Cakes!!!!!!!!!!

Message to God!

I call upon you In my dreams The trust,the faith...

I have in ur realms Heal my soreness with ur mystic touch...

The dearth of which I act like a nut .

The music of passion ...

I love to dance.

Which entralls me truely in ur trance...

O my hero...

I beseech ur presence Ignore me not coz i might perish in ur absence.

--

Reshma.

Paintings Of M F Hussain Worth Millions!

Why thin people dislike the obese

Overweight people are often bullied and discriminated against because ancient fears that fat humans may be diseased causes their thinner counterparts to dislike them, say scientists.

In a study, reported in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, the researchers have found that the mere sight of someone who is overweight can trigger feelings of disgust and nausea similar to encountering rotten food.

Since bacteria and viruses are invisible, human brains have evolved to react to outward signs of disease like rashes and wounds, and these signs also include excessive body fat, suggests the study.

“Antipathy towards obese people is a powerful and pervasive prejudice in many contemporary populations,” the Daily Mail quoted the team from the University of British Columbia as saying.

“Our results reveal, for the first time, that this prejudice may be rooted in multiple, independent mechanisms,” the research team added.

The study showed that feelings of disgust towards the obese were strongest in people with the greatest fear of disease. Participants who agreed with comments like “it really bothers me when people sneeze without covering their mouths” in the questionnaires given were found to be more likely to agree with statements such as “if I were an employer looking to hire, I might avoid hiring a fat person”.

“The research sounds reasonable enough I suppose; obesity is unhealthy and if there is something in us that helps us avoid ill health I can understand that,” television presenter Anne Diamond, who helps people conquer obesity after briefly ballooning to 14st 9lb herself, said.

“But I don’t believe that in the 21st century we can use it as an excuse for prejudice. Obesity is an illness, but something becoming so common that it will soon be the norm,” she added

REPULSING?

Experts have found that the mere sight of someone who is overweight can trigger feelings of disgust and nausea in thin people

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Love Every Body!

To love & to be loved is the greatest happiness.

A kindergarten teacher has decided to let her class play a game. The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates, so the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.

So when the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes; some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes.

The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go for 1 week.

Days after days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags.

After 1 week , the children were relieved because the game had finally ended.

The teacher asked: "How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?" The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.

Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game.

The teacher said: "This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime???"

Moral of the story:
Throw away any hatred for anyone from your heart so that you will not carry sins for a life time. Forgiving others is the best attitude to take!

Pressure Forces Youngsters to Smoke

Most college-going students in urban cities are increasingly turning to cigarettes to puff their worries and stress away.

According to a survey conducted by WHO, globally 1.1 billion people smoke and about one-third of them are below 16 years of age.

Most underage girls and boys pick up smoking in the company of their friends. Some feel that the peer pressure is hard to resist. "I never wanted to smoke. It was my friends constant insistence that forced me to smoke," says Akshay Kapur, a BBA student who smokes 15 cigarettes a day.

The same happened with Kanishka Sharma, 15. "All my friends are smokers. I just wanted to be a part of the group. I wanted to see how it was and I got addicted," says Kanishka."Now I find it extremely difficult to study for long hours without having a cigarette. I need a puff after every 20 minutes," she further adds. Other than the influence of friends, most say they started smoking because they thought it was a cool thing to do.

"I always used to think that only intellectual people smoke. I first started it as I wanted to imitate my father's style of smoking, gradually it became a habit and now I find it hard to break this vicious circle," says Ruchit Mehra, 14. "Smoking helps me to get rid of my emotional problems and mental stress.

Just one puff and I forget all my worries, it calms me down," says Harsh Mudgul, 16, who first took up smoking when he was 10 years old.

For some kids, smoking is an easy way to say goodbye to depression. For Nishi Arora, a student of Class 9, a cigarette is the best way to destress. "I experience a euphoric feeling every time I smoke, it makes me quite relaxed," she says.

BOLLYWOOD CONNECTION
Bollywood has alwaysDev smoking showcased villains as well as actors on-screen. Veteran actor Anand set the trend among actors, of smoking on-screen with the song, Main zindagi ka sath nubhata chala gaya, har fikar ko dhuen me udata chala gaya. Since then many actors have continued the tradition. Shah Rukh Khan did it in Don, Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan did it in Omkara. The list is endless.

