Tuesday, October 20, 2009
AND...
LENKA...and me.
Life is a maze, and love is a riddle
I don't know where to go
Can't do it alone
I've tried, but i don't know why
Slow it down, make it stop
Or else my heart is going to pop
Cause its to much, yea its alot
To be something I'm not
I'm a fool, out of love
Cause I just can't get enough
I'm just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze, and love is a riddle
I don't know where to go
Can't do it alone
I've tride, but i don't know why
I'm just a little girl lost in the moment
I'm so scared but i don't show it
I can't figure it out
It's bringing me down
I know, I've got to let it go
And just enjoy the show
The sun is hot in the sky
Just like a giant spot light
The people follow the signs
And sicronise in time
It's just, no body knows
They got to take it to the show
Yea
I'm just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze, and love is a riddle
I don't know where to go
Can't do it alone
I've tried, but i don't know why
I'm just a little girl lost in the moment
I'm so scared but i don't show it
I can't figure it out
It's bringing me down
I know, I've got to let it go
And just enjoy the show
Just enjoy the show
I'm just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze, and love is a riddle
I don't know where to go
Can't do it alone
I've tride, but i don't know why
I'm just a little girl lost in the moment
I'm so scared but i don't show it
I can't figure it out
It's bringing me down
I know, I've got to let it go
And just enjoy the show
Just enjoy the show(x2)
I want my money back(x3)
Just enjoy the show
I want my money back(x3)
Just enjoy the show
Monday, October 19, 2009
France: Couverture Maladie Universelle (CMU)
The French love two things the most in their life: their country and their wine! But we can safely add another love to this- their medical bills! The country boasts of the strongest public health insurance program in the world, based on the socialist insurance model, wherein contributions to the scheme are based on income. The Frenchman thus enjoys excellent medical care and facilities at a price that would make any American envious! The French insurance system reflects solidarity : the more ill a person becomes, the less they pay. This means that for people with serious or chronic illnesses, the insurance system reimburses them 100 % of expenses, and waives their co-pay charges.
Established in 1945, the program has since undergone numerous changes, in terms of the sections of people it covers. The government of Lionel Jospin put in place ‘Couverture Maladie Universelle’ (Universal Health Coverage, CMU),based on the principle of solidarity, that guarantees financial protection to everyone in need of healthcare. About seventy five percent of the total health expenditures are covered by the public health insurance system. A part of the balance is paid directly by the patients and the other part by private health insurance companies that are hired individually or in group (assurance complémentaire or mutuelle, complementary insurance or mutual fund).
With 4 physicians per 1,000 people; 8 hospital beds per 1,000 people; reimbursements ranging from 15%-65% for medication to 95%-100% for pregnancy and childbirth; option for public or private sector hospitals, its seems a rosy picture. But all does not seem well.
Firstly, in the US there is some stiff hospital competition. Majority of the hospitals in US, resemble 4-star hotels. The hospitals in France, especially the public sector run, are known to resemble physics labs! Secondly, since 2007, there have been some changes for EU citizens residing in France, introducing restrictions in their access to the health care system. This affects inactive individuals – those who do not have a professional activity or are looking for work, or students. The reason for those limitations is that France has to conform to the European community rules, like the other countries in the community. But these are bound to have direct consequences on the social benefits in France. Thirdly, About 36 percent of physicians work in public hospitals or establishments. They are in essence public servants, and the amount they are paid is determined by the government. However, 56 percent of physicians work in private practices because of the difficult working conditions in hospitals. Lastly, in recent years, regional authorities have taken a growing role in policy-making and negotiations.
While there are issues that the French state is dealing with in terms of expenditure, there can be no denial that the medical policies followed by the government over so many years have proved to be beneficial both for the citizens and the country, with increasing medical tourism. In 2005, France spent 11.2% of its GDP on healthcare, one of the highest amongst the developed countries of the world.
The French health care service is certainly costly to maintain, but it remains one of the best in the world, offering a large choice of general practitioners and healthcare specialists.
The Young and Their Yoga
Across India, Institutes like Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (New Delhi) and Kaivalyadhama (Lonavala, Pune), have contributed substantially in reviving this ancient Indian tradition among the youngsters today.
Namita Dubey, a student at LSR and a member of the DanceSoc says ‘ Yoga was probably the best thing to happen to me over my summer break. I feel much more fit and can now stand the long hours of rehearsals more easily now. ’
Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY), at Ashoka Road, is under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare offers a Yoga Programme for Children (YPC) for one month during vacations in October and May. It also offers a Diploma in Yoga therapy and Yoga studies for duration of two years and one year respectively. Seminars and workshops are also held at various intervals to disseminate and exchange research outcomes among young practitioners.
Kaivalyadhama is another such research-cum-training Institute located among the greens at Lonavala. It offers scientific research facilities, is a retreat offering programmes in yoga, naturopathy and ayurveda and also houses a Yoga Teachers Training College on its 150-acres of parkland. It is all set to host the 6th International Conference on Yoga Research and Synthesis. One of the main topics it would cover is the inclusion of Yoga in the Modern Education System.
With debates rearing against the patenting of Yoga by Americans in India, and with Yoga becoming a 225-billion dollar industry, it remains to be seen how this wonderful ancient gift to us can be used by not only the young, but also as a tool to improve the quality of our manpower.
