Atrophic Rhinitis

What is atrophic rhinitis? Atrophic rhinitis is a chronic nasal condition that is characterised by the formation of thick dry crusts in the nasal cavity. It results from progressive wasting away or decreasing in size (atrophy) of the mucous nasal lining (mucosa) and its underlying bone. It also affects the glands and turbinate bones. Special forms of chronic atrophic rhinitis are rhinitis sicca anterior and ozaena. Etiology • Hereditary factors • Endocrinal imbalance - the disease tends to start at puberty and mostly involves females • Racial factors - whites are more susceptible than natives of equatorial Africa • Nutritional deficiency in vitamins A , D or iron • Autoimmune factors - viral infection may trigger antigenicity of the nasal mucosa Symptoms • Most commonly seen in females • Reported among patients from lower socioeconomic groups • The nasal cavities become roomy and are filled with foul smelling crusts which are black or dark green and dry, making expiration painful and difficult. • Microorganisms are known to multiply and produce a foul smell from the nose, though the patients may not be aware of this, because their elements (responsible for the perception of smell) have become atrophied. This is called merciful anosmia. • Patients usually complain of nasal obstruction despite the roomy nasal cavity, which can be caused either by the obstruction produced by the discharge in the nose, or as a result of sensory loss due to atrophy of nerves in the nose, so the patient is unaware of the air flow. • Bleeding from the nose, also called epistaxis, may occur when the dried discharge (crusts) are removed. • Septal perforation and dermatitis of nasal vestibule can occur. The nose may show a saddle-nose deformity. Management Treatment of atrophic rhinitis can be either medical or surgical. Medical measures include: • Nasal irrigation using normal saline • Removal of crusts using alkaline nasal solutions prepared by dissolving a spoonful of powder containing one part sodium bicarbonate, one part sodium biborate and two part sodium chloride. • 25% glucose in glycerine can be applied to the nasal mucosa to inhibit the growth of proteolytic organisms which produce foul smell • Local antibiotics, such as chloromycetine • Vitamin D(Kemicetine) • Systemic streptomycin (1g/day) against Klebsiella organisms. Surgical interventions include: • Modified Young's operation • Narrowing of nasal cavities, sub-mucosal injection of Teflon paste, section and medial displacement of the lateral wall of the nose • Transposition of parotid duct to maxillary sinus or nasal mucosa

Content Writing Still Rules the Web

There is no denying the fact that content writing still rules the web. The search engines will just not recognize your website and attach any value to it if it does not have any content of worth. If you take a close look at what kind of websites are sitting perched at the top of the search engine rankings, you will find all of them with strong unique content and keyword density that has an impact on the presentation. So, how do you go about with your content strategy? Your strategy has to be backed up with good research and planning. It has to contain enthusiastic and creative objectives. If you want to promote your business as unique in today’s competitive world, you have to provide content writing that is engaging enough to take a position of authority. Content strategy is all about where, when and how you will project your content and what type of content you will present for the kinds of audience you have kept in your mind. You are very well aware that Google comes out with an update to its algorithm every now and then and that it is rather severe on sites that have thin or duplicate kind of content. The consumer behavior patterns are changing and social media is hogging most of the new search engine optimization strategies. It is your content that makes you an expert in the field and also generates links at the same time. You can keep these five things in your mind when planning your content strategy: • What is the message going to be? What do you want out of your web page? Are you simply going to sell your products or make the people subscribe to your blogs and consider you as an industry expert? • Be clear about your audience. Then, you can work out strategies on where you can find most of your audience. You have to do a little research on your audience before you take steps on your content writing plan. • You have to locate your audience. You can create one of the best informational graphic presentations in the world, but if you are not sure of where and when to present it, you will not be getting anywhere. • Information can help in the creation of a good and imaginative content strategy. Social Mention and Icerocket.com could be useful tools as they can locate networks and blogs for accessing your brand and key phrases. Google’s Insight Tools and Keyword Selection will also help. • A good content strategy that throws pointers back to your website is crucial in search engine marketing. The stronger the content quality of your web pages, the higher authority Google will extend to your website. You cannot do everything by yourself. Get services of a good article writer who can cover different niches with an expertise in doing press releases. Writing blog should come naturally to that writer. The article writer has to write keyword focused articles that are factual and full of valuable information.

Honey: The Elixir of Life

Honey is recognized as a delicious food supplement that is used on the dining table for eating with porridge or cereals and as an ingredient to make the tea taste nice. Not many people are aware of the benefits of honey; not only as a food ingredient but as a healthcare product. Eyebrows are raised when there are suggestions to use honey on our hair or skin. People are ignorant and detached on the benefits provided by honey through the ages towards maintenance of healthy skin and hair. Amazing Ingredients of Honey Honey has never been dependent on additives to prevent it from getting spoilt. This must have been a real blessing during the ages where there was no refrigerator. Modern scientists have discovered at a later stage that honey had powerful antioxidant properties, giving us a strong source of enzymes, minerals, amino acids and vitamins. These ingredients help us in reducing the inflammation in cells and in promoting cellular regeneration. This is the secret behind keeping the skin fresh and youthful. Today, honey has become a frequent ingredient in several cosmetic products and thousands of commercial beauty products are being made with honey and its ingredients. Properties of Honey It contains high quantities of monosaccharide, fructose and glucose. Its sweet taste comes from its sugar content of almost seventy per cent. Minerals and water build up the remaining part of its composition. Honey also has antibacterial and antiseptic properties, as we learn from http://honeyfanatic.com. Modern science has taught us the benefits of honey in its useful applications in wound management. It may come as a surprise to the modern scientists that honey was used to treat wounds as far back as pre-ancient Egyptian days. Honey and its usefulness through the Ages Historical records point out to Cleopatra, hailed as one of the most beautiful women in the world, applying a honey mask to her face each morning. She is also known to have taken honey and milk baths to keep her skin smooth and healthy. Honey is also the secret behind a youthful look even in middle age. In the Ming Dynasty too in China, women at the court of the emperor applied honey with ground orange to keep their hair and skin beautiful and renewed. More than four thousand years ago, honey was used as a conventional Ayurvedic medicine in India and it was thought to be useful to treat imbalances in our body. Ancient Greeks thought that eating honey would help them live longer. There is not a civilization that has not praised the qualities of honey. In the Arabian world, it was considered as a great healing food. The benefits of honey have even been lauded in the Holy Quran which mentions in one of its chapters on how the Almighty Creator taught the bee to build its cells in hills, in trees and in the habitations of men. It talks about how men have been guided to drink the product from within the bodies of the bees to be healed. This is a food for thought.

