Beware of these Facts!

Causes of Brain Damage

1. No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered, increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.

Its funnny

Not too long ago, a large seminar was held for ministers and reverends in training.

Among the facilitators were many well-known motivational speakers. One such speaker boldly approached the pulpit and, gathering the entire crowd's attention, said, "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who wasn't my wife!"

The crowd was shocked! He followed up by saying, "That woman was my mother!"

The crowd burst into laughter and he gave his speech, which was well received.

About a week later, one of the ministers who had attended the seminar decided to use that joke in his sermon. As he shyly approached the pulpit one sunny Sunday, he tried to rehearse the joke in his head. It was a bit foggy to him.

Getting to the microphone he said loudly, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife!"

His congregation sat shocked, murmuring.

After standing there for almost 10 seconds trying to recall the second half of the joke, the pastor finally blurted out "... and I can't remember who she was!"

Moral of the story: Don't copy if you can't paste.

Funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Women think they already know everything, but wait...training courses are now available for women on the following subjects:

1. Silence, the Final Frontier: Where No Woman Has Gone Before
2. The Undiscovered Side of Banking: Making Deposits
3. Parties: Going Without New Outfits
4. Communication Skills I: Tears - The Last Resort, not the First.
5. Communication Skills II: Thinking Before Speaking
6. Communication Skills III: Getting What you Want Without Nagging
7. Driving a Car Safely: A Skill You CAN Acquire
8. Telephone Skills: How to Hang Up
9. Introduction to Parking
10. Advanced Parking: Backing Into a Space
11. Compliments: Accepting Them Gracefully
12. Classic Clothing: Wearing Outfits You Already Have
13. Oil and Gas: Your Car Needs Both
14. TV Remotes: For Men Only

Coffee or Cup!!!

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor .

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to hot coffee .

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups.

Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it." Don't let the cups drive you... Enjoy the coffee instead..HAVE FUN !

Aussie definition of aggression

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has at least one more attribute to go with his "strong physical and mental abilities of a small town player," that of being brutally frank even if his remarks are made with a benign smile. If his pleasant public demeanor is a mere façade then he has to be a brilliant actor.

When a captain says his team’s fielding in Nagpur was the best the team could muster, he was either saying that their best is not enough to challenge a team like Australia or asking fans to accept his team as it is and not build castles in the air about their invincibility just because they have won the world Twenty20 championship.

He, however, didn’t look all that chirpy after his bowlers also batted for the side to win the seventh and last One-Dayer in Mumbai. All he could reiterate was that his gut feeling about the ability of Murali Kartik as a match-winner was vindicated.

Then the blinder, his first as captain: "I want players who, if I ask them to, will stand in front of a truck," he was quoted as saying. Does it mean his truck will run over those who do not fall in line!

What he, however, did not say or should have said was that even with their failings and inadequacies in the field the team had done reasonably well, both in England and against the Australians at home. With a little luck and with energetic push, backed by better stratagems, they could have put it across their opponents.

In England, the Indians should have won the Test series two-one if not two-nil considering that they were outplayed in the first Test at Lord’s, the rain saving them when they were on the brink of defeat, and they could have won the One-Day series three-two if not four-one.

If they had not messed up after winning the toss at Vadodara they would have been two-two and three-two at Nagpur had they seized the excellent opportunity to win the high-scoring match to arrive in Mumbai as favourites to clinch the series. It is not to suggest that it was all hunky dory for the Indians. The fact is that they were not as bad as the 2-4 score line makes them out to be, it could have been the other way round as one look at the way the Indians lost the matches from a position of strength would show.

In the series opener in Bangalore, Australia were allowed to wriggle out from a precarious 90 for 4 to post 307. In Kochi, the visitors were 66 for 3 and they still managed 306 and in the third match at Hyderabad they had a healthy 290 after losing three wickets for 100-odd. India won in Chandigarh batting first.

Your Internet habits could stress you out totally

The headline – ’Man commits suicide while being watched in chat room’ – sent shock waves across the world last month.

