Diwali Festival and Environment Pollution

Today is 5th November; Diwali Festival is being celebrated today. People celebrate Diwali by lighting lamps, bursting crackers, shops performing "Lakshmi Puja" in some part India. Diwali is known as festival of lights.

Image via Wikipedia

Nowadays people are talking about Diwali festival and environment pollution. Many people are saying not to burst crackers as it is creating air and noise pollution. But increase in number of personal vehicles is a major concern of pollution rather than bursting crackers. Nobody burst crackers every day, We burst crackers on special occasion and Diwali festival comes once is a year. Comparing both, pollution caused by bursting crackers is negligible. 

We should worry more about vehicle pollution. The demand for personal vehicles is increasing day by day. Environmental activists should raise a voice against this. It doesn’t mean don’t use personal vehicles at all, but limit its usage. Prefer public transport or go by walking if possible. Shut down the vehicle engine on traffic signals. Car or bike pooling is also a good option.

Due to Diwali occasion, Belgaum streets wore a vibrant look on Thursday, a day ahead of the festival of lights. People were seen thronging shopping centres, malls and small street bazaars for their last minute Diwali shopping. Sadly, shops of bicycle sellers were empty as there are no buyers these days.

I agree pollution caused by crackers is also bad for environment. Govt should ban the production of noisy crackers, should encourage manufacturers to produce environmental friendly crackers. We need to take some firm steps to prevent any kind of pollution and protect environment.

Chrome Web Apps

Recently Google Chrome's Developer Release started providing web apps feature. Web app is generally a tab pinned to browser. It is just a browser frame(window) which has no address bar and extensions bar. Google is already providing Gmail, Calendar and Documents tab by default. They are stored in "chrome-bin\{chrome version folder}\resources" folder. Typically chrome is installed in roaming folder in users directory of windows.

We need to load these web apps manually from manage extensions settings. To load web apps click on developer mode (+) mark and then click the load unpacked extension button. A browser window will open where you have to locate the web apps folder. After locating the web app folder click OK and it's done. Now you can find the web app icon on new tab home page.

Here are few of web apps created by me for facebook, twitter and meebo. You can download these files from the link below. Open the zip file and copy web app folders to resources directory and load it into chrome. Follow the procedure I mentioned above.

Web Apps Download Link

Welcome to Cloud2: Salesforce Chatter

The future of business communications is here... Watch how modern businesses will communicate, share & collaborate using Salesforce Chatter.

Enable or Disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration in Windows Server 2003

Internet Explorer is installed with an extra security on Windows Server. It keeps giving pop-up if a user is accessing a site which is not added to Trusted Site List. It also disables many features and add-ons. the following image where to Enable or Disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration in Windows Server 2003.

IPL: Indian Premier League or Ijnury Prone League

Indian Premier League is a big hit, not only in India but in all cricket playing nations. There is high attraction towards IPL because it has big money, Bollywood stars, 40 overs game, foreign players participation, cheer girls, music.. everything. It is also a good platform for young cricketers to show their talent.

But since the start of IPL, many players are getting injured and this could be a big concern for Indian selectors and even coach Gary Kirsten. Ashish Nehra is already injured. Dhoni, Gambhir, Pathan, Uthappa were injured last week. Not only Indian players but foreign players like smith, mascarenhas also. ICC T20 world cup is just few weeks away and for the sake of IPL we may miss our key players for a very important international event.

Year 2008 champions team India crashed out of T20 world cup 2009 because of key players were missing due to injuries. Having Sehwag, Zaheer Khan in the side would have certainly made a big difference.

Though there is more entertainment in IPL, BCCI and Modi should not neglect internation tournaments. IPL can be scheduled after such tournaments also. Otherwise BCCI should limit the number of matches played by players who are playing in national team.

If these things are not handled properly then it's difficult for Team India to win T20 world cup for the second time in West Indies.

Summary of India-Pakistan Peace Talks

India received independence on 15th August, 1947 and was separated from Pakistan. Since 1947 there has been a rivalry between two nations on the Kashmir issue. Pakistan has already acquired major part of Kashmir called as Pak Occupied Kashmir (POK). There were 3 major wars between India & Pakistan after independence. 1965, 1971 and 1999. Apart from this India has always taken soft stand on Kashmir issue & first initiated peace talks with Pakistan. But India received nothing from these talks apart from terrorist attacks. I found a good article in Sakal Marathi Daily (Dated: 07/02/2010) which summarizes how many times India has initiated peace talks and in return what we received from Pakistan.

If Pakistan is not interested in Peace Talk then why India is taking initiative every time. Recently Times of India has started a new peace talk "Aman ki Asha" with Pakistan. Will it going to succeed looking at the history of peace talks between Ind and Pak?

Do you think Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Marathi Mega Final Results Are Partial?

Zee Marathi's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is a very successful reality show in the history of Marathi Television Industry. No doubt every music lover (Marathi/Non Marathi) is fan of this show. Yesterday (31^st January 2010) there was a mega final event of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa's season 7 and after a very tough competition URMILA DHANAGAR was declared as winner whereas Rahul Saxena and Abhilasha Chellam finished as runners up.


After following the seasons of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, I have noticed that few of the results are partial.

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa season 1: Abhijeet Kosambi won the mega final, but Mangesh Borgaokar was better singer

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa season 3: Vaishali Bhaisane-Made won the mega final but Saayali Panase was better singer.

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa season 5: Little champs winner was Kartiki Gayakwad but Aarya Abekar and Prathamesh Laghate were much better singers. Aarya showed a great variety of songs. I would rank Aarya then Prathamesh before Kartiki.

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa season 7: Urmila Dhangar won this season but Abhilasha Chellam was far better singer with lots of variety. Even guest judges voted Rahul as best singer and Abhilasha was highest amongst votes.

The number of votes received, marks given by judges are not disclosed in public. Following are few links showing similar reactions on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa...

http://marathi.puneripundit.com/2010/01/zee-marathi-saregamapa-is-degrading-itself/

http://snoinipodnasaedi.blogspot.com/2009/02/zee-marathi-srgmp-lil-champs-khoda.html

I have created a poll to express your opinion.