June 2021 - Pursuittraveller

Unique Places

6 Forbidden Places You Are Not Welcome

June 29, 2021 No Comments

There are many forbidden places in the world for ordinary people or tourists. Our planet holds so many wonders, secrets and treasures waiting to be explored. However, some places are just too dangerous, too protected or wild or maybe even too special to visit. I want to see as much I can in this birth, but even if I want to, many times there is no way. Those places remain unexplored and mysterious to the world. I am mentioning some such forbidden places in the world here. But entry strictly prohibited for visitors.

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India- North Sentinel Island

North Sentinel Island in the Andamans, one of the most mysterious places on the planet. Home to the Sentinelese tribe people on this island. They have no contact with the modern world yet. These people have no idea what is happening around the world outside of their island. If anyone visits their island they become ferrous and they start attacking with their weapon. According to history, the Sentinelese people of the island have lived on the island for about 50,000 years and under the protection of the Indian government. North Sentinel island is just one of the many islands in the Indian ocean not very large about 60 square kilometers or 23 square miles. However, this particular island completely closed to the public neither tourists nor residents nearby.

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Japan- Ise Grand Shrine

Home to approximately 8000 shrines, Japan is popular for its shrine culture. However, Ise Grand Shrine is one of the most expensive, as well as the most important of all the shrines in Japan. The temple rebuilt after every 20 year to maintain the Shinto traditions dating back to the 8th century. Access is strictly limited, with the common public are not allowed, unless you are a member of the royal family, you will not be allowed to enter the shrine.

Brazil- Snake Island

Ilha Da Queimada Grande or Snake island in Brazil is considered one of the most forbidden places in the world, not just in Brazil. These islands infested with thousands of deadly snakes. This place is so deadly and dangerous that the Brazilian government bans normal people from visiting here. The island is only home to the 4000 Golden lancehead snakes. Its venom is up to five times more potent than its mainland relative.

The real reason the island closed to the public, to protect the critically endangered snakes from poaching.
As these snakes are so rare that snake smugglers sell them for up to thirty thousand dollars on the black market

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Italy- Poveglia

Poveglia is located between Venice and Lido in Northern Italy. It is a small island that has seen and heard a lot throughout history. Poveglia Castle, a shipping checkpoint, a separate station for the bubonic plague, and eventually a psychiatric hospital. So this island must have seen a lot of deaths and tragedies. So the psychiatric hospital closed in 1968 and the island abandoned. The island of Poveglia has long been considered one of the most haunted places in the world. Many claim that the island haunted by ghosts of plague victims.

Iceland- Surtsey Island

The island of Suratsi in Iceland, created by a volcanic eruption just 57 years ago, which means scientists from around the world have had the unique opportunity to observe the birth and evolution of an ecosystem. Surtsey is off-limits because researchers don’t want to interfere with anyone or anything external in the process of evolution. This interesting phenomenon is briefly what limits its access to other regions of the world.

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Italy- Vatican’s Secret Archive

The Vatican and the Catholic Church already seem mysterious, but did you know that they have a secret archive where they store documents related to the Catholic Church and some of them may be as early as the eighth century. The entire archive so large that it has 53 miles of shelves and no one with special permission for access prohibited from entering.

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Magawa- The Hero Rat, Saving Cambodian lives

June 19, 2021 No Comments

Magawa The rat directly responsible for saving the Cambodian people. The “hero rat” whose work sniffing out landmines in Cambodia. Magawa also won a medal for life-saving bravery. Magawa spent five years (2016-2021) sniffing out hazardous, unexploded weapons of war dotting the Cambodian countryside. Cambodia is one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world. And Magawa one of the most successful bomb-sniffing rats of all time. This Hero rat retiring after five years of service.

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The Rat, Saving Cambodian live

In Cambodia, the mainstay of the economy is agriculture. But wars and conflicts have left 5 million landmines across the beautiful country. Over 40,000 people have been made mine amputees. Cambodia’s people work and live with the threat of injury and death every single day. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes but all of them have big hearts and brave spirits. Magawa is a landmine detection rat. He trained to alert his handler, whenever he finds explosives. So far, he cleared 141,000 square meters of land of unexploded landmines. As well as saving countless Cambodian lives. So far, Magawa has impacted more than a million people and freed them of the terror of landmines.

