You saw her in class. You liked her. You sent her a friend request on Facebook. She never accepted. How many times has it happened to you? It happens to the best of guys and to the women too. So much so that you’ve lost track of who never accepted your requests. But wouldn’t we like to know? Hell yeah, so that we know who are enemies are. And also so that we don’t send them a friend request again! God forbid!
Luckily, turns out there’s a way to see who all the jerks who have ever ignored you on Facebook. And it’s as simple as 3 clicks! Cheggit out!
1. Click on the friend requests icon on the top right hand side of your Facebook home page.
2. Click on “View all” at the bottom of the drop down.
3. On the top left hand side of the page, you’ll see “View sent requests”
4. Voila!
Okay, take two minutes to wallow in some self-pity at all those ignored friend requests you sent. Or go have a beer! They sucked anyway!
There isn’t any big-ticket item to ogle at from Apple’s SE Event that was held last night. There’s a new iPhone that is not a flagship and a new iPad Pro. There were a few other announcements as well and Tim Cook reaffirmed Apple’s commitment to user privacy and said, “We need to decide as a nation how much power the government should have over our data and over our privacy.” Here’s everything you should know from the SE Event.
The new iPhone is called iPhone SE with the SE being an abbreviation for Special Edition. It has a smaller-four inch display but gets the same powerful A9 processor as the iPhone 6S. Built for new iPhone users, the SE feels like an upgraded iPhone 5S and the 12 MP camera and fingerprint scanning give it the power of the flagship 6S. The phone is priced at Rs 39,000 in India according to Apple. It is expected to launch in India in early May.
The other big announcement apart from the new iPhone was this iPad Pro that is now available in 9.7 inch size instead of the earlier 12.9 inch model. The weight of this new iPad is now under one pound! The 32 GB version costs $599 while the 128 GB and 256 GB versions cost $749 and $899, respectively.
There’s no update for the Apple Watch but they are going to get cheaper soon. Apple brought down the price to $299 from $349 and introduced it in new colours and variants including a new band model made from a four-layered woven nylon.
Keeping up with its promise to run all its facilities on renewable energy, Apple showed off a robot called Liam that tears down used iPhones to recover valuable minerals while discarding the rest in what Apple said is “safe for your data and safe for the planet.”
Apple launched the latest update for its operating system that adds one cool new feature. The Night Shift feature will allow updated devices to adjust its lighting depending on the time of the day. There are updates to Touch ID and Apple News and security bugs have been fixed. The update is available for download from today.
While we always talk about how we can buy more of something with the least expenditure and how we can always be on a budget while buying stuff, there is also that part of the world for whom buying the most expensive things in the world is perhaps the most exciting thing.
The people we are talking about here are counted in the world’s richest lists, of course. These are people with enormous amounts of wealth and are looking for ways to spend that wealth. Mediocrity doesn’t excite them anymore, which is why their spending justifies their income and not the other way around.
Watches are the second dearest thing to a man after cars and they sure come bloody expensive. There are a number of luxury watch brands in the world who sell watches ranging from few thousand dollars to a million. Watches which become so unique and antique are even auctioned at prices which will blow your minds apart. We thought of bringing to you some of the most expensive watches that the world saw:
1. Breguet Grande Complication Marie-Antoinette – Estimated $30 Million or Rs 200 Crore
Born into the bourgeois, you grow up idolising the greats of your time – the actors, the popstars, the tycoons and the world-leaders, not knowing that you also pedestalise them in the process, leaving you feeling inexplicably handicapped by the ordinariness of your roots. In your twenties, this false divide widens, as you start harbouring great ire at the predictable route your life is heading towards; and great fear that things may not change, but you tell yourself that you perhaps, never even had a shot. By the time you reach your thirties, you stop to rage and start to accept. You start to settle.
Anu Aga, ex-Chairperson of Thermax Ltd., and once India’s eighth richest woman, teaches me that our ideas surrounding greatness are grossly erroneous. No one is born great; greatness comes with the choices you make when your life takes you to moments of reckoning. The simplicity and modesty are your roots; they let you experience the world and its problems in a more uninhibited manner. The anger can be leveraged. Those fears can be faced and rubbished. That despair can turn to desperation, and hence, success. And as she related the memoirs from an incredible lifetime spent working for herself and others in equal parts with an endearing ardency and candour, her story slowly began to illustrate these achievable anomalies.
