Inspiring Thoughts

Investing In ELSS .

2007-09-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

One of the many reasons people go for investement is to save taxes.ELSS or Equity Linked Saving Schemes are a wonderful medium to save taxes and at the same time earn substantial returns on the investments.

All the major AMC's ( Asset Managment Companies) have their own ELSS schemes.The investment under this schemes are mainly done on Mutual Funds.

Some of the major ELSS schemes which are performing really well in the market are:

1) Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96

2) SBI Magnum Tax Gain 93.

Apart from this there are several other funds from other AMC houses as well.Before deciding on any particular fund, one should do a thorough research on the performance of the fund for in the past and then zero down upon one.

Experts , please post your comments as to what other factors one should look at while deciding upon a paticular ELSS scheme

Investment Frenzy

2007-09-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

With the rise in the disposable income of individuals, bouyed by a resurgent economy and a bullish market, ivestment has become the buzz word in the market.Indians are no longer keen on keeping their money in safe deposits or converting into the yellow asset, so dearly coveted by the previous generation.

There is a deluge of investment opportunities out there in the market , and a new investor is really hardpressed in deciding upon the right investment product. Recently I decided to invest in Mutual Funds as I thought it would be far more safer than the equity market, so I went out to do a bit of research on the best performing mutual funds in the industry .Finally I decided to start this new thread on my blog to disucuss the various investment opportunities in the market and how to decide upon one.

This is an appeal to all the investment gurus to help beginners like me to find a foothold in the investment arena.....
I have zeored down on two fund one being the:- Sundaram Capex Opportunities Fund
and the other being the NFO by Birla Sun Life Ineternational Equity Fund.....

I would sincerely appreciate if any once could suggest as to how prudent it would be to invest in a NFO or it would be better to invest on an already existing fund.......

Crickets New Avatar

2007-09-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

This year sees the first ever Twenty 20 cricket World Cup. The latest version of the ancient game of cricket is aimed at attracting a younger audience and the World Cup will see 12 national teams competing.
Twenty 20 was first introduced in England as a means of getting more people to attend cricket matches. The matches were much shorter than other forms of the game and were aimed squarely at families and younger generations.
The format has largely been viewed as a success, attracting large crowds and a greater number of cricket enthusiasts.
Later this year, South Africa will host the inaugural Twenty 20 World Cup. The participating nations are South Africa, the West Indies, Bangladesh, Kenya, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Scotland, India, Australia, Zimbabwe and England.
Predicting how each of the teams will perform in the competition is not easy - being the first of its kind means that many of the countries won't have much of a track record.
Many believe that Australia will be the team to beat. The Aussies are the undoubted kings of Test and One Day cricket, leading the rankings in both forms of the game.
The One Day World Cup, held in the West Indies early in 2007, also saw strong performances from Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa. As hosts here, the South Africans will be looking to do well in the Twenty 20 version of the World Cup.
England, the birthplace of the game, will look to do well, though may be hampered by having to face Australia early in the competition.
From a financial perspective, the two major Asian cricketing powers (India and Pakistan) will need to do well if the tournament is to be judged a success.
The world waits to see who will emerge as the world champions.
To find out more about cricket and playing it, visit the cricket gloves website and check out Keith Barrett's other cricketing articles. This article may be used by any website publisher, though this resource box must always be included in full.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_Barrett

Yoga and Swami Vivekananda

2007-09-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

The history of yoga is long and steeped in tradition. Contrary to what some people may believe, yoga was not developed as the newest way to slim down so they could fit into a smaller pants size.
The history of yoga goes back 5,000 years. It originated in India, and the first time the word yoga was found in written form was in the Rig Vada, one of the sacred texts used by Vedic priests. Yoga is a means of achieving spiritual enlightenment.
Originally, yoga techniques were passed down from teacher to student through word of mouth. These techniques had never been written down until the Indian sage Patanjali wrote down a systematic method of yoga in the Yoga Sutras. Patanjali is considered to be the father of yoga.
According to Patanjali, there are eight limbs of yoga, which lead to the ultimate goal of enlightenment.
Yama - abstaining from violence, stealing, lust, greed
Niyam - developing devotion, purity, studiousness, contentment, discipline
Pranayama - controlling the breath
Pratyahara - going inward and withdrawing attention from the outside world
Dharana - concentration
Dhyana - meditation
Samadhi - merging with the universal consciousness
The Swami Vivekananda added to the history of yoga by bringing it to America. In 1893, he addressed the Parliament of World Religions and discussed the path of yoga. As a result of his speech, it quickly began to blossom as a practice in many areas of the country. Yoga has since gained major popularity in the United States and many different styles including Hatha, Bikram, and Iyengar, are practiced by millions of people.
Knowing the history of yoga can help you, the practitioner, realize the richness that it has to offer. More than just a means of being fit and trim, yoga can help you live a healthy, whole, and empowered life.
Della Menechella is a yoga and fitness enthusiast who has been involved in fitness for over thirty years. Here website http://www.beauty-fitness-yoga-source.com/ is filled with practical information about how you can make yoga and fitness a positive part of your life.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Della_Menechella

