Indu

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

2010-09-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

About the Author
Novella Carpenter grew up in rural Idaho and Washington State. She went to University of Washington in Seattle where she majored in Biology and English. She later studied under Michael Pollan at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism for two years. She's had many odd jobs including: assassin bug handler, book editor, media projectionist, hamster oocyte collector, and most recently, journalist. Her writing has appeared in Salon.com, Saveur.com, sfgate.com (the SF Chronicle 's website), and Mother Jones. She has been cultivating her farm in the city for over ten years now, and her neighbors still think she's crazy. It all started with a few chickens, then some bees, until she had a full-blown farm near downtown Oakland, where she lives today.

Synopsis

An unforgettably charming memoir, Farm City is full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmer's tips, and a great deal of heart. When Novella Carpenter — captivated by the idea of backyard self-sufficiency — moved to inner city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage- strewn abandoned lot next door to her house, she closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes and a chicken coop. The story of how her urban farm grew from a few chickens to one populated with turkeys, geese, rabbits, ducks, and two three-hundred-pound pigs will capture the imagination of anyone who has ever considered leaving the city behind for a more natural lifestyle.

Novella Carpenter loves cities — the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways: a homegrown vegetable plot as well as museums, bars, concerts, and a twenty-four-hour convenience mart mere minutes away. Especially when she moved to a ramshackle house in inner city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage-strewn abandoned lot next door. She closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes, a beehive, and a chicken coop. What started out as a few egg-laying chickens led to turkeys, geese, and ducks. Soon, some rabbits joined the fun, then two three-hundred-pound pigs. And no, these charming and eccentric animals weren't pets; she was a farmer, not a zookeeper. Novella was raising these animals for dinner. Novella Carpenter's corner of downtown Oakland is populated by unforgettable characters. Lana (anal spelled backward, she reminds us) runs a speakeasy across the street and refuses to hurt even a fly, let alone condone raising turkeys for Thanksgiving. Bobby, the homeless man who collects cars and car parts just outside the farm, is an invaluable neighborhood concierge. The turkeys, Harold and Maude, tend to escape on a daily basis to cavort with the prostitutes hanging around just off the highway nearby. Every day on this strange and beautiful farm, urban meets rural in the most surprising ways. For anyone who has ever grown herbs on their windowsill, tomatoes on their fire escape, or obsessed over the offerings at the local farmers' market, Carpenter's story will capture your heart. And if you've ever considered leaving it all behind to become a farmer outside the city limits, or looked at the abandoned lot next door with a gleam in your eye, consider this both a cautionary tale and a full-throated call to action. Farm City is an unforgettably charming memoir, full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmers' tips, and a great deal of heart. It is also a moving meditation on urban life versus the natural world and what we have given up to live the way we do.

Courage is not an Image

2010-07-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is that quiet voice at the end of the day that says...I will try again tomorrow."-Mary Anne Radmacher.

Courage comes from our mind and from ourselves according to the existing conditions. When we think about courage, generally, heroes and their heroism come to our mind but it is a quality of spirit that enables you to face danger or pain. It's a quiet voice that gives them the strength to go on for another day. And it shows our confidence level and of sometimes in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Courage automatically comes out from our minds but should not be estimated by showing external physique or personality.

In our day-to-day lives, the virtue of courage doesn't receive much attention. Courage is a quality reserved for soldiers, firefighters, and activists. But sometimes people who always afraid of certain things show their courage when the situation comes. Not only at hurdles or troubles or fearful things, but one should be courageous in doing the things like in decision-making, helping others, to comment others or to complement others and so on.

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

And we have the quote: Fortune favours Brave.

CHANGE: Change or Accept

2010-07-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

Change is not easy. But it is simple. We know that Things will always change. And we do not have a choice about that change, but we do have a choice on how we react to change. It is in our hads how to react to that unbelievable or believable change. The choice really boils down to this...either we manage change, or it will manage us. As a leader, however, deciding to make changes is the easy part. Getting your people on board is much more difficult. Why is that? Quite simply, change is an emotional process. We are all creatures of habit who usually resist it, and welcome routine. Uncharted waters are scary! The truth, of course, is that change can be a wonderful gift. In fact, it is the key that unlocks the doors to growth and excitement in any organization. And, most importantly, without it...your competition will pass you by. And we can say, change should be mandatory. Change should be there. As a leader, a big part of success will be your ability to inspire your team to get out of their comfort zones; to assure them that even though they are on a new path, it's the right path, for the right reasons.

So, finally.... it is on our attitude about change because we know everything is predetermined and predestined. Whatever the change we observe, we have to accept or if we can't accept then we can change. Is it? Is it possible? yes. If we changed it, then it is also a change already predestined. Anyways, we welcome change, we must. Because Change is Good.

Finally....

Accept what we cannot Change or

Change what we cannot Accept.

A Circle of Souls

2009-08-26T01:29:00.000-07:00

About the Author:

Preetham Grandhi, an India-born immigrant, explores his life parallels in a new kind of psychological thriller and debut novel, A Circle of Souls. Born and raised in the city of Bangalore, India, Preetham mirrored the struggles of upper-middle class lives, acculturation, and psychological trauma through the characters of this well-sculpted thriller. Preetham’s childhood determination for success and change leads to a new life in the USA. His hope is that the land of opportunity would close old doors and open new beginnings. In a twist of fate, he found himself working with children and their families in the inner city Bronx, families who had even more complex issues than his own. Through their eyes and life experiences, he was motivated to become someone he never thought he would become, an author.

After investing five years in writing, he then encountered the struggle of becoming a traditionally published author. Now in June 2009, in the midst of economic crises and nationwide corporation mismanagement, comes A Circle of Souls, a tale of hope, justice, and accountability. This spirit-lifting and thought-provoking story has received rave reviews.

Review:

"This is Preetham Grandhi's debut novel, but you wouldn't know that from reading the book....full of suspense and alternates between different view points which added to the thrill of the book. The author has added some medical, psychological and supernatural elements.

The sleepy town of Newbury, Connecticut, is shocked when a little girl is found brutally murdered. The town's top detective, perplexed by a complete lack of leads, calls in FBI agent Leia Bines, an expert in cases involving children.
Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Gram, a psychiatrist at Newbury's hospital, searches desperately for the cause of seven-year-old Naya Hastings' devastating nightmares. Afraid that she might hurt herself in the midst of a torturous episode, Naya's parents have turned to the bright young doctor as their only hope.
The situations confronting Leia and Peter converge when Naya begins drawing chilling images of murder after being bombarded by the disturbing images in her dreams. Amazingly, her sketches are the only clues to the crime that has panicked Newbury residents. Against her better judgment, Leia explores the clues in Naya's crude drawings, only to set off an alarming chain of events.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

2009-08-05T22:41:00.000-07:00

About the Author

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. The most recent of his many honors is the Yomiuri Literary Prize, whose previous recipients include Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe. He is the author of the novels Dance, Dance, Dance; Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World; A Wild Sheep Chase; South of the Border, West of the Sun; and Sputnik Sweetheart; of The Elephant Vanishes, a collection of stories; and of Underground, a work of non-fiction. His work has been translated into fourteen languages.

Review

"[A] big, ambitious book clearly intended to establish Murakami as a major figure in world literature....The new book almost self-consciously deals with a wide spectrum of heavy subjects....[It] marks a significant advance in Murakami's art....Murakami has written a bold and generous book, and one that would have lost a great deal by being tidied up." Jamie James, The New York Times Book Review

Haruki Murakami is generally considered the greatest Japanese writer of his generation, but at times he seems more in tune with the culture of the West than of his native country. Throughout his work, the food, music, movies, and literature references will generally be familiar to western readers. When one of his characters makes dinner, it is just as likely spaghetti as sushi; when they read a novel it is probably Hemingway or Salinger; when one of his characters puts on an album it is British or American pop (he even named a novel after a Beatles song). This preoccupation with the cultural trappings of the West makes Murakami highly accessible to westerner readers, and accounts, in part, for his tremendous popularity here.
But he is even more successful in Japan (his elegiac Norwegian Wood sold an astounding four million copies). Perhaps Murakami is so popular with the Japanese in part because his characters seek their cultural anchors abroad. A central theme in Murakami's work is the feeling among many Japanese that they have lost the clear sense of self, the firm identity, they had before the war. And nowhere in his impressive body of work has he explored this experience more deeply, or expressed it more powerfully, than in his most ambitious work to date, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
The story begins with the disappearance of Toru Okada's wife's cat, which is immediately followed by the disappearance of the wife, herself. Mild-mannered Toru sets out to find out where they went and why. He discovers much more than he bargained for: a precocious teenager, a pair of psychic sisters, a haunted veteran of Japan's war in Manchuria, a perfectly corrupt politician, and a strangely appealing well in a neighbor's yard. In his quest, Toru only succeeds in raising more perplexing questions, but his discoveries do shed startling light on the roots of the Japanese malaise. Surreal, insightful, quirky, and surprisingly affecting, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle has further proved Murakami's status as a world-class writer.

Paint It Black

2009-08-04T02:33:00.000-07:00

About the Author
Janet Fitch's first novel, White Oleander, a #1 bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection, has been translated into 24 languages and was made into a feature film. A native of Los Angeles, Fitch currently teaches fictionwriting in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.

Synopsis
From the bestselling author of White Oleander comes a powerful story of passion, first love, and a young woman's search for a true world in the aftermath of loss.

Josie Tyrell, art model, teen runaway, and denizen of LA's 1980 punk rock scene, finds a chance at real love with art student Michael Faraday. A Harvard dropout and son of a renowned pianist, Michael introduces her to his spiritual quest and a world of sophistication she had never dreamed existed. But when she receives a call from the Los Angeles County Coroner, asking her to identify her lover's dead body, her bright dreams all turn to black.

"What happens to a dream when the dreamer is gone?" is the central question of Paint it Black, the story of the aftermath of Michael's death, and Josie's struggle to hold onto the true world he shared with her. As Josie searches for the key to understanding his death, she finds herself both repelled and attracted to Michael's pianist mother, Meredith, who holds Josie responsible for her son's torment. Soon, the two women find themselves drawn into a twisted relationship reflecting equal parts distrust and blind need.
Passionate, wounded, fiercely alive, Josie Tyrell walks the brink of her own destruction as she fights to discover the meaning of Michael's death. With the luxurious prose and emotional intensity that are her hallmarks, Janet Fitch has written a spellbinding new novel about love, betrayal, and the possibility of transcendence.

Tijuana Straits

2009-07-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

About the Author:

Kem Nunn is an American fiction novelist, surfer, magazine and television writer from California. His novels have been described as "surf-noir" for their dark themes, political overtones and surf settings. He is the author of five novels, including his seminal surf novel Tapping the Source.

He has collaborated with HBO Producer David Milch on the show Deadwood and with Milch co-produced the HBO series John from Cincinnati, a surfing series set in Imperial Beach, California which premiered on June 10, 2007.

Review

"Sam Fahey, an ex-con and ex-surfer now running a worm farm, is tracking a pack of feral dogs in the Tijuana River Valley when he encounters a badly beaten Mexican woman stumbling across the dunes near Tijuana Straits, a legendary surf spot. But surfing is only a backdrop in Nunn's intense, beautifully written literary thriller; the novel's real subject is the lawless U.S.-Mexico border, and its real story revolves around three damaged lives: the Mexican refugee, an activist named Magdalena Rivera fighting for economic and environmental justice in industrial Tijuana; Armando Santoya, whose life spirals into a drug-fueled rage when his baby is poisoned by the toxic chemicals his wife works with; and Fahey himself, a fully realized antihero struggling to atone for his own troubled life. In a series of long flashbacks, Nunn relates their backstories along with the painful history of a rugged chunk of the Southern California coast setting the stage for a powerful, visceral denouement. The novel is an elegy of lost innocence, an exploration of the corrupting power of greed and progress on the land and the people, but its triumph is the complete integration of character and plot. This is a sad but deeply satisfying and intensely moving story. With this fifth novel, Nunn has written a terrific book that more than affirms the promise of his early work.

