Varalakshmi Puja or Varalakshmi Vratha           

Varalakshmi Puja or Varalakshmi Vratha is an important ritual observed by married women in South India and Maharashtra for the prosperity and welfare of their families. Varalakshmi Puja falls on a Friday in the month of August and the preparations for the puja begin on Thursday. All the necessary items needed for the pooja are collected by Thursday evening. The date of Varalakshmi Vratam in 2009 is July 31.

People wake up early in the morning on Friday and take a bath. Traditionally speaking the waking up time for the puja is the brahma muhurtham. Then the designated puja area and house is cleaned well and a beautiful ‘kolam’ or rangoli is drawn on the intended place of puja.

Next is the preparation of the ‘kalasham or kalash.’ A bronze or silver pot is selected and is cleaned thoroughly and a swastika symbol is drawn and is smeared with sandalwood paste. The kalasham pot is filled with raw rice or water, coins, a single whole lime, five different kinds of leaves, and beetle nut. The items used to fill the kalasham vary from region to region and includes turmeric, comb, mirror, small black bangles and black beads.

The kalasham up to the neck is sometimes covered with a cloth and mango leaves are placed on the mouth of the kalasham. Finally, a coconut smeared with turmeric is used to close the mouth of the kalasham. To this coconut, an image of Goddess Lakshmi is fixed or the image of Lakshmi is drawn using turmeric powder. Now the kalasham symbolically represents Goddess Lakshmi.

In some areas, women place a mirror behind the kalasham. Today, there are also specially made Varalakshmi pots available in the market.

The kalasham is usually placed on a bed of rice. First Lord Ganesha is worshipped. Then begins the Varalakshmi Puja. The puja consists of singing slokas dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi like the Lakshmi Sahasranamam. Arati is performed on the kalasham. Different types of sweets are offered. Some people offer pongal. In some areas women tie yellow thread on their hands.

The woman who is observing the Varalakshmi Puja abstains from eating certain kind of food and this varies from region to region. In some regions, women fast till the puja period.

Thamboolam – betel leaf, areca nut and slaked lime – is offered to women in the locality and in the evening an arati is offered.

The next day, that is on Saturday, after taking a bath the kalasham is dismantled and the water in the kalasham is sprinkled in the house. If rice is used then it is mixed with rice in the house.

There are no hard and fast rules in performing the Varalakshmi Puja and you can be flexible on the puja items. Even a simple prayer will please Goddess Lakshmi.

12 Easy Tips To Increase Car Mileage

Tip 1: Do not accelerate too fast
Too quick acceleration consumes too much fuel, accelerate slowly and gradually. That will save quite a significant amount of fuel in city driving.
Tip 2: Do not use clutch too much
If you use a manual transmission car, as is mostly used by people in India, do-not drive with clutch pressed, or use clutch only when needed, too much use of clutch will waste a lot of fuel.

Tip 3: Change gears appropriately
This is also applicable for manual transmission cars. Use correct gears at correct speeds, this will help save the fuel. For correct speeds, see your car’s user manual.

Tip 4: No Excuses to delay car service
Get the car serviced as per manufacturer’s recommended schedule. This will ensure good health of engine, less maintenance due to break-down.

Tip 5: Do you drive in dusty environment? Clean the Air-filter
If you drive in dusty environment the air-filter gets filled with dust and makes the engine suffocated. Clean the air-filter more often than the service schedule( say every 5000 KM or so) , this will help the engine run more easy and consume less fuel. Trust me, its going to really help.

Tip 6: Red-Signal Ahead? Put the feet off the accelerator If you are sure that you got to stop after next 100 or 200 meters due to a red signal, keep your feet off the accelerator and car will slow down on engine’s resistance, saving on fuel as well as the brake shoes, apply brakes only when about to stop. This is a great help to save that extra drop of fuel.

Tip 7: Air Pressure in tyres
Get the air-pressure in tyres up to the recommended pressure, and check it once at least in 15 days, it helps the car run smooth and drink less fuel.

Tip 8: Try to keep a constant max speed When driving in a city or highway, try to maintain a constant speed, that will help the engine put less effort to accelerate or decelerate unnecessarily. This will help reduce fuel consumption.

Tip 9: Keep the window’s glass rolled up on highways
Driving with AC on and glasses rolled up will actually help the car move easy because when windows are open, the car faces more air-drag due to cross ventilation through car, thus consuming more fuel. So always try to keep windows rolled up specially when driving at high speeds.

Tip 10: Buy fuel during morning hours
Buying fuel during morning hours makes sense, because the fuel is a liquid and cools during night hours as temperature is low, and it becomes more dense, so in night hours, you get more weight of fuel for same litres, so its like a bargain in fuel amount

Tip 11: Re-fuel your car when tank is close to half
This will help reduce the vapors formation in tank, which moves out as you open the lid to re-fuel, thus saving some amount of fuel in the tank.

Tip 12: Clean up the crap from the boot-space
Remove any un-necessary luggage or stuff that you don’t need from back space, that will let the car feel light and run easy on less fuel.
Save fuel, burn it less, save economy and environment both, for a greener and cleaner tomorrow.

