Serampore Social Network

Network Update

2009-04-30T07:44:00.004+05:30

Hot Summer Update — Coming Soon!

We are always busy ... trying to give our members more convinience and more option to express themselves through our platform. After quite a days of inactivity to our members, we thought it wight be a good way to give them a surprise that they deserve.

On this updated, we will roll-out spectacular features and navigation for the members that they have never ever experienced on a social network before.

We are putting together entertainment and mass-communication together.

So, if your summer holidays are on and it makes you feel bored. Then register to social network and show off your talent to the rest of the worl.
You can not just write blogs, forum-threads ... You can broadcast your songs and performances on our platform as well.
So, c'mon ... express yourself ...

If you have suggestions, please add them as a thread under 'Network Suggestions' forum-topic.
If you would like to get in touch with us personally, kindly click on the 'Contact' page on the navigation-bar, below the header-image.

Serampore - Interacting People and Different Cultures

2009-03-11T19:42:00.001+05:30

This is a roof, under which people can have a better and healthy interaction.Our motto is to make people believe that the country-lines on the maps are just imaginary. Living in the ages of Net2.0, geographical distance is so not a bar if the desire to have a better interaction is high by sharing facts about one's culture and acknowledge others'.

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The Golden Goose— a Fairy Tale

2009-03-03T16:23:00.002+05:30

The Golden Goose— a Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there lived a queen in the city of Benaras. Her name was Khema and she was the wife of King Bahuputtaka, which means 'father of many sons'. One night, the Queen had a dream of a beautiful golden goose that spoke with great wisdom, almost as if he was a sage. She told her husband that she desperately wanted to see a bird just like the one that she had seen in her dream. So the King asked his ministers to find out all that they could about a bird such as this. He was told that such a bird did exist but was extremely rare and difficult to find. They advised him to build a beautiful lake on the outskirts of Benaras so that he may attract such rare and lovely creatures to reside there. In this way the queen might have her wish.
Towards the north, on Mount Cittakuta, there lived about ninety thousand wild geese headed by a beautiful golden goose called King Dhatarattha. He got to hear of this exquisite lake that was surrounded by flowers and trees and had lovely water lilies and lotuses floating on the surface. The king had named this lake after his wife Khema and had invited all the birds to come and live on it, promising that none of them would ever be harmed. Corn was scattered on a daily basis in order to attract the birds.

Continue Reading ...

আমি

2009-03-03T16:18:00.004+05:30

আমি
বাঁচার আভাস টুকু দেখতে পাই, দূরের নীলিমার মত,
স্বপ্নে দৌড়োই আমি।

তীব্র আনন্দ বুকে
ফণী মনসার ঝোপ পেরিয়ে, অনায়াসে।

বাতাসের কু ঝিক ঝিক
জানালার দুপাশে সরে যায়
সারি সারি মেঘের আড়ালে।
কলতান আমি!

Mirror that Gives a True Reflection

2009-03-02T17:01:00.000+05:30

Mirror that Gives a True Reflection

An inventor has designed the first mirror which gives a true reflection – and not a mirror image. Andrew Hicks' creation has several tiny curves and bends in different directions which flip a mirror image back the right way.

Text can be viewed from left to right and, if you raise a hand while looking in the mirror, your reflection appears to be raising the opposite.

Mr Hicks, a mathematician at Drexel University in Philadelphia, used computer algorithms to find the dimensions and angles need to make his invention work.

The 42-year-old has spent years creating different mirrors and has also made ones which eliminate distortion or give wide angle views.

The reflection we see in a conventional mirror is shifted from left to right, so text appears back to front.

Normal mirrors simply bounce light from an object back to the viewer.

The unique shape of Mr Hicks' design directs light from an object, across the mirror face and back to the viewer, which flips the mirror image.

Note: New Chat

2009-02-27T16:43:00.002+05:30

New Chat

Today morning, the long awaited new chat-feature has finally launched for Serampore Social Network.
New Chat Features We’ve retained all the great features you have on chat today, such as private chats, and are adding the following new features in this next version:

* Chat will be persistent on every page of your social network. With this new release, chat will become a bar across the bottom of every page of your social network (see screenshots after the jump). It will start in “bar mode” and will expand into “window mode”. It will have a simple, consistent look across the social networks. However, each chat will be unique to each social network.

* You will be able to pop chat out of your network and keep it open as its own window. This is something many of you asked for and we’re happy to provide it in this next version.

* Sound notifications when messages are received. Notifications start OFF by default, but can be turned on through the options menu.

* Members will appear online more accurately. Because chat is now persistent across all pages on your social network, members will be displayed as online more accurately. However, there will still be the option for a member to make themselves invisible, if they choose.

