Prince was my adorable and sweet dog. He was born sometime in November 1997 and lived with me all this while till 10-April-2012.
I literally grew up with Prince, took him out for walks, took him to doctors and lived my life with him.
Prince you shall forever be fondly remembered and missed.
Love,
D
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The World is being drowned in Cola
Fairy Tale, Year 2020: Once upon a time, there lived a nuked orphan prince of Taliban in his beautiful castle of 2000 calorie coco-chocolate, enamelled with dripping 2500 calorie mozzarella cheese. He fell in love with a gorgeous princess of far away land of the Korean terrorist camps in the hills of magnificent tobacco smokes and flavoured whiskey. The love was blissful, white doves flew in grey smoked skies and peacocks danced in acid rain, their armies of Godzilla and anacondas were all in a state of NATO ecstasy of the cold war era.
This all was soon ransacked by a tsunami of Colas and Diet Colas and other carbonated drinks. The prince in shining armour getting drowned in the colas trying to save his princess with Celine Dion’s ‘My heart will go on…’, playing in the background. Will the couple live happily ever after?
Cynics blame cola drinks for all that’s wrong in the world and now they have even gone to the extent of claiming that the world might one day sink in cola. I won’t be surprised if a mammoth calculation and analysis proves that the trigger for the World War-II was indeed a cola. How can the world, or for that matter any part of the world, sink in Cola? This statement can be analysed under three heads – the health effects, the cultural effects and the economical effects of the popularity of the colas.
The health standards might actually be falling because of the colas and that seems to be the strongest reason for claiming that the world is sinking under cola. But this is half of the story, and to better understand whether health is deteriorated due to cola or not, we need to analyse a host of topics. What we need to consider is when do people drink/consume the cola drinks? What are the substitutes available to them? The fact is that almost all aerated drinks/sodas, including the colas, are either consumed with friends as a substitute for tea or beer, or consumed for taste as a replacement of tea, coffee, etc. Now the next logical question is that can alcohol be avoided in parties using anything other than colas…and the answer is a categorical ‘no’. Colas are used for breaking the ice and socialising, and they are certainly less harmful than the different forms of alcohol that they substitute. In terms of using cola drinks as a refresher, they replace tea and coffee which are perceived to be non-harmful in the Indian culture, due to their long history. On the contrary, both of them contain more caffeine[1][2][3][4] than the regular cola drinks (Pepsi, Coca-Cola). As far as the high level of sugar in cola drinks is concerned, all of them are available in their sugar-free versions with zero calorie content[5][6], known as the ‘diet’ version. Lately, the cola giants have also introduced new variants with zero caffeine content[6][7], which shows their commitment to community health. In India, the annual per capita consumption of cola is approximately four bottles[8] per person which is much less than the per capita consumption of concentrated liquor[9][10]. The simple question here is whether it is better to drink alcohol or cola? Cola does harm when consumed excessively, yet its ability to harm is much less than that of coffee and tea.
Talking of cultural imperialism, people around the world and in the Indian subcontinent in particular, are wary of anything that is remotely American. We believe that if we drink the colas, then we are actually falling prey to the American way of living. If we look at the advertisements of these colas in India, we realise that they try to cater to the local audience/consumer by promoting their drink to be consumed alongside paranthas and not pizzas; during Diwali and not Thanksgiving. They even adapt to the local requirements and that is one of greatest reasons why Thumps-up, a brand of The Coca-Cola Company, comes with greater fizz[11][12] so as to appeal to the taste buds of the local population; and not surprisingly it has the largest market share in the cola market even with minimal marketing expenditure. The only deducible conclusion is that all arguments regarding cultural imperialism are nothing but hollow.
Finally taking up the issue of economic imperialism, in a world of lassie fairer any claims of economic imperialism by a single product makes very limited sense. India’s balance of trade with the USA is tilted in India’s favour (USD 11,735 million in 2004)[13]. If we still feel that because of one particular product we might be economically imperialised then we also need to consider the huge population of Indians working in firms servicing the US clients and those who are working in America and are sending huge remittances back home. Coca-Cola India alone creates employment for 125,000[8] Indians directly or indirectly. Since this argument also falls flat on its face, we need to analyse the real reasons for the blanket statement, which is our topic.