Santali Language

Santali is a language in the sub family of Austro-Asiatic languages. It is spoken by about ten million people in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Most of its speakers are Indian. It is spoken in the States of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. It belongs to the language family of Munda, Kherwari and Santhali. Santali was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution through the Ninety Second Constitutional Amendment in 2003. This language has been there in India since ages. It has its rich traditional literature and cultural value. Santali language is distantly related to Khmer and Vietnamese languages. Santali is mostly spoken by the Santhal tribe. The Santali speakers are spread over three thousand miles from the river Ganges in the north to the river Baitami in the south. Santali is the only Mundu offshoot language that has been recognised by the Indian government as an official language. As a result of the tribal migration during the nineteenth century, Santali is also found across the entire country as far as Assam in the northeast and even the Andaman and the Nicobar Islands. Origin It is estimated that the Santali language is older than the Aryan languages. The history of Santali and the Santhals tribe can be found in folklore and songs of the tribe itself. Fa-Hien, the Chinese traveller, was the first to describe about the Santhal tribe. After him, historians have come from different regions and wrote different things about them. One thing that is established is that the Santhals were there since the pre-Aryan period. The Santhals fought with Aryans, both Vedic and non Vedic and later made peace with them. Many of them remained uninfluenced by the Aryan culture and languages for some time. The Santali language can be classified as part Dravidian, part Austric and part Munda. The Kissam Koya and the Oraon tribes that come from the Dravidian language speaking clans along with the Santhals were the main tribes. The Santali language has existed for over thousands of years mainly through oral communication. Santali is quite diverse in terms of language, economic status and caste. Grammar, Dialect and Script The major Santali dialect is Mahali. Santali is spoken by Santhals and other tribes such as Mahali and the Pahadis. The script is Ol Chiki. It means the `writing symbol’. It used to be Latin during the British rule. Sadhu Ramchand Murmu used the modern Kherwal script known as `Muj Bandhi’ for the development of Santali language, literature and socio-religious cultural identity in the early part of the twentieth century. Then, the modern Ol Chiki script was developed later in 1925 by Pandit Raghunath Murmu. Ol Chiki has its own alphabet. It is a unique modern developed Indic script which uses both capital and small letters together. The short hand concept was composed by Pruthunath Murmu to solidify the Ol Chiki script. The formative style of the script proves its natural shape. The modern Ol Chiki script has six basic vowels a, aa, i, u, e and o and three additional vowels. Santali uses a number of affixes, tense and moods. It has got its own pronouns, numerical and syntactical structure as a fully fledged language. The Santali alphabet is an indigenous alphabet which is based on traditional symbols as well as pictographs. It is also known as Ol Cemet or `language of writing’. In the earlier days, Santali was written with the Bengali alphabet and sometimes with the Latin alphabet. Santali is not an Indo-European language like most other languages of northern India. The Indic script did not have letters for all the phonemes of Santali, particularly its stop consonants and vowels. This made it difficult for writing the language accurately in an unmodified Indic script. The Christian missionaries brought the Latin alphabet into India. Latin was helpful at representing some of Santali’s stops but the vowels still created problems. Unlike most Indic scripts that are derived from Brahmi, Santali’s Ol Chiki is not an abugida but a true alphabet as the vowels are given equal representation with the consonants. One letter was also assigned to each phoneme as the letters were designed specifically for the language. Santali has thirty letters. The forms of these letters represent natural shapes. The shapes of these letters reflect the names for the letters and the words are normally the names of objects or actions that represent traditional form in the pictorial shape of the characters. Santali is written from left to right. Speech perception in Santali is of simple phonetic contrast of syllables. The Santali Latin alphabet was invented in the eighteen nineties by the Norwegian missionary, Reverend Paul Olaf Bodding. He was one of the most influential missionaries to have come to India. Santali uses thirty letters and five basic diacritics. It does not share any of the syllabic properties of the other scripts like Devanagari. Santali did not have a written language until the twentieth century and used the Latin script until then. Literature Santali is a language with its own distinct characteristics and has a literature that goes back to the beginning of the fifteenth century. The development of traditional Santali language and literature commenced during the British rule around 1870 by literary loving British people. They built a printing press at Benares for popularising the Santali works over the north eastern region. Many dictionaries, dramas and folk tales were written during this period. Santali literature is now widespread in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam. Pandit Raghunath Murmu of the Rairangpur District is the father of Ol Chiki script. He brought about somewhat of a renaissance in 1925 by inventing this script. Pandit Murmu enriched the Santali literature by writing dramas, poems and children’s stories. He did a lot for Santali grammar and wrote many books on mathematics too. The book, `Bakhera’, written by him reflects the Santhal tribal religion. The book contains tribal verses and hymns. Pandit Murmu is popularly known as Guru Gomke among the Santhals. This title was conferred on him by the Mayurbhanj Adibasi Mahasabha. Pandit Murmu’s philosophy was that modern Santali language and literature should point towards the principle of the identity of self rather than imitation. He felt that the Santhali society can be developed only when education was imposed in its mother tongue and that the cultural identity can only be established when its literature became developed with its own script. This historical path breaking philosophy not only gave the Santhals confidence for the development of modern Santali language and literature but also enabled proper expression of their language. Santali and the Santhal Culture The major economic occupation of the Santhals was agriculture, collection of forest produce and cultivation. Their life revolved around the forests. They made mats, baskets and musical equipment from the plants they collected. Literacy rate is very low among people speaking Santali. It is between ten and thirty per cent. The initial attempt to study the Santali culture was done by the Moghals followed by the Christian missionaries. Many scholars and anthropologists have been attracted for decades to the Santali culture. In 1933, Dr. Byomkas Chakrabarti, a Bengali research worker on ethnic languages, found out the basic relationship between the Santali and the Bengali languages. He was a poet and a renowned educationist. He showed how the Bengali language has got some distinct characteristics under the influence of Santali language. The reason for doing so was because of the similarities in the use of phonetics. His contribution was vital in the development of Bengali and Santali languages and it offered scope for further research in the field of linguistics. The Santhals are known for preserving their native language unlike many other tribal groups of India. They were able to preserve the language despite invasions and migrations from the Moghals and the Europeans. Santali culture is shown in the art works on the walls of the houses of the Santhals. The Santhals love music and dance. The first Santali feature film was `Pilchu Haram Pilchu Buddhi’. Though Santali has been recognised as an official language in India, it is not much in use these days. Some Santhals who are educated still use it to write books and other literary works. During the British rule, the language was written in the Latin script. Development of Santali When the Jharkhand State was created, the Santhal tribes of eastern India demanded the recognition of Ol Chiki as the Santali script. This movement was spearheaded by the Kolkata based All India Santhal Council and the Santali Bhasha Morcha. These cultural associations were responsible for getting Santali included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Many literary and cultural societies have been established to promote art, literature and culture through Santali all over the country. This language has now got a private academy and many printing presses and publishers. The Paschim Bangla Santali Academy was created to promote, advance and develop the study of Santali language and literature. The academy also encourages the translation and publication of scholarly, historical and literary works into the Santali language. A library has been set up and archives have been built for the purpose of carrying on research work and to gather manuscripts and other articles of reputed scholars in Santali literature and language. Santali has found a place in the mass communications media. The All India Radio has recognised this language. The transmission of Santali programs has been there from various centres. Santali is now being taught from the school to the university levels in Jharkhand and Bihar. The University Grants Commission is also providing fellowship for higher studies in Santali language and literature. There are currently more than five hundred writers who are promoting this language. The installation of the Doordarshan Santali Television satellite channel has also given the chance for the language to grow. Now, the Santali speaking people can be in touch with both local and international news and other information regarding politics and economy of the world from all over the globe in their own language.

Tashkent

Tashkent was built around 190 B.C. It has grown from a small ancient settlement to become one of the largest metropolitan areas in Central Asia. The freedom loving population of Uzbekistan has fought for its independence continuously against all foreign invasions throughout the centuries. It emerged as an important trading center after the campaigns of Alexander the Great as it was located on the crossroads of the Great Silk Route. The earliest known people who settled down in Tashkent were the Indo-Iranians. Buddhism had also reached and made its mark in the middle ages but after the Arab campaigns of the eighth century, Islam replaced Buddhism as the dominant religion. By the tenth century, Tashkent had become an important center in the Muslim world. In the fourteenth century, Timur Lang created a vast empire around Tashkent. After his death, Shahbani Khan took over and the rule of the Uzbeks started until the Russians dominated in the middle of the nineteenth century. It has now gone back to the Uzbeks after a long struggle. The Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri, died here while visiting for a conference in January 1966.

