I was reading my fellow ilanders blogs though i did not post any of my own for a long time !

All my fellow ilanders aer well aware of the happenings around the world and especially in India. One of news item constant in the present days news is the inhuman activities against the small children, kids and new born babies. Though reports were made about these incidents now and then in the papers, it attracted the public attenction with Nithari killings. When i saw this item in the news i was dump. I dont know what to think. These peple were almost coaught red-handed. Their kitchen was a desection lab where the childeren were cut after they were abused and later buried in their compound itself. Still there people are not punished for their crimes. Just imagine the plight of those kids who were innocent and so young that they know nothing of the evil of this world. They were killed mercilesly for no fault of theirs.

Following this news is a news item is the findings of badies of children of different ages from different parts in India. though they did not get similar treatment as that of the Nithari killings they have seen the light and again no action against the defaulters.

Third item that caught my attenction is the news that a just born baby wes left in a car parking lot in Mumbai in a posh locality. No one knows who left the baby there. Even the watch man of the building was unaware of its presence till next day morning. Police sprang into action and started investigation. They suspected thay it may belong to one of the residents of the apartments and sent the blood samples of all the residents for DNA test. After that god only knows what happened!!

In between there was a lull about these kind of incidents. Another case i came to know was still horrible. This time a new born baby was found in a Municipal trash can. You may think it happened many times earlier, but this has a twist. This baby was found with 27 stab wounds on her body. When I saw the picture in TV I was in tears. A new born baby still to open her eyes. Do not know her cruel mother and cruel father. Do not know that she is going to be killed as soon as she sees this world. I dont know how to express my feelings friends. I hope u can understand them well.

All these incidents made me thinking that gradually we r losing what we call our human nature and gradually becoming inhuman. may be our next generation will be still worst. It is high time we wake up and educate the younger generation the human values. Waht do u say my friends? Please wake up now and tell the world that we are humans and we will be humans

Thank you for patient reading.

The Prizes were instituted by the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel through his will. They were first awarded in 1901, five years after Nobel's death. The prize in economics, instituted by the Bank of Sweden, has been awarded since 1969.

As of October 2006, a total of 781 Nobel Prizes have been awarded, 763 to individuals (33 of these to women) and 18 to organizations. A few Prize winners have declined the award. There are years in which one or more Prizes are not awarded; during World War II, for instance, no Prizes were awarded in any category between 1940 and 1942. Each Prize stipulates, however, that it must be awarded at least once every five years. Prizes cannot be revoked. Since 1974, no award may be made posthumously, i.e. nominees must be alive at the time of their nomination.

The names of the laureates were announced in the month of October every year. The Prizes are then awarded at formal ceremonies held annually on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. The Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905-1946); the Aula of the University of Oslo (1947-1990); and most recently at the Oslo City Hall. As of 2005, the other Prize ceremonies have been held at the Stockholm Concert Hall.

Each award can be given to a maximum of three recipients per year. They each consist of a gold medal; a diploma; the extension of Swedish citizenship; and a sum of money. Currently the latter is about ten million Swedish Kronor (slightly more than one million Euros or about 1.4 million US dollars). In case of more than one winner the prize is split among the winner. Prize in the same category can not beven for more than 3 people.

Posthumous nominations for Prizes are not allowed. In two cases the Prize was awarded posthumously to people who died in the months between their nomination and selection as a winner: UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld (1961, Peace) and Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1931, Literature). Since 1974, laureates must be alive at the time of the announcement of the award in October. There has been one laureate - William Vickrey (1996, Economics) - who died after the prize was announced but before it could be presented to him. In 1948 Mahatma Gandhi would have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but he was killed several days after the award was announced.

In 1973 when Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho shared the Peace Prize for bringing peace to Vietnam, even though the War in Vietnam was ongoing at the time. Le Duc Tho declined the award, for the stated reason that peace had not been achieved

Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times between 1937 and 1948 but never won it.

Iin 2002, a Prize was awarded to Koichi Tanaka and John Fenn for the development of mass spectrometry in protein chemistry, an award that failed to recognise the achievements of Franz Hillenkamp and Michael Karas of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt.

