Tirupati Laddu----- A informative look

Laddu is really a delicious Indian Sweet...now what will be interesting to know if that Laddu is religious one.

I found some amazing info regarding Tirupati Laddu..here it goes.........

The Tirupati Laddu got its Geographical Indication patent rights on September 15. 2009.The Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the Tirupati temple in Andhra, had applied for GI with Chennai-based Geographical Indication Registry in March last year to avoid black marketing by hawkers and middlemen.
· Around 150,000 laddus are made daily and the annual revenue out of the sale of laddus is a whopping Rs two crore.
· One laddu is given free to each devotee visiting the temple and this number is around 50,000.
· A devotee can buy extra two laddus for himself. One laddu costs Rs 25 now.
· A small laddu weighs 175 g whereas the big one weighs 700 g.
· There is a super huge Tirupati Laddu known as Kalyana Laddu and it weighs around 500gms - 1/2 a kilogram.
· Single largest laddu made is said to have weighed 32 kg.
· The tradition of Tirupati Laddu is nearly 300 years old.
· It is prepared by special hereditary priests known as archakas in special temple kitchen known as 'potu'.
· Ingredients used in Tirupati Laddu are Besan flour (kadalai mavu), Sugar, Cashew nuts, Cardamom, Ghee, Oil, Sugar candy, Raisins and Almonds
On a daily basis, the kitchen workers use about:5000 kg of Besan flour, 10000 kg of sugar, 1000 kg of cashew nuts, 350 kg of cardamom, 500 kg of sugar candy , 750 kg of raisins and 500 kg of Ghee to prepare laddus.
· The ingredients are bought at the auction at the Commodities and Spices Exchange in Kochi.
The architect of the 'laddu empire' is Kalyanam Iyengar and was the brain behind making laddu synonymous with Tirupati. He had several hundreds of men working in a a 'potu' (a large kitchen) inside the temple premises itself. The offerings to the Lord should be done inside precincts of the temple complex.An embodiment of virtues and humility, he was named Kalyanam Iyengar by the great politician wizard Rajaji because he donated 'thali' and wedding dresses to the needy.Till 1996, the myriad of prasadams were made only by the persons nominated by the five laddu mirasadars. However, between 1996 and 2001, TTD prepared the prasadams themselves. But with the growing influx of pilgrims, the board was forced to outsource the same after 2001.

The Shocking truth of IPL Parties

After the poor performance of Indian Cricket Team in T20 World Cup; came the outburst of skipper MSD regarding the IPL nite parties. Here is some shocking revelations.........

"Dhoni was right in one way. Players have to make their own choices about their bodies, but it's not always that easy - not if you're not Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid.

My problem with the IPL Nites parties was not that I was forced to attend by any contractual obligation. There was no such thing for me, or, to my knowledge, for any of my fellow India players.

Each party was invariably the same routine. You would have a set-up with a ramp show that lasted 30 to 45 minutes, then the models would come off and mix with the rest and the party would take off.

There were cheerleaders and girls who we called 'escort service'. Beautiful women to add glamour to the mix, get the party moving. They were not allowed to talk to any player for more than five minutes. If they did, a manager would walk up and slickly move her away.

But there were other women, willing and uninhibited. The big-name players who did attend generally handled themselves without a problem. They would hang around, chat, have a drink, pick up a happy girl, sometimes two, take her back to the hotel room and have some fun.

Watching some of our younger players, the u-19 and u-22 kids, though, was scary. They had never been exposed to Bollywood stars, Page 3 personalities, endless cigarettes (all free), flowing booze, occasionally drugs and always women, willing women, everywhere. The boys lapped it up, and would party right through. Those that didn't drink or smoke did so to be part of the cool gang.

The pressure lay more in the occasional hint dropped by an IPL official, a sponsor or a franchise official that it would be good if I were there for a bit, that there were some people they would like me to meet. I am not Tendulkar or Dravid, I couldn't say no, go back to my room and stay there and not be bothered.

