Saturday, May 31, 2025

Ahilyabai Holkar jayanti 2025

                                     

Ahilyabai Holkar 31 May 1725 – 13 August 1795, also spelled Ahalya Bai, was the Rajamata and later the ruling queen of Indore within the Maratha Empire. She established Maheshwar  as the seat of the Holkar Dynasty. A beloved figure of Indian history, she is renowned for good governance, social welfare, and humanitarian work along with religious, educational, and cultural advancements. She contributed to the growth of Indian architecture through the commission of various temples, Ghats, and Dharmshalas. Ahilyabai's Matha, or charitable endowments, spread across India. Remembered as a Sadhvi, or holy woman,

After the deaths of her husband Khanderao Holkar, father-in-law Malhar Rao Holkar, and son Male Rao Holkar, Ahilyabai undertook the affairs of the Holkar dynasty. She defended Indore against invasions and personally led armies into battle, with her brother-in-law Tukoji Rao Holkar serving as her military commander.

Early life and marriage- Ahilyabai was born into a Marathi Hindu family to Mankoji Shinde and Sushila Shinde in Maharashtra in the village of Chandi, now Ahmednagar district. Her father was a descendant of a respected Dhangar family. Mankoji Shinde served as the Patil of the village. Ahilyabai had five brothers and was first educated at home.

Ahilyabai rose to prominence when Malhar Rao Holkar, a commander in the army of Maratha Peshwa Baji Rao I and ruler of Malwa, stopped in Chandi on his way to Pune and saw her at a temple service. Impressed by the child's piety and character, Malhar advised his son, Khandojee, to marry her. They were wed in 1733 when he was nine or ten and she was seven or eight. They had a son, Maloji Holkar, in 1745 and a daughter, Muktabai Holkar, in 1748.

Family's rise to prominence- By the time of Ahilyabai's marriage, her father-in-law Malhar Rao Holkar had already risen from a childhood of shepherding to ruling as Subahdar over a territory comprising thirty parganas yielding high revenues. From 1748, Malhar Rao's power in Malwa allowed him to play kingmaker in northern and central India and by 1750, he was the de facto ruler of the Maratha Confederacy. He regularly received grants, including monetary tributes, land, and noble titles, from the Peshwa government in recognition of his service to the empire. His land lay north of the Narmadha on both sides of Sahyadri. In 1751, he successfully mediated a major land agreement between the Peshwa and Mughal emperor Ahmad Shah Bahadur and by 1753, he was considered indispensable.

Education and military expertise- Starting in 1754, Malhar Rao kept Ahilyabai actively involved in diplomacy debates, matters of the kingdom's finances, and other problems of both the Mughal Empire and the Peshwa. Throughout her married life, she was brought up by her mother-in-law, Gautama Bai Holkar, who is credited for teaching Ahilyabai to have proper values. She trained her in administration, accounts, and politics and, in 1759, gave Ahilyabai her khasgi, or land grant.


Friday, May 30, 2025

Vinayaka Chaturthi


 Ganesh Chaturthi also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi (Vināyaka Caturthī) or Vinayaka Chavithi or Vinayagar Chaturthi, is a Hindu festival celebrating the birthday of Hindu deity Ganesh. The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha's murtis privately in homes and publicly on elaborate pandals. Observances include chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts, such as prayers and vrata . Offerings and prasada from the daily prayers, that are distributed from the pandal to the community, include sweets such as modak as it is believed to be a favourite of Ganesha. The festival ends on the tenth day after start, when the murti is carried in a public procession with music and group chanting, then immersed in a nearby body of water such as a river or sea, called visarjana on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi. In Mumbai alone, around 150,000 murtis are immersed annually.

The festival celebrates Ganesha as the God of New Beginnings, the Remover of Obstacles and the God of Wisdom and Intelligence, and is observed throughout the Indian subcontinent by Hindus, especially in the states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Goa, as well as Nepal. Ganesh Chaturthi is also observed by the Hindu diaspora elsewhere such as in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, other parts of the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa, the United States, and Europe. In the Gregorian calendar, Ganesh Chaturthi falls between 22 August and 20 September every year.

Although the origin of Ganesh Chaturthi remains unknown, it became increasingly popular after a public celebration was initiated by the prominent Anti-Colonial Freedom Fighter, Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, in Maharashtra in the year 1893. It was a means to form a Hindu nationalist identity and rebel against British rule. Reading of texts, feasting, athletic and martial arts competitions are held at public venues.

Though not alluding to the classical form of Ganapati, the earliest mention of Ganapati is found in the Rigveda. It appears twice in the Rigveda, once in shloka, as well as in shloka Both of these shlokas imply a role of Ganapati as "the seer among the seers, abounding beyond measure in food presiding among the elders and being the lord of an invocation", while the shloka in mandala 10 states that without Ganapati "nothing nearby or afar is performed without you", according to Michael. However, it is uncertain that the Vedic term Ganapati which literally means "guardian of the multitudes", referred specifically to later era Ganesh, nor do the Vedic texts mention Ganesh Chaturthi. It appears in post-Vedic texts such as the Grhya Sutras and thereafter ancient Sanskrit texts such as the Vajasaneyi Samhita, the Yajnavalkya Smriti and the Mahabharata mention Ganapati as Ganesvaras and Vinayak. Ganesh appears in the medieval Puranas in the form of "god of success, obstacle remover". The Skanda Purana, Narada Purana and the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, in particular, profusely praise him. Beyond textual interpretations, archaeological and epigraphical evidence suggest Ganesha had become popular and was revered before the 8th century CE and numerous images of him are traceable to the 7th century or earlier.

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Hobby

                                     

A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing other amusements or avocations. Participation in hobbies encourages acquiring substantial skills and knowledge in that area. A list of hobbies changes with renewed interests and developing fashions, making it diverse and lengthy. Hobbies tend to follow trends in society. For example, stamp collecting was popular during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as postal systems were the main means of communication; as of 2024, video games became more popular following technological advances. The advancing production, technology, and labour movements of the nineteenth century provided workers with more leisure time to engage in hobbies. Because of this, the efforts of people investing in hobbies has increased with time.

There are various types of hobbies, which can be classified in various ways, including subject matter, degree of time commitment, and social versus solitary nature. The Serious Leisure Perspective of Robert Stebbins identifies hobbies under three sub-categories: casual leisure, which is intrinsically rewarding, short-lived, pleasurable activity requiring little or no preparation; serious leisure, which is the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer that is substantial, rewarding and results in a sense of accomplishment; and finally project-based leisure, which is a short-term, often one-off, project that is rewarding.

In the 16th century, the term "hobby" had the meaning of "small horse and pony". The term "hobby horse" was documented in a 1557 payment confirmation for a "Hobbyhorse" from Reading, England. The item, originally called a "Tourney Horse", was made of a wooden or basketwork frame with an artificial tail and head. It was designed for a child to mimic riding a real horse. By 1816 the derivative, "hobby", was introduced into the vocabulary of a number of English people. Over the course of subsequent centuries, the term came to be associated with recreation and leisure. In the 17th century, the term was used in a pejorative sense by suggesting that a hobby was a childish pursuit, however, in the 18th century with more industrial society and more leisure time, hobbies took on greater respectability. A hobby is also called a pastime, derived from the use of hobbies to pass the time. A hobby became an activity that is practiced regularly and usually with some worthwhile purpose. Hobbies are usually, but not always, practiced primarily for interest and enjoyment, rather than financial reward.


Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Franchising

                                     

Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its business model, brand, and rights to sell its branded products and services to a franchisee. In return, the franchisee pays certain fees and agrees to comply with certain obligations, typically set out in a franchise agreement.

The word franchise is of Anglo-French derivation—from franc, meaning 'free'—and is used both as a noun and as a (transitive) verb. For the franchisor, use of a franchise system is an alternative business growth strategy, compared to expansion through corporate owned outlets or "chain stores". Adopting a franchise system business growth strategy for the sale and distribution of goods and services minimizes the franchisor's capital investment and liability risk.

Franchising is rarely an equal partnership, especially in the typical arrangement where the franchisee is an individual, unincorporated partnership or small privately held corporation, as this will ensure the franchisor has substantial legal and/or economic advantages over the franchisee. The usual exception to this rule is when the prospective franchisee is also a powerful corporate entity controlling a highly lucrative location and/or captive market in which prospective franchisors must then compete to exclude one another from. However, under specific circumstances like transparency, favourable legal conditions, financial means and proper market research, franchising can be a vehicle of success for both a large franchisor and a small franchisee.

Thirty-six countries have laws that explicitly regulate franchising, with the majority of all other countries having laws which have a direct or indirect effect on franchising. Franchising is also used as a foreign market entry mode.

The boom in franchising did not take place until after World War II. Nevertheless, the rudiments of modern franchising date back to the Middle Ages when landowners made franchise-like agreements with tax collectors, who retained a percentage of the money they collected and turned the rest over. The practice ended around 1562 but spread to other endeavors. For example, in 17th-century England franchisees were granted the right to sponsor markets and fairs or operate ferries. There was little growth in franchising, though, until the mid-19th century, when it appeared in the United States for the first time.


Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Rain

                                     

Rain is a form of precipitation where water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water for hydroelectric power plants, crop irrigation, and suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems.

The major cause of rain production is moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts. If enough moisture and upward motion is present, precipitation falls from convective clouds (those with strong upward vertical motion) such as cumulonimbus which can organize into narrow rainbands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation which forces moist air to condense and fall out as rainfall along the sides of mountains. On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by downslope flow which causes heating and drying of the air mass. The movement of the monsoon trough, or Intertropical Convergence Zone, brings rainy seasons to savannah climes.

The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall, both in amounts and intensity, downwind of cities. Global warming is also causing changes in the precipitation pattern, including wetter conditions across eastern North America and drier conditions in the tropics. Antarctica is the driest continent. The globally averaged annual precipitation over land is 715 mm , but over the whole Earth, it is much higher at 990 mm . Climate classification systems such as the Köppen classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Rainfall is measured using rain gauges. Rainfall amounts can be estimated by weather radar.

Monday, May 26, 2025

Investment banking

                                     

 Investment banking is an advisory-based financial service for institutional investors, corporations, governments, and similar clients. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by underwriting or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of debt or equity securities. An investment bank may also assist companies involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and provide ancillary services such as market making, trading of derivatives and equity securities FICC services (fixed income instruments, currencies, and commodities) or research (macroeconomic, credit or equity research). Most investment banks maintain prime brokerage and asset management departments in conjunction with their investment research businesses. As an industry, it is broken up into the Bulge Bracket, Middle Market, and boutique market.

Unlike commercial banks and retail banks, investment banks do not take deposits. The revenue model of an investment bank comes mostly from the collection of fees for advising on a transaction, contrary to a commercial or retail bank. From the passage of Glass–Steagall Act in 1933 until its repeal in 1999 by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, the United States maintained a separation between investment banking and commercial banks. Other industrialized countries, including G7 countries, have historically not maintained such a separation. As part of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the Volcker Rule asserts some institutional separation of investment banking services from commercial banking.

All investment banking activity is classed as either "sell side" or "buy side". The "sell side" involves trading securities for cash or for other securities, or the promotion of securities. The "buy side" involves the provision of advice to institutions that buy investment services. Private equity funds, mutual funds, life insurance companies, unit trusts, and hedge funds are the most common types of buy-side entities.

An investment bank can also be split into private and public functions with a screen separating the two to prevent information from crossing. The private areas of the bank deal with private insider information that may not be publicly disclosed, while the public areas, such as stock analysis, deal with public information. An advisor who provides investment banking services in the United States must be a licensed broker-dealer and subject to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regulation.


Sunday, May 25, 2025

Internship


 An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies. They are typically undertaken by students and graduates looking to gain relevant skills and experience in a particular field. Employers benefit from these placements because they often recruit employees from their best interns, who have known capabilities, thus saving time and money in the long run. Internships are usually arranged by third-party organizations that recruit interns on behalf of industry groups. Rules vary from country to country about when interns should be regarded as employees. The system can be open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers.

Internships for professional careers are similar in some ways. Similar to internships, apprenticeships transition students from vocational school into the workforce. The lack of standardization and oversight leaves the term "internship" open to broad interpretation. Interns may be high school students, college and university students, or post-graduate adults. These positions may be paid or unpaid and are temporary. Many large corporations, particularly investment banks, have "insights" programs that serve as a pre-internship event numbering a day to a week, either in person or virtually.

Typically, an internship consists of an exchange of services for experience between the intern and the organization. Internships are used to determine whether the intern still has an interest in that field after the real-life experience. In addition, an internship can be used to build a professional network that can assist with letters of recommendation or lead to future employment opportunities. The benefit of bringing an intern into full-time employment is that they are already familiar with the company, therefore needing little to no training. Internships provide current college students with the ability to participate in a field of their choice to receive hands-on learning about a particular future career, preparing them for full-time work following graduation.

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Mechanical engineering

                              


           Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems. It is one of the oldest and broadest of the engineering branches.

           Mechanical engineering requires an understanding of core areas including mechanics, dynamics, thermodynamics, materials science, design, structural analysis, and electricity. In addition to these core principles, mechanical engineers use tools such as computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), and product lifecycle management to design and analyze manufacturing plants, industrial equipment and machinery, heating and cooling systems, transport systems, motor vehicles, aircraft, watercraft, robotics, medical devices, weapons, and others.

          Mechanical engineering emerged as a field during the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 18th century; however, its development can be traced back several thousand years around the world. In the 19th century, developments in physics led to the development of mechanical engineering science. The field has continually evolved to incorporate advancements; today mechanical engineers are pursuing developments in such areas as composites, mechatronics, and nanotechnology. It also overlaps with aerospace engineering, metallurgical engineering, civil engineering, structural engineering, electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering, chemical engineering, industrial engineering, and other engineering disciplines to varying amounts. Mechanical engineers may also work in the field of biomedical engineering, specifically with biomechanics, transport phenomena, bio mechatronics, bio nanotechnology, and modelling of biological systems.

