It is in the nature of human-beings to deceive and to maintain a certain level of diplomacy. It is debated that the diplomatic way is not always the most effective way to find solutions. It adds to the confusion, delay the processes as if the whole objective of diplomacy was to stall everything.
Is diplomacy the only option that you have?
Two mantras I have always lived-by and will continue following it as it seems like the most important fact of our humanly nature.
"If you care to know about what other person thinks about you, say something really bad to him even if you don't actually mean it. If the person reciprocates in similar fashion, you have got your answer. If he doesn't reciprocate, you must apologize for your behavior and clarify"
The second mantra I picked it up from a senior colleague of mine. Not that it helped me immensely because I have never been able to implement it, but it really works.
"Never try to keep everyone happy because you can't. Your enemies are sometimes very good for you. You have to choose your companions well because if you think every single person you know is important, you were never more wrong than this."
Recently I went to a dietitian. I told her that I desperately need to lose weight and I am ready to do a crash diet. She was quick to respond by saying that she is not planning to suggest anything like that. On the contrary, she went on to recommend the right kind of food and right amount of food.
It's a human tendency to look for crash dieting as the fastest option to reduce body fat. In most of the cases it doesn't work out because a) it is not sustainable b) one can lose muscles and not fat if not planned properly. To my understanding when a body undergoes starvation, it starts looking for energy globules that are easily accessible. It ends up eating into your muscles and proteins. Moreover it's not just about carbs and fats. One needs vitamins, minerals and so many other nutrients. How would one get these nutrients. Crash dieting is hence a big 'NO'.
The diet has to be balanced as well as customized suiting to individual's requirements. There is no universal diet plan that would work for everyone. But your daily diet should contain the following at the least:
Grains (preferably wheat and occasional Rice, Bajra, Jowar, etc.)
Proteins (mainly from first class protein sources such as chicken, fish, etc)
Fruits and Vegetables ( Avoid bananas)
And you must totally avoid the following (and totally means completely avoid it at all cost)
Soft drinks (even those which claim to serve diet colas)
Alcohol (hmm)
Fried snacks (say sorry to samosas if you are fond of it)
In addition you should try to avoid intake of empty calories (sugar and sugar based products such as doughnuts, sport drinks, cakes etc.) which provides no nutritional value. We often look for energy drinks after spending an hour at gym. My suggestion would be to have coconut water instead of packed drinks.
As regards to sugar, I know it's very tough to get rid of it completely. Even when you try it consciously, your sub-conscious part of your brain doesn't allow you to sustain your attempt. The logic is very simple. Your blood sugar levels suddenly goes off the normal level and your brain signals your body to restore it to normal level by having a big chunk of sugar pastry or something similar.
So how can one keep this sugar level at the optimum level without having to consume the dead calories? The answer is honey. The advantages of honey are countless in number. I am sure you have heard of having a teaspoon of honey with warm water at the break of your morning. It is indeed the perfect start to your morning. It is important to have something within the first hour of waking up and what better alternative than honey. That way you can have your breakfast without hurry after doing all your morning routines like exercising. But do you know about the benefits of having honey during the day? If your answer is no, then don't miss to learn about Honey Diet at http://www.daburhoney.com/. I am certain that you won't be disappointed.
One sport that every Indian follows religiously is nothing but Cricket. Cricket is in our veins. Few may be not very fond of it but it's hard to stay away from the all the buzz. And especially when the nation has produced geniuses like Sachin Tendulkar, it's difficult to ignore. The fans discuss the game at random places with random people. It may be awkward sometimes to ask a random person route to a landmark but it is never weird to ask what's the current score? As such, the stories attached to cricket fan-following are myriad. I too have got mine. The story starts like this:
The 6th term has just ended and there is a gap of around 15 days before the new term starts. We have just survived the peak of academic pressure. Even though everyone is broke, it is the most opportune time to explore the outside world. We decide for Goa. The cricket world cup is also happening so it is important to schedule our plan such that it doesn't clash with any match. The next match is against South-Africa on the upcoming Sunday and so the plan is to book flight tickets for Sunday morning. This way we can enjoy our vacation to the fullest.
