7 Mumbai-Based Women Entrepreneurs Made a 1600 Cr empire from 80Rs – Lijjat Papad Case Study

 Hi everybody, This is a story of 7 ordinary women who had no background in business, no significant educational qualification And with just 80 rupees in capital they were able to build a business empire worth 1600 crores which is spread across 69 branches and more than 42,000 employees. This home-grown brand that I’m talking about is none other than Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad.

 Now, what’s more fascinating about this company is not the growth of the company but the fact that the business philosophies of this home-grown company somehow seems to have very close resemblance to extraordinary companies like Starbucks and Apple also. The question is- What is so special about this papad company and how has it lasted for more than 62 years ? And how did these 7 women manage to build a business empire out of just ₹80 in capital ? The answer to this question lies in the incredible history of the Lijjat papad. 

This is a story that dates back to the late 1950s India when India was a fairly underdeveloped country. And back then let alone education, even literacy was considered to be a luxury. And even in terms of literacy during those times woman’s literacy was not even considered important because of which only 8% of women in India could read and write while 92% of women in India were illiterates. On top of that, women were not even allowed to go out and work and the earning capacity of the families was not enough to afford a decent standard of living. That is when in 1959, Mumbai. 

A group of 7 amazing women from very ordinary background came together to discuss a business idea which wouldn’t need them to step out of the house, wouldn’t need education and yet could produce a competitive product in the market. Ladies and gentlemen, that is how the idea of Lijjat Papad was born with just ₹80 of capital that was given to them by a social worker. They first started selling their papads at a local store and soon enough due to the superb quality and taste of the papad even other shops started buying their papads. And that’s when they started scaling up. 

Now, when they started scaling they had the opportunity to hire women at a dearth cheap cost because they were one of the rarest avenues of income for women which allowed them to work from home. But you know what ? When these women had their first board meeting they established the fact that the primary goal of their business wouldn’t be to make money but to empower women from the smallest households of the country and to provide them with the livelihood to nurture their family. And mor importantly they also established the fact that money would only be used as a fuel to scale their impact on the women of India and not be the sole purpose of their existence. 

So instead of hiring women they started to give out ownership to every woman who joined their business and called them Lijjat Sisters rather than employees. This is what you call as collective ownership, wherein every employee owns a small part of the company such that the profits and losses, both are shared by every single person in the organisation. So regardless of your age, caste, religion even if you were at the lowest hierarchy of the Lijjat Papad organisation you’d still own a part of the business.

 Now, most of us might think that this is just another business move but I gotta tell you guys that this attribute of collective ownership is one of the foundational principles that make Starbucks an extraordinary company. Because you know what ? Just like the sisters of Lijjat papad own a small part of the company regardless of their position in the organisation, every employee at starbucks is considered as a partner in the business rather than an employee. Everyone starting from the baristas who serve coffee to the customers all the way upto the senior management officers, each one of them are offered stock options of the company. 

So this way, just like the Lijjat sisters every employee in Starbucks could be a small owner of the company And this move develops a deep sense of ownership which cultivates a culture of greatness wherein every employee is motivated to go out of the way and to contribute diligently towards the growth of the organisation. But the only difference between both these companies is that while Starbucks ideated this with MBA masterminds and with a million dollar capital backing the 7 sisters of Lijjat did it way before Starbucks, in 1959 without even knowing what an MBA degree is. 

Such was the business acumen of these incredible women. The second phase of Lijjat was building a robust supply chain that would be cost effective, would ensure quality production and would fit the lifestyle of the women who work for the company. So instead of having huge office spaces they used the houses of the sisters as their small centres of papad making. And this is what their supply chain looked like The flour would first arrive from the mills to the respective central location wherein the dough is made. And after the dough is made the sisters will be brought by a bus facility provided by the company. 

Over here they would collect the doughs and then go home, make papads dry them on the veranda and then deliver the papads the next day. And lastly, after the delivery of the papads they would collect their money and the dough for the next cycle. This would be followed by surprise visits by the supervisors to check the quality of oil they use, the hygiene check of the house and most importantly the process of making papads. Now the sisters are also given aluminium papad makers to ensure that the papad is produced in a standardised manner. This happens at all the branches. If one of these branches does very well the profits are distributed among the sisters. And if not, the losses are borne by the branch members together. And after all of this comes the most challenging part of all and that is sticking to the vision and mission statement of the company. 

Now people, for most of us mission and vision statements are just stupid formalities and they have no real significance for us.  At the same time in case of colleges also even your principle wouldn’t remember the vision and mission statement of your college and if he did it would only be because he mugged it up because some committee was visiting to give your college some stupid certification or some accreditation. And this is the reason why most of us do not understand the importance of mission and vision statements. 

But here’s a thing guys Mission and vision statements form the very foundations of every single organisation. And when designed and followed the right way it can help the organisation sustain for a century. At the same time, if not done right they can even bring down a million dollar business. A classy example of the same is Apple. Now people, when Steve Jobs got fired from Apple in 1984, Apple was a million dollar company. Until he was there at the company, the company stuck to it’s value. And it was a formidable player in the industry. But after he left, they started to derail from their values. And within just 10 years they were almost about to go bankrupt. 

That’s when Steve Jobs got called back to Apple to fix things and get the company back on track. And you know what ? After he took over the company, the first question he asked to every single engineer to every single deisgner and every single manager was What does Apple stand for ? And what are the values that we believe in as a company. Because the biggest mistake that Apple made was while he was not around they started to loose their identity and started to deviate from their values because of which they started making products with no sense of purpose. 

Eventually, the brand lost it’s unique identity and customer loyalty just faded away. So Steve baba comes back asks this question and within some time the entire team is absolutely clear as to what exactly they were supposed to do. And this is what got them the ‘Think Different’ campaign that told the world what Apple truly stood for. And that is “Think Different”. And within just 2 years the same company with the same engineers and the exact same resources then went on to create history to become a legendary company that made products that changed the world forever. And again as soon as Steve baba left we all know what’s happening with Apple.

This is the importance of mission and vision statements. And here’s the most mind-blowing fact of all. In it’s 62 years of existence, not a single time Lijjat Papad has ever deviated from it’s core values. And even today After expanding to 67 branches and scaling up to 42,000 employees and after exporting their products to 15 different countries. They still abide by the core philosophy of their business, that is, Sarvodaya, which means Progress for all. 

While we live in a world where billion dollar corporates, even with the slightest change in the policies wouldn’t think twice before firing thousands of employees and putting each one of their family’s life at stake. On the other side we have got Lijjat Papad wherein with every single machinery they bring in for automation, they make sure that not a single woman is asked to leave the organisation. Because they are 100% clear that their ultimate purpose of business is not to make money but the empowerment of women so that they can give their family and children a better quality of life. 

