Mind Tree May 2011

8/6/2019 Mind Tree May 2011

1/30

MindMindMindMindMindMindMindMind--------TreeTreeTreeTreeTreeTreeTreeTree,May 2011 1111

MMIINNDD--TTRREE

Volume-I | Issue-9 | May 20

Image Courtesy: www.freedigitalphotos.net

wikimedia.org


2/30


We are eager to have your valuable opinions @ [email protected] or [email protected]

MMIINNDD--TTRREEEEVolume-I | Issue-9 | May 2011

Bhagwan Sathya Sai Baba is one of therarest Karmayogis India has ever pro-

duced. He has wiped thetears from the

withered facesof the poorand the mar-ginalised Indi-ans. For his be-

lievers, he was a demi-God who haddefinite mesmeric powers. Surpris-ingly, he could also attract millions ofhuman beings towards his abode. Maybe he had several critics who used to

uncharitably criticise him and hischaritable disposition. But that didnot dissuade him from his destinedspiritual duty and yeomans service tothe people around him. Undoubtedly,he will be remembered for the amaz-ing spiritual service and the philan-

thropic works he could undertake forthe welfare of the mankind, whereashis die-hard critics had only one-point agenda to bare him naked.Heshowed that serving the mankind istantamount to serving the God in all

respects. Probably, there are few par-allels in the world for his unique wayof spirituality.

Bhakthi YogaBhakthi Yoga teaches people thepath of Love to love all as youlove yourselves, and prosper bylove. Then no harm can come to

you. It will only spread joy andhappiness to all. God is present

in all beings as Love. They all en-deavour to merge their love withthe Ocean of Love that God is.

Wherever Love is evident, take itthat it is Gods own Love. God is

the greatest Lover of mankind.Therefore, when anyone decidesto serve humanity whom Heloves, God showers Grace inplenty. When the human heartmelts at the suffering of othersand expands as a result of thatsympathy, believe that God ispresent there. That is the sign ofthe validity of the path of devo-tion (Bhakthi Yoga).

Happiness cannot be experiencedthrough spiritual practices.

It can be experienced only throughDivine Love. Baba


3/30


A plum once said, 'just because a bananalover came by, I converted myself into a

banana. Unfortunately, his tastechanged after a fewmonths and so I becamean orange. When he saidI was bitter I became anapple, but he went insearch of grapes.

Yielding to the opinionsof so many people, I havechanged so many times

that I no more know whoI am. How I wish I had remained a plumand waited for a plum lover.'

Just because a group of people do not ac-

cept you as you are, there is no necessityfor you to strip yourself of your original-ity. You need to think Good of yourself,for the world takes you at your own esti-mate. Never stoop down in order to gainrecognition. Never let go of your trueself to win a relationship. In the longrun, you will regret that you traded yourgreatest Glory - your uniqueness, for mo-

mentary validation. Even Gandhi wasnot accepted by many people. The groupthat does not accept you as YOU is not

Your world.

There is a world for each one of you,where you shall reign as king /queenby just being yourself. Find that world...In fact, that world will find You.

What water can do, gasoline cannot andwhat copper can, gold cannot. The fra-gility of the ant enables it to move andthe rigidity of the tree enables it to stay

rooted. Everything and everybody hasbeen designed with a Pro-portion of uniqueness toserve a purpose that wecan fulfill only by beingour unique self. You as

you alone can serve yourpurpose and I as I Alonecan serve my purpose.

You are here to be you...

Just YOU.

There was a time in this world when aKrishna was required and he was sent; Atime when a Christ was required and he

was sent; a time when a Mahatma wasrequired and he was sent; a time when a

J.R.D.Tata was required and he was sent.There came a time when you were re-quired on this planet and hence you

were sent. Let us be the best we can be.

In the history of the universe, there hasbeen nobody like you and to theinfinity of time to come, there will be noone like you. Existence should haveloved you so much that it broke themould after making you, so that anotherof your kind will never get repeated.

You are original.You are rare.You are unique.You are a wonder.You are a masterpiece.Your Master's piece.Celebrate your Uniqueness.

Coutesy: Shri JAYAPRAKASH NAIR

Divine Speak

We are eager to have your valuable opinions @ [email protected] or [email protected]

Disclaimer: We have taken every care to see that copyrighted material (content or images) is not included in this Magazine. Still if there is any such inclusion of copyrighted

material by accident or by mistake, the concerned authorized copyright holders may intimate at [email protected]. On receipt of which we assure that we would removethat material if it is proved to be breach of copyright.

You are a Masterpiece

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar


4/30


Along with members of the India Against Corrup-tion movement, former justice of the Supreme

Court of India and Lokayukta ofKarnataka N. Santosh Hegde andPrashant Bhushan, a senior law-yer in the Supreme Court,drafted an alternate bill calledthe Jan Lokpal Bill (People's Om-budsman Bill). This bill providesmore stringent provisions andwider power to the Lokpal(Ombudsman). Hazare began afast unto death from 5 April 2011at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to press for the demandto form a joint committee of the representatives ofthe Government and the civil society to draft a newbill with stronger penal actions and more inde-pendence to the Lokpaland Lokayuktas(Ombudsmen in the states), after his demand wasrejected by the Prime Minister of India ManmohanSingh. He stated, "I will fast until Jan Lokpal Bill ispassed". The movement attracted attention in themedia, and thousands of supporters. Almost 150people reportedly joined Hazare in his fast. He saidthat he would not allow any politician to sit with

him in this movement. Politicians like Uma Bhartiand Om Prakash Chautala were shooed away byprotesters when they came to visit the site wherethe protest was taking place. Social activists, in-cluding Medha Patkar, Arvind Kejriwal, former IPSofficer Kiran Bedi, and Jayaprakash Narayan lenttheir support to Hazare's hunger strike and anti-

corruption campaign. People have shown supportin Internet social media such as Twitter and Face-book. In addition to spiritual leaders Sri Sri Ravi

Shankar, Swami Ramdev, SwamiAgnivesh and former Indian crick-eter Kapil Dev,many celebritiesshowed their public support through Twit-ter. On 6 April 2011 Sharad Pawar resigned fromthegroup of ministers formed for reviewing the

draft Lokpal bill 2010. The move-ment gathered significant sup-port from India's youth, visiblethrough the local support and onsocial networking sites like Face-book and Twitter.[46] There havealso been protests in Bangalore,Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad,Guwahati, Shillong, and Aizawl,among other cities of India. On 8April 2011 the Government of In-

dia accepted all demands of the movement. On 9April 2011 it issued a notification in the Gazette ofIndia on formation of a joint committee. It ac-cepted the formula that there be a politician Chair-man and an activist, non-politician Co-Chairman.According to the notification, Pranab Mukherjeewill be the Chairman of the draft committee whileShanti Bhushan will be the co-chairman. The JointDrafting Committee shall consist of five nomineeministers of the Government of India and fivenominees of the civil society. The five nomineeMinisters of the Government of India are Pranab

Mukherjee, Union Minister of Finance, P.Chidambaram, Union Minister of Home Affairs, M.Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Jus-tice, Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Re-source and Development and Minister of Commu-nication and Information Technology and SalmanKhursheed, Union Minister of Water Resourcesand Minister of Minority Affairs. The five nomineesof the civil society are Anna Hazare, N. SantoshHegde, Shanti Bhushan Senior Advocate, PrashantBhushan, Advocate and Arvind Kejriwal. On themorning of 9 April 2011 Hazare ended his 98-hour

hunger strike by first offering lemon juice to someof his supporters who were fasting with him.Hazare then broke his fast by consuming somelemon juice. He addressed the people and set adeadline of 15 August 2011 to pass the Lokpal Bill inthe Indian Parliament.Real fight begins now. Wehave a lot of struggle ahead of us in drafting thenew legislation, We have shown the world in justfive days that we are united for the cause of thenation. The youth power in this movement is asign of hope. Anna Hazare said that if the bill does

not pass he will call for a mass nation-wide agita-tion. He called his movement as "second strugglefor independence" and he will continue the fight.

Anna HazareMonthsMonthsMonthsMonthsMindMindMindMind

The story of Hazares transformation beganin 1964 at a Delhi railway station bookstallafter he bought a book on Swami Vivekan-anda. Enthralled by the great sages life andby his dictum that the noblest thing a mancan do is work for the good of others,Hazare avidly began reading religious textsand biographies of social reformers. And af-ter his escape from the Sabre jets at Khem-karan, in September 1965, Hazare became avegetarian, gave up cigarettes and liquor,and vowed to remain a bachelor devotinghimself to public service.


5/30


Medieval History of IndiaMedieval History of IndiaFor a period that has come to be so strongly associ-ated with the Islamic influence and rule in India, Me-dieval Indian history went for almost three wholecenturies under the so-called indigenous rulers, thatincluded the Chalukyas, the Pallavas, the Pandyas,the Rashtrakutas, the Muslims rulers and finally theMughal Empire. The most important dynasty toemerge in the middle of the 9th century was that ofthe Cholas.

The PalasBetween 8th and 10th centuries A.D., a number of powerful

empires dominated the east-ern and northern parts of In-dia. The Pala king Dharm-pala, son of Gopala reignedfrom the late 8th century A.D.to early 9th century A.D.Nalanda University and Vik-ramashila University werefounded by Dharmpala.

