Best Breathing exercise

 

Covid: Do these 5 breathing exercises daily to make lungs strong 

1. Do these 5 breathing exercises daily to make lungs strong Millions of people are getting infected amidst the worsening condition of Covid. Thousands of people are losing their lives. People are suffering from breathlessness and there are long queues for oxygen in hospitals. One of the major symptoms of Covid is the dropping level of oxygen. While the health and medical experts are trying their best to handle the situation, you can also help them by making your lungs strong. It has become very important to build good immunity and to strengthen your lungs at this time. Between 60 and 65 percent of the patients are suffering from difficulty in breathing due to the new strain of Coronavirus. Their oxygen level decreases rapidly. Within 2 to 3 days it reaches below 80 and in such a situation, oxygen is needed immediately. If oxygen is not available during this period, the situation becomes very serious. This is the reason that you should make breathing exercises a part of your daily routine. According to Swami Ramdev, through these pranayamas you can keep your lungs strong and can also protect yourself from many fatal diseases like covid, asthma and others. Bhastrika Pranayama This pranayama is done in 3 ways. First, breathe in 5 seconds and exhale in 5 seconds. The second method is to breathe in two and a half seconds and release in two and a half seconds. Third, breathe fast and exhale fast. Do this pranayama continuously for 5 minutes. Performing this pranayama daily is considered good for hypertension, asthma, heart disease, TB, tumors, BP, liver cirrhosis, sinus and lung problems. Anulom Vilom First, sit comfortably and close your eyes. Keep in mind that in this posture your spine should be straight. Now keep the left hand in the knowledge pose on the left knee. After this, put the smallest finger of the right hand on the left nostril and your thumb on the right nostril. After this, fold the index finger and middle finger together. Now take a breath through the left nostril and close it with the smallest finger. Immediately remove the thumb from the right nostril and exhale. Now breathe through the right nostril and close it with the thumb. Exhale from the left nostril. Do the same at least 5 times. By doing this asana, all skin-related problems remain at bay. Also, it helps purifying the lungs and makes them stronger It also regulates the proper flow of blood in the body and helps to keep the digestive system healthy. Bhramari Pranayama To perform this pranayama, first sit in the state of Sukhasana or Padmasana. Now take a deep breath. Keep your fingers in the front with 3 fingers of each hand closing the eyes. The ears should be closed using the thumbs. Chant 'Om' alongside. This pranayama must be done 3-21 times. By doing this asana, the mind will remain calm along with relieving stress. Kapalbhati Pranayama To perform Kapalabhati, first sit down in Sukhasana and close your eyes. Now take deep breaths from both the nostrils inwards. Now release the breath. Keep in mind that the air has to be exhaled forcefully and taken in slowly. Do it at least 20 times in this way. People with hypertension, asthma, anemia, BP, heart blockage should do this asana in 2 seconds each time. Ujjayi Pranayama Take a deep breath and try to hold it in for as long as you can. After this, close the right nostril and exhale from the left nostril. By doing this asana, you will be able to keep your lungs healthy and the oxygen level in control. Along with this, the mind remains calm. Nadi Shuddhi Pranayama This pranayama is also like anulom -vilom but you can hold the breath for a little while in this asana. Then exhale the air from the right nostril and inhale with the left nostril. This leads to a more amount of oxygen inside the body.  

3.The Best Breathing Exercises for COVID-19: Before, During, and After Infection Breathing exercises can strengthen the lungs and may be beneficial for reducing the impact of COVID-19 before, during, and after it strikes. The breathing exercises we outline in this article won’t prevent COVID-19, but they may help mitigate the symptoms affecting your respiratory system. They are also helpful for alleviating stress you may be feeling in the midst of this pandemic. As we’ve come to know, COVID-19 presents differently in different people. Inflammation in the lungs and airways are common symptoms that make breathing difficult. These symptoms can accompany mild, moderate, or severe COVID. People who get very sick from COVID-19 may experience pneumonia as a result. This causes the lungs to fill with fluid and mucus, making it even harder to breathe and get the oxygen your body needs to function. If you have a condition such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or moderate to severe asthma, you may already have reduced lung capacity and trouble breathing. These conditions cause chronic inflammation of the lungs, which can significantly worsen in people who get COVID-19. COVID affects the entire respiratory tract, further obstructing airflow. It can trigger asthma attacks and cause acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Deep breathing exercises that clear the lungs and strengthen lung function may be especially beneficial for people with these conditions. Breathing exercises get oxygen deep into the lungs, which helps you clear out mucus and other fluids. During recovery, breathing exercises work to strengthen the diaphragm, a major respiratory muscle located under the lungs. It can also help increase lung capacity, bringing much-needed oxygen into your bloodstream. Deep breathing exercises also help you feel calm, which may be beneficial for coping with long-term illness and recovery. Breathing exercises do not prevent COVID-19 and should not be used in place of mask wearing, social distancing, or getting vaccinated. Breathing exercises can, however, strengthen your lungs, which may reduce COVID-19’s impact on your respiratory system. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 randomized controlled studies found that breathing techniques, such as pursed lips breathing, reduce shortness of breath. Breathing exercises also improved lung ventilation, which is the ability of the lungs to expel carbon dioxide and stale air. Pursed lip breathing Pursed lip breathing gets more oxygen into your lungs than regular breathing can. It also keeps your airways open longer by reducing the number of breaths you take per minute. Follow these steps to try pursed lip breathing: Relax in a seated position with your neck and shoulder muscles unclenched. Breathe in slowly through your nose for several counts with your mouth closed. (Your nose warms and humidifies the air before it reaches the lungs — breathing in through your mouth does not accomplish this.) Before exhaling, purse your lips, as if you were going to blow out a candle. Keeping your lips pursed, breathe out all of the air in your lungs slowly. Try to exhale for a longer number of counts than you inhaled. Repeat several times. Aerobic exercise Any form of energetic exercise that makes you breathe more quickly is, in essence, a breathing exercise. This includes brisk walking, running, swimming, or any activity that increases heart rate and breathing rate. Exercising regularly supports lung health. And healthy lungs may be your best defense against COVID-19, should you become infected. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the most common symptoms of COVID-19 include: fever, with or without chills muscle pain headache sore throat nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea fatigue congestion runny nose Or if you one of these symptoms or conditions: severe respiratory illness with pneumonia or ARDS cough shortness of breath difficulty breathing inability to taste or smell In people with acute COVID, symptoms usually start between 2 and 14 days after exposure and resolves within 2 weeks. Some people have lingering symptoms, such as shortness of breath and fatigue for a longer period of time. If you have COVID-19, talk with your doctor before starting breathing exercises. If you have shortness of breath while resting, an irregular heartbeat, or chest pain, you may worsen your symptoms by exercising. In addition to pursed lip breathing, other breathing exercises may also help while recuperating from COVID-19. An analysis of multiple studies by integrative medicine practitioners found that Qigong, a practice that utilizes deep breathing and slow movements, improved pulmonary function and increased lung capacity in COVID-19 patients. Qigong belly breathing (diaphragmatic breathing) You can do this exercise while sitting or lying down. Relax your face, neck, jaw, and shoulder muscles. Rest the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth. Straighten your back. Close your eyes. Breathe normally for several minutes. Place one hand on your chest and one on your lower abdomen. Breathe deeply through your nose, feeling your chest and ribs expand when you inhale. Your stomach should expand outward against your hand. Exhale, feeling your stomach gently contract inward. Breath slowly and deeply in this manner nine to 10 times. COVID-19 long-haulers have chronic COVID. If you are a long-hauler, you may continue to have symptoms for weeks or months after infection. These symptoms vary but can include: shortness of breath trouble breathing inability to exercise brain fog cough reduced or no sense of taste or smell muscle or joint aches and pains chest pain headache occasional fever Breathing exercises may help improve lung function in long haulers. They may also help to reduce ongoing stress and anxiety caused by COVID symptoms. Yawn to a Smile This breathing exercise opens up the muscles in the chest, which allows the diaphragm to fully expand. It also strengthens the arms and shoulder muscles. Here’s how to do it: Sit upright with a straight back. Stretch your arms up to shoulder height. You should feel the muscles in your back stretching. While your arms are at shoulder height, open your mouth wide, as if you were yawning. Bring your arms back to rest on your thighs, while turning your yawn into a smile. Humming while exhaling Humming, such as the chanting of “om” in yoga, can help pull oxygen into the lungs with each breath. Many also find it can be calming. Here are the steps for this exercise: Sit upright with a straight back. Place each hand on the sides of your lower abdomen. Keep your lips closed and gently rest your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Breathe deeply and slowly through your nose, keeping your lips closed and your tongue in position. Allow your fingers to spread wide on your stomach as it expands. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Do not let them rise up. Once your lungs feel full, exhale while humming. Make sure to keep your lips closed. Repeat for several breaths. Most people who get COVID-19 make a full recovery, often within a few weeks. Serious cases of COVID can take a month or longer to completely resolve. Rebuilding lung capacity can help aid your recovery, whether or not you had complications such as pneumonia or were placed on a ventilator. Breathing exercises deepen each breath, improving the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs. This improves overall lung capacity. Breathing exercises also induce a feeling of calm — a valuable component of recovery and quality of life. If you’re using breathing exercises to help with your recovery, don’t rush it. You may have to start slowly and build up to multiple repetitions during the healing process. Aerobic exercise can also help strength your lungs significantly. Just make sure to go slow and not overdo it. HEALTHLINE’S CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE Stay informed with our live updates about the current COVID-19 outbreak. Also, visit our coronavirus hub for more information on how to prepare, advice on prevention and treatment, and expert recommendations. Try The Magic Of Morning Breathing Exercises For Your Health Image: Shutterstock Morning Breathing Exercises (MBEs) are a practice and technique that involve breathing exercises in the morning before you begin your day. Is there any magic in this? Absolutely yes! It is the particular time that is special to the body. When we wake up in the morning, not only do we have toxins accumulated in our system from the detoxification process that took place during the night, but we also wake up with slightly elevated cortisol levels, which is a natural part of our biological clock. For the longest time, Yoga and Ayurveda have taught us the importance of engaging in Pranayama during the early hours of the day, and today we have scientific studies and research telling us the same. What are the benefits of MBEs?Image: Shutterstock Here are some of the many benefits of making MBEs a part of your daily routine. 1. Better Oxygenation And Respiratory SupportInsufficient intake of oxygen and retaining carbon dioxide in our system for too long due to improper breathing can work like poison and make us feel tired, drowsy, light-headed, dizzy, and so on. It can also compromise the normal functioning of all our organs. Oxygen is our life force and that is why we need to respect our lungs and train them to work the right way, especially if their function is compromised due to a respiratory disorder. For those who have lung cancers (even metastatic), MBE is a scientifically studied and proven technique that can help improve your longevity and prevent the possible spread by 50 – 60 per cent, which is huge! (This is not to say that MBEs are going to take away your disease, but it is going to make your life better.) 2. Trains Lungs To Work The Right Way And Improves Lung CapacitySometimes during the day, we may find ourselves gasping for deep breath or taking deep sighs, which are not healthy signs. This means that we are breathing wrong and either our cells are deprived of oxygen or we are retaining carbon dioxide in our system for too long. MBEs help train our lungs to use oxygen the right way. 3. Useful In Case Of Respiratory DiseasesIn case of a lung condition like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), emphysema, lung cancers, asthma, or bronchitis, where the lungs are already taxed, we need to take any additional burden off from the lungs, so that they can do their job effectively. MBE helps us with this, training your lungs to get stronger as well as loosen up mucous and any phlegm you may have. MBE is also a great way to improve the health of your lungs, for the sake of prevention, maintenance, and recovery. It is great even if you are living in a polluted environment, helpful for congested lungs, mucous build-up, and blocked sinuses. What’s The Best Time To Practice MBE?Image: Shutterstock MBE needs to be done in the morning, along with some physical activity. Even a 10-minute casual (not brisk) walk in your home or living area before you settle down for breathing exercises works the best. Even five minutes of this practice is powerful for your lungs and will bring in great results. Examples Of Morning Breathing ExercisesImage: Shutterstock You can include all exercises in your practice or start with the first two, develop lung strength and capacity, and then accordingly take up the next two. 1. Diaphragmatic Breathing (Natural Way Of Breathing): 3 – 4 rounds- Sit with your back straight, chin parallel to the ground, and shoulders rolled slightly backward.- Place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest.- Close your eyes.- Breathe in through your nose. With every inhalation, inflate your belly like a balloon. Allow your belly to rise. As you exhale, allow your belly to fall back and deflate.- Repeat this for 3 – 4 rounds or more. If done the right way, this is very powerful. 2. Hu-Breathing: 3 – 4 rounds- Sit with your back straight, chin parallel to the ground, and shoulders rolled slightly backward.- Inhale through your open mouth (form your lips as if you are saying “hu” or “who”).- Close your mouth.- Gently exhale through your nose. The sound will be similar to that of the ocean. You will feel calm yet energised after this breathing.This exercise is great in case of hyperventilation, where one exhales more than inhales. Image: Shutterstock 3. Pursed Lip Breathing: 3 – 4 rounds- Sit with your back straight, chin parallel to the ground, and shoulders rolled slightly backward.- Inhale through your nostrils (any length) and then, purse your lips together as if you are blowing out a candle.- Gently exhale through your mouth with pursed lips. Do not blow out. Exhale gently. This again sounds like the sound of the ocean. This technique is great to reduce shortness of breath.This technique is helpful in removing trapped air in the alveoli sacs, which can make us hyperventilate. 4.Box Breathing: 6 – 8 cycles- Sit with your back straight, chin parallel to the ground, and shoulders rolled slightly backward.- Inhale through your nostril for 3 seconds.- Hold for 3 seconds.- Exhale through your nostrils for 3 seconds.- Hold for 3 seconds (it is the space between exhalation and next inhalation).- If you cannot hold for 3 seconds, do it for 2 seconds. The space between exhalation and the next inhalation is very powerful because it helps increase the capacity of your lungs and haemoglobin to hold onto oxygen. It enables your body to hold on to enough oxygen, even if your breathing pattern has shortened for a bit, in times of stress, for example. This is an all-around breathing exercise for the lungs. This morning exercise is great for chest tightness, wheezing, mucous accumulation, and shortness of breath. Make sure your seconds are uniform – 3:3:3:3 or 1:1:1:1. Caution: If you have weak lungs, these exercises may tire you out. Please listen to your body, and if it feels a bit too much, discontinue or pace exercises accordingly. Read more: 10 Questions With A Wellness Coach

