A new perspective.

    

           It all started years back in Rome ,when emperor Claudius was boasting and reigning  with  incongruent 'principles' stating that only single soldiers performed  better as compared to the married ones ,and so condemned the marriages of other couples. Defiant Valentine, a soldier under the emperor who opposed this and secretly wedded thousands of couples  was prisoned and sentenced to death.It was to commemorate him ,express gratitude and also patronize love ,that the Valentine's day is celebrated even today every year in the month of February.

            What started as a celebration for 'couples 'mainly ,later had a newer perspective too. Why should Valentines day only be restrained to' couples or lovers '?Love need not be implied in only a certain way and is unconditional and can have an unblemished form.I observed  that my son's school(a Kindergarten ) ,they  have a celebration on Valentine's day and the preparations precede 1 week before itself ,with mutual exchange of 'Valentine's or cards between the friends and classmates and teachers and also sending cards to relatives .The cards have subtle messages depicting their innocent love towards their friends ,parents  relatives and teachers who have filled their lives with so much love and life.These Valentines have their favorite cartoon characters ,some flower pictures or some teddy or soft toy/ Barbie  pictures for the girls.They are taught that Valentine's day is a day for 'love';to express love and gratitude to your dear ones either by your gifts ,cards or deeds.This day is dedicated exclusively to love and 'heart sign' only symbolizes that you love them from your heart sincerely.It's so nice to see these  kids giving cards to their parents ,grand parents ,relatives and friends .Love can be in a pure blissful form too .

            I really sympathize some activists protesting against the couples and people celebrating Valentine's day without giving them freedom of expression and thought.By this,I do not say that illegal ,indecent mannerisms should not be criticized ;but expressing a person's emotions is not to be restrained either.They criticize the western countries for being  influential and  inculcate nontraditional and 'culture less' customs in the Indians. Contrarily ,when I observed the customs and celebrations of 'Valentine's day 'here in the US, I realized that there was something 'good 'too about it !Every coin has 2 sides and both the sides needs to be explored ,without being judgmental about one side of it. Lets perceive this Valentine's day also with a new perspective rather than just creating a mere issue out of it!

GHEE -Good or Bad???

      Ghee is  similar to clarified butter;but with complete elimination of milk solids ,unlike the clarified butter.It is  made by melting and boiling the butter constantly at a low temperature/medium flame until all the moisture content is eliminated and  milk proteins are crystallised and caramelised separating  the yellow liquid at the top.The crystallised solid portions are strained out and only the liquid portion is stored.A perfectly prepared ghee has a pleasant sweet aroma and light yellow color and sandy  consistency .

SOME FACTS:

• .Ghee does not contain Lactin and casein and so can be used by people who are allergic to milk products too (lactose intolerance)
• Ghee is free of harmful trans fats present in most hydrogenated oils which is a major predisposed factor for cardiovascular disease.
• Ghee aids in digestion by neutralising  the gastric acids  and also is easily absorbed by the intestine ;unlike the other oils and butter which further slow down the digestion.
• A longer shelf life ,and no need to refrigerate.
• High smoke temperature (around 480 degree F) unlike oils and butter (350 to 400 degree F),so doesn't get burnt very easily.So it could be an ideal substitute for frying your food ,unless price is a constrain.

SOME OF THE SPECIFIC MEDICINAL PROPERTIES WELL KNOWN IN AYURVEDA :

• Ghee has a very good penetrative ability into the skin and also deeper into the tissues and joints.It is well absorbed (90%)by the skin and tissues.Therefore, it is definitely proven to be a good medicine for alleviating  joint problems ,aids lubrication and flexibility and also a good moisturiser and helps nourishment and toning the skin.
• Ghee , due to credits of  absorptive and digestive ability could aid in bowel movements and clearing the bowel in the mornings and is an useful aid for people with constipation.:)
• Ghee has healing properties due to the presence of considerable amount of fatty acids and helps in healing of minor cuts,wounds,burns  and chaps or cracks on foot sole/lips.
• Ghee is the major base or carrier  for preparation of most medicines in Ayurveda .A lot of herbs or medicines are added and heated in the ghee and is stored as medicines for usage in different ailments.(gritha).These are only a few highlighted points ,there are a lot more to list.

