Change is Permanent

CHEERS OR JEERS? – FOR OBAMA

2009-11-16T18:50:00.002+05:30

Open a discussion on the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize and you are confronted with quizzical looks, raised eyebrows and confusion writ large on many faces. There are nods and negative shakes of heads, wry smiles and gasps of Oh No!

Numerous people cannot come to a conclusion whether to congratulate Obama or to avoid talking about him to spare the embarrassment. Yet others look at Obama with a sympathetic sigh as if to say “You are not to blame. We are only sorry for the weight of the burden loaded on your shoulders now.”

Probably Obama himself is bemused, not just surprised but a little embarrassed as well.

Jut nine months into his tenure of office and to be nominated only when 12 days since his formal inauguration – isn’t it premature?, Too early? - to award him the Nobel Peace Prize? - The judgment is still questionable.

The Norwegian Committee states that Obama was chosen for the 1.4 million $ prize because of his extraordinary efforts to strengthen the international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. He has of course created a new climate in international politics.

Is the Norwegian Committee sitting in a glass palace? How can they talk about peace enough to merit a peace prize? It is sheer delusion to sit in the comfort zone of safety and peace, to pretend that the charm and vision of an articulate and attractive president provides solace for those deprived of the luxury.

At the moment the people who conceivably deserve this award are probably Obama’s speech writers. They have delivered the golden words. It is up to Obama to deliver the golden deeds.

Perhaps the objective of the Norwegian Committee has changed.

The Prize appears to be awarded as an incentive rather than an achievement.

• An incentive to have the USA and European troops leave Afghan and Iraq?

• To encourage Obama to continue to pursue the lofty goals and visions spelt out by his administration?

• Or for his vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons?

But why reward him when only the negotiations are going on? He hasn’t wound down the two destructive wars Afghan and Iraq..

He should have been given the space and time to make good on his promises. He has indeed initiated some moves towards changing the world view about the Muslim world but the results are yet to come. The prize should be issued only for tangible results

It looks as if Obama has been rewarded for potential more than for achievement, for vision more than for action

• Is Obama being rewarded for being on the right road?

• Isn’t it cynical to do that just because he says the right things and makes the right moves?

Temptation bids me conclude that the Nobel Peace Prize judges could have been hugely influenced by the apparently radical change that Obama’s administration represents over its predecessor.

Does it belittle some past winners of this prestigious award and will it diminish the impact of his success?

Gandhiji was not awarded the peace prize though he worked for Hindu Muslim unity - that is another matter and there are many who still lament it.

Henry Kissinger for one has the blood of thousands of Vietnamese on his hands. He gave intelligence and security arguments in favor of every war that the US waged against Muslim countries (Iraq and afghan). Yet he was deemed honorable enough for the Nobel Prize in the year 1971

Former Israeli Minister Menachim Bein too was an honorable man worthy of the prize. He invaded Lebanon after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 (jointly with Mohammed Anwar Al-Sadat, President of Egypt.)

President Shimon Peres Foreign Minister of Israel who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, (along with Yasser Arafat President of Palestine and Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel). ordered the bombing of Lebanon several times. The Lebanese still recoil in horror at the memory.

Elie Weisel (1986) is still hunting Germans who he believes worked with the Nazi government. His sole aim is to hand them over to Israel for trial and execution. Still he was honored with the laurel

Looking back at some of the recipients of the Nobel prize I see a few who ill deserved it. Taking them into consideration, Obama is an angel by comparison.

As the war still rages in Afghan, and Iraq being far from peaceful; peace is only an illusion. People have resigned to the fate that they should learn to live with the conflict. When daily, millions die and suffer needlessly because of the ongoing military conflicts, the best that is offered to us is someone who gives us hope.

Obama’s speech in Cairo was an inspiring address to the Arab world. It was very much in the mould of the speeches he made to US electors during his run for the oval office. It inspired hope. (Not since John F Kennedy did any US President come to office with such a tidal wave of international hope. )

So Obama‘s political race has to be run right through to the line , so his political achievement in terms of peace can be judged properly and fairly

Obama is already handicapped by the weight of expectations. Adding the burden of the peace prize he is almost cursed to become a man who failed the world.

Time will tell if Obama can deliver on his words. This award will indeed propel him to do much to prove himself noteworthy of the honor.

The best we can hope in terms of peace is not having the likes of George Bush and his trigger happy followers. Definitely by removing George Bush from office has Obama indeed made the world a more peaceful place? (Temptation bids me conclude that the Nobel Peace Prize judges could have been hugely influenced by the apparently radical change that Obama’s administration represents over its predecessor. )
.
That a peaceful Middle East is the only foundation of a world peace has been universally accepted .

President, Obama has a heavy responsibility. He alone could broker a peace settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. With the he window of opportunity that Obama helped create

I harbor the wish that the Americans will unite behind Obama as he works to manage the burdens he has courageously assumed on our behalf

Let the world’s next generation at least grow up with out dread that someone will push the nuclear button.

Are these attainable or only pipe dreams?

AN OTIOSE TANGLE

2009-11-10T22:14:00.003+05:30

Alcohol is legal. Why not make pot legal too? – Huh!........Huh huh!
Mind you - that is a single dollar question raised by many.

Tobacco is legal and it kills in good time. So will alcohol and so will pot if or when legalized. It is the second major cause of death in the world, responsible for roughly 5 million deaths each year. Smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Despite the known health risks of tobacco use, cigarettes are legally available throughout the United States and can be purchased at gas stations, convenience stores, and supermarkets for less than $5 per pack.

What then is the ultimate end of legalizing tobacco spirit or drug?
To kill? To reduce the population that is rising in leaps and bounds?

There seems no difference between alcohol and pot except that one is weed and the other is a chemical

Why should booze be legal when pot is not?
The same set of rules applies. One cannot overdose on pot as one does with alcohol and ALCOHOL IS LEGAL

Alcohol is already a problem. Add pot into the mix and we will have more issues. Accidents involving drunken driving are integral parts of daily life.

Use of marijuana does not cause accidents as reckless as alcohol does. It is less addictive than alcohol and tobacco combined. Drugs as marijuana don’t seem to be as mind altering as beer is .So what harm is there in legalizing drugs with the same limitations as with alcohol. Pot is probably safer than alcohol. If so alcohol should be the illegal drug

The same rules apply again. You cannot go to work drunken .One cannot go to work or drive stoned either. To fit in the last bolt, no one can give alcohol as drugs to anyone under 21. I believe in time it will be made legal at least in certain amounts.

The only reason they would legalize it would be so they could tax it.

A seasonal pot smoker confessed that once you have smoked for a while, you don’t get lazy or paranoid. You don’t get the munchies or giggles. You are still You just higher.

A college student died from alcohol poisoning dashing his bright and promising future. .People who let him get drunk and provided the alcohol should be charged with negligent homicide. Replace alcohol with Mary Jane, I could be alive less a few brain cells maybe, but alive,all the same.

Legalize it and tax the crap out of it. Farmers would profit. The whole plant is totally useable no waste. It would improve the economy.hehehehehe

Marijuana was legal in the USA. It was not until the government started getting greedy they reversed the legalization. Billions of taxpayers money is being spent on the war on drugs and how many non violent offenders are crowding jails and prisons allowing violent offenders to go free.

The results of "the noble experiment"-- undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts.

Instead of us paying billions on a war we are losing why don’t we turn around and make billions of dollars to put into our economy instead. God forbid if our Pharma companies lose a fraction of their profit because the no longer would have to sell highly addictive overpriced narcotics.

On goes the never ending argumentYaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn!

IGNOBEL PRIZE

2009-10-30T16:24:00.002+05:30

As the Nobel awards for this year were announced, there were various strands of chain reactions across the world . Doubts, raised eyebrows, sighs of resignation, nonchalant clucks, helpless shrugs, dry laughter, satiric comments, and exasperated sounds ensued.

One such deflated individual even declared it ‘The Ig Nobel Awards’
He brooded on it so much that he had continuous nightmares about it. Soon the obsession took possession of him so completely that it developed into a picturesque scene before his mind’s eye
.
At the award function he was the MC.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, literati, glitterati, pseudo-intellectuals, quasi-pseudo-intellectuals, and deposed dictators, enjoying the pre-ceremony cabaret”.

He tossed about restlessly till he fell asleep helplessly in total despair
But there was no way of stopping the invading thoughts.

In 1976 William N. Lipscomb was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies illuminating problems of chemical bonding.
Now, nearly 90 he was the chief guestof the awards function. Together with his walker and with The MC as his guardian angel, he made his stately progress through the crowd and onto the stage just in time.

The Nobel laureates of the past years: Dr. Deborah Anderson who had investigated whether Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, Don Featherstone who created the pink plastic flamingo, and Dan Meyers, who participated in a study of the medical effects of sword-swallowing, graced the occasion.

