AKHAND-JYOTI

The globally famous National Geographic launched a special edition of Explorer magazines for the Indian schoolchildren. With this project, India has become one of the first countries in the world where the magazine has been launched. The magazine will provide educational resources and new learning solutions to both, teachers and students. US Ambassador to India Kathleen Stephens launched the magazine during the inauguration of National Geographic Learning's Explorer Education Program at the American Centre in New Delhi. Vice President of India Hamid Ansari and Publisher of National Geographic Learning, Francis Downey were present on this occasion. The program includes accessing content through an interactive application, content on its website, large posters, projectable magazine content, monthly magazines and a teacher's guide. There will be four reading levels and seven issues will be published in a calendar year for each level. About 20 to 199 copies of the Explor...

Everyone has short and long term goals in his/her life. These goals may be to get thin, to earn and save lot of money, to have a beautiful girlfriend or a handsome boyfriend, to own a luxury car, etc. Among all such mundane goals, there seems no requirement of interference of the inner voice of an individual. However, if you are under the spell of your inner voice, just like me, I advise you to arrange your goals. These can be fundamentally organised into short term goals and long term goals.  On the basis of such a self-made arrangement, start focusing on your inner voice. Ask common and specialized questions to your inner voice about each of your desires. As I have got, you will also get some answers; some questions may not be answered at this point of time. It is a must-believe situation. Without trusting the inner voice, there is no other choice in such cases. Hence such an arrangement.  A better way to deal with such a situation is to focus on your i...

A couple of months ago, I read a sermon by Osho. He had talked about the original voice within you. According to him our job is to find our original voice and sing our song aloud. Our job is not to die with our music still inside us, for it will be a useless life then. What he meant to say is as follows: When we are born, we are most influenced by our parents, especially by our mother. So when we grow up, the voice of our mother remains with us and most of the time we speak our mother's voice. This voice leads us to feel the fear and the negative aspects of challenges the life throws at us. For example, when we enter in a new business, we do feel what if we fail in our attempt. That's mother's voice, which always intends to provide unconditional love and care. The next dominant voice is that of our father. This voice empowers us to accept a new challenge and overcome it, prove our mettle (for example, write that medical/engineering entrance exam).  The next vo...

Since I have written about life, I would like to do it again. I have written that there are four aspects or dimensions of life: physical, financial, social and spiritual. These combine together to make holistic life.  Thinking about my thoughts, going deeper into what I have thought previously, has now become my passion. And thus this revision. Now I see that there are tow aspects that influence all these surface level dimensions of our life. These are: stable and unstable forces. This means, our physical, financial, social and spiritual aspects are directed and determined by the forces of stability and instability. For example, if a person is fat today, and he remains more or less in the same shape next year, same day, then his physical situation would be considered stable. Another example: suppose a person earns fifty thousand rupees today in a month, and he earns the same amount next year same day, then he would be considered a person who has acquired financial stability...

When in my high school, I was formally introduced to academic writing such as letter and essay writing. After I passed all my academic exams, my marriage with such formal writing was over. No more worries for writing and thinking for writing. But this love affair took its own course and separation was converted into a remarriage when I started preparing for the civil services.  The pattern of the examination required every successful aspirant to pass an exam of essay writing. It was, and still is, a critical exam in deciding the merit of an individual. Therefore, when I prepared for it, I was serious in my preparation and attended formal coaching classes for essay writing. Although, once again my need to learn writing skills was motivated by the aim of passing an exam, I was conscious in my attempt and looked up several reference books for the same.  In this way I was once again reintroduced to formal writing. Although I could not qualify my civil services exam,...

Human life is precious. Hindu mythology asserts that after a long wait one is born as a human being. It adds that, therefore, we should do such deeds in our life which help us to be born as the human beings in our next birth. In order to attain such a domain, it is important we live our lives in a balanced and harmonious way in this world. The identification and a good understanding of the four basic aspects of our life help us in live our life in a balanced and harmonious way. The four basic aspects of our life are: physical, financial, social (emotional), and spiritual. Physical aspect is the first aspects of our life. Our journey towards a good spiritual aspect and harmony begins with a good and harmonious physical aspect. The physical aspect includes good health, body-mind harmony and a disease-free life. Regular exercise, especially yoga, helps us attain and sustain a good physical state and thus powers our journey towards a good spiritual state. Financial aspect comes ...