On one side where we have got these evil companies who would put the health of their frontline workers at stake just to maximize their profits. On the other hand we have got Lijjat Papad wherein even if they have a great year, they make use of the extra profits to sponsor the education of the children of their frontline workers regardless of their age, caste, religion or even the position in the organisation. 

And they do all of this just so that the next generation of these frontline workers can be given the opportunities that they truly deserve. And last and most importantly while inspite of being at the pinnacle of the technological revolution there are people like you and me who often keep doubting our capabiities. And here we see a standing example of 7 incredible women who had no educational qualification. no background in business and no fancy investor. And yet, they were able to build a business empire that is now empowering generations of women all across the country. 

And that too during a time when women had no scope of opportunities. If this isn’t an epitome of greatness I don’t know what is…. bye bye.

Abortion

Abortion is probably the most controversial topic out there. Everyone has different views on whether abortion should be allowed or not. Personally as a women I feel that abortion should be the mothers choice, as the mother has to take care of the baby for the rest of her life. Most people argue that abortion should be banned as that will help in prevention of teen pregnancy but just for that one category why should the others suffer. If someone wants to abort their child they will do so whether they get it done professionally or not. Abortion is not always done because the mother cant take the responsibility of the child there are numerous other reasons like pregnancy due to sexual assault, pregnancy harmful to life of mother or child etc. Of course abortion for the wrong reason example in case the couple is having a girl child but they wanted a boy for these reasons abortion should be banned.

HAYAVADANA

HYBRIDITY AND COMPLETENESS

Introduction:
In this article, I’ll be exploring the themes of Hybridity and completeness. One of the most recurring themes in Hayavadana is the theme of incompleteness and Hybridity. Through this incompleteness, we learn that no matter how much one yearns or desires completeness, it is unattainable.
In this play by Girish Karnad, we see three expressions of hybridity. One is in the opening act where the narrator speaks about lord Ganesha, the embodiment of imperfection, of incompleteness, the second concerns Hayavadana and the third is the story about two men whose head were swapped due to an incident.

The play opens with Bhagavatha performing a puja to Ganesha and asking him to bless the performance. He then moves on to introduce the characters when he hears a scream off stage and notices nata, an actor who is causing the ruckus. He then proceeds to question him as to why he is screaming and nata tells the story of how he heard a voice but when he looked up, there was no one but a horse. Bhagavata is unable to believe this and doubts nata but a few moments later, he himself witnesses Hayavadana. Hayavadana proceeds to explain his story and Bhagavatha suggests he visit the Kali temple to fulfill his wish/dream of being complete. He then proceeds with the story where two men fell in love with a woman and lost themselves.

In the beginning of the play when Bhagavatha was praying to Ganesha, he mentions how even though Ganesha is a form of different being, he is still considered complete and perfect. He also says that this might not be something a mere mortal can comprehend. At the end of the play, no other mortal is able to achieve this completeness or perfection.

As the play progresses, we see Hayavadana who longs for completeness. Hayavadana is a creature with a man’s body and a horse’s head, the offspring of a deity in horse form and a woman. He tries very hard to get rid of his horse head but fails every time and when he leave to go to the Kali temple, he requests Kali to turn him into a complete being and she fulfills his request by turning him into a complete horse. Even though, he loses his body of a man, his voice remains the same and worries about if he will ever find completeness but towards the end of the play, he magically achieves completeness with the help of a little boy. As they sing and laugh together, he loses his human voice and starts neighing.

The primary story line is about two friends Devadatta and Kapila who fall in love with the same woman, Padmini. Even though Padmini marries Devadatta, notices that she has feelings for Kapila and is in despair. This drives him to cut off his own head the Kali temple. Seeing his best friend in that state, Kpaila decides to cut off his head too. Padmini found them lifeless and begs goddess Kali to help her. She then swaps the heads, that is, Devadatta’s head is on top of Kapila’s body and vice versa. When this happens, one might think that Padmini has gotten the best of two worlds as she was physically attracted to Kapila’s body while being married to Devadatta. This isn’t true as at one point, she realizes that both of those men cannot go on and live like that their whole life. She realizes that this would end only with bloodshed as it did. The incompleteness of the two men becomes the main conflict between all three characters. Their inability to find a sense of wholeness drives them to kill each other/themselves at the end of the play. 

Conclusion:
Karnad tries to make us realize that completeness is not something every or any human being can achieve. It must be left to the divine beings.

Reference: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/hayavadana/themes/identity-hybridity-and-incompleteness

WHAT ARE VOWELS ?

Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to lips . Vowels are thus produced with a stricture of ‘open approximation ‘, that is the tongue (active articulator ), is raised towards , the roof of the mouth (passive articulator),so that there is enough gap between them for the air to flow out freely and continuously , without friction . Vowels are essentially a ‘tone’ or ‘hum’ issuing from the glottis with the vocal cords vibrating . Hence all vowels are voiced sounds .The quality of a vowel depends on the shape of the cavities of the pharynx ,the mouth and the nose , which in turn depend on the position of the soft palate , the tongue and the lips during its articulation .

CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS

Vowels may be either long or short ./I/ for example ,is short while /i:/ is long Usually vowels from the ‘nucleus’ in a syllable . They are soft , voiced and musical .Vowels can be classified on the basis of

  • THE HEIGHT TO WHICH THE TONGUE IS RAISED
  • THE PART OF THE TONGUE THAT IS RAISED
  • THE POSITION OF THE LIPS

CARDINAL VOWELS

For the proper study of vowel sounds ,we need a set of fixed vowel points as references .The vowel sounds specially selected for this purpose are called Cardinal vowels .They are used as references to describe , classify and compare the the vowels of any language . If we learn them we are learning about the range of vowels that human vocal organs can make.

Ways To Improve Your Work-Life Balance While Working From Home

Work is an important aspect of everyone’s lives. Our income ensures that the lights are kept on, that there is food on our table, and the rainy-day fund is full. In today’s volatile and incredibly quick corporate environment, achieving work-life balance is a difficult challenge.

As we become more linked via social media and the internet, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish our workplace from our personal life. It is standard practise to read emails at all periods of the day and night, to handle business calls at the dinner table, and to work on our computers on weekends. How did this come to be regarded as acceptable?

Jobs are starting to require more and more from their employees, putting them under intense pressure to provide better outcomes. As a result, employees work harder and longer and spend less time at home.

Despite overwhelming proof that working longer is damaging to both individuals and employers, several workers continue to struggle to alter their beliefs — and strongly established behaviours — about work hours.

Establishing a healthy work-life balance is not only beneficial to one’s health and wellbeing, but it could also boost one’s efficiency and, consequently, performance. Simply stated, if your employees do not see work as a chore, they will work even harder, commit fewer errors, and are much more inclined into becoming company supporters.