So when you go back to the room to recover, you really don't want to hang around there when the rest of the guys are going downstairs - the parties are always in the team hotels - and you don't want to be called "boring".

So you tell yourself, 'I'll go down for an hour', only, it's never an hour. Before you know it, it's 4am and you're heading back to your room, hurrying to pack up and head to another city, another game, another sponsor's commitment (which are endless), another shoot possibly and yes, another party.

The problem is that you can never switch off mentally. Not on the field, not during the hours spent in airports when fans and the airport staff want an autograph, photograph or just a chat and not in the parties, where you'll be introduced to important people who will listen to you and perhaps, be important contacts who will make money for you. It's a choice and it's tiring but it's also business. You have to be switched on.

It takes a toll, when you play a game, party till 4am, pack and grab an hour's sleep before heading for the airport and spend six to 12 hours travelling. Places like Jaipur and Chandigarh don't have direct connections to everywhere else. That's my most vivid memory of IPL, not the matches, not the parties but the endless travel and exhaustion - and next year, with 34 games more, it will only get worse. I didn't even know if I really wanted to. It's like this.

The IPL is intense; short bursts of highly charged games and then, nothing. There's no period of introspection."

(As told to Heena Zuni Pandit. The player has chosen to remain anonymous.)

Thrilling Win .....India bt South Africa by 1 run

Overall it was a heart boiling kinda match, but Indian team got control over their nerves to win the match.

There were several mistakes by Indian team...first of lack of communication during running between the wicket and the second and big one I thought is captaincy of MS Dhoni, why Dhoni less used Praveen Kumar over expensive Sreesanth, while Sreesanth bowled 9 overs and Praveen Kumar didnt complete his quota.

But at last thanks to Nehra and Praveen Kumar India save the match otherwise after the big effort of Kallis and at last Parnell-Steyn pair would have snatched the match from indian team.

Well, a lot of people would have put their money on SA to chase this down but, the Indians did well to get wickets at regular intervals and put the pressure on the visitors. Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers taking two crucial wickets and conceeding only 29 runs in his ten overs. Kallis fought a lone battle and kept things at bay but his well made 89 was not sufficient to take them home. Sreesanth came back well after being hit for 31 runs in his 3 overs and got 2 important wickets including that of Kallis. Steyn and Parnell hit a few big ones towards the end to cause a few hiccups but it was all too late by then. SA are tagged 'chokers' but they did everythin to prove that wrong today. India won the match by 1 run at the end courtesy PK. Dhoni shuffled his bowlers pretty well, and with this win, India inch closer to retain the No 2 spot in the ICC rankings.

At one stage, this game looked dead and buried for SA, but they found 2 unlikely heroes with the bat, in Parnell and Steyn who got them within sniffing distance. In the end, even the normally composed Dhoni was looking extremely nervous out there. What a start to the series. This is just an indication of what is to come in the remaining 2 matches.

2 States - The Story Of My Marriage: by Chetan Bhagat

As usual! Was my first expression after finishing the 2 States - The Story Of My Marriage.

For Chetan, personally this is a continuation after FPS.

Author describes the nuances of his marriage with Anusha, his wife (in Novel Character called Ananya), a TamBam.

Its 4^th from Chetan’s stable, very much better than “3 Mistakes of my life”

See my previous entry on “3 Mistakes of my life”. http://jainashwani.blogspot.com/2008/08/my-letter-to-chetan-bhagat-in-context.html

IMHO FPS is the best. We also saw the adaptation in 3 IDIOTS(not writing much on this topic, already controversial)

2 states is a flowing read. I managed time within my working hours of a week.

As expected, Chetan again came back with his whacky humor, killer one liners (which I like most), comment snippets particularly about Girls; just awesome!

Chetan had enough of analysis of general female behavior and characteristic in FPS; now in Two States He again showed his shrewd analysis with great sense of humor.

Girl and Boy situations are much like “Men are from Mars and Women from Venus” scenario; like girls always care how they are looking no matter what is the situation!