      So after reading all this ,there is a major question.Eating ghee makes me fat.Should I eat it still? Any oil can have 2 types of fatty acids :saturated(long chain and short chain fatty acids) and unsaturated (has mono and poly unsaturated fatty acids ).Poly unsaturated fatty acids like trans fatty acids which increase the level of "LDL"/"bad cholesterol" are not considered ideal part of a diet. Researches have proven that ghee contains  medium and short chain fatty acids which are absorbed easily by the body and digested too ,unlike the other oils like sunflower /canola /palm oils and hydrogenated oils like Dalda.Also ghee contains 27% mono unsaturated   fatty acids which are good and 4 to 5% polyunsaturated fatty acids.So  consider using  ghee instead of other oils for your deep fry.Another exception here is Olive oil ,which also has the highest levels of mono unsaturated fatty acids and thus helps controlling the LDL levels and only causes increase in HDL cholesterol which isn't bad. Ghee  would not raise your cholesterol levels to the levels compared to what oils would cause.But anything in limits and moderation would always be better;because ghee still contains fat may it be mono saturated or short chain saturated,and would cause a significant increase in cholesterol.2 tea spoons of ghee in your daily diet  twice a day is the recommended  amount  and wont cost u much believe me ; rather it's beneficial !But anything beyond that is left up to you:);but still I could say better than the other oils.



PS:This is my lucky charm!I got it as a give away through my blogger friend .She has her blog which has preachings of the lord simplified in her own words ,which touches your heart.Here's the link:
http://coffee-with-jesus.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-take-our-burdens-to-him.html

"The Kid just has it "

 

"The Kid just has it":The cover page of 'The Vanity Fair 'magazine had published this front page statement about the famous teenage pop sensation Justin Bieber some time back.Born in Canada at London,Ontario,on march 1st 1994 ,this Kid/teenager has been the most popular, youngest music star ever.As a kid ,Justin was a 'musical child 'and learnt guitar ,drums, piano along with vocals.He became famous through the "YouTube "videos which his mother had posted  and had over 1 million views then.He was spotted by Scooter/Scott Braun and was introduced to Usher and then was signed to Raymond Braun media group(RBMG) and Island records .He was then 13.

       He launched  debut single song"One time"in July 2009 which  was a hit and was in the American top chart busters.After this ,there was no looking back and success was just following .He had his other solo songs launched like"One less lonely girl","Love me"and later eventually launched his debut album  

"My World "which was a huge success.He also launched some other albums like "My world 2.0"and "My world acoustic", being his latest .His song"Baby " in 2010 Jan was the one which was the turning point of his career and was playing in all the top play lists and made even the young to old dance to his tunes.This young boy has already several awards to his credit including MTV music videos awards,Teen choice awards ,TRL awards,Young Hollywood  award.He has been nominated for the song 'Baby' for World music awards 'in 2010 ;'People's choice award 'for 2011 for his song "Baby"and also 2 Grammy award for"best new vocal pop album"and "Best new artist".He already has millions of fans worldwide and teenage girls crazy for him .Girls have "BIEBER FEVER":). His hairstyle is also appreciated and every teenager     claims   that he wants to be "Just like

Justin".His  song "Never say Never" has been an inspiration to all the young aspirers .He has written a book on his life at this  young age and also a 3D film produced by MTV Films "Never say Never" to be released in February 11 2011 ;which is a true life inspirational story on his own life.On his interview in the ABC channel ,the kid expresses his desire to be 'Prince'or the next 'Michael Jackson' and says that he is humbled by the number of fans he has and what God has given him.He gives credits to his Mother and YouTube and says that, he would not be what he was today ,if his mother had not posted his singing video in YouTube.When questioned "what would you do to make sure you are a star even at 26?";the boy answers saying"Keep myself grounded;and I give credits to God,my Mom ,Friends who help me stay grounded".The boy also mentions in another interview that ,the proceeds of the song "Pray"from his new album 'My worlds acoustic' would be dedicated to 'Children's miracle network' as charity to help all the needy children around the  globe .This young achiever is a Millionaire at bank deposits  and  also at  heart.I am a great fan of his ;what about you???

Here are some useful links:

His Interview with Barbara Walters-  Link 1
His most famous song"Baby"- Link 2
His Fan channel-  Link 3a

MATTUR -A Distinguished village

     My Father  was frequently changing places due to transfers associated with bank posting and as a child,I enjoyed visiting new places and exploring the culture and traditions associated with those places.When I was in 2 nd grade ,(long back-20 yrs )we were staying in a place called Mattur,as a part of my Dad's rural posting.So just recalling those old days ,I thought I must write this note on the village.

