Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna edited with the BGM of Clash of the Titans Movie Trailer.

Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna (ಕ್ರಾ೦ತಿವೀರ ಸಂಗೊಳ್ಳಿ ರಾಯಣ್ಣ ) Trailer edited with Background music of Clash of the Titans Movie Trailer.

Significance of 7 Vows in Indian Marriages

Amidst the sacredness of a ritual called 'phere' revered for ages, the Indian bride and the groom take seven vows to be pronounced as husband and wife. Read on to learn the meaning and significance of each pledge.

When it comes to Indian marriages, words like big, fat, extravagant, pomp and show come to our mind at once. However, irrespective of the style and size of  the wedding, one thing that remains common in all Hindu marriages is the 'seven vows' signified by the sacred 'saat pheras' around fire or 'agni', which  is one of the most imperative rituals of Indian weddings. With each 'phera' the couple makes a vow, a commitment with strong mythological roots, which is to be lived forever and more, its only then that a couple is accepted as husband and wife for the next many lives to come. 

These seven vows are supposed to serve as an anchor to keep the couple going through all the ups and downs of life together, as husband and wife tied to each other in a sacred relationship. 

First vow

The couple appeals to the almighty to shower blessings in the form of pure and nourishing food with a respectful and noble life. The groom pledges to provide welfare and happiness to his wife and children, whereas the bride swears to shoulder all responsibilities for the welfare of the groom's entire family. 

Second vow

The groom requests the bride to be his strength so that he can provide security and protect the family with courage. The bride agrees to abide by, while demanding eternal love and undivided attention. 

Third vow

The couple pleads for wisdom, wealth, and prosperity in order to live a content and satisfied life. They pledge to remain spiritually committed and the bride assures the groom that by the virtue of true love and devotion she will remain a chaste wife. 

Fourth vow

The groom thanks his would-be wife for bringing auspiciousness, happiness, and sacredness in his life. In return, the bride takes an oath to serve and please her husband in every way possible. Together, they also pledge to take care and respect their elders in the family. 

Fifth vow

The importance of the fifth vow is to pray for the welfare of all the living things in this Universe and begetting a noble breed. The couple also prays to almighty to bless each other's friends and family with happiness and well-being. 

Sixth vow

In the sixth vow, God is invoked to bless the couple for bountiful seasons and long lived togetherness. The groom wishes that his wife would glut his life with joy and peace; while the bride provides assurance that she would participate with her husband in all his noble and divine acts.

Seventh vow

This is the last vow adding completion to the ceremony. Here the couple pleads for the long lasting relationship, enriched with understanding and loyalty. They take an oath to nourish their relationship with love and honesty and be together with each other forever not only in this life, but also in the lives to come. 

Even though different religions and cultures have their own unique set of vows and different ways to perform them, the basic meaning of all remains the same 'commitment', a vow of being spiritually united as one. It is a way to assure your partner that he/she is worthy of your love and you are willing to submit, 'till death do you part'. 

True love is all that you need to fulfill all the vows mentioned above; what according to you are the importance of these 'pheras'? Do let us know through comments.

Source: Yahoo!

UPA endorses separate Telengana state

According to the resolution passes by the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Hyderabad will be the common capital of the separated states for the next ten years.

HYDERABAD: The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a separate Telangana state.

Congress' communication in-charge of the AICC, Ajay Maken and general secretary Digvijay Singh made the formal announcement in a press conference.

"Congress Working Committee (CWC) presided by Sonia Gandhipassed a resolution and resolved to form a separate state of Telangana, Hyderabad to be joint capital for 10 years for both states: Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said. 

He added, "Hyderabad will be the common capital of the separated states for next ten years."

"Formation of Telangana has not been an easy decision, wide consultations have been done. Resolution asks Centre to assist Andhra government to maintain harmony in both states."

Digvijay denied that the formation of the new state was a political decision.