The reason for making such a blanket statement is simple – there are people who are wary of anything that give us happiness. What we should understand is that though drinking cola is not healthy but it is certainly a lot better than tea, coffee and alcohol- the other drinks that we generally use. We need to reduce our intake of these drinks, as an excess of everything is bad, but this certainly does not mean that we shift over to tea or coffee. Next time that you drink a cola, be happy and proud because you are doing good to the economy, and you have avoided a coffee or alcohol in doing so.
And since all of us like happy endings, we will let Celine Dion drop the high note and ask the Taliban prince and his Korean sweetheart to wade through the cola waters, and live happily ever after.
References:
1. Journal of Food Science, 2007
2. ‘Tea Consumption and the Prevalence of Coronary Heart Disease in Saudi Adults: Results from A Saudi National Study’, Iman A. Hakim, Mohammed A. Alsaif, Mansour Alduwaihy, Khalid Al-Rubeaan, Abdul Rahman Al-Nuaim and Omar S. Al-Attas, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science
3. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, 2007
4. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/AN01211
5. http://pepsi.com/pepsi_brands/product_info/dietpepsimax/index.php
6. http://www.dietcoke.com/
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Free
8. ‘Coca-Cola India’, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, no. 1-0085
9. ‘Alcohol in India’, Monica Arora, HRIDAY/SHAN, www.ias.org.uk/resources/publications/theglobe/globe200103-04/gl200103-04_p27.html
10. ‘India: Alcohol and public health’, Dr Vivek Benegal, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengalūru
11. http://www.dietcoke.com/
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Free
13. http://www.indiaonestop.com/tradepartners/us/indo_us_trade.html
This all was soon ransacked by a tsunami of Colas and Diet Colas and other carbonated drinks. The prince in shining armour getting drowned in the colas trying to save his princess with Celine Dion’s ‘My heart will go on…’, playing in the background. Will the couple live happily ever after?
Cynics blame cola drinks for all that’s wrong in the world and now they have even gone to the extent of claiming that the world might one day sink in cola. I won’t be surprised if a mammoth calculation and analysis proves that the trigger for the World War-II was indeed a cola. How can the world, or for that matter any part of the world, sink in Cola? This statement can be analysed under three heads – the health effects, the cultural effects and the economical effects of the popularity of the colas.
The health standards might actually be falling because of the colas and that seems to be the strongest reason for claiming that the world is sinking under cola. But this is half of the story, and to better understand whether health is deteriorated due to cola or not, we need to analyse a host of topics. What we need to consider is when do people drink/consume the cola drinks? What are the substitutes available to them? The fact is that almost all aerated drinks/sodas, including the colas, are either consumed with friends as a substitute for tea or beer, or consumed for taste as a replacement of tea, coffee, etc. Now the next logical question is that can alcohol be avoided in parties using anything other than colas…and the answer is a categorical ‘no’. Colas are used for breaking the ice and socialising, and they are certainly less harmful than the different forms of alcohol that they substitute. In terms of using cola drinks as a refresher, they replace tea and coffee which are perceived to be non-harmful in the Indian culture, due to their long history. On the contrary, both of them contain more caffeine[1][2][3][4] than the regular cola drinks (Pepsi, Coca-Cola). As far as the high level of sugar in cola drinks is concerned, all of them are available in their sugar-free versions with zero calorie content[5][6], known as the ‘diet’ version. Lately, the cola giants have also introduced new variants with zero caffeine content[6][7], which shows their commitment to community health. In India, the annual per capita consumption of cola is approximately four bottles[8] per person which is much less than the per capita consumption of concentrated liquor[9][10]. The simple question here is whether it is better to drink alcohol or cola? Cola does harm when consumed excessively, yet its ability to harm is much less than that of coffee and tea.