But things changed after the survey conducted by WHO, which clearly blamed films for pushing youngsters towards smoking. Reacting to the survey, the government has banned images of actors smoking from all Indian movies and television shows as they promoted a product that is injurious to health

Signs Of Pregnancy!

Scene from a typical Indian movie/Serial: A demure lady is enjoying dinner with the rest of the family. Suddenly, she cups her mouth and rushes to the bathroom where she empties the contents of her stomach.

All the faces around her explode into big grins. The family doctor is immediately summoned. He checks the lady's pulse and pronounces, "Mubarak ho, tum maa banne waali ho (Congratulations! You are going to be a mother)."

Don't you wish it were that simple in real life! Unfortunately, no doctor in the world can tell if you are pregnant by merely checking your pulse. But you might be able to recognise one of these five early signs of pregnancy.

A missed period

This might be one of the first signs of pregnancy you actually notice. If you have regular cycles you may be able to detect that you are pregnant when you miss your period. This is one of the most reliable signs of being pregnant.

Scientific basis: A period occurs when the body stops producing progesterone (a hormone that plays a special role in the female menstrual cycle and in pregnancy) temporarily. This causes the uterus to shed its lining. When you become pregnant your body starts producing a lot of progesterone to sustain the baby. There is no progesterone withdrawal and no period. Period.

Abdominal bloating and breast tenderness

If your periods are not very regular it might be a little tough to notice a missed period. Abdominal bloating is another sign to look out for. Dr Anjali Rajurkar, an obstetrician from Mumbai, offers this tip, "If you have been trying to get pregnant and your jeans suddenly feel snug check if you are exhibiting other signs of pregnancy".Further, you might notice that your breasts have suddenly turned sore and sensitive.

Scientific basis: Both abdominal bloating and breast tenderness result from the high levels of hormones your body starts producing when you become pregnant.

Fatigue and sleepiness

You just woke up and had a cup of coffee. But you can't wait to go back to bed again. You feel tired all the time. Well, most pregnant women experience a high degree of fatigue and sleepiness in their first trimester.

Scientific basis: No one knows for sure why this happens. But experts believe that the high levels of progesterone in your body might be responsible for this feeling of exhaustion.

Nausea and vomiting

Finally! And you thought we would never mention it.For some women nausea is one of the first symptoms of pregnancy. They start feeling unusually queasy and certain odours become very repulsive. Though the nausea and vomiting you experience in the first trimester of pregnancy is called morning sickness, it could occur at any time of the day. It is often triggered by meals. But if you do not have any nausea during the first trimester, do not panic. You might be one of the lucky few who escapes this ordeal entirely.

Scientific basis: Again, blame it on your hormones. Experts believe that high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone vital for the sustenance of pregnancy, causes morning sickness.

Bleeding

Some women experience a small amount of vaginal bleeding when they become pregnant. When the fetus implants itself on the wall of the uterus this can happen. The bleeding is extremely light and might last a couple of days. In any case, if you spot vaginal bleeding, contact your obstetrician to rule out other causes.

Should you take a test?

The five signs detailed above are physical signs or symptoms. It is important to remember that some women might not experience many of the early symptoms of pregnancy, except for the missed period. You need not wait to experience all these symptoms before you take a pregnancy test. If you have been trying to conceive and you feel a couple of the above symptoms you could try taking a pregnancy test.

A word of caution: Over eagerness to get pregnant might make you take the tests too often leading to frequent disappointments if they turn out negative. It is natural to be curious but try and wait for a few signs before you turn to the test.

The pregnancy test

A home pregnancy test is one of the easier ways to test if you are pregnant. These kits are available over the counter at most medical stores. The directions are clear and easy to follow. The test takes two minutes and is pretty reliable too. All it requires is a drop of urine. If your test is positive it might be a good idea to repeat the test with your nearest lab and then schedule an appointment with your obstetrician.

If it is negative, remember that the test is not highly sensitive and might become positive only a week after the missed period. So if you have not had a missed period perform the test after you do.

‘COOL’ CANNABIS CAN LEAD TO SCHIZOPHRENIA

CHECK with any cool group of youngsters busy blowing rings of smoke at any of the snazzy hangouts around you, and chances are that they will tell you of their experiments with marijuana. If you term it a drug, they will be ready to come to its defence, calling it ‘just the done thing’.