         The application of mechanical engineering can be seen in the archives of various ancient and medieval societies. The six classic simple machines were known in the ancient Near East. The wedge and the inclined plane were known since prehistoric times. Mesopotamian civilization is credited with the invention of the wheel by several, mainly old sources. However, some recent sources either suggest that it was invented independently in both Mesopotamia and Eastern Europe or credit prehistoric Eastern Europeans with the invention of the wheel The lever mechanism first appeared around 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where it was used in a simple balance scale, and to move large objects in ancient Egyptian technology. The lever was also used in the shadoof water-lifting device, the first crane machine, which appeared in Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC. The earliest evidence of pulleys date back to Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BC.

Friday, May 23, 2025

Ekadashi


 Ekadashi is the eleventh lunar day of the waxing (Shukla Pakṣa) and waning (Kṛṣṇa Pakṣa) lunar cycles in a Vedic calendar month. Ekadashi is popularly observed within Vaishnavism one of the major paths within Sanatana Dharma. Followers offer their worship to the god Vishnu by fasting or just symbolically; the idea was always to receive self-discipline and the benefits of fasting and it was connected to the way of life via Sanatana Dharma practices.

In Hinduism, the primary purpose of fasting on Ekadashi is to gain control over the mind and bodily senses, and channel it towards spiritual progression. In addition, there are several health benefits to fasting. Ekadashi fasting spans for three days. Devotees take single meal in the afternoon a day before Ekadashi day to make sure there is no residual food in the stomach on next day. Devotees keep a strict fast with no food or water on Ekadashi day and break the fast on next day only after sunrise. Since this form of fasting is very stringent and may not be possible for people in all walks of life due to health and life choice reasons, a more liberal form of fasting is followed by most devotees.

There are different ways to observe the Ekadashi fasting in this method, ranging from complete abstention from food and water to partial fasting or consuming only specific types of food. Devotee can chose the fasting approach that aligns with his/her health, lifestyle, and spiritual goals.

The timing of each ekadashi is according to the position of the moon. The Hindu calendar marks progression from a full moon to a new moon as divided into fifteen equal arcs of 12°. Each arc measures one lunar day, called a tithi. The time it takes the moon to traverse a particular distance is the length of that lunar day. Ekadashi refers to the 11th tithi, or lunar day. The eleventh tithi corresponds to a precise angle and phase of the waxing and waning moon. In the bright half of the lunar month, the moon will be exactly 3/4 full on the start of Ekadashi, and in the dark half of the lunar month, the moon will be 3/4 dark on the start of Ekadashi.

There are usually 24 Ekadashis in a calendar year. Occasionally, there are two extra Ekadashis that happen in a Hindu leap year. Each Ekadashi day is purported to have particular benefits that are attained by the performance of specific activities.

Bhagavata Purana notes the observation of Ekadashi by Ambarisha, a devotee of Vishnu.The story behind Ekadashi began with Vishnu sleeping or in a meditative state. A demon, Murdanav, approached and attempted to attack Vishnu. At that time, a beautiful woman sprung forth from Vishnu's 11th sense. An infatuated Murdanav asked to marry her, to which she responded that she would agree only if he defeated her in battle. As they fought, Murdanav was eventually killed. Vishnu awoke from his sleep, and blessed the woman by naming her "Ekadashi", and stated that if anyone were to fast on this day, they would attain moksha.

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Bangles


Bangles are traditionally rigid bracelets which are usually made of metal, wood, glass or plastic. These ornaments are worn mostly by women in the Indian subcontinent, Southeastern Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Africa. It is common to see a bride wearing glass bangles at weddings in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and in other Asian countries. Bangles may also be worn by young girls, and bangles made of gold or silver are preferred for toddlers. Some men and women wear a single bangle on the arm or wrist called kada or kara.


Chooda is a kind of bangle that is worn by Hindu/Sikh Punjabi women on their wedding day. It is a set of white and red bangles with stonework.
According to tradition, a woman is not supposed to buy the bangles she will wear.
Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh is India's largest producer of bangles.

Bangles made of glass stacked for sale in Jodhpur, India
Bangles are circular in shape, and, unlike other bracelets, are not flexible. The word is derived from Hindi bungri (glass). They are made of numerous precious as well as non-precious materials such as gold, silver, platinum, glass, wood, ferrous metals, plastic, etc. Bangles made from sea shell, which are white colour, are worn by married Bengali and Oriya Hindu women. A special type of bangle is worn by women and girls, especially in the Bengal area, commonly known as a "Bengali bangle", which is used as a substitute for a costly gold bangle, and is produced by thermo-mechanically fusing a thin gold strip onto a bronze bangle, followed by manual crafting on that fused gold strip.

Bangles are part of traditional Indian subcontinent jewellery. They are sometimes worn in pairs by women, one or more on each arm. It is also common for women to wear a single bangle or several bangles on just one wrist. Most Indian women prefer wearing either gold or glass bangles or a combination of both. Inexpensive bangles made from plastic are slowly replacing those made by glass, but the ones made of glass are still preferred at traditional occasions such as marriages and on festivals. Bangles are the signs for traditional women and girls. Bangles play a very important role in various Indian dance forms. Some of dance forms include bangles striking each other to produce a tone.

 The designs range from simple to intricate handmade designs, often studded with precious and semi-precious stones such as diamonds, gems and pearls. Sets of expensive bangles made of gold and silver make a jingling sound. The imitation jewellery tends to make a tinny sound when jingled.

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Water park


A water park is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other barefoot environments. Modern water parks may also be equipped with some type of artificial surfing or bodyboarding environment, such as a wave pool or flow rider.

History- Children's play area at Water World Themed Waterpark in Ayia Napa, Cyprus Water parks have grown in popularity since their roots of public swimming pools in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The United States has the largest and most concentrated water park market, with over 1,000 water parks and dozens of new parks opening each year. Major organizations are the IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) and WWA (World Waterpark Association), which is the industry trade association.

Water parks which emerge from spas tend to more closely resemble mountain resorts, as they become year-round destinations. For example, Splash Universe Water Park Resort is themed to match the community in which it is located. The theme is intended to enhance the community's destination appeal. Therefore, the amusement and leisure-time industry is becoming more concentrated, as winter sports are becoming common themes in summertime water recreation.

A process of concentration can be observed in the hybrid versions of theme-, amusement-, and water parks. Some water parks are more spa-oriented. For example, Schwaben Quellen has no water slides; it has instead many saunas, steam rooms, "adventure showers", and relaxation-oriented water play areas.

In the 2000s, an effort was made to reduce long waiting lines by introducing conveyor belts to lift passengers or use water jets.

An unusual feature at a water park is ice skating. Deep River Water Park in northwestern Indiana features ice skating, made possible by cooling pipes installed under their massive plaza. 