Rosalind Franklin, made some of the key steps toward the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, but died of ovarian cancer in 1958, four years before Francis Crick, James D. Watson and Maurice Wilkins (one of Franklin's collaborators) were awarded the Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1962.

In the history of the Nobel Prize, there have been only four people to have received two Nobel Prizes. These are:

Marie Curie

Physics [1903]: Discovery of Radioactivity

Chemistry [1911]: Isolation of Pure Radium

Linus Pauling

Chemistry [1954]: Hybridized Orbital Theory

Peace [1962]: Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Activism

John Bardeen

Physics [1956]: Invention of Transistor

Physics [1972]: Theory of Superconductivity

Frederick Sanger

Chemistry [1958]: Structure of the Insulin Molecule

Chemistry [1980]: Virus Nucleotide Sequencing

• Otto Heinrich Warburg was an exceptional case. He had the distinction of being offered two Nobel Prizes: Medicine [1931]—On Respiration of cells—that he received, and, another Nobel Award in the same field in 1944: which he was prevented from accepting by the Nazi government, which had issued a decree in 1937 that prohibited Germans from accepting Nobel Prizes.

• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, 1944, and 1963. The first two prizes were specifically in recognition of the group's work during the world wars.

• Eight fathers and sons have both won Nobels (J.J. Thomson in 1906 and George Paget Thomson in 1937)(William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg both in 1915)(Niels Henrik Bohr in 1922 and Aage Bohr in 1975) (Arthur Kornberg in 1959 and Roger D. Kornberg in 2006); one husband (Pierre Curie), wife (Marie Curie), and daughter (Irène Joliot-Curie) have all won prizes. The only siblings to win Nobel Prizes are Jan Tinbergen (Economics, 1969) and his younger brother Niko Tinbergen (Medicine, 1973).

• Only one person has the distinction of being an Oscar winner and a Nobel Laureate. The Irishman, George Bernard Shaw winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1938.

A detailed information on time measuirement is mentioned in Book I Chapter III Of Vishnu Purana. Hope this information will be useful to all of my fellow bloggers

Sidereal metrics

• a paramanu is the normal interval of blinking in humans, or approximately 4 seconds


• a vighati is 6 paramaanus, or approximately 24 seconds


• a ghadiya is 60 vighatis, or approximately 24 minutes


• a muhurta is equal to 2 ghadiyas, or approximately 48 minutes


• a nakshatra ahoratram or sidereal day is exactly equal to 30 muhurtas (Note: A day is considered to begin and end at sunrise, not midnight.)

An alternate system described in the Vishnu Purana Time measurement section of the Vishnu Purana Book I Chapter III is as follows:

• 15 twinklings of the eye = 1 Káshtìhá


• 30 Káshtìhás = 1 Kalá


• 30 Kalás = 1 Muhúrtta


• 30 Muhúrttas = 1 day (24 hours)


• 30 days = 1 month


• 6 months = 1 Ayana


• 2 Ayanas = 1 year or one day (day + night) of the gods

Small units of time used in the Vedas

• a trasarenu is the combination of 6 celestial atoms.


• a truti is the time needed to integrate 3 trasarenus, or 1/1687.5th of a second.


• a vedha is 100 trutis.


• a lava is 3 vedhas.


• a nimesha is 3 lavas, or a blink.


• a kshanas is 3 nimeshas.


• a kashthas is 5 kshanas, or about 8 seconds.


• a laghu is 15 kashthas, or about 2 minutes.


• 15 laghus make one nadika, which is also called a danda. This equals the time before water overflows in a six-pala-weight [fourteen ounce] pot of copper, in which a hole is bored with a gold probe weighing four masha and measuring four fingers long. The pot is then placed on water for calculation.


• 2 dandas make one muhurta.


• 6 or 7 dandas make one yamah, or 1/4th of a day or night.


• 4 praharas or 4 yamas are in each day or each night.

Lunar metrics

• a tithi (also spelled thithi ) or lunar day is defined as the time it takes for the longitudinal angle between the moon and the sun to increase by 12°. Tithis begin at varying times of day and vary in duration from approximately 19 to approximately 26 hours.