When Fahey, once a great surfer, now a reclusive ex-con, meets Magdalena, she is running from a pack of wild dogs along the ragged wasteland where California and Mexico meet the Pacific Ocean — a spot once known to the men who rode its giant waves as the Tijuana Straits. Magdalena has barely survived an attack that forced her to flee Tijuana, and Fahey takes her in. That he is willing to do so runs contrary to his every instinct, for Fahey is done with the world, seeking little more than solitude from this all-but-forgotten corner of the Golden State. Nor is Fahey a stranger to the lawless ways of the border. He worries that in sheltering this woman he may not only be inviting further entanglements but may be placing them both at risk. In this, he is not wrong.

An environmental activist, Magdalena has become engaged in the struggle for the health and rights of the thousands of peasants streaming from Mexico's enervated heartland to work in the maquilladoras — the foreign-owned factories that line her country's border, polluting its air and fouling its rivers. It is a risky contest. Danger can come from many directions, from government officials paid to preserve the status quo to thugs hired to intimidate reformers.
As Magdalena and Fahey become closer, Magdalena tries to discover who is out to get her, attempting to reconstruct the events that delivered her, battered and confused, into Fahey's strange yet oddly seductive world. She examines every lead, never guessing the truth. For into this no-man's-land between two countries comes a trio of killers led by Armando Santoya, a man beset by personal tragedy, an aberration born of the very conditions Magdalena has dedicated her life to fight against, yet who in the throes of his own drug-fueled confusions has marked her for death. And so will Fahey be put to the test, in a final duel on the beaches of his Tijuana Straits.

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen

2009-07-22T03:19:00.000-07:00

About the Author:

Susan Gregg Gilmore has written for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the Los Angeles Times, and the Christian Science Monitor.

Review:

The town of Ringgold, Georgia, has a population of 1,923, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen, and one Catherine Grace Cline. Quickwitted and more than a little stubborn, Catherine Grace is dying to escape her small-town life.
When her dream to go to Atlanta becomes a reality, she immediately makes the move, leaving behind the boy she loves. But all too soon, tragedy brings Catherine Grace back home. As a series of extraordinary events alter her perspective, Catherine Grace begins to wonder if her place in the world may actually be, against all odds, right where she began.

Sometimes you have to return to the place where you began, to arrive at the place where you belong.

It's the early 1970s. The town of Ringgold, Georgia, has a population of 1,923, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen, and one Catherine Grace Cline. The daughter of Ringgold's third-generation Baptist preacher, Catherine Grace is quick-witted, more than a little stubborn, and dying to escape her small-town life.
Every Saturday afternoon, she sits at the Dairy Queen, eating Dilly Bars and plotting her getaway to the big city of Atlanta. And when, with the help of a family friend, the dream becomes a reality, Catherine Grace immediately packs her bags, leaving her family and the boy she loves to claim the life she's always imagined. But before things have even begun to get off the ground in Atlanta, tragedy brings her back home. As a series of extraordinary events alters her perspective — and sweeping changes come to Ringgold itself-Catherine Grace begins to wonder if her place in the world may actually be, against all odds, right where she began.

"Every female will find herself identifying with Catherine Grace's search for her place in the world." Chattanooga Times Free Press

"Susan Gregg Gilmore's debut novel, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, is storytelling at its best, entertaining and lively and full of surprises. Catherine Grace Cline, the endearing witty heroine, gives her domestic journey titles of Biblical proportion as she finds more than salvation along the way." Jill McCorkle, author of Carolina Moon

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

2009-07-19T23:23:00.000-07:00

About the Author:
Mignon Fogarty is the creator of Grammar Girl and founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips Network. A technical writer and entrepreneur, she has served as an editor and producer at a number of health and science Web sites. She has a B.A. in English from the University of Washington in Seattle and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University. She lives in Reno, Nevada.

"Grammar Girl's daily e-mail tips and podcasts are invaluable. And now, congratulations on a year on paper, Grammar Girl! This book should be on every writer's shelf, and in this age of e-mail and blogs, that's almost everyone."

Review:

Mignon Fogarty, a.k.a. Grammar Girl, is determined to wipe out bad grammarbut shes also determined to make the process as painless as possible. One year ago, she created a weekly podcast to tackle some of the most common mistakes people make while communicating. The podcasts have now been downloaded more than seven million times, and Mignon has dispensed grammar tips on Oprah and appeared on the pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.
Written with the wit, warmth, and accessibility that the podcasts are known for, Grammar Girls Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing covers the grammar rules and word-choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers. From “between vs. among” and “although vs. while” to comma splices and misplaced modifiers, Mignon offers memory tricks and clear explanations that will help readers recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules. Chock-full of tips on style, business writing, and effective e-mailing, Grammar Girls print debut deserves a spot on every communicators desk.

If Nobody speaks of Remarkable Things

2009-07-17T02:31:00.000-07:00

About the Author

Jon McGregor is twenty-six, and this is his first novel. It was published in Britain in 2002 to critical acclaim, and was inspired in part by the phenomenal media attention that surrounded the death of Princess Diana. Around the same time, a young man was shot in McGregor’s own neighborhood; the novel, he writes, is about “how the everyday miracles of life and death go unwitnessed in favor of celebrity and sensation, and the difficulty of experiencing community in an increasingly transient society.” McGregor lives in Nottingham, England.

Review:

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things is a haunting story of the events that transpire over a single day at the end of summer on a small urban street in England. Risky in conception and "daringly un-ironic" for our times, this is a prose poem of a novel intense and highly evocative with a whodunit at its center, which keeps the reader in suspense until the final page.
In delicate, intricately observed close-up, we are invited into the private lives of the street's residents to witness their hopes, fears, and unspoken despairs: the man with scarred hands who tried in vain to save his wife from a burning house, a group of young club-goers just home from an all-night rave, the nervous young man at number 18 who collects weird junk and is haunted by the specter of unrequited love.
The peace and tranquility of the unexceptional day are shattered at day's end when the street becomes the scene of a terrible accident. This tragedy and an utterly surprising twist provide the momentum for the book. But it is the author's exquisite rendition of the ordinary, the everyday, that gives this novel its original freshness, its sense of beauty, wonder, and hope.

Banana Heart Summer

2009-06-25T01:30:00.000-07:00

About the Author

Merlinda Bobis has received numerous awards, prizes and fellowships for her fiction, poetry and plays, among them the Prix Italia for Rita's Lullaby, the Steel Rudd Award for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories, the Judges' Choice Award (Bumbershoot Bookfair, Seattle Arts Festival) and the Philippine National Book Award for White Turtle, or The Kissing, and the Philippine Balagtas Award, a lifetime achievement award for her fiction and poetry in English, Pilipino and Bicol. Her plays have been performed in Australia, the Philippines, France, China, Thailand and the Slovak Republic. Banana Heart Summer is her first novel; its Australian edition was short-listed for the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal. Her second novel, The Solemn Lantern Maker, will be released in the U.S. in 2009. As a performer for stage and radio, Merlinda works with artists from various genres. She lives in Australia where she teaches creative writing.

"...[D]elicious, wise, funny, warm, glorious and heartbreaking....The second reading was even more delectable....this is a book to savor. Merlinda Bobis is a poet and wise woman."

Review:

"Poet Bobis serves up compassion and tenderness in generous portions in her fiction debut. Twelve-year-old Nenita is the first of six children born to her destitute parents in a Filipino village. Hungry and abused by her overwhelmed mother, Nenita drops out of school one summer in the hopes of earning enough money to support the growing family. Hired as the house girl of her well-to-do neighbors, the Valenzuelas, she befriends her mistress, the beautiful Seorita VV. The entire village experiences profound change during that sweltering summer, mirroring Nenita's coming-of-age. Nenita's passion for food sustains her through difficulties of all sorts, and she relishes each morsel and taste as a treasured gift, even as she faces continued difficulty." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In her lush, luminous debut novel, Merlinda Bobis creates a dazzling feast for all the senses. Richly imagined, gloriously written, Banana Heart Summer is an incandescent tale of food, family, and longing — at once a love letter to mothers and daughters and a lively celebration of friendship and community.
Twelve-year-old Nenita is hungry for everything: food, love, life. Growing up with five sisters and brothers, she searches for happiness in the magical smell of the deep-frying bananas of Nana Dora, who first tells Nenita the myth of the banana heart; in the tantalizing scent of Manolito, the heartthrob of Nenita and her friends; in the pungent aromas of the dishes she prepares for the most beautiful woman on Remedios Street. To Nenita, food is synonymous with love — the love she yearns to receive from her disappointed mother. But in this summer of broken hearts, new friendships, secrets, and discoveries, change will be as sudden and explosive as the monsoon that marks the end of the sweltering heat — and transforms Nenita's young life in ways she could never imagine.

Down River

2009-01-22T21:10:00.000-08:00

About the Author: John Hart was born and raised in North Carolina. He earned degrees in French, accounting, and law, but always aspired to write novels. After careers in law and asset management, John now writes full-time. He still makes his home in North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

Review: "Complex relationships blur the lines between friend and foe, heightening the suspense in this intricate, haunting story of a family in crisis, and the writing is simply superb. Highly recommended."

Everything that shaped him happened near that river... Now its banks are filled with lies and greed, shame, and murder... John Hart's debut, The King of Lies, was compelling and lyrical, with Janet Maslin of The New York Times declaring, "There hasn't been a thriller as showily literate since Scott Turow came along. "Now, in Down River, Hart makes a scorching return to Rowan County, where he drives his characters to the edge, explores the dark side of human nature, and questions the fundamental power of forgiveness. Adam Chase has a violent streak, and not without reason. As a boy, he saw things that no child should see, suffered wounds that cut to the core and scarred thin. The trauma left him passionate and misunderstood — a fighter. After being narrowly acquitted of a murder charge, Adam is hounded out of the only home he's ever known, exiled for a sin he did not commit. For five long years he disappears, fades into the faceless gray of New York City. Now he's back and nobody knows why, not his family or the cops, not the enemies he left behind. But Adam has his reasons. Within hours of his return, he is beaten and accosted, confronted by his family and the women he still holds dear. No one knows what to make of Adam's return, but when bodies start turning up, the small town rises against him and Adam again finds himself embroiled in the fight of his life, not just to prove his own innocence, but to reclaim the only life he's ever wanted. Bestselling author John Hart holds nothing back as he strips his characters bare. Secrets explode, emotions tear, and more than one person crosses the brink into deadly behavior as he examines the lengths to which people will go for money, family, and revenge. A powerful, heart-pounding thriller, Down River will haunt your thoughts long after the last page is turned.