Assessment of Hearing - Otolaryngology

What are the three types of hearing loss? 1. Conductive hearing loss – It is caused by any disease process that interferes with the conduction of sound from external ear to the stapediovestibular joint. The cause may lie in the external ear or the Eustachian tube in the form of obstructions or in the tympanic membrane in the form of perforation or in the middle ear in the form of fluids or in the ossicles in the form of fixation or disruption. 2. Sensorineural hearing loss - This is caused by lesions of the sensory type of the cochlea or of the cranial nerve 8 and its central connections of the neural type. When the hearing loss is due to lesions of cranial nerve 8, it is known as retrocochlear and when it is because of the lesions of the central auditory connections, it is referred to as central deafness. 3. Mixed hearing loss – In this kind of hearing loss, both sensorineural and conductive elements of deafness are present in the same ear. There is an air-bone gap that indicates the conductive element and impairment of bone conduction that triggers sensorineural loss. Mixed hearing loss is found in cases of chronic suppurative otitis media and otosclerosis. What four factors are important while assessing the auditory functions? 1. Type of hearing loss – whether it is conductive, sensorineural or mixed. 2. Cause of hearing loss – it may be congenital or traumatic or it could be infection or an auto-immune process. 3. Degree of hearing loss – It could be mild or moderate or it could be severe or total. 4. Site of the lesion – If it is conductive hearing loss, the lesion may be at the external ear or the tympanic membrane or it could be at the middle ear or the Eustachian tube. Tympanometry is helpful in finding the site of lesions. If it is a sensorineural loss, it is to be determined whether the lesion is cochlear or central or retrocochlear. Often special tests of hearing are needed to differentiate the types of these lesions. How is hearing tested? It is done through clinical or audiometric tests. What are the four major clinical tests of hearing? 1. Finger Friction Test – It is a quick method of screening and it involves rubbing and snapping the thumb and a finger by positioning them close to the ear of the patient. 2. Watch Test – A watch that clicks is brought close to the ear of the patient and the distance at which it is heard is measured. 3. Speech or Voice Tests – For the purpose of the test, the patient has to hear a conversation at a distance of forty feet in quiet surroundings. Its disadvantage is the lack of standardisation in intensity. 4. Tuning Fork Tests – They are done with tuning forks of different frequencies. The average frequency is 512 Hz. The tuning fork is activated by striking it gently against the examiner’s elbow or heel of hand. Tuning forks of lower frequencies than 512 Hz produce sense of bone vibration. A vibrating fork is placed vertically in line with the meatus to test air conduction and it is kept about two centimetres away from the opening of the external auditory canal. The sound waves are transmitted through the tympanic membrane. Middle ear and the ossicles to the inner ear. In order to test bone conduction, the foot plate of the vibrating tuning fork is placed on the mastoid bone. Cochlea is stimulated directly by the vibrations conducted through the skull bones. What are some of the important and clinically useful tuning fork tests? 1. Rinne – Air conduction of the ear is compared with its bone conduction. A vibrating tuning fork is placed on the patient’s mastoid and when hearing stops, it is brought besides the meatus. If he still hears, air conduction is more than bone conduction. Rinne’s test can be concluded as false negative in severe unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. The patient does not hear any sound of the tuning fork by air conduction but responds to bone conduction. 2. Weber’s – A vibrating tuning fork is placed in the middle of the forehead and the patient is asked in which ear he or she can hear the sound. Normally, it is heard equally in both ears. It is lateralized to the worse ear in conductive deafness and to the better ear in sensorineural deafness. 3. Gelle’s – It is a test of bone conduction and examines the effect of increased air pressure in ear canal on hearing. It is performed by placing a vibrating tuning fork on the mastoid while changes in air pressure in ear canal are brought about by Siegel’s speculum. What are the four types of audiometry tests and explain briefly, giving details about tympanometry as part of impedance test 1. Pure Tone Audiometry- Audiometer is used to produce pure tones, Their intensity can be increased or decreased by 5 dB steps and the amount of intensity that has to be raised above the normal level is a measure of the degree of hearing impairment at that frequency. It is charted in the form of a graph called audiogram. It is used to measure the degree and type of hearing loss, prescription of hearing aid and degree of handicap for medico-legal purposes 2. Speech Audiometry- The patient’s ability to hear and understand speech is measured. The two parameters used are speech reception threshold and discrimination score. 3. Bekesy Audiometry- It is a self-recording audiometry where various pure tone frequencies automatically move from low to high while the patient controls the intensity through a device that indicates Type 1 – Type V degree. 4. Impedance Audiometry- There are two tests that make up this category. They are tympanometry and acoustic reflex measurements. Tympanometry is based on a simple principle that dwells on when a sound strikes the tympanic membrane; some of its energy is absorbed while the remainder is reflected. It helps in finding the degree of compliance or stiffness of the tympanic membrane to show the health of the middle ear. Five types of tympanograms are Type A, Type As, Type AD, Type B and Type C with the range being Type A as normal and Type C as maximum compliance.

Attain a High Google Page Rank with Quality Backlinks

If you have the right strategy and the right tools, you can get your website on the first page of Google. It will all start with link building. Website backlinks are essential to get your hold on search engine rankings. It is worth it even if you have to pay thousands of dollars a year to the webmasters for their links. Posting on forums and blogs have to take secondary importance to the creation of a quality backlink. There are options available to you in the shape of back link and SEO services for a monthly charge to use their links. Setting up a blog is going to be important. Even if you have a website, an incorporated blog will enhance the presence of your website online. Each time Google changes its algorithms with an update related to website backlinks, there will be a buzz from many webmasters suggesting dead links. It is time to accept the fact that social links are replacing backlinks as the main metric index for website authority. There are five important things to consider before embarking on a link building exercise. 1. It starts with great and purposeful content. You need to think out good content. You require smart promotional strategies to get backlinks and achieve success. 2. You have to try and establish yourself as an authority by creating a blog. It is easy to create a blog but it is not easy to assert authority. You can achieve this by packing powerful biographical information on your blog sidebar or at the end of the blog posts. Targeting blogs is an easy way to get backlinks. 3. Doing original research is a good way to attract links. You can create a newsletter through email and use that to attract traffic to your new and original content. 4. Use video links on your website to share information and advice with the users of your website. 5. You can use a tutorial approach to guide visitors to your site one step at a time to do something and they will be impressed by that. You can use link building service to build back link assets that can work as promotional mediums. These can be linkable assets that can work within an image or a widget to make them more visible. There will a high likelihood of these links being clicked on. Informational graphics can serve powerfully with their size and they carry a big potential of virality as they capture the attention of the viewer instantly. A backlink from another site that points to your website is a mighty good vote of confidence. Use link building service to choose the same platform on the social media network that most of your prospects use. Remember that a loyal base of social media users will set up a great platform to promote the content on your web pages and will put you firmly on the path to attain a high page rank on the Google search engine.

