Dress gracefully

It is amazing that the idea to fix a dress code for women has sprung up in a cultured country like India. Sixty years ago one had never thought that Western culture would influence our cultural heritage to this extent. Why is the young generation blindly going for Western outfits to follow the latest fashion trends?

There is no harm in being fashionable but why is a girl dressed up in a full-sleeved kurtasalwar and spread out dupatta be tagged as ‘behenjee’? Can a man attired in a three-piece suit and silken tie be a better chairman of a company?

But as change is the process of life, people have began to realize the grandeur of traditional Indian dresses. We can see people attired in pyjama, kurta and dhotis. 

The female mass find sarees and lehangas more graceful and more sophisticated. Indian beauty and complexion has unsurpassed charm which is enhanced in such costumes. Proud are we to behold that not only beauty but the grace and decency of Indian women reigns the world.

Girls may find jeans and T-shirts  trendy and smart but they are not unaware of the grace and style of other traditional costumes.Full attention and appreciation is what we all look for. Even a 3-4 year old child is eager to choose the best dress.

That is not surprising as the way we dress counts topmost to evaluate our personality. Our clothes depict our image. Clothes are just not means to cover our body; they are the mirror of our character. Thus, all of us should be selective in our choice of dresses. So, dress up gracefully, your dress is your expression. If you have grace you have style.

Hats off to you!

Music and Inspiration

‘Gonna Fly Now’, the theme music of Rocky II starring Sylvester Stallone is played by several youngsters while working out. The piece was composed by Vince Di Cola. Some of the other numbers from the Rocky series, which have inspired many are ‘The Eye of the Tiger’, (sung by Survivor), ‘No Easy Way Out’ and others.

Music has been a source of inspiration for many. Be it patriotic songs or inspirational music, it is used on occasions where people need that extra something to go that extra mile. They are used in films to show the passion of the actors. The film, ‘Ali’, based on the life of boxer Mohammad Ali starring Will Smith has a memorable number, ‘Tomorrow’ sung by an African singer named Salif Keita. 

The lyrics of the song is not in English and cannot be understood, but blends perfectly well with the situation in the film. No other song could portray the dilemma of a black American fighting for his country and his rights at the same time.

The title track of the film, ‘Lakshya’ starring Hrithik Roshan is sung by Shankar Mahadevan. The song shows the struggles and the victory over odds by a person who is motivated by the failures of life. ‘Chak De’, a film based on the Indian women’s hockey team starring Shahrukh Khan was a hit. 

What became even more popular was the title track, which is played during sporting events in schools, colleges and others. It is sung by Sukhwinder Singh and is liked by some prominent members of the Indian cricket team. 

Several players agree that listening to music before an important match soothes their nerves. Sachin Tendulkar loves listening to Lata Mangeshkar; Sandeep Singh, a member of the Indian men’s hockey team loves fast-paced Punjabi numbers. The choice of music depends on the listener, but it remains a constant source of inspiration for them as well as several others who play to win.

Learn Net lingo

People who began living their virtual life in Yahoo chat rooms know well ‘what ASL stand for’ A decade ago, it used to be the first question before beginning a chat session with unknowns on the Internet. The question has become redundant for the Facebook generation. The basic information about a person is easily accessible for anyone having an account on the social networking website. There are thousands of similar abbreviations, acronyms and jargons which are used in the online world very often.  This week we bring you a list of some of these words which have been forgotten over the years or have been coined recently.

ASL—It stands for Age, Location, Sex. The term was popular among  people using the Internet for chatting. It was used to find our  age, location and gender of the person  at the other end.  Over the years the usage of the term has minimized, especially after the evolution of social networking sites.

Most of us want high bandwidth speed for fast Internet connection. Bandwidth of an Internet connection tells about the rate of data transfer to and from a computer. The word is used to assess the speed of an Internet connection.  The higher the bandwidth the faster will the Internet speed  be.

 ISP— Internet Service Providers (ISP)are those that provide access to the Internet. In simple words, the company that provides you access to the Internet through cable, dongle, Wi-Fi or  for that matter by any means is known as an ISP.

All of us use search engines such as Google and Yahoo to get answers  to our queries. Boolean search is a kind of search that broadens or narrow search results on the basis of Boolean logic. One can use ‘and’, ‘not’ or ‘or’. False drops are the search results which are undesirable and most times they are the outcome of a mistyped search query.

