Monsoon Rhythms

After a scorching summer, the arrival of monsoons is the most delighting. At such times, even a dull and cloudy weather is not that unpleasant. But at times, rains are not welcoming at all. Now, you may disagree with me on this fact if you haven’t experienced it yourself. Suppose it’s eight o’clock in the morning and you are late for office or school and you forget your umbrella at home. And on your way, there’s a heavy downpour and you are drenched wet. I’m sure you would hate rains then. Well, I experienced such days many a times, especially this monsoon. I was late for school and then all of a sudden it started pouring heavily. Rainwater had collected in puddles on the road and I had walked through so many of them. By the time I reached school, my shoes and socks were soaked with mud and water. And I had to wear those soggy shoes and socks for the whole day. But while returning home, I had a wonderful experience. It was drizzling and my friend shared her umbrella with me. On our way, we burnt our tongues with a typical Indian street food “chur mur”. I am one of those who hate getting wet in rain, but I found that monsoons are not bad after all, even though the rains had really troubled me a lot. Now don’t think that I liked getting wet that morning. But I loved the “chur mur” which would never taste as delicious as under my friend’s umbrella with the soft music of the pitter patter of raindrops.

Top Five Tips To A Better Life

Road to happiness

Life teaches us new lessons everyday. It is full of small moments of happiness and sorrow. The moments don’t stay. What stay’s on are the memories of each moment. So let’s take a vow to make every moment special. Here are some great tips to see life in a new way.

Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully. Don’t expect anything in return of your favor. It might happen that you have helped a friend out to complete his assignment. Remember that you have helped him / her simply because you loved to do so and not because you are expecting a favor in return. Let’s make life pleasant with simple actions.

“Sorry” is one of such words which you must use often. Never step back to accept your own fault or apologize. Look into the person’s eyes and say sorry and ensure that you mean it.

Life is a long journey and failures might come on your way. But when you lose, never lose the lesson.

Some like to dream real big. But that doesn’t make the person a laughing stock in front of others. Never laugh at anybody’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.

Smile when you pick up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice. It infuses warmth while your talking and makes the other person comfortable during the conversation.

What are you waiting for? Start the journey of your life afresh. Create happiness wherever you go! 

Google-The Internet Experience

Can we ever imagine a world without the internet? And thinking a little more internally, can we imagine our lives without Google? Starting with Gmail to Youtube, Orkut and Blogger, Google gives us everything. Whether you want to know the location of your doctor's chamber or which is the best restaurant in your city to dine in; whether the car you're buying is cool and efficient enough or you want to know the top rated movies of the month .You get it all on Google. Well the list is endless.

All the credit goes to the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin who began a research project in 1996. Later this project yielded to Google.

Both Larry Page and Sergey Brin were PhD students at Stanford University in California. They introduced a new system that analyzed the relationships between websites .They called this technology PageRank, where a website's applicability was determined by the number of pages, and the significance of those pages, that linked back to the original site.

   

Page and Brin cognominated their new search engine "BackRub", because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site.

Eventually they  switched on to the name Google  ,originating from a misspelling of the word "googol", the number one followed by one hundred zeros ,which conveyed that the search engine wants to provide large quantities of information for people.

Now Google is not just “search”. It is social search. The “+1” button and the panda algorithm is sure to bring about drastic changes in the search paradigm.

No Easter Without Easter Eggs

Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated as Easter Day. There is a lot about the religious side of Easter and it’s meanings, but there are also many amusing fun facts about Easter. Easter reminds us of the brightly painted, delicious Easter eggs. But do you know how Easter eggs first came into being?

  

• Easter is all about the renewal and rebirth .The well-known Easter eggs are an ancient symbol of new life  .So what else could be so appropriate for a spring time holiday like Easter?

• Easter eggs are often hidden, supposedly by the Easter Bunny, for children to find on Easter morning. Otherwise, they are generally put in a basket filled with real or artificial straw in resemblance of a bird's nest.

• The largest Easter egg ever made was produced in Vergeville, AB. It weighed 5,000 pounds, and was 25.7 feet long.

• The first chocolate eggs were made in Europe in the early 1800s and still retain their popularity as the best treats associated with Easter.

• 90 million chocolate Easter eggs are being made for Easter every year.

• 16 billion jelly beans are made especially which is enough to fill a plastic egg the size of a nine story building.

• After Halloween, Easter is the biggest candy consuming holiday.

So gear up for the coming Easter and enjoy some delectable Easter eggs from bakeries around you. Happy Easter to all of you .

An Ideal Way of Spending A Sunday Winter Morning

Cup of coffee

Winter months bring laziness to all. Even my pet dog becomes lazier than usual. Somehow, the mornings turn out to be the worst when you have to wake up early and get ready for school, college or office. We love to lounge languidly on our beds, and wrap ourselves with our warm blankets. And so, we all love Sunday mornings when one can lie on his bed as long as one wishes.

The best way to galvanize yourself on a chilling Sunday morning is to wrap yourself with a blanket and sit in the warm balcony where the sun is just overhead, along with a cup of steaming, hot coffee in one hand and an interesting book in the other. As the warm rays of the sun fall on you, you slowly sip your cup of coffee and become engrossed in the book you are reading. This gives a wonderful pleasure and makes winter really special. One can never have such a pleasant experience other than a Sunday, chilling winter morning!

Crazy Superstitions

Broken Mirror

Though we do not believe in superstitions, our minds often convince us to follow them. There are superstitions from almost all aspects of our daily lives and most have unknown origins. Here are some of them, which most of us do really follow some times.

We often find black cats on the streets. It is said that if a black cat walks towards you, it brings good fortune. But if it walks away, then it takes the good fortune with it. 
Most of us are sensitive and catch cold very easily. If you catch a falling leaf on the first day of autumn, you will not catch a cold all winter. 
Now here goes a good one. Breaking a mirror is said to bring bad luck for seven years. To aid this, take the shards of glass and bury them under the moonlight. In ancient times, mirrors were said to be the windows to the viewer’s soul.

Black Cat

We are often troubled by dreadful nightmares and fall sick. Well, its prevention is very simple. Just hang a horseshoe in your bedroom and it will keep all nightmares away. 
Most of us hate lizards. But still, if you ever dream of a lizard then it signs that you have a secret enemy. 
It is bad luck to light three cigarettes with the same matchstick.  
If you want an everlasting friendship and your friend gives you a knife someday, then you should give him back a coin or your friendship will soon be broken.

However, the above mentioned are nothing more than superstitions, but you never know, even superstitions might come true.

Chinese Celebration of New Year

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Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is one of the most dynamic, stimulating and colorful festivals celebrated by the Chinese. Celebration of Chinese New Year varies widely all over China. People spend huge amounts of money to buy presents, decoration materials, food and clothing. As the day nears, excitement mounts and spirits soar high.

It is the tradition of every family to clean their houses to sweep away any ill-fortune with hopes for good incoming luck. Windows and doors are decorated with red colored paper cuts and couplets with popular themes of “happiness”, “wealth” and “longevity”. In the evening, the streets burst at the seams with colorful fanfare and festivity. People perform cultural dances while brightly-lit floats gliding on the water adding magic to the night.

On Chinese New Year Eve, families gather for a sumptuous reunion dinner. For 15 days, home visits to families and friends are sweetened with traditional New Year goodies like love letters (crispy egg rolls), pineapple tarts and barbecued pork. Gifts of mandarin oranges are exchanged for blessings while children receive “hong baos” (red envelopes filled with money) for good luck. “Yu Sheng” a tantalizing raw fish salad which symbolizes prosperity adds specialty to the evening.