The Best American Travel Writing

2008-12-05T22:52:00.000-08:00

About the Author

Anthony Bourdain, best-selling writer, chef, television host, and traveler, edits this year's collection of the finest travel writing from the past year. Easy to read and hard to put down, these essays capture with fine detail the extraordinary wonder of travel (Chicago Sun Times).
In his introduction fearful, sublime, and absurd; the small epiphanies familiar to the full-time traveler, interspersed by a sense of dislocation--and the strange, unholy need to record the experience. With this in mind, Bourdain and series editor Jason Wilson have assembled a wide-ranging and wonderfully eclectic collection that delves headlong into those darker moments and subtle realizations, looking to absorb, provoke, and offer a moving record of what it means to travel in the twenty-first cto The Best American Travel Writing 2008, editor Anthony Bourdain writes that the pieces that spoke the loudest and most powerfully to me were usually evocative of the darker side, those moments entury.
Here you will find Seth Stevenson's extraordinary experience of Looking for Mammon in the Muslim World as he makes his way through sweltering and paradoxical Dubai. Exotic tastes and larger-than-life personalities abound as Bill Buford accompanies the chocolate maker Frederick Schilling to the rain forests of Brazil. And on the other side of the world, Calvin Trillin trolls Singapore for the ultimate street food, while Kristin Ohlson delves into the harrowing challenges faced by proprietors of restaurants in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The twenty-five pieces in this collection have their fair share of the absurd as well. David Sedaris explains the hilarious highs (sundaes) and woeful lows (sobbing with your seatmate) of flying Business Elite. Gary Shteyngart goes To Russia for Love during St. Petersburg's vodka-soaked wedding season. And Emily Maloney gets up close and personal with her fellow travelers -- and their massage devices -- in a South American hostel.
Culled from an amazingvariety of publications, the writing in this volume is so vibrantly good, you'll feel like you've armchair-traveled around the world (Chicago Sun Times).

A Hunt for Justice: The True Story of a Woman Undercover Wildlife Agent

2008-11-26T20:51:00.000-08:00

About the Author: Lucinda D. Schroeder was a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1974 to 2004. She was not allowed to write about her experiences until she retired, but in 1994, she appeared on A&E to discuss the operation. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Synopsis:An explosive first-person account of an illegal Alaskan big-game hunting camp brought down by one woman.

For thirty years, Lucinda Delaney Schroeder held an unusual government position: she was one of the handful of women special agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Her job: to investigate crimes against wildlife. Unlike the majority of hunters who respect both their prey and the laws, evidence was piling up against an unscrupulous outfitter who was decimating populations of big game in Alaska's Brooks Range. In August 1992, she accepted an assignment that forever changed and endangered her life. She left her husband and seven-year-old daughter behind in Wisconsin and posed as a big-game hunter in Alaska in order to infiltrate an international ring of poachers out to kill the biggest and best of that state's wildlife.
A Hunt for Justice recounts her dramatic story a story she was not legally permitted to write about until her retirement in 2004.
Risking personal safety, Schroeder joined a team of government agents to expose and arrest the poachers. Posing as "Jayne," a divorcee who was willing to break the rules in order to hunt trophy animals, the diminutive blue-eyed blonde fooled criminals so wily that their crimes could only be cracked from within. A Hunt for Justice takes readers along on Schroeder's dangerous and exciting mission. More than simply an adventure or true-crime tale, it's a story of a woman surviving in a male-dominated field, a woman against the wilderness, and a wife and mother risking it all for a cause she believes in. Whether you are a crime buff, nature lover, sports hunter, or someone who just loves a gripping-first-person tale of justice triumphing over evil, this book is for you.

"This consistently engrossing first-person account by a retired special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gives readers the inside track on a 1992 undercover hunt for illegal poachers in the Alaskan wilderness. One of nine women in an often misogynist agency of 210, Schroeder brings to life a motley crew of characters. Lewd, unreliable and usually drunk Roy Hanson is a paid informant who poses as the happily married Schroeder's 'boyfriend' and hunting partner. Moose James, a poacher and cunning guide who treats his wife like a servant, bolsters his big ego with the carcasses of hundreds of grizzly bears, bighorn sheep and other trophy animals. The mastermind behind a secret operation that guarantees rich hunters their quarry by herding animals with small planes, Bob Bowman brags that he'll kill any undercover cop who infiltrates his camp. A Spanish client, Pedro, is shameless about his greed: 'Every hunter should get what they want, no matter what it takes.' Although the penalties imposed by the undercover sting seem unusually light given the danger, and the time, money and energy expended, and the line between legal 'harvesting' and illegal poaching will blur for nonhunters, Schroeder illuminates an unusual, insular world with unflinching grit and good humour."

2008-06-04T23:07:00.000-07:00

About the Author: Rob Rogers lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. Devil's Cape is his first novel.

Synopsis:

A city where corruption and heroism walk hand-in-hand, and justice and mercy are bought and paid-for in blood, Devil's Cape is a city like no other. Rogers blends the gritty crime novel with a heavy dose of the supernatural and weaves a tale of superhuman heroes and villains.

If New Orleans has earned its "Sin City" nickname for its debauchery, then its nearby sister Devil's Cape has earned its "Pirate Town" moniker for the violence and blatant corruption that have marred the city since its founding. A city where corruption and heroism walk hand-in-hand, and justice and mercy are bought and paid-for in blood, Devil's Cape is a city like no other.

Devil's Cape is a novel like no other. It blends the gritty crime novel with a heavy dose of the supernatural and weaves a tale of superhuman heroes and villains. Briskly written and highly readable, Devil's Cape will appeal to a wide audience.

I would love to use it as a class novel, but it might be a touch too violent -- or at least for their parents.

The Book of Getting Even

2008-05-22T02:02:00.000-07:00

Author: Benjamin Taylor is the author of the novel Tales Out of School, which won the 1996 Harold Ribalow Prize and is available in paperback from Zoland Books, an imprint of Steerforth Press. He is editor of The Letters of Saul Bellow, scheduled for publication in 2009. His travel memoir, Naples Declared, will be published in 2010.

Son of a rabbi, budding astronomer Gabriel Geismar is on his way from youth to manhood in the 1970s when he falls in love with the esteemed and beguiling Hundert family, different in every way from his own. Over the course of a decade-long drama unfolding in New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and the Wisconsin countryside, Gabriel enters more and more passionately and intimately into the world of his elective clan, discovering at the inmost center that he alone must bear the full weight of their tragedies, past and present. Yet The Book of Getting Even is funny and robust, a novel rich in those fundamentals we go to great fiction for: the exploration of what is hidden, the sudden shocks, the feeling at last of life laid bare.

"In this delightful, character-driven coming-of-age novel, Gabriel Geismar grows up in mid 20th-century New Orleans as the only son of a rabbi, maturing into a brilliant, homosexual mathematician who is out of sync with his father's values. At Swarthmore in 1970, Gabriel meets the twins Daniel and Marghie Hundert, the children of Nobel Prize winning physicist Gregor Hundert, one of the so-called Hungarian Eight who emigrated to America and worked with Robert Oppenheimer on the bomb. Fascinated by the stately, Old World professor and his kindly wife, Lilo, and deeply attached to Marghie, a cinema-obsessed vegetarian, and to Daniel, an angry counterculture figure, Gabriel spends the summer with the family at their Wisconsin retreat, which yields cherished conversation and understanding. As Gabriel departs to study astrophysics at the University of Chicago, the tempo of Daniel's activism builds, and Marghie begins running a movie house. When the once great professor sinks into senile dementia, Lilo makes a necessary but terrible decision for them all. The editor of Saul Bellow's forthcoming letters, Taylor turns in a smart, humane look at what Gabriel calls the era's 'intergenerational rancor.'" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

2008-05-13T00:39:00.000-07:00

Author: Esther Freud is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and the daughter of the painter Lucian Freud. She trained as an actress before writing her first novel. Her books have been translated into thirteen languages. She lives in London.

From the author of Hideous Kinky comes a charming, surprising, and utterly irresistible tale of adolescent love and self-discovery.

When seventeen-year-old Lara accepts her father's invitation to accompany him to a Tuscan villa for the summer, she's both thrilled and nervous for the exotic holiday. To her delight, she soon discovers that the villa's closest neighbors are the glamorous Willoughbys, the teenaged brood of a British millionaire. Caught up in their torrential thirst for amusement and snared by Kip Willoughby's dark, flirtatious eyes Lara sets off on a summer adventure full of danger, first love, and untold consequences that will irrevocably change her life.

"Freud, who is Sigmund Freud's great-granddaughter and Lucien Freud's daughter, echoes some of the autobiographical material that enlivened her debut and biggest success, Hideous Kinky , in this sixth novel. Lara, 17, is already a veteran of a transformative journey to the Far East with her mother as she sets out on a very different trip, from London to Italy with her reclusive father, Lambert. Lara's adolescent turns of mind, her changing relationship with 'Lamb' and her utterly contradictory (and utterly human) desires to be both in the world and safe at home make for a surprising and convincing character study. But Freud's engaging, insightful writing is undermined by antique plot devices: is Lamb also the father of Kip Willoughby, the cute boy at the adjacent villa? Was Kip conceived in an act of sexual revenge? Did the Willoughbys' grandfather once renege on a promise to bring Lara's grandparents out of WWII Germany? Still, the soap-opera drama doesn't ruin the book: one wants to remain with Freud's lively voice and to see what Lara makes of it all." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Maps and Legends

2008-05-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

Author: Michael Chabon is the author of two novels, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys, and of a previous collection of stories, A Model World. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and two children.

Michael Chabon's sparkling first book of nonfiction is a love song in 16 parts — a series of linked essays in praise of reading and writing, with subjects running from ghost stories to comic books, Sherlock Holmes to Cormac McCarthy. Throughout, Chabon energetically argues for a return to the thrilling, chilling origins of storytelling, rejecting the false walls around "serious" literature in favor of a wide-ranging affection. His own fiction, meanwhile, is explored from the perspective of personal history: post-collegiate desperation sparks his debut, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; procrastination and doubt reveal the way toward Wonder Boys; a love of comics and a basement golem combine to create the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; and an enigmatic Yiddish phrasebook unfurls into The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

"You would hardly think, reading Chabon's new book of essays, that he won the Pulitzer Prize for a book about comics. Rather, he is bitter and defensive about his love for genre fiction such as mysteries and comic books. Serious writers, he says, cannot venture into these genres without losing credibility. 'No self-respecting literary genius... would ever describe him- or herself as primarily an 'entertainer,' ' Chabon writes. 'An entertainer is a man in a sequined dinner jacket, singing 'She's a Lady' to a hall filled with women rubber-banding their underwear up onto the stage.' Chabon devotes most of the essays to examining specific genres that he admires, from M.R. James's ghost stories to Cormac McCarthy's apocalyptic work, The Road. The remaining handful of essays are more memoir-focused, with Chabon explaining how he came to write many of his books. Chabon casts himself as one of the few brave souls willing to face ridicule from whom isn't entirely clear, though it seems to be academics to write as he wishes. 'I write from the place I live: in exile,' he says. It's hard to imagine the audience for this book. Chabon seems to want to debate English professors, but surely only his fellow comic-book lovers will be interested in his tirade." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Waiting for the Barbarians

2008-05-09T00:27:00.000-07:00

Author: J. M. Coetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1940. His many literary prizes include the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature, Lannan Award for Fiction, the CNA Prize, the Booker Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize.

Moving and powerful, this book presents the dark tale of an aging magistrate in an African frontier settlement, who finds himself becoming increasingly sympathetic toward the indigenous "barbarians" that the colonial empire's forces brutalize.

For decades the Magistrate has been a loyal servant of the Empire, running the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement and ignoring the impending war with the barbarians. When interrogation experts arrive, however, he witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war. Jolted into sympathy for their victims, he commits a quixotic act of rebellion that brands him an enemy of the state.

J. M. Coetzee's prize-winning novel is a startling allegory of the war between opressor and opressed. The Magistrate is not simply a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times; his situation is that of all men living in unbearable complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency.

"The book makes for compelling reading, largely due to the successful use of the present tense throughout and the vivid presentation of unfolding events."

Fool on the Hill (A Tess Camillo Mystery)

2008-05-08T03:30:00.000-07:00

Author: Morgan Hunt was raised along the Jersey shore. A stint in the Navy brought her to San Diego, the location of her Tess Camillo mysteries, where she lived for 27 years. Now a resident of the Pacific Northwest, this cancer and mastectomy survivor hopes her mysteries provide laughter, distraction, and zest to others facing personal challenges.

