Sports in India

The history of sports in India dates back to the Vedic era. Physical culture in ancient India was fed by a powerful fuel--religious rites. There were some well-defined values like the mantra in the Atharva-Veda, saying," Duty is in my right hand and the fruits of victory in my left". In terms of an ideal, these words hold the same sentiments as the traditional Olympic oath: ".......For the Honour of my Country and the Glory of Sport." The founders of the Olympic idea had India very much in mind when they were deciding on the various disciplines. There is a fascinating link between Greece and India which stretches back to 975 B.C. The zest for chariot-racing and wrestling was common to both the countries.

Cinema Industry in Tamilnadu

Everyone has heard of Bollywood, but Kollywood? The Tamil film industry is little-known outside India, where enthusiasts would never confuse it with its Hindi-language cousin based in Bombay.

Indeed, Kollywood – derived from Kodambakkum, the area of Madras associated with film production – is bigger than Bollywood, a term often erroneously used to describe the entire Indian film industry.

Sivaji: The Boss, a Tamil action flick, is reputed to be the most expensive Indian film ever made, with a budget of about $20 million, including an unprecedented $4 million fee for Rajinikanth, its star. Its release this year caused chaotic scenes in cinemas and set box office records at home and abroad.

The industry, which accounts for around 1 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s GDP, is powerful and has been bound with politics since the 1930s. Indeed, its influence on state politics – and vice versa – runs so deep many leaders have appeared on the big screen or worked behind the scenes. Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the chief minister, was a scriptwriter; Jayaram Jayalalitha, his predecessor (and successor), was a popular actress.

Yet it was M. G. Ramachandran, the superstar known as MGR, whose decade in power cemented the relationship between films and the popular vote to the point where it is now almost impossible to attain office without experience in the industry.

Despite a reign overshadowed by chronic corruption, police brutality and disastrous economic policies, MGR was a deity to the masses. Upon his death in 1987, two million people attended his funeral and 31 grief-ridden fans committed ritual suicide.

The Secret of Life

Any 4-year-old who likes ladybugs and lightning bolts can tell you that life is wildly beautiful as far as the eye can see. But it took the geniuses of our time to reveal how beautifully ordered life is deep down where we can't see it at all — in the molecular workshop where we become who we are. James Watson and Francis Crick did not discover the existence of DNA; they discovered its structure, which means they unveiled its power as well as its beauty. If you could uncoil a strip of DNA, it would reach 6 ft. in length, a code book written in words of four chemical letters: A, T, G and C. Fold it back up, and it shrinks to trillionths of an inch, small enough to fit in any one of our 100 trillion cells, carrying the recipe for how to make a human being from scratch. The ingredients are the same for everything that lives; we are cousins to sequoias, and slugs — one life, one creation.

Computer & IT Jokes

CONVERSATIONS WITH TECHNICAL SUPPORT


• Tech Support: "What version of the Mac OS are you using?"
Customer: "Word 6.0."

• Tech Support: "What browser are you using, Netscape or Microsoft?"
Customer: "Netscape."
Tech Support: "Could you read to me what it says at the top of the window?"
Customer: "'Global Travel Conference - Microsoft Internet Explorer'."

• Tech Support: "Are you installing on a Mac?"
Customer: "No, I'm using a 3.5" thingee on a disk."

• Tech Support: "This has Windows 98 on it -- did it have Windows 98 or 95 on it when it was sent out for repair?"
Customer: "I think it had Office 97."

• Tech Support: "How much free space do you have on your hard drive?"
Customer: "Well, my wife likes to get up there on that Internet, and she downloaded ten hours of free space. Is that enough?"

• Customer: "I keep getting an error message whenever I try using the MSDOS mode in Windows 95."
Tech Support: "Can you describe what happens?"
Customer: "Well, I keep getting a black screen with an error message saying, 'C:\WINDOWS>'."

• Tech Support: "which drive is your CD ROM?"
Customer: "the top one."

• Customer: "Do I hit 'F' and '8' at the same time?"

• Tech Support: "Your password will be...a small 'a' as in apple, a capital 'V' as in Victor, the number '7' "
Customer: "Is that a capital '7'?"

• Tech Support: "Ok, let's try once more, but use lower case letters..."
Customer: "Uh, I only have capital letters on my keyboard."