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Bhairava Ashtami


 Bhairava Ashtami also known as Bhairavashtami, Bhairava Jayanti, Kala-Ashtami and Kala-Bhairava Jayanti is a Hindu holy day commemorating the manifestation of the deity Bhairava, a fearsome and wrathful manifestation of the god Shiva. It falls on the eighth lunar day in the fortnight of the waning moon (Krishna paksha) in the Hindu month of Kartika (per the South Indian Amavasyant calendar, every month ends with a new moon) or Margashirsha (per the North Indian Purnimant calendar, every month ends with a full moon). By both schemes, Bhairava Ashtami falls on the same day in November–December-January. The name Kalashtami is sometimes used to refer to this day, but might also refer to any ashtami in Krishna paksha, all of which are days sacred to Bhairava.

Bhairava is a manifestation of Shiva's wrath. According to the Shiva Purana, the deities Brahma and Vishnu engaged in a debate regarding their superiority over the other. When Brahma resorted to dishonesty and proclaimed his victory over Vishnu, Shiva appeared and created Bhairava, who cut off one of Brahma's five heads. Brahma begged forgiveness from Shiva for his dishonesty, and he and Vishnu engaged in the worship of Shiva in the form of a lingam.

Shiva temple in Gudh, in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, which has this sacred and rare, 10th or 11th century, reclining idol of Bhairava.

The head of Brahma was stuck to Bhairava's left palm due to the sin of killing Brahma, the most learned Brahmin, called Brahmahatya or Brahminicide. To expiate the sin of Brahmahatya, Bhairava had to perform the vow of a Kapali: wandering the world as a Bhikshatana with the skull of the slain as his begging bowl. Bhairava's sin was finally expiated when he reached the holy city of Varanasi, where a temple dedicated to him still exists. 

In regional tradition, Shiva as Bhairava is considered to have been entrusted with the task of maintaining law and discipline amongst Hindus, as pertaining to their salvation in the city of Varanasi, where the last rites of Hindus are performed in the holy river Ganges, with accountability of their sins and good deeds.

An all-night vigil is observed on Bhairava Ashtami with prayers, worship and tales of Bhairava, Shiva and Parvati being told. In the midnight, an arati of Bhairava should be performed with conches, bells and drums. After taking a bath in the morning, devotees, especially Shiva-worshipping Shaivas offer libations and oblations to their dead ancestors. Then, Bhairava, Shiva, Shiva's consort Parvati and Bhairava's vahana, the dog, is worshipped with flowers and sweets. Dogs are also offered milk, sweets, curds and other food as offerings.

Monday, May 19, 2025

Shiva Purana

                                     

The Shiva Purana original Sanskrit title: Śivapurāṇa and Śivamahāpurāṇa is one of eighteen major texts of the Purana genre of Sanskrit texts in Hinduism, and part of the Shaivism literature corpus. It primarily revolves around the Hindu god Shiva and goddess Parvati, but references and reveres all gods.

The Shiva Purana asserts that it once consisted of 100,000 verses set out in twelve Samhitas however, the Purana adds that it was abridged by Sage Vyasa before being taught to Romaharshana. The surviving manuscripts exist in many different versions and content, with one major version with seven books, another with six books, while the third version traced to the medieval Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent with no books but two large sections called Purva-Khandad and Uttara-Khanda. The two versions that include books, title some of the books same and others differently. The Shiva Purana, like other Puranas in Hindu literature, was likely a living text, which was routinely edited, recast and revised over a long period of time. The oldest manuscript of surviving texts was likely composed, estimates Klaus Klostermaier, around 10th- to 11th-century CE. Some chapters of currently surviving Shiva Purana manuscripts were likely composed after the 14th-century.

The Shiva Purana contains chapters with Shiva-centered cosmology, mythology, and relationship between gods, ethics, yoga, tirtha sites, bhakti, rivers and geography, and other topics. The text is an important source of historic information on different types and theology behind Shaivism in early 2nd-millennium CE. The oldest surviving chapters of the Shiva Purana have significant Advaita Vedanta philosophy, which is mixed in with theistic elements of bhakti.

In the 19th and 20th century, the Vayu Purana was sometimes titled as Shiva Purana, and sometimes proposed as a part of the complete Shiva Purana. With the discovery of more manuscripts, modern scholarship considers the two texts as different, with Vayu Purana as the more older text composed sometime before the 2nd-century CE. Some scholars list it as a Mahapurana, while some state it is an Upapurana.

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Flower


 Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants (angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, modified leaves; corolla, the petals; androecium, the male reproductive unit consisting of stamens and pollen; and gynoecium, the female part, containing style and stigma, which receives the pollen, and ovary, which contains the ovules. When flowers are arranged in groups, they are known collectively as inflorescences.

Floral growth originates at stem tips and is controlled by MADS-box genes. In most plant species flowers are heterosporous, and so can produce sex cells of both sexes. Pollination mediates the transport of pollen to the ovules in the ovaries, to facilitate sexual reproduction. It can occur between different plants, as in cross-pollination, or between flowers on the same plant—or even the same flower, as in self-pollination. Vectors transport the pollen between stamen and stigma. They may be living animals, such as birds and insects, or non-living factors such as wind and water. The colour and structure of flowers—such as nectaries and nectar guides—assist in pollination.

After pollination, both sex cells and their nuclei are fused together in the process of fertilisation. The result is a cell called a zygote, which has two copies of each chromosome. Through cellular and nuclear division, the zygote grows into a seed, which contains structures to assist in the future plant's survival and success. At the same time, the ovary forms into a fruit, and the other floral structures die. The function of fruit is to protect the seed and aid in dispersal. This dispersal is divided into vectors originating either from external sources, or from the plant itself. External vectors include both living things, such as animals and insects, and non-living things, such as wind and water.

Flowers evolved between 150 and 190 million years ago, during the later part of the Jurassic era and Early Cretaceous. Angiosperms replaced non-flowering seed plants in many ecosystems, as a result of flowers' greater reproductive effectiveness. In plant taxonomy, which is the study of plant classification, flowers are a key feature used to differentiate plants. For thousands of years humans have used flowers for a variety of purposes including: decoration, medicine, food, and perfumes. In human cultures, flowers are used symbolically and feature in art, literature, religious practices, ritual, and festivals.

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Santh Chokhamela


Chokhamela was a saint from Maharashtra, India in the 13th–14th century. He belonged to the Mahar caste, which was considered that time one of the low castes in India. He was born at Mehuna Raja, a village in Deulgaon Raja Taluka of Buldhana district. He lived at Mangalvedha in Maharashtra. He wrote many Abhangas. One of his known Abhangas is 'Abir Gulal Udhlit Rang". Social activist Arvind Prabhakar Kayande Started Celebrating "Chokhamela Festival" in Deulgaon Raja. He was one of the first low-caste poets in India.

Life and Family-Chokhamela lived with his wife Soyarabai and son Karmamela in Mangalvedha. Chokhamela's task was to guard and work in farms of upper-caste people. His family also followed varkari sect.

Soyarabai - Wife- Nirmala - Sister and her husband Banka (who is brother of Soyarabai)        Karmamela - Son- Chokhamela was initiated into bhakti by the poet-saint Namdev (1270-1350 CE). Once when he visited Pandharpur, he listened to Sant Namdev's kirtan. Already a devotee of Vitthal (Vithoba), Chokha was moved by Namdev's teachings.