Talking of cultural imperialism, people around the world and in the Indian subcontinent in particular, are wary of anything that is remotely American. We believe that if we drink the colas, then we are actually falling prey to the American way of living. If we look at the advertisements of these colas in India, we realise that they try to cater to the local audience/consumer by promoting their drink to be consumed alongside paranthas and not pizzas; during Diwali and not Thanksgiving. They even adapt to the local requirements and that is one of greatest reasons why Thumps-up, a brand of The Coca-Cola Company, comes with greater fizz[11][12] so as to appeal to the taste buds of the local population; and not surprisingly it has the largest market share in the cola market even with minimal marketing expenditure. The only deducible conclusion is that all arguments regarding cultural imperialism are nothing but hollow.
Finally taking up the issue of economic imperialism, in a world of lassie fairer any claims of economic imperialism by a single product makes very limited sense. India’s balance of trade with the USA is tilted in India’s favour (USD 11,735 million in 2004)[13]. If we still feel that because of one particular product we might be economically imperialised then we also need to consider the huge population of Indians working in firms servicing the US clients and those who are working in America and are sending huge remittances back home. Coca-Cola India alone creates employment for 125,000[8] Indians directly or indirectly. Since this argument also falls flat on its face, we need to analyse the real reasons for the blanket statement, which is our topic.
The reason for making such a blanket statement is simple – there are people who are wary of anything that give us happiness. What we should understand is that though drinking cola is not healthy but it is certainly a lot better than tea, coffee and alcohol- the other drinks that we generally use. We need to reduce our intake of these drinks, as an excess of everything is bad, but this certainly does not mean that we shift over to tea or coffee. Next time that you drink a cola, be happy and proud because you are doing good to the economy, and you have avoided a coffee or alcohol in doing so.
And since all of us like happy endings, we will let Celine Dion drop the high note and ask the Taliban prince and his Korean sweetheart to wade through the cola waters, and live happily ever after.
References:
1. Journal of Food Science, 2007
2. ‘Tea Consumption and the Prevalence of Coronary Heart Disease in Saudi Adults: Results from A Saudi National Study’, Iman A. Hakim, Mohammed A. Alsaif, Mansour Alduwaihy, Khalid Al-Rubeaan, Abdul Rahman Al-Nuaim and Omar S. Al-Attas, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science
3. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, 2007
4. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/AN01211
5. http://pepsi.com/pepsi_brands/product_info/dietpepsimax/index.php
6. http://www.dietcoke.com/
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Free
8. ‘Coca-Cola India’, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, no. 1-0085
9. ‘Alcohol in India’, Monica Arora, HRIDAY/SHAN, www.ias.org.uk/resources/publications/theglobe/globe200103-04/gl200103-04_p27.html
10. ‘India: Alcohol and public health’, Dr Vivek Benegal, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengalūru
11. http://www.dietcoke.com/
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Free
13. http://www.indiaonestop.com/tradepartners/us/indo_us_trade.html
Saturday, August 1, 2009
“End of an Era”
Rajmata Sa for people from Jaipur and Maharani Gayatri Devi for the world - passed away this week. All of a sudden I feel that my childhood is over. I was fortunate enough to have met her a few times very early in my life - an advantage of being a Mansinghite.
I can very vivdly recollect moments when I along with my friends would sneak into the gardens of her home to fetch our ball while playing tennis at Lilypool Garden. She always ensured that all was well with her disciples (however outdated the word might sound). The major part of the city of Jaipur was developed by an active contribution from her and her husband – His Highness Maharaja Sawai Man Singh –II. She was full of energy even at an age of eighty and that too to the extent that she would leave my classmates behind while inspecting the parade during Republic Day celebrations at school.
She had an aura around her and a charm which cannot be expressed through this medium. She would come down to my school in her vintage car along with her ADC and would ensure that she leaves everyone spell-bound with her anecdotes usually talking about her brothers and family during her early days at Cooch Bihar.