Figuring out how to Market your Business

It is not enough to just get websites designed. There are many websites that are up and running. But the real question is, “How many people visit your site?” In the internet world of today, it is important to use the services of SEO Agencies Mumbai and take advantage of their search engine optimisation consultancy so that they can help drive the visitors to your website. Once you finish building a website, the next thing that you have to think is to achieve the maximum return on your investment from that website. You have to figure out how you are going to market your business on the worldwide web. SEO in Mumbai will combine the best search engine optimisation strategies and get the equation right for you. SEO companies Mumbai has been busy practicing organic or natural search engine optimisation for over a decade now. With the right mix of social media marketing experience that they have and content marketing, agencies can deliver the desired return on investment for your company’s marketing budget. SEO Audits are necessary SEO in Mumbai has included in their consultancy the provision of SEO audits as well as link audits of many websites. They also handle the link cleaning services. It is very important to get a search engine optimisation and a link audit done on your website after the recent Google Algorithm updates like the Google Panda, the Google Penguin and Google Hummingbird. You might face a big reduction in the volume of organic search traffic if your website has not been compliant with the Webmaster Guidelines of Google even if you have not experienced a decrease in traffic to your website in the past. In addition to the audit, the link profile also has to be cleaned up. Expanding the Market Reach of your Brand If SEO companies Mumbai help your website get a high ranking on Google, Yahoo and Bing, your business may be on the way to skyrocket with more traffic and customers coming your way. Marketing on the internet needs a specialised set of skills and this is possible with SEO agencies Mumbai. Their experience can be used in a whole range of internet marketing services to make the websites successful by turning them into lead generators for the business. This is made possible by - • Boosting sales and generating new customers with the help of cost-effective and customised marketing. • Increasing the web visibility and the popularity of a website with a quality link marketing plan. • Messaging at the search engines with pay per click services. • Expanding the business with the largest networks in the world through social media marketing. • Eliminating the damage brought about by negative posts on the internet with reputation management solutions. The Importance of Search Engine Optimization The obvious benefit that you gain from the services offered by SEO companies Mumbai is the growth in the volume of traffic to your website. If there is no motivation for traffic to come to your website, there is no question of people buying anything from you. Search engine optimisation is the way to create that volume of targeted traffic for the website. It is not just bringing the visitors to you but also turning them into customers.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is one of the oldest recognised languages that have existed in India for over seven thousand years. The Sanskrit language has been in use longer than any other language in the world. Even Greek and Latin are not used in their traditional context any more as Sanskrit is done. Sanskrit is also the root of a large number of languages including the primary languages of Europe, Iran and the Middle East. Sanskrit root words could be found in places as far as Hawaii. Sanskrit and its roots can be traced to the Indo-Iranian sub family of the Indo-European languages. Sanskrit came to India from the northwest and was brought in by the Mesopotamians and the Aryan civilisations. It was exported out of India by way of returning people to influence the other Indo-European languages. Whatever its origin, the language has flourished in India and is recognised as a principal official language. It has been the language that has been used by the elite class of people in India and in classic literature. Knowledge of Sanskrit through the ages exemplified a high intellectual and social status of a person in society in India. Sanskrit is one of India’s twenty two official languages and is regularly taught in schools. It is broadcast over All India Radio stations and is used mostly in religious and scholarly context. The word `Sanskrit’ means `Wholly Cultured’ and is considered one of the most sophisticated languages of the world. However, there have been no linguistic developments in Sanskrit, leading many linguists to feel that it may be turning into a dead language. It is, nevertheless, recognised as one of the great original cultural languages in the world. Sanskrit may be termed as a classical language of India. It is also a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Its position in South Asia is similar to that of Greek and Latin in Europe. It is popular among scholars in and outside of India. Without a proper understanding of the Sanskrit culture, knowledge of India and its traditions would be incomplete. Sanskrit is known for its beauty and clarity. It is also the most systematic language in the world. Much contribution has been made from all parts of the country for the growth of Sanskrit language. Pre-Classical and Classical Sanskrit There are two ages of Sanskrit. There is pre-classical or Vedic Sanskrit and the Classical or the Paninian Sanskrit. Vedic Sanskrit is the language used in the Vedas. There is a large compilation of Hindu philosophical and sacred texts. The Vedas were composed around 4, 500 BC. During these ages, Sanskrit did not have a written script. Sanskrit is the original language of the Vedas which were transmitted from the one who recited to the listener of mantras and shlokas. The Vedas were memorised and transferred orally from the guru (teacher) to the shishya (student). People had to understand the six Vedangas to study the Vedas. The Vedas cannot be studied without the six Vedangas. The first three are Shiksha (understanding of the letters and phonetics), Vyakarna (grammar) and Niruktam (root words and etymology). The latter three are Chandas (metrical system), Kalpa (rituals) and Jyotisha (astronomy and astrology). Shiksha deals with the spoken aspect of the language. It shows how to pronounce the letters of the aksharas or the alphabet. Shiksha divides the letter into three classes. They are swaras, vyanjanas and oushmanas. The letters differ from each other in their meanings depending on the effort and the duration of time for which they are used. Vyakarna is the heart of grammar and it describes meaningful word formations and sounds. Niruktam describes elementary root words that are used in the Vedas. Classification of words into groups of synonyms is an example. There are over hundred synonyms for just the word `water’ as given in Niruktam. The fourth Vedanga, Chandas, describes the formation of sentences in metrical form. Sanskrit offers about twenty Vedic metres and many more conventional metres unlike English that uses four basic metres. The remaining Vedangas, Kalpa and Jyotisha are connected with rituals and space and time. The classical Sanskrit followed the grammar rules that were set down by the esteemed ancient grammarian, Panini. These came about in the fifth century before Christ. Panini wrote a grammar treatise called `Astadhyayi’ (meaning Eight Sections). It was made up of almost four thousand sutras. The other ancient grammarians, Katyayana and Patajali, composed commentaries later on the Astadhyayi and added more grammar rules in their works that were Vartikas and the Mahabhashya. These three grammar works are collectively known as `Trimuni Vyakarana’. Starting from the Rigveda, which is the earliest Vedic text, to the later three Vedas that were the Samaveda, the Yajurveda and Atharvaveda right up to the Brahmanas and the Upanishads, the Vedic period was one of oral tradition. The three major Hindu philosophic concepts that are formulated in Sanskrit are Dvaita by Madhavacharya, Advaita by Shankaracharya and Vishishtadvaita by Ramanujacharya. Script Sanskrit began to be written down in the Classical Age around 400 BC. At various periods, many regional language scripts like Brahmi, Kharoshti, Gupta, Sharada, Devanagari, Bengali, Oriya, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam were used for writing Sanskrit. Mostly the Brahmi and the Devanagari were used. Currently, the Devanagari script is being used to write Sanskrit. This is a phonetic script like most other Indian scripts. Linguists feel that the structure of the Sanskrit language is near perfect. There are forty nine sounds in the Sanskrit script that are formed in five separate areas of our mouth. The letters are arranged scientifically so that the simple vowels come first, then the diphthongs and consonants in uniform groups depending on their point of pronunciation. All this makes for perfect phonetic accuracy. Each Sanskrit alphabet has a precise sound in every word. Every word in Sanskrit is derived from a root. Prefixes and suffixes are added to a root to create words. The grammar, the form and the word meanings are highly developed. Sanskrit is also known `Samskritam’. The name means complete and perfect. `Sams’ means entirely or wholly. `Kritam’ means created. When Sanskrit is used in the scriptures, the sound vibrations of each letter are created to have an effect on a person’s conscience. Sanskrit mantras are made with a combination of sound vibrations. When these mantras are recited, they have a particular effect on the mind and the psyche of a person. Sanskrit script has retained its purity. The structure and vocabulary have remained unadulterated over thousands of years of existence. Grammar Sanskrit’s grammar is regulated and is exact. Sage Panini’s Sanskrit grammar called `Astadhyayi’ was written over two thousand five hundred years ago. It gives us the details of how the language is structured and forms the basis for all modern grammar. Sanskrit has a very rich grammatical structure and a huge vocabulary. There are fifty one aksharas or letters. The aksharas retain their sound as an aspect of non destruction in the phonetic characteristics of the language. The aksharas retain their individual meanings in composed words. The basic unit is a word root. Words are derivatives. All roots are verbs. There is no real concept of proper nouns. All words are complete verbs and they do not depend on adjacent words for their meaning. It is the words in the sentence that will matter and not their order. These are the main reasons why Sanskrit is such a structured language. Linguists describe Sanskrit’s grammar as entirely context-free. Non-terminals can be rewritten without any regard to the context in which they occur. This structure was described in four thousand sutras by Panini. He is considered to be the father not only of Sanskrit grammar but also of computing machines. Literature As Sanskrit is the language of the Vedic culture, it has brought a treasure of literature and philosophy with it. The outstanding Puranas and the hundred and eight Upanishads are the essence of Vedic philosophy. Sanskrit literature has been around for more than two thousand years. Sanskrit language has a unique structure which is perfect. Many scholars have contributed to Sanskrit literature for thousands of years. Among the famous masterworks of Sanskrit literature are Ramayana written by Valmiki and the Mahabharata written by Vyasa. Mahabharata is one of the prime scriptures and is one of the longest literary epics in the world with over hundred thousand verses. It contains the famous Bhagavad Gita. Other important works are the Panchatantra written by Visnu Sharma, Arthashastra by Chanakya, poems and plays by the great Kalidasa and Surdasa, the Puranas and the Upanishads. There are treatises that are also available on astronomy, astrology and science. One of the oldest literatures in the world, the Vedas and the Puranas are still available in the same form that they have been written in at the beginning. There are many scholars who can interpret them today. Such interpretation comes not only by studying the ancient traditions but also through a steady process of assimilating knowledge from various disciplines by means of Sanskrit. Sanskrit and the Philosophy of Science Today, Sanskrit can be as modern as any other language. Its grammar is precise and well defined. Many academicians feel that it is the best language for use with computers due to its context-free grammar. The vocabulary of Sanskrit is taken from root syllables and is ideal for labelling new scientific and technological terms. Scientific principles have always been hidden in the verses of the Vedas and the Upanishads. The concepts and the principles that are found in current day astronomy and mathematics were all hidden in the compositions and treatises of many ancient Sanskrit scholars. The precise structure of Sanskrit offers a lot in the area of computational linguistics research. It is unique on account of it being the only known language that has a built-in scheme for pronunciation and grammar. Sanskrit is full of philosophy and theology related issues. There are many words within Sanskrit that convey different meanings of a concept that allows only one interpretation when studied with other languages. The language, therefore, has the ability to offer links between concepts using only the words.