"Formation of state will take four to five months. This decision has no connection with elections. One cannot compare Telangana with other issues, this has been a long drawn issue, has been a long standing demand. No new elections, MLAs, MPs to be automatically transferred, IAS and IPS cadre officers to be able to pick states."

"The government will now refer the issue to state assembly of Andhra for an appropriate resolution. Meanwhile, Cabinet will appoint group of ministers to address the issues of people of Andhra and Telangana," he said. "After 10 years, Seemandhra will have a new capital city in place. Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha has to pass Telangana bill after which President has to pass bill."

The Congress general secretary added that the grievances of Seema Andhra have been considered in the resolution.

"Seema Andhra might be inconvenienced, but they are included in the resolution, all their grievances will be considered while drafting law for the new state," he said.

Telangana will be 29th state in the country. It will be the 12th largest state in the Indian union.

Telangana demand genuine: BJP 

The demand for Telangana received a boost as the country's second biggest political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) backed the formation of the separate state.

BJP president Rajnath Singh said the demand for a separate state of Telangana is genuine and should be fulfilled.

"The demand of the people of Andhra for a separate Telangana state is genuine and should be fulfilled. The demands of the Joint Political Action Committee, the demands of the BJP there for a separate state of Telangana should be fulfilled," he informed the media.

Telangana will set a dangerous trend: Omar Abdullah

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the formation of a state based on an agitation will set a "dangerous trend". He said a wrong message will be sent if the state is created.

Security was tightened in Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and Andhra regions) to tackle any situation.

Police and paramilitary forces in Andhra Pradesh, especially in Seemandhra and Hyderabad were on high alert in view of a possible decision on separate statehood to Telangana region. 

Earlier, among the main UPA constituents apart from the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party president and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has already made a strong pitch for the formation of Telangana and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief and civil aviation minister Ajit Singh is a votary of smaller states. (With inputs from agencies)

Source: Yahoo!

Idea Filmfare Awards 2013 (South) winners list

Winners List
Category	Winner	Film
Best Actor (Male)	Pawan Kalyan	Gabbar Singh
Best Actress (Female)	Samantha	Eega
Best Director	S.S.Rajamouli	Eega
Lifetime Acheivement Award	Vani Jairam
Lifetime Award	Bapu
Best Supporting Actor	Sudeep	Eega
Best Supporting Actress	Amala Akkineni	Life is Beautiful
Best cinematographer	Chota K Naidu	Damarukam
Best Music	Devisri Prasad	Gabbar Singh
Best Playback Singer (Male)	V Srinivas (Gannu Lanti)	Gabbar Singh
Best Playback Singer (Female)	Suchitra (Sir Vastara)	Business Man
Best choreographer	Jani (Dillaku Dillaku)	Racha
Best VFX	Makuta	Eega
Best Lyricist	Ananta Sreeram(edi edi)	YVM

Source: idlebrain

Finally, we get GTA V's first gameplay trailer

Rockstar has finally released the first gameplay trailer for the highly anticipated GTA V.

September seems so far away if you are waiting to get your hands on Rockstar’s latest open world adventure, Grand Theft Auto V, or, as the world likes to call it, GTA V. Up till now, we have seen some trailers of the game but this is the first time that we are getting to see some actual gameplay footage.

The world in the game this time around is quite big and diverse ranging from the ghetto to lush untapped lands, beaches and the urban city. The trailer opens with gameplay footage of a jet plane and you will also have the ability to control a motorboat and a variety of cars. That’s pretty epic considering that you will be able to control a wide variety of vehicles.

For the first time in the GTA franchise, the game features not one, but three lead protagonists. You can manually switch between the three protagonists to suite the situation of the game. The example showcased in the trailer is that one could infiltrate a building, and the other proved cover from far away. The story of all the three characters is intertwined and will be interesting to see how the narrative progresses.

When not on a mission, you can drop in and out of the regular life of each of the three characters to see what they are up to.