The Festival Dusherra

2007-09-05T07:54:00.000-07:00

Dasara Or Dusherra is celebrated as Navratri (nine days). According to Hindu calendar it begins in the month of October (asveja masam). This festival is fully dedicated to Durga Mata and in these nine days she will be worshiped in her nine forms and at the end of the (9th day) 10th day will be celebrated as (Vijayadasami) Dasara
Dasara is most popular in the west Bengal (Eastern) part of India and this is their major festival. The first 3 days will be worshiped in the form of Durga Mata and the next 3 days will be in the form of Saraswati and the final 3 days will be in the form of Lakshmi.
Normally the fifth day of Navratri will be worshiped for Saraswati (Goddess of knowledge) to invoke our spirit and knowledge.
STORIES
Navratri is a combination of various themes with the common summary is victory of good over bad. Some opinion that this festival is celebrated when the lord Rama killed the Ravana. According to Puranas the mighty demon Mahisasur vanquished the gods and their king, Indra. They then approached the Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar, who decided to destroy the megalomaniac demon, so they all combined their energy, and gave rise to Shakti. They all prayed to the divine mother Durga to do the needful. Equipped with lethal weapons, riding a ferocious lion, the Goddess in all her awesome majesty, vanquished the evil one without much ado. The 10th day on which the goddess kills Mahisasur, is celebrated as Dusshera or Vijayadasami as the victory of good over evil. Dasara (tenth day) is one of the significant Hindu festivals, celebrated with much joie de vivre in the entire country.
Celebrations
The festival is also celebrated with intense fervor and zest, in whole India, in the form of Durga Puja. The vibrant festivities last for ten days, of which nine nights are spent in worship, 'Navaratri'. But this festival varies from place to place.
EAST
In West-Bengal, Navratri is the real lyrics of the Bengali life. This festival is essentially religious in nature. It is celebrated with true devotion. In the time of Durga Puja huge idols of the Mata Durga posed as killing the demon Mahishasura are worshipped in everywhere of the state. Huge
'Pandals’ are set up everywhere to worship Durga Mata (Goddess Durga). The tenth day is devoted to the worship of goddess Durga. She is Shakti, the cosmic energy that animates all beings. Beautiful idols of the Mother Goddess are worshipped in elaborate pandals for nine days, and on the ninth day, these are carried out in procession for immersion (visarjan) in a river or pond.
WEST
In Maharashtra, Navratri celebration is slightly different than other states. Here Navratri are dedicated to Goddess Durga while the Vijayadasami is dedicated to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. This day is considered auspicious to begin education, buy new homes, start new ventures, and weddings. The Dasara of Mysore is also quite famous where caparisoned elephants lead a colorful procession through the gaily-dressed streets of the city. During Navratri Chamundi, the royal deity of the Mysore royalty is worshipped with pomp and pageantry.
NORTH
In the Kulu valley in Himachal Pradesh, the hill- folk celebrate Dasara with a grand mass ceremony wherein village deities are taken out in elaborate processions. In Punjab, Navratri is taken as a period of fasting.
SOUTH
In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, women arrange 'Bommai Kolu', a special placing of dolls in various costumes decorated with flowers and ornaments on specially prepared steps. Nine young 'kanyas' or virgins are offered new clothes and sweets as the goddesses and married women share flowers, kumkum and snacks among themselves.
Even you can share this celebrations by sending Dasara gifts for your family members in Indian and all over world from us
http://www.dasaragifts.com/http://www.onlinediwaligifts.com/Send Dasara gifts now.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=K_Gautam

