WHEN I COULD NOT CHICKEN OUT!

They say “ We eat to live and more importantly live to eat”. With this sentiment and given the fact that people are nowadays getting really fuzzy about the food they eat , it is a ‘food for thought’ that ‘Eating’ is much more than just a meager metabolic process. The kind of food that one eats is in fact an expression of one’s personality, after all “ You are what you eat”.

And if you talk about the variety of eating habits and food patterns , I’ll just say the menu has no boundaries. Take a look at the living species and their motley of eating habits , it is a full-wide spectrum , there are herbivore , carnivore ,omnivore amongst animals to vegetarian , eggitarian , non vegetarian amongst the ‘social animals’.

The point here is, to each his own. Everyone has their own tastes and they pamper their taste buds in fine style. Ever tried to show a calorie chart to a ‘Junk Food’ lover , he is most likely to turn a blind eye . Or try telling the benefits of green vegetables to a ‘chicken –maniac’, it will fall on deaf ears. Or still worse offer a veggie a full chicken course , he is sure to chicken out from the table.

I am the latter type , a self proclaimed ‘ pure vegetarian’ ,and have always felt nauseated by even the thought of flesh making way into my mouth. I personally , have a psychological problem with ‘ food of flesh’ , as it paints a picture of blood , slaughter and wails of the ‘poor species’ in my mind. Those who defend it quoting ‘Law of Evolution – Survival of the fittest’ , I feel like telling them it is not a jungle out here but a civil society. And Man being the torchbearer of this society, should play the role of protector not predator of the weaker species.

My eating habit is both a personal choice as well as what I inherited from my family’s eating habit. I was on numerous occasions, lured by friends and relatives who eat non-veg , to ‘try it once’. And My argument used to be a little ‘play on words’. I used to say , you believe in ‘Once’ as in ‘try it once’ , but I believe in ‘Once’ as in “ Once a vegetarian , always a vegetarian” , and we should respect each others beliefs. That used to be pretty much, end of the story.

23 years of my life , I was a proud ‘veggie’ until that ominous day came along . 02/07 (2010) was to me , what 09/11(2001) was to America. Like the case with Americans, even I had least seen it coming and it shook the foundation of my life. Me and My friends were waiting for our order, in our most preferred Chinese restaurant, a plate of Veg wanton for me and a plate of Non- veg Momos for my companions. And as the dishes were served , I did not bother about verifying the order. After all , it was not my first time there ,and to top that I was as hungry as a bear coming out of hibernation. So, I picked up a fork and 'fished' towards the first piece in my plate. The taste was different than usual ,it was rather tasteless and veg- stuffing seemed too little for a Veg Wanton. But in the heat of the hungry moment , my senses were off-duty. So, one after another I gorged 3 more pieces of what to me 'apparently' were veg wanton.

Seconds later, my friend took one piece from my dish , and much like a wine-taster tells of wine he blurted out to me that I was having chicken. And that was it , I felt like my heart has fallen into my shoes. What planes did to Twin towers , those plates did to me. I, in my fit of rage, threatened to bloody sue the restaurant for putting me through this hell, but then I thought the damage has been done and it wont bring back what I had lost. However , my fit of rage did bring back something else , my Veg wanton , this time for real .

I then put this ‘Chickengate’ behind me. I put up a brave face not to spoil the evening for my friends. I even saw the funny side in all this, and thought of doing a ‘Maddy’( R.Madhavan in the movie ‘RHTDM’ finds himself in a similar situation , where he being a Brahmin reluctantly eats chicken on a date , and then pukes it to redeem himself). I decided not to redeem myself rather leave this as a ‘bitter experience’ that would constantly remind me not to rise to the bait next time.
At the end of it , amongst all the things that define this ‘unsavory’ event , like mistake , misfortune , destiny , my personal favorite is ‘ loss of veg-virginity’.

A $2500 HAIRCUT

Well, those who are wondering what I mean when I say $2500 haircut , let me tell you that I am not talking about a high end saloon in Vegas . Nor is it the latest “Hair grafting” technique that would cost you a fortune.

Rather , “A  $2500 HAIRCUT ” is what speaks of the spirit of the movie “ THE AMERICAN PASTTIME”. The story is set in Utah desert, US during the time period of World war 2.

It is the story of around  8000 Japanese Americans who have been pushed out from their homes in the states , due to the rising angst of  American people against them owing to the American- Japanese  face off  in WW2.

These people are made to live in an internment camp in Utah desert area, under military surveillance.

 The  camp  has wooden shacks that are more like dormitories that gives no privacy to any individual or family.

What is inspirational is to see how these people take everything in their stride and start building their lives in the camp from the scratch. There are numerous moments  when you would feel that these guys are given short end of the stick just because they did not have “American Ancestors”. Unfair as it was, It was also a mistake as the heart and soul of these people was American to the core.

