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The Indian system of beliefs refers to the female aspect of divinity as Shakti - or the manifestation of energy. Worship of the mother Goddess is prevalent throughout India. The nine days festival of Navaratri, a season of rejoicing and celebration, is associated with the worship of the mother Goddess Durga, also known as Ambamata or Kaalimata. This year it started on today 30 sep.

The 9 nights festival of Navratri begins on the first day of Ashwina of the bright fortnight. Seeds are sown, sprouting is watched, the planets are consecrated, and on the 8th and 9th days, Goddess Durga, Vijayashtami and Mahanavami are worshipped.

The day after Navratri i.e. the 10th day after Ashwina, is Dussera which celebrates the victory of lord Rama over Ravana. Ravana is burnt in effigy, often giant dummies of Ravana stuffed with fireworks are shot with arrows until they blow up before a large, applauding audience.

Nine forms of durga worshipped on navaratri

Navratri sms

• Jo jata hai maa ke dwar, use milta hai Maa ka Pyar. Pyar se jo kahta JAI MATA DI use Mill hi jata hai kisi na kisi Roop me unke dedar. Jai Mata di
• Bajre ki roti,
  aam ka achar,
  suraj ki kirne, khushiyo ki bahar,
  chanda ki chandni, apano ka pyar,
  mubarak ho aapko
  ‘NAVRATRI’
  ka tyohar.
• Memories of moments celebrated together……. Moments that have been attached in my heart, forever……. Make me Miss You even more this Navratri. Hope this Navratri brings in Good Fortune & Abounding Happiness for you! HAPPY Navratri
• Long live the tradition of hindu culture and as the generations have passed by hindu culture is getting stronger and stronger lets keep it up. Best Wishes for Navratri
• May This Navratri be as bright as ever.
  May this Navratri bring joy, health and wealth to you.
  May the festival of lights brighten up you and your near and dear ones lives.
• This Navratri light the lamp of happiness, prosperity and knowledge, Happy
  Navratri!
• Today is first NAVRATRA. May GOD DURGA give prosperous to you and to your family.May her blessings be always with you. “JAI MATA DI”
• Lakshmi ka Hath ho,Saraswati ka Sath ho,Ganesh ka niwas ho,aur maa durga ke ashirwad se Aapke jeevan mai prakash hi prakash ho…. “HAPPY NAVRATRI”

India in going to join the elite club of counties who have been able to send missions to moon, if everything goes as planned, any of the days starting October 19th to 28th would be remembered as the day when indian reach the nearest celestial body, the MOON. Chandrayaan-1 (means moon craft) is all set to make its first voyage to moon on these tentative dates depending on the weather condition.

Chandrayaan-1 was built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) along with HAL and carries 11 payloads, five from India and six from International agencies, three from the European Space Agency (ESA) one from the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency (BSA), and two from NASA. Chandrayaan-1 is a 590-kg spacecraft and it will be launched by a India’s own Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The PSLV has been the most successful launch vehicle for ISRO till date. It holds the record for sending as many as 10 satellites simultaneously during its last mission. This time, it is all set to break its own record by carrying 11 different payloads. Due to the modifications, the PSLV C-11 will have a lift-off weight of 316 tonnes, higher than the “standard” 294-ton version. The payload capacity also has increased from 1600 kg to 1800 kg.

During the two year mission, Chandrayaan-1 will orbit the Lunar surface and sends digital elevation maps of the moon. It will also send information on the traces of the composition of the lunar surface apart from looking for atomic minerals such as thorium, uranium and radon. it will also look into the possibility of finding water on the moon.

ISRO points out that a lunar mission can provide impulse to science in India, a challenge to technology and possibly a new dimension to international cooperation. ISRO has announced that Chandrayaan-1 will be on display for the first time before Media.

Undoubtedly, for India which began its space journey in a modest way in 1963 with the launch of a 9-kilo rocket from a research facility at the fishing hamlet of Thumba in Kerala, the Chandrayaan-1 marks a quantum leap. Vikram Sarabhai and APJ Abdul Kalam laid this foundation of what has become one of the greatest success stories of India. We have seen numerous successes in the recent past with our space programs. On 28th April 2008, we created history by launching ten satellites in one go, carrying a payload of 824 kg. India’s first fully commercial launch came on 23rd April when the Italian astronomical satellite, AGILE, was sent into space. On January 10th 2007, India launched the PSLV C-7 vehicle, injecting four satellites into orbit. The moon mission would cost a whopping Rs 386 crores.

