Call for submission

 My friends at Nivasini Publishers are calling artistic submissions for their upcoming book themed CELEBRATING INDIA. You can submit your short stories (800-1500 words), poetry (within 27 lines), illustrations, photographs, interesting facts. You will get a chance to be featured in the Collector's edition of Nivasini.com upon getting selected. Share anything and everything depicting or narrating your way of being Indian. The childhood memories of your narrow streets, a monument you associate yourself with, the Indian food you can't spend a day without, the colors of the festivals you await to spread, the legendary war hero you want to be like, the bhangra that makes your legs shake, everything that makes you Indian. Share and let the world know what sets your India apart and why it is special to you.

Click, sketch, write, narrate. Be it in punjabi, telugu, bengali or assamese. Send your Indian spirit and be a part of the book.
Refer to www.nivasini.com if you wish to know more about Nivasini Publications. You may also get in touch with them here.

Send your submissions at  submit@nivasini.com
Latest date for submission of entries: 10th June.

Note: The work shared should be genuine, please do not plagiarize. Standard copyright rules apply.

Writers Carnival in Hyderabad

A fellow engineer, a poet and a dear friend who blogs at Restless Fingers is releasing the book Ah! Poetry at the writers carnival happening tonight at Saptaparni, in Hyderabad.

If you're reading this and if its not 5:00pm of 3rd March 2012, consider yourself invited. Come on over for a joyous time and listen to some poets, writers, authors and have a wonderful evening and rejuvenate your muse. Find out more details and RSVP to the event here.

PopCorn is 6700 years old!

We all have tasted popcorn atleast once in our life. It's probably the first choice of movie goers and marathon TV viewers. There are plenty of flavors and varieties popcorn come in. If we like a movie we want a bag full of popcorn, if the do not like the movie we rely on popcorn and go through the rest of time in the theater munching on it. As Dan Glickman says "I'm someone who believes the only way to see a movie is in a big theater, on a big screen, with a big bag of popcorn." Although the Big Screens and Imax and 3D are all 21st century inventions Popcorn is being consumed from the past 6000 odd years. Believe it or not!

A latest news report  talks about a discovery made in Peru. According to the research done it is believed that the Peru inhabitants have been consuming Popcorn since 6700 years even before the ceramic pottery was invented. You can read more about the research and the conclusion here.

So next time you munch on to that bag/bowl of popcorn remember that its was once a past time food for our ancestors somewhere in the western part of the world.

Kuch Na Kisi Se Bolengey

This is my first post of 2012 and what better way of starting it, than with a Faraz' poem.  

This poem is listed in my all time favorites and more so because I sort of relate to every 

syllable of it. Read on and Enjoy!!!  

Kuch na kisi se bolenge, tanhaai mein ro lenge. 

Ham berahabaron kaa kyaa, saath kisi ke ho lenge.
Khud to huvey rusvaa lekin, tere bhed na kholenge.
Jeevan zahar bharaa saagar hai, kab tak amrit gholenge.
Neennd to kyaa aayegii 'Faraz', maut aaii to so lenge.

Twitter is down and its not even 2012 yet

On this new year's when most of the world is busy partying and clubbing and barbequing and boozing and etc etc...... I've been sitting on my laptop carrying on with my usual research. I had this sudden urge to tweet some poetry and it was disappointing to see the Twitter is Down For Maintenance message on its home page. 

What grabbed my attention was the absence of the Blue Twitter Whale. It's gone, and is no where to be seen. It has been replaced with a cartoon of an Ice Cream cone trying to console a caterpillar, with a thought bubble as shown in the picture below.

This picture is self explanatory and I must say that I really feel like that Ice-Cream hoping to see twitter back again and trying to chillax. With the allegedly doomed 2012 just an hour away, let me see how long i can be patient (been almost 3 hours already by now).

ps: I just had to write something and hence this post. By the way, if you believe in celebrating a mere change of dates a Very Happy New Year. May whoever reading this prosper and succeed in his/her life. -Amen

P for Peace P for Palestine

 Below are the videos excerpts of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking for and against the statehood of Palestine respectively in front of the General Assembly at the UN this Friday. 

Very carefully listen to both of them and you'll know who's right and who's wrong. Seems to me that in order to obtain the goal of returning to their homeland Palestine, all of them have to grit their teeth now. 

Think again the children walking over the bricks of their devastated homes, with their mothers putting up the tents instead of making food, with their fathers locked up in jail for no good reason, sobbing for they cannot even afford tears, with tanks and gunmen walking down the streets, the palestinian child can just stare hopelessly. We can not even imagine what it feels like to be a Palestinian. VIVA LA VIDA!

  and now you see the other end of it

I'll leave you with a quote by Yasser Arafat "I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand".

courtesy: WashingtonPost & AP

How to activate the new Facebook Timeline

source: cnet.com

If you are impatient and want to experience the new Timeline Facebook announced earlier today, you can turn it through the developer section of Facebook. The process is simple, takes a few minutes, and will require some patience as Facebook tidies up any lingering issues and bugs. You game? Read on.

As reported on TechCrunch just a bit ago, users can quickly enable the Facebook Timeline on their account in a matter of minutes. Here's how you do it.

1. Visit the Facebook Developer page, and enable it for your account. If you aren't currently logged in, you will be required to do so. 

2. The button to create a new app can be found in the top right corner of the Apps page. Make sure to give your app a display name and name space when requested (it doesn't matter what you enter here, no one will see this app, just make something up and continue). Accept the Platform Privacy agreement by checking the box. You will have to have a verified Facebook account, meaning you have either a credit card or phone number on file.

3. After the app has been named and terms accepted, you will then be taken to your shiny new apps' settings screen. You will see an Open Graph option on the left-hand side. Click on it.

4. You will need to define an action for your new app. You can enter whatever you like; no one is going to see this app when all is said and done, so don't fret too much over the details. (We entered "People can 'high five' a 'video'" as our action). Click on Get Started once you have entered your action.
























5. Once you are presented with the screen above, you don't actually have to do anything, just scroll to the bottom and select Save Changes. You may have to do this on a couple different screens; just remember to scroll to the bottom and select Save Changes.

6. After you are taken back to the Dashboard for Open Graph, you have completed the setup process. Give it a few minutes, then go back to your Facebook home page. You should then see a big invite to enable Timeline. If you don't see it right away, give it a few minutes.

That's it. Once you click on Get It Now, you will then be redirected to your new Timeline. Your Timeline is private, by default, for the time being. You can either edit it until you are ready to publish it, or you can ride it out and let Facebook publish it for you on September 29. 

One more note: if you access your Facebook account from another computer, your Timeline is turned off. To get it back, enter the follow URL into your browser: http:www.facebook.com/[yourusername]?sk=timeline. Make sure to replace [yourusername] with your actual Facebook username.

Happy Facebooking everyone.

Source: CNET