Five food items to gorge on when in Kolkata

India’s lifestyle and culture is known for its pluralism yet there is a striking similarity in the way Indians lead their lives.

Each zone of the country is popular for its distinct food preferences and perhaps that’s what attracts foodies to grab a bite of some of the most delicious food preparations.

If you are in Kolkata, the city of joy, immensely popular for its sweets and fish recipes, then missing out on the following food preparations would be nothing short of committing a sin.

Here are 5 food items you ought to have if you plan a trip to Kolkata:

Puchka:

Puchka is the Bengali version of Mumbai’s Pani Puri and Delhi’s Gol Guppa. Despite the use of similar ingredients, Puchka stands completely in contrast with Pani Puri and Gol Guppa. The tangy Pani of Puchka will revitalize your tastebuds and you wouldn’t mind grabbing a dozen of lip-smacking puchkas.

Jhaal Muri:

Jhaal Muri – made of puffed rice and freshly cut vegetables- Boiled potatoes, boiled yellow peas, tomatoes, onions and cucumbers - is one of the most loved street foods in Kolkata. The essence of mustard oil and ground masalas make this moori irresistibly yummy.

Chowmein:

This Chinese traditional gets a Bengali Twist in Kolkata. The Bengali chowmein, though it tastes a lot different from the authentic Chinese Chowmein, is one of the most popular street foods in Kolkata.

Luchi & Aloo Dum:

Made of all maida, Luchi is another form of Puri. And this is coupled with a delicious Aloo curry called Aloo Dum. This curry is a lot different from the Kashmiri Dum Aloo. You certainly cannot afford to miss this great food combination.

Rasgulla:

If you have a sweet-tooth, then Kolkata is an ideal place for you to visit. Though the state of Bengal is popular for a variety of sweet preparations, Rasgullas top the chart for sure.

Control Your Mind

You can control your mind, when its common sense calmly manages your life. The inherited wisdom of your mind is only restrained by the remnants of an animal heritage of destructive emotions. Focusing the attention of your common sense is the key to taking control of your mind

1. Have a plan for your life. Life is not easy. A range of interpersonal, career and health problems are a fact of life. When setbacks occur, stomach churning emotions give you sleepless nights and affect your health. Such emotions are only suitable for a life in the jungle. Only the focused attention of common sense fits today's more civilized world. Write down your major concerns in life. Prepare a plan to change what you can and to accept the things you cannot change.

2. Continue the planning process every time you feel disturbed by an untoward event.  While you having a plan immediately stills unreasonable fear and anger, problems will reappear in new forms. A few minutes of concentrated attention spent on a plan of action, or acceptance will save you from the modern problems of diabetes, blood pressure and heart attacks.

3.Learn to instantly relax your body and still the initiation of anger, or fear signals. Every day, stressful events as well as poor postures will tighten many of the 640 muscles in your body. Tensed muscles often remain tightened and do not automatically relax. Tightness triggers irritability, which tenses more muscles in a vicious cycle. Focus your common sense on the state of your body to instantly relax your muscles, stifling anger, or despair.

4. Pump your stomach at signs of mild stress: Regardless of a planned approach to life and a relaxed body, traffic snarls and rude colleagues will always be present. Become aware of your stress responses. Expel air by tightening stomach muscles close to the pelvic area. Stomach pumping quiets visceral reactions, spreads adrenaline in the system and subdues tension. The process is aerobic, decreases stress hormones, relieves constricted blood vessels and supports immune activity. A delayed flight will not spoil your day. Your common sense will remain in control.

5

Learn breathing exercises: Conscious breathing has a stilling effect on emotions.

6.Focus the attention of your common sense on your thoughts, whenever you have free time: People have many habitual streams of thought. With practice, self awareness will make such thoughts as familiar as friends. With the attention of your common sense, the more negative thoughts will suddenly appear to be childish or irrelevant. The generated emotions will not be able to transport you into anger, fear or despair. This process is also called mindfulness meditation.

7.Allow positive feelings to invade your mind: You cannot enjoy the beauty of a flower when you feel awful, but a plan for life, a relaxed body and continuing self awareness will rid the negative emotions from your mind. A mind that is free will naturally appreciate the beauty of life. When you feel good, it is easy to feel friendly and affectionate towards people. People respond back to your good feelings. When you feel good, your common sense will control your life. And when you feel bad, you will receive bad responses from your surrounding environment.

