ICC World Twenty20 2016: Participate in the Indus Youniverse Blogging Contest

 

It’s time to bring out the SPORTS BLOGGER within you!

Unleash your creativity by sharing your T20 World Cup Cricket 2016 experiences and views with us in our Indus Youniverse Blogging Contest and stand a chance to be featured among top 100 entries. If you can make it, we’ll feature you as a published, recognized blogger.

All you need to do is, write an amazing “500 word blog” on any creative topic related to this year’s T20 World Cup Cricket and send it to “contactindusblog@gmail.com” on or before the 30^th April, 2016. Please remember, we do not require match reports or any on-field technical analysis of the game.

Topics can be like. For example:

1. AWESOME facts about Brendon McCullum
2. Lots of flaws in this Indian team
3. 7 Things that AB de Villiers (Mr. 360) can do
4. Why LBW has a new meaning for Sachin Tendulkar?
5. Is Bangladesh overrated?

Rules of the Game:

1) The content must be original, innovative and credible. Copied articles would be rejected.

 

2) Your blog will be judged based on choice of topics, originality, innovating thinking and style of presentation.

 

3) The blog should be free from spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.

 

4) One can send a maximum of 3 entries.

 

5) Blogs sent after the deadline will not be accepted.

 

6) Indus Youniverse panel of judges hold the rights to accept / reject / choose the top 3 winners along with top 100 entries of the competition.

 

**Terms and Conditions Apply

Top 10 Lip-smacking Bengali Dishes that will make you crave for more

[Cover Picture Courtesy: Aaheli – Authentic Bengali Cuisine Restaurant]

Written by Ujjayini Pal on March 22, 2016

Bengalis have a love for various types of things. Among them intellect and food go hand in hand. At some point of time or the other, every Bengali must have tasted various dishes made by their mother or grandmother. Some tastes heavenly and lingers in your memory for long while others just fade away. Here are ten such dishes which may not be prepared in every household daily, but are a must try.

1. Luchi

This is the most popular Bengali dish and is a form of the popular dish ‘puri.’ A Bengali breakfast is incomplete without a plate of hot, deep fried and fluffy luchi. Like puri they are also made with maida, but there is a light golden color of luchis. Luchis tastes best when served with dry, spicy veggies or gravies.

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2. Aloor torkari or Aloor Dum

You are sure to forget any other type of curry if you once taste a spicy bowl of aloor torkari or aloor dum. This is the most popular Bengali dish and makes the perfect combo with luchi. These two dishes together make a grand breakfast at the time of the Durga Pujas.

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3. Cholar Dal

This is a typical Bengali dish made with channa dal and is a hot favorite of every bong with luchi once again. The dal tastes slightly sweet and also bears a mouth watering fragrance due to the use of rich spices such as cinnamon and bay leaf while preparing it. Bits of coconut are also added to give a delicious taste and a crunchy texture to the dal.

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4. Shukto

After breakfast, it’s time for the main course and you just can’t think of starting your lunch without shukto. This is also an authentic Bengali dish and is also considered to be very healthy. It is prepared with bitter gourd, brinjals, crunchy drumsticks, sweet potatoes and last but not the least bori. Some fresh, grounded spices and a little milk are also added to it to create a paste like gravy.

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5. Aloo Potol Posto

This is a light and quick yet tasty preparation. Potol or Pointed Gourd is mixed with coconut puree and thick poppy seed. Green and red chillies are also added to give a rich taste to the preparation. It tastes best when served hot with rice.

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6. Lau Chingri

This dish is a lip smacking combination of prawn and bottle gourd which will please you like anything. This dish makes its visit in every Bengali household once in a while but tastes heavenly if cooked properly. Do try it today if you haven’t till date.

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7. Dhokar Dalna

This is the most famous Bengali dish and something Bengali’s are really proud of. This is a vegetarian dish and is considered the best a bong could offer if any vegetarian visit’s their home. Lentil cakes are cut into diamond shape and are cooked in a tasty curry.

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 Also Read: ‪‪5 Everyday Struggles only a Bengali Girl can relate to

8. Tangra Macher Jhal

Bongs are a great lover of fish and this tasty catfish curry is a big hit among Bengali’s. The gravy is full of flavors, thick and is made with spices that are grounded freshly. Some red chillies are added to this to give it a fiery taste. It tastes best when served with steaming hot rice.

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9. Ilish Mach

You cannot spot out a single Bengali who doesn’t love hilsa fish and there are actually lots of preparations made with this hilsa fish. Hilsa cooked in rich mustard oil gives the dish a tingly taste. To add some twist, spices like fine ginger paste, Nigella seeds and chillies are added to it.

