Have a nice day readers...!!!

Thursday, June 30, 2011

adieu to 25 paise

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced, with today 25 paise coin is closed.

There were days, when I used to get handful of ground nut candies. Even mini cone icecream was just 25 paise.


Though we say bye-bye to the coin today, I have handful of those coins kept safe in my cupboard for the next-generation in the family. They would also know history in picture on seeing those coins..

Friday, June 3, 2011

How to hide Facebook profile from search engines

You all may be knowing that you can easily find any person on Facebook right from Google or any other search engines. The basic information like your name, profile picture, gender and networks are visible to everyone. Just search your name in Google and you will see your facebook’s profile in the results page.

But just in case you don’t want your Facebook profile to be shown in search engines, you can easily do this from your Facebook - "Privacy Settings page".

Follow the following steps to remove your Facebook profile from Search Engine cache

1. Login to your Facebook Profile and click the Account tab on the top right corner of the page and select the Privacy Settings option. A new page will open up.

2. In this page, find "Apps and Websites" which will be in the bottom left corner of the page, and click on "Edit your settings" link next to it.

3. On the next page you will see "Public Search" at the bottom of the page, click on "Edit settings" button at the right of "Public Search".

4. Uncheck the "Enable Public Search" option.

Now your Facebook profile will be completely removed from search engine results page. For some search engines, it may take a few days/weeks to get your Facebook profile out of their cache.


--Dhanesh Amma

Friday, May 27, 2011

Mehndi - Bridal Makeup

Mehndi ( or Mehendi) is the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration in India.

In Tamil, it is called as Maruthani. The school where I studied had rule not to apply nailpolish / maruthani while attending school. Still, they had exception during the festival time like diwali .

Every year during the festive season , we used to buy the leaves from market before diwali, prepare the paste and apply in our hands. Those were the traditional methods.

myself , my sis and mother used to apply. As my father, being single male in the family, we don't want to leave him and ask him to apply. He will avoid telling some reason. Also I have observed that only boys who are kids, have this maruthani and men don't apply.

In recent years, the ready-made cone was made available at shops, and people started to use them having pictures of modern art , Arabic designs etc.

This maruthani is an essential part in the bridal makeup too. In some parts of north India, they dedicate a day for this mehendi and all the ladies and little girls spend time in applying mehendi and have a fun time.

I was under impression that this Mehendi/maruthani is for sole use of girls, but I was wrong.. Recently I came across a wedding photo , which made me laugh at the view of it. Well, the bride groom in the photo was also having mehendi in his hand, much better than the bride's design.




I had to cut off their faces before posting here, for privacy reasons..

I thought this guy must be crazy. Then on surfing Wikipedia on mehendi came to know that

"The bridegroom is also painted in some parts of India. In Rajasthan, the grooms are given designs that are often as elaborate as those for brides" - [source: wiki]

hmm.. who knows this might soon come to Tamilnadu too..

--Dhanesh Amma

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Voting Experience

It is Dhanesh's voting experience. We took him to the near by school, yes that is where the people were listed to cast the vote in our area.

Dhanesh, does not like going to school as most of kids, but as it is for casting vote, he came happily. He was firing questions to me and his grand parents.

On entering the room, he asked in loud voice "are we going to vote here only". The polling officers who were busy at work, just looked up and again started to work.

We replied to Dhanesh as "yes. keep queit". But he was not able to keep quiet. He then asked again , "how to vote?" We then pointed the desk where the voting machine was kept and told, we will cast vote there and he has to keep quiet till we leave the room.

My mother voted first, me second and my father next. Dhanesh was with his grand father.

On returning home, we asked him, how do we vote.. He replied as below.

"There is a machine and we have to press the button. Red light glows and then a sound comes in as piiiiiiiing.. he thought for a while and then told, they kept black ink in the finger."

For a three year old boy, he can not understand the purpose of the election and the voting. He will know more during the next election.

--Dhanesh Amma

Cube game speaks...

எப்படி இருந்த நான்....


இப்படி ஆயிட்டேன்....



எல்லாம் தானேஷ் பண்ணிய வேலை...


-- தானேஷ் அம்மா

Saturday, April 16, 2011

English to Tamil Translation

Disclaimer: Below content is written just for fun. So readers be cool. If you like them and identify more, drop them in the comments section.

Tamil translation for few of computer related words came out very funny. Presenting it for the readers to enjoy

windows - ஜன்னல்
mouse - எலி
keyboard - சாவி பலகை
hard disk - வன் தட்டு
motherboard - தாய் பலகை
caps lock - குல்லாய் பூட்டு
screen saver - திரை காப்பாளர்
laptop - மடி மேல்
control panel - கட்டுப்பாடு குழுமம்
wireless network - கம்பிஅற்ற வலைவேலை
photo shop - புகைப்பட கடை
dotnet - புள்ளி வலை
wall paper - சுவர் காகிதம்
thumb nail view - கட்டைவிரல் நக தோற்றம்
real player - அசல் ஆட்டக்காரர்
powerpoint - சக்தி புள்ளி
firewall - நெருப்பு சுவர்

--Dhanesh Amma

Friday, April 1, 2011

silk sarees

Sarees had been a passion for every south Indian female.. (I hope it is still there too.. though we have lot of modern dresses in market) Learning to wear a Saree is a big deal.. I am sure for most of them, either mother or elder sister would be the first level teacher.

The way now the city ladies wear Saree is different from the way their grandma's wear in their home town. That's a different topic. hence let me come to the topic of silk sarees now.

With regard to the the silk sarees in tamilnadu, it got its name from the location where the sarees were waived.. like kancheepuram , aarani, thirubuvanam etc..

but now a days people look for more and more varieties. Hence the vendors started introducing new patterns in silk sarees and giving new names..

Following are the names i hear these days.. vasthirakala, parampara , samuthriga, vivaha, bridal seven etc.. most of them are traditional silk sarees with additional stone work or added colorful embroideries in the silk sarees.

Not sure from where these sarees do come in. may be the base Saree is waived in the traditional way and designs and works are added in some other place.

I only hope the traditional silk Saree names which Tamilnadu has, does not disappear in due course of time..

Now coming to the making of silk sarees.How do the silk sarees are manufactured?

I had visited my cousin's paternal grandparents house in the village and had seen a room full of silk worm cocoons. Her grandfather was explaining the entire process of starting from the eggs till the worms are grown up and cocoons are formed as shown below.



Then they were sold to the merchants.

Later when I visited the govt. exhibition , I came to see the process of how the cocoons are then being converted to get the silk threads.

The silk threads are then dipped in color liquid and used for preparing the colorful silk Saree.

Chinese are the ones who started the manufacturing the silk sarees.

Below is the pic for the growth of the silk worm to moth.




the silk farmers let the caterpillars that made the largest cocoons, to turn into moths. The moths then laid eggs and the eggs hatched out more caterpillars making even bigger cocoons. Over the centuries, the size of the cocoon has increased and silkworm cocoons are now much bigger than the cocoons of other caterpillars. At least half a mile of continuous thread may come from one cocoon.

I have read in magazines that few ladies, refuse to buy/wear silk sarees, for the cause that a huge set of silkworms are being killed. Hmm.. These people never realize that that are eating non-veg (which is accepted as not killing) and for the beauty cosmetic item they use, many animals are used as testing specimen. In fact by buying the silk sarees we are indeed providing an income for the people who have worked for it.

Wait.. So.. where are you going? to buy silk Saree for your self or your loved ones?

--Dhanesh Amma