For Tess Camillo and her roommate Lana, attending the concert of guitarist Cody Crowne should be excitement enough. But the next day, Tess discovers the singer dead-crucified, actually. Was this some religious nut? A jilted lover?His jealous writing partner? Tess finds herself drawn to a case that takes her from the Los Angeles music scene to a creepy religious organization, with danger shadowing her every move.

"Morgan Hunt's follow up to "Sticky Fingers" was everything I hoped it would be: the lyric-related title, the unusual method of murder...and the complex capers of Tess Camillo, San Diego lesbian computer-jockey/math-lover

/cancer survivor/lusty lady on the verge of menopause looking for love, justice and Italian food."

The Man in the the White Sharkskin Suit

2008-05-06T22:53:00.000-07:00

Author: Born in Cairo, Lucette Lagnado is a senior special writer and investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, where she has received numerous prizes for her work, including Columbia University's Mike Berger Award, as well as honours from the National Press Club and the New York Press Club. She is the co-author of Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz, which has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Lagnado resides with her husband, journalist Douglas Feiden, in Manhattan and Sag Harbor, New York.

"The author speaks from the heart about her family's life with respect and candor. Mostly autobiographical in content, the history of the family (and particularly the patriarch) is the backbone on which it is written....The suffering of the father trying to raise his family in the ways of both a strict religion and a strict culture is described with the perspective of both a little girl with great love for her father and as a young lady gradually breaking with tradition."

In vivid and graceful prose, Lucette Lagnado re-creates the majesty and cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years between World War II and Gamal Abdel Nasser's rise to power. Her father, Leon, was a boulevardier who conducted business on the elegant terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, and later, in the cozy, dark bar of the Nile Hilton, dressed in his signature white sharkskin suit. But with the fall of King Farouk and Nasser's nationalization of Egyptian industry, Leon and his family lose everything.

As streets are renamed, neighborhoods of their fellow Jews disbanded, and the city purged of all foreign influence, the Lagnados, too, must make their escape. With all of their belongings packed into twenty-six suitcases, their jewels and gold coins hidden in sealed tins of marmalade, Leon and his family depart for any land that will take them. The poverty and hardships they encounter in their flight from Cairo to Paris to New York are strikingly juxta-posed against the beauty and comforts of the lives they left behind.

An inversion of the American dream set against the stunning portraits of three world cities, Lucette Lagnado's memoir offers a grand and sweeping story of faith, tradition, tragedy, and triumph.

The Girl with no Shadow

2008-05-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

Author: Joanne Harris is the author of seven previous novels Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, Sleep, Pale Sister, and Gentlemen & Players; a short story collection, Jigs & Reels; and two cookbook/memoirs, My French Kitchen and The French Market. Half French and half British, she lives in England.

Hailed as an "irresistible confection" (Entertainment Weekly), "as sweet, rich and utterly satisfying as a fine truffle" (Wall Street Journal), and "an amazement of riches" (New York Times), Chocolat won the hearts of readers and critics everywhere. At last, Joanne Harris returns with The Girl with No Shadow, an exquisite treat that continues the story that began in her international bestseller.

Since she was a little girl, the wind has dictated every move Vianne Rocher has made, buffeting her from place to place, from the small French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to the crowded streets of Paris. Cloaked in a new identity, that of widow Yanne Charbonneau, she opens a chocolaterie on a small Montmartre street, determined to still the wind at last and keep her daughters, Anouk and the baby, Rosette, safe.

Her new home above the chocolate shop offers calm and quiet: no red sachets hang by the door; no sparks of magic fill the air; no Indian skirts with bells hang in her closet. Conformity brings with it anonymity—and peace. There is even Thierry, the stolid businessman who wants to take care of Yanne and the children. On the cusp of adolescence, an increasingly rebellious and restless Anouk does not understand. But soon the weathervane turns...and into their lives blows the charming and enigmatic Zozie de l'Alba. And everything begins to change.

Zozie offers the brightness Yanne's life needs. Anouk, too, is dazzled by this vivacious woman with the lollipop-red shoes who seems to understand her better than anyone especially her mother. Yet this friendship is not what it seems. Ruthless, devious, and seductive, Zozie has plans that will shake their world to pieces. And with everything she loves at stake, Yanne must face a difficult choice: Run, as she has done so many times before, or stand and confront this most dangerous enemy...

"Harris revisits characters from 1999's bestselling Chocolat in this equally delectable modern fairy tale. More than four years have passed since Vianne Rocher pitted her enchanted chocolate confections against the local clergy's interpretation of Lent in smalltown France; since then, Vianne has renounced magic, changed her name to Yanne Charbonneau and moved with her two daughters to Paris's Montmartre district. There, Yanne embraces conformity and safety, much to the dismay of her increasingly troubled older daughter, Anouk. When Anouk becomes entranced with Zozie de l'Alba, an exotic itinerant who happens upon a job at the new shop, and the relationship grows increasingly sinister, Yanne must call up all of Vianne's powers, culinary and mystical, to save her family. Harris again structures the narrative (told in alternate chapters by Zozie, Yanne and Anouk) around a liturgical season (in this case Advent). Harris gives fans much to savor in this multilayered novel, from the descriptions (including Yanne's mouthwatering chocolate confections, Zozie's whimsical footwear and Anouk's artistic efforts) to the novel's classic, enduring theme of good vs. evil and the difficulty of telling the difference.

What to Drink with what u Eat

2008-02-01T21:08:00.000-08:00

About the Author:

Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg have been called the brightest young author team on the culinary scene today's on NPR. Their previous books Becoming a Chef, Dining Out, and The New American Chef have all been finalists for or winners of James Beard and/or IACP Book Awards.

"Dornenburg and Page, authors of Becoming a Chef and Culinary Artistry , demystify the challenge of food and beverage pairing in this exhaustive, accessible resource. Believing that the best matches create peak experiences, the authors consult with the world's most discriminating palates, who see food and drink as inseparable. With stories from such noted chefs as Daniel Boulud, Traci Des Jardins and Patrick O'Connell and a host of top sommeliers, this comprehensive collection provides a wealth of guidelines for pairings, not only by specific food, but by food type, time of day, characteristics, season and personal mood. From fast food to ethnic cuisine, they include unlikely entries such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer), oxtails (Barolo), moussaka (Retsina, Rioja), potato chips (beer, champagne) and saag paneer (Pinot Gris). While focusing primarily on wine, the authors include matches for a variety of other beverages, including tea, water, coffee, beer and spirits, and offer the pairings in reverse. what to serve if you've already selected your beverage. This encyclopedic collection is highly recommended for those who give serious thought to the flavor of each dish. 70 full-color photographs."

The most comprehensive guide to matching food and drink ever compiled, by the James Beard Award winning author team of Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, with practical advice from more than seventy of America's leading pairing experts.

In a great meal, what you drink is just as important as what you eat. This groundbreaking food and beverage pairing reference allows food lovers to learn to think like a sommelier, and to transform every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, from ordinary to extraordinary.
Exceptional in its depth and scope with over fifteen hundred entries What to Drink with What You Eat is based on the collective wisdom of experts at dozens of America's best restaurants, including Alinea, Babbo, Bern's, Blue Hill, Chanterelle, Daniel, Emeril's, French Laundry, Frontera Grill, Inn at Little Washington, Jean Georges, Masa's, The Modern, Per Se, Rubicon, Tru, and Valentino.

You'll find authoritative recommendations for stocking your cellar and kitchen with must-have beverages, from wines to waters. You'll also learn what to drink with everything from French toast to Chinese food, and what to eat with everything from Pinot Noir to green tea, to create mouthwatering matches. Follow the authors' three simple Rules to Remember when making a match or just dive into the wide-ranging listings in chapters 5 and 6.
This "incisive, hip writing team" (Publishers Weekly) distills history, geography, science, expert technique, and original insight to create a remarkably user-friendly and engaging reference. Lavishly illustrated with gorgeous four-color photographs, What to Drink with What You Eat is an instant classic essential to every connoisseur's bookshelf.

WOMEN

2007-12-28T21:18:00.000-08:00

In this world, in our life, we get inspiration from many things as from birds, animals, nature and from the great people. That inspiration may change our lives. Then we may have the zeal to get something, to achieve something and we too be like that people. That inspiration and zeal may bring happiness to our life. Actually, to live happily with some special name and fame and a golden mark to our lives, we should observe and have some lives of the great people and books who and what makes us inspire. I too get inspiration from one book named "Women" by Sri. Dr. KVSG Muralikrishna. In this book, we have the great personalities of women who won the victories and made a special mark for them in this world in several aspects in several fields. Though it is about women, everyone must read and keep this book in their desk or on the table.

For centuries, women did not have several rights including the voting right. Two-thirds of the world's work has done by women, whereas they own less than 7% of world's wealth. God made men and women equal. But, many women were not given a single chance also to excel or prove their worth. Some women has shown their spark but all care was taken so that their names did not come to lime-light. Today, the days are changed. Women are no more the pinion raiders, they are on the front, occupying the driver's seat. In all fields as philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, social reformers, patriots, political readers, connoisseurs of art, writers, painters, musicians, actors, enterpreneurs, in each and every field women are on the front, they are on the top. We can observe many women who acted the above roles in their lives in this book "women". But even today, for many mean men, women's education should be confined to the so-called womanly qualifications like mercy, patience, suffering, nurturing husbands and nourishing children. They have no role in the society, they can't be thinkers or scientists or social reformers or patriots! These mean men mean this an Ideal Woman.

So, what is the most important is, not a change in attitude of men towards women but a positive attitude of women towards themselves. They should realize about the hidden potential within them. We, mean or woem, are neither inferior nor superior to one another, we are all equals. In the 19th century, women were not given any chance and were treated very badly by men, they were looked down upon by men, but in the 21st century, the exponential growth curve of womankind has already started rising. Women will slowly but steadily and surely take over the scene.

In this book, we have many life-stories of many women who inspired the world in an exclusive and an attractive manner. We have the life-histories ofthinkers, rulers, explorers and adventurers, games and sportswomen, writers and entertainers, connoisseurs of art, glamour queeens and actresses and epilogue. Let's see them in a short manner. Under thinkers, Trendsetters, Revolutionists and philosphers, firstly, we discussed about Yasodhara, the wife of Sidddartha. After a son was born, then Siddartha got enlightenment and became Buddha. Yasodhara, a great lady, became a monk and she was one of the first women monks in Buddhism. Before that, she brought her son in a right and good manner. She always told her son that if everyone, including sun and moon wants no rebirth, what'll happen to the world? Like the sun and moon, let us wish to live to serve the world for 24 hours, 365 days a year and life after the life. That alone is true enlightenment. Yasodhara always told his sone as be like that little lamp. The philosophy of Yasodhara is described in a great manner in several books like "Yasodhara" by Mithali Saran Gupt.

The another lady is Anderson E Garret was the Britain's first woman medical practitioner at 29. She was also a champion of women's rights.Annie Besant, a great lady, influenced by the Indian culture and civilization, philosphy and spirituality that she became an ardent Indian. She participated in many revolutions and she started herself the Home rule League.

Kiran Bedi, "Iron Woman of India", forst woman IPS officer in India. Actually, she prepared well for IAS but was not selected for it and that was her turning point. She took IPS as a challenge. She wrote many beautiful books, started a Social organization named "Nav Jyothi" means 'New Lamp'. She believes that anything is possible if you leave your fear, you'll be fearless only if you are selfless. That belief only gave her a victory. Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel Pankhurst, worked for the vote for women. Many women, now, use thier vote and they may not know about the rights of vote and the birth of vote, they should know this. In 1914, world war-I began and these two supported the British Government and proved that they could do all kinds of work and in 1918, women over 30 years age, were given vote. Only in 1928, the voting age was lowered to 21.

