Daughter of Uday Singh,executive engineer, road construction department,Bihar got 46th rank in IAS exam.

ARARIA ,Bihar : Udita Singh, an alumnus of Delhi Public School (DPS), Patna, has secured 46th rank in the UPSC's Civil Services (main) examination-2013. She is the daughter of Uday Singh, presently posted as executive engineer, road construction department, here.

Her family originally hails from Goradih village under Rajaun police station of Banka district in Bihar. But her family presently lives at Ashiana Nagar in the state capital.

Udita completed her matriculation from DPS, Patna with 94% marks in 2004. She did her inter from Kota (Rajasthan) with 88% in 2006, and then joined IIT-Delhi in electrical engineering stream. She completed BTech from there in 2011. Thereafter, she prepared to take the Civil Services examination but could not succeed in her first attempt in 2012. In her second attempt, she secured 46th rank and is sure of getting Indian Administrative Service.

Her mother Sangita Singh is a homemaker and her younger brother Shubham Suday is a medical student. Despite being a student of engineering, she opted for public administration as her main subject, Udita told TOI. She used to study for 15 hours daily.

Udita advised Civil Services aspirants never to adopt shortcut methods, but study with utmost honesty. It is sure to succeed, she added.

source :TOI

Charge d'affaires US embassy Michael Pelletier and Consul General Helen G LaFave, along with officials of the USA consulate, visited Super 30

Deputy chief of mission of US embassy Michael Pelletier and consul general Helen G LaFave being welcomed by founder of Super30, Anand Kumar in Patna on June 17, 2014. (TOI photo by Pramod Sharma)

students during a question and answer session and returned impressed with mathematician Anand Kumar's pioneering initiative and commitment.

"I had heard a lot about Super 30 and so made it a point to be here during my Bihar visit to see it for myself. And indeed, it is more than what I had imagined," said LaFave, adding, "Super 30 was a surprising project for the Americans and that is what had brought him here."

He said it was such individual initiatives that were making a difference in India and such. Endeavours should be recognized and appreciated. "It is surprising because poor boys and girls are preparing for India's elite institutions and making it with unbelievable regularity with their hard work and guidance of Kumar, his team and his family. Kumar's entire family is into it and that is a big thing," he added.

In 2011, US President Barak Obama's special envoy Rashad Hussain had also visited Super 30 and interacted with the students and Kumar. He had described Super 30 as the best school in India. 

After returning, he had also written about Super 30 in his blog quite highly.   

aFave also held an interactive session with the Super 30 students and answered their varied questions, which revolved round the difference in education systems of India and US, opportunities for Indian students in America and how could Indian students go there for higher studies and research.

LaFave was quite open to the. "You all are bright students. Once you clear your B.Tech from IIT, there will be plenty of opportunities for you all. Just like Super 30, in US there is equal opportunity to all, irrespective of any consideration. Only merit counts," he added.

source ?TOI

वट-सावित्री पुजा ( vat-savitri puja ) Tradition, modernity can go together in Indian wedding.

While women gathered near a banyan tree on Boring Canal Road to perform Vat Savitri puja a few days ago and tied the holy thread around the tree, a newlywed young woman who entered the scene with an elderly woman, who appeared to be her mother-in-law, grabbed their eyeballs. She wasn't too pretty to attract attention, rather but it was a tattoo showing from under her bangles that made all other women raise their eyebrows. 

A woman whispered into another ear, "She is too modern. Look, she has her husband's name etched on her right hand." The other retorted, "She is also traditional, as she has put a long mark of vermilion from her nose till the hair parting and her 'Aanchal' too is intact on her head." 

The soft sound of anklets from beneath the pair of denims of young women and the glimpse of sacred janeu thread around the neck of men in their late twenties or early thirties, new age brides and grooms in the city are a blend of both tradition and modernity. They know how to look cool and trendy while not being aloof from their culture. 

Shravan Upadhyay (name changed) fell in love with a girl who was his college mate in Ireland. They got their parents' approval and tied the nuptial knot last year. While Shravan after completing his studies came back to the city a few months ago to help his father in his automobile business, his wife still has a year left there. But the surprising element is that his wife, a Punjabi, is a part-time bartender in one of the clubs there. "It's her part-time job and she has been doing it for the past three years. And now that she is married in a Brahmin family, she has stopped taking alcohol as well as non-vegetarian food," said a proud Shravan. 

When asked if his parents ever expressed their displeasure over her job, he said, "They don't know about it but we will reveal it to them after a while. But I strongly feel to become a good 'bahu', it is not necessary for her to change her calling. Abandoning alcohol and non-veg food was her own choice." 

City's Abhishek and Shivya, who have been married for more than five months and are now based in Australia, say though being miles away from their own people, they do not miss celebrating the festivals popular in their family. "We both wear traditional dresses during festivals and do video chat with family members," Shivya told adding this Vat Savitri Puja, though she could not worship a banyan tree there, she performed the puja at her home and called up her mother-in-law for her blessings. "Even my mom-in-law told me to become a Roman while in Rome. Being traditional does not mean proclaiming the tradition but is about respecting our tradition in our hearts," she said and added, "However modern we become, 'dil' will always remain Hindustani."

source:TOI

Drink sufficiently large quantities of water keep away summer illness.