Self-improvement

  IMPORTANTS OF Self-improvement 

 to boost up your career Everyone starts their career at small age in school and grown-up with taking all educational knowledge till the end of under-graduates/post-graduates degrees. Is it possible to say this knowledge is sufficient for our mental, physical, or personality growth? If you seek the answer within yourself, you will get to know that this is not sufficient for your career growth. The reason behind this now is self- improvisation which is followed by most successful people and professionals in their life. Self-improvement means improvement in one's education. For reaching the top, your personal growth should never be stopped where you need to involve new habits, skills, hobbies, etc. Nothing can be achieved in a single day, lots of effort and practice requires shooting an arrow on the focused target; practicing good habits and working on communication skills will enhance your personality development. There are some methods through which you can work on your personality to enhance your career are as follows: Keep learning It is always said to keep on learning till the last breath, whether your choice or not it will always make you lead from others. The best way to make yourself different from others is your intellect knowledge and that can only sharpen what you feed your mind. Some examples can be reading a New Book, learning a new language or trying new dishes with same ingredients. Challenging yourself to do better than last time in Wordscape or sudoku. Therefore, learning new things will intensify your skills and give you inner confidence that can be easily visible to everyone. Routine plan In our daily busy life, we forget to look after schedule if ever made by us, regarding our achievement. Everyone has their dream and that is important for being successful too, as dreams are the earliest step towards the goal. If you ever dream to become something in your life, then you must work hard to achieve it, but this can be only done while you put your right efforts in the right direction. Making a routine and following it is the key to the change your life journey, it's important to have discipline with your schedule. Starting your morning with a glass of water and morning walk keeps you fit. It is said-"The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine." © Provided by India Today Importance of self-improvement to boost up your career Meditation Doing meditation is the self-relaxation to your mind along with the health care, as we know the intellectual mind is the booster to your personality. For being smart it's not important to have a good physique only but to have a good wit too. Giving half-hour daily to exercising your body will improve your growth mentally, physically, and emotionally which leads to self-improvement. Apart from this, it also helps in changing your thought process or purifying your thoughts that add-ons to personality. Acceptance of failures If you ever want to climb the ladder of success you need to accept the failure while working for your goals, this is the only path towards your achievements. Once you started working for it, you must know to improve yourself and work on change. We should try to work on old bad habits and try to replace them with a new one, even if getting fail a lot of times we should never be afraid of giving up. Working on your habits will make you progress in the career life as well as give you a new way to lead a successful life leaving behind the darkness of failure. Authored by Dr. Neelima Kamrah, Principal KIIT World School Gurgaon Read more| 7 ways schools are making e-learning more fun and interactive for kids 8 top self-improvement tips that will help you live a happier, more productive life After being stuck at home for weeks with little to fill your time other than school assignments, you may well be beginning to slip into a state of existential angst and boredom. For advice on how to stay optimistic, both during this trying time and in future, Young Post turned to Dr Sylvia Kwok, convenor of the Positive Education Laboratory and an associate professor at City University’s Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Here are her top tips for maintaining a happy, healthy mindset. Develop your interests Spending time on activities you enjoy or are good at does more than just make you feel good. It empowers you with a sense of freedom to express your emotions and motivates you to keep working on building your skills, says Kwok. You should be careful and not push yourself too hard when pursuing your goals though, or you might lose interest in them, she adds. Growing Pains: Don't let unhelpful negative thoughts rule your mood or life Develop a growth mindset The way you perceive your successes and failures can affect your well-being, which is why it’s important to develop a growth mindset. This is the belief that you’re capable of improving. One of the ways you can strengthen this mindset is by overcoming challenges. This isn’t always easy, but can be made easier if you anticipate these challenges as you set your goals and think of ways to overcome them ahead of time. You should also be ready to adjust your plan when an unexpected challenge arises, says Kwok. Another key to having a growth mindset is being able to ask for help when you need it. “Remember, you can’t do everything by yourself,” notes Kwok. “You can always reciprocate others’ kindness by offering to help them in return.” Lastly, Kwok says acknowledging your accomplishments can help strengthen your growth mindset, and that even the smallest achievements deserve a pat on the back. She suggests rewarding yourself with prizes such as handmade medals that you can display in your room to remind yourself how far you’ve come. Set ‘smart’ goals Having an aim does not only gives you a clear sense of direction in life, but also promises a sense of achievement each time you get closer to your goal. Kwok says you first need to set “smart goals”. These are goals that are concrete, sensible, and time-sensitive. She adds that thinking about the steps you need to take to reach your goal and writing them down, will help you achieve them. Growing Pains: Be your own best friend with these 5 easy ways to improve your self-esteem and boost your confidence Identify and use your strengths While having to complete tasks you lack experience or skill in can be defeating, doing things you’re naturally good at can give you pleasure and satisfaction. You can use this to give you the confidence to tackle the task you were struggling with. In case you have yet to realise your hidden strengths, Kwok recommends that you take the Virtues in Action (VIA) Character Strength survey, a free online survey with 240 questions that will help you identify you’re what you’re good at. The survey provider VIA Institute on Character will also suggest ways you can apply your strengths. Look at failures from different perspectives Failures, whether in exams or in friendships, can sometimes feel like the end of the world. But Kwok reminds us that there’s always more than one side to the same coin. People are likely to fall into the thinking trap of putting all the blame on themselves when they experience failure, she explains, when there are actually multiple factors that contribute to the situation. When people or things fall short of your expectations, you can get overwhelmed with negative emotions, which can cloud your judgement. This is when you should challenge your thoughts, Kwok says. “Ask yourself if there are new ways to perceive the failure,” or invite a friend to share their views. It is also helpful to remind yourself that the words ‘fail’ and ‘end’ can be seen as acronyms for “First Attempt in Learning” and “Effort Never Dies”. Build muscle and get energised with our home gym workout Practise gratitude When you’re knee-deep in school work, it’s easy to forget to take some time to appreciate how much you have. A daily, simple practice of gratitude can keep you happy and healthy, says Kwok. The process involves four parts of your body: your eyes, mind, hand and heart. Your eyes are responsible for observing the people and things around you which you are grateful for, but might often take for granted. “Set aside some time every day to contemplate them,” says Kwok. This is the second stage – using your mind to reflect on the important things in your life. Your hands symbolise putting your gratitude into actions, whether it’s saying thank you, writing a thank you card, or preparing a gift to show your appreciation to someone. “Sometimes we invite students to take a photo of one thing they are thankful for everyday, to remind themselves of the many [blessings] they have in life,” Kwok says. Lastly, remember to use your heart to “be sincere when you’re showing your gratitude to others.” Build harmonious relationships The quality of our interpersonal relationships often dictates our mood, which is why a strong rapport with family and friends is the bedrock of good mental health. In addition to showing gratitude, listening and paying more attention to others, and giving thoughtful, constructive responses can also help build solid relationships. A constructive response, Kwok explains, is an authentic, enthusiastic and supportive reply which makes the other person feel valued. “If your friend is showing you a new top, for example, affirm him or her by saying ‘It looks really nice on you!’ or ‘I’m so happy that you’ve bought something you like!’” Being empathetic is essential, too, especially when you receive destructive responses, Kwok adds. “Try to look beyond others’ negative emotional reactions, and try to understand their behaviour, emotions, or points of view by putting yourself in their shoes.” Growing Pains: take back control - don’t let anxiety rule your life - it can be done Search for the meaning of life A meaningful life guarantees life satisfaction. To find the purpose of your existence, you need to ask yourself how you can contribute to your family, friends and society. “Volunteering, or even just helping a friend or caring for people around you would give you some clues,” Kwok says. Alternatively, you can list out the activities which give you a longer lasting sense of fulfilment. “You can also look at your life timeline to think about how your past achievements and experiences could help you build a more meaningful future,” she adds. Self-improvement book encourages people to thrive and align with one another and the source that created them CAMROSE, Alberta, May 4, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Jason T. Beck wanted to educate others on how God, the Universe, Life, Source of Creation, Divine Mind, Mother Nature, Unified Field, Creator, Infinite Intelligence, Source Energy and Consciousness are all the same, only different by their label. It is for this reason he has written "If the World Only Knew: It's Time to Wake Up and Heal" (published by Balboa Press). This book teaches readers the true meaning and fundamentals behind the phrases such as "You get what you give, it's karma, out of the blue, what goes around comes around" and so on as he shares the universal intelligence that co-creates, guides, and governs humanity's reality and existence. Focusing on truth, Beck discusses the truth about who humanity really are as a people in relation to each other and the world in which they live. Here, he shows how when people align with this one Life Force, God, or Unified Field of Intention, everything changes. They can heal individually and collectively by understanding who they really are in the simplest forms. They can thrive in harmony and live a life of purpose and meaning by relinquishing the conflicting egos they have been conditioned for many years. "We live in a society where the majority of our global population is not aware of the power we hold within us. We are all one, with no separation from anything or anyone, in one energy field called God, the Universe, or one of the other labels," Beck points out. "This book will inspire love, harmony, joy, fulfillment, benevolence, and purpose in personal lives, society and cultures." When asked what he wants readers to take away from this book, Beck answers, "To remind them that we are all here to thrive, not survive, and all we need to do is align with one another and the source that created us. Joy, abundance, love, and harmony are at the center of who we really are. When this concept of oneness is understood and applied intentionally, we are exposed to a whole new world of possibility, individually and collectively." For more details about this book, please visit https://www.balboapress.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/813935-if-the-world-only-knew "If the World Only Knew: It's Time to Wake Up and Heal" By Jason T. Beck Hardcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 184 pages | ISBN 9781982266264 Softcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 184 pages | ISBN 9781982266240 E-Book | 184 pages | ISBN 9781982266257 Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble About the Author Jason T. Beck has spent most of his working life as a carpenter specializing in custom finishing. Seeking something more in life, Beck studied more than 100 books on science and spirituality. He attended Hay House I Can Do I conferences and enrolled in the Hay House writing courses aspiring to share his message with this, his debut book. He and his wife have two children. Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc. – a leading provider in publishing products that specialize in self-help and the mind, body, and spirit genres. Through an alliance with the worldwide self-publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the self-publishing model. For more information, visit balboapress.com. To start publishing your book with Balboa Press, call 844-682-1282 today. Media Contact Marketing Services, BalboaPress, 844-682-1282, pressreleases@balboapress.com SOURCE BalboaPress