Advertisement
Anu Aga
Simplicity
Anu Aga was born in circumstances just like yours and mine. She grew up in the Heart of Mumbai, in Matunga, with two older brothers. She studied Economics at St. Xavier’s, and always had an inclination to contribute to the greater good.
Anu brought this inclination to fruition at TISS for Medical and Psychiatric Social Work. “My degree here was prestigious enough to land me a scholarship in an American university. But the message was drummed in my mind that as a woman, I ought to marry and start a family first,” says Anu.
Fortunately, she met a lovely man, Rohinton Aga – her eldest brother’s best friend. Rohinton had studied at Cambridge and worked with great multinationals. “But he always felt that they had chained him in golden chains with the perks and the package, he had no real satisfaction. My brother coaxed him to join our company, which was a tricky decision for him as we were rather small and unknown at the time. My father (A S Bhathena, Founder of Thermax Ltd., an engineering solutions provider in the energy and environment sectors) couldn’t even afford to match the salary he was used to, but he took a chance,” says Anu. Today, Thermax is a Rs 4,935-crore entity.
The couple moved to Pune, where the Thermax empire came to thrive.
Meanwhile, Anu worked in Child Guidance Clinic, and started a family. Rohinton went on to succeed her father in taking over the company as chairperson.
Anger
But, their happy world was shaken when her husband, in his late 40s, suffered a massive attack. “This brilliant man had to learn the alphabet and the numbers all over again. During recovery, patients often slip into depression, but my husband had anger; he was angry at the world. And anger mobilises. It took a toll on him, but he got back on his feet and even wrote a book during his recovery.”
Fear
Around that time, Anu’s family insisted she take more interest in the workings of the company. She then joined the human resources department.
“When I joined the company, my key challenge was to not only retain the brand image we had built as an innovator, but to also capitalise on it and grow. And keeping our employees happy was at the heart of this. My personal challenge was how I should be accepted in my own right, rather than as an Aga, who owns the foundation,” Anu says.
Despair
Her daughter, a chemical engineer living in London, was about to have her first child, and Anu had promised her that she would be with her then. When Anu returned, Rohinton was very excited to see her after six months, and decided to drive down to Pune to receive her. “But before he could receive me, I received the news that he had suffered another heart attack, this one fatal, and did not make it,” Anu says.
This was when the tempest in her life began to set in. She had lost her best friend, but the company had lost their leader. Even before Anu could grieve a grave loss, the executives met on the second day and insisted that she assume the mantle. “I just wasn’t ready. I kept devaluing myself and thought that I was only being invited to take over because we as a family own this business. I really felt miserable, missing my husband, yet, having to assume his role,” she says.
Looking for answers, she found Vipassana, a Buddhist form of meditative penance, where you silently reflect for ten days. “I had the time to contemplate on the events and get some perspective. I was comparing myself to my charismatic husband, which was not a good game I was playing, and was also depleting my energy over it. All I was expected to do was my best, which may be different from my husband’s best.”
Vipassana came into her life at a serendipitous time. Fourteen months later, Anu’s 25-year-old son passed away in a car accident, an occurring that pained her very existence, but, she found a way to not suffer. “I realised that it was meant to be. Death isn’t a tragedy, because it is inevitable – like sunrise and sunset. Pain is inevitable, but suffering comes out of not accepting why something happened to you. Suffering can be controlled, if you accept.” Anu says.
Resurrection
She stepped up to anchor the ship, which had also begun to tremble. At that delicate time, Anu chose to shed all her self-doubt and dive into the challenge head-first. “I didn’t know hardcore business, and I was terrible at finance. Being at the helm of the capital goods industry, I had to know both. I surrounded myself with people who could guide me, and wasn’t afraid to show my vulnerability, and seek help without qualms. That helped tremendously,” she says.
Right around that time, the Indian economy went for a downturn. A year before Rohinton had died, Thermax had gone public, and now their share price had fallen from Rs. 400 shares to Rs 36.
Anu took some bold decisions that then resuscitated the company, although everyone was against her course of action. “I wanted to appoint the Boston Consultant Group to do some damage control, but our team insisted that we simply wait for the economy to stabilise,” she says.
“Until then, I thought the ones most affected by this would be me and my family, as we were the owners. But I received an anonymous note from a shareholder, saying we had let him down. For my husband and I, letting someone down was a dirty word. I couldn’t sleep for days.”