How To Improve Your Work-Life Balance While Working From Home

Allow yourself to just let go of perfection

We should constantly aim for excellence rather than perfection; this really is especially crucial when balancing work and life while working remotely. You are unlikely to have everything you need to do your tasks exactly as you would at the office. You won’t have access to all of your files, computer, copier, or even the fax machine you barely use once a month. It’s time to make changes and just do the utmost you can with the resources you have. It’s a little mental adjustment, but it makes a massive impact.

Disconnect

If you’re always available, your working hours never conclude. You require those periods when you switch off. Allow yourself some time away from work. It might be something as easy as not reading emails in the evenings or on weekends. Give yourself periods of tranquilly rather than racing through each activity.

Exercise

Exercise should always be the first thing we make time for when our routine is interrupted in such a major way. It decreases stress, increases endorphins, and improves your mood. Don’t even have an hour to work out? Begin by stretching for 15 minutes with yoga. It will provide you with the same benefits (although on a smaller scale) as well as an extra sense of achievement and self-care.

It’s understandable that when gyms and sports centers are shut, it might be difficult to find alternative forms of exercise. Several trainers and gyms now offer online lessons, and you may even find free classes on YouTube. When working at home, exercising is a wonderful method to attain work-life balance.

Have proper meals

While munching on snacks during the day while working from home may sound appealing, it does nothing for your productivity or feeling of work-life balance. At work, we may feel more driven to take a lunch hour when our colleagues urge us to do so – this doesn’t really occur when you are working from home. Ensure that you schedule time in your day for a decent break. Create a calendar or phone alert about it.

Create transitions going in and out of the work mindset

We frequently take our transit time for granted and wish we can get there sooner. However, we rarely recognise the chance it provides to psychologically prepare. You don’t usually sign off on a large project and then head home to cook dinner. Allow your mind to press the reset button. Get a signal to serve as a buffer at the start and conclusion of your day.

Remember to socialise

When the whole company begins working from home, you are shut away from several informal everyday contacts. If you’re not accustomed to working alone, this might be isolating. Occasional social contacts can break up your day and make it feel unique, whereas isolation may make each day seem like Groundhog Day, except we’re all working.

Resist this by speaking with your coworkers several times during the day. Take a video coffee break, inquire how they did over the weekend, check up on their personal happenings, reach out and exchange that joke or meme, or simply talk about the series you’re currently binge-watching. Continue to chat to them on a certain issue if you typically do.

When working from home, these small encounters might help you maintain your work-life balance.

Unfettered Wings – A Book Review

Introduction

LEXIBLE, STOIC, CALM, UNDERSTANDING and so many glorifying words to teach women how they should behave in relationships, with family members and literally with everyone.

Have you ever physically cringed while encountering stoic women characters in a movie/book, who behave like a rehabilitation centers for emotionally unavailable men? Have you ever felt betrayed when the society normalizes the mansplaining?

I was reading a ridiculous, an absolutely disgusting statement yesterday, ‘Women using mobiles will pave a way for them to elope with men’. The appalling thing is the above statement was made by Women’s Commission Member. When women talk about their broken marriage, abusive relationships, the distressing advice, the society throws in their face is, ‘YOU COULD HAVE BEEN FLEXIBLE, IT WOULD HAVE WORKED’.

The above statement justifies that, if a woman is not stoic, if a woman is not flexible, she deserves the abuse. It’s high time we have to stop glorifying the flexible women.

The Book Analysis

Unfettered Wings’ by Sana Munir is an excellent collection of short stories that delineate the lives of ten Pakistani women, ‘Unfettered’, YES, the women you encounter in these stories are uncontrollable, they are unbounded from abusive relationships, moral policing, society’s pejorative stereotypes. This powerful collection of short stories left an indelible impact, agonizing story of Reema who’s sexually abused by her uncle in childhood, story of a young, charming Habiba who’s shot by her brother for helping a man without his knowledge, an appalling story of a sex worker, and so many grisly storylines made my blood run cold. Some stories revolve around the political tensions in the borders alongside the portrayal of harrowing emotions of women.

Sana Munir’s writing style is claustrophobic. It’s still suffocating me. A must read feminist literary work.

ALL ABOUT CHEESE

When we say cheese everyone starts to have water in their month. Everyone in the world likes cheese and they have tasted it at least once in their whole lifetime and there is no denying it .I’m here to talk about the way more different types of cheese available around the world.

most expensive cheese in the world:

pule donkey cheese

Pule is made exclusively at Serbia’s Zasavica Special Nature Reserve located 30 miles outside of Belgrade. At roughly $576 a pound it is the world’s most expensive cheese and its extreme price tag is made all the more surprising when you discover it’s made using donkey milk.

worst cheese in the world : yuck!!!

Casu martzu:

Casu martzu literally rotten cheese .In Sardinian, is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese that contains live insect larvae (maggots). A female P. casei is allowed inside the cheese and it can lay more than 500 eggs at one time. The eggs hatch and the larvae begin to eat through the cheese. The acid from the maggots’ digestive system breaks down the cheese’s fats, making the texture of the cheese very soft by the time it is ready for consumption, a typical Casu Martzu will contain thousands of these maggots. They eat the cheese with that transparent worms inside alive !!

best cheese in the world :

MADISON:

A gruyere from Switzerland has been named the world’s best cheese, chosen from a record number of entrants from 26 nations in the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin. The cheese from Bern, Switzerland made its maker, Michael Spycher of Mountain Dairy Fritzenhaus a two-time winner. It has a wide variety of cheeses .These cheeses are made from cow milk as well as goat milk.

cheapest cheese in the world :

Cheddar cheese Ireland

Irish cheddar is the most widely recognized type of cheese from Ireland. Irish cheddar is most often made from pasteurized milk. Irish cheddar cheese is made from milk that is curdled and kneaded with salt to drain the whey before the curds are packed into blocks for aging. Kneading the curds with salt is a process called cheddaring. 

softest cheese in the world :

Buffalo mozzarella :

mozzarella made from the milk of Italian Mediterranean buffalo. The term mozzarella derives from the procedure called mozzare which means “cutting by hand” is the process of separation of the curd into small balls and serving them in individual pieces . It is appreciated for its versatility and elastic texture and often called “the queen of the Mediterranean cuisine”, “white gold” or “the pearl of the table”.

hardest cheese in the world :

Nepal’s chHurpi:

chhurpi is often called the world’s hardest cheese, a single piece can last mountain folks hours in their mouth: biting, chewing, gnawing, and slowly dissolving into a delicious, and filling, creamy cheese. Traditionally, chhurpi is made out of chauri milk, a mix between a yak and a cow.

Social Media attacking Mental Health

The online medium to connect with people in an informal way is the Social Media. It can be your friends, relatives or even strangers.