• a paksa (also paksha) or lunar fortnight consists of 15 tithis


• a masa or lunar month (approximately 29.5 days) is divided into 2 pakshas: the one between new moon and full moon is called gaura (bright) or shukla paksha; the one between full moon and new moon krishna (dark) paksha


• a ritu is 2 masa


• an ayanam is 3 rituhs


• a year is 2 Aayanas

Tropical metrics

• a yaama is 7½ Ghatis


• 8 yaamas 1 half of the day(either day or night)


• an ahoratram is a tropical day (Note: A day is considered to begin and end at sunrise, not midnight.)

Reckoning of time among other entities

Reckoning of time amongst the pitrs.

• 1 human masa = 1 day of the pitrs


• 30 days of the pitrs = 1 month of the pitrs


• 12 months of the pitrs = 1 year of the pitrs


• The lifespan of the pitrs is 100 years of the pitrs (= 3000 human years)

Reckoning of time amongst the Devas.

• 1 human year = 1 day of the Devas.


• 30 days of the Devas = 1 month of the Devas.


• 12 months of the Devas = 1 year of the Devas


• The lifespan of the Devas is 100 years of the Devas (= 36,000 human years)

The Vishnu Purana Time measurement section of the Vishnu Purana Book I Chapter III explains the above as follows:

• 2 Ayanas (six month periods, see above) = 1 year or one day (day + night) of the devas


• 360 days of the devas = 1 year of the devas


• 12,000 years of the devas = 4 Yugas

Reckoning of time for Brahma.

• 12,000 years of the Devas = 1 day of Brahma (4320,000,000 human years). This day is divided into 1000 parts called charanas. The charanas are divided as follows:

The cycle repeats itself so altogether there are 1000 cycles of yugas in one day of Brahma.

· One cycle of the above four yugas is one mahayuga (4.32 million solar years)

· A manvantara consists of 71 mahayugas (306,720,000 solar years). Each Manvantara is ruled by a Manu.

· After each manvantara follows one Sandhi Kala of the same duration as a Krita Yuga (1,728,000 = 4 Charana). (It is said that during a Sandhi Kala, the entire earth is submerged in water.)

· A kalpa consists of a period of 1,728,000 solar years called Adi Sandhi, followed by 14 manvantaras and Sandhi Kalas.

· A day of Brahma equals

(14 times 71 mahayugas) + (15 x 4 Charanas)

= 994 mahayugas + (60 Charanas)

= 994 mahayugas + (6 x 10) Charanas

= 994 mahayugas + 6 mahayugas

= 1000 mahayugas

as is confirmed by the Gita statement "sahasra-yuga paryantam ahar-yad brahmano viduH", meaning, a day of brahma is of 1000 (maha-)yugas. Thus a day of Brahma, kalpa, is of duration: 4.32 billion solar years. Two kalpas constitute a day and night of Brahma

• 30 days of Brahma = 1 month of Brahma (259,200,000,000 human years)


• 12 months of Brahma = 1 year of Brahma (3,110,400,000,000 human years)


• 25 years of Brahma = 1 kalpa (77,760,000,000,000 human years)


• 2 kalpas = 1 parardha (155,520,000,000,000 human years)


• 2 parardhas = 100 years of Brahma, the lifespan of Brahma (311,040,000,000,000 human years)

The Vishnu Purana Time measurement section of the Vishnu Purana Book I Chapter III explains the above as follows:

• 360 days of the gods = 1 year of the gods


• 12,000 years of the gods = 4 Yugas


• 1,000 sets of 4 Yugas = a day of Brahmá


• 50 years of Brahma = 1 Pararddham


• 100 years of Brahma = 1 Param

• 4,000 + 400 + 400 = 4,800 years = 1 Krita Yuga


• 3,000 + 300 + 300 = 3,600 years = 1 Tretá Yuga


• 2,000 + 200 + 200 = 2,400 years = 1 Dwápara Yuga


• 1,000 + 100 + 100 = 1,200 years = 1 Kali Yuga

• Alternately, the reigns of 7 Rishis, Indra and Manu = 1 Manwantara = 71x12,000+A (A is not given) = 852,000 years of the gods+A (A is not given)


• 14 Manwantaras = a day of Brahmá

Our current date

We are currently in the 28th kaliyuga of the first day of the 1st year of the shvetavaraha kalpa of the second parardha of Brahma in the reign of the 7th Manu, Manu Vaivasvata. This is the 51st year of the present Brahma and so about 155 trillion years have elapsed since He took over as Brahma.

