Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Wishing All of You a HAPPY DIWALI



Diwali (also spelled Devali in certain regions) or Deepavali, popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a five day festival which starts on Dhanteras,


The name "Diwali" or "Divali" is a contraction of "Deepavali" (Sanskrit: दीपावली Dīpāvalī), which translates into "row of lamps".Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (dīpa in Sanskrit: दीप) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.[5] These lamps are kept on during the night and one's house is cleaned, both done in order to make the goddess Lakshmi feel welcome. Firecrackers are burst because it is believed that it drives away evil spirits. During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends
 Diwali marks the end of the harvest season in most of India. Farmers give thanks for the bounty of the year gone by, and pray for a good harvest for the year to come. Traditionally this marked the closing of accounts for businesses dependent on the agrarian cycle, and is the last major celebration before winter. Lakshmi symbolizes wealth and prosperity, and her blessings are invoked for a good year ahead.

World's most powerful leaders follow an Indian idol

No, it’s not Abraham Lincoln or George Washington that Barrack Obama looks up to foremost in his life. The world’s most powerful and influential man is enamoured and inspired by none oth
er than Mahatma Gandhi.

Way back in 2009, he admitted that if he ever had a chance to dine with anyone living or dead, it would be Gandhi, who is his real hero. He went on to say that Gandhi inspired a lot of great men such as Dr. Martin Luther King. It was Gandhi’s non-violent movement in India that sparked a similar movement for civil rights in the United States.

Former US Vice President and environmentalist, Al Gore, has also acknowledged Gandhi’s influence on him. So has Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, who sparked the anti-apartheid movement.

Indian teenager outshone Albert Einstein

15 year old Fabiola Mann, whose mother Rene is from Goa and father Anthony is a Londoner, just did her parents proud. She scored an unbelievable 162 in her Mensa IQ score, beating none o
ther than Albert Einstein, who had scored 160.

The feat puts her among the top 1% intelligent people in the world. She appeared for the test on July 30, representing Northwood College School in the three hour test at the London UCL medical College. She had urged her parents to pay her the fee to sit in the test. The scores came a month later instead of the usual two weeks since the results were lost in transit. This qualifies her as a privileged member of the elite intellectual group. Fabiola is thrilled and wishes to grow up to study medicine and become a surgeon.

Mensa was started in 1946 as a society for intelligent people. Her score of 162 is the highest possible that anyone can achieve. Her mother who moved from Margao (Goa) to London in 1993 says that she had heard about Mensa and the genius IQ level children but was amazed to learn that her daughter is one.

LPG gas goes out of fashion. Use garbage instead.

Belgaum City Corporation (BCC) plans to make use of garbage dumps in a revolutionary way. Piles of solid waste will be converted into biogas that can be used for cooking purposes. The biogas set up will be made mandatory in apartments, hotels, wedding venues etc, all of which are responsible for generating more than half of the 150 metric tonnes of garbage produced every day in the city.

The only way to constructively minimize solid waste and prevent future dumps is by recycling garbage through conversion into biogas, the authorities feel. Each biogas unit may cost between Rs 8000 to Rs 10,000. Through this, authorities predict lesser use of LPG gas cylinders and reduce pressure from existing landfills from overflowing. Workshops will be conducted soon in the city to educate the public on biogas operation and the BCC will also provide assistance in setting it up wherever planned.
The move has been much appreciated by both the public and commercial corporations.


What made Enrique Iglesias come back to India?

The man is back. The Grammy award winning global sensation who has sold over 100 million records worldwide with eleven multi-platinum albums and 68 number one chart busters, comes back to India for a second time since 2004.
At that time it was a two day tour when he also he also made a music video remix with gorgeous Bollywood playback singer Sunidhi Chauhan. The track called “Hearbeat”, featured in the Indian edition of his album “Euphoria”. This time it is a three day live performance in Pune, New Delhi and Bangalore.
So what makes Iglesias come back to India again and again? The singer admits it’s his love of Indian food. He says he and his troupe can’t wait to dig into some authentic Indian cuisine. He also looks forward to his enthusiastic fans Indian fans and collaborating with different artistes in the country.


5 effortless steps to block Facebook spam from reaching your news feed


We recently posted an article about Facebook ‘Like’ scams and the truth behind them. This post talked about how some parties created fake pages to invoke sympathy and got hundreds of thousands of likes and comments as a result. This in turn enhanced the Edge Rank of a page and spread as spam to even more Facebook users. This post now explains steps on how to prevent such messages from appearing in your news feed.

These steps will be useful, if you often find your news feed overflowing with such posts, or posts that claim your friends have recommended something by liking it. You can resolve this in different ways. But in most cases, these friends are not even aware that their actions are causing spam or recommendations to reach your news feed. If you find that a lot of spam has reached you through a specific individual, you should probably inform him/her about this.

STEP 1: Click on the tiny scroll-down arrow that appears in the top-right corner of a news feed item to see a list of actions. If you click on ‘Report Story or Spam‘ the post will be dealt with by Facebook.















STEP 2: If you click on ‘Hide…‘ you will see the following message. This implies that the item has disappeared from your news feed and you can choose to ‘Unhide‘ it as well.








STEP 3: If you hover your mouse over ‘Change what updates you get‘, you can select the kind of news feed updates you will receive from this person. You can select ‘only important’ updates, any combination of various updates or unsubscribe from the news feed completely.
























STEP 4: However, if you click on ‘Organize who you see in news feed‘, you will see the various lists that have been created. This can also be viewed via the left-side column of your news feed page.





