You can communicate with anyone through this medium. It is not limited to chatting, voice messages or video calls only. The technology is advancing day by day and till now we have found a place for entertainment in The Social Media. People get a chance to showcase their talent through this media. It is accessible to all and easy to use. Even common people can gain popularity in a way; by using such platforms to entertain others’.

During high times of stress or tiredness, it serves a relaxation to people to engage on social media platforms. But is this truly helping out people ? Is it a good way to recover from stress and tension ? Are people using it the way it is meant to be ? These are some of the many questions that may come up in mind.

Now-a-days, people of all ages can be seen using social media for their own reasons but, it is becoming an addiction at the same time. Without needing it, people prefer using it. This has become an escape from the real world bringing us into a virtual reality where there are real people but communication is online, where there are real feelings but being shared through memes, where there is sadness but covered with fake smileys!

These so called “sources of happiness” are actually leading to bad mental health. Constant use of online media affects not only our eyes due to the screen reflections but, use of mobile phones affects the skin as well. You must have noticed fingers and thumb paining after using smart phones for a long time. The young generations are already using these far beyond what they need it for.

Everything should be consumed in accordance with its need. The mental health is being compromised while using these platforms without any such need. The flood of useless communications and interactions opened while using social media apps puts an impact on the mind of a person. You don’t need to know everything that happens on that platform; it is not mandatory to be aligned with the ongoing trends of social media which is nothing but some stuff created by a random person going viral due to its impact! Also, there is peer pressure-You join such platforms because your friends enjoy being there, active all the time. It can also be that you started it for some work but may end up scrolling content of no use.

These practices grow into addiction and affects the brain making it slow while working. A social media addict can be observed struggling with work. It’s because of disturbance created by the useless (and fake) content in the brain. People make fun of these facts and enjoy being destructed by them. This is however, a serious issue.

So much of mixed content and videos disturb the mind. Although you might enjoy them in the first place but gradually you start using them in an undefined manner. People use it when they are bored or too lazy to work. This affects physical strength besides affecting mental health of a person. And it is not only the case of children but adults as well. There is already work requirements of phones that the focus should be to reduce extra usage for the sake of healthy mind and body. Unfortunately, people understand things but don’t follow them.

Social media is not only a medium of exchange of thoughts and skills but fraud also takes place via the internet. Surely it is beneficial to use but only when you use it productively. Growing business or setting up a new venture, etc. are good to use social media for. And that also should be done carefully. There are no less cases of fraud through social media. It gives rise to crimes as well and these are some more of the reasons for decreasing mental health; when people see such news, they are hurt mentally and many even fear its usage. Personal information often gets leaked. There exist people who keep an eye on the users and target them by various techniques. Getting such fake/fraud calls or messages puts a person in tension and stress. In order to get famous, people apply various ideas to grow on social platforms, often risking their info in unsafe hands.

Therefore, social media should be used with precaution and not more than what is required. If it is a stress-reliever for you, use it, but only to an extent. Control your mind from flickering towards wrong directions and never exchange your data on such platforms.

There are people who find it difficult to manage their usage of social media for entertainment. Here are a few ways to self- control

  • Find something interestingMake yourself busy with some other work so that you don’t get time for this.
  • Read books- Make a habit of reading books or magazines, journals, etc. so that you get engaging and useful content.
  • Listen fun music– Listen to music which activates your mind and you no longer need any other entertainment.
  • Set a target– Close your accounts on such platforms and set a target of not opening them for a number of days. Increase the limit gradually to help control yourself.
  • Add something valuable– If you are a lot addicted to using your smart phone, then add an app that will teach you something new( related to learning or improving a skill, etc.) and Use it instead of social media.

Strategies of Effective Interviewing


The govt engaged in the regular behavior of commercial enterprise devotes a good deal of his time to interviewing. However, there is an appalling lack of effort given to systematic tries at constructing enhancements into this age-old process. Interviewing stays one of these things to do which we assume we be aware of all about purely due to the fact we have been doing it so long; we have been lulled with the aid of habit. It appears apparent that a modest effort aimed at an evaluation of our interviewing methods would yield beneficiant returns.

In the wide sense, interviewing is the technique whereby persons (usually two) trade information. The folks may additionally be worried with a job opening, a promotion, a exceptional assignment, a product sale, data for talent purposes, a proposed merger, or different questions. The data exchanged want now not be restrained to facts. In business, particularly, such merchandise of an interview as that means and grasp are commonly greater massive than goal factual statements.

Interviewing in the modern commercial enterprise placing continuously takes vicinity in an environment stuffed with a feel of urgency. The time allotted to the interview is always limited. Consequently, a nondirective method finds little application; it is vital to use the guided interview in the substantial majority of situations. This inherent time constraint on occasion brings about dysfunctional consequences: the interviewer is so preoccupied with budgeting his time that the content material and the motive of the interview are vitiated. Hence, we need to outline what we imply by using an positive interview. For the functions of this article, an high quality interview is one that optimizes the perceived conversation targets of the people involved, with time as the fundamental constraint. We shall focal point on lookup findings concerning:

  • The acceptable sort of guidance for the interview.
  • Value of such tactics as having an define of factors to be protected and taking notes.
  • Use (and misuse) of questions and questioning techniques.
  • The sort and quantity of manipulate that the interviewer must workout over the discussion.
  • Analysis and comparison of statistics obtained.

Preparation and Planning

The lack of ample planning for an interview is the best single fault discovered in my research of the interviewing process.1 All too often, the inexperienced interviewer launches into a dialogue solely to discover half way thru that his training is incomplete. A average quantity of preplanning can effortlessly obviate such unlucky occurrences.

When the goal of the interview is commonplace in advance, it is generally a properly exercise to enable the man or woman involved enough time to put together for the discuss earlier than the proper involvement. By indicating, in advance of time and in writing, the factors to be covered, the interviewer offers the interviewee an brought gain and reinforces the precise cause of the session. Too regularly the expectations of the interviewee can also be some distance specific from those of the interviewer. This misunderstanding, if now not corrected, can be disastrous.

On the different hand, too an awful lot preplanning and detailing for an interview can be equally harmful. The interviewee might also then boost conventionally correctsolutions or platitudes which, of course, minimize the informational content material of the interview to absolutely zero. In short, he wishes a guide, a “steer”—but no greater than that.

A written define of necessary factors to be blanketed is no longe railways an indication of rigidity; rather, it displays consideration for all events concerned. When explained, it generates a feeling of self belief as nicely as fairness—particularly if two or extra humans are to be ranked in an evaluation. The define can also even encompass normal questions in order to solicit similar responses. Again, however, a warning in opposition to extra is needed: too tons reliance on a programed questioning strategy is frequently disconcerting to the interviewee and may also lead to stereotyped answers. Ideally, of course, every query need to be designed for the state of affairs and the respondent.