Later, he moved to Pandharpur. The traditional story is that the upper castes here did not allow him to enter the temple, nor did they allow him to stand in the door of the temple, so he instead built a hut on the other side of the river Chandrabhaga.

While working on construction of a wall in Mangalvedha, near Pandharpur, the wall fell down, crushing some workers. Chokha was one of them. His tomb is in front of the Vitthal temple, Pandharpur, where it can be seen to this day. According to a legend the bones of the dead Chokhamela were still chanting Vitthal , Vitthal, yearning to visit the Vitthal temple. The bones were buried at the footsteps of the Vitthal temple. In early 20th century, the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar attempted to visit the temple, but was stopped at the burial site of Chokhamela and denied entry beyond that point for being a Mahar. 

Friday, May 16, 2025

Painting


 Painting is a visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface or "support". The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, may be used. One who produces paintings is called a painter.

In art, the term "painting" describes both the act and the result of the action (the final work is called "a painting"). The support for paintings includes such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, pottery, leaf, copper and concrete, and the painting may incorporate multiple other materials, including sand, clay, paper, plaster, gold leaf, and even whole objects.

Painting is an important form of visual art, bringing in elements such as drawing, composition, gesture, narration, and abstraction. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in still life and landscape painting), photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic, emotive or political in nature.

A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by religious art. Examples of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery, to Biblical scenes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, to scenes from the life of Buddha.

History-History of painting Cave paintings depicting a wild boar hunt in the Maros-Pangkep karst of Sulawesi are estimated to be at least 43,900 years old (2014). This finding was recognized as "the oldest known depiction of storytelling and the earliest instance of figurative art in human history.”

Redrawing of hunting scene from the Caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst The depiction of a bull found in the Lubang Jeriji Saleh, Indonesia, in 2018, is the world’s oldest known figurative painting. The painting is estimated to have been created around 40,000 to 52,000 years ago, or even earlier.

The oldest known are more than 40,000-60,000 years old  and found in the caves in the district of Maros. The oldest are often constructed from hand stencils and simple geometric shapes.

In 2021, researchers discovered ancient cave art in Leang Tedongnge, Sulawesi, Indonesia, estimated to be at least 45,500 years old. Depicting a warty pig, this artwork is recognized as the world’s oldest known example of figurative or representational art.

In November 2018, scientists reported the discovery of the then-oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000 years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the Indonesian island of Borneo. In December 2019, cave paintings portraying pig hunting within the Maros-Pangkep karst region in Sulawesi were discovered to be even older, with an estimated age of at least 43,900 years. This finding was recognized as "the oldest known depiction of storytelling and the earliest instance of figurative art in human history." In 2021, cave art of a pig found in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and dated to over 45,500 years ago, has been reported. On July 3, 2024, the journal Nature published research findings indicating that the cave paintings which depict anthropomorphic figures interacting with a pig and measure 36 by 15 inches  in Leang Karampuang are approximately 51,200 years old, establishing them as the oldest known paintings in the world.

There are examples of cave paintings all over the world—in Indonesia, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, China, India, Australia, Mexico, etc. In Western cultures, oil painting and watercolor painting have rich and complex traditions in style and subject matter. In the East, ink and color ink historically predominated the choice of media, with equally rich and complex traditions.

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Early modern botany



                                 

 During the 18th century, systems of plant identification were developed comparable to dichotomous keys, where unidentified plants are placed into taxonomic groups by making a series of choices between pairs of characters. The choice and sequence of the characters may be artificial in keys designed purely for identification or more closely related to the natural or phyletic order of the taxa in synoptic keys. By the 18th century, new plants for study were arriving in Europe in increasing numbers from newly discovered countries and the European colonies worldwide. In 1753, Carl Linnaeus published his Species Plantarum, a hierarchical classification of plant species that remains the reference point for modern botanical nomenclature. This established a standardised binomial or two-part naming scheme where the first name represented the genus and the second identified the species within the genus. For the purposes of identification, Linnaeus's Systema Sexuale classified plants into 24 groups according to the number of their male sexual organs. The 24th group, Cryptogamia, included all plants with concealed reproductive parts, mosses, liverworts, ferns, algae and fungi.

Increasing knowledge of plant anatomy, morphology and life cycles led to the realisation that there were more natural affinities between plants than the artificial sexual system of Linnaeus. Adanson (1763), de Jussieu (1789), and Candolle (1819) all proposed various alternative natural systems of classification that grouped plants using a wider range of shared characters and were widely followed. The Candollean system reflected his ideas of the progression of morphological complexity and the later Bentham & Hooker system, which was influential until the mid-19th century, was influenced by Candolle's approach. Darwin's publication of the Origin of Species in 1859 and his concept of common descent required modifications to the Candollean system to reflect evolutionary relationships as distinct from mere morphological similarity.

In the 19th century botany was a socially acceptable hobby for upper-class women. These women would collect and paint flowers and plants from around the world with scientific accuracy. The paintings were used to record many species that could not be transported or maintained in other environments. Marianne North illustrated over 900 species in extreme detail with watercolor and oil paintings. Her work and many other women's botany work was the beginning of popularizing botany to a wider audience.

Botany was greatly stimulated by the appearance of the first "modern" textbook, Matthias Schleiden's Grundzüge der Wissenschaftlichen Botanik, published in English in 1849 as Principles of Scientific Botany. Schleiden was a microscopist and an early plant anatomist who co-founded the cell theory with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow and was among the first to grasp the significance of the cell nucleus that had been described by Robert Brown in 1831. In 1855, Adolf Fick formulated Fick's laws that enabled the calculation of the rates of molecular diffusion in biological systems.


Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Sambhaji maharaj jayanti

                                  

Sambhaji (Sambhajiraje Shivajiraje Bhonsle, Marathi pronunciation: 14 May 1657 – 11 March 1689), also known as Shambhuraje, ruled from 1681 to 1689 as the second king (Chhatrapati) of the Maratha Empire, a prominent state in early modern India. He was the eldest son of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire.

At the age of nine, Sambhaji was taken as a political hostage of the Mughal Empire, to guarantee his father's compliance with the treaty of Purandar. He later accompanied his father to Agra where both were placed under house arrest by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb; they subsequently escaped. He was later confined by his father at Panhala Fort, with some theories suggesting that it was due to his addiction to "sensual pleasures" or for violating a Brahmin woman. He subsequently defected to the Mughal Empire and served under Diler Khan in the Battle of Bhupalgarh against his father. He ascended the throne following his father's death, with his rule being largely shaped by the ongoing wars between the Marathas and the Mughal Empire, as well as other neighbouring powers such as the Siddi of Janjira, the Wadiyars of Mysore and the Portuguese Empire in Goa.

Early in his rule, Marathas under Sambhaji attacked and disrupted supply lines and raided into the Mughal territory, although they were unsuccessful in taking over main forts. In 1683, Sambhaji executed 24 members of influential families including top government ministers after discovering a plot to poison him. 106  By 1685, Mughals had gradually pushed back Sambhaji's forces by taking over their strongholds. Desertions became common by the end of his reign, and he had alienated Maratha deshmukhs by burning villages to deny supplies to the Portuguese. In 1689, he was captured by Mughal forces and executed. His brother Rajaram I succeeded him as king and continued the Mughal–Maratha Wars.