 STEP 5: You can now add and remove friends from these lists and also decide what kind of updates will be received from them. Additionally, other lists based on any parameter can be created as well.

















These simple instructions on how to deal with such spam messages and avoid Facebook ‘Like’ scams can be implemented by anyone. Anti-spam software is unable to deal with such threats so it is crucial to be aware of these risks and how they can be avoided. In a worst case scenario, you can simply unsubscribe completely from a friend’s activity or block/unfriend them on Facebook for good.

                                                                                                           (Article of blogs.quickheal.com)


Maria Sharapova falls in love with dosa

Even as Indian fans of the stunning tennis star were awed by 25 year old Maria Sharapova, the lady herself stood gasping about India, yearning for more. She said just one day was unsatisfactory for her in India. She wished to spend more time, visiting the Taj Mahal, sampling the food and playing live for the enthusiastic audience who were enamoured with her beauty, humility and talent.
She seemed truly taken in by the large fan following in the country. The small conference room where she made her first appearance was packed to capacity. People stood mesmerized by the 6 foot 2 inch blonde beauty. Meanwhile Maria herself said that she was amazed it took her so long to visit India. She said she was here only for a day and had dosa for breakfast on the Chef’s recommendation. The experience left her craving for not just more of the food but also a generous dose of Indian culture.
She was one her way back from a break in the Indonesian island of Moyo where she had headed after a silver medal at the London Olympics. She said she found Delhi to be an energetic city and wished to play in the country live some day soon.

No roaming charges for mobile phones in India


The telecom minister, Kapil Sibal, has announced that the government plans to do away with roaming charges as per the National Telecom Policy 2012. The policy will be effective from next year.
Currently, the roaming charge is applicable on both calls received and calls made in an area outside the home network. This regulation has been in effect for more than 12 years now. The new policy that was approved in May will allow free roaming throughout the country. This will allow users to get incoming calls and make local calls for free, wherever they are within the country.
However this news has not gone down well with mobile companies. They feel that abolishing roaming tariffs will affect their revenues. Roaming charges add to 8% to 10% of their sales.

                                                                                                               (Based on Yahoo.com)

One rupee coins sold for Rs 10

The city of Hubli - Dharwad in Karnataka are witnessing a strange crisis. They are running out of small change. There is a severe shortage of Re 1 and Rs 2 which are prompting well to do businessmen asking beggars for their change or buying Re 1 coins for a larger amount.
Most of the beggars are given small change which now seem more precious and hard to get than regular money. In the event of no coins, hoteliers are forced to buy the same at a much higher price. 100 coins are now selling for Rs 10-20 as commission over and above the regular Rs 100 for each bunch. If the hotelier is desperate for more, commission for the same increases.
In most cases when shopkeepers or sellers run out of coins, they compensate the customer with candies. However, more and more customers are now rejecting the candies and demanding the money instead. The supply of coins from banks is not meeting the needs of the hoteliers. Usually associates distribute coins worth Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 to each hotel every month but many of them are asking for more. Till they are compensated, buying from beggars seem to be the way out for many

                                                                       (Based on  Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

Twitter hired IIT-Delhi graduate,will pay US$140,000

A graduate of Indian Institute of Delhi or IIT-Delhi has just achieved his dream of working in the micro-blogging site Twitter. The IItian, Swapnil Jain is 22 and he’s getting Rs. 80 lakh per year (approx. 140,000 USD).
Jain will be working as a software engineer and he was hired in the recent recruitment schedule of Twitter at IIT-Delhi. He said that he’s worked really hard to achieve this and he’s very proud that he’s finally got his dream job. This is not just a milestone for his alma mater but also to the entire country as he is the 1st one hired by Twitter in the last 2 years. He is much thankful to his family for the support he’s given him while he was studying.
He will fly to California and start his job

                                                                                  ( Article based on Ndtv.com)

Tennis Ace Maria Sharapova first visit to India

Russian Tennis star 'Maria Sharapova' who is in New Delhi,India to attend a private function said that she was delighted to be in India as it is a unfamiliar territory to her.Sharapova has won 27 WTA singles titles , including four Grand Slam singles titles. She has been in seven Grand Slam finals with a record of 4–3. In 2012 she has won French open & currently stand @t  2nd place in WTA ranking. About India she said that she likes Indian foods much as she expected ,she is delighted to be in India first time.

 Looking back on her year, 25-year-old Sharapova saw only positives, and added that she was rewarded for a great season with her maiden trip to India. In addition, Sharapova said that Indian tennis player; Sania Mirza was now into doubles frequently because it requires a lot of energy to play both formats and a player has to select one in the end. 

Sharapova was seeded 3rd at the US Open, but had no hardcourt tune-ups after the Olympics due to a stomach virus. At the US Open, she made it to the semifinals before losing to top seeded Victoria Azarenka in three sets.Her next tournament will be the year-end championships in Istanbul, where she will be seeded 2nd. She faced Sara Errani in her first round robin match, defeating her 6–3, 6–2. She secured a spot in the semifinals with a 5–7, 7–5, 7–5 win over Agnieszka Radwańska in her next match. Sharapova defeated Sam Stosur in her final round robin match, 6–0, 6–3. In their sixth meeting of the 2012 season, Sharapova defeated Victoria Azarenka, 6–4, 6–2. Although she has made it to the final, Azarenka clinched the year-end number one ranking with her two round robin wins. Thus, Sharapova will end the year as world no. 2. She lost to Serena Williams in the final, 6–4, 6–3.