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10. Malpoa

Bengali’s can’t even survive without sweets and this is the most famous Bengali sweet made by dipping pancake in sweet saffron syrup. This mixture tastes heavenly when cardamom is added to it. This famous sweet dish tastes best when taken hot.

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Make sure to try all the 10 dishes once in your lifetime.
Did we miss something? Tell us by commenting below.

 

Top 3 Secrets to Writing an Awesome Blog Post… Even if You Are Not a Talented Writer

Written by Ujjayini Pal on March 17, 2016

A certain layout of a blog can help you to add more content in a short span of time. Even if you are not a good writer, you can end up writing a great blog post by using a great layout. A structure can really overshadow your minor faults as a writer. Showcasing your individuality can now be fun if you follow the simple tricks discussed below. You will end up writing great blog posts in less time.

Give a good heading

Writing a good heading can now and then require as much exertion as composing your whole post. The heading of a post is the primary thing the visitors see, and this is the first thing that will bring more visitors to your post. It’s a tiny bit like a decent strip tease; it abandons a few things to the creative ability yet unquestionably stands out enough to be noticed.

(Image Source: http://www.100webhosting.com/images/tips-to-create-killer-headlines.jpg)

Make use of available white space

Keep in mind that every reader out there is an information junkie and they spend time on the internet quite too much to get some useful information. So, just think about it. If you visit a blog page which is flooded with images, big texts and loud colors. The page might contain the required information, but the writing style and the total scenario will repel you from reading it carefully. Too little white space in your page can result in loss of interest of the visitors.

(Image Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/blog.psd2html.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/16130031/google.png)

Include Images or Videos

People are more interested in looking at pictures and videos rather than reading an entire post. All people want is to be entertained and feed their overenthusiastic brains. However, this does not mean you will incorporate unnecessary videos into your post. To make your blog post more interesting you can include some images as they also help to give paragraph gaps.

The main thing of a successful blog is the visitors. So, external links of some other websites that matches with your topic of the blog post is also a useful weapon of writing a killer blog post.

(Image Source: http://www.integrawebservices.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/visual.png)

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Give Us Freedom to Choose Our Future

As soon as you finish off your ICSE and get into +2, the war starts. The struggle between the parents’ wish & your own dream takes a rough shape. Lots of confusions, lots of frustrations and the continuous peer pressure crush you. Is that what you wanted? Rishav Ojha hits back.

As soon as we reach class 10, ICSE haunts. Although the fact is, it is quite easy, but it does. But it is actually the parents who suffer more. For, the thoughts of Engineering already start invading their minds.

So, basically there are 4 kinds of students.

1) Who know what to do with life – Engineer or Doctor
2) Who know what to do with life – Chartered Accountants
3) IAS and IPS officers.
4) Others. As for myself. Who is studying commerce even though I want to become a journalist.

What happens next? 7 out of 10 engineers go on to have a banker or IT chaakri. 6 out of 10 Chartered Accountants fail.
The IAS and IPS officers are mostly from Bihar and UP, so bunk it. And lastly, us, who no one gives a shit about.

Now let’s talk a little about the 4th type.
Me…. And the others.

As I said, I am a journalist in the making, who is studying commerce and, naturally, hates Maths. (No kidding, my math grade is lower than Kenya’s GDP). And I know there are many other ‘misfits’ who are studying commerce because either they were rejected by science or humanities has been termed as arts and is thus, disgraceful to be studied. Now let’s not get into society matters, I am just a 17 year old kid. Duniya daari I don’t know. And people still expect me to pass in Maths. *sigh*

So, one question that is hurled at me every time I go to a family party, is, why Journalism? “Beta CA Karo, paisa aaega, sirf 4 saal ka mehnat hai, fir arram Hi arram”
And I am like, No.

I want to become a journalist, because, nowadays, power is everything, and media is power. It’s simple.

I mean obviously, I don’t want to be someone who will be reporting about why Virat Kohli broke up or get some masala news as to get Rakhi Sawant to speak for Indrani Mukherjee or cover Radhe Maa for the past 8 days.

I want to be someone who can exploit the problems of India from the root cause.
Why is it that only the rich are in the news? Why always are the celebrities in the news?
There are so many things about India that needs to be changed. But, one thing I know, and that is, that India needs no change. It needs a revolution.

Why should a news channel always favour a particular party? What does India have to do with the colour of the underwear Salman Khan is wearing? Nowadays, news is nothing but the views of the media.

As I said, India needs a revolution. What if people like Shashi Tharoor rule India instead of people like The Gandhi’s?

