manavparivar garba-2

 

Manavparivar Garba-1

 

Dhirendra Wish Happy Dasara to readers

 

 

Wish you Happy Dasara

Ahmedabad 2nd in walkability index

Good morning friends.  I admit the we are walker-friendly.  I may say that Amdavadis are good walkers. In fact, 40 per cent of them rely on walking to do their daily chores. A Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) report has said that Ahmedabad is second only to Mumbai as far as “walkability” is concerned.

Despite its densely packed population, Mumbai seems more walker-friendly with as much as 55% of its population walking regularly. In spite of the large number of urban “walkers”, WWF’s Alternative Urban Futures Report, to be released at the First Habitat Summit in New Delhi on Saturday, reveals the absence of any emphasis on pedestrians, street culture and walkways as far as urban planning goes. According to the study, Delhi is a pedestrian-unfriendly city, which does not rate walking anywhere near transport although 32% of its citizens mostly get about on foot.

A look at Delhi’s congested footpaths and crumbling sidewalks is proof enough of the pedestrian nightmare.

Even though suburban trains carry thousands of Mumbai commuters to work, the sight of people pouring out of stations onto connecting bridges and walkways is common enough. Mumbai is followed by Ahmedabad where 40% of the people walk to get around, followed by Bangalore at 10% and Kolkata 11%.

The study of 30 Indian cities shows that on an average, almost 40% of all trips in urban India still do not involve motorized vehicles — 28% walked and 11% cycled. The proportion rose sharply in smaller towns since distances were usually small and roads less congested. However, in bigger cities, the proportion of people using conventional public transport was high, and consequently commuters walked the last mile.

For instance, in cities with more than eight million population, 22% walked all the way, 8% used cycles and 44% public transport. – The Times of India

New Mantra for Indian Cricketers: Eat, Play, Love!

Good morning friends.  I’m sure some of you will laugh at the words of Coach Gary Kirsten.  At first a smiled at it, then after reading it, I believe in him.  Some coach seriously gives instructions to their players, but with Coach Kirsten he is cool.  I like his way too.

India’s first match at the Champions Trophy on Saturday is also the biggest, at least as far as the fans are concerned. It’s Pakistan versus India, after all.

So Coach Gary Kirsten has given the Indians some basic self-help instructions. Julia Roberts is in Pataudi shooting Eat, Pray, Love – a movie based on the best-selling book of the same name. Gary Kirsten’s version for India’s Men in Blue: Eat, Play, Love.

Players have been asked to eat well, because the Coach says acid in the body can lead to fatigue, irritability and over sexuality. The Indians have also been asked to love themselves, quite literally. Coach Kirsten says going without sex can lead to a significant drop in testosterone levels, and that means reduced aggression and competitiveness. So sex is a must, even if it means going solo.

More instructions on self-reliance: the team has been told to take responsibility for its performance, and to stop blaming others.

The captain of the English cricket team says his team’s strategy for success doesn’t resemble India’s. At a press conference in South Africa, Andrew Strauss laughed, “With regards to sexual habits, I don’t think that’s come up in any of our dossiers! And I don’t think it’s likely to! I don’t know, I am not sure..”

Not everyone’s coach thinks Eat, Play, Love apparently. – NDTV Cricket

Programmers make Gujarati Operating System a reality (1 of 2)

Good morning friends.  It’s a good thing to know that there are some programmers which will make Gujarati Operating System in reality.  This means that it will be a big and good progress.

A quiet revolution in the confines of a computer’s Disk Operating System (DOS) is causing a stir among the software enthusiasts across Gujarat. Linux and other parallel open source programmers from the state have finally made the dream of an Operating System (OS) in Gujarati a reality.

According to the programmers, the best part of Utkarsh, as the Operating System is called is that like all other open source operating system, it can be freely downloaded from the site www.utkarsh.org.

Kartik Mistry, an IT professional from Ahmedabad and the founding member of the Linux users’ group said: “Utkarsh is a mission to ensure that the benefits of IT reaches every Gujarati through a local language interface and easy to understand software. We developed Utkarsh in 2004 and kept adding various elements to it with the help of several programmers spread across the state and country.”