* Reconnections will be more graceful. When a connection to the server is lost for some reason, chat will attempt to reconnect gracefully without requiring a page refresh, and if possible without affecting the member. There will be no more need to reload the page entirely and lose all your messages.

* Chat will now load the entire scrollable list of people online. No more clicking on ‘More’!. As a result, search will now be faster too.

* Better support for firewalls. This new version uses only port 80, the standard HTTP port.

* There will be local message history. Your chat client will now remember the last ten messages sent and allows to look at them by pressing Ctrl+UP and Ctrl+DOWN (arrow keys).

* Chat will now be in Flash. This means that you need to have a minimum of Flash 9 on your computer. You likely already have Flash 9 and, if not, we’ll have instructions for how to add it.

This new version also puts us on the path to release language customization in early March. Specifically, you’ll now be able to customize your chat from the Language Editor and support multiples languages.

Start Chatting:

Type your text and hit ENTER:

Hover on any member-avatar and have options like 'Private Chat' and 'View Profile'

Minimize Chat

Pop-Out Chat

Caste System in Bengal

2009-02-26T16:30:00.004+05:30

Caste System in Bengal

Even though formally there are four castes in Hinduism: brahmins, ksatriyas, vaishyas and shudras, the social reality is very different in different parts of India. The social rules enjoined by the religions also differ in different regions. In Bengal, much of the development of the first distinct Bengali Hinduism took place during the rule of the sena and barman kings: and is described in the writings of bhavadeva, aniruddhabhaTTa, vallAlasena, lakSmaNasena, guNaviSNu, halAYudha etc, as well as in the bRhaddharma and brahmavaivarta purANas. To a large extent, they codified, formalized and made immutable some of the existing social structure, as well as making it very much more rigid. In fact according to traditional stories, which however are not history, brahmins originated in bengal during this time. The society described therein does not contain (though they still appear in origin myths) any kSatriYas or vaishyas except when some of the rulers are referred to as kSatriYas and today most of the people who call themselves kSatriYas have variations of varman or malla as their surname; and some jewellers claim descent from the vaishyas. The brahmins were divided geographically into rADh.I and bArendrI with a variety of village associations, but according to aniruddha had forgotten their vedic tradition. The rADH.Is are divided into kulInas and ...

INSPIRATIONAL - 5

2009-02-26T16:28:00.003+05:30

INSPIRATIONAL - 5

Most Important Lesson

During my second semister exam at FTII, Pune , our professor gave us a pop
quiz.

I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one:

"What is the name of the servant woman who cleans the college toilet?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

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আমার একুশ

2009-02-26T16:18:00.002+05:30

আমার একুশ

এই কবিতাটা প্রকাশ করার আগে কিছু প্রাগকথন আছে। আমাদের আড্ডাটা বুড়োদের।অগ্রজপ্রতিম, প্রাক্তন সহকর্মী শ্রী কুমার সোমেন কাশ্যপ (আসল নামটা ক্রমশ প্রকাশিতব্য),কবি মানুষ। শ্রী বুকি ঘোষ মোহিতোষ, তিনিও একজন কবি। মধ্যে আমি বক! ২১ শে ফেব্রুয়ারীর দিন আলোচনা হতে, এই কবিতাটি কুমার সোমেন কাশ্যপ লিখে ফেলেন। তাঁর অনুমতি না নিয়েই কবিতাটি প্রকাশ করলাম। গুণী পাঠক নিজগুনে ক্ষমা করবেন।

একুশ আমার ঘরে, একুশ পাড়ার মোড়ে,
আকাশে বাতাসে ধ্বনিত একুশ
একুশ বিশ্বজুড়ে।

একুশ মায়ের গর্ভে, একুশ শিরায় শিরায়
শিশুর মুখের প্রথম একুশ
একুশ হৃদয় জুড়ায়।

একুশে স্বপ্ন দেখি, একুশ বাঁধন ছেঁড়া ...

Continue Reading ...

The Saraswati River (Now Lost) : Where lies the mystery?

2009-02-25T16:37:00.001+05:30

The Saraswati River (Now Lost) : Where lies the mystery?
We have read much about the river Saraswati. I have tried different sources to find out, why the said river is lost?
I owe to GIS DEVELOPMENT for this post.