Laws of Life By Swami Vivekananda

2007-08-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

1. Love Is The Law Of Life: All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love's sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.
2. Don't Play The Blame Game: Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
3. Help Others: If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.
4. Uphold Your Ideals: Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.
5. Listen To Your Soul: You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
6. Be Yourself: The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!
7. Nothing Is Impossible: Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin - to say that you are weak, or others are weak.
8. You Have The Power: All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.
9. Learn Everyday: The goal of mankind is knowledge... now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man 'knows', should, in strict psychological language, be what he 'discovers' or 'unveils'; what man 'learns' is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.
10. Be Truthful: Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
11. Think Different: All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.
12. It's Your Outlook That Matters: It is our own mental attitude, which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.
13. Life is Beautiful: First, believe in this world - that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not understand it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourselves!
14. It's The Way You Feel: Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.
15. Set Yourself Free: The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

The world in Dubai

2007-08-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

Dubai is surely the hottest place on earth for real estate developers and investors.With the audacious,and at times incrdible, plans of carving out entire cities out in thd middle of the ocean, dubai has stunned the entire world.Pushing the boundaries of architectural design to the extremes Dubai has been able to achieve the impossible for many.Some of the projects are so airy fairy that one has to be physically present at the site to believe at the audacity of the vision.
A mission that started with a plan to increase the beach front of the city and there by gain more tourists attraction, has gone to create some masterpieces of architectural design.

The most unbelievable of all the projects being executed in Dubai are the

World Island Projects
Palm Island Projects

World Island Projects: This would probably come in the list of the most incredible project of all.Once completed this would have around 300 different sand islands carved out 4 kms of the shore.This islands combined together would be in the shape of the world with each island represting a coutry.The magnitude of the project is something incomprehendable and inspiring as well.Scheduled to be completed by 2008 this project is attracting some of the biggest investors from around the world.With rumors being that Richard Branson and the likes being interested in investing , there would certainly be a buzz in the real estate industry .

Palm Island Projects:The palm island project consists of a trilogy of three palm shaped structures extending out to the sea from the shore.The first of them being Palm Jumeirah which is fast becoming a reality. The Palm Jebel Ali for which the land reclamation is fast accelarating and the Palm Deira.

With a slew of other mega real estate projects in the pipeline Dubai is set out to give a whole new dimension to the word Megastructures of the world.

Swami Vivekanada's most renowned speech

2007-08-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Sisters and Brothers of America,It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to
rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. l
thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank
you in the name of the mother of religions; and I thank you in the name of the
millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.
My thanks,
also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates
from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well
claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud
to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal
acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all
religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the
persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am
proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the
Israelites, who came to the southern India and took refuge with us in the very
year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am
proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the
remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few
lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood,
which is every day repeated by millions of human beings:

"As the different
streams having their sources in differentplaces all mingle their water in the
sea, so, O Lord, thedifferent paths which men take through different
tendencies,various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to
Thee."

The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies
ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world, of the
wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita:
"Whosoever comes to Me, through
whatsoever form, I reach him;all men are struggling through paths which in the
end lead to Me."Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism,
have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with
violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization,
and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons,
human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time has
come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of
this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions
with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons
wending their way to the same goal.
..This speech was delivered by Swami Vivekanda At The World's Parliament of ReligionsChicago, 11th September 1893