We all have known about Helen Keller, a great lady, is blind and deaf. Though she was so, she proved to be an intelliegent student. She learned to read and write in Braille script and graduated in English from Cambridge. She wrote many articles. If we have any set backs, God must have given it with a purpose and must have definitely provided us with a superior quality. She knew, "Giveing is living". Whatever we earn, it will leave us, it will not live with us. Whatever we contribute to the society, it has no death, it only gives is life. So, if we want to live even after our death, contribute something to the society. If we do something good for the society, however small and insignificant it may be in other's eyes, we will be a successful person. Be good, try to be better, ultimately ourselves to be the best. Think about the soceity and life, be thankful to God for given everything in life. The ultimate charity is to "Smile". The best way to cheer up in life is to cheer up others. The seeting sun asked, "Who will do my duty?", a little candle,"I will do my level best." Try to be that little candle.

Madam Curie, went on to become the first human being, men or women, to get the Nobel Prize twice -1903 and 1911. At that time, a woman in science was beyond a man's imagination! She got married and both had passion for research in Physics and Chemistry. She invented an instrument to measure Radio-activity. This tiny lady incented the heavy and millions worth Radium for the cure of Cancer patients. She got Nobel Prize for this work. She used to work for 18 hours a day and finally, after 8 years of handwork, she for second Nobel Prize for research in Chemistry. Mrs. Marie Lavoisier, the wife of the father of Modern Chemistry, Lavoisier, really did a fantastic job as a wife and as a woman. She always encouraged her husband and after his death, she edited the book, which was written by her husband and got it printed and published. The greatness of the scientist was soon revealed. He was described as the greatest French scientist of all times. So, all the women too do like that because we have an eternal truth that there is a woman behind every man's success is made to known to the world by the Lavoisier.

"Beware!! Behind every successful man there is one woman

Behind every unsuccessful man there are two women."

Shakuntala Devi is described as the "Human Computer" of her unbelievable capability of solving mathematical puzzles. She got her name in the Guinnies book of world records. Today, she is one of the greatest astrologers. Come to the social workers, Florence Nightingale, as we all know, was the founder of modern nursing. She organized nursing on a scientific basis and while visiting the patients during night time, she used to go with a lamp in her hand, that's why she was popularly called 'The lady with the lamp". She rejected her luxuries and comforts and dedicated herself to the selfless service of the sick. The patients used to kiss her shadow as it fell across them. We all know about Mother Teresa who is very inspiring to everyone and makes a desire to every owman to become another mother teresa. She is a prestigious heroine. Don't postpone a good thing. Life is short. Already we are late, Do everything and success is ours. We all know about Narayana Murthy, one of the first richest persons in the world, one of the ten stars of Asia, the establisher of "Infosys". Behind him, a great lady is there, his wife, Sudha Murthy. She was the first owman engineer who worked in Tata Telco. She is the chief patron of nearly 1000 school buildings, 4000 libraries and several children and women education programmes. She is a good novelist. Her book "Grandma Stories" is a very good book and a must to read.

No other women patriot of India has made such a powerful impact on the minds of Indians as Rani Jhansi Lakshmi Bhai. She learned horse riding and marshal arts from her father. At the age of 8, she got married and became the Rani of Jhansi. After the death of her husband and son, she was asked to left that place but she refused ot and adopted a son and fighted for that place and finally, she used to fo the battle field with her son tied to her back! The british were scared of her courage and somehow wanted to kill her. And she died on the battle field. Sarojini Naidu was a great freedom fighter and was a great poet and was sweetly described as "The Nightingale of India". She was the first woman president of the Indian National Congress. She wrote many books. We know Indira Gandhi, a great leader, a great lady. Benazzir Bhutto, the Ex-Prime minister of Pakistan. And we see many as Queen Victoria, Sonia Gandhi, all are women.

Kalpan Chawla was the first Indian - American woman to be sent to space. She was selected by NASA to serve as a specialist on board the space shuttle. She was died just minutes before it's landing. But, some persons have no death as Kalpana Chawla. Even after 1000 years also, they'll have a permanet place in our hearts and in the books and scriptures. If we have great ideals and goals and even if we die in our efforts to reach those great goals, it'll not be our death, our real life starts then! Sunita Williams, Christina Dodwell, many adventurers were born in our country.

No other woman player enjoyed the popularity that Chris Evert did for over 20 years, She is a Tennis player and became a star. She won $8896,000 in just under 18 years. She had a career of great records, Over 20,000 fans had literally tears when Evert retired from Tennis. To get inspiration, many players are there like Wilam Rudolph, was born prematurely iwth a weight of less than 2 kgs. She suffered from many diseases one after another like measles, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox and so on. Later her left lef and foot became weak and deformed. Superfinally, she had polio, a crippling disease that had no cure. It was followed by paralysis, which permanently weakened her leg. Doctors told that she would never walk. Her ife is a story of achieving against the odds Her first accomplishments were to stay alive and get well. In high school, she became a basket ball star first, then going to her first olympic games at the age of 16 and won bronze medal. Success is not a destination, it is a long unending journey. She became the first American woman to win 3 gold medals in different events. At lead her to become one of the most celebrated female athletes of all times. The success story of Wilam Rudolph was possible only because she had always a gret dream, she never permitted to erase off her dream and above all she toiled hard to achieve her goal. An 'asha', a dream can make a crippled man to climb the mountains. And also here we can see a house-wife established world records in olympics. She was voted "The female Athlete of the century". If you lose patience, you'll lose everything. A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. We can see many, Martina Navratilova, P.T.Usha, Sania Mirza and so on.

Anne Frank, the dairy of her has now been established in 19 languages and has sold over 2 million copies. Many women writers are there and they gave us many good writings. JK Rowling - Harry Potter, Kamala Das, her autobiography, "My Story", MedhaPatkar, the Indian Social Activist, Environmentalist, Toru Dutt, her writings on Hindu Philosphy and Hindu Gods are extraordinary.

Lata Mangeshkar, she was placed in the Guinnies Book of REcords as the singer with the highest number of songs. She has sung more than 30,000 songs, in all varieties. Everyday, somewhere or other in the corners of this world, Lata is heard every second, every minute throughout the day. MS Subba Lakshmi, 's music could inspire many people Ekta Kapoor, Amrita Shergill, amy were famous with their art. Here, we can have the role models of Glamour also. Cleopatrsm Samanta Fox, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Hema Malini, Nargis Dutt, Madonna became famous and printed their mark in the world history. We couldn't cover several great humans who happened to be women due to lack of space. We have many more great women like Rukmini Devi Arundel, the great Indian thinker, Sirimao Bandaru Naika, the first woman PM in the world, the women who shined in India, like JayaLalitha, Menaka Gandhi, Priya Tendulkar, Priyanka Gandhi, Mithali Raj, Vasundhara Raje. We can inspired from the other women like Kiran Majundar sha, a brew master and turned into a pharma gaint, producing everything from Insulin to antibodies with an annual revenue of over Rs.1000 crores. Preetha Reddy, learned nothing more than danceing and produced two children. One day, she joined the Apollo group of companies and soon, became the Managing Director of Apollo Group of companies. Anuradha Desai, the key person of one of the biggest poultry farmers' body National Egg Coordination Committee and increased the turnover of her company from 400 crores to nearly 2000 crores. Shabana Azmi, a famous film actress, Arundathi Ray, Indian English Writer, Brinda Karat, woman activist are also the great inspirers.

God has given two great gifts to the womankind. They are: Motherhood and Beauty. Of course, God has given several negatives to her. In this book, at the end of the pages, we can observe the negatives but we should understand them positively. Anyway, what is most important is that we men or women are neither inferior nor superior to one another, we are all equals. We do not belong to Purush Jati or Stri Jati, we all belong to one jati that is not Manava jati but Jatu jati, Animal Kind. Let us all realize this eternal truth or persih from this life forever. I agree with this. If you read the book "Women", you too agree with this.

2007-11-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

Hour - by - hour Day Ends
Day - by- day Week Ends
Week - by - week Month Ends
Month - by - month Year Ends
Year - by - year Human Ends
But
Human's Success never Ends........

My Feel

2007-11-26T22:50:00.000-08:00

Thought is Easy ......... Don't be Crazy
Love is Jolly ................Don't be Folly
Relation is Lovely ...... Don't be Costly
Life is Spicy ................ Don't be Silly

Imagination

2007-11-26T22:34:00.000-08:00

Imagine like Birds ........... Feel Fly
Imagine like Animals .......Feel Free
Imagine like Trees ...........Feel Happy
Imagine like Flowers .......Feel Dance
Imagine like Sky ..............Feel High
Imagine like Sea ..............Feel Leap
Imagine like Fish .............Feel Swim
Be like a Human.............Feel GREAT........

CAUCASIA

2007-11-16T22:37:00.000-08:00

About the Author:

Danzy Senna's first novel, Caucasia, was the winner of the Book-of-the-Month Club's Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and an American Library Association Alex Award. It was a finalist for an International IMPAC Dublin Award, and was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. Her short fiction and essays have been widely anthologized. She is a recipient of the 2002 Whiting Writers' Award and currently holds the Jenks Chair of Contemporary American/Letters at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Synopsis

A sensitive coming-of-age bestseller about two sisters divided by politics and race at the beginning of the 1970s.

Birdie and Cole are the daughters of a black father and a white mother, intellectuals and activists in the Civil Rights Movement in 1970's Boston. The sisters are so close that they have created a private language, yet to the outside world they can't be sisters: Birdie appears to be white, while Cole is dark enough to fit in with the other kids at the Afrocentric school they attend. For Birdie, Cole is the mirror in which she can see her own blackness.

Then their parents' marriage falls apart. Their father's new black girlfriend won't even look at Birdie, while their mother gives her life over to the Movement: at night the sisters watch mysterious men arrive with bundles shaped like rifles.

One night Birdie watches her father and his girlfriend drive away with Cole, they have gone to Brazil, she will later learn, where her father hopes for a racial equality he will never find in the States. The next morning, in the belief that the Feds are after them. Birdie and her mother leave everything behind: their house and possessions, their friends, and most disturbing of all their identity. Passing as the daughter and wife of a deceased Jewish professor, Birdie and her mother finally make their home in New Hampshire. Desperate to find Cole, yet afraid of betraying her mother and herself to some unknown danger, Birdie must learn to navigate the white world, so that when she sets off in search of her sister, she is ready for what she will find.

HERE IF U NEED ME - A TRUE STORY

2007-11-12T22:27:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago, Kate Braestrup and her husband Drew were enjoying the life they shared together. They had four young children, and Drew, a Maine state trooper, would soon begin training to become a minister as well. Then early one morning Drew left for work and everything changed. On the very roads that he protected every day, an oncoming driver lost control, and Kate lost her husband. Stunned and grieving, Kate decided to continue her husband's dream and became a minister herself. And in that capacity she found a most unusual mission: serving as the minister on search and rescue missions in the Maine woods, giving comfort to people whose loved ones are missing, and to the wardens who sometimes have to deal with awful outcomes. Whether she is with the parents of a 6-year-old girl who had wandered into the woods, with wardens as they search for a snowmobile rider trapped under the ice, or assisting a man whose sister left an infant seat and a suicide note in her car by the side of the road, Braestrup provides solace, understanding, and spiritual guidance when it's needed most.

Here If You Need Me is the story of Kate Braestrup's remarkable journey from grief to faith to happiness. It is dramatic, funny, deeply moving, and simply unforgettable, an uplifting account about finding God through helping others, and the tale of the small miracles that occur every day when life and love are restored.