The Senas After the decline ofthe Palas, the Sena

dynasty established itsrule in Bengal. Thefounder of the dynastywas Samantasena. Thegreatest ruler of thedynasty was Vijaysena.He conquered the whole of Bengal and was suc-ceeded by his son Ballalasena. He reigned peacefullybut kept his dominions intact. He was a great scholar

and wrote four works in-cluding one on astronomy.The last ruler of this dy-nasty was Lakshamanasenaunder whose reign the Mus-lims invaded Bengal, andthe empire fell.

The PratiharaThe greatest ruler of thePratihara dynasty was MihirBhoja. He recovered Kanauj (Kanyakubja) by 836, andit remained the capital of the Pratiharas for almost acentury. He built the city Bhojpal (Bhopal). RajaBhoja and other valiantGujara kings faced and de-feated many attacks of theArabs from west.Between 915-918 A.D,Kanauj was attacked by aRashtrakuta king, who dev-astated the city leading tothe weakening of the Prati-hara Empire. In 1018, Kan-nauj then ruled by Rajya-pala Pratihara was sackedby Mahmud of Ghazni. The empire broke into inde-pendent Rajput states.

The RashtrakutasThis dynasty, which ruled from Karnataka, is illustri-ous for several reasons. They ruled the territory vaster

than that of any other dynasty. They were great pa-trons of art and literature. The encouragement thatseveral Rashtrakuta kings provided to education andliterature is unique, and the religious tolerance exer-cised by them was exemplary.

The Chola Empire of the SouthIt emerged in the middle of the 9th century A.D., cov-ered a large part of Indian peninsula, as well as partsof Sri Lanka and the Maldives Islands.The first important ruler to emerge from the dynastywas Rajaraja Chola I and his son and successor Rajen-dra Chola. Rajaraja carried forward the annexation

policy of his father. He led armed expedition to dis-tant lands of Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.The successors of Rajendra I, Rajadhiraj and RajendraII were brave rulers whofought fiercely againstthe later Chalukyakings, but could notcheck the decline ofChola Empire. The laterChola kings were weakand incompetent rulers.The Chola Empire thus lingered on for another cen-

tury and a half, and finally came to an end with theinvasion of Malik Kafur in the early 14 th century A.D.

Source : http://india.gov.in/knowindia

IndiaIndiaIndiaIndia

DID YOU KNOW?

...that theCholas are featured in the History ofthe World board game, produced by AvalonHill?

that Rashtrakuta literature and inscriptionsshow that Kannada was not only popular in themodern Karnataka region but the linguisticchange had spread further north into presentday southern Maharashtra and to the northernDeccan by the 8th century ?

..that the power of the Gurjara Pratihara army

that effectively barred the progress of the Mus-lim invaders beyond the confines of Sindh?


6/30


DID YOU KNOW?

... that in 2008 Hewlett-Packard createda prototype of the theoretical fourthand last passive circuit element, thememristor, that may one day revolu-tionize electronics, although the theory

was devised in 1971?

CHARAKACHARAKAThe Father of AnatomyThe Father of Anatomy

Charaka, sometimes spelled Caraka, born c. 300 BC wasone of the principal contributors to the ancient art and sci-ence of Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle devel-oped in Ancient India. He is sometimes referred to as the

Father of Indian Medicine Ac-cording to Charaka's transla-tions health and disease are notpredetermined and life may beprolonged by human effort andattention to lifestyle. As perIndian heritage and science ofAyurvedic system, prevention of

all types of diseases have a more prominent place than

treatment, including restructuring of life style to align withthe course of nature and four seasons, which will guaranteecomplete wellness. Charaka was the first physician to pre-sent the concept of digestion, metabolism and immunity.According to his translations of the Vedas, a body functionsbecause it contains three dosha or principles, namely move-ment (vata), transformation (pitta) and lubrication andstability (kapha). The doshas are also sometimes called hu-mours, namely, bile, phlegm and wind. These dosha areproduced when dhatus (blood, flesh and marrow) act uponthe food eaten. For the same quantity of food eaten, onebody, however, produces dosha in an amount differentfrom another body. That is why one body is different from

another. For instance, it is more weighty, stronger, moreenergetic.Further, illness is caused when the balance among the threedosha in a human body is disturbed. To restore the balancehe prescribed medicinal drugs. Although he was aware ofgerms in the body, he did not give them any importance.Charaka knew the fundamentals of genetics. For instance,he knew the factors determining the sex of a child. A ge-netic defect in a child, like lameness or blindness, he said,was not due to any defect in the mother or the father, butin the ovum or sperm of the parents (an accepted fact to-day).Charaka studied the anatomy of the human body and vari-

ous organs. He gave 360 as the total number of bones, in-cluding teeth, present in the body. He wrongly believedthat the heart had one cavity, but he was right when heconsidered it to be a controlling centre. He claimed thatthe heart was connected to the entire body through 13 mainchannels. Apart from these channels, there were countlessother ones of varying sizes which supplied not only nutri-ents to various tissues but also provided passage to wasteproducts. He also claimed that any obstruction in the mainchannels led to a disease or deformity in the body.Under the guidance of the ancient physician Atreya, Ag-nivesa had written an encyclopedic treatise in the eighthcentury B.C. However, it was only when Charaka revised

this treatise that it gained popularity and came to beknown as Charakasamhita. For two millennia it remained astandard work on the subject and was translated into many

CaravelAcaravel is a small, highly maneuverable, two-or three-masted lateen-rigged ship, created bythe Portuguese and used also by them and by

the Spanish for long voyages of explorationfrom the 15th centuryThe caravel was developed in the Atlantic un-der the order of Henry the Navigator and be-came the preferred vessel for Portuguese ex-plorers. Initially, the Portuguese used carracksto explore along the west African coast and intothe Atlantic Ocean. The carrack (or nau) wasthe state of the art in late medieval shipbuild-ing. But these larger, full-rigged square-sailedships could not always be sailed with the preci-sion necessary for inshore surveying in un-

known waters. The explorers soon came to pre-

fer the caravel, as well as the barge (barca) orthe balinger (barinel) of around 50 to 200 tons.Being smaller, the caravel could sail upriver inshallow coastal waters. With the lateen sailsattached, it could go fast over shallow waterand take deep wind, while with the square At-lantic-type sails attached, it was very fast. Itseconomy, speed, agility, and power made itesteemed as the best sailing vessel of its time.The exploration done with caravels made possi-

ble the spice trade of the Portuguese and theSpanish.


7/30


Artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence ofmachines and the branch of computer science thataims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as"the study and design of intelligent agents" wherean intelligent agent is a system that perceives itsenvironment and takes actions that maximize itschances of success. John McCarthy, who coined theterm in 1956, defines it as "the science and engi-neering of making intelligent machines."The field was founded on the claim that a centralproperty of humans, intelligencethe sapience ofHomo sapienscan be so precisely described thatit can be simulated by a machine. This raises phi-losophical issues about the nature of the mind andthe ethics of creating artificial beings, issues which

have been addressed by myth, fiction and philoso-phy since antiquity. Artificial intelligence has beenthe subject of optimism, but has also suffered set-backs and, today, has become an essential part ofthe technology industry, providing the heavy lifting

for many of the most difficult problems in com-puter science. AI research is highly technical andspecialized, and deeply divided into subfields thatoften fail to communicate with each other. Sub-fields have grown up around particular institutions,the work of individual researchers, the solution ofspecific problems, longstanding differences ofopinion about how AI should be done and the ap-plication of widely differing tools. The centralproblems of AI include such traits as reasoning,knowledge, planning, learning, communication,perception and the ability to move and manipulateobjects. General intelligence (or "strong AI") is stillamong the field's long term goals.

Courtesy: en.wikipedia.org

EuclidEuclid , also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was anEgyptian Greek mathematician, often referred to as the"Father of Geometry". He was active in the Greek colony ofAlexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I (323283 BC). His

Elements is one of the most influential works in the historyof mathematics, serving as the main textbook for teachingmathematics (especially geometry) from the time of itspublication until the late 19th or early 20th century. In theElements, Euclid deduced the principles of what is nowcalled Euclidean geometry from a small set of axioms.Euclid also wrote works on perspective, conic sections,spherical geometry, number theory and rigor. Euclid's con-tributions were built on the Greek culture of philosophicalinvestigation into which he was born, relying on the worksof thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Eudoxus, andTheaetetus ."Euclid" is theanglicized ver-sion of the Greekname ( Eukleds),meaning "GoodGlory".

Little is knownabout Euclid'slife, as there areonly a handful ofreferences tohim. The dateand place of

Euclid's birthand the date andcircumstances ofhis death are unknown, and only roughly estimated inproximity to contemporary figures mentioned in refer-ences. No likeness or description of Euclid's physical ap-pearance made during his lifetime survived antiquity.Therefore, Euclid's depiction in works of art is the productof the artist's imagination.The few historical references to Euclid were written centu-ries after he lived, by Proclus and Pappus of Alexandria.[8]Proclus introduces Euclid only briefly in his fifth-centuryCommentary on the Elements, as the author ofElements,that he was mentioned by Archimedes, and that whenKing Ptolemy asked if there was a shorter path to learninggeometry than Euclid's Elements, "Euclid replied there isno royal road to geometry."[ Although the purported cita-tion of Euclid by Archimedes has been judged to be aninterpolation by later editors of his works, it is still be-lieved that Euclid wrote his works before those of Ar-chimedes. In addition, the "royal road" anecdote is ques-tionable since it is similar to a story told aboutMenaechmus and Alexander the Great. In the only otherkey reference to Euclid, Pappus briefly mentioned in thefourth century that Apollonius "spent a very long time withthe pupils of Euclid at Alexandria, and it was thus that heacquired such a scientific habit of thought."[13] It is further

believed that Euclid may have studied at Plato's Academyin Athens.