It is interesting to know that India has been able to produce many talented billiards players who have captivated the world audiences with their genius and artistry despite billiards not being one of the most popular games in the country. Three names that come to mind are Michael Ferreira, Wilson Jones and Geet Sethi. Michael Ferreira was born in Bombay on 1st October 1938. He studied in St. Joseph’s School at Darjeeling. He became interested in billiards at Darjeeling. He went to college at St. Xavier’s in Mumbai. He later studied law at the Government Law College in Mumbai. He is a lawyer by profession. Michael Ferreira started playing billiards in 1954 at the age of sixteen. Wilson Jones was the first player of billiards who represented India at an international level. Michael Ferreira went one step beyond him by not only representing India but making his presence felt for a long time to come. He won the World Amateur Billiards Championship four times. For the first time in 1960, he participated in the Indian National Billiards Championship. In 1964, he represented India in the World Amateur Billiards Championship at Christchurch in New Zealand where he went up to the semi finals and lost narrowly to Wilson Jones. He had to wait for thirteen years. Perseverance paid dividends as in 1977; he won his first World Championship Title at Melbourne. He followed it up with another title the next year. In 1978, he became the first amateur to break the barrier of a thousand points in the National Billiards Championship and created a World Record by scoring 1,149 points. Michael Ferreira earned the Shiv Chhatrapati Award in 1971, the Arjuna Award in 1973 and the Dronacharya Award in 2001 for his coaching achievement in billiards and snooker. The difference between billiards and snooker is that billiards is played with white, red and yellow balls. The white and yellow are the cue balls and the objective is to score set points. Snooker is played with fifteen red, six coloured balls of various colours and one cue ball. The player has to pot a red ball first, then a coloured one and again a red and so on. Michael Ferreira is known as the `Bombay Tiger’ and a rebel with a cause. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1981 when he won his Second World Amateur Title but he refused to accept the award because he felt that people connected with the sport of cricket and hockey were heavily favoured, hinting particularly at Sunil Manohar Gavaskar getting the Padma Bhushan that year. He ultimately got the Padma Bhushan Award in 1983 when he won his Third World Championship Title. He is known as a true rebel who has always fought for equal opportunities like facilities and encouragement to be given to other sports and games apart from cricket and hockey in the country. Michael Ferreira has achieved a lot in his life and he is currently involved with a Company called QNet that believes in helping people. He is working with their marketing operations under the team label of `Faith’. He is helping others gain their financial freedom. His achievements at the national and the international levels have been instrumental to give impetus to the game of billiards in India. He has been a role model for young, aspiring billiards players in the country including Geet Sethi who has also kept India’s head high in international competitions by winning three Amateur and five Professional World Championship Titles. Michael Ferreira loves big cars, good food and wine. His favourite pastime is reading, listening to Western Classical Music and writing.

Robotic vacuum cleaners are made to make your life easier and simpler by giving you a helping hand with your house work when you have busy schedules throughout the week. They have many unique features that make them ideal helpers in the maintenance of clean floors. They will maintain your floors in a wonderful way and you will not even miss your uprights vacuums. There are two good brands and people always weigh Roomba vs. Bobsweep when they go out to choose their first robot vacuum. The important thing to remember is the type of flooring. Some cleaners struggle on carpeting which is tall and others have height limitations but not Roomba or Bobsweep. Things to consider when buying Robot Vacuum Cleaners When there are pets in the house, people tend to consider machines that have anti-tangle brushes that are created for the removal of pet hair which clings. Some people may have dust allergies and they try to look for cleaners with HEPA filters. These filters are for high efficiency particulate absorption. There are various criteria that you may look for when you are hunting for robotic vacuums. The first major factor is their performance. The time it takes to clean is an important concern when you want to make a purchase decision. The top of the line cleaners will have operation times of a couple of hours. The more passes a cleaner will make over a spot, the more thorough the cleaning process will be. The Performance of a Roomba Cleaner Many robotic cleaners provide different kinds of cleaning patterns. Roomba reviews indicate that they are equipped with more than five patterns that include random, back and forth and spiral movements. They will also have sensors which are able to plot out a room and keep in their memory where they have already gone, making sure that they do not miss out any spot in the room. A Roomba can make multiple passes for cleaning. It has a remote control sensor facility for people who have difficulty bending or lifting. It also has extra cleaning brushes which are located on its sides apart from the main cleaner brush. These extra brushes pick up the dust from places along walls or corners which are hard to reach. Comparing Bobsweep with Roomba Bobsweep is considered as the biggest competitor to Roomba. There are many similarities between both when you compare Bobsweep vs. Roomba. Both these cleaners can help you clean even the gutters, the pool and they can mop or scrub your room floors. Both provide compelling solutions as ideal cleaners for your house. They have schedules which are programmable. They have HEPA filters, dirt detectors and they return to the dock automatically. Another essential feature in both these brands is the one-year warranty. The Dual Filters of Roomba 790 The sweeping powers of Roomba vs. Bobsweep attract some people but the opinion is divided between both these brands. Few people find the overall value of Bobsweep to be attractive. In any case, both the machines perform admirably in your house while helping you save that precious time. The iRobot Roomba model 790 has a longer run time and a remote control as you will find in this comparison at http://www.viewpoints.com/expert-reviews/2014/01/23/bobsweep-vs-roomba-battle-robots/. You will value the importance of a clean house if anyone suffers from dust allergy. Pet hair and dust can trigger asthma or respiratory problems. The Roomba model also provides a dual HEPA filter to offer twice the power of filtration when compared with other cleaners. Model 790 filters are known to even capture the small particles that can damage lungs.

