Maggie can’t play drums

for the rest of his life…

Neetu can’t say ‘No’

to tying the knot…

Annie can’t come home

late at night…

Rahul can’t relish

the enticing street food…

and I?… I can’t… just leave it.

Bobby can’t vroom

his bike on the road…

Monica can’t keep

a pup at home…

Ali can’t play with

water in the rain…

Sania can’t pray

the God she likes…

and I?…

I can’t… just leave it.

Radha can’t sing

a song aloud…

Mohit can’t call

his uncle who’s no more…

Prachi can’t wear

shorts to office…

and I?… I can’t… just leave it.

If you have never been unwell in the last 15 years this article might not be very useful for you. In case you find a little better state of health can help you live more of your life every day - try one or more of the options below:

Eat Less
We often eat much more than we need to. Someone recently told me that the physical size of our stomach is not much bigger than the space that we can create between our palms (when bloated in a Namaste shape). Eating a bigger volume than that is just overloading the system and giving it more stuff than it needs to live healthy. This brings in the overhead of processing a lot of food that the body does not need – wasted energy which could have been used in playing a game we love or putting in that additional hour into work that was needed to meet  that deadline! I suppose when one starts over eating the body thinks that you are headed into a famine and starts storing food. But when the food is stored for years and no famine happens then it begins to rot like wheat which has lived too long in storage without being used! The stored food starts floating around in the blood looking for a consumer and since there are no takers for it, starts choking from arteries to organs!
Ignore the gore above and take the crux of the message – eat as much as you will burn today!

Sleep Less
Popular myth says sleep eight hours for a healthy life. If you sleep for eight or more hours everyday – try this simple test. Observe how fresh you feel ten minutes after six hours of ‘good’ sleep and compare it to the moment ten minutes after the eight hour sleep. Most people have found that after the eight hour sleep the body actually needs to ‘recuperate’ from the sleeping – some parts of the body like neck and back feel a little stiffer after the marathon and a general feel of fatigue and laziness lingers for a while before you are ready for action again. In comparison the moment ten minutes after the six hour sleep is often ready for action already! The more important thing here is the quality of sleep. When you keep yourself ‘mildly’ under-slept on occasions (maybe once or twice a week) the quality of sleep that you get everyday keeps improving. Most of the very successful people were awake for eighteen to twenty hours a day and doing things that they really wanted to do (instead of sleeping in preparation for doing them the next day!)

Do More
Find all the things that you really want to do and do them a lot. After all good health’s only use is giving you the opportunity to do more of what you really want to do! One of the things that helps one do more is to not play the ‘OR’ game too early in the decision making cycle. Instead of saying that if I do this then I will be able to do lesser of that try to see if you can do lot of this ‘AND’ a lot of that. An example in this could be the Work/Play balance. Don’t get into OR too early there – work hard and party harder!

Smile More
Very essential daily activity that we keep forgetting to perform at the right frequency - Smiling. Look at the days when you really stretched yourself to meet a target and managed to smile through it – days like those were probably a greater joy than the best vacation (especially if you spent the vacation worrying about a problem that you were not even solving at that moment!) Here again one can achieve two levels – level one is where you are able to smile through the ups and downs of life – level two is when you can make the others smile!

One can’t be apologetic for being successful but, Is Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire truly worth getting 8 Oscars?

Remember Parinda? A Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s mega hit movie. If you will go through the movie again you will find Slumdog’s Jamal, his brother Salim and his girlfriend Latika is the replica of Parinda’s Karan (Anil Kapoor), Kishen (Jakie Shroff) and Paro (Madhuri Dixit) respectively, who rose from Mumbai slums. Parinda was even Indian official entry for 1990 Academy Awards in the best foreign film category but didn’t win the Oscar.

I was besides myself with joy when I saw A.R.Rahman getting 2 Oscars for the same movie but that very time one thing struck my mind that is Jai Ho (Slumdog millionaire song) the best song he composed ever? It seemed to me that those block heads are really carrying coal to castle because there are many A. R. Rahman’s songs which are well worth of an Oscar.