         Mattur ,a small village with nearly 5000 odd people living ,is situated on the banks of Tunga river in Shimoga  district ,Karnataka.It is hardly 8 to 10 kms from the heart of Shimoga city. So what's so distinguished in this village ?Well ,this village have had many well known Sanskrit scholars since ages ,and also have been following 'vedic' traditions since many many years and also passed the legacy to the future generations.In 1982,when 'Pejavara mutt' pontiff /swamiji visited this place for a programme ,he was impressed by the way some of the residents conducted the entire programme in 'Sanskrit' language,including the welcome speech,thanks giving speech,songs etc.He expressed his wish to see the entire village nurture this language and use it as their regular language for communication and also further develop the Vedic tradition.So since then, there has been constant efforts to promote Sanskrit language ,and almost all the residents here have mastered the language .So their day to day life conversations happens in 'Sanskrit'.Sanskrit being a very ancient language ,is considered one of the toughest languages, due to its pronunciation.It is usually used only by priests for rituals and also in schools and colleges as a language for study purpose;but not as a spoken language.This village has Brahman residents mostly ,but even the people of other castes(including a few Muslims and Harijans /scheduled caste) are well versed in the language and also recite some shlokas/proses in Sanskrit and Mantras.They have a 'Vedic school 'which  teaches the 'vedas '/traditional texts of ancient India written in  Sanskrit language,and also a Sanskrit  school which exclusively teaches the Sanskrit language.The foundation to Vedas and Sanskrit is established right from the preschool age to the children.Many foreigners have also visited this place with their enthusiasm to learn the traditional language and also for research purpose.They have short crash courses to teach Sanskrit here.This village has been termed "Sanskrit village".

        The village had well organized homes built in an ethnic manner , and very traditionally dressed scholars and pundits .At those times,the kids wore the traditional long skirts,and the ladies in Saree,and gents ,the traditional Dhotis.The village has many temples which includes Ram Mandir,Shiva temple and many others.My faint memory tells me that there were seven temples there.There was one huge Ashvatha tree/sacred fig /'ficus religiosa' in the center of the village ,just in front of my house where my mother used to go for worship along with lot of other people.The people in Mattur follow rituals and traditions very well ,and do not forget to visit the temple regularly every day for poojas ,chant the vedic mantras in the evening,follow all the traditions for festivals special occasions,fasts etc.Oh ! it was so lovely everyday to visit the temple after school and also sit on the center rock at the banks of the river Tunga and have our evening snacks with friends. Such mannerisms and cultural extravaganza everyday, is rarely witnessed in these days anywhere.The colonies were Brahman's live ,are slightly isolated from the other houses.I remember there was a separate colony for 'Harijans'/scheduled caste and I used to go there to play with my school friends  ,and my Mother  used to warn me not to enter their houses,as it was not allowed in the village.Well ,I do not know about the situation today though!

          I read a lot of articles and found out that Mattur  has a few BPO organisations and around 150 software engineers produced from the village ,who are presently serving the silicon city of India and also living abroad.A well known software engineer named Dhruv Mattur,also has his own software firm in Bangalore.'Padmashree' awarded ,Mathoor Krishnamurti,famous scholar ,novelist,writer ,former director  of "Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavana"Bangalore,and also London branch,has also his origins from Mattur.I wish I had some photographs of the beautiful village;may be next time I happen to visit ,will definitely post it.

Some of the links giving facts about Mattur:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DHpDa6eERo&feature=related
watch this video to listen to a resident speaking in Sanskrit.

2)http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/This-village-speaks-gods-language/articleshow/1199965.cms?curpg=3

Why did the president pardon the turkey?

Well to start with ,here in the USA ,the fourth Thursday of November every year is celebrated as "Thanks giving day"and the consequent day as"Black Friday".Thanks giving day is all about revering the  assets we have and be thankful to god for what he rendered ,our family, friends ,relationships and all possessions .This is also celebrated as the 'harvest festival'.The festival is celebrated here by having a family get together and a grand feast , where a 'roasted Turkey' is the main course for the dinner accompanied with a variety of dishes which includes lobsters ,fishes , cranberries pumpkin pie apples ,baked potatoes ,and a lot of other dishes.This tradition of having turkey was inherited from the  history of the Plymouth colony  having this dinner menu in around 1621 as a celebration of their harvest festival!