It also reminded one of the dangerous games Internet can play with the human mind. And the lurking threat in seemingly harmless chat rooms.

Many virtual encounters can catch the mind unawares and stress it beyond limits.

“People could use vulgar language, remarks. They could exploit your sexual urge. They could emotionally abuse you and utilize those vulnerabilities,” says Psychiatrist, Fortis, Dr Sameer Malhotra.

Many chat rooms are unmonitored and draw in all kinds of people. Here a simple conversation can take an ugly turn for both parties.

“Life with them at times becomes a roller coaster ride for the other person who unknowingly got involved with them over a chat. But then gets drifted too far off from where he finds it very difficult to even get back” says Malhotra.

Despite potential health hazards, the addiction is tremendous. Some people actually live on their keyboards day and night.

“This kind of compulsive behaviour is often seen amongst people. At times it is a part of procrastination. The second could be a feeling to get revenge,” says Malhotra.

Now chat rooms have started taking steps but the huge number people and rooms is impossible to monitor at once. Experts suggest better and healthier alternatives.

“They can’t replace the kind of feel and empathy which is shared in a human relationship,” says Malhotra.

With Internet crime and violence on rise, its time we probe into what the Internet does to your mental health.

Ulip schemes: strong growth, but long way to go..!

While insurance firms have been pushing unit-linked income plan (Ulip) schemes for some time now, and with some success, only one in seven among the 105 million existing life insurance customers even know Ulip product option exists. Of those who do, fewer than 5% have bought them.

The Invest India 2007 Survey shows that the big buyers of Ulips are the same people who buy mutual funds and equities: salaried workers, businessmen and self-employed professionals.

So the insurance industry is getting it right to that extent, as they can compete with mutual funds and brokers in attracting these securities investors.

THE COMPELLING REASONS FOR MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES TO GET INTO MICROCREDIT

"Hey, mister, what are you looking for under that light?"

"My keys."

"Why, did you lose them there?"

"No, I lost them across the street."

"Then why don't you look for them across the street?"

"Because the light's better over here."

It's an old joke, but it aptly illustrates the current state of the practice related to microcredit and its impact on rural economy. The microcredit to alleviate poverty. Yet the downside of the story is even worse. They don't tell us whether people become less poor due to the services we provide of microcredit, even though performance indicators of the real economy shows great contribution from the same.

Why do we solely rely on these financial performance measures if they don't tell us if we're achieving our objective? Because they are much easier to calculate reliably. We spend our time investigating the well-lit areas, while the object we're searching for remains in the dark.

I am here to tell the story of people who started with great dreams and have been struggling thereafter. This thesis has taken in to consideration the SME in India, who form a huge part of the business population. I have tried to analyze the factors, which inhibit the growth of SME in India and also tried to figure out the reasons for the failure of the SME

The first part of the thesis describes what is microcredit. It also analyzes the present conditions and the growth of Microcredit in India.

Having analyzed the drawbacks of Microcredit in India, I have developed a model, which aims to predict reason behind this saga.

Popping pill with your morning coffee can be risky

Food and drug interactions are not uncommon, especially when your schedule is packed and you pop in a pill whenever you remember.

The pill actually gets dissolved in your stomach and then reaches your blood.

But what about when you swallow your pill along with your morning cup of coffee?

And the times you have remembered to take your medicine, swigging it down with a drink?

That is the time you need to be very careful.

“You have certain enzymes that basically hampers the absorption of drugs which are secreted at the time of digestion. So there are certain drugs which may be prematurely metabolised, degraded or may be destroyed inside the intestine,” says Internal Medicine, Max, Dr Mukesh Mehra.

Here are the most common combinations that you should avoid:

Coffee and paracetamol

Your morning cup of coffee may help perk you up, but reaching out for a paracetamol at the same time is bad for your liver. Researchers have recently found that after studying the damage done in rats. However, more studies are needed to back the discovery.

