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I just had a discussion with my friends – I was generally saying diwali start on Friday, 24th October. And they were saying that it starts on Sunday, 26th on Dhanteras and goes upto Bhau Beej / Bahi Dooj for 5 days.
Diwali starts on Ekadashi – Rama Ekadashi – the 11th day by fasting and praying to Lord Visnhnu and Krishna. The importance of this Ekadasi was narrated to Yudhishtira by Lord Krishna and is recorded in the Brahmavaivarta Purana. It is most auspicious, for it at once eradicates the greatest sins and awards one the passage to the spiritual abode.
After Ekadashi is Baras ( 12th day) - On this day cow and calf is worshipped. Since it is believed that cow is symbol of God, Diwali is begun by worshipping cow and calf. It is also called Vaag baras - the day to worship Goddess Amba and Saraswati. Vaag means Speech. The day teaches us to control our tongue and not to speak malice; and, if at all we have hurt feelings of others through our terrible tongue, this is the day to pray Goddess to pardon us.
Then starts the 5 days of Diwali – which we all know so well -
Dhanteras (13th day) – This day marks the beginning of Diwali. The mercantile community start their business and Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi is prayed with much pomp and joy. There are two legends that go with Dhanteras. of course, non of our festivals are celebrated without any legends!
Choti Diwali, or Chaudas (14th day) is to celebrate the death of demon Naraksura by Lord Krishna. It marks the end of evil and the beginning of joy and laughter. It is said that after defeating Lord Indra, demon King Narakasur snatched away the magnificent earrings of Aditi, the Mother Goddess and imprisoned 16,000 daughters of the Gods and saints in his harem. To free the people from the evil deeds of Narakasur, Lord Krishna killed the demon a before Choti Diwali and liberated the women besides recovering the precious earrings of Goddess Aditi. To celebrate Narakasur-Vadh, Lord Krishna smeared his forehead with the demon’s blood and returned home in the wee hours of Narakachaturdashi day. Elated with Krishna’s victory, womenfolk massaged scented oil on the Lord’s body and gave him a special bath to wash away the demon’s blood. From then on began the custom of taking a bath before sunrise on the Narak Chaturdasi day.
Lakshmi Puja – (15th day) – We all know it right? Goddess of Wealth as she is known, houses are cleaned and everyone are adorned with new garments. We all pray Goddess Lakshmi and God Ganesha for prosperity, wealth and happiness. This day, though being an New moon day, is considered as auspicious, and why not? Families reunion, loads of sweets, colourful rangoli and the pretty diya burning away through the night. The diyas – the most beautiful part of diwali and the hindu tradition, burn away all ignorance and darkness, giving way to light and prosperity! It is on this day that Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after his 14 years of exile – and the people of Ayodhya welcomed their loved king by lighting rows of diyas all over the city, hence deepawali!
Next day has many names and legends – Goverdhan Puja, Annakoot and Padwa -Goverdhan Puja and Annakoot are both legends of Lord Krishna. In temples, Lord Krishna is offered bhog – food in massive quantities which is then distributed to the devotees and the poor. Annakoot literally means “hill of food”!
The last day – celebrated as Bhai Dooj – which cherishes the affectionate relationship between brothers and sisters. Sisters do tilak to their brothers and wish for their long life. The brothers (just like rakshabandhan) promise to protect their sisters 
Bhai nahi protect karega toh kaun karega? There are legends as to why Bhai Dooj – which is interesting to read.
And that’s our Diwali – a beautiful festival which overlooks the rich and poor, castes and religions. A great festival which teaches us to love and to spread love. Lets pray for a happy and prosperous Diwali for years to come!
Information taken from : http://www.tokenz.com/choti-diwali.html
I crawled lazily out of my bed today, only to be woken up by my maid… I’m a spoilt pampered brat who has her glass of milk half in sleep by the maid till date (actually since a quarter century). As I drank the milk sleepily (after a good 12 hours of sleep), my maid told me that the “gwala” did’nt come today. For once, I thought she was speaking to me some random non hindi language. I ignored – pretending like it wasn’t for me. So she restated that the “gwala” didn’t come in the morning. So finally I had to ask her whose this happening “gwala” that she’s waiting for at 7 in the morning? It’s sleep time for me…. She looked at me me thinking I’m a non Indian or probably from another planet ( we speak in Hindi at home) And I had the look of “what, whose a gwala?” So she said “the guy who delivers milk”. I literally spat the milk I was drinking! Of course I know what a gwala means!!! But my family dare not use such north Indian hindi with me cos I always blank out especially in the morning! So today morning I recollected the word gwala which I last heard in School in our Hindi lessons. I felt so foolish, that I just got up and walked away to another room to read the newspapers.
