The Fun Learning: Sep 28, 2011

Beautiful and Funny Pictures

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Shanghai - The Financial Capital of China

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a population of over 23 million as of 2010. Due to its rapid development over the last two decades it has again become a global city, exerting influence over commerce, finance, media, fashion, technology and culture. Today Shanghai is a major financial centre and the busiest container port in the world.

Shanghai is also a popular tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as The Bund, City God Temple and Yuyuan Garden, as well as the extensive and growing Pudong skyline. It is described as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of mainland China.

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Events in Pictures

This is the jaw-dropping moment a daredevil kayaker paddled down a waterfall almost 100ft high. Jesse Coombs took kayaking to the extreme when he became the first person to successfully kayak down Abiqua Falls in Oregan, US.

A space fan has given his late grandmother the ultimate send-off - by scattering her ashes in the stratosphere. Chester Mojay-Sinclare, 22, placed Pat Sinclare's remains into a mini urn and attached it to a meteorological balloon which he floated 100,000ft above East Anglia. A mechanism then released the ashes into the stratosphere - where they instantly dissipated into the jet stream.

A wacky range of iPhone cases has been designed to help disguise the fact you are chatting on your mobile. The £13 EARonic cases feature realistic images of ears so it doesn't look as if you have a handset pressed to the side of your head. Designed by Daniela Gilsanz, a design student at RISD (The Rhode Island School of Design), they can be bought online from www.collabcubedshop.com.

..You can choose from a range of styles: Finley (plain white ear); Luna (female multi-pierced ear); Razor (male multi-pierced ear); Dylan (plain black ear); and Nick (blue-tooth on ear).

Danish company Aesir have collaborated with American designer, Yves Behar, to create the Æ+Y, an 18-carat-gold mobile phone. The £37,000 handset isn't even a smartphone - it only allows you to call and send texts (using its staggered Qwerty keyboard). If your budget doesn't quite stretch to the gold phone, there's also a stainless steel version for £6,300.

A custom Tata Motors Nano, adorned with gold, silver and gemstones, is unveiled in Mumbai. The car contains 80 kilograms of 22-carat gold, 15 kilograms of silver, and numerous gemstones.

This is the world's smallest digital camera, measuring just over one inch in all dimensions and weighing only half an ounce. The camera provides automatic focus and has a 2 MP image sensor that captures crisp JPEG photographs at 1600 x 1200 resolution and AVI video at 30 frames per second at 640 x 480 resolution. It is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for $99.95 or £63.79.

Underwater photographer Fiona Ayerst captures pictures of bull sharks off the coast of Mozambique, southern Africa.

A humpback whale breaches near a paddle surfer in Nuqui, Colombia. Dan Merkel from Santa Barbara, California, had travelled to Nuqui on the west coast of Colombia when he spotted the encounter. Each year from July to October about 2,000 humpback whales are known to swim to the warm waters off the coast of Colombia to breed and feed their calves.

The world's shortest living woman Bridgette Jordan, 22, from Sandoval, Illinois, works at a computer. She stands 2ft 3in (69cm) tall. Ms Jordan likes to stay active and often spends time dancing and cheerleading. On her record-breaking achievement Ms Jordan said: "It feels awesome. It's great to be small. I believe that everyone should be confident in themselves."

Fernando Cruz Vega, a three-year-old boy who was born without arms, draws in a room at the shanty town of Libertad in Comas, Lima, Peru. Deysi Vega, Fernando's mother, has travelled from Mollobamba in the jungles of Peru to Lima to seek medical help and rehabilitation therapies for her son.

Surging waves hit against the breakwater in Udono in a port town of Kiho, Mie Prefecture, Japan. A powerful typhoon was bearing down on Japan's tsunami-ravaged northeastern coast on Wednesday, approaching a nuclear power plant crippled in that disaster and prompting calls for the evacuation of more than a million people.