She decided to hire BCG anyway, and made some brave choices. They divested into non-core businesses and forayed into products like bottled water, which were all B2C, and not their strength.
When losing one’s child spurs a person to serve others and become a hero-this is the story of Dorris Francis. Dorris is known as the ‘traffic heroine’ in Ghaziabad, a suburban area near New Delhi. Dorris is not a police officer but manages traffic in the same spot day after day, on a busy intersection of roads. The intersection has a special significance for her – it is the same place her daughter Nikki died in an accident in 2010.
Dorris is confident and looks in complete control as she ensures the smooth and safe passage of traffic in the area. “I know about her story, she works selflessly. I haven’t seen many who have the courage like her. I don’t know how she can come every day to the same spot where she lost her daughter,” police constable Kumar Pal Singh, who is at the intersection, told BBC.
Dorris still remembers the day when a speeding car hit the auto-rickshaw in which she was travelling with her daughter. “She died, I survived. I wish traffic was managed better that day,” Dorris said to BBC. When Dorris is present, most drivers follow her instructions and the traffic looks orderly in an otherwise chaotic intersection where accidents are commonplace. She even gets tough with them, sometimes even mildly whacking reckless pedestrians and drivers with a stick.
“It’s been more than six years since I started. My mission was to save lives and not let any mother lose her daughter, husband or son. And that’s what I have been doing and I will continue to do until I have strength in my body,” says Dorris.
Did you know that the world number one rank in a particular sport is held by a sportswoman from your country? Nope, we’re not referring to Sania Mirza in Tennis’ doubles rankings. There’s another sportswoman out there, doing us proud internationally. Did you also know that a woman from your country became the first Indian amputee to scale five of the highest peaks in the world? Or that a woman is carrying forward the legacy Sachin Tendulkar created for India in international cricket?
L to R: Humpy Koneru, Mithali Raj, Dipika Pallikal
1. Dutee Chand
“I put my head out if the gutter for one second and fate shovels s**t in my face.” This line from GTA Vice City is the best description of the career of one of our most gifted athletes – Dutee Chand. She became the national champion in the under-18 category when she clocked 11.8 seconds in the 100 metres event. In the 2013 World Youth Championships,she was also the first Indian to reach the global athletics 100 meters final. She beat her own best, clocking 11.73 seconds in the final in 100 metres and a 23.73 second in 200 metres at the National Senior Athletics Championships in Ranchi. However, even before her walk of fame could begin, she was embroiled in a controversy and was prevented from competing in the Commonwealth Games due to a condition called ‘hyperandrogenism’. However, women’s rights activists and her contemporaries, like Santhi Soundarajan, protested this ruling. As the federation reconsiders the rule, Dutee has been allowed to race again.
Advertisement
Mithali Raj|Image Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons
2. Mithali Raj
What Sachin is to men’s cricket, Mithali Raj is to the women’s wing of the sport. Head Honcho of the current women’s cricket team, she is not only India’s finest but also the world’s – having entered the 2013 World Cup at the No. 1 spot in the ODI rankings. The cricketer’s first test, at the age of 17,was a century and then some; her third broke the record of highest individual score – which was held by Karen Rolton’s 209 – with a slightly more robust 214. Having won a Padma Shri and an Arjuna, she is a formidable figure on the crease as she has led the Indian team to several victories and finals, often without dropping a single game along the way.
3. Arunima Sinha
Anurima Sinha knew she was destined for scaling athletic heights, and an accident in which she lost her limbs didn’t hurt her odds. She was a national level volleyball player already going places, when she was pushed off a moving train by some thieves, and had one of her legs amputated. But she bounced back and trained herself to become the first Indian amputee to climb the Mount Everest, where she also hoisted our flag. She aspires to climb all the continents’ highest peaks and sink the national flag of India in their terrain.So far, she has successfully climbedfive peaks, namely, the Everest in Asia, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Europe, Kosizko in Australia, and Aconcagua in Argentina.
4. Ritu Raani
The Vidya Sharma of the real Indian Hockey team, Ritu Rani has skippered the national squad for half a decade. The youngest on a senior team, Ritu proved her mettle time and again; first as the top scorer in 2009’s Champion’s Challenge II, and then leading the team to third place in 2013 and 2014 at the Asia Cup 2013 and Asian Games 2014. Currently, she’s given the country reason to be cheerful for the first time since the 1980 Olympics, for the girls have qualified to take on Rio this year!