Sambhaji is viewed poorly by historians, who note that his personal problems—and war crimes committed by his soldiers—overshadowed his moderate military and administrative successes. Maratha soldiers under Sambhaji's command during his campaigns committed atrocities against civilians including massacres and mass rape. As a ruler, Sambhaji implemented drought relief measures and encouraged agricultural development while continuing his father's administrative systems. He was also a scholar who authored several works in Sanskrit and Hindustani, including the political treatise Budhbhushanam. His torture and death at the hands of the Mughal Empire elevated him to the status of a martyr. He remains popular in modern India among many Hindu nationalists.


Tuesday, May 13, 2025

HTML


 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScript, a programming language.

Web browsers receive HTML documents from a web server or from local storage and render the documents into multimedia web pages. HTML describes the structure of a web page semantically and originally included cues for its appearance.

HTML elements are the building blocks of HTML pages. With HTML constructs, images and other objects such as interactive forms may be embedded into the rendered page. HTML provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes, and other items. HTML elements are delineated by tags, written using angle brackets. Tags such as <img> and <input> directly introduce content into the page. Other tags such as <p> and </p> surround and provide information about document text and may include sub-element tags. Browsers do not display the HTML tags but use them to interpret the content of the page.

HTML can embed programs written in a scripting language such as JavaScript, which affects the behavior and content of web pages. The inclusion of CSS defines the look and layout of content. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), former maintainer of the HTML and current maintainer of the CSS standards, has encouraged the use of CSS over explicit presentational HTML since 1997. A form of HTML, known as HTML5, is used to display video and audio, primarily using the <canvas> element, together with JavaScript.

Monday, May 12, 2025

VBA programming

                               

The Windows version of Excel supports programming through Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is a dialect of Visual Basic. Programming with VBA allows spreadsheet manipulation that is awkward or impossible with standard spreadsheet techniques. Programmers may write code directly using the Visual Basic Editor (VBE), which includes a window for writing code, debugging code, and code module organization environment. The user can implement numerical methods as well as automating tasks such as formatting or data organization in VBA and guide the calculation using any desired intermediate results reported back to the spreadsheet.

VBA was removed from Mac Excel 2008, as the developers did not believe that a timely release would allow porting the VBA engine natively to Mac OS X. VBA was restored in the next version, Mac Excel 2011, although the build lacks support for ActiveX objects, impacting some high level developer tools.

A common and easy way to generate VBA code is by using the Macro Recorder. The Macro Recorder records actions of the user and generates VBA code in the form of a macro. These actions can then be repeated automatically by running the macro. The macros can also be linked to different trigger types like keyboard shortcuts, a command button or a graphic. The actions in the macro can be executed from these trigger types or from the generic toolbar options. The VBA code of the macro can also be edited in the VBE. Certain features such as loop functions and screen prompt by their own properties, and some graphical display items, cannot be recorded but must be entered into the VBA module directly by the programmer. Advanced users can employ user prompts to create an interactive program, or react to events such as sheets being loaded or changed.

Macro Recorded code may not be compatible with Excel versions. Some code that is used in Excel 2010 cannot be used in Excel 2003. Making a Macro that changes the cell colors and making changes to other aspects of cells may not be backward compatible.

VBA code interacts with the spreadsheet through the Excel Object Model, a vocabulary identifying spreadsheet objects, and a set of supplied functions or methods that enable reading and writing to the spreadsheet and interaction with its users. User-created VBA subroutines execute these actions and operate like macros generated using the macro recorder, but are more flexible and efficient.

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Veterinary medicine

                                    

Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all animal species, both domesticated and wild, with a wide range of conditions that can affect different species.

Veterinary medicine is widely practiced, both with and without professional supervision. Professional care is most often led by a veterinary physician, but also by paraveterinary workers, such as veterinary nurses, veterinary technicians, and veterinary assistants. This can be augmented by other paraprofessionals with specific specialties, such as animal physiotherapy or dentistry, and species-relevant roles such as farriers.

Veterinary science helps human health through the monitoring and control of zoonotic disease (infectious disease transmitted from nonhuman animals to humans), food safety, and through human applications via medical research. They also help to maintain food supply through livestock health monitoring and treatment, and mental health by keeping pets healthy and long-living. Veterinary scientists often collaborate with epidemiologists and other health or natural scientists, depending on type of work. Ethically, veterinarians are usually obliged to look after animal welfare. Veterinarians diagnose, treat, and help keep animals safe and healthy.

History-Premodern era Archeological evidence, in the form of a cow skull upon which trepanation had been performed, shows that people were performing veterinary procedures in the Neolithic (3400–3000 BCE).

Fragments of the Kahun Papyrus on veterinary medicine, early second millennium BCE The Egyptian Papyrus of Kahun is the first extant record of veterinary medicine.

The Shalihotra Samhita, dating from the time of Ashoka, is an early Indian veterinary treatise. The edicts of Asoka read: "Everywhere King Piyadasi  made two kinds of medicine available, medicine for people, and medicine for animals. Where no healing herbs for people and animals were available, he ordered that they be bought and planted."

Manuscript page of Hippiatrica (14th century) Hippiatrica is a Byzantine compilation of hippiatrics, dated to the fifth or sixth century AD.

The first attempts to organize and regulate the practice of treating animals tended to focus on horses because of their economic significance. In the Middle Ages, farriers combined their work in horseshoeing with the more general task of "horse doctoring". The Arabic tradition of Bayṭara, or Shiyāt al-Khayl, originates with the treatise of Ibn Akhī Hizām.


Saturday, May 10, 2025

Entrepreneurship

                                

 Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk, and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones.

An entrepreneur is an individual who creates and/or invests in one or more businesses, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards. The process of setting up a business is known as "entrepreneurship". The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, and business/or procedures.

More narrow definitions have described entrepreneurship as the process of designing, launching and running a new business, often similar to a small business, or as the "capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks to make a profit". The people who create these businesses are often referred to as "entrepreneurs".

In the field of economics, the term entrepreneur is used for an entity that has the ability to translate inventions or technologies into products and services. In this sense, entrepreneurship describes activities on the part of both established firms and new businesses.

Perspectives on entrepreneurship- 

In the 21st century the governments of nation states have tried to promote entrepreneurship, as well as enterprise culture, in the hope that it would improve or stimulate economic growth and competition. After the end of supply-side economics, entrepreneurship was supposed to boost the economy.

As an academic field, entrepreneurship accommodates different schools of thought. It has been studied within disciplines such as management, economics, sociology, and economic history. Some view entrepreneurship as allocated to the entrepreneur. These scholars tend to focus on what the entrepreneur does and what traits an entrepreneur has. This is sometimes referred to as the functionalistic approach to entrepreneurship. Others deviate from the individualistic perspective to turn the spotlight on the entrepreneurial process and immerse in the interplay between agency and context. This approach is sometimes referred to as the processual approach, or the contextual turn/approach to entrepreneurship.