Also Read: Indian technology to increase missile range by 40%

Welcome to Sajjanpur – a small village in Northern India where letters are still the only mode of communication, power cuts are a part of daily life and riding a two-wheeler is like a distant dream.

An aspiring novelist Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade), earns his living by reading and writing letters for the illiterate villagers. Welcome To Sajjanpur takes you back to a hamlet that has its share of assorted characters: a letter writer, a power-hungry goon, a eunuch, a short tempered army man and his widowed daughter-in-law, a compounder, a house wife who’s husband, working in Mumbai, hasn’t showed up for four Diwalis… These are characters you’ve seen, witnessed, might even relate to.

Welcome To Sajjanpur works because of its simplicity. Expect no glitz-n-glam here. In fact, it doesn’t even have a strong plot since it’s a character-driven film. Yet, Welcome To Sajjanpur keeps your interest alive in most parts.

Director Shyam Benegal chooses to touch upon rural India’s topical issues such as widow remarriage, caste politics and superstition. But after a point he establishes just too many sub-plots in a case of biting off more than he can chew. So while you have the protagonist’s love story developing in one scene the next one shows him caught between two rival politicians. Shyam Benegal may be best known for intense films, but as you watch Welcome To Sajjanpur, it dawns upon you that he’s equally proficient when it comes to light entertainers. The character portrayed by Shreyas and his interaction with various people make the proceedings exciting.

What remains with you through and after this movie is its authentic rural setting. After a long time we have had a film set completely in the Hindi heartland (the only other recent examples being Maalamal Weekly and Omkara). In fact the dialogue is so deep rooted in the local dialect, it might require more than decent knowledge of Hindi to really enjoy the film’s humour.

Welcome to Sajjanpur totally rests upon Shreyas Talpade’s shoulders. The actor’s comic timing is getting better with each film and it’s his performance that makes up for the film’s many flaws. Seen in almost every frame of the film Shreyas is the hero of the enterprise in every sense of the word. The ’stand out’ Shreyas moment would be his spoof on SRK’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai ‘Maa’ speech. Talpade is here to stay and is far more watchable than many other overrated so called serious actors.

Amrita Rao doesn’t have much of a role but continues her coy Vivah act. And is actually very likeable. The rest of the supporting cast stay true to their characters with each actor delivering spirited performances. Kunal Kapoor seems to have become a guest appearance specialist in a cameo similar to his Bachna Ae Haseeno act as the good-natured husband.

Mahadev [Shreyas Talpade] is one of the few educated young men in Sajjanpur. His ambition is to be a novelist, but finds it easier to make a living by writing and reading letters sitting next to the post office. His ability to write persuasive letters makes him popular with the largely non-literate population of the town. Aware of this power, he soon uses his talent to manipulate people with amusing and sometimes not such amusing results.

On the flip side, the unwarranted songs in the narrative spoil the show. Ideally, the film could’ve done without any song. Besides, the length should’ve been controlled.

Please vote and express the views on the recent layoff in the IT industry. You can choose multiple answers and add any other reason in the Other field.

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Also Read:

• Layoff in IT industry, Who is next?
• HP cutting 24,600 jobs

Internet search engine giant Google is branching out into the mobile phone industry, with a new phone due out in the next two weeks. Codenamed ‘Dream’ will be available in America and the UK exclusively through T Mobile store. The mobile phone is based on Google’s Android operating system.

Sources say T-Mobile plans to hold a press event in New York City on September 23. Reuters, however, is not clear in its report as to whether the actual T-Mobile Dream phones will go on sale that date. If the sources are correct in estimating actual phones being available in “a couple weeks,” then September 23 could be the date the Dream becomes a reality.

So, How many days are you willing to wait in front of a T-Mobile store to be the first to own a gPhone? Decide soon…

TCS, the big IT company started it on Feb 2008 with the layoff of thousands of employee, then Wipro and Satyam. Report says wipro layoff 2500 employees and Satyam 4500 employees. All of them has given the same reason “unable to meet the performance requirements of the company”. It seems the days of pink slips have come to haunt Indian IT pros. Though all companies have termed these terminations performance-based, it is anyone’s guess that global slowdown has started hurting Indian IT cos. Some of the recent layoff are…

15th Sep 2008, After delayed appraisals and cut in payouts, India’s fourth largest IT service provider, Satyam Computer is reported to downsize its workforce by a whopping 4,500 employees. This translates to a little less than 9 per cent of the 51,000 employees that the company employs.