GROW OLD GRACEFULLY

2007-09-19T23:57:00.000-07:00

Many people terror about old age since ages. But is that really so horrible? Wise people can face it with least trouble and little pain. Never forget that every age has its own styles, infact old age has particularly its own. Old age is like an old song with its haunting melodies. If one leads a life of discipline, dedication, faith and service to his fellowmen, he grows the more chastened, charming and chiselled . In giving, one has the joy of getting, in helping, helped, giving hope, hopeful, loving others, loved, removing doubts of others, one feels free from his own doubts, in sharing the sorrows, one has a feeling of joy. So, the one who follows such a pattern of life need not fear of old age. It is a glorious time of one's life which is full of experience and wisdom. Here are some suggestions which are very useful which if followed carefully will help innumerable men to enjoy their old age and not be a burden to their families and friends.

1. THE VOYAGE OF LIFE: As we know, men have form different stages in his life - Childhood, Youth, Manhood and Old age. One of the difficult chapters in the act of living is to know how to grow old gracefully. Few men realize the process of aging and growing old until a sudden stress or a harder task is imposed upon them and then they disappointedly confess,'I am getting old'. The process of aging can't be measured by calendar years. Age is relative. Miss Olie A. Randall says, Old age is merely a stage of life in the sense that childhood and adoloscence are stages. We can know it by the French quotation, 'Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age'. Growing old is clearly repugnant to all. We can't stop the years from rolling on, nor can we keep back the gray hair and the wrinkles of weariness. These bodies of ours will grow old in spite of us. But there is no reason why our spirits should not be always youthful. The oldest people at home should be the youngest. Don't resent growing old, many are denied that privilege.

The rise of the average life expectancy in recent years has given rise to speculations as to the possibility of an unlimited prolongation of the life span. If science enables man to get an appreciable control on this fundamental principle of life, he may perhaps be enabled also to retard or ever banish old age from his life. What we can't help, we must been and it is in our interest to been it cheerfully. It is very pleasant and exhilarating to be young, but as the body can only be young once, the next best thing is to enjoy the privilege of growing old. Since we ust grow old, let us enjoy old age instead of suffering it and by the dignity and poise of our years, give an example and an incentive to those who are still struggling painfully up the ladder of life.

2. AGING GRACEFULLY NEEDS CARE: Prevention against disease is a decisive factor for increasing life expectancy. We must think of old age while we still young when care about our health will repay us the most and ensure us a long and healthy life. A regular way of life, with well-organized work, nutrition and rest, employment of vitamin therapy makes it possible to enhance age considerably. Many gerontologists agree that one of the surest ways to live long is to have parents who lived long. For practical purpose, it is better to put more of the responsibility for health and long life on ourselves than on our chromosomes, and admit that how we eat, drink, sleep, work and worry tends to affect our life span for good or bad. Psychologists and gerontologists have different ways of telling the age of each person: the Chronological age, which is determined by the number of years he has lived; the Biological age which is measured by how old a person feels and acts. Longevity is the work of a lifetime and there is no shortcut to it but moderation and temperance in everything. Proper diet, moderate, regular and balanced is the nearest thing to an elixir of youth. So, watch your intake of food. Psychiatrists recognize compulsive eating as one of the many possible outlets for frustration and anxiety. So, ward off compulsive eating.

The best general advice is that you should eat the habitual food in varied but modest proportions. Be aware that uncontrolled smoking can be a definite threat to your life and longevity. Aware as you are of the sexual appetite still much alive in you, the older you get the more attention you should pay to keeping the sexual appetite in trim. Undue sexual excitement will pop many an artery that would have lasted a long time under less stimulating stress. Remember do everything in moderation. As you are aging apply more the Chinese proverb, 'Make haste only when extracting your hand from the mouth of a tiger.'

3. ACHES AND PAINS: People while they are getting old age suffer from bore, loneliness, sadness, depression, loss of interest in living irritability and negative attitude toward others. They think that they may be old. But no one is really any older than he thinks or feels he is. The heaviest burden old people have to bear is that of loneliness, the seed condition from which sprout a host of other problems. In general loneliness, is a starvation of affection and the only way to cure it is to get for a wider social life by cultivating interests and genuine liking for other people. Don't look back except to gain knowledge, to recall the things that you have seen or done which give you pleasure and recall sweet memories. Don't torture yourself with unhappy recollection or as it sometimes towards those who are with us now. Bear your pains prayerfully because the restrictions of old age with its infirmities can only be properly justified and appreciated as a gradual transition from the natural man to the spiritual one, accept them bravely but also avail yourself of the best that care and medicine can do prevent, or postpone or moderate them.

4. ENJOYING CHILDREN AND OTHERS: Only love, tolerance, mutual understanding and communication will make it possible for elderly parents to keep together their children and enjoy their company. Allow the children to grow themselves but at the same time keep a close contact with them. But don't make an ass of yourself towards your children or young. Getting along with others and enjoying them is not much different from enjoying the companionship of children and relatives, it is an art-one that must be practiced and worked at constantly. Another important rule in the art of getting along well with others is tolerance in which many people fail. Don't keep harping on the small faults of others, particularly of those in your own family.

5. PLAN YOUR RETIREMENT: Millions will be retiring this year from active service or business work, and many will be unaware of the sad situation that their service is no longer required. When a person enters his retirement, his first inclination is apt to be one of loneliness and depression. Retirement is an imperative necessity of modern age. Your retirement is as important as your marriage, or your choice of career. It needs a reasonable planning to make sifnificant to do to challenge and satisfy him, he may be in for big troubles. Remember if you are retired from job you are not retired from life. Retirement as such is unavoidable but there are thousands of ways of alleviating the condition. Take time to think and plan carefully and you will make your retirement highly productive, the more earnestly you study your future prosepcts, the better judgement you will have in planning a well-ordered life. Make up your mind; know exactly what you want, if you want to make your retirement enjoybale. Plan your later years realistically and in detailed. Money is the biggest problem for a retired person, and no one can really after a solution. If you find difficult to make both ends met, learn to do without things. Have a plan to earn money, to save it and carefully spend it. Keep a standard of living your salary will allow. If your existing income from all sources comes to much less than your needs, you might go for a job or go into business. There are many specific jobs which offer opportunities for older people.

Hobbies may also be opportunities for earning a little money which in later years is always short. Don't look for quick results or easy success through hobbies or spare time jobs. Both are rare. The important thing is that you work well, if possible, with a difference. Common sense should be yours' guide; but remember don't out your money into any project unless you are absolutely certain you know what you are doing. The other critical question for older people is where to live. Generally aged people perefer to dwell in their own private living quarters. This is familiar ground. On the other hand, there are many who organize that the old home is not what it used to be. For happily married couples retirement can be a second honeymoon if it has been carefully considered and planned.

6. MAKE YOUR LATER YEARS COUNT: Old age scores the victory. Time is an ally of success. History provides many examples, in all fields of human activities, of persons who did start something new late in life and did successfully. Never be too late to begin again. Let's have an example, a sad-faced millionaire gave his statement to Dr.Walter Alvarez that he passed his sixtieth birthday. At that time, he came to know that he had done two things well. He had worked hard and made a lot of money. But as a husband and father and liver of life he had signally failed. He felt that he was a lonely, prematurely-aged old man who never had much fun or ever got any beauty or richness out of living. He wondered if it was too late now to start learning how to live. But it is never too late if each day you try to do your little bit, however small. Often an older person gets so careless of his person that even a stray dog will shun his company. Pay due respect to yourself. This means personal care, diet, dressing up on occassion and not apologizing for your age. Life is a system of social relations rather than of independent existence. Old age is dependence. They depend more on events and on others. If life forces you to depend upon others, don't let sensitivity keep you from seeking needed aid from your relatives, from society. Often they are just eager to help and have resources for this purpose. Talk frankly about problems and prospects of mutual concern and become master of yourself through understanding. Keep your independence through love. As you grow old, don't let sensitivity keep you from seeking needed aid from your relatives, from society. Often they are just eager to help and have resources for this purpose. Talk frankly about problems and prospects of mutual concern and become master of yourself through understanding, Keep from independence through love. As you grow old, don't become entrapped in old habits but think of old age as a second career which should offer new, refreshing interests and activities. No matter how small your task position may be, you play vital role in bettering the world. Keep in touch with old friends. If you are kind and good to the seniors, your days as well as their borrowed time will pass tranquilly and peacefully as the silver brook which winds its way through the flowery meadows. The deep seated yearning by people of every age is to be important to someone, to feel needed, to belong to a family or group, to have s sound mind and strong spiritual life to remain active and healthy. So, stand up for your rights. In many countries, there are movements to tap the responsibility, talent and experience of the growing number of people over sixty.

So, take part in these movements that publicize your requirements without infringing the rights of others. One of the greatest opportunities before you is to save your community that is to serve one another. It will easily keep busy the hands and hearts of all those who wish to belong to a family.

7. ASSETS OF LATER YEARS: People often seek of the beauties of old age but the only age that is beautiful is the tone that a person has been long preparing for by living a beautiful life. It is said that beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are the works of art. Old age should be beautiful, full of inner peace and a wisdom begotten of the years. Memories of youth, with its hopes and aspirations, failures and mistakes; memories of young love, as marriage, of parenthood; memories of disappointment and joy; all these are stored up in the mind to be pardoned over and tenderly laid away. So, make the later years rewarding. You know your limitations and should be in your limits. One good look at humanity will convince anyone that too many persons are not growing old gracefully.

For example, a woman in "war and Peace" by 'Leo Tolstoy', lost her son, fopllowed so quickly by that of her husband. She felt herself unexpectedly forgotten in this world - a being without aim or object. She ate, drink, slept, sat up but she did not live. Life left no impression upon her. She asked nothing from life except repose and repose she could find only in death. But till death should come she had to live, that is, employ all her vitality. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals. The mind must be kept busy and in exercise if you wish to keep it in working order. Don't stand apart. Look around, listen to, contemplate the beauty of nature, lose yourself in short meditations, and enjoy a good book. He is a spiritual mummy, mechanically becoming a relic of the past. General Douglas Mac Arthur in Dynamic Maturity wrote about a man as he is young as his faith, as old as his doubt; as young as his self-confidence, as old as his fear; as young as his hopes, as old as his despair. Mature old people are happy people with their families, above all happy with themselves. They are never even try to be themselves; they are just too busy in living and too happily. Everyone should have the will to live. Time, a precious thing, Smiles, so expensive, Appreciation, a quick thank you, a kind word, Understanding, a gentle, tender gift - These are really wonderful gifts you can't buy anywhere. They are simply a reflection of the spirit of God, his life in you. These are qualities of mind and heart which will enrich the passing years.

8. THE BEST IS YET TO BE: As Martin Buber said that to be old is a glorious thing when one has not unlearned what it means to begin. Our civilization is based on the belief in God and it would be quite impossible to avoid thinking of God. We have been brought up in his awareness and it will be a sad day if we miss it. Old age is not the termination of life after which nothing comes; it is rather the proving time for life eternal. Death is at once the most certain and the most uncertain event in human experience. We all know that it is bound to come for each other one of us one day, but we never know when and where it will be. Yet in the case of elderly it is of more immediate concern, it is at any accepting aging and dying as part of our natural life. Accept it in simplicity, live it with trust in God. Old age is a tremendous opportunity for drawing nearer to God, indeed that will be its main purpose.The second way is to accept old age with tranquilly and renunciation, therefore happily. The time of struggling is past, the game has been played, death's repose at hand.

Have the courage is give up. Probably, the reason Granny has lived so long was her calmness and ability to accept everything philosophically. This was especially true the time her grand daughter came rushing into the room. 'Grand ma, Grand ma!' the girl cried, 'Daddy's fallen off the roof.'

