Women -Philosophers-Artists-musicians

I was cleaning my cupboards and found an old book that I had read in my mid twenties. It was Will Durand's Philosophy of life. I started to re read the book and after a few pages, my thoughts started wandering. It was then I asked myself "why haven't there been great women philosopher that have been universally acknowledged". That made me then think that one could ask that q about every other discipline.

Is it because we are biologically wired to not think beyond our small spheres of family & friends? Or that we could not care less about such things. I simply don't know. I can only hope that soon women will prove me wrong.

Benefits of Yoga

Baba Ramdev needs no introduction to most Indians. He is a Sadhu with a mission to make people healthy by asking them to make yoga life style habit. I too have become a big fan of Baba Ramdev.
The essence of yoga lies not only in just doing physical asanas but bringing the mind under control and in harmony with the universe and with God. He advocates everyone to do "Pranayama's. Pranayama has immense benefits in lowering blood pressure, and improving cardiovascular health.

It's been 2 months since I started doing pranayamas and all some asana's for weight reduction, in addition to taking morning walks.
Recently when we went to Ganapatipule, we did some trekking and we had to climb an incline. TO my surprise, instead of huffing and puffing and trailing as I am usually prone to do, this time, I comfortably led the group. That to me was the immediate benefit of pranayama.
Anyone interested please look up Baba Ramdev's website, and or watch him on Aastha channel.

Today is December 31st 2008. Here's wishing everyone a happy, prosperous and healthy 2009.

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Some more pics from Ganpatipule

Ganpatipule

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Ganpatipule is some 375 kms from Panvel and you can reach it very easily by taking the
Jan shatabdi which deparats Panvel at 6.40Am and reaches Ratnagiri at 10.40AM (usually 30minutes late). Ratnagiri station is relatively clean and cool (since it is at an elevation).
We took a private vehicle to Ratnavally beach resort which is some 26 Kms from the station. We had rented a villa and a cottage for the 7 of us. The beauty of this resort is that it has a private beach all of it's own. The service and food at the resort is basic and nothing to talk about.


On thursday we bummed around eating drinking and hammocking:-) We were the only family on the beach.
On Friday we rented a Qualis and went to see the Ganapati temple 2 Kms from the resort and the jaigad fort.
The temple is close to the the beach and one can do a 'parikrama" a circular trek outside the temple. My niece Antara the junior most member of the family went on a camel ride.

We purchased laddoos at the temple as prasad and then after a refreshing coconut drink proceeded towards Jaigad fort. There is nothing impressive the fort, so we warily climbed the steps and to our delight found a spectacular panoramic view of the sea. And as we took in the sights, Mala my brother's wife spotted dolphins and there was mad scramble for the binoculars to view them. They were a little too distant for us to catch a good glimpse. But we could definitely see them jumping and diving.
We were lucky to sight them at our own beach on Sunday morning and the second time we could see them more clearly though the binoculars. It's time a get a good SLR with a telephoto to capture wild life was the thought running through my mind as my brain saved the memories of these wild dolphins.

We also saw a variety of birds around the resort and at jaigad fort.
It was indeed a truly refreshing break.

Menopause

A racing heart beat, a flushing face, breaking out in sweat even when the AC is on, are just some of the things that I have been experiencing, no not in a movie theatre, but as a result of menopause. Welcome to a women's world of changing hormones. It caught me by surprise, since in India no one discusses such things. So it was only after I spoke to my mom and sister did I realize that they too had experienced some of these symtoms during menopause. Of coures I dug up a lot of informtion from the world wide web and it gave me some relief that there are hundreds of women undergoing similar experiences, with the severity of symptoms ranging from mild to intense. It was during one such episode that I panicked and ran to the local physician and found that I had high bp, I was immediately placed on Telmisartan 40 and told to get an ecg and lipid profiles and blood sugar tests done. The lipidpofile and blood sugar were normal, but the physician thought he saw some minor changes in the ecg and told me to get a stress test done.
I really was upset and angry because I lead a moderate healthy lifestyle and was not expecting to be labelled as hypertensive and put on lifelong bp medications. That is when I took things into my hands and did some research. First thing I called up the physician who was to do the stress test and told hime I needed to discuss with him if a stress test was really needed or indeed of any use. I had found some reserch papers that clearly showed that stress test was useless as a predictor of cardiovascular problems in women. The second physician confirmed this truth and said that I need not take the test. He also asked me to monitor my bp regularly and then decided about taking medications.

This was the time that I seriously started looking into yoga. I knew about Baba Ramdev and his mission to spread the use of yoga to stay fit and healthy. In my next blog I will write about the yoga techniques that I have started practising.

Electoral reforms india

Let the army rule the country while these electoral reforms are being made.

Electoral reforms should include the foll:

Candidates should have a college education:

Rural candidates with X11 education can be considered.

Candidates should have no charges of any crime /violations against them. (If they have a case pending, those cases can be cleared on priority basis and if declared innocent they can stand for elections)

Appoint external auditors for all funds that the party and candidates get for election purposes.

Candidates should have a well stated idealogy that spells out their views on

Poverty, religion, national security. Candidates need to have a broader general knowledge that goes beyond their caste and community state and nation.

Encourage more women.
Continuing with electoral reforms:

Candidates should have demonstrated minimum 10 years of social service before contesting loksabha elections.

Candidates cannot stand for more than 2 terms;

Candidates above 60 years should not be allowed to contest.

Remuneration paid to politicians should be at par with the highest paid civil employee.

They should be barred from influencing police, and the army.

The chief minister and the prime minister should take responsibility and give an account of their performance to the people at the end of every years on specific counts like national security, food, water, housing, power and health issues.

Elected candidates should appoint professionals chosen from the general public and not people with popular votes.

Time for a national movement has come

Seeing the huge turn out today at the Gateway of India cheered me no end. I hope this is the first step that the youth of this country is taking to bring about a much needed change in this country. I hope this gathers momentum across rural India also and becomes a strong force to give shape to a truly shining India. An India with no corruption, an India with a strong sense of values of honesty, integrity and compassion towards life.

I strongly feel one way to bring about this change is for the election commission to ban all exisiting political parties.
Bring about army rule for 2 years.
In those 2 years change the constitution to allow for a 2 party democracy.
Let new parties be formed. These new parties should lay down strict rules for contesting elections.
Minimum education : Bachelor's degree
Minimum years of proven social service
A clear stated idealogy
No criminal records- this means that you should not be a suspect in the eyes of the law.

I will continue on this theme ....