tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58234604998065873962024-03-13T01:52:23.021-07:00MY MUSINGS ON THE WORLD AROUNDNataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-61568566194776683462010-10-24T07:51:00.000-07:002010-10-24T09:08:29.781-07:00Abuse of Power<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">We, the modern Indian upper middle and upper classes, have been by and large supposedly taught to reject blind faith and to think rationally thanks to the boost that «scientific temper» received ever since our beloved Uncle, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://kidsfreesouls.com/nehru.htm">Chacha Nehru</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">, ensured that it was made one of the </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p4a51a.html">Fundamental Duties</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> of every citizen of </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://hindu.com/seta/2005/09/22/stories/2005092200211700.htm">India to develop a </a></span><a href="http://hindu.com/seta/2005/09/22/stories/2005092200211700.htm">«scientific temper»</a>. Without elaborating much on this subject as that can take the space of 10 blogs or more, I directly arrive upon the problem of the blind faith that is conferred upon doctors. Since <a href="http://bls.gov/oco/ocos074.htm">physicians</a> are perceived as men and women of science who work with the sole and single-minded objective of curing a malady or alleviating the troubles caused by a disease based on their medical studies, there is apparently no need felt to question the remedies they prescribe (including medicines and surgeries), their training (good marks ≠ good doctors always) or even whether they are psychologically sound enough to be in the close proximity of their patient. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> The recent <a href="http://telegraphindia.com/1101019/jsp/nation/story_13073646.jsp">rape of a Vashi lady patient under anaesthesia by Vishal Vanne</a> (I refuse to prefix his name with Dr.) did not come as a shock to me. It definitely did shock and anger my parents, especially my father who is an <a href="http://jobprofiles.org/heaorthopedic.htm">orthopaedic surgeon</a> himself. He is of the opinion that Vishal Vanne should <a href="http://urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bobbitise">be bobbitised</a> as that is the only punishment fit for him. I, for one, was only stoic, only wondering whether more such things could have come to light earlier, had patients not been under complete anaesthesia. A late-night conversation at my hostel with a roommate 5 years ago had shocked, outraged and numbed me enough to not feel anything this time around. My former roommate has an elder sister who is a doctor. Let us call her Dr. V. Dr. V. did her M.B.B.S. at a reputed medical college in Bombay when she experienced stuff straight out of <a href="http://listverse.com/2008/02/09/top-10-cinematic-psychopaths">movies based on psychopaths</a>. Dr. V’s parents had started hunting for a single, young, eligible doctor for her when she consented to have an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arranged_marriage_in_India">arranged marriage</a> as she did not have a boyfriend. The very first proposal they managed to fish was from a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_surgeon">cardiac surgeon</a>. The girl refused him without meeting him. The parents were taken aback. Furthermore, she instructed her parents not to allow a surgeon even in the <a href="http://britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/625820/veranda">veranda</a> of the house! This left her folks flabbergasted. She explained her reaction. She had participated in several surgeries where she had witnessed surgeons (young and old) abuse patients under <a href="http://nhs.uk/conditions/anaesthesia/pages/introduction.aspx">anaesthesia</a> (not <a href="http://thesite.org/homelawandmoney/law/yourrights/sexualoffencesexplained">penetrative assault</a> of course) and make such debauched and deplorable comments as to be unimaginable to someone with even an iota of decency. On those occasions she had wanted to escape from the operation theatre as she was unable to concentrate on the task at hand and was unwilling to tolerate indecency aimed at the patient and herself. I was left stunned and speechless. Given my paternity, I also felt betrayed. I was extremely embarrassed too (as if the guilt were my own) as the other two girls present at that time made a quick glance in my direction (possibly to gauge my reaction) and looked away. At that moment, I would have given up anything to be told definitively that my father was not a surgeon or a doctor at all! However, that would have made him a quack given that he tells the world that he is a surgeon. Nonetheless, he was and he is a qualified surgeon with verifiable credentials and I had to make my peace with that. Dr. V has now completed her <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Medicine">M.D.</a> and she is now married to a M.D. She stuck to her decision of not having a surgeon for a husband. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>That exchange had remained in my mind ever since and it continued to torment my soul. I once casually brought up that conversation during a tête-à-tête with my parents and asked my father if surgeons have a reputation for being </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perversion">perverts</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> in the medical community. Their reactions were remarkable. My mother, who was convinced that nobody from her husband’s profession was capable of such a thing, declared Dr. V. to be crazy. My father however was perturbed and disconcerted. He did not say a word and he avoided eye contact for quite some time with his 19 year old daughter. A year or two later, I mentioned the same conversation to a lady </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://howstuffworks.com/becoming-a-doctor.htm">doctor</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> in my </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://bombay.afindia.org/">French class</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">. She admitted that such things are commonplace and it disturbs her that any and every kind of a person, irrespective of character, can </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://khabarexpress.com/Education/article/article-view.asp?articleID=73">become a doctor</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> as long as they score high marks in the medical entrance test and class 12 exams. The doctors who abhor perverse and anti-social behaviour in hospitals and medical colleges often don’t speak up for the lack of conclusive evidence and since student doctors have the additional burden of obtaining their degrees before starting a revolt. My father may not be guilty or even capable of such a crime but he along with this lady doctor friend of mine and Dr. V., is guilty of not protesting on the spot against errant doctors or at least reporting such things to competent authorities. What compounds the gravity of the Louts Hospital rape case in </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vashi">Vashi</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> is the fact that Vishal Vanne is not even a surgeon! He is an </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda">ayurvedic doctor</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> and yet had access to an operation theatre where these guys have no business! </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Vashi-rape-Lotus-Hospital-issued-notice/articleshow/6783086.cms">The Lotus Hospital has rightly been served the show cause notice</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>The school and college system does not very actively seek to inculcate correct principles amongst students. Most teachers very conveniently and erringly label high scorers as ‘good and sincere children’ and those who are distracted, average or low scorers as ‘failures’ or ‘wasted’. Such sweeping generalizations have multiple faults of their own but the worst being that we, as a society often fail to acknowledge the fact that even criminals are very sharp, intelligent and clever. Combine this with knowledge, professional and/or social position and the nerve to act out depraved desires and then the likes of <a href="http://criminalrecordsindia.com/tag/vishal-vanne/">Vishal Vanne ruin lives</a>. The same reasoning also applies to our notoriously corrupt bureaucracy, fouled by a large number of unscrupulous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Administrative_Service">IAS</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Police_Service">IPS</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Revenue_Servic">IRS</a> officers who were all high scoring students during the years they were being ‘educated’. Seemingly trustworthy, unethical people in positions of power (even seemingly insignificant such as that of a surgeon) are precisely those who we refer to when we say in Marathi and Hindi that the monkey has a burning torch i.e. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 28px; ">माकडाच्या हातात कुलीत or </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 28px; ">बंदर के हाथ में जलती मशाल </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-53259034538832206572010-10-23T22:04:00.000-07:002010-10-23T22:29:17.741-07:00Elevator = Alleviation of troubles<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">It is either not allowed or it is not obligatory in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place> for building with 4 storeys or less to have an </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/elevator.htm">elevator</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">. I do not know the reason for this. If anyone does, you are requested to enlighten me about the same. I am still very young and disease/disability-free (thankfully) to be bothered by non-elevator buildings but unfortunately certain family members are not. This has got my blood boiling.</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">The last Ganesh festival took us to my aunt’s place. She lives on the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor of a 4 storied building in Thane. Here is what happened.</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">1. My mother, whose one knee has recently decided to be troublesome, took more than 6 minutes (with a nearly 2 minute halt at the 2<sup>nd</sup> floor) to get to the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor. She had only a slightly-less harrowing time coming downstairs.</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">2. Upstairs, my aunt looked much more portly than she was last year. I was taken aback by the change. My aunt and her husband are diabetics in need of regular exercise. My dad, an orthopaedic surgeon, gave his cousin a sermon on the benefits of walking. She just had one dry reply. “I have not left the house in months. I am old now. The legs don’t permit that. It’s easy to go downstairs, but it’s an uphill task getting back home. Her husband had the same complaint.</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">The conversation between my parents, my aunt and my uncle got me thinking and brought to mind troubles of people facing the same predicament due to varied reasons. Consider the cases below.</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">1. A friend’s mom recently underwent a </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DosqbEy8ecY">hip replacement surgery</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> and needs the assistance of a walking stick to get around the house. She stays in a 4 storied <st1:place st="on"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Mumbai">South Bombay</a></st1:place> building without a lift. This lady is largely confined to her house as using the staircase gives her leg aches.</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">2. Imagine the agonies of </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy">expectant mothers</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> in such buildings. Movements become much slower and demand more efforts during this period. The woman will have to trek up and down the building during the 2<sup>nd</sup> and the especially strenuous 3<sup>rd</sup> trimester if there is no lift. A working lady might even consider going on leave earlier for this reason. It will also be a tough task to help a lady in labour out of the building. It can be suggested that she move out to a more convenient location as the due date approaches but why should such a need arise?Just because lifts aren’t considered important for all buildings? </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">3. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.healthcentral.com/heart-disease/patient-guide.html">Heart patients</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> who live in these buildings must also find it taxing to go downstairs and come upstairs every time the need arises. This kind of exertion may not even be advisable for many amongst them. Someone may not have a cardiac problem today but it’s hard to tell who may suffer from a degenerative heart disease. Somebody who is fine today may not be so next year.</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">4. Consider the cases of temporary disabilities. Say I sprain an ankle or </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.medicinenet.com/fracture/article.htm">fracture</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> my leg. I will not be handicapped for life but that period of convalescence will also mean of a period of confinement to my home if it is in a 4 storied building.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">I spoke to a co-worker about this problem as he is committed to </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://ashoka.org/civicengagement"><span class="Apple-style-span" >civic engagement</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> I asked him if he knew what could be done to resolve the same, maybe a </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.ngosindia.com/resources/pil.php">PIL</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> or something. This is what he said. If the 4 or less storied building has space, an </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator">elevator</a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt"> can be installed, provided all residents agree and are will to pay for it. But there is a catch. People living on the ground floor often refuse to pay stating that they will hardly ever use the facility. This argument is fallacious as irrespective of the floor people live on, they have to contribute to the maintenance charges of the society and those include the money for maintaining the lift. People living on the ground floor do pay for these things in buildings that have more than 4 floors everywhere.</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">This problem won’t be resolved anytime soon but something has to be done. At least people have to be made aware of the fact that this problem exists before they face it themselves. Till them, I guess my mom, my aunt and uncle and other acquaintances will just have to put up with the uphill task of getting home. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-2528656060306488882010-07-29T04:04:00.000-07:002010-09-07T10:06:09.928-07:00To do or not to do. Decide well.<p align="justify">There are precisely three reasons I chose to write this blog.<br /><br />1. A sex-crazed friend who now claims that he is ‘changed’.<br />2. <a href="http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?skin=pastissues2&enter=LowLevel&AW=1280224639937">The print promotion for Udaan in Mumbai Mirror. </a><br />3. The article ‘Sex get younger’ dated July 25, 2010 in Times Life!, Mumbai Edition.<br /><br />The media references above give statistics and changing opinions regarding the attitude towards sex in India. My friend gave me a headache. More about that later. The ‘Udaan’ display ad claimed that 9 out of 10 boys and 7 out of 10 girls are ok with pre-marital sex. It did not state the number of youngsters surveyed, their age and socio-economic groups or the cities surveyed. The Times Life! article presented uninhibited outlooks of 20-somethings with regards sex and how more and more Indian teenagers are becoming sexually active at earlier ages. Being a 20-something myself, I wasn’t taken aback by any of it as I know what our generation thinks like and wants in life and yet I found certain things worrisome. Do I plan to moralize in this blog? No but there are certain fundamentals that do not change irrespective of your age, socio-economic class, era, skin colour, religion, caste, race, nationality and location. That is what I plan to rant about.