Marijuana, hash, grass, weed, charas, ganja…. They are all forms of cannabis, officially termed a soft drug. Unofficially, as most of its users in the age-group 15-35 will tell you, it is the safest drug, actually less harmful than alcohol and smoking. Thanks to this myth, the usage of cannabis in its various forms has been increasing, in particular among youngsters who are also habitual smokers. However, the comfortable notion of the ‘safety’ of this soft drug was punctured recently when the journal Lancet published a comprehensive study proving that cannabis usage increases the risk of schizophrenia by 40 per cent, as compared to non-users. And not only are long-term users at risk, for even one-time usage ups the risk of getting the debilitating disease. This study takes away the ‘cool’, ‘hip’ and ‘harmless’ tags of cannabis and replaces them with ‘psychosis’, ‘delusions’ and ‘amotivation’. The study says that 14 per cent of schizophrenic patients would not have the disease today, if they had not been cannabis users when aged between 15-34.

For the medical community, the study has come as no surprise. Dr Sameer Malhotra, Delhi-based psychiatrist and psychotherapist with special interest in drug de-addiction, says, “This connection between cannabis usage and schizophrenia has been researched for long. The negative symptoms in schizophrenia are similar to those seen in long-term cannabis users. Also, many schizophrenia patients have a history of cannabis use.”

Cannabis is cool, it’s just another smoke…
Most 20-somethings pooh-pooh the facts, or they simply don’t know them to begin with. “A number of my friends who start with cigarettes go on to try cannabis as well, it’s sort of natural, isn’t it?” says Akshay, a college student who himself moved on to trying cannabis this way. His informal take is seconded by Dr Malhotra. “Approximately onethird of people who smoke go on to experiment with cannabis”, he tells us.

“I started smoking MJ (marijuana, for the uninitiated) in my college canteen, before that I only used to smoke,” says 23-year-old Bhaskar, a budding rock musician, “That’s where we used to make music, me and our college band. All my seniors in the band used to do grass or MJ and said music sounded ‘real’ after smoking it. That’s when I did it too, and the calm that comes over you cannot be described. The notes of music actually become more acute, more clear. I still do it once in a while. But I have moved on to hard drugs.”

That’s no surprise, since cannabis is also considered to be a ‘gateway drug’, as its abusers later dabble with chemical and other hard drugs. “But I don’t hold cannabis responsible for my experiments with hard drugs. In fact the out-of-body experiences that I have enjoyed after doing cannabis are unbelievable. You can hear things others around you can’t and your sense of touch is heightened. All my friends have reported the same kind of high,” says 22-year-old management student Anuprit Sinha. We leave her worried after we reveal that her ‘high’ is similar to symptoms of schizophrenia.

…but your mind could go up in smoke too
Doctors dismiss the perception that cannabis is safer than alcohol. Says psychiatrist Samir Parikh, “Cannabis is as unsafe as any other habit-forming drug. It causes psychological dependence, leads to chemical changes in the users’ brain, can cause human errors like outbursts and accidents and affects memory and intelligence.” For longterm users, the harm goes beyond this. “Cannabis gets deposited in our body’s fatty issue. Its effects are very similar to that of schizophrenia — the user is in a state of acute intoxication, he/she tends to lose motivation, suffers from delusions and mood swings, hallucinates and loses touch with reality,” explains Malhotra. Experts are unanimous that this ‘cool’ drug can leave its users scarred in the long term and they find it difficult to adjust to their surroundings.

The global debate
In the UK, one in five youngsters report using cannabis at least once a week, some of them being heavy users. The British government has been deliberating over reclassifying cannabis as a Category B drug. In that category, possession of cannabis will lead to a jail sentence. On the other side of the legal spectrum is the Netherlands, where coffee shops are allowed to sell cannabis for personal use. The Dutch drug policy is based on the general principle of self-determination in matters of the body. In other words, it is not illegal to hurt yourself. Also, because of lenient laws, the percentage of people seeking voluntary help for their problems with cannabis use has increased. British policy makers are also forwarding this example to keep cannabis away from becoming illegal. Prof Robin Murray of Britain’s Institute of Psychiatry, an expert on cannabisinduced psychosis, has said, “Politicians tend to think reclassification is important. It isn’t. Fourteen-year-olds smoking cannabis have no idea of the difference between B and C. It’s already illegal for them anyway. What is needed is education about the risks.”

FORMS OF CANNABIS
Marijuana, Mary-Jane, MJ, Hemp, weed, grass, ganja are dried leaves of the cannabis sativa plant that are smoked. Bhang is a beverage prepared by grinding cannabis leaves in milk and boiling with spices and other ingredients. Can be taken as sweets, pakorasetc.

