Hollywood Art Festival

The flag that was first hoisted on August 7, 1906,at the Parsee Bagan Square in Calcutta and was initially called the ‘Saptarishi Flag’. This flag was hoisted at the Congress session in Calcutta during the ‘Home Rule Movement’ associated with Dr. Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak. In the year 1921, a young man from Andhra presented this flag to Gandhiji for approval. It was only after Gandhiji’s suggestion that the white strip and
the charkha were added.

Though it was initially not approved by the All India Congress Committee the Indian National Congress formally adopted this flag, which was first hoisted on August 31, 1931.

The National Flag of India was born on July 22, 1947, with Nehruji’s words, “Now I present to you not only the Resolution, but the Flag itself”. This flag was first hoisted at the Council House on August 15, 1947.

The man who designed Tiranga was the versatile genius Lt. Shri Pingali Venkayya.

India’s flag is a tricolor standard, with bands of saffron, white, and dark green.

The saffron represents courage, sacrifice, patriotism, and renunciation.

The green stands for faith, fertility and the land.

The white is in the center, symbolizing the hope for unity and peace.

In the center of the white band is a blue wheel with 24 spokes. This is the Ashoka Chakra (or “Wheel of Law”). The Chakra represents the continuing progress of the nation and the importance of justice in life. It also appears on the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka ” .

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have been honoring outstanding achievements to encourage higher levels of quality in all areas of motion picture production by awarding the Oscar statuette. Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley was selected to create the statuette the figure of a knight standing on a reel of film, hands gripping a sword. The Academy’s world-renowned statuette was born.

Initially, Oscar was solid bronze. Then, due to a shortage of metal during World War II, Oscars were made of painted plaster for three years. Today, the statuette is gold-plated britannium, weighing 8-1/2 pounds and stands 131/2 inches tall. Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette is better known by a nickname; Oscar. A popular story has been that Margaret Herrick, an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, thought it resembled her Uncle Oscar. After she said so, the Academy staff began calling it Oscar.

Each statuette takes 40 hours of work to make. A pantograph is used to add a serial number to the base of every Oscar. About 55 to 60 trophies are made every year under tight security by RS Owens. Each Oscar is dipped in electrically- charged bins of molten copper, nickel, silver and 24-carat gold and then lacquered to a blinding shine. Every Oscar is closely inspected for defects - if it is not perfect, it is sliced in half and used for scrap. The Oscar stands today, as it has since 1929, 13-1/2 inches of acheivement on the mantels of the greatest filmmakers in history.

If there is something in the medical world that is considered lethal then it is STROKE. This can cause death most of the times and more importantly because of its lack of awareness. By awareness, I mean the lack of knowledge pertaining to the identification of the victim who has undergone stroke. It occurs when the victim suffers some sort of head injury causing the blood to clot between the brain and the spinal cord. This makes it impossible for the communication in the nervous system eventually causing the collapse of the person. A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S * Ask the individual to SMILE.

T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) ( i.e. It is sunny out today)

R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

Ask the person to ’stick’ out his tongue : If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other , that is also an indication of a stroke.

If he or she has trouble doing any one of the above tasks, alert the medical authorities immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. Something this simple, we could save some folks.

Pray, don’t find fault with the man that limps
Or stumbles along the road.
Unless you have worn the shoes he wears
Or struggled beneath his load.

There may be tacks in his shoes that hurt
Though hidden away from view.
Or the burden he bears placed on your back
Might cause you to stumble too.

Don’t sneer at the man who’s down today
Unless you have felt the blow
That caused his fall or felt the shame
That only the fallen know.

You may be strong but still the blow
That was his if dealt to you
In the selfsame way, at the selfsame time
Might cause you to stagger too.

Don’t be too harsh with the man that sins
Or pelt him with word or stone
Unless you are sure - yea, doubly sure -
That you have no sins of your own.

For you know, perhaps,
If the tempter’s voice should whisper as soft to you
As it did to him when he went astray
It might cause you to falter too.

Let’s all try to be a little bit more sympathetic to others.