Guiding the conversation

The interviewee is overly touchy to all reactions via the interviewer. Taking benefit of this, the interviewer may additionally without difficulty steer the dialog alongside the most productive channels. Small inflections in the voice supply encouragement. By repeating phrases already expressed, one finds the respondent increasing with small print on a applicable issue. Sometimes, in simple terms restating the reply permits a time for reflection and pretty herbal enlargement or clarification of a factor possibly misplaced in the first verbalization. Phrasing a query with the aid of rewording it into a rhetorical one offers the interviewee a length to assume thru a precise response (although warning need to be located that the “right” phrases are now not put into the thinking of the interviewee).
Support given by means of nodding is most effective. Other nonverbal skill of rendering help are equally significant. The use of semi verbal expressions of a meaningless nature—for instance, “Umm…”—can show most useful. Because such utterances supply no direct interpretation, they are acquired as the interviewee needs to obtain them. He then emphasizes or magnifies the factor as he sees fit.

Developing Information

The equipment of the interviewer are his questions. They must be used with dispatch and but with the utmost care. Sarcasm or vague humor need to be averted except the interviewer is high quality that the interviewee perceives them as such. Usually, the latter’s interpretation of such recreation is completely serious; he or she may additionally reply at the time with a semblance of perceived humor, however the actual response is regularly deep situation and suspicion.


Through the really appropriate use of questions, the knowledgeable interviewer now not solely obtains records however additionally publications the speak alongside productive lines. Leading questions or questions designed with built-in responses are typically no longer very effective. Similarly, the double poor kind of interrogation is to be shunned as it tends to evoke anxiety. To keep away from slipping into such traps, even the first-rate interviewer ought to overview his questioning strategies from time to time. Thus, self-analyzing with the aid of tape recording or by way of having a 1/3 man or woman examine an interview for diagnostic functions can forestall bad methods from creating into set procedures. This method may also be prolonged to the use of video tape recordings with proportionately extra good sized results
.

Improve Your Health With YOGA ‘Asanas’- part 1.

What is YOGA?

Yoga is basically a spiritual discipline which is based on an extremely subtle science that concentrates on bringing harmony between mind and body. It is a science and an art of healthy and sound living. The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Yuj’, signifying ‘to join’ or ‘to combine’ or ‘to unite’. Both Yoga and Ayurveda are historically closely related and have developed in tandem with each other since ancient times. According to Yogic sacred writings the act of Yoga prompts the union of individual consciousness with that of the Universal Consciousness, showing an ideal congruity between the mind and body, Man and Nature. Yoga is believed to balance the three doshas i.e Vata , Pitta & kapha. As indicated by modern scientists, everything in the universe is only an appearance of a similar quantum atmosphere. One who experiences this oneness of existence is said to be in yoga, and is named as a yogi, having achieved a state of freedom alluded to as Mukti, Nirvana or Moksha. Therefore, the prime objective of Yoga is Self-realization, to overcome all types of sufferings prompting ‘the state of salvation’ (Moksha) or ‘freedom’ (Kaivalya). Living with freedom in all aspects of life, health and harmony is the primary focus of yoga practice. “Yoga” likewise alludes to an inward science including an assortment of strategies through which people can understand this union and accomplish authority over their destiny.Yoga, being generally considered as an ‘Immortal cultural outcome’ of Indus Saraswati Valley civilization – going back to 2700 B.C., has substantiated itself taking into account both material and spiritual upliftment of humanity.Basic humane values are the very Identity of Yoga Sadhana.

20 ways yoga Improves health:

1. Builds muscle strength – Strong muscles do more than look good. They also protect us from conditions like arthritis and back pain, and help prevent falls in elderly people. And when you build strength through yoga, you balance it with flexibility. If you just went to the gym and lifted weights, you might build strength at the expense of flexibility.

2. Improves your flexibility – Improved flexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of yoga. During your first class, you probably won’t be able to touch your toes, never mind do a backbend. But if you stick with it, you’ll notice a gradual loosening, and eventually, seemingly impossible poses will become possible. You’ll also probably notice that aches and pains start to disappear. That’s no coincidence. Tight hips can strain the knee joint due to improper alignment of the thigh and shinbones. Tight hamstrings can lead to a flattening of the lumbar spine, which can cause back pain. And inflexibility in muscles and connective tissue, such as fascia and ligaments, can cause poor posture.

3. Perfects your posture – Your head is like a bowling ball—big, round, and heavy. When it’s balanced directly over an erect spine, it takes much less work for your neck and back muscles to support it. Move it several inches forward, however, and you start to strain those muscles. Hold up that forward-leaning bowling ball for eight or 12 hours a day and it’s no wonder you’re tired. And fatigue might not be your only problem. Poor posture can cause back, neck, and other muscle and joint problems. As you slump, your body may compensate by flattening the normal inward curves in your neck and lower back. This can cause pain and degenerative arthritis of the spine.

4. Prevents cartilage and joint breakdown – Each time you practice yoga, you take your joints through their full range of motion. This can help prevent degenerative arthritis or mitigate disability by “squeezing and soaking” areas of cartilage that normally aren’t used. Joint cartilage is like a sponge; it receives fresh nutrients only when its fluid is squeezed out and a new supply can be soaked up. Without proper sustenance, neglected areas of cartilage can eventually wear out, exposing the underlying bone like worn-out brake pads.

5. Protects your spine – Spinal disks—the shock absorbers between the vertebrae that can herniate and compress nerves—crave movement. That’s the only way they get their nutrients. If you’ve got a well-balanced asana practice with plenty of backbends, forward bends, and twists, you’ll help keep your disks supple. Long term flexibility is a known benefit of yoga, but one that remains especially relevant for spinal health.

6. Betters your bone health – It’s well documented that weight-bearing exercise strengthens bones and helps ward off osteoporosis. Many postures in yoga require that you lift your own weight. And some, like Downward- and Upward-Facing Dog, help strengthen the arm bones, which are particularly vulnerable to osteoporotic fractures. In an unpublished study conducted at California State University, Los Angeles, yoga practice increased bone density in the vertebrae. Yoga’s ability to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol may help keep calcium in the bones.

7. Increases your blood flow – Yoga gets your blood flowing. More specifically, the relaxation exercises you learn in yoga can help your circulation, especially in your hands and feet. Yoga also gets more oxygen to your cells, which function better as a result. Twisting poses are thought to wring out venous blood from internal organs and allow oxygenated blood to flow in once the twist is released. Inverted poses, such as Headstand, Handstand, and Shoulderstand, encourage venous blood from the legs and pelvis to flow back to the heart, where it can be pumped to the lungs to be freshly oxygenated. This can help if you have swelling in your legs from heart or kidney problems. Yoga also boosts levels of hemoglobin and red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the tissues. And it thins the blood by making platelets less sticky and by cutting the level of clot-promoting proteins in the blood. This can lead to a decrease in heart attacks and strokes since blood clots are often the cause of these killers.

