The Express Tribune hi five - July 19

THE

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IB U S TR PRES

N E , JU

, 2015 LY 1 9

Your Proofness: Dilaira Dubash Master Storyteller: Hurmat Majid Creativity Analysts: Jamal Khurshid, Essa Malik, Talha Ahmed Khan, Mohsin Alam, Eesha Azam, Maryam Rashid, Hira Fareed and Umar Waqas

Spreading the joy of Eid PAGE 2-3

The tale of sugar PAGE 4

A kind heart PAGE 6

Jelly and fruit cocktail PAGE 8

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 19, 2015

Hi light

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Eid is the time for celebration and fun. It is the reward we reap for fasting and all the good deeds that we did during the blessed month of Ramazan.

We mark the occasion by wearing new clothes, saying special prayers and enjoying the days with yummy delicacies, not to forget envelopes filled with lots of eidi. These are all charms of Eid but the essence of the occasion is found in sharing the joy with others. This week we have brought to you some simple ways to share the happiness with everyone around you.

Eid is the season of festivity where everyone is visiting you and your family. The best way to spread some Eid joy is to be a gracious host; ask your parents for some advice.

Like what to say when you meet someone, how to make sure that your guests are comfortable. What jokes to tell at the table and how to serve all of that yummy food to your guests. It would also be a good idea for you to have some cool games ready to share with the kids that would be visiting you. Good manners come in handy all year round, and the hosting tricks you may learn this Eid would help you keep your guests entertained and yourself occupied for years and years to come.

Everyone gets into arguments and quarrels, it is quite normal. But as the saying goes, “The first to apologise is the bravest, the first to forgive is the strongest and the first to forget is the happiest.” So this Eid why don’t you become brave, strong and happy all at once by ending a fight and letting go. It may even be a good idea to bring your friend or sibling a small present , like their favourite chocolate bar or a nice little toy as a peace offering.

Have you ever wondered what its like to be working during the Eid holidays? While everyone else celebrates guards, gatekeepers and traffic wardens all spend their Eid away from home. It’s only fair that we share some of our joy with them. One great idea to do this is to ask a bunch of your friends or your siblings to combine a chunk of your eidi to buy some mithaai or other sweets for them. Then with the assistance of an elder go out and distribute those small sweet packages among traffic constables and the guards and gatekeepers in your area. Not only would this bring big smiles on their faces, it would also make their Eid extra special.

Eid is a busy time around the house, with lots of guests coming and going. Another great way to make everyone’s Eid special is to help out around the house. After all don’t we all end up complaining that Eid has become boring with nothing for us to do except sit around the house and watch TV. You could get rid of your boredom by asking mum and dad if they need any little chores done around the house. Maybe it’s a little light cleaning or some help in the kitchen, anything you do would give mum and dad some free time from all the work.

This is no doubt a hard decision to make. All of us have big plans for all our eidi but the month of Ramazan teaches us the valuable lesson in sacrifice. Everything we learned last month was not just to be practiced then, but throughout the year. So share your eidi with the less fortunate kinds around you. Maybe your maid has kids close to your age that definitely did not collect as much eidi as you. You could do something special for them, like buy them a toy or bangles to match their Eid dress.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 19, 2015

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Hi light

Not long ago, we had this wonderful tradition of going to special stalls set up near our homes to buy all sorts of colourful Eid cards, which were then written and posted to relatives living far away. Kids also used to exchange Eid cards with funny Eid greeting painstakingly written inside them. Everyone used to get excited when the post man arrived with a big bundle of Eid cards under his arm. Everyone in the family used to gather round as the elders read the cards aloud, reminding us that no matter how far they may be, our near and dear ones were sending us warm wishes. This year, why not try your hand at crafting some Eid cards for your cousins and friends, thanking them for always sticking by your side. Maybe even asking your elders to tell you some of those old funny Eid greetings. Who knows maybe your effort would bring the lost tradition of Eid greeting cards back.

DESIGN BY EESHA AZAM What would you like to see in Hi Five? Send an email to hifive@tribune.com.pk and let us know!

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 19, 2015

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Fun facts about mint Mint gets its name from Menthe, a Greek mythical character.

What is gray and blue and very big?

An elephant holding its breath

Ancient Romans and Greeks used mint to flavour cordials and fruit compotes. They also used it for baths and perfumes.

Mint plants originate from the Mediterranean region.

What time is it when an elephant sits on your watch?

Time to get a new watch

How do you raise a baby elephant?

With a fork lift

What’s an elephant’s favourite vegetable?

Squash

What does a doctor give an elephant who’s going to be sick?

Plenty of room

Mint has been found in Egyptian tombs from as far back as 1000 BC Mint is considered a welcoming symbol and often given to guests in tea. This is frequently done in the Middle East.

The Romans felt that eating mint would boost intelligence.

Additionally, they thought that the scent of it was able to prevent people from becoming angry. Ambassadors even kept mint springs in their pockets.

The top six peppermint-producing states in America are Oregon, Washington and Idaho with more than one million pounds each, followed by Indiana, California and Wisconsin.