8.Keep faith in yourself that you will be able to tackle any problem: Make sure that you're using positive thinking to face your problem. Don't let your problem interfere your mind, so you can solve your problem clearly.

9.See good sights and hear good music, because you are what you think: This step will stimulate your brain to be positive thinking. For example: if you're listening to slow music while doing some tasks, you may be able to concentrate more on completing your tasks. And if you see something in front of you, it indirectly stimulates your brain to be positive as you think.

10. DON'T HOLD YOUR HEAD LIKE THIS IN YOUR LIFE OTHER WISE YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO DO ANYTHING IN YOUR LIFE  

12 inspirational quotes that will change your life

Margaret Thatcher

Quote: "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” 

Steve Jobs

Quote: "The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

                                     Audrey Hepburn

 Quote: "Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, 'I’m possible!' ” 

                                            Dalai Lama

Quote: "Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions."

                                                             Cate Blanchett

Quote: “If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously.”

                               Drew Barrymore

Quote: "Life is very interesting… in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.” 

                                             Bruce Lee
Quote: “If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”

                            Sylvester Stallone

Quote: “I believe there’s an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts.” 

                            Jennifer Aniston

Quote: “There are no regrets in life. Just lessons.”

Barack Obama

Quote: “Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.” 

               Muhammad Ali

Quote: "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'!"

          EllenDeGeneres

Quote: "Find out who you are and be that person. That's what your soul was put on this Earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth and everything else will come."

 

19 Facts You May Not Have Known About Amazon.com

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), now a $331 billion online powerhouse, is one of the most successful companies of the past several decades, and shares have multiplied an astounding 710 times since the company went public in 1997. Here are 19 other facts you may not have known about the e-commerce darling.

1. Amazon could very well be in the early innings of its growth potential. Consider: U.S. e-commerce sales now account for only 7.4% of total retail sales, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This percentage has steadily marched upward since 2006, when online sales accounted for 2.8% of total retail sales:

E-commerce sales as a percentage of total retail sales. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

2. One in every 10 Americans -- 10.7% of the population, to be exact -- has an Amazon Prime membership. What's more astounding is that Prime subscribers spend an average of $1,200 annually, compared with $700 for non-subscribers, according to GeekWire.

3. Prime Now, the company's on-call local delivery service, will probably push e-commerce sales further as the service expands. Keep in mind that Prime Now is available in only 20 metro areas right now -- but that's up from zero just over one year ago.

4. Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson recently told us about the company's drone program, which aims to deliver items in 30 minutes.

5. Amazon's fastest order delivered to date was a four-pack of Starbucks vanilla Frappuccino to a customer in Miami. The delivery was made in under 10 minutes.

6. Amazon owns the patent on any one-click online checkout process. Other companies wanting to offer one-click checkout must license the patent from Amazon. (However, Amazon's patent on the technology will disappear in 2017.)

7. Amazon built a completely separate $6 billion-revenue business in under a decade. Amazon's cloud-division revenue is now bigger than that of its four nearest competitors combined. In fact, Amazon finally pulled back the curtain on Amazon Web Services, or AWS, revealing that it generated $1.57 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter. Some estimates have pegged AWS's value at up to $50 billion.

8. Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google went on record claiming that Amazon is its biggest competitor in search advertising. In fact, Amazon's secretive engineering lab in Palo Alto, Calif., called A9, was originally built to unseat Google in search advertising. Fast-forward to today, and the lab is still relatively secretive and has advanced Amazon's product search and advertising technology.

9. Amazon and Google have been engaged in an engineer talent war for years. The most publicized engineer to leave Amazon was Udi Manber, whom Google poached from A9 to lead its bread-and-butter search advertising business.

10. Jeff Bezos scored early investments in some of the biggest era-defining tech trends, including Twitter, AirBNB, and Uber. His net worth may also be a few billion dollars higher than what's been reported in the media. In 1998, Bezos cut Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin a $250,000 check to fund their start-up. It's estimated his cost basis in Google stock is anywhere from $0.04 to $0.06 per share. Unfortunately for curious outsiders, Bezos hasn't commented on whether he still owns shares.

11. Before founding Amazon, Bezos was a computer scientist at hedge-fund titan D.E. Shaw, which has amassed $30 billion in assets under management.