<br /><br />It is my childhood friend mentioned above who made me concerned about the state of affairs of the people of my age group and socio-economic class who are well-educated, well-travelled and who have excellent access to information from across the planet thanks to the internet. My friend and I, until recently, had argued on a regular basis about India’s ‘conservative, closed and regressive’ stance towards sex and sexuality. These arguments continued even after he shifted base to live with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Uncle Sam</span></a> for graduate education. Do not think that we do not talk about anything else but this buddy has a knack for bringing any conversation on to this track. Most of our arguments would commence with his complaints about Indian girls being very traditionalist about sex, our refusal to satisfy our ‘biological urges’ (whatever that means!) and our ‘hypocritical’ wait for marriage to lose our <a href="http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/girls/virginity.html?tracking=T_RelatedArticle">virginity</a>. I resisted and fought the urge to use the much employed “Will-you-like-it-if-your-sister-practices-what-you-preach-?” rhetoric for the sake of propriety and our long-standing friendship. It is none of anybody’s business when or why someone (male or female) decides to lose their virginity to. It is an extremely personal decision that shouldn’t be taken just like that. Before our last and final argument, I had often tried to reason with him the dangers of casual sex and multiple partners as <a href="http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/relationships/date_rape.html">date rapes</a>, MMS scandals (remember <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2004/dec/21/world/fg-cellsex21"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">DPS scandal</span></a>?), the spread of salacious rumours, damage to reputation and <a href="http://news.healthguru.com/content/article/read/101092/Casual_Sex_Causes_Psychological_Scars"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">psychological scarring</span></a>. He always rubbished these arguments and seemed convinced that such things only happen to others. I would get accused of not being open-minded. Clearly his definition of open-minded and my definition of open-minded were not the same. If his understanding of the word is correct, I would rather <a href="http://www.alexepstein.com/articles/openmind.htm"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">not be open-minded</span></a> at all! Once, I had to make my stand very clear about a few things. The personal life of any adult is none of my business till the time that person is doing it behind closed doors (windows and roof) and that his/her partner(s) is (are) consenting human adults! Keep very quiet about things and I won't take. Juicy details don't get out without the partners making it public! The involvement of minors or animals in a sex act makes it a criminal offence and hence my business as people who try and have sex with animals often turn to abusing children when they grow bored of animals. At this point, I was accused of changing the topic and being too politically correct. I did not get that accusation but realization dawned upon me, albeit late, that a rational and objective debate with this character was useless.<br /><br />The last time a similar argument took place (on an ISD call) he simply bowled this ‘maiden’ over. The argument this time was about India’s reluctance to accept casual flings and one-night stands. He asked me to look at how liberal and open the Western societies are. I firmly held my ground. I told him that we ought to look at and emulate the 10,000 excellent aspects of industrialized societies and avoid their problems. I do not think casual sex and one-night stands are immoral nor should it be illegal for adults to indulge in these things but I personally find them highly avoidable for multiple reasons. He asked me to explain my hypocrisy. This enraged me but I kept my cool. For the first time, I got down to extremely practical issues. I asked him to spell and explain the terms ‘<a href="http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/std/chlamydia.html">Chlamydia</a>’, ‘<a href="http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/std/syphilis.html">Syphilis</a>’, ‘<a href="http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/herpes.html">Herpes</a>’ and ‘<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/std/gonorrhea/stdfact-gonorrhea.htm">Gonorrhea</a>’. Here are his responses.<br /><br />‘K-L-A-M-I-D-I-A’ – Sounds like some worm.<br />‘S-I-P-H-I-L-I-S’ – Must be another worm.<br />‘H-E-R P-E-A-S’ – Don’t know.<br />‘G-O-N-O-R-I-A’ – This is definitely an earthworm.<br /><br />I was simply stunned. For those of you who are and who are not stunned, read further carefully. I brought it to his notice that these are STDs (sexually transmitted diseases). He replied by saying that such things only happen in books! What is the next thing that we are going to think up for shouting out loud? The <a href="http://www.avert.org/sex-education.htm">sex education</a> seminar held in our school (<a href="http://sjbhs.org/">St. John the Baptist High School</a>) has been completely wasted on him. I had cut the call immediately as I had nothing left to say and neither did I want to hear further rubbish. We haven’t heard each others voices since.<br /><br />Here was a high-scoring engineer, who had missed the merit list in class 12 by a very slim margin, who spoke like an idiotic and irresponsible person, being precisely the kind ‘<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Idiots">Rancho</a>’ from <a href="http://idiotsacademy.zapak.com/idiotsmain.php">‘3 Idiots’</a> criticised, well-trained but not well-educated. That telephonic conversation left me disturbed. I decided to ask a dozen more friends to spell and explain the terms ‘<a href="http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/chlamydia.htm"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Chlamydia</span></a>’, ‘<a href="http://health.msn.com/health-topics/urinary-health/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100066229">Syphilis</a>’, ‘<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/std/herpes/stdfact-herpes.htm">Herpes</a>’ and ‘<a href="http://kidshealth.org/teen/infections/stds/std_gonorrhea.html">Gonorrhea</a>’. All of them hold at least a Bachelor’s degree and are well-travelled, nationally and internationally. I drew zilches everywhere. There was only one girl who correctly said that Herpes is something that gives you boils. To worsen the situation, one guy actually revealed the height of anatomical ignorance when I brought up the topic of STDs. He called the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/slink/sexlovelife/index.shtml?page=body&sub=vagina">vagina</a> an <a href="http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/ovarianconditions/a/yrovrisovuovads.htm">ovary</a>. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This moron had obviously learnt everything he knows about sex only from porn and <a href="http://sexperienceuk.channel4.com/education/about/orgasms">porn doesn't teach you anything important</a>. The gravity of the epidemic of ignorance of sex-related issues hit me real hard that day.<br /><br />The media is constantly telling us about how adventurous we, the youth, are getting about sex. Well, tell us something we don’t know! Give us the basics for heaven sake. A lot of practical information can be given out regularly in the media about sexual health for although most people know that <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/aids/overview.html">HIV/AIDS</a> can be prevented by the use of condoms, most don’t know that condoms don’t provide 100% protection. (For their credit, <a href="http://mumbaimirror.com/">Mumbai Mirror</a> and Bombay Times ran one article each in the last 2 months.) <a href="http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/contraception/abstinence.html">Only abstinence does</a>. In fact, there are nearly <a href="http://healthguide.howstuffworks.com/sexually-transmitted-diseases-dictionary.htm">30 odd STDs</a> and <a href="http://www.avert.org/condom.htm">condoms</a> don’t work well for all of them. Herpes can even spread by just kissing on the mouth! In fact in the USA, the country my crazy friend adores for its supposedly liberal attitude towards sex, <a href="http://health.msn.com/health-topics/sexual-health/birth-control/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100249762">1 out of every 4 teenage girls contracts a STD</a> and <a href="http://health.msn.com/health-topics/sexual-health/stds/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100255481">Herpes affects 1 out of every six people</a>. Apart from <a href="http://www.aids.org/factsheets/101-what-is-aids.html">AIDS</a>, other STDs probably don’t get talked about because <a href="http://www.kff.org/entpartnerships/phip070704nr.cfm">a Parmeshwar Godrej and a Richard Gere </a>do not make a song and dance about it. The truth is that they exist, became curable after <a href="http://science.discovery.com/brink/top-ten/accidental-inventions/inventions-01.html">the discovery of penicillin</a> (except Herpes) and are now <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36229547">becoming incurable about a century later</a>. </p><p align="justify">There are other things too that need to be kept in mind before getting adventurous. Some people consider <a href="http://healthguide.howstuffworks.com/anal-sex-dictionary.htm">anal sex</a> harmless as it cannot lead to pregnancy. That’s right but it can lead to tearing of the rectum and <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://www.webmd.com/video/marks-crack-erection"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">penile fractures</span></a>. Gentlemen, you can <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/penis-fracture/AN01217"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">fracture your penis</span></a> even if there isn’t a bone in it! And lastly, everyone, please get the names of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/factfiles/malegenitals/male_genitals.shtml">male genitals</a> and the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/factfiles/femalegenitals/female_genitals.shtml">female genitals</a> right. There are <a href="http://health.yahoo.net/3dbodymaps">3D body maps</a> on the net to help you out! I highly advise all ignorant fools to check out how <a href="http://health.howstuffworks.com/pregnancy-and-parenting">pregnancy</a> takes us from being <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/gallery/week_03.shtml">miniscule embryos to kids</a> and how <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/index.shtml?lifecycle">puberty</a> takes from being kids to adults. This is the 21st century for heaven's sake! In fact, even in the USA, responsible citizens are hopping mad about ignorance and the fact that <a href="http://health.msn.com/health-topics/sexual-health/womens-sexual-health/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100253288">unsafe sex has stopped being scary for some people</a>.</p><p align="justify">The <a href="http://www.unicef.org/india/hiv_aids.html">problem of AIDS</a> in India is very different from that of industrialized nations. In those countries, the problem arises because their citizens have more than 5 sex partners on an average in their lifetimes. In India, these diseases are greatly restricted to <a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/KeyPopulations/MenSexMen/default.asp">MSMs</a>, migrant workers, <a href="http://www.globalhealth.org/reports/report.php3?id=257">truck drivers, CSWs</a>, <a href="http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/health/features/article_1544372.php/India-s-tough-fight-against-drug-addiction-and-AIDS-Feature">drug addicts </a>and the spouses and children of these people. We can do our Health Ministry a favor and keep things this way. I have a strong hunch that the revolting sights of babies born with <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&gbv=2&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=congenital+syphilis&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=">congenital syphilis</a> and <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&gbv=2&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=congenital+herpes&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=">herpes</a> and other emotional and social repercussions must have made societies across the world look down on people who have multiple sexual partners. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller#Political_activities">Even Helen Keller had voiced concerns about syphilis being a leading cause of blindness in the 19th and early 20th centuries</a>. Let us, the educated and economically sound youth<a href="http://indiaretailbiz.wordpress.com/2006/10/15/socio-economic-classifications-sec-categories/"> (SEC A &B), </a>take responsibility to keep ourselves away from high risk activities and not create new problems for our society. After all, we are the ones who walk around like Mr. / Ms. Know-It-All. Let’s make best use of our access to information and not be ignorant about what we are against. It’s best to make optimum use of the internet and base our decisions on modern, scientific knowledge (most of which comes from the Western world at any rate!) and behave properly. After all, the internet isn’t there just for social networking. It isn’t worth spoiling our lives over few minutes of satisfying our 'biological urges'! </p><p align="justify"><em>Post Script:</em> </p><p align="justify">1. As a <a href="http://facebook.com/">Facebook</a> rat myself, I got back to my friend by putting links from <a href="http://health.aol.com/">http://health.aol.com</a> about Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Herpes and Chlamydia on his Wall. They stayed there throughout daytime Indian Standard Time while he slept at night, Central Daylight Time, USA & Canada. Imagine that 'open-minded' individual's horror AND panic stricken phone call that arrived subsequently. ;) </p><p align="justify">2. In case if you suspect that you or your partner has a STD, call 69999999 or 28888888 (JustDial.com) to locate your nearest gynaecologist (for a girl) /urologist (for a boy) and get the requisite tests done. Any delay will only worsen the situation. </p><p align="justify"> </p><p align="justify"> </p><p align="justify"> </p>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-6000191142049450662010-05-26T03:27:00.000-07:002010-05-26T04:02:49.716-07:00Crooked rickshaw-drivers and lackadaisical RTO and why Raj Thackeray has a point.<div align="justify">While the whole nation chooses to rant against Raj Thackeray and the antics of his MNS, I’ll play the Devil’s advocate and argue his case against UP wallahs and Biharis. I do not object to these guys monopolizing the taxi and rickshaw driving jobs in the city of Bombay. The constitution grants every Indian the right to settle and work anywhere in the Union of India. These guys are working hard to feed their families. They are doing the right thing by toiling hard to sustain themselves. They have also made the choice to not pick up guns and fight against the Republic of India like the Naxalites. Furthermore, they are far from the criminals who choose to run begging rackets by exploiting little children instead of earning their bread by the sweat of their brow.<br /><br />However, the above facts do not justify the swindling of customers according to the whims and fancies of taxi-drivers and rickshaw drivers. Read the following incidents to understand what citizens of Bombay, New Bombay and Thane, Marathi and non-Marathi people included, undergo on a regular basis.<br /><br />1. I stay at a place called Saket Complex in Thane. It costs about INR 19 or 20 by rickshaw to come to my residence from Thane railway station and vice-versa from a place called CIDCO about 3 mins away from the station. From the station, it will cost you INR 25-30. Once on a Sunday evening, there were no rickshaws near Saket Complex. I was waiting for one. With me, there was a slightly aged couple. Their manner of dress suggested that they were village folks. A rickshaw came by and this couple asked him to take them to Thane station before I could. I asked the couple if we could share the fare because I had to go to the same place. They agreed. I asked the rickshaw driver to take us to CIDCO. The couple looked confused but I assured them that we would reach where they intended to. On reaching CIDCO, the fare came to INR 20 which we split into half. This couple was surprised. This is how the conversation took place.<br /><br />The elderly man: Bees rupaiya? Itna hi paisa hota hai! (20 rupees? That’s all it costs?)<br />Me: Jee haan. Itna hi hota hai Saket se yahan tak. (Yes sir. That’s all it costs from Saket to here.)<br />The elderly man: Hum jab aaye they, tab hamse 70 rupaiya liye they. (When we had come, we had been charged INR 70 for the richshaw.)<br />Me: Kya? Sattar rupaiya kaise? (What? How were you charged Rs. 70?)<br />The elderly man: Jee whoh rickshewallah bole they ke ek seat ka 35 rupaiya hota hai. (The rickshaw driver told us that they charge INR 35 per head.)<br /><br />I was shocked. This couple was fleeced. Judging from their accent, they were definitely UP wallahs or Biharis. We started walking towards the station.<br /><br />Me: Kya aapko malum nahi tha yahan pe paisa kitna hota hai? Kya aap yahan pe pehli baar aaye hain? [Didn’t you know how much it (rickshaw fares) costs here? Is this the first time that you have visited this place?}<br />The elderly lady: Jee haan. Yahan pe shaadi thee. Hum Mira Road se aaye hain. Thane toh pehli baar hi aana hua hai. Humare pehchaan wale Saket mein rehte hain. (Yes. There was a wedding here. We have come from Mira Road. It is the first time that we have come to Thane. We have friends who live in Saket.)<br />Me: Jab aap aagli baar aayenge, toh CIDCO se rickshaw lijiye ga. Station se mat lijiye ga. (When you come here next time, take a rickshaw from station. Do not take one from the station.)<br />The elderly man: Hum toh wapas yahan aayenge hee nahi. Koi kaam hee nahi hai yahan pe. (We won’t come here again. We don’t have any business here.)<br /><br />We exchanged good-byes and parted ways.<br /><br />2. A Gujarati gentleman from our neighborhood once complained about a similar incident with his guest. His friend had been charged Rs. 50 from Thane station to Saket Complex.<br /><br />3. Some weeks ago, there were severe traffic problems on the road from CIDCO to Saket. It generally takes 10 mins to get from CIDCO to Saket. That day it took vehicles more than 45 mins. So I decided to walk home instead of waiting for the traffic to clear out. Half-way through the road, I asked a rickshaw fellow to take me to Saket. He agreed. He did not start the meter. I asked him why. He said, “Madam, fixed rate, tees rupaiya. (Rs. 30)” Preposterous! I got off immediately. That ride should not have cost me for than Rs. 15. Later, as I continued walking, a Bengali couple who live in the neighbourhood, called me out from a rickshaw and offered me a lift. We got down at Saket. On getting off, I realized that it was the same rickshaw fellow who tried to dupe me. The Bengali gentleman was the one who got duped instead. Arguments yielded no result as the rickshaw-wallah had been given a Rs. 50 note. He returned Rs. 20 and drove off. This rickshaw fellow was definitely from the group that Raj Thackeray is ranting against.