In terms of gameplay, GTA V is still a third person action game and it seems that the driving and shooting mechanics have been improved upon from the past iterations of the game. The customization options for your character this time around is not only for the clothes you buy or the apparels you wear but for the cars you drive as well.

There are a plethora of things to do in GTA V. you can take a close look at the first gameplay trailer of the game below.   

Source: Thinkdigit

Ditch the Itch! Natural Mosquito Bite Remedies

If you're wary about smothering your skin with DEET to ward off mosquitoes, you probably end up with a few too many bug bites. The itchiness can drive you nuts, especially if you're hot or trying to sleep. Although scratching the affected area might offer immediate relief, it'll only cause more inflammation, which makes it itch even more, but worse, if you scratch the bite until it bleeds, opening the skin with your dirty fingernails can put you at risk for an infection. If you're a magnet for mosquito bites, here are some healthy ways to relieve that annoying itch. Many of these are folk remedies used in the holistic community with little to no scientific evidence to back them up, but then again, many people swear these work. Instead of just suffering, it may be worth giving them a try.

Alcohol: While pounding a few beers can help you forget about your itchy skin, that's not the type of alcohol I'm talking about. Grab rubbing alcohol or an alcohol wipe from a first aid kit and clean the infected area as soon as you notice you're bitten, and it can help prevent severe itchiness. No alcohol? Simple soap and water works well, too.
Lemon or lime juice: Naturally anti-itch, antibacterial, and antimicrobial, a little bit of fresh-squeezed juice on the affected area can reduce itchiness and prevent infection. Use this remedy indoors since direct sun exposure can cause your skin to blister.

10 Natural Ways to Keep Your Home Pest-Free

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 

Flies hate the smell of basil. To discourage them, place pots of basil at doorways and windowsills and on the kitchen counter. Don't have enough sun for potted basil? Put dried basil in a small muslin... more 

Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Pinterest

Close

Previous image

Next image

Ice: To reduce swelling and numb the itch away, an ice pack does the trick. If you have too many bites to count, go for a cold shower or a dip in a chilly lake.
Baking soda and witch hazel: For an inexpensive anti-itch remedy, make a thick paste with these two ingredients and apply it to your bites for 15 minutes. Baking soda contains an alkaline compound that may help neutralize the pH of your skin, which can help ease inflammation. If you don't have witch hazel, use water instead.
Tea tree oil: A natural anti-inflammatory that can help with acne or poison ivy, this essential oil can also help reduce swelling and prevent infection if you can't help but scratch.
Toothpaste: If you don't mind little white spots all over your skin, apply dabs of peppermint toothpaste for quick itch relief. 
Salt: For fast relief, moisten the bite with a little water and gently rub it with finely ground salt. Or better yet, if you're near the beach, go for a saltwater swim.
Aloe: The cooling effect of fresh aloe can soothe the itch and help heal the skin if it has been scratched open.
Apple cider vinegar: Diluted in your bathtub, it not only can soothe sunburn, but the malic acid in apple cider vinegar can also soothe your itch. Not into taking a bath? Dab a few drops on a cotton ball and apply directly to the affected areas.
Banana peel: Don't knock it till you try it! The sugars from the peel may help draw fluid out of the bite, so try rubbing the inside of a banana peel on the area.
Saliva: A trick my brother used to use on me, spit a little on your finger, gently dab it on the bite, and let air-dry.
Slapping: It may seem a little odd, but you can confuse your nerves by slapping the area with your hands, and your brain won't be able to discern between itch and pain.

Source: Yahoo

The Secret Lives of Mangoes

In the worst mango season in a decade, our writer finds himself in the middle of an orchard of the famous Rataul variety. In the grip of its sweetness, he begins a journey. To where? Does it matter? From the birds to the bees, from summer memories to gorging on small craft varieties, from Pathans to hijras to zamindars, from the history of its culture to the history of its tastes, he extols, he exults

I keep looking around, waiting for it to occur. There has to be one. Just one.