Understanding Chiropractic Therapy and its Benefits

Chiropractors are mostly approached by people for back pain treatment. The patients are first evaluated for their individual spinal problems to determine a course of treatment. Each treatment schedule is worked out as per the individual needs of a patient. Treatment could be required for a herniated disc, back pain, pregnancies, pediatrics, nervous system or athletic injuries. Chiropractors adopt different strategies of treatment. Some are of an opinion that spinal adjustment is all the treatment that a body needs to heal itself while others focus on the latent pain relieving techniques by coaching the patients on proper ergonomics both at work and at home. Many people are familiar with the chiropractic therapy and its benefits. Chiropractors have served as a good alternative to orthopedic surgeons. Chiropractic therapy believes in a holistic approach towards health care. It lays stress on the well being and good mental health of a person. The theory behind chiropractic care is that there are numerous factors that affect your health in the form of heredity, type of exercises done from childhood, environmental surroundings, dietary habits and methods of relaxation. A chiropractor at the Wellness Center provides non surgical, natural and drugless treatment with total reliance on the body’s recuperative ability. A good chiropractor will always recommend changes in the lifestyle of people suffering with chronic back pain. He or she will pay attention and try to influence your sleeping, exercising, working and eating habits. Chiropractors follow a standard routine like the other medical practitioners while gathering the information that they need on their patients for diagnosis and course of treatment. They take the medical history of a patient and conduct physical, neurological and orthopedic checks. They depend on X-rays and other diagnostic images. They use only their hands to manipulate and mobilize your spine. A very important part of the chiropractic treatment is that it teaches you to take care of your mind as well as your body.

Slowing Down the Ticking of Biological Clocks in Women

Women are obsessed with the fear of aging. They dread to lose their youth and try their utmost to preserve the freshness in their skin texture. Another fear women have is about marrying late in life and giving birth at that age. Obesity is of special concern as it can increase complications for the mother and child. There are considerable risks, as per the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, related with obesity and pregnancy. The chances of requiring a caesarian delivery are high when a woman is obese. The fear of giving birth late could possibly be overcome by the use of stem cells technologies. It has been learnt through studies from the Biology Department of Harvard University that a woman could carry the egg stem cells in her ovaries right up to late adulthood. This brings out possibilities of the age being extended at which a woman can give birth. Stem cell technologies could now be used to rejuvenate an older woman’s eggs. The embryonic stem cells can give hope for regenerative medicine in which tissues can be repaired or even replaced. New fertility treatments from stem cell technologies will erase the biological clock fear in women and also slow down the ticking of that clock. Couples can even start thinking in terms of select babies then. In perhaps four decades from now, couples can go through tube fertilization to select the characteristics of their new born. Experts in the field of fertility feel that many women who do not have regenerative eggs of their own on account of their age, a medical condition or due to treatment of cancerous cells can now be helped by such technology. This can be a very big step that can be taken in the study of reproductive technologies in the generations to come.

Ngorongoro Crater Safaris

Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) has been declared as a UNESCO site of world heritage thirty nine years ago. The Northern Safari Circuit in Tanzania includes a safari to the Ngorongoro Crater. It is hailed as a beautiful and natural safari site for experiencing wildlife. It is also marked as a unique place for tourists to interact with the Masai tribe. The Ngorongoro Crater came into being when there was a giant volcano explosion thousands of years ago. The volcanic caldera’s cone collapsed inwards and brought about this exceptional safari park in Tanzania. Many visitors to this place consider it as one of the best safari destinations that are on offer in Africa. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a park which allows habitation of humans within the protected area perimeter of wildlife present here. This Crater Park shares its boundary with the Serengeti National Park and visitors to that park have to drive through this Conservation Area to reach Serengeti. Tourists on safari to the Ngorongoro Crater prefer to stay in hotels on the rim of the park in order to gain access to stunning views of the Park. Some tourists like to stay in Karatu which is a little away from this crater. The reason why they go here is to avoid crowds and accommodation is cheaper as a result of intimate and smaller lodges that provide safari activities like mountain biking and walking tours. Another famous place is the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge but its rates are very expensive, stretching to almost $3,000 per night. It is the best safari for visitors who want to experience the Big Five. You will come across a large population of black rhinoceros and will also see some of the largest tusker elephants in the world at this place. They are the prize attraction in the wildlife on offer here. The crater is home also to leopards, lions, wildebeest, hyenas, buffaloes and zebras. Other wildlife that can be seen here includes sighting of cheetahs, serval cats, jackals, Grant’s gazelles, flamingos and foxes with ears like bats. There are about four hundred species of birds that could be spotted in this Conservation Area. As the wildlife tends to stay all the year round in this crater area, any time of the year is a good time for visiting the place. Lake Magadi helps in making the water levels high in the Crater’s centre and this allows for a big concentration of flamingos. Safari Facts The Ngorongoro Crater offers a breathtaking setting for viewing the Big Five in Africa. This Crater is considered as an amazing natural wonder by the visitors. People like to come here for an overnight stay and some of them stay for a couple of nights. They move on to the Serengeti National Park from here. Depending upon the size of the touring party, it is better to drive to this place from Arusha. It is cheaper to share a four-wheel drive along with a guide and you can be picked up from Kilimanjaro Airport as soon as you land there. It is better to arrive at the gates early enough so that you can avoid the crowds. Safari activities here are restricted to game driving. There are many picnic spots in this area. You can alight from your vehicles only in these limited areas. In the vast Ngorongoro Conservation Area, visitors who have taken the safari tours can expect trekking, walking, excursions to the Olduvai Gorge and visit to the Masai tribal villages. During the game drives, you can expect to see elephants, lions, giraffes, black rhinos and wildebeest against a stunning backdrop of the Crater wall that reaches up to six hundred metres. You can see the Big Five in one day alone. People love to come to the Ngorongoro Crater to experience the dense wildlife concentration in Tanzania with a unique volcanic landscape on offer. Budget safaris to the Ngorongoro Crater allow tourists to reduce their expenses. These safaris offer affordability and ease of access to the national parks. Accommodation, meals and entrance fees to the parks are included in the safari package rates.