Bronchodilators vs fat meals

If you have asthma and are on bronchodilators of the theophylline group avoid high-fat meals. The combination can cause side effects including nausea, vomiting, headache and irritability. And if you are on oral bronchodilators, then you also need to cut out the caffeine.

BP medicines vs Vitamin K

“Hypertensive people who are on BP drugs should be careful. They should be avoid high fibre diets like oatmeal, cereals, sprouts and high roughage fruits,” says Dr Mehra.

Warfarins vs Vitamin K

And the same goes for blood thinning drugs called warfarins or the diurectics, both used to treat heart patients. Avoid foods that contain Vitamin K because they can hamper the absorption of the medicine.

And the one thing that hampers with the absorption of all the drugs is alcohol.

So the thumb rule for you is to take your doctor's advice on what would work the best for you.

Skipping sleep makes your heart skip a beat

For Mohini time is of the essence. Her days are packed with meetings, deadlines, and a lot of travel. It's not easy being the Vice-president of a company. Mohini's promotion a month and a half ago has been a giant leap professionally, but it's come at a cost. What Mohini misses most is a good night's sleep.

“I get to sleep only four hours on a week day. Because of all the travel involved in my work, my sleep pattern has taken a beating,” says Mohini.

And what's more, there is a link with heart problem. A recent study by the University of Warwick and University College, London found that change in a person's sleeping pattern doubles a person's risk of dying of a heart attack.

“If you need seven hours of sleep but you sleep for only five means increased cardiovascular risk,” says Cardiologist, Max Hospital, Dr Ashok Seth.

And contrary to popular opinion - less sleep is not better. An earlier study had found that people who slept about five hours a night had about a 40 percent higher rate of heart attacks than people who slept eight hours a night.

And doctors in India say the worst hit, are young working Indians.

“BPOs, Media persons, lawyers are among the worst hit,” says Seth.

The leading cause for sleep deprivation is stress. And it is this stress that triggers the release of chemicals called catecholemines. These chemicals have been found to be bad for the heart.

That may sound scary, but let's face it, your work hours are not going to change all that much. Deadlines will need to be met and, then with the time left, there are friends and family, so many demands on your time. So how do you squeeze in those requisite hours of sleep?

Well you don't need to sleep all eight hours. Experts say, an effective way to counter the ill effects of sleep deprivation is to include at least 40 minutes of moderate exercise and 20 minutes of yoga or meditation in your daily routine.

Student's murder rocks AMU, campus shut down

Aligarh Muslim University has been shut sine die following violence sparked by killing of an engineering student on the campus.

Mazhar Naeem, killed Sunday night is the third case in a row of campus killings since April last year. Though the motive behind the killing is yet unclear, students said Naeem’s body had three stab wounds on it.

The killing sparked violence across the campus. Students residing in the hostels were asked to vacate them within 48 hours and Rapid Action Force and PAC personnel were deployed in the campus, AMU Spokesman Rahat Abrar told CNN-IBN.

According to sources, Union Human Resource Development ministry has asked the Vice Chancellor to furnish the report on the violence. The ministry has also asked the state government to maintain law and order in the university.

An emergency meeting of the Executive Council members of the University and its Dean was called immediately after the Vice Chencellor's house was attacked this morning.

"The Executive Council has taken the decision to shut the university. We have decided to vacate the hostels. We are making arrangements for travel for all students. Extra bogies have been attached to trains going to Bihar and UP to help the students travel home," the DM told CNN-IBN.

The AMU will also urge the Centre to order a CBI probe into the killings on the campus since April last. “CBI enquiry is likely in the case. The motive behind the killing is not clear as yet. But infighting among students could be the reason,” Aligarh District Magistrate added.

The killing of the student last night was the third such incident since April this year.

Hundreds of students protesting Mazhar Naeem's killing went on rampage on Monday morning and set fire to the Vice Chancellor's residence.

He, however, was not present in his house when it was attacked. The protestors also attacked the AMU staff club and the proctor's office causing heavy damage to property. The spokesman said special arrangements have been made for the transportation of the students by road and rail.