Automatic transmission

A manual transmission is more efficient than an automatic transmission. It contains far less working components and is 15% more efficient at transferring power to the wheels than an automatic transmission. This results in less energy spent to propel the vehicle down the road for a given rpm and less fuel consumed. Manual transmissions produce much less internal friction than automatic transmissions and can save you gas at the pump.

• When you are driving an automatic transmission, use your overdrive gears (1 and 2 on the shifting bar) whenever possible and practical to do so. These gears slow down the speed of the car’s engine, thus burning less fuel and running more gently on the engine itself.

Also try to follow a car pool if you are traveling to office or college, that is fun to be with some friends and it reduces traveling boredom too
Happy saving!

Topic of the Day- Visa Interview

Some Tips For US Visa Interview :

1. While there is a definite luck-factor involved, your chance s of success will greatly increase if you prepare yourself thoroughly for the interview. The preparation consists of the following.


2. Knowing the visa officer’s concerns and strategically preparing convincing points to satisfy his concerns


3. Practice a list of anticipated questions and practice answering them again and again. It is good to take some time out and sit quietly in a room imagining that you are in a interview and the consulate office is asking you the questions. Practice answering the questions aloud. Repeat this drill 3-4 times until you have mastered answers to all the questions. The interviewer will specifically ask some questions to the man and some to the woman and each one will be expected to answer those questions by themselves.


4. Do not get nervous. Be confident. You will be more confident if you have prepared thoroughly. Smile when you meet the visa officer for the first time. Don’t show signs of nervousness such as flickering of eyes, trembling of fingers as that could go against you.


5. Look into the eyes of the officer while speaking


6. Be there a little early. You don’t have to miss your interview just because you got stuck in the traffic.


7. Wear formal clothes as if for a formal business meetings. The interviewing officer will always be a n American. A man should always wear a tie. Americans always prefer formal attire.


8. You should greet the officer with a smile and ‘Good Morning’ as soon as you enter the interview room.


9. You should have a confident posture and look straight into the officer’s eyes THROUGHOUT THE INTERVIEW.


10. Be confident in your answers, whatever you say. Make short, clear to-the-point replies in a loud and clear voice.


11. Do not tell any thing that is irrelevant or not asked.


12. Be polite, do not arguer and do not ask unnecessary or unrelated questions. Do not unnecessary elaborate your responses as that may not work in your favor.


13. Demonstrate respect in your language even if you don’t feel it is being reciprocated.


14. If you don’t understand what the Interviewer asked you, do not hesitate to ask the same question.


15. Consular Officers are very smart in their profession. They can figure out the true intentions of the applicants, most of the time. Some of them even know the regional languages as well.


16. If the officers ask you the ‘What If’ type of questions, don’t give the answers immediately without thinking through it.


17. Be honest during the interview and while preparing the documents. Consular officer is not hostile to you he is just doing his duty.


18. Always reply with correct answers. All the data while applying for the visa and details of the answers given in your interview are computerized and maintained. If your visa is rejected once, you cannot be changing your details, the next time you go for an interview.
    Your appearance should convey who you are. If you are a student you should look like one.


19. If you are and executive then you should look like an executive. Your body language should convey friendliness but also that you are serious about your goal.


20. Mind your manners and refrain from unnecessary body movement.

Topic of the Day - Autism

Definition of Autism

Autistic disorder (known also as infantile autism or childhood autism) almost always develops before the age of three and is characterized by impaired verbal and non-verbal communication, social interaction, some form of repetitive and restricted stereotyped interest, ritual, or other behavior.

Description of Autism

Children with autism often have extreme difficulty developing normal relationships with others. They tend not to share in the interests their peers have. In many cases these children are not able to interpret non-verbal cues of communication like facial expressions. Most people with autism have some impairment in language and many never speak at all.

About 8.7 of every 10,000 children are autistic, and more than 1 in 300 children have some form of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). PDD means that some, but not all, symptoms of autism are present.

Autism is a lifelong disease that ranges in severity from mild cases in which the autistic person can live independently, to severe forms in which the patient requires social support and medical supervision throughout his or her life.

Treatment of Autism

Most behavioral treatment programs include:

• clear instructions to the child
• prompting to perform specific behaviors
• immediate praise and rewards for performing those behaviors
• a gradual increase in the complexity of reinforced behaviors
• definite distinctions of when and when not to perform the learned behaviors

To get more info about Autism log on to

www.positivelyautism.com

Check out the below link for the materials that will help parents and teachers very much to train their children

https://nlconcepts.infusionsoft.com/go/cp01/mridula/Mridula

Hello Everybody....

Hello Everyone,

This Blog will basically try to give you information, Tips and Ideas. It Will speak about things differently than the usual. Hope all u guys have great time visiting my blog and get useful information. I want everybody to take part actively in discussions and share their views to make this blog interesting and more informative. The Blog will contain different sections like below.

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Mridula