Planet Aurangabad Black and White Photo Contest 2013

Whether you are a budding photographer or a pro ... whether its your hobby or your profession...we want you to share your best snaps with us.

Each week one picture will be chosen and published in Planet Aurangabad - the English Weekly. This picture will not only receive an attractive prize for that particular week, but it will automatically become eligible for the "Award for Excellence in Photography" for Planet Aurangabad Black and White Photo Contest 2013. 

This Final Selected winner will be selected by an open voting system by the Aurangabadites..

The overall winner, at the end of the year, will take home a MEGA PRIZE and have the coveted "Award for Excellence in Photography"

AGE NO BAR.
You can send unlimited entries every week.
There is no theme whatsoever - you can click whatever you like. So what are you waiting for ? The chances for selection are each week. Take out your camera and CLICK !

The judging criteria is -
1. Originality and Clarity
2. Out of the Box thinking is appreciated

Please read the important terms and conditions below before submitting your entry -
* All photographs submitted must be the work of the individual who submits them. Entrants must ensure that photographs of people have been taken with the permission of the subject (where identifiable).
* No digitally altered images will be accepted. (No cloning, adding or removing elements). Only basic enhancements are allowed, for eg brightness, contrast, and sharpening etc.).
* All pictures should be submitted as JPEG files (.jpg). Please include a caption of about 20 -50 words to explain your picture. Resolution should be medium / high (minimum of 1,000 pixels on shorter side of image, maximum of 4,000). Photographers will be credited (eg. Picture: Nitin Bharadwaj)
* You warrant to us that all contributions are lawful and do not infringe any rights of any third party and that you will indemnify us in respect of any breach of that warranty.
* Planet Aurangabad accepts no liability for any content submitted by third parties.
* The photographer agrees that he/she agrees to allow Planet Aurangabad to electronically publish the selected  images in both Planet Aurangabad - The English Weekly and on its online channels (promotional material, social media, website , blog etc) 
* We respect the intellectual property of all photographers and we ask our readers to do the same. All material published is protected by copyright and no one is allowed to copy or reproduce anything without the consent of the photographer.
* We reserve the right to share your identity with any third party who is claiming that any photograph submitted by you violates copyright laws.
* You will not submit photograph that is offensive, nudity,abusive, indecent, defamatory, obscene.
* You accept that we may exercise editorial control over the photograph and may decide not to allow publication at our absolute discretion.
* We reserve the right to crop any photographs submitted by you at our discretion in order to fit the overall design and format.
* No payment will be made for use of the pictures submitted to 'Planet Aurangabad Black and White Photo Contest 2013'
* No relatives of employees of Planet Aurangabad are allowed to enter the competition.
* Judges / Management decision is final.
* Planet Aurangabad retains the right to reject or disqualify a picture from the competition.
* You may enter unlimited entries in each competition week. For production reasons, weekly winners will be picked each Thursday. Therefore a week for competition purposes begins each Thursday and ends on a Wednesday. In the case of multiple entries being sent by a single individual in a given competition week, the judges will choose one random image from the selection to put forward for consideration.

What exactly is Valentine's Day ?

If you refer the dictionary , it says - 

February 14, observed in honor of St. Valentine as a day for the exchange of valentines and other tokens of affection.

This means that this day is based on a saint - just like we have lots of saint days in India like "Sant Dyaneshwar Jayanti" etc...

So what makes this particular day so special, that even though it belongs to the western culture, the whole world celebrates it ??? 

The very concept of "rosey lovey dovey romance" and commercializing it - THATS IT ! Nothing else makes it more alluring and dream like.. 

The best part is, that the history of Valentine's Day  --and the story of its patron Saint Valentine is a mystery, no one really knows about the origins of Valentine's Day !!! Everyone just celebrates it :)

The most popular story that is associated with Saint Valentine was that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for Roman soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians. During his imprisonment, he is said to have healed the daughter of his jailer Asterius. Legend states that before his execution he wrote "from your Valentine" as a farewell to her. 

The day was first associated with romance and love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer , a great English poet around the 12th Century..

Slowly time passed.. and centuries later we arrived in the 21st century ! The handwritten Valentine's gave way to mas produced greeting cards, honest tokens of appreciations became forcefully converted to a "must have" feeling of love for the opposite gender, symbols of the heart , cupid and roses started getting associated to a dreamy feeling of romance which more and more commercial brands , card shops, chocolate stores and malls started to use as an attractor to youngsters and more public .. Typically a cold snowy february with Christmas already gone by, no one wanted to buy anything, so it was noticed that creating such hypes about this festival s started booming the sales and cleared most of the stocks at full prices to give way for fresh inventory for spring /summer ! The whole world and the giant organisations were catching up to the trend, so how could India lag  behind ..