TOPIO, a humanoid robot, played table tennis atTokyo International Robot Exhibition (IREX) 2009


8/30


May 1 is Labor Day in many countries.May 1 is May Day in the United Kingdom, how-ever the public holiday is held on the first Mon-day in May.May 3 is when the Polish Constitution Day iscelebrated in Poland.May 3 is Japanese Constitution Day JapanMay 4 is the day of Remembrance of the Deadin the NetherlandsMay 4 is Liberation Day in DenmarkMay 5 is when Cinco de Mayo or the Batalla dePuebla is celebrated in Mexico.May 5 is the Children's Day in Japan and KoreaMay 5 is Liberation Day in the NetherlandsMay 5 is Europe Day in EuropeMay 8 is VE Day in Western Europe

May 9 is Europe Day in the European UnionMay 10 is Golden Spike DayMay 10 is Mother's Day in Mexico, Guatemala,and El Salvador.May 12 is International Nurses Day.May 12 is the day of the Finnish language inFinland.May 12 is International Awareness Day forChronic Immunological and Neurological Dis-eases (CIND).

May 15 is the beginning of Tourette Syndromeawareness month.May 17 is Norwegian Constitution Day.May 21 is when the Battle of Iquique is cele-brated in Chile.May 24 is when Eritrea celebrates its Inde-pendence Day .May 25 is the May Revolution (or Revolucin deMayo)May 25 is Towel Day, in tribute to Douglas Ad-

ams.The second Sunday in May is Mother's Day inthe United States.Each year in May, the Eurovision Song Contestis held.The Indianapolis 500 is held on the Sunday be-fore Memorial Day.Labor Day in Queensland, Australia, is cele-brated on the first Monday in May.In Canada, Victoria Day is celebrated on thelast Monday on or before May 24.The last Monday of May is Memorial Day in theUnited States.

Events in MAYEvents in MAYEvents in MAYEvents in MAYMAYMAYMAYMAY

May is the fifth monthof the year in the Gre-gorian Calendar andone of seven Gregorianmonths with the lengthof 31 days. May is amonth of autumn in theSouthern Hemisphereand spring in the Northern Hemi-sphere. Therefore May in the South-ern Hemisphere is the seasonalequivalent of November in theNorthern Hemisphere and viceversa. The month May has beennamed for the Greek goddess Maia,who was identified with the Romanera goddess of fertility, Bona Dea,

whose festival was held in May. Con-versely, the Roman poet Ovid pro-vides a second etymology, in whichhe says that the month of May isnamed for the maiores, Latin for"elders," and that the followingmonth (June) is named for the iunio-res,or "young people" (Fasti VI.88).In both common Western calendri-cal systems, no other month beginson the same day of the week as May.

This month and June are the onlytwo months that have this trait,though the first day of August in acommon year and the first day ofOctober in a leap year are alsounique. No other month ends on thesame day of the week as May.

Birth flower - Rose

MAY SYMBOLSMAY SYMBOLSMAY SYMBOLSMAY SYMBOLS

Birthstone - Emarald


9/30


For Hindus God, as is, is beyond any attributes of form,color, shapes ... That is, God does not have any specific

form or name. In this state God is referred to as nirguNa

brahman (attributeless god). However God takes forms as

perceived by humans and this perceived form is called

saguNa brahman (god with (good) attributes). These

forms could range from calm to fierce to yogic (1). Each

form has its significance. For example when one is de-

pressed and sees the form of God Strong and Powerful,

the seeker feels the moral boost that God would definitelybe the support for the right thing. Similarly when in an

auspicious ceremony would like the God to be the calm

provider of boons. In a spiritually elevated state, the

choice would be the yogic form of God. The forms pro-vide a basis for the Hindu worshipper to easily pursue the

otherwise incomprehensible Supreme. So Hinduism sup-ports both form as well as formless worship of the God.

Whether one worships in saguNa or nirguNa way, it is

ultimately the same God

Svayam BhagavanSvayam bhagavan is a Sanskrit theological term thatrefers to the concept of absolute representation of themonotheistic God as Bhagavan himself within Hindu-ism.It is most often used in Gaudiya Vaishnava Krishna-centered theology as referring to Krishna. The title

Svayam Bhagavan is used exclusively to designateKrishna.[ Certain other traditions of Hinduism consider him to be the source of all

avatars, and the source of Vishnu himself, or to be the same as Narayana. As such, he is

therefore regarded as Svayam Bhagavan.

The term is seldom used to refer to other forms ofKrishna and Vishnu within the context of certain reli-gious texts such as the Bhagavata Purana, and alsowithin other sects of Vaishnavism.

When Krishna is recognized to be Svayam Bhagavan,

it can be understood that this is the belief of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Vallabha Sampradaya, and the Nim-barka Sampradaya, where Krishna is accepted to be thesource of all other avatars, and the source of Vishnuhimself. This belief is drawn primarily "from the famousstatement of the Bhagavatam"(1.3.28).A different viewpoint, opposing this theological conceptis the concept of Krishna as an avatar of Narayana orVishnu. It should be however noted that although its isusual to speak of Vishnu as the source of the avataras,this is only one of the names of god of Vaishnavism, whois also known as Narayana, Vasudeva and Krishna andbehind each of those names there is a divine figure withattributed supremacy in Vaishnavism.

The theological interpretation of svayam bhagavndiffers with each tradition and the literal translation of the

term has been understood in several distinct ways. Trans-lated from the Sanskrit language, the term literary means"Bhagavan Himself" or "directly Bhagavan". Gaudiya

Vaishnava tradition often translates it within its per-

spective as primeval Lord or original Personality ofGodhead, but also considers the terms such as Supreme

Personality of Godheadand Supreme Godas an equiva-lent to the term Svayam bhagavan, and may also choose

to apply these terms to Vishnu, Narayana and many oftheir associated Avatars.Earlier commentators such as Madhvacharya translated

the term Svayam Bhagavan as "he who has bhaga-

vatta"; meaning "he who has the quality of possessing all

good qualities". Others have translated it simply as "theLord Himself".] Followers of Vishnu-centered sam-pradayas of Vaishnavism rarely address this term, butbelieve that it refers to their belief that Krishna is amongthe highest and fullest of allAvatars and is considered to

be the " paripurna Avatara", complete in all respects and

the same as the original. According to them Krishna is

described in the Bhagavata Purana as the Purnavatara

(or complete manifestation) of the Bhagavan, while other

incarnations are called partial.

BrahmanThe Vedantic school of Hindu philosophy also has a no-

tion of a Supreme Cosmic Spirit called Brahman, pro-

nounced [brhmn]. Brahman is the impersonal aspectof Absolute Truth. Absolute Truth is realized in threestages: as Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan, Brahmanrealization is the first step of the Hindu transcendental-ist. The path which leads to this realization is called

Jnana, usually followed by Shankara-Acharya mayavadiphilosophers. Hinduism advises against speculatingabout the Absolute (as it may long for millions of life-times), but straight to get to bhakti-yoga, as it is a directpath and includes both Brahman and even Paramatmarealization (attained by yogis through mystic meditationon four-handed Narayana or Vishnu on Vaikunthalo-kas). Even Shankaracharya himself, being a greatest im-personalist supported this viewpoint: one has to give up jnana and take to worship of Parabrahman, Govinda -that is Krishna. See also: Bhaja Govindam.


GOD IN HINDUISMGOD IN HINDUISMGOD IN HINDUISMGOD IN HINDUISMRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGION

HINDUISM

Did You Know?...that There are many Hindus in Arabstates, many due to the migration of In-dians to the oil-rich states around thePersian Gulf?

...that Hindu temples have been built inBahrain, the United Arab Emirates,Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen and Oman?

...that Hinduism first came to Muscat in1507 from Sindh?


10/30


In Islamic theology, God (Arabic:Allh) is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator,sustainer, ordainer, and judge of the universe. Islam

puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization ofGod as strictly singular (tawhid). God is unique(wahid) and inherently One (ahad), all-merciful and om-nipotent.

Creation and ordering of theuniverse is seen as an act ofprime mercy for which allcreatures sing God's gloriesand bear witness to God'sunity and lordship. Accordingto the Islamic teachings, Godexists without a place. Ac-

cording to the Qur'an, "Novision can grasp Him, but Hisgrasp is over all vision. God isabove all comprehension, yetis acquainted with allthings" (Qur'an 6:103)God responds to those inneed or distress wheneverthey call. Above all, Godguides humanity to the rightway, the holy ways.According to Islamic tradition there are 99 Names of

God (al-asma al-husna lit. meaning: "The best names")each of which evoke a distinct attribute of God. Allthese names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name. Among the 99 names ofGod, the most famous and most frequent of thesenames are "the Compassionate" (al-rahman) and "theMerciful" (al-rahim).