  

The heat and humidity in the state has led to a spurt in summer illnesses. City hospitals are flooded with patients seeking treatment for heat exhaustion, severe dehydration, unexplained fever and skin ailments such as boils and dermatitis. Doctors advise the general public to remain indoors during daytime and drink plenty of fluids. Juicy fruits are also handy to keep dehydration at bay. 

Eating healthy is important to keep away water and food-borne illnesses such as diarrhoea, typhoid and jaundice. Doctors say drinks prepared by roadside vendors are often unhygienic. The ice used in them might be made of unclean water. 

Doctors also busted the myth that energy drinks can help one reduce dehydration. Any cold drink or energy drink has concentrated sugar. When that goes to body, it may lead to osmotic dehydration, promoting water from a cell to come out to absorb extra sugar. That is the reason one feels thirst after a while after taking such drinks, said Dr Diwakar Tejaswi, adding one might instead take electoral powder. 

He advised one should avoid strenuous work, including exercises, during the warmest part of the day. "Many heat emergencies are experienced by people exercising or working during the day such as sales executives," the doctor said. He said drinking plenty of water can help ward off many heat-related illnesses. 

One should also avoid sudden change in temperature. Doctors say the tendency of people walking straight out of airconditioned rooms and cars into the hot sunshine or gulping cold drinks to beat the heat is harmful. "The best way to identity the symptoms of the sun being harsh on you is looking out for weakness, a dry tongue or cramps in your legs. One should opt for the shade and have lots of liquids," a doctor advised. 

Hypertensive people need some special precaution. President of Bihar chapter of Cardiological Society of India, Dr U C Samal, said the dosage of medicine given to heart patients might need a change due to loss of salt from body during summer. If proper monitoring of medicine is not done, a hypertensive may even suffer kidney shut down. Blood pressure patients also need to manage drug doses during summer as per doctors' advice. 

Sweltering heat can affect the skin, too, if precautions such as wearing of appropriate clothing and application of sunscreen are not taken. "Fungal allergies are also common during summer because of excessive sweating," said Dr Amarkant Jha 'Amar' who advises one should take bath twice a day, wear cotton clothes and use anti-fungal powder. 

Cross-infection from swimming pools is another major problem. Doctors suggest that one should have a good bath after swimming to avoid them.

source :TOI

'Free Wi-Fi Zone of Patna' will appear on the screen. If one clicks on it, another page will appear asking for a user name and mobile number. 10,000 people are logged in at a time

PATNA: If all goes well, a free Wi-Fi zone on the lines of Patna's may be created in all state capitals of the country. Confirming the buzz, Beltron MD Atul Sinha toled that in the last week of May, some senior officials of the communication ministry's telecom department contacted Beltron and asked for details related to the free Wi-Fi zone of Patna. 

On May 26, the officials from the Union ministry of communications and information technology contacted Beltron and asked for information related to expenditure, number of access points and black hole networks of the free Wi-Fi zone of Patna. "The ministry, probably, plans to create such Wi-Fi zone in every state capital of the country," Sinha said adding in Delhi, the plan is in its concept stage and officials are working out the expenditure on creating the Wi-Fi network. This may be an initiative of Union communication minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who belongs to Bihar. 

The 18-km-long Wi-Fi zone, which is the world's longest free Wi-Fi zone, covers a stretch from NIT Patna to Saguna Mor on the western end of Bailey Road. Inaugurated by then Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at a function in February last, one can use the network at a maximum speed of 512 Mbps and currently it has a bandwidth of 20 Mbps. 

"We have a capacity of 1,000 simultaneous users. However, the possibility of 1,000 users at a time is too low as even when 10,000 people are logged in at a time, there can't be 1,000 simultaneous users," said Sinha, explaining simultaneous users are those who type the URL and click enter at a given time, so it is practically impossible to have 1,000 simultaneous users," he said. 

To use the Wi-Fi network, one has to be in the range of the network, which is 300 metres from the arterial roads under the coverage area, with any Wi-Fi enabled phone or a tablet. A tab of 'Free Wi-Fi Zone of Patna' will appear on the screen. If one clicks on it, another page will appear asking for a user name and mobile number. After feeding the info, the mobile number will receive a message giving the password for the user name. With the same user name and password, one can browse the Internet. 

The biggest advantage of such a Wi-Fi network would be free Internet access to those who seldom used Internet and to increase the number of Internet users in the city. "The number of telephone users is too high in our country, but against that number, those using Internet is too less. Even the Union telecom department officials asked about the advantage of such a network and we said, this free service would enable us to increase the number of Internet users in our country," said Sinha. 

Security aspect, too, has been taken care of, as state telecom department is keeping a tab on all the sites people are browsing. No one can browse pornography through this Wi-Fi network as these sites are blocked by the department.

source :TOI