The same old news – Raj Thackeray, bomb blasts discoveries, Obama, Palin, markets crashing, recession… the only good news was the launch Chandrayaan 1 which got the least space on the front page. The best news for the day was in Pune Times – the serial Kyunki Saas is finally winding up and hence what will be the fate of all such soaps! It doesn’t surprises me to find such sily news in Times, they come up with the most fascinating discoveries and publicity. Anyways, so I was hoping that the “k” soaps soon stop and Indian artist get some life… They make Indian families so full of complexities espcially the bitchy villian woman.
The next best news is from Pune Mirror! They have the classiest news. I wonder why the journalists are so lost in life. The “ask the sex expert” has good comedy section in it. Its a must read morning laughing session. The doctor seems to not like the silly questions people ask and I love his sarcasm in answers.
So that was my morning, beginning with the gwala, cursing the politicians, being happy with the end of dramatic kyunki saas… and at the end laughing at the sex experts sex knowledge! I’m actually bored of commenting and writing on raj thackeray. He’s become such a dramatic and a repetitive person, no spice 
So I decided to share my morning on my blog… my space….
Heartiest Congratulations to the entire team behind Chandrayaan 1. We’re the proud billion smiling for our attempt at space mission. Many argue that moon has already been targetted at by so many space missions and India is just repeating; but how many developing countries have had such a space mission? I believe everything needs an entry, and an entry in the most subtle manner. We can’t be expected to reach the Neptune directly one fine day!
Even at NASA, there may be more Indians than other countrymen, and today, we don’t need to go to the USA to be a part of the space mission; India surely is the destination. Chandrayaan 1 has placed a mark in Indian space history, and shall always be bring pride to the country. Just one request – stay out of politics!!!
PS : I found a kickass website - a must see for all those proud Indians here!
And this website is for all those who think it wan’t worth reaching the moon!
Hmmm… need to take a political stance now :d
Well, Well well, we don’t need to explicitly announce how happy we are on the arrest of Raj Thackeray! I’m glad for the first time our politicians pressed for a rightful cause! God bless them for one good deed they’ve performed in the political lifetime! Honestly, I think Raj is a “happening dude” like one of our celeb who gets drunk and bashes innocents on Mumbai Road 
So we’re to see Maharashtra set on fire today, Raj got arrested – does the Ramayan replicate where Shri Hanuman set Lanka on fire? That would be quite stunning and funny. I needn’t express my utter bitterness over creating violence during railway examinations. But, I probably think, Laloo could have had these exams in another state than keep it in Mumbai – a “mental case”. The best way to teach MNS and Shiv Sena a lesson would be to withdraw all economic opportunities from Mumbai – let see it falling just like the Sensex crashing. It’s not in Maharashtra’s or India’s interest, but it’s possibly the best way to hit hard on MNS. Shopkeepers are observing a BLACK day in Mumbai – kudos! Isn’t it interesting to note that we need to suffer economically to teach a political lesson to MNS? And an insider information which I received a couple of days back – Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray are closely knit ( I’m sure no one is surprised to learn this) In public they like being like the Ambani brothers – obviously for political advantage and glamour. I hope Mumbai has less fanatic Raj Followers and more educated sane people who would outrightly knock MNS and Shiv Sena from the Maharashtra Assembly! Politics, just like drugs can make a person knock his mental state completely!
Anyway, so I hear news on MNS pelting stones on public transport and creatin riots here and there in Maharashtra. But doesn’t this sound like music to our ears? I guess MNS loves buses or rather can’t find any other productive government assets to destroy 
When these guys talk about giving opportunities to the marathi manoos first – I guess what they really need is a job for themselves to stop being idle and causing vandalism. I even think the profession of psychiatrist would fare better than space engineering – these doctors will be able to cure the ailing mind of destruction. Or better still, all our politicians and parties should be enforced to learn the Indian Law and the Constitution with specific brain washing sessions on “how we should not take law in our hand and challenge the constitution especially by giving irrelevant examples”
Today, my slogan is a little different – Jai Maharashtra Police!