Le Parc National du Serengeti Safaris

The Serengeti National Park covers the Simiyu and the Mara ecosystem regions in Tanzania. The Park has become famous for the sights it offers involving the migration of over a million wildebeest and about a quarter of a million zebras. The park is also well known for its honey badgers and Nile crocodiles. It was given its name by the Masai tribe to describe the place in their tribal language idiom, meaning “a place where the land runs on, forever.” This is the oldest national park in Tanzania and has remained an icon of the tourism industry in this country. It has always provided a major attraction to the tourists taking the Northern Safari Circuit which encompasses Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, Arusha National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Serengeti National Park covers more than fourteen thousand square kilometres of savanna, woodlands, grassland plains and riverside forest. It is located in the northwestern part of Tanzania. It has the Kenyan border to its north and it is continuous here with the Masai Mara National Reserve. To its southeast, you will find the Ngorongoro Conservation Area; to its southwest, you will find the Maswa Game Reserve; to its west are the Grumeti and the Ikorongo Game Reserves; in the northeast, you will find the Loliondo Game Control Area. These places are all part of the larger ecosystem of Serengeti. Fauna and Wildlife The Serengeti Park is divided into three separate regions - • Serengeti Plains – This area includes grassland with almost no trees and this is the defining topographical characteristic of this division. This is where you will find gigantic herds of wildebeest breeding from December for a period of six months. • The Western Corridor - This region is defined by black clay soil which covers the savannah. Grumeti River and its forests have become home to the patas monkeys, hippopotamus, Nile crocodiles and martial eagles. Huge herds of wildebeest can also be found on its main highway. • Northern Serengeti – This landscape offers hills and open woodlands, ranging from the Mara River on its Kenyan border to Seronera in its south. The prominent wildlife at Serengeti National Park offers • You will find the largest population of lions in the entire continent of Africa in this Park. This is because of the abundance of prey species in this region. More than three thousand lions could be found, living in this ecosystem. • Leopards – These are considered reclusive predators and are distributed densely in the Seronera region. You will find over a thousand leopards in this region. • Bush Elephants – Despite the dangers of poaching, visitors can come across more than five thousand bush elephants in this region and they are densely distributed in the park’s northern region. • Visitors taking the safaris will also come across Eastern Black Rhinoceros and the African Buffalo that make up the Big Five in Africa. • Serengeti National Park is also of great interest to safari seekers who maintain an ornithological interest. This park is home to more than five hundred species of birds and that includes Secretary birds, Masai ostriches, helmeted guinea fowls, kori bustards, and crowned cranes; storks with yellow bills, lesser flamingos, lovebirds and several kinds of vultures. Safari Facts Safari packages to Serengeti National Park feature game drive for experiencing wildlife, walking safaris, hot air balloon safaris, picnicking, lodging, camping, cultural tourism through visiting neighbouring villages; Ngorongoro Crater, Ol Doinyo Lengai Volcano, Olduvai Gorge and those famous flamingos at Lake Natron. Game drive seekers will come across over two hundred thousand zebras in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem plains along with Grant’s gazelles, Coke’s hartebeest, waterbucks, Masai giraffes, warthogs, impalas and hippos. You will also come across rare species of antelopes in this park and they include klipspringers, elands, bushbucks, roan antelopes, fringe-eared oryx, lesser kudus and dik-diks. Game driving is still the main safari activity in Serengeti National Park. Night safaris are not allowed inside this park but there are various lodges in the reserve, adjacent to Serengeti where night driving is permitted for safari seekers. The notable among such alternatives are Grumeti and Loliondo Reserves. You will not come across boating or canoeing safaris here as in Lake Manyara National Park. Walking tours are very much possible outside this park and some camps in the northern side of this park permit walking tours within their boundaries. Majority of areas in the park do not allow guided walk tours because of the prevalence of wildlife. Package rates include game drives, fees for guide and driver, four-wheel drive vehicle, guided walking tours, meals, soft drinks and mineral water bottles.

Le Parc National du Tarangire Du Nord de la Tanzanie

Tarangire National Park is in the Manyara region and is the sixth largest among all parks in Tanzania. It got its name from Tarangire River because this river crosses through the park. It is the main source, for all the wild animals in this park, of fresh water. The whole Tarangire ecosystem thrives on account of this river during the dry season of the year. This park and its ecosystem are well known for the migration of zebras and wildebeest into it from long distances. Hundreds of other animals also concentrate in this park from all surrounding calving and wet season dispersal areas. It is situated between the Great Rift Valley Lakes to its west and north and the Masai Steppe meadows to its southeast. Tarangire National Park occupies the region, covering two thousand six hundred square kilometres. The Tarangire River takes up most of its northern part. The river flows upwards through all cut ditches, leaving the park corner in the northwest region and falling into Lake Burungi. There are several wide swamps, as a result and they dry up into greener plains in the south when the dry season approaches. Flora and Fauna found in Tarangire National Park The park has gained its recognition because of the high density of baobab trees and its elephant population. Visitors that take safaris to this park prefer the dry season between June and November for the reason of spotting huge herds of elephants, zebras, cape buffaloes and wildebeest. Other animals that can be found in this park are giraffes, impalas, waterbucks, dik-diks, Grant’s gazelles, elands, banded mongooses, Vervet monkeys and olive baboons. You can also see a fair number of leopards, lions, caracals, cheetahs, African wild dogs and honey badgers. The oldest known elephant that has given birth to twins in Africa is found in this park. The park has become famous for its elephants and during dry season, you can view herds of over three hundred elephants as they love to dig in the Tarangire River’s dry bed. They are keen on exploring underground streams. The landscape here is made up mostly of granite ridges, swamps and river valleys. You will find a mix of Acacia woodland in its vegetation along with Baobab trees and grassland which is seasonally flooded. Tarangire National Park is home to over five hundred species of birds and has become a haven for keen bird watchers. The park is also known for huge termite mounds which dot its landscape. Abandoned mounds have become homes for dwarf mongooses. Visitors have also been able to spot white giraffes here and their complexion is a result of leucism. The Park management has started many wildlife research projects such as the Tarangire Elephant Project, the Tarangire Lion Project and Masai Giraffe Conservation Demography Project. For more than thirteen years now, this protected region has been recognised as a lion conservation unit. Safari Facts Safari packages usually combine itineraries including Tarangire National Park tours with that of Lake Manyara, Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. This is also known as the Northern Circuit Package. This is because these three reserves are in close proximity to each other. It allows the tourists and visitors to drive to all parts of this circuit. These safari packages allow tourists to get an excellent chance to see the large herds of elephants in these reserves along with the unique Baobab trees. The vegetation and landscapes on offer here are amazingly diverse with a blend that cannot be found anywhere else in Africa. During these safaris, walking tours are provided at various camps and this allows visitors to experience something unique in comparison with other game drives in this continent. These game drives and guided walking tours offer cultural visits to all neighbouring villages in order to get a taste of Tanzanian village life. The Tarangire National Park also houses two very rare game species. They are the greater Kudu and the Oryx with fringe ears. Another sight unique to this park is pythons, lions and leopards climbing trees. The game available here is not used to safari vehicles and this allows tourists to get a unique experience to see the animals in a real wild habitat. Safari seekers on Full Game Package to Tarangire National Park get to enjoy game viewing drives in four wheel drive open-topped vehicles. They will relish the experience of watching big herds of antelopes of all types such as lesser Kudu, elands, impalas and Kongoni along with zebras, gazelles, buffaloes, wildebeest, elephants and leopards. The safari packages include these game drives, fees for guides and drivers, guided walking tours, lunch, soft drinks and mineral water bottles.