 The highlight of the story is how these Americans of Japanese descent redeem themselves from all the bias, hatred and suspicion directed towards them by the American authorities and people at large. And as I said redemption came in form of a “HAIR CUT”. (one of the best climaxes I have seen in a long time, must watch it) I am no cinematic expert or critic , but all I can say is that if you are game for a movie that is meaningful , motivating and emotionally arousing , then this is it.

I feel  it is all the more important to watch this movie in today’s time , that is because of the rapidly changing demographics of the new world where people from different cultural , religious, ethnic  backgrounds co-exist with each other. We can take a cue from this story and move one step forward in strengthening the idea of “ Universal Brotherhood ”.

It is time that we “ Stop thinking about the race with humans , and Start thinking about Human race.” – Me thinks.

Ugly Face of Facebook – Beware of the Voyeur !

 With a whopping  subscriber count of 350 million(facebook alone) and counting , the whole world and his dog has got hooked on to Facebook , orkut and other social networking sites. Count me in. I mean , I am all ‘ears and eyes’ for a medium that brings me back in touch  with old friends and distant relatives. But the skeptic in me says “take it with a pinch of salt”. And true it is as nothing in today’s world comes in “ Black and white” , rather there are intricate grey layers that are not easy to spot.

As I set to find the grey areas in Social networking culture,  It was just a matter of putting things into persepective. The topmost evil related to Social networking is “ SEXTING” and exchange of pornographic content usually nude pictures of self/others. Sexting means to send a dirty sexual text message with the hopes of receiving "interesting (often risque)" picture messages in response. The sad part is that the teenagers who are still naïve and unaware of the seamy side of the things , more often than not fall prey to the  “ sex scavangers”.They get carried away into sharing their intimate pictures having been told that it is the “cool thing” to do. And then get blackmailed and sexually exploited. Those who find it hard to believe please read below a true story : 

“Recently in Wisconsin, Anthony R Stancl( 19,male,  of New Berlin) blackmailed dozens of fellow high school students into sex acts by using photos and videos obtained in a ‘Facebook’ scam.  He was found guilty and faced up to 50 years in prison”.

The modus operandi was to pose as a girl online and persuade others into sending him naked pictures of themselves, then using the images to blackmail them for unnatural sex. Authorities found more than 30 folders on Stancl’s computer containing about 300 nude images of other male students.

The handwriting is on the “wall” , be ware of the “voyeuristic vultures” plying in the online world. Do not share your personal stuff with others even on deepest temptation.

The other thing about social networking is “ the amount of time spent on it”. Youngsters ,mostly in the age band of 13-23 yrs, are the most fervent followers of these networks. They start with once in a week  and then few minutes daily , until they realize  they have become “creature of habit” and cannot keep their hands off  it. The time spent networking finally takes its toll on the studies/academics  and some teens do not even shy  from “smuggling” sleep hours  into social networking hours(the hazards of which I have put in my earlier blog on “sleep”). Clearly Individuals should know when and where to draw the line , and Parents need to play a more vital role here keeping a tab on  their child’s “online hours”.

In the end, I would say that social networking sites can be both a boon and a bane , depending upon whether you USE THEM OR ABUSE THEM.

WAKE UP ‘SID’ , BUT WHEN!

Sleep is what I feel has been the most undervalued and overlooked  part of our daily life.  Everyone seems to be following a simple time management rule - “ Smuggle sleep”, but let me tell you that it is not a good rule  on any given day or should  I say any given night.Though there are also some who would refuse to cut down on  their normal sleep come hell or high water, but the trend is increasingly towards the former.

I received  one of those e-mail forwards .It was captioned “ What killed Ranjan Das (CEO of SAP labs) ?”

Being a techie myself I was quite taken aback and got curious to  read further.

“Ranjan, just 42 years of age, was the CEO of SAP-Indian Subcontinent, the youngest CEO of an MNC in India .  The Doctors investigated more on Ranjan’s lifestyle and habits in order to know what led to his death.They found out that Ranjan used to make do with 4-5 hours of sleep.

1.  Short sleep duration (<5 or 5-6 hours) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours per night.

2. Young people (25-49 years of age) are twice as likely to get high BP if they sleep less. Paper published in 2006.

3. Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks. Paper published in 1999.

4. Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), the strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed high!!

5. Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in body such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical
conditions, including cancer, arthritis and heart disease. Paper published in 2004.

6. Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heart disease. Paper published in 2006.

In conclusion:
Barring stress control, Ranjan Das did everything right: eating proper food,exercising (marathoning!), maintaining proper weight. But he missed getting proper and adequate sleep, minimum 7 hours. and, that killed him.”