India is well known as a culture filled with ancient traditions. The Hindu culture contradicts many of the western world’s ideals. Valentine’s Day celebrations are known to clash with India’s conservative religious background. It has only been in the most recent years that Valentine’s Day has become widely recognized in India. Business is buzzing for all florists , courier companies, restaurants , malls, greeting card shops, coffee houses , diamond shops.. people also get married on this day ! 

While the whole idea of expressing love is great and living in love is the best thing to do - but love shouldn't be confused only for the opposite gender .. it can also be for our parents, our family , friends, our work and life in general.. The state of happiness is also a state of love towards ones own life.. 

The more important thing to realize is - this is just a commercial day for loads of companies and services to sell holiday - it is about selling flowers, candy, and diamond jewelry. 
Just think of all the money you are saving !!!

It is not about love and relationships. Love cannot be expressed singularly on one day .. our lives should be full of love instead !!

So although , we don't really condemn or promote the celebration of this day - simply because we would like every one to be free in their thoughts, choices and lead their lives as they wish to.. At the same time, we would surely take this opportunity to wish every one a Happy Valentine's Day with the intention of one true emotion of appreciation - the appreciation that you all are members of our team and that alone makes us a huge success..

Triple Holiday Bonanza Weekend

Isn't this like the bestest thing ever !!

School students , college students , bankers , institutions - all having 3 holidays stuck together :)

While we are enjoying this happy time , unwinding , relaxing and rejuvenating ourselves, we should not forget why in the first place are we on this holiday mode ...

First - Id - E - Milad - we saw loads of our muslim and secular brothers celebrating Id on the 25th Jan. The Jama Masjid area at Shahganj was worth looking at - lights , prayers,and yummy sheer korma ..

This day is considered to be the most blessed in the Islamic Calendar. Eid-e-Milad, the birthday of Prophet Mohammed is the day of thanks giving and praising the Almighty. 

The 26th Jan arrives yet again, this time reminding us that this is the 64th year after India became a republic on 26th Jan 1950

We all know that India has had a long journey in these 64 years , but we as self individuals should not stop our personal journey of improving and perfecting ourselves..

Delhi, being the capital of our nation , as usual sees a lot of fervor and celebrations on this day... but we are bringing you Delhi right here in Aurangabad...err.. rather on your laptops .. take a look here for our very own republic day celebrations - http://republicday.nic.in/ - a lovely video feed takes you right there...

Finally, the most loved day since Jesus Christ - Sunday - a funday for all !

Have an amazing weekend everybody...stayhappy , connect with people and most importantly - follow Planet Aurangabad :)

Seven Hundred it is !!!

Seven Hundred it is !!!

At reaching 700, we feel like 007....the name is Aurangabad...Planet Aurangabad :-)

Planet Aurangabad and James Bond have many things in common...total fun package, lots of fun and thrills, roller-coaster experienc

e and just as James Bond ended up having a huge cultural impact, we too aspire to do the same with the help of all you wonderful followers and supporters...

Kudos to all and whistles all over....

Thank you, thank you, thank you...

Happy Navratri !!!

We wish all our members a very Happy , Hearty and a Fun Filled Navratri ..

May This Navratri be as bright as ever.
May this Navratri bring joy, health and wealth to you.

PLANET AURANGABAD is really happy to share these happy thoughts and wishes with you..

its a SIX HUNDRED !!!!!

....aaanndddd its a SIX HUNDRED !!!!!
(claps claps... whistles.... drum rollss.... trumpets.. claps)

What a lovely time this is - we are building such wonderful team together...

We promise- each and everyone that has liked us and shown su

pport will only gain from now on...

We are very grateful to eveyone for such love and support...

See you all at 700 soon :-)

500 NOT OUT ...

500 NOT OUT ...

You guys are THE BEST ! 

We are so so so proud of all of you - what an amazing team we have built together .. and this has only been possible with your love and support 

Thank you very much. This is really awesome and we hope to reach more and more.

No great news comes without some celebration - and we are doing just that - celebrating each and every day - tune it to our page to keep a track of all the fabulous contests and rewards we keep showering on you all....

450 and counting...

450 and counting...