<br /><br />4. Once, a neighbour and I took a rickshaw from Mulund station to Kopri Bridge. My neighbour regularly goes to Kopri Bridge to cross over from Mulund into Thane but I had never been there. Suddenly my neighbour confronted the driver and asked him where he was taking us. He replied Kopri Bridge. She told him that he was wrong. The argument revealed that he thought that Kopri Bridge and Mulund-Thane check-naka were the same place! The two places are nearly 3 kms apart. Had I been alone, I might have landed up at the check-naka instead of Kopri Bridge. It would have been a complete waste of time and money. The driver was again either an UP-wallah or a Bihari.<br /><br />5. A co-worker Malyalee Borivali resident visited Thane sometime ago. He had to visit a place near Malhaar theatre. This theatre is roughly a kilometer away from Thane railway station and Thane bus depot. He does not know Thane. This guy got charged INR 70 instead of the usual INR 12 to 15 for a rickshaw ride from Thane station to Malhaar. I asked him how the driver spoke Hindi and the reference was towards India’s north.<br /><br />6. My office is located near the Nehru Planetarium, Worli, Bombay. In case if you decide to come to this place in a taxi from Byculla station, you have to tell the taxi driver to take you to a well-known hotel called the Copper Chimney or to the Lotus or to <a href="http://www.atriamumbai.com/">Atria Mall</a> or to Poonam Chambers. There have been multiple occasions on which the taxi driver has told me that he does not any of the 5 landmarks I previously mentioned! The driver literally asked me to keep giving him instructions.<br /><br />I cannot help but feel from personal and second-hand experience that Raj Thackeray has a point, a very valid one at that. No matter how much I despise the violence that his thugs carry out, I have to admit that he has voiced the concerns of civilians everywhere in the city, Marathi or otherwise. Most of the traffic police personnel and RTO officials (I will not say all) lack scruples and neglect duty. They issue licenses to rickshaw drivers from other states although the <a href="http://indiacode.nic.in/fullact1.asp?tfnm=198859">Motor Vehicles Act </a>clearly prohibits this. The driver has to be domiciled in the State that he/she is working. This means that someone who has lived all his/her life in Maharashtra cannot drive rickshaws and taxis in UP/ Bihar/ Delhi, etc. and vice versa. This is a central government act. This seems unfair but as of now is the law. Even more important is that the law requires the driver to know the area that he works in. This is essential to protect travelers from incidents mentioned in point 4 and 6 and yet the RTO does not take the necessary pains to do what the law asks of it. Raj Thackeray had raised questions regarding the integrity of the RTO on the same issue during a rally in Thane. His question was, “Don’t you have any shame? How can you neglect duty?” He had very clearly stated that we can be assured that if a commuter visits a locality for the first time, he/she will be over-charged by a Bihari / UP wallah rickshaw / taxi driver as described in points 1, 2, 3 and 5. The solution to this is not MNS-style brutal histrionics. <a href="http://ibnlive.in.com/news/4-mns-mlas-suspended-for-attacking-abu-azmi/104872-37.html?from=tn">The MNS got a well-deserved black eye when its MLAs were suspended for turning the Maharashtra legislative assembly into a wrestling ring</a>. Fist fights are not the answer to everything. Cheats are bound to take advantage of the irresponsible attitude of the law enforcers and of the fact that most commuters hassled by traveling to and fro to work or slightly lost in an unknown area will not do much to confront them. <a href="http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/politics/i-see-mns-as-main-opposition-long-termashok-chavan_447880.html">The Chief Minister of Maharastra, Mr. Ashok Chavan was right when he spoke of the strict implementation of the Motor Vehicles Act.</a> Not just Maharashtra, all states should do this. <a href="http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article83575.ece">The taxi unions protest every diktat issued by the State with regards to the use of Marathi</a> which is in fact very practical. I wonder what answers they have to this abominable behaviour of their members. The Motor Vehicles Act has to be strictly implemented by the law enforcers themselves. That is what they are paid for. No one deserves to be cheated even if the cheat has poverty as an excuse. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">P.S.: I choose to say Bombay because the origin of the traditional English name Bombay holds that it was derived from a Portuguese name meaning "good bay", Bombain or Bombahia. The prosperity of this city commenced because it was identified as an excellent harbour, not because of the local goddess Mumba. </div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-39045219211267864142010-04-05T01:34:00.000-07:002010-04-05T02:07:41.457-07:00THE TRAGEDY OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND / THIRD LANGUAGE<div align="justify">During my junior college years, I had opted for Marathi as my 1st language, with English being compulsory as the second language. It was for the first time that I got to know the manner in which the <a href="http://msbshse.ac.in/">Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education</a> is creating one batch of students after the other, who can’t use English properly in day-to-day life. I had always thought during school that our English textbooks neither contained thought-provoking lessons nor did they do much for improving our vocabularies. One might say that the <a href="http://www.cisce.org/">ICSE</a>, <a href="http://www.cbse.nic.in/">CBSE</a> and <a href="http://www.ibo.org/">IB</a> board schools cure this problem but the fact is that my family cannot afford those schools. Had our parents not exposed us to the English media at home, I doubt that my siblings and I would have been fluent in English.<br /><br />While studying Marathi during my two years of college, I was exposed to a wide range of Marathi literature, right from short biographies, essays, poems and travelogues. We had these in school but qualitatively speaking, the one that we studied in college were more serious in nature. I learnt a lot about different social classes of Maharashtra, during different eras. The textbook effectively dealt with myriad range of subjects from the freedom struggle, caste prejudices, superstitions, child marriage, dowry, unrequited love, lives of expatriates, religion and mythology. I regret not having studied the subject seriously back then or having preserved my textbook. Those two years opened me to my own literary heritage, that which I was indifferent to.<br /><br />However, I cannot say the same for our English lessons. The chapters were barely age-appropriate and did not provoke deep thought. I cannot say that the English textbook served as an introduction to the rich literature of England and North America. It did not do justice to even Indian writers. I don’t even remember one single chapter properly. That students could not have improved their English language skills with the help of those lessons is beyond doubt. It would irritate me to find that the English textbook was far inferior to that of Marathi. Our college had in fact provided us with a supplementary textbook to make up for the mediocre textbook of the Maharashtra board. However, I did not give it much thought back then. </div><div align="justify"><br />During the first year of B.Sc., I met many people from all over Maharashtra. Almost everybody had pathetic English language skills. The <a href="http://www.dbskkv.org/">Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Agriculture University</a> is ware of this problem and has hence integrated an English language course in the first semester. Alas, the textbook prescribed by the University is best suited for 11 year olds. It is not astonishing that most students don’t gain anything substantial from those lessons. In fact, there is a joke on our campuses that agriculture students cannot speak English beyond, “I go, you come”. I admit that it is difficult for students from Marathi medium schools, rural and semi-urban areas to become fluent in English. But this does not imply that Universities and the State Education Boards treat them as intrinsically weak at linguistics and not expect them to cope with larger vocabularies and complex texts. They are not morons. People learn. This defeatist attitude of the staff towards the English language skills of the students leads them to excuse horrible spelling mistakes. Numerous agriculture students shamelessly misspell key terms. For e.g., ‘Alphonso’ becomes ‘Apanso’, ‘buffalo’ becomes ‘bofelow’, ‘porcupine’ becomes ‘pokcurpine’ etc. Even scientific names are goofed up! The misspelled scientific names of plants and animals may make <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/linnaeus.html">Carlus Linnaeus</a> turn in his grave! That’s inexcusable come what may! If some rare, straight-thinking professor does cut marks, he is accused of being too strict and harsh! That’s the equivalent of accusing a policeman for abuse of power for making a legal arrest.<br /><br />The lenient approach of the education authorities towards erring students gives no incentives to students to improve their vocabularies, make fewer mistakes and write better. This approach is largely concerned with passing out as many graduates as possible without caring a damn about the quality of education they receive. The idea seems to be that they don’t want someone to be left behind just because they can’t spell properly. However, this has created a crisis of sorts. This deplorable stance towards writing skills seems to have affected every sector and there are IT companies claiming that they’ve had to reject fresh engineers due to poor English language skills.<br /><br />Our State education boards need to radically revise the current syllabus and teaching methods for English. Attention desperately needs to be paid to all four language skills namely reading, writing, speaking and listening. The boards need to harmonize the English language syllabus to the <a href="http://www.linguanet-europa.org/pdfs/global-scale-grid-en.pdf">Common European Reference Framework for Languages</a>. The syllabus and teaching should ensure that students reach the B1 level by class 10, B2 level by class 12 and C1 level at the time of their graduation. The class 11 and 12 English syllabus must include practical life English skills such as teaching students how to write CVs and <a href="http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/coverletters/ht/coverletter.htm">letters of motivation</a>. These skills constitute an important part of level B2. In my third year of B.Sc., I was clueless about writing a <a href="http://jobsearch.about.com/od/cvsamples/a/blsamplecv.htm">C.V.</a> and a <a href="http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/gradapp/stmtpurpose.htm">statement of purpose</a>. Since I come from one of the only 1 million Indian households (1.4% of urban Indian households) that have an internet connection, I logged on to the World Wide Web and learnt these things myself. Even my little sister did not know <a href="http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/curriculumvitae/a/curriculumvitae.htm">how to write a CV</a> before her placement interview. I made our lives easy by simply getting a <a href="http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/europass/home/vernav/Europass+Documents/Europass+CV.csp">Europass CV</a> made for her. Now what is someone who does not have an access to internet or elder siblings or appropriately educated parents to help them out supposed to do? The teachers should be asked to advise their students to watch <a href="http://www.starmovies.in/">Star Movies</a>, <a href="http://www.hbosouthasia.com/">HBO</a>, <a href="http://www.pixtelevision.com/">Sony Pix</a> and <a href="http://www.zeedio.tv/">Zee Studio</a> as these channels sub-title their movies. Students can improve their listening and reading skills at the same time. This is infotainment at its best. The education boards and universities can make it compulsory for students to pass <a href="http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/cae.htm">CAE Level C1</a> or <a href="http://b2it.com/esolmain/exams/cels.htm">CELS Higher</a> or <a href="http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-exams-bec.htm">BEC Higher</a> anytime before completing their under-graduate education. The universities can arrange for the <a href="http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-exams-cambridge-esol-ket-pet-fce-cae-exam.htm">British Council</a> to conduct these exams on their campuses. In this manner, there will be no need for an English language course in the Bachelors curriculum and the students will get a certificate from the University of Cambridge stating that they have the C1 level. The certificates of the mentioned exams are valid for life unlike the <a href="http://www.ielts.org/">IELTS</a> and <a href="http://www.toefl.org/">TOEFL</a> scores that are valid for only 2 years from the date of passing.<br /><br />This issue needs to be addressed at the earliest as for Indians, English is not just a language it is a job-skill. Our country can’t afford deny good employment opportunities to people just because they are not proficient in English. In the meanwhile, I'll get back to completing a Marathi book "<a href="http://lazyhabits.wordpress.com/2006/10/10/pu-la/">Vyakti ani Valli</a>" by <a href="http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purushottam_Laxman_Deshpande">P. L. Deshpande</a>. I recently realised that I read English, French and Spanish way better than Marathi. Back to my roots. Now! </div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-1205426028617693852009-12-25T02:28:00.000-08:002010-09-04T01:59:45.306-07:00The Human Whatever Virus…<span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 20px;font-size:13;" class="Apple-style-span" > <p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class="MsoNormal"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'lucida grande';" class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(102,255,255)" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" ><span style="color:#ffffff;">Humanity has always been ravaged by viruses of one sort or the other. Well it had to be! Even other animals, plants and</span> <span style="color:#ffffff;">bacteria are. Natural forces do have to regulate populations of all species right? I agree that viruses have </span><span style="color:#ffffff;">nearly halved the human gene pool on several instances but that does not mean we go barmy every time a new virus is brought to the public’s notice! Why the fuss? What’s wrong with the Fourth Estate?</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(102,255,255)" class="Apple-style-span"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(102,255,255)" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" ><span style="color:#ffffff;">In recent history, we had the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, more popular as HIV that hit off the trend of media-induced phobia and continues to be a rage all over the planet. Every ‘celebrity’ who has any little thing to their credit or has had even the most minuscule space in the entertainment industry jumps on to the bandwagon to prevent the ‘AIDS epidemic’. Well, commendable intentions here but HIV is one of the best dangerous viruses known to mankind. Unlike most other viruses, it does nothing to spread! It is largely </span><span style="color:#ffffff;">dependent on the host to be promiscuous to spread on to other victims! There have been multiple instances of iatrogenic infections but the medical and paramedical community knows how to deal with such cases.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(102,255,255)" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" ><span style="color:#ffffff;">The other crazy thing we had on our hands was the SARS because of some corona virus around 2003-04. That thing just fizzled out thanks to the concerned government authorities, especially the Chinese taking prompt measures to prevent its spread. Nevertheless, they did delay the mandatory information of the outbreak to the WHO and the international community. The next thing in line was the Avian Influenza. The hysteria surrounding it was implausible. We were studying agriculture with Animal Husbandry as an integral part of our studies. Regular poultry farm visits never stopped. Everyone was unperturbed but the media just went bonkers! How often do most people play around with or come in contact with birds? City dwellers have the most minimal contact often limited to pets or cooked chicken. Despite assurance from doctors that cooking kills the virus, chicken consumption fell drastically. The animal lovers’ tribe with PETA as their leader went around town happily telling everyone that chicken lives were being saved. The media scared everybody with reports of an imminent avian flu pandemic which never happened thanks to the systematic genocide of poultry birds that we humans </span><span style="color:#ffffff;">inflicted.