Company sources reveal that 1,500 employees have been put under the performance improvement plan (PIP), euphemism for employees put on watch list and asked to shape up or ship out. Apart from this, 3,000 others have not been given any increment in the last appraisal cycle, thereby indicating that their services are dispensable.

9th Sep 2008, Wipro Technologies has put about 4-5 per cent of its workforce, about 2,400-3,000 employees, under the scanner for non-performance. Company sources reveal that about 1,000 employees have been asked to leave.

While some would be given counselling to improve their performance, others would be asked to leave. Wipro’s corporate vice-president (human resources) Pratik Kumar confirmed the move. Asked how many employees had been asked to move on, he said the company did not disclose that number, but it was “significantly lower than 2,000”. “I can’t comment on a particular number,” Kumar said, when asked to comment.

In July, Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems too gave pink slips to 400 employees on grounds of non-performance. Terming it as a routine exercise and not a slowdown setback, country’s sixth-largest exporter said that it is an effort to weed out non-performers.

Rajesh Padmanabhan, vice-president and head, global HR, Patni, said, “This is an absolutely regular appraisal that is important for any performance-driven organisation. It is something standard we do every year. Employees who have got 0-1 rating on a scale of 5 typically form the basis for the first-level shortlist. These are performance-based resignations; we’ve not issued any termination letters.”

5th Feb 2008, TCS has shown the door to most of its software engineers. According to TCS official version, employees with experience of two years and above across the company who were unable to meet the performance requirements of TCS are asked to look for other jobs commensurate with their abilities. In reality TCS and others do not have new orders from US. They plan to lay off tens of thousands of employees in the next six to nine months.

Late last year, the global IT giant IBM had reportedly laid off 700 entry-level trainee programmers (ELTPs) across its offices in India. Zensar too had reportedly given pink slips to 2 per cent of it staff, again the company claimed that it was on performance basis.

Whatever the company says this is the clear indication that the US economy slowdown is pressurizing these indian IT gaints to cut the jobs and the cost… So who is going to be the next company to cut the jobs and give their employees the “Pink Slip”. Is it the start of the downfall of the IT industry as in 2001??

Update: TCS is planning more layoffs…

Also Read:

• HP cutting 24,600 jobs
• Poll - Recent Layoff in IT

Google realeased its browser Chrome only for windows, and if you are a linux or MAC user then stop missing google chrome. Codeweavers folks created “CrossOver Chromium” which is a Mac and Linux port of the open source Chromium web browser. CrossOver Chromium is available for download from CodeWeavers, free of charge.

Jeremy of codeweavers shared his thoughts about the development (in just 11 days) of the Crossover chromium the blog.

CrossOver Chromium is available for download on MAC OSX and Linux Falvors like Ubuntu, Debian, Redhat, Suse.

They used Wine which is an open source technology allowing Windows executables to be run as-if-natively on Intel-based Unix operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS X.

Download Here

Apple Mac OS X

• CrossOver Chromium for Apple Mac OS X
  Note: requires OS X 10.4 or higher and an Intel CPU, PowerPC Macs are NOT supported.

Linux

• CrossOver Chromium for Ubuntu and Debian (32 bit)
• CrossOver Chromium for Ubuntu and Debian (64 bit)
• CrossOver Chromium for Red Hat, Mandriva, and Suse
• CrossOver Chromium for all other Linux distros.

Hewlett-Packard Co. said on Monday that it plans to slash 8% that is 24,600 jobs over the next three years, seeking to realize savings from its recent acquisition of Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS). Nearly half of the job reductions will take place in the United States, the Palo Alto, California-based company said. EDS was headquartered in Plano, Texas, near Dallas.

HP estimated $1.8 billion in annual cost savings once the cost-cutting program is completed. Company said the vast majority of the cuts would focus on eliminating overlapping jobs at EDS in corporate functions such as legal, accounting, IT and HR.

Work-force reduction plans will vary by country, based on local legal requirements and consultation with works councils and employee representatives, HP said. The company will provide employees affected by this restructuring program with severance packages, counseling and job placement services.

HP already employed more than 178,000 people worldwide and added 142,000 more with the EDS acquisition. The two companies combined had more than $38 billion in revenue from technology services last year.

Source: BW