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Magawa’s Journey

Magawa, a giant African pouched rat. The Hero rat started his journey in Tanzania ( East Africa). He was born there as part of a breeding colony. He trained by the Belgium-registered charity called APOPO. Rat are normally weaned at the age of 10 weeks after that Magawa was socialized and thereafter he started clicker training. The rats are too light to trigger a mine so they just gently scratch over the mine. Magawa can find mines very quickly. He can search for a field the size of a tennis court in just twenty minutes. And he also famous for used his powerful sense of smell to detect TNT (the chemical compound used in explosives). Magawa just indicated the location and presence of TNT. Once he finds an explosive, he scratches the top to alert their human co-workers. If an explosive is found the spot will be marked and the threat will be removed and destroyed by expert de-miners. Magawa is also the rat responsible for discovering an anti-tank mine. In his five-year career, the rat sniffed out 71 landmines and many more unexploded items from Cambodia. Every landmine Magawa finds could save a life.

The Honour

Magawa, awarded the prestigious PDSA Gold Medal for his work and bravery. According to PDSA (People’s Dispensary For Sick Animals), this is the very first time in our 77-year history of honoring animals that we will have presented a gold medal to a rat.

Magawa’s handler ‘Malen’ says – Magawa’s performance has been unbeaten, and I have been proud to work side-by-side with him.

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Let’s Talk About Pride Month

June 12, 2021 No Comments

Pride Month Picture Source By Google Image

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month, currently celebrated each year in June. To honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. Also in many parts of the world, June is the ‘Gay Pride Month’. Pride Month is dedicated to celebrating the LGBTQ community as well as their struggle against discrimination and social ostracisation. In many countries around the world, there are various activities for the LGBTQ community throughout the month. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. The Stonewall Uprising was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. In the United States, the last Sunday in June was initially celebrated as “Gay Pride Day” but the actual day was flexible.

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The History Of Pride Month

PRIDE is an acronym for Personal Rights in Defense and Education. The organization was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1966, by Steve Ginsburg. PRIDE, from its very inception, was much more radical than the pre-1960s homosexual rights groups.

On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich village Manhattan became the focal point of the gay revolution. The Inn became quite popular for gay people. Also, The Stonewall Inn was one of the few places that allowed gay people to dance. During that era, police raided gay bars and arrested 13 people. The raid ignited the long pent-up frustration of the LGBTQ community. Also, many patrons and gay residents of the Greenwich village started to gather around the Inn. The situation turned aggressive, and many civilians were manhandled. Also, an LGBTQ woman was hit by a policeman as he bundled her into a police vehicle. Instantly, a full-fledged riot broke out led by trans women like Marsha PJohnson’s, Sylvia Rivera, and Miss Majorin. It led to five more days of belligerent protests and activism by the LGBTQ people of New York.

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On June 28th, 1970 people marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. This event was organized to remember the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. And it was the first-ever Gay Pride March. This was not a parade as we know it today. There was no music, no dancing, no glitter. It was a legitimate risk to walk out and march. And it was a sign of resistance. New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago also started pride march at that same time. The next year, the marches had spread to Boston, Dallas, London, Paris, and even West Berlin.

Pride Marches Of Acceptance

In the US, the first-ever ‘official’ Gay Pride Month was declared by President Bill Clinton in June 1999 and then followed up by declaring one in June 2000 as well. The Stonewall Riots hence mark an important day in the evolution of modern-day gay rights. In 2016, President Obama declared the Stonewall Inn a national monument. President Obama, during his two terms from 2009-2016, declared June as the LGBT pride month each year. Mr. Trump took to Twitter to announce that June was the LGBT pride month but abstained from an official proclamation. President Biden has declared June to be the LGBTQ+ Pride Month of 2021.

Since 2012, Google has also been increasing its LGBTQ + stand on its homepage. Any search on Google that deals with the subject of LGBTQ is an introduction to homosexual pride with a distinct rainbow color pattern.

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Quick Information

More than 150 official Pride festivals and events are happening around the world in 2021.

The Sao Paulo Brazil Gay Pride is considered the biggest and the best gay pride parade in the world. In fact, it holds the title The Largest Pride in the Guinness Book of World Records, as the biggest pride parade in the world starting in 2006 with 2.5 million people.

Kolkata’s pride march in 1999 was the oldest pride walk in India and South Asia, organized on 2 July. The walk was called The Friendship Walk. The parade began with hardly fifteen participants and some of these participants came from other cities in India, including Mumbai and Bangalore. Kolkata was chosen as the first city to host the march owing to Kolkata’s history of movements for human and Political Rights.