Stock market movers

TODAY BIGGEST pre-market MOVERS

: 10 Top Gainers And Losers On Friday InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Good morning and get ready to take a break and unwind over the weekend. But don’t take off the suit and tie just yet! There’s still got one more busy day of trading to get through and we’re here to help with the biggest pre-market stock movers for Friday. Wall Street in the early morning. Source: Eric Urquhart/Shutterstock.Com Of course, we can’t just jump right into that. Instead, let’s take a couple of minutes to catch up on the most important stock stories from Thursday. You can do that with Sarah’s overview of the market yesterday. Now that you’re all caught up, let’s look at the biggest pre-market stock movers for Friday below. Pre-Market Stock Movers: 10 Top Gainers Assertio Holdings (NASDAQ:ASRT) stock is soaring almost 33% after reporting earnings for the first quarter of 2021. iBio (NYSEAMERICAN:IBIO) shares are heading over 30% higher following an update on its coronavirus vaccine candidate. T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ:TTOO) is rising more than 20% this morning on earnings results for Q1 2021. GoPro (NASDAQ:GPRO) stock is getting a 14% boost after releasing its most recent earnings report. Comstock Holding Companies (NASDAQ:CHCI) shares are up almost 10% in pre-market trading. Obalon Therapeutics (NASDAQ:OBLN) stock is also sitting nearly 10% higher. CureVac (NASDAQ:CVAC) shares are increasing more than 8% following positive coverage of its covid vaccine. Cyclerion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CYCN) shares are up 8% after its CEO bought $1.7 million worth of the company’s stock. Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) is jumping almost 8% after the release of its Q1 2021 earnings report. Evofem Biosciences (NASDAQ:EVFM) stock is up over 7% after releasing its Q1 earnings report for 2021. 7 Stocks to Buy Right Now With All Eyes on Crypto 10 Top Losers Orphazyme (NASDAQ:ORPH) is taking a more than 22% beating after revealing one of its pivotal trials didn’t meet its primary endpoint. Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH) is falling over 17% following the release of its most recent earnings report. Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) shares are dropping more than 13% after the release of its current earnings report. Stealth BioTherapeutics (NASDAQ:MITO) stock is retreating over 11% after rallying yesterday on a Phase 1 study update. JFrog (NASDAQ:FROG) shares are decreasing almost 11% after the release of its Q1 2021 earnings report. Lexaria Bioscience (NASDAQ:LEXX) stock is settling back down this morning with an almost 8% dive after gaining on clinical study news Thursday. ShiftPixy (NASDAQ:PIXY) is dipping more than 9% this morning on no apparent news. Aptorum Group (NASDAQ:APM) stock continues a fall that started yesterday after announcing a development agreement with shares down over 8% this morning. Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) isn’t doing so hot with shares down more than 7% after releasing its Q1 2021 earnings report. Mudrick Capital (NASDAQ:MUDS) closes out the list with the pre-market stock movers list with shares down more than 6%. On the date of publication, William White did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. More From InvestorPlace Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next Potential 500% Winner Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now The post Today’s Biggest Pre-Market Stock Movers: 10 Top Gainers and Losers on Friday appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Best vpn