Dusshera-The Victory of Good Over Evil

2007-08-12T09:17:00.001-07:00

India is a land of multitude cultures and a festivals .One of the most widely followed and celebrated of them is Dusshera, also knows as VijayaDashmi or Durga Puja, and is celebrated in different forms across the coutry.
This festival commemorates the victory of the goddess Durga (an incarnation of Parvati, consort of Shiva) over the demon Mahisasura. It is also celebrated as a remembrance of the victory of Lord Rama (an incarnation of Vishnu) over Ravana, the king of Lanka who had abducted Sita, wife of Rama.
Dussehra is celebrated at the end of Navaratri, a nine-day festival. Images of Durga are worshipped during the Navaratri festival and stories related to the goddess and to the conquest of good over evil are told. Navaratri is celebrated with great enthusiasm in Gujarat, Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Prayers, devotional songs and colorful rituals mark the occasion of Navaratri and Dussehra.Ramilila is another exciting feature of this festival where the story of Rama, the God King of Ayodhyaya is depicted in a dance-drama form on all ten days of celebration.
On the 10th day i.e. the day of Dussehra, buffaloes representing the buffalo-demon Mahisasura are sacrificed to the goddess. The evening of Dussehra sees the burning of the colorful effigies of Ravana, complete with 10 heads and curling moustaches, and those of his son and brother. This spectacle is marked by setting off of a fusillade of fire-crackers and the triumph of good over evil is commemorated once again.
The legend underlying the celebration, as also its mode of conduct, varies vastly by region; however, all festivities celebrate the victory of the forces of Good over Evil. It is also considered to be an auspicious day to begin new things in life. It is the largest festival of Nepal and celebrated by Hindu and non-Hindu as well.
There is another and little-known legend associated with this festival, one associated with the Mahabharata. During the exile period of 12 years that the Pandavas underwent after loosing a game against the Kauravas, they found it necessary to lay aside, for the length of the final year of their exile, the many divine and distinctive weapons that they possessed. These they hid under a 'Shami' tree in the vicinity* of their chosen place of incognito residence. At the end of a year, they returned to the spot, found their weaponry intact, and worshipped in thanksgiving both the Shami tree and the Goddess Durga, presiding deity of strength and victory. Meanwhile, the Kauravas had invaded that area, suspecting the residence of the Pandavas there. Upon finishing their devotions, the Pandavas made straight to battle, and won the contest comprehensively. The day that all these events occurred on has since been known as "Vijayadashami", where "Vijaya" is the sanskrit word for "Victory".
The Navaratri celebration is also an annual spectale in Maysore and is a must see for anyone traveling to this part of India during this time of the year. On Vijaydashami day, at the culmination of a colourful 10-day celebration, the goddess Chamundeswari is worshipped and then borne in a Golden Ambari or elephant-mounted throne, in a grand procession, through the city of Mysore from the historical Mysore Palace to the Banni Mantapa.Banni is the Kannada word for the Sanskrit Shami, and Mantapa means "Pavilion".All in all Dusshera is one of the most celebrated festivals in the Indian festival calendar. ..www.wikipedia.org

Google's Ten Commandments

2007-08-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

This is a list of the ten things that are part of the gooogles corporate philosohpy,I guess its worth a read and definitely offers food for thought for all the google afficionados.

Focus on the user and all else will follow.
It's best to do one thing really, really well.
Fast is better than slow.
Democracy on the web works.
You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
You can make money without doing evil.
There's always more information out there.
The need for information crosses all borders.
You can be serious without a suit.
Great just isn't good enough.......http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html

Peek into a Writers Mind

2007-08-11T05:12:00.001-07:00

Recently while browsing through the net I came across this amazing piece of writing, Its Orhan Pamuk's 2006 Nobel Acceptance Speech .It gives us a wonderful insight into what goes on inside the mind of a writer and what it takes to write a novel or for that matter any literary work. Orhan explains about how writing a book is like “Digging a well with a needle”. Click on the link below to find, what goes on inside the mind of a writer……..

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/nic/orhan-pamuk-2006-nobel-speech.htm

Inspirations from Swami Vivekananda

2007-08-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

Arise, Awake and Stop not till the Goal is Reached.
Be brave! Be strong! Be fearless! Once you have taken up the spiritual
life, fight as long as there is any life in you.
Even though you know you are
going to be killed, fight till you “are killed.” Don’t die of fright. Die
fighting. Don’t go down till you are knocked down......Swami Vivekananda

To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean”, says the persevering soul; “at my will mountains will crumble up”. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal....
Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth is too much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go; the sooner the better....Swami Viveknanda

Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear.” Tell this to everyone—“Have no fear.”
...

Take up one idea.Make that one idea your life , think of it ,dream of it,live on that idea.Let the brain, muscles,nerves,every part of your body,be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone .This is the way to success,the way great spiritual giants are produced...
We are responsible for waht we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions,it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present action.So we have to know how to act....
Freedom can never be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself...
Go on saying, “I am free.” Never mind if the next moment delusion comes and says, “I am bound.” Dehypnotize the whole thing.
It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world -- that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you are not understanding it in the right light. throw the burden on yourselves!
Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin ? to say that you are weak, or others are weak...Swami Vivekananda
The weak have no place here, in this life or any other life. Weakness leads to slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery, physical and mental. Weakness is death....Swami Vivekanada

Sony Cyber Shot DSC-T100

2007-07-29T02:04:00.000-07:00

Sony is aggressively pursuing the Digital Camera market by lining out a series of stylish cameras aimed at gaining popularity. One of the latest offerings from the stable of Sony’s digital camera series is the DSC T1200 Cyber shot. It inherits the slim, metallic profile and signature sliding lens cover/power switch from the rest of the Cyber-shot T-series.