8. Drains your lymphs and boosts immunity – When you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around, and come in and out of yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning.

9. Ups your heart rate – When you regularly get your heart rate into the aerobic range, you lower your risk of heart attack and can relieve depression. While not all yoga is aerobic, if you do it vigorously or take flow or Ashtanga classes, it can boost your heart rate into the aerobic range. But even yoga exercises that don’t get your heart rate up that high can improve cardiovascular conditioning. Studies have found that yoga practice lowers the resting heart rate, increases endurance, and can improve your maximum uptake of oxygen during exercise—all reflections of improved aerobic conditioning. One study found that subjects who were taught only pranayama could do more exercise with less oxygen.

10. Drops your blood pressure – If you’ve got high blood pressure, you might benefit from yoga. Two studies of people with hypertension, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, compared the effects of Savasana (Corpse Pose) with simply lying on a couch. After three months, Savasana was associated with a 26-point drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number) and a 15-point drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number—and the higher the initial blood pressure, the bigger the drop.

11. Regulates your adrenal glands – Yoga lowers cortisol levels. If that doesn’t sound like much, consider this. Normally, the adrenal glands secrete cortisol in response to an acute crisis, which temporarily boosts immune function. If your cortisol levels stay high even after the crisis, they can compromise the immune system. Temporary boosts of cortisol help with long-term memory, but chronically high levels undermine memory and may lead to permanent changes in the brain. Additionally, excessive cortisol has been linked with major depression, osteoporosis (it extracts calcium and other minerals from bones and interferes with the laying down of new bone), high blood pressure, and insulin resistance. In rats, high cortisol levels lead to what researchers call “food-seeking behavior” (the kind that drives you to eat when you’re upset, angry, or stressed). The body takes those extra calories and distributes them as fat in the abdomen, contributing to weight gain and the risk of diabetes and heart attack.

12. Makes you happier – Feeling sad? Sit in Lotus. Better yet, rise up into a backbend or soar royally into King Dancer Pose. While it’s not as simple as that, one study found that a consistent yoga practice improved depression and led to a significant increase in serotonin levels and a decrease in the levels of monoamine oxidase (an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters) and cortisol. At the University of Wisconsin, Richard Davidson, Ph.D., found that the left prefrontal cortex showed heightened activity in meditators, a finding that has been correlated with greater levels of happiness and better immune function. More dramatic left-sided activation was found in dedicated, long-term practitioners.

13. Founds a healthy lifestyle – Move more, eat less—that’s the adage of many a dieter. Yoga can help on both fronts. A regular practice gets you moving and burns calories and the spiritual and emotional dimensions of your practice may encourage you to address any eating and weight problems on a deeper level. Yoga may also inspire you to become a more conscious eater. One of the benefits of yoga is how the practices resonate through other areas of your life.

14. Lowers blood sugar – Yoga lowers blood sugar and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and boosts HDL (“good”) cholesterol. In people with diabetes, yogahas been found to lower blood sugar in several ways: by lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels, encouraging weight loss, and improving sensitivity to the effects of insulin. Get your blood sugar levels down, and you decrease your risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure, and blindness.

15. Helps you focus – An important component of yoga is focusing on the present. Studies have found that regular yoga practice improves coordination, reaction time, memory, and even IQ scores. People who practice Transcendental Meditation demonstrate the ability to solve problems and acquire and recall information better—probably because they’re less distracted by their thoughts, which can play over and over like an endless tape loop.

16. Relaxes your system – Yoga encourages you to relax, slow your breath, and focus on the present, shifting the balance from the sympathetic nervous system (or the fight-or-flight response) to the parasympathetic nervous system. The latter is calming and restorative; it lowers breathing and heart rates, decreases blood pressure, and increases blood flow to the intestines and reproductive organs—comprising what Herbert Benson, M.D., calls the relaxation response.

17. Improves your balance – Regularly practicing yoga increases proprioception (the ability to feel what your body is doing and where it is in space) and improves balance. People with bad posture or dysfunctional movement patterns usually have poor proprioception, which has been linked to knee problems and back pain. Better balance could mean fewer falls. For the elderly, this translates into more independence and delayed admission to a nursing home or never entering one at all. For the rest of us, postures like Tree Pose can make us feel less wobbly on and off the mat.

18. Maintains your nervous system – Some advanced yogis can control their bodies in extraordinary ways, many of which are mediated by the nervous system. Scientists have monitored yogis who could induce unusual heart rhythms, generate specific brain-wave patterns, and, using a meditation technique, raise the temperature of their hands by 15 degrees Fahrenheit. If they can use yoga to do that, perhaps you could learn to improve blood flow to your pelvis if you’re trying to get pregnant or induce relaxation when you’re having trouble falling asleep.

19. Releases tension in your limbs – Do you ever notice yourself holding the telephone or a steering wheel with a death grip or scrunching your face when staring at a computer screen? These unconscious habits can lead to chronic tension, muscle fatigue, and soreness in the wrists, arms, shoulders, neck, and face, which can increase stress and worsen your mood. As you practice yoga, you begin to notice where you hold tension: It might be in your tongue, your eyes, or the muscles of your face and neck. If you simply tune in, you may be able to release some tension in the tongue and eyes. With bigger muscles like the quadriceps, trapezius, and buttocks, it may take years of practice to learn how to relax them.

20. Helps you sleep deeper – Stimulation is good, but too much of it taxes the nervous system. Yoga can provide relief from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Restorative asana, yoga nidra (a form of guided relaxation), Savasana, pranayama, and meditation encourage pratyahara, a turning inward of the senses, which provides downtime for the nervous system. Another by-product of a regular yoga practice, studies suggest, is better sleep—which means you’ll be less tired and stressed and less likely to have accidents. Sleep is one of the key benefits of yoga that nearly every practitioner can experience no matter what their skill level.

Source of 20 ways – from Yogajournel

The Benefits of Yoga: 19 Ways Your Practice Can Improve Your Life

Health Effectiveness of Mushroom

Mushrooms are one of the most used vegetables .It is very delicious & nutritious .Mushrooms are also called toadstools . A mushroom is a body of fungus which is able to bear spores . Here we are talking about some edible mushrooms .Mushrooms are usually born above the soil or rotten dead waste & Their growth rate is very rapid .

Mushrooms are from the kingdom of ‘Fungi’ & Under ‘Basidiomycota’ phylum . Mushrooms are divided into 3 body parts — 1) Stem or, Stipe ; 2) Cap or, Pileus ; 3) Gills or Lamellae (It generates microspore & stores them) .The most popular & edible mushroom is Agaricus bisporus .Mushrooms can be edible and non-edible. Non-edibles are poisonous & it harms our body . Some well known edible mushroom species are —  Portobello ,Button ,Shiitake(It is also called as “King of Mushrooms”) ,Oyster ,Maitake ,Enoki ,white mushroom & many others .Now, let’s talk about their nutritional value  .