Meanwhile, Mistry said that among the most important features of Utkarsh is the Gujarati dictionary by prominent UK-based industrialist Ratilal Chandaria. “For the last 20 years, Chandaria did painstaking research to prepare the dictionary, which we have included in Utkarsh’s database. It consists of approximately 1,163,292 words for explaining 1,49,709 Gujarati words with their meaning specified with their grammatical forms,” he added.

Ahmedabad company launches open source logging, reporting solution
Even as the state government is yet to decide if it should go for open source software for official use, an Ahmedabad-based company, Elitcore Technologies, has come up with an open source logging and reporting solution to harness the potential of students.

 

GU gives 90% discount to govt for Navratri ground rent

Good morning friends.  It’s Saturday, still working day for me but a little lighter one.    As it is my light work today, I started my day by reading article and news.  Gujarat University gives 90 percent discount to the government for Navratri ground rent. 

In a show of solidarity, Gujarat University (GU) has decided to take a token amount of Rs 1 lakh from state government for using its ground for 20 days during Vibrant Gujarat Navratri festivities this year. 

The daily rent of university ground comes to around Rs 51,000, amounting to Rs 10 lakh for the duration of the event. This move is likely to prompt protest from syndicate members who had opposed last year as well when GU had acted in similar manner.

“The event is not being organized for generating charity for the poor. It is a platform of interaction for rich and affluent industrialists and NRIs,” said a syndicate member. Students are also irked over the fact that invitation cards of this event mention GU ground as that of Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC). “I’ve registered strong protest with the government, urging it to mention the name of university in the invitation and asked government not to make this mistake again next year,” said GU vice-chancellor Parimal Trivedi.

About the issue of token fee, Trivedi cited cooperative attitude towards the government. “Had the function belonged to any NGO or private organization, GU would have charged it Rs 51,000 per day. But as this event belongs to the government, we have to be reasonable,” he said. – The Times of India

Tendulkar, Harbhajan script India’s tri-series triumph (2 of 2)

Encouraged by his success, Dhoni tossed the ball to Yusuf Pathan and the lanky offie claimed Jayasuriya, just when the left-hander had started looking menacing.

Two more quick wickets and Sri Lanka had lost their top half for 131 and once Sangakkara fell to a freak dismissal – his bat came loose and fell on the wicket on follow through – the hosts had the writing on the wall.

Earlier, 36-year-old Tendulkar seemed to be in imperious form as he notched up his 44th ODI century with a stunning display of strokeplay.

With Dinesh Karthik failing in both the matches, India opted for a new opening pair of Tendulkar and Dravid for the summit showdown and the experienced duo clicked together.

The two experienced batsmen found runs easy to come by as they took the total to 50 by the end of the 10th over and sought to accelerate the pace of scoring from then on.

Dravid got a reprieve when he was on 24 with Tillakaratne Dilshan dropping a fairly simple catch at gully, Thushara being the unlucky bowler.

Sangakkara introduced Lasith Malinga in the 13th over and Tendulkar greeted him with a glorious backfoot punch to the fence.

Dravid then lifted spinner Ajantha Mendis for a six but the wily Sanath Jayasuriya removed him in the next over. Dhoni promoted himself to the number three slot and got into the act almost immediately with a flurry of strokes.

He and Tendulkar kept up the pace of scoring without taking too many risks as they brought about the 100-run partnership to pile up the agony on the hosts.

Tendulkar took a single by cutting Mendis to the sweeper cover to notch up his 44th ODI century.

The hosts finally broke the partnership when Dhoni mistimed his pull shot and Kandamby took a well-judged catch. A tired Tendulkar, who called in a runner after suffering from cramps, was dismissed at the fag end of the innings, being trapped leg before wicket by Mendis.

His sublime knock of 138 came off just 133 balls and was laced with ten boundaries and a six.

Down the order, Yuvraj chipped in with an unbeaten 41-ball cameo of 56 that had six fours and a six in it. – NDTV Cricket

Tendulkar, Harbhajan script India’s tri-series triumph (1 of 2)

Good morning friends.   Tendulkar, Harbhajan script India’s tri-series triumph.  Tendulkar seemed to be domineering as he marked up his 44th ODI century with an eye-catching demonstration  of his  stroke play.  He is very good in that.

