A truism
In three words I can sump up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
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From the world of science…
A teaspoon of honey may be more effective than over-the-counter cough syrup t quelling night time coughing.
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Broccoli is an excellent source of vitamin C and calcium; both are said to lower rates of periodontal disease.
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Shorter work week may not increase well-being.
Robert Rudolf, a professor of economics at Korea University in Seoul, studied the period 1998 to 2008, when average working hours in Korea gradually declined by about 10 percent. He analysed overall job satisfaction and overall satisfaction with life before and after the changes in working hours. He found that for both sexes, a reduction hours had no effect on job or life satisfaction.
(Comments: and for our government servants, it is 'business as usual' – yani ki whiling away their time - even when they attend their offices..)
A quote to remember…
"People always say time will heal all wounds but I don't believe in that. It heals to a certain point but it's always in the back of your head: 'This is what I did'" - Ben Johnson, who lost his 100-metre sprint gold at the Seoul Olympic after failing a dope test.
(Yep, we can seldom forget some ghastly moments in our life…)
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Believe it a lot!
Burglar tries to paddle across the channel for new life abroad…
London: A burglar was caught paddling across the Channel to Europe in a stolen kayak. Paul Redford (45), who wanted to start a new life abroad, was less than a mile off the Kent coast when he was picked up by the RNLI. He admitted a series of crimes dating back to 2011 when he appeared at Teesside crown court by video link from prison.
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Black magic owls in Kerala.
A rare silver owl can fetch as much as Rs.5 lakh on the black market here, because of high demand for the bird's body parts of black magic rituals. During Diwali, the price apparently rises further, amid higher demand, particularly by rich businessmen. Why the owl? The nocturnal bird of prey's excellent night vision and superb hearing are considered 'supernatural' and some believe that killing it will transfer these 'powers' to them.
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A dead rooster as a soothsayer in Nagaland.
In Nagaland, rituals performed to communicate with the spirits invariably involve a rooster. But not just any rooster. Soothsayers insist that the bird adhere to a colour code. Spotted roosters are taboo; those with white feathers are considered weak in spirit. A sacrificial rooster is believed to please the spirits. More importantly, after it dies, it becomes a fortuneteller. For instance, the right leg of a throttled rooster crossing over the left indicates days of good health. The left over the right is good news for the harvest.
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A cult of midnight grave-diggers in Mizoram…
Young men in parts of Mizoram raid cemeteries at night, digging up graves and performing rituals with human skulls filled with chicken blood, to connect with the world of the supernatural. These grave-diggers are one of an estimated 95 Christian cults with outlandish superstition. Members of the Zero Christianity cult, for instance, do not send their children to school because they believe education encourages the devil to block the way to heaven.
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Torture of she-devils in Chhattisgarh
About 300 km from Chhattisgarh's capital of Raipur, a 65-year-old tribal woman was branded a witch and beaten to death by her neighbours. Elsewhere, a widow in her forties was accused of having cursed a neighbour's son with a 'mysterious' disease and ostracized until she eventually committed suicide, and an 'ugly-looking' woman was blamed for a rise in vehicular accidents, and killed. The branding of women as 'she-devils' is a rampant practice in Chhatisgarh, with the suspected women often blamed for local tragedy and misfortune.
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A chimpanzee named Brent has reportedly won $10,000 at an art contest in the US, with the prize money going towards his home sanctuary Chimp Haven in north-west Louisiana.
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A terribly whacky comment by Manas Chakravarty in Hindustan Times, Sunday…
"The (gigantic) problem with our country's economic situation" explained an economist, "is that the government will have to attract foreign investment to finance the yawning current account deficit, prune the fiscal deficit while spending tonnes of money on the Right To Food, ensure investment while facing the delays in the Land Acquisition law and get inflation down while having high rural wages, all of them together. It's a task even God can't do.
A fan piped in "But Rajni can…"
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News of the day…
"Angry PM hit back, blames Opposition: The principal Opposition party has never reconciled to the fact that it was voted out of power nine years back".
(Comments: Every right thinking Indian will agree with it: when its "Indian Shining" campaign that it banked on to retain power in 2004 bombed, the BJP couldn't take the defeat with grace; this is THE problem with every political party in the country. In a democracy it is the people that decide who should rule the country, and once the elections are over, the opposition should co-operate with the government in the smooth running of Parliament sessions and conduct and passage of legislative business. It is a tragedy that the Opposition takes it literal meaning and goes to obstinate levels to stall things. The country certainly needs a change and Modi, whether his party sweeps the polls or not, is the best bet to deliver this country out of its rut. And if he does become the PM, as most of the educated class desperately wants, the opposition-to-be Congress party is certainly going to retaliate and make his job as tough as the BJP has been doing.
This isn't a critique on any single politician or party, but a reflection of our squabbling, myopic/shor-sighted, argumentative (that we are infamous for around the world) nature – every Indian, every one of our politician is an incorrigible egoist and takes it to asinine lengths to prove himself right and others wrong. In other words, we are not team members and can't and don't things in the interests of the country. The worse trait is, we consider even our dubious distinctions as some great achievement – we still sing peans on Milkha Singh's achievement of being placed 4th in the 400-metre hurdles in the 1960, a cleft-lipped young girl who was being treated for free in UK recently became our heroine just because she tossed the coin for the Wimbledon Men's Tennis final, the drumming up of our NRIs – as many 1.9 million in US alone, and a few – and the figures are exaggerated skyhigh – working in high positions, and a further 5 million in the desert Gulf doing blue-collar jobs – forcing so many Indians out of the country to eke out a living abroad is terribly shameful for independent India; and that we are the 'largest' democracy, albeit dysfunctional.
So, there is a contributory negligence on the part of every one of us for the country's sorry economic mess and tumbling rupee value.
**
A teacher was explaining blood circulation. "Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face."
"Yes." The class said.
"But when I am standing upright the blood doesn't run into my feet?"
A little fellow shouted, "Cause your feet are not empty."
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