Description of IIM and Delhi is good and as far as Tamil detail is concerned to every north Indian’s amusement, Chetan directly compares the scenes from South Movies.

Although so much stereotypical things about relationship, family, social stigma; but that is the social fabric of middle class India.

So much Humor related to Punjabis like, “ready to gulp every time”, loud makeup, flamboyant lifestyle; I found it quite amusing as I think these are really Punjabi Characteristic (seriously no Pun Intended).

I see such things on daily basis (residing in Punjabi dominated locality).

And yes Chetan Bhagat does not give too much info on Punjabi girls, by the way they are just……..

In the novel Chetan portrays Punjabi girl quite dumb kinda….a la Blonde girls in West.

Now Chetan has developed the skill of inserting timely “testosterone charged scenes”, enough of romps in novel, quite like previous books.

Two states ends on a happy note, Krish Fathering the twins.

Summing up, it is a bit above average read.

Review of Salman's Veer : "Veergati ko Praapt"

More drama less substance thats VEER for you. Pure bollywood without any intensity. Some sections in media compared Veer before the release; to movies like 300, The Braveheart, Gladiator and The Troy; but such movies are incomparable.

Veer is lacking at so many places.

First comes to the soul of a flick-Script, script is the weakest link. Veer does not have any set defined goals, like what He wanted his lady love or destroying enemy state or the Britishers.

Many a times movie seems like "not a love story f a warrior, but a love story of father-son duo". Too much of Salman-Mithun bonding.

Also Sohail who tries his over the top antics in his every movie does not fit well.

I am also unable to understand "Punjabi Speaking Pindharis in Rajputana" ; quite strange.

Direction is not upto the mark.

Silly dialouges and yeah "words of Pindhari are such strong that Leads to Reincarnation of Salman as His Son"; although reincarnation is favourite old time bollywood theme but now this is not digestable.

Music is good.

And yeah Salman, with his good physiue and heavy voice carried the aura of a warrior very well but still far behind the sheer intensity of Leonidas of 300 and Russel Crow in The Gladiator. Although Salman looks good despite his 5'7'' height , He is perfect with handling his frame(and also at handling taller leading ladies).

Now, Zarine Khan; not bad acting, looked charming.

i read it in media After meeting Zarine first time Salman Said " If you intersts me , then whole nation will be interested in you"; yor are right Salman. It is said that Zarine resembles to Katrina but I found Zarine A mix of Katrina and bit of Priety Zinta.

Overall a just timepass kinda movie, a one time watch.

It disappointed me.

International Friendship Day2009, Friendship Day Quotes

International Friendship Day celebrations take place on the first sunday of August every year. The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in US in 1935. In 1935 American Govt had killed a person on 1st Saturday of Aug. The next day his friend committed suicide in his memory. Since then American Govt declared 1st Sunday of Aug as friendship day. Gradually the festival gained popularity and today Friendship Day is celebrated in large number of countries. On this day people spend time with their friends and express love for them. Exchange of Friendship Day Gifts like flowers, cards and wrist bands is a popular tradition of this occasion.
The United States Congress, in 1935, proclaimed the first sunday of August as National Friendship Day. Since then, celebration of National Friendship Day became an annual event. The noble idea of honoring the beautiful relationship of friendship caught on with the people and soon Friendship Day became a hugely popular festival.
Following the popularity and success of Friendship Day in US, several other countries adopted the tradition of dedicating a day to friends. Today, Friendship Day is enthusiastically celebrated by several countries across the world. In 1997, the United Nations named Winnie the Pooh as the world's Ambassador of Friendship.
Most countries in the world, however, celebrates the "Friends Day" on July 20th. For this reason, on July 17th, 2009 Facebook launched a marketing campaign declaring "Friends Day" as July, 20th.

" Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends. "
- Mary Catherwood

" Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival. "
- C. S. Lewis

" Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success. "
- Oscar Wilde

"Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.” - Elbert Hubard

“True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.” – Charles Caleb Colton

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” – Anais Nin

“My friends are my estate.” – Emily Dickinson

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” – Walter Winchell

“A friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else.” - Len Wein

"A hug is worth a thousand words. A friend is worth more."

