Mind over menopause!

There she comes. Grumpy middle-aged woman! Perennially walking around with chaotic, volatile mood swings, she either maintains golden silence or simply barks! Tear factory of the eye functions relentlessly with intermittent output. If you come across such hot-tempered woman, you can possibly figure out that she is at that weird stage of her life. Menopause. Not all but some women are bound to behave like this. The scary transition that takes your body for a toss! No creepy details about the intoxicating process.

Venting the anger and desperation happens all the time. Target the teens at home! Obviously it is unintentional and understandable that those hormones are trying to flaunt their I-can-do-anything behaviour. Doctors say that this erratic behavioural change is due to the drastic changes in the levels of estrogen and progesterone. What is with these hormones? They seem to give generation gap whole new bitter dimension to a relationship.

Sounds accusing, but in reality these are testing times for a woman. If she ends up with a male chauvinist the probability of rapid recovery are very meek. To measure the impact of menopause. The Menopause Impact Survey sponsored by Teva Women's Health Inc was conducted. The results showed that about 67% reported their menopause symptoms adversely affected their personal health and well-being and 52% said that it affected the relationship with their significant other.

Dealing with this is dreadful. Certainly. But staying cool only betters the phase. A healthy diet and a calm mind will only take farther away from the side effects of menopause. Many are comfortable giving a series of advice on what should and should not be done during menopause. The usual clichéd Do’s and Don’ts have been advised by experts over time.

“I share such a nice a bond with my daughter like any mother and daughter but menopause took a toll on my behaviour. I felt frustrated and started picking on my daughter for trivial things. Everyday started and ended with a fight. It is very important for people in your family to understand the trauma that the woman undergoes and help her recover faster.” , says Jeyanthi, a home maker.

The art called 'threading'

Leaning back in the inclined chair with hesitation, I saw the lady coming close to me with a lengthy white thread with one end stuck to her central incisor. She gets ready to give the lasso effect to my eyebrows. ‘Please remove it gently’, I pleaded to her but she gave a death glare and turned away. The scheming look on her face gave me hints of what I was getting into. Alas, it was too late a realization.

As she started pulling out the strands one after another, I knew that my eyebrows, if they had senses would have started shedding tears endlessly. Yes, threading of my eyebrows! The beautician tried impatiently to finish it off in one go but my hands pushed hers frequently not putting up with the pain. The habitual procedure that many of the girls undergo either willingly or persuaded to satisfy others about her looks. Modus Operandi for beautiful eyebrows!

When did this ever start? This was never a customary practice earlier. Only weddings and other important functions demanded this once upon a time. Things have changed. Over time, people have become conscious about their appearance. The everyday looks matters the most for many of the teens. Threading has been regarded as one of the effective methods to get rid unwanted hair in the eyebrows. The advantage of threading over other methods of epilation is that it takes out the hair from the root and you are relieved of the pain at least for over a month’s time.

While waxing asks for a waiting period till the hair grows up for a considerable length, the sting is what you call much more than bearable pain. The same analogy for tweezers as well. Another edge that threading has over waxing is the desired accurate shape. The technique that has its roots to India and Middle East has been termed by the Valley Health Magazine as the only safe alternative for some of the acne medication that has a tendency to make the skin very sensitive. The cost effectiveness and the time saving factors are the other added advantages. This seems to have many good things in store. But beware! Threading done too often could give you a saggy skin even before you grow old.

Please find the links here

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A grand affair indeed!

The Chennai Sangamam has brought people of all walks of life together. It is an open festival where one can see huge crowds gathered at various parks, beaches and streets of the city having a whale of time.

Parks and beaches witnessed a bee hive of activities such as Kaniyan Koothu, Nayyandi Melam, Kāvadi, Mayilattam, Kaliyal Attam, Karagattam, Kokillikattai, Nayattam, Pachakalli & Pavalakalli, Madattam, Singara Chendai, Dance, Athi Thamilar Group Dance & Arts and also a couple dancing salsa set to the tunes of Tamil music. Some of the stalwarts like Aruna Sairam, Umyalpuram Sivaraman, S.Sowmya, Kanyakumari . “It is a very good initiative to make urban people aware of the cultural and traditional variety of Tamil Nadu. I never knew that an art form called as Kaliyal Attam exists till what I saw today”, says Ramani, a resident of T Nagar.

