Happy Indian independence... 15th August

Sare jahan se accha, hindustan hamara !! These were the lines quoted by Muhammad Iqbal in the year 1904 when India was still ruled by the British. I feel very patriotic when it comes to India or Indians. Even though i am away from India since 5yrs i feel i am very much connected to India and i belong to her. But i don't want to go into the emotional aspect of this post. I want to talk about the achievements of my country since ancient times.

India is a country of vast culture and traditions. Also, it is one of the fastest developing nations in Asia and the world. IT industry is blossoming since past few years in India, increasing the revenue and providing world class IT services across the globe. India's diverse economy encompasses wide range of sectors like Agriculture, handicrafts, IT industries etc.

Colors in the Indian flag are saffron, white and green. Saffron represents courage, sacrifice and spirit of renunciation. White represents purity and truth. While Green represents faith. The blue wheel in the middle represents the wheel of life in movement.

Lets focus on the achievements that India has which is remarkable.

• India invented the number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
• Sanskrit is the most oldest language and most of the European languages are somehow connected with it.
• World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 B.C. More than 10,000 students from all over the world studied in that university. The University of Nalanda est in 4th century is also one of the greatest achievements of ancient india towards education.
• Ayurveda, one of the ancient form of medicine was invented in India.
• India was one of the richest countries in this world until it was attacked by Mohd Ghazni and also till 17th century until it was invaded by the British. Even Columbus wanted to discover India instead of America.
• Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. The value of pi was also invented by India. The place value system and the decimal system was invented by india in 100 B.C.
• Chess was invented in India.
• India is the largest democratic country in the world. Also, it is the country with the most ancient civilization.
• Yoga and the spiritual science were found in India by the Indian saints who used to take penance in a forest for hundreds of years !

There is so much more to say about this country.

Reference:-

http://www.seanpaulkelley.com/?p=964

The mystery of UFOs

UFO's are world's one of the unsolvable mysteries... There have been many discussions on this but i want to put my words in this blog.

UFO is an abbreviation of Unidentified Flying Objects. It can be visualized as an alien spaceship or a flying saucer is another common citation. When you google "ufo images" then you will find there are many people who claim to have seen the UFOs and they have their story about the incident. But is that really true ? Or its just our imagination ? UFO mystery has puzzled people across the world.

Have we really been visited by aliens from other planets ? If so, why don't we have enough evidences of that ? Are they scared to come in front of the earth's inhabitants ??

Human nature is also responsible for believing in aliens. We humans are sometimes so gullible and we just believe in the stories told by other humans. Its just like believing in supernatural beings, the inability to distinguish science fiction from science has given more importance to UFOs. There is an indian movie based on UFOs and Aliens. By seeing all these things its just like adding oil to the already lit fire.

But if we analyse scientifically, then also i would say if we found that life is possible on Earth. Then why can't life be found somewhere else in the universe. We have millions of constellations and solar systems spread across the universe. Isn't it possible that atleast 2% of those solar systems might have one planet that is capable of sustaining plants or other form of lives.

We visualize aliens as someone who is not a human, either they have a gender or they are just like Robots. They might have some supernatural powers, such as destroying the man kind, flying in the air just with their hands or we can think that they have a hidden wings which they use at the time of flying. Human imagination can go to any extent. I can imagine an alien to be like an animal who has extra powers to think, analyze and work but who doesn't have human emotions and feelings. Hence, it is actually an expression which defines our hunger for mystery...

It only seems reasonable to me to believe that by conventional means we can't justify that UFOs actually exist. We need some more solid proof of evidence, like a spaceship, Alien's clothes, or Aliens themselves.

Video on Aliens

Does 2012 marks the end of the world ??

There are a number of predictions for Dec 21, 2012 about the end of the earth. According to Myan calendar 21st Dec, 2012 marks the end of their calendar. It came to a point that people have started to freak out. For any natural calamity happening these days, people are linking it to the doom's day. We have lot of nuclear resource these days to destroy the world ! If we put these known facts aside and ignore them for a moment, is it really possible that world will end on 21st dec, 2012 ??



Do you believe in 2012 Doom's day predictions ??

Should we be freaked ? I don't think so. For starters, previous predictions about the end of the world should have happened by now ! Do you remember the Y2K ... how it scared the public and the banking sector ?? People whined about it so much, but it came and it went away.

Just like Y2k, 2012 predictions are also being carefully studied by agencies like NASA.