Hashishor charas is a concentrated resin composed of glandular trichomes and vegetative debris that has been physically extracted, usually by rubbing. It is in higher concentration than cannabis, so the effect is stronger. It is smoked or inhaled after being vapourised.

Hash oil: It is commonly smoked using hot metal blades or plates, inhaled using specially designed vaporizers, or smoked from a bed of ashes. It is considerably more potent than cannabis.

Nine moods of a woman that could help your business bloom

FLOWER POWER:

Companies can learn from women’s ability to delight in intangibles, and create market value for themselves.

Researchers have quoted figures on how adept women are at buying. Martha Barletta, author of ‘Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment’ says American women have sole or joint ownership of 87% homes, buy 61% of major homeimprovement products, 66% of home computers, and 80% of all health-care services. More women carry credit cards than men, and they start 70% of all new businesses.

When India’s economic reforms have resulted in manifold increase of purchasing power, can an Indian woman be any less a shopper? Perhaps the largely masculine world of business needs to take a deep hard look at the subtle subliminal dimension of women to profit from it. There are nine attributes of women that are unarticulated answers to business success.

Nurturing:
Motherhood magnifies women’s caring nature. Business can similarly learn to nurture consumers and shareholders to prevent them from going to others.

Lover of intangibles:
Women appreciate the intangible. When a welcome bouquet is presented to a woman at any function, she takes it home, but a man often carelessly leaves it behind. Creating the intangible in business will help get good talent, retain employees, clinch better value from external partners, and get better share value and market capitalisation. The result is intangible goodwill.

Patience:
Patience does not mean slowing business down. It is internalising all aspects to have better control over them. Carrying a baby for nine months displays extraordinary patience. Women enjoy childbirth in spite of physical pain as they have control over the genesis of new life. Similarly, even an active and speedy organisation needs extreme patience to better understand the latent trend and the market’s microtone dimensions.

Aesthetics:
Women beautify themselves in every civilisation. This aesthetic palette is important for organisations. Sculpting aesthetics in any product or service can become its key differentiator. Aesthetics must address the entire value chain, beginning from back office activities to the front.

Women pay ritualistic attention to personal grooming. They spend generously on intimate wear that’s not publicly seen. An organisation that’s maintained like sophisticated women’s lingerie can inculcate aesthetics in work culture and improve its productivity and quality.

Unlimited orgasm:
Women’s orgasm is unlimited and subliminal, whereas men’s sexual pleasure is a physical climax and momentary. An organisation’s delivery should relate to the continuous pleasure consumers can experience. Psychologically and in the social context there can be several lows like health problem, and work and family stress. To overcome such woes, people spend to celebrate social occasions like festivals and anniversaries.

Women have another characteristic, which is buying outrageously to cheer themselves up. Such a purchase can transform into extreme excitement and can happen anytime. An organisation should endeavour to provoke this unlimited orgasmic character to get the best out of employees or partners. Consumers can be excited with a deliverable so orgasmic they never stop buying it.

Subtlety:
Subtlety is a very feminine characteristic. In the clutter of today’s media, screaming advertisements may get jerky sales. Brands can become slaves to advertising if consumers see no subtle value in the product. An organisation has many subtle human aspects. These could be the difference in intellectual capability, leadership method and the strength of teamwork, creating passion for a common operational goal or a single consistent message flow to all. They must be managed with subtlety and sensitivity.

Exuberance:
Women are exuberant by nature. Nobody can challenge the implicit knowledge and stamina women have to create a difference for themselves. An organisation or brand needs exuberance as its focus to increase its salience. Subtlety and exuberance are two faces on the same coin. To use them in your business, you need to find the right tradeoff.

Networking:
Women excel at maintaining longtime relationships among family and friends. Women create, nurture and enjoy networks with no ulterior motive. Men on the other hand network only if they need something. Networking is relevant in business. A vendor could be your consumer, a consumer or employee could be your shareholder. Emulate women’s dexterity in networking. Stay on top of your stakeholder’s mind.