Mint is shallow-rooted and requires loose-textured soils for good root penetration and growth. It requires 60 inches of rainfall for optimum growth and fertility.

Mint comes in over 30 varieties. The most common of which is spearmint.

Did you know?

The tale of sugar It is thought that cane sugar was first used by man in Polynesia from where it spread to India. In 510 BC the Emperor Darius of what was then Persia invaded India where he found “the reed which gives honey without bees”. The secret of cane sugar, as with many other of man’s discoveries, was kept a closely guarded secret whilst the finished product was exported for a rich profit.

It was the major expansion of the Arabs in the 7th Century AD that led to a breaking of the secret. When they invaded Persia in 642 AD they found sugar cane being grown and learnt how sugar was made. As their expansion continued, they established sugar production in other lands that they conquered, including North Africa and Spain.

Sugar was only discovered by western Europeans as a result of the Crusades in the 11th Century AD. Crusaders returning home talked of this “new spice” and how pleasant it was. The first sugar was recorded in England in 1099. The subsequent centuries saw a major expansion of western European trade with the East, including the import of sugar. It is recorded, for instance, that sugar was available in London at “two shillings a pound” in 1319 AD. This equates to about $100 per kilo at today’s prices so it was very much a luxury.

In the 15th century AD, European sugar was refined in Venice, confirmation that even then when quantities were small, it was difficult to transport sugar as a food grade product. In the same century, Columbus sailed to the Americas, the “New World”. It is recorded that in 1493 he took sugar cane plants to grow in the Caribbean. The climate there was so advantageous for the growth of the cane that an industry was quickly established.

By 1750 there were 120 sugar refineries operating in Britain. Their combined output was only 30,000 tons per annum. At this stage sugar was still a luxury and vast profits were made to the extent that sugar was called “white gold”. Governments recognised the vast profits to be made from sugar and taxed it highly. In Britain for instance, sugar tax in 1781 totalled to £326,000, a figure that had grown by 1815 to £3,000,000. This situation was to stay until 1874 when the British government, under Prime Minister Gladstone, abolished the tax and brought sugar prices within the means of the ordinary citizen.

Sugar beet was first identified as a source of sugar in 1747. No doubt the vested interests in the cane sugar plantations made sure that it stayed as no more than a curiosity, a situation that prevailed until the Napoleonic wars at the start of the 19th Century, when Britain blockaded sugar imports to continental Europe. By 1880, sugar beet had replaced sugar cane as the main source of sugar on continental Europe. Those same vested interests probably delayed the introduction of beet sugar to England until the First World War when Britain’s sugar imports were threatened.

Today, the annual consumption is running at about 120 million tons and is expanding at a rate of about 2 million tons per annum. The European Union, Brazil and India are the top three producers and together account for some 40% of the annual production.

SOURCE: SUCROSE.COM

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 19, 2015

Get your weekly dose of unusual and funny news from across the globe!

Hello again, Pluto Cheers, whoops and flag waving broke out at Nasa’s New Horizons control centre as scientists celebrated its spacecraft’s dramatic flyby of Pluto, considered the last unexplored world in the solar system, on Tuesday last week.

The probe shot past at more than 28,000mph at 12:49 pm on a trajectory that brought the fastest spacecraft ever to leave Earth’s orbit within 7,770 miles of Pluto’s surface. The moment, played out on Tuesday to the sound of The Final Countdown by the 1980s glam metal band Europe, marked a historic achievement for the US, which can now claim to be the only nation to have visited every planet in the classical solar system.

“It feels good,” said Alan Stern, lead scientist on the mission. “So many people put so much work into this around the country. We’ve completed the initial reconnaissance of the solar system, an endeavour started under President Kennedy.” John Grunsfeld, head of Nasa’s science mission directorate, said that images beamed back from New Horizons on its approach showed Pluto to be an “extraordinarily interesting and complex world”.

John continued, “It’s just amazing. It’s truly a hallmark in human history,” he said of the encounter with Pluto. “It’s been an incredible voyage.”

Images beamed back from New Horizons have shown Pluto in shades of red and orange, with hints of valleys, mountains and craters. THEGUARDIAN.COM

World wide weird

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Visciously deceptive

A photo of a squirrel clutching a snake in its paws, reportedly just before devouring it, is taking the Internet by storm, perhaps because most people can’t fathom the animal is capable of such violence. “They’re opportunists,” the photographer, William Leggett, said. “Generally they’ll eat nuts and berries and other things that are easily available, but they’re also known to eat insects, lizards, snakes.”

Leggett snapped the photo in 2009 when he was a ranger at West Texas’ Guadalupe Mountains National Park, it was posted to the Guadalupe Mountains Facebook page on July 6. Leggett said he was sitting inside when he “heard a commotion” and went out to investigate. “When I looked over, the snake and the squirrel were already fighting,” he said. The squirrel saw the snake — which Leggett said Guadalupe Mountains ranger Michael Haynie identified as a desert striped whipsnake -- near her babies. After she won the battle, the squirrel was just “taking advantage of a good meal,” Leggett said. HUFFINGTONPOST.COM

Flipping awesome New fish species This bizarre fanged ‘blackfish’ is among the weird new species discovered in a volcano off the coast of Australia.