12. Amazon-owned shoe retailer Zappos is a pioneer in corporate culture. The company recently underwent a massive shift by implementing what it calls "holocracy" -- an on-the-fringes culture and organizational structure in which hierarchy is nonexistent. Zappos offered employees a three-month severance if they didn't believe in the approach and desired to leave, and 14% of the workforce did just that.

13. Speaking of Zappos, Amazon strong-armed it into being bought out. Zappos rebuffed Amazon's first acquisition offer, but Bezos didn't relent. He next built a website called Endless.com that specialized in selling shoes while undercutting Zappos on price. While Zappos' sales continued to skyrocket, the company hit a rough patch in 2008 after overextending itself with inventory purchases. That was the point at which conversations between the two companies changed, and Zappos soon agreed to be bought out for $850 million.

14. Amazon is so reliant on robots for order fulfillment that it purchased robotics and automation provider Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012. As of early 2015, Amazon employed a fleet of 15,000 robots.

15. Pause for one second. Amazon just shipped 35 items in that time frame.

Amazon fulfillment center. Image source: Álvaro Ibáñez. Re-published under CC BY 2.0.

16. The company's fulfillment process has become so efficient that company executives believe it can ship up to 1.5 million items per day from just one fulfillment center .

17. Amazon isn't shy about its desire to squeeze out its shipping partners. Negotiations between its delivery and distribution partners have been fierce at times, and Amazon is slowly moving to take over shipping operations where possible. The company just purchased a fleet of trailers to move freight between fulfillment centers and is even in negotiations with Boeing to lease up to 20 767s.

18. Amazon is relentless in everything it does. Whether it's efficiency, undercutting competitors on price, or its frenetic work environment that has taken some knocks in the media, the company always has the pedal pushed to the floor. Actually, type www.relentless.com into your Web browser and see the result.

19. Amazon is well known for its low margins and meager cash flow. You might be surprised to hear that the company's actual cash flow is much lower than reported in financial statements. Chalk it up to (legal) accounting chicanery that determines when cash flows are recognized. For those wanting an accounting lesson on how this is possible, read this article from fellow Fool Timothy Green.

Google Is Afraid of Facebook's Search Ambitions

CIVIL WAR BETWEEN GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK

Image source: Robert Scoble.

The mobile Internet experience is vastly different from accessing the web on a desktop computer. People use apps instead of a browser, and that means the companies that own the most popular apps are at a significant advantage. According to Nielsen, Facebook(NASDAQ: FB) and Google own all eight of the most popular apps in the United States. But Facebook likely dominates total engagement compared to the Alphabet(NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) company. Facebook management says its apps account for 20% of time spent on mobile.

Now, Facebook is encroaching on Google's territory, offering improved search functionality in its flagship app, and experimenting with search in Messenger, which has 700 million global users. Google is reportedly responding to Facebook's efforts with a messaging app of its own featuring a chat-powered search engine.

Can Google stop Facebook?

Google's planned mobile messaging app sounds like a direct response to Facebook's M. M is an AI-powered virtual assistant that can do anything from answer simple search queries to book travel accommodations. It's still limited to select users in the Bay area, but it represents yet another example of using Messenger as a platform.

As M rolls out to more users, Google could find itself losing out on search queries. The planned messaging app is aimed to prevent such an occurrence. But Google is missing out on the step that enabled Facebook to threaten Google's cash cow in the first place.

Google needs to build a network. People use a messaging app because all of their friends already use it. The network effect is quite apparent in the regional dominance of chat apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, Line, and KakaoTalk.

Building a messaging service around several AI-powered chatbots is unlikely to draw the critical mass necessary to make a messaging app succeed. Google has failed to properly grow social networks in the past (see Google+), and its existing messaging apps, Hangouts and Messenger, have failed to attract a significant audience. Adding chatbots that answer simple searches won't change that.

 What Google could do instead

Google is certainly capable of rivaling Facebook when it comes to artificial intelligence. Last year, Google hired Geoffrey Hinton, one of the world's foremost researchers of deep learning neural networks, to help it design new AI algorithms. The move came just after Facebook hired NYU professor Yann LeCun to head up its AI research lab.

But, as mentioned, Google is missing the network. So, why not launch a chatbot on Facebook's platform? Facebook opened Messenger to third-party developers in March, enabling users to insert pictures, videos, and other media from other apps. Google could develop its AI-powered chatbot for Messenger.

Google has had no qualms developing software for platforms owned by competitors. It has dozens of apps for iOS, for example. But developing for Facebook's platform might not be in Google's best interest, as it cedes control and provides data to a company that uses the same monetization model as itself. Thus, Google is left to its own devices to create an app that people will use -- and use to search.

