28 Jun 2010
Posted by Priyanka in
Books
| 11:59am
After a busy week at EveningHour,
we decided to try the new set of books published under 'Metro Reads' by
Penguin. Picked up 'Love
Over Coffee' over others for no particular reason.It turned out to
be a good casual read with light humor and romance.
But, first of all, I will describe a bit about 'Metro Reads'.The books
published under Metro Reads are written by Indian authors, are all
around 200 pages, interesting cover pages and a regular reader can
complete them within 3 or 4 hours at the maximum. The themes under
'Metro Reads' seem to be Indian based which is typical of the new age
Indian authors. If you are looking for some light-weight stories to fill
in a lazy Sunday afternoon, you could give these books a try.
Now, coming to 'Love Over Coffee', it's theme is Romance @
Work. Accordingly, the hero in the book, Anup, loves his colleague,
Rajni. Rajni is the typical Indian girl who wants to hide her love even
with her best friend, puts a limit on the number of times he can call
her, never goes out to lunch with Anup but feels okay to spend long
hours (so it seems to Anup) with the team-mates. There's the usual
jealousy factor, the techie person who loves coding while there are
others who hardly code but totally depend on this one person to meet
their deadlines. There's the selfish boss who gets work done by every
body but takes all the credit. The book has all the ingredients at a
typical software office.
Verdict: Good casual read.
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20 Jun 2010
Posted by Priyanka in
Books
| 5:04pm
If Stephen Covey's 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People'
concentrates on the principles to be followed to become effective
achiever, Dr.Murphy's 'The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" concentrates
on the role of YOU and your mind to achieve every dream of yours.
We hear about (conscious) mind and the subconscious mind. Does it mean
we have two minds ? Not really. We have only one mind that possesses two
distinct and characteristic functional parts. The two functions of the
mind are essentially different from each other. The many names that are
used to distinguish the two are objective and subjective mind, the
conscious and the subconscious mind, the waking and the sleeping mind,
the surface and the deep self, and such.
So, what is it that makes the subconscious mind special ? It works every
single minute - even when you are sleeping! Thus, whatever the
conscious mind thinks and does while one is awake is picked up by the
subconscious mind while the person is sleeping and even while off to do
something else. While the conscious mind can use logical reasoning and
analytical skills to understand or accept any thing, the subconscious
mind cannot do any such. It simply takes off whatever the conscious mind
is thinking and does the same thing continuously. That is why it is of
utmost importance what we feed the subconscious. If it is good thought,
positive aspects, the subconscious mind then takes off to help achieve
that objective. But, if we feed it negative thoughts - be it as simple
as - "Oh! I cannot afford this luxurious dress!", the subconscious mind
makes sure it brings obstacles so that you indeed cannot afford that
luxurious dress! It might sound illogical to you as you read this! But
surely, that is how the subconscious mind works!
Read the book to know more on how you can use your subconscious mind to
achieve riches, prosperity, youthfulness, work real miracles in others
lives, find peace of mind and every single wish and dream of yours!
Currently Reading: Don't Sprint the Marathon
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13 Jun 2010
Posted by Priyanka in
General
| 2:10am
Have you heard of Navaratnas, the court of Samudragupta II or
Vikramaditya. Here is an effort to list them all.
1. KALIDAS
Kalidas is one of the nine
Ratnas in the court of king
Vikramaditya and the famous one too.
He is a great poet of Sanskrit.
He has written 3 famous plays
and 4 epic poems. Plays are
1)
Malavikaagnimitra
(
Malavika and
Agnimitra )
2)
Veramorvashiya ( The story of
Urvashi and
Pururavas )
3)
Abhigyanashakuntala
(
Shakuntala )
This
book is translated into many foreign languages, first into English and
then to German apart from many Indian languages.
The four epic
poems are:
1)
Kumarasambhavam
: The story of the marriage of Shiva with Parvati.
2)
Raghuvamsha
3)
Meghaduta
The fourth one is
not known.
2. DHANVANTARI :
He
was an early Indian medical practitioner and one of the first surgeons
of this world. He is regarded as the source of Ayurveda. He found the
antiseptic properties of turmeric and the preservative properties of
salt. He is the pioneer of the plastic surgery. He performed the
surgeries without anesthesia.
3.
AMARA SIMHA :
He was a Sanskrit grammarian and poet. His
famous works are
AMARAKOSHAM meaning
immortal treasure to immortal dictionary. Another one is
NAMALINGANUSHASANA instructs about
nouns and genders. It is a thesaurus of Sanskrit.
4. SHANKU :
Expert in
geography.
5. KSHAPANAK :
Prominent
astrologist who has achieved prominence in astrology.
6. GHAT KANPAR :
Expert in
sculpture and architecture.
7.
VETAL BHATT :
Expert in black magic and tantric sciences.
8. Varaha Mihir
He was Indian
astronomer, Mathematician and Astrologer who lived in Ujjain. He made important
contributions to Mathematics and also Astrology. His main work is Pancha
Siddantika on Mathematical Astronomy. It is a compendium of Greek,
Egypt, Roman and Indian astronomy. His next work is Brihat-Samhita.
Also famous is his Brihat-Jataka.
9. Vararuchi
He was a poet
and grammarian.
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