Tribute to the ONE who paved the word SWARAJYA & logically questioned as well as studied religions!!!

Dayanand Saraswati (12 February 1824 – 30 October 1883)He is well known as the founder of the Arya Samaj. He was a profound scholar of the Vedic lore and Sanskrit language. He was the first to give the call for Swarajya as "India for Indians" – in 1876, later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak. Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship prevalent in Hinduism at the time, he worked towards reviving Vedic ideologies. Subsequently the philosopher and President of India, S. Radhakrishnan, called him one of the "makers of Modern India," as did Sri Aurobindo.

Disciples who were influenced by and followed him included Madam Cama, Pandit Guru Dutt Vidyarthi, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Lala Hardayal, Madan Lal Dhingra,Ram Prasad Bismil, Bhagat Singh, Mahadev Govind Ranade Swami Shraddhanand, Mahatma Hansraj, Lala Lajpat Rai and others. Read more...

This JOEY THE GERMAN turned around his lost life with the power of words & is celebrated with prestigious award to his name!!!

"I cannot understand why it is, Mr. Pulitzer, that you always speak so kindly of reporters and so severely of all editors." "Well", Pulitzer replied, "I suppose it is because every reporter is a hope, and every editor is a disappointment."

Joseph Pulitzer (April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911), born Pulitzer József, was a Hungarian-American Jewish newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s. He became a leading national figure in the Democratic Party and was elected Congressman from New York. He crusaded against big business and corruption, and helped keep the Statue of Liberty in New York. Read more...

This gifted virologist gave away normal practice to work for a bigger cause and developed POLIO vaccines despite difficulties!!!

Jonas Edward Salk (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) was an American medical researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed the first successful inactivated polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to Jewish parents. Although they had little formal education, his parents were determined to see their children succeed. While attending New York University School of Medicine, Salk stood out from his peers, not just because of his academic prowess, but because he went into medical research instead of becoming a practicing physician. Read more...

In his limited span of life, this mathematician stirred the mathematicians worldwide & coined his eminent identity!!!

Chakravarthi Padmanabhan Ramanujam (9 January 1938 – 27 October 1974) was an Indian mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory and algebraic geometry. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1973. Like his namesake Srinivasa Ramanujan, Ramanujam also had a very short life.

As David Mumford put it, Ramanujam felt that the spirit of mathematics demanded of him not merely routine developments but the right theorem on any given topic. "He wanted mathematics to be beautiful and to be clear and simple. He was sometimes tormented by the difficulty of these high standards, but in retrospect, it is clear to us how often he succeeded in adding to our knowledge, results both new, beautiful and with a genuinely original stamp".

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Despite atrocities as child & criticism from bacteriologists, he risked his life & saved people's from Cholera & plague!!!

Waldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine, CIE (15 March 1860, Odessa, Russian Empire - 26 October 1930, Lausanne, Switzerland) was a Russian Empire Jewish bacteriologist He emigrated and worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he developed an anti-cholera vaccine that he tried out successfully in India. He is recognized as the first microbiologist who developed and used vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague. He tested the vaccines on himself. Lord Joseph Lister named him "a saviour of humanity".

He was knighted in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year Honours in 1897.  Read more...

Bhai dooj

Bhau-Beej in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka/ Bhai Tika in Nepal/ Bhai Phota in Bengal / Bhai Dooj is a festival celebrated by Hindus on the last day of the five-day-long Diwali festival. Another name for the day is Yamadwitheya or Yamadvitiya, after a legendary meeting between Yama the god of Death and his sister Yamuna (the famous river) on Dwitheya (the second day after new moon). Bhaitika in Nepal is also known as Bhaitihar meaning tihar of brothers. Read more...

Bali Pratipada

The Fourth day is of Diwali festival Padwa or Govardhan pooja or Bali Pratipada 

(Prati=opponent, Pada=foot) also known asVarshapratipada which marks the coronation of King Vikramaditya and Vikaram-Samvat (Hindu Calendar) was started from this Padwa day. 

As the legend goes the people of Gokul used to celebrate a festival in honor of Lord Indra and worshipped him after the end of every monsoon season but one particular year the young Krishna stopped them from offering prayers to Lord Indra who in terrific anger sent a deluge to submerge Gokul. But Krishna saved Gokul by lifting up the Govardhan mountain and holding it over the people as an umbrella.

Govardhan is a small hillock in Braj, near Mathura and on this day of Pratipada people of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar build cowdung, hillocks, decorate them with flowers and then worship them.This day is also observed as Annakoot meaning mountain of food. People are awake the whole night and cook fifty-six or 108 different types of food for the bhog (the offering of food) to Krishna.

Balipadyami or Bali Pratipada is the day on which 'Bali' is worshiped. When Vishnu was born as vamana (the dwarf), he crushed Bali into the under world. Then Prahlada, the grandfather of Bali pleaded Vishnu to pardon Bali. Then Bali was made the king of the under world. Read more...