Agaricus bisporus
Enoki Mushroom
Shiitake Mushroom

Nutritional value : nutritional value per 100g raw and uncooked mushrooms are given below —– 

1) 4.3 gram carbohydrate 

2) 0.1 gram fat

3) 2.5 gram protein

4) Many types of Vitamin B are available ~~ a) 0.1 milligram of Vitamin B1 ;b) 0.5 mg of vitamin B2 ; c) 3.8 mg of vitamin B3 ; d) 1.5 mg of vitamin B5 ; e) 0.11 mg of Vitamin B6 ; f) 25 microgram of Vitamin B9 , g) no amount of Vitamin C .Vitamin  B2 ,vitamin B5 and vitamin B3 are in a lots of amount in a mushroom .

5)Various minerals are also presents ~~ a) 18 mg of calcium ;b) 0.4 mg of iron ;c) 9 mg of magnesium ;d) 0.14 mg of Manganese ;e) 120 mg of phosphorus ;f) 448 mg of potassium ; g) 6 mg of sodium ;h) 1.1 mg of zinc .

6) Mushroom body contains 92% water 

7) Mushrooms contain a very high amount of 2 important antioxidants — Ergothioneine & Glutathione .

8) It also has lots of folate .

9) Mushrooms give away 94 KJ or 22 Kcal energy .

Effect on Health : 

1) Mushrooms contain a lot of calcium which is a main component of our bones . That’s why mushrooms are beneficial for our bone health. It prevents osteoporosis and joint pain problems . 

2) It also fights against cancer as mushrooms have Vitamin D and antioxidants .Folate which is also present in mushrooms, helps in the synthesis process of DNA .

3) Mushrooms have a lot of fibre. fibre helps to control the Glucose level of blood. In that way the blood sugar level remains at a safe margin .

4) Potassium, Vitamin C and fibre are good for the cardiovascular system, especially for the heart .Mushrooms have all these elements so it also prevents the risk of heart diseases .

5) Selenium, which is available in mushrooms, increases the immune power of our body and helps to prevent flu and common cold .

6) Mushrooms are a very good diet vegetable .

7) Mushrooms give a lot of energy to our body as it has lots of protein .

8)  Folate is present in mushrooms and It helps in the fetal health for any pregnant women .

9) Mushrooms contain two important antioxidants (Ergothioneine & Glutathione) that work against aging of our skin and body .

10) Mushrooms prevent the aging of our brain .

GLOBAL WARMING

Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are dying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It has become clear that humans have caused most of the past century’s warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than at any time in the last 800,000 years.

We often call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth’s climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. While many people think of global warming and climate change as synonyms, scientists use “climate change” when describing the complex shifts now affecting our planet’s weather and climate systems—in part because some areas actually get cooler in the short term.

Climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures but also extreme weather events, shifting wildlife populations and habitats, rising seas, and a range of other impacts. All of those changes are emerging as humans continue to add heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely on.

What will we do—what can we do—to slow this human-caused warming? How will we cope with the changes we’ve already set into motion? While we struggle to figure it all out, the fate of the Earth as we know it—coasts, forests, farms, and snow-capped mountains—hangs in the balance.

Understanding the greenhouse effect:

The “greenhouse effect” is the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth’s atmosphere trap heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping, like the glass walls of a greenhouse, hence the name.

Sunlight shines onto the Earth’s surface, where the energy is absorbed and then radiate back into the atmosphere as heat. In the atmosphere, greenhouse gas molecules trap some of the heat, and the rest escapes into space. The more greenhouse gases concentrate in the atmosphere, the more heat gets locked up in the molecules.

Scientists have known about the greenhouse effect since 1824, when Joseph Fourier calculated that the Earth would be much colder if it had no atmosphere. This natural greenhouse effect is what keeps the Earth’s climate livable. Without it, the Earth’s surface would be an average of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) cooler.

In 1895, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius discovered that humans could enhance the greenhouse effect by making carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. He kicked off 100 years of climate research that has given us a sophisticated understanding of global warming.

Levels of greenhouse gases have gone up and down over the Earth’s history, but they had been fairly constant for the past few thousand years. Global average temperatures had also stayed fairly constant over that time—until the past 150 years. Through the burning of fossil fuels and other activities that have emitted large amounts of greenhouse gases, particularly over the past few decades, humans are now enhancing the greenhouse effect and warming Earth significantly, and in ways that promise many effects, scientists warn.

Aren’t temperature changes natural?


Human activity isn’t the only factor that affects Earth’s climate. Volcanic eruptions and variations in solar radiation from sunspots, solar wind, and the Earth’s position relative to the sun also play a role. So do large-scale weather patterns such as El Niño.

But climate models that scientists use to monitor Earth’s temperatures take those factors into account. Changes in solar radiation levels as well as minute particles suspended in the atmosphere from volcanic eruptions, for example, have contributed only about two percent to the recent warming effect. The balance comes from greenhouse gases and other human-caused factors, such as land use change.

The short timescale of this recent warming is singular as well. Volcanic eruptions, for example, emit particles that temporarily cool the Earth’s surface. But their effect lasts just a few years. Events like El Niño also work on fairly short and predictable cycles. On the other hand, the types of global temperature fluctuations that have contributed to ice ages occur on a cycle of hundreds of thousands of years.

For thousands of years now, emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere have been balanced out by greenhouse gases that are naturally absorbed. As a result, greenhouse gas concentrations and temperatures have been fairly stable, which has allowed human civilization to flourish within a consistent climate.

Now, humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by more than a third since the Industrial Revolution. Changes that have historically taken thousands of years are now happening over the course of decades.

Why does this matter?

The rapid rise in greenhouse gases is a problem because it’s changing the climate faster than some living things can adapt to. Also, a new and more unpredictable climate poses unique challenges to all life.

Historically, Earth’s climate has regularly shifted between temperatures like those we see today and temperatures cold enough to cover much of North America and Europe with ice. The difference between average global temperatures today and during those ice ages is only about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius), and the swings have tended to happen slowly, over hundreds of thousands of years.

But with concentrations of greenhouse gases rising, Earth’s remaining ice sheets such as Greenland and Antarctica are starting to melt too. That extra water could raise sea levels significantly, and quickly. By 2050, sea levels are predicted to rise between one and 2.3 feet as glaciers melt.

As the mercury rises, the climate can change in unexpected ways. In addition to sea levels rising, weather can become more extreme. This means more intense major storms, more rain followed by longer and drier droughts—a challenge for growing crops—changes in the ranges in which plants and animals can live, and loss of water supplies that have historically come from glaciers.