Friday, May 9, 2025

Cafeteria


 A cafeteria, called canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether in a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or lunchroom. Cafeterias are different from coffeehouses, although the English term came from the Spanish term cafetería, which carries the same meaning.

Instead of table service, there are food-serving counters/stalls or booths, either in a line or allowing arbitrary walking paths. Customers take the food that they desire as they walk along, placing it on a tray. In addition, there are often stations where customers order food, particularly items such as hamburgers or tacos which must be served hot and can be immediately prepared with little waiting. Alternatively, the patron is given a number and the item is brought to their table. For some food items and drinks, such as sodas, water, or the like, customers collect an empty container, pay at check-out, and fill the container after check-out. Free unlimited-second servings are often allowed under this system. For legal purposes, this system is rarely, if at all, used for alcoholic drinks in the United States.

Customers are either charged a flat rate for admission or pay at check-out for each item. Some self-service cafeterias charge by the weight of items on a patron's plate. In universities and colleges, some students pay for three meals a day by making a single large payment for the entire semester.

As cafeterias require few employees, they are often found within a larger institution, catering to the employees or clientele of that institution. For example, schools, colleges and their residence halls, department stores, hospitals, museums, places of worship, amusement parks, military bases, prisons, factories, and office buildings often have cafeterias. Although some of such institutions self-operate their cafeterias, many outsource their cafeterias to a food service management company or lease space to independent businesses to operate food service facilities. The three largest food service management companies servicing institutions are Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo.

A Luby's cafeteria in Shenandoah, Texas, United States. At one time, cafeteria-style restaurant chains dominated the culture of the Southern United States, and to a lesser extent the Southwest and Midwest. There were numerous prominent chains, some of which are now defunct.

Two other major American cafeteria chains continue to operate, on a lesser scale: Piccadilly in the southeast, and Luby's in Texas. Another, Morrison's Cafeteria, survives as a single, Piccadilly-owned location in Mobile, Alabama, and a fourth, Bickford's in New England, converted to a non-cafeteria chain and closed all but one restaurant.

There have also been a number of smaller chains in the United States, sometimes located in and around a single city. Existing examples include MCL Restaurant & Bakery, with locations in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; S&S Cafeterias, in Georgia and South Carolina; K&W Cafeterias, in North Carolina and Virginia; Niki's in Birmingham, Alabama; and the Jewish deli-style cafeteria Manny's in Chicago, Illinois.

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Photography


 Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed in many fields of science, manufacturing, and business, as well as its more direct uses for art, film and video production, recreational purposes, hobby, and mass communication. A person who operates a camera to capture or take photographs is called a photographer, while the captured image, also known as a photograph, is the result produced by the camera.

Typically, a lens is used to focus the light reflected or emitted from objects into a real image on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a timed exposure. With an electronic image sensor, this produces an electrical charge at each pixel, which is electronically processed and stored in a digital image file for subsequent display or processing. The result with photographic emulsion is an invisible latent image, which is later chemically "developed" into a visible image, either negative or positive, depending on the purpose of the photographic material and the method of processing. A negative image on film is traditionally used to photographically create a positive image on a paper base, known as a print, either by using an enlarger or by contact printing.

Before the emergence of digital photography, photographs on film had to be developed to produce negatives or projectable slides, and negatives had to be printed as positive images, usually in enlarged form. This was usually done by photographic laboratories, but many amateurs did their own processing.

Several people may have coined the same new term from these roots independently. Hércules Florence, a French painter and inventor living in Campinas, Brazil, used the French form of the word, photographie, in private notes which a Brazilian historian believes were written in 1834. This claim is widely reported but is not yet largely recognized internationally. The first use of the word by Florence became widely known after the research of Boris Kossoy in 1980.

On 25 February 1839, the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung published an article titled Photographie, discussing several priority claims, especially that of Henry Fox Talbot's, in relation to Daguerre's claim of invention. The article is the earliest known occurrence of the word in public print. It was signed "J.M.", believed to have been Berlin astronomer Johann von Maedler. The astronomer John Herschel is also credited with coining the word, independent of Talbot, in 1839.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Dessert


 Dessert is a course that concludes a meal; the course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world, there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.

Historically, the dessert course consisted entirely of foods 'from the storeroom, including fresh, stewed, preserved, and dried fruits; nuts; cheese and other dairy dishes; dry biscuits (cookies) and wafers; and ices and ice creams. Sweet dishes from the kitchen, such as freshly prepared pastries, meringues, custards, puddings, and baked fruits, were served in the entremets course, not in the dessert course. By the 20th century, though, sweet entremets had come to be included among the desserts.

The modern term dessert can apply to many sweets, including fruit, custards, gelatins, puddings, biscuits, cookies, macaroons, pastries, pies, tarts, cakes, ice creams, and sweet soups.

Etymology-

The term "dessert" originated from the French word desservir, meaning "to clear the table", and it referred to the final course of the meal, presented after the table was "cleared".

One of the earliest uses of the term in a culinary context is in the Ménagier de Paris (1393), which includes a course of "desserte" in three of the menus, one of which includes sweet pastries and fruits, another of which includes savory frumenty and venison.

In later centuries, the term continued to refer to the last course of the meal. In the late 19th century, the word "desserts" also came to refer to the dishes served in the dessert course.

History-

The spread of sugarcane from ancient India to the world Sweets were fed to the gods in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient India and other ancient civilizations. Herodotus mentions that Persian meals featured many desserts, and were more varied in their sweet offerings than the main dishes. German army officer Helmuth von Moltke whilst serving in the Ottoman Empire noted the unusual presentation of courses with the sweet courses served between roasts and other savory dishes.

Dried fruit and honey were probably the first sweeteners used in most of the world, but the spread of sugarcane around the world was essential to the development of dessert. Sugarcane was grown and refined in India before 500 BC and was crystallized, making it easy to transport, by AD 500. Sugar and sugarcane were traded, making sugar available to Macedonia by 303 BC and China by AD 600. In the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and China, sugar has been a staple of cooking and desserts for over a thousand years.

Sugarcane and sugar were little known and rare in Europe until the twelfth century or later when the Crusades and then colonization spread its use. Europeans began to manufacture sugar in the Middle Ages, and more sweet desserts became available. Even then sugar was so expensive usually only the wealthy could indulge on special occasions. The first apple pie recipe was published in 1381; The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in "Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats" in 1828 in Eliza Leslie's Receipts cookbook.

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu maharaj

                               

Shahu (also known as Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu, Shahu IV, Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj) GCSI GCIE GCVO (26 June 1874 – 6 May 1922) of the Bhonsle dynasty of Marathas was a Raja (reign. 1894 – 1900) and the first Maharaja (1900–1922) of the Indian princely state of Kolhapur. Rajarshi Shahu was considered a true democrat and social reformer. Shahu Maharaj was an able ruler who was associated with many progressive policies during his rule. From his coronation in 1894 till his demise in 1922, he worked for the cause of the lower caste subjects in his state. Primary education to all regardless of caste and creed was one of his most significant priorities.