With the T100 Sony has been successful in delivering a powerful combination of style and substance.
With the cameras all metal body measuring just about .875 –inch thick, a weight of bit more than six ounces and extremely sleek and stylish features it comes out as an extremely handy and portable device. It also comes in three different colors of Red, Black and Silver (with the black being a personal favorite) .
The technical features of the camera are also very impressive. The 8-mega-pixel camera has features a 35mm- to – 175mm, equivalent to 5X optical zoom, Carl Zeiss lens. Its 3-inch screen display offers a great way to view the shots.

The T100 uses Sony's Super Steady Shot optical image stabilization technology and delivers a supper steady shot, reducing blur to a great extent. Its face-detection mode automatically adjusts exposures when shooting soft snaps. It also gives the option to tweak color, correct red-eye, and even apply different effects such as fish-eye and cross filter, all within the camera. The T100 can also output MP3-playing slide shows to standard definition TVs and HDTV. It also offers a variety of effects during the slide show. The T100 also has the option to download music from external source to be played during the slide show.

To cut the long story short it can be said that the T100 is an excellent camera and offers a lot of features in a very small package and is the closest you can get to an ideal snapshot camera.

Ataraxia

2007-07-28T04:45:00.000-07:00

Ataraxia: (at-uh-rak-see-uh)
:- A state of freedom from the disturbance of Mind.
When I first read this word, the meaning, kind of hit me like a boulder. It spurred a session of soliloquy during which the question popped up again and again in my mind, “Is it really possible to attain this so called state of completely unperturbed mind?” I guess the question might seem a very quintessential one, which every other person asks himself or herself, but the interesting thing would be, to know if any one has found an answer to it or even come close to an answer. Yogis and sadhus have spent their entire life time trying to find an answer for the same and we could say many have even been successful in reaching this seemingly impossible goal. One of the first names that come to mind is Ramakrishna Paramahansa and his favorite disciple Swami Vivekananda.
It would be a very challenging and difficult goal to achieve, but none the less one which we can always aspire for. So lets try and live in the state of ATARAXIA.

Inspiration-Beautiful Quotes

2007-07-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

"The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single
step."
- Chinese Proverb

"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're
yours."
- from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant
Messiah"

"The Gulls who scorn perfection for the sake of travel
go nowhere,slowly.
Those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection
go anywhere, instantly."

- from "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

Wonders of the World..(Leisure)

2007-07-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of the new seven wonders of the world,along with those structures that could not make it to the list.Added to it is the list of the Old seven wonders. .....(Leisure)

New Seven Wonders of the Modern World
--------------------------------------------------------
Chichen Itza ---Mexico
Great Wall of China
The Taj Mahal Built Between 1632 and 1648
The Statue of Christ Redeemer, Brazil
Petra Jordan ....The Great Temple
Machu Pichu ....Peru ....Telling Glimplse of the Inca civilization.
The Colosseum Italy

Contenders
----------------
The Acropolis, Greece
Hagia Sophia, Turkey
Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany
The Kremlin/St. Basil's, Russia
The Eiffel Tower, France
Stonehenge, United Kingdom
The Alhambra, Spain
Kiyomizu Temple, Japan
The Sydney Opera House, Australia
Angkor, Cambodia
Timbuktu, Mali
The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt---Honorary Eigth Position
The Easter Island Statues, Chile
Easter Island's stone statues -- called moai --
The Statue of Liberty, N.Y.---It was a gift from France in 1886

Original Ancient Wonders
----------------------------------
Seven Ancient Wonders of the World
Only one still exists today, but the short-list of marvels of the ancient world lives on. These manmade structures pay tribute to a time before modern technology when dedication and craftsmanship could yield unbelievable results. The seven wonders were selected by Philon of Byzantium in 200 B.C.

1. The Lighthouse of Alexandria
: It was the world's first lighthouse.

2. The Temple of Artemis
: The rectangular structure was complete with bronze statues contributed by some of the world's best artists.

3. The Statue of Zeus
Honoring the king of gods, the statue gave a majestic quality to the temple of Zeus at Olympia.

4.The Colossus of Rhodes

5. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

6. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

7. The Pyramids of Giza
The pyramids are the lone survivor of this group of ancient wonders and. Yet the pyramids connect the modern world to a distant past, to the time when they were hand-built in 2560 B.C.
......Images Courtsey Wikipedia.