The current Kali Yuga (Iron Age) began at midnight 17 February / 18 February in 3102 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar.

It is very interesting to note that a day of Brahma, kalpa, is of duration: 4.32 billion solar years. And from the latest dating techniques the age of the earth is found to be between 4.5 billion years to 5 billion years. A close match of these two measurements rises very interesting questions!!

This photo needs no introduction I believe. Who does not know this lady? Who has not heard her famous venkateshwara suprabhatam, Vishnu Sahastranamam, Meera Bhajans, Bhajagovindam, or many of her classical renderings ? Yes my friends I am talking of M.S. Subbalakshmi, the great carnatic classical vocalist. This is a brief life sketch of M.S. and my tribute to this great lady of music.

Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi popularly known as M.S. Subbalakshmi or simply M.S was born in to a musical family on Spetember 16, 1916, in temple town Madurai, Tamilnadu. Her parents were Subramanya Iyer and Veena Vidushi Shanmukavadivu, a renowned singer and player of the veena. Her younger brother and sister also shared their mother's love of music; her brother played the mridangam and her sister became a singer. M.S was affectionately known as Kunjamma to the near and dear at home. M.S started learning music at a early age. She used to accompany her mother at concerts. She released her first recording at an early age of 10 years.

Her first guru of music was her mother and then at a later stage she began her Carnatic classical music training under Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer who taught her up to the varnam stage and then Hindustani classical training under Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas.

By age 17, M.S. was giving concerts on her own, including major performances at the Madras Music Academy, where she made her musical debut. Since then, she performed countless musical forms in different languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Sanskrit and Kannada.At the age of 24, she married T. (Thyagarajan) Sadasivam who has devoted himself to advancing her career. Sadasivam, publisher and managing director of Kalki, the widely circulated and highly respected Tamil weekly, was a film director and thus particularly well situated to assist her career through that medium. Their marriage spanned over 50 years but they had no children.

Two fortuitous events brought M.S. early into national prominence. The first was her participation in the All-India Dance Conference in Bombay, organized under the Vikramaditya Celebrations, in 1944. Every Indian musician of importance was present and her performance created a sensation. The second was her appearance in the title role of the Hindi-language film Meera, produced by her husband. The film was produced in 1946-47 in Rajputana and the villagers in the area saw M.S as a "new Meera." The movie had M.S. sing the famous Meera bhajans, with Dilipkumar Roy as the music director. Those renditions by M.S. continue to enthrall listeners to this day. Although Meera was her first and only Hindi film, she has played in Tamil films both before and since, including a Tamil version of Meera.

M.S. travelled to London, New York, Canada, the Far East, and other places as India's cultural ambassador. Her concerts at Carnegie Hall, New York; the UN General Assembly on UN day in 1966 (while U Thant was the Secretary General); the Royal Albert Hall, London in 1982; and at the Festival of India in Moscow in 1987 were significant landmarks in her career.

In 1941 M.S and her husband visited Mahatma Gandhi at his religious retreat in Nagpur. Thereafter whenever she and he were in the same city she sang at his prayer meetings. Gandhi loved her rendition of bhajans and requested that she sing some for his 78th birthday, October 2, 1947. As she couldn't appear in person, All India Radio suggested she record some discs and have them sent to Delhi where he was in residence. Gandhi particularly wanted to hear "Hari Tuma Haro" whose haunting refrain translates, "Oh Lord, take away the pain from mankind." Not knowing this bhajan she suggested another singer, but he refused, saying he would rather hear her speak the words than another sing them. M.S learned and recorded the song the night of September 30th, finishing at 2 a.m. The disc, sent off by plane, was played on what was to be Gandhi's last birthday. Three months later he was dead by an assassin's bullet. When the announcement of his death was reported over the radio, it was followed by the playing of M.S's recording of "Hari Tuma Haro."

In the late 1950s, as she sang at the Ramakrishna Ashram in Delhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, was among the audience. At the end of the recital he was so moved that he bowed, and said, "What am I, a mere prime minister before a queen of music (he was to repeat it in every speech of his, praising her)." He rarely missed her concerts.