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'lucida grande';" class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(102,255,255)" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:#ffffff;">The latest scare has been</span> <span style="color:#ffffff;">due to the Swine Flu which is caused by the H1N1 virus (Haemagglutinin 1 Neraminidase 1, try not forgetting this one!). I agree that more than 10,000 victims have been claimed by the</span> <span style="color:#ffffff;">virus in </span><span style="color:#ffffff;">the </span></span></span></span></span></span><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:country-region style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)" st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(102,255,255);" class="Apple-style-span" >US</span></span></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(102,255,255)" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="color:#ffffff;"> alone</span>. But that does not justify the fear-mongering by the</span> <span style="color:#ffffff;">members of the press. Some friends and my mother almost suffered panic attacks that loved ones and they would fall seriously sick. Governments across the world rightfully wanted the media to tone down the reports but the media did not relent. After all, what can you expect from a pig but grunt? The WHO estimates that the Spanish Flu (also a strain of the H1N1) of 1918 killed nearly 40-50 million people worldwide, the Asian flu (H2N2 virus) of 1957 exterminated about 2 million humans and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 (H3N2 virus) claimed nearly 1 million lives. In fact, these viruses are now the cause of the seasonal common colds that we suffer! That means all of us have probably suffered from the Swine and the Avian influenza at one point or the other.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(102,255,255)" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:#ffffff;">Thankfully, the swine flu frenzy is dying </span><span style="color:#ffffff;">down. Authorities are minding their business well and doing the needful. In the meanwhile, some pharmaceutical company is trying to bring another virus into fashion i.e. in the media spotlight to sell a vaccine. Ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about the Human Papilloma Virus. Depending upon your gender, it can cause cancers of the anus and/or penis or cancers of</span><span style="color:#ffffff;"> </span><span style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51);" ><span style="color:#ffffff;">t</span><span style="color:#ffffff;">h</span></span></span><span style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51);" ><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="color:#ffffff;">e vulva, vagina, anus and cervix. Page long ads in the papers are trying to convince women to protect themselves</span> against</span><span style="color:#ffffff;"> cervical cancer with this vaccine. Well comm</span></span><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51)"><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="color:#ffffff;">endable intentions again but there is no need! One of my acquaintances immunized herself against the HPV and asked me to do the same. I refused. To begin with, people</span> who don’t have</span> <span style="color:#ffffff;">access to clean toilets and those who have multiple sexual partners are the ones at risk of a HPV infection. I don’t fall in any of these categories. I don’t need the vaccine. Thank you very much. She looked cross and tried to tell me that cervical cancer claims more Indian women than breast cancer annually. I replied that it was obvious. Child marriage is still rampant in the interiors and teenage mothers have the highest risk. The point is that unless you are in any of the high risk grou</span></span></span><span style="color:#ffffff;">ps you don’t need the HPV vaccine. If you do, you also need to be inoculated against Hepatitis B.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="COLOR: rgb(102,255,255)" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" ><span style="color:#ffffff;">The reach of the electronic and traditional media helps a great deal about informing people about new disease outbreaks. I am</span> <span style="color:#ffffff;">thankful for being told about the symptoms. Nonetheless, everyone will be better off if the death toll is kept to page 2 and 3 or even beyond that if possible. Any viral infection can cause death. Even the most common and well-known viruses continue to kill so many around the year and so do bacterial infections like Tuberculosis. But no one writes about that and people have definitely not stopped </span><span style="color:#ffffff;">spitting! The next time a new virus pops up and the media decides to be the cock of the walk and tells us that Doomsday is coming, relax; we can’t be wiped off that easily.</span></span></span></span></span></p></span>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-54327234632172685932009-12-25T01:09:00.000-08:002010-09-07T08:38:01.904-07:00How French Blogging temporarily put me off English Blogging<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204); line-height: 20px;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:'lucida grande';" class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span>H</span>i, I am back. I had to start blogging again and chose to start with the auspicious Yuletide season. I was taken aback by people who wrote in to ask why I had stopped<span> but that gave me the necessary to push to be here again. I literally had to say </span>‘</span></span></span><a href="http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/may/070509-Blogging-in-French-Professor-Bhushan-Thapliyal-Alliance-Francaise-De-Mumbai.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Adieu English blogs</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">’</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> five months ago because I was pursuing my last level of French (</span></span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.alte.org/framework/level4.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Level C1</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">. My professor</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">,</span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><a href="http://blog-craze.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Mr. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">Bhushan Thapliyal</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">, got us also blogging in French, keeping contemporary trends</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">in mind. Wow, I never imagi</span></span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">n</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">ed that blogging would be homework someday!!! Anyway, our p</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">rofes</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">s</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">or </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Bhushan</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">, t</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">rained us for the writing section </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">o</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">f the</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.ciep.fr/en/delfdalf/epreuves.php#C1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">DALF C1</span></span></span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">exam by making us blog our brains out. This is because he is pursuing his Ph.D. on the use of blogs as a pedagogical tool. Cool! Who could have thought about that?</span></span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">The ‘blogging for school’ brainwave came to</span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><a href="http://bhushan-stagore.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Bhushan</span></span></span></span></a></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">about three years ago when he was teaching school kids in the 12-15 age groups </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">in</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><st1:country-region st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><st1:place st="on"></st1:place></span></span></span></span></st1:country-region></span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">France</span></span></span></span></span></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">. French kids these days don’t write correct French and have ma</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">de</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><b><i><a href="http://www.well.ac.uk/cfol/argot.asp#argot"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">argot</span></span></span></span></a></i></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">,</span></span></span></span></i></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></i></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><b><i><a href="http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/verlan.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">verlan</span></span></span></span></a></i></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">a</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">nd the SMS lingo their standard language, even in</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">exam</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">answer sheets! This new way of writing and talking French is equivalent to babble for their parents, teachers and the French society at large. The purists are of the opinion that this phenomenon is an unprecedented crisis for the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">French language.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Bhushan</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">wanted to get his students to write correctly. It was only a question of how. The students refuse to fall in line. Now most of these innovative, stubborn scholars are internet </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">junkies who have lost even the most miniscule interest in TV. </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Bhushan</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> decided to encroach on the virtual space to fix things.</span></span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">With the assistance of</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.u-grenoble3.fr/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Université Stendhal Grenoble III</span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">,</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> he</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">introduced blogging into the curriculum. School essays on various issues were to be written and posted </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">o</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">n the blogs of students</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> w</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">hich they created specifically for class. Students responded in the most astonishing manner.</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">People actually started writing correct, traditional French with all the accents, gramma</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">r and vocabu</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">lary right. Students were not being adamant about using</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><b><i><a href="http://french.about.com/library/vocab/argot/bl-argot.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">argot</span></span></span></span></a></i><a href="http://french.about.com/library/vocab/argot/bl-argot.htm"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">on </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">blogs. You see, the whole world has access to blogs and hence these students wanted to keep their blogs comprehensible and coherent so that everyone and anyone who understands French can read th</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">em.</span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><b><i><a href="http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/162/27566.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Argot</span></span></span></span></a></i></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">wouldn’t work</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">.</span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Mission</span></span></span></span></span></st1:place></st1:city></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">accom</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">p</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">lished.</span></span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></p> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><u1:p></u1:p> </span></span></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><a href="http://blog-dalf-bombay.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span></span></span></span></span></span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span><a href="http://blog-dalf-bombay.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Bhushan</span></span></span></span></span></a></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">decided to duplicate his</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> e</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">xperim</span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">e</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">nt </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">i</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">n</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">India</span></span></span></span></span></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">He came to the</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.afindia.org/bombay/default.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Alliance Française de Bombay</span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">. e</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Here, blogging was a new</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">xperience for roughly everyone in class. I was in his second batch of g</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">uinea pigs for the</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span><a href="http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Portfolio/?L=EM=/main_pages/levels.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">C1 level</span></span></span></span></span></a></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">He even got t</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">he ot</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">her teachers of</span></span></span></span></span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Al</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">liance</span></span></span></span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">to unleash the blogging wave on t</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">heir classes</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">. We would discuss F</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">rench current affairs in</span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> c</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">lass with the help of 3 news articles related to each theme. That took care of our reading and speaking skills. We would then scrutinize and reorganize the ideas in these articles to write argumentative essays or to write a synthesis or summary with the maximum word limit of 250 words. That exercise greatly helped to improve my French writing skills and also my ability to simultaneously use articles about the same subject from different </span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">sources.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></p> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><u1:p></u1:p> </span></span></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">I</span></span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> re</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">ceived the result </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">fo</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">r our</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.alliancefrancaise.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81&Itemid=88"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">DALF C1</span></span></span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">last</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">week. I passed. That’s what counted. I was fairly satisfied with my performance. The French blogging did help a lot for the writing section because we had to respect the time and word limit for that essay.</span></span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">We thoroughly enjoyed our coursework. Introducing blooging in studies helps make people tech-savvy and it is surely</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">fun </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">‘</span></span></span></span><a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/5258323.cms"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">When blogging enters the curriculum</span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">’. It is high time that MS Word adds 'blogging', 'blog' and 'blogger' to its dictionary. Blogs are here to stay.</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></span>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-80047122833684629352009-06-30T04:00:00.000-07:002009-07-01T01:55:26.982-07:00One Culture. Agriculture.<div align="justify">What do you do in agriculture? What is the point in pursuing it? These are stupid questions that I face incessantly from people. They simply don't find it fit for study or they just can't imagine what one does in it. Ignorant, uninformed fools! The food we eat comes from agriculture. The fabrics, cotton, wool, silk, jute, we wear come from agriculture. The medicines we take have many ingredients of an agricultural origin. Our homes require timber for construction and also the furniture that is made of wood. The paper we write on comes from wood and hence is a forestry product. Sanitary pads and diapers are also made from wood. But this irritates people.