Anika Choudhary

Climate change is one of the biggest social issues in the world that is haunting the earth and its residents i.e. humans, animals and plants. Due to climate change, there has been a rise is temperature of oceans and seas which has led to the melting of the polar ice caps. These polar ice caps provide coolness to the Earth and balances its hot temperatures. Due to the melting of the polar ice caps, the Earth's temperatures and its sea levels have been rising annually. Because of the rising of the Earth's temperatures, there has been an occurrence of larger, bigger and more disastrous storms and natural disasters.  The rising in the temperature of ocean water does not seem really important at first, but it is something that deserves our attention. The rise in temperature of oceans has led to the development of more destructive hurricanes and it allows a tropical storm/depression to intensify into a major hurricane within 24 hours and each hurricane season is becoming more intense...

Navratri is a religious Hindu festival that is celebrated to honour Goddess Durga. It is also celebrated for the victory of good over evil when Goddess Durga defeated Mahishasur in battle. Navratri is celebrated for 10 days and nine nights twice a year. First it is celebrated in the Hindu month of Chaitra and then it is celebrated in the Hindu month of Sharad. This festival goes on for nine days to worship the Goddess Durga and her nine avatars - the Navadurga.  On the first day, Shailaputri, the daughter of the mountains, is worshipped. Shailaputri is considered to be the incarnation of Sati (Shiva's first wife who later reincarnated as Parvati.  On the second day, we worship Brahmacharini, an incarnation of Parvati.  The third day is devoted to Chandraghanta. It is said that after marrying Shiva, Parvati adorned the half lit moon on her forehead, hence the name.  On the fourth day, Kushmanda is worshipped and she is believed to be the creative power of ...

This is an areca tree and the structure dangling from the top of the tree is a bunch of areca nuts. It is grown in South and Southeast Asia, parts of East Africa and the tropical Pacific. These trees are fast grower and grow 5-10 inches every year. They can reach up to 6-8 feet indoors and they can grow upto 25-30 feet outdoors. The common name Areca has been generated from a name locally used on the Malabar Coast of India. The areca nuts are also known as betel nuts that is used for making paan in India. 

Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapour falling because of gravity. Rain provides water for many water bodies and it is an important part of the water cycle. It gives water for irrigation, hydroelectricity plants and trees. Rain is usually represented in the shape of a raindrop but in reality, they have a spherical shape high up in the atmosphere, but as they fall towards the ground, the raindrops start to flatten and curve, resembling the shape of a jellybean. An average raindrop falls from the sky at 14 miles per hour and can take upto two minutes to fall on the ground. The two clouds that produce the most rain are Nimbostratus clouds and cumulonimbus clouds. The nimbostratus clouds have a dark and grey color and they hang low in the sky while the culmolonimbus cloud are shaped like a mountain, with a dark grey color. A culmolonimbus cloud is a thunderstorm cloud and these clouds also produce hail and tornadoes.

Peer pressure is when you are directly or indirectly influenced from your peers on you. This influence can bring positive or negative changes in your behaviour. Someone can do this so that they can feel liked by their friends or peers. Although peer pressure is usually described as negative, there is positive peer pressure too. Negative peer pressure is something that everyone should avoid at all costs because it can cause a decline in one's mental health, they can get anxiety and depression and so on. Postive peer pressure can be beneficial and can strengthen your personality but at the end of the day, it is always the best to be yourself no matter what. Everyone has their own unique personality that no one else has and even if someone doesn't have many friends, they will find one friend in their life who will truly love their personality and will never try to influence them. Just because of your reputation, you should never try to change yourself because your personality is p...

The common sunflower is a large herb that is grown every year for many reasons and one of them is that it provides food for birds and forage for livestock. It's scientific name is Helianthus annuus and it's average height is of 6-10 feet. With more than 70 different varieties of this tall flowering plant, it is generally native to North and South America. The sunflower shows a very unique trait called heliotropism. In this, the sunflower will face eastwards when the sun is rising and will follow it's direction westwards till the sun sets. 

Today is the auspicious day of Janmashtami. On this day, it is said that Lord Krishna was born on midnight. I made this picture of Krishna which depicts His (Krishna's) two manifestations. On the right side is the happy form of Krishna who lived in Vrindavan during his childhood. He always had a smile on his face, had curly hair up to his shoulders and kept his flute in the belt of his dhoti. On the left, is when Krishna was in the Mahabharata war. Lord Krishna was very angry because Arjun didn't want to attack his grandfather Bhishma as he had a soft spot for him. Because of this, the Pandavas army was getting massacred by Bhishma. Taking matter in his own hands, Krishna went against his promise of not lifting a weapon during the war and went to attack Bhishma with a chariot wheel. He stopped his only when Arjun promised Krishna that he would fight to his true potential.