BEST VPN 2021

: Expert Reviews Of The Best VPN Service Getty Man in blue shirt working on laptop at home office To find the best VPN for your personal or business needs, you'll need to do more than compare brands, prices, and features. First, you must understand how a VPN service accomplishes its primary mission: Keeping you safe and protecting you online. CONSTELLATION BRANDS, INC. Fundamentally, most VPNs (virtual private network) provide two services: Encrypting your data between two points and hiding the IP address (from which a general location can be derived) where you're located. For those traveling or out and about, the first function was critical because most Wi-Fi available publicly is unencrypted -- so anyone on the network could see what you were sending. But VPNs also serve to hide your IP address, replacing the address logged on servers with one in a completely different location -- even a different country. For those worrying about stalking or other threats, this feature could save lives. Most consumers, though, find streaming VPN features compelling because -- in some cases, and with dubious legality -- it allows them to spoof their region of origin to get access to streaming media and sports blacked out from their home locale. There is no doubt that you should use a VPN service provider when you're using public Wi-Fi when away from home. But what about when you're at home? Should you use a VPN then? My general advice is that using a VPN is not critical for most people at home, since your ISP rarely wants to look at your traffic. But if you live in an apartment with a bunch of curious roommates all sharing one router, a VPN might prove valuable. If you're connecting to work and want to make sure you're taking all the precautions you can (and if your employer hasn't given you a corporate VPN to use) a VPN service would be useful. If you're connecting to websites that log connection information and you don't want to leave tracks where you are (especially where your home is), you might want to use a VPN. You get the idea: If you want extra protection and safety at home, then a VPN isn't a bad idea. In this article, we look at a bunch of our top VPN solutions. We'll cover many of the best VPN service providers, how to access the native VPNs built into your desktop machine, and even how to use your NAS as a VPN client and host. If you're curious about VPNs, you can learn a lot more in our massive VPN FAQ. Four tips to help you evaluate 1. Pay attention to trial period times and use them: Every VPN performs differently, and every user experience is going to be different still. Your ISP will offer different speeds than mine. Your favorite coffee shop has a different network connection than mine. You're even likely to be connecting to different countries and definitely different sites. Before committing to a VPN provider, test candidates thoroughly in your real-world environment. That's what the trial times and money-back guarantees are for. 2. Avoid free VPN providers: Running a VPN is expensive and if the VPN provider doesn't make money from your service fees, they're going to make money from your data -- sometimes even stealing your personal information and selling it. Stick with the proven commercial vendors we've tested. 3. Don't worry about country of jurisdiction, unless: There are generally two classes of VPN users, those who need to protect their coffee shop surfing and those counting on a VPN to protect their lives. VPN often provides a level of security theatre where folks get bent out of shape if a country has any form of data jurisdiction. But as I showed in this article, many countries outside of the so-called Five Eyes are Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties signatories and will share data with the US and other countries anyway. If you're using a VPN to protect your life, research this a lot more than reading a review article. 4. Finally, don't sweat warrant canaries and no log policies: Most of you are going to use a VPN to protect your data stream from being hijacked by someone sharing your network. All of these big legal and jurisdictional issues get in the way of the simple fact that you want fast transfers and an encrypted tunnel from your spot in the airport to the website you're trying to access. And with that, let's dig into what makes the best VPNs tick and answer some more of your questions at the end of this article, so read on. But first, our picks for the best VPNs of 2021. Best VPN providers If you're curious about how VPNs work or what a VPN provider can do for you, here's a great VPN overview article. Now that you understand how a VPN service can help keep you safe, let's kick it off with our list of recommended service providers. A top-rated VPN provider © Provided by ZDNet best-vpn-expressvpn-review.Png Simultaneous Connections: 5 or unlimited with the router app Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: A whole lot (see the full list here) Logging: No browsing logs, some connection logs Countries: 94 Locations: 160 Trial/MBG: 30 days ExpressVPN is one of the most popular VPN providers out there, offering a wide range of platforms and protocols. Platforms include Windows, Mac, Linux, routers, iOS, Android, Chromebook, Kindle Fire, and even the Nook device. There are also browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. Plus, ExpressVPN works with PlayStation, Apple TV, Xbox, Amazon Fire TV, and the Nintendo Switch. There's even a manual setup option for Chromecast, Roku, and Nvidia Switch. Also: ExpressVPN review: A fine VPN service With 160 server locations in 94 countries, ExpressVPN has a considerable VPN network across the internet. In CNET's review of the service, staff writer Rae Hodge reported that ExpressVPN lost less than 2% of performance with the VPN enabled and using the OpenVPN protocol vs. A direct connection. While the company does not log browsing history or traffic destinations, it does log dates connected to the VPN service, amount transferred, and VPN server location. We do want to give ExpressVPN kudos for making this information very clear and easily accessible. Exclusive offer: Get 3 extra months free. View Now at ExpressVPN Leak-free and unlimited connections © Provided by ZDNet surfshark.Jpg Photo by David Clode on Unsplash Simultaneous Connections: Unlimited Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Fire TV, Firefox, Chrome Logging: None, except billing data Trial/MBG: 30 day At two bucks a month for a two-year plan (billed in one chunk), Surfshark offers a good price for a solid offering. In CNET's testing, no leaks were found (and given that much bigger names leaked connection information, that's a big win). The company seems to have a very strong security focus, offering AES-256-GCM, RSA-2048, and Perfect Forward Secrecy encryption. To prevent WebRTC leaks, Surfshark offers a special purpose browser plugin designed specifically to combat those leaks. Also: NordVPN vs. Surfshark: Which VPN is best for you? Surfshark's performance was higher than NordVPN and Norton Secure VPN, but lower than ExpressVPN and IPVanish. That said, Surfshark also offers a multihop option that allows you to route connections through two VPN servers across the Surfshark private network. We also like that the company offers some inexpensive add-on features, including ad-blocking, anti-tracking, access to a non-logging search engine, and a tool that tracks your email address against data breach lists. View Now at Surfshark Interesting options to enhance VPN safety and protection © Provided by ZDNet nordvpn.Jpg Photo by Karl Köhler on Unsplash Simultaneous Connections: 6 Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, Android TV, Chrome, Firefox Logging: None, except billing data Countries: 59 Servers: 5517 Trial/MBG: 30 day NordVPN is one of the most popular consumer VPNs out there. Last year, Nord announced that it had been breached. Unfortunately, the breach had been active for more than 18 months. While there were failures at every level, NordVPN has taken substantial efforts to remedy the breach. Also: My in-depth review of NordVPN In our review, we liked that it offered capabilities beyond basic VPN, including support of P2P sharing, a service it calls Double VPN that does a second layer of encryption, Onion over VPN which allows for TOR capabilities over its VPN, and even a dedicated IP if you're trying to run a VPN that also doubles as a server. It supports all the usual platforms and a bunch of home network platforms as well. The company also offers NordVPN Teams, which provides centralized management and billing for a mobile workforce. Also: My interview with NordVPN management on how they run their service Performance testing was adequate, although ping speeds were slow enough that I wouldn't want to play a twitch video game over the VPN. To be fair, most VPNs have pretty terrible ping speeds, so this isn't a weakness unique to Nord. Overall, a solid choice, and with a 30-day money-back guarantee, worth a try. View Now at NordVPN Deep capabilities hidden in an easy-to-use app © Provided by ZDNet ipvanish.Jpg Simultaneous Connections: Unlimited Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, Chrome, plus routers, Fire Stick, and Kodi Logging: None, except billing data Servers: 1,500 Locations: 75 Trial/MBG: 30 day IPVanish is a deep and highly configurable product that presents itself as a click-and-go solution. I think the company is selling itself short doing this. A quick visit to its website shows a relatively generic VPN service, but that's not the whole truth. Also: My in-depth review of IPVanish Its UI provides a wide range of server selection options, including some great performance graphics. It also has a wide variety of protocols, so no matter what you're connecting to, you can know what to expect. The company also provides an excellent server list with good current status information. There's also a raft of configuration options for the app itself. In terms of performance, connection speed was crazy fast. Overall transfer performance was good. However, from a security perspective, it wasn't able to hide that I was connecting via a VPN -- although the data transferred was secure. Overall, a solid product with a good user experience that's fine for home connections as long as you're not trying to hide the fact that you're on a VPN. The company also has a partnership with SugarSync and provides 250GB of encrypted cloud storage with each plan. View Now at IPVanish Open source with a dedicated focus on security © Provided by ZDNet protonvpn.Jpg Simultaneous Connections: Depends on plan Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, routers Logging: None, except billing data Countries: 54 Servers: 1,077 Trial/MBG: 30 day We really like the ProtonVPN story. The company was created by engineers and scientists who met at CERN (the European Center for Nuclear Research -- where the Web was invented) with a focus on creating encrypted email and VPN communications with the idea of protecting the communication of activists and journalists. The company is also headquartered in Switzerland, which has very strong privacy laws. In terms of product, ProtonVPN has a belt-and-suspenders approach to security, layering strong protocols on top of perfect forward secrecy, on top of strong encryption. Not only does ProtonVPN have a kill switch, but it also has an always-on VPN, which attempts to restore VPN service if it's dropped mid-communication. Finally, we like that all apps are open source and the company reports that they are independently audited. Finally, the company offers a very generous free VPN service, allowing one machine to connect at medium speed, but there doesn't appear to be any limit to the amount of data used in the free plan. View Now at Proton VPN service hosted on its own infrastructure © Provided by ZDNet vypervpn.Jpg Golden Frog, the company behind VyprVPN, claims to be "A company as old as the Internet itself," yet its own about page says the company was founded in 2009. Apparently, the founders of Golden Frog were founding companies back in the 90s, and they conflated the two facts. I'm always a bit uncomfortable when a security company conflates facts. On the plus side, we like that Golden Frog owns and manages its own infrastructure and does not rely on hosting companies. VPN infrastructure is often a murky thing, with the VPN service providers renting time from available data centers in host countries. The company offers a huge array of client software, including apps for routers and even BlackBerry devices. Apps support key features like a kill switch, a zero-knowledge DNS service, and their own Chameleon VPN protocol for added security. The company's no-log service was last audited in 2018, so they're a bit overdue. Golden Frog, also registered in Switzerland, is a standout in their effort to provide privacy and thwart censorship. When China began its program of deep packet VPN inspection, Golden Frog's VyprVPN service added scrambled OpenVPN packets to keep the traffic flowing. View Now at Golden Frog It's Norton, a known and trusted brand. What else is there to say? © Provided by ZDNet norton.Jpg Photo by John Salvino on Unsplash Simultaneous Connections: Based on plan Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android Logging: None, except billing data Countries: Unspecified Locations: Unspecified Trial/MBG: 60 day We found performance is middle-of-the-road and platforms are limited to Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android. Don't even think of using it on routers, Linux, or gaming platforms. Pricing is weirdly and unnecessarily tiered. The service raises its price by ten bucks when you jump from 1 device to 5, and another ten bucks when you jump to ten devices. Given the full ten simultaneous device package is a good deal at $59, it's odd that it's nickel-and-diming the lower tiers. Also: Norton Secure VPN review: More work is needed for this privacy product to shine We're recommending Norton not as much because it's a great VPN (it's really kinda meh), but because it's from a brand we've long come to know and trust. The company also offers live 24/7 phone support and has an excellent 60-day money-back guarantee. The company also offers a generous 60-day money-back guarantee, but oddly doesn't promote it. The only place it's mentioned is deep inside their refund policy document. View Now at Norton Clear and understandable instructions © Provided by ZDNet strongvpn.Jpg Simultaneous Connections: 12 Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, Fire TV, Synology, Kindle, Kodi, and routers Logging: None, except billing data Countries: 30+ Servers: 950+ Trial/MBG: 30 day StrongVPN stands out because its setup, website, and support materials are clear and easy to understand. We found setup to offer just the right amount of explanation when we needed it. Also: My StrongVPN in-depth review The fact that StrongVPN doesn't log anything is a big win, but it's offset a bit by the fact that our testing showed endpoints can tell you're using a VPN. To be sure, data is nicely encrypted, but if you're trying to hide the fact that you're on a VPN, Strong isn't for you. That said, it had solid performance, an excellent UI, and did the job. Plus, they recently upped the number of simultaneous connections from five to twelve. That's nice to see. The company also includes 250 GB of SugarSync secure storage with all plans. View Now at StrongVPN Astonishing performance © Provided by ZDNet hotspot.Jpg Photo by Sergi Viladesau on Unsplash Simultaneous Connections: 5 Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, router, TV Logging: None, except billing data Countries: 80 Locations: 115 Trial/MBG: 45 days This is a company that has had some ups and downs in its coverage. That said, the company seems to have resolved its issues successfully. But I'm burying the lede for this story. Here's what you need to know about Hotspot Shield: performance was astonishing. Also: My in-depth review of Hotspot Shield The company kept sending me bragging emails, claiming exceptional performance. Since reviewers often (always) get "we're the best" emails, it's something we ignore like the background noise it usually is. But then my editor challenged me to put Hotspot Shield to the test. And you know what? For most countries, while the VPN connection was active, it actually out-performed non-VPN connection speed. Go ahead and read my review. Surprised the heck out of me. View Now at Hotspot Shield A bundle of safety and security features beyond VPN © Provided by ZDNet cyberghost.Jpg Photo by Steinar Engeland on Unsplash Simultaneous Connections: 7 Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: All you'd expect and a lot more Logging: None, except billing data Countries: 89 Servers: 6,381 Trial/MBG: 45 days The CyberGhost client is more than a VPN connection driver. The company's offering is a decently complete full security system, including ad-blocking, malicious website blocking, online footprint blocking (blocking cookies from dropping), and forced https redirect. Also: My in-depth review of CyberGhost With more than 6,000 servers deployed in 89 countries and 112 locations, CyberGhost has a larger number of servers than many of the other VPN providers we surveyed. Performance was adequate. It provided enough bandwidth to stream video and get your job done, but it certainly wasn't a rocket. Also, if you're trying to hide the fact that you're using a VPN, you'll want to look elsewhere. That said, for a solid overall security package, CyberGhost is a good option. View Now at CyberGhost 31-day guarantee because sometimes that extra day matters © Provided by ZDNet purevpn.Jpg Photo by Adam Vradenburg on Unsplash Simultaneous Connections: 10 Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and a lot more Logging: None, except billing data Countries: 140 Servers: 2,000 Trial/MBG: 31 day Most VPN providers license their international server presence from local providers all over the globe. PureVPN doesn't. They own their own self-managed network of more than 2,000 servers in 140 countries. This allows the company to support its full range of protocols (OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP, and IKEv2). It also offers PPTP, but it's so porous, you probably shouldn't use it. Given the tough times due to the novel coronavirus, PureVPN has sent its support folks home, but they're up and running providing 24/7 support from the safety of sheltering in place. So even though business isn't as usual, PureVPN has, like many companies, routed around the problem using internet technology to keep connected. We also like the 31-day money-back guarantee, support for a wide range of devices, including Kodi, Roku, and Boxee boxes. View Now at PureVPN A tremendous number of VPN servers © Provided by ZDNet pia.Jpg Simultaneous Connections: 10 Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, Chrome, Firefox, Opera Logging: None, except billing data Countries: 76 Servers: 17,605 Trial/MBG: 30 day One of the more interesting aspects of Private Internet Access is the wealth of payment options the company offers. Sure, you can pay by credit card. But you can also pay with cryptocurrencies including BitcoinCash, Bitcoin, Zcash, Ethereum, and