Are you preparing for your 100th Birthday

One of these days while browsing a magazine, this small news clipping caught my attention. I made a note of it with my phone cam.

Few days later I heard a radio program while in the car that spoke about the same subject. Arguably, one has to win jackpot with the right set of genes to live long. It also suggested that one’s lifestyle and geographical location plays equal vital roles.
The information available from various sources differed but what I discovered about the world of centenarians is simply amazing.An article published on 12 July 2011 reported that the highest number of centenarians of the world resides in the US. Japan does not have as many centenarians but it has a higher proportion of its population aged 100 years or more. Japan’s average life expectancy of 82.9 years is the longest lifespan among  the OECD countries as illustrated below.

On 11 September 2015, Japan Times quoted  Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimating the number of centenarians in Japan at 61568, hitting a record high for the 45th straight year.
Italy might not feature in the list of countries with high number of centenarians, but people living in a remote town in the western coast of southern Italy are subject of study. Independent of UK recently reported that the town of Acciaroli has a disproportionately high number of centenarians in its population of about 2,000.Researchers have shortlisted 4 cities where the "fountain of youth" seems to flow freely as narrated in a feature in the Huffington Post.

Okinawa, Japan: It appears that people there eat more vegetables and did not abandon the earlier food habits under pressure of fast foods reports another post. The top Longevity Foods from Okinawa are Bitter melons, Tofu, Sweet potatoes, Turmeric, Brown rice, Shiitake mushrooms and Seaweeds (kombu & wakame)

Loma Linda, California: Find faith appears to the secret of their longevity as the Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda don’t smoke, drink alcohol or consume caffeine and some of them are on vegetarian diet like Okinawa. The trade off is eight to ten years longer than the average American, that is.Like the people of Okinawa, some (but not all) Seventh-day Adventists of Loma Linda consume a mostly vegetarian diet.

Ikaria, Greece: The fountain of youth flows here and this place is dubbed the “island where people forget to die.” Centenarians here enjoy long lives without fear of dementia and other age-related chronic diseases. Their Mediterranean-mountain lifestyle of laughing and playing often up until the wee hours of morning kept them well even in their 90s. Their diet is mostly fruits, vegetables, beans and olive oil.

Nicoya, Costa Rica: The Nicoyans follow two principles in life. They have a clear sense of purpose in life and and sense of belonging with a strong community and family ties. Like people of Okinawa, they also age slowly than their compatriots.

....if you are leading the right lifestyle in the right place, better start preparing for the guest list for the 100th Birthday Celebrations. If you are lucky, most of your friends will be around to give you the bumps!

Red Carpet: Why you need a face Lift

Glamour of The Red Carpet

We have grown up seeing red carpets rolled out for VIPs and celebrities at every occasions. But, is the Red carpet red enough or it’s time for a change? I went about digging its past to propose a new future.

The earliest known reference in literature according to Wikipedia is found in the play Agamemnon by Aeschylus, written in 458 BC. Clytemnestra, the vengeful wife of  Agamemnon offered a red path to walk upon his return from Troy. Agamemnon, was wary of disrespecting Zeus and his fellow deities by walking on such luxury and responded:

"I am a mortal, a man; I cannot trample upon these tinted splendors without fear thrown in my path."

In 1821, President James Monroe was honored in South Carolina with a red carpet laid out to the river. Red as a color has long been associated with prestige, royalty and aristocracy and royalty with the passage of time gave way to film royalty. Walking the red carpet became most glorified when the movie stars and singers started to walk on it during awards ceremonies, particularly Oscars, Academy and Grammy. Unfortunately much of its exclusivity and lustre has been lost since stars from mediocre television programs started their own versions for their fans and paparazzi.

But what made red so exclusive? BBC quoted Sonnet Stanfill, senior curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum told BBC saying “Scarlet was among the most prized dyes as it was the most difficult to make and the most expensive.” Cochineal dye is made from the cochineal scale insect and this process could be traced back to the 15th Century when the Aztec and Maya people from north and central America used this for coloring fabrics.

Gone are days when Queen Elizabeth could forbid anyone except close members of the royal family from wearing scarlet, red or purple. On the contrary, with industrial progress, expensive materials of yesterdays are affordable to everyone today leaving virtually nothing for exclusivity.

While I am convinced that something should replace the Red carpet, I still could not figure out what it ought to be.

Happy Holidays

Last weekend we went to see a musical concert. The show was named "Under the Mistletoe", where musicians from Qatar performed to a packed auditorium. There were orchestra, wind symphony, singers and choirs performing separately and then coming together in unison for the grand finale.

This was extra special for us as our daughter was one of the performers. It's the second consecutive year she had performed in the Christmas show as part of the choir and we were probably among the first few to book our tickets.