Like the cultural programs, the food festival has also attracted many. The city’s top notch hotels like The Park, Savera have also put up their stalls besides the mediocre hotels like Burmabhai, Sangeetha etc. Moreover, the prices of the food items are very nominal with a vegetarian combo sold at Rs.50 and non vegetarian combo sold at Rs.80. “I’m hailing from a middle class family and cannot afford to go eat in five star hotels. But this event has enabled me to taste the food items of these hotels as well”, says Lakshmi, who visits Chennai Sangamam for the past two years.These grandiose features of the Chennai Sangamam seem to have made it a great success.

Please find the links here

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‘Facebooking’ soap operas

As the clock strikes half past nine, I promptly leave all the work to rest and turn up in front of the idiot box. Yes, I would certainly not give it a miss, the serial- ‘Geet hui sabse parayi’ in Star one. The standard family drama that demands willing suspension of disbelief! Being hooked to a soap opera, cursing the cable and electricity department if the line is disrupted and eagerly looking forward to the subsequent episode is but for natural in every household.

The villain is primed and ready with his pistol to shoot the female protagonist. What happens next? ‘Keep watching to know if our superhero saves her.’ Indulging in these gimmicks is the director’s forte. But things have started drifting away from what we call clichéd. Probably inspired by the world’s treatment to social media now, even the producers of some serials have gone beyond just creating facebook pages for them.

Not just watching the number of likes in the page! The perspective of producers has furthered mere creation to campaign for the same and market their product in a new level. In conversation with the viewers! From discussing new angles to dismissing not-so-dignified criticism and being in constant touch with your audience is certainly essential to fatten the viewership. When the realization dawns in the minds of the viewers that some incorporation of their wants is in the episodes, their interest incredibly increases and they believe the affiliation.

How do you spice it up even more? Release couple of pictures in the name of spoilers of the coming up episodes apart from the already seen promos! Calling it illegitimate is insane, for the makers are the ones who are evolving and pampering the new system to exert a pull on the TRPs. For instance, one of the producers of the serial ‘Geet hui sabse parayi’ responds to various queries and uploads pictures of the subsequent episode thereby growing the curiosity of the audience. The page has now swelled to give room to 129,105 people.

Commercialisation in every aspect in media has already raised many questions leaving the cynics to wonder. Refraining from such interaction means holding the same crowd or even gradually losing them! Such new market strategies show what promotion could do to money and effort. Behold, business is business!

Please find the links here

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Pill-popping techniques!

My friends call me ‘Walking pharmacy’. My handbag primarily consists of Paracetamol, Brufan, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, anti-emetic so on and so forth. Sounds foreign? Don’t worry; you certainly have nothing to worry about your health then. Of course, there is space for a notebook to take notes occasionally. Thanks to my fragile wrist.

So what has actually happened? Its medicines, that has happened. Cribbing to bear the pain, I kept popping the pills like gems when my body got cranky. Constant self-medication for over years, it has become rebellious to many edible foodstuff. Ice creams and soft drinks? No. Citrus fruits? Never. Raw onions, tomatoes and even ketchups are barred in my menu. So to the attention of some who were supposedly envious of my slim figure; know what are you losing in life! But better late than never. I learnt my lesson.

Many of us fail to understand the serious consequences of self-medication. Chemists, neighbours or relatives suddenly prescribe with the confidence of holding an MBBS with an FRCS. Invariably we believe in quick-fix to save money and time and blindly follow them. Surprisingly, a study conducted by the Department of Social Medicine of Government Medical College, Nagpur shows that out of 323 persons visiting three medical shops, 104 (31%) persons purchased the drug without prescription and out of these 104, 90 persons felt that self medication is wrong but were still practicing it.

No doubt, self-medication provides relief at once but not all drugs are consumable by everyone. Who cares to go the doctor for a cold? Allow it get serious and end up with a bad throat infection and fever. Antibiotics come handy at this point. But don’t dare fool around with them, for they can negate the condition from bad to worse. It is always safe to consult a doctor for the dosage and frequency. After all, what are doctors for? Give them their due. They need to earn as well.

Please find the links here

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Entertainment: On or Off stage?

Who says people go to kutcheris only to listen to music? Such ridiculous thoughts should be erased at once. There are so many other things of high importance that should be discussed only when the artist sings. I suddenly realized this revelation when I went to a prominent artists’ kutcheri recently.

Certainly I did expect two definite categories of audience; One- a music critic and two- a common man who has come to enjoy the sheer beauty of carnatic music. That apart, there was one that I ought to have expected- the gossip queens! Clad in beautiful Conjeevaram saris and elegant glittery gold, they were two middle-aged women sitting right behind me. They turned into unbearable pests when they started jabbering a mile a minute.