PS: I’ve copied my own comments from Indian Blogger - No plagiarism
It started with sub prime crisis in America with leading banks writing off hugebad debts. Suddenly, the entire world is entangled in the crisis. Alright, banks wrote of huge losses and the real estate market crashed in America.. Let’s see the impact in India -
Inflation has been surging due to high oil costs.
If that wasn’t enough, the Indian banks started writing off sub prime losses early this year.
Then one day, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. Employees all over the world were laid off.
Once Lehman brothers file for bankruptcy, many others followed – the list is still expanding its horizon.
Simultaneously, home loans became more expensive and nearly impossible to get! The sub prime fever reached Indian banks too. The real estate related sentiments just got worse! Banks are increasingly worried about their customers defaulting.
At the same time, to curb inflation due to oil prices our interest rates have crossed the peak interest rates of the world.
Real estate prices have slashed, no one wants to buy property or even rent one expecting further reduction in costs. Hence, real estate suppliers have left their projects incomplete due to lack of demand. They have defaulted in paying interest on their debentures and honoring debentures in a timely manner. This has caused many Mutual Funds to suffer losses in millions.
Since real estate and construction market is so poor, prices of steel and cement are crashing after doubling in a single year! No demand! Which means a lot of industries are suffering from the slowdown.
Fuel prices are dipping, however the aviation industry is grippling from severe losses! No traffic, high fare prices are all causing this industry to go under the covers.
Pink slips – the most common phenomenon around the globe! With no demand, there are too many employees who cannot be remunerated with existing revenues. It is indeed a pity, but companies cannot afford to suffer more! Even the cola companies weren’t spared!
Capital markets – Many inevitable reasons for the capital markets to crash. It seems like there is no tomorrow. FIIs do not want to invest. Finance Minister’s reassurances are of no use. There is panic, severe panic. People want their money to be safe.
Banks have another story to tell. They refuse to lend money to other banks. Even though the government was willing to lend money at repo rates, banks hardly took full benefits of it.
India – 1.2 billion population – immense potential for anything and everything to survive with the right marketing. Inflation means there is high demand with plenty of money and scarcity of supply. On one hand we’re facing high inflation, thus a sign of growth and on the other hand, we’re heading towards recession – that’s stagflation. The worst phase of economics – stagflation. It is practically the worst paradox and almost as difficult as climbing the mount everest to get out of stagflation. Just a few months back, the RBI was increasing the SLR and the CRR to curb inflation – and within months both SLR and CRR are being crashed to make pump liquidity in this deprived inflated economy.
This is global economics. We’re in a fix – like the great depression, we’re heading towards a massive depression which will not be restricted to USA only – it will hurt and injure every country and every individual hard. Iceland, for instance, one of the richest country, is bankrupt. A country that survives on imports, has only one day reserve for running the economy. Only if printing extra currency worldwide was easy!
I just read the news online at this site. It reads “Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray will ground Jet Airways if it does not reinstate the near-800 employees it laid off on Tuesday night, the party said here on Wednesday.” Source: Indo-Asian News Service
Wow! Fabulous! Raj is definitely paying Jet Airways money to pay from Jet’s losses! Lot of companies have laid off their employees worldwide. Lehman Brothers to start with, will Raj go knocking at every company and threaten them to reinstate the employees? I’m not saying that laying off is the best thing to happen especially during recession, but why don’t people understand that it is beyond the company to pay them and the best way for them to come out of the piling losses is cut employees? Unless of course Raj can pay for the rising fuel prices, but he doesn’t have the money either! Who is he to dictate terms of employment and business to Jet? I’m not pro Jet nor an employee in the aviation industry. But I have worked in a MNC and run my own business, and I know how things are. During placement, the employee signs on the contract letter that he/she can be laid off without stating any reasons thereof during the probation period. Cholamandalam also gave pink slips to its employees and many are still to follow the league. When the economy is grippling with severe recession, how can a small person like Raj force the company to incur further losses. It is indeed a pity that 800 employees are laid off, but the company has a right to. No company will lay off its employees in such large numbers and spoil its image as bad employer. Circumstances warrant, hence such drastic steps are taken.