</div><div align="justify"><br />Sometime ago, I got the precise answer to this question. This answer gets people interested and it also earns me respect. Plus, they find agriculture really, really cool. Now whenever some asks me why I took up agriculture, I simply say that people will give up everything but not alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. Alcohol comes from sugarcane. Cigarettes come from tobacco and Drugs especially ones like marihuana and cocaine come from poppy. All of these are thus agricultural products. In fact, India is the leading producer and exporter of tobacco in the world. Overall tobacco production in India is about 700 million kilograms yearly. Rich and diverse Indian geographic and agro-climatic circumstances promote dependable availability of extensive array of tobaccos for export throughout the year. As a matter of fact, no matter how much tobacco addicts deny it, tobacco does lead to cancer and heart disease. Most tobacco users (or abusers?) being extremely careless about their health only diagnose their health problems very late, especially cancer. Those last stages of cancer are so painful that the only thing that relieves their pain is medical cannabis or medical marihuana as conventional pain killers simply don’t work; so most tobacco users are potential marihuana customers in the future. (That is, if their doctors are bold and fearless enough to prescribe medical marihuana). India and Turkey produce opium for medicinal purposes, making poppy-based drugs, such as morphine or codeine, for domestic use or exporting raw poppy materials to other countries. The United States buys 80 percent of its medicinal opium from these two countries. In the USA, California's highest grossing cash crop is poppy, with annual sales reaching $14 billion. Vegetables, the state's second highest grossing agricultural produce, win a measly $5.7 billion. The celebrated Californian grapes rake in only $2.6 billion. Such is the demand for marihuana. To talk about the contribution of the alcohol industry to India, let’s just say that alcohol is a noteworthy provider to government revenues in numerous states. In most states this accounts for more than 10 per cent of total state tax revenues, whereas in the Punjab this goes to more than one third.</div><div align="justify"><br />I declare with utmost confidence to anyone who asks me the point of studying agriculture that I want to work either with a cigarette company or with an alcoholic beverages manufacturer. (Well I am not really sure if I would like to work with the highly bureaucratic poppy business guys. It is very difficult in India. The licences are never ending) People find that seriously cool. Even non-smokers, teetotallers and non-drug abusers (if that is a term) look up in awe. </div><div align="justify"><br />It is ironical how talking about food, clothing and shelter, which are indispensable for keeping our body and soul together are frowned upon whilst alcohol, cigarettes and drugs that degenerate the mind and body are venerated.<br /><br /><br />P.S.: I got interested in the alcohol, tobacco and poppy trade after a family member’s death at a young age due to cancer last year. He was a chain smoker.</div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-70175732168680735022009-06-07T20:53:00.000-07:002010-01-14T00:34:52.274-08:00Reality Meets Career Dreamz Unlimited<div align="justify">As a child, a question that all of us incessantly face goes something like this, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I call it the ‘which carier’ question. (A lot of people spell and pronounce career as ‘carier’!) Most kids give stereotypical answers like ‘I want to be an engineer’ or ‘I will become a doctor’. Their parents chase the horizon prospecting the best advice of ‘career counselors’. (What on earth do you need those guys for?) I had also fallen into that ‘I want to be a doctor’ trap but managed to pull myself out of it. I had decided against becoming an engineer the very first time I had heard the word because I had assumed that engineers built engines of trains and that I couldn’t see the point behind that. That extremely juvenile assumption is only condonable for a nine year old. When I consider all of the things that I ever wanted to be, I marvel at the way my dreams changed from toddlerhood to adulthood. (‘Toddlerhood’ is a word in ‘Nataliaish’, not English). The TV, whom many accuse of being an idiot box, gave me fantastic direction all the way.</div><div align="justify"><br />When I was 5, my answer would be that I wanted to be an air-hostess. That was probably because I was a frequent flier between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeddah">Jeddah, Saudi Arabia</a> and <a href="http://www.cites.tv/TV5Bombay/fs_homepage_flash.htm">Bombay, India</a>. The air-hostesses seemed exceptionally interesting then. In the following years, probably when I was 8 or 9, joining the Air Force had become my ambition after reading about the stories of the <a href="http://www.docstoc.com/docs/6182403/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971">1971 Indo-Pak war</a> martyrs. Around the same time, I had also seen a TV show about the procedure for entering the <a href="http://indianairforce.nic.in/">Indian Air Force</a>. My dreams were grounded when we found out that I was suffering from moderate degree <a href="http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_rnib003657.hcsp#P2_18">myopia</a> at that young age. My flat feet further ensured that my dreams of being airborne stayed firmly on Terra Firma. Around the age of 11 or 12, I started yapping about becoming a doctor, probably because half the world (read: schoolmates) said the same. I had definitely decided that I would study science, but had no clue regarding which branch of science.</div><div align="justify"><br />My first serious answer to that “which carier?” question, was only at the age of 13, when I was in class 8. I wanted to be a <a href="http://www3.nsta.org/main/news/stories/science_teacher.php?news_story_ID=52864">dinosaur paleontologist</a>. This had nothing to do with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Geller">Ross</a> from <a href="http://www2.warnerbros.com/friendstv/container.html">Friends</a>. I had once killed time by watching a 3 hour long documentary on the <a href="http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world.html">National Geographic</a> channel about the <a href="http://www.rareresource.com/extinction.htm">mass extinction </a>of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/">dinosaurs</a>. (I had had the privilege of being alone for 4 hours at home). Most of the dudes who spoke on the show had their designations displayed on screen as ‘Dinosaur paleontologist, University of @#$%^^&*’. I was convinced that the purpose of my life was to be a <a href="http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/Paleontologists.shtml">dinosaur paleontologist</a>. That left my father frantically reading up on the web regarding the subject and I was left explaining to everyone who would ask me the ‘which carier’ question about <a href="http://dsc.discovery.com/dinosaurs/">dinosaurs</a> and their dead bodies. It would feel fantastic to explain things to adults looking dumb with question marks on their faces. You are the smarter one in that situation! My fascination for becoming a dinosaur paleontologist lasted about 10 months, but that has set off an interest in the ‘terrible reptiles’ that is going to last me a lifetime. </div><div align="justify"><br />Later, I juggled with the ideas of being a professional basketball player (I was on the school team), being Miss Universe (well that started with <a href="http://feminamissindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/23067521.cms">Sushmita Sen’s </a>victory in 1994 but my height didn’t increase sufficiently), starting a music band (inspiration <a href="http://www.thespicegirls.com/">Spice Girls</a>) and landing on the moon i.e. being an astronaut. I had even wanted to be a cartoon film animator after I had watched the making of the Disney movie ‘<a href="http://WWW.disney.go.com/vault/archives/movies/dinosaur/dinosaur.html">Dinosaur</a>’ on <a href="http://kids.discovery.com/">Discovery Kids</a>. None of those plans lasted more than a month or 2 at the most but the changes were quite interesting. I even had phases of being without a career plan. But then I got addicted to another show on <a href="http://dsc.discovery.com/">Discovery Channel.</a> This time I had my father worried sick. </div><div align="justify"><br />The Discovery guys aired this fantastic TV series every afternoon called ‘<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247882/">Medical Detectives</a>’. Most of the dudes and dudettes (female dudes) on this show were labeled as <a href="http://www.reidpsychiatry.com/reidfaq.html#what1">‘Forensic Psychiatrist’</a> or <a href="http://people.stu.ca/~mclaugh/Specialties/FORENSIC_PATHOLOGY.HTML">‘Forensic Pathologist’</a>. Their use of science and technology to crack crimes and screw up culprits had me hooked, totally. Watching endless re-runs of this show had a firm place in my list of pastimes. Most kids my age knew the dialogues of Friends by heart. I knew this show by heart. (Don’t dare to label me a geek.) I told my Dad that I wanted to be a ‘Forensic Psychiatrist or a Forensic Pathologist’. He was astonished and he asked me, “But you wanted to do something about dinosaurs, right?” I replied that my plans had changed. His expression turned to something that suggested that he had been force fed castor oil. He never digested my idea of becoming a ‘forensic psychiatrist’. Anyway, his behavior only affirmed the fact that he is mentally and psychologically stable as no sane father would jump for joy if his daughter declared that she wanted to see delinquents everyday or spend her lifetime working in a morgue. From the age 14 to 16, much to the mortification of my dad, I declared with certitude to anyone who asked me about my career plans that I wanted to be forensic psychiatrist. I even appeared for the entrance tests for the admission to M.B.B.S. Having stubbornly stated that if I would ever be a doctor, my qualifications would have to stand as Dr. Natalia Hule M.B.B.S., M.D. (Forensics), my father staunchly told me to not be a doctor at all. He tried to convince me to be a dentist but I didn’t see the point examining jaws all my life. This was said with due respect to the 4 dentists who have examined and treated my jaws for 6 excruciatingly long years. But what’s the fun? My mother was left scandalized. I told them that I may consider being a <a href="http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v190/n7/full/4800972a.html">forensic dentist</a> (I had seen one talk on Medical detectives). My father had looked as if he wanted someone to tell him that he was hallucinating. My parents ultimately won and managed to get the forensic bug out of my head.</div><div align="justify"><br />In hindsight that was a good thing, because there was something that was always lingering in the confines of my mind that would get me dreaming of the infinite possibilities of waste management, rural development, <a href="http://www.nabard.org/development&promotional/watersheddevelopment.asp">water shed management </a>and pesticide-free food production for a better environment and to thwart <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/global_warming1.shtml">global warming</a>. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Planet_and_the_Planeteers">Captain Planet and his Planeteers</a> on <a href="http://www.cartoonnetworkindia.com/">Cartoon Network</a> had triggered that off for a change. I had learnt pretty late that these things were called <a href="http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/06-103.htm#define">organic farmin</a>g and <a href="http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/Concept.htm">sustainable agriculture</a>. I was perpetually oscillating between the choices of doing an M.B.B.S. or B.Sc. Agriculture ever since I was 15, although I didn't speak too much about agriculture to everyone. I finally decided to pursue <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agribusiness">Agribusiness</a>. Thank God for that! Not only did it help me study my interests further, it also educated me about the two countries I live in – India and Bharat.</div><div align="justify"><br />The verbose here may convince the reader that the writer currently works for some agricultural products company or is probably toiling away with a NGO for watershed development. She is not. Here is the anticlimax. The author, compelled by personal misfortune partly brought about by her own gullible streak, and the economic tribulations of our time, currently works (just for the GOOD money) as a receptionist and hopefully will shift to the post of a French language translator in multinational defense company, much to the chagrin of her mind and heart, making a mockery of everything that she has ever dreamt of. </div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-68394097441728005612009-05-07T03:05:00.000-07:002009-05-07T05:21:57.610-07:00Beautifully refreshed! - Courtesy Vodafone<div align="justify"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lJr9n-lE9lQ&hl=" width="425" height="344" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" fs="1" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">This Vodafone ‘Beauty Alerts’ ad refreshed some comical memories. Those Zoozoo kiddies are reminiscent of my sister and me as pre-schoolers. I remembered a similar episode that took place when I was 6 years old and my sister 3. My sister and I had cried buckets that day because we had been scared out of our wits! I remember it clearly despite my young age. Mom had put on a face pack that had turned white on drying up. She looked nothing less than a phantom! My sister and I had fled the house and had taken refuge in our neighbour’s home. All efforts to calm us had to be aborted due to our singular refusal to stop howling and see reason. Even my grandmother failed. We had agreed to step into our house again only when mom had washed her face clean and seemed to be mom again.<br /><br />Good job Vodafone! </div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-9094962485860427922009-05-01T02:39:00.000-07:002009-05-07T22:58:36.449-07:00My Elections Story - 2<div align="justify">Popat! That is what happened to me! Not just me, but also my sister and my best friend. Outrageous! Preposterous! Scandalous! Our names did not turn up on the electoral rolls! We registered for voting but we simply did not figure on the lists! Shame on you Election Commission! You deprived young voters like me of our right to exercise our franchise! Shame! Shame! It would have been the first time that we would have joined the dance of democracy but we were deprived of the privilege! Even some elders in our housing society found their names missing from the rolls! Horrendous! Despicable! Contemptible! Better work next time EC! I DO NOT intend to miss out on the Maharashtra Assembly Elections.<br /><br />P.S.: Please do not turn the next elections into a long weekend also. That was largely responsible for the low voter turnout in Mumbai. </div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-54592781558403834252009-04-22T22:41:00.000-07:002009-04-23T20:46:49.380-07:00Unreligiously Yours<div align="justify"><strong>Friend</strong>: Hi Natalia.<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: Hi! Howz life?<br /><br /><strong>Friend</strong>: Good. What’s up?<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: Head, hair and ceiling.<br /><br /><strong>Friend</strong>: Bad joke.<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: That wasn’t a joke. I stated a fact.<br /><br /><strong>Friend</strong>: (irritated) Let it be. Hey tell me, what are you?<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: (I was confused. What can one possibly present as an answer to that question?)I am a specimen of the <em><a href="http://www.unique-design.net/library/word/species.html#human">Homo sapiens</a></em>.<br /><br /><strong>Friend</strong>: Now why do you have to get biology involved in this?<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: What do you mean?<br /><br /><strong>Friend</strong>: I mean like what are you?<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: Well in accordance with human obsession and fascination for borders, I carry an Indian passport so that makes me Indian.<br /><br /><strong>Friend</strong>: No, I mean what religion are you?<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: How can a person be a religion?<br /><br /><strong>Friend</strong>: Alright! What religion do you follow?<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: Ah that makes more sense. Hee hee! Haa Haa! My name confuses you doesn't it? Natalia Hule does not give you a clue as to about whether I ma a Christian or a Hindu. My looks baffle you more because you can't associate me with a particular region of India and the fact that I speak Marathi, Hindi and English equally well worsens your case further. Haa haa, stay confused. I won' t help you... Well I follow ‘Nataliaism’<br /><br /><strong>Friend</strong>: What?<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: It is a very recent religion. It started the day I was born. This religion has only one Goddess, she is called Natalia. The Goddess has only one devotee, her name is Natalia. The religion has only one prophet, her name is also Natalia. The principles of this religion are whatever Natalia finds right. This religion prohibits conversion. The Goddess Natalia explicitly states that there shall never be any reincarnation or resurrection whatsoever. The Goddess Natalia does not promise any Land, Water or Air. By the way this Goddess, her devotee and the Prophet is all me, and not some other Natalia. In this manner, I shall remain in peace with everyone and anyone around me and also prevent any possibility of war and riots after I am gone, hence ensuring peace even after my demise.<br /><br /><strong>Friend</strong>: Hey this idea is great. (I was slightly taken aback to hear this) Everyone should create their own religions and not bother others. What do you think?<br /><br /><strong>Me</strong>: I think I’ll complete the assignment for French class.