Why does anyone lose the battle of the bulge?  The problem could be physiological or it could be psychological. A person suffering from hypothyroidism, anemia or one of the countless diseases that cause weight gain could become a helpless loser.  Depression could make the person binge eat and put on weight. A small percentage of  fat people  eat more calories than they burn and consequently end up flabby, fat and unhealthy.

While medical conditions causing weight gain will have to be treated with medicines, psychological conditions must be treated by psychiatrist. However, derision can catapult the person in the first category into the second one and the distinctions between categories can vanish.  The third category of people —namely the non exercisers–can certainly help themselves. They need not be fat if they do not want to join the battle of the bulge! Derision may even help them decide!

However, no one needs to lose the battle of the bulge. Even those who have gained weight due to medical causes can help themselves.  Exercise can restore muscle tone and reduce the flabiness of the body.  Hypothyroid patients will find that mild to moderate exercise under medical supervison improves metabolism and also circulation in the extremeties. It will help them reduce the numbness they experience in their hands and feet. Over a period of time all fat that is attributed to Hypothyroidism will also begin to melt and they can become healthy and even reasonably shapely.  Anaemic patients will find themselves losing weight as their anemia is cured with supplements. A healthy diet followed by reasonably vigourous exercise will help tone muscles and improve health. The same can be said to those who are binge eating due to psychiatric problems.  In fact mild to moderate exercise will also help them get over their psychological condition and eat normally.

So, if you come across fat people, do not poke fun. Find out what ails them and help them win the battle of the bulge.

While there are many forms of Poker, the simplest form is the five card draw or regular poker game. It is played with a pack of 52 cards.

Players must know the cards and their values.  The highest card is Ace. This is followed by King, Queen, Jack, 10,9,8,2,6,5,4,3,2. All suits have equal values.

Each player will be dealt five cards. The players must then aim to get the highest valued hand.

The highest valued hand is the Royal Flush in which the player has 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of the same suit. The Straight Flush contains cards of the same suit in numerical order. The hand with the highest numerical order wins the round. Four of a Kind is a hand that contains four cards with the same number and one card of a different number. The cards can be from any suit.  The highest ranking hand wins the suit.  Full house is a hand in which three cards have the same numerical value and the other two cards share their numerical value. For instance the player can have three queens and two kings in their hand.  Flush comprises of five cards of the same suit without regard to their numerical value. The hand with the highest numerical value wins.

Straight contains cards in a numerical order even if they do not belong to the same suit. For instance a player can have 7 and 8 of hearts and 9 and 10 of spades and Jack of diamonds.

Three of a kind is a hand that contains three cards of the same numerical value and two random cards.

Two Pair contains two pairs and one random card.

One pair contains a set of two cards that are a pair and three cards that are random. For instance a player can have two 8s irrespective of their suit and three cards that are 3, 6 and 9.

High card is a situation where none of the players have any cards of value. Then the person holding the highest value of card is the winner. Ace is the highest card.  If there is tie for Ace then the Ace of spade is declared the highest.

Playing the game.

All players place their bets in the ante. A betting limit is decided. You can use money or tokens from games like Monopoly to represent money.

At the start of the game each player places his bet in the ante. Then the cards are dealt face down clockwise to the dealer.  The rest of the deck is placed in the middle of the table. Everyone looks at their cards and the first player calls out his or her bet. If no one makes a bet, the pot may be opened—which means the dealer makes the first bet. Players who do not want to make the opening bet can call check—which means the player wants to hang around for the rounds but does not want to make an opening bet.

If someone makes the opening bet, the other players have three options. You can “see” their bet or match their call.  When you “raise” the bet you increase the amount. If you fold, it means that you are giving up and must place your cards face down on the table. This means you lose the game early and retire.

Once the first round of betting is over, players are allowed to pick three cards from the pile and discard three unwanted cards. The discarded cards are placed face down and cannot be picked by other players. Once all players have picked new cards, the betting begins again. The game ends when there are no more raises because everyone has “seen” everyone’s bets or everybody folds except the winner.

Thereafter, everyone turns up their cards to see how they fared. The player with the highest hand wins the game.

Game Strategies

Bluff is to pretend that you have better cards than you really have.  The purpose is to scare other players and drive them to fold.  Aggressive play is to bet high early and force others to abandon their game. Conservative play is to bet cautiously and to fold if the cards are not favourable.