At times I wonder how anyone could be nasty with a lady like her but then maybe that is the way the world is supposed to be. Indira Gandhi, whom I respect for her handling of foreign affairs and the setting up of our intelligence service – RAW, had also been nasty with Rajmata Sa. Indira Gandhi tried to clip her wings in every possible manner through making His Highness an ambassador, by putting her behind the bars, by abolishing privy purses (breaking GoI’s treaties with independent kingdoms), by playing around with the list of the electorate when she contested for the legislative assembly and by numerous other ways. It is said that at Indira Gandhi’s behest Rajmata Sa’s palaces and vaults were looted so as to reduce her financial independence. To make matters worse her own grandchildren tried to sue her for property and that too then when their father, Prince Jagat Singh had disinherited them. Rajmata Sa had opened a school in Jaga ki Bawri which was named Lalitya Kumari Bal Niketan after her grand-daughter and this very grand-daughter of her was up in arms against her. Rajmata Sa gave away all of her and her deceased son’s property to these grand-children but their conduct towards her was not appreciable.
The lady who gave her everything to her disciplines received lots of love and respect from them and I suppose that more than made up for all thge hardships that she had to face.
May Rajmata Sa’s soul rest in peace.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Pride and Prejudice
Up from the sky he saw
Upon the corporeal
He was filled with superciliousness
Of the immense power in possess
He was epicenter of supremacy
The mine-field of ascendancy
He was the blazing SUN
He was akin to none
He restricted the day
He proscribed the night
He could make all shiver when dull
He could burn alive when blistering bright
He ruled the world
He was the blazing SUN
He was akin to none
He looked down from the zenith
Overflowed with self-pride
His ascendancy getting him prejudiced
Of underestimating the other
Stagnation with smugness
Had made him forget how to flutter
He was the blazing SUN
He was akin to none
Out of nowhere came his insignificant foe
The minuscule rival called himself CLOUD
Blithely he covered the scorching sun
The incontestable authority was on a down-run
The minutest of all
Had dwarfed the tallest among the tall
He was still the blazing sun
But no more was he the HUN
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Do we need annual Republic Day parade? - Coomi Kapoor
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/do-we-need-annual-republic-day-parade/415724/
I am almost a quarter century old and the first memory that I have of reading the paper is some 15 years old, when as a school kid I used to read Coomi's column every Sunday in which she used to write short stories. Since then I've always identified sensible and true journalism with her. Even now she is thinking out of the box but sadly for the first time I do not buy her view-point.
Doing SWOT analysis and DCF analysis of everything is not a sensible activity especially if we do not consider the intangibles. Making the Republic Day a biyearly event will not lead to any solution, such cost-cutting might not be of much help. Moreover the confidence or otherwise that such an activity shall create in the minds of the public, especially in such turbulent times is something beyond comprehension. The basic fallacy in Coomi's argument is that she has totally ignored the importance of tradition and the reasons which led to the start of the celebration.
As far as the idea of introducing movie-stars to make the parade more interesting is concerned it is as ludicrous as introducing porn stars to attract adolescents to temples...
I am almost a quarter century old and the first memory that I have of reading the paper is some 15 years old, when as a school kid I used to read Coomi's column every Sunday in which she used to write short stories. Since then I've always identified sensible and true journalism with her. Even now she is thinking out of the box but sadly for the first time I do not buy her view-point.
Doing SWOT analysis and DCF analysis of everything is not a sensible activity especially if we do not consider the intangibles. Making the Republic Day a biyearly event will not lead to any solution, such cost-cutting might not be of much help. Moreover the confidence or otherwise that such an activity shall create in the minds of the public, especially in such turbulent times is something beyond comprehension. The basic fallacy in Coomi's argument is that she has totally ignored the importance of tradition and the reasons which led to the start of the celebration.
As far as the idea of introducing movie-stars to make the parade more interesting is concerned it is as ludicrous as introducing porn stars to attract adolescents to temples...
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Status Messages
Almost everyone I know of uses either Yahoo Messenger and Gtalk.
Here are a few of the intresting ones that I've read in 2008.
Here are a few of the intresting ones that I've read in 2008.
- I am going for an MBA - Masters in Beer Administration
- SHIT Happens!! Learn to Flush...
- 99% of MBAs are shrewd and they bring a bad name to the rest.
- I hate racists and blacks.
- I had no shoes then I heard of a man who threw his at Bush !!
- All nuts get sluts.
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