Prasād (Sanskrit: प्रसाद, Bengali: প্রসাদ, Marathi: प्रसाद, Hindi/Urdu: प्रशाद/پرشاد/prashad, Kannada: prasāda ಪ್ರಸಾದ, Gujarati: પૃસાદ, Oriya: ଭୋଗ, Tamil: பிரசாதம் and Malayalam: പ്രസാദം prasādam, Punjabi: ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ, Telugu: Telugu: ప్రసాదం prasadam, Bhojpuri: persādi) is a material substance that is first offered to a deity in Hinduism and then consumed.

Literally, a gracious gift. Anything, usually an edible food, that is first offered to a deity, saint, Perfect Master or an Avatar and then distributed in His or Her name to their followers or others as a good sign. The prasad is then considered to have the deity's blessing residing within it. In contemporary Hindu religious practice in India, the desire to get prasada and have darshan are the two major motivations of pilgrimage and temple visits.^{[citation needed]}

As a mental condition, prasāda has a rich history of meanings in the Sanskrit tradition from Vedic literature onwards. In this textual tradition, prasada is a mental state experienced by gods, sages, and other powerful beings which is marked by spontaneous generosity and the bestowing of boons. Prasāda is understood in this sense of a mental state from the earliest literature (Rig Veda) onwards — not as an aspect of ritual practice. In later texts such as the Shiva Purāna, references to prasada as a material substance begins to appear alongside this older meaning.^{[citation needed]}

Gordon James Ramsay, OBE (born 8 November 1966) is a British chef, television personality and restaurateur. He has been awarded 13 Michelin stars in total and currently holds 12.

Ramsay is known for presenting TV programmes about competitive cookery and food, such as the British series Hell's Kitchen, The F Word, Ramsay's Best Restaurant, and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, along with the American versions of Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, and MasterChef.

Gordon Ramsay was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England from the age of 5. Ramsay is the second of four children; he has an older sister, Diane, a younger brother, Ronnie, and a younger sister, Yvonne. Ramsay's father Gordon (died 1997) was, at various times, a swimming pool manager, a welder, and a shopkeeper; his mother, Helen Cosgrove, and Yvonne have been nurses. Ramsay has described his early life as "hopelessly itinerant", as his family moved constantly due to the aspirations and failures of his father, who was violent. In 1976, they finally settled in Stratford-upon-Avon where he grew up in the Bishopton area of the town. In past public interviews, Ramsay has declined to describe his father as an alcoholic; however, his autobiography, Humble Pie, describes his early life as being marked by abuse and neglect from this "hard-drinking womaniser". At the age of 16, Ramsay moved out of the family house into a flat in Banbury.

Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He is the author of fourteen books. In 2012, he will publish five books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter (AK Press) and Uncle Swami: South Asians in America Today (The New Press). Two of his most well-known books, Karma of Brown Folk (2000) and Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting (2002), were chosen by the Village Voice as books of the year.^{[citation needed]}. His book The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (2007) was chosen as the Best Nonfiction book by the Asian American Writers' Workshop in 2008 and it won the Muzaffar Ahmed Book Award in 2009.

Prashad is a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society.

A well-known journalist and commentator, Prashad writes for Frontline (a column "Letter from America" and occasional reported stories) and for Asia Times. He is a contributing editor for the Kathmandu-based Himal and an editor for the Lahore-based magazine Bol. He is a regular writer for Counterpunch, a magazine edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair.

Thara Natalie Prashad (born January 16, 1982) also known as Thara, is an American R&B singer and model. Her father is Indo-Guyanese while her mother is part Irish and part African American. Formerly signed to the Desert Storm label most known for rapper Fabolous.

She is most known for working with R&B singer Jay Sean featuring on the song "Murder" included on Thara's self titled debut album in 2007 and on Jay Sean's second album My Own Way in 2008. She was also featured in the video for Sean's "Stay" on his second album. She collaborated with Sean again on the song "Love Goes", That leaked in January 2010.

Thara's album "Thara" was released in Asia in 2007 and featured a duet with American RNB Icon John Legend. That song "Maybe" and the entire album is on iTunes.

Desert Storm rapper Fabolous used Thara on the song "Ghetto", produced by Scott Storch. "Ghetto" and the album "Real Talk" went on to sell over a million copies since its release in 2006.

Thara was one of the first South Asian artists to be played on Hot 97 and shares a birthday with RNB legend, Aaliyah.

Avram Noam Chomsky (/ˈnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher,cognitive scientist, historian, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and a major figure of analytic philosophy. His work has influenced fields such as computer science, mathematics, and psychology.

Ideologically identifying with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism, Chomsky is known for his critiques of U.S. foreign policy and contemporary capitalism, and he has been described as a prominent cultural figure. His media criticism has included Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), co-written with Edward S. Herman, an analysis articulating the propaganda model theory for examining the media.

According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index in 1992, Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar from 1980 to 1992, and was the eighth most cited source overall. Chomsky is the author of over 100 books. He is credited as the creator or co-creator of the Chomsky hierarchy, the universal grammar theory, and the Chomsky–Schützenberger theorem.