Indias "Tryst With Destiny".

2007-07-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

This speech was made by Jawaharlal Nehru, to the Indian Constituent Assembly,towards midnight on August 14, 1947.It celebrates the liberation of India from the colonial cluthes of the British Empire.It is regarded as a monumental oration in Indian history...Please read on and feel proud to be an India.....
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we
shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to
life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we
step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a
nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn
moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people
and to the still larger cause of humanity.
At the dawn of history India
started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her
striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill
fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals
which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India
discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an
opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us.
Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the
challenge of the future?
Freedom and power bring responsibility. The
responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the
sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the
pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of
those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the
future that beckons to us now.
That future is not one of ease or resting but
of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken
and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the
millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease
and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our
generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us,
but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be
over.
And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to
our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all
the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them
to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is
freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that
can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
To the people of India, whose
representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence
in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no
time for ill-will or blaming others.
We have to build the noble mansion of
free India where all her children may dwell. The appointed day has come-the day
appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and
struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in
some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so
often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the
history which we shall live and act and others will write about.
It is a
fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star
rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision
long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be
betrayed! We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many
of our people are sorrowstricken and difficult problems encompass us. But
freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the
spirit of a free and disciplined people.
On this day our first thoughts go to
the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation [Gandhi], who, embodying
the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the
darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and
have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will
remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of
India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall
never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or
stormy the tempest.
Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and
soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto
death. We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us
by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom
that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we
shall be sharers in their good [or] ill fortune alike.
The future beckons to
us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and
opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight
and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic
and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political
institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and
woman.
We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we
redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny
intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold
advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever
religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights,
privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or
narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought
or in action.
To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and
pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and
democracy. And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her
service. Jai Hind........(Inspiration)

Inspiration From Apples CEO

2007-07-17T11:15:00.001-07:00

'You've got to find what you love,' This is what Steve Jobs, reiterated in his
Commencement address ,for Stanford Graduation Ceremony delivered on June 12, 2005.Read on to get an insight into the life and thoughts of a visionary......

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement
from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from
college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college
graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No
big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the
dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then
stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So
why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother
was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for
adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates,
so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his
wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they
really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in
the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want
him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my
mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated
from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only
relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to
college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a
college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class
parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I
couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and
no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending
all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop
out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time,
but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I
dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me,
and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all
romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms,
I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk
the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the
Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following
my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you
one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best
calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster,
every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had
dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a
calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif
typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter
combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful,
historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found
it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical
application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first
Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac.
It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in
on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple
typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac,
its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped
out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal
computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was
impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was
very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't
connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have
to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach
has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My
second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved
to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20.
We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a
garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released
our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.
And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as
Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company
with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of
the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did,
our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly
out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was
devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt
that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had
dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob
Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public
failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something
slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at
Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in
love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it
turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever
happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness
of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one
of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I
started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with
an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds
first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful
animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought
NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the
heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family
together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't
been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient
needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.
I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I
did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it
is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and
the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And
the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it
yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know
when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and
better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote
that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday
you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then,
for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked
myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am
about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a
row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead
soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big
choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all
pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the
face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are
going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have
something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your
heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at
7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even
know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type
of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than
three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in
order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your
kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a
few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be
as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I
lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they
stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines,
put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated,
but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a
microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare
form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and
I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope
its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now
say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but
purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want
to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination
we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because
Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change
agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you,
but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be
cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time
is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by
dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let
the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most
important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow
already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole
Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a
fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to
life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal
computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors,
and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years
before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and
great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole
Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.
It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue
was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find
yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words:
"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as
you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay
Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

This is a copy of the original speech

A Masterpiece

2007-07-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

This letter was written by Abraham Lincon to his sons teacher.....It has been a source of inspiration for generations of teachers and students alike...Please read on to get inspired."