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out." : Walter Winchell

"A friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else." : Len Wein

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

"A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself."

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.Walk beside me and be my friend." : Albert Camus

Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life."

"The better part of one's life consists of his friendships." : Abraham Lincoln

"The love of my life is the love between friends."

"To be depressed is to be lonely; to have a friend is to be happy..." : Guido

Friendship is like a perennial river which flows forever. It may change it's path but will never ever dry up.

Daniel Suelo, A man who lives without money.

Daniel Suelo says nine years ago, in the fall of 2000, Daniel decided not to use money. He now lives in a cave and writes about his hobo life at the library on a blog...for free, of course.

"He lives off the land, scours the forest and river bank for food and gatheris discarded items from the town.

So, he lives off of someone else's money, by scavaging. Simple as that.

Jesus, on the other hand, lived without money and didn't make anything of it. Jesus was more like the woman in Germany who has lived without money for 12 yrs.

Jesus performed kindnesses, healed the sick, received favors in return and with that was able to eat and feed his disciples, who likely had bank accounts they could tap in to. Who knows?

In any event, it's pretty much impossible to get by without money, either using your own or taking advantage of someone else's.

Unless, of course, you can make wine from water or catch a fish and reproduce it miraculously like Jesus did.

Hindustani classical vocalist Gangubai Hangal -- Died

A rebel who broke caste and gender barriers, a perfectionist and a singer par excellence - this is how Hindustani classical vocalist Gangubai Hangal will always be known to her numerous fans and fellow musicians.

The doyenne of the Kirana Gharana, who died in Karnataka's Hubli town Tuesday morning at the age of 97, had often said that she made music because she felt it was her duty to hand down her music to future generations for posterity.

In her musical career, Hangal was almost reborn when she lost her voice after a brief illness but returned with a new masculine one that was considered more gifted than many of her contemporaries.

'Initially, Hangal had a sweet and a high-pitched voice. But mid-career, she lost her voice after a brief illness. When she recovered, the tenor of her voice changed and it acquired a masculine timbre. She overcame the problem and continued to sing in her new androgynous voice, which was powerful than many male singers,' said veteran music writer and Hindustani classical music aficionado Kuldeep Kumar.

Born on March 5, 1913, in a small town called Hangal in Dharwad district (now Haveri district) in Karnataka, Hangal was often looked down upon by her peers since her boatman-agriculturist father Chikkurao Nadiger was from the fishermen's caste.

Hangal was also ridiculed as a 'gaanewali' for being one of the few women trying to breach the male-dominated world of Hindustani classical singing.

However, Hangal, whose mother Ambabai was a Carnatic musician, went on to become one of the illustrious members of the Kirana Gharana founded by Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. Other exponents like Bhimsen Joshi, Roshanara Begum (Pakistan) and Mallikarjun Mansur also belonged to the gharana.

'After an early spell of training under exponents Dattopant Desai and Krishnacharya, she learnt music for over 15 years from Sawai Gandharv,' said Sanjeev Bharghava, a Delhi-based culture activist and promoter of Hindustani classical music.

As a child, she ran around the house trying to snatch bits of gramophone music being played around street corners.

'Gangubai had several odds stacked against her. But she smashed her way through them. She broke gender and caste barriers in music and should rather be described as the 'father of khayals'. The emancipation of women in Hindustani classical music began with her,' added Bhargava.

Gangubai was part of a group that sang to welcome Mahatma Gandhi and other Congress leaders at the 1924 Belguam session of the Indian National Congress. She used to sing at Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations and her big break came at a concert in 1933 in Bombay.

'For my first recording, when HMV invited me to Bombay, I went because they were taking care of the journey and sightseeing. Later, they gave me Rs.400 for my third recording but my family was annoyed as my name read Gandhari Hubali on the record,' she wrote in her memoir 'Nanna Badukina Haadu' (The Song Of My Life).