The credibility , of the above findings and conclusion, is questionable, so I tried to find out more authorized information to solve this ‘sleep suspense’. 

Understandably so , when you are being told that your wrong sleeping habits are a  ‘potential poison’ , you would very much want  to know the right dose of sleep. At least I wanted to.

So I asked Uncle Google, and he referred me to one of the threads in TIME magazine. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1812420,00.html

The counselor in this discussion was Daniel Kripke, co-director of research at the Scripps Clinic Sleep Center in La Jolla, California. Impressed by the credentials and going by the reputation of TIME magazine , I prepared myself mentally to take daniel’s word. But to my surprise, the plot thickened as I slowly read through what he said and I quote “ Studies show that people who sleep between 6.5 hr. and 7.5 hr. a night, live the longest. And people who sleep 8 hr. or more, or less than 6.5 hr., they don't live quite as long. There is just as much risk associated with sleeping too long as with sleeping too short. The big surprise is that long sleep seems to start at 8 hr. Sleeping 8.5 hr. might really be a little worse than sleeping 5 hr.”

This got my goat , I started with the view that sleeping less is a curse , but now I was told that sleeping more is even a bigger curse. This sleep thing really became a nightmare for me.
At the end of it, I learnt that ‘ Improper sleep’ cuts both ways and it cuts really sharp. So, I decided to make my peace with the magic number of ‘6.5-7.5 hrs’, and not loose anymore sleep over this matter.

MY FEARS

At so many times, over all these years

I was crumbled by my fears

The fears had different shapes and size

To me they were like cat is to mice

Over the time, I learned to live with my fears

More I tried to bury them , larger they appeared

Shattered I was , fighting this loosing battle

For I was not well armed to tackle

There were moments when I would feel

These fears are not for real

They are just a psychological thing

But deep inside I knew, they are sharper than a python’s sting.

In excruciating agony , to the skies I would shout

Oh! Master of the universe, show me the way out

No light came , nothing celestial hailed

Me left with my fears, darkness prevailed

Having suffered at its hands so long

I knew well this misery

It is not the one that time heals

Nor can be operated by surgery

All this while , to me one thing was clear

That fear dwells on fear

To end this chaotic circle , it was upto me

So I faced my fear , and came home clean.

'I believe….., (you believe).'

At the face of it, the word 'believe' looks like any other innocuous English word ,but take my word 'believe' is the biggest predator that the human civilization has ever seen. Let me put things into perspective here, when I say 'belief’, I mean the belief in a particular religion , culture , caste , color , sex etc.

The biggest massacres in the History of Human civilization were all carried out in the name of 'belief'. I am not talking of something too down the History lane , these manslaughters are very much part of recent history.

Flashback to the 19 th century, and you will see the slave trade and colonalisation of places inhabited by non - white races, being termed as 'Whiteman's burden’. It was defined as presumed responsibility of white people to govern and impart (I’d call it impose ) their culture/belief to nonwhite people. The subjects here were treated worse than animals and not given any rights.

20 th century saw the ethnic cleansing of Jews in Germany. What happened in Germany was unprecedented in the degree of ruthlessness with which this 'act of belief - termed as Holocaust' was executed. Around 6-7 million Jews were tortured to death in various concentration camps all over Germany.

and as the world stepped into the 21st century, the belief battle was literally taken to another Higher level .The 9/11 attack shook the entire world. The sight of jet planes slamming into the twin towers had everybody and his dog's jaw dropped in awe and fear. This time the Fundamentalist Muslim crusaders have been ‘handed over the Belief baton’, as they have raged self-presumed holy war - 'Jihad' against all those whose faith clashes with theirs.

All the instances mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg , There are many more 'skeletons in the Belief Closet'. However, The point that I am making is that only thing common to all the above occurrences is 'Belief' and 'Bloodbath'. The handwriting is on the wall and is clear that 'If Beliefs clash, Blood will shed and profusely'.

It is really an irony for the Human race that although we are making all types of advancements in the field of sciences and management ,but when it comes to Social sciences and interpersonal relations management we need to go back to school. We invented the best arms and artilleries, but are using it only to kill ourselves. We need to understand that ‘an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind’. Hate begets hate, so this cycle of hatred will only lead to destruction of the nature’s finest creation ‘Earth’.

However, when everything is said and done the fact is that system of belief is as old as hills , and it is part of our social fabric now. So, it is not possible to do away with this system. The only way out or rather way through this dilemma of 'To believe or not to believe' is that we have to be more tolerant towards all other beliefs. There is a saying that 'It takes all sorts (to make a world)', so in order to complete this world we have to accept all other sorts as they come with territory.Give peace a chance and let there be a new system of belief where what 'I believe, (you believe).'