Scientists with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation took the snap on a research voyage.

Apart from the scaleless blackfish — experts discovered an eel-like idiacanthidae and the chauliodontidae with huge front teeth. Professor Iain Suthers, a marine biologist and chief scientist on the voyage, said the discovery alters the way researchers study younger fish. “We had thought fish only developed in coastal estuaries, and that once larvae were swept out to sea that was the end of them,” he said. But in fact, these eddies are nursery grounds for commercial fisheries along the east coast of Australia.” Four extinct volcanoes on the ocean-floor were also found during the research trip. MIRROR.CO.UK

Perhaps you took your bicycle out for a spin last weekend. But did you consider attempting a quadruple backflip on it? Probably not, because you have an instinct for bodily preservation.

The daredevils in an insanely viral video posted last Sunday by the Nitro Circus operate on a whole different level. They vied to become the first person to complete a quadruple backflip on a BMX bike. By completing we mean landing successfully on two wheels after going airborne from a giant ramp. New Zealand’s Jed Mildon set the record.

Mildon, a pro stunt rider from New Zealand, fielded many congratulations on his Facebook page, to which he responded, “Thanks heaps everyone! It means a lot!” HUFFINGTONPOST.COM

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 19, 2015

Reading corner

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Laiba Shahbaz is a 10-year-old with a passion for collecting old coins. She picked up the habit when her father gave her his own old coin collection which he had inherited from his father. The most precious coin she has was minted in 1899 and is now 166 years old. She has many other vintage coins in her collection as well.

A kind heart

By Umaimah Riaz Once there was a little boy who had a very kind heart. He had rich parents and they gave him every luxury that he could ever wish for. He had never seen any pain or suffering.

One day while he was at a burger joint and eating his burger, he noticed a little girl who was almost his age. She was sitting outside on the pavement near the road with her head resting on her knees. She was wearing a ragged frock and had no slippers on. Her hair was tied in a ponytail. Salaar couldn’t stop observing her from the glass wall. For some time she stayed in the same position, and then when a man came near her, she lifted her head, grabbed something from the floor and showed it to him. Salaar saw some toys in her hand.

She was trying to sell the toys. Salaar was shocked. He didn’t know that kids can ‘sell’ toys.

He thought the toys were for playing only. The man didn’t buy the toys and ignored that little girl. An expression of disappointment took over her face.

“Salaar? Finish your burger sweetheart”.

“Mama I need another burger”, said Salaar. His parents looked at each other. Salaar hardly ever finished one burger but now he was asking for another. His parents never told him no, so they bought him another burger. Salaar said “I want to give this burger to that girl outside mama.

She is hungry. And I want to buy a toy from her also.” His parents were surprised at this little boy’s concern. He took the burger to her. As he approached her, she lifted her head and showed him the toys. He gave her the burger and she accepted it reluctantly with gleaming eyes. He also noticed a cloth band she was wearing on her wrists. After buying a toy helicopter he came back to his table. The time passed by and that day became a distant memory. Salaar was now a young man of about 27 years and he was driving to his office. Suddenly, a man crossed his path and to save him he swerved his car to the right and crashed into a big tree. He instantly became unconscious. A car stopped nearby and a young woman came to his help. With the help of the bystanders she put him in her car and took her to the hospital.

When Salaar gained consciousness, he asked the nurse who had brought him here. She told him that Miss Eshal had brought him there and she was sitting outside. He asked the nurse to call her. Eshal came inside and asked him about his health. He thanked her for saving his life. When she was about to leave, he noticed a familiar cloth band on her wrist. He stopped her and told her that he saw the same band years ago on somebody else’s wrist. And then Eshal remembered that unforgettable day and told him that she was that same little girl whom he gave the burger. Salaar got really happy to see her and she told him that a very generous family adopted her and loved her like her own parents. Now Eshal was a doctor herself. Salaar was really glad to know this and later that night he reflected, “kind deeds never go wasted”.

Share your short stories with us. Email them to hifive@tribune.com.pk

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 19, 2015

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Artwork

Ahsan Raza Winner

Abdullah Sheikh

Ammara

Hafiza Amna

Farish Amjad Winner

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 19, 2015

Method:

Ingredients: Red jelly

150g

Instant custard powder

100ml

Tinned fruit

100g

• • • • • • • •

Dissolve the jelly in a cup of hot water and bring it to boil.

Take the mixture off the stove and let it cool, but not enough to let the jelly set.

In a short glass, pour the jelly mixture till the glass is half full.

Add a layer of fruit to the glass and let it set in the freezer.

Ask an adult to help you prepare custard using the instructions on the package.

Cool the custard down in the fridge.

Once the jelly has set in the glass add a layer of custard to it.

Garnish with some canned fruit and serve chilled.

Remember kids, always get permission from your parents before you start. It’s always a good idea to have a helper nearby.