Happy New Year 2011

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

- Edith Lovejoy Pierce

***HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011***

Celebrate the Day of our Independence

I will start with these famous quotes for my country from great people:

"Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it." It is for this undying spirit of the forerunners of our freedom struggle, that our motherland awakened to see the sun of independent India. On this Independence Day we salute this spirit and pledge to craft an India they dreamt of.

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!
Albert Einstein

India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!
Mark Twain

There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won't go. For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds... I had been seeing the world in black & white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.
Keith Bellows, VP - National Geographic Society

Let's Celebrate our Independence with pride..
"Happy Independence Day"

Happy Bihu To All..!!

Rongali Bihu
----------------
Rongali Bihu (mid-April, also called Bohag Bihu), the most popular Bihu celebrates the onset of the Assamese New Year (around April 15) and the coming of Spring. This marks the first day of the Hindu solar calendar and is also observed in Bengal, Manipur, Nepal, Orissa, Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu though called by different names. It's a time of merriment and feasting and continues, in general, for seven days. The farmers prepare the fields for cultivation of paddy and there is a feeling of joy around. The ladies make pitha, larus (traditional food made of rice and coconut) and Jolpan which gives the real essence of the season. The first day of the bihu is called
goru bihu or cow bihu, where the cows are washed and worshipped, which falls on the last day of the previous year, usually on April 14. This is followed by manuh (human) bihu on April 15, the New Year Day. This is the day of getting cleaned up, wearing new cloths and celebrating and getting ready for the new year with fresh vigor. The third day is Gosai (Gods) bihu; statues of Gods, worshiped in all households are cleaned and worshiped asking for a smooth new year.

The folk songs associated with the Bohag Bihu are called Bihugeets or Bihu songs. The form of celebration and rites vary among different demographic groups.