Mystique:
A woman protects her inherent mystique which gives her the power to control her destiny. A brand that loses mystique becomes generic; its continuous usage in the consumer’s hand can make it monotonous; or habit could paralyse it. Arrival of new market offerings can make the brand even more mind numbing. A brand must protect its mystique to intensify its power. Delicate, subtle and unstated desires hide behind a woman’s logical mind. Multiple dimensions including subconscious ones are factored into their choice. And none of them can be driven by statistics. But before women become its consumers, an organisation needs to understand them and deploy their inherent qualities into its culture. The nine temperaments of women are connected to the consumer’s psychological aspect, organisational culture and handling of partners. They are indispensable for today’s organisation.

The author is an international growth strategy consultant

The Effects of Language

Why are almost all Hindi news channels so excitable? Why do they brim over with passion about every subject, be it the marriage blues of some unfortunate couple, Rakhis stage shows and the hourly performance of the Indian cricket team ? In the name of news they rave and rant and go entirely with the flow of events, rather than cast a critical eye on them. The world becomes a spectator sport and news readers become the commentators whose role is to make us, the viewers feel the excitement sitting in our homes. There is little need felt to provide perspective for that calls for an ability to detach oneself from the event and examine it dispassionately.

Come to think of it, why are Hindi sports commentators so excitable? The difference in the English and Hindi versions of the commentary is startling. The Hindi commentator sees the game as perpetually exciting and believes in magnifying every moment through the sheer force of lilt. The sound of the commentary communicates more than the meaning of the words it contains, and it is easy to figure out what is happening by listening to the cadence of the radio commentator even if one cannot catch the words. Typically, the Hindi commentator is much more comfortable on radio than television, for he is at his best when he has the full burden of communicating not only what is happening on the ground but the feeling that it generates. On television, he needs to account for the fact that we are privy to what his happening; his role is to underline, analyse, point out and provide perspective, things that do not seem to come with great ease.

Now it cannot be that all people who choose to commentate in Hindi lack the ability to provide perspective or that all those who speak in English are cold fish unmoved by the events that unfold around us. Could be that the two languages and the cultures they represent, see the world in fundamentally different ways?

At first glance, this is a preposterous proposition. How can the language one speaks change the content of what one is saying? There are great analytical thinkers who express themselves in Hindi just as English has its share of emotionally expressive writers. But while language may not entirely determine the nature of discourse carried out in it, could it play some role in it? Take for instance, how in the world of advertising, Hindi slogans have an uncanny need to rhyme. The Ek Ya Do Bachche, Ghar mein hote hain acchhe school of tag lines continues to this day.

Given the oral nature of our culture, it is easy to see why rhyme was so important for it was a device to preserve memory. The Hanuman Chalisa, the dohas, the singing/chanting of shlokas in a prescribed lilt, the reciting of the pahadas to learn multiplication all point to the need to keep memory in tact in a world where things were not written down and where few people could read.

The effects of orality might well be behind the natural slant of Hindi news channels and commentary. The spoken word resides in a world that is totally immersed in the present; when we speak we are always in the moment, we cannot but have a ball-by-ball view of the world. When we write, we do so with retrospective detachment, we use logic, we sequence our argument, building it step by step. When we speak we do so with emotion and gesticulations, we repeat ourselves for effect, meander when we think of something else. Logic is not that critical; the emotional force and intent behind what we are saying is.

Comedy in Hindi too is largely involved with voices and sounds. Wit does not come naturally; the pun is extremely rare for both are measured manipulations of the mind. The Hindi comedy serial relies on people speaking funnily rather being funny; the comedian historically needed to look and speak like one.

So when the Hindi news channels speak in such a distinctive voice from their English counterparts, it might not be an accident. There might be a natural tendency that comes not from the people running these channels but from the language that they speak in.

Cop's Bike at No Parking Zone!

FINE, THANK YOU!

The ‘sincere’ traffic police officer who owns this bike was only doing his duty by levying fines on people who violated the ‘No Parking’ rule on St Mark’s Road. Ironically, the cop also parked his motorbike in front of the No Parking signboard before issuing challans.

Taxes

Sometimes politicians, journalists and others exclaim; "It's just a tax cut for the rich!" and it is just accepted to be fact.

But what does that Really mean?

Just in case you are not completely clear on this issue, I hope the following will help.

Please read it carefully.

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day the owner threw them a curve.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." Dinner for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free.

But what about the other six men - the paying customers?

How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.

But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meal. So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before.

And the first four continued to eat for free.

But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man.

He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man.

"I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man.

"Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison.

"We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him.

But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill! And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works.

The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.

In fact, they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Courtesy:
David R. Kamerschen, Ph..D

Professor of Economics

University of Georgia

Marriage Means!!!