Ancient Indian sages and even western saints strongly believed in the power of prayer–mantra in the language of India. Children down the ages have been entertained by stories –and adults too in the secret cockles of their hearts–of good fairies and bad fairies; witches and wizards; tantrics and mantrics.  Look at the popular fantasy fiction for adults and children and you need no further proof that there is a fascination with the power of the word!

The bible begins with a reference to a mantra!  “In the beginning there was the word and the word was God”. Vedas say that “OM” was the word of creation–the pranava mantra–and all creation emerged from OM.  Even today, saying Amen, Om, Amin are integral to the vocabulary of prayer.  These words are mantras that have been handed down to us by our forefathers and fathers and are said to endow you with the power of creativity and energy to excel.

Science too is fast reaching the conclusion that sound has creative energy.  The scientists have discovered that everything in the universe vibrates with a subtle sound.  This sound seems to be pervasive and enters our bodies, alters our blood pressure, breathing, muscle tension and skin temperature. Experiments with music have proved that healing can be accelerated with use of music therapy. The repetitive use of “om” also creates a vibration that is beneficial for healing.

If all this is true, are we being rational in refusing to believe in Mantra?

Most alternate therapies are non intrusive and the treatments advocated are symptomatic.  Homeopaths use drugs that create the range of symptoms to address the problem–using a diamond to cut a diamond.  Accupressure and Accupuncture aver that diseases occur because the patient is experiencing energy blocks and removal of these blocks by exerting pressure on specific points will result in relief from the problems.  Allopaths are reluctant to accept the efficacy of these systems on the ground that they do not go to the root of the problem and identify the cause of the symptoms. Moreover, the treatment for every patient (even though the possible cause of the problem could be the same) is different.  Alternate therapies call this “constituitional treatment”. They believe that the disease may be the same but each person is constituitionally different and hence requires to be treated with constitutionally suitable medications.

Patients consulting the allopath are sent running from pillar to post, undergoing a number of tests in an effort to prove that the symptom is the result of a particular suspected condition. Doctor’s hope that some kind of picture will emerge from the different tests and this will help in the diagnosis of the problem.  The Doctor then, proceeds to make a diagnosis on the basis of the tests and prescribe from a standard set of medications–irrespective of their consitituition.  If a particular patient experiences more side effects than his fellowsufferer, it is just too bad.  An alternate drug may be prescribed –from the group of similar medications–or the patient may be asked to take the effect with the side effect as normal.

A recent illness of a relative had me doing the rounds of allopaths and hospitals. The tests concluded that the person was suffering from severe oesteoporosis.  The drug prescribed was Idrofos 150. This medication was to be taken once a month with injunctions that the patient should not lie down and should walk around for at least an hour after taking the medication etc.  Unfortunately, the allopath prescribing the drug did so without reference to the age of the patient, the possible side effects etc.  The fact that the patient experienced dizziness, hallucinations, undefined anxiety etc was dismissed as not related to the drug and a part of a psychological process of aging.  However, research into the possible side effects of the drug on the Internet clearly showed that the drug had the potentiality of producing just the side effects that my relative was experiencing. When we returned to the allopath with the evidence of the research, he refused to discuss further on the ground that no patients had experienced similar side effects in his practice.  He referred us to a psychiatrist.

Our visit to the psychiatrist was equally disheartening. She refused to consider the possibilty that the hallucinations were drug induced.  She refused to even look into the possibilities. Strangely, the psychiatrist spoke to me and not to the patient and preferred to arrive at her conclusions from her discussion with me.  Then she drew a page towards herself and began prescribing a tranquillizer, a sedative and some vitamins. When I queried about side effects of the drugs, she dismissed my question with an airy “All medications have side effects. Why worry about them?”  I was not satisfied.  I thought side effects of drugs required some amount of worrying over. In fact, I felt the Doctor should worry about it.  I had been worried enough by the side effects of the drugs already consumed.

Needless to say, I decided that “alternate therapies” were less intrusive and proceeded to get my relative treated with one of the several branches of Indian medicine, that is similar to accupressure, called Varmam.  She is gradually coming out of the woods and the side effects of the medication consumed also seems to be reducing with the passage of time.

