Music concerts and dance shows by some of the greatest artists available in the country have been held on every night to further enrich the mega event. There have also been cultural activities, sports, games and other competitions held on day time during the event. Some of the main competitions during the event included singing, dancing, skits, fashion show etc. The event serves as an ideal platform for all the techies to show off their extracurricular talents. Also great prizes are on offer for the winners of all the competitions.
We at e-Team had a bigger part to play during this year’s event. On the entertainment front we have participated in many fun events and the one to mention is the rally for which we won the third prize. Our theme was also well appreciated by many, as it focused on bringing out the hazards of Global warming. At the technical front we were able to bring fun and information to the techno park community, with our interactive touch screen monitor placed at the Food Court inside Techno Park. Pictures and live updates of the mega event were made available and to add to that there were also interactive games on offer too. This venture was a huge success and was received warmly by all the techies.
So do have a look at all the images of the event and send us your valuable suggestions and feedback. Be it suggestions for next year’s event, for the masks or even for the technologies that we offer.

6. In general every parent wants their child to do well in mathematics as it is a passport to get to Engineering (IITs) or Management (IIM) colleges.
7. Most of the entrance exams have tough mathematics paper and in some cases it is the decider whether you get your choice of institutions or not.
8. Mathematics has become pre-requisite for Finance and Accounts Manager so as to be able to stash money in benami accounts. Most of the scams in India have been done by people who could efficiently play with number, cross ownership of companies. Micro managing by transferring small amount of money continuously over a period of time would amount to huge sum.
9. Marketing & sales people need to be good with numbers so as to give attractive discounts and for general public to save on taxes (for those who pay taxes).
10. The person in Kirana store has to make my bill mentally for the items purchased by me and add to my existing debt (which I need to pay the month’s end) as well as talk on the phone with the supplier for more goods.

Indian people have taken such simplistic lessons from their life so seriously that 38% of doctors in the US, 36 percent of the scientists at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and 34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians. 50 percent of the economy lodging properties and 37 percent of all hotel properties in the US are owned by Asian Origins. Even Albert Einstein commented “We have to be grateful to the Indians for teaching us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made”. See even I have started putting down numbers.

Another dress that is commonly worn by Indian women is the salwar-kameez which originally belonged to Afghanistan and Turkey. In India it was initially worn in places like Kashmir and Punjab. Salwars are similar to trousers drawn tightly around the waist and ankles, and kameez is like a tunic worn over it. Being a comfort-wear, it soon spread all over India. A variation of the salwar is the churidhar which is rather tight-fitting. Women also wear traditional dresses like lehenga-choli and ghagra-choli which are all variations of skirt and blouse. With the western influence, many women nowadays opt for western clothes, especially in workplaces. Sometimes jeans are paired with the native kurta which gives a smart and elegant look.

Western influence is even more prominent in men’s clothing at workplaces- trousers and shirts perhaps being the most common style of dressing. Jeans and t-shirts are highly popular too. Men’s traditional dresses like kurtas, lungis, dhotis, pyjamas etc can still be extensively seen in villages. Kurta-pyjama is similar to women’s tunic and trousers with minor alterations. Lungis and dhotis are long one-piece clothes tied around the waist or maneuvered to look like trousers. Headgears in various forms also feature prominently in several regions in India. Traditional style of dressing is preferred all over for festivals and certain occasions.

In general, Indian dresses and styles have much variety because there are innumerable sects within the nation. But richness and variety in colors, textures, and craftwork can be considered as common factors in the way India dresses.

Street food has always been in question for how clean and healthy it is. But studies suggest that often it is better than restaurant food, because we hardly ever get to know how they prepare it in the dingy kitchens and how long it is stored. Street food finds its takers amongst all sections of the society, not to mention all places. Like one’s culinary habits, street food also varies from place to place. And thus, in India, we have chaat in North India, jhaalmuri in Kolkata, thattu dosa in South and so on… Research suggests that 90% of street food customers in India are men. Same goes with the vendors, but it is not uncommon to see women vendors as well.

The concern about lack of hygiene in street food is supported by statistics which show that only about 1% of vendors wash their hands with running water before touching the food. Most often the water is stored in vessels, and reused many times to wash dishes as well as hands. Mostly the food is kept uncovered too.

Vendor training is provided by certain groups to address these concerns. Vendors are also asked to use apron and cap while working. Though it is rather simple, sometimes the vendors admit that they are just shy to do this. Gone are the old days when there were strict habits which ensured hygiene. Many of them are not practiced or practicable these days. With a lot of people going out of home for employment, eating out has become common too. People resort to cheaper and faster food habits. Nutrition levels of some kinds of street food are nil, but if added to that contamination is also an issue, it can be a real problem. An involvement from the vendors and sometimes from the customers as well will be needed to ensure that we get safe food.

Another feature of the Indian weddings is the extensive use of colors and gold. Silk is commonly used as attire among those who attend the function, and gold still rules when it comes to the ornaments. Gold is usually worn in bulk and sometimes even 100-200 sovereigns of gold are worn by the bride alone. In addition to the gold given as gift to the bride, dowry is also rampant, even though legally it is restricted. Cash, land or gifts are given to the groom and family. In some places, this reverses and it is the bride who hits the jackpot.

