An Insight into Friendship

A thought crossed my mind as to why the relation shared by two friends is called ‘Friendship’?
Friendship - a relation embodying Faith, Honesty, Selflessness and Empathy!
Methinks its because this is a Ship which empowers us to cross the troubled waters on a stormy dark night and witness a calm morning twilight; friend’s moral support being the guiding star. In times of trials and tribulations this ship saves and redeems us from sinking to the bottom of gloomy loneliness by raising our spirits. It gives us the ray of hope to keep moving on and holds the promise of a better tomorrow by ironing out the stress factor. So life becomes a pleasant adventurous journey albeit, being a stark reality of hardships. The feeling of togetherness unfolds the mysteries of existence with much ease. As time gauges the depth of friendship, it strengthens the bond as well.
I wish to sail on this ship with friend, worthy to be....
Your guiding star
- Dr Racchana D Fadia

Ancient Indian versus Modern Perspective on Sex.

Today some discussion with a friend made me recall one of the article on ‘Sex and Bollywood: Crass Footage or Class Act’ and I rolled back the pages of my Diary where I had somewhere written my point of view on the same! The article conveyed by Mr Mahesh Bhatt can be found in archives of TOI :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com//home/sunday-toi/all-that-matters/Sex-and-Bollywood-Crass-footage-or-class-act/articleshow/806688.cms

We do agree that Sex is an old Tantra of ancient India being evident from age-old pulchritudinous carvings of Lord Shiva & Goddess Parvati on the walls of our sacred shrines in different sex postures. Even that Lord Shiva’s Shivalinga symbolises the male and female sex organs locked in the act of copulation which many people might still be unaware of! Also Kamasutra was written by our great sage Vatsyayana not only as a manual on sex but also as a guide to live life with grace and virtue for achieving all the goals of a human life- Dharma (Righteousness, Duty), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Desire) and Moksha (Liberation)

The matter of these facts is only meant to observe sex from a healthy point of view. ‘SEX’ is the essence of life and should be a medium to enrich experiences of  life without being victimised by Lust which abase our souls with unsavoury desires to become slaves of passion.

The Tantra of India does not preach us to be promiscuous or sell our soul and conscience for achieving material gains which is quite unveiled by the many casting couch revelations. Neither does our Indian Tantra inspire to take undue advantage of position and authority to force a woman lie on the bed unwillingly.

Sex, infact, in its true sense can be enjoyed only when two souls rather than two individuals are involved in it selflessly with the entirety of their hearts and consent. It can be compared to taking a plunge into a divine valley from the pinnacles of emotions, the senses devoid of the self-existence on this world!

Meagrely doing it for deriving temporary pleasures or boosting the illusion of ego or adopting shortcuts to the expressway of worldwide fame and limelight means deceiving your soul as well as your partner's. These only demean, devalue and trivialise the purity of such a divine act. 

Regarding projection of sex on Silverscreen, the ignoramus teens are always eager to ape their favourite celebrities in every sphere without reasoning or thinking what it actually connotes. They believe that copying their favourite so-called stars will lead to a Happy Ending to their stories just like Hindi Films! This all, just to be ‘in vogue’. Consequence..... we are aware of ever increasing cases of drugged drinks, rapes, pornographic clips and MMS, unwanted teen pregnancies and suicidal tendencies!

Indeed Mr Bhatt's thoughts need to be praised for having such a broadminded view and valued eye towards such an important aspect of life and we definitely need to have a healthy sane attitude towards SEX. But simultaneously other side of the coin needs to be highlighted and clarified for the upcoming youth who is vying with all its efforts to scale heights  in a short span of time by compromising with their morale and conscience. This only reflects weakness, feelings of insecurity, lack of self-confidence and doubt about their potentials to succeed with integrity shown by the willingness to succumb infront of the ogling eyes!

Also important is how and when to portray sex infront of the younger generation whose tender age and unmoulded intellect which cannot distinguish between the right and the wrong can mean guiding them into a false world of whims and fancies with a degrading future for cultural values. So sex should come along with maturity, when one can decide consciously about it with all its pros and cons.

After all, they have the right to decide the direction for themselves and step towards it....but only after knowing about the differences and the consequences. The duty of elders is to explain but not to impose!

Economic Divide - A Hidden Social Termite!