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Navratri

Navratri is an important Hindu festival, celebrated with religious fervor and great enthusiasm by the Hindus in different parts of the country. It is celebrated twice a year - in March-April (as Chaitra Navratri) and in October-November. While the ninth day of Chaitra Navratri is celebrated as Ram Navami, the festival celebrated in September-October commemorates the victory of Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. Though a number of legends are associated with the conception of Navratri, just like all the other Hindu festivals, the deity Goddess Shakti and her various forms are worshipped in both the cases.

Navaratri holds a special significance in Gujarat and West Bengal. In Gujarat, the festival is celebrated to worship Goddess Jagdamba, while in West Bengal it takes the shape of Durga Puja. Coming down to the southern parts of the country, the Navratri in October-November is dedicated to the three avatars of Goddess Shakti - the first three days to Goddess Durga (the Warrior Goddess), the next three days to Goddess Lakshmi (the Goddess of Wealth) and the last three days to Goddess Saraswati (the Goddess of Knowledge). Bomma Kolu (display of small statuettes and idols of Gods) is the important ritual of Navratri in South India.

Fasting is one of the highlights of Navratri. People observe fast for either seven or eight days, to honor Goddess Shakti. While many people break their fast on the eighth day (Ashtami) of Navratri by worshipping young girls, others do the same thing on the ninth day (Navami) of the festival, to culminate the celebrations. All through the seven or eight days of fasting, the people would survive on a diet especially formulated for the fast. It typically consists of fruits, milk and its products, sago recipes, potato recipes (both cooked without spices). Sendha namak (rock salt) is used for the recipes of Navratri fast. On the day when they break fast, they would worship young girls, seek their blessings in return of which, the devotees would offer money and prasad as the dakshina.

The celebrations of Navratri are characterized by the worship of Goddess Shakti. Although people in different regions celebrate the festival in different ways, according to their indigenous customs, the thought among everyone is the same - to invoke Goddess Shakti and seek her blessings. In Maharashtra, the nine nights of Navratri are dedicated to worship of the deity and dance performances, typically dandiya (a folk dance performed by men and women). In Gujarat, Garba dance is performed during the festival, while in South India, worship of the deity is given importance. It is interesting to see the Hindu people, belonging to different regions of India, to celebrate Navratri with equal enthusiasm, every year.

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A, B, C, D - NAVRATRI SPECIAL

A : Ambe

B : Bhawani

C : Chamunda

D : Durga

E : Ekrupi

F : Farsadharni

G : Gayatri

H : Hinglaaj

I : Indrani

J : Jagdamba

K : Kali

L : Laxmi

M : Mahamaya

N : Narayani

O : Omkarini

P : Padma

Q : Qatyayani

R : Ratnapriya

S : Shitla

T : Tripura Sundari

U : Uma

V : Vaishnavi

W : Warahi

Y : Yati

Z : Zyana

J A I M A T A D I

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All about Festival of Navratri

The 9 nights festival of Navratri begins on the first day of Ashwina of the bright fortnight. Seeds are sown, sprouting is watched, the planets are consecrated, and on the 8th and 9th days, Goddess Durga, Vijayashtami and Mahanavami are worshipped.

The Devi Mahatmya and other texts invoking the Goddess who vanquished demons are cited.

The day after Navratri i.e. the 10th day after Ashwina, is Dussera which celebrates the victory of lord Rama over Ravana. Ravana is burnt in effigy, often giant dummies of Ravana stuffed with fireworks are shot with arrows until they blow up before a large, applauding audience.


The most characteristic dances of Gujarat during Navratri are the Rasa and Garba dances which are performed at all levels of society by men and women.
The origin of the Rasa is traced back to the legends connected with the life of Lord Krishna. It is essentially associated with the agricultural rites. The Rasa is performed in Gujarat India on Navaratra; and other important festivals associated with harvest and crops. The Rasa dances of Saurashtra are closely related to agricultural functions and are for the best part grain-ritual dances.