The new winners trooped in and once the laureates and the ‘Ignitaries’ had taken their places there began our ceremony
(The show proceeded as an exercise in controlled chaos)

During the 24/7 lectures acknowledged experts first gave a full technical description of their subject (‘genius’ or ‘nanotechnology,’ for example) in 24 seconds and then a clear summary that anyone could understand in seven words.
However, these theatrics were simply window-dressing for the main event:
The Ten awards were then given away. The achievements speak for themselves — all too eloquently. The winners are:

Veterinary Medicine Prize: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of the UK’s Newcastle University for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.

Peace Prize: Stephan Bolliger, of University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining, by experiment, whether it’s better to be smashed over the head by a full bottle of beer or one that is empty.

Economics Prize: the directors, executives and auditors of four Icelandic banks for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks and vice versa, and for showing that similar things can be done to an entire national economy.

Chemistry Prize: Javier Morales, for his work in creating diamonds from liquid.

Medicine Prize: Dr. Donald L. Unger (California) for disproving a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand — but never of the right — for more than 60 years.

Physics Prize: Katherine K. Whitcomb (University of Cincinnati), for analytically determining why pregnant women don’t tip over.

Literature Prize: Ireland’s police service for presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to the worst offender in the country — Prawo Jadzy — whose name in Polish means “driver’s license.”

Public Health Prize: Elena N. Bodnar (Illinois) for inventing a brassiere that, in an emergency, can quickly be converted into a pair of gas masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one for a needy bystander.

Mathematics Prize: Gideon Gono of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank for giving people a simple way to cope with a range of very small to very large numbers by having his bank print bank notes ranging from one cent ($.01) to one hundred trillion dollars ($100,000,000,000,000.00).

Biology Prize: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu (Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Japan) for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas..

After Bill Lipscomb had granted each winner a triumphal hand-shake, the ceremony closed with the traditional, “If you didn’t win an Ig Nobel prize tonight — — better luck next year.”

Idea: courtsey: Peaco Todd

OF CUCKOLDS AND CUCKQUEANS

2009-10-26T13:20:00.015+05:30

CHEATING HUSBANDS MUST BE WHIPPED - If this is NEWS on Reuters (21.10.2009)it is no news at all. It is rather stale or outdated - Say whipping is outmoded or out of fashion. Who inflicts corporeal punishment these days? Or are we retracing our steps to Stone ages of civilization?

Cuckold community, videos, blog, T shirt, philosophy, culture, website, movie, face book – Where is the end to this sickening list?

Strictly speaking, a cuckold is a married man with an adulterous wife. Cuckqueans are women with adulterous husbands. And wittols are husbands who consent to their wife's extramarital sex

Cuckold is derived from the Old French for the cuckoo.Cuckolds are portrayed as "wearing the horns." This hints that the man being cuckolded is the last to know of his wife's infidelity. He wears horns that can be seen by everybody but him.

The modern world is infested with wives as well as husbands playing truant. It would be more right to say it existed from the time of creation though it is never advocated as a way of disciplined life. The reasons why people are cuckolds or cuckqueans are certainly not worthy of debate.

To be honest most of them would outright deny the accusations as they indulge in it on the sly.(of course there are bolder ones who take pride in it)
Many would either justify their actions or give legitimate reasons to prove their
so called sins are pardonable.
There would be more of them who pretend they have not sinned at all
There are even those who put an innocent face mask trying to prove vehemently that they were ignorant that it was a sin.
Some would argue why one should read meanings into relationships of convenience that are not everlasting or aren’t affecting their personal lives?
Yet others would raise their voices to say that until we raked up the dirt his /her
family was pretty comfortable and peaceful in their bliss of ignorance. So now the
accusing finger is pointed at you.
With the most modern trend in technological developments there are people who
defend themselves saying “Ofo! This is only cyber sex, which means “I haven’t
touched the person at all.”
HeHeHe!that it is only phone contact which served as a stress buster and only
helped to successfully complete a project.In fact I don’t know who the person is I
have never seen her/him
“Wait!That was only a placebo in the absence of the wife,who was away on professional or personal reasons
Just time pass. Never take it seriously. It is like going to the hotel once in a
way.
The latest would be “Come on live with the times. Times are changing Don’t tell me
fidelity lasts anymore”

Most of the Tele serials and movies portray only cuckolds and cuckqueans. People
are exposed to the theme round the clock.

But then with due apologies I also acknowledge there will be a few who would say
that between them (husband and wife) life seems more a matter of adjustment

Married couples today have their lives tuned in almost similar to live in
relationships and vice versa.

With discos and night revels people are changing their attitudes to intimacy.

Strange how only some of us worry so much about the changing lifestyles. Where
shall we draw the line of fidelity in marriage I wonder!

Exasperated I sigh! It all depends on the value system that we imbibe and grow up
with. But for any defender I would say taste and experience you in the shoes of the
offended. Probably things would change.

After an exacerbated laugh I humbly submitted “Each to his own interpretation and explanation to suit his purposes.”

I have come to the conclusion that the whole of modern culture is empty of values
bereft of any living meaning, shallow.

It is a legacy that strangles

The return of the prodigal

2009-06-19T12:04:00.011+05:30

IT'S SO WONDERFUL TO BE BACK IN THE PAVILION

I have been away too long
Call it keeping a low profile
Or lying low to attack?
Don’t say I have been dormant
or lazy or lost interest
that I am the blow hot blow cold type

How shall I define my long spell of silence
That I have been in hibernation?
---Enforced hibernation.

How ironical that this should happen to me just after I wrote last about 'Writer's block'.

It wasn’t writer’s block or ----- though you could call it one in some sense---- . A block unintended by someone else, not me, but all the same prevented me writing.

My forced vacation from blogging was commissioned by my neighbor, the kind Pilipino. He went probably cruising in the laving tides of some lake in Philippines leaving me spinning endless spirals of hate smoke in the air aimed at him. Mine was pure distilled anger at his irresponsibility. He had promised me that all would be well with the internet connection. But since the day he left everything has been only ill with the connection. Everything went wrong.

I was kept on a kind of house arrest. My only contact with the world outside was broken.
To make matters worse I had no one to communicate with, talk to or connect to - worst of all, not even blog. I was stuck in the desert country with no one to help me.

My DSL connection refused to respond to my urgent need. It left me in the lurch and I was stuck with a laptop without an internet connection. Constant tapping o n the ‘connect to a website ‘only proved futile and tiresome to me and my fingers. I could not get another connection because that would take over six months and would cost me quite a fortune.
I knew there were so many of my friends trying to reach out to me in vain. So with me.

Now he is home my friend from Philippines. He visited me accompanied by a thousand apologies and has set the wrongs right. Do I seek revenge or charge sheet him for the sin against me? How could I? All I did was flash a smile at him and say,
” It is alright. What could you do? You are not t o blame”.

I downright hated myself for having said that. But that is the way of the world. We’re all doing this ever so many times in our life. What filthy hypocrites we are. Shame on me and all who are like me.

Well ,Life is like that and all one can do is count one’s blessings.
Anyway let bygones be bygones. Remember there is no use crying over spilt milk. We should not be stuck up with our yesterdays but should keep moving forward.

So now that I am back. I suppose there will now begin my bad spell of writing which I still pursue thanks to my loyal ,encouraging and true friends who compliment me every time out of regard . I go about hopefully, that someday I will live up to their words.

BEAT THE BLOCK

2009-04-26T23:40:00.011+05:30

I have heard about writer’s block. Isn’t it something that holds your pen back from writing and refuses to let your mind and hand work in unison?
I have never experienced that. Thank God.

I have escaped so long for the simple fact that I am not a writer. The stumbling block visits only writers once in a while.

How ecstatic we were at seeing our name written by us in the first grade. Writing is an amazement that we are astonished by. Watching others reactions to our excitement is a blast. It is a skill that comes in handy in our life.

Writing is an experience that stays forever in our life. It's a skill we are encouraged to chase after. For some it's a hobby; to others it is a job Whether you get paid or don't, it's worth the effort to learn that ability.

Creative writing needs time, thinking and research. Social writing needs experience and observation. Educational writing requires intensive reading. Poetry needs an aesthetic sense and fiction requires electrifying imagination.

I have had more educational assignments to complete but my creative writing urge holds my dreams captive on an otherwise peaceful life. Most of my writing ideas are inspired by day-to-day events and some occur in the middle of the night. Very few of these ideas transform from thoughts to articles.

If I decided to be a writer I would make up my mind to keep that block far away from me, never let it enter my terrain.

What should one write first, that is the question? Freedom - to at least feel like doing what one likes.

I am very new to this writing game and I am not familiar with the unwritten rules.

What a brain! Ditching me, just when I wish to establish myself as a writer. I am not going to feed you with all the right proteins or whatever nutrition you need. Curse you. And to top it all you belong to me. I am your mistress and you refuse to obey me. Look at my distraught face.