In the field of essay writing, as a beginner, it is essential to have ample confidence in your abilities. In addition, to sustain this confidence until you acquire good essay writing skills is extremely important. Therefore, to start with, it is advised that you pick up some easy essay topics and gradually start choosing some difficult ones. Here is a list of 50 essay topics for the beginners. The topics range from very easy, to easy, to difficult ones. It is advised that you start from the very easy topics and gradually move towards the difficult essay topics. The word limit for these topics is 350—450 words. The list of essay topics for beginners is as follows: My father/mother/brother/sister/grandfather/grandmother My pet My school My favorite teacher My city/town/village My new dress My favorite dish (food item) My first train ride My country My favorite sports activity/game My first day at new class/school My best friend My favorite book My favorite hero/...

Essay writing usually starts at the secondary-level classes. The task of writing essays continues until you study and depends on the choice of the subjects such as literature. However, it has been observed that in other subjects as well, except numeric ones, the students have to write “essay-type answers.” However, here we will discuss the requirements of writing essays at the beginners’ level. This does not mean that the tips given here do not apply to the students of higher secondary, college, and those preparing for the competitive exams. Usually, students have to write essays in a prescribed word limit. This word limit ranges from 500 to 1500 words per essay. Those students who develop their writing skill feel more comfortable while writing essay than the students whose writing skills are dormant. Since writing essay is an essential part of the current education policy, it is important to acknowledge the importance of good writing skills, especially essay writing skills. Her...

Once the UPSC aspirant qualifies the preliminary examination, the he or she has to write the mains examination. The essay test [the written exam for essay] is one of the most crucial exams in the UPCS mains examination. The essay test carries 200 marks and plays extremely important role in deciding the rank in the UPSC mains examination. And a good rank in the written exam certainly plays an important role in the final ranking, the merit list announced after the results of the interview are declared. Therefore, writing a reasonably good essay is extremely important in the UPSC mains exams. Now, the question is how to write a reasonably good essay. Well, there are several coaching centres that help you in developing the skills required for writing a reasonably good essay. In addition, there are guide books, text books and bestsellers that instruct you to develop the aforementioned skill. However, all this does not actually help most of the UPSC aspirants in writing a reasonably g...

Writing an essay has become a common trend these days. You have to write an essay if you are preparing for the entrance exams for the government jobs, or taking admission in any university for the advanced studies. Writing a satisfactory essay is also a difficult task, as many believe. Despite the quality and quantity of the content of an essay, the organization of an essay plays a vital role in its assessment and subsequent selection of the candidate. Well, there is already so much of guidance about how to generate good quality content for a limited word essay. Here, we shall discuss the major task of organizing the content of an essay. Produce more For organizing the content of an essay, you have to develop leverage. That means, you should have more content, i.e., more number of words, to throw away in order to retain and further polish the best of what you write down when you write an essay. For example, if you have to write an essay of 1000 to 1200 words, you should writ...

Taj Mahal is a beautiful and amazing building. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan in the memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is a masterpiece of a great work of contemporary art and architecture. The building of the Taj Mahal spreads an amazing ambiance full of love and happiness. The visitors, tourists, and locals all feel the strong affect of love and happiness. When people enter the lawns of the Taj Mahal. They just amazingly look at the main building and forget, for the time being, their problems and other worldly affairs.  Their eyes just get fixed on the main building and as they travel through the beautiful lawn at the Taj Mahal; they really feel the fragrance of beautiful flowers. As soon as they climb the stairs to the main building, they reach the main door at the Taj Mahal from where they can look at the stone work on the walls of the Taj Mahal. The variety of stones, the design in the stone, the colours of the variou...

This is a collection of the best quotes on experience.  “Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.” ― Paulo Coelho , Brida  **************************** “I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.” ― Charlotte Brontë , Jane Eyre **************************** “Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” ― Aldous Huxley , Texts & Pretexts: An Anthology With Commentaries **************************** “nothing that is worth knowing can be taught” ― Oscar Wilde **************************** “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” ― Henry Ford ****************...

When you come across a point or avenue in your life, where you feel that you have successfully completed the task assigned to you by the universe (God), what do you do? How do you manage your life? How do you find out what's next? Who do you look for the directions in your life? Who guides you? From whom you take an order? Who requests you to take up the next task and accomplish that? ...Sorry, if you, as an average reader, are not able to understand what I am trying to say here. Let me explain. Recently only, I was having a chat with one of my family members. This guy is a young talented student. He has just completed his Class XII. For him, now is the time to join college. While he can take admission in any of the best colleges of the city, or migrate to a metro city to join a University college, he thinks otherwise. He does not want to go to the college. Don't get him wrong. He has some other plans for his life. He wants to continue his studies, but not full time. He ...