They are performed only by men and are often complex circular formations to represent designs of lotus and other designs considered magical religious and auspicious.

The choreographical pattern of the dance, the floor designs made by the dancers, is similar of the paintings seen on the walls of huts. Through these designs whether on the floor or walls, through paint and colour or through dance, ritual is held and spirits are invoked. This is another aspect of the fertility cult. is mother aspect of Navratri. A cloth called Mata ni Pachepi, where the adventures of the seven mothers, is painted. The mother, one of the seven archetypes, is painted in the centre and she is surrounded by her devotees and Bua, the magician-priest. At the end of the month the Bua wraps the cloth around him and sings and dances with Virgin girls carrying pots of sprouted corn finally, the pot at immersed in the waters of a river. In all cases, the object is always either burnt or consigned to the waters. The Rasa follows.

The most impressive artistry of the Rasa dances of Gujarat and Saurashtra is displayed in the Dandiya Rasa by men. It is a counterpart of the Garba of the women. The dancers use sticks at the end of which tiny bells (ghungrus) are tied so that they give off a clear jingling sound when they strike one another. This dance has a very complicated rhythm pattern and even though the dancers begin in a slow tempo, the dance develops in such manner that each person in the circle not only performs a solo dance with his own sticks, but also has a complex multiple relationship with both his partners on either side as also partners opposite him in the circles. The circle keeps breaking sometimes into two concentric circles and sometimes into three or four circles within the orbit of a larger circle.

The dancers of each concentric circle then weave patterns with each other and with members of the other circle. There is a great deal of freedom in the movements and sticks are beaten in standing, sitting or lying position. Occasionally, the men weave patterns of an intertwined rope in a circle; they lie on the floor with the two sticks being beaten above their heads and chests; sometimes instead of hands, the feet hold and strike the sticks. The Dandiya Rasa is obviously of ancient origin and of ritual significance. From what one can gather from Sanskrit dramas, it became in course of time a popular, and is mentioned in Rajshekhar's Karpur Manjari.

Each community has its distinctive dance patterns.

The Garba of Gujarat is the most popular women's folk dance of Gujarat. During Navratri, a pot is ceremoniously placed attractive designs are made on the pot and a light is placed inside. Village girls bearing pots (garbis) on their heads go from door to door and dance around the respective house.

The leader of the group sings the first line of the song while the rest repeat it in chorus, the beat being produced clapping hands or striking sticks in unison. At every step they gracefully bend sideways, the arms coming together in beautiful sweeping gestures, up and down, left and right, each movement ending in clap.

The Garba is indeed a ceremony in which everyone can take part irrespective of caste or social position. The dances are accompanied by drums (dholak) and the vocal women. The songs of the Garba are often history and melodious and have been handed down through generations. The origins of the seem to be a tribal dance revolving around a hunt; later it was transformed into an agricultural ritual dedicated to the goddess Ambika. Today it is a social dance at all levels of society. In essence, it continues to be a fertility dance.

There are variations in the garba different regions communities and dancers have involved their own style and steps. In Gujarat, as in Rajasthan, tribal, rural and urban life is interlinked. While the tribes respond to the natural environment, the forest, the sea or the desert, the agricultural community moves around the mother-goddess. She is worshipped as an icon or painted image or painted scroll or as a symbol - an earthen pot (garbi) or a bamboo or wood structure mandavi. The ritual of the Navaratra of the sowing and sprouting of corn for nine days and the climax through a variety of dances links agricultural and urban societies. Today in the cities and town the dance is a social activity and entertainment rather than religious agricultural or fertility symbol.

Ahmedabad is one of the greatest places to enjoy Navratri. All kinds of Rasa-Garbas, Dandia ras etc. are practiced in this period, feasting and fasting are important cultural aspects of this day, and various rituals are performed at temples of the 9 Goddesses of Hinduism. The atmosphere is electric and revelry is in the air. The best places to enjoy the atmosphere of Navratri in Ahmedabad.