Safari Magazine | November 2013 Issue | Views And Reviews

The November 2013 issue of Safari – a science and knowledge magazine from India, is quite on time. It is more important as the festival season of Diwali is approaching in India. And if the magazine is delayed, it could have been taken even few more days to reach the readers than the usual.

So here we go with the introduction to the content found in this issue, with the hope that it have better options between the cover pages to go for during the holidays.

Diwali is celebrated as the festival of lights, its about victory of light over the dark, a metaphor for the triumph of the truth. The cover page of the magazine have a fantastic pose of T-90, Indian Army’s most lethal arm. The cover page thus reflects the Diwali times in proper ways!

The inside cover page contains the – MegaPixel – image as usual. This time it is titled as – The Half Dome. It is about… well just go for it for yourself to know the same. You will enjoy it for sure.

The porcupine is known for its pincushion. Even deadly animals do not dare to get into battle with porcupine due to the same reasons. The Needle like hair of porcupine are having even smaller hairs grown in reverse direction on the same, making it even more dangerous. You can see the result of making mistake to attack a porcupine by a lioness in an embedded photo within the article. The article brings in some interesting facts about porcupine. The article will interest people interested in knowing different kind of animals, and interested in bio-zoology.

Banyan tree is known for its own way of growth. Usually some of the branches have roots grown towards the Earth, later touch the ground and become a trunk of another Banyan tree (associated with the previous one, literally). Thus a Banyan tree can be grown wider and wider. Such a famous Banyan tree is – Kabirvad – located in Bharuch, Gujarat, India. It spread over 640 meters (circumference). But wait, it is not the biggest Banyan tree of the world! Read a very detailed article inside the issue, to know about the record setting Banyan tree(s). Of course, the article interest more to botany lovers, but it is worth reading for all.

We use a lot of aids to go find a particular place, especially in an unknown area. It varies from maps, compass, following sign boards, asking people, GPS based navigation system and… more. But have you ever wondered, what helps the list birds and animals to find their home when they lost?! We often heard the some birds travel thousands of miles and reach to their destination! How can they? We came to know the strange cases of various animals like cat, dog, horse, cow etc. came to their original owner’s place by traveling unbelievably. What makes it happen for them!? A very detailed article inside this issue is a read to get answers for such questions. Nice article.

Bull’s eye! Sharp Shooter! These phrases makes us think about the genius who can achieve their target right on the mark with his weapon, right? The Spitting Cobra is also a sharp-shooter and it can hit the bull’s eye when spray its venom! Yeah, you read it right. This article by B. M. Purohit also explains the venom hitting system and its mechanism (used by spitting Cobra). It is interesting read.

The Fast Facts – segment bring information about NASA’s Voyager-1. A summarized article about latest happenings in the space.

We have just mentioned the various ways to find the location, and one more such article came in our way. It is about Vasco Da Gama, who found the way to reach to India more than about 500 years ago. It was the time when sea was the only way to reach to the different continent which possibly exist. A lot of people were not even believed that the Earth is a sphere and a round trip to the same is even possible. The technology was also not so advanced. And it took months in such voyages, but he was able to make it and land to Calicut in India, finally. The first installment of the article is very interesting read, and makes you curious to wait for the next issue of the magazine to get read the second part of the same.

The – Q & A – Fact Finder – section answers the following questions:

• Is it true (or a myth) that our tongue is divided into areas for tasting sweet, sour, bitter and salt?
• Mt. Everest is the highest mountain on Earth. Is it the highest mountain in our solar system too?
• What causes ripples like undulating patterns of sand in the desert?
• Why is a matchstick called a safety match?
• Is it true that aluminum posts and pans (used especially in roadside dhabas) can trigger Alzheimer’s Disease?
• Why do snakes have forked tongues?
• Why does one hear sound like that of sea waves when a conch shell or an empty vessel like a tumbler is held to the ear?
• Why is a green flower not found anywhere in the world?
• Is there any physical evidence that asteroids have struck our planet in the past?
• What would happen to an astronaut’s body if he went into space without wearing a space-suit? Will his body explode?

The Super-Quiz section is focused on – Unknown history of famous symbols.

The last cover page contains the theme article of this issue – All about T-90 (Bheeshma) – Battle Tank from India.

The language of the articles is interesting. It doesn’t let you feel you are reading something heavy. The more article are on animals, trees etc. But still we feel it is a good mixture of the content and is one of the good reading material available. It is often said that the newer generation reads little comparatively, but actually it is not. There are more options than the conventional books and magazines, the blogs, the newspaper websites, the e-book readers and the smartphones provides more reading material these days, and people actually read them. The thing to worry is not too much options available when it come to quality reading. And this magazine falls in the quality reading area.

So our personal verdict is – go for it.