I have uploaded the performances of the Choir and the Grand Finale in YouTube and invite you to get into the holiday mood for 2016.

Where are you father Christmas

Joy to the World

Tap Tap Tap

Tiny Little Baby Born in Bethlehem

The grand finale was particularly enjoyable as everyone got cranked up for the festive mood.

Demonetization - Black, White and many shades of Grey

In democracy, there is a strange feeling when it turns out that the person or motion you did not support has won. A feeling that resonates among thousands of Americans today after Trump’s triumphant win. Many Indians had similar feeling after the last general election and more recently after the demonetization of currency. As a result of that they are still burning inside with frustration.

Let us not take a bipartite approach to life or belief as Mr. George W Bush’s dictated once upon a time ..  “you are with us or with the terrorists”, he said. Let’s look at the bigger picture and try to accept the good even if it is with the customary “Umm!” and “Uuuh!”

Life offers multiple shades of grey between black and white! One doesn’t necessarily has to sweat in making THE decision as there are abundant opportunities to be selective while cherry picking own likes and dislikes.

Now that enough bytes and energy has been expended in support, opposition, criticism and debates on various aspects of  demonetization, it’s time in my opinion to accept Demonetization as a reality. Com’on it's not going to go away .. no matter how much inconvenience or discomfort it might cause, the country is abiding by it. It would therefore be nice of the economists, analysts, academicians and so called experts to bring in some suggestion to improve the implementation process rather than being judgmental, critics or simply sarcastic commentators.

Even one optimistic layman like me would not doubt that the cash crunch will remain in the short to mid term and perhaps the economy will also shrink to a certain degree. But then people will also start getting used to the new way of life with less cash dealings. It is therefore time to shift focus from wasteful discussions and embrace the new style of functioning. History has taught us that every change brings along new opportunities and this time it will be no different. 

So Rise and Shine people, let's rejig our lifestyle as we explore  the new opportunities that are going to unfold and be prepared to grab those as they surface. If you are of the opinion that thousands of crores collected by the banks will be given away only to rich businessmen or large corporate, you are going to miss an opportunities to start your own enterprise just by  being prejudiced.

A few points to consider :

• If you think that Indians will not cope up with bank cards or E-commerce, think about mobile phones and remember our life during the past decades.
• If you think our government will not succeed with cash regulations, remember how  merrily we smoked in our planes, trains and public buses not so long ago.
• If you feel a grudge that few selected industrial houses were tipped off about demonetization, you will be naive to think they keep unlimited cash stashed in a pit or inside a cupboard. Their money work and grow outside and that's why they are rich.
• If you think that dirty money is a myth, then look at the images below of desperately destroyed banknotes.

Amar Jawan - We are indebted to you

We are a country of 1.25 billion and since gaining independence from the British Raj, only a small percentage of Indians have served the armed forces. Even a smaller percentage got wounded in action or have been martyred.

But these small number of shoulders protect Our Freedom, Our Dignity, Our opportunities and carry Our Dreams and Hopes. They spend sleepless nights guarding our cities and borders so that we could sleep in peace.

This post is to honor all current as well as ex-service men-women who served our nation during peace, war or natural calamities at great cost to themselves and their families.

We Salute you!

Men are Obsolete

“Either war is obsolete or man is. To not evolve beyond war is to choose oblivion over utopia.”

My heart bleeds every time the news of the death of civilian or soldiers come in. Useful lives of our country are being wasted and families are getting devastated by mindless killings.

The idea above is of R Buckminster Fuller, a great American Architect and it was discovered on his desk after he had passed away. In my opinion he was a true dreamer in his own rights, otherwise  who in his right frame of mind would have dared to dream of a world without war. After all it's the arms industry that keeps the economic engines of so called great nations lubricated. They have made wars their birth right and seldom hesitate to bestow one upon others!

. ….. and of course we cannot undermine how much craving so called great people with ego have for absolute crude power and wealth.

Or else we all would have lived happily ever after!

Zero ka Funda

Most of the time Zero is considered more negative than any negative integer and we seldom hesitate to say “he or she is a big zero”.

While the size of a zero definitely doesn’t matter, there are some excellent lessons one could take home from Zero.

We learnt that one can add colossal value in life by positioning oneself in the RIGHT place. When 0 (zero) collaborates with 1 (One) in the right position they make 10 (Ten).

Zero (0) degree, where the water starts to freeze, could give us immense warmth once arrived from a minus 10. We learnt that in spite of being the smallest, Zero does not carry any negativity.

Though careful usage Zero could be encouraging, as a manager once appraised someone. “He has improved tremendously” the manager wrote. “His English has now become zero from totally non-existent”.