People hate Chetan Bhagat because he isn’t one of those people who writes about rivers, moons or alien attacks in USA, he writes about the general Indian Society. The people hate his books, but love the movies made on his books. I was not someone who reads books. But ‘The Three Mistakes of My Life’ was the first book that I read. And I liked it.

Why are people with a different mindset considered to be “bad” and “anti social” and stuff? Why do I always have to do things in a manner that would please the society?

India has rights, We, The People, have rights. But no freedom. We have the right to education, but no freedom for education. We have the right to express our feelings and thoughts, but no freedom to do it. Rights without freedom is like, to Quote Mr. Desouza, “You can go to the toilet, but you May not”.

Coming towards the end, I, a teen of 17, truly believe that India can become a developed country only when people allow it to be. Only when people put down social barriers (remove them) and become one can India achieve the tagline of “A Developed Country” and for this to happen, it’s the parents who have to grow up first.

I’m a “Vanilla” Person!! Aiming to be an Entrepreneur

A young grads from College of Wooster in US looks for freedom. But how? Listen toTeddy10 

Hello everyone! I hope to be learning a lot about in the coming weeks. First, let me introduce myself. Well…I guess the best way to start off is to give you a physical picture. Imagine a senior in college who is about 5′ 8″ tall (1.72 meters) and weighs about 150 lbs (68 kgs). He’s got scruffy facial hair like an overgrown lazy teenager and hasn’t changed his clothing style since grade 8. Now throw that image away because that’s nothing what I look like. Actually, it is, but I wanted to add a plot twist. In the US, someone like that might be called “vanilla” or “plain”. They don’t look all that exciting from the outside. This is an interesting situation. You may have heard the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but in reality almost everyone judges instantly based on what they first see. It’s classic psychology at work. With that being said, I pretty much fly under the radar. My friends know me and my personality, but other than that I’ve a well-kept secret that blends into the rest of the crowd.

With that being said, I don’t imagine that I will be that type of person much longer. I am well on my way to being an entrepreneur. In fact, in the next few months I will file my legal documents for my first business. I am extremely excited about this! My first venture may fail, and possibly my second, but eventually I will have a business that succeeds. With that, I will have freedom, a freedom from that everyday monotonous life that so many people live. If I want to travel the world, I’ll travel the world. If I want to visit friends and family that are far away, I will be able to do that. Most people think that they are motivated by money, when really they are motivated by freedom. What would you do with your life if money wasn’t an issue?

Lots of Avenues…So Where You Start Shouldn’t Necessarily be Where You End

Do not stick to the cliché saying…This is an age of innovation where you can discover yourself in a different way every singly morning — Blogs Studley James

 

Yesterday was quite a relaxing day, which ended in me, finishing the novel I was reading (a small but enjoyable victory).  The novel I finished was “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien: the book was arguably a work of fiction but his fascinating recollection about the Vietnam War was extremely intriguing. It also invoked in me the urge to read again since I’ve always been an avid reader. In fact, I can’t vouch for everyone but reading almost always makes me feel empowered — Empowered to think about my own life, my own battles and my own way of thinking.

Right now, what I am thinking about would most definitely be where my life is going to look like after graduation. I have so many interests and passions (and yes, one of them is English) that I feel torn about where to take my life, whether I want to stay here or go back home, whether I want to do research or public outreach or continue my studies or pursue literature (or all four? At the same time? Ha ha, now you know my dilemma).

However, as I drone about what every other 20-something year old drones about, I realized scrolling down my LinkedIn profile that there are so many avenues you can take in life that where you start shouldn’t necessarily be where you end.  I know it’s the most clichéd saying of this century where everyone is harping about interdisciplinary knowledge, job skills intertwined with writing, research, outreach, networking, analyzing, and critical thinking. But it’s also very hopeful. At least it is this hope I am riding on as I search for work and internships so I can be successful (whatever that means: could be topic for another time).

The idea of success brings to mind; the next book I am reading is “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Let’s see what thoughts this book will incite and inspire.

 

Great Enthusiasm at DBS, Liluah: Mozilla Showed the Way

Super Saturday!!! And the Indus Blogging Community made a kick-start in association with Mozilla Firefox. Let the honeymoon continue….reports Subhasis Chatterjee 

The atmosphere became electrifying when sixty three dazzling faces brimming with confidence and extreme inquisitiveness flocked in front of me on a Saturday morning (7th Nov, 2015), at Don Bosco School, Liluah, for the event “Firefox Download: The IndUS way.” The very body language and the attitude of the XI Science students were so inspiring that it instantly spurred me to be more proactive to match their spirit.