So, do you agree there are “ifs” and “buts” in allopathy? Do you agree that the ifs and buts need to be recognized before all alternate therapies  are dismissed as unproven science.  The standard of reference is not a perfect standard! It has its own grey areas.

English Literature students too (who may have read the original plays), cannot claim familiarity. Most of them are caught up in famous critical interpretations of the work rather than the work itself!

A popular joke that used to do the rounds in our literature classes truly illustrates the state of Shakespeare studies in colleges in India and abroad. The joke was–if Shakespeare were to attend classes on Shakespeare, he would be the only one to fail the year end examination as he would be bewildered with the interpretations of his text!

Having said all this, what kind of introduction to Shakespeare is this post going to offer? Well, to use the cliched phrase, let us begin at the beginning and re-introducte/introduce (as the case may be) ourselves to the bard and his works in very general terms.  Perhaps with the next posts we can worm our way into the heart of the bard?

Shakespeare was a man who understood mankind. He understood the impulses of the people around him in near absolute terms. In fact, his plays underline the universal truth that “human nature never changes”.  Love, hate, anger, jealousy, lust, greed, betrayal (and all the shades of emotions in between) spring forth with the force and energy of yore in the hearts of men and women eternally. So, why should the characters in his plays be any different? He represented man (and woman) as he found him (her).

Therefore, it is not surprising that Shakespeare’s comedies are tragically comic and his tragedies are comically tragic! He laughs at the follies of men and is saddened by the consequences of their folly.  Antonio or Bassanio provoke tense laughter as the audience waits with bated breadth for the looming tragedy–consequent upon their “humanness”–to manifest and miraculously find a resolution.  A Lear or a Macbeth evoke sympathetic pain as their emotions carry them beyond reason and  they descend to the level of being comically tragic as their bizzare responses to the situation and their worldview borders on madness.

Has the foregoing commentary on the bard made you any wiser? I am sure it has not!  So what must be done?  Watch this page for further inputs!

–Dr.Vanitha Vaidialingam, Phd, IRS(retd)

The tomb is 47 mts tall and is 300 feet wide and is the first Indian building to use the Persian double dome on a high neck drum that measures 42.5 m. The dome is mounted with a 6 mt high brass final crowned by a cresent.  This dome is made of pure white marble while the rest of the building is made of red sandstone in contrast.  The design is symmetrical and simple on the exterior while the interior is complex.  There are eight two storyed vaulted chambers that radiate from a central chamber. The intricate Jaali work or stone lattice work is specatacular.  The actual tomb of the Emperor and his wife lie in an underground chamber directly below the cenotaph and is accessible from a seperate passage.  Surrounding the building is the beautiful Char Bagh Garden or four part garden with a quadrilateral layout. The four squares are further subdivided into smaller squares forming 36 squares in all.  The water channels appear to flow beneath the tomb only to appear on the other side of the building in a straight line.

In the south east corner of the complex lies the Tomb of the first Mughal Emperor of India–Barbar.  This is the only building within the inner walls of the complex and hence it is interpreted to be a building of importance. This tomb is known as the Nai-ka-Gumbad and dates back to 1590-91.  The tomb stands on a raised platform and is square in design.  There are no inscriptions that indicate that it is the tomb of Barbar. However, local legends daub it so and since it stands within the inner walls of the Humayun tomb complex, it could well be so.

There are a number of buildings that dot the pathway leading up to Humayun’s tomb. Most of these buildings are located outside the inner wall.   The Tomb and Mosque of Isa Khan predates Humanyun’s tomb and is the most prominent building in the complex.  It is said to have been constructed in 1547 and is the tomb of  an Afghan noble who graced Sher Shah Suri’s court.  This is an octogonal tomb in an octogonal garden.  It is said to be typical of the monuments of the Sur dynasty.

Other significant buildings in the complex are Bu Halima’s tomb and garden; Afsarwala tomb and mosque; Arab Sarai (rest house for Arabs); Nila Gumbad with a striking blue dome built by Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana a courteir of the Mughal Emperor Akbar and the Chillah Nizamuddin Aulia the residence of the saint Nizamuddin Aulia of the 14th Century(typical architecture of the Tugluq dynasty).