On the occasion of Rajashri Shahuji Maharaj's centenary death anniversary in 2022, a memorial has been erected in his memory on 6 May 2022 through Pahlwan Sangram Kamble and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation at Gali No. 13, Khetwadi, Mumbai.

Maharaja of Kolhapur in 1894-Early life-

H.H. Shahu Maharaj seated with palace servantsHe was born as Yeshwantrao in the Ghatge Maratha family, of Kagal jagir in the Kolhapur district as Yeshwantrao Ghatge to Jaisingrao and Radhabai on 26 June 1874. Jaisingrao Ghatge was the chief, while his mother Radhabai hailed from the royal Ghorpade family of Mudhol. Young Yeshwantrao lost his mother when he was only three. His education was supervised by his father till he was 10 years old. In that year, he was adopted by Queen Anandibai, widow of King Shivaji VI, of the princely state of Kolhapur. He completed his formal education at the Rajkumar College, Rajkot and took lessons of administrative affairs from Sir Stuart Fraser, a representative of the Indian Civil Services. He ascended the throne in 1894 after coming of age, prior to which a regency council appointed by the British Government took care of the state affairs. During his accession Yeshwantrao was renamed as Shahuji Maharaj. Shahu was over six feet five inches in height and displayed a regal and majestic appearance. Wrestling was one of his favourite sports and he patronised the sport throughout his rule. Wrestlers from all over the country would come to his state to participate in wrestling competitions.

He was married to Lakshmibai Khanvilkar, daughter of a nobleman from Baroda in 1891. The couple had four children – two sons and two daughters.

Social reform-Group at Residency including the Maharaja of Kolhapur Chhatrapati Shahu occupied the throne of Kolhapur for 28 years, from 1894 to 1922; during this period he initiated numerous social reforms in his empire. He is credited with doing much to improve conditions for the lower castes. He also ensured suitable employment for students thus educated, thereby creating one of the earliest affirmative action programs in history. Many of these measures came in to effect in the year 1902. He started Shahu Chhatrapati Weaving and Spinning Mill in 1906 to provide employment. Rajaram college was built by Shahu Maharaj, and later was named after him. His emphasis was on education, his aim being to make learning available to the masses. He introduced a number of educational programs to promote education among his subjects. He established hostels for different ethnicities and religions, including Panchals, Devadnya, Nashik, Shimpi, Dhor-Chambhar communities as well as for Muslims, Jains and Christians. He established the Miss Clarke Boarding School for the socially quarantined segments of the community. Shahu introduced several scholarships for poor meritorious students from backward castes. He also initiated compulsory free primary education for all in his state. He established Vedic Schools which enabled students from all castes and classes to learn the scriptures, thus propagating Sanskrit education among all. He also founded special schools for village heads or 'patils' to make them better administrators.

Monday, May 5, 2025

Physical fitness


Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations, and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical exercise, and sufficient rest along with a formal recovery plan.

Before the Industrial Revolution, fitness was defined as the capacity to carry out the day's activities without undue fatigue or lethargy. However, with automation and changes in lifestyles, physical fitness is now considered a measure of the body's ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases, to improve immune system function, and to meet emergency situations.

Overview-Fitness is defined as the quality or state of being fit and healthy. Around 1950, perhaps consistent with the Industrial Revolution and the treatise of World War II, the term "fitness" increased in western vernacular by a factor of ten. The modern definition of fitness describes either a person or machine's ability to perform a specific function or a holistic definition of human adaptability to cope with various situations. This has led to an interrelation of human fitness and physical attractiveness that has mobilized global fitness and fitness equipment industries. Regarding specific function, fitness is attributed to persons who possess significant aerobic or anaerobic ability. A well-rounded fitness program improves a person in all aspects of fitness compared to practicing only one, such as only cardio/respiratory or only weight training.

A comprehensive fitness program tailored to an individual typically focuses on one or more specific skills, and on age- or health-related needs such as bone health. Many sources also cite mental, social and emotional health as an important part of overall fitness. This is often presented in textbooks as a triangle made up of three points, which represent physical, emotional, and mental fitness. Physical fitness has been shown to have benefits in preventing ill health and assisting recovery from injury or illness. Along with the physical health benefits of fitness, it has also been shown to have a positive impact on mental health as well by assisting in treating anxiety and depression. Physical fitness can also prevent or treat many other chronic health conditions brought on by unhealthy lifestyle or aging as well and has been listed frequently as one of the most popular and advantageous self-care therapies. Working out can also help some people sleep better by building up sleeping pressure and possibly alleviate some mood disorders in certain individuals.

Developing research has demonstrated that many of exercise's benefits are mediated through the role of skeletal muscle as an endocrine organ. That is, contracting muscles release multiple substances known as myokines, which promote the growth of new tissue, tissue repair, and various anti-inflammatory functions, which in turn reduce the risk of developing various inflammatory diseases.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Real estate

                                   

Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as growing crops , minerals or water, and wild animals; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this an item of real property, buildings or housing in general. In terms of law, real relates to land property and is different from personal property, while estate means the "interest" a person has in that land property.

Real estate is different from personal property, which is not permanently attached to the land, such as vehicles, boats, jewelry, furniture, tools, and the rolling stock of a farm and farm animals.

In the United States, the transfer, owning, or acquisition of real estate can be through business corporations, individuals, nonprofit corporations, fiduciaries, or any legal entity as seen within the law of each U.S. state.

History of real estate-The natural right of a person to own property as a concept can be seen as having roots in Roman law as well as Greek philosophy. The profession of appraisal can be seen as beginning in England during the 1500s, as agricultural needs required land clearing and land preparation. Textbooks on the subject of surveying began to be written and the term "surveying" was used in England, while the term "appraising" was more used in North America. Natural law which can be seen as "universal law" was discussed among writers of the 15th and 16th century as it pertained to "property theory" and the inter-state relations dealing with foreign investments and the protection of citizens private property abroad. Natural law can be seen as having an influence in Emerich de Vattel's 1758 treatise The Law of Nations which conceptualized the idea of private property.

One of the largest initial real estate deals in history known as the "Louisiana Purchase" happened in 1803 when the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed. This treaty paved the way for western expansion and made the U.S. the owners of the "Louisiana Territory" as the land was bought from France for fifteen million dollars, making each acre roughly 4 cents. The oldest real estate brokerage firm was established in 1855 in Chicago, Illinois, and was initially known as "L. D. Olmsted & Co." but is now known as "Baird & Warner". In 1908, the National Association of Realtors was founded in Chicago and in 1916, the name was changed to the National Association of Real Estate Boards and this was also when the term "realtor" was coined to identify real estate professionals.

The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression in the U.S. caused a major drop in real estate worth and prices and ultimately resulted in depreciation of 50% for the four years after 1929. Housing financing in the U.S. was greatly affected by the Banking Act of 1933 and the National Housing Act in 1934 because it allowed for mortgage insurance for home buyers and this system was implemented by the Federal Deposit Insurance as well as the Federal Housing Administration. In 1938, an amendment was made to the National Housing Act and Fannie Mae, a government agency, was established to serve as a secondary market for mortgages and to give lenders more money in order for new homes to be funded.

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