Experienced writers say that Writers block disturbs in three stages.
1. Mild block is when you feel uneasy when immersed in the task of writing. You realize you are not in the flow and it does not come easy. Take it easy. Write. Keep writing, writing gets you in the flow and prevents further writers block.
a. Go somewhere else. Hop into a train and write if you feel like it.
b. Freewrite.:- Write this second, copy the following starter phrase and keep writing nonstop wherever it leads you: "What I really want to say in this piece is………
c. If you've been stuck typing away at the computer, sit down with a pad of paper . change over from a pen, to crayons.

d.Take some rest. Sometimes you're just trying too hard. Sleep on it and in the morning you'll feel in the mood for a fresh start.

e. Write something else. If you're hung up on something for work, write something for pleasure or vice versa

f. Talk it out. Call a friend and tell her what you would say in writing if you could. When it's flowing, hang up the phone and continue on the computer

2. Moderate writers block:- You just feel out of the flow. It seems impossible to come up with any ideas and you begin to procrastinate about writing.
Panic not, experts advice. Set some short term writing goals for yourself. Go back and re-write something from the past, and jot down ideas that come up while you re-write that piece.

3. Severe writers block - You believe you can't even write a word . You are stuck, and feel like you could not write even if your life depended on it. Absolutely no ideas come to mind. It is simply painful.

There has to be a great escape. Just walk away from it. Do something completely different, especially something physical. This sounds kind of weird, but it works - when you come back.
Until you've tried a zillion times for anything, success is not guaranteed.

Since I’m plagued by writer’s block lately and despite all the above reasons I know it is my anxiety over the illness and death of someone dear to my heart, that I fell a prey to the hazardous third category.

Johnny died on 22^nd April after battling cancer for nearly a month. Goodbye Johnny. I think I will write again starting with you.

Pirates of the High Seas

2009-04-09T18:19:00.009+05:30

The Red Alert has been sounded again against piracy.

Sneaky pirates, sailing ships, buried treasure, exotic lands, and murderous mutiny: what could be better to win over even the most reluctant boy reader? Robert Louis Stevenson serves up thrills, chills, and plenty of action in this timeless, and much-admired adventure novel The Treasure Island

Pirates of the Caribbean and ancient tales of buccaneers,marooners, daring raids, kidnappings and ransoms were fantasies of the past and had long been forgotten.

But as if revived from tales of yore piracy has surfaced again. Now no more talk on pirated CDs, only real pirates on the high seas.

All pirates chased, climbed on board using ropes, looted and sea jacked ships. But while ancient pirates sported swords and machetes, modern pirates use sophisticated weaponry automatic weapons and RPGS machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers and hijack fishing trawlers to ships and tourist yachts.

Somalia and Nigeria are presently haven for pirates. They top the catalogue of piracy reports with disturbing frequency. Surprisingly the two countries are thousands of miles apart and the pirates of both areas have no communication
But they are after the same thing – money.

2009 has already seen a spike in pirate attacks -- particularly off east coast Somalia. More than 15 attacks were reported by March. In March, Somalis hijacked a yacht and its seven crew off the Seychelles islands. The Maersk Alabama is the first U.S. ship to be seized in the latest wave of piracy.

Often small speed-boats pull up alongside their target, board them and, often resort to violence, kidnapping the crew or cargo.

Unless their demands are met, the extortionists will harm the vessel, its cargo and all the people aboard. Ransoms can run into millions of dollars. Every shipping company( the insurance companies are forced to pay) so far has paid the ransom, and every victim has been released unharmed up until this point.

In Somalia, last year, the hijacked Saudi oil tanker 'Sirius Star' was released after a $3 million ransom was dropped by helicopter to the pirates.

Most of their recruits are all young unemployed men who are enticed into piracy by promised riches They're making more money in piracy than the gross national product of Somalia. So piracy will not be mooted until there is international law enforcement. .

The multimillion-dollar revenues being generated by these criminals are attracting Al-Qaeda elements, anxious to cash in themselves on this seemingly endless bounty.
It is time the gloves came off. It should cut no ice that so far most of the captured crew have been treated well by the pirates.

This is a wake-up call for the world. We shall wait to see how the US command, and the European Union, India, China and Russia plan out a strategy to overwhelm the upstart piracy

Aesop Reread

2009-04-07T18:14:00.003+05:30

Aesop’s fables are popular among children as well as adults from time immemorial.

Even while Socrates was in jail awaiting his execution, he versified some of Aesop’s fables.

Aesop, the most famous fabulist of all time, is a figure shrouded in mystery. There is an ancient account of him in “Life of Aesop.” According to this Life, Aesop was born an ugly mute slave, but was granted the power to speak and craft fables in return for his generosity to one of the attendants of the goddess Isis.

However evidence suggests that Aesop was not a real person. The name “Aesop” came to be given to all stories in which animals talked and acted like human beings. Thus a fable is an Aesop, , and an Aesop is a fable. It is actually redundant to refer to “Aesop’s Fables.

Farmers, pet owners, and other people who live in some sort of intimacy with animals talk to them all the time. The animals don’t answer back. What kind of conversation is it that is so completely one-sided and at the same time so satisfying?

Or do animals answer back?

Every pet owner believes his or her pet not only understands but also responds. People who don’t own pets think this is nonsense.

Conversations with animals are not always confined to repartee between one human and one animal. Often a single animal plays an important, though dumb, part in a conversation involving two or more persons. Husbands and wives can converse with one another through or via their pets.

Wife to dog: “Duke, the garbage has to be taken out. “Help Daddy take out the garbage.”

Duke looks baffled.

Husband to Duke: “Let’s take out the garbage, Duke.”

Duke jumps with joy. The garbage is taken out without the wife having to ask the husband to do it. Nor has she called him by his name nor he her by hers. An unpleasant duty of taking out the garbage has by this round-about device has been made as pleasant as possible.

If the wife had said, “George, take out the garbage,” she would probably have started a fight.

The fables of Aesop express home truths that in another guise would be hard to accept. Putting them in the form of a fable makes them palatable, even enjoyable, without detracting from their effectiveness.

In the fable of the Wolf and the Dog, the Dog is sleek and fat, the Wolf skinny and hungry. The Dog explains that he has found an exceptional situation in which he receives regular meals and a warm place to sleep. The dog invites the wolf to share his lifestyle. The hungry wolf considers himself lucky. But as they trot side by side the Wolf notices a worn place in the fur of the Dog’s neck. “What’s that?” he asks.“That’s where my collar rubs,” says the Dog, continuing to trot home.But the Wolf has stopped in the road. “No thanks!” he says as he runs back to the forest.

The moral of this fable doesn’t need to be made explicit - better starve free than be a fat slave. But there is more food for thought in it.

Applied to our own lives it indicates that none of us is completely free. We all wear collars of one sort or another. Even the Wolf wears the “collar” of necessity. He has to seek his sustenance and sometimes fails to find it. He is almost always hungry.

What is your “collar”? What is mine?

As you think about this fable you may begin to ask the question in a way you never did before. An explicit discourse on freedom and necessity, about the kinds of deals we make with life— which are different for everybody and even different at various times in everybody’s life—might have little effect or none. It would go in one ear and out the other.

Distancing the story, by putting it in the mouths of animals serves to bring it closer to home. Even more important, maybe, is that these home truths can be immediately perceived by children, who may need them the most.

All of Aesop’s fables are like that one. All are wonderful. If there ever were any bad ones, they have long since fallen by the wayside.

Marriage Breakers

2009-04-04T21:05:00.005+05:30

Marriages are made in Heaven but the choice of the partner is made on earth. So excuse the blunder of incompatibilities becoming husband and wife.

Arranged marriages, love marriages, love arranged marriages, marriages by mutual consent, and marriages for convenience - there are so many reasons behind marriage.

The latest trend in dating and meeting is chatting online. Marriages are strangely solemnized online. But now even divorces seem to be following in this way.

Financial problems, substance abuse , sexual problems, physical and /or sexual /emotional abuse ,clash of personal and career goals, incompatibility ,inflexibility , mental illness , clash of cultural values, infidelity, selfishness, communication problems ,unhealthy relationship with in laws have been the commonly quoted traditional reasons for breaking marriages.

A German woman filed a divorce suit because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time. The wife pulled through 15 years of marriage putting up with the man's penchant for doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture. But she ran out of patience when he knocked down and rebuilt a wall at their home when it got dirty. (Reuters)

In the UK a woman divorced her husband whose snores she could not tolerate any more.

The institution of marriage is in jeopardy.Marriage is a blending of neuroses. It worked in the olden days because there were no cars, and you really couldn't get away.

With the technology boom strangely enough the internet has caused more marriages as well as divorces. It was believed that youngsters could meet across cyber space, get to know each other, date online and finally settle down in marriage. But it seems to have backfired. The Cyberspace has become one of the major reasons for a marriage ending in divorce.

Partners experience problems once their mates become addicted to the Internet viz. Creation and Gambling sites as well as Chat Rooms and Searches for old friends. The most vulnerable to becoming single again are generally young men and women between 25 and 35 who form the most computer literate group. Older men and women especially blue collar workers are less likely to suffer because they are computer illiterate or less computer savvy. There are always exceptions of course.