<br /></div><strong></strong>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-20132417549054583912009-04-14T23:13:00.000-07:002009-04-20T23:44:54.587-07:00Diabetes Demystified - Unraveling the mystery of diabetes mellitus for the layman<div align="justify">As unpredictable as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake">earthquakes</a>, conversations can get us talking or explaining anything in the universe at any given point of time. My memory falls short of recollecting exactly what led us to discuss <a href="http://diabetes.webmd.com/guide/diabetes-overview">diabetes</a> that day but I managed to straighten the my friend’s comprehension of diabetes.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> I avoid eating <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar">sugar</a> or sweets. They are known to cause diabetes.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> No, they do not cause diabetes.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> How is that possible? Eating a lot of sugar causes the blood to go sweet and that condition is called diabetes.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> No it is not. You are mistaken. You believe the human body to be like a cup of <a href="http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/brewing.htm?bcsi-ac-ED4481DDE3DE1057=18BDC0EE00000203X7gwyQsbwR3dAZAqGmIPtWG0ca7WBAAAAwIAACTxrwAQDgAADQAAAMv7AgA=">coffee</a> that will become sweeter as we go on adding sugar to it. It is not like that.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Then what is it genius?<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Well let me give you an example. But promise me that you won’t ask me questions while I explain. The example is far-fetched but you will understand what it is. But don’t ask questions, we won’t get anywhere.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> But what if I have a doubt?<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> No way! No questions! Try and believe for a little while that I am <a href="http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/krishna.htm">Lord Krishna</a> and you are my devotee <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna">Arjun</a> and we are on the brink of the commencement of the final battle of the <a href="http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/xeno.mahabsynop.htm">Mahabharat</a>! Lord Krishna had asked Arjun to not ask him questions while he spoke the Bhagvad Gita.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Oh my God! This is the height of exaggeration!<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> I know but may I begin my explanation?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Go ahead.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> To live life fruitfully, we need money. We keep that money in a bank. When we need our money for use, we can only obtain it from the bank with the help of an <a href="http://thebeehive.linktier.com/money/atm-cards.asp">ATM card</a>. For the time being, we will forget the option of withdrawal slips, alright?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Fine. No problems, next?<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Now consider this situation. You have lost your ATM card. Will you be able to obtain your money from the bank?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> No<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Situation no. 2. You have an ATM card but it is damaged beyond use. Will you be able to obtain your money from the bank?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> No<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Now you are without money, i.e. liquid assets. Hence you start liquefying your other assets i.e. you sell your other assets like your vehicle, gold, etc. to obtain money to run your life smoothly. But the money in your bank will remain unaffected; in fact it will increase due to the interest.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Yes<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Now as we require money, the body requires <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/DiabetesOverview/story?id=3843451">glucose</a>. The body puts this glucose into the blood like we put money in the bank. To obtain our money, we use the ATM card; the body uses ‘<a href="http://www.endocrineweb.com/diabetes/2insulin.html">Insulin</a>’ to obtain the glucose from the blood.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Oh, ok. (He looked liked he had heard the word ‘insulin’ for the first time)<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Now if the body does not have insulin, it will not be able to obtain glucose. If the insulin is damaged, i.e. of a bad quality, the body will still not be able to obtain glucose. Just like the case of the ATM card.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Oh, ok.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Just like us, the body starts liquefying the other assets available. It first starts burning all fat available to produce energy. Therefore, diabetes patients become thin. Now the glucose in the blood remains unaffected; it in fact increases because we continue to eat food. This is why and how the blood turns sweet. Not because of sugar, but because of a lack of insulin. Is it clear?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Now I’ve understood what diabetes is. It’s good you asked me not to ask questions. I might never have understood your example. How do you think up such things?<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> One may call me the epitome of immodesty as I self-assuredly state that I have a brilliant imagination and a fantastic ability to draw up incredulous but pertinent analogies.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> There we go again.<br /><br />And so we continued our blah, blah, blah… about everything under the sun.<br /><br /><strong>P.S.:</strong> I was originally planning to title this post as ‘Diabetes <a href="http://www.dummies.com/Section/About-Dummies.id-323897.html">For Dummies</a>’ but decided against it because that might have amounted to copyright infringement! </div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-47838858956595378242009-04-09T23:36:00.000-07:002009-04-09T23:40:35.299-07:00My Quest for French Literacy<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CAms%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} h1 {mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:1; font-size:24.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <h1 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">There was a time, during the level 2 of my French studies that I was convinced that I would never be able to read French. After about 3 or 4 sentences, my mind would just go on a vacation to the Andaman and </span><st1:place><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><st1:place>Nicobar Islands</st1:place></span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">. I was persuaded to quit my pursuit of French proficiency. Then the money-minded element of my head told me that quitting would be equivalent to a waste of money! Now that was good motivation to continue. But it still did not solve my problem of having a slight headache while reading French; I just couldn’t read. <o:p></o:p></span></h1> <h1 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><u1:p></u1:p>I then told myself that it would be advisable to concentrate on the Listening skills for a while. Since I reckoned that babies learn to talk due to prolonged auditory exposure to language, I subjected myself to a blitzkrieg of French songs and movies. It would also cause an annoyance. I plainly could not comprehend the sounds that the French people produced from their throats and mouths! Now I had to discipline myself. There was no way I was going to give up. So I started watching the French movies and cartoons along with the French sub-titles, hoping that I would understand the dialogues that way. So I discontinued French reading for a while. 2 weeks later, I read an article (not in French) in the Times of India. It changed my approach towards improving my reading skills.<o:p></o:p></span></h1> <h1 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">This article was titled <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/MEN__IDEAS/Power_of_subtitles/articleshow/2929385.cms"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Power of subtitles</span></a> and was written by <a href="http://gurcharandas.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Gurcharan Das</span></a>. It spoke about the efforts of <a href="http://www.ashoka.org/node/3557"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Dr. Brij Kothari</span></a> and his work with <a href="http://www.ddindia.gov.in/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">DoorDarshan</span></a>. This project is about subtitling of songs on <a href="http://www.planetread.org/tv.php"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">DD shows like Rangoli, Chayageet and Chitrahaar</span></a>. The viewer subconsciously associates the spoken word with the words displayed on screen, thus practicing reading in an unobtrusive and hassle-free manner. It involves no extra cost or time investment for the viewer. This method effectively increases literacy levels even with just 30 minutes of exposure to such programs every week. Thanks to Dr. Kothari’s mission, a Nielsen-ORG survey, conducted in 2002 and 2007 to measure the influence of subtitling, showed that only 25% school children could read a simple paragraph in Hindi after five years of education. However, this soared to 56% if they also watched subtitled songs for 30 minutes a week on Rangoli. Similarly remarkable outcomes were reported among adults.<o:p></o:p></span></h1> <u1:p></u1:p> <h1 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">This convinced me that I was on the right track and my methodology was perfectly sound. From that day onwards, I watched 2 French movies or animated films, along with the French subtitles weekly. That amounted to nearly 5 to 6 hours of French audio and visual exposure per week. I did that for 4 months. My efforts paid of in January 2008; I managed to read the French novel, <a href="http://translate.google.co.in/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.mercuredefrance.fr/titres/Africain.htm&ei=j-TeSaqPApGHkQWTqZXhCw&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dl%2527africain%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3Dt2U"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">L’Africain</span></a> of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/4398025/JMG-le-Clezio.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">J.M.G. Le Clezio</span></a> in 10 days! I had become perfectly literate in French. J’ai devenu francophone! I wrote about this to Dr. Brij Kothari on his website </span> <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.planetread.org/home.php."><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <u2:worddocument> <u2:view>Normal<u2:zoom>0<u2:compatibility> <u2:breakwrappedtables/> <u2:snaptogridincell/> <u2:wraptextwithpunct/> <u2:useasianbreakrules/> <u2:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</u2:browserlevel> </u2:compatibility> </u2:zoom> </u2:view> </u2:worddocument> </xml><![endif]-->http://www.planetread.org/home.php.</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> He wrote back saying that my experience mirrored his own while he was learning Spanish. That was seriously cool. According to AC Nielsen’s ORG-Center for Social Research, there are nearly 312 million early-literates and 444 million non-literates in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><st1:country-region style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;"><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">. This estimated number of non-literates is significantly higher than the official figure of 296.2 million. I wish all channels start sub-titling their shows. Everyone stands to win. Channels get better TRPs. Higher literacy levels means better levels of income that translates into higher sales for advertisers. That is fantastic motivation to speed up </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><st1:country-region style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;"><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">’s conquest of 100% literacy and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. <o:p></o:p></span></h1> Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-29463395046253506402009-03-31T03:10:00.000-07:002009-04-02T11:38:03.173-07:00My Elections Story - I<div align="justify"><br />Being the socially aware, India-loving Indian that I am, I wanted to make sure I vote this time; I missed out during the last general elections as I was a few months short of 18. I was heartbroken. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"> <a href="http://smileyshut.com" title="Smileys"><img src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Sad/sad-021.gif" alt="Smileys" border="0"></a> </span>It may seem that my favourite figure of speech is the hyperbole but the fact that I was not eligible to vote made it look as if I was a lesser citizen. At least in my head! But anyway, I did manage to register myself in my constituency in the nick of time. I say nick of time because <a href="http://jaagore.com/">JaagoRe.com</a> took me for a ride! Now someone would ask me how? Well those Vote do! Vote do! Guys went around promising everyone that they would make he registration process hassle-free, claiming that their website generated form would mention the nearest Election Registration Office (ERO) of the aspiring voter’s area. I thought this was cool and fill up my form on their site. Those bozos did not mention my ERO. Damn! Now why would I waste my time on a website just to get a filled form that I could have filled myself! I searched <a href="http://google.com/">http://google.com/</a> for the ERO of Thane city. I found the number. The voice on the other said that I was calling the Customs office! This happened too many times. I gave up. I then inquired around my neighbourhood if someone had any clue as to whom to approach with regards to exercising my franchise. Here I was a victim of rumours. The registration it seems was going on at two places – Dadoji Kondev Stadium ad Saraswati School. Both places had stopped accepting forms they told me. I nearly went ballistic. I was going to be left out once again. I landed a job shortly and my outrage took a backseat. But it did not die out. Then I read a wonderful report in Hindutan Times. It told me that forms would be accepted till April fool’s Day, 2009 that the office of the ERO could be found on <a href="http://ceo.maharashtra.gov.in/">http://ceo.maharashtra.gov.in/</a> . There was a ray of light; it brought light to my gloomy chamber of electoral despair. It was like finding an oasis in a bone dry desert. I was in 7th heaven. I got my act together. I found the ERO of Thane city and spoke to an official there. They told me that forms were being accepted at DADOJI KONDEV STADIUM! The same place where work had supposedly ended. Mon submitted my sister’s and my form over there. We are told that we won’t get our Voter ID card but will be able to vote if we have other identity proofs. Mission accomplished.<br /><br />I am finally going to vote. <a href="http://smileyshut.com/" title="Smileys"><img src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/yeah6.gif" border="0" /></a><br />Three cheers for the world's largest democracy! Hip Hip Hurray!</div><div align="justify"><a title="India Flag smiley 73" href="http://www.buddy-icons.info/aim-smiles/India_Flag_smiley_73.html"><img alt="India Flag smiley 73" src="http://www.buddy-icons.info/img/smile/1465.gif" border="0" /></a><br />P.S.:<br />1. I have no clue as to whom am I going to vote for. I think I’ll just do an “Inky Pinky Ponky, Daddy had a donkey” in the voting booth and decide!<br />2. To its credit, Jaago Re campaign has done commendable work to spread awareness amongst the 18 to 30 age group. <a href="http://smileyshut.com/" title="Smileys"><img src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Respect/respect-067.gif" alt="Smileys" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://smileyshut.com/" title="Smileys"><img src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Respect/respect-046.gif" alt="Smileys" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://smileyshut.com/" title="Smileys"><img src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Respect/respect-040.GIF" alt="Smileys" border="0" /></a></div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-79945625152005429422009-03-24T21:58:00.000-07:002009-03-24T22:33:21.945-07:00PrankI once had casually called up my best friend, but I received a shock when I reached the wrong number. At that point of time, I believed that cross connections were not possible on mobile networks. This is how the affair took place.<br /><br />I dialled 9820098200.<br /><br />Me: Hello Tejaswini.<br /><br />Voice at the other end: Tejaswini? This is Manoj Tiwari’s number.<br /><br />Stunned, I apologized and hung up. <br /><br />I dialled the number again. <br /><br />Me: Hello Tejaswini?<br /><br />Voice at the other end: Wrong number this is Anush Parekh’s number.<br /><br />Now I was feeling jittery. <a href='http://smileyshut.com' title='Smileys'><img src='http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Confused/3d-paranoid.gif' alt='Smileys' border='0'></a> I was sure I had dialed the correct number. I made a third attempt.<br /><br />Me: Hello Tejaswini?<br /><br />Voice at the other end: No. This is Rohan Dasgupta.<br /><br />I hung up, nearly convinced that the world had gone mad. Sense dwelled upon me in a few seconds and I had the saner thought that the Dolphin network might have gone barmy.<br /><br />I was slightly on the edge. I simply couldn’t fathom the fact that I was unable to reach my best friend’s cell number. I called up her boyfriend.<br /><br />Me: Hello Arvind?<br /><br />Arvind: Hi Natalia. Bolo, how are you?<br /><br />Me: Arre, what is Tejaswini’s mobile number?<br /><br />Arvind: (in a tone that expressed surprise and the obviousness of the answer) 9820098200. Are you ok? What happened?<br /> <br />Me: I have been dialling this number but a man is answering the call.