Basic regarding aliasing

Hi All,
One small request. In UNIX/LINUX we can have our own aliases in .bashrc file. My doubt is when we add a new alias and if it is tried in already opened terminals it will not work, may be it is not going to recognise. Bit when we use the same alias in new terminal it will work. I believe there will be a procedure to make alias to work in current terminals also.. can anybody please reveal that to me...

Thanks in advance,

Chanakya

after you edit .bashrc,
reload it

. $HOME/.bashrc