www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiK5-oAaeUs

I’m running short of words in praise of this video. See it yourself to experience the feeling of watching a genius speak about Indians and Asians in general.

Highlights of this video:

• Hans Rosling praises Indian students for their hard work and intelligence.
• Predicts precisely the date and time of India’s uprising to match the Income per person in the developed countries.

This video can shut the mouth of all those Indians who rant about under-development in India(including me). All in all, a great source of inspiration for Indians.

This image is attributed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

This university that I am writing about is claimed to be the oldest International University in the world. Constructed in 427 AD in an Indian city that has got religious importance of Buddhism. A city which has got very ancient history and goes back to the days of Mahavira and Buddha in sixth and fifth centuries BC.

Can you guess the name of this university? Didn’t get it yet, read on for more clues.

This university boasts to be the largest residential university in the world accommodating 10,000 students in an academic year, taught by 2,000 learned professors.

Has a sprawling campus of this university,  spread across 16 square kilometers. It also has a community kitchen with meticulously planned infrastructure. It had 8 monastic building with 300 apartments.  The apartments contained single and double bedroom cells for students. The university is considered as an architectural master piece. It had eight separate compounds and ten temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms.

The library building at this university had nine storeys with hundreds of thousands of volumes related to science and religion.

This university was the greatest monastic-cum-educational institution for oriental art and learning in the whole Buddhist world, attracting students from like Hiuen Tsang and I-Tsing from China and other distant countries such as Japan, Singapore, Greece.

Various subjects such as theology, grammar, logic, astronomy, medicine, meta physics and philosophy were taught there. This university was the cradle of Buddhist civilization during that times.

To gain admission to the university, the entrants will have to answer difficult questions posed by the erudite guards of the university. On an average only 2-3 among 10 would be admitted into this university.

The alumnus of this university gain a celebrity status for all their life along with the education imparted by scholars. The students of this university lead a very disciplined and regarded as  ideal to be followed by Buddhists all over the world.

Here goes the final clue – this university is located in a city near Patna in Bihar, India. I am pretty sure you might have got it by now.

See this youtube video below describing more about the university.

Nalanda (Hindi:नालंदा) means “insatiable in giving”. An inscribed seal was found in the excavations at the site which read Sri-Nalandamahavihari-Arya-Bhikshu-Sanghasya (Hindi:श्री नालंदा महाविहार आर्य भिक्षु संघस्य).

This university is believed to be sacked and burnt by troupes sent by then military general, Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193 AD. So extensive was the library that the burning of books in the library continued for several months. That was a tragic end for such a great university. So, our generation doesn’t have the fortune of  studying in this university, but…

There are plans to build a modern university with the name Nalanda University near that site. In 2006, it was reported that China, India, Japan and other nations had come forward to raise funds of $500 to build a new post-graduate research university.

It would be such a pride to study in a university revived at that site. What do you think about it? Comment below whether or not you would like to study in a university in future, if it gets built.

References:

1. Wikipedia article on Nalanda
2. Excavated remains of Nalanda – UNESCO World Heritage Center

sleeping on a monday morning

You wake up on a Monday morning lazily, look at the clock, curse the office for sometime and suddenly a familiar idea pops up in your mind.

You don’t want to go to the office today, you want a leave. You want to relax today and continue the mood of your weekend. You get a doubt that this weekend got over quicker than the usual span of 2 days. But now your boss is a strict guy, he does not give you leave easily. He asks you too many questions when you ask him for a leave. What to do .. .. What to tell the boss?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone, many people take a day off to relax. Here are some highly convincing and specific excuses / reasons that you could use to get a leave for a day. But remember, the key thing is to fake confidently, be ready to answer a couple of expected questions from your boss. Just be confident! Read on..

1. Not keeping well / sick
   You are running high fever, cold accompanied with running nose(or sore throat). You may not be able to join work today.
2. Spouse / Children sick
   This is an excuse that just can’t be turned down. The boss wouldn’t ask many questions too.
3. Parents in town
   Tell your boss that your parents are in town to see you. That you have to pick them up from the station and take them to visit a doctor.
4. Severe headache / dizziness
   Indirectly hint your boss that you have a burnout, too much stress in work. Two birds at one shot!
5. Fake Fracture / dislocation / muscle spasm / back sprain
   You woke up in the morning to find that you have a spasm in ankle because of sleeping in a weird position.
6. Fake flu (viral fever) symptoms
   I have symptoms of H1N1, it’s better I don’t come to office today as it may spread.
7. Family problems / personal reasons
   Tell your boss that you need a leave for an extremely personal reason.
8. Dental appointment / ENT Doctor appointment
   You have a sever toothache, you need to visit a dentist urgently. Or the dentist has given you an appointment today.
9. Urgent work – license renewal / met someone and got late
   You have got an urgent work to do today. You tell him that you will try to reach the office after your work(but unfortunately get stuck in the work and get late).
10. Death of a non-existent relative
    Don’t feel scrupulous to tell your boss that your relative(non-existent) died naturally. A grim excuse but use this as a trump card.
11. Important Bank Work, post office work
    Tell your boss that you have got to do an important transaction your bank or (the offices which open only Monday to Friday).
12. Met with an accident and the other guy injured
    Your car ran into someone accidentally, and the person is injured. You take him to the hospital, so you can’t go to office until you check the condition of that person.
13. Vehicle got stolen / vehicle ceased by traffic police
    Your vehicle is missing since yesterday night, you are searching all the nearby places. Busy filing complaint in a police station. Or you parked your vehicle in a no parking zone yesterday night and that vehicle was towed by traffic police. You go to the place where it was moved to find that they have left for the day. You have to follow up with them and get your vehicle released.
14. House / car Loan verification
    You took a bulky house/car loan. The bank guys tell you to stay home today for verification. You wait for them infinitely, and they don’t turn until the evening.
15. Food poisoning / stomach upset
    You have symptoms of food poisoning due to the junk food you ate in a restaurant yesterday. You have nausea and diarrhea(euphemism for you know what).
16. Allergic Reaction to food
    You have got an allergic reaction in your body because of eating mushrooms in a street-side Chinese restaurant. Your body is swollen and you have rash all over. Check the internet for more symptoms for food allergy.
17. Asthma attack / difficulty in breathing
    You are an asthma patient and have difficulty in breathing. Unfortunately you get an attack owing to the cold climate. You can’t sit in an AC today.
18. Collect certificates from college
    You haven’t collected your Degree certificate from your college. Your college calls you to take it or forget it forever. You rush to your college to get your certificates.

This article was written by Rahul S Bhagath. Rahul, is a software engineer based in Bangalore. Rahul loves to enjoy his weekends and hates Monday mornings.

Borrowed few excuses from Saching.com | Image Credit.

Feel free to comment below if you have any better excuses that worked for you.