Happy Pongal :)

HAPPY MAKAR SANKRATI

Wish you & your family a very
Happy Makar sankranti and Pongal

Makara Sakranti, the winter solstice in the Hindu solar calendar, is marked by the passing of the sun into the sign (Sakranti, Samkranti) of Makara (Capricorn). This day symbolizes the age old culture of our country which teaches us to live together in peace and harmony spreading the light of love and wisdom.
Lets come together and celebrate this auspicious occasion by showing our gratitude towards the god almighty for all that he has granted us with. And pray for the glorious future filled with happiness and joy for all.

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Happy Lohri !!!

Sunder mundriye ho!
Tera kaun vicaharaa ho!
Dullah bhatti walla ho!
Dullhe di dhee vyayae ho!
Ser shakkar payee ho!
Kudi da laal pathaka ho!
Kudi da saalu paatta ho!
Salu kaun samete!
Chache choori kutti! zamidara lutti!
Zamindaar sudhaye!
bade bhole aaye!
Ek bhola reh gaya!
Sipahee pakad ke lai gaya!
Sipahee ne mari eet!
Sanoo de de lohri te teri jeeve jodi!
Paheenve ro te phannve pit! ”

May this harvest season bring prosperity and abundance in your lives.

HAPPY LOHRI!!!!!

 

Happy New Year

Naagrik wishes all the readers a very Happy New Year 2008

 

Time Person of the Year 2007

  

Russia lives in history—and history lives in Russia. Throughout much of the 20th century, the Soviet Union cast an ominous shadow over the world. It was the U.S.’s dark twin. But after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia receded from the American consciousness as we became mired in our own polarized politics. And it lost its place in the great game of geopolitics, its significance dwarfed not just by the U.S. but also by the rising giants of China and India. That view was always naive.

Russia is central to our world—and the new world that is being born.

• It is the largest country on earth;
• it shares a 2,600-mile (4,200 km) border with China;
• it has a significant and restive Islamic population;
• it has the world’s largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction and a lethal nuclear arsenal;
• it is the world’s second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia; and
• it is an indispensable player in whatever happens in the Middle East.

For all these reasons, if Russia fails, all bets are off for the 21st century. And if Russia succeeds as a nation-state in the family of nations, it will owe much of that success to one man, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

 

Tribute to Benazir Bhutto

(June 21, 1953 – December 27, 2007) 

Bhutto, Pakistan’s opposition leader and twice previously prime minister, was killed in a suicide bombing on Thursday as she campaigned in the northern city of Rawalpindi, ahead of elections due in January. She had spent many years in exile in Britain, only returning to her homeland earlier this year.

“Bhartiya Naagrik” pays tribute to the leader who was believed to be the only hope for establishing democracy in Pakistan.

Washington post:

Bhutto was fearless, from her college years in America to her cruel assassination yesterday. She had an unshakable belief that Pakistan should embrace the modern world with the same confidence and courage that she had. She believed in democracy, freedom and openness — not as slogans but as a way of life.

Gordon Brown, UK PM:

Benazir Bhutto was a woman of immense personal courage and bravery. Knowing, as she did, the threats to her life, the previous attempt at assassination, she risked everything in her attempt to win democracy in Pakistan, and she has been assassinated by cowards afraid of democracy.

David Cameron, a conservative leader:

Today Pakistan has lost one of its bravest daughters. Those responsible have not only murdered a courageous leader but have put at risk hopes for the country’s return to democracy.

 

NRIs who made India proud in year 2007

 

Before bidding goodbye to 2007, here is a list of top 10 NRI newsmakers – the achievers and those who suffered.

The selection is subjective, based on news value and the degree of interest and concern to NRIs.

1. Sunita Williams: As a woman and an NRI, she made everyone proud with her new record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman in June. “Planet Earth looks beautiful from space. There are no borders on the Earth,” she said, recounting her space experience of 195-days aboard the space shuttle Discovery. The Shuttle’s re-entry held everyone on edge but its smooth landing made history. Reminding Indians about the late Kalpana Chawla, Sunita visited India in September and made news wherever she went.

2. Bobby Jindal: In October, the 36-year-old Jindal became the youngest US governor of a state in the US and the first chief executive of any state who is of Indian-American descent. He won convincingly against heavy odds by over 50 per cent of the primary votes against a field of 12 candidates. Now, can an NRI in the US dream of the White House?