Litecoin. If you're not all up on the crypto-craze but still don't want to leave a record of your payment, you can use over 100 brands of gift cards, including those from Best Buy, GameStop, Home Depot, Lowes, Target, and Walmart. The company supports a good range of protocols and you can use it on your customized DD-WRT router. We do like the quick setup, included ad, malware, and tracker blocker, and unlimited bandwidth is always appreciated. View Now at Private Internet Access Relative newcomer that keeps improving each time we look at them © Provided by ZDNet goose3.Jpg Photo by Cephas CC BY-SA 3.0 on Wikipedia Simultaneous Connections: Unlimited Kill Switch: Yes Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Android TV, Linux, Chrome, routers Logging: None, except billing data Countries: Unspecified Locations: Unspecified Trial/MBG: 30 day Here's the thing about Goose VPN. It's called "goose VPN." That's nearly irresistible for a writer. When I asked, I was told geese make excellent guard animals, having performed guard duty in ancient Rome, an Air Defense Command base in Germany, and a brewery in Scotland. Hence Goose VPN, where the goose is the mascot for a service that guards your Internet access. When I first started talking to the folks at Goose VPN a few years ago, they didn't offer a kill switch and only had clients for the Big Four. But, as time went on, they've been adding features and capabilities regularly and their offering is now a nice, robust system. Plus, here's something really cool. Unfortunately, since the last time we looked at them, the company ditched its lifetime plan. Now, they offer yearly plan durations similar to their competitors. Finally, the company offers a reasonable 30-day money-back guarantee. View Now at Goose VPN Native VPN support on your desktop If you're connecting to a corporate VPN, you may not need to purchase a VPN service. All the major desktop operating systems include VPN capabilities. Here's how to get started using those. Connect to a corporate VPN with Apple © Provided by ZDNet mac.Jpg Photo by Michail Sapiton on Unsplash If you're connecting to an existing corporate virtual private network, you may not need an additional service. MacOS comes with native VPN support built right in. Apple provides VPN support for High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, and now Big Sur. Just pop open System Preferences, head over to the Network tab, and either import the configuration file you were provided or hit the plus button and add a VPN interface. Here's a handy tip sheet from Apple that will walk you through the process. View Now at Apple Connect to a corporate VPN with Microsoft © Provided by ZDNet microsoft-surface-book-2-tablet-black-friday-ad-deals-sales.Jpg If you're connecting to an established corporate VPN, all you need to do is add a new Windows 10 VPN connection. Point your mouse at the Start menu, hit Settings, then Network & Internet, and then VPN. Make sure you have the connection details provided by work and then click on Add a New VPN Connection. Fill in the form and you're good to go. Here's a handy tip sheet from Microsoft. Windows 10 also allows you to host a VPN server by creating a new incoming network connection, choosing the users who can connect, and telling Windows that the incoming connection is across the internet. You'll also have to configure your router to allow traffic to your computer. PureInfoTech has a helpful guide for setting it all up. View Now at Microsoft Connect your laptop with Google © Provided by ZDNet chromebook.Jpg Sadly, this simple solution isn't built into the standard Chrome browser. If you're just using the browser on a Mac or Windows machine, you'll need a different solution. That said, if you're rocking a Chromebook, all you need to do is open Settings and then Network. Click Add Connection. Then all you need to do is choose between OpenVPN and L2TP over IPSec. Google has a handy cheat sheet right here to guide you through the process. View Now at Google Another reason to love open source © Provided by ZDNet wireeguard.Jpg Photo by Rekjezt on Unsplash WireGuard is Linux's new baked-in VPN capability. Its code is relatively simple and small, making it far easier to maintain, test, and debug. Linus Torvalds, Mr. Linux himself, calls WireGuard "a work of art." Also: Linux's WireGuard VPN is here and ready to protect you So what do you need to set up WireGuard? More and more of the VPNs we spotlighted support WireGuard right out of the box. You can download it for Linux. But you can also download a package for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and FreeBSD. It's like most open source products, in that you'll need to do some reading and thinking to make it work. But it's free, solid, safe, and, as Linus says, "Can I just once again state my love for it." View Now at WireGuard VPN for your whole home network Many of the commercial VPN services discussed above offer router-based VPN solutions. Even though I have a pretty powerful router, I prefer to run my VPN on my NAS. Here are two NAS-based VPN solutions that will get you connected securely. Built-in VPN app on the NAS © Provided by ZDNet synology.Jpg If you have a NAS like the top-reviewed Synology, you may already have a NAS app you can set up and protect your whole home network. The Synology server has a very capable little VPN built-in, and it's available free to anyone with the NAS. If you want to go a step further and use some Synology-exclusive VPN services like Synology SSL VPN, clientless WebVPN, and remote desktop, as well as a site-to-site VPN service, you can do so using the Synology router I reviewed last year. That service is called VPN Plus and it normally costs $9.99 per concurrent user. But because of COVID-19, Synology's offering free VPN Plus between now and September. View Now at Synology A mini-FAQ about VPNs I answered a bunch of common questions above our big list of the best VPNs for 2021. But here's a quick lightning round of questions and answers about VPNs, just to round out your knowledge. Do VPN providers limit usage? Some do. Check when you sign up. For non-free plans, none of the providers we recommended limit the amount of data you can use. But almost all limit how many devices you can use at once. What does logging really mean? Logging is the recording of data about your usage and it occurs everywhere. Every website, at minimum, records an IP address, time, and data accessed so they can track traffic. All VPN providers have to check credentials against recorded personal data to make sure you paid, but a few let you sign up with Bitcoin, allowing you to completely hide your identity. When we say a VPN doesn't log data, we mean they don't track what sites you visit and for how long, but they may track how much of their own infrastructure you use. Is it legal to use a VPN? Yes, in most countries. Some countries (and you should read my guide for more in-depth info) have made VPN use illegal. And even in countries where it's legal, it's likely to be illegal to use a VPN to spoof a streaming service into giving you content that otherwise wouldn't be accessible. Plus... Can I use a VPN to get free Netflix or watch a blacked-out sports event? Sometimes, but it's likely illegal and probably fattening. There's an ongoing arms race where the media vendors are getting better at identifying and blocking VPN connections, so each case is different. And that's all we can say about it, because... Illegal. If I have a VPN to my office, do I need a VPN service? The VPN to your office will secure your link to your office. If you want to secure your link to anywhere else, you'll need a VPN service. Should I use a VPN on my phone or tablet? If it's your data and you want it to be secure, yes. The same choices are valid regardless of what kind of device you use to transmit and receive data over the Internet. What's this kill switch thing? So let's say you're surfing along and all of a sudden your VPN connection fails. Your phone or computer is likely to immediately try to reconnect and do so directly, without going through a VPN. All of a sudden your data is unprotected. A kill switch is a feature in your device's VPN app that detects that connection fails and immediately shuts down network access. Like with everything, it's not a 100% perfect solution, but these days, I wouldn't recommend using a VPN that doesn't offer a kill switch. What do simultaneous connections mean and why should I care? I'll give you a personal example. When I travel, I often take my laptop and my tablet. I use the laptop to write and I use the tablet as a second screen to look stuff up. I have two connections I'm using at once and I want my VPN to protect both. If my wife is also doing the same thing, that's four connections. Add our phones and you have six connections. If we're using all those devices at once that's simultaneous connections. The more the better. Does a VPN slow down your connection? Let's be clear: Using a VPN does add a bit of a load on your computer and can often slow down your connection. That's because your data is encrypted, decrypted, and sent through intermediate servers. Game responsiveness might suffer. If you're a first-person shooter player, you might have enough lag to lose the shot. That said, both computers and VPNs have gotten much faster. When I first used a VPN, every... Thing...Slowed... Down... To... An... Unbearable... C-r-a-w-l. But now, the negative impact is almost unnoticeable, and at least one service we spotlight below (Hotspot Shield) actually increased performance, making it one of the fastest VPNs we've seen. Also, most (but not all!) of the VPN providers we spotlight limit the number of devices you can connect simultaneously, so you may have to pick and choose which home devices connect. What about all those weird protocol words? If you've been shopping for a VPN service, you've undoubtedly come across a bunch of names like SSL, OpenVPN, SSTP, L2TP/IPSec, PPP, PPTP, IKEv2/IPSec, SOCKS5, and more. These are all communication protocols. They are, essentially, the name of the method by which your communication is encrypted and packaged for tunneling to the VPN provider. To be honest, while VPN geeks can argue over protocols for hours, you're probably good enough if you just use the default setup by your provider. What's the best free VPN service? We're spotlighting paid services in this article, although some of them offer a free tier. I generally don't recommend free VPN services because I don't consider them secure. Think about this: Running a good VPN service requires hundreds of servers across the world and a ton of networking resources. It's boo-coo expensive. If you're not paying to support that infrastructure, who is? Probably advertisers or data miners. If you use a free service, your data or your eyeballs will probably be sold, and that's never a good thing. After all, you're using a VPN so your data remains secure. You wouldn't want to then have all that data go to some company to sift through -- it completely defeats the purpose. Now, before you choose a VPN service, free or paid, I want to make it clear that no one tool can guarantee your privacy. First, anything can be hacked. But more to the point, a VPN protects your data from your computer to the VPN service. It doesn't protect what you put on servers. It doesn't protect your data from the VPN provider's VPN servers to whatever site or cloud-based application you're using. It doesn't give you good passwords or multifactor authentication. Privacy and security require you to be diligent throughout your digital journey, and VPNs, while quite helpful, are not a miracle cure. How to choose I could write an entire article about how VPNs work and how to choose, and, in fact, I did. Rather than repeating it all here, I'm just going to point you to How to find the best VPN service: Your guide to staying safe on the internet. Must read: Our process This list did not involve as much original research and testing as some of my other recommendation lists. That's because I've been writing VPN articles every month or so since early 2017. I have looked at a lot of VPN providers. Also: Fastest VPN: How we rated the top services Many of the providers recommended in this list have been subject to in-depth testing and reviews, written either by me or by CNET's product evaluation team. For those, we have tangible testing numbers. Other VPNs have been ones we've been talking about for years, spoken with their management and their users, and have developed a generally positive impression. A few of the VPNs (Hotspot Shield, in particular) had a more rocky road. They had some tough PR at the beginning and made some seemingly ludicrous claims about speed. It wasn't until I brought them in house and pounded on them for a few weeks that I realized that their claims were justified. Sometimes, products just surprise you. But here's the thing: All these vendors have solid money-back guarantees and we would not have recommended them otherwise. We do test VPN services from multiple locations, but we can't test from all locations. Every home, every community, every local ISP, and every nation has a different infrastructure. It's essential that once you choose, you test for all your likely usage profiles, and only then make the decision to keep the service or request a refund. One thing to consider is whether you're looking for a solution for working at home vs. Traveling. For example, if you travel rarely (even before COVID-19), have strong bandwidth at home, and have a NAS or a server box, you might want to VPN to your home server from your machine's native client, and then out to the world. If you're newly home for the duration and your company has a dedicated VPN, you'll want to use whatever process they've set out for you. Must read: But, generally speaking, it doesn't hurt to have a VPN provider already set up and in your kit bag. Most home-based traffic won't require VPN usage, but if you're on any sort of shared connection, having a VPN provider is a good idea. Also, if you ever think you'll need to access the Internet from out and about -- like a hospital or doctor's office, then having a VPN provider can be a win. Likewise, if you want to obscure where you're connecting from (this might be more important now that we're always in the same place all day), a VPN provider might help. Finally, don't expect miracles. Your home-based pandemic broadband pipes are likely to be more clogged than ever before. Everyone is at home, many people are streaming movies to stay sane, and there are only so many bits that can fit at any given time. If you experience traffic slowdowns, be sure to check not only your VPN, but your Wi-Fi connection between your device and your router, your connection to your broadband provider, and even their connection to upstream providers. That said, we're all in this together. Hang in there and stay safe. How are you managing your home-based networking? Let us know in the comments below. You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.Com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.Com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.Com/DavidGewirtzTV. Top 10 Best VPN Services UK 2021 Here are some common VPN terms you may come across and what they mean. ISP – Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is the company you pay for access to the internet. Big UK ISPs include the likes of SKY, BT, Plusnet and TalkTalk. Server – A machine (physical or virtual) that serves a computer (your laptop or smartphone) with the resources, data, services, or programs they ask for. Tunnelling – The process of creating a secure and private channel of communication between a user (you) and a website or service. Split-tunnelling – The ability to send data from different apps to different servers through separate tunnels. For example, you might use one tunnel for your web browser and another for your Netflix app. Logs – In VPN parlance, a log is a record of your online activity. Every VPN in our best VPNs for 2021 list has a strict no-log policy, which means they don’t keep records of how you use them and therefore can’t be ordered to hand them over to anyone else. Encryption – The process of translating information into code that can’t be deciphered without the correct encryption keys. Megabits per second (Mbps) – Units used to measure download and upload speeds. Megabits per second is an expression of the amount of digital data transferred from one terminal to another in one second. DNS – DNS stands for Domain Name Servers. A DNS translates a web address like forbes.Com into a string of numbers. When you type a web address into your web browser, you make a request to a DNS and it returns the corresponding string of numbers your web browser needs to visit the website. DNS leak – When you use a VPN, DNS requests as described above should be encrypted and sent through a ‘tunnel’. It’s possible that this information can ‘leak’ from the tunnel if your VPN doesn’t properly protect you or was misconfigured, exposing details of the website you visit to your ISP and other third parties. Protocol – A protocol is way of doing things. A VPN protocol is a set of rules that determine how a VPN application connects to a server. Some protocols offer faster download speeds than others, while others are more secure or offer a balance between speed and security. Kill switch – A VPN kill switch automatically disconnects you from the internet in the event your VPN connection is lost. This protects you from temporarily exposing unencrypted data. Double VPN – Some VPN services allow you to connect from your computer to another server via a server in the middle as an additional layer of security. For example, you might connect to a server in Germany and then connect to a server in Canada via that German server. Get Two Years Of This Top Rated VPN For Just $70 For A Limited Time Get two years of this top rated VPN for just $70 for a limited time | PCWorld '); try { IDG.GPT.AddDisplayedAd("gpt-superstitial", "true"); $('#gpt-superstitial').ResponsiveAd({screenSize:'971 1115', scriptTags: []}); IDG.GPT.Log("Creating ad: gpt-superstitial [971 1115]"); } catch (exception) { console.Log("Error with IDG.GPT: " + exception); } Today's Best Tech Deals Picked by PCWorld's Editors Top Deals On Great Products Picked by Techconnect's Editors We’re being kind when we say that hackers are annoying. If you’ve ever been victimized, then you probably have some other choice words to describe them. But here’s the thing: You can protect yourself against getting hacked, and it doesn’t have to cost a small fortune either. 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Private Internet Access VPN: 2-Yr Subscription - $69.95 See Deal Prices subject to change. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. Our DealPost commerce team presents the best deals on products and services from online retailers and our partners. "); }); try { $("div.Lazyload_blox_ad").LazyLoadAd({ threshold : 0, // You can set threshold on how close to the edge ad should come before it is loaded. Default is 0 (when it is visible). forceLoad : false, // Ad is loaded even if not visible. 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IPL 2021 SUSPEND