I must say, the artist had mustered a beautiful set of songs for the evening and I couldn’t listen to even one with peace. On one side when raga ‘Amruthavarshini’ was flawlessly delivered, on the other side the gruesome twosome tortured me to death by critically analyzing the weather department’s forecast for the day! What followed for the rest of the session were miserable set of exchanges with either a highly flattery or slur remarks about their family members. “Oh my God, she is singing Ananda Bhairavi so well. This reminds me, this lady sings like my son-in-law’s sister’s mother-in-law.”

One can’t call this eavesdropping because there were loud enough to the extent that they had couple of heads giving them dirty looks occasionally. So it wasn’t just me. But to maintain the dignity and poise, we chose not to bring about a brawl in the concert.

‘Please switch off your mobile phones’. This standard phrase is purposely ignored. Looks like putting it in silent mode is a grave mistake. If urgency is what you usually expect, then walk out of the hall than allowing it to sing a ‘kuthu’ song. Only the colleges seem to have adopted the best method as far this rule goes. Pay your fine or lose your phone.

Artists have often complained about this. “It often irritates me when people keep chattering or their mobile phones ring constantly. They fail to realize that the artists lose their concentration.”, says Sandhya, a budding artist.

When the artists are being ruthlessly bashed if they don’t perform up to the expectations, the audiences are often spared for the so called haughty and not-so-good behaviour even when the musicians are at their best. Talk about double standards.

Please find the links here

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“Virtual life - a gilt-edged sword?”

Virtual life has become a fashion statement and an enduring part of life these days. The number keeps swelling day by day like the advancement of technology. But where are we all heading? Well, Diplomacy might bring out a huge set of answers for a single question in this case.

To begin with a positive note, it provides a great platform and grounding not only for expanding your circle of friends but also helps a lot of youth to share their minds imbued with a sense of purpose to get themselves exposed in various fields. Leave alone the youth, many of the business decision makers are using two way dialogs that resemble social networking sites to advertise their products because of their effectiveness. LinkedIn has helped people connect with their ex- colleagues. Moving to the field of medicine, these sites are used even by healthcare professionals as a means to manage institutional knowledge, disseminate peer to peer knowledge and to highlight individual physicians and institutions. While PatientsLikeMe is a site that enables its members to share their symptoms and treatment leading to the understanding of the real life outcomes, Sobercircle hastens the rehabilitation of addicts and alcoholics through compassionate communication between its members. But all these positive aspects cannot possibly shelter its negative ones.

The word ‘privacy’ loses its identity invariably. People give too much of personal information and there has also been a growing concern about the mushrooming of sexual predators here. Also in medical and scientific research, asking subjects for information about their behaviour is normally strictly scrutinized by institutional review boards, for example, to ensure that adolescents and their parents have informed consent. It is not clear whether the same rules apply to researchers who collect data from social networking sites. These sites often contain a great deal of data that is hard to obtain via traditional means. Even though the data is public, republishing it in a research paper might be considered invasion of privacy. Sometimes companies can also hire a person just by looking at their profile which is absolutely unsafe. Many of the teenagers post photographs having skin show which would get them into trouble and they might even lose morale.

The pros can always bring out the best and can help the youth in nation building if they are focused in the right direction. Hence awareness is more than a necessity at this juncture as it would enlighten everyone about the pros and cons of virtual living.

Please find the links here

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Matrimonial troubles!

Free matrimony service? Feel free to contact me. After months of battle with my dearest sibling who was hell bent on staying single, my parents finally managed to get a nod from her. Convincing her seemed like a task in itself. Sadly, we didn’t realize what was coming.

Belonging to the typical Kerala Iyer clan – ‘Molagootal’, ‘Erisseri’, ‘Palakkad’, ‘Koundhai’, ‘Uchchikku’- you might hear this Malayalam version of Tamil if you get to pass by my house. Thankfully, though not orthodox to the extent of being a nuisance, they are understandably conservative. Having said that, it is quite obvious that horoscope hogs all the time in the world with its weird synergy of Science and Mathematics. No wonder I hated Science!

So why I am bothered about my sister’s horoscope? My middle-aged-paranoid mother, who is not even remotely close to being computer savvy, is panic stricken by the delay of my sister’s wedding. Taking this as an advantage, she pressurizes me to sit with her to register promptly in all leading matrimonial websites. Unfortunately having seen me facebooking twice, she is under an impression that I am perennially jobless. She does not spare me even when I have to do my assignments.

The treasure hunt to find ‘Mr.Right’ is on. The star seldom matches. If it does then the looks are not satisfactory. If both of them settle peacefully, then the financial expectation fails. Doing this ground work of short listing for my sister is painstaking as she would reject most of it citing lame reasons. What is worse? It so happens that I invariably end up attending calls pertaining to this, with random people leaving their phone numbers wanting my parents to get back to them if we are interested.