It happens as we are about to leave the mango orchard. A journalist from a well-known Delhipublication climbs a tree. Not to gain fruit or perspective, both of which are plentiful on terra firma. It is an atavistic urge. I know because I, too, feel it.

Primates and fruits go back a long, long way. Our arboreal ancestors would have found the most delightful sustenance in fruit. The success of flowering and fruit-bearing plants on earth is down to co-evolution, to the partnership of rooted plants that outsource pollination and seed dispersal to mobile animals.

The co-evolutionary commodities exchange thrived on sugar – in fruit and in nectar. If the plant wanted to load up its seed with long-term packaged nutrition, the seed proved too heavy for insects and birds. It needed larger conveyors; it needed mammals. But they exacted a bigger payment: larger fruits, more flesh, more sugar.

Then our ancestors descended into grasslands, straightened their backs, cultured certain nutritious grasses into food grain, and embarked on an omnivorous colonising mission. But the congenital desire of fruit and sugar never left us. That’s how the food processing industry has us addicted to refined sugars.

A former editor of mine, now dead, described how he would lose all taste in his mouth after cancer treatment. The measured poisons of chemotherapy made everything taste bitter, metallic. Slowly, as the drugs ebbed inside his body, other tastes returned. Salt. Sour. The last to return, each time, was sweet. Just describing the return of the taste of sweet would light up his face. A child smiled through the pain.

That’s what our taste sensors do on contact with those simple, sugary hydrates of carbon. Each parent knows it on the face of his child. Each diabetic is intimate with the hostility between the taste buds and insulin. Even as an adjective, sweet is special. Sweet sound. Sweet shot. Sweetieee.

The rarer the sweet, the greater the desire. Consider that it appears in the most inhospitable season in our subcontinent, and the hype about mangoes seems only logical. No fruit attracts such attention in the tropics. 

• 

1 / 13

Yahoo! India News

Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Pinterest

Close

Previous image

Next image

Unlike the apple, it does not need to piggyback a marketing message of preventive medicine. Just the taste of mango will do fine for us, thank you. Can you imagine that irreverent poet, Mirza Ghalib, source of the juiciest mango anecdotes, in the thrall of hypochondria, queuing up at a Reliance Fresh outlet to buy a dozen apples to keep the doctor away? 

Everybody has mango stories, even if we can’t articulate them with the felicity of a Ghalib. I remember lying on my back, staring at the stars in the company of my cousins during the Dussehra holidays of my childhood, arguing which season was the best. I argued vehemently for winter. And then a cousin settled the debate with one question: Which season gives mangoes? I was silenced.

Coming from a landless family, I envied classmates whose stories featured mango orchards. Which is why my friend, owner of a myriad of mango trees and enough productive land to dent India’s food security, cannot understand my enthusiasm about standing in the middle of a mango orchard, or climbing a tree. I’ve dragged her on this trip to Baghpat’s Rataul village, famous for its mangoes. For people who have tasted mangoes of Uttar Pradesh (UP), two varieties get mentioned repeatedly: the Rataul for its fragrance and the Chausa for the texture of its flesh. 

“Leave a basket of Rataul on the table. It will scent the house for a week,” says Nisar Ahmed Abbasi, the minder of a mango orchard in Rataul that retired professor Zahoor Siddiqui has inherited. In Delhi, Qazi Najam Islam does not wait a minute to name Rataul as his favourite. He should know his fruit, being the mango point man for the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee of Azadpur Mandi, India’s largest wholesale market for fruits. 

Apart from trading in mangoes, he has his own orchards in UP’s Bulandshahr. So when he says the current mango season is perhaps the worst in more than a decade, he is speaking for both growers and traders. “I am yet to hear of anybody making a profit in the mango trade this season, not even in Andhra Pradesh (AP).” AP is India’s largest mango producer, which along with UP accounts for more than half of India’s total mango production. 