Saree is the norm as wedding dress for bride in most traditions and the groom wears suit or traditional dresses like ‘mundu’. The wedding functions will be usually elaborate with some of them stretching to days. Use of fire (agni) as the witness is a special feature of the Hindu weddings. ‘Agni’ which is considered to be the purest element by Hindus is believed to render sanctity to the occasion. Weddings will be usually conducted in specially constructed massive (and costly) halls to accommodate the hundreds attending the function. Wedding will be followed by the feast after which the guests disperse. Nowadays, some people opt to keep the main wedding function as a family affair and hold separate reception for others. But then again, these are aimed at inviting all those who are left out during the wedding. And that translates to ‘a huge crowd’. Now don’t get me wrong here.

Indian weddings are not all about crowd and chaos. It is about the participation of a whole society in the happiness of two individuals. It is about the coming together of two families and not just the individuals. (Though an increasing number of people choose for themselves nowadays, it is mostly elders who find the partner for the prospective bride or groom). And last but not least, it is all about a celebration of love, customs, aesthetics and what not!

Another welcome sign was a change in the state of apathy which the Indian voter has developed over decades. Though it might not have pushed a middle class daily wage earner to prioritize his vote above a day’s work, the ‘jaagore’ campaign did influence at least a few to get registered and go to vote. (The ‘jaagore’ ad, word meaning ‘wake up’, had an interesting message which said, “If you are not voting on the Election Day, you are sleeping, wake up!”). The results also were nice in a way that in most parts, people voted for ‘development’ and ‘future’ whenever it was pitted against ‘hate politics’ and ‘negativity’. Looking back, all the shoe-throwing and election commission notices (for bribing the voters, hate speeches and a lot more) have ended in a good climax in the form of a clear verdict. The new team of ministers has taken charge with Mr. Manmohan Singh as PM for the second consecutive term. The common man’s expectations are huge, and the genuine wish is that they will deliver.

The system was started around 125 years ago at the time of British rule, when the officers preferred home-cooked meals to the locally available canteen food. In the present day scenario, they are still much in demand because Mumbai requires longer commutation time, partly because of the crowd and sometimes because the workplaces are far away, which makes it impossible to pack lunch too early in the morning. Or it could be just that a lunch packed in the morning can get cold and lose taste by afternoon. This is where the Dabbawallah enters. They deliver lunch right before 12.30 noon, and you have home food served hot in front of you. More importantly, it has to be the right dabba, because you can imagine the plight of a Brahmin who opens his dabba and finds meat which is forbidden for him, and a strict non-vegetarian who finds only vegetables in his dabba.
To start an account with a dabbawallah, you need to buy a dabba, which is a big lunchbox with smaller sections inside it. These dabbas are transported by means of local suburban trains, bicycles and by foot, which cuts cost of transportation. Around 5000 dabbawallahs catering to around 2 million people with an effectiveness of 99.9999 is not easy, with most of them semi-literate, not even finishing high-school.
So how do they do it?
The dabbas are color coded using a unique method and dabbawallahs assigned to collect or distribute them in various parts of the city can easily identify their assigned boxes by means of this coding. And they are so fast in commuting that hardly anyone can beat them at it. Once, a BBC crew filming dabbawalas in action commented, being amazed at their speed. “Following our dabbawala wasn’t easy; our film crew quickly lost him in the congestion of the train station. At Victoria Terminus we found other fast moving dabbawalas, but not our subject… and at Mr Bhapat’s ayurvedic pharmacy, the lunch had arrived long before the film crew,” the documentary noted wryly. A dabbawallah truly lives by his motto ‘no one should ever go without food’.
There are strict measures in place to ensure this efficiency. There will be back up people to continue transit in case of emergency. A dabbawallah who defaults twice will be terminated from the job. More interestingly, the service for a customer who delays giving the packed dabbas thrice is stopped. We have dabbawallah Mr. Manish Tripathi’s words for it, ‘Abandon bad customers. “Current recession started due to serving bad customers”! How very true!
Quality and low-cost are not terms that often go together. But here the fee that they charge for the service and its efficiency is merely nominal. Who ever said that “quality doesn’t come cheap”?

Northern Kerala, with a relatively larger concentration of Muslims, is home to a multitude of non-vegetarian cuisine. French influence can be seen in Mahe, with the items having made small adaptations to suit the regional availability of ingredients. Central Kerala is famous for the Syrian-Christian cuisine which is again predominantly non-vegetarian. Spicy and tasty, this genre is a sure hit in the food festivals. Southern Kerala boasts of a variety of vegetarian dishes. A marriage feast here is not considered complete without 3 kinds of payasam.

International flavors also find a lot of fans in Kerala, especially among the youth. But the original Kerala cuisine retains its appeal, be it the mouth-watering Biriyani or the ubiquitous Puttu or the well-balanced sadya. Just like the land itself, the food is nothing short of diverse. Most of them being non-fattening and easy to digest, the only concern for outsiders need be the comparatively heavy usage of spices. But variety compensates for that; both vegetarians and non-vegetarians have plenty to choose from.

Now, I am feeling hungry! Are you…?

It is said that Silent Valley got the name because of the miraculous absence of crows and beetles, and hence the absence of noise. Lion-tailed-macaque is a creature unique to the place, and as you enter the forests, you can see a variety of other flora and fauna.
Virtually untouched by man and his greed, this is an ideal place to relax and enjoy a few calm and cool holidays! But if you want to enjoy the place to its fullest, you must be ready to put up with the dorm which is the nearest accommodation, and the kanji and payar provided as food.