Finally, Goa happened. We had fun like never before. We wanted to enjoy each and every moment till it lasted which we did quite well. As expected, this was the personal best tour for everyone in the group.
But it rarely happens that everything goes according to the plan. And when plans are supposed to go haywire, nobody can stop it. The flight on the last day of our tour i.e. Sunday got delayed by 8 hours which meant that we had to miss the match. However some of us insisted very strongly that we plan something and not miss the game. But the problem was that we had already checked out of hotel and it was not possible to go back and turn on the TV. The only viable option that remained with us was to have breakfast at a restaurant which is broadcasting the match. Trust me we had really difficult time to find such a place. And when we finally got a restaurant, it was so expensive that we had no choice but to give it a miss. Suddenly one of us in the group suggested that why shouldn't we find a place which provides free Wi-Fi. I was carrying a laptop and this seemed like the best idea under that situation. Luckily we found a coffee house that was offering free Wi-Fi. Needless to say that we were able to watch half of the innings with no disruption.
When we look back we always talk about our plan not being fool proof. We didn't have any contingency plan. It was our luck that we were at a place where we could find a restaurant with Wi-Fi. But this would not be the case every time. I would not be carrying laptop everywhere. And we won't have access to TV or live streaming all the time. For example when I am at work it's almost impossible to stream a sports channel. I have to rely on my dear smartphone for all the cricketing updates. But again how reliable are those mobile networks. Thankfully I recently came across UC browser (more here: http://www.ucweb.com/), a convenient way to get match updates even at 2G speed. It also features UC Cricket, a space dedicated for cricket fans like me to connect us to the match wherever we are. [If you are unable to locate, simply open UC Browser - Home Screen and find "UC Cricket" with blue icon]. This ensures that I don't miss out on other important things, at least not because of Cricket.
I must say that staying in Bangalore has a certain advantage over other cities as far as blogging is concerned. It was because of Bangalore only that I finally got a chance to intrude into one of those bloggers' meeting organized by Indiblogger. As usual, this meeting was also hosted by a big banner and this time it was 'Dabur'. The location they chose was one of the most famous hotels of Bangalore so there was no reason to give that meeting a miss. However I didn't go to the place with just one agenda. The motive to present myself in the coterie of talented bloggers was not just being there and network but it was also to learn about the health benefits of honey which was the main theme of the even. Having gained some weight in the last couple of years I have recently started showing some respect to my body. A session on eating healthy was just the thing I needed. And I must admit that it was indeed quite an informative and helpful session. As far as blogger's meeting and interaction is concerned I would be honest to say that I had expected more. Nevertheless the participation was still very enthusiastic, just that it could have been more interactive.
Now coming to the main theme of the event: Why honey and why Dabur honey? allow me to summarize everything in two sentences to the best of my understanding:
"You can (and you should) literally replace all your artificial sugar intake with honey. Even if you are planning to get rid of sugar completely, you should not ignore honey. And Dabur honey because of their market reputation and quality certification that they have recently received from food experts of our country."
Now with regards to the details, allow me to thank Miss Pooja, the expert dietitian and Mr Shashank, senior product manager (Dabur) for hosting the session explaining everything in a very lucid manner. They explained it very clear why honey with warm water at the break of your morning is the first thing one must do to give a good kick start to the day. Other benefits of including honey in your diet were the following:
The premise of having honey rests on the fact that we are not physiologically perfect to sustain a diet which doesn't suit our lifestyle. One can avoid having sweet for 3 or 4 days but on the 5th day one would certainly get an urge to have a big muffin or some pastry. This completely ruins the calorie saving that one was planning for those 3-4 days. However keeping honey a part of diet keeps that urge away, at least physiologically, because it can help in smoothing out the blood sugar level throughout the day. The sugar levels never rise or fall to a disproportionate level which helps in keeping our urges away.
Honey is not just fructose but contains a number of other nutrients such as vitamins, anti-oxidants, minerals etc.
Its anti-microbial property helps in keeping away harmful micro-organisms.