LAKSHMIPOOJAN

The third day of the festival of Diwali is the most important day of Lakshmi-puja and is entirely devoted to the propitiation of Goddess Lakshmi. On this very day sun enters his second course and passes Libra which is represented by the balance or scale.

Hence, this design of Libra is believed to have suggested the balancing of account books and their closing. Despite the fact that this day falls on [amavasya] it is regarded as very auspicious.

The strains of joyous sounds of bells and drums float from the temples as man is invoking Goddess Lakshmi in a wondrous holy "pouring-in" of his heart. All of a sudden that impenetrable darkness is pierced by innumerable rays of light for just a moment and the next moment a blaze of light descends down to earth from heaven as golden-footed Deep-Lakshmi alights on earth in all her celestial glory amidst chantings of Vedic hymns.

It is believed that on this day the goddess walks through the green fields and loiters through the bye-lanes and showers her blessings on man for plenty and prosperity. Read more...

The poetic martyr who gave away his life for freedom!!!

In Urdu he had written:

"kiye the kaam hamane bhii, jo kuchh bhii humse ban paaye; ye baatein tab ki hain aazaad the aur tha shabaab apanaa. magar ab to jo kuchh bhii hai ummidein bas vo tum se hain, javaan tum ho labe-baam aa chukaa hai aafataab apnaa."

Ashfaqulla Khan (22 October 1900 – 19 December 1927) was a freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement who had given away his life along with Ram Prasad Bismil. Bismil and Ashfaq, both were good friends and Urdu poets (Shayar). Bismil was the pen name or Takhallus of Ram Prasad whereas Ashfaq used to write poetry with the pen name of 'Hasrat'. And sing a song vande matram before hanging , both were hanged on the same day, date and time but in different jails.

Ashfaq was a very good Urdu poet who wrote beautiful couplets and ghazals with the pen-name of 'Warsi' and 'Hasrat'. But very few people know that he had also written in Hindi as well as in English. While he was confined in the solitary cell of Faizabad Jail, he started writing a diary. Few words of English are reproduced hereunder from his diary:

Patriotism brings with him all sort of troubles and pains, but a man who chooses it,all the troubles and pains become comforts and ease for him. That is why we remain cheerful up to our aim.

Only for the love of our country I suffer so much.

There is no dream, and if there is,there is only one to see you my children struggling for the same and for which I am expected to be finished.

Brothers and friends will weep after me but I am weeping over their coldness and infidelity towards our motherland.

Weep not children, weep not elders; I am immortal ! I am immortal !!

In another letter written to his beloved mother, sisters and nephews he writes: "We too had done some of the works which we could, but those were the days, we had the glamour on face and strength in the chest. But now is the hope only hope from you, you are now grown up and we are at the verge of setting like a sun in the west." Read more...

On emergence of Dhanvantari, embarked the festival of Lights!!!

Dhanteras is the first day of the five-day Diwali Festival as celebrated in India. The festival, known as "Dhanatrayodashi" or "Dhanvantari Trayodashi". The word Dhan means wealth and Teras means 13th day as per Hindu calendar. It is celebrated on the thirteenth lunar day of Krishna paksha (dark fortnight) in the Hindu calendar month of Ashvin. On Dhanteras, Goddess Lakshmi is worshiped to provide prosperity and well being. Dhanteras holds special significance for the business community due to the customary purchases of precious metals on this day.

An ancient legend ascribes the occasion to on interesting story about the 16 year old son of King Hima. His horoscope predicted his death by snake-bite on the fourth day of his marriage. Read more...

With a sharp focus since a child, this physicist was the first to carve a synthetic diamond!!!

Howard Tracy Hall (October 20, 1919 – July 25, 2008) was an American physical chemist, and the first person who grew a synthetic diamond according to a reproducible, verifiable and witnessed process, using a press of his own design. Tracy Hall was born in Ogden, Utah in 1920. His full name was Howard Tracy Hall, but he often used the name H. Tracy Hall or, simply, Tracy Hall. Tracy grew up on a farm in Marriott, Utah. When still in the fourth grade, he announced his intention to work for General Electric. He attended Weber College for two years, and married Ida-Rose Langford in 1941. He went to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he received his B. S. degree in 1942 and an M. S. in the following year. 

For the next two years, he served as an ensign in the U. S. Navy. He returned to the University of Utah in 1946, where he was Henry Eyring's first graduate student. and was awarded his Ph. D. in physical chemistry in 1948. Two months later he realized his childhood dream by starting work at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York. He joined a team focused on synthetic diamond making, code named "Project Superpressure" headed by an engineer, Anthony Nerad.

Synthetic diamond (also known as laboratory-created diamond, laboratory-grown diamond, cultured diamond or cultivated diamond) is diamond produced in an artificial process, as opposed to natural diamonds, which are created by geological processes. Synthetic diamond is also widely known as HPHT diamond or CVD diamond after the two common production methods (referring to the high-pressure high-temperature and chemical vapor deposition crystal formation methods, respectively). Read more...