The mythological river Saraswati (named after the Goddess Saraswati), flowed in Northern India in the present Punjab and Rajasthan region, from the Himalayas to the western sea near Dwaraka in Gujarat. The vedas were composed mostly on her banks. The Rig Veda describes this river as the holiest, the purest and the grandest of rivers. The river has long since dried out because it flowed from the receding glaciers of the great ice age 10,000 years ago. The land between the rivers Saraswati and Dristhadvathi (near the present day Kurukshetra) was called the Saraswat Desh which was the homeland of Saraswats who are considered the fore-fathers of Saraswats of Goa, Kanara and Kerala. There is a strong belief that in Prayag, Allahabad, flowing under-ground Saraswati joins Ganga and Yamuna to form the Triveni sangam. It is also believed that the river changed its course over the centuries. A part of this mighty river became the small river Ghaggar and one of the tributaries of the Saraswati became the Sutlej, now a tributary of the Indus. Today's scientific evidences have proven the existence of the Saraswati river.
Countinue Reading ...

AMAR EKUSHE ( THE IMMORTAL 21st)

2009-02-25T16:34:00.002+05:30

AMAR EKUSHE ( THE IMMORTAL 21st)
The guns were fired in Dhaka city, but the first poem about February 21 was written in Chittagong. It was written by Mahbub-ul-Alam Chowdhury, chief co-ordinator of the all-party alliance for Bangla language in Chittagong. On the eve of February 21,(1952) he was afflicted with Chicken pox. He could not attend the processions in Dhaka. When he heard about the Pakistani rulers firing guns over students in procession, Mahbub-ul-Alam, in high fever and unable to write asked his friend Nani Dhar to write the poem on his behalf. That evening Khandaker Mohammad Ilias, a central leader who came from Dhaka to co-ordinate the protest in Chittagong came to visit Mahbub-ul-Alam. He decided that the poem needs to be published as soon as possible. It was printed at Kohinoor Press in Andarkilla, Chittagong. Later it was recited for the first time in the public gathering for protesting the February 21 killings in Laldighi Maidan, Chittagong. While Harunur Rashid was reciting the poem, Muslim League leader Fazlul Kader Chowdhury ordered him to stop. But it was finished at the urge of the people present.
Pakistani rulers banned the poem and issued a warant against Mahbub-ul-Alam Chowdhury. He managed to flee away wearing a women's Burka in a dramatic fashion and remained underground for about 9 months. The poem's manuscript was hidden in his house. During the 1971 war, his house was set on fire and the manuscript was therefore destroyed ...
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Around the World with Different Beats

2009-02-25T16:32:00.001+05:30

Around the World with Different Beats

It is good news for percussion-lovers who will get to experience a series of world class drum beats. Tabla maestro Bikram Ghosh and Pete Lockett of Hollywood fame have released their maiden duet album, Kingdom of Rhythm. This album stands out for the variety of instruments used. “The drums used in the album are from across the world – Japan, Latin America, Africa and typical Indian instruments – which includes the ghatam, kanjira and tabla,” said Lockett who was in Chennai. Their idea of coming up with an album was just by chance and one can sense a lot of creativity when you hear it. Lockett recalls, “Both of us were performing in Kolkata for the last two years and eventually we planned to make an album of all our compositions. Over the period, we continuously worked to perfect it and at the same time tried to make it as innovative as possible."
"It was a big challenge as we were not only editing and mixing our music but the album was made in San Francisco, London and India. One of our tracks also has the sound of cheeks of Ghosh and utensils from his kitchen. Ghatam Suresh and bass star Kai Eckhardt of John Mclaughlin fame have played for one of our tracks.”

Inogauratory Post on Serampore Blog

2009-02-25T01:43:00.002+05:30

Hello, this is our very first post on this blog. From now, recent Site-Update and Future-Releases will be posted here as well.

The reason of creating this blog was to give a quick-view to the people, who have not yet been a part of Serampore Social Network and also, to get the posts by the members of the network be easily optimized by the search-engines.

Those who do not know about Serampore Social Network are to be told that it is a social network like Orkut, FaceBook, MySpace, etc. powered by Ning.

Serampore Social Network is a roof, under which people can have a better and healthy interaction.

Our motto is to make people believe that the country-lines on the maps are just imaginary. Living in the ages of Net2.0, geographical distance is so not a bar if the desires are high.

Using our Blog, people can share facts about their culture in a much convenient way. We always encourage blogging and try to make sure that every single one is 'shared' with others and maximum number of members get to know about your post and comment on it.

And, we have plans that in a very near future, we will publish a web-magazine, consisting of the posts by the members, as well as writings of some renowned people.

Soon, we will in contact with several schools and other organisation and form a GLOBAL UNITY.

Serampore Social Network is based on four words-- LOVE, UNITY, ACCEPTANCE and TOLERANCE.

We welcome all the people who would be interested in this mission of ours.

Now that you are here, hope, you will be interested to join the original network to read the full versions of the posts.