Amsterdam Pride didn’t start as a call for equal rights for LGBT people. This probably because the Netherlands is one of the most LGBT-friendly countries on the planet. In fact, it was the first to legalize same-sex marriage, which took place between two men in Amsterdam. The city’s gay pride festival usually happens on the first weekend of August, with cultural and sports events as well as street parties.

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Food

The Origin & Travel Route To India Of 5 Common Fruits

June 9, 2021 1 Comment

Cover Pictures Source By Google Image

These fruit plants travel their way to India by several different routes. For hundreds of years, when sailors from different countries came to India at different times. They used to carry some of the good items or plants while traveling to other countries. That’s how a variety of vegetables and fruits began to reach Indian soil through various routes in ancient. Subsequently, all these fruits and vegetables were gradually cultivated in India. Later they remained as fruits of India. History shows that the origin of those fruits is in another country or continent.

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The Papaya

The papaya is everywhere in India, but it actually American in origin. In fact, its name in Kannada is foreign-tree or parangi-mara, clearly showing its origin from abroad. According to 1590 Ain-i-Akbari, there was no mention of papaya among the fruits available in the Delhi market at that time. 8 more years later, the papaya seen in the Indian market. Papaya fruit came to India from the West Indies through the Philippines and Malaysia. Saying also that it “much resembles a melon”. Apparently, the Punjabis thought so too and called the papaya, “kharbuza”, which is their name for the melon. The English name papaya or pawpaw seems to derive from the Peruvian “papaie”. The green pieces of the plant carry an enzyme that helps tenderize the meat and make it cook more easily. and this knowledge has accompanied the papaya to every country to which it has traveled.

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The Guava

Guava a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The word guava comes from the Spanish ‘Guajava’, which pronounced Gua-hava. Guavas originated from Mexico, Central America, or northern South America throughout the Caribbean region. Where it domesticated a long time ago. By the late 17th century, it well established in India. Guava or Amarood, the fourth most widely grown fruit crop in India.

The Cheeku

Sapota or Cheeku sounds really Indian, doesn’t it? But you are in for a disappointment. It is the Spanish name for this fruit. This long-lived evergreen tree native to southern Mexico, in Central America. At one time, the trunk of the tree used to be tapped for its latex or gum which was called “chicle;” this was the original chewing gum of the Mexicans, and later on of the United States. A well-known brand of chewing gum even today, called after this name (Chiclets). These trees grow very large, and young men called ‘chicleros’ were experts in clambering up to the top and tapping the gum from there. Today, the demand for chewing gum is so great that synthetic gums made in factories have completely replaced the chicle which was once used. Anyway, we still have the delicious Cheeku fruit to enjoy. It has grown in large quantities in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Mexico.

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The Avocado

How many of you have tasted the butter-fruit? It looks very much like a green pear, and in Spanish it is called the avocado. It has a big seed and a pale-yellow, creamy flesh with a delicate nutty flavour. Three varieties of the avocado seem to have come to India from Central America, which is its original home. The variety which came from Mexico bears rather small fruit, those from Guatemala and the West Indies carry much larger ones. The butter-fruit seems to have reached us long after the other fruits that we have just read about, but already the huge tree has run wild all over the Western Ghats of south India.

The Pineapple

The pineapple probably originates from Paraguay in South America. However, it quickly took root in India, and from the Ain-i-Akbari we know that in 1590 it sold in the Delhi bazaar at a price of four copper coins each. This was rather expensive because the same money would buy ten mangoes. The name pineapple gave to it because the fruit looks like an enlarged version of the cone of the pine tree, while its taste is sweet, like an apple. A common Indian name for pineapple is Ananas. This was given to it by the Spanish from one of its original South American names, which was ‘nana’

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A Journey Of The Kalash People Of Pakistan

June 4, 2021 1 Comment

The Kalash People Picture Source By Google Image

For centuries, the Kalash People lived in a remote mountainous region which now spreads contiguously across Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, Kalash people who lived in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan carried on the legacy. The natural beauty of this region, almost isolated from the earth.

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The people, known as Kalash. They are said to have descended from soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great who traveled this way in 324 BCE. The animist Kalash is outwardly different from the darker-skinned Pakistani Muslims who live in the lowlands below them. Today, they form the smallest of Pakistan’s minority ethnic groups (numbering between 3,000 to 4,000 people) and can be found in three valleys: Bumburet, Rumbur, and Birir. The Kalash language is said to be part of the Dardic group of Indo-Aryan languages.