 

IPL 2021 Suspended: Top 10 Batsmen to Have Hit Most Sixes this Season 

  IPL 2021 Suspended: Top 10 Batsmen to Have Hit Most Sixes this Season T20 cricket is all about batsmen trying to clear the ropes and bowlers trying to contain them. Flat surfaces and short boundaries have seen batsmen take their batting up several notches. This year, IPL 2021 has been postponed mid-season due to the rising cases of COVID-19 even inside bio-secure bubbles. ALSO READ – Rescheduling IPL 2021: Available Windows, Potential Venues And Challenges Explained As half of the season has been played, here we will take a look at the top 10 six hitters of IPL 2021. KL Rahul: 16 sixes PBKS skipper KL Rahul was once again the man in firm as he led the charts with 331 runs at a strike rate of 136.21 that included four fifties from 16 sixes. Jonny Bairstow: 15 sixes The England and Sunrisers Hyderabad opener was in superb hitting form as he smacked 248 runs at a strike rate of 141.71 that included 15 sixes. Ambati Rayudu: 13 sixes Chennai Super Kings’ Ambati Rayudu brought out his A-game against Mumbai Indians as he smashed 7 sixes to enter the Top 3 with 13 sixes in total. Jos Buttler: 13 sixes Jos Buttler found form against the Sunrisers Hyderabad where he scored 124 runs and in the process also entered the top 5 batsmen to have hit the most number of sixes. He hit 13 sixes in seven games. Andre Russell: 13 Sixes KKR struggled to find momentum this season, but their main man Andre Russell did find his range as he smashed 13 sixes in 7 matches this year. Faf du Plessis: 13 sixes Chennai Super Kings opener Faf du Plessis was in excellent form. The South African has smacked as many as 13 sixes in IPL 2021 in seven games with a strike rate of 141.50. Kieron Pollard: 13 sixes Mumbai Indians’ Kieron Pollard brought out his range and power against the Chennai Super Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi as he hit 8 sixes to steer his side to 4-wicket win. In the process, he also notched up 13 sixes which sees him in the top 10 spots. Moeen Ali: 12 Sixes Chennai Super Kings’ newest recruit Moeen Ali fitted in perfectly with their scheme of things and added great balance to the side. Coming in at number 3, Moeen smashed 12 sixes in 6 matches in the competition. ALSO READ – India vs England: IPL Stars in Fray as Selectors Set to Pick 30-Man Squad Prithvi Shaw: 12 sixes The young right-hander was in roaring form in the Vijay Hazare trophy and continued this in the IPL. He was the star at the top of the order where he smashed 12 sixes to give Delhi the perfect start. Rohit Sharma: 11 sixes The Mumbai Indians skipper was in great form for this side this year and he hit 11 sixes in IPL 2021 and scored 250 runs before the league was called off. Get all the IPL news and Cricket Score here Got responsibility during IPL, utilised it well: Avesh Khan NEW DELHI: Pace bowler Avesh Khan, who has been included as stand-by in the India squad for the Test tour of England and will travel with the team, says his performance in the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) has provided him a lot of confidence."I played all the matches [for Delhi Capitals] this time, so I was definitely feeling very confident. I bowled very well. The team also won matches. We were at the top of the table so I was feeling very confident," Khan, who picked 14 wickets in eight matches, told IANS.Khan was second, along with Chris Morris, in the race for Purple Cap, awarded to the highest wicket-taker of the tournament. The IPL was, however, postponed at the halfway stage after the IPL bio-bubble burst and four teams were impacted by Coronavirus."I got responsibility and I utilised it very well. I bowled at every stage ? with the new ball, middle-overs and death overs. The team's coaches and captain gave me a lot of confidence so whatever situation I got I did really well every time," said Avesh.The 24-year-old right-arm pacer played in all eight of DC's matches this season. Across the last four editions, from 2017 to 2020, he played in only nine matches.The Indore-based Khan, who represents Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket, has been doing well in first-class cricket. He has 100 wickets in 26 first-class games. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s this season, he picked 14 wickets in five matches to be third in the list of wicket-takers.Khan picked 28 wickets in five Ranji Trophy matches in the 2019-20 season; this season the tournament was cancelled due to Covid-19. Prior to that, in 2018-19, he picked 35 wickets in seven matches.Khan was the highest wicket-taker for MP in both the seasons. While there were other bowlers from other states who took more wickets, Avesh's rich haul came in a limited number of matches. The 2020-21 season did not happen."I have been doing well in domestic cricket over the past two seasons, but IPL has got me into limelight. In Mushtaq Ali too this year, I have 14 wickets in five matches," said the tall pace bowler who was picked as a net bowler for the Test series against England.Asked if switching from T20 mode to Test mode will be tough and what changes he expects to make to his bowling, Avesh said, "Consistency on good length area is important there. The more I do that, the better it will be. Test match is about patience. The more you bowl with patience in the good length area the better it will be."Khan feels the confidence gained in IPL helps players. "Confidence in IPL helps. If you do well there, your confidence goes up. Focus improves and importantly, you learn to do well under pressure. We get the belief that we can do well at the international level, in Test matches too," he said."DC coach Ricky Ponting asked me to bowl with focus and give 100%. It helped with Rishabh as captain of DC, have played with him before. Whatever mistakes there were in the match, we [Rishabh and Khan] used to discuss after the match," said the bowler.Khan hired a dietician recently, before England's tour of India, during which he was called up as a net bowler."I have hired a dietician for fitness, and I have lost weight. I have controlled my eating habit a bit. Every day Sooraj [the dietician] gives me a different diet. The day I rest, the diet is different from the day I practice. Then, the match-day diet is different. That has helped me," he says. When and where can IPL 2021 be rescheduled to? On Thursday, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly suggested that the 2021 IPL could be completed in a window just prior to the men's T20 World Cup. That was the first public hint of the windows the BCCI is looking at for the rescheduling. At the moment India remains the host for the global event, scheduled to run from mid-October to November 14. But in the wake of the IPL's postponement and uncertainty over how the pandemic progresses in India, the ICC could be forced to consider the UAE as the venue for its event. 2 Related There are still 31 matches left in the IPL. Three weeks with multiple double-headers across a few venues are likely to be enough. That leaves two realistic options in 2021 in which the BCCI could complete the tournament, either side of the T20 World Cup. ESPNcricinfo examines the pros and cons of each. Late September window Where India, UAE or even England could play hosts at this time of the year. Given the course of the pandemic, the UAE remains a favorite, having conducted a largely incident-free IPL in 2020. And if the T20 World Cup is also played in the UAE, it eases the logistical challenges of players moving between bubbles. England could be an option given that India will already be there till mid-September for their five-Test series. Also, there could be a number of overseas players participating in England's various domestic competitions, including The Hundred. Challenge The biggest challenge will be to squeeze the tournament in the limited time between the end of India's England tour and the T20 World Cup. The fifth Test in Manchester is scheduled to end on September 14. Although the ICC is yet to announce the itinerary for the T20 World Cup, it is expected to start around October 16. Accounting for quarantine periods and warm-up games wherever the tournament is held, teams will be expected to start arriving around the end of September. After a long tour, the Indian players will likely want at least a week-long break. That would then leave just about under two weeks of free time before the teams head to the World Cup, although England's players - a significant presence in the IPL - are scheduled to be part of tours to Bangladesh and Pakistan in October. Workload will also be a factor for India's players as they face the prospect of a long Test series, then the IPL, and then the T20 World Cup one after the other. The party begins for the Mumbai Indians BCCI Late November window Where India or the UAE will be the two primary contenders at this time, and for the tournament to be played right after the T20 World Cup ends. Although if it is in the UAE, Abu Dhabi will not be available as it is scheduled to host the fifth edition of the T10 league from November 14. Challenge Franchises will be concerned about the unavailability of overseas players especially from Australia and England, who will be involved in the Ashes from late November. Virtually all the countries, including India, are scheduled to play bilateral cricket immediately following the T20 World Cup. India themselves are scheduled to host New Zealand for two Tests and three T20Is between November-December. Bangladesh, meanwhile, will host Pakistan for a series comprising two Tests and three T20s. Afghanistan will be in Zimbabwe from late November for a one-off Test, three ODIs, and three T20Is. South Africa and West Indies, though, will be free during that time. If India can defer the New Zealand series and manage to find replacements for absent Australian and England players, the November window might look a better fit for the BCCI.

Famliy tree of mughal

Foundation of mughal empire 

Where The Seeds Of Mughal India's Disintegration Were Sown...