Gangubai had a great sense of humour.

In her memoir, she sums up the male domination in the field of classical singing thus: 'If a male musician is a Muslim, he becomes an Ustad. If he is a Hindu, he becomes a Pandit. But women like Kesarbai and Mogubai just remain 'Bai's.'

At the age of 16, Hangal married Gururao Kaulgi, a Brahmin lawyer. Her two sons were by her side when she died. Her only daughter died earlier in 2003.

Hangal succumbed to cardiac and respiratory problems, but had been suffering from bone cancer since 2001.

'I invited Gangubai Hangal to perform in Delhi in 2002 but she could not come because of the bone cancer,' Bhargava said.

Hangal's last concert was held three years ago in Dharward, when she was 94. She held the audience in thrall.

'I remember sending a team of young musicians for festival to Dharwad three years ago. We requested Gangubai Hangal to bless the musicians. We also sent a team to Gangubai's home and recorded her voice,' Jayant Kastuar, secretary of the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA), told IANS.

According to Kastuar, Gangubai was also made a fellow of the SNA - an honour given to only 30 musicians.

The most abiding influence in her life was her guru Sawai Gandharv. 'He would teach us one note and would not go further till we mastered it. We were taught to make most of sur and made to practise for hours,' Hangal had once said.

As a result, she had the ability to innovate on one raag for two-three hours at a stretch, recalls Talwalkar.

The musician was honoured with prestigious awards like the Karnataka Sangeet Nritya Academy Award in 1962, the Padma Bhushan in 1971, Padma Vibhushan in 2002 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1973.

Jackson Effect: How MJ's death affected the Internet

It may sound weired but true, after Michael jackson's death news broke out Internet traffic become drastic, which lead to Jackson effect.

Wikipedia defines jackson effect as.....

The Jackson effect is an Internet phenomenon where a dramatic news event is initially indistinguishable from a coordinated denial of service attack.

The Jackson effect originated from the 2009 death of Michael Jackson where the Google search engine mistook the spike in search traffic for a coordinated denial of service attack. High volumes of traffic surrounding the death of Michael Jackson overloaded servers and internet service providers causing service to be very slow or stop completely. Google originally believed it was under attack by a virus attempting such a DoS attack replacing any searches for Jackson with, 'Your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application.' Twitter reported that its servers crashed due to users posting so many "Tweets" at one time which they say equated to 'more than 100,000 posts an hour.'

Jackson's doctor is father of his two children: Weekly

Rumours about the biological parents of Michael Jackson's three children have deepened, with Us Weekly saying that a Los Angeles-based dermatologist is the biological father of the late pop star's two children.
Quoting multiple sources, the magazine reported Tuesday that though Jackson was married to Prince and Paris' mother, Debbie Rowe, their biological father is Arnold Klein, Jackson's Los Angeles-based dermatologist and Rowe's former boss.
'He is the dad,' the magazine quoted a Jackson insider as saying. 'He and Debbie signed an agreement saying they would never reveal the truth.'
Though neither Rowe nor Jackson ever confessed to their kids' true lineage, she did admit in 2002 that she carried his children as a personal favour and would not confirm that the marriage was ever consummated, the weekly said.
'I said: Let me do this. You need to be a dad. You have been so good to me,' Rowe was quoted as saying.
Rowe first met Jackson when she was a nurse's assistant in the 1980s.
The magazine said Klein refused to comment on whether he is the biological father of Jackson's two children.
But his attorney Richard L. Charnley has been quoted as telling Entertainment Tonight: 'Dr. Klein is aware of media reports connecting him to Michael Jackson. Because of patient confidentiality Dr. Klein will make no statement on any reports or allegations.
'Out of respect for his patients and adherence to federal HIPAA regulations, Dr. Klein asks that the media not contact his patients nor interfere with their medical treatments. Like millions of Michael's fans around the world, Dr. Klein is saddened by Michael's death and extends his condolences to Michael's family.'