The advantage is if you are computer literate and the Cyberspace had destroyed your marriage you can apply for divorce online. Very soon being a bachelor reborn you can find a partner online. (who you can divorce later!)

Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce. I believe there are people who should never be married.

When entering into marriage we hear the warning bells ‘Marriage is a nuclear power.’ There can be fusion or fission. We enter into it hoping and believing that the warning is not for us, that we are different. Very soon the road gets rutty, bumpy and rocky, with the scary rough patches.

Like snowflakes, no two marriages are alike. Some have to wade through shallow waters, some swim against the current upstream and reach a safe haven.. Others have had enough reasons to believe that ‘apparently these boots were not made for walking after all.’ For no one has it ever been a bed of soft petals with melodious music playing in the background.

In a marriage one makes a covenant with the partner as well as with God. So would you like to break your covenant with the man upstairs?

It is worth knowing that divorce is nonexistent in Nepal. In Kuwait despite increasing divorces divorce still carries a stigma and divorced women are considered unfortunate. In Arab culture it is still considered negative and the woman is blamed for the divorce. Divorce in Japan is such a source of shame that it could end a man's career.
As an afterward,partners who through thick and thin made it a policy to stick together mostly never regretted it for they found the in the long run their lives took a turn for the better with the children playing the role of saviors and anchors.

SPECIAL PEOPLE

2009-04-03T10:55:00.002+05:30

Of all the people in your life some are special because you love them not. You just can’t love them. God forgive me for saying that.

To call me a misanthropist would be a misnomer, because there are so many people I love and like as well as tolerate .But there are some people - Call them by any name. They are easily the indefatigable, incorrigible, special people.

Endowed with more than the generous amount of the gift of the gab they tend to misuse, rather utilize it to the maximum.

I call them special since they influence your life in a special manner as others would not.

They invite themselves to your side out of time and don’t let you go if you fall for their bait. These verbal dictators preface their marathon talk with a casual query. To break your defense they would ask ‘Are you busy’? But don’t wait for your reply .They are determined they need a stupid listener to dump their woes or victories on.

Even if you carry on with your work swimming upstream, frantic to get your job done or pretend to be busy, (just to avoid them) they are not in the least dissuaded. They engage you talking and talking and talking even though no one is listening to them.

They wax eloquent about their achievements, their adventures, their miseries, family stories, gossips, scandal mongering every nonsense under the sun. In short they give you nothing short of an unabridged biography at random. They can mercilessly engage you for well over an hour.

While you desperately try to continue with your work responding politely with a nod or a sheepish faked smile trying to exhibit that you aren’t interested and want to be left alone, they are just immune to all your attempts. They misunderstand all your efforts to be assurance that you find them interesting. Lost in their graphic details these wicked conversationalists refuse to catch a cue and stop.

Sometimes you realize that you are listening to a stale tale repeated umpteen number of times either to you or your neighbor. You were forced to listen to the narration meant for your neighbor as a punishment for being your neighbor’s neighbor and for the sheer fact that you were spineless and could not walk out.

When it is your turn to be the suffering listener you are none the wiser. You let them steal away your precious time and you rightly deserve it

These verbose predators hold you in captivity and tie the noose tightly round your neck and keep tightening it despite the fact that you are choked or throttled. If you are the victim you rightly suffer for the unwarranted respect you show to his pomposity and for the miserable sense of social morality you believe in.

Some of them would follow you wherever you move and wouldn’t mind waiting for you patiently while you linger in the bathroom deliberately. They would entertain you while you are at dinner refusing your polite offer of even a drink as they have had an early fill and want to relax on you.

They are extremely happy after the ordeal they provide us as they have thoroughly enjoyed every minute. They think they have entertained and enlightened you with their conversational skills, expressions and gestures and pity you for not being blessed as profoundly as they are.

Ultimately by the time you are free you lose all enthusiasm to pursue your work since he leaves you drained of all energy- A mere wreckage of frustrated emotions.

As an epilogue to such encounters you hate yourself for letting yourself be taken for a ride or you groan to a friend who either expresses sympathy or derides you for your unnecessary tolerance.

How can you defend yourself against such dumbsters? /dumpsters?

You find these special people in your work spot, near your home, scattered everywhere. Wherever you find them avoid them like the plague because they could be the ruin of your life and career. If you see them at a distance quit the place on a faked errand or think up some great escape.

On introspection I feel sorry for these special people because they spend all their time wasting everyone’s time and because I find some of them are my friends, I acknowledge they are nice people but only STUPID.

ALL FOOLS DAY

2009-04-01T00:24:00.011+05:30

alt="zwani.com

A merry first of April to us all. Many happy returns of the day to you and you and you. Don’t we know one another? We are all the same - one day or the other.

April I. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four. ~Mark Twain.

In 1562 when Pope Gregory introduced the Christian calendar with the New Year on January first there were some people, who hadn't heard or didn't believe the change and therefore, continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them "April Fools."

April Fools Day is a worldwide excitement fest. (There are however people who think it a sheer waste of time, silly, or immature and childish).These spoil sports fail in the test of sense of humour. They will always be morons ,nerds,grumpy and unhappy - fools as much in the real sense.

On this day people concentrate on their private brand of wit at the expenditure of their families and friends, neighbors and enemies.

Someone or the other is sent on a fool’s errand or looking for something that does not exist. Just playing pranks and trying to get people to believe in ridiculous things are all aimed at embarrassing the naïve. All of the day’s fun is harmless unless it misfires.

The best time for pranks is when a person is caught off guard. Early in the morning people do not think clearly and do not realize that it is April first. At the very end of the day too people are caught off guard as they think April Fool time is over.

Have fun because fun is fantastic.

Be creative. There is nothing worse than an over-used horseplay.

Pranks need to be light hearted. Those that cause harm, either
physically or mentally are never funny.

Friendships can be lost due to April fools frolics.

Laugh your head off when you get them – your prey. Don’t be a jerk when you
laugh, as this could hurt the victim’s feelings.

Make sure the person you mess with is in a good mood.

Know your victim well otherwise you might be playing a miserable game on
the police or even your boss.

Do not hesitate to call off the tomfoolery if something seems to go wrong.

The best pranks are the ones where the recipient laughs at himself or
herself, or preferably, at the situation

It is the ability to take a joke, not make one that proves you have a sense of humor.

Even the gods love jokes. ~Plato

So why not we?

Death be not Proud

2009-03-24T12:03:00.011+05:30

Two celebrity deaths this month set me musing on the expected and unexpected manners in which Death is faced.

Jade Goody died losing a battle to cervical cancer and Natasha Richardson died on 18th March, after apparently bumping her head on a beginner's ski slope in Canada.

Jade Goody 27, a television artist and one-time dental assistant metamorphosed from normalcy to a monster and from a monster to phenomenon overnight. Her death has attracted huge interest more than when people watched her on the Channel 4 reality show Celebrity Big Brother.

Even the show plunged to notoriety after Goody abused Shilpa Shetty her housemate in the show from Bollywood, with her racially charged tirades against her name and Indian origin. Later though, she apologized and even travelled to India to make amends.

She discovered her illness while in India. Back home, she fast tracked the rest of her life. She got married to Tweed 21. The baptism of her sons, her last view of "sun-kissed" fields and final farewells with family followed in quick succession.

She decided to die in public gaze so that she could earn as much as she could for her two sons, - to give them a decent education. Unfortunately they had only their mother. As they grow older so will her memory.

Almost every element of her life was examined in the tabloid newspapers, gossip magazines and on television. Bald from chemotherapy and too weak to move, images of her shrinking frame and bald head have dominated the pages of British media since she announced she had just weeks to live. Goody died in her sleep.

That was typical bravado and has helped to restore her popularity. Her death is a tragic end to a modern tale.

The intense coverage of her life and dying days, just like her rise to fame, has divided the British public. The media has been accused of obsession over someone famous for little more than famous.

Cancer charities say that her public battle against the disease had encouraged thousands of women to seek prevention advice.

Her untimely death has touched our hearts (much in the same way anyone’s death would.) Every death from cancer is a tragedy.

Natashe Richardson, Hollywood actor died of an epidural hematoma, or bleeding between the skull and the brain covering that created a clot that put fatal pressure on the brain. She scarcely knew she would die shortly. For an hour after the fall she was her normal self. She complained of a headache and went to consult a doctor. Everything happened too soon .She was dead before she knew it.

What struck me most about Goody was that she accepted her inevitable doom and was mentally preparing herself to face her end. Very few people can develop such an attitude.

For a mother with little children it would have been agony. As a mother she didn’t worry as much about dying as for her children she would leave behind.

I have known people with cancer who refused to accept the inevitable and kept hopefully pleading for a new lease of life. It is pathetic to see them seek in vain.

There have been some who as soon as they heard the fact lost all hope and even the will power to put up a fight and died miserably.