Cyber space/virtual world—Internet is known as cyber space or virtual world also. The term is especially referred to show the life of people on social networking or blogging sites. None of the dictionaries has a word ‘defriend’ but it is used on Internet when someone removes a  name from his or her friends list. 

Cookies-—Cookies are small encrypted text files that have information about the website users are visiting on a computer. Some websites do not allow access if cookies are disabled on a browser.

URL-—Universal Resource Locator is a web address for accessing resources on the web. All the documents and files on the Internet have specific URLs.

FTP— File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is one of the most used protocols for sharing content between two servers.

CMS— Content Management System (CMS) is a programme that is used for maintaining and updating content on a website. Uploading, editing or modifying of content can be done using the programme. Dynamic websites and blog sites such as Wordpress, Blogspot, Typepad and others use CMS.

Tags and Meta tags—Tags and Meta tags are used in a website to make the content of the website easily available to Internet users.

Other terms which are  in use in the online world  are  IM (Instant Messengers), Request for comments (RFC), Feeds and several others.  

Think positive, Imagine positive

Winners are not those who always win, but essentially those who believe that  they are born to win. Concrete victories in various competitions of life certainly give a big fillip to one’s motivation and morale, but the real sense of victory lies in a perennial and undying faith that I have come to this world to engage in a continuous struggle and eventually I shall be the victor.

An invincible spirit is the most precious treasure of a human being and, therefore, we should all try to become strong enough so that the setbacks of life do not trouble us and shake our confidence. Let every setback be a comeback.

Dream big

Norman Vincent Peale, an eminent positive thinker, has written an inspiring book, ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’. He firmly believes that thoughts make a man and, therefore, we should always nurture positive ones and inculcate imaginations that have the flavour of success, achievement and happiness. Whether an examination or a running a business, the thrust of success lies in imagining that ‘I shall win’. Hence, we should all dream big.

The ‘bigness’ of dreams is bound to create a challenge within us and our hidden forces will help us achieve the dream. True, we should all be realistic in making an assessment of our strengths and weaknesses and should not be unduly adventurous in keeping our targets unrealistically high. Yet, we must never underestimate our potentials. A respectable score in CAT or IIT-JEE examinations is not an impossible task and so one must try taking these tests with enthusiasm and confidence.

Belief in yourself

Every night before going to bed, repeat these sentences atleast ten times ‘Every day, in every way, I am becoming stronger and stronger’; ‘Today, I have reached nearer to my goals and tomorrow, it shall be still a better day’; ‘I am competent and I will certainly achieve success in my examinations’; ‘God and I, are a two-man army and we will jointly achieve the highest and overcome all the struggles of life’.

 You can always make your own assuring pledges like ‘I am bound to win, and I will win’. During the day also, whenever, possible, repeat such positive sentences as many times as possible and you will note that there is a flow of energy in you and you will feel immensely revitalized.

Self suggestions

Peter Fletcher, an eminent psychologist, says that the power of auto-suggestion is so strong that you can transform your personality. The words of auto-suggestion can be most rewarding. An important requisite of success in life is a self suggestion that you will be calm during the examinations and you will be able to answer all questions with exceptional concentration and that you will be peaceful and undisturbed during the whole process of attempting a test-paper.

Such an enduring imagination creates exceptional powers that help us in facing any challenge and crisis when it really confronts us. And if you imagine that you are coming out of the examination hall confidently and smiling, this will give you a sense of victory and achievement. All this does not mean that imagination is more important than effort. Instead, what is being underscored is that positive imaging complements one’s endeavour. This combination of effort and positive imagining leads to a rare perseverance that is rooted in self-confidence and faith.

Power thinking

One of the most eminent emperor-warriors of the World, Napoleon Bonaparte of France, had averred: “Wars are first won in the minds of men”. That is the gist of positive imagining. Think big, think positive, think success and, remember what Swami Shivanand had emphasized with conviction that there is no power greater than thought power. Therefore, continuously feed your mind with positive thoughts and believe that success is your birthright and you will have it, if not today, then tomorrow. But it will come to you nevertheless. 

Look for the goodness in people

Andrew Carnegie and his family were not rich when they came to America from Scotland. Andrew was just a young boy then. He picked up odd jobs to add to the family income and ultimately became one of the largest steel manufacturers in the United States of America. At one time, he had 43 millionaires working for him. A million dollars is a lot of money today, but in the 1920s it was worth much much more.

