Deepabalee (Diwali) is the festivals of light. It celebrated in allover India, Nepal, Malaysia and Singapore. It is  homecoming of Rama after a 14-year exile in the forest and his victory over Ravana. In the legend, the people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (dipa), thus its name: dipawali or Deepabalee.

We celebrate this festival almost a week before and after. In homes and temples people lights dipa (candles, Oil lamp) followed by worshiping goddess Kali and Lakshmi.

Youngsters and kids celebrate this festival in Full spirits. Crackers are the main attractions of this festival.

In this digital era let’s celebrate this Diwali in E-Crackers.

Happy Diwali – Deepabali

Friendship Day celebrations take place on the first Sunday of August every year. The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in US in 1935. Gradually the festival gained popularity and today Friendship Day is celebrated in large number of countries including India.

Story Behind Friendship Day:

In 1935 US government had killed a man on 1st Saturday of august, next day his friend died committing suicide in his memory.
US government had declared 1st Sunday of every August as friendship day.

Wishing You Happy Friendship Day and have a blast on this day with the RockStar.

This weekend was one of the rarest weekend that I spent in room. I tried my hands in the new Palm Mojo Framework and developed my first Application for Palm webOS. Its a simple Application for challenging Computer in a Tictac Game.

This game has 4 lavels to challenge Computer Intelligence. Defficulty lavel increases as the lavels goes up.

It stores the results of the game till the application is running.

I will post some new Apps soon…

Raja is one of the most awaited festivals among the Unmarried Girls in coastal Orissa. The festival is abserved for 3days. Most of the time it falls in mid of June (14th to 16th June).

Day 1: Pahili Raja (First Raja) - The last day of month “Jestha”.

Day 2: Raja Sankranti (Middle Raja) the first day of month from which rainy season starts. It also inaugurates the agricultural year all over Orissa which marks the moistening of summer parched soil with the first shower of monsoon making it ready for productivity.

Day 3: Bhuin Dahana (Last Raja) – The second day of “Asadha” To celebrate the advent of monsoon the joyous festival is arranged for three days.

Even in some places of Orissa the fourth day of Raja festival is also celebrated in the name of “Basumata Puja” (Basumata : Mother Earth). During this festival digging of soil or tempering it in any way is strictly prohibited.

In the festive season of Raja, unmarried girls are forbidden to do all kinds of manual works. They don’t carry water, cook foods, cut vegetables, sweep the houses, sew clothes, grind grains, comb hair, walk in bare foot etc. During these three days girls are seen in the best of their dresses and decorations, eating cakes and rich food at the houses of friends and relatives.

They move up and down in the swings rending the village sky with their joyous impromptu songs. The swings are tied to the branches of Mango or Banyan trees and decorated with garlands of different flowers. One of Girl is elected as Dola-rani (queen of the swing) by the Girls group. When the queen takes her seat on the swing, the virgins move her forward and backward with chorus of charming songs. These songs are full of jolly spirit of girl-hood days and refer to glorious future, happy love and would be marriage with suitable husbands.

While girls scatter beauty, music all round moving up and down on the swings during this festival, young men (normally unmarried Men) give themselves busy in various types of country games including playing cards, Bohu chori, Kabadi competition. While ‘Yatras’ and ‘Gotipua’ dances are arranged at night in prosperous villages; plays and other entertainment programmees are also conducted.

The main attraction of the festival is Poda Pitha (Burnt Cake) prepared of rice-powder, molasses, coconut, camphor, ghee and jagerry. The size of the cake varies according to the number of family members.