Are you witnessing a steep rise in the rate of crimes? Somebody kidnapped a child of the Rich & Famous....Somewhere a shop has been robbed in the wee hours of the night... Domestic help ran away with a ransome and jewellery from the employer's house.... Senior citizens staying alone been murdered .... and the list goes on... This is just the start of rising heads of Poor and the Destitutes against increasing economical divide in favour of capitalism, as the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer. Since the Rich are hardly leaving any space for the Poor to breathe with ease, a rebel from the unfortunate poor is inevitable. To add to it, political leaders are busy making a niche in their so-called rajniti instead of paying heed to the millions who make them. Promises made but not kept. Every other day a new scam unleashed. Such is the situation that on left side are the Rich & Famous who have every luxury at their discretion and on right side are the Absolute needy who cant even afford to feed themselves or educate their wards properly. In the middle is an Authority controlling the reins of the Right and influenced by the Left. Little do they realise this will not stand the test of time since injustice has always invoked rebel throughout the pages of world history somewhere down the line....a revolution! If we still ignore this, we will fail to remain United. If we want our country to prosper peacefully, the HAVES have to understand the minimum needs and feelings of the HAVE-NOTS.

The Legacies of Indian Ayurveda

Yesterday I attended a seminar on "Metabolic diseases and Genetic testing" at a western suburb hotel as I found the topic interesting since genes and metabolism is at the background of health and lifestyle diseases.

The introduction was given by Dr Sunita Banerjee, Medical Director at Eternesse Antiaging Clinic, Mumbai about role of Allergy testings, Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy and Metabolic fingerprinting. She spoke of how low-grade inflammation to some diet ingredients unsuitable to few individuals as per their genetic constitution can make them feel lethargic and reduce the output and quality of their lives, that too without ever knowing what is affecting them (for example simple things like garlic/ onion which we all love to treat our taste buds with may be affecting a few adversely). She also spoke about How hormones keep fluctuating at different ages and take us through the journey of puberty, youth and ageing, and how the new concept of Bio-identical HRT which involves natural ways of hormone replacement sans HRT side-effects and natural supplements to maintain good hormones in body. It was an interesting talk.

This was followed by Mr George Panagios'(General Manager, Genecare, Australia) talk on what Genes are made of fundamentally, what is Gene testing, neutrigenomics, neutraceuticals and what they do at Genecare. He also showed a video clip of a talk by Dr Ian Brighthope from Australia who has worked a lot on nutrition and genomics. He spoke of interacton between nutrtion and genes and their effect on health; his talk stimulated my mind to rewind and recall a lot many things stored in my brain - like our ancient scriptures of Ayurveda, a book I was given to read by my Spiritual Guru on "Living foods for optimum health" by Brian Clement ,the blood type diet advocated by Peter D'Adamo, a naturopathic physician which is mentioned in his book Eat Right 4 Your Type, a movie I watched some time back and also one of the dreaded times in World history which witnessed an example of Genocide. I thought I must share my views with everyone present there so after the question and answers round with Mr George Panagios, I raised my hand and volunteered so. I spoke thus-

"In  ancient Indian traditional medicine called Ayurveda which dates back to thousands of years,the importance of nutrition on health has been stressed with every person having varying proportions of three doshas(elememtal energies) i.e. Vata, Pitta and Kapha and that each individual has a unique combination of these. Diet is at the core to maintain this balance and it was advised by the Rishi- Munis to follow different diets as per different combinations of doshas in body. So its known to us from thousands of years and it is now being deciphered differently, researched and documented by so many around the world.

On another note, Mr George rightly mentioned that we are in an age where Fiction becomes Fact and that research is advancing at a jetspeed; like we all have seen this movie called "Gattaca" released in 1997 which revolves around genetic testing and its implications on human beings and so are we  progressing now into that field. But every scientific advance comes with its pros and cons. Also the world has witnessed how Hitler went on a Genocide rampage to propagate only the stronger race and slaying the weaker ones. So as this science is advancing do we also need to formulate rules and regulations to safeguard the information deciphered and prevent discrimination because if Science can be a boon it can also be a curse! "

After I finished, Mr George Panagios gave his inputs and then we headed for next lectures on a new US FDA approved technology called Phadiatop and Immunocap from a swedish firm called Phadia which screens allergic individuals. This name had a sense of familiarity because of the co-incidence that even my surname sounds the same, though spellings differ. Not that I have any experience of this technology as of now, would like to see if it really is an effective screening method!

This was followed by an interesting lecture on mesotherapy by Dr Rebello, Medical director Eternesse Antiaging clinic, Mumbai. After Lecture was over I congratulated Dr Rebello for his informative lecture. Few Doctors who were talking to him complemented me about my views and congratulated me to have presented it very well not forgetting our roots of Ayurveda. This gesture from them  cleared my doubts whether I should have spoken so between all present there. I am glad I did so!

Proud of my Indian Heritage!!! JAI HO!!!