A Journey about me!!: June 2006

Indian Traffic

Roomba Technology

The first floor washing robot for the home that preps, washes, scrubs and dries your floor. From the name, I guess nobody can expect it to be a robot. Roomba is the new robot technology introduced by iRobot Corporation into consumer market. It is an intelligent and effective vacuuming robot. All Roomba Vacuuming Robots feature iRobot’s unique AWARE™ Robot Intelligence Systems. AWARE uses dozens of sensors to monitor Roomba’s environment, and adjusts Roomba’s behavior up to 67 times per second, ensuring that Roomba cleans effectively, intelligently and safely. Click here to watch video on how it works.

Mini Cars.

I always have a passion for cars. I am posting some Mini Cars that impressed me.

A new era of shopping!

Until now, if someone is willing to buy a product he/she has to search all the stores known by them to know which store is offering the cheapest price and more over reviews on every product is not available. If you want something you have to be a nerd looking for its information over the web. But now there is this new site named as ShopWiki which is similar to wikipedia in it's name as well as it's function(I guess). ShopWiki is a shopping search engine that indexes retail products from thousands of online merchants. ShopWiki is not a store and does not sell anything. The purpose of the site is to help consumers find the products they are looking for online with ease. ShopWiki actively crawls more than 120,000 stores to ensure you find the best product and price available. However, crawlers periodically scan the Internet, searching more than 300,000 Web sites, to find more stores and to ensure that they only show results from true retail outlets. ShopWiki features consumer-friendly, unbiased search results. The website also provides product reviews and you can also narrow your search by entering your price range in the search query. You have the option of having a price watch on products when you mention you price range. I feel that it is wonderful to have a site like this so that it will save us a lot of time. You can actually find a lot more if you can visit this site.

Log-in & logout time in companies

Note: click on the image to enlarge it.

Quotation of the Day

To all My Friends....

History of Saree.....

A sari (also spelled saree) is the traditional garment worn by many women in the Indian subcontinent. The garment is known by different names in various Indian languages; in Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi, it is known as saadi; in Kannada as seere; in Telugu as sheera and in Tamil as podavai.
The sari is long strip of unstitched cloth, ranging from five to nine yards in length, which can be draped in various styles. The most common style is for the sari to be wrapped around the waist, with one end then draped over the shoulder. The sari is usually worn over a petticoat (called lehenga/ghagra in northern India and pavada/pavadai in the south) and a low-cut, short-sleeved, midriff-baring blouse known in north India as a choli.

Origins And History
The word 'sari' is believed to derive from the Sanskrit word 'sati', which means strip of cloth. This evolved into the Prakrit 'sadi' and the sound later decayed into 'sari'.
Some versions of the history of Indian clothing trace the sari back to the Indus valley civilization, which flourished in 2800-1800 BCE. One ancient statue shows a man in a draped robe which some sari researchers believe to be a precursor of the sari.
Ancient Tamil poetry, such as the Silappadhikaram and the Kadambari by Banabhatta, describes women in exquisite drapery. This drapery is believed to be a sari. In the Natya Shastra (an ancient Indian treatise describing ancient dance and costumes), the navel of the Supreme Being is considered to be the source of life and creativity. Hence the stomach of the dancer is to be left unconcealed, which some take to indicate the wearing of a sari.
Some costume historians believe that the men's dhoti, which is the oldest Indian draped garment, is the forerunner of the sari. They say that until the 14th century, the dhoti was worn by both men and women.
Sculptures from the Gandhara, Mathura and Gupta schools (1st-6th century CE) show goddesses and dancers wearing what appears to be a dhoti wrap, in the "fishtail" version which covers the legs loosely and then flows into a long, decorative drape in front of the legs [1]. No bodices are shown.
Other sources say that everyday costume consisted of a dhoti or lungi (sarong), combined with a breast band and a veil or wrap that could be used to cover the upper body or head. Some argue that the two-piece Kerala mundum neryathum (mundu, a dhoti or sarong, neryath, a shawl, in Malayalam) is a survival of ancient Indian clothing styles, and that the one-piece sari is a modern innovation, created by combining the two pieces of the mundum neryathum.
It is generally accepted that wrapped sari-like garments, shawls, and veils have been worn by Indian women for a long time, and that they have been worn in their current form for hundreds of years.
One point of particular controversy is the history of the choli, or sari blouse, and the petticoat. Some researchers state that these were unknown before the British arrived in India, and that they were introduced to satisfy British ideas of modesty. Previously, women only wore the one, draped cloth and casually exposed the upper body and breasts. Other historians point to much textual and artistic evidence for various forms of breastband and upper-body shawl.
It is possible that the researchers arguing for a recent origin for the choli and the petticoat are extrapolating from South India, where it is indeed documented that in some areas, women wore only the sari and exposed the upper part of the body. Poetic references from works like Shilappadikaram indicate that during the sangam period in ancient South India, a single piece of clothing served as both lower garment and head covering, leaving the bosom and midriff completely uncovered. In Kerala there are many references to women being topless, including many pictures by Raja Ravi Varma. Even today, women in some rural areas do not wear cholis.

Types of Sarees...
Though each region in the Indian subcontinent has developed over the centuries its own unique sari style, the following are the well known varieties, distinct on the basis of fabric, weaving style or motifs:

Bangladeshi Saris
Jamdani
Dhakai
Tangail
Pabna

Indian SarisNorthern styles:
Bandhani – Gujarat and Rajasthan
Chikan – Lucknow
Kota doria – Rajasthan
Banarasi – Benares
Tant
Jamdani
Tanchoi
Shalu
Kantha– West Bengal
Baluchari– West Bengal
Central styles:
Chanderi – Madhya Pradesh
Paithani – Maharashtra
Lugade – Maharashtra
Ikat – Orissa
Southern styles:
Pochampalli – Andhra Pradesh
Venkatagiri – Andhra Pradesh
Gadwal – Andhra Pradesh
Guntur – Andhra Pradesh
Narayanpet – Andhra Pradesh
Mangalagiri – Andhra Pradesh
Balarampuram – Kerala
Coimbatore – Tamil Nadu
Kanjivaram or Kanchipuram – Tamil Nadu
Chettinad – Tamil Nadu
Mysore Silk – Karnataka

Pakistani saris
In Pakistan, the wearing of saris has almost completely been replaced by the Salwar kameez for everyday wear. According to many observers, the sari has lost favour in Pakistan since it is seen as being associated with India. However, the sari is often worn by the elderly, and to formal events.

Sri Lankan saris
Sri Lankan women wear saris in many styles. However, two ways of draping the sari are popular and tend to dominate; the Indian style (classic nivi drape) and the Kandyan style (or 'osaria' in Sinhalese). The Kandyan style is generally more popular in the hill country region of Kandy from which the style gets its name. Though local preferences play a role, most women decide on style depending on personal preference or what is perceived to be most flattering for their body.
Contrast this example of a Kandyan style sari draping with what Sri Lankans refer to as the ' Indian style'. The Indian style generally consists of an uninterruped flow of sari fabric over the stomach and shoulders. The traditional Kandyan (Osaria) style consists of a full jacket, covers the midriff completely, and is partially tucked in at the front as is seen in this 19th century portrait. However, modern intermingling of styles has led to most wearers baring more of the midriff. The final tail of the sari is neatly pleated rather than free-flowing. This is rather similar to the pleated rosette used in the 'Darivian' style noted earier in the article. Here is another example of a Sri Lankan style of draping the sari.