Mobile search growth

Earlier this year, Google announced it receives more searches on smartphones than it does on desktops. To be sure, the number of queries on mobile devices continues to rise, and those queries are largely Google's to lose. Facebook's M and its flagship app's search capabilities represent real threats, but development remains slow and limited. Google has time to figure out how to compete with Facebook to maintain its share of the mobile search market as it continues to grow.

The Best CEOs of 2015

Outstanding leadership is an often overlooked and undervalued driver of a business' competitive advantage. And with the pace of technological innovation accelerating, excellent leadership should only grow in importance in the years ahead. With that in mind, here are three CEOs who positioned their companies to win in 2015 -- and beyond.

Image source: Amazon.com.
1. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos has been the guiding force behind Amazon.com's (NASDAQ: AMZN) amazing ascent since he founded the company in 1994. After articulating his vision in his 1997 letter to Amazon shareholders, Bezos has remained steadfast in his long-term focus. Ever willing to sacrifice near-term profits to strengthen Amazon's competitive positioning, Bezos and his team have built a juggernaut that should continue to take share in the global retail arena for many years to come.

The e-commerce behemoth dominates online retail in the U.S and, increasingly, many other areas of the world. Its massive global distribution system, fast-growing Prime membership program, and army of third-party sellers combine to form a value proposition -- based on an unmatched selection of goods, low prices, and convenient shopping experience -- that rival retailers can't match.

Incredibly, Amazon's impressive retail operations may not be the most exciting part of its business. Amazon Web Services is quickly becoming the dominant force in cloud computing and a valuable driver of growth, with AWS revenue and operating income surging 78% and 431%, respectively, in the third quarter. Even better, Amazon executives believe that AWS can ultimately rival Amazon's retail business in size and scope.

While investors have come to respect Amazon's success, with the stock now trading near all-time highs after more than doubling in 2015, Amazon is yet to unveil its full earnings power as the company continues to invest heavily in its infrastructure and new business lines. That leaves plenty of long-term profits still to come for Amazon -- and its shareholders.

2. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Image source: Facebook.

Like Amazon in online retail, Facebook(NASDAQ: FB) has established itself as the dominant force in social media. With a platform that's used by more than a billion people on a daily basis, Facebook's reach is staggering.

The social-media giant is proving increasingly adept at monetizing its massive user base, with revenue rising 41% year over year to $4.5 billion in the third quarter. Impressively, Facebook's advertising revenue leapt 45% even as it reduced ad impressions by 10%, as Facebook enjoyed an increase of 61% in the average price of its ads. As Facebook works to improve its targeting capabilities to deliver more value to advertisers, it should continue to enjoy strong pricing power along with further gains in revenue and profits. Investors have begun to take notice, with shares soaring 35% so far in 2015.

Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 and is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. He leads the design of Facebook's service and development of its core technology and infrastructure. He's also proven to be quite the visionary as a capital allocator, as demonstrated by his $1 billion acquisition of the fast-growing Instagram photo-sharing network in 2012, which analysts now value as high as $37 billion.

More recent investments such as Facebook's $19 billion purchase of messaging app WhatsApp and $2 billion purchase of virtual technology company Oculus have yet to pay such impressive dividends. But based on Zuckerberg's success with Instagram, investors may wish to remain patient as Facebook unveils its monetization plans for these fast-growing properties.

3. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings

Image source: Netflix.

While far smaller than Amazon and Facebook, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is quickly becoming a global media powerhouse, with the online streaming pioneer projecting that its distribution network will span nearly every country on earth by the end of 2016. 

The company that CEO Reed Hastings founded in 1997 as a DVD-rental-by-mail firm has grown into the leading Internet TV network. But in addition to being an aggregator and distributor of licensed content, Netflix has also become an award-winning creator of original content, garnering 34 Emmy nominations across 11 of its original programs and winning four in 2015. That strong performance combined with a renewed appreciation for Netflix's accelerated international expansion plans and forecast of "material global profits" profits beginning in 2017 has led Netflix's shares to more than double so far in 2015.

Hastings and his team have built a formidable competitive moat around Netflix, with its global content distribution system, popular original programming, and valuable data-collection cycle that allows it to effectively invest in shows with a high likelihood of success among its customers. As such, I expect Netflix to remain the primary beneficiary of the cord-cutting phenomenon, with the company -- and its shareholders -- poised to profit handsomely from the growth of Internet TV in the years ahead.