He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just and are not true. But
teach him if you can, the wonder of books.. but also give him quiet time to
ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a
green hillside.In school, teach him it is far more honorable to fall than to
cheat.....Teach to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him he is
wrong.Teach him to be gentle with gentlepeople and tough with the tough.Try to
give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone getting on the
bandwagon...Teach him to listen to all men; but teach him also to filter all he
hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.Teach him,
if you can, how to laugh when he is sad... Teach him there is no shame in
tears.Teach him to scoff at cynics and to be beware of too much sweetness..
Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to highest bidders, but never to put a
price on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob.. and
stand and fight if thinks he is right.Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him,
because only the test of fire makes fine steel. Let him have the courage to be
impatient.. Let him have the patience to be brave. Teach him always to have
sublime faith in himself, because then he will have faith in humankind.This is a
big order, but see what you can do. . He is such a fine little fellow my son!-
Abraham Lincoln"

Words That Can Change Lives

2007-07-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

I have always believed that words have the power to influence lives.This has been proved over and over again by the writings of many a great writers.......Here I post the poem by Rudyard Kipling which teaches us in a very subtle way , about all the virtues that we can aspire to imbibe and follow in our lives......

If you can keep your head
when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on
you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make
allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not
be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal
in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way
to hating,

And yet don't look too
good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,

If you can
think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph
and Disaster

And treat those two impostors
just the same;

If you can bear to hear the
truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a
trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave
your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with
worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your
winnings

And risk it all on one turn of
pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at
your beginnings

And never breath a word about
your loss;

If you can force your heart and
nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after
they are gone,

And so hold on when there is
nothing in you

Except the Will which says to
them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your
virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose
the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving
friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but
none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving
minute

With sixty seconds' worth of
distance run,

Yours is the Earth and
everything that's in it

,And--which is more--you'll be
a Man, my son!
--Rudyard Kipling .....(Inspiration)

The iPhone Buzz

2007-07-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

With the world being flooded with more and more advanced gadgets , companies have become ever more competetive in producing state of the art and innovative products.
The latest one to join the club is the iPhone developed by Apple Inc.iPhones are currently available only in US but it has already stirred up the imagination of people all around the world and is the most anticipated product of the year.Many industry experts see it as the next big revolution in the mobile phone technology.Apple is banking big on its latest wonder product and expects to add a new feather to its cap of successfull products which includes the likes of iPod and the Mac Computers.
The popularity and market penetration of iPhone is not only important for Apple but also for all the other companies involved in developing the ancilliary parts.For example Intel , Texas Instruments, Skyworks solution .The success of the product has the potential to change the f0rtunes of all the companies associated with it.
We have already seen a remarkable rise in the shares of the companies involved.Apple could convert this wave into a tide if it could have the iPhone competatively priced so that the upper middle class people couldafford it.This will see a lot of people who vie for the smart phones , to shift to iPhone as it has a lot of new features not found in the smart phones.
People outside the US will also be keenly anticipating the price of the iPhone ..With the iPhone sheduled to hit the Indian Markets somewhere in the middle of next year the price is going to play a major role in deciding the penetration of the product in the market.
Probably Apple would follow a multi proned strategy by bringing out different variants of the iPhone , for the low-end and the upmarket users.
With people in the US queueing up to lay their hands on their iPhones,what remains to be seen though is how is the iPhone going to fare in markets outside US and how is it going to tackle the menace of lookalikes which have proved to be thorn in the neck for Apples earlier products like the iPod.

Inspiration - The Beginning

2007-07-08T00:58:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered , what is the most important event for the starting of a new venture ? Well i thought about it and then finally came to the conclusion that its the beginning which is the most vital.One could have a multitude of brilliant ideas which one believes could revolutonize the way people do things but unless they get converted into action all the ideas would eventually die their pittyful death.

Its the initial bold step that one has to take which is the most critical part of the entire process of trying to build something new.

The realization for the same came to me from a personal experience. We were a group of friends ,alwyas thinking about doing something different.We had lots of plans but no execution .Then one sunny day one of us gave the idea about organising a charity show for a NGO , and the idea hit us all like a boulder .Finally we were all thinking about converting our thoughts into action .We were actually a motely group of musicians , all amateurs. We composed our own song and organized a cultural event. The event was a great success and we gave all the proceedings from it to a social organization working on the education of childrens in the slum area. From this simple beginning I came to realize that its the first step which proves to be the most difficult part to overcome .

I guess its not entirely wrong when they say that 'throw your hat over the fence , if you want to go the other side'. As the old chinese proverb goes 'The Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step'. So lets go out and live our ideas .