'I know, dear', she replied softly, 'I saw him pass the window. May he rest in God.' Here, we come to know and follow the principle 'Make your own philosophy of life'.

Old age has to be faced with mature and powerful deliberation. J. Maurus, who has a number of excellent books to his credit, gives many useful suggestions in this publication for growing old gracefully. He writes with understanding and insight and in a style which is easy and enjoyable.

The author takes the problems of old age with striking intelligence and constructive skill. J. Maurus' idea, through this book "Grow Old Gracefully", is to give helpful guidance to the people to grow old graciously is very gratifying and heart-warming.

Technology Development in India

2007-09-01T01:45:00.000-07:00

I would like to say a few words on the development of Technology in India. As India is a well-developing country, a lot of changes are happening in our country. In that, one of the important changes is Technology Development. India is technologically developed upto some more extent. Of course, not only technologically, it's developing in many areas. Very far from these days, only some people could be in the position to know all the things what happened in our country. But now-a-days, very few people are in the position to don't know what's happening here. They may be counted in numbers. In those days, only Tata-Birla were the persons known by the people that too some extent whereas in these days, all know not only Tata-Birla, but Mittal, Premji, Ambani brothers also. And many people think about their success and life-style and try to follow them, want to reach that type of success. Want to be live like their life styles. Of course, that is not incorrect. As a maxim, "Try and try until we get success", like that if we try and work hard in that way, definitely, all the people will be in that same status, which is equal to them.

Once upon a time, Technology is so far from the people but it is developing, not developing mostly developed and reached all of us. Why I am saying like this because let's take the example cell phone. It was available to very few people when it came into existence. But now, it is available to all, even in rural areas, the connections are there and the farmer too do their agriculture through cell phones, know the new products, new technical methods by getting information by these phones. I don't mean to say here that this type of technologies should be for urban areas, not for rural, I mean to say that the technology is developing like this. These people don't know even the fundamentals to follow but the technology is made so like just how to use and operate is enough, knowing completely about one product is not necessary. Their deals are very fast.

The Internet connections are going in a much faster way. It reaches the people throughout the country. This type of fastly situations and processes made India technologically developed. The reservations, air-tickets, payment of Income tax, current-bills all are happening, without go out in heavy traffic, or in sunshine, or in rain, just sitting before the computer by a little click of mouse. Globalization makes the man completely faster and succeed in everything.

But, the Government has yet to follow many rules. It is very slower as the persons individually faster. The law and justice has yet to be faster. Because, it is too slow in giving judgements. The courts drag the cases and the Government should work fast. Then, the world is developing more and more. Only some people's hardwork is not sufficient for the development of technology. All should be participated in whatever they have the capacity and work for this country.

If everyone do like this, many new products which are technically and technologically help to this country and makes our country fully-developed. Then we can proudly say that India is a developed country.

BLACK LIZARD

2007-08-31T01:52:00.000-07:00

Meet Dexter, a polite wolf in sheep's clothing... a monster who cringes at the site of blood... a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likable: he only kills bad people. Dexter Morgan isn't exactly the kind of man you'd bring home to Mom. Though he's playful and has a wonderfully ironic sense of humor, Dexter's one character flaw (his proclivity for murder) can be off-putting. But at heart Dexter is the perfect gentleman, supportive of his sister, Deb, a Miami cop, and interested only in doing away with people who really deserve his special visit. Dex is quite good-looking but totally indifferent to (and, frankly, a bit puzzled by) the attentions paid to him by women. Despite the fact that he can't stand the sight of blood, he works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police department, a job that allows him to keep tabs on the latest crimes and keep an eye open for his next quarry. Dexter's well-organized life is suddenly disrupted when a second, much more visible serial killer appears in Miami. Dex is intrigued, even delighted, by the fact that the other killer appears to have a style reminiscent of his own. Yet he can't help but feel that the mysterious new arrival is not merely invading his turf, but reaching out to him as well. This new killer seems to be doing more than copying Dexter -- he seems to be saying, "Come out and play." Dexter's secret life makes for a lonely existence... even a lovable monster can be intrigued by the prospect of finding a friend. Introducing one of the most witty and original narrators in years, Jeff Lindsay's "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" is a fresh, surprising, and brilliantly executed novel that is sure to receive wide acclaim.

A story of Children saying For Adults

2007-08-27T23:02:00.000-07:00

Introduction:

William Gerald Golding was fantastic, spiritual, pessimistic and a great writer. In most of his novels, he conflicted the nature of a civilized man and the darkness of the nature in his own style. William Golding was born in 19 september, 1911 at Cornwall in England. His father was Alec Golding, a great socialist. His mother was Mildred, who worked for the vote of women in that country. Golding was Intelligent, Competetive. He was also interested in music. He learned the Latin language and with the help of his father, he wrote many stories in Latin. In the age of twenty, he wished to be a writer and entered into English Literature. For his writings, Alec too helped him. They were rejected by the readers even though those were published by Mcmillan Company. At that time, Golding thought that his life was over. With the help of his friend Adam, he joined as teacher. By teaching different subjects, he taught music and exhibited many dramas. In 1950, he wrote the poem, 'The Sea' and in 1952, the novel 'Strangers from within' was refused by the publishers. But, Charles Monteith, the editor of the company Faber and Faber, made some changes and published as "Lord of the Flies" in 1954. This brought a great success to Golding. From that time, he never turned back in English Literature. He published 'The Inheritors'(1955), 'Pincher Martin'(1956), 'Free Fall'(1959), 'Darkness Visible' (1979) and many other novels which brought a name and fame to Golding. The year 1983 was marked as unforgottable year in his life. Because, he was honoured with a Doctorate by Oxford University and Sorbonne and at the same time, he received Nobel Proze for his unique services in English Literature. He died in June 19, 1993. In June, 1995, his last novel 'The double Tongue' was published. William Golding believed that the ultimate purpose of literature is to foster change, "It is the poetry of fact, the stuff of human courage and defiance, and has changed tha face of history".Recalling Sir Winston Churchill's words, Golding said that, "Words express what a huge segment of the world thinks and in that sense literture has to be used for nation to speak to nation."

Lord of the Flies - Central Idea:

It gained a lot of success written by William Golding. It is a story of fantasy relating to fear and imaginative feelings containing some reality. An aircraft, having some school boys was crashed in an island at Pacific ocean. As the pilot was dead, all the boys were became alone. What they were doing there? How could they bear the situations? How they were staying there? Finally, what happened? The answers to all the above questions in the author's own style was this novel - Lord of the Flies. He explained the feelings and thoughts of completely immatured, not yet developed children and their behaviour. It was an attempt to trace out the mistakes in the people and society around us. We can find the symbolism in this novel. It was divided into twelve chapters with various characters and behaviour was an important thing. The main theme of this novel was "The study of Human Society". He chosen the children for this story to mention that the good feelings, freedom, peace should come from the childhood. Through, "Lord of the Flies", he provided an opportunity to understand that the effect of time and difficult situations may lead a man in what direction.

Story - Analysis:

In the novel, "Lord of the Flies", an atomic war was only the base to start the story. But the motif of our author was to tell the behaviour of the small children who deserted in an island at Pacific ocean. The main characters in this novel were Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon, Roger, Sam, Eric and Littluns. The story veered round these boys. They all wanted to be live in a disciplined manner. As there were no adults to care them, they elected Ralph as their leader. Ralph suggested them some rules. Firstly, whenever they heard the voice of the conch shell, they had to meet at one place. Here, Golding showed us the shell indicates the official power of socialism, democratic, discipline which indicated his symbolism.

Ralph gave a plan to make a fire on the top of the mountain. So that, the passengers who travelled on that way may find and helped them. But, the plan of Ralph was always failed due to the lack of discipline and proper planning in their attempts. On the other side, Jack always showed his interest in hunting the pigs, was hated by Ralph. Ralph thought was different. There were so many fruits in that forest to eat. So, he wanted to make huts for shelter. Helpless and careless of Jack to Ralph made them enemies. But, this is also a Right. In this Democratic society, everyone can lead thier own life. They may do, they may speak whatever they wish and whatever they like, was supported by Golding.

All the children were under the age of 12, so that their minds were not properly developed and they couldn't understand anything. They were not in the position to understand anything. In the event of making a fire on the mountain, they saw a surprised and a variety picture made him fear and they all, except Simon, felt that it was a Beast. As simon was intellectual and understand the truth that evil is nowhere, evil is within humans. This was the real truth what Simon understood so he didn't involve in that. Sam and Eric created an another story that they saw the beast and they were followed by it. But, Simon didn't believe that. Piggy was also an intellectual boy but due to his weak eye-sight, he couldn't do anything. Atlast they found that they saw a man who fell down from the parachute and they felt that it was a beast.

In other aspect, Jack didn't care all these and he involved in his work, that too he asked all the others to act against Ralph. So that they divided into two groups - Hunters and Non-hunters. Once Simon went alone, the head of the beast was appeared to him and ordered Simon that he shouldn't go alone, go back and join with other friends. That head was called by William Golding as "Lord of the Flies". This is known by us as a well-known devil. ' You know me. I am the part of you, I never go without you. You go and stay with all otherwise I will kill all of them', this was an order by that head and Simon got much fear for that. Here, we come to know by the words of Golding that the bad evil and devilish thoughts are born with us and they stay within us and sometimes they may come out.

Then Simon wanted to tell this point what he found there to all his friends and wanted to make them free. So, he went to Jack's group but as they didn't find Simon, they killed him, having a feel that it was a beast. After sometime they found that they killed Simon but it was the position to do nothing. Golding described Simon as a Christ because he too wanted to do good for others and lost his life. As Littluns are too small, couldn't do anything. Then Jack too wanted to come out of that desert and wanted to make a fire on the mountain. But he hadn't any instrument to make light. So that he stolen the glasses of Piggy and made him so much trouble. Ralph arranged a meeting and called Jack as a thief. Jack got angry and with the help of his friend Roger, he killed Piggy. Through this, Golding discussed that the cheap politics are not to be in adults, according to the situations, Children's minds too spoiled with that politics.

Ralph became alone. So, Jack wanted to kill Ralph with the help of his friends. Ralph escaped from them and reached the sea shore there, was waiting for the help of the passengers travelled by that way. This scene was made by Golding in a horrible way. At that time, a naval officer was passing by and he observed Ralph, asked Ralph about his excitement. Ralph told him everything and the naval-officer took that boy with him was the end of this story.

But, the real significance lies in the realisation that any form of civilized behaviour and organisation is only possible when lines of command are laid down and discipline is maintained. In other words, man's freedom has to be curbed and if it is not, he goes back to the state of the savage in the jungle.

According to Walter Allen, "The first thing to be said of Golding's novel is that they are self-contained wholes beneath whose surface action and realism are to be found much wider and in a sense, cosmic meanings. Fully to succeed, a fantasy must approach very close to reality". "Lord of the Flies" does. Peter Green expressed his views as, "The central theme of Golding is not the relationship of man but the relationship of man, the individual, to the universe and through the universe, to God".

The symbolism of his novels is, in essence, theological. It is clear that there is a close thematic connection between "Lord of the Flies" and his another novel "The Inheritors". Golding has simply set up a different working model to illustrate the eternal human verities from a new angle. Again it is humanity, and humanity alone, that generates evil. Just as Ralph in 'Lord of the Flies', Lok in the novel 'The Inheritors' too suffered for his loss of innocence.

However, the significant thing which made Golding very famous is the appearance of Reality in his Writings.