An even sadder situation is when patients are kept in the dark about their approaching death. This happens. It is believed that they could better spend the remaining part of their life in blissful ignorance. They are only given scanty information with false hopes that they are undergoing the best treatment which actually is pulling them away from the clutches of Death. They are assured that all is going to be well land in time - but the time is in question. These people live in a make believe world and when the final moments approach it would be a reenactment of the last scene of Dr. Faustus only the ultimate cause would be different.

Some people affirm their illness but before they can gather information about it they are dead.

Death comes to fetch the old and young rich and poor ,well-known and ill known, the human and animal all creation unannounced and proclaiming its arrival well in advance or a shortly before.

To face it complacently would be wisdom. Trying to escape it would be impossible. But to attract it, lure it towards you with avoidable risks would be the height of irony.

Life is like a dew drop. Every moment is precious. Living it fully, decorating it with moments of joy and sorrow , pain and hope, disappointments and dreams, victory and defeat, waitings and happenings, love not hate ,forgiveness and understanding to say the least, is the best one can do. Such a life would be a wonderful gift to God when we meet him..

That’s for believers and for the rest what else can you do about this inevitable undeniable crisis (as u may wish to call it)

If only we could with John Donne mock death

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me…………………..

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more

Animal Anthem

2009-03-19T13:26:00.019+05:30

Johnny

You love an animal and it is for keeps. Only animal lovers can understand that. For the others these people are only freaks, eccentrics who coo and fondle animals, which is an unclean habit, or idiots wasting time, work shirkers and no gooders. – I have been told that .

But the lives of these no gooders are so beautiful, so valuable, and so meaningful that the others could never ever understand that or realize what they have missed in life.

This is only about those who love pets for nothing but love for the pets, not those who have superior breed dogs just to elevate their superficial status in society or to show off they own a costly dog.

Pets are more than just animals. They are part of the family. The best of friends.
The moments of joy, the mute expressions of love, the long adoring look on their faces when they are with us, and the vociferous declarations of loyalty are worth a lifetime.
If you happen to be away from home you can be sure to be welcomed with a purple carpet not a mere red carpet if you have a pet at home. Jockey

The fatigue of the tiresome journey is wiped out in a fraction of a second. It would seem as if you were his king -only his- his, more than to your children and spouse. The moment you land up at your doorstep, he would there pushing his way among human legs in an effort to greet you first. Up on you, knocking you down he delights in licking you thoroughly, lapping up every part of you he has been missing all those days and your face has a clean lick wash.

Only after he is gratified will he sit back or lie down near you or sit before you to look at your dear face and if it pleases him he will again spring on to you to tell you how much he has missed you. If anyone else comes to you he nudges them asides and sits on your lap as if you right royally belong to him and he to you and it is His place – your lap. But he does not bark at or bite the others, he will only try his best to communicate that he is important to you and vice versa. From the moment you enter I forgot to mention the joyous intermittent barks (he pauses only to lick you). Don't think a cat never expresses much, Sure enough she mews and mews since she cannot compete with that selfish doggy. You pick her up and she purrs complacently and nudges you arching her back.

Johnny and Mickey
Oh what a life! Blessed are those who have had a taste of it and woe to those who have missed this larger than life slice of happiness in its essence.

The same performance is repeated for all the members of the family who return home after a lapse- after all they are his family.

If you walk into your room he is behind you and if you go to wash he sits behind you or just outside your bathroom door looking expectantly for you to call him to you.

If in exhaustion you lie down on the bed he is most happy because he can jump up and settle down snuggling against you. The joy of all this is worth a million dollars.

If you are worried and sulk in your room weeping, sure enough he is there to lick away every tear that is wasted and pushes you towards hope and courage. He knows it is not the time to disturb with a bark when you feel down and gloomy and lie down to brood over what to do next. You have him lying close to you, his warmth assuring you that everything is going to work out fine and that it is not the end of the earth.
Browny
He doesn’t make a hue and a cry if he is ill. He lies low somewhere until you find him and realize that something is wrong. There is so much about pets that just speaking about them makes your heart lighter.

And I know they are wondering where I am gone and why so long . .

Rosita

Co(w)ca Cola or Pe(e)psi

2009-03-13T12:10:00.005+05:30

This photograph, my friend sent me a few weeks ago left me numb. That a starving child had to drink the urine of a cow to retain his life is unbearable.

But the recent hot news on Times Online about a hot new drink using cow's urine made me blink not twice but repeatedly. I sat stymied by the news.

When a student in the 1970s, I remember, a common joke. It used to be fun asking one another other at the college canteen - coffee, tea or pee?

That was to hit at the erstwhile Prime Minister Mr. Morarji Desai and his AUT (- Auto Urine Therapy) In an interview on a popular TV Mr Desai boasted that he drank 8 ounces of his urine pure and fresh .His followers later bragged about that being the main reason for his longevity of 99 years.

If a drink tastes bad, we comment, "It tastes like piss."

In 2001 the RSS and BJP began promoting cow urine as a panacea for curable and incurable diseases. They believe that the cow is a treasure house of medicines. This defies all logic and faith in science and medicine and is directly a threat to health of people in the society.

Here is their defense:-
The holy texts Atharva Veda Samhita, Rajni Ghuntu, Vridhabhagabhatt, Amritasagar, Bhavprakash ,and Sushrut Samhita- tell about the benefits of cow urine therapy. In Ayurveda, poisonous materials are purified using cow urine. Pancha gavya made up of cow products viz curd, ghee, urine and dung is believed to destroy any disease from skin to bones.

The Cow Urine Treatment and Research Center, Indore advertises that a person falls ill when there is deficiency or excess of the substances inside the body. The cow urine contains those substances, which are present in the human body. Therefore consumption of cow urine maintains the balance of these substances and cures incurable diseases. If so, all the herbivorous animals wandering in the forest should boast that their urine is as good too.

Now again cow urine is being touted not only as a cure all, but a fizzy drink from cow's urine is in the offing. They intend to promote the bovine brew extremely inexpensive and effective, sterilized and fresh. The drink is undergoing its final laboratory tests and should be ready by the end of 2009- Cow's urine mixed with medicinal and Ayurvedic herbs. They assure that it will neither smell nor taste like urine.

Already gau water is now available for Rs 20 a bottle in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and at fairs and festivals all over the country. They call it gau water. Some shops sell them under the counter or in sachets outside parks. Some regular users are afraid to talk about it. It also comes in tablets or a cream mixed with other traditional medicinal herbs.

Rumors are that demand is currently outstripping supply.

Only last week there was a hue and a cry about dead bees, flies and mosquitoes floating in a sealed Maaza bottle. I wonder how modern age Indians will react to this new urine brew.

No scientists have ever proved that urine has any medicinal value. Urologists and Vets question how the excretory product of a cow can be useful to humans and condemn it as a strong misconception and a superstitious belief. They warn that it can injure the kidney leading to failure. Science requires evidence and not faith .

Cow has had a central place in the political symbolism of RSS combine. So far cow has been projected as mother. The present effort now transcends the earlier efforts as faith is being transformed into blind faith and to consume bovine waste as a cleansing agent and health drink is the limit.

Does Recession strike so hard that we cannot afford soft drinks and India has to produce its own natural national soft drink? (a desi drink - call it Desai drink) Is it a ploy adopted by Hard line frustrated Hindu organizations in opposition to corrupting western influence- to promote Hindu ideology which includes cow as an object of worship?

Are they all out to cleanse the nation of foreign soft drinks and to promote an Ayurvedic drink made from cow's urine? Probably they want to curb the Hindu population drinking Coke and Pepsi? They intend to give the other soft drink companies good competition because they even plan to export this.

Maybe it is an attempt to save the country's sacred but often most mal treated beast. ( it would have some purpose if they concentrated more on the fact that our cows are malnourished and don’t produce enough milk. Hopefully a majority of cows will get better treatment .

Poor villagers who indulge in adulterating milk with water for a little more income now have an additional source of income. - call it wealth from waste

My friend says that it is said in the Hadith of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) that he had prescribed drinking of camel milk as well as its urine to the people of the Uranayah tribe. Members of the tribe had come to Medina and some of them fell seriously ill from an unknown disease. Their bellies had swollen and they were not in a fit state. Hence, the prophet said to them, that they would find a cure in the milk and urine of camels and so he sent them out to an area where camels were grazing. These men went to this area and drank the milk and urine. Sure enough, just like the Prophet said, they were cured and became fit and healthy. Do we infer that drinking camel urine is permissible in Islam?

Canadian scientists have discovered that bovine urine can be used to detect mad cow disease.
Germany's research institute for Animal health has detected certain proteins in the urine which signaled the presence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow).

Who in their right minds will dare drink anything from cow’s urine after knowing this? Very few Hindus drink this stuff. I hope that most Hindus are already modern enough to not believe this.

A warning - the foreigners coming to India for treatment will have doubts and fears.

An afterthought – All these people who never think twice about drinking cow's urine are up in arms when it comes to caste discrimination.