If you plan to visit the tombs and do justice to your visit, it will be a good idea to study the  history of the periods represented and learn to distinguish between the different architectural styles that you find in and around the Humayun Tomb complex.   If you are not too hung up on “history” and “architecture” you could visit these tombs to appreciate the sheer beauty of the buildings and the gardens in which they are situated.

While the picture painted by me in the earlier posts is partly true, it is not the whole picture.  New Delhi is a beautiful place to be in.  Wide roads and beautiful tree laden parks, dotted with seasonal flowering plants makes for pleasant drives. The city traffic in Luyten’s (named after the British architect-Edwin Luyten) Delhi flows free (whatever the situation in other parts of the city). You will certainly catch your breath as you sweep past the North and South block down to India Gate.  The sandstone buildings recahing up to the sky from the rise of a small hill is visually pleasing.  The rising dome of the Rashtrapthi bhavan just below the horizon adds to beauty of the panorama.

If you turn your back to Luyten’s masterpiece, you will be enamoured by the graceful sweep and curving sandstone facade of the India gate.  To the left and right you will see other sandstone or modern white painted buildings nestling amidst the greenery of the parks that seem to cover most of the landscape. Driving away from Luyten’s Delhi towards Chanakyapuri, the landscape seems greener and formally laid out gardens and greened over patches dividing up the width of the road are pleasing to the eye. Embassies of different countries gracefully line the sides of the broad roads–located at a sufficiently remote distance from the road for security.

Luyten’s Delhi is clean-green. One cannot imagine that one has landed in a third world country where poverty, dirt and filth are the norm. So long as you keep to Luyten’s Delhi and the immediate environs of Central Delhi or even the adjacent parts of South Delhi you can delude yourself into a belief that there is all round progress and India is sufficiently advanced on the path to growth and citizen centric services.  The New Delhi Muncipal Development Corporation ensures that the regions under their control showcase the best of the city to its visitors–at least, I presume that is so.

The roads are named after distinguished individuals or concepts that underlie the spirit of India. There is a Kautilya  (the greatest Administrator of  the Mauryan empire –often compared with Machiavelli) marg (Road), a Panchasheel marg (The path of the five peace principles), a Shanthi Path( the path of peace), a Neethi path (the path of justice) and other named roads that recall the glorious past and present of the country.

The roads themselves are smooth, well maintained and absolutely blemishless. Rains do not flood them and the sun does not melt them. So driving down these roads, one can relax and expect no sudden jerks  that precipitate you to the roof of the car or bring you crashing down to the floor.

However, this should not lull you into complacency. Other parts of Delhi are not so relaxation friendly. We will tell you more about them when we discuss the environs in other posts to follow. For now, I hope you are tingling with anticipation of enjoyment and are eager to know more about the history and sight seeing potential of central Delhi!  Visit this blog daily and we shall gradually introduce you to what you should not miss when in Luyten’s Delhi.

I am currently grappling with three different topics that interest me. One the literary theory of Saussure, Lacan, Barthes and others. I am doggedly reading the translations of the works of these writers even though I need multiple readings to make sense of them. Finally, I am getting a glimmer of what they are talking about and am getting immensely interested in what they have to say. I am also attempting to apply their theories to literary works!  A challenging and interesting task. Very intellectual!

I am also reading a wonderful novel by a Japanese writer in English called Kazuo Ishiguro called The Remains of the day.  The writer has wonderfully captured the essence of what “buttlership” (if you forgive my coining of this word) implies.  A copy of the novel is available online (in docstoc or is it scribd?–I am not sure). Truly relaxing!

I am also working out the nuances of contract law and bombarding myself with  topics like “invitation to treat”, “postal delay in contract law” and so on and so forth till I am getting a little cross eyed with the effort. Absolutely legal! Keeps my mind live and kicking.

Of course, I cannot complain that my life is drab and dull and lacks variety.  Will perhaps translate the results of all my efforts into little articles that may be of interest to you all?

Why do I do all this?  I like being an intellectual.  In fact I revel in it.  What comes out of it?  A lot of writing practice and of course a number of new creative ideas for books that I plan to write sometime in the future (only the future seems very dimly distant at the moment).   Some of the work may also find a way into literature journals and law journals and law journals.