After Months Of Neglect, Government To Build Memorial For Former President Kalam

Five months after the death of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, work on his memorial is about to begin at the Pei Karumbu burial ground near his hometown Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu.

This is after Mr Kalam's family raised concerns and pictures of dogs roaming the burial site flooded social media. The delay over beginning construction at the site, and the state and the Centre blaming each other for it only compounded the allegations of neglect. 

Sources told NDTV, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) - which Mr Kalam headed once - will pay for constructing the memorial. It has also sent a team of officials to the site. "We will, however, start constructing the boundary wall to maintain the sanctity of the spot, a senior DRDO official told NDTV and added that guards have already been posted.

While officials in Delhi said land hasn't yet been transferred, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha said her government had already "transferred the required land to the Central Government." The empowered committee headed by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, set-up to decide on the memorial, has written to the state government asking for another two acres of land. The current site is 1.5 acres.  

Also, sources said that Centre has started looking out for an architect to design a memorial suitable for Mr Kalam's image of being people's president - an epithet he earned as president. Apart from the memorial in Rameshwaram, the Centre is also planning to build a memorial at the DRDO complex in New Delhi.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Biography

Engineer, Scientist, President (non-U.S.) (1931–2015)

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is an Indian scientist and politician who served his country as president from 2002 to 2007.

Synopsis
Born in 1931 in Dhanushkodi, India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam joined India's defense department after graduating from the Madras Institute of Technology. He was a central figure in the development of the country's nuclear capabilities, and was hailed as a national hero after a series of successful tests in 1998. Kalam served as India's president for one term, and died of a heart attack on July 27, 2015.

Early Years

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born into a Muslim family on October 15, 1931, on the island of Dhanushkodi off the southeastern coast of India. He developed an early fascination with flight by watching birds, which developed into an interest in aeronautics after he saw a newspaper article about a British fighter plane. 

Despite his modest beginnings – his dad built and rented boats – Kalam was a bright student who showed promise in science and mathematics. He attended St. Joseph's College, and went on to earn a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology. 

Rise to the Presidency 

His hopes of becoming a fighter pilot was dashed when he narrowly missed out on a spot with the Indian Air Force. Kalam instead joined the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as a senior scientific assistant in 1958. After moving to the newly formed Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in 1969, he was named project director of the SLV-III, the first satellite launch vehicle designed and produced on Indian soil.

Returning to the DRDO as director in 1982, Kalam implemented the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. He then became the senior scientific adviser to India's defense minister in 1992, a position he used to campaign for the development of nuclear tests. 

Kalam was a key figure in the May 1998 Pokhran-II tests, in which five nuclear devices were detonated in the Rajasthan Desert. Although the tests resulted in condemnation and economic sanctions from other world powers, Kalam was hailed as a national hero for his stanch defense of the country’s security. 

In 2002, India's ruling National Democratic Alliance helped Kalam win an election against Lakshmi Sahgal and become India's 11th president, a largely ceremonial post. Known as the People's President, Kalam set a goal of conducting 500,000 one-on-one meetings with young people over the course of his five-year term. His immense popularity led to him being nominated by MTV for a Youth Icon of the Year award in 2003 and 2006. 

After leaving office in 2007, Kalam became a visiting professor at several universities. He formed the "What Can I Give Movement" in 2011 with the goal of creating a compassionate society, and in 2012, his efforts to improve healthcare led to the release of a tablet for medical personnel to use in remote areas. 

Death and Legacy 

On July 27, 2015, Kalam suffered a massive heart attack while lecturing at the Indian Institute of Management and subsequently died at the age of 83. 

Kalam was laid to rest on July 30 with full state honors in his native Tamil Nadu. In honor of the scientist and former president, the southeast Indian state government of Tamil Nadu created a "Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award," which recognizes exceptional individuals who promote the sciences, students and humanities. The government has also established Kalam's birthday (October 15) as "Youth Renaissance Day." Discussion about building a large-scale memorial at his burial site is underway. 

Among his many accolades, including honorary doctorates from 40 universities, he was granted the Padma Bhushan (1981), the Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the Bharat Ratna (1997) — India's highest civilian awards — for his contributions in modernizing government defense technology. He also wrote several books, including the autobiography Wings of Fire in 1999.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam QUOTATION