Institutes like these can contribute a lot to a nation like India wherein lifestyle disorders are on the rise due to increase in the per capita income of its people. A healthy, energetic and productive youth force is the need of the hour and hence, a lot of young people are now opening their doors to yoga, partly because of it also being a hot trend in the West among Hollywood stars. (Popularized in the West by Beatles guitarist George Harrison).
Yoga with its numerous benefits has the potential to attract AND benefit a lot of people, so don’t forget to enroll yourself in a Yoga training centre near you and say
NAMASTE TO YOGA!
Friday, October 2, 2009
PANDORIC PAHARGANJ !
‘A hippie’s dream,
That colourful road I walked
The backpacker smiled at me….
And so about it I now talk....’
Paharganj can best be described as a small
The street that runs through Pahar Ganj is called Main Bazaar, and it is lined with shops, cheap accommodations( Hotel Shilton, Milton, Prince, Heart, Ajay, Kamal, Hari Piorko and you name it!) , cafés, and carts selling everything from cold drinks and cigarettes to small pictures of Shiva or Vishnu, street vendors without carts, beggars, cows and stray dogs. Here you can buy bananas, books, tattoos, clothing, fans made from peacock feathers, jewelry, toothpaste, whips, exotic teas, ittar, flavorful hookahs (Whips? Is this a normal souvenir item?!). You can have henna painted on your hands, hail a rickshaw or taxi, have your shoes repaired, buy a rug, or – of course – have chai.
The traffic on Main Bazaar is an assortment of foot traffic, motorcycles, rickshaws (auto and bicycle), small cars, larger cars, a few way-too-big delivery trucks, and plenty of cows interspersed throughout. As my friend and I sat in the little café across the street for a quick lunch, no fewer than five elephants passed by! (Sadly, I was in too much shock to pull my camera out. Next time!)
And for the foodies, there is the all time favourite, Sam’s Café (recommended even though they fake their accent and serve the food cold if you don’t warn them to death). It houses all possible continental, Lebanese, American breakfast and Indian on their menu. I give thumbs up to the tuna-sandwich and fried rice! The second pick would be Club India Café and Restaurant that welcomes you to its third floor and rooftop sitting with some amazing graffiti all along the walls of the stairs up. It’s a multi-cuisine café with some good popular music, and you get the view of the bustling sub city is complimentary!
For those who thinking about writing a book on
For my love of Paharganj, I feel it's my duty to inform you guys that Paharganj is going in for a makeover, finally for the Commonwealth Games next year. Concretised roads, Facade makeover for the hotels, underground ducts for electricity and telephone lines, new street furniture and lighting etc. and the newspapers seem to be flled with it. It would attract more people to Paharganj, but care should be take that its charm is not lost in this transformation.
As we walked down the busy road and smiled at some friendly passerbys, I realized that this wild, magical and subtly shocking place did for me what Gregory David Robert’s
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Sun Is As Much Mine As The Night
‘Short Sharp Shock’. ‘Solino’. ‘We Forgot To Go Back’. ‘Head-On’. Common to all these films is Fatih Akin, a German filmmaker of Turkish descent. The 30-year-old director is a child of globalization: he samples and remixes elements from a diversity of cultures, material easily available to his generation for the first time. The son of Turkish immigrants, he has begun to accept the constant attention he gathers on his German-Turkish identity and is known to make films that bridge gaps between the two cultures.
But he has not yet abandoned the journeys between
In Fatih Akin's cinema, the lives of German Turks are a recurring theme, their struggles and their confusion about two different cultures.
His first feature-length movie, ‘Short Sharp Shock,’ a ‘Mean Streets’-style looks at three friends — one Turkish, one Greek and one Serbian — trying to get ahead, or at least survive. The film could have disappeared in the sea of Quentin Tarantino-inspired movie violence produced in the late '90s, but quiet moments between the Turkish father and his troubled son stand out as more powerful than any spurts of blood in the finale.
‘The Edge of Heaven’, another of his many works, has its similarities in theme and some settings to ‘Head-On’ but it also reflects a more mature approach. The focus on parents and children may stem from Akin's experience of becoming a father in 2005, when he and his wife had a son.
Still, ‘The Edge of Heaven’ takes up the subject of cultural conflict for Turkish migrants that played to such powerful effect in ‘Head-On.’ Those conflicts are universal, Akin insists, rather than specific to the two countries.
‘What I'm always trying to say is, this Turkish-German gap, you know, or this connecting element of the two nations, or systems, or worlds — you can change that and put other things instead,’ Akin said. ‘
In a politically controversial incident, in 2006, he was investigated by German police after wearing a T-Shirt with a Nazi swastika, equating the George W. Bush administration with the Third Reich. Akin defended the T-Shirt as being "more than mere provocation" and emphasized: ‘Bush's policy is comparable with that of the Third Reich. I think that under Bush,
Monday, July 6, 2009
Alanis Morrissette - ''Ironic''
http://video.canadiancontent.net/45596830-alanis-morissette-ironic.html
An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic ... don't you think
Chorus
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures
Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
'Well isn't this nice...'
And isn't it ironic ... don't you think
Repeat Chorus
Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face
It's a traffic jam when you're already late
It's a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic... don't you think
A little too ironic... and yeah I really do think...
Repeat Chorus
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out