I think I began to blog because I felt that I had a lot of information that I would like to share with others. I also felt that it would give me good writing practice as I am a writer by profession.  I was however, not very sure that anyone would want to read what I had to write.  Surprisingly, there are at least 60+ people out there who visit my blog and read it whether I have posted anything new or not.  Now I think I have another reason not become a drop out.  I have a readership who really find my blogs interesting enough to visit daily and read up. I owe something to them.

Blogging is generically very close to dairy writing. Of course you write your most secret thoughts in the diary and keep it under lock and key hoping no one else will get sight of the things you tell your diary about your fellowmen.  A blog on the other hand is an open diary. You write about everything that you are interested in and can be as democratic as you like about your readership.  Of course, you will not share your innermost thoughts and you secret cravings with your fellowmen? Yet, there is a satisfaction that there is someone out there who shares your interest and you feel joyful about reaching out to them.  I wonder what psychologists have to say about blogging?

To come to the meat of the question, I asked in the title–What is so addictive about blogging? The question follows: “Am I an addict?” Well No. I find that I can really live without blogging. It is not like diary writing. I am not searching for a confidant. I think I am reaching out to friends, like minded people who are interested in what I am interested in. One is not obssessed with one’s friends. It is just nice to have them around and have an occassional relaxing chat with them. I think my blogging fell off, because I am a healthy human being with a healthy work appetite. Sometimes I put work before friends and the need to reach out takes a back seat when work holds my attention.  Therefore, while I do not feel guilty about not continuing to blog, I do feel remorseful that I have not shared sometime with my 60 odd friends out there, who hang out at my blog hoping for a glimpse of me.

Perhaps, if I were depressed and unhappy, blogging could become a kind of addictive and I may end up blogging to myself or using my blog more as a diary than as a blog. Perhaps, I would find comfort in my readership and may even obssess about the number of people who visit my blog on a daily basis and worry if there is a drop in readership and so on…I hear people find pleasure in committing online suicide because the number of people who “like” you has changed or dropped or what not…. Even for them blogging is not an addiction–it seems more like a lifeline. They would drown if you prevent them from blogging. It is not merely a question of de-addicting them.

Business blogs are a whole new ball game. They are bloggers who are blogging for survival; to prove that they are better than their competition or just advertising as blogs attract readership. For them, blogging is a necessary adjunct to their business and not an addiction.

So, what is all this talk about addiction to blogging? I do not know. If you do know people who are addicted about their blogging do find out why and share it with us. Contact us using the contact form on http://www.consult4content.com and give us the meat on why someone finds blogging addictive.

Electrolysis uses a fine probe and electrical impulse to cauterize the blood vessels causing hair to release permanently from the follicle.  Though electrolysis has a longer history of practice, lasers are commonly used now and have been well received by patients and physicians.  Laser treatment has a much shorter procedure either permanently preventing or greatly hindering hair re-growth.  Patients may immediately resume activities.  Laser hair removal is a widely popular procedure with nearly a million people having the treatment in the United States every year.  Patients should have realistic goals and carefully select a physician while informing themselves of the procedure and potential risks.

Ideal candidates for laser hair removal may be those who seek to improve their appearance or smoothness of the skin, or simply wish to save themselves time by reducing time involved in methods such as shaving.  Once the initial consultation is completed, the actual laser hair removal procedure may take only moments or up to an hour, depending on the size of the affected area.  A beam of highly concentrated light produced by a laser is emitted, passing through the skin, and is absorbed by hair follicle pigments.  Different colors of light are produced by different types of lasers, and this is relevant to the effect on follicles.  The pigment is vaporized, disabling many follicles at once, by the duration of the laser light pulses to the area.

Patients generally require multiple treatments to achieve ideal results.  Though some patients may be satisfied after only one treatment, the typical regimen likely includes up to four treatments, up to eight weeks apart.  Because hair growth cycles are typically about a year, patients should wait about six months to assess results.  If the procedure is performed with qualified physician and adequate consultation and care, any pain during the procedure should only consist of mild stinging.  Worst case scenario might include burns or pain that might require local anesthetic application.  Less serious effects such as redness and swelling will resolve in a few days.  Those with darker skin tones may not achieve optimum results as the surrounding skin will absorb the light rather than the follicle itself.  Affected areas will be sun sensitive and patients should avoid exposure for several days following laser hair removal.  Though the hair removal may be permanent, it could also be simply more sparse and of a lighter color or texture or consistency after the procedure.