Putting up with all this would have been bearable if things had taken shape by now. But no! We seem no where near the shore! Had my sister done this job herself by finding her ‘Mr.Right’, it would be a better place to live.

Please find the links here

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What are you losing? Weight or money?

If my sister is not around, then the only person I have to face a battle with, to take charge of the Television remote, is obviously my mother. And it was that time of the day when I got myself sometime to rest- Five minutes past four in the afternoon. Like the usual self, I kept switching channels which, by no means of surprise, put my mother off. She gave me a piece of her mind and walked off.

Clearly, I realized that I had committed a blunder by choosing the wrong time to watch the idiot box. It was the time for repeat telecast of soap operas or some good-for-nothing movies. I should say I was so idle to settle for Teleshopping!

‘The best way to lose weight in a month! Hurry up! Offer valid only for a week’. The week is probably stretchable I believe for, I saw the same advertisement after two weeks and found the same offer. Who knows, may be it has no takers or too many takers that they could afford that space in television and give a discount too.

Brands that showcase a pill, a belt or even tea in such bizarre programmes have been on since my childhood. Questioning the longevity or the effectiveness of the products is clearly unfair since I have not used any of them. Thanks to my undernourished body! Incidentally, I came across a consumer complaint forum where people curse such products after becoming their victims. In fact, police in Britain have barred people from using diet pills of a particular company. A recent study shows that resorting to use such products is dreadful and certainly not the right way to shed excess weight.

The best part would be the animated mannequin whose belly bloats and compresses within fraction of a second. Alas, buyers don’t realize that it is close to impossible to envisage this in reality. Another amusing factor is the custom of using only foreigners. Even a brand that claims its product to be Ayurvedic has foreigners for whom lame dubbing is being done in a vernacular language. I was taken aback when even a 24*7 news channel aired this programme.

Though there might be some genuine products in the market, they go unnoticed and people generalize most of the products to be bogus ones. It could be of great help in the larger interest, if channels which air such programmes ensure that the products of the brands showcased are authentic.

The following are the two links related to the topic

http://marketingandbeyond.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/tele-shopping/

http://www.mediaticks.com/bollywood/bollywoodreviews.php?bollywood-type=Titbits&bollywood=Aamir-Khan-is-such-a-sucker-for-useless-things&id=21263

Vibrations of ‘Textual Overtones’

Excitement is knifing through the air as I begin writing my first blog! No delving deep into the reasons which kept me away from blogging so long. After all, each dog has its day and implying that I think its mine today! Call it photographic memory or the first-impression-is-the-best-impression belief, that till date the first ever blog that I read has surpassed the others to the perennially remain atop. Sudhish Kamath’s blog- Textual Overtones.

So am I telling an untold story? Not at all. Numerous people have read this blog and might like or dislike it. But here is just my version of why I like it. What’s with his blog that caught me? To call a spade a spade. There are aplenty in this field who have implicitly followed this, but what keeps him apart, in my honest opinion, is his- tailored yet casual, brutal yet honest- style of analyzing movies. The reviews keep me glued to the monitor. Literally. The writer shoots at the pros and cons and the transition that takes through the entire post is just incredible to an extent that you don’t realize the post coming to an end.

Questioning the world of cinema as it is evolving and sensible portrayal of characters curiously makes you realize why one should watch that movie. . It may sound clichéd but be it the bashing of ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’ (Please read the article here)or the genuine admiration of ‘Taare Zameen Par’ (Please read the article here ), no sense of disillusionment or forcible thrust of the writer’s opinion surfaces. Besides, some harsh observations are certainly acceptable in the reviews, for this so called luxurious business wields an immeasurable impact. With great power comes greater responsibility.

The blogroll of ‘He says She says’, involving Suderman as Sudhish and Cappuccino as Shonali Muthalaly, pulls out classic exchanges of chauvinistic squabbling against the opposite sex with enough and more of banter. Episodes of ‘Boys don’t cry’, ‘Why men like chick flicks’ and ‘Who wears the pants?’ are just a class apart.(Please read the article here)

Honestly, some reviews like that of ‘Vettaiyadu Vilayadu’ (Please read the article here) ( I’m not mentioning this just because I’m a diehard Kamal Hassan fan or because he has raved about Kamal’s performance ;) ) and the recent ‘Endhiran’ (please read the article here)are outstanding to the extent that I go back to read the same piece over and over again.

The bliss of watching a good cinema is bettered after reading a great review for the same!