There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking!!!

He was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel (1804–96, born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and Nancy (1810–1871, born in Chenango County, New York).His father had to escape from Canada because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837. He reported being of Dutch ancestry. In school, the his mind often wandered, and his teacher, the Reverend Engle, was overheard calling him "addled". This ended his three months of official schooling.Recalling later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." His mother taught him at home. Much of his education came from reading R.G. Parker's School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union.

He developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. His life there was bittersweet. He sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit, and sold vegetables to supplement his income. He also studied qualitative analysis, and conducted chemical experiments on the train until an accident prohibited further work of the kind.

He obtained the exclusive right to sell newspapers on the road, and, with the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald, which he sold with his other papers. This began his long streak of entrepreneurial ventures, as he discovered his talents as a businessman. These talents eventually led him to found 14 companies, including General Electric, which is still one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.

He was THOMAS ALVA EDISON !!! Read more...

This American cricketer is considered to have founded & started swinging the ball(angler); considered as one of the finest!

John Barton "Bart" King (October 19, 1873 – October 17, 1965) was an American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King was part of the Philadelphia team that played from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I. This period of cricket in the United States was dominated by "gentlemen cricketers"—men of independent wealth who did not need to work.

A skilled batsman who proved his worth as a bowler, King set numerous records in the continent of North America during his career and led the first-class bowling averages in England in 1908. He successfully competed against the best cricketers from England and Australia. King was the dominant bowler on his team when it toured England in 1897, 1903, and 1908. He dismissed batsmen with his unique delivery, which he called the "angler", and helped develop the art of swing bowling in the sport. Sir Pelham Warner described Bart King as "one of the finest bowlers of all time", and Donald Bradman called him "America's greatest cricketing son." Read more...

This son of farmer, started work as clerk, didn't complete college education; first demonstrated anesthesia publicly!!!

World Anesthesia Day commemorates the first successful demonstration of ether anesthesia on October 16, 1846.  William Thomas Green Morton (August 9, 1819 – July 15, 1868) was an American dentist who first publicly demonstrated the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic in 1846. Born in Charlton, Massachusetts, William T. G. Morton was the son of James Morton, a farmer, and Rebecca (Needham) Morton. William found work as a clerk, printer, and salesman in Boston before entering Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1840. In 1841, he gained notoriety for developing a new process to solder false teeth onto gold plates. In 1842, he left college without graduating to study in Hartford, Connecticut with dentist Horace Wells, with whom Morton shared a brief partnership. In the autumn of 1844, Morton entered Harvard Medical School and attended the chemistry lectures of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, who introduced Morton to the anesthetic properties of ether. Morton then also left Harvard without graduating. On September 30, 1846, Morton performed a painless tooth extraction after administering ether to a patient. 

Anesthesia, or anaesthesia (from Greek ἀν-, an-, "without"; and αἴσθησις, aisthēsis, "sensation") is a temporary state consisting of unconsciousness, loss of memory, lack of pain, and muscle relaxation. The purpose of anesthesia can be distilled down to three basic goals or end points: hypnosis (a temporary loss of consciousness and with it a loss of memory), analgesia (lack of sensation which also blunts autonomic reflexes) & muscle relaxation Read more...

The boatowner's son who sold newspapers; ran the country, continues to inspire & motivate the world with his intellect & spirit!

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (born 15 October 1931) is an Indian scientist and administrator who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. Before his term as President, he worked as an Aerospace engineer with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Kalam is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.  Kalam was elected the President of India in 2002. He was also the first scientist and the first bachelor to occupy Rashtrapati Bhawan. He was nominated for the MTV Youth Icon of the Year award in 2003 and in 2006. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's 79th birthday was recognised as World Student's Day by United Nations. He has also received honorary doctorates from 40 universities. In 2005, Switzerland declared 26 May as science day to commemorate Kalam's visit in the country. Read more...

This Geneticist was C & D grader; almost gave up on life, is one of the first to sequence human genome!!!

John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American biochemist, geneticist, and entrepreneur. He is known for being one of the first to sequence the human genome and the first to transfect a cell with a synthetic genome. Venter founded Celera Genomics, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), and is now working at JCVI to create synthetic biological organisms. He was listed on Time magazine's 2007 and 2008 Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2010, the British magazine New Statesman listed Craig Venter at 14th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". He is a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.

Venter was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of Elizabeth and John Venter. In his youth, he did not take his education seriously, preferring to spend his time on the water in boats or surfing. According to his biography, A Life Decoded, he was said to never be a terribly engaged student, having Cs and Ds on his eighth-grade report cards. He graduated from Mills High School in Millbrae, California.

Although he was against the Vietnam War, Venter was drafted and enlisted in the United States Navy where he worked in the intensive-care ward of a field hospital. While in Vietnam, he attempted suicide by swimming out to sea, but changed his mind more than a mile out. Being confronted with wounded, maimed, and dying [marines] on a daily basis instilled in him a desire to study medicine — although he later switched to biomedical research. Read more...