Islam teaches that God, as referenced in the Qur'an,is the only God and the same God worshipped bymembers of other Abrahamic religions such as Chris-tianity and Judaism.Oneness of God

Oneness of God or Tawd is the act of believing andaffirming that God (Arabic: Allah) is one and unique(wid). The Qur'an asserts the existence of a singleand absolute truth that transcends the world; aunique and indivisible being who is independent ofthe entire creation. According to the Qur'an:"Say: He is God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal,Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; Andthere is none like unto Him." (Sura 112:1-4, Yusuf Ali)Thy Lord is self-sufficient, full of Mercy: if it were God's

will, God could destroy you, and in your place appoint

whom God will as your successors, even as God raised

you up from the posterity of other people." (Sura 6:133,Yusuf Ali)

According to Vincent J. Cornell, the Qur'an also pro-vides a monist image of God by describing the reality

as a unified whole, with God being a single conceptthat would describe or ascribe all existingthings:"God is the First and the Last, the Outward

and the Inward; God is the Knower of everything(Sura 57:3)" Some Muslims have however vigorouslycriticized interpretations that would lead to a monistview of God for what they see as blurring the distinc-

tion between the creator andthe creature, and its incom-patibility with the monothe-ism of Islam.The indivisibility of God im-plies the indivisibility of God'ssovereignty which in turnleads to the conception of uni-

verse as a just and coherentmoral universe rather than anexistential and moral chaos(as in polytheism). Similarlythe Qur'an rejects the binarymodes of thinking such as theidea of duality of God by argu-ing that both good and evilgenerate from God's creativeact and that the evil forceshave no power to create any-

thing. God in Islam is a universal god rather than a

local, tribal or parochial one; an absolute who inte-grates all affirmative values and brooks no evil.Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Mus-lim profession. To attribute divinity to a created en-tity is the only unpardonable sin mentioned in theQur'an. Muslims believe that the entirety of the Is-lamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid


God in IslamRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONISLAM

Name of Allh written in Arabic calligraphyby 17th century Ottoman artist Hfz Osman

Did You Know?

...that about 13% of Muslims live inIndonesia, the largest Muslim coun-try?

...that Converts and immigrant com-munities are found in almost everypart of the world?

...that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob,Moses and Jesus and his apostles areall confirmed as being Muslim by theQur'an?


11/30


In the Christian religion, one definition of God is theeternal being that created and preserves the universe.The Bible never speaks of God in an impersonalsense. Instead, it refers to him in personal termsasone who is, who speaks, who sees, hears, acts, andloves. God is understood to have a will and personal-ity and is an all powerful, divine and benevolent be-ing. He is represented in Scripture as being primarilyconcerned with people and their salvation.God is believed by most Christiansto be immanent(meaning that he is with and

within all things), while oth-

ers believe the plan ofre-

demption in scripturesshow he will be immanentlater as seen in 1 Corin-thians 15:28, Colos-sians 1:19-20, and Ephe-sians 1:10, and most be-lieve he is also transcen-dent (meaning that he isoutside space and time,and therefore eternal andunable to be changed byforces within the uni-

verse), thoughGod the Sonwas on earth during theMinistry of Jesus and willreturn to earth in the Sec-ond Coming of Christ.God is usually held tohave the properties of ho-liness (separate from sinand incorruptible), justice(fair, right, and true in allhis judgments), omnipotence (all powerful), omnis-cience (all-knowing), omnibenevolence (all-loving),

omnipresence (everywhere present) and immortality(eternal and everlasting).God is understood by Trinitarians as Father, Son, andHoly Spirit; a single infinite being who is both withinand beyond nature. Because the persons of the Trin-ity represent a personal relation even on the level ofGod to himself, he is represented by all Christian de-nominations to be personal both in his immanence(in his personal relation toward us) and in his tran-scendence (in his personal relation toward himself).[citation needed] Less commonly, nontrinitarian theologiesexist in various denominations which define the Fa-

ther, the Son, and the Holy Spirit differently. TheTrinitarian doctrine is considered by most Christiansto be a core tenet of their faith. Since the 4th century,in both Eastern and Western Christianity, this doc-

trine has been stated as "three Hypostases (or, lessprecisely,persons) in one God", all three of whom, asdistinct and co-eternal persons, are of one indivisible Di-

vine essence, a simple being. The majority of Chris-tians are Trinitarian and regard belief in the Trinity asa test of true orthodoxy of belief."Father, Son and Holy Spirit""Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" is a quotation of Jesus'

words as recorded in the Great Commission: Go there-fore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing themin the name of the Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit.The names in similar order later appeared in

theApostle Paul's apostolicbenediction: The grace ofthe Lord Jesus Christ and

the love of God and thefellowship of the HolySpirit be with you all."Since the first century,Christians have calledupon God with the name"Father, Son and HolySpirit" in prayer, baptism,communion, demon exor-cism, hymn-singing,preaching, confession, ab-solution and benediction.

Trinitarian doctrineIn Christianity, the doc-trine of the Trinity statesthat God is one being whoexists, simultaneously andeternally, as a mutual in-dwelling of three persons:the Father, the Son(incarnate as Jesus of Naz-areth), and the Holy Spirit

(or Holy Ghost). Since earliest Christianity, one's sal-vation has been very closely related to the concept of

a triune God, although the Trinitarian doctrine wasnot formalized until the 4th century. At that time thebishops of the Christian Church, which had been re-cently legalised by Emperor Constantine, held theCouncil of Nicea and formalized the Trinitarian doc-trine.Most Christians believe that God is spirit, an uncre-ated, omnipotent, and eternal being, the creator andsustainer of all things, who works the redemption ofthe world through his Son, Jesus Christ. With thisbackground, beliefin the divinity of Christ and theHoly Spirit is expressed as the doctrine of the HolyTrinity,which describes the single Divine substanceexisting as three distinct and inseparable persons: theFather, the Son (Jesus Christ the eternal Word), andthe Holy Spirit. Courtesy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

God in ChristianityGod in ChristianityGod in ChristianityGod in ChristianityRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONCHRISTAINITY

The Twelve Apostles

Traditionally, the twelve Apostles include Peter(whom some denominations consider the "Prince ofthe Apostles"); Andrew, James the Greater, Jamesthe Lesser, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew,Thomas, Thaddeus, Simon, and Judas Iscariot. Ju-das had been one of the twelve, but he betrayedJesus and committed suicide. With Judas gone,Matthias became one ofthe Twelve. In the Synop-tic Gospels, Mark names the Twelve, Matthew fol-lows Mark, and Luke substitutes Jude for Mark'sThaddeus. John refers to the Twelvewithout nam-ing them all, adds the name Nathanael, and usesthe term "beloved disciple (presumably for John).

Jesus' inner circle of twelve disciples probably cor-responds to the twelve tribes of Israel. In the Syn-optic, Jesus selects Peter, James, and John to wit-ness his divine Transfiguration and to be with himwhen he prays at Gethsemane. In Mark, theTwelveare obtuse, failing to understand the impor-tance of Jesus' miracles and parables. The book of

Acts recounts the deeds of the apostles in theyears after Jesus' crucifixion.


12/30


The refutation of the notionof a supreme God or a primemover is seen as a key distinction between

Buddhism and other religions. Hence, Bud-dhism is often aptly described as a "spiritualphilosophy" whose sole aim is the completealleviation of stress in samsara, called nir-vana. The Buddha explicitly rejects a creator,denies endorsing any views on creation and

states that questions on the origin of the world are worth-

less. Some theists beginning Buddhist meditationbelieve that the notion of divinity is not in-compatible with Buddhism but belief in aSupreme God is eminently considered to

pose a hindrance to the attainment of nir-vana the highest goal of Buddhist practice.Despite this nontheism, Buddhists consider venera-tion of the Noble ones very important, although thetwo main schools of Buddhism differ mildly in theirreverential attitudes. While Theravada Buddhistsview the Buddha as a human being who attained nir-vana or arahanthood, through human efforts, someMahayana Buddhists consider him an embodiment ofthe Dharmakaya, who was born for the benefit of oth-ers, and not merely a human being. In addition, someMahayana Buddhists worship their chief Bodhisattva,

Avalokiteshvara and hope to embody him. Buddhistsaccept the existence of beings in higher realms (seeBuddhist cosmology), known as devas, but they, likehumans, are said to be suffering in samsara, and notparticularly wiser than us. In fact the Buddha is oftenportrayed as a teacher of the gods, and superior tothemGod in early Buddhism

As scholar Richard Hayes describes, "the attitude ofthe Buddha as portrayed in the Nikayas is more anti-speculative than specifically atheistic," although"Gotama regarded the belief in God as unhealthy." AsHayes describes it, "In the Nikaya literature, the ques-tion of the existence of God is treated primarily fromeither an epistemological point of view or a moralpoint of view. As a problem of epistemology, thequestion of God's existence amounts to a discussionof whether or not a religious seeker can be certainthat there is a greatest good and that therefore hisefforts to realize a greatest good will not be a point-less struggle towards an unrealistic goal. And as aproblem in morality, the question amounts to a dis-cussion of whether man himself is ultimately respon-sible for all the displeasure that he feels or whetherthere exists a superior being who inflicts displeasure

upon man whether he deserves it or not . . .the Bud-dha Gotama is portrayed not as an atheist who claimsto be able to prove God's nonexistence, but rather as

a skeptic with respect to other teachers' claims to beable to lead their disciples to the highestgood."