There is a news that even Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world. According to a website the calendar ends on Dec 21st, 2012 and this is the last of the five cycles. The end of each of the first four cycles were devastating to the earth. It caused even the extinction of many species on the earth. So, hope the last one shouldn't be the worst one. There is either a possibility of natural calamity or else man made disaster.

The Mayan calendar with the fifth cycle is supposed to have started in 3114 B.C and will end on 21st Dec 2012 A.D. According to the Indian calendar, Kali yuga has started on 3102 B.C. and according to this calendar should last until 21st Dec 2012. So, is it merely a coincidence that both the calendars predict ending of this age on the same date ??? According to Indian God Lord Krishna, after 5000 yrs Kaliyug has to end and Golden age should begin from 2012 !

There are many asteroid predictions saying that it will hit the earth and there will be a disaster. There is one famous prediction on many sites saying that planet x would complete its 3600 yrs orbit around the sun, disturbing our solar systems and the planets within. There are some articles that claim that solar flare is going to happen in 2012 that will destroy our milky way to some extent. Only way to prepare is pray to god !

Video on 2012 predictions !

orkut vs facebook

Orkut and facebook are the most popular social networking sites these days on the internet. Facebook has become very popular in North America while Orkut has surpassed facebook and took over the market share in India. This is because Indians don't access the internet everyday and are not very eager to use social networking.

Before starting a detailed analysis lets see some recent facts. According to recent market studies, Facebook owns 11.5% of market share, while Orkut holds just 1%. Facebook was launched later than Orkut. Facebook is becoming the best social networking site in this world.

Why Orkut is lagging behind in this race, even though it is accompanied by Google ??

Let discuss the Pros and cons of both networking sites:-

Interface - User interface is one of the main concern for the growth of these networking sites. They should be simple enough to attract common public who don't browse web pages more. This is more applicable to countries other than United States. Orkut succeeded in doing this. Orkut page is so simple to browse. It doesn't need any help tutorial to start with. While Facebook, on the other hand is little complex to understand. Orkut however has started prompting users to change their profile page to a new layout but people still want to use the old interface because it is very simple !

Facebook Connect - This is the crispiest feature in Facebook that allows you to re-connect with your old buddies. You have to just type your school name or workplace name and facebook pulls out information available from millions of users. Additionally, facebook suggests its users at time to time basis to add a new friend if he is in that networking circle.

Social gaming - Social gaming has become a huge success for facebook's popularity. There are thousands of games integrated in facebook and there are about 83 million facebook users for Farmville game. Similarly, there are many other games in facebook which is liked by many users like Mafia wars, Cafe World etc. Orkut on the other hand doesn't really have these many social apps.

Security - Recently, Facebook is facing lot of problems related to user's security. People can find other people's information and pictures by just visiting their websites. Facebook has started taking this very seriously, since it can lead to its downfall. Even user profile information is being extracted by all those social gaming agencies. Orkut on the other hand has implemented privacy settings long back and the user can change the settings as and when required. So, it was never under any controversy.

Restricted networking - If you want to be a part of your companies profile in facebook, you need to provide company's email address in order to be a part of the network. While on orkut, you can hit join button and that will do the job. If the communities are moderated then moderator has to accept your request. But still it doesn't really hold a solid proof for joining that network. Also, if you add a new friend on facebook since he is in your office, then he can request for other informations like office id etc inorder to add you.

Feeds of Activity - Anything that is done on facebook is maintained as a record. If you add a picture, or you are tagged in a picture, when someone added a new friend, or someone got married etc everyone gets to know this. Know this is questionable... For some people it is okay to spread the information while for some people it is not a good feature.

Tagging relationship status - If someone is in a relationship, or someone got married they can change their status and they can tag their partner in their profile if they are also in the Facebook. I found this interesting when i opened a Facebook account for my husband !

Orkut communities - Orkut maintains a huge database of user communities. There are many discussions going on in these communities. This feature is widely used in asian countries and they find it pretty helpful specially when you want to propage some message.

Orkut has some good features such as - Integration of google chat in your profile, No. of times someone views your profile, saving profile links of people whom you randomly find on the network etc.

Well, inspite of all these positive points still Facebook is leading in America. I personally have both orkut and facebook accounts. I use Orkut to connect to my friends and see their developments since most of my friends and relatives live in India. While i use Facebook daily for updating my status, playing social apps and connecting with my friends and colleagues.