In the movie Lagaan The English were grievously in charge of Indian’s life in ruin. But when twist of fate occurred, pride hath a fall and the restrained Indians took time by the forelock and succeeded with new fangled English men in their own National game Cricket, it was really a shameful event for them. Lagaan was nominated in parallel with Amelie, No Man’s Land, Son of the Bride and Elling. Yet, self praise is no recommendation but many of us found Lagaan much better than any of these movies or even Slumdog Millionaire but, in the view of Oscar’s jury Slumdog was worth getting 8 Oscars and Lagaan not even for one. It’s difficult to say whether it is their decision or obstinacy. Even after the Oscar ceremony Ashutosh Gawarikar said “Americans must learn to like our films”.

Yet Slumdog getting 8 Oscars had already created much ado about nothing but in my view this matter should not really be hushed up. We really need to make Oscar’s jury aware that we are seeing through their tricks and the decisions they are holding with is that, all they like to see is vehemently distraught Indians living in inferno, which Danny Boyle has perfectly caricaturized in Slumdog Millionaire.

A bunch of would be doctors beat up a nineteen year old fresher to death. An incident of Rajendra Prasad Medical College, Kangra, HP which shocked the nation can become an accident of the past, but the Supreme Court of India’s judgment is truly commendable. The court taking clue of “rampant alcoholism” at education places has directed counselling and de-addiction centres in all educational institutions as mandatory. Albeit how seriously we implement it is a different thing but what surprised me is the selection process of medical students. I have learnt that ragging is an accepted norm quite similar to a child being beaten up by his parents and not telling the world about it.

Quoting the father of deceased boy Aman from Delhi, Dr. Kachroo who said that people are usually indifferent to issues like ragging, unless something like this (death) happens. We do not realize that ragging leaves a scar on an impressionable mind. The cruelty meted out on student days manifests in some or the other ways. Rightly said Dr. Kachroo, I agree with you.

A complete degradation of values, I would say. Violence in any form leaves an indelible mark in a growing child’s brain and the actions are thrown in various ways. It can be the way he talks, the way he handles issues (at home or at work) or you can say it can affect his moral psyché.

Bullying or ragging - I accept is an old practice, but off late may be in the past ten years or so, the introduction of newcomers has taken a sharp turn (of course for worse). Victims suffer from long term emotional and behavioral problems, low self esteem and depression also. If I get inside the skin of a bully for a while I’d, I would say. ‘Once a bully always a bully’.

He may behave differently or sound unorthodox but his traits remain the same. A bully will be authoritative, envious and full of resent. A hazer (an American term of a bully) has insecurity combined with a hyper need to control or dominate peers.

Ragging is everywhere Army, Medical colleges, universities, schools, government offices, corporate blocks where violence is re-defined. Verbal assaults, fixated slang and rigid approach to life in general I’d interpret a bully. Do we need baggage? The court’s decision to separate drug users/ alcoholics from students and instate psychiatrist at educational institutions is the right approach to deal with this growing issue.

Last week I was watching a series of the best and the longest bridges in the world on the television at the Discovery channel. To my surprise no Indian bridge features in the list. Roads and bridges lead to development and showcase a country’s progress. Why I am talking about bridges is because in less than a month’s time the Bandra Worli Sea link - an 8 lane will cable connector will be thrown open to public. I am extremely happy about this development. I get happy about bridges in general. They are wonderful and solve too many things - saves time, reduce accidents, generate revenue, smoothens traffic and of course become a land mark subsequently. The Bandra Worli sea link is a man made wonder in making. Though it took more than five years, but it is also a classic example of private public partnership  The height of the bright is close to 126 metres or a 46 floor building. an interesting fact about this bridge is that the total length of steel wires utilised to construct can be rolled across the circumference of the Earth.