Citing the Devadaha Sutta ('Majjhima Nikaya101), Hayes remarks "while the reader is leftto conclude that it is attachment rather thanGod, actions in past lives, fate, type of birthor efforts in this life that is responsible forour experiences of sorrow, no systematic ar-

gument is given in an attempt to disprove the exis-tence of God.Brahma in the Pali CanonBrahma is among the common gods found in the PaliCanon. Brahma (in common with all other devas) issubject to change, final decline and death, just as are

all other sentient beings in samsara (the plane of con-tinual reincarnation and suffering). In fact there areseveral different Brahma worlds and several kinds ofBrahmas in Buddhism, all of which however are justbeings stuck in samsara for a long while. Sir CharlesEliot describes attitudes towards Brahma in earlyBuddhism as follows:There comes a time when this world system passesaway and then certain beings are reborn in the"World of Radiance" and remain there a long time.Sooner or later, the world system begins to evolveagain and the palace of Brahma appears, but it is

empty. Then some being whose time is up falls fromthe "World of Radiance" and comes to life in the pal-ace and remains there alone. At last he wishes forcompany, and it so happens that other beings whosetime is up fall from the "World of Radiance" and joinhim. And the first being thinks that he is GreatBrahma, the Creator, because when he felt lonely andwished for companions other beings appeared. Andthe other beings accept this view. And at last one ofBrahmas retinue falls from that state and is born inthe human world and, if he can remember his previ-ous birth, he reflects that he is transitory but thatBrahma still remains and from this he draws the erro-neous conclusion that Brahma is eternalCourtesy: en.wikipedia.org

God in BuddhisMRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGIONRELIGION

BUDDHISM

Did You Know?

...that Buddhism in Austria is a legallyrecognized religion and has 10,402 fol-lowers according to the 2001 census?...that the Mahayana sutras were trans-mitted in secret?...that Mahayana Buddhism flourished in

India from the 5th century CE onwards,during the dynasty of the Guptas ?


13/30


1. Raman, Sir C.V.: (1888-1970) Eminent In-dian Scientist (F.R.S.) Na-tional Professor of Physicsand founder Director ofRaman Research Institute,Bangalore. He wasawarded Nobel Prize forhis discovery of RamanEffect (Feb 28, 1928). Hiswork on study of crystalstructure is of unique im-portance. Feb 28 is cele-

brated every year as Na-tional Science Day.

2. Ramanujan, Srinivas: (1887-1920) Indianmathematician who con-tributed to the theory ofnumbers, theory of parti-tions, and the theory ofcontinued fractions.

3. Ray, Sir P.C.: (1861-1944) founder of IndianChemical Society and Ben-gal Chemical and Pharma-ceutical Works Ltd., andauthor of Hindu Chemis-try. His work about nitrous acid and its saltsdeserves special mention.

4. Saha, Dr Meghnad:(1893-1956) late Palit Prof ofPhysics, University Collegeof Science and Technology,Calcutta Universitywellknown for his researches innuclear physics, cosmic rays,spectrum analysis and otherbranches of theoretical

physics.

5. Sarabhai, Dr VikramA.: former Chairman of In-dias Atomic Energy Com-mission and the IndianSpace Research Organization(ISRO) died on December30, 1971. Dr Sarabhai was aneminent physicist mainlyinterested in the astrophysi-

cal implications of Cosmic Ray Time Variations.

6. Sen, P.K. (Dr): is the Indian surgeon whoperformed Asias first heart transplant operationin Mumbai.

7. Susruta:wasa fourth centuryHindu surgeon andphysician. Hewrote an impor-tant book onmedicine and alsoa thesis on themedical properties

of garlic.8. Varahmihira: (505-587) was a distinguishedIndian astronomer, mathematician and philoso-pher. He was one of the nine gems of the courtof king Vikramaditya.

9. Vyasa is a central andrevered figure in the ma-jority of Hindu traditions.He is also sometimescalled Veda Vyasa (the onewho compiled the Vedas)or Krishna Dvaipayana(referring to his complex-ion and birthplace). He isthe author as well as acharacter in the Hindu

epic Mahabharata and considered to be thescribe of both the Vedas, and the supplementarytexts such as the Puranas. [Concluded]

Part-IV


14/30


HHHHoooowwww lllleeeeaaaaddddeeeerrrrssss sssshhhhoooouuuulllldddd

mmmmaaaannnnaaaaggggeeee ffffaaaaiiiilllluuuurrrreeee????

At Wharton India Economic fo- At Wharton India Economic fo-rum , Philadelphia, March 22,2008rum , Philadelphia, March 22,2008the Former President of India APJthe Former President of India APJ

Abdul Kalam was asked this ques- Abdul Kalam was asked this ques-tion. His reply to this throws lighttion. His reply to this throws lightinto his deep insight and enlight-into his deep insight and enlight-enmentenment

Let me tell you about my experience. In1973 I became the project director of India'ssatellite launch vehicle program, commonlycalled the SLV-3. Our goal

was to put India's 'Rohini'satellite into orbit by 1980. I

was given funds and humanresources -- but was toldclearly that by 1980 we had tolaunch the satellite intospace. Thousands of people

worked together in scientificand technical teams towardsthat goal.

By 1979 -- I think the monthwas August -- we thought wewere ready. As the projectdirector, I went to the controlcenter for the launch. At fourminutes before the satellitelaunch, the computer began to go throughthe checklist of items that needed to bechecked. One minutelater, the computer

program put thelaunch on hold; thedisplay showed thatsome control compo-nents were not in or-der. My experts -- Ihad four or five ofthem with me -- told me not to worry; theyhad done their calculations and there wasenough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the com-

puter, switched to manual mode, andlaunched the rocket. In the first stage, every-thing worked fine. In the second stage, a

problem developed. Instead of the satellitegoing into orbit, the whole rocket systemplunged into the Bay of Bengal . It was a bigfailure. That day, the chairman of the IndianSpace Research Organization, Prof. SatishDhawan, had called a press conference. Thelaunch was at 7:00 am, and the press confer-ence -- where journalists from around the

world were present -- was at 7:45 am atISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota[in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof.Dhawan, the leader of the organization, con-ducted the press conference himself. Hetook responsibility for the failure -- he saidthat the team had worked very hard, but

that it needed more techno-logical support. He assuredthe media that in another

year, the team would defi-nitely succeed. Now, I was theproject director, and it wasmy failure, but instead, hetook responsibility for thefailure as chairman of the or-ganization. The next year, in

July 1980, we tried again to

launch the satellite -- and thistime we succeeded. The

whole nation was jubilant.Again, there was a press con-ference. Prof. Dhawan calledme aside and told me, 'You

conduct the press conference today.' Ilearned a very important lesson that day.

When failure oc-curred, the leader of

the organizationowned that failure.

When success came,he gave it to his team.The best managementlesson I have learneddid not come to me

from reading a book; it came from that ex-perience.

Contributed by Mrs. Lekha NairContributed by Mrs. Lekha Nair

Shri Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam),

usually referred to as A. P. J. Abdul Kalam,was the 11th President of India who

served from 2002 to 2007. During his termas President, he was popularly known as

the People's President


15/30


Facebook has become the mostpopular social network in the inter-net among the young as well as the

old. Even the companies are usingFacebook to popoularaise their prod-ucts and services. Then what is Face-book? Read further.Internet Users can create profileswith photos, lists of personal inter-ests, contact information, and otherpersonal information. Users cancommunicate with friends and otherusers through private or public mes-sages and a chat feature. They can

also create and join interest groupsand "like pages" (formerly called "fanpages", until April 19, 2010), some ofwhich are maintained by organiza-tions as a means of advertising.To allay concerns about privacy,Facebook enables users to choosetheir own privacy settings and choose who cansee specific parts of their profile. The website isfree to users, and gener-ates revenue from ad-

vertising, such as ban-ner ads. Facebook re-quires a user's nameand profile picture (ifapplicable) to be acces-sible by everyone. Userscan control who seesother information theyhave shared, as well as who can find them insearches, through their

privacy settings.The media often com-pare Facebook toMySpace, but one sig-nificant difference be-tween the two websitesis the level of customi-zation. Another differ-ence is Facebook's re-quirement that users give their true identity, ademand that MySpace does not make. MySpace

allows users to decorate their profiles usingHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), whileFacebook only allows plain text. Facebook has a

number of features with which usersmay interact. They include the Wall,a space on every user's profile pagethat allows friends to post messagesfor the user to see; Pokes, which al-lows users to send a virtual "poke" toeach other (a notification then tells a

user that they have been poked); Pho-tos, where users can upload albumsand photos; and Status, which allowsusers to inform their friends of theirwhereabouts and actions. Dependingon privacy settings, anyone who cansee a user's profile can also view that

user's Wall. In July 2007, Facebook began allow-ing users to post attachments to the Wall,

whereas the Wall waspreviously limited to tex-

tual content only.On September 6, 2006, aNews Feed was an-nounced, which appearson every user's home-page and highlights in-formation including pro-file changes, upcomingevents, and birthdays ofthe user's friends. Thisenabled spammers and

other users to manipu-late these features bycreating illegitimateevents or posting fakebirthdays to attract at-tention to their profile orcause. Initially, the NewsFeed caused dissatisfac-tion among Facebook

users; some complained it was too cluttered andfull of undesired information, while others were

concerned it made it too easy for others to trackindividual activities (such as relationship statuschanges, events, and conversations with other

Mark Zuckerberg co-created Facebook in his

Harvard dorm room.