Dipika Pallikal: Image Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons
5. Dipika Pallikal
The sport of squash itself is yet to come of age in India, but within it, a star has already formed from the dust. Dipika Pallikal in her decade-long career has set in motion a flurry of records, trends, and stands. Dipika became a professional player in 2006 at the age of 15.She first tasted prominence in 2011, when she won three WISPA tour titles to clinch a career-best ranking of 13. She became the firstIndian woman squash player to have broken into the top 10 ranks in the WSA, with six titles at the level. At the2014 Commonwealth Games, Dipika along withcontemporary Joshna Chinappawon gold in squash women’s doubles for the first time in the Indian Commonwealth squash history.She could have milked this popularity, but chose instead, to go with her ideals and opted out of the country’s National Championship Squash Competition four times in a row opposing unequal prize money between male and female players.
6. Shikha Tandon
She jumped into the pool to keep her brother company, as he was advised to swim to combat his asthma. Little did she know that the pool was about to change both their lives. She came up to speed – literally and figuratively – soon enough, and was spotted for her flair at the age of 12. She competed in her first world championship at the age of 13. By the age of 17, she broke the Indian women’s 50freestyle record, with a time of 26.61seconds, at the 57th Senior National Aquatic Championship. Being declared best swimmer three years in a row there, she won 146 national medals and 36 medals in international competitions, including five gold medals, which also made her a fitting recipient of the Arjuna Award
7. Heena Sidhu
Raining bullets with fish-eye precision turned Heena Sidhu into the reigning queen in International shooting. As an aceIndianshooter, Heena is the first Indian Pistol shooter to be ranked World No.1bythe world body in the sport –International Shooting Sport Federation, when she walked away with the gold at their 2013World CupFinal-Pistol in the10 metre Air Pistolevent. After Anjali Bhagwat and Gagan Narang, she is the third Indian to pull off this feat. She also kept the gold right here at home, along with her partner Annu Raj Singh in women’s Pairs 10 metre air pistol at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. She also holds the Finals World record in 10 metre air pistol event with a final score of 203.8. She was the first Indian ace to grace the ISSF magazine’s cover page ever since the National Rifle Association of India was formed on April17, 1951.
Humpy Koneru | Image Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons
8. Humpy Koneru
Humpy was originally named Hampi – the core of the word ‘Champion’. She became the first Indian female player to win the National Children Chess Championship, which is a National Boys title, in the year 2000.The Gudivada born wiz also became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of grandmaster. In 2007, she became the second female player, afterJudit Polgár, to exceed the 2600Elo rating mark, by snagging 2606. She ranksNo. 2 in theFIDE World Rankings. She has won us various international medals, and made the quarters of the World Women’s Chess Championship. She also won herself the Padma Shri and Arjuna for her exemplary track record world-over.
These sportswomen keep at it braving non-support, lack of acknowledgment, deprivation of infrastructure and exposure, grants and training, not to mention a general denial of appreciation. They do it out of their passion for the sport, and the motherland they owe their existence to. As a population, we may not garland them when they arrive upon airports or railway stations, but the least we can do it applaud their efforts.
1. Alfresco Grand, Assam
Alfresco Grand was first started in 1998 on the river Brahmaputra. The cruise presents you a floating cum Cruise Bar with a fine dine restaurant. The journey starts from Guwahati and takes you for a tour to Kamakhya temple, Saulkuchi, Kajol Choki and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary. It is better to avoid this joy ride during monsoons (June to September) when heavy downpours cause the Brahmaputra River to flood its banks all across the state.
2. Assam Despatch Cruise 3 — River Island Cruise (Upstream), Assam
Here is another beautiful cruise from Assam that starts its journey from Silghat and ends at Dibrugarh. While sailing on this boat, one will get the chance to visit Kaziranga National Park, Vishnath Dhansiri Mukh, Maujli Island and several more. Between October and April they offer a combination of 7-night, 10-night and 4-night cruises. Sometimes, cruises can be combined to give durations up to 14 nights.
3. Backwater Heritage, Kerala
The journey on this houseboat starts from Kumarakom and will take you to see some majestic side of Kerala while rejoicing some cool breezes. The boat has its own chefs, who will please your hunger with some mouth-licking special sea foods. The best time to relish the backwaters of Kerala is September to March.