             Thanks to Mr Abraham Lincoln who reemphasised the 'thanks giving day' and nationalised the Holiday and influenced the people to feast on more and more turkeys:)It was a customary practise to present the president with a turkey each year on the thanks giving day at the white house and it was purely the president's decision to feast it or not.So the first turkey which proved lucky was probably in 1963,which was spared  by Mr John .F. Kennedy and he said"let him live";for he must not have been in a mood to feast on the turkey that day or may be he had some serious digestive system  ailment!whatsoever, from then on , evolved the practise of the "presidential pardon"of the turkeys,and each year they chose 2 turkeys to live ,and then surrendered  it to the Kid well farm in Frying pan park ,Virginia ,a petting zoo or to Disney land ,CA.Some presidents pardoned  and some did not pardon these turkeys offered to them.Last year ,our dearest president Mr .Obama too reprieved  a turkey from its last  moment slaughtering;cheers! I think it's just a 'prestige issue' or  passing on customs/traditions  through successors;for he  wouldn't have felt from the heart for the poor turkey. But I really wonder, of all the millions of turkeys being killed on Thanks giving day ,will the poor 2 little spared turkeys  make some difference at all?

References:wikipedia,infoplease.com and some other web sites .

A contagious phenomenon

Have  you all noticed that every morning we wake up by either stretching ourselves wide or having a huge splurge in and splurge out of air.We are sitting idle just gaping at the sky ,and are lonely ;or are too busy with loads of work and need to stay awake ,then too we have this wide yawn and stretch.Some of the common situations ,where you and me would have experienced a loud /silent yawn:  A  lecture  session is going on at college classroom  and we have our involuntary reflex yawn and consequently end up going out of the classroom .Ur friend/wife is talking some "so called interesting topic ,or narrating a story /gossip",and your yawn makes her frown:)So your yawning would signify the opponent person that you are "bored". Even a very persistent strenuous effort to avoid this would be in vain,because this phenomenon is so involuntary!My grandma always used to say that somebody is trying to remember me ,when I was yawning too many times ;so this was a very common myth i heard from lot of people later too.There may be a lot of other myths associated with it too.Also, if you noticed ,if we see someone yawning,we too catch up that yawn ,feels as is it was some "contagious disease" to catch up!If you are sitting with a group of friends and having a talk,aDoctor's waiting room or a reception area where lot of people are waiting you have a yawn ,and all other too!or imagine the scene of a meeting at a conference hall,where one ignorant person yawns and then the whole bunch of people repeats this as if it was a hierarchy to be passed on!Some people may even have a yawn with just the thought or discussion of yawn ,no wonder if some of my readers catch up a yawn!he he. And as a dentist ,i have one small piece of advise to all my readers :Donot yawn too wide ,because who knows?you may tend to fix your jaws or have a dislocation of your jaw joint next to the ears(we call it as Temperomandibular joint/TMJ) .I am serious!      
           ( The question:why do we yawn? I went through a few articles and found out that' yawning' had lot of theories to explain its evolution.The one which i felt most suitable was that we yawn to incorporate a lot of oxygen within our body.When we are sleepy ,and we need to stay awake ,we need to get rid of the excess CO2 and stuff in as as much of o2 into our body.So a yawn can help us achieve this;that's because when we yawn ,our lungs expand and pushes our diaphragm down ,and we breathe in lots of oxygen ,and breathe out the excess co2 in our body.so how's the logic?sounds gud right? But then this theory was not approved by all the scientists and researchers and they felt  lot of possible reasons.Wickipedia narrates the possibility of some neurotransmitters like dopamine,serotonin,nitric oxide being activated as the prime cause of yawning.Also wickepedia states that the "imitation of yawning ";that is when" one person yawns ,the other too does"can be related to showing some sort of "empathetic behaviour".I can explain this :We humans have a tendency to always relate ourselves to another individuals situations and experiences ;same happens when a person "yawns",we would be trying to relate  and experience that person's bore dome and thus involuntarily we would also yawn!strange but true.Also it is also implicated that some "mirror neurons " present at the frontal cortex in brain may also be responsible for this imitation act.)

