I remember the day when I had first seen the National Geographic magazines. The occasion was way back in 2001, when I had given a competitive exam and a question was asked that as follows: On mars the rocks and craters are named after which of the following nouns? The options were as follows:
1. Astronomers
2. Greek Gods
3. Cartoon characters
4. Historians
Seeing this question I was dumb. The answer to this question was found in a national geographic magazine which was of year 1999 which one of my friend possessed (Actually at that time internet penetration in India was very low with few homes having only dialed up connection. Now things have changed a lot) the correct answer for this is cartoon characters like Scooby doo, Mickey mouse, Dexter etc. This was the first time I saw this magazines and from that day I am engrossed in reading them.
What I like the most about these magazines is that they cover all about our surrounding earth, people and places and let us get acquainted with all the beautiful and exotic places on earth. Moreover they have beautifully pictured photographs of birds, animals, nature and people living on earth. They include a wide variety of articles ranging from history, science, nature, wildlife and about various places on earth. Sometimes the photographs represent the harsh truth on earth.
The topics that I liked the most from the issues I have at present are current topics like ‘Healing the Heart’, ‘Growing fuel crisis’, ‘Journey into Sahel, Africa’, ‘Memory-Why we remember why we forget’, ‘India’s shadow city-Dharavi’, ‘The big thaw’, ‘Amazon forest to a farm’ and case study based topics like ‘Human-animal trade diseases’, ‘Light pollution’ and history based topics like ‘Ancient Iran’, ‘The rise and fall of Maya culture’, ‘Afghanistan’s lost treasure’ and many more.
I really admit that the pain taken by the authors and photographers should be appreciated for them who represent such a beautiful article. Though I am a member of society and I receive magazines on regular basis I take some extra efforts to go to Flora fountain, Mumbai to buy some old magazines at a cheap rate. At the start of month I eagerly await for the post man to deliver the magazine. Reading them gives me immense pleasure to know about the world.
Hats off to all members of the society for giving such a beautiful presentation of earth.