A A A

2009-03-07T10:29:00.002+05:30

The Anti Aging Age

When my friend Charles Barton told me about his grandmother, I realized that a woman’s quarrel with old age was not a recent one.

Mrs. Barton was a lady from a good family. There was a social rule when she was young, that a lady should never reveal her age. So she never told her age .When she was dying her daughter- in -law took her to the hospital. She appeared to be in a coma. They stopped to fill out the admission papers when the clerk asked how old the grandmother was. The next moment grandma sat up on the stretcher and said “Don’t you tell them.”Then she collapsed .Those were the last words she spoke.

Silver hair and bifocal spectacles – that was a grandmother - a loving relative who looked her age. Her wrinkles were always a sign of wisdom. If there happened to be laugh lines too, then it was proof of a life time of joy and envy to others.

To those who reach the golden years of their life, there awaits a relaxed style of life, a lifetime of memories, maybe a reasonable pension and free bus passes and concessions in train travel. But to balance these benefits, parts of the body may stop functioning as they used to, in younger years. As a solace to such a sobering thought is the truth that the senior citizens of today are leading a fuller life than the seniors of yore. The credit goes to the advances in our knowledge of nutrition and the aging process.

As age starts knocking at your door overpowering you, the urge to look younger grows manifold. This is a general scenario of the present society, where ageing is seen as a threat and an end to the charm of life. We all tend to join the bandwagon. Then people leave no stone unturned to look younger. They try every method that boasts of giving them the youthful look on their face. The efforts lead to better awareness of anti aging products and supplements , some alchemy known to bring back the blithe spirit in life along with overwhelming confidence. The desire for beauty and youth never ends.

The women of today are eternally seeking ways and means to get rid of those life lines that are visible clues of their true age. Even Grandmothers have succumbed to the pressure to look as young as humanly possible. They sport dyed hair and contact lenses and are regular visitors to the gym and beauty parlours. They too have got attuned to the fast track habit to dine out and don’t spend much time in the kitchen to bake cookies or unknown recipes of their ancestors.

To come to their aid are stores filled with regenerative medicines, creams, lotions, herbal remedies, natural treatments, dyes and pills to combat aging skin, hair, and bodies. Anti-aging substances promise to be miraculous fountains of youth Even if skeptical, almost everyone never fails to try them anyway, hoping against hope, ultimately successful only in fattening the wallets of the manufacturers.

The stress is more on how one looks on the outside. Unfortunately, what is inside seems to be put behind us. Magazines, TV shows, and advertisements - all aim at the younger generations. Society is youth obsessed. Little wonder everyone wants to be young.

But these potions and even surgery are only the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of organizations,
medical and scientific associations all devoted to finding a solution to the eternal quest for our lost youth.

Envision a world in which we will all look half as old as we really are - we will no longer have grandmothers who look like grandmothers, or even mothers who look like mothers?

What is so wrong with aging gracefully, and naturally? If society continues with its youth obsession,our children’s children may never know the joy of Grandma’s homemade chocolate cookies. Instead, Grandma will pass them a Bar of chocolate before heading off for a day at the spa.

On the flip side of it all Aging does not have to be a passive endeavor on your part, with the numerous avenues anti-aging medicine has made available. Nutrition is a Bigger Concern in the Elderly. Most of the ailments that we associate with aging are all preventable to a certain degree without recourse to fantasy. A calculated course of nutritional supplementation can help people look younger, live longer and better lives.

As we age, our body produces less of what it needs to be young and healthy, and therefore we see it ageing with marks, wrinkles, loose skin, dullness and dark circles round the eyes. It becomes increasingly difficult for the body to absorb all the nutrients it requires as people get older. Loss of appetite can also exacerbate this deficiency, and may be caused by lowered physical activity and the side effects of medication. And most importantly, over time, the gastro-intestinal tract, kidneys and liver are less efficient and cannot process the nutrients that the body normally gains through eating.

Supplementing it with vitamins and antioxidants help replenishing lost lustre and bring the hormones and other vital elements that the body ceases to produce with age.

This makes it obligatory for us to have awareness of products that are really effective against ageing and can slow it down or at least make you look young and stay healthy.

Antioxidants are one class of phytonutrients that supply an extra oxygen molecule to those molecules that are missing one. If antioxidants don’t supply the missing oxygen molecule to free radicals, the free radicals will take an oxygen molecule from another compound in the body, making one that was previously healthy and intact itself a free radical.

Free radicals are unstable chemical molecules that have a negative effect on the body, as they can damage cells. They are normally produced as a byproduct of the metabolic processes of our cells. It is also produced by our immune system as it counteracts the effects of pathogens and the environment.

The antioxidants play very important role in the anti aging process. The antioxidants fight with the free radicals and turn them into waste. In this way the antioxidants help in removing the unhealthy cells from the body and the body remains healthy. This process can be initiated by regular intake of antiaging antioxidants in the form easy to acquire natural resources as fresh vegetables and fruits, plant extracts, white lean meat such as turkey, fish or chicken which are free from any sort of side effects.

Here are some of the supplements:

Vitamin C has confirmed potential results in keeping away free radicals.
Vitamin E: Including vitamin E in your diet helps to protect certain cell membranes within the body that are attacked by free radicals.

Green Tea: fights with the free radicals and nourishes the body with the necessary supplements. Green tea also protects cells from cancer, and protects the heart and the possible resistance to the body from other illnesses that could weaken the body.

Vitamin B Complex - is vital for the brain and can help against Alzheimer.
Flaxseed – This is required for healthy cell function and replication and a great source of omega 3 oils which help prevent Heart-Disease and may assist aging skin.

Garlic - benefits the immune and cardiovascular system, against hardening of the arteries

Ginger - digestive aid and it is also beneficial for blood clots and anti-inflammation

Ashwagandha - Indian ginseng, anti-aging traditional medicine, considered to have anti- Cancer effects

Spirulina - natural source for vital nutrients, also good for progressive mental diseases

Siberian Ginseng - helps the body adapt to mental and physical, supports the immune functions

Ginkgo Biloba - antioxidant properties and is used for circulation and memory problems

Cordyceps - shown to be effective against fatigue and premature aging

Reishi Mushroom Extract - boosts the immune function, can help the body absorb other nutrients

Milk Thistle Extract - promotes liver health.

Concentrating on these for a fulfilling life would be a better option than just foraging for measures to look young on the outside only, like administering dermal fillers to diminish wrinkles and facial folds to roll back the years.

Old is Gold

2009-03-01T15:12:00.008+05:30

What are Grandmas for?

Grandmas are for stories about things of long ago, for caring about all the things you know, for rocking you and singing you to sleep, for giving you nice memories, to know all

div style="text-align: justify;">What are Grandmas for? Grandmas are for stories about things of long ago, for caring about all the things you know, for rocking you and singing you to sleep, for giving you nice memories, to know all the things you're dreaming of. But, most importantly of all, Grandmas are for love. Grandmother and Grandfather Granny and Grandpa Gramps and Grammas Grand daddy and Grand mummy Whatever you call them, a mere thought about them throws open the window to the heart to let in a waft of soothing fresh air , the cool breeze of nostalgia. It's such a grand thing to be a mother of a mother - that's probably why the world calls her grandmother. Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you're just a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric. A house needs a grandma in it and every child needs a grandparent, anybody's grandparent, to grow a little more securely into an unfamiliar world. Sometimes they are like grand-angels. Grandmothers and roses are much the same. Each are God's masterpieces with different names. They are just antique little girls and boys. You will agree that there's no place like home except Grandma's. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. and, most importantly, cookies. They sort of, sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. They take delight in hearing babies breathing into the telephone Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever. A grandmother is a babysitter who watches the kids instead of the television. Have you heard that genes skip generations? Maybe that's why grandparents find their grandchildren so likeable and vice versa. Almost every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers. Being grandparents sufficiently removes us from the responsibilities so that we can be friends. A grandparent is old on the outside but young on the inside. Grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief they haven't thought of yet. Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandmas never run out of hugs or cookies. They are full of interesting stories of past experience or of age old tales. They fall a prey to the twinkle in the eyes of the grandchild’s eyes and readily do everything possible to entertain them during their short stay which is their hard to come by golden opportunity to be with the city brats. Did not Red Riding Hood, for love of her grandmother venture across the deep woods to visit her? From the grandparents’ point of view, grandchildren accept them for themselves, without rebuke or effort to change them, as no one in their entire lives has ever done, not their parents, siblings, spouses, friends - and hardly even their own grown children. Maybe, living with grandparents for a long period, sucks. If your parents are away and you are left to be chaperoned by your grandparents they forget they are grandparents and take up the role of your parents all too seriously. They do so not to prove that they are always right or that they are as good or even better than your parents in bringing you up, but because of an earnest effort to do the best they can for their beloved grandchildren and proud of the opportunity. That accounts for their strict behavior. If you are with your grandparents ,your parents living faraway are free from worry. A grandfather/grandmother is someone with silver in his hair and gold in his heart. I hope I too will be an old, white-haired lady someday, into whose lap someone places a baby, saying, "Smile, Grandma!" If becoming a grandmother was only a matter of choice, I should advise everyone to straight away become one. There is no fun for old people like it! In the fast track world, I am sure fun with grandparents will soon become a thing of the past, a haunting memory, legends of yore, - as most Grandparents will be in homes and those not in homes will not have the silver hair (only dyed hair) - but all of them will have a heart of gold. A child gives reasons why she loves her grandma Her steps are short like mine. She never says, “Now hurry up!” She always takes her time. Her eyes see things like mine do. Wee pebbles bright, a funny cloud, Half hidden drop of dew. Most people have to hurry, They do not stop to see. I’m so glad that God made Grandma Unrushed and young like me.<span style=";font-family:"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:"></span><span style=";font-family:"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/2aa04318-5b89-4514-b2fb-b4400ee45458/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2aa04318-5b89-4514-b2fb-b4400ee45458" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>

the things you're dreaming of. But, most importantly of all, Grandmas are for love.