Reference:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawn
                   http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/behavior/question572.htm
             

Google's instant cafe

This is a new revolution in Google's trends.As always google has proved itself as "trend setters"and are of course unique also. With so many search engines being in tough competition;Google still has maintained its monopoly and is still aiming high!So what's so different about "Google instant"?
                Google claims that people take 300 milliseconds to type and take only 30 milliseconds to glance throughout the page searched for. So by introducing google instant ,they are trying to reduce the time taken for typing and making it much faster. We type just a letter of the word to be searched ,and it gives us lots of options related, which would obviously be most appropriate.Just start  typing and you can see predictions right in front of you,just at a click.Its like a  Hindi saying"chutki bajake'.Similar to how the kids say A for "apple" ,B for ball..,..this says .."Amazon';AOL,Apple,etc..''I typed my name 'rajashr' and wow! it was at the first few  in the list showing as "Rajashree prasad' with face book details and blogger details!
                                                               Introduced on September 8th, this is now available to users in USA ,UK ,France ,Germany ,Italy and Russia and will  soon be extended.It has some additional features like "safety guard" for violated contents ,which could be turned on while usage ;getting automatically' turned off' ,when the Internet is slow .The guided predictions help you find out what is needed ,when you don't exactly know what you are searching for ;and also the most related search item is highlighted .Also the related matter appears only with 2 or 3 letters of the word and you can stop typing as soon as your related matter appears. They would soon introduce this feature to be accessed through cell phones also.            
             
           

WHY THE NAME MYSTERY SPOT?

mystery spot

The name " mystery spot" attracted my attention and i wanted to go and explore this place. As usual my husband did not seem very much interseted to explore this place and said it could be some simple scientific reasoning assosciated and no "mystery".But i din't want to give up ;and so did we continue. This place located in state of california at santa cruz ,is located at an isolated location amidst the dense forest.

closer view

           The path to the spot was curvaceous,allowing only one vehicle to pass each side and was scary, since vehicles where passing almost merging into each other on opposite sides. On reaching the location ,it seemed as if it was a 'small  haunted house' on top of a hill with some mystery associated.With all vivid speculations ,we went uphill headed towards the house guided by a tour guide.As we reached the house ,the guide started explaining us that there was some "mystery"associated with this house and no scientists could solve this unexplained riddle.There were some strange speculations like some extraterrestrials burried some unearthly metals causing this effect, some magnetic effect,or loss of gravity at this particular site ; some supernatural powers, ghostly acts ;etc.So ultimately this place was termed "MYSTERY SPOT"due to these unexplainable  speculations.

I appear to lean forward ...

                 The guide placed a level plank on the window panel of the house,standing outside, and the plank was tilting downwards inside the house; and he placed a ball over it and rolled it .The ball moved uphill and rolled down to his hand,unlike what was expected.Then he made a few people with different hieghts stand on a level plank in front of the house ,and demonstrated that even a short person appeared taller than the tall person on the other end of the plank,and tall person appeared short on the other end.Then we moved inside the house and i noticed that we couldnt stand staright inside and we felt as if we were losing our equillibriumand were going to fall ;we were literally slipping.All people around appeared' slanted'There was a table placed inside the house and  when a person stood upon that,the other person felt as if he was leaning forward.There was a small wooden stand fixed to the wall and if a person stood over that, he appeared to lean forward from the wall ,without falling.It appeard as if there was "no Newton's gravitational law' So everything appeared starnge and wierd.

The house constructed at a tilted angle

                Then we  decided to observe carefully and what we felt was that, the house was on a hill which was slanted towards one direction;and the house was definetely built with a specific tilt in the opposite direction of the hill.So whatever within the house would appear in a different angulation than horizontal That's what was what atleast we concluded .Then ,i came back home and read a lot of articles related to this online ,and every article cracked the 'mystery '.explaining the reason to be an "antigravitational effect" house construction( constructed at a 25 degree tilt);'optical illusion",etc.Then i had a hearty laugh thinking of the guide reasoning the mystery spot ; poor guy he was obliged to his duty and was not supposed to reveal his secret.But whatsoever ,it was fun exploring the "mystery spot"and had lot of fun doing a'balancing' dance within.It seemed as if all of them inside were out of their wits and were imbalanced.!