Don’t crib, don’t snitch

School or college, obscure institute or prestigious IITs and IIMs, ragging has become a norm. In 2003, over a hundred new students or ‘freshers’ were stripped naked and paraded in the corridors of IIT Delhi’s Kumaon Hostel.

Broota says ragging has taken on a “sexual connotation” and a “pathological connotation. “You are trying to torture somebody by forcing him to undress, pulling his private parts—you are trying to ridicule somebody and you absolutely enjoying torturing.”

P M Bhandari, the director of Samrat Ashok Technological Institute (SATI) in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, says ragging creates a revenge mentality among victims. “Once a student is harassed he tries to get revenge in later years,” says Bhandari.

Rajendra Nikunj could tell Bhandari a lot more about ragging: he was a student in his college and was harassed and tortured for six months.

Nikunj, who lives in Bhopal, almost went insane and it took him three years to recover from the trauma. “They used to forcibly take us in the rooms and beat us,” says Nikunj, who hinted he was molestation too.

Nikunj’s father, Ran Mohan Ram, admits he knew his son was being tortured but asked him to continue at the college for a better career. “I kept telling him to do whatever they asked him to. After all his future was at stake,” says Ram.

Nikunj was in psychiatric care for over two years and changed college after recovering. “I wish that in future no student faces or suffers what I had to go through,” he says.

The Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission ordered a probe into the case, but Nikunj and his father gave written statements to the enquiry denying any incident of ragging. Ram says he doesn’t want his son's trauma to play out in public.

And its not just parents, even students are wary of reporting ragging cases. Akshay, an undergraduate student, too believes that one must not snitch.

“If you do that, for the next few years you will be known as a person who snitched. I think your self-esteem and respect in the college—all of it—would go for a six. There is a social stigma to complaining about ragging,” says Akshay.

It’s no excuse

Hostel space is considered to be a completely private domain. The biggest mistake a fresher can make is to complain to authorities, like the warden or the principal, who are considered outsiders.

Ragging cases are increasing because of this don’t-snitch mentality. Andhra Pradesh has reported the highest number of ragging cases (23) in the last years out: 21 cases were made public a landmark Supreme Court ruling on ragging in 2001. In UP, 21 out of 22 cases have come in the last six years. In West Bengal 19 ragging cases have been reported after the 2001 ruling.

The common excuse for ragging is that it helps break the ice between students but that argument is now considered indefensible and the Supreme Court has forbade the practice.

Some campuses now ‘break the ice’ between students through induction programmes and counselling. IIT Kanpur has a proactive induction programme that makes new students feel at home, not humiliated.

IIT Kanpur’s programme ensures a zero-ragging environment and asks seniors to be friends and mentors to new students. But such peer interaction is rare in other institutes. The Supreme Court’s ruling holds institutions accountable for ragging, so though colleges may warn students there is no guarantee that trouble-makers will be kept at bay.

T Bhaskar Rao, president of the Sri Lok Bandhu Educational Society, says his educational institutes are very serious against ragging and have committees to keep a watch.

Rajendra, 18, wishes Rao had been as sincere last year. Rajendra joined a course in the Thandra Paparaya Engineering College, which is run by the Rao’s society, in Vijaynagaram in 2005.

Nine days later, Rajendra’s life was ruined. Drunken seniors took on Rajendra, angry that he had not turned up for a ragging session. An ugly fight started and Rajendra slipped off the roof and fell on high-voltage power cables. He lost a hand and damaged a leg.

The incident occurred five yrs after the SC judgment and three years after his own college had constituted an anti-ragging committee. “When I was in hospital some parents told me how they lost their children due to ragging. Seniors cut off a student’s ears. Many families were too poor to do any thing against culprits,” says Rajendra, who has now left the engineering college.

Ragging hasn’t defeated Rajendra though. “I've lost my hand and I have a damaged leg but I have decided to cope with the situation. Everybody has 100 percent but I've only 50 percent. But I will continue to utilise that 50 percent and aim for 100 percent,” he says.