 If it was not for the family tragedy that struck the Mughals in 1631, Burhanpur would have been the capital of Mughal India. But, 388 years after Mumtaz’s passing, this town in southern Madhya Pradesh is oblivious to its luminescent past, and chokes in the dust and sand whipped up by the endless caravan of trucks passing through the town. Burhanpur was the capital of the Farooqi sultans, and later the de-facto capital and a favourite of the Mughals south of the Yamuna. A city famous for its textiles, Burhanpur had looms that provided huge revenue for the Mughal princess Jahanara and her younger brother Aurangzeb. But the atmosphere of romance probably ended when the royal family lost two of its princesses here in quick succession. One was Mumtaz Mahal, the other Bilqis Jahan. Lying 121 kilometres away from the Omkareshwar Temple, you’re bound to make pitstops on the way to Burhanpur. I also stopped at the Asirgarh fort, which was about half an hour from the city. With mossy growth on its massive walls and rampart, and with its several deserted alleys, the structure is a must-see. Once in Burhanpur, I put myself up at the MPTDC-run Tapti Retreat. Though the guest house was not extraordinary, it was still the best that the location could offer, and as a plus point, was at the centre of the old town. I was already late for lunch, arriving close to 3pm, but was pleasantly surprised when the in-house restaurant whipped up a spicy chicken curry and hot rotis. I had been waiting past the seven endless phases of the Election for months until I finally began planning my holiday. Burhanpur had been the raison d’être, and I knew that a long and winding trip across the heart of the country would have to be centred on this city. Burhanpur was majorly nurtured by Abdur Rahim Khan-e-Khana, the son of the great general Bairam Khan and one of Emperor Akbar’s nine Navaratnas. Many architectural wonders in the city, such as the Kundi Bhandara, stemmed from his ideas. He was also the man behind the famous Rahim ke dohe, so such creativity was not surprising. The Kundi Bhandara was an ingenious underground network of water tunnels that collected and transported water in channels from the Satpura mountains to over 100 wells in the city—a feat of medieval engineering. But the network is currently under threat from unplanned urbanisation and the ignorance of heritage. The lift which used to take the tourists 80 feet into the tunnels has also been non-functional for the past three years. As a result, the visit can feel incomplete in the absence of this subterranean journey. A visit to Burhanpur is bound to evoke mixed emotions. In 2019, Burhanpur is an unfortunate showcase of public apathy, administrative indifference, and the lack of basic civic and sanitary planning—as visible from the filth overflowing onto the road and sidewalk. Man and animal live in spite of it and the mosquitoes in it, all having made peace with the omnipresent garbage. But blissfully chaotic is the phrase which may amply describe Burhanpur now. If the days here are marked by broken roads, heat, puddles and dusty air, the evenings are reserved for mouthwatering stalls of tangy kebabs, fish fry, gigantic rumali rotis and sweets. I think Burhanpur sells the largest rumali rotis I’ve ever seen in India, in the rows of stalls near the Jai Stambh that churn out oven-hot piles that are stacked layer upon layer. And later in the night, when the town sleeps, caravans of trucks chug along the ancient trade route, ferrying goods from ‘Hindostan’ to ‘Deccan’. Being a Mughal city, Burhanpur ought to have good non-vegetarian restaurants. Unfortunately, there were not too many sit-in ones, save for the Sattar Mutton Hotel near the Jai Stambh. The food there was deliciously hot, spicy, creamy and fresh, and after many, many years of gorging at KFC, reminded me of what the best desi chicken fry should taste like—or how good a freshly-made mutton curry is. Once a simple family joint, Sattar is today frequented by mostly errants, bachelors and labourers in search of cheap meals. You can get a small plate of biriyani for as little as INR 60. Burhanpur feels like a fort-style town, yet in many places those old walls have been taken down to make way for newer buildings. I learned that newer owners had drilled massive holes in the extant fort walls to create ventilators through which stale air may pass by. In other cases, the walls had been demolished simply to let a road pass through, or to set up shops, temples or government offices. Lying however, among all this pervasive disintegration and dilapidation, are the stages for some of Indian history’s most significant events. To understand the present-day situation of the city, I started at the Badshahi Fort. Set along the Tapti, it is where Shah Jahan—then known as Prince Khurram—had his blind elder brother Khusrau strangled to death in the middle of the night. In killing his elder brother, Khurram had committed an unthinkable act, one that no Timurid prince had attempted in the last four generations. In crossing this Rubicon, as Ira Mukhoty in Daughters of the Sun puts it, descendants would know that “the Mughal throne had become worthy of any sacrifice”. In 1631, it was again Burhanpur that heard the last cry of Arjumand Bano Begum, famously known as Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan’s unending grief for his favourite wife almost found earthly expression on the grounds of Ahukhana, a pleasure mansion and deer hunting lodge built by his opium-addicted elder brother Prince Pervez. The Ahukhana currently lies across the Tapti River in the village of Zainabad. The area even today is known by the same name, although a new village called Ahukhana has also sprung up, leading the occasional tourist to confusion. Here, uncared for and forgotten among the sugarcane fields lies the Mughal queen’s first burial place. Mumtaz’s quarters though, have somewhat escaped the wrath of time and can be seen on the right flank of the Badshahi fort. If the mausoleum for Mumtaz had been built at the Ahukhana instead of Agra, it would have been easily visible from the Badshahi Fort. But two unexpected roadblocks sprung up in the plan: one, the undependable supply of Makrana marble to Burhanpur, and two, the soft Tapti soil. Thus, one of the most enduring engineering and administrative decisions took place: building Mumtaz’s rauza-i munawwara (‘illustrious tomb in a garden’) on the banks of the Yamuna. As a collateral damage of sorts, Raja Jai Singh would have to give up his fruit-tree-laden ancestral property on the Yamuna at Agra for the mammoth project that future generations would come to know as the Taj Mahal. Today, no proper road leads to the Ahukhana. Mumtaz’s original resting place lies beyond recall, uncared and lost in the blinding glory of the marble ensemble at Agra. Mud trails through fields, village garbage and buffalo sheds across the river in Zainabad end up at the gate of the Ahukhana. But the good thing is that Burhanpur has other important monuments of importance, such as the Tomb of Shahnawaz Khan, the Chhatri of Jai Singh I, the Jama Masjid built by the Farooqi dynasty, and Mahal Gulara. Shahnawaz Khan lies buried in a black mausoleum, locally known as the Black Taj, while Mahal Gulara was once a spot for moonlit rendezvous for the heir apparent to the throne of Hindustan. The widespread destruction and disintegration of the monuments and the city leaves one fatigued, and this is when the cool walls of the Jama Masjid seem to invite you in. It is an unusual mosque, with a bilingual mihrab written in Sanskrit and Arabic that points towards the Kaaba. Sitting beside the mosque’s still pool, into which a neem tree leans over, I took a few quiet minutes to myself and contemplated how a city so cherished and loved by one generation could be degraded and deprived by another. I came to Burhanpur with the enthusiasm and curiosity of a traveller. But what I beheld over a period of two days made me desolate. Here lies a town forgotten by time and people. Unloved, it has grown like the adolescent Aurangzeb, who when he did not receive care, turned his wounds outwards with waywardness and harsh acts. Burhanpur is breathed melancholy, a love lost, a world forgotten. A city of sand, dust, broken roads and ravaged walls. What remains with you after a visit is a mournful heart, a realisation of man and the miniscule, and the ephemeral nature of a mortal’s hands. Will I muster the courage to go back, ever again to Burhanpur? It will be a difficult journey in terms of heart, but the reply will be a yes. I truly believe that perhaps someday all the garbage will be cleaned, the roads repaired, the drains cleared of the silt, public restrooms built and traffic regulated. Some day, the tomb of Shah Nawaz Khan will get a proper road, and the Ahukhana will have a sign board, and I will return to soak in the romance and charm of the past. To soak in the pain of loss still reverberating at the Ahukhana. And to soak the last bit of roti in Sattar’s delicious mutton curry. Burhanpur serves as a poignant reminder to us, that in more ways than one, it was not at Shahjahanabad or Agra, nor by the conquests of Shivaji or Nadir Shah, but by the hands of the sons of Timur, that the seeds of disintegration in Mughal India were finally sown. THE INFORMATION GETTING THERE Burhanpur is around 180 kilometres from Indore, the nearest airport. Trains arrive at Burhanpur in Lalbagh, while buses are also available from nearby cities like Omkareshwar, Ujjain, Dhar and Bhopal. However, the best option would be to rent a car from a nearby city. The historical sites in Burhanpur are scattered all over, with no public transport specifically catering to them. Thus, there’s nothing like having a car for comfortable navigation. WHERE TO STAY There are no luxury hotels in Burhanpur, but one can board in lodges and guesthouses. The Madhya Pradesh Tourism-run Hotel Tapti Retreat (from INR 1,690; 07325-242244; tapti@mpstdc. Com) is six kilometres from the railway station, provides decent accommodation, and has a good in-house restaurant. One could also opt for three-star hotels in nearby cities, such as the Hotel Castle Inn in Khandwa (from INR 2,500 for doubles including breakfast, plus taxes; 0733-2224116) or the Sailani Island Resort in Omkareshwar (from INR 6,990 for doubles, including three meals a day, plus taxes; +91-8349002393). WHAT TO SEE & DO >Try Burhanpur’s famous mawa jalebis, Khandeshi daraba, and mande (handkerchief-thin rumali rotis, a local speciality) with lip-smacking Mughlai curries. >Enjoy the paintings and carvings at Shahi Qila, and see Mumtaz’s royal hammam. >Visit the Ahukhana, the Black Taj, the Kundi Bhandara, and Burhanpur’s Jama Masjid. >Take a short road trip and hike up to the top of the Asirgarh fort. Set in the Satpuras, it is surrounded by lush greenery and offers uninterrupted views. >Take a stroll through the serene Dargah-e-Hakimi tomb complex, a pilgrimage site for the Dawoodi Bohra community. Interesting Facts About Udaipur That Every Traveller Should Know Jaisamand Lake or Dhebar Lake situated 48 km from Udaipur, is the second largest artificial freshwater lake in Asia. It was constructed by Maharana Jai Singh in 1685 after building a dam at Gomti River. The Lake is as wide as 14 km wide, approximately 102 ft deep, and has a circumference of 48 km. The tribe Bhil Manas inhabits the three islands on the lake. While the two bigger islands are called Baba ka Magra, the smaller island known as Piari. Lahore And Amritsar: Two Cities Joined At Birth Are Dying Together Amritsar was born in Lahore. It was born inside the walled city, in a small house in its narrow and winding streets. It was the month of Assu, corresponding to the months of September and October in the Gregorian calendar. It was a month when the monsoon rains, having unleashed their fury, had finally taken mercy and receded. The demons of the summer had been defeated, while the tyrant winter was still imprisoned. It was that time of the year when there was perfect harmony, when nights were balanced by day, heat by cold. It was the time of the year so uncharacteristic of the extremities of Punjab that it seemed out of sync, an anomaly, to its vagaries. Amritsar was born in the family of Sodhi Khatri, a family of ancient kings, a family that was destined to rule not just the kingdom of this world, but also the higher realm, miri and piri, as articulated by the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind. These kings were not destined to be ordinary rulers, but true rulers, Sacha Padshah, whose reign would overshadow the reign of the mighty Mughal Empire. This new kingdom that was their destiny was born, along with Amritsar, in Lahore in the year 1534. Amritsar lived in Lahore till it was seven years old, till the time its parents, Hari Das and Mata Daya, were alive. They died in the same year, leaving their child orphaned. The child, initially named Jetha, was raised by his grandmother in a small village, where the child first interacted with Guru Amar Das, the third Sikh Guru, and became his lifelong devotee. Bhai Jetha eventually became a part of the Guru’s family, marrying his daughter Bibi Bhani. Such was his devotion to the Guru that he was chosen as his successor. Bhai Jetha became Guru Ram Das, the founder of Ramdaspur, the name by which Amritsar was once known. Inside the walled city of Lahore, in an area known as Chuna Mandi, close to Kashmiri Gate, there is a gurdwara that marks the spot where Guru Ram Das was born. It was lying in a shambles till a few years ago, much like several other gurdwaras across the country, before it was renovated, along with a number of gurdwaras, by the Pakistani state and opened for Sikh pilgrims. Gurdwara Janamasthan Guru Ram Das in Lahore. Courtesy: Haroon Khalid. Lahore was born in Amristar. Actually, about 11 kilometres west of the city. It was one of a pair of twins, its fate permanently sealed with the city of Kasur that was born with it. It is not possible to pinpoint the exact day, the season or even the year of Lahore’s birth. It first came to existence at a time when time did not exist. There was no history or chronology, only the circular trajectory of mythology. This wasn’t the time of people, but rather of characters, caricatures and archetypes. This was the time of the perfect man, the just king, his perfectly devoted wife, and his perfectly loyal brother. This was the time of the greatest villain, a character so powerful that it was as strong as the power of ten. This was a time when gods and demons lived as men and women, a time when there was either good or evil, nothing in the middle. It was at that time, when history was yet to be conceived, that Lahore was born in the ashram