Good Movie to Watch: 'Sound of Music'

Sound Of Music is a musical movie that set in the background of Nazi occupation of Austria during World War 2. The movie revolves around Maria, a pretty lady with great love for music and nature. In her childhood, she was attracted towards life as a nun at church. But love for nature and music becomes the hurdle for her life at church.  She will be sent to serve as a Governess for Von Trapp's children for few months by the Reverend Mother.

Von Trapp was once a captain of Austrian Navy and it can be easily guessed that he was in military by his disciplined life and which he also enforce on his seven children. He is a rich man but loss of his wife leaves him in agony. The children, deprived of mother's love and also of father's, always try to draw the attention of their father by playing pranks on Governesses. Totally twelve Governesses, unable to withstand the pranks, had already ran away. And here comes the Maria as thirteenth Governess.

Maria gets the same welcome as other Governesses had got from children. But Maria notices that the reason for their such behavior was the strict discipline enforced on them by the father, and notably the absence of loving mother. She feels very sorry for the children and take up the task of bringing back the rhythm of life into their family. The next day, Von Trapp leaves to city for a month to meet his baroness friend. Maria makes good use of this time and takes children to play outside, teach them music and give them all the motherly love she had to give. Children become very much fond of Maria and a month passes like a lightning in her presence.

Von Trapp returns with the baroness from the city only to find his children playing by the roadside and then in water with Maria. He loses his temper and commands Maria to leave the house. But when he listens his children greeting baroness with a lovely welcome song, he understands the impact of Maria in such a great change in the children. He apologizes Maria and asks her to stay back. As every day roll, Von Trapp's love for Maria grows within him silently. Baroness notices this change in Von Trapp and one fine day she succeed in convincing Maria to leave the house.

Maria returns back to church and prepares to take vow as a nun, though she was doing it against her will. Here at the Von Trapp's house, children miss Maria very much. And also get a shock when their father declares that Baroness is going to be their mother. What happens next? Does Maria take the vow as a nun? Does Von Trapp forget Maria and marry the Baroness? What about the children? Do they feel home with Baroness? You have to watch the movie to know answers to these questions.

Movie has many melodious songs that perfectly blends with the wonderful places where the movie has been shot. Movie also shows how silently the Nazi occupation of Austria took place. The music leaves a deep impression on your heart and at last, it is not surprising if you find yourself humming the music of the movie.

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Rifca Stanescu - Youngest grandmother in the world!

She is only 27 but already a grandmother to a four year old boy! Though it is quite surprising, it is true. The tradition of 'marrying young' in the Romanian gypsy communities has made this possible. And, Rifca Stanescu is that young lady, from the village of Investi in Romania, to become the youngest grandmother in the world at the age of just 23!

Rifca Stanescu, born in 1985, ran away and married with Ionel Stanescu, a jewellery seller, when she was just 11. An year later she gave birth to Maria. Maria continued the tradition; married at the age of 11 and gave birth to Ion at 12. It is also a good thing to know that Rifca, Maria and Ion are all perfectly healthy. And for much of the surprise, Ion is already engaged to a ten year old girl. So it is not a fantasy if Maria becomes a grandmother at much younger age than her mother Rifca!

Rifca is a happy grandmother but she says she had other plans for Maria. Rifca insisted Maria to stay in school and complete her education. But when Maria was ready for the marriage, Rifca didn't stop her, as such is their tradition. It is also their tradition that bridegroom has to pay dowry to bride's parents!

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Good Book to Read: "The Nose" by Nikolai Gogol

The Nose is a satirical short story by Nikolai Gogol, a famous Russian writer. Though totally fictious, story is naratted like an absolute reality. Except for the 'Nose', everything else in the story seems to be real. Blended with sarcasm, the story attacks the ignorance of people, especially learned men. The author insists through the story that writer must write something that is useful to the society, something that uplifts the culture, helps the progress of mankind.

The main character in the story is Kovalev, a Government Officer in general. But the story starts with Ivan Yakovlevitch, a barber who shaved Kovalev twice a week, finds the nose of Kovalev in his daily piece of bread!! Demoralized by the scene, Ivan gets rid of the nose by throwing it into the river. Thus the story begins!