The 7 steps for Personality Development

2007-08-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Think for a minute about how your mind is working. Is it Quick or Alert? Your ability to do what you just did is uniquely human. Animals don't possess this ability. We call it "Self-Awareness" This is only why we can make and break our habits. Habits are powerful factors in our lives. It involves a process and a tremendous committment. Now, let's discuss the 7 habits that we must make to know ourselves better and they provide an incremental, sequential, highly-integrated approach to the development of Personal and Interpersonal effectiveness.

1. BE PROACTIVE

The first and most basic habit of a highly effective person in any environment is the habit of Proactivity. It means, we, humanbeings are responsible for our lives. Our behaviour is a function of our decisions and not conditions. Highly effective people recognize their responsibility. They never bother about their circumstances or conditions or behaviour. This behaviour is a product of their own conscience choice rather than their feeling.

Our basic nature is to act, and not to be acted upon. We must take the initiative, does not mean being pushy, obnoxious or aggressive but recognizing our responsibility to make things happen. Proactive people focus their efforts, The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying. The difference between poeple who exercise initiative and those who don't is just the difference between night and day.

To become Proactive, for a full day, listen to your language and to the language of the people around us. Select a problem from your work or personal life that is frustrating to you.

It is an initiative for having and developing personality.

2. BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

This is based on the principle that "all things are created twice". The first one is the Mental Creation and the second is Physical Creation. We work with our mind until we get a clear image of what we want. The first creation is really what we want, that we have thought everything through. Let's take the example - Parenting. If anyone wants to raise responsible, self-disciplined children, they have to keep that end clearly in mind is they interact with their children on a daily basis. They can't behave toward them in ways that undermine their self-discipline or self-esteem.

In our personal lives, if we don't develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people to shape much of our lives. The unique human capacities of self-awareness, imagination and conscience enable us to examine first creations and make it possible for us to take charge of our own first creationm to write our own creation. It can be said that 'Leadership is the first creation and Management is the second creation'. Leadership deals with the top-line whereas Management is a bottom-line focus. No management success can compensate for failure in leadership. But leadership is hard because we are often caught in a management paradigm.

We can easily understand that - "Management is efficiency in climbing the leader of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaving against the right wall."

Set up time to completely separate yourself from daily activities and to begin work on your personal mission statement. Start a collection of notes, quotes and ideas you may want to use as resource material in writing your personal mission statement.

3. PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST

This is the exercise of Independent Will toward becoming principle centered. We can't become principle-centered without being aware of developing our own proactive nature. In addition to imagination, self-awareness and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment - Independent Will - that really makes effective self-management possible.

It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. The degree to which we have developed our independent will in our everyday lives is measured by our Personal Integrity, fundamentally, the value we place on ourselves.

Effective Management is putting first things first while Leadership decides what "first things" are, it is management that puts them first. If we are an effective manager of ourselves, our discipline comes from within; it is a function of our independent will.

So, commit ourselves to start organizing on a weekly basis and set up a regular time to do it.

4. THINK WIN / WIN

Win is not a technique; it's a total philosophy of human interaction. Win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win means that agreemetns or solutions are mutually beneficial, satisfying. Win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, that one person's success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others. It's not your way or my way; it's a better way, a higher way. The alternative for win is Lose. But we shouldn't get disheartened by our loss, rather we should take it positively and decide not to commit the same mistakes again.

Win has Five Dimensions. 1. CHARACTER 2. RELATIONSHIPS 3. AGREEMENTS

4. SUPPORTIVE SYSTEMS and 5. PROCESSES.

Character is the foundation of win and everything else builds on that foundation. From the foundation of character, we build and maintain relationships. From relationships, flow the agreements that five definition and direction to win. They are sometimes called 'Performance Agreements' or 'Partnership Agreements'. Win can only survive in an organization when the systems support it. You basically get what you reward. There is now way to achieve win ends with win/lose or lose/win means. We can't say," we're going to think win whether we like or not. So, the question become how to arrive at a win solution.

Win is not a personality technique. It comes from a character of integrity, maturity and the abundance mentality. It grows out of high-trust relationships.

Select a specific relationship where you would like to develop a win/win agreement. Try to identify a model of win/win thinking who, even in hard situations, really seeks mutual benefit.

5. SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD

"Seek first to understand is very difficult approach. We typically seek first to be understood. Most people don't listen within the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to reply. They are either speak or preparing to speak.

Although it's risky and hard, seek first to understand is a correct principle manifest in many areas of life. It's the mark of all true professionals. As we learn to listen deeply to other people, we will discover tremendous differences in perception. We'll also begin to appreciate the impact that these differences can have as people try to work together in interdependent situations. Seek first to understand.......... then to be understood - knowing how to be understood is equally critical in reaching win.

Seeking to understand requires consideration, seeking to be understood requires courage. Win requires a high degree of both. So, it becomes important in interdependent situations, for us to be understood.

Next time we catch ourselves inappropriately using one of the biographical responses - Probing, Evaluating, Advising or Interpreting.

6. SYNERGIZE

Synergy is everywhere in nature. If we plant two plants close together, the roots comingle and improve the quality of the soil. so, that both plants will grow better than if they were separated. The challenge is to apply the principles of creative cooperation which we learn from nature, in our social interactions. Family life provides many opportunities to observe synergy and to practice it. The very way that a man and a woman bring a child into the world is synergetic. The essence of synergy is to value differences - to respect them, to build on strengths, to compensate for weaknesses.

When we communicate synergitically, we open our mind and heart and expressions to new possibilities, new alternatives, new options. Synergy is exciting. The possibilities of truly significant gain, of significant improvement are so real that it's worth the risk such openness entails.

The next time you have a disagreement or confrontation with someone attempt to understand the concerns underlying that person's position. Address those concerns in a creative and mutually beneficial way.

7. SHARPEN THE SAW

It is the habit that makes all the others possible. It is preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have - YOU. It is renewing the four dimensions of nature - Physical, Spiritual, Mental and Social.

Sharpening the Saw basically means expressing all four motivations. It means exercising all four dimensions of our nature, regularly and consistently n wise and balanced ways. To do this, we must be Proactive.

The physical dimension involves caring effectively for our physical body - eating the right kinds of foods, getting sufficient rest and relaxation. The spiritual dimension provides leadership to our life. It is our core, our centre, our committment to our value system. It is a private area of life and supremely important one.

Most of our mental development and study-discipline comes through formal education. Wisdom in watching television requires the effective self-management which enables us to discriminate and to select the informing, inspiring and entertaining programs which best serve and express our purpose and values. The social dimensions are centered on the principles of interpersonal leadership, emphatic communication and creative cooperation.

Commit to write down specific "Sharpen the Saw" in all four dimensions every week, to do them, and to evaluate your performance and results.

As Teilhard de chardin said, "We are not humanbeings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

So, if we follow all the above sketched steps and principles, we are sure, we will definitely reach the success.

How evil it is?

2007-08-19T23:04:00.000-07:00

Hi! Recently, I read a real story which has happened at Peshavar in Rajastan. Really, I surprised after reading the story. The value of a women's life is nothing and no one bother about the women. Why? As our's is highly developing country, still these type of harashments are going on! Really wonder. While coming to the point,

At Peshavar, there is a nice muslim girl married a man who is a business man, with her parents' advice. Her father too is doing the business, they are well-settled always wish for their status. As the girl married and within few days, she came to know that her husband takes everything in business-mind. She expressed their feelings but he didn't care ever. She shared her feelings to her friend, he is working somewhere. This was not accepted by her husband. So, she returned to her parents, but they too delivered the rash talks, they told her to whatever happens in married life, adjust with that. They told her daughter to adjust with her husband. She told them that she went away to some place. Then her own parents asked her that where she wanted to go, to her boy friend and wanted to stay with him. She didn't bare these and return to her home. Even though she couldn't bare all such things by her busband. That too she was harrashed by him. Her body was full of marks with cigarettes, strokes with belt, what not, every method to torture. So, she left the house and stayed at a Women Care Centre . But, she didn't escape from these devils. Her parents knew this where she stayed and tortured her over phone calls. The warden asked her about all the things which happened earlier, she gave advice to meet a Lawyer. She promised her to take her to a well-known lawyer in that place. She talked to the lawyer, informed everything and she agreed to take up this case.

The next day, this woman went to the lawyer to meet her and her mother too came there along with her car driver. Directly, she came to the point, called her daughter to come with them and she replied that without any settlement of the matter, she never come. That's it!!!!!!!!!

Suddenly, the car driver took the gun and shooted her by three shots. The story was over. She is no more. Her mother left from that place without having any mercy, love, whatever a mother has. She didn't have all this and simply went away. What a devil she is! I surprised, in our Motherland, this type of mothers are also here. In other diretion, these devilish parents put a case on the lawyer, she didn't give a security to their daughter, that's why this is happened. Now, the case is running. They gave a name to this as an Honour Death.

Now, you think what is the value of the life of a women? With so many thoughts, aspirations and what not, a girl hopes everything and wish to enter in a new life by getting marriage. But this type of nuisance araises everywhere. Then what she will do? Even she never get the hope of others. Is it any mistake to wish some friend's need in a difficult and sad moments? Why the parents too can't understand the feelings of their children? Of course not all, but some like these.

Any how, why I am informing all this because if u are in the state of parent, love your children and their feelings. If u are in the state of husband, Love and care your wife, allow her suggestions, try to understand her and her feelings. If you are in the state of such girl, then live your own life. Don't depend on others. You do whatever you wish and like. If you want to be good human, then think a minute of what you would like to do and think of others.

Personality Development

2007-08-13T02:07:00.000-07:00

Every one has to follow some principles to maintain a good communication. Good communication makes good attitude and later it develops a good personality. It gives a rich status to every man. Status comes not only through money or something, it comes only in the way of communication, attitude, skill all comes under a good developement in one's mind. That is personality development. We should develop it day by day. What we have now is not sufficient. Everyday we learn something. Isn't it? I think everyone may accept this. So, let's develop our personality and build our communication good.

Education

2007-08-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

Education is the most important in everyman's life. But still some children can't able to reach it because of their poverty or their parents' lack of knowledge. And the children are engaging with some other work. I can't understand why they do so?

Of course, many people send their children to schools, convents and highly-established educational societies. These educational societies cause much trouble and give much pain to the parents by demanding unexpected fees for different sources in different way. OK. As these societies gain much amount and why can't they help others, means the children who can't able to learn due to their poverty or anything.

Why these societies can't change? Why they are not trying to change their attitude? If they gain such much of amount from highly-status persons and middle class persons per year, they can share that amount at least one-fourth to these guys and girls and encouraging them, then how pleasant it will be?

One thing that I can't understand why so many people are always thinking about themselves. Of course, it should be there but sometimes when they earn more and more than they need, why they are not trying to change their attitude?

The Government also doing the same thing. Just it says, in Govt. Schools or colleges, it's free but the officers or authorities ask some money for this thing and for that thing, they charge some amount. How the poor pay it? Just think about this. How ridiculous it is? the Govt. should be changed. I think if it orders some issues and maintain them perfectly and make the others to maintain them perfectly. Help the poor and the children who has a dedication to learn.

where we are now?

2007-08-06T23:57:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! This is Indu.

Today I would like to give a message about many of our persons who are in very bad and cheap conditions. They are normal. But as days are passing there is no improvement and still they are living as the normal persons. Why?

Of course, in our cou try, there are many rich and highly-positioned persons. They ae in rich status. Some of them have official powers. But they misuse them. If they are doing so, then this situation will not be improved and later on it will be go in anyway. I can't understand why they can't help these people?

If they will help in the process of what they can, then they too become rich and after some days definitely our country becomes great and rich. Isn't it?

So, my dear friends I hope all of you agree with my words and I hope u'll do your level best and helping those people. So, Why late? Go ahead. All the best. Let's come and do.