Grandmother and Grandfather
Granny and Grandpa
Gramps and Grammas
Grand daddy and Grand mummy

Whatever you call them, a mere thought about them throws open the window to the heart to let in a waft of soothing fresh air , the cool breeze of nostalgia.

It's such a grand thing to be a mother of a mother - that's probably why the world calls her grandmother. Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you're just a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric. A house needs a grandma in it and every child needs a grandparent, anybody's grandparent, to grow a little more securely into an unfamiliar world.
Sometimes they are like grand-angels. Grandmothers and roses are much the same. Each are God's masterpieces with different names.

They are just antique little girls and boys.

You will agree that there's no place like home except Grandma's. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. and, most importantly, cookies. They sort of, sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.

They take delight in hearing babies breathing into the telephone Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever. A grandmother is a babysitter who watches the kids instead of the television.
Have you heard that genes skip generations? Maybe that's why grandparents find their grandchildren so likeable and vice versa. Almost every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers. Being grandparents sufficiently removes us from the responsibilities so that we can be friends.

A grandparent is old on the outside but young on the inside. Grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief they haven't thought of yet. Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandmas never run out of hugs or cookies. They are full of interesting stories of past experience or of age old tales. They fall a prey to the twinkle in the eyes of the grandchild’s eyes and readily do everything possible to entertain them during their short stay which is their hard to come by golden opportunity to be with the city brats.

Did not Red Riding Hood, for love of her grandmother venture across the deep woods to visit her?

From the grandparents’ point of view, grandchildren accept them for themselves, without rebuke or effort to change them, as no one in their entire lives has ever done, not their parents, siblings, spouses, friends - and hardly even their own grown children.

Maybe, living with grandparents for a long period, sucks. If your parents are away and you are left to be raised by your grandparents they forget they are grandparents and take up the role of your parents all too seriously. They do so not to prove that they are always right or that they are as good or even better than your parents in bringing you up, but because of an earnest effort to do the best they can for their beloved grandchildren and proud of the opportunity. That accounts for their strict behavior. If you are with your grandparents ,your parents living faraway are free from worry.

A grandfather/grandmother is someone with silver in his hair and gold in his heart. I hope I too will be an old, white-haired lady someday, into whose lap someone places a baby, saying, "Smile, Grandma!" If becoming a grandmother was only a matter of choice, I should advise everyone to straight away become one. There is no fun for old people like it!

In the fast track world, I am sure fun with grandparents will soon become a thing of the past, a haunting memory, legends of yore, - as most Grandparents will be in homes and those not in homes will not have the silver hair (only dyed hair) - but all of them will have a heart of gold.

A child gives reasons why she loves her grandma

Her steps are short like mine.
She never says, “Now hurry up!”
She always takes her time.
Her eyes see things like mine do.
Wee pebbles bright, a funny cloud,
Half hidden drop of dew.
Most people have to hurry,
They do not stop to see.
I’m so glad that God made Grandma
Unrushed and young like me.

Beauty and the Beast

2009-02-23T15:07:00.010+05:30

It all begins with the Scandinavian fairy tale ‘East of the Sun and West of the Moon’. The tale is about a poor man who in order to alleviate the sufferings of his poverty stricken family conceded to the demand of a great white bear and exchanged his youngest daughter for silver and gold.

The history of animal–human marriage tales reaches back to legends of animal deities and their various mortal lovers, found in Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, early Greek, and other ancient mythologies.

In the 18th century, a French woman, Gabrielle–Suzanne de Villeneuve, borrowed from the Animal Bridegroom tradition to create an original fairy tale that became one of the best loved of all time: Beauty and the Beast.

Boria Sax the folklorist feels that just as marriage between two people unites their families, so marriage between a person and an animal in myth and fairy tale joins humanity with nature. He sees in it an almost universal longing to re–establish a lost intimacy with the natural world

Perhaps that is what "Sharon Tendler’s tried to do. 41 year old Sharon Rendler met Cindy the 35 year old bottle nosed dolphin 15 years ago. It was love at first sight. In a modest ceremony at Dolphin Reef in the southern Israeli port of Eilat, Tendler married Cindy. "It's not a perverted thing. I do love this dolphin. He's the love of my life," she said. While she acknowledged the "wedding" had no legal bearing she did say it reflected her deep feelings toward Cindy."It's not a bad thing. It is just something that we did, because I love him, but not in the way that you love a man. It's just a pure love that I have for this animal," she said.

Recently, an Indian farmer has married a dog to atone for what he believes is a curse. 15 years ago, Selvakumar, a 34-year-old farmer from Tamil Nadu, stoned to death two mating dogs in his rice field, and hung their carcasses from a tree. A few days later, his hearing and speech were impaired and he was unable to walk due to paralysis in his legs and hands. When doctors failed to cure him an astrologer told him that he was cursed by the spirits of the dogs he had killed. The soothsayer also pointed out that the only way to cure his maladies was for Selvakumar to marry a dog.
Selvakumar got a four-year-old mongrel bitch from a friend and celebrated a full-fledged Hindu wedding. A Hindu priest conducted the ceremony. Marrying the dog was only for lifting the curse. Later, he plans to get a real bride. Selvakumar is not the first man to have hit the headlines for marrying an animal in India.

An infant boy was married off to his neighbor's dog in Orissa, in Eastern India by tribal villagers. They performed the ritual recently after the boy, who is under two years old, grew a tooth on his upper gum. The Munda tribe sees such a growth in young children as a bad omen and believes it makes them prone to attacks by tigers and other animals. They believe that their tribal God will bless the child and ward off evil spirits after the marriage. In the village temple, a priest solemnized the marriage between Sagula, the infant and his bride, Jyoti, the dog chanting Sanskrit hymns. The dog was set free after the ceremony.

Indian law does not recognize weddings between people and animals, but the ritual survives in rural and tribal areas of the country. Deeply superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize such weddings believing it can ward off certain curses.

The Times of India reports that in a bizarre ritual, two minor girls, both seven, have been wed to frogs. The frogs were caught in the temple pond and were tied to long sticks decorated with garlands for the marriage ceremonies. The girls married the frog princes in separate, elaborate ceremonies at two different temples in the presence of hundreds of villagers. Amidst chanting of Vedic hymns, the temple priests solemnized the marriage. The terrified frogs were thrown back into the temple ponds after the ceremony.

The ceremony, an annual feature during the Pongal (harvest) festival, is conducted to prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village.The ritual is being practiced traditionally for several generations to ward off evil spirits and diseases from the village. All these years the strange practice has been going on unchecked.

Literacy, education, motivation and awareness programs alone can enlighten the villagers against such evil and ignorant practices.
If it is a turn back to Nature there sure are better ways to express oneself like adopting, fostering,rehabilitating, and nurturing nature.We still have to hang our heads in shame.

With a hearty laughter I remember the popular story of the Sudanese Charles Tombe who in February 2006 was forced too marry a goat. The goat's owner found him having improper relations with the animal and complained to the village elders. They ordered him to keep the goat but pay a dowry of $50 to the owner. They also named the goat Rose.Their idea was to embarrass the man. This BBC story became one of the most read internet stories. It does not portray the Sudan in a bad light but only shows the Sudanese sense of humour in implementing punishment.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Old wine in a new bottle

2009-02-19T11:59:00.020+05:30

In the rat race of life today one who survives wins. Multiple are the survival tactics one has to invent.A little wisdom helps in such times. Here is some old wine in a new bottle

Old folk's tales to entertain children are often altered by enthusiastic story tellers. In the old story of the fox and the crow , the foolish crow flattered by the fox tries to sing and loses the cake - or whatever it had in its mouth. But in the modern rendering of the tale the smart crow holds the food in its claw ,sings a caw caw and starts nibbling on its precious treat.

Similarly the story of the hare and the tortoise has many dimensions.

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster.
They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off on the race. As expected, the hare ran ahead of the tortoise.

Tired and panting, the hare realizing that the tortoise would take a long time to reach him thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree but unfortunately fell asleep.