of Bhagwan Valmiki. The greatest sage of his time, for that was a time when nothing existed in ordinariness, Bhagwan Valmiki was composing the greatest book ever, when the cries of Lahore and Kasur first resonated in the ashram. It was the story of their father, of Lord Ram, that Bhagwan Valmiki, the Adi Kavi, the first poet, was composing when he heard these cries. Sita, their mother, had found refuge in this ashram after she had been banished from Ayodhya, following her return from Ravana’s Lanka. It was her story, of her marriage with Ram, of her exile from Ayodhya, of her capture by Ravana, of her rescue by Ram and her trial in Ayodhya that the Adi Kavi had decided to write about. In the process, he composed the first verses of poetry humans had ever realised. Lahore was born with Ramayana. Her twin sons were named Lava and Kusha. Lava founded the city of Lavapur, which came to be known as Lahore, while Kusha founded Kasur. Today, about 11-odd kilometres from Amritsar, Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath Sthal marks the spot where the ashram was located and Lava and Kusha were born. The three cities at their birth were tied together in a triangle, a relation that is now testified by their cartography. In contemporary Lahore, at that highest point of the city, next to the river, where the first signs of civilisation developed, where lie the earliest traces of Lavapur, there is a small temple dedicated to the founder of the city. Inside the Lahore Fort, next to the Alamgiri Gate, are the remains of the temple of Lava. A Lost Past How is one to imagine the cities of Lahore and Amritsar, whose origins are so deeply intertwined, separated today by boundaries that doesn’t just divide geographies and people, but also mythologies, legends, religions, cultures, heroes and villains? It is a border that lies in the middle of these two cities, fabling stories about itself, about its previous incarnations in different forms, telling tales about its inevitability, its naturalness. Chanting mysterious mantras, the border blows in the direction of these cities, transforming their appearances through its prayers. Lahore today is the ultimate symbol of Pakistani nationalism – a Muslim majority city, the site of Lahore Resolution, where the Muslim League first demanded a separate homeland for Muslims, home to Minar-e-Pakistan and host to proud Mughal architecture, the Lahore Fort, Badshahi Masjid, a tradition that marks the zenith of Muslim civilisation in an undivided subcontinent. Besides a few, inconvenient remnants of traditions scattered around the city, all those traces of a pre-Pakistan Lahore have been suffocated and left to die. It is easy, in fact encouraged, to forget about that lost city, that lost geography which connected Lahore with Amritsar and Delhi, a Lahore that emerged as an important economic, political and cultural hub because of its strategic location on that ancient route that flowed from Bengal to Kabul, a river dammed up by the border. Lahore today is still an important city, perhaps more important than it has ever been, but it is not the Lahore of the past. Its contemporary geography and location are an awkward testimony to its changed status. A city that once looked in both directions, has today its back towards the east, and looks desperately towards the west, towards Islamabad, Kabul and beyond in search of a new identity, in search of a new incarnation. The story of Amritsar is not much different. It was wedded to Lahore at its birth, tied a knot with the city that spanned over several centuries. It was a marriage that was sanctified by Valmiki, as Ramayana his witness, by the shabd of the Gurus and the blessings of Sufi saints like Mian Mir. It was a marriage of interdependence, of convenience and even complimentary traits. It was a marriage in which Lahore took on certain roles and Amritsar others. Thus, in 1799, when a young Ranjit Singh took over Lahore, he effectively became the ruler of Punjab, with Lahore the political symbol in his control. But, without the blessings of Amritsar, the spiritual symbol, he could not yet call himself Maharaja. The capture of one was incomplete without control over the other. Lahore held the past, while Amritsar was the future. Lahore was regal, while Amritsar sacred. If Lahore was miri, then Amritsar was piri. The two were not distinct entities, but one. They were an extension of each other, incomplete without the other. Like an archetypical marriage, they were two bodies and one soul. The divorce was sudden, ending the gradual dependence that had developed over (almost) 400 years of marriage. It was an immediate severing of relationship, a violent rupture of all connections. Memories of Lahore, however, continue to haunt Amritsar. It is a relationship the city today searches for, sometimes with Delhi and at other times with Chandigarh. It is that primary relationship that impacts its subsequent relationships. The memory of the divorce lurks within its subconscious, hampering it from fully realising itself, from fully expressing itself. Road To Nowhere The road leads nowhere, meandering non-committally. It’s not meant to be travelled on, to be explored. It is not meant to connect one part with another. It is meant to provide a semblance of connectivity, meant to fill up empty tracts of land. It is aimless, pointless, stranded like a branch of a family tree that has no progeny, that has no purpose. One after another villages and hamlets emerge on both sides of the road. They are the children of distantly related family members with no children of their own. They are no longer part of the immediate family, no longer invited to its events. They are confined within their circles, isolated from the economic structures of the core. Their names represent their marginalized positions – Dera Chahal, Jhaman, Hair and Bedian, terms that have no resonance in contemporary Lahore, the Lahore of Islampura, Rehman Park, Model Town and Defence, a Lahore of postcolonial sensibilities, tinged with the flavour of Islamic nationalism. Gurdwara Dera Chahal on Bedian Road. Courtesy: Haroon Khalid. I am travelling on Bedian Road, a road named after the village Bedian, which in turn was named after the Bedi descendants of Guru Nanak, who were allotted land in this village. It’s only the name that survives, a name that once resonated with significance, a name that today represents nothing but outskirts of Lahore, of vast agricultural fields, downtrodden villages, a dilapidated road and a few luxury farmhouses. Beyond these is the border, casting its spell, chanting its mantra. The road collides with the wizard and dies unceremoniously. It is a battle that it is destined to lose. The road once connected Lahore with Amritsar, one of the many that linked them. Here the peripheries of the two centres interacted, creating villages and hamlets through this intercourse, these villages and hamlets bearing children of that relationship. Standing on a vacant ground, facing the historical village of Hair, now reduced to poverty and insignificance, is the remains of this unwanted child, the remains of a shrine that was constructed here by Prithi Chand, the eldest son of Guru Ram Das, a shrine that was intended to rival Harminder Sahib at Ramdaspur. It is a worn-down structure, stripped of all its ornaments, the paint, the frescoes. Its sacred pool, created as an alternative to the pool of Amritsar, is now lost, completely covered, its broken bricks scattered all over this ground. The condition of the structure, however, is misleading. For a brief period, the shrine, named Dukh Nivaran, was important. For a brief period, it attracted Sikh pilgrims who believed Prithi Chand’s lies that he was the rightful spiritual successor of his father, that he was the fifth Sikh Guru and not his younger brother. In this endeavour, he was supported by many – Mughal officials and corrupt Masand, Sikh deputies appointed by Guru Ram Das as his representatives in different parts of Punjab. The strategic location of Hair made it easier for Prithi Chand and his followers to intercept Sikh devotees on their way to meet the Guru and to expand their network. With the Sikh pilgrims came their offerings. Prithi Chand’s coffers swelled, while that of Guru Arjan, who was in Ramdaspur at that time, dwindled. For that brief moment, it was Hair and this shrine that began to overshadow Harminder Sahib. After Prithi Chand’s death, his smadh was constructed at Hair, while his movement was continued by his son, Meherban. This movement in Sikh history is referred to as Minas, the scoundrels. It was one of the most potent challenge to all the Gurus after Guru Arjan. After the formation of the Khalsa, they were referred to as Panj Mel – one of the five dissenting groups with whom the Khalsa were forbidden to engage. The Minas finally lost the battle for legitimacy, the struggle for spiritual inheritance of the Gurus in the 19th century, when they split into several parts and got incorporated into the formal Sikh community. With the disintegration of the community, the village of Hair too lost its political importance, as the memory of Prithi Chand, of the Minas and Dukh Nivaran began to disintegrate and crumble. Smadh of Prithi Chand on Bedian Road. Courtesy: Haroon Khalid. Symbiotic Relations Before there was Partition, before there were riots and mass exodus. Before there was religious nationalism, the division of Punjabis into multiple airtight traditions. Before there were contemporary incarnations of Mughal armies and the Guru’s forces, fighting a perennial battle, correcting historical injustices. Before Lahore became a Muslim city, the city of Sufi saints, and Amritsar, the city of Gurus, there was Mian Mir and Guru Arjan. Their friendship began at the house in Chuna Mandi where Guru Ram Das was born. It was here that a young Mian Mir, years away from becoming a Sufi saint, would attend the religio-philosophical discourse of Guru Ram Das, when the Guru came to Lahore from Ramdaspur. This was a time before the communalisation of identities, the partitioning of religious traditions, a time when it was the norm, and not an exception, to have Hindu, Sikh and Muslim devotees of the Guru. It was at these gatherings that a young Mian Mir met the young future Guru. They formed a connection that was to become a representative of the symbiotic relationship between Sikhism and Islam. Upon becoming the Guru, despite the opposition of his elder brother, Guru Arjan continued the construction work at Ramdaspur, whose foundation had been laid by his father. He began the construction of Harmandir Sahib, the future Golden Temple, which was in time to become the most important Sikh gurdwara in the world. Before construction began for Harmandir Sahib, however, a message and a delegation were sent by Guru Arjan from Ramdaspur to Lahore (according to oral narratives of the descendants of Mian Mir residing in Lahore) to bring his friend Mian Mir to the city, to lay the first brick of the foundation of what was to become the identity of the city. Mian Mir travelled in a palanquin sent by the Guru and laid the foundation of Harmandir Sahib, tying together the cities of Lahore and Amritsar in a lifelong relation. Years later, when on the orders of Emperor Jahangir, Guru Arjan was being tortured in Lahore before his execution, Mian Mir reached out to him and asked for his permission to destroy the city of Lahore to stop this torture. He was willing to sacrifice his home, to sacrifice the entire city, for his love of the Guru, but the Guru refrained him from doing so. After Guru Arjan’s execution, Mian Mir maintained a cordial relationship with his son, the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind. It is a relationship that continues to be remembered and celebrated by certain groups and communities. Abandoned Traditions I met Bhai Ghulam Muhammad at his home in Lahore in February 2014. He passed away in April. His home was close to Data Darbar, the shrine of the patron saint of the city. The shrine is a thousand years old, as old as the known history of Lahore. Its existence and continued significance represent a continuation of a cultural and spiritual life of the city. Residents of Lahore take pride in the city’s historicity, its recent and ancient past. But is Lahore, in its contemporary incarnation, the same city that it was, that it has been for a thousand years? Lahore was never Bhai Ghulam Hussain’s city. His home was Amritsar. But the city changed in 1947. Just like Ghulam Muhammad’s family, the city too migrated to Lahore, leaving in its shadow a distant memory of what the city once had been. The city where Ghulam Muhammad was travelling to was also not Lahore anymore, the glorious pride of Punjab, the multicultural jewel of the crown, of undivided British India. This was a new Lahore, a new city which only shared its name with that glorious past. Bhai Ghulam Muhammad came from the family of Bhai Sadha and Madha, the Muslim rubabis appointed by Guru Tegh Bahadur to perform kirtan at the Harmandir Sahib. The performance of kirtan at Sikh gurdwaras by Muslim rubabis was a tradition that started with Bhai Mardana and Guru Nanak. It was maintained by subsequent Sikh Gurus. His was one of the most respected families of the city of Amritsar, the family that formed a connection between the Guru’s shabd and thousands of their devotees. His family was one example out of several that highlighted the complex relationship between different religious communities and hybrid identities. “We knew the Granth by heart…nothing about being Muslim,” he told me. Once guardians of the Gurus’ words, they were reduced to odd jobs in Lahore. Only recently, with a growing interest in Sikh heritage in Pakistan, the family began performing kirtan again. However, this rediscovery of the profession is a far cry from what the situation had been prior to Partition. The odd jobs continued. In 2008, Bhai Ghulam Muhammad was barred from performing kirtan at Harmandir Sahib, for he was not an Amritdhari Sikh. His family had performed kirtan for generations at the Harmandir Sahib, without ever being Amritdhari, but that was a different city, a different Amritsar. In the story of Ghulam Muhammad is the story of Lahore and Amritsar. It is the story of what the cities were, the story of their relationship, the story of their intermarriage. It is the story of what the cities are, of their antagonism towards fluid identities, of their newly discovered loyalties. The death of Ghulam Muhammad is the death of these two cities, of what they had been, of what they could have been. The article was first published in Nishaan Nagaara. Haroon Khalid is the author of several books, including Imagining Lahore and Walking with Nanak.