A student’s life is full of experiences, some of which not only enlighten them but also prove to be a beautiful opportunity for students to interact and be a part of something new and enriching. The best experiences are the one’s that remain in their minds etched forever. Those experiences give the students a sense of immense pleasure whenever they think about it. It is these experiences that help them in their future. “Firefox Download: The IndUS way” was one such opportunity for the young minds where they did learn different nuances of blogging backed up by some amazing technology knowledge sharing platform from Mozilla Firefox. 

The Introduction

It all started with the wonderful inaugural speech by the Principal, Father Sunit Kiro, followed by a small introduction of the event by their computer teacher, Mr. Suman Roy. Then I took over and started explaining how ‘IndUS’ was born and what its mission is, its long term plan and where exactly we intend to culminate.

In India, many stereotype career options coexist where you can be successful only if you are a doctor or an engineer, but we tried to prove otherwise in an awesome way. Our aim delves deep in enthusing them about content writing, blogging, e-book writing and lot of creative activities. We strive to make them understand that this is a wonder world, which is no less than the conventional professions like medical or engineering. We analysed the importance of blogging and the IndUS projects. We went on to share the blueprint on how IndUS will help the students to shape up their careers if they want to take up content writing or blogging as their career options. No sooner did I start speaking, than I found the students hooked on to this interesting and rather new topic. The computer lab suddenly became a multiplex and I could see the enthralling crowd glued to my words with all ears.

The Mozilla Co-Relation

The next phase was planned to demonstrate Mozilla’s tremendous mission and activities to bolster the knowledge of the participating students. We emphasized on the how Mozilla understood the concept of bridging the inter-communal gap between various communities of India since India is an amalgamation of various cast, creeds and languages. Thus, in a very dynamic and fluid way we introduced the new initiative taken up by Mozilla to download the Firefox browser in 90 different languages.

The students got pleasantly surprised at Mozilla’s efforts to bridge the gap between various people in India and connect the world through technology updation. The students were also shown how to download the Hindi browser. A good number of 63 downloads took place within next 60 mins. The two hour knowledge sharing fun reached its climax when the attending students got free goodies from Mozilla. It was really encouraging.

Kudos to Mozilla! It was really nice to be a part of this wonderful Mozilla initiative.

Don Bosco Erupts, The Students Exult in Joy

‘Download Firefox: The IndUS Way‘ meet up on 7th Nov, 2015 at DBS, Liluah saw some amazing enthusiasm among the participants. Some excerpts, directly from horses’ mouth.

Abhinab Mishra, XI Sc, DON BOSCO SCHOOL LILUAH

Recently I was lucky enough to have had such an experience that makes me feel how big the world is… Blogging. A word that brings a lot of questions in your mind, a lot of thoughts in your mind… And to answer it all here we had Subhasis Chatterjee sir who taught us all it meant. Sir taught us Blogging – its features, the techniques and the processes involved. It all was truly amazing.

He took out some time from his busy schedule just to teach us what it all is and how we can do blogging. From the Mozilla’s introduction and its uses and important updates, from Mozilla’s variety of languages to using them all he was there to help us in all these. Our inquisitive and stupid doubts to asking questions not related to the topic we had asked them all. But he answered patiently to our doubts without getting irritated. It was a good experience all together and it was quite a lot of fun.

The activities were also interesting and it provided us with enough opportunities to prove our skills. Truly great thanks to Mozilla and ‘Indus’ and not to forget, big thanks to the people behind it. The person who thought about it… And Subhasis sir who accomplished the task. ‘Indus’ is a great mission of uniting India and U.S. It is truly a great thought. Hats off to the people who thought about such a great idea. A small tagline that might help you in the future (although I am not supposed to… still)-‘to unite the whole world through blogging, where style and passion is born. Indus… the blog for a blogger for whom… Pen is mightier than the sword. ..THANK YOU ALL!

Rohitendra Chatterjee, XI Sc, DON BOSCO SCHOOL LILUAH

We, the students of the science section had a wonderful chance to take part in this and get some facts and figures clear. Mr. Subhasis Chatterjee, representing Mozilla enriched us on the topic of the importance of blogging and the Mozilla inititatives.

Sir told us about how Mozilla understood the concepts of bridging the inter-communal gap between various communities of India because India is an amalgamation of various cast, creeds and languages. Thus, in a very dynamic and fluid way he introduced us to the new initiatives taken up by Mozilla to release the Firefox browser in 90 different languages, if I remember correctly including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada and many more. I was pretty amazed at Mozilla’s efforts to bridge the gap between various people in India and connect the world through blogging. Subhasis sir made us feel at ease. We were also showed how to download the Hindi browser and we downloaded it of our own. Last but not the least, we also got free goodies from Mozilla .So I would like to end this post on the note that making Mozilla native to India and introducing people to blogging is a wonderful head start for making the world a true Global Village…..Kudos to Mozilla!!!!!