One of the reasons for Andrew Carnegie’s success was man-management. He knew how to deal with people and bring out the best in his employees. He explained his approach thus: “Dealing with people is a lot like digging for gold. You have to remove tons of earth to get an ounce of gold. But do you look for the earth. No, You look for the gold.”

It is the same thing with people. One has to look for their positive attributes and use them for one’s own benefit.

EVERY PERSON HAS SOME GOOD IN HIM. ONE HAS ONLY TO LOOK FOR IT.

Bruce Springsteen : A true American rockstar

Bruce Springsteen is one of the most popular and recognized faces of American music. His music is inspired by  his city, ‘New Jersey’. The beauty and the simplicity of the city have always inspired him. Bruce is a passionate American who has been influenced by his country’s  political, economical and social issues.

Bruce gained instant recognition with the song ‘Born in the USA’. The song is based on the Vietnam War and has catchy lyrics about the hardships and pain caused by the war. He vented his anger against it and music was an effective means to do so. This song was included in the award-winning documentary ‘Dear America’, which was a real-life account of the war. Another song, ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ was included in one of the greatest movies of all time, ‘Philadelphia’. Bruce’s music has been included in lots of Hollywood movies. Actors like Sean Penn, Tom Hanks and others are known to be his good friends. One of his music videos was directed by Brian de Palma, the director of one of the best gangster movies of all time, ‘Scarface’.

Bruce’s voice is unconventional. It is not a pleasant  voice. It has a macho feel to it and is liked by people of all ages.  His song, ‘Dancing in the dark’ was a huge hit and is a fast number. Another song, ‘Atlantic City’ is a slow number.

Bruce, during his early years, performed with the ‘E Street band’. Together they created some great numbers. The characteristics of the band were the guitar solos and the use of drums. In the latter years, Bruce’s success was affected by the onslaught of other bands and a significant change in the style of music.  However, he still remained one of the most admired singers of the USA. After the 9/11 tragedy, Bruce composed and sang some songs which were dedicated to the victims.  These songs were included in his album, ‘The Rising’.

Bruce remains one of the greatest singers of the world. He is a true American. Many people believe that he can play an active role in the country’s politics. Bruce has not yet expressed his opinions on this. He is one of the best musical spokespersons of the USA and the universal appeal of music makes him popular throughout the world

Make the most of your music experience online

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” Plato was right in saying this. Music is an essential part of human life. It is everywhere and the Internet is no exception. There are several websites which are specially designed and developed for music aficionados. They can make playlists of their favourite songs and listen to them online. And, the music lovers, who not only listen to songs but also sing, can record and compose songs and share them with their friends. They can connect with the people who like the same kind of music.

Radio has been one of the best sources of music for long but people have to limit their listening to the songs selected by the RJs. Internet has this dependency. Users can personalise online radio stations based on their choice of songs on Last.fm; they can do it by making tags for artists and musicians. The site provides this service to registered users free. It keeps the track of the music history of its users and recommends songs and musical concerts to them. The site keeps users up-to-date on ‘what are your friends listening to at any given point of time’.

Songbird.me updates information about new albums. They can make playlists of their favourite songs on the website and can even listen to songs from the playlists of their friends. Gaana.com has the largest collection of new songs in Hindi, English, Odia, Assamese, Bengali and in other Indian languages. Users can stream the music free.

A few other sites allow users to download songs of their choice by paying a fixed sum. Some sites are free. Flipkart.com recently launched a website flyte.com. Music lovers can listen to a sample of songs in a music album before buying. If they like only one or two songs then they can buy them from the website and download on their computers. Similarly, Musictoday.in sells Indian classical music online but users do not have an option to download songs. Music CDs are delivered at home by the website.

You can listen to music albums uploaded by users free on Justhearit.com but will have to pay if you download. There is a site musicovery.com in which you state the mood you are in and it will play music suitable for it. There are sites where musicians can compose and record songs and share them with an online audience. One of the most popular music recording websites is Soundcloud.com. You can also listen to the tracks uploaded by others.

Other websites which will interest you include iTunes, Finetune, Live365.com, Blip.fm, Pandora, Emusic.com, etc.