The Rich Biodiversity of Africa

This rich biodiversity of Africa supports its tourism industry by organizing camps and tours of its excellent wild life parks that give a glimpse of the famous lion, leopard, elephant and rhino. The wonderful safari parks in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania offer an unparalleled wild life spectacle for adventure seekers. The luxury casino resort at Sun City in South Africa is also a popular weekend destination for the elite. Africa has boundaries like the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Red Sea to the northeast and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. The great African Continent expands across the equator. It is the oldest land mass known to man. Africa is the second largest continent in the world after Asia and is home to the earliest civilizations of the world like those of Ancient Egypt. The continent geographically boasts of gigantic mountains, tropical rainforests and three large deserts. They are the Sahara, the Kalahari and the Namib. The climate ranges from tropical to sub arctic on its highest peaks like Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and Mount Mawenzi. It is a continent known for its diverse ecosystems and a variety of wild life population. Although Africa is considered as one of the richest nations in natural resources, it is still riddled with economic problems of poverty, malnutrition and underdevelopment. It has abundant reserves of diamonds, gold, petroleum, cobalt and coltan which is a dullish black metallic mineral taken out of the mines of Congo. A majority of the world’s software devices and mobile phones today use Coltan and there is a great demand for it. [Source: Wikitravel.Org]

The Great Himalayan Circuit and the Impressive Himachal Pradesh Mountains

Himachal Pradesh is a favourite destination for many tourists in the northern part of India. Thousands of foreign and local travellers come here every year to see the rugged mountains of the western Himalayas that crown this state. Very few places in India can match the incredible range of the high altitude deserts, the expansive apple orchards, the serene pine forests and the rolling foothills of the lofty hill stations. The lower hills swell with palaces, castles, temples and forts. Himachal Pradesh is home to all the major Himalayan ranges. These high altitude deserts are cut off from the outside world by snow for almost six months of a year. The mystique of the Himachal Pradesh Mountains is impressive. The lofty peaks of the Dhaula Dhar, Pir Panjal and western Himalayan range provide an opportunity for adventure activities ranging from rafting and treks to skiing and Buddhist meditation. The Tibetan Buddhist culture is prevalent in the ancient monasteries of Lahaul and Spiti. The elevation of the Dhaula Dhar Mountains ranges from four thousand to six thousand metres above sea level. In the east, Shimla is India’s most popular hill station. Further north, Kinnaur is the eastern neighbour to Spiti and is fast becoming a popular destination for domestic hill tours. In central Himachal Pradesh, Kullu and Manali valleys provide a great attraction for foreign tourists, adventurers and honeymooners. Manali is the start of the main overland route to Ladakh. In fact, the Great Himalayan Circuit starts in Kashmir and slides through the mountain valleys of Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti to Kinnaur and ends in Shimla. [Source: Wikipedia and Lonely Planet Travel Guide]

Premiere of Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies

The Premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies 22nd December 1808 Venue: Theater an der Wien Beethoven is a genius par excellence .. a composer who broke the barriers shattering the classical period shackles and ushering the Romantic age in music [Who would have started a symphony with those two earth splitting E flat Major chords for his Third - The Eroica?]. On this day, was he a smart concert planner? Difficult to answer this question. I would have given my right arm to be in that concert and that premiere. As providence would have it, I can imagine the frustration of the Maestro when he found, apart from his deafness, a cold and bored audience in that concert hall in response to two of the greatest symphonies of the Romantic Period. The concert began at 1830 hours and with a break was to last for about four hours. Beethoven was trying the patience of those attending. He crammed the program in this fashion as this was the first major concert solely covering his works in almost six years. Emanuel Schikanaeder was that aristocrat who sponsored this concert. The program was to begin with Pastoral Symphony in F Major followed by Ah! Perfido for voice and orchestra; then Gloria from his Mass in C Major; this was then followed by Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major. Beethoven was the soloist and conductor. Welcome break after that. The other side of the interval had Symphony No. 5 in C Minor and the program concluded with the Credo from the same Mass and Choral Fantasy for piano, choir and orchestra. He was a superhuman but the people in the audience were obviously not. The whole concert was a disaster and the orchestra players may have been grinding their teeth after it was all over. An important factor that some people ignore besides such a taxing concert program schedule was that there was no dedicated concert hall in Vienna in 1808. This meant that concerts were to take place in theatres when their normal business took a break during Lent and Advent periods. Another unfortunate thing that happened for Beethoven was that people were more interested in attending the performance of Haydn's Il Ritornio di Tobia Oratorio at the Burgtheater as it was to take place on that same day. So, the concert was over by 2230 hours. I would have loved it and would have been swooning by the end of it! The sad slice of irony is that Beethoven's divine output went on ears in the same way as it would have been when casting pearls before swine!

Book of Enoch Explained

As per the Book of Genesis, Enoch was born to Jared. He was the father of Methuselah and great- grandfather of Noah. Enoch walked with God for over three hundred years and as in the case of Elijah, Jesus and Imam Mohammad Al Mahdi, he did not see death. He was taken away into hiding. Prophet Enoch was in the seventh generation from Adam. This Book of Enoch was regarded as authentic scripture by the early Christians. This book which was taken out of the canons was revived by James Bruce in 1773 in Ethiopia. The first English translation was published by Richard Laurence in 1821. It was proved at Qumran that this book was in existence before the advent of Christ. It is fascinating to note that many crucial concepts that were used by Jesus himself are directly linked to the ideas and terms found in the Book of Enoch. It can be concluded that Jesus was well aware of this Book and he studied it well enough to adopt specific descriptions of the Kingdom to come and the theme of final judgment that would descend upon the wicked of this world. The Old Testament uses the term wicked to describe Watchers clearly explained here. Here is an explanation on my part concerning prophecy of the ten weeks mentioned in this book, as in summary:- First Week – involves justice and righteousness (Chapter 93 Verse 3). Period covered here is approximately 16,000 B.C. – perhaps ice age. This was the time of Prophet Enoch. Second Week – involves severe injustice (Chapter 93 Verse 4) and the period covered here is between 16,000 B.C. – 10,000 B.C. This was the time of Prophet Noah and brings about the First End of the world as a result of the Great Flood. Third Week – involves the planting of righteousness (Chapter 93 Verse 5) and the period covered here is between 10,000 B.C. – 2,000 B.C. This was the time of Prophet Abraham. Fourth Week – involves the laws given through the ten commandments for all generations (Chapter 93 Verse 6) and the period covered here is between 2,000 B.C. – 1,400 B.C. This was the time of Prophet Moses and the Great Exodus. Fifth Week – involves the House of Glory (Chapter 93 Verse 7) and the period covered here is between 1,400 B.C. – 900 B.C. This was the time of Prophet Solomon. Sixth Week – involves the ascension and resurrection of Jesus (Chapter 93 Verse 8) and the period covered here is between 900 B.C. – 100 A.D. This was the time of Prophet John the Baptist and Prophet Jesus. Seventh Week – involves the apostate generations (Chapter 93 Verses 9 to 11) and the period covered here is between 100 A.D. – Present Day. This is the time of Imam Mahdi during his occultation culminating with the Day of Judgment and Trial by Fire. Eighth Week – involves the future righteousness of the new kingdom (Chapter 91 Verses 12 to 13). This is the time of the reappearance of Jesus and Imam Mahdi. Ninth Week – involves a time in future where righteous judgment is revealed (Chapter 91 Verse 14). Tenth Week – involves a time in the future where the righteous shine forever with their glory reinforced (Chapter 91 Verses 15 to 16).