In the olden times, the houses were constructed of mud bricks and wood. The final touches and plastering were also done with mud only. These were known as Kucha houses. Even the paint on these houses was also a kind of coloured mud. With the passage of time, these structures are now replaced by Pucca houses made up of cement and pucca bricks.

         With the upcoming shortage of wood supply due to decreasing forests, now many wooden components in pucca houses are constructed of either steel or aluminium. As compared to pucca houses, the old houses of mud were cool in summers and warm in winters but these had the disadvantage of difficult maintenance. 

During my recent travel in a hilly area of North India I just clicked this picture of a kucha house which I may not find on my next visit to this area. 

             With the upcoming modernization and urbanization, the life styles and traditions of people are changing at fast pace but there are still some people who are doing the task of preserving culture and traditions and passing those on to the coming generations.  In this article I am mentioning about the famous tourist destination Kullu-Manali in India. Kullu district still has villages and people who thrive on their age professions like sheep-goat rearing and shawl weaving to make their livelihood.

            During the winters these sheep and goat stay at the home-places of their shepherds while during summers the animals are travelled to pastures on the heights to feed on lush green pastures. The shepherds go with their animals with ration and other necessary items to the pastures and stay there for that season.

               They depend on their sheep-goats for wool, meat and money. It is very interesting to see one or two shepherd dogs of local Gaddi breed in each flock. Some flocks also have one or two ponies to carry the loads.

               The wool is harvested from sheep which is then washed, processed and knitted into beautiful Kullu shawls or patti that is used to make coats. In the above picture the man is wearing the coat of indigenous patti manufactured of local sheep wool. These shawls and coats are very warm.

The above picture comes from a village of Lag valley in Kullu district which shows the process of weaving the shawls on primitive "Khaddi" . A pattu, the traditional dress worn by local women is being weaved on it.

Above picture is of a traditional old house in Kullu district. These houses are mainly build of wood and dry stone mesonary which is also an unique traditional art. The villagers are quite simple in living and enjoy the traditional foods like "Siddu". The apple orchards and vegetable growers of Kullu district also make good money out of their or orchards and fields.     

The topic for the final paper in Roman Catholicism was to write on anything in Catholicism that you found to be interesting. That was a very broad topic to choose from so I was having a bit of trouble trying to choose a topic that I thought was most interesting to me, given that we have learned so many interesting facts in class. Last week while I was at work I was walking up the stairs to get to the copy room. On the walls going up the stairs of my job we have what is called “The Wall of Heroes”. One of the “heroes” on the wall is Mother Teresa. Being that I work for an organization that is a charity I thought it would befitting to write about a woman who not only devoted her life to charity but is widely respected and praised for touching the lives of so many.

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910 in Uskub, in the Kosovo Providence of the Ottoman Empire, which is now known as the city of Skopje in the Republic of Macedonia. Her parents were originally from Albania and were Roman Catholic. Her father was a shop owner and they lived in a large house with a large garden. Mother Teresa was the youngest of three children having an older brother and an older sister. It was very known that Mother Teresa’s family was a happy home, were very caring people and never turned away anyone in need for help. Her family members called her “Gonxha” which means flower bud because she was always plump, pink, and cheerful. Mother Teresa said herself one day that “we were a united and very happy family”. Her father died when she was only eight years old and her mother did a good job of keeping the family together and as happy as possible during such a difficult time.
It is said that during her early years, Agnes was fascinated by stories of missionaries and what they did for the community. By the age of 12 years of age she was completely convinced that she was called to commit herself to the Catholic Church and to live...

Earth map

A map is a drawing on a flat surface. It shows a part or all the earth’s surface. A map can be made on paper, on a board or on a wall. We can make maps of schools, villages, towns, states, countries and of the world.

Maps cannot be as accurate as a globe. They cannot show the earth exactly as it is. This is because the earth is a sphere like an orange. So it is not possible to make an accurate map of the surface of the earth on a flat surface.

Maps, however, show things in greater detail. You can draw maps of you school compound or your city and show everything in detail on it. This will not be possible to show on the globe.

Direction

East and west, north and south are the four major directions. We also use words like `left’ and `right’ to show direction. All maps follow the same way of showing direction.

Look at an mp India. The side opposite to and farthest from you is the North. This is the top of the map. Directly opposite the North is the south. It is at the bottom of the map. To your right is the east and in the opposite direction, to your left, is the West. Now check out these directions. Kashmir lies to the North while Kanyakumari is directly opposite, in the south. In the east you see Nagaland and in the West Rajasthan.

Besides the major directions there are four sub-directions. Between north and west lies north- west, and similarly south-west, south-east and north-east. Find out places lying in these directions, on the map.

Maps

Different kinds of maps give different kinds of information.

a) Physical maps show the physical features f a place, like rivers, mountains, plains, etc.

b) Political maps show political boundaries between countries, states, etc.

c) Climatic maps show the climatic conditions of place in the month or in a year.

d) Vegetation maps show areas where different kinds of vegetation are found.