PopularityPopularityPopularityPopularity

As of April 2010, according to The New York Times,countries with most Facebook users are the UnitedStates, the United Kingdom and Indonesia. Indone-sia has become the country with the second largestnumber of Facebook users, after the United States,

with 24 million users, or 10% of Indonesia's popula-tion. Also in early 2010, Openbook was established,

an avowed parody website (and privacy advocacywebsite) that enables text-based searches of thoseWall posts that are available to "Everyone", i.e. to

everyone on the Internet.

FallFallFallFall----outsoutsoutsoutsWriters for The Wall Street Journalfound in 2010that Facebook apps were transmitting identifying

information to "dozens of advertising and Internettracking companies". The apps used an HTTP refer-

rer which exposed the user's identity and sometimestheir friends'. Facebook said, "We have taken imme-diate action to disable all applications that violate

our terms".


16/30


sponse, Zuckerberg issued an apology for thesite's failure to include appropriate customizableprivacy features. Since then, users have beenable to control what types of information areshared automatically with friends. Users are nowable to prevent user-set categories of friends

from seeing updates about certain types of ac-tivities, including profile changes, Wall posts,and newly added friends.On February 23, 2010, Facebook was granted a

patent on certain aspects of its News Feed. Thepatent covers News Feeds in which links are pro-vided so that one user can participate in the

same activity of another user. The patent mayencourage Facebook to pursue action againstwebsites that violate its patent, which may po-tentially include websites such as Twitter.One of the most popular applications on Face-book is the Photos application, where users canupload albums and photos. Facebook allows us-ers to upload an unlimited number of photos,compared with other image hosting servicessuch as Photobucket and Flickr, which applylimits to the number of photos that a user is al-

lowed to upload. During the first years, Face-book users were limited to 60 photos per album.As of May 2009, this limit has been increased to200 photos per album.Privacy settings can be set for individual albums,limiting the groups of users that can see an al-bum. For example, the privacy of an album canbe set so that only the user's friends can see thealbum, while the privacy of another album canbe set so that all Facebook users can see it. An-other feature of the Photos application is the

ability to "tag," or label, users in a photo. For in-stance, if a photo contains a user's friend, thenthe user can tag the friend in the photo. This

sends a notification to the friendthat they have been tagged, andprovides them a link to see thephoto.Facebook Notes was introduced onAugust 22, 2006, a blogging feature that allowed

tags and embeddable images. Users were laterable to import blogs from Xanga, LiveJournal,Blogger, and other blogging services. During theweek of April 7, 2008, Facebook released aComet-based instant messaging applicationcalled "Chat" to several networks, which allowsusers to communicate with friends and is similarin functionality to desktop-based instant mes-sengers.Facebook launched Gifts on February 8, 2007,which allows users to send virtual gifts to their

friends that appear on the recipient's profile.Gifts cost $1.00 each to purchase, and a personal-ized message can be attached to each gift. OnMay 14, 2007, Facebook launched Marketplace,which lets users post free classified ads. Market-place has been compared to Craigslist by CNET, which points out that the major difference be-tween the two is that listings posted by a user onMarketplace are seen only by users in the samenetwork as that user,whereas listings posted on Craigslist can be seen

by any to develop.On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced

"Facebook Beta", a significant redesign of its userinterface on selected networks. The Mini-Feedand Wall were consolidated, profiles were sepa-rated into tabbed sections, and an effort wasmade to create a "cleaner" look.[97] After initiallygiving users a choice to switch, Facebook began

migrating all users to the new version beginningin September 2008. On December 11, 2008, it wasannounced that Facebook was testing a simpler


17/30


signup process.On June 13, 2009, Facebook introduced a"Usernames" feature, whereby pages can belinked with simpler URLs such as http:// www.facebook.com/facebook as opposed toht tp :/ /www.facebook .com/prof i l e .php?

id=20531316728. Many new smartphones offeraccess to the Facebook services either through

their web-browsers or applications. An officialFacebook application is available for the iPhoneOS, the Android OS, and the WebOS. Nokia and

Research In Motion both provideFacebook applications for theirown mobile devices. More than150 million active users accessFacebook through mobile de-vices across 200 mobile operators

in 60 countries.On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced anew "Facebook Messages" service. In a mediaevent that day, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "It'strue that people will be able to have [email protected] email addresses, but it's notemail." The launch of such a feature had been

anticipated for some time before the announce-ment, with some calling it a "Gmail killer." Thesystem, to be available to all of the website's us-ers, combines text messaging, instant messaging,emails, and regular messages, and will includeprivacy settings similar to those of other Face-book services. Codenamed "Project Titan," Face-

book Messages took 15 months to develop.In February 2011, Facebook began to use thehCalendar microformat to mark up events, andthe hCard microformat for the events' venues,enabling the extraction of details to users' owncalendar or mapping applications. As of April 2011 Facebook users now have theability to make live voice calls via Facebook Chatallowing users to chat with others from all overthe world. This feature which is provided freethrough T-Mobile's new Bobsled service lets the

user add voice to the current Facebook Chat aswell as leave voice messages on Facebook..

USERS PRIDEUSERS PRIDEUSERS PRIDEUSERS PRIDE

Facebook (stylized Facebook) is a social net-working service and website launched in Febru-ary 2004, operated and privately owned by Face-book, Inc. As of January 2011, Facebook has morethan 600 million active users. Users may createa personal profile, add other users as friends,and exchange messages, including automaticnotifications when they update their profile.

Additionally, users may join common interest

user groups, organized by workplace, school orcollege, or other characteristics. The name of

the service stems from the colloquial name forthe book given to students at the start of the

academic year by university administrations inthe United States to help students get to know

each other better. Facebook allows anyone whodeclares themselves to be at least 13 years old to

become a registered user of the website.Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg withhis college roommates and fellow computer sci-

ence students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Mosk-

ovitz and Chris Hughes. The website's member-ship was initially limited by the founders toHarvard students, but was expanded to other

colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, andStanford University. It gradually added supportfor students at various other universities beforeopening to high school students, and, finally, to

anyone aged 13 and over.A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Face-book as the most used social networking serviceby worldwide monthly active users, followed byMySpace. Entertainment Weekly included the

site on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, say-ing, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, re-member our co-workers' birthdays, bug our

friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulousbefore Facebook?" Quantcast estimates Face-

book has 135.1 million monthly unique U.S. visi-tors in October 2010. According to Social MediaToday, in April 2010 an estimated 41.6% of the

U.S. population had a Facebook account.


18/30


Dance in India covers a widerange of dance and dance theatre forms, from theancient classical or temple dance to folk and mod-ern styles.Three best-known hindu deities, Shiva, Kali andKrishna, are typically represented dancing. There

are hundreds of Indian folk dances such as Bhan-gra, Bihu, Ghumura Dance, Sambalpuri, Chhauand Garba and special dances observed in regionalfestivals.I n d i aoffers anumberof classi-cal In-d i a nd a n c ef o r m s ,each ofw h i c hcan betraced to different parts of the country. The pres-entation of Indian dance styles in film, Hindi Cin-ema, has exposed the range of dance in India to aglobal audience.

Classical Indian danceEach form represents the culture and ethos of aparticular region or agroup of people. The cri-

teria for being consideredas classical is the style'sadherence to the guide-lines laid down in Natya-shastra by the sageBharata Muni, which ex-plains the Indian art ofacting. Acting or natya isa broad concept whichencompasses both dramaand dance.

Indian classical dance is amisnomer, as actuallydance refers to natya, the sacred Hindu musicaltheatre styles. Its theory can be traced back to theNatya Shastra of Bharata Muni (400 BC). The San-geet Natak Akademi currently confers classicalstatus on eight "dance" forms:[citation needed]Those who worship Vishnu are considered Vaishnavas. The dance style performed by SriKrishna (an avatar of Vishnu) and the gopis inVrindavan is called rasa-lila, and is considered as aform of devotional dance. Many other Indian clas-

sical dances are used to illustrate events from thePuranas related to or describing Vishnu.