Its neutral acidic property maintains the alkali balance of our body and also aids digestion
Well it cannot be denied that honey deserves a place in our diet. Ayurveda also gives a thumbs up to honey. But the current penetration is too low in India which certainly needs to be improved.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about writing something on 'kids of today's generation' and 'contemporary code of parenthood'. And what a good time to learn about brand Kellogg conceiving the idea of 'Khuljaye Bachpan' which talks about empowering the kid with freedom of expression and creation. [If you are interested to know more about the campaign you can visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/mychocos].
So why exactly is the concept of Khuljaye Bachpan so important? Let me start by asking you a question. Which is the one word that comes to your mind when you think about kids of today's generation? I am certain that the word that came to your mind is some or other form of the word 'aggressive'. I don't intend to bring out only the negative aspect of it as I believe this aggression is also the reason why today's kids learn and grasp a thing with so much ease. And this rate of learning is the reason why the generation gap is increasing at such a faster pace. Even within a gap of 7-8 years I can very well observe remarkable differences. For example, take a child of the age group 8-12 one would be astonished to see the kind of brat behavior they present in front of their elders which was unthinkable few years ago. I have even seen my little cousins, no more than 10, abusing and hitting back their parents. Of course parents are responsible for inculcating the sense of discipline within their kids but they cannot be held totally accountable for everything. Children nowadays have access to such a wide network of information that it's impossible to mold them into a shape of parent's understanding. Needless to say the parents are also conscious enough not to bind their kids and limit their overall 360° growth.
At this juncture comes the concept of 'buddy parenting' which contains the essence of 'Khuljaye Bachpan' or unlocking the childhood. So the next obvious question, how is buddy parenting better than old parenting style? Well there should be no doubt in mind when I say that today's kids cannot follow instructive style of parenting. That leaves interactive parenting as the only viable option. Perhaps this is the best way to teach kids moral values as well as channel their aggression for the good of their future. It is indeed the methodology I believe in as it creates an everlasting bond between parent and child. This I can say from my personal experience. The experience, that I am referring to, relates one of my cousin who is now not only the most well mannered but a person of remarkable decision making capability. One of the many 'Khushi Ke Pal' he spent with his mother was the time he taught his mother how to use Instagram on her smartphone. Her mother was very fond of clicking pictures of him and posting them online on Facebook. But she often saw people on her friend-list posting interesting collages which made her wonder how they are able to do so with ease. My cousin taught her everything. No wonder why he doesn't consider the presence of his parent on Facebook as an intrusion in his life. It was only possible because of the style of parenting that culminated in the bond of love, friendship and trust.
The after effects of marriage has always been an interesting topic of discussion. But did you notice how the after effects have transformed over the years. With people getting more and more active on virtual platforms, the transformation has too gone digital. The maximum toll of marriage can be observed on Facebook, particularly in the manner in which couples conduct themselves. For example:
It would become an unstated rule that the couple has to mutually like each others' post irrespective of whether the post is likable or not. I have often seen couples liking silly posts just because it has been posted by his/her better half. It's like you have suddenly lost your sense of judgement or have lost the idea of having an opinion.
Men suddenly become too conscious before liking a picture posted by a female colleague/friend. While this might not be true for many of the couples, I think for most of them this is also more of an unstated rule.
The number of posts suddenly goes down. So a young girl who had been very regular on Facebook updating all her selfies would suddenly reduce the number of posts. Whom to blame? Sanskar, eh?
Their DP will be one of the picture that was clicked during their marriage reception and the cover photo will be of the dance that they performed during the sangeet ceremony. In most of the cases DP will remain unchanged till they have a child.
Hashtags like #feelingloved, #hubbylove, will be more prominent than any other tags.
Too much PDA as if they are trying to prove something. Your reaction is often like
Suddenly the number of likes on their pics will go down. Or even if the number of likes remain the same, the participants will change. The likes would mostly come from in-laws and new relatives.
These are some of the many examples which are so visible on Facebook. I am sure you must have noticed the change too. Share yours in the comments.