Let’s try to live life with a clear conscience.

Let’s not judge others.

Let’s treat everyone like we want to be treated.

Let’s act as Jesus would want us to act.

Let’s not just talk about it.

Let’s really do it!

Starting right now!!

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning:

There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me.

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The pig sympathized, but said, I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.

Mouse turned to the cow and said “There is a mousetrap in the ho use! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house — like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.
But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died.

So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you, remember — when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

Genre : Economics

This is a must read for everyone who would like to be rich with minimal risk and investment. The author-cum-narrator starts with virtually nothing after his tour of duty in Vietnam and having no prior knowledge about investments whatsoever. He draws the difference between his actual dad who is an government employee and his friend’s dad, a rich dad who is a self made millionaire. The book starts with the attitude required to be an investor and goes on to explain the various stages to becoming the Ultimate Investor who earns passively without doing any work and making money work for him. He goes on to explain how 90% of the wealth lie with 10% of the population and how to get into that elite 10%. This book is highly relevant in this age when no employee can be assured of financial safety and the onus is on the person to secure his/her future.

Hijaab(to shelter) is one of the most controversial topics in the air today. The heresy is that women are suppressed, their freedom is marred and they are completely subjugated by following Allah’s command. But the reality remains that despite all criticism from the ‘elite’ and ‘progressive’ western society; women have not renounced the hijaab, but instead continue to wear it audaciously, even if it means cessation to their livelihood. Who does not look at a woman in hijaab with respect and dignity? This act of concealing oneself is quite a commendable thing to do in a world where beauty queens, who are all sizzle and no steak, are crowned for revealing what they reveal. Charles Dickens profoundly said “Subdue your appetite my dears, and you’ve conquered human nature!” Hijaab is worn by women to prevent the possibility of evil entering others minds and thus culminating the acts of sin.

Emotions, soft nature, patience, compromising attitude, sacrifice, bewitching beauty are the qualities ascribed to women. There is no denying that they form the physically weaker section of the society and Allah knows best about His creation. Every Muslim woman does what Islam prescribes for her, whole heartedly and willingly because she rationally understands the reasons behind them and the justice done to her. There is no compulsion on her from any side since the Quran says, La ikraha fid-din – There is no compulsion in religion.

One of the most convenient misconceptions about Islam is the position of its women, her rights and responsibilities. It might come as a surprise to a lot of people but the truth lies in the fact that there isn’t a single Muslim woman who complains of her position and status within the religion not does she need commiseration from others, with wrong notions about the religion in mind. Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world for umpteen reasons. Women by large accept Islam for all the security and freedom the religion ensures them.

It is strictly forbidden for women in Islam to be given away in marriage out of coercion and against their will. Islam has given the right to women to choose the partner they would find solace and refuge in. Karen Armstrong, writer of ‘The Guardian’ said that the 7^th century Quran gave women the rights of inheritance and divorce that the women in other parts of the world did not get until the 19^th century. Women are given unrestricted right to seek knowledge through education since knowledge is power and the right to venture into business or work if they fancy being financially independent.

Genre : Biography

Google, the name has redefined the internet and has become synonymous with the term “Search”. Find out how it all began when Sergey Brin and Larry Page, two individuals with a “Healthy Disregard for the Impossible” connected instantly at an orientation program in Stanford. Get downright access to the working of Google, in valuable tips and its transition from a college project to a multi-billion dollar company and all that which goes into the making of the Numero Uno search engine!

There is a sudden insatiable craze for IT throughout the world. This budding industry is now projected to have a growth of $55 billion by the year 2008, with a requirement of a resource pool of almost $1.3 million professionals. It has become one of the most preferred and highly paid jobs of today. For many this may sound like a Cinderella tale. But there exists a darker side to this. The people involved in the IT business are usually given the ‘carrot & stick’ treatment. They have to work 24/7 to meet unrealistic project deadlines, untimely board meetings and ever increasing customer demands to survive in this cut-throat competition. For those in the BPO’s the story is even worse. We can never imagine how they work all night and sleep during the day, not to mention unable to socialize with people and interact with family members at the cost of personal health for a good salary. Presently countries like India, China have been used as a back office for the IT software needs amounting to the lesser cost of the projects here. For such a country considering IT as its component in its future economy can cost heavily and the craze for IT would be short-lived once the industry is saturated.