Ayut Ghosh, XI Sc, DON BOSCO SCHOOL LILUAH

A day well spent with two people coming from ‘IndUS‘ to make us learn the importance of blogging. I support their innovative ideas about moving up to make a connection between India and US. I would also like to give a big thanks to our school authorities for giving the permission to make time for this interactive session with them. I learnt a lot of interesting and unknown facts about Mozilla Firefox and its upcoming venture of globalizing the Firefox browser in different languages. Eagerly waiting for the next interactive session…

Dhritiman Mukherjee, XI Sc, DON BOSCO SCHOOL LILUAH

The workshop that you conducted today at our school was highly enthusiastic and is worth an appreciation. After this workshop, I got somewhat an idea about blogging and also got to know about Mozilla in a better away. Being an inquisitive student forever, I am very glad that I got my questions satisfactorily answered by you. I look forward to meeting you again and hope that I come across many more interesting issues and news and workshops conducted by you. It was a very pleasant experience meeting a highly talented person like you sir….with such an innovative idea and an initiative for the betterment of our community and country. I hereby agree with your thoughts and ideas and I hope that you will be successful in your initiative. Looking forward to many other workshops conducted by you!!

Compilation: Subhasis Chatterjee

Meeting Jack Steinberger, An Eye Opener

An opportunity to become a Research Associate at CERN, Switzerland had opened up a scope to meet Nobel Laureate, Jack Steinberger. Blogs  ScottJones2017

Where do I begin? Experimental physics research has definitely been one of the longest love affairs that I have had, and this is only the beginning. This summer, I was given the opportunity to be a research assistant at CERN, Switzerland, and what an experience it has been so far!

Last week I met Jack Steinberger, who won the nobel prize for the muon neutrino, for coffee. He so casually spoke about his advisor Enrico Fermi, and Einstein, who apparently was a very good friend of his! And I just looked at him, amused.

For the past month I have been living, breathing and eating physics, in a good way. The collaboration meetings, encounters with experienced and famous scientists, dinner and lunch with friends from all over the world, lectures, workshops and meetings (all of which take place in either German, French or Italian by the way and none of which I understand!) have moulded and made my summer an experience that I never expected. I have learned so much more than just physics.

Overall, this summer has been an eye-opener for me. I have learned so much about the diverse people and cultures around me, the work and life balance, and most importantly about myself. Over the next month, I look forward to traveling, exploring the European culture, and working closely with the AEGIS collaboration in order to take forward their mission.

The Big Reflection of the Big Apple

Listen to the mesmerizing shopping experience of Studley James in St. Louis & New York during fall break and Thanksgiving. 

In lieu of Thanksgiving, I am grateful to have visited both St. Louis and New York City during fall break and Thanksgiving respectively. While St. Louis was much more chill (considering we spent much of our time near Washington University around the Loop), New York is well, New York. Now New York during Black Friday sales is something else entirely.

Throngs of people on the streets getting the best deals at Zara, American Apparel, Topshop and other names of companies I can’t pronounce, at least not without sounding pretentious. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful to have experienced this shopping frenzy. Not for the shopping deals (honestly, I have never been much of a shopper) but for the people I saw. The faces, the languages, the accents, the styles – New York City is truly a melting pot.

Having spent time in K-town, Greenwich village, Soho and all the way up to 1st Avenue (had to get my Nepali/Tibetan cuisine fix), it’s amazing how international New York City is. To put things into perspective, I met two of my friends from high school in a span of two days. Everyone wants to live the dream here if I have gathered as much from my friends from Bhutan and Madagascar. The prospect is fascinating. The City that Never Sleeps. The Big City. The Melting Pot. And a quick Wikipedia search tells me E.B. White called it ‘The Capital of the World’. With names like that, no wonder so many people are in awe of the city. It’s a place where you can chase your dreams (keep in mind the rent and living expense though), have the trendiest fashion at your footsteps (if I have learned anything from this trip, it’s that you should save some serious cash for Black Friday) and meet so many driven people (who sometimes look like they belong in the runway rather than the street).

As for me, I prefer someplace quieter where I can pass on Black Friday shopping for a quiet evening in with a glass of wine and a book in my hand (go ahead, call me old fashioned). The Loop in St Louis for instance would be excellent. Maybe I’ll talk about it on my next blog to save you the trip. Until then, be thankful this holiday season and make the most of what you have (and no, I am not talking about Black Friday deals).