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8 April 2013

Seven Wonders

A group of students were asked to list what they thought were the present "Seven Wonders of the World." Though there were some disagreements, the following received the most votes:

1. Egypt's Great Pyramids
2. Taj Mahal
3. Grand Canyon
4. Panama Canal
5. Empire State Building
6. St. Peter's Basilica
7. China's Great Wall

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student had not finished her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list.

The girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many."
The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help."
The girl hesitated, then read, "I think the 'Seven Wonders of the World are:

1. to see
2. to hear
3. to touch
4. to taste
5. to feel
6. to laugh
7. and to love."

The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. The things we overlook as simple and ordinary and that we take for granted are truly wondrous! A gentle reminder - that the most precious things in life cannot be built by hand or bought by man.

"Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons."

7 April 2013

Brazilian Carnival





Parade: Members of the Mancha Verde samba school at Sao Paulo's Sambadrome



Va-Va voom: Dancers from Vai-vai samba school take centrestage in the parade at San Paulo.
The five days of street parties, balls and parades traditionally shut down most of Latin America's biggest country, luring millions of locals and tourists to celebrations across the country. Rio alone is expected to attract 900,000 tourists and generate £420 million for the local economy this year.


The different carnivals, which take place in Sao Paulo, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais as well as Rio and Salvador and numerous other cities, each showcase their own type of music such as samba, samba-reggae and funk samba. Last night parades began in Sao Paulo's specially built Sambadrome, a space designed for parades.



Got rhythm: a queen of the drums of the Rosas de Ouro samba school performs during the first night of Sao Paulo's Carnival parades



Technicolor samba: dancers from the Rosas de Ouro samba school perform in Sao Paulo in the small hours of this morning






Fab for a parade: members of the Academicos do Tatuape samba school perform in Sao Paulo while this dancer from the Rosas de Ouro samba school is dwarfed by his float



Piano men: members of the Mancha Verde samba school wow the audience in Sao Paulo's Sambadrome






In flight: the samba groups bid to outperform each other, and carnivals in the regions of Brazil showcase different styles of samba linked to their local heritage

The annual event takes place in the days leading up to Lent, the 40-day period before Easter. It began yesterday with the the mayor of Rio de Janeiro symbolically handing over the keys of the city to King Momo, the ceremonial figurehead of Brazil's best-known Carnival celebrations.

But this year's festivities took place under the pall of the recent nightclub fire that killed 238 people in the southern city of Santa Maria. Sixty-five others are still hospitalised.




Charge: after the Sao Paulo festivities last night and tonight, parades in Rio kick off on Sunday



Weird and wonderful: members of the samba school Rosas de Ouro Special Group at the Sambadrome



Big band: drummers from the Mancha Verde samba school make some noise



Energy: carnival marks the run-up to Lent, historically a few days of indulgence before the period of abstinence



Come on, boys: the five days of parades, balls and street parties are expected to attract millions of locals and tourists



Shout it out: the overwhelming popularity of the carnival events boosts Brazil's economy to the tune of £420 million



Walk like an Egyptian: revellers' costumes have become iconic in the way Brazil markets itself to the world

6 April 2013

Paper Art

















Indias Most Powerful Women


In a male-dominated world of business, some women have broken all barriers to get to the top.

Cracking through the glass ceiling in a man dominated world is difficult, presents many challenges, requiring many sacrifices to made, and family and society related pressures to be absorbed. Forget a developing country like India, more progressive countries in the West also face the same issue. According to the Glass Ceiling Commission in the United States, about 95 to 97 per cent of the senior managerial posts in country’s largest corporations are held by men. We salute these women who have beaten all the odds and have emerged cream of the crop in their organizations. Take a bow ladies!


Chanda Kochhar is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank Limited. She began her career with ICICI as a Management Trainee in 1984 and has thereon successfully risen through the ranks by handling multidimensional assignments and heading all the major functions in the Bank at various points in time.



Vinita Bali, Managing Director, Britannia Industries, has always made unconventional decisions. Rising prices of wheat, sugar and dairy products affect her as much as they do every housewife.



Kalpana Morparia former Joint Managing Director of ICICI Bank, and currently CEO of JPMorgan gives complete credit for her transformation from a corporate lawyer to a corporate leader to K.V. Kamath.



Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon, is India’s bio-tech queen. She says in a an interview to Forbes India that she learnt the importance of self-reliance and personal re-invention at an early age. From starting of with Rs 10,000 in a garage her company Biocon is today worth Rs. 1,511 crore.



Mallika Srinivasan, the Chairman and CEO of TAFE, believes in a no-frills working style. She has risen to become India's tractor woman making an indelible impression in a heavily male-dominated industry. TAFE's turnover, a mere Rs86 crore in 1985 - the year she joined - had risen to Rs5,800 crore by 2010/11



Long before the expression 'dealmaker' became commonplace in India, Naina Lal Kidwai, 54, currently country head of HSBC, was one of the biggest dealmakers in the country. It goes without saying that she was also one of the first women to enter the formerly male bastion of investment banking and rise spectacularly



Ekta Kapoor has created a niche for herself as the queen of the silver screen soaps. As the Joint Managing Director and Creative Director of Balaji Telefilms, her production company, she rules almost every television network



Neelam Dhawan is the Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard India. She has been an icon for women in the IT industry. There were just a handful women in the industry way back in the early 80s when she began her career accidentally at HCL



Preetha Reddy the managing director of India's largest healthcare company, Apollo hospitals. Ms Reddy has been instrumental in the group's quality certification process (ISO 14001 and 9001). As a trailblazer, she ensured the JCI accreditation process in five of the group hospitals in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ludhiana and Dhaka.



Roopa Kudva, Managing Director and CEO of Crisil, has been with the rating agency for 19 years. She is also Region Head, South Asia, of Standard & Poor's, which holds majority shares in Crisil.



A nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, Shobhana Bhartia also runs one of India's largest media houses. She is Chairperson and Editorial Director of HT Media which had revenues of Rs 1,815 crore in 2010/11.

Top ten most intelligent mammals


1. Man


2. Chimpanzee




3. Gorilla




4. Orangutan




5. Baboon




6. Gibbon




7. Monkey




8. Smaller toothed whale




9. Dolphin



10. Elephant



God Functions in terms of computer!

                 Merlin's Beard! This may seem funny but no offense..



            Brahma : Systems Installation
            Vishnu : Systems Support
            Lakshmi : Finance and Accounts consultant (SAP)
            Shiva : DBA (crash specialist)
            Ganesh : Documentation specialist
            Narada : Data Transfer
            Brihaspathi : Chief Information Officer.
            Yama : Re-Organisation Consultant
            ChitraGupta : Personnel Records
            Apsaras : Downloadable Viruses
            Devas : Y2k Programmers
            Surya : Solaris adminstrator
            Rakshasas : In house Hackers
            Ram : Hardware Support - single user specialist
            Lakshman : Support software and Backup
            Ravan : Internet Explorer - WWW
            Hanuman : RS6000
            Vali : Windows 98
            Sugreeva : Win 95
            Angadh : Win 3.1
            Jambhuvan : DOS
            Vishwamitra : Sr.Manager Projects
            Hastinapur : Silicon Valley
            Arjun : Lead Programmer (all Companies are Vying for him)
            Abhimanyu : Trainee Programmer
            Draupadi : Web server - free access (Shareware)
            Bhima : MAIN FRAME
            Duryodhan : Microsoft product written in VB
            Shakuni : Bill Gates
            Karna : Contract Programmer
            Shikandi : Steve Jobbs 100
            Kauravas : Microsoft Service Packs and Patches 

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