<br /><br />Arvind: No way! I am the only man in her life!<br /><br />Me: Thanks for clarifying your status in her life but I don’t know what’s happening!<br /><br />Arvind: Hey chill, she is at a friend’s place for some project work. Someone must be fooling around with her cell.<br /><br />Me: Oh ok. Thanks I’ll try again. Bye.<br /><br />Arvind: Bye.<br /><br />This time I had got smarter. I dialled her number again but from my Mom’s cell.<br /><br />Me: Hello, May I speak to Kumodini Agrawal?<br /><br />Voice at the other end: This is Tejaswini’s number.<br /> <br />Me: Very good. Give her the phone!<br /><br /><br /><br />P.S.: The mobile number used here is that of the Vodafone India helpline to prevent any trouble <a href='http://smileyshut.com' title='Smileys'><img src='http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Winks/ok-wink.gif' alt='Smileys' border='0'></a> Bye! <a href='http://smileyshut.com' title='Smileys'><img src='http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Others/door-165.gif' alt='Smileys' border='0'></a>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-12634138909175361442009-03-20T21:02:00.000-07:002009-04-02T11:40:43.316-07:00Gluttony and the Laws of Economics<div align="justify">I am a food-lover. So is my friend a gourmet. Our love for good food goes to such heights that we don’t care a toss about customs and traditions when it comes to our gustatory preferences. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are all fine for devouring all types of foodstuff inclusive of non-vegetarian fare. Every morsel of food is religiously chewed 32 times to enjoy the taste and nutritional benefits to the hilt. Fasting is a vice in our book. Prolonged dialogues on the pleasures of food, especially chocolates are a ritual. I can eat chocolates non-stop <a title="Smileys" href="http://smileyshut.com/"><img alt="Smileys" src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Food/loves-chocolate-51.gif" border="0" /></a> . <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flake_(chocolate)">CadburyFlake</a> and <a href="http://ferrerochocolatesusa.com/">Ferrero Rocher </a>top my list. In my opinion, 1920 was the most important and eventful year of the 20th century as that was the year Cadbury launched Cadburyflake.<br /><br />We have another friend who shares this trait of ours. Regrettably, this friend is a glutton. This guy shows absolutely no interest whatsoever in taking pleasure in the finer aspects of food, savouring the different flavours of the spices that linger on your tongue and enjoying the immense psychological delights that food provides us. All he seems to understand is wolfing down gargantuan portions of food and assumes that being a connoisseur of good food is equivalent gobbling down larger and larger quantities of food and drinks. It completely beats the point of culinary pursuits. He eats like a pig, stuffing his face on every edible thing in sight <a title="Smileys" href="http://smileyshut.com/"><img alt="Smileys" src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Food/eating-spaghettis-18.gif" border="0" /></a> ; he eats humongous quantities of fast food <a title="Smileys" href="http://smileyshut.com/"><img alt="Smileys" src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Food/eating-chips-17.gif" border="0" /></a>, has an unquenchable thirst for soft drinks <a title="Smileys" href="http://smileyshut.com/"><img alt="Smileys" src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Drinks/drinking-pepsi.gif" border="0" /></a> and commits the cardinal sin of likening junk food with delicious delights. That he is a dipsomaniac does not deserver special mention. <a title="Smileys" href="http://smileyshut.com/"><img alt="Smileys" src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Drinks/drinking-48.GIF" border="0" /></a> He boasts that no amounts of alcohol can have any effect on the ability of his cerebrum and cerebellum to work in tandem with each other. Policemen around the planet will undeniably disagree with him and medical practitioners may consider this claim as a subject worth researching. I am willing to bet insane sums of money on his liver being as greasy as that of a duck destined to descend on our dishes as <a href="http://foodgeeks.com/encyclopedia/481/foie_gras/">Foie gras</a>. Well, to put it simply he celebrates the New Year 365 days of the year! <a title="Smileys" href="http://smileyshut.com/"><img alt="Smileys" src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Drinks/party-drunk.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We had once collectively tried to drill sense into that part of his central nervous system that includes all his higher nervous centres; enclosed within the skull; continuous with the spinal cord i.e. his head. My friend attempted to bring about a change of the locus of feelings and intuitions i.e. heart. The timing was wrong. We were having a golgappa munching session. She first sought the support of scientific statements. She commenced her sermon by elucidating how his excessive food consumption could lead to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/hypertension1.shtml">hypertension</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/diabetes/">diabetes</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/heart/aboutheart_index1.shtml">cardiac complications</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/pepticulcers1.shtml">stomach ulcers</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/arteriosclerosis1.shtml">arteriosclerosis</a> and every possible lifestyle disease that she had committed to memory. He rubbished her monologue retorting that he was convinced that scientists publish such gobbledygook simply because they do not have better alternatives for disposing off their research grants and doctors uphold these claims because they derive sadistic satisfaction by scaring all souls in sight. Result = zilch. It was now his turn to launch into a discourse about why and how he would never quit eating and drinking the way he does as he believed that he wanted to die a happy man, happy because he ate and drank to his heart’s content.<br /><br />My objection to his elephantine consumption was more on the basis of economics. I told my friend to leave him in peace. My friend and I have studied economics. The gluttonous creature has not.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Forget it. He won’t understand. Let’s wait till the marginal utility of all that he consumes hits zero and then becomes negative. It has to.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Yup you are right. The marginal utility has to hit zero, then it will become negative and finally he will suffer from something!<br /><br /><strong>Gluttonous friend:</strong> What do you mean? (Chomping on golgappas)<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> I think it’s not his fault. The <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lawofdiminishingutility.asp">Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility </a>does not work in his case!<br /><br /><strong>Me and Friend:</strong> <a title="Smileys" href="http://smileyshut.com/"><img alt="Smileys" src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Laughing/hahaha-024.gif" border="0" /></a> <a title="Smileys" href="http://smileyshut.com/"><img alt="Smileys" src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Laughing/hahaha-024.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Gluttonous Friend</strong>: <a title="Smileys" href="http://smileyshut.com/"><img alt="Smileys" src="http://smileyshut.com/smileys/new/Confused/confused-8.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />I had, economically speaking, proved him abnormal. </div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-38844432417862736602009-03-15T08:12:00.000-07:002009-03-15T08:22:43.593-07:00Suicidally curious <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CPradeep%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;">We are told that curiosity killed the cat. Well I don’t know which cat but a few years ago, my little brother was well on his way to join that cat. As an eight year old, he was very cute, sweet and always enormously curious to know what his elder sisters were up to. I was in class ten at that point of time. Often, he would join me while I was studying; snuggle into my arms while I would read my textbooks. He would always be intent on reading my texts. He never managed to sustain his enthusiasm beyond two paragraphs at the most but I guess he would get a kick by reading out of a 10<sup>th</sup> standard textbook while he was himself in class 3.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<br /><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;">On fine day, he joined me while I was reading up the Science 1 (Physics and Chemistry) texts. He started reading as usual. That paragraph enumerated the precautions to be taken while handing electronic equipment. He had learnt for the first time that handling electronic equipments with wet hands can cause a shock; that we must wear rubber slippers or gloves while using such machines and especially electric sockets, etc. he asked if all that was true. I replied in the affirmative. He wanted to know what a shock was. I told him that it can cause a seizure (I faked one to explain what it may look like), burns and a heart attack which means that our heart stops working abruptly. He nodded seriously and went off to play as usual.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<br /><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;">Three days later, in the morning, after he had had his bath, he was madly calling out my name from the bathroom. I thought he had forgotten his towel. When I went to look, this little devil already had a towel wrapped around him. I asked him what the matter was. The conversation that followed went something like this.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-family:Font;">Brother:</span></b><span style="font-family:Font;"> I am going to tell Mom to take you out of school. There is no need for you to go to school. They teach you nonsense in class 10.
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<br /><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;">I was stunned to witness my education being questioned.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-family:Font;">Me:</span></b><span style="font-family:Font;"> Why? What happened?
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<br /><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-family:Font;">Brother:</span></b><span style="font-family:Font;"> Come in. (Pointing to the bathroom)
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<br /><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;">Before I could even understand what was happening, he splashed handful water on the switchboard and turned on and switched off the switch for the geyser.
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<br /><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-family:Font;">Brother:</span></b><span style="font-family:Font;"> You see, your textbook is wrong, the switchboard was wet, my hands were wet, I am not wearing rubber slippers, I touched the switched board and I did not suffer a shock, neither did I die. I am still alive.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;">I rolled my eyes in disbelief. He actually checked whether he would be killed!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Font;">I understood my mistake and patiently explained what insulators were. It then seemed to dawn upon him why he was yet alive. </span></p> Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-82063459271606233242009-03-08T03:28:00.000-07:002009-03-08T03:33:35.306-07:00A Hairy Tale<span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend: </span> Hi Natalia!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me: </span>Hi! Howz life?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend: </span>Bad.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> What happened? Did you put up a few kilos? You seem to be in good shape.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> No re! Stop kidding! I have a problem.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Oh! If it is not weight, then it must be a boy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> Are you a mind reader or what?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Nope. I am experienced. That expression on your face says that you are pining for your Prince Charming but you never told me that you have a guy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> That is because I don’t have one. I started liking one recently. But…<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> He doesn’t notice you, doesn’t seem to be interested in you. Oh he doesn’t look at you!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> (sarcastically) Thank you for completing my sentence. So what should I do now? How do I get him to at least look at me?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Hey I am not a love guru nor am I an agony aunt.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> Natalia help!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> (Sensing danger) Ok Ok. Let me think. Hey you have nice long hair.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> Thank you for the compliment but how does that help me?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Move around with your hair open when he is around. That will help you definitely.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> How do you know? That advice sounds silly to me!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me: </span>You are a bad observer. Boys love girls with their hair open.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> How do you know? Tell me that first!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Haven’t you seen that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uo0mWUDSpQ">Parachute Coconut Hair oil ad, with the jingle Gorgeous Hameshaa </a>(Forever)?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> So?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me: </span>That ad is from a man’s point of view. It’s a man singing about his favorite girl/ woman or maybe wife or girlfriend. It’s very different from other hair product ads which always extol the virtues of Shampoo X or Hair oil Y or Hair Colour Z! And those ads always have women talking about the benefits of the product. The Gorgeous Hameshaa campaign is different; it’s about a guy admiring his girl doing different things with her hair. Many of the women in that ad are with their hair open. That means that men prefer their women with their hair open. Women with long flowing hair excite men. I am sure!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> You sure? Serious?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Yup. I think open hair would work better than a low-cut T-shirt anyway!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> Yuck. Stop joking! I am serious.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Thousand apologies! (With folded hands, she was offended)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend:</span> So tomorrow, while he will be hanging around the canteen during recess, I go there with my hair open, all prep and proper. He is generally there with his friends. I hope he notices me and likes me. We might even be able to get to the point of talking in a few weeks.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Oh! (Sneakily) But let me warn you, even his friends will be excited if they see you like that. Open hair excites all men. By the way, excitement in such cases generally means an erection.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend: </span>(Furiously) NATALIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br /><br />At that point, I ran for my life.Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-21600100111884565092009-03-01T21:35:00.000-08:002009-04-09T23:43:55.156-07:00It’s Raining Men, Hallelujah!<div align="justify"><strong>My friend:</strong> Tell me Natalia, have you ever seriously loved a guy?</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Yup. Next?</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>My friend:</strong> Just one guy?</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Hmm, nope, wait let me count them.</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>My friend:</strong> You're joking! Are you nuts?</div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong>Me:</strong> Nope, I seem to have a weird fortune with guys. Every time I like one I find out that he already likes or is dating someone else! Crazy isn’t it? But anyway, they were more like big crushes!</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>My friend:</strong> (Giggles) so tell me, how do you cope up in a situation like this? Can you just move on?</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Absolutely! Why should I create trouble for myself and the guy? It can get complicated. And besides, there is no harm if one guy doesn’t like you. India is full of men. Our predecessors have ensured that. They never wanted a situation where girls would have trouble finding dates!</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>My friend:</strong> Explain, explain! What do you mean by that?</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Well you see the sex ratio of India is 927 females per 1000 males. That means a surplus of 73 boys! So if I don’t get one guy, I know I still have 73 waiting in the line for me! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>My friend:</strong> Natalia you seriously are weird! And what if you don’t find a match even amongst them?</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>Natalia:</strong> No, problems! I shall simply register myself on <a href="http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/">http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/</a> or <a href="http://www.shaadi.com/">http://www.shaadi.com/</a> . «Invited groom for tall, <span style="font-size:180%;">FAIR</span>, educated girl, slim, whatever will be my age/ 5’4”, working from educated family, teetotaller, non-smoker, non-vegetarian. Caste no bar. » The moment people read the word 'fair', I shall be flooded with offers! No problems at all. I assure you, someone or the other will like me that way. But I pray to God that I don’t ever feel the need to register myself on those matrimonial sites! I am not an uninteresting character at all!