That morning, as usual, Kovalev wakes up from his bed and reach the mirror, only to see the unusual disappearance of his nose! Yes, his nose that rests between the cheeks!! He sees a flat, smooth surface at the place of his nose. Horribly frightened, Kovalev sets out to register a complaint about the great escape of his nose. As he walks through the street, he finds his nose, dressed like a State Councillor, roaming through the streets in a carriage! Astonished Kovalev follow the carriage and meet the 'Nose in disguise' at Church. Kovalev hesitantly asks the 'Nose' to return to its original place. The 'Nose' couldn't make out a thing of Kovalev's words and hence ignores him. While Kovalev's sight falls towards a beautiful lady for a second, 'Nose' takes this chance to escape form the scene!

Kovalev continues his search for his nose and decides to advertise it on Newspaper. But the man at the advertisement section refuses to take his advertisement, for it would reduce the trustworthiness of the Newspaper. Kovalev's all attempts for the day fail and he returns home. But this doesn't end here. Kovalev thinks it must be the dirty work of a witch, hired by Madame Podtochina, wife of a State Officer, whose daughter he refused to marry. Kovalev writes a burning letter to Podtochina to set everything right otherwise to face the consequences, But when he recieves a respectful and calm answer, Kovalev comes back to reality.

Meanwhile, the loss of Kovalev's nose becomes a national sensation. Many rumours were set to air. Our poor Officer regrets whole day for the loss of nose. He couldn't step out of his home anymore. What happens next? Will our 'Major' Kovalev gets his nose back? Could he ever again talk to ladies without his face being covered? You have to read the story to know answer to these questions.

The narration of the story is simply beautiful. Each and every scene are picturised in a realistic manner. The concept of 'Nose' escaping from the face itself is an interesting thing. You will burst into laughter reading the story. And if you touch your nose to confirm its presence and if found missing, author is not responsible!

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Good Book To Read: The Importance of being Earnest!

The importance of being Earnest is a play written by Oscar Wilde. As described by himself, It is a trivial comedy for serious people! Though the name of the play isn't much catchy, play is very much hilarious. Just to say, It is a normal love story (or stories?) with abnormal twists!

The hero of our story is Jack, a romantic and responsible lad of 29, living by country side. He is responsible because he is the guardian of a little pretty girl of 18, Cecily. Cecily is taken care by an admirable Governess, Miss Prism, who lives with the former two. He also has an imaginary (yes, Imaginary!) brother named Earnest. Earnest is born out of Jack's mind who, never lived in country with his brother, lives in the city. To be simple, Earnest is an excuse for Jack to come to city whenever he wants.

The main reason why Jack comes to city is Gwendolen. Gwendolen is the cousin of Jack's friend Algernon and Jack loves her so much. Since Jack is not Jack but Earnest in city, he is known to everyone in the city, including Gwendolen, as Earnest. Gwendolen also loves Jack because his name is Earnest! That might be quite cynical but our heroine feels something musical in the name Earnest. When Jack proposes Gwendolen, he comes to know about this fact. So Jack prepares to kill his imaginary brother and rechristine himself as Earnest!

One fine day, Jack unexpectedly returns to the country when no one was expecting him back home for next few days. He brings with him the sad news of his brother's death to Miss Prism. But Cecily comes running out of home to give a “good” news to Jack. Cecily informs Jack that his brother has just arrived from town!! It is a mere shock for miss Prism but total absurdity for Jack!

Well, Earnest's arrival to the country stirs the situation. To make it more sensational, Earnest proposes Cecily and she wholeheartedly accepts! The twist to the tale here is, Cecily loves Earnest because his name is Earnest! So Earnest of city is now engaged to Gwendolen and Earnest of country is engaged to Cecily. The whole mess gets more messy when Gwendolen comes to country to meet Earnest, I mean Jack. There she meets Cecily and finds out that she is also engaged to Earnest!

Will Gwendolen marry Jack? Will Earnest get Cecily? What happens when Jack comes to know that he is not Jack but Earnest for real?! What happens when Earnest next to Jack turns out to be his real brother?! One more question is prevalent than all else – Who the heaven is that Earnest who suddenly appeared on the scene at country home? If you want to know answers to these questions, you must read the play as I'm not going to reveal anything here!

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And the world ends on 21st of December?

For the past two years, thanks to our mainstream media, lot of debates are going on about doomsday. Most of the people are scared about the end of the world. The hysteria has taken the world by storm! What else to say? Recent events around the world have seemed to prove the Apocalypse!

