A great free library online.

ReadPrint is a virtual library. You can choose from about 8000 books and read it online for free.

Sure, the database of 8000 books contain some of our all time favorite authors like
Agatha Christie and Charles Dickens. Oh, yes, my favorite author O.Henry us also listed.

Easy search function enable you to search the books by title and author too. The reading was easy for me with black fonts on a white background. In spite of the huge database, the site loads pretty fast.

Read Print is fantastic resource for students and teachers.

Green ideas? Ask me!

If green is:

*Recycling paper

* Reusing usable materials

*Re-gifting

*Repeated TV shows

Then, digging up one of your old blog entries (two years old minimum) and publishing it again can also be green! Just kidding.

Of late, I am reading, rather looking at headlines that scream at me to save the earth by reducing carbon foot prints. I feel guilty at times because I am still forced to buy new clothes every two years or so and still forced to use the air-conditioner for 10 hours a day.

BTW, buying hand made items-will that be considered as going green or environmentally friendly?

Writing more than three blog posts per week-is that ok with you world worriers?

ps: Incidentally, this blog entry is very green.

Finest marketplace for prizes and awards.

I did not realize the time elapsed since I had chat with my sister's daughter living in Virginia. It must have been a few months. During this time, she had brought home several sports trophies and neatly arranged them in a glass covered shelf on her bedroom.

She is only 10 years old, a private girl of steely determinations. She does not need her parents prodding to excel in her studies and extracurricular activities. Her cute face filled the frames of the video chat box that was quickly replaced with her proud awards in the form of trophies, printed sports jackets, certificates and so on.

A cheerleader’s trophy (see image) was looking absolutely magnificent. I thought I had seen a replica of it somewhere online.

Yes, I remembered. It is the biggest online store (awardsforanything.com) that sells awards of every kind that includes sports trophies, plaques, metals, memorabilia made of marbles etc.

Things that hurt me recently.

I pride myself as a cool person. I don't allow myself to get hurt but then... I also allow exceptions involuntarily.

Sailing in the same boat-eh?

Events, news that hurt me recently:
* Shaid Afridi's unnecessary remarks on India. Would he have said all that had he won?
* CSK's defeat against Punjab team in spite of scoring big. What a poor bowling by Aswin and Morkel!
* I expected a very big support for Anna Hazare. The world media covered but the Indian media was partial according to me.
*Athlete Sonu Sinha's loss of leg
* The arrest of a few Pakistanis by the Pakistan Government for cheering Indian cricket team during the World Cup semi final at Mohali

Oh, I counted 4 more points. However, let me stop now.

Ran out of fuel on the highway?

Yesterday, my son spoke to more than 25 minutes about how Norwegian people are kind and ready to help anyone who is stranded on the middle of a highway.

As many as 5 cars approached a truck that broke down and there was only the driver. In India, the driver always takes a cleaner with him as a handyman.

My son was in one of the 5 cars that volunteered to help out. He took the opportunity to tell his Norwegian colleagues about America’s number one breakdown service provider who acts as a God to stranded vehicles such as cars, trucks and motor homes.

Not only this emergency roadside assistance safely tows the broke down vehicle to the nearest service center irrespective of the distance but also offers help to vehicles who have run out of gas!

When he told his Norwegian colleagues that Good Samers even sends a locksmith if you got yourself locked in the car, they stared at him with their moths and eyes wide open.

I think he planted a business idea in their minds.

Sound frequencies that induce sleep.

Sound sleep or deep sleep-why it is not consistent for us? I believe none is spared irrespective of financial status, religion, creed and what not!

This is one area it seems we have no control because of our life pattern, our negative emotions, food timings and so on. The blissful sleep solely depends on how we have spent the entire day.

The sound engineers and mind power experts have been experimenting on various sound frequencies that induce sleep artificially for us. Delta frequency can induce sleep is their final conclusion. That was a few years ago.

Later, they have discovered low Delta frequencies that guarantee deep sleep. This is now recoded in mild musical beats and sold as CDs.

I got one complimentary copy of the Binaural Beats and I tried it. Yes, it worked better than a sleeping pill.

What are unpopped kernels known as?

As we sat down-there were 5 of us to watch the final between India and Sri Lanka world cup cricket match, I distributed a bowl of freshly made, butter flavored popcorn to all after assuring them I will get them more as the match gets heated up.

This cheered them up instantly. My husband, as ever started showing off his general knowledge by throwing a question as to why every movie theaters sold popcorn. As usual, he didn't wait for an answer. He told us that movie theater owners make 90% profit out of every bag of popcorn sold.

Another gang member told that Christopher Columbus introduced the popcorn to the westerners.

I chipped in with my own bit of trivia. It is a native American tribe that brought the popcorn to the American settlers.

You might have noticed that there are always some kernels that remain unpopped. Thy are called spinsters.

When I next served tea, I prohibited anyone to talk about tea trivia and just concentrate on cheering up the Indian cricketers.

Watching the World Cup cricket with a soccer enthusiast.

Watching the World Cup cricket match with a soccer enthusiast was a different experience and challenging too because, he did not know a thing about cricket.

He could talk for hours about the soccer matches that enthralled the word, the soccer trophies won by every nation, profile of world famous soccer players.

I had to tell him so many things about cricket as we watched the final between India and Sri Lanka live on television. The ‘free hit’ is similar to the free hit in soccer.

He could not understand why some decisions are referred back to the television. He felt that the on-field umpires are betrayed.

The soccer fan could identify several celebrities in the stadium and he told me that one of them also watches soccer avidly.

He immensely admired the shining and big World CUP and confessed that the soccer trophies were smaller. I thought he felt offended.

Harbajan cried! Yuvaraj choked!

I could sense some tear drops that lingered on my eyes. They did not roll down on my cheeks. I let it like that till the tears dried out. My eyes felt fresh.

This happened immediately after Dhoni hit the winning shot to claim the Cricket worldcup. The way Yuvaraj hugged his captain and did not release the pressure for a full one minute conveyed so many emotions that the entire nation felt simultaneously.

Even as I am composing this blog post, I relive the same emotion shamelessly though I think it is indecent to feel so happy when the other nation SriLanka is feeling the pain of having lost the game to India.

Then, there was a fierce hug of Gary Kirsten by Yuvaraj (see image) that conveyed the India's pride and gratitude to the coach.

I appreciated immensely Virat Kholi's frank reply to a question on why he carried Tendulkar on his shoulders.

Harbajan cried! Yuvaraj choked when Ravi Sastri interviewed him. Tendulkar had tough time in curtailing his tears.

Thank you Indian cricket team for giving so much to us that we all will carry to our grave.