3. Sir Salman Rushdie: In June, the Queen knighted him for his services to English literature. Rushdie went into hiding and was in police protection in 1989 under threat of death after an Iranian fatwa as his book The Satanic Verses offended Muslims worldwide and a bounty was placed on his head. He returned to public life in 1999 and has remained a secularist. This year, he was separated from his wife, the model Padma Lakshmi.

 

Srinivasa Ramanujan

(22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) 

Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in a poor Tamil Brahmin family that resided in the town of Kumbakonam. He attended school there and did averagely well. While in school he came across a book entitled “A synopsis of elementary results in Pure and Applied Mathematics” by George Carr. This book is just a compendium of results on integrals, infinite series and other mathematical entities found in analysis. Yet it left a lasting impression on Ramanujan; in fact it virtually determined his mathematical style. He would later write mathematics as a string of results without proof or with the barest outline of a proof.   

After school Ramanujan was hooked on mathematics. He spent all his time with his head over a slate working with problems in number theory that interested him and neglected everything else. The result was that he could never get through another examination. An early marriage as was usual at those times led to a frantic search for a job to earn an income. He became a clerk in the Madras Port Trust with the help of some well wishers. 

In the meantime Ramanujan kept showing his results to various people who he thought would be interested or would help him get a job that would give him a lot of time to do mathematics. He wrote to a couple of well known British mathematicians giving a list of some of the results he had obtained. They ignored him – thought he was a crank! Finally he wrote to one of the most distinguished English mathematicians of the time – a person who had done a lot of work on number theory – G H Hardy. Hardy arranged for Ramanujan to come to Trinity College, Cambridge where he and Ramanujan met almost daily discussing mathematics for about three years. Ramanujan died shortly after at the age of 33.

Ramanujan made substantial contributions to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series and is well known for his Taxi Cab problem.

All interested people are referred to The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel.

Read more about Ramanujan at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Ramanujan.html

http://members.tripod.com/mathsc/ramanujan/sramanujan.htm

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/References/Ramanujan.html

 

Happy Diwali

‘Deepavali’ also known as ‘the festival of lights’ is celebrated usually in the month of October or November. It falls on the day of ‘Amavasyaa‘ or the new moon night.

Light, being symbol of hope and positive things, indicates the victory of good over evil. And by spreading light in every corner of our premises we try to destroy the reign of darkness on the night of diwali. It is a tradition to light our homes and offices on diwali. People decorate paths with diyas, electric bulbs series and other decorative electric items to make their surroundings filled with colorful light and to make it bright and beautiful. The ultimate beauty created by lighting all over is the main feature that makes this festival unique. 

 

Karwa Chauth

 

On Karva Chauth day, tens of millions of women keep a fast, taking neither food nor water, for the well being and long life of their husbands. The fast of Karwa Chawth truly sets the merry tone of the fun and frolic, festivity and feasting that come in good measure during Diwali – the biggest festival of the Hindus. Even the ‘hip-hop’ generation now celebrates the ‘My Family’ spirit, with Karva Chauth having become a cool fad among teenagers. For some of these youngsters it’s a trend, for others it’s pure devotion, and there are still others for whom it’s just fun giving company to her mother who observes the fast.

Tradition /Preparations:

Karwa means clay pot and chauth means fourth night after the full moon. It has great social and cultural significance and is mostly practiced in Northern India where wives start their fast at night just after the appearance of the moon, within sight of their husbands. They then wait until the next night’s moonrise to begin the fast breaking ceremonies, without consuming any food or drink.

A few days before Karva Chauth, married women would buy new karvas (spherical clay pots) — 7″-9″ in diameter and 2-3 litres capacity — and paint them on the outside with beautiful designs. Inside they would put bangles and ribbons, home-made candy and sweets, make-up items, and small clothes. The women would then visit each other on the day of Karva Chauth and exchange these karvas.

 

USA’s youngest governor – an indian

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP): U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal became the nation’s youngest governor and the first nonwhite to hold post in Louisiana since Reconstruction when he carried more than half the vote to defeat 11 opponents.

 

Jindal, the Republican 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, had 53 percent with 625,036 votes with about 92 percent of the vote tallied. It was more than enough to win Saturday’s election outright and avoid a November 17 runoff.

The Oxford-educated Jindal had lost the governor’s race four years ago to Gov. Kathleen Blanco. He won a congressional seat in conservative suburban New Orleans a year later but was widely believed to have his eye on the governor’s mansion 

“My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream. And guess what happened. They found the American Dream to be alive and well right here in Louisiana,” he said to cheers and applause at his victory party.

Another indian — on the roads to success, reaching out to the stars.

src: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/21/louisiana.governor.ap/index.html