Sarojini Naidu, dubbed her the "Nightingale of India," and added: "Every child in India has heard about SUBBULAKSHMI for the beauty of her voice, the magic of her personality, and the gracious charity of her heart . . . . I want my living words to go to the utmost corners of the world so that people may realize how one great woman artist in India has been able to move the hearts of millions and millions of men and women by her songs. I believe the feelings roused in me will be roused in everyone who hears the enchanting voice of this enchanting singer who is abundantly gifted."

While Lata Mangeshkar called her Tapaswini (the Renunciate), Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan termed her Suswaralakshmi (the goddess of musical notes), and Kishori Amonkar labeled her the ultimate eighth note or Aathuvaan Sur, which is above the seven notes basic to all music.

She was widely honored, praised and awarded. Some of them more popular ones include Padma Bhushan in 1954, Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1968 (literally, Treasure Chest of Music. She was the first woman recipient of the title), Ramon Magsaysay award in 1974, the Padma Vibhushan in 1975, the Kalidasa Sanman in 1988, the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 1990, and the Bharat Ratna in 1998 (first musician to receive this award). She was also honored as the court-singer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.

Not unexpectedly, "she talks, sings and lives music twenty-four hours a day," and is deeply religious. The puja (prayer) room in her house has three life-size portraits of Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Sankaracharya, the saint whom she calls "divinity in flesh and blood," and who has "been instrumental in restoring the faith and religious temperament of the people of Madras and reclaiming many to the path of God" in recent years. As her guru, he selected the verses for the highly popular record she made in 1970 of the Bhajagovindam (some 30 verses composed by the poet-philosopher Sankara in praise of Lord Krishna, which are both musical and of much philosophical content) and Vishnu Sahasranamam (a musical chant of the 1,000 names of Vishnu).

The other phase of the career that has endeared SUBBULAKSHMI to her countrymen is that of using her voice to raise money for good causes. M.S. has given more than 200 benefit performances and raised well over Rs. 10,000,000 for various Indian charities.

With the death of her husband Sadasivam in 1997, she stopped all her public performances. M.S. died on December 11, 2004 after a brief illness, due to complications relating to pneumonia and cardiac irregularities.

Though this great personality is is no more with us, her music is with us forever. She is among those who live even after their death. I am one of those fortunate people to see this lady at close quarters. I thank god for this opportunity.

"No, now we have come on the roof," said Jhonny Whiskey, after seeing the headlight of an approaching train. "See, the night's over and the sun is rising there!"

2. Sunil Dutt to his son Sanjay: Where had you been late last night?"

Sanjay: " I has taken some of my boy friends for a joy ride in our new Maruti."

Sunil: "Well! But tell them not to leave broken bangles in the car in future."

3. I.S.johar's son asked his father: "Father, what is anatomy?"

"Something which we all have," replied Johar " but which best on girls!

3. Once I.S Johar was asked to define Ball-Room dance

"It is vertical expression of horizontal desire!"

4. Notice in a hotel bedroom:

If u desire anything during the night pray ring for the chambermaid.

5. "How did the princes came to know that she was pregnant?"

"From the press"

6. In a shop window:

"For sale, mahogamy wardrobe with seven large drawers, five shelves and ample hanging space for man"

7. An invitation to a dance party ended with the words --- Dress optional

8. Sridevi, the South Indian actress came panting and told her mother that since Avinash, her boy friend, had just passed his medical exams, they wanted to get married.

"Don't you think it would be a good idea for him to practice for a year or two first? " asked the mother. "But mother," replied the frank girl "We have been practicing for quite sometime already!"

9. Once Albert Einstein, in a lighter vein declared: "Women are expert mathematicians. They always divide their age by two, multiply their husbands income by five and add a few years to the age of their friends."

10. Kishore Kumar, the famous singer actor and music director was sitting by the side of his dying wife, Ruma. When she became sure of approaching death she said: "Please dear do marry again after my death. But promise not to give my clothes to her to wear".

"I promise," replied the husband, "Madhu is taller than you and thin as well. Your clothes will not fit her."