Hindi filmsDance in early Hindi films, was primarily modelledon classical Indian dance styles and particularlythose of historic northern Indian courtesans(tawaif), or folk dances. Modern films often blendthis earlier style with Western dance styles (MTVor in Broadway musicals), though it is not unusual

to seeWesternpop anda d a p t e dclassicald a n c enumbersside byside in

the samefilm. Thehero orh e r o i n e

will often perform with a troupe of supportingdancers. Many song-and-dance routines in Indianfilms feature unrealistically instantaneous shifts oflocation and/or changes of costume betweenverses of a song. If the hero and heroine dance andsing a pas de deux (a French ballet term, meaning

"dance of two") oftenstaged in beautiful natu-

ral surroundings or archi-tecturally grand settings,referred to as a"picturisation".Indian films have alwaysused what are now called"item numbers". A physi-cally attractive femalecharacter (the "itemgirl"), often completelyunrelated to the main

cast and plot of the film,performs a catchy songand dance number in the film. In older films, the"item number" may be performed by a courtesan(tawaif) dancing for a rich client or as part of acabaret show. The dancer Helen was famous forher cabaret numbers. In modern films, item num-bers may be inserted as discotheque sequences,dancing at celebrations, or as stage shows.Indian producers now release music videos, usuallyfeaturing a song from the film. However, somepromotional videos feature a song which is not

included in the movie.


19/30


ARE YOU RICH?ARE YOU RICH?When I was a kid inMinnesota, water-melon was a delicacy.

One of my fathersbuddies, Bernie, wasa prosperous fruitandvegetable wholesaler, who operated a

warehouse in St. Paul. Every summer, whenthe first watermelons rolled in, Bernie wouldcall. Dad and I would go to Bernies warehouseand take up our positions. Wed sit on theedge of the dock, feet dangling, and lean over,minimizing the volume of juice we were aboutto spill on ourselves.

Bernie would take his machete, crack our firstwatermelon, hand us both a big piece and sitdown next to us. Then wed bury our faces in

watermelon, eating only the heart the red-dest, juiciest, firmest, most seedfree, mostperfect part and throw away the rest. Bernie

was my fathers idea of a rich man. I alwaysthought it was because he was such a success-ful businessman. Years later, I realized that

what my father admired about Bernies wealth

was less its substance than its application.Bernie knew how to stop working, get togetherwith friends and eat only the heart of the wa-termelon.

What I learned from Bernie is that being richis a state of mind. Some of us, no matter howmuch money we have, will never be freeenough to eat only the heart of the water-melon. Others are rich without ever beingmore than a paycheck ahead.If you dont take the time to dangle your feet

over the dock and chomp into life's smallpleasures, your career is probably overwhelm-ing your life.For many years, I forgot that lesson Id learnedas a kid on the loading dock. I was too busymaking all the money I could.

Well, Ive relearned it. I hope I have time leftto enjoy the accomplishments of others and totake pleasure in the day. Thats the heart ofthe watermelon. I have learned again to throw

the rest away.Contributed by Shri Hrishikesh Apte

BALANCE SHEET OF LIFEBALANCE SHEET OF LIFE

Our Birth is our Opening Balance!Our Death is our Closing Balance!

Our Prejudiced Views are our Liabili-ties

Our Creative Ideas are our Assets

Heart is our Current AssetSoul is our Fixed Asset

Brain is our Fixed DepositThinking is our Current Account

Achievements are our CapitalCharacter & Morals, our Stock-in-

TradeFriends are our General Reserves

Values & Behavior are our Goodwill

Patience is our Interest EarnedLove is our Dividend

Children are our Bonus IssuesEducation is Brands / Patents

Knowledge is our InvestmentExperience is our Premium AccountThe Aim is to Tally the Balance Sheet

Accurately.The Goal is to get the Best Presented

Accounts Award.

Contributed by Shri GA SIRWANI


20/30


The force applied by circulating blood on the walls ofblood vessels is known as blood pressure. The mostcommon blood pressure values for a healthy adulthuman are approximately 120 mmHg systolic and 80mmHg diastolic. However, normal blood pressurevaries from person to person. In some people, theblood pressure levels fluctuate widely, either rising orfalling to abnormal levels. As this may lead to otherhealth problems such as heart disease, it is importantto always keep blood pressure under control.

Some common steps to reduce high blood pres-sure are:

Stop smoking

Keep your body weight at a healthy level.

Follow a healthy diet, stressing on fruits, vegeta-bles and low fat dairy foods

Get involved in some physical activity.

Consume alcoholic drinks in moderation.Some common tips to prevent low blood pressureare:

Dehydration minimizes blood volume, which

causes a drop in pressure. Hence, drink plenty ofwater.

Go for a walk after meals. This helps in bringing

the blood pressure level up to normal.

After exercising, take some time out to cooldown. A sudden stoppage in the middle of anexercise routine can lead to a fall in blood pres-sure.

Salt is good for people with low blood pressure.Increase in salt consumption may vary from per-son to person.

Drinking alcoholic beverages is harmful to peoplewith a low blood pressure condition. Such indi-

viduals should drink healthy juices or non-alcoholic drinks only.

Before undertaking any of the above steps, re-member to first consult your doctor.

http://india.gov.in/citizen/health/

How can I control my blood pressure

without medicines?1 Non-pharmacologic therapy for high bloodpressure is significant in the management of highblood pressure. In most cases, drugs are not neces-sary and lifestyle changes, followed religiously, canbe adequate to bring the blood pressure to targetlevels. In others, medicines may be required, butthe dose of the medicines required will be muchless with better blood pressure control, when com-bined with rigorous lifestyle measures.

2 Weight reduction: if you are overweightthen you must lose weight. Calculate your

BMI and also measure your waist.3 Diet plan - Restrict your calories as soon asthe pointer goes there, calculate the calories whichyou need to consume each day so that you takeonly as many calories are required. Include a vari-ety offresh fruits and vegetables , include nutsin your diet and switch from refined grain foods towhole grains and whole pulses and the dietshould be low on saturated fats and total fats. Youcan achieve 8-14 mm of Hg reduction in bloodpressure through this diet.Restrict salty foods.Your total salt intake in a day

should not exceed 5 grams (approx 1 teaspoon).Don't put extra salt in the salad & foods on thetable.

PREVENTION IS POWERFULOne third of all the cancers can be avoided bypreventing tobacco, increasing activity levelsand decreasing the fat in the diet.High blood pressure usually develops due tofaulty lifestyle, obesity, sedentariness and lessof fruits & vegetables and excess of refinedfoods, processed foods and salt.High blood pressure is thus preventable toa large extent.We should aim to promote the healthy behav-

iours throughout the life course. This approachcombines health promotion, disease preventionand disease management. We should reinforcehealthy behaviours which already exist in oursociety & prevent changing to unhealthy behav-iours. We should also help people revert backfrom unhealthy to healthy behaviours.

Blood PressureBlood Pressure


21/30


I cursed the day. Today is one of theworst days in my life, I thought.Every thingI am doing today lead me into trouble. Tostart with, I had an awful fight with my wifein the morning. Reason... who knows... asusual. I thought I should have controlledmy tongue. I did not take breakfast, noteven a glass of water...... That hurt me a lotlater.I went to office... I was late as usual... I knewManager was fuming, I could see the smokecoming out of his cabin...ha... ha... What todo? He waved his hand signaling me tocome inside his cabin.Dont worry Raj... late is our birth right,commented Rizwani, smiling at me.

I entered the Cabin only to find his smilingface...

Good Morning Sir...Bad Morning dear... you are fired... collect

your cheque... get lost...Even an Earthquake followed by Tsunami

would not have given me this Jerk...But I was a short tempered man. I maystarve and die but I will not tolerate this. Ihad my self belief; I knew I can get a brandnew job. Hell with this one... especially withthis idiot...

Thanks, I said, banged the door and wentout of the office like a vampire amid staresbehind my back.

*****When I got up from the shadow of a tree inthe Park, it was evening 6.00 PM. The fourlarge I had taken in the afternoon was disap-peared. My head was aching. I wondered

what next? I hate to go home either...My mobile rang. I saw the number, it was a

new one. Wondering who the hell it wouldbe... I said hello. I could scarcely recognizemy voice... it was rough...

.WWWWhat?...I am on my way... I will reach there by mid-night

*****My village was a remote one. After 9.00 PM,no one can reach my Village. But I had to goat any cost. The bus dropped me at 10.00 PMin a nearby city. I thought I might get atransport... a jeep... at least a bullock cart...No way... I cursed the Politicians who alwayspromised us light, road, transport, water

etc., once in five years from when I was fiveyears old.

I cant wait till morning; hence, I decided to walk. The thought of walking 10 long Kilo-meters to reach my home gave me a shiver.I cursed myself for not getting a drink...Crap... I started walking.

Since I knew the place very well, I had noproblem. After around 5 Kilometers, I

looked at my watch... It said... 11.45 PM. Iknew the other three Kilometers is a difficultone... where I had to cross even a Graveyard.

Sebastian Selvaraj

CRIME STORY


22/30


The thought of crossing a Graveyard at mid-night gave me a feeling of chill crawl up myspine.

***** When I neared the Graveyard, it was mid-night 12 O clock. Faint smoke of a burntbody gave me a sweat. I had a look around.No one could be seen. The place lookeddark & deserted. Even during the day noone dare to cross the place alone. That tooin the night, even a ghost would not dare tobe there alone. I thought of running. Buttold myself to stay calm. I started a brisk

walk. The abnormal sound of my own feetincreased my sweat. I heard the howlingsound of a dog somewhere. Now I wasscared. Scarred enough to run... So I ran fastso as to cross the graveyard as soon as possi-ble. Suddenly, I heard a hissing sound be-hind my back for the first time as if someone following me right behind my ear. Myentire body felt shiver. I came to a grindinghalt and slowly I looked behind.