The deal that was signed between India and US for enabling India to access the Civilian Nuclear technology has been on the spotlight for its own reasons. The desperation that India faces to clinch the deal is quite simple and logical. India’s current growth trajectory is 9% and to sustain it over a longer period of time, the Indian government envisages increasing the installed capacity of nuclear power plants for the current 3000MW to 40,000 MW. India has one of the largest reserves of Thorium but preparing it for the right purpose may take years. By the time this is done, the economic bus would be long gone. So, the only option left with India is to import nuclear technology from the US. Apart from the obvious energy supplement, India will improve trade ties with the US, access its highly lucrative market and vice versa. Similarly, it would also mean greater foreign direct investments from the US into India in sectors like Power, Infrastructure and Information Technology.

What is in it for America? America and its allies feel India is the perfect counterweight to China in the emerging new world order. The rise of China is coming on the back of strong economic growth over the past few decades and its rapidly modernizing military. So to counter this, America and its allies, part of the so-called ‘free world’ are cheering for India. They want to see a multi-party secular India with democratic credentials to emerge as a great global power rather that autocratic Chin, which does not endear to democratic principles.

The much awaited and hyped agreement of the decade has come to an end. But what was it that made the Indo-US nuclear treaty such a commotion and topic of extensive discussion. The basic laws and legislatures that govern the treaty are given as follows.

123 Agreement

It is a civilian nuclear agreement between India and the U.S. It is a treaty to provide nuclear fuel and nuclear reactors. With this agreement India would be able to end its isolation in the international nuclear field.

Hyde Act

It is an act of the American Constitution, which provides laws to deal with nuclear activities and trade. These laws with effect to the 123, say that a nuclear nation benefitted by the U.S. cannot conduct a nuclear test.

NPT

The Non-Proliferation Treaty is an international treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, opened for signature on July 1, 1968. There are currently 189 states party to the treaty, five of which have nuclear weapons – the US, UK, France, Russia and China. Only four nuclear weapon states that are not signatories are India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.

NSG

The Nuclear Suppliers Group(NSG) is a multinational body concerned with reducing nuclear proliferation by reducing the export and re-transfer of materials, that may be applicable to nuclear weapon development and by improving safeguards and protection on the existing materials. It was founded in 1975.

When you were 30 she called with some advice on the baby

You thanked her by telling that things are different now

When you were 40 she called to remind you of a relative’s birthday

You thanked her by saying that you were really busy now

When you were 50 she fell ill and needed you to take care of her

You thanked her by reading about the burden parents become to their children

And then one day she quietly died, and everything you never did came

“Thrashing down like thunder on your heart “

If she is still around you then never forget to love her more than ever, because you only have one mother in your life time.

When you were 20 she asked whether you are seeing anyone

You thanked her by saying that’s none of your business

When you were 21 she suggested some careers for you

You thanked her by saying that you don’t want to be like her

When you were 22 she hugged you at the college graduation

You thanked her by asking if she could pay for your trip to London

When you were 23 she gave you furniture for your first apartment

You thanked her by telling its ugly to your friends

When you were 24 she met your fiancé and asked for your future plans

You thanked her by glaring and growling

When you were 25 she helped to pay for your wedding, and she cried and told you how deeply she loved you.

You thanked her by moving half way across the country.

When you were 16 she taught you how to drive a car

You thanked her by taking it every chance you could

When you were 17 she was expecting an important call

You thanked her by being on the phone all night

When you were 18 she cried at your high school graduation

You thanked her by staying out in party until dawn

When you were 19 she paid for your college, tuition and drove you to college

You thanked her by saying good bye outside the dorm so that you will not be embarrassed in front of you r friends

When you were 20 she asked whether you are seeing anyone

You thanked her by saying that’s none of your business