</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>My friend:</strong> Hey of course you are not! We are just imagining some hypothetical situations. (Gleefully) It’s bad for the boys! I pity them. They don’t have as much as choice as we girls do.</div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Oh no! Not at all! They can always go to Russia, Japan, and many other East European countries! All those places have more women than men! In fact the last time I read about it, there were 884 males per 1000 females in Russia and 1040 females per 1000 males in Japan! So boys need not worry at all. However, their families would! I wonder how most Indian families would react to their sons bringing home a European <em>bahu</em> (daughter-in-law)! The guy gets past caste, language and nationality barriers in one clean sweep! Globalisation at its best.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://digg.com/"><img height="20" alt="Digg!" src="http://digg.com/img/badges/100x20-digg-button.gif" width="100" /></a></div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-90714755855110464852009-02-20T08:06:00.000-08:002009-03-15T22:22:50.168-07:00A bony issue.<p align="justify">There are many words in the English language which make no sense. One of them is ‘Orthopaedics’. You see the word <a href="http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00099" target="_blank">Orthopaedics</a> comes from <a href="http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/patientcare/healthlibrary/healthtopics/0,,P00909,00.html" target="_blank">the Greek words Ortho – straight and Paedia – which means ‘child;</a> so orthopaedics literally means “Straightening children!” Now orthopaedic surgeons are much more than 'Straightners of Children'. This word refers to one of the earliest medical treatments given to children born with malformed spines and limbs that would give them abnormal postures. This practice gave the name for the profession. How inadequate. I personally feel the word should be ‘<strong>Osteiatrics</strong>’. Osteo is the Greek word for bone and iatria means medical healing. So when we put the two together we get ‘Osteiatrics’, just like in Paediatrics. That aptly describes everything that Orthopaedic surgeons do. They medically heal bones, and therefore they should be Osteiatrians / Osteiatric surgeons. However I DO NOT PLAN to go about demanding a change in the name of this profession for the following reasons:<br /><br />1. I do not want to irritate the orthopaedic community which wisely and rightly spends its time and resources on curing and finding better cures for debilitating bone problems. <a href="http://www.smileys.me.uk/"><img src="http://www.smileys.me.uk/smileys/Angel/pray.gif" alt="Free Smileys" /></a></p><p align="justify"><br />2. I do not wish to look inspired by idiots who go around changing names for nothing. For e.g. Bombay to Mumbai, Calcutta to Kolkatta, Madras to Chennai and Bangalore to Bengaluru and so on. (I wonder why someone hasn’t yet made any noises about changing Delhi to Hastinapur) <a href="http://www.clipartof.com"><img src="http://www.clipartof.com/images/emoticons/xsmall2/1231_hysterically_laughing.gif" alt="Free Smileys & Emoticons at Clip Art Of.com" border="0" /></a></p><p align="justify"><br />3. I do not want to be considered insane. <a href="http://www.smileys.me.uk/"><img src="http://www.smileys.me.uk/smileys/Winking/winking0070.gif" alt="Free Smileys" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.bergoiata.org/fe/divers16/smiley+1+(800x600).jpg" target="_blank"></a><br />But I still think that Orthopaedics should be Osteiatrics. That would be one more step towards logical words and spellings.<br /><br />P.S.: My apologies to my father, an orthopaedic surgeon himself, for breaching / intruding / infringing / violating the name of his profession.</p>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-13806386470669417412009-02-12T21:45:00.000-08:002009-04-28T22:28:14.258-07:00Valentine's Day in a village<div align="justify">Most Indians go holidaying to their native place or their village during the school vacations. The major Indian festivals like <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/holydays/diwali.shtml?bcsi-ac-1167ACFE98C9ECAB=185AFE4500000203lPzOxyIGvlB/f8emuihFjzwClPUdDAAAAwIAAKlyugAQDgAAFAAAAHE1DQA=">Diwali</a>, <a href="http://hinduism.about.com/od/festivalsholidays/a/ganeshchaturthi.htm">Ganesh Chaturthi </a>or festivals of local importance cause mass bookings on trains and buses, leaving the <a href="http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/">Indian Railways</a> and State Transport services burning the candle at both ends. Going to the native place at least once a year, is almost the single most important thing on people’s mind during the run up to the holidays or the festivals. But one of my friends does not care a toss about the visit to his native place during the vacations or the festivals. This guy goes into the “going to the native place craze” during the run up to <a href="http://www.pictureframes.co.uk/Saint-Valentine.aspx">Valentine’s Day</a>.<br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>"Valentine’s Day is round the corner. I won’t be attending college. I am leaving for my village” was his regular refrain 3-4 weeks before Valentine’s Day during all the 4 years of our Bachelor’s degree in my agriculture college. Everything else seemed of tertiary importance (saying secondary importance would amount to an understatement). The first time I heard him talking about his trip to his village for Valentine’s Day, my reaction was something like this:<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Valentine’s Day is approaching. I am going to my village. (He was talking to someone else)<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> WHAT? What did he just say?<br /><br />That day I could not ask him the reason for some reason. I simply assumed that he had a loving girlfriend, who longed for him in his village, who was more important to him than food, clothing and shelter and that he would consecrate the weeks before Valentine’s for her to make up for his absence during the rest of the year. My imagination did shift into an overdrive but I had to assume an answer for his inexplicable frenzy to visit his native place for Valentine’s Day. He sure did disappear for nearly a month before Valentine’s and returned only a week after Valentine’s Day. This was too much for me. What could he possibly have done during such a long period? Frenzied love-making sessions for a month? Or did he belong to some bizarre cult that had its own month long celebrations and customs for Valentine’s Day that were hitherto concealed from the eyes of the world? I had to ask him.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Hi! How was your trip to your village this time?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Fantastic. It was more enlightening than last year.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Enlightening? What do you go to your village during Valentine’s Day for?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> For the preparations for Valentine’s Day?<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> What do you mean? I am lost. Are you trying to tell me that your tiny, distant village in Pune actually celebrates Valentine’s Day?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> No. We don’t do such things in our village. (Emphasizes 'such')<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Then what do you do?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> My uncle cultivates flowers. He has 3 greenhouses where he cultivates all sorts of flowers especially the ones that are demanded the most during Valentine’s Day. You see he exports flowers to Europe. This time of the year, we face a shortage of labour on the greenhouse for tending to the flowers. (He had all my attention) I go there to help him out. It is the best time to learn about flower cultivation and greenhouse management. I also get to learn a lot from his manager who handles the export part. I work myself in the storage and packaging sections for the flowers. We have to handle those flowers like we hold new-borns. They are very delicate and even slight damages result in revenue losses. It is a mad race out there amongst neighbours. I didn’t tell you. Most of my uncle’s neighbours also grow flowers. They wildly compete amongst themselves to produce the best flowers. They even tease and mock each other about if someone's flowers seem inferior than their own. It is seriously embarrassing if someone else’s flowers are better than yours. It is back-breaking work but immensely satisfying. Our flowers leave for Europe a week before Valentine’s Day and then it is the accounts work that takes up our time.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> Oh my! I could not even imagine this. (I felt ashamed of the possibilities that I had imagined) It must be hard work. I bet you know all that happens in a greenhouse off pat.<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Absolutely. I can handle a greenhouse all on my own. My uncle totally trusts me. I feel that I learn more on the greenhouse than during our horticulture classes. But theoretical knowledge is also important.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> That is great! Are the revenues good?<br /><br /><strong>Friend:</strong> Yes. It depends on the orders. We earn up to Rs. 6 lakhs for 5-6 weeks of work. But these people (purchasers) do not always pay up on time. Europe purchases lots of flowers during Valentine’s Day. For that matter, even Bombay and Poona have a huge demand for even Grade 3 quality flowers. Valentine’s Day is good for business. I love it.<br /><br /><strong>Me:</strong> I agree with you.<br /><br />I had actually learnt how a certain farming community in Pune benefits from Valentine’s Day celebrations. They even admit that they love it. I appreciated my friend's yearly pilgramage to his village for Valentine's Day. I wonder what the Ram and Bajrang worshippers, who protect our “Great Indian Culture” and would by now be receiving <a href="http://thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com/2009/02/logo.html">‘pink chaddis’ </a>with love, would feel about this. </div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-52688734620140084882009-01-23T08:13:00.000-08:002012-01-30T12:35:11.859-08:00Unwanted unaesthetic sightings<div style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify; "><div style="font-size: 10pt; "><div style="font-size: 12pt; "><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 100%; ">My friends once jokingly asked me one night at my hostel, "Have you seen a man's penis?". I answered, in matter-of-fact manner, “ I must have seen at least 70-80 of them.” My friends burst out laughing, barely able to control themselves. Later, they wanted to know how that was possible. The two of them could barely keep their eyes from popping out. I told them that on the bus from Thane to Panvel, which passes from multiple suburbs of New Bombay, I have to put up with the site of men openly defecating on the streets with their privates parts on public display. Free - for - all. You can’t escape it. Look to the left. It’s the same. Look to the right. It’s the same. You only avoid such sights if you studiously look heavenwards or keeping admiring your own thighs. Those who can sleep in the bus manage to protect their eyes from the obscene exhibition but not their noses from the putrid smell. You put with this shameless, quotidian display of male venereal organs even on the train from Thane to Panvel. In the mornings, our rail tracks and highways virtually turn into shit tracks and shitways. On hearing my explanation, they were still laughing but with intermittent screams of “Yuck”, “Kiti ghan!” ( Marathi for "How dirty!") . Then I told them that I could bet that even they had seen penises in the same manner. They said “Yes”. It is the same on the railway tracks from Kurla to Panvel and even from Rasayani to Alibaug. We then launched into a tirade about how revolting, nauseating and shocking the sight of the human penis is. (Of course, in the given context). I wondered out aloud why women aren’t seen defecating openly? If they have the sense to go to secluded places then why not men? And more importantly, why are people still defecating in the open? Can’t the local municipalities provide toilets for all and spare us the sights of penises and bare bottoms? And even more importantly, why do those who “fight for saving Indian culture” do not make a hue and cry about this? After all displaying penises in public for any reason whatsoever, (leave aside infants and toddlers) is definitely more serious and indecent than as compared to say a Richard Gere pecking a Shilpa Shetty on her cheeks or a Rahul Mahajan and a Payal Rohatgi in a swimming pool together! </span></div></div></div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-6700937991524638422009-01-17T08:05:00.000-08:002009-03-01T22:37:49.270-08:00Mangal sutra: The license to have sex.<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span >Once, on my home, I took the usual bus out of Rasayani to Panvel. While getting into the bus, I nearly bumped into the woman standing in front of me. I managed to control myself and at the same instant I realized that she was pregnant. I found a seat for myself and my friend. The pregnant lady sat down on the seat next to ours in the other row. I casually looked at her face and was left dumb-founded. She was evidently 2-3 years my junior. I was 19 at that point of time. I asked my friend if she felt the same. She replied in the positive. The girl could not have been more than 17 and yet she was on her way to motherhood. I felt disgusted at that moment. This child had been decorated in gold jewelry in a manner that reminded me of decorated bulls during the Maharashtrian harvest festival of Bail-Pola, when we worship our cattle. Her attire made her look older but her face gave away the truth. At the age of 17, I was caught up with my class 12 examinations, where as this girl was forced into producing a baby, hence teenage sex and teenage pregnancy, all under the pretext of matrimony. Such a disgusting and dangerous thing to do! We urban youngsters get accused of aping western culture and values which supposedly ruin Indian culture while our rural teenage counterparts are encouraged to get screwed up with the blessing of their whole families, societal approval, under the guise of good culture and in the name of marriage. How cool is that? There was a time when I believed that teenage pregnancies in India were the only the stories of those deserted, orphaned girl children on the streets who had no families to keep them safe and would hence fall prey to rapists; Or maybe those God-forsaken members of the fairer sex who had been cursed into human trafficking at a very tender age. But my years in Rasayani, Panvel jolted me out of my asinine assumptions and ignorance. In India , you are free to have sex and churn out babies if you have <i>mangal sutra</i> dangling down your neck, irrespective of you age and maturity. </span></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /><br /><a href="http://digg.com/"><img height="20" alt="Digg!" src="http://digg.com/img/badges/100x20-digg-button.gif" width="100" /></a></div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823460499806587396.post-67842055625817042622009-01-10T06:39:00.000-08:002009-01-10T06:42:43.736-08:00What a difference!<div style="text-align: justify; font-family: georgia;">Mumbai Mirror popped up a pleasant surprise today. The Sci-Tech section had an interesting article titled <a href="http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/7/200901102009011002141212189a0d233/Japan-scientists-unveil-robot-suit-for-farmers">“Japan scientists unveil robot suit for farmers.”</a> It is seriously cool. The Japanese are obsessed with robot sand there are no limits to the sort of things these guys do. The robot suited is aimed at old farmers who have difficulty performing operations that require crouching or raising their hands. At 25kgs, methinks its pretty heavy but hey if someone can afford to use it why not? The device is expensive but much needed in countries that don’t have sufficient farm <span style="" lang="EN-GB">labourers</span>. I however lament the lack of concern and serious efforts to better the conditions of agricultural <span style="" lang="EN-GB">labourers</span> here in <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The Japanese have created robots to ease human drudgery and here we are still having humans slogging it out like oxen. Women are the worst affected in such cases. Many agricultural operations like manual weeding, sowing, harvesting require the <span style="" lang="EN-GB">labourer</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span>to be in the crouching position. The <span style="" lang="EN-GB">labourers</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span>are often women and married ones at that. These women suffer multiple miscarriages because of their work without ever finding out about it. The crouching position is dangerous during the first trimester of the pregnancy as it does not allow the <span style="" lang="EN-GB">foetus</span> to attach itself to the mother’s uterus correctly resulting in the loss of the pregnancy. This work also harms the pelvic girdle of women severely. Some social activists have tried to address these issues and also attempted to improve the working conditions of female farm <span style="" lang="EN-GB">labourers</span> in some areas but in vain. However there won’t be a solution in place without government intervention and nationwide poverty alleviation efforts.</div>Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190660141700293947noreply@blogger.com0