Our supporters are making us more generous day by day :-)

Help us entertain you with all fun contests possible and encourage us to create festive occasions for showering you with gifts...participate heartily in our contests and win awesome prizes :-)

Spread the word....Cheers !!!

400 and counting...

400 LIKES !!!

Likes increasing by the minute !!! And why not, the word is spreading like wildfire !!!

Loud cheers to all our supporters !! Hip Hip Hurray !!!

ZOOMING to 350 !!!

ZOOMING to 350 Likes !!!! Planet Aurangabad went from 300 to 350 likes within 24 hours....The LIKES rate has gone up from 1 LIKE/HOUR to 2 LIKES/HOUR.....

We love our supporters and feel rewarding them all the time :-) Therefore we are raising our stakes and promising all our friends more awesome prizes as we go along...

Cheers....Lets make it 400 fassssterrrr !!!

300 and counting !

300 likes !!! YAYYYYYYYYY !!!

We are so happy that we are jumping -- 300 times :-) quite literally :-) :-) :-) 

We have reached from 250 to 300 likes in just 50 hours - and that means 1 LIKE per hour .. we are really proud of all our sup

porters.

Keep getting more prizes and help us spread our happiness

Thanks once again. Meet you at 350 likes !

Clocked 250 !

250 likes !!! Yessss !!!

Thank you everyone for participating on our journey of happiness...we will keep showering you with all good things in life like MOVIES, GREAT FOOD & GIFTS and you keep you sharing our page with your friends...so th

at our fans increase day by day....:-)

As of now, enjoy our KNOW YOUR CITY contest and win FREE MOVIE TICKETS to the most awaited film of the year !!!

Keep winning prizes to keep us happy :-)

Visit www.facebook.com/PlanetAurangabad for all the fun !!

Also, WIN FREE MOVIE TICKETS by participating in our KNOW YOUR CITY contest by clicking this link 
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QNJ2GRT. If you do not have the secret code, SMS <GET CODE> to 8237819047 and participate by answering simple questions on our wonderful city !!!

Its a Double Whammy !

200 likes ! The word is spreading fast indeed !

We want to have FUN, FUN & MORE FUN…that is our mantra!

After distributing prizes to our lucky winners of ‘It’s All About Me’ Contest, we have also introduced ‘PREDICT & WIN Contest Series’ on our facebook page (www.facebook.com/PlanetAurangabad) for the T20 World Cup currently going on in Sri Lanka!

The first Facebook contest to predict the winner of India vs England match played on 23^rd September received bumper number of entries and we are announcing the winners shortly!

We are also opening up more contests to entertain all our friends and supporters out there. Which means, more and more PRIZES !!!

So, keep encouraging us so that we can keep entertaining you as always J

WISHING ALL OUR FRIENDS A VERY HAPPY GANESH CHATURTHI

We hope that this Ganesh Chaturthi will be the start of a year that fills your lives with Happiness , Prosperity and Good Fortune.

Ganesha, also called Ganapati, is the god of wisdom, 

prudence, and salvation. Ga means "knowledge", na means "salvation", and isa and pati mean "lord". His image is found throughout India.

We humbly pray before the lord himself , to bestow upon us his grace and blessings.

This beautiful picture is a Hand block painted motif and hand sequin work by rural village artisans by Gujarat - promoted by Rainbow Crafts.

Its a Century and a half !

Its 150 likes ! Yippee !!! 

Remember friends, there are loads of surprises and gifts to those who SHARE maximum Planet Aurangabad facebook page's posts on their timelines. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/PlanetAurangabad for all our facebook fans. We are keeping a track of everyone, so keep up the enthu of sharing and liking us !

Again, thank you for all your support in spreading the word of Planet Aurangabad…our team is working very hard to provide you with the best stories, news, gossip, entertainment, interviews, events in the city and above all, giving YOU a voice through our platform. You will keep hearing more and more from us J

Lets make it 200 now !!! Spread the word… Cheers J

It's a Century

It’s a century ! Woo hoo :-) 

We mean the facebook likes - that calls for a century celebration too now doesn't it :-)Everyone has been calling up, liking , emailing , sms’ing and wishing us luck!! Thank you guys for all your support.

Planet Aurangabad is almost ready … we are soon going to open our doors to all of you wonderful people out there. We know all of you are waiting for our roll out with a bated breath – well so are we.

Please do care to join us at http://www.facebook.com/PlanetAurangabad - you will surely be rewarded :-)