4. John’s Boat Tours, Goa
Perfect for couples, John’s Boat house offers a good deal with glimpses of life at Goa. As the boat proceeds, it presents you the outline of little Goan-Portuguese homes and churches, and the culture that attracts almost everyone. Moreover, one can also enjoy the glimpses of dolphins while sailing.
5. Moonshine Houseboat, Srinagar
Situated on Nagin Lake, Moonshine is famous for its traditional look and wood-carved interior. Other than bedrooms, the Moonshine has also dining space, living room and verandah. The boat has its own cook, staffs and caretaker to serve you at their best. You can enjoy a home like stay amidst the paranomic view of ‘Switzerland of India.’
FACTS ABOUT NORTHEAST:
1) Arunachal Pradesh: Receives the first sunlight in India, hence called Land of Rising Sun. Just like sunset in Kanyakumari, Sunrise in Arunachal is wonderful. It shares international borders with China, Bhutan & Myanmar.
2) Assam: It has the largest river island in the world called Majuli. It is home to the largest density of endangered one horn rhino in the world. Also,birthplace of Indian oil industry in Digboi and provides largest tea production in India.
3) Tripura : Most literate state in India beating kerala.
4) Mizoram : Third most literate state in India after Kerala. The only place in India, where the tradition of 'Nghah lou dawr' meaning "Shops without attendants" are common along the highway in selling vegs and fruits.
5) Meghalaya : Have world's highest rainfall in Masynram, Cherrapunji, its beauty is called Scotland of the East. Shillong golflink is the 2nd largest natural golf course in Asia. Shillong - is rock capital of India just like Delhi "National capital" and Mumbai "Economic Capital". Mawlynnong was awarded the cleanest village in Asia.
6) Manipur : It has huge contribution to the nation in sports, produced world champions like M C Mary Kom, and many national players in different sports. Keibul Lamjao National Park - the only floating park in the world.
7) Sikkim : It is blessed with natural beauties all year round with snow peaked mountains and green sceneries. Also, it has the world's highest altitude ATM.
8) Nagaland : Apart from its diverse culture, it has contributed largely in Defence to the Nation. Not to forget, the legendary footballer Dr.Talimeran Ao.
Still many Indians don't know what is Northeast. It's a total failure of our Indian Education system
Company cafeterias and canteens are different all over the world. Some serve good food, or food that's reasonably decent, but most serve food that shouldn't even be called food. However, when it comes to the world's best companies, the cafeteria is important as it's the place where employees go to take a break. So, to ensure that that break is worth everything, these companies serve the best of food, in some of the best of ways. Take a look at the top world companies and what their employees get for lunch!
Google
Google’s cafeteria would put the world’s best cafeteria to shame. It has several sections of various cuisines, fast food, snacks, frozen yogurt and drinks, and there's literally something for everyone!
Image Credit: businessinsider
Image Credit: plus.googleapis
Image Credit: chuansong.me
Image Credit: toutiao
Apple
The dining area at Apple is called Caffe Macs. They serve Mexican, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and French cuisine at lunch. Breakfast consists of French toast, pancakes, juices, ice-cream and other desserts, but the menu keeps changing.
Image Credit: scoledge.wordpress
Image Credit: scoledge.wordpress
Image Credit: newsusatoday
Facebook
Facebook has an Epic Cafe which serves American and Asian cuisines. You can also take a takeout meal for free. The food, for both the employees and the office guests, is for free.
Image Credit: aoweibang
Image Credit: aoweibang
Image Credit: aoweibang
Image Credit: aoweibang
Dropbox
Dropbox, the file hosting service located in San Francisco, California, has a cafeteria called the Tuck Shop. It’s spread across 400 meters and there are chefs who serve you whatever you'd like to have!
Image Credit: glassdoor
Image Credit: dropbox
Image Credit: toutiao
Pixar
Pixar’s cafeteria is called Cafe Luxo and has giant sized statues of Buzz Lightyear and Woody at the entrance. Cafe Luxo looks like a museum and serves a variety of dishes, such as salmon in maple syrup, pasta with tofu, hamburgers, fried ravioli, steaks, burritos, pizza, and all possible kinds of desserts.
Image Credit: newsusatoday
Image Credit: charitybuzz
Image Credit: newsusatoday
Image Credit: newsusatoday
Twitter
The sections and menu at Twitter's cafeteria are named after hashtags such as #comfort food, #tenderloin. The cafeteria is called @birdfeeder.