People say ragging is harmless fun—it wasn’t for Indu, Sridhar and Rajendra.

Ragging begins in schools

Sridhar would have understood the Antos family’s tragedy if he hadn’t lost his sanity after being savagely beaten and thrown off a train by school bullies.

Sridhar, 22, was a Class X student of the National School in Tambaram, Chennai, five years ago. He abruptly stopped going to school one day and would lock himself up in his room and not talk to anyone.

He left home after lunch one day and was found hours later in a hospital with a hand cut off. It was then that his family came to know that Sridhar had stopped school because he feared bullies who ragged him every day.

The day he was found in the hospital the school bullies had caught him near a railway station and beat him up after pulling him inside a train. When the train started moving, the bullies threw him out and Sridhar fell on the tracks unconscious.

Thirty minutes later Sridhar woke up to find his hand ripped off and a train speeding towards him. He was bleeding but managed to pick himself and walk to a station. Doctors later found that he had lost hearing in one ear too.

Sridhar lost his mind after that day. A promising young man now mumbles: "I don't like my name; Manoj is my name. Tamil has destroyed me—Spanish, Italian all good. They laugh at Tamil” and keeps asking his grandmother what happened to his arm.

Any mention of school or books gets him agitated. "I don't want to go to school, don't like it," he says.

Sridhar’s tormentors fled Chennai after that day and the police has now closed the file. His grandparents, who look after him, are old and unaware that their grandson is severely traumatised.

Indu and Sridhar’s tormentors were young but psychologists have long warned that ragging or vindictive behaviour is becoming common in schools.

“There is no age for this. We have got cases where the ragger was eight,” says psychologist Aruna Broota.

Sadist minds: The untold stories of campus horror

Indu Antos, promising student and a keen violinist, painter and poet, was 16 when she died after being ragged in her college in August 1998.

Nine years have gone by and Indu’s parents haven’t got justice against people who had harassed and traumatized her. Indu’s father C L Antos was a management consultant but now all his time is spent fighting in courts and her mother is still in shock. Indu Villa in Chalakudy town of Kerala is still in mourning.

Indu studied in the Class XI in Mumbai's prestigious Sophiya College. Her parents got a call on August 4, 1998 that their daughter had died after falling off the third floor of the college hostel.

Indu had been in the college for 14 days but in that short period she had written home that she was being abused and harassed by her seniors every day. C L Antos says Indu’s letters mention that she was forced to dance naked, smoke, take drugs and take part in “sexual perversions”.

“She complained and on her behalf I took up this matter with the authorities twice or thrice. That was a mistake. After I complained, Indu was summoned in front of the principal. The people Indu had accused—Melissa and company—of ragging threatened her. That day Indu called me and said she was ready to leave the college,” says C L Antos.

ndu last called home on August 3 and a day later she was dead. Sophia College, which has the backing of the Church, said it was a suicide but an autopsy confirmed she had 27 injuries before death.

Indu’s diary says Melissa D’Souza, a final year B.Sc. student, and Greta Collasco, a Class XII student, had ragged her. The High Court accepted as Indu’s diary as her dying declaration but that didn’t lead to arrests. C L Antos’s only victory was that the court ruled that Indu was murdered.

“Society has made us orphans; Sophia College has made me an orphan. She was the light of my family and now she is gone,” says C L Antos.

So,change your password wisely !

Ramya was about to leave office after finishing her work. She got a call from her husband Karthi,

RAMYA(R): "Hello, yes Karthi".
KARTHI(K): "Ramya, can you open my gmail and get a print out of the mail from that US consultant I forgot to take it in my office"
(R): "Yes, I can, I need your password"
(K): "jeni22091980"
(R): "Ok fine"

She takes the print out and logs out. Some thought struck her mind now.
JENI happens to be his college mate. Hmmm..........

She decides not to discuss this with Karthi, open her mail box and changes the password from
"mohan143" to "karthiramya" and leaves for home.

Now what are u waiting for change your password