Back in Rataul, walking in the orchard, Abbasi reiterates that this is a particularly bad year. It was never expected to be a good one because mango has a biennial cycle. Last year was a bumper harvest, so this was always going to be a lean year. But the weather made it worse. 

“I bet this irregular weather is due to climate change,” says Sheikh Insram Ali, president of the All India Mango Growers’ Association. “The winter lingered beyond the time of flowering. Then, when the fruit needed heat to mature, we had storms. Before you knew it, the monsoon had arrived.” He estimates the growers will be lucky to make 40 percent of what they did last year. 

But a bad year ought to reflect in prices, in the well-known ways of demand and supply. Should not the growers get higher returns for smaller yields? 

“Untimely rains mean we cannot hold on to the produce. We cannot leave the fruit on the tree and we cannot store it for very long after taking it off. So everybody is offloading the produce at the same time, creating a glut, depressing the price,” says Ali, who has his ancestral orchards in Malihabad, a village near Lucknow famous for its mangoes. 

The mango trade is changing. Najam Islam says the traditional mango belts of UP are losing profits to competition from newer regions, such as Gujarat: “The mango consumer is not that discerning any more. People have many options for sweets.” Then there is competition from imported fruits like the kiwi from New Zealand and apples from America and China, which attract young people. Increasingly, therefore, it makes sense to leave his land fallow or grow sugarcane on it. 

Why not explore export markets? Both Islam and Ali point out that most mango varieties do not last long enough to travel distances. “It’s only a few varieties like the Hapus (Alphonso) which have a long shelf life. Besides, Hapus is grown on the west coast, where it is quickly exported to the Gulf countries, from where it travels the world,” says Ali. 

Which partly explains the hype about Hapus, of which I have sampled a few over the years. It does not cut my Top 10. It looks presentable, tastes good, and is at home in the supermarket shelves of the industrialised West. One summer in America, during a moment of weakness and longing for the homeland, I picked up some Florida mangoes that looked appealing. I was to later learn that it was a variety called Tommy Atkins. The taste? I’ve never had mangoes outside India thereafter. 

My mango sensors were trained on small-sized local varieties in mofussil India; they did not look as appealing as Hapus or Tommy Atkins, but the taste was far superior to Mango Frooti. At the right place and at the right time, minor mango varieties promise a taste that results from hundreds of years of breeding and selection. India has an estimated 1,000 varieties, most of which do not have a market. 

UP is the capital of special varieties produced in small quantities and consumed locally. They are the craft mangoes of a bygone era (like the craft breweries coming up in Gurgaon and Bangalore among the neo-rich who want their patch of Europeana in the vicinity of their gated communities). My childhood favourite is a small, slightly sour variety of Malwa that my favourite uncle used to bring by the bagful from the Itwaria mandi in Indore. It was great to suck, and the aam ras was only better. He still laughs at my convulsions of joy on encountering those small, desi mangoes. 

I ask an Old-Timer who had an ancestral mango orchard in Baghpat, UP; a widely travelled gastronome and cook, he’s an authority on Indian cuisines and has strong opinions. I’m ready for a homily on the virtues of UP’s mangoes. He snaps back to say the belt between Itarasi (MP) and Nagpur (Maharashtra) produces some unusually tasty mangoes. Check the railway platforms of small stations in that area, he says; they’re worth getting off the train (and not getting back on). He also recalls sampling very good mangoes in several belts of peninsular India. 

The only southern varieties one finds in Delhi are Banganpalli (mistakenly called Safeda, which is actually a much smaller variety from Malihabad near Lucknow), Totapuri and Sinduri -- all of which taste like they were grown in the Indian Standards Institute office near ITO in Delhi. The more delicate varieties from the south must be getting consumed locally, I guess (an idea for a road trip!). 