Many believe that recent natural disasters like 'Sandy' storm in US, earthquakes and tsunami in Japan are precursors to the world's end. More than that, several "evidences" have been discovered (or created?) by philosophers, astrologers, and especially media! One of such evidences is "The Mayan Calender".

How true the Mayan Calender's prediction is?

Mayan calender is said to end on 21st of December of 2012, and it is just 10 more days for that day. But in reality, there are many such Mayan calenders! Every calender has different end dates! Then how could we determine which is the actual end date of the earth? Or at least, how could we confidently say that the calender in our focus is the last one of such calenders?! It is not mentioned on the calender like "It is the end!". Just like every year has an end, every Mayan calender also has an end and another new calender begin as a continuity.

It doesn't make sense to believe that Mayans had an extra ordinary ability of foretelling. Only with the advent of modern science the humans started to explore the universe and study its laws. There is no anarchy in the universe, everything has a definite law and they work according to that law. Unless understanding the law, one can't decide the fate of something. Media has repeated it again and again the same crow-sparrow stories under the disguise of 'scientific' analysis.

What to believe?

 No scientist has ever said that world will end on December 21. But media has, again, lied to people that scientists have speculated the end on 21st of December. Despite of all the advances in science and technology, it is a morose that people still yield to blind beliefs so easily. Let the common man be aside, even many scientists yield to superstitions. Last month when Russia sent a cosmonaut crew to International Space Station, I was spellbound by watching a priest performing rituals around the rocket launchpad before the launch!

Is there no end to life on earth?

It is not like world will last forever, it has its doomsday for the future. But for the present estimates, that end is far beyond our many future generations. There is no logical basis for the world to end on 21st December. No asteroids are coming in the hunt of the earth. In fact, thousands of asteroids come and go near (yet in astronomical figures) the earth everyday. But they follow a definite path and no asteroid is found to be having its path through the earth. Storms and earthquakes have been occurring since the birth of earth. If they are more monstrous and increased today, it is because of global warming and man-made crimes. For the rest of the speculations, they are too childish to be true. In my opinion, if world ends, it will not because of natural disaster, but because of human beings!

While everyone is hysterical about the end of the world, anyone thinking of changing the world for the good?

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Titan Arum - The biggest flower in the world!

This is not just a flower, but a monster flower! Arum Titan, or scientifically termed as "Amorphophallus titanum", is the largest tropical flower in the world!

Blossomed in Swiss botanical garden of Basel, Switzerland, on 19th of November, Titan Arum has attracted the attention of the whole world by its uniqueness.Titan Arum is 2.27 meters tall and it is also the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. It is a flower, as well as a plant!

Titan Arum has its origin in the rain forests of Sumatra and blooms only once in every few years. It can grow up to 3 meters and rarely blossoms outside its natural environment. But this is the second time, in Switzerland, it blossomed in last 18 months, thanks to the staff of the Swiss botanical garden for their utmost care! It was April 2011 when Titan Arum had blossomed last time.

Titan Arum is also known for its stinky nature. It releases stinkiest odour that resembles the rotting meat. Yet, this flower has succeeded in attracting more than 25,000 visitors to its place. But if you are intolerant to such smell, just enjoy watching it online!

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Print Friendly - Easy way to convert web pages into pdf

Sometimes we would need to print web pages for several purposes. But most of the times we can't expect the printer to print web pages exactly as it looks in the browser. A great looking website in your web browser may go messy on paper. And it would be even helpful if we could get a pdf (portable document format) copy of the web page so that necessary changes can be made to the document before printing it on paper. If you are really looking for something that can do this for you, look no further, go Print Friendly!

PrintFriendly.com helps you to turn web pages printer friendly and also to create pdf copy of the web page. PrintFriendly provides two easy ways to achieve these tasks. One, just point your browser to PrintFriendly.com and type the URL of the web page of your choice in the space provided and you are ready to go. Other, just add the bookmarklet provided on the website to your favorites, go to the web page you want to turn into pdf, and click on this bookmarklet. That's it! You don't need to install any software for this. It works on all the major web browsers like Internet Explorer, Safari, FireFox and Google Chrome.

If you have a website or blog of your own, there available also a button using which your visitors can print or save web pages on your website/blog easily.

Check out how friendly it is by visiting PrintFriendly.Com once :)    

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