The second Hoogly bridge in Kolkata which links Howrah city has proved how useful it could be. It is also an architectural delight.

Now I wait for the Signature Bridge, Wazirabad, New Delhi  which will connect NH 1 on the Yamuna’s western bank to the main city. Quite an ambitious project the bridge was supposed to open for public in 2009, but you know as things in India work, it takes time!!!

We know that, “drug for Asthma are not perfect” perhaps, no drugs are. Yet the patient of Asthma desire to live a normal and active life. Asthma is a fatal disease and living with it is rather stiff, but patient under treatment and self effort can come down and this satanic disease can be brought under.

Asthma is an allergy prone disease so; asthmatics should come at the value of their sleeping and eating habits. They should do without milk, yeast, eggs, fish and citrus fruits. Patient can’t bear with canned food as it contains benzoic acid and sulphur dioxide (preservatives), orange squash or any other orange drink should also be avoided because it comprises tartrazine (an edible yellow dye) which can run out the situation too.

Asthma is a disease of urbanization so; second handed smoke such as barbeque flames in restaurant, pubs and parties should be avoided. Patient must use mask while traveling via an open vehicle. Perfumes and deodorants especially in the aerosol container, projects a fuzz of perfume into the air also causes allergy.

Dust mites (a microscopic creature) , is the most troublesome allergen which makes this bleak disease worst. These mites are most abundantly found in bedroom, bathroom and also love to live in the heave of cloths, cottons, feathers and hair. Asthmatics should try to keep their selves away from these mites. Washing the bed sheet and cleaning the house will not get you rid from this diabolic creature (for asthmatics). Vacuum cleaners are very much efficient of disposing the mites off. If we excuse the texture, nylon bed sheet and pillow stuffed with synthetic fibre would be a better choice. Mattresses should be covered by plastic covers. A pillow with polystyrene granules must be there in the bedroom of the patient as it takes the shapes of the body and help the patient to relax while panting, puffing or asthmatic wheezing.

Above all, the most inevitable thing is to pay more heed upon the breathing habits. When the patient is feeling more anxious, breathing slowly and deeply can help. To avoid asthmatic wheezing every time, asthmatics can help their selves by an autogenic relaxation method, which involves a very slow repetition of calming phrases – “My arms are heavy and warm and my breathing is steady and slow”, for this, one can take help of the experts.

Muscular exercise could be very much beneficial for the asthmatics among which swimming is the best. An inhalation of bronchodilator drug (Sodium cromoglycate) is also very helpful before muscular exercise. The best way to cope up with the stressful situation is to take your mind away from what is worrying you.

You might be thinking , “its easier say than done”, but, Asthma is a fatal disease and it’s better to fight and live a normal life instead of leaving yourself in the lap of this Satan.

X: joote bade sexy hain tere… adidas hain?

Y: kahaan?… hum garib adiddas ki spelling bhi nahi jaante

X: MS Word use kiya karo
X: achcha toh phir kahaan se khareede yeh?

Y: i bot them from sreeleathers

X: ok

Y: par chappal ka mazaa to kuch aur hi hai

X: woh toh hai
X: gandhi ne chappal pehenkar azaadi dilaayi

Y: usne dhoti bhi pehni thi

X: aur advani ko bhi chappal padi

Y: yahan pe status ka mamla tha, advani chappal aur bush joota

X: status nahi culture…purab aur pashchim

Y: sahi ho bhaiyya

X: dekh agar sanskriti ke chakkar mein na pada hota
X: toh khaane ko kamse kam joota toh milta

Y: LOL
Y: par chappal pata pat padti hai jabki joota dhaba dhab padta hai, to chappal hi jeeti yahan bhi

X: main election ladoonga

Y: aur chappal khaunga??

X: toh mera chunaav chinh hoga ‘chappal’

Y: aap toh advani ke padchinhon par chal rahein hain
Y: kaafi stock milega chappal ka janta se

X: but it is any day better than getting into bush’s shoes