So what’s the story behind these varieties? Who created them? The Old-Timer jogs his memory. “In UP, orchards often employed Pathans who came from an area known for quality fruits. They were skilled at grafting, which is a better way to guarantee a variety’s purity. One place that often cropped up in fruity conversations during my childhood was Chaman. It was an adjective signifying plenitude.” 

Community histories are tricky; they can indicate some broader truths, but are seldom reliable for fact. So I look up Chaman on the Internet. It is a small town in Baluchistan, bordering Afghanistan. Its name shows up in stories about the fruit trade. The Old-Timer adds that several Bania communities were also a critical part of the transformation of UP’s mango belts. Now, there are 13 belts in the state. 

Down south, grafting was introduced by the Portuguese, it appears. Then there are accounts of communities that avoided grafting, preferring trees grown from seeds. Of people tending to young mango trees like they tend to children, plucking out the fruit when it had set so that the young tree grows without investing any energy into fruiting. There are accounts of orchards that were open to everybody but the seed kernels could not be taken out — an indication of germplasm protection. 

Ali says several communities put their little bit into creating this cornucopia, but most of the germplasm came from Murshidabad in West Bengal. Which joins with some claims that the mango’s centre of origin is in north-eastern India. In central India, one hears about Hijdon-ki-Amrai; devoid of successors, certain hijras left behind their wealth as orchards for the common good. So eunuchs weren’t just the builders of public works (one built the old Barapullah bridge in Delhi in 1621) but the creators of sweet legacies. This also explains the narrative that mango was food for the poorest of the poor; during the lean season (pre-monsoon, unproductive, mango-bearing), they ate their chapattis with mango because other items were unaffordable. 

There are tales of zamindars who lined roadsides with mango trees for shade. That those trees bore plentiful fruit did not hurt. There are accounts of orchards with a stadium in the middle for sports, and shade and fruits for the spectators along a gradient, like modern stands. 

The origin of a variety like Rataul is a fertile, many-ended story. Some will tell you it is derived from the Safeda of Malihabad. One account says the mango connoisseur behind it was Lala Rehtu Mal of Rataul, and people used to take his name while enjoying the fruit. What we know for certain is the variety and the place. Like breeds of livestock, mango varieties are often named after the place of their creation — Dasheri is a village near Lucknow, for instance. There was a certain pride in the place, but no hint of aspiration in the nomenclature. Aspiration is hubris. 

General Zia-ul-Haq, goes a narrative, brought with him a tokri of Pakistan’s premium mango, Anwar Rataul, when he met the then-prime minister Indira Gandhi (again, we are in the realm of stories, so a willing suspension of disbelief is requested). Subsequently, a delegation from Rataul in Baghpat also sent their choicest produce, reminding Ms Gandhi that the Anwar Rataul was merely a variant of their marquee fruit. 

The last I heard of mango diplomacy was when India lowered its emission norms to allow entry for the American motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson. In return, the US withdrew curbs on mango exports from India. An unequal trade, obviously; the US negotiators were more skilled than their Indian counterparts. 

Far from the world of trade trends, trees, orchards, and semi-nonfiction, I arrive at Dilli Haat to negotiate the reality of the Delhi government’s annual mango fest. There are five hundred varieties on display; scores of traders from all over the country ply their wares. I flit from stall to stall, settling on one that’s offering the produce of Sitapur, UP. Several representatives of the variety called Husnara (after the heroine of an early Urdu novel) are followed with a few rounds of Zard Aloo (yellow potato). 

If this is the output of the worst year in a decade, I can’t wait for the bumper crop of 2014. 

A reporter, writer and editor for 17 years, Sopan Joshi is a freelance journalist in Delhi and writes in Hindi and English. He is writing a book on the many sides of sanitation, and is currently a Research Fellow at the Gandhi Peace Foundation. His recent work is available at mansampark

Source: YahooNews