The tortoise plodding on, overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. The hare woke up and ran to the destination only to learn that he'd lost the race.

This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with and we were taught “Slow and steady wins the race.”That’s an old story. In the modern context the story does not end there.

There are few more interesting things......

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching.

He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident,careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there was no way the tortoise could have beaten him.

So he challenged the tortoise to another race.The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The modified moral is - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.

It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be "fast and reliable."
Now for his turn, the tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it could beat the hare in a race, the way it was currently formatted. It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do.

In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The modern moral became - "First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realized that the last race could have been run much better. So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back.

On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together.They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.

The modest moral is - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below expectations because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

Neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure.

The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could."

In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.
The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

The story of the hare and tortoise has much to say: Chief among them are

· Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady.

· Work to your competencies.

· Pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers

· Never give up when faced with failure;

· Finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.

V day to We day

2009-02-15T23:13:00.003+05:30

The upstart wave of moral policing in Karnataka has caused undulating ripples. Anyone can take law unto his own hand -That is the inference.

The next shock wave is the protest against celebration of Valentine’s Day. In Kanyakumari district two stray dogs were caught and married in public. Who gave these people the right to put the animals to such humiliation? This was their tool to clamour against the celebration of Valentine’s Day.

Fanatical religious groups tried to force lovers to get married at once. Where does all this lead to? - A mockery of life indeed.

Is it an opposition to love or falling love or lovers or against aping of a western culture? If it is against aping western culture then the same people should rectify their lives and lifestyles in innumerable ways.

There is a hue and a cry for almost nothing. Don’t celebrate Diwali or Holi as they are festivals of North Indians. Then how do you coexist with North Indians in South India and vice versa. Why need we conduct cultural exchange programs among territories and nations?

There are those who condemn celebrations of Mother’s day and Father’s Day in India. India is a land where we duly respect and love our parents .It is only in western countries that children don’t express their love for their parents, comments and upright Indian.

True they don’t fleece their parents dry before they can stand on their own feet like we do. They don’t suck their parents off their earnings. They leave the old parents with their savings to fall back upon. Like leeches we draw our their last ounce of savings and dump them in an old age home to fend for love and attention. India can boast of plenty of such homes. Ask most parents there . if they would like to go back to their children or if their children visit them regularly the answer is a definitive NO.

I wonder what there is for all the cry against love. Is not Love the basis of all religions? The problem arises only in the love between a young man and a girl. When love marriages are entering into the third generation; where some of our grandparents themselves boasts of love marriage, let us acknowledge that our youth know what they are into .They are getting smarter and more intelligent enough to pick up their partners. Why should society not give them due credit

Love marriages are like road rollers. leveling discrepancies in society as caste, and religious inequalities. They will turn India into a truly secular nation. Why not we celebrate the move towards that goal? Why should we not consider Valentine’s Day as a day to shower love on one another.

Such people who viciously and pessimistically condemn Valentine’s Day and lovers cannot have any love in their hearts, even for their dear and near ones.

Let us remember that parents and children are gradually entering into a closer relationship than in the days of yore. A son or daughter can now discuss with parents about anything even love affair and get the help of their parents. If there are families where this is impossible it sadly reflects on the parents who have failed their children, or they are too selfishly stuck up in their customs and traditions to breathe the fresh air around. After all who can guarantee that all arranged marriages are a success.Why not we at least teach our children the value of love

If only we could better spend our energies empathizing with the mutilated victims in Sri Lanka who need our love and attention we would evolve as more humane. Let us learn to be better people.

Everyone has a right to celebrate what he wants and none has the right to force him to stop. Changes can be brought about by convictions not by force.

Who let the rogues in?

2009-02-11T10:09:00.010+05:30

News of children beaten by teachers in Chicago public schools makes me wonder if there are Teachers or Torturers . What about the State Law that bans corporal punishment? Has it gone down the drain?

Schools students beaten with broomsticks, whipped with belts, yard sticks, struck with staplers, choked, stomped on and pushed down stairs. – unbelievable, grotesque - teacher even fractured a student's neck..To add insult to injury, even blind children are not spared

Naturally a student doesn't have very much faith in anyone at his school.

Where does this lead to? When will this form of child abuse stop forever?

Noah's Ark

2009-02-05T10:48:00.000+05:30

Lessons learnt from Noah’s ark

Don't miss the boat.
Remember that we are all in the same boat.
Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
Stay fit. When you're 60 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.
Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.
Build your future on high ground.
For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
When you're stressed, float awhile.
Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.

Arrest Addiction

2009-01-29T17:27:00.002+05:30

No reason is a good enough reason for substance abuse and addiction.

The recreational use of alcohol can often turn into addiction and abuse with deadly consequences: domestic violence, liver failure, drunken driving accident, and physical violence.

Being addicted to alcohol is no picnic. We’ve all heard about that dirty little word ‘Alcoholism’.Alcoholism is a disease, and, it claims lives daily. This catastrophic malady can be the catalyst for one of life’s most heinous downward spirals.

How do we know who really needs alcohol rehab? Simple: take away the alcohol and you’ll quickly find out who’s just having fun and who’s got a larger than life problem on their hands.

The reasons for the drinking may be understandable, but drinking is never an effective solution to the trials of life The only true way to stop this is through knowledge, understanding, and Successful Alcohol Abuse Treatment.

Alcohol rehab can be either your first step or your last step for long-term alcohol recovery. Although most people don’t want to talk about or even think about them, drug and alcohol rehab are places that exist because of such an unfortunately high prevalence of a number of different addictions in society.

For a drug addict, the chances of finding lasting sobriety without alcohol rehab are very slim, and alcohol rehab is a safe place in which core issues and pain can be dealt.

Daddy - Check in

2009-01-29T03:23:00.001+05:30

In the past, fatherhood had a bit of mystery to it. Not any more.

A fact of modern relationships is that many men and women do not choose to be totally monogamous in relationships- Whether it is because women feel more sexually liberated or because of “Desperate Housewives"is closer to reality than people care to admit.

Paternity test determination via your genetic fingerprint using modern DNA typing methods is the most accurate and reliable way to prove paternity definitively

The test helps in Adoption Disputes, potential hospital mix ups, and baby thefts, in vitro fertilization where an unrelated embryo may have been implanted inside the mother, in problems of Immigration, Forensics, Grandparentage , Siblingship, Twin Zygosity, Child support, , adoption, suspected infidelity, confirmation of identity of deceased, to foresee future health risks etc.

If there is one black and white area left in the gender arena, where men could feel indisputably in the right, it is perhaps "paternity fraud". Paternity fraud happens when women go “man hunting”. Some mothers will secure child support from the non-paternal man using lies and deceit.

To oppress males, radical feminists have falsely accused men. They lie about rape, child abuse, and domestic violence. The centerpiece of their argument is their concept that men abuse women.

“The Times of India” reports that in the UK tests are being carried out on unborn children while they are still in the womb, enabling their mothers to abort them if they are the product of an extramarital affair. Most of the women opting for it have had illicit affairs and are anxious to know whether the child they are carrying was fathered by their partner or their lover.

Melt away Fats

2009-01-28T10:24:00.011+05:30

Obesity means having too much body fat.

It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. The weight may come from muscle, bone, fat and/or body water. Both terms mean that a person's weight is greater than what's considered healthy for his or her height.

We are what we eat. Obesity occurs over time when you eat more calories than you use. Factors that might tip the balance include your genetic makeup, overeating, eating high-fat foods and not being physically active.

At least 30 per cent of obesity begins in childhood. Conversely 50 to 80 per cent obese children become obese adults.

The changing lifestyle of families, increased purchasing power, increasing hours of inactivity due to television, video games and computers - have replaced outdoor games and other social activities.

.If you cheat on your diet, you pay a penalty. Obesity increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis and some cancers.

To reduce your fat intake so as to also avoid social embarrassment- it is time we learn to eat right. A promising fast track to weight loss - diet pills - should really help you shed pounds not just slim down your wallet.

In the battle of the bulge, the bottom line is: The most effective way to lose weight is the old-fashioned way - by making sustainable changes to your eating and exercise habits.

Hair Raising

2009-01-27T20:07:00.013+05:30

My dad told me when I was a boy that three things are inevitable in our family: death, taxes, and male pattern baldness. 30 years later, I am trying in vain to prove him wrong.

In our appearance-laden culture, our personal value is sadly often defined by our appearance. Although hair loss is a mainstream condition, most people fail to realize that permanent hair loss is a disease. Men often view hair loss as “a fact of life”, while women view it as “a cosmetic tragedy.”

Everyone, when asked to describe a face, invariably talks about hair. All of us know that hair has no practical use for humans. But the anxiety of seeing a few hairs fall everyday has bred many who promise a magical cure for hair loss. Some feel that no hair loss is treatable.

Anecdotal reports of hair growth need to be verified scientifically. There are only two types of medicine — tested and untested.Think multiple times before you go in for a mane management.