Raj should mind his own business and stop interfering in the economy if he cannot help. I strongly opine that he should be a banned public figure. How will he prevent Jet from operating in Mumbai? Lay his body below the plane? Bomb blast the airport? Hijack Jet flight? Pelt stones and burn the airport? What does he mean by claiming “would not allow Jet to operate in Mumbai or the rest of Maharashtra”? Mr Hitler, you need some meditation to calm your mind!
The much awaited games, probably more awaited than the Olymipics are starting tomorrow in my land of Pune! The Commonwealth Youth Games as he is so proud to host in amchi Pune, our so called sports minister has done nothing, but bring shame to our country and our city. Known for his corruption, he had 3 years to plan for the games and make the city look a better place. Though works began 3 years back, it took them 3 years to make 3 tiny flyovers and the 5 kms patch of Baner Road that leads to the stadium. And in the last three months, they finally got up from their slumber to realise that they need to complete the work asap. With water supply, phone connection and electricity supply being cut for days, not to forget the pathetic inconvenient roads, the citizens around Aundh and Baner had to really suffer. Suffer to the extent that most people condemnded the CYG and cursed it. Was it really worth it?
Last month, our sports minister declared that the roads construction will not be completed by the CYG. And so we have roads that are 100 m of concrete, 100 m of tar and the next 100m of I blocks. The I blocks are sturdy enough to give away the next day. So one will find labour permanently rectifying sunken I blocks. They have coloured the walls and bridges with the most disgusting shades and with terrible paintings. If they looked so bad, then why didn’t they take action for so many years? Why do we need an international mega event to look nice and pretty?
The other day, during the Baton relay, as the trucks passed by, the electrical wire fell on the truck. Thankfully, the childrend weren’t anywhere near the wire where the spark burst. Such is he condition of our city. And then, there was no electricity for some time around our area! School children all dressed up in traditional marathi clothes were waiting in the heat and storms for hours just to cheer the passing relay. Was it worth it?
With the stadium is still in construction, the roads are all half done, BSNL telephone lines are dead across the city, severe power shortage, no proper hotel accommodation, no proper transportation facilities, the corporators and the sports minister have indeed brought us shame and inconvenience. They have proved that they are incapable of giving priority to the country instead of their corrupt persnal interest. Sports have being just disgraced by the day in India. Unless sports is completely made independent from politics, we will never move ahead in this arena. Ugly politics and politicians will never let India be a better place to live in with their corruption and personal monetary interests!
CYG and similar mega events should never happen in India. We just cannot handle it unless our politicians become devout Indians first. Such events are premature at their best!
Here are glimpses of one of the silliest traffic jam taking place at peak traffic hour time – sharp 6 pm in an IT prone residential and office area thanks to the blessings of PMC and the die hard dishonest corporators!
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- Truck gets stuck as impatient vehicle go on the wrong side of a narrow road
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- Truck gets some space
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- They decided to cover a crater one week after people suffered
These pictures are taken outside my office – there are no drainage lines in Bhosari, pune. So, this is what happens if I have to go out :
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- Water water everywhere
In any course of manufacturing, unless the firm is owned and run by 6 sigma black belt owners, inventory overrun is inevitable. Defective production, excessing production, changes in market demand and customer’s tastes, obsolescence due to competition, etc are various factors affecting inventory being collected and funds being blocked in carrying this inventory as well as loss of interest.
Many FMCG / durable goods manufacturers sell these excessive inventory at throw away prices to dealers , factory outlets, sales, etc. Goods are generally sub standard and do not help the manufacturer to cover up even the basic costs. However, it is better than dumping such goods as waste material. This method proves beneficial given the fact that it is economically viable for the manufacturer to dispose the inventory in the above mentioned manner. If the costs far exceed the dumping costs, the manufacturer would rather choose to dump the waste material.
However, a better strategy would be to associate with the various NGOs, Not for profit organisations and social service groups to render the excessive inventory useful. By making this excessive inventory available for charitable purpose, the firm can be a socially responsible citizen too. With millions of people living below the poverty line, many goods would find way to such population. The government in turn should allow the costs of such charitable donations to be deducted for tax benefits. However, the practicality of this method is questionable. Dishonest will creep in whenever tax deductions are allowed. Yet, the method may prove beneficial to both the parties – the manufacturer as well the as haves not of our country.