HOPE

All great things are simple and many can be expressed in a single word: love, freedom, justice, bliss, hope. Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of each and every one ,who dare to make dreams into reality.

The most important thing that you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for and live inside that hope . Don’t admire your hope from a distance instead live right into it, under it’s shadow.

Hope may not be a magic that happens just like that very simply but when you know ,what you hope for the most and hold it like your soul within you , you can make great things happen, almost like a magic.

Hope recognizes no barrier. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences , penetrates through walls to arrive at your destination. Past is a source to acquire knowledge and future is a source to build up hope. Fear never supports to build up your future but hope does.

Hope is very important for every individual because it can make the present most difficult moment into less difficult to bear , which helps you to move forward. If you have hope believe that tomorrow will be better, you can bare hard moments today with a happy face.

Learn from yesterday,live for today, hope for tomorrow.

As lone as we have hope we have roots all over without any barrier, the energy to move whenever ,and the map to move wherever you want. Hope has no cost but it is not so comfortable or easy . It requires personal risks. It is not about the right attitude ,hope is about right action at right time.

Hope is not any emotion, it is a way of thinking. Hope you have a great way ahead.

Passengers(2016): Explained

Imagine a world where science has perfected long distance space travel, passengers are transported in hibernation pods. The passengers are being transported to a colony on a planet 60 light years away from the earth. Everyone is put into stasis to be able to complete the 120 year journey, 5000 colonists and 258 crew members are being transported this way. The ship is supposed to be self sufficient and can repair itself if required. The members are supposed to be woken up a short while before they reach the colony, but what if one person wakes up 90 years before he was supposed to.

The movie starts when one passenger wakes up 90 years early due to a malfunction, Jim Preston is a mechanical engineer that left his life in hopes of finding a better one at the colony. Initially Jim is happy about being the only one awake, he enjoys the ships facilities and tries to repair his own pod. A year later he grows weary of the isolation, an android bar tender Arthur being the only company. Jim contemplates suicide when he notices a beautiful young woman Aurora Lane in a pod, he is immediately smitten with her and contemplates waking her up.

After struggling with the morality of waking Aurora up prematurely, he does it anyway. She initially tries to go back in the hibernation pod, but after failing she decides to write a book documenting her journey. Jim makes her believe that her pod opened because of a malfunction, Aurora being a higher tier passenger has access to better facilities. They develop a close bond and eventually fall in love with each other. Arthur inadvertently reveals that Jim was the one who sabotaged Aurora’s pod to deal with his own loneliness, this angers Aurora who resigned to her new life begins avoiding Jim.

Some time later, multiple failures occur on the ship. One such failure wakes up Gus Mancuso, the ships chief deck officer. He uses his access to detect multiple failures in the ship which could lead to even worse failures and the deaths of all the passengers. Gus attempts to repair the ship with Jim and Aurora’s help but they face a major setback when Gus falls critically ill. Gus is diagnosed by the ships automatic doctor Autodoc to be dying, he suffers this fate due the condition of his pods malfunction. Before dying Gus gives Jim and Aurora his ID allowing them access to crew only areas to try and repair the ship.

Jim and aurora discover multiple hull breaches caused by the asteroid collision that woke Jim up. All the problems stem from the computer module administering the fusion reactor being critically damaged. The duo replaces the module but Jim is forced to space walk to manually open a vent. A malfunction cause Jim to stay in the tube to open the hatch which would mean sacrificing himself, Jim decides to vent the tube in order to save the ship. Jim is blasted into space along with the vented gas, his tether snaps and his space suite begins losing oxygen. A distraught Aurora manages to retrieve a clinically dead Jim from space and uses the Autodoc to revive him. Jim finds out that he can use the Autodoc to put one person back into hibernation and offers Aurora the chance to reach the new planet and live out her life. Aurora refuses the offer truly understanding Jim’s motivation to wake her up, she accepts the ring Jim fashioned for him and lives out her remaining days aboard the ship.

The crew wakes up on schedule to discover a huge tree, a cabin, vegetation and birds. Aurora’s voice over describes the life she lead aboard the ship with Jim.

A truly amazing movie with a pretty different concept, a must watch for Science Fiction fans. The cast is really amazing with Chris Pratt as Jim, Jennifer Lawrence as Aurora, Michael Sheen as the android Arthur and Laurence Fishburne as Gus.

BOOK REVIEW: GITANJALI

RABINDRANATH TAGOR is the best poet and writer in India also in world. I love his work very much and many of his poet or writing added in our syllabus. I love to read the poetry as well as songs. The national Anthem written by R.N Tagore.

GITANJALI was written by R.N Tagore and the original poems are written in Bengali, he native language of Tagore. He then translated them (and many other works) to English. What can get better than reading the poems translated by the poet himself? Of course, nothing compares to the beauty of reading them in the original language, but since I do not know the language, I have to settle for the next best.

Tagore was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, India. He wrote his first poem when he was around eight years old. Songs, sketches, poems, short stories, and prose- Tagore had numerous talents as a musician, polymath, artist, essayist, composer, playwright, and poet.

From his birth to his death (7 May 1861- 7 August 1941), Tagore’s entire life was during the British Raj (British rule) in India. He was a part of the freedom struggle. He wrote and composed the National Anthem of India and Bangladesh [which was then a part of Akhand Bharat (United :and of Bharat)].

The English version of Gitanjali contains 69 poems from the Bengali version of the Book along with rest of his work. He made a few changes, such as clubbing two poems and removing some phrases during the translation. The original Bengali collection was first published in 1910. The translated version was published in 1912, which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He was the first non-European to receive the award.

The second edition of Gitanjali (Song Offerings) has an introduction written by WB Yeats. The core theme of Gitanjali is devotion to the Supreme. The poems are steeped in spiritual essence. The title suits the theme to perfection.

Gita- song

Anjali- offer with the utmost devotion.

The poems are written in the style of the era, where words and spellings are different from today’s English. This period could be called the Indian Renaissance of English language. You will see words like thou, thee, thy, etc. in every poem. While most poems have one-sided conversations with God, some are narrated to fellow villagers, Mother, and even readers. Nature, love (for God), simplicity, devotion, death, graceful acceptance of situations, gratitude, peace, happiness, melancholy, and life are some of the recurring themes of his poems. The imagery is vivid and marvellous. We can feel the hills, the rivers, the open sky, birds flying around. We can hear the sounds of gushing waters, feel the warmth of a kerosene lamp on a twilight evening, and breathe in the scent of night flowers.

The poems are metrical in Bengali. In English, they are lyrical and flow like the waves of a brook. Most of them are about half a page in length. A handful of poems are longer than a page. But the amount of emotion and imagery he packs in each poem is immense.

The Book helped Tagore to achieve the Award Nobel Prize and Tagore became first person to get Nobel Prize in Literature. We all proud of him.