Sachin Tendulkar’s 44th ODI century and Harbhajan Singh’s five-wicket haul scripted India’s tri-series triumph as the visitors raised their game when it mattered most and cruised to a 46-run win in the final match against Sri Lanka here on Monday.

Thumped by 139 runs in their Saturday’s meeting which cost them world number one ODI team’s tag, India first amassed 319 for five and then shot out Sri Lanka for 273 in 46.4 overs to settle score.

Chasing a mammoth 320-run target, Sri Lanka got the perfect start from Tillakaratne Dilshan (42 off 29 balls) and Sanath Jayasuriya (36) before running out of steam. Down the order, the 70-run stand between Thilina Kandamby (66) Chamara Kapugedera (35) was a mere act of defiance and not enough to turn the match on its head.

Harbhajan Singh (5/56) was the wrecker-in-chief even though he missed a hat-trick chance.

Earlier, the Indian top order fired in unison and Tendulkar’s majestic 133-ball 138 lifted them to a massive 319 for five wickets after Mahendra Singh Dhoni had won an important toss and elected to bat.

Tendulkar raised 95 runs with makeshift opener Rahul Dravid (39) and 110 with next man in Dhoni (56) and then Yuvraj Singh (56) provided the late charge to take the tally past the 300-mark.

The target was tough but Sri Lanka looked game for a fight with Dilshan going after Ishant Sharma. Dilshan greeted Ishant with back-to-back fours in his first over and then went on a rampage.

The famous Dilscoop was not far behind either as Dilshan executed the shot against his bemused Delhi Daredevils teammate Ashish Nehra.

Desperate for a breakthrough, Dhoni pressed in service Harbhajan Singh as early as in the eighth over and the offie did not let his skipper down, dealing a double strike that knocked the stuff out of Sri Lanka’s chase.

Harbhajan castled Dilshan with his fifth delivery and then returned to catch Mahela Jayawardene (1) off his own bowling in his next over.

Going green for the final journey

Good morning friends.  First day of the week.  Start of the day’s work. I love nature very much as I appreciate this  journey they have.  They have this final journey for going green.  Some may didn’t have idea of this.  This is saving our green nature . . . the trees.  I hope everybody will give importance to our nature. 

The number of eco-conscious people is growing steadily. This is highlighted by the fact that more people are opting for electric and CNG cremation for dear ones. According to Birth & Death Control Department of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), there has been a jump in number of families which are voluntarily opting for environment friendly funerals. 

A senior AMC official said, “In last two years, there has been a jump of almost 30 per cent in environment-friendly cremations in the city. Families are willingly opting for cremation through electricity or CNG.”

Going green on their last journey also means saving hundreds of trees which are chopped down for final rites. AMC needs 10 lakh kg of wood annually for cremating dead bodies. A major chunk of this wood comes from the dense forest area of Dahod and Panchmahal. The woods used are mainly of Mango, Neem and Asopalav.

According to official figures, the total number of deaths reported annually at AMC is 25,000 which include all religions. Nearly 24,000 bodies are brought to AMC-run crematoriums out of which 20,000 are cremated as per the Hindu tradition.

The official said, “Nearly 25-30 per cent people who go for Hindu final rites for their kin opt for green cremation these days instead of funeral by woods. Even the rich and affluent class from western side of the city are going for green cremation,” added the official.

AMC runs 18 crematoriums in the city, out of which 10 have the facility of electricity and CNG cremation. In 2007, 24 per cent opted for green cremation, in 2008 the percentage jumped to 28.

Chairman of the health committee Praful Rawal said, “It is a voluntary decision of grieving families to either opt for funeral by woods or CNG. We have a nominal charge for wood while CNG and electricity are free of cost service. But, for Below Poverty line (BPL) families’ cremation through wood is highly subsidized.”

“AMC authorities have been improvising on the infrastructure of the existing crematoriums. Most of the crematoriums have been equipped with facilities for CNG and electric cremations and other are under construction in different areas,” adds Rawal.

AMC is spending around Rs 15 crore on modernization of existing crematoriums and construction of new ones fitted with CNG. – The Times of India