrown from the sun’s atmosphere by the rotation of the sun and escape through holes in the magnetic field.

Variations in color are seen due to the type of gas particles colliding and on how much energy is being exchanged. Oxygen emits either a greenish-yellow light or a red light. Auroral displays appear in many colors like shades of red, yellow, blue and violet. Pale green and pink are the most common ones. These lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow.

              

Aurora’s usually occur in ring-shaped areas centered around the magnetic poles of the Earth. The complete rings, called the auroral ovals, can only be seen from space. The best places to see the Aurora are in Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia, during the late evening hours.

The shape of the aurora depends on where in the magnetosphere the electrons came from and what caused them to precipitate into the atmosphere. Dramatically, different auroral shapes can be seen in a single night.