Who Is This Kalash people

They say their ancestors came from Greece. There is a lot of evidence of it in history. According to historians, Alexander the Great conquered the mountains of northern Pakistan 2,000 years ago, where the Kalash now live. The people of Kalash have also been living here for almost two thousand years. There is no resemblance between Arabic or Urdu, the language spoken by the people of the Kalash tribe, which belongs to the Indo-Iranian language. According to Kalash people said that Alexander came to India even before Islam. When he returned to Greece after winning the war, some of his comrades remained. They like the natural beauty of Hindu Kush. Married local women. The infidel Kalash of Hindu Kush are their descendants.

The New York Times found that the Kalash people’s DNA seems to indicate that they had an infusion of European blood during a “mixing event” at roughly the time of Alexander’s conquests. These isolated people are thus most likely the direct descendants of the ancient Greek-Macedonian armies who set up outposts in this region 2,300 years ago.

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They Follow Ancient Culture

The Kalash people kept their pagan rituals and worshipped their ancient gods in outdoor temples, despite the fact that most Pakistanis converted to Islam throughout the decades. Most importantly, they produced wine much like the Greeks of antiquity did. This is a Muslim country that forbade alcohol.

They cultivate on the slopes of the hills for their livelihood. They have a life full of dance, song, entertainment. Earlier, the people followed a simple life, mostly dependent on agriculture and cattle rearing. Buckwheat and other crops were grown in the river valleys. The food prepared in wood-fired ovens. They followed a nature-oriented faith. which later some researchers equated with the animistic form of worship while others found similarities with ancient Hindu concepts.

Customs

The customs of the Kalashas are very strange. One of them that has been much discussed is the custom of sending menstruating as well as pregnant women to the ‘Bashaleni’, a dorm-style building far from the main village. It is frequently referred to as a type of oppression by modern cultural interpreters. But according to Kalash people, it is the women who handle the bulk of everyday work; the time out.

The Kalash follow various social customs and rituals. When a boy goes from adolescence to youth, the boy, sent to the high mountains with sheep for the whole summer. When he survives and comes back to the village, Badulak festival is happing. In this festival, he will stay for one day, with any married, unmarried, and virgin girl in the village. For this, if anyone is pregnant, everyone in the village will consider it a blessing.

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Festival

Barbara West, a professor of anthropology at the University of Rochester. He says in the Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania that “Kalash religion is a form of Hinduism that recognizes many gods and spirits” and that “given their Indo-Aryan language … the religion of The Kalasha is much more closely aligned the Hinduism of their Indian neighbors.

There are three main religious festivals of Kalash. In May, ‘Chilam Joshi’ is ‘Uchau’ in autumn and in mid-winter, the best festival is ‘Kaumus’. In this festival, they create human chains around the whole village. The priest of the temple spread the leaves of the juniper tree on the devotees like leather. At the end of the day, everyone dances and eats in a place called ‘Charso’ in the middle of the village.

The Kalas believe that at this time their most revered deity is ‘Baloman’ or they go around the valley and listen to everyone’s prayers. So big fires and torches are lit in the mountains to pay homage to the deity. Then they play the flute around the fire, play drums made of pinewood, clap their hands, and dance in circles.

Modern Lifestyle

Numerous Kalash men and women in Nuristan, Afghanistan, have been forced to convert by the Taliban. But the Pakistani Kalash people are still fighting to preserve the tradition they have held for thousands of years. They are trying to hold on to their ancient culture. The traditions continue even today but have been much influenced by the incursions of modern lifestyle as motorable roads (rough and dusty) have made the remote villages accessible. Shops have opened in the valleys which provide meat and other food items, consumer products, etc. Electrification has made televisions, mobile phones and computers accessible.

Even though the Kalash people and their culture, changing slowly over time. The elderly keepers are worried that the advent of modern lifestyle and the younger generation’s proximity to the Islamic lifestyle. A leader of the Kalash, Saifullah Jan, has stated, “If any Kalash converts to Islam, they cannot live among us anymore. We keep our identity strong.” About three thousand have converted to Islam or are descendants of converts, yet still, live nearby in the Kalash villages and maintain their language and many aspects of their ancient culture.

Tourism Kalash Valley

Tourism has also made inroads into the Kalash villages. Unless hindered by political situations, tourists arrive in spring and summer to see the rugged breathtaking beauty of the region and the unique lifestyle of the Kalash people. The villagers too look upon tourism as a way of earning and have set up homestays and hotels, and shops selling local handicrafts. One of the best occasions to visit the Kalash villages is during their colorful festivals.

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