No one was there I did not want to standany more. I started running again. I heardthe hissing sound again and again at myback. I ran faster the sound followed meI turned again and saw what that was I sawa white smoke a pure white smoke I felldown

*****

Narsi... That is how he was called. Narasim-

han- a local politician. He was on his way totown in his bike. Suddenly he spotted a per-son lying near a well which was covered with

FOOD PRICES SOARFOOD PRICES SOARJust three years after the 2007-08 food crisis, thefood security of poor people and vulnerable groups,especially women and children, is again threatened asthe prices of basic food items increase rapidly andbecome more volatile. Expanding biofuel production,

rising oil prices, U.S. dollar depreciation, export re-strictions, and panicparticular detriment of the worldspoorest consumers, who spend some 50-70 percentof their incomes on food. While global food pricesdropped slightly in March, they remain 37 percenthigher than they were one year ago.Research shows that when food prices changequickly, as they continue to do at present, povertyincreases in the vast majority of cases. High food in-

flation is affectingnot only smallcountries but alsothose with large

numbers of poorpeople such asIndia, China, andIndonesia. Forexample, food in-flation rose to 10

percent in China and 18 percent in India betweenDecember 2009 and December 2010. It is often saidthat poor agricultural producers benefit from higherfood prices through higher incomes, but this is onlypossible if they are net sellers of food and if their in-put costs do not also rise. In recent years, however,the cost of inputs such as fertilizer and transport has

also been high and volatile. Increasing costs, coupledwith the uncertainty that stems from excessive pricevolatility in input and output markets, can reducefarmers profit margins, distort long-term planning,and dampen investment in improved productivity.Decisive action is needed to prevent recurring foodcrises. Given the complex web of factors affectingglobal food security, governments and internationalorganizations must adopt a comprehensive approach.Such an approach should incorporate seven principalelements. purchasing are again driving up foodpricesto the1. Effective policies and technology investments to

minimize foodfuel competition.2. Social protection, especially social safety nets, forthe most vulnerable groups.3. Transparent, fair, and open global trade.4. A global emergency physical grain reserve.5. Policies and investments to promote agriculturalgrowth, in particular smallholder productivity, in theface of climate change.6. Investments by national governments in climatechange adaptation and mitigation using the full poten-tial that agriculture offers.7. An international working group to regularly monitorthe world food situation and trigger action to prevent

excessive price volatility.Apr 28, 2011 by S. GustafsonCourtesy: foodsecurityportal.org


23/30


bushes hiding the deep water. He lookedaround. That place was deserted. He camecloser to the well. Stopped the vehicle andhad a look at the person lying near the well.He was shocked to find Raj on that pose. Hedid not expect that Raj who was working in amultinational company in city to lie near the

well that too in this condition. He wentnear him. He placed his hands near his

nose. There was breath. He was happy tonote that Raj was alive. He tried to wakehim up.Raj... wake up... what happened?Raj opened his eyes and saw Narsi... there

was anger in his eyes. Narsi did not expectthis. He asked Raj again. What happened,Raj? Why you are sleeping here?Raj was on his feet now. He had an un-friendly look at Narsi...

Narsi... Did you think I will not come back?You should not have done this to us. You donot deserve to be here. Come to our world.Narsi... could not understand a word in it.What are you talking about?

Without answering his query, he pushedhim very hard into the well.Totally unexpected of this, Narsi fell insidethe well which was covered in bush. Henever came back later.

Raj was looking into the well. Feeling satis-fied came near the Bike and pushed it intothe well and walked away.

***** When I regained consciousness, I was stilllying near the Graveyard. I looked at my

watch. It was 10.00 AM. The place stilllooked deserted. The sunshine gave mecourage. Last night horror came to mymind. What a horrible experience it was! I

was unconscious for the past 10 Hrs. Mygod! I got to my feet and somehow reachedhome. There, I was very pleased to see mymother, who was seriously ill yesterday, satin the arm chair. I went near her and uponseeing me she hugged tightly with profoundaffection. The maternal hug offered me themuch needed soothe. I sobbed and softlykissed on her forehead.

*****Next days local news paper read: MysterykillingsNov. 12. Narasimhan, a local politician, wasfound dead in the Deadly Well together withhis Motor Cycle. It is not known whether heCommitted Suicide or was murdered. Thereaders may recall that last week the bodies

of Ragini & Rajesh, local love birds, werefound in the same well in a mutilated condi-tion. Postmortem report later revealed thatRajesh was assaulted and Ragini was raped.Inspector Vijay told reporters that the policesuspected a link between the two incidentsand further investigating the case.

*****After attending the funeral of one of my old

friends, a local politician, who committedsuicide or was killed... I went back to my cityin two days. My wife was very joyful to seeme back after two days. She ferventlyhugged me and said, Sorry, Honey... I willnever pick up a fight with you. I tenderlykissed her on her forehead, saying Thats allright, sweet heart.

The end.

Mr. Sebastian Selvaraj can be contactedat [email protected]


24/30


This morning I woke up with a horrible feel-ing in the pit of my stomach. Still not fullyawake, I lay wondering what caused it. Mymind, unbelievably, still in our life before

Aug 2010. And then I realized (or woke upfully). Tejaswee. I tried to think what madethis morning more difficult than other

mornings, and then I knew.

I had opened Tejaswees laptop for the first

time yesterday. It look a long time and manytries before I could remember the password.

There was nothing new on her laptop actu-ally, except that it was hers. Most of yester-day was spent going through photographsand videos not seen for a long time.

And hearing her voice after months.

Here she is with her favorite turquoisebracelet, also seen in the header and on thesidebar.

How easy it was to take for granted on 12thOctober 2009 that the child who sat on the

kitchen counter, modeling her newest shop-ping, chattering endlessly, while I addedtarka to her favorite dal, was going to be

with us all our lives.

I am reading When life changed forever theauthor says, life was not meant to be pre-dictable or planned, anything might changeat any moment. And that the death of a

child changes the parents forever.Accept-ing that we will never be what we were,might make it easier to live with ourchanged selves. I am realizing that some ofthe changes are subtle. Some changes comeslowly as the realization sinks in. Maybesome of the changes are reversible. But thismuch is true, now we have two lives, our life

before Aug 11, 2010 and this life after Aug 11,2010.

Ricky Taylor says,Our friends and family, and weourselves, wanted us to get backto normal. But normal hadbeen fiendishly changed.

But it also became very obvious to us that

what he had thought of as normal wasphantom. It existed only in our minds. Thereality was that each day promises a freshbeginningThe reality was that each day promises a

fresh beginning...I dont know how to see that. Sounds posi-tive if one didnt consider what one has lost.

Do you believe that each day promises a

fresh beginning?Cortesy:

Do you believe

that each day

promises a

fresh beginning?

DID YOU KNOW THAT ?

Indian Homemaker


25/30


MiddleMiddle--Class ?Class ?The middle class is any class of people in themiddle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberiansocio-economic terms, the middle class is thebroad group of people in contemporary society

who fall socio-economically between the work-ing class and upper class.The common measures of what constitutes mid-dle class vary significantly between cultures. Inurban India, for example, a family is consideredmiddle class if it resides in an owner-occupiedproperty. In the United States, many familieswhere the primary income-earner is employedin a blue collar job consider themselves middleclass, when in fact they are working class by theclassic Weberian definition.

In the United Kingdom, the term middle classimplies those people who typically have had agood education, own a family house, and hold amanagerial or professional post. Those holding asenior role in a profession or ownership/directorship of a corporation may be regarded asupper middle class, but in England this is asmuch dependent on background and education.The upper class is generally regarded as the aris-tocracy and landed gentry; very rich financiersbuy country estates in order to qualify. It was

commonly held that to join the landed gentryrequired a distance of least three generationsfrom the time at which money was made(especially if through trade) and that those en-tering into its rank acquired the manners andmores of those already established.

A persistent source of confusion surround-ing the term "middle class" derives predomi-nantly from there being no set criteria forsuch a definition. From an economic per-spective, for example, members of the mid-

dle class do not necessarily fall in the middleof a society's income distribution. Instead,middle class salaries tend to be determinedby middle class occupations, which in turnare attained by means of middle class values.Thus, individuals who might fall in the mid-dle ground on a societal hierarchy as definedby sociologists do not necessarily fall into amiddle ground on an economic hierarchy asdefined by economists. As a result, intuitivecolloquial and journalistic usage of the term

casts a wide net and does not necessarilycoincide with an academic sociological oreconomic definition.

The assertion of the social activist ArundhatiRoy that corruption was presented as a moralissue rather than a political one to Hazare'ssupporters who thronged Jantar Mantar, can-not be brushed below the carpet merely be-cause she suffers from LSS (Limelight SeekingSyndrome). The fast-unto-Death undertakenby Anna Hazare has touched the nerves of thepeople unlike never before. But the peoplehave a holier-than-though attitude in fightingcorruption. It is like my-small-corruption isless serious than your-big-corruption attitude.

Unless the citizens make deliberate attemptsto clean the society of the gangrene of corrup-tion, the rot will continue. The Lokpal ca

Mind Tree May 2011

Documents

Transcript of Mind Tree May 2011