Those were the Days

How did one survive growing up in the 70's, 80's and 90's?
We had no seatbelts, no airbags and sitting in the back of a truck was a treat…
Our baby prams had the most gorgeous lead based colours…
No such thing as tamper proof bottle tops…
Opening kitchen cupboards was a breeze… as safety locks were unheard off…
Cycling was like a breath of fresh air…
No safety helmets, knee pads or elbow pads, with plenty of cardboards between spokes to make it sound like a motorbike…
When thirsty we only drank tap water, bottled water was still a mystery…
We kept busy collecting bits & pieces so we could build all sort of things … and we were fearless on our bikes even when the brakes failed going downhill…
We were showing off how tough we are, by how high we could climb trees & then jumping down….It was great fun….
We could stay out to play for hours, as long as we got back before dark, in time for dinner…
We walked to school, or sometimes we even rode our bike.
We had no mobile phones, but we always managed to find each other…. How? No one knows…
We lost teeth, broke arms & legs, we got cuts and bruises and bloody noses…. nobody complained as we had so much fun, it wasn't anybody's fault, only ours
We ate everything in sight, cakes, bread, chocolate, ice-cream, sweet sugary drinks, yet, we stayed skinny by fooling around.
And if one of us was lucky to find a 1 litre coca cola bottle we all had a swag from it & guess what? Nobody picked up any germs...
We did not have Play Stations, MP3, Nintendo's, I-Pods, Video games, 99 Cable TV channels, DVD's, Home Cinema, Mobile phones, Home Computers, Laptops, Chat-rooms, Internet, etc ... BUT, we had REAL FRIENDS!!!!
We called on friends to come out to play, never rang the doorbell, just went around the back…
We loved being let loose in the big bad world…without bodyguards…
We played with sticks and stones, played cowboys and Indians, doctors and nurses, hide and seek, soccer games, over and over again…
When we failed our exams we were given a second chance by simply repeating the same grade…without visiting psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors…
Such were the days…
We had freedom, success, disappointments and responsibilities. ..
Most of all, we learned to respect others…
Are YOU from that generation??
Maybe this post will make you then forget the stress that surrounds us these days….and just for a few moments put a smile to our faces as we remember what life was really like in the good old days:)

From Danny With Love

Airline Cuts

Jamaican Vacation Ends

USD 700 Million Bailout & The Red Ferraris

Lavasa beckons in November

Where flowers bloom so does hope.
- Lady Bird Johnson, Public Roads: Where Flowers Bloom
Something about flowers delights and stirs the soul of man. Since the beginning of literature and poetry, flowers have represented beauty, nature and tranquility, and love. According to the Bible, "Not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of [the lilies of the field]."
I took my kids for a drive to Paud for the Lavasa property registration & was welcomed with a sea of yellow flowers beckoning us to Lavasa. I think they are some type of wild yellow daisies. I'm not sure about the genus, but for sure this sea of yellow is soothing to the eyes. People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us. Yellow is a lovely color - and simple too! There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
A movie may have a cast of dozens of supporting actors, with hundreds of crew members working behind the scenes to bring the story to the silver screen. In the end, though, all eyes are on the star. It's the glamorous diva or the handsome stranger who gets all of the attention. But, I'm sure in November, even if the diva is Lavasa, it is these supporting actors who are going to hog the limelight. A bright flower can be the star of public roads. You'll be automatically drawn to a bloom that looks dramatically different from its surroundings. This is why perennial flowers in shades of yellow and orange can have such a strong impact on the environs. Whether they are part of a natural garden of wildflowers, or a carefully-chosen component in a formal display, the boldness and brightness of yellow to orange perennial flowers always makes a strong statement. We waded through this sea of yellow fromn Chandni Chowk to Paud & hoped that these remain in bloom for a few months more!
Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.
-Luther Burbank

They say that happiness is elusive; a slippery thing, not easily held. And yet the stuff of happiness is everywhere. It is all around you in each moment, in each person in your life, and in every step you take on this holy ground. Happiness is yours to choose to see. Stop for a moment. Breathe. Open your eyes to what is around you. Breathe the beauty of nature and melt into it, and allow it to melt into you. If you want to know happiness; if you want to find it, take a walk. Smell the grasses and trees. Look down at your feet. See the small but powerful beauty of the wild flowers pushing up between rocks. Why do you think you feel their beauty? It is natural isn’t it? But why? A wild flower is just one example of nature’s gift, and its message to you: that beauty and happiness are at your feet; that it is your choice to either see them or walk on by, and that seemingly delicate beauty, possesses great strength. You will find happiness in your connection to this natural world — including your own nature. You will find happiness in curiosity. You will unearth it when you indulge your sense of awe and excitement.We live in a rich universe of unimaginable abundance, power, and mystery. Is it that difficult to accept the simple happiness embodied in the pure and beautiful? You can still be tough and street-smart. You can still go toe-to-toe with the best of them. But do take time to look down at your feet now and then to notice where you are. And especially, take a moment to see the small beauty that grows in the hard places of your life. Feel just how powerful that beauty is, and be happy for it.

Happiness can be a yellow flower – if you so choose.

Look at the picture of the pillon rider on the motor-bike on the Lavabahn. The Saffron turban, the white kurta & the greens that he is carting off for maybe fodder. What does it remind you of? It reminded me of our tricolor & of National pride. It reminded me of how Lavasa is making the country proud. It reminds me of the small team with vision to procreate a hill-station that will be an envy to the world; a place where we will earn the most carbon credits in this vast nation. A place where we will show-case the best India has to offer the world. Coming back to the sea of yellow, I returned late evening & these wild yellow flowers seemed to have changed color to orange. Maybe I was hallucinating, maybe not!

"I love to smell flowers in the dark," she said. "You get hold of their soul then."
-Lucy Maud Montgomery in Anne's House of Dreams

Dad's sperm linked to IQ

The results of a relatively small study suggest that children conceived using a fertility technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) may have slightly lower IQ scores than children conceived naturally or with in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

ICSI is typically used for men who have low numbers of sperm in their semen or who have poor quality sperm. However, it can also be used in cases in which the mother's eggs are difficult for the sperm to penetrate.

In a laboratory, a single sperm is isolated and then directly injected into an egg removed from the prospective mother. If fertilisation is successful, the embryo that develops a few days later is transferred into the mother and the steps are then the same as with IVF.

As reported in the journal Fertility and Sterility, Dr. Sylvia Veen and colleagues from Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands, compared the IQ at age five to eight years of 83 children conceived by ICSI with that of 83 children conceived by IVF and 85 conceived naturally.

They report that the average IQ, based on the Revised Amsterdam Child Intelligence Test, was 103 in the ICSI group, 107 in the IVF group, and 110 in the naturally conceived group.

The four-point difference between ICSI children and IVF children was not considered significant from a statistical standpoint, meaning that it could have occurred by chance. However, the seven-point difference in favour of naturally conceived children versus ICSI children was statistically significant.

"The ICSI children performed worse on all subtests with differences in (average) scores ranging from 0.7 to 2.1," the investigators note.

Veen and colleagues point out that "the clinical significance of the differences in IQ between ICSI children and both IVF and natural conception controls is debatable."

"On the one hand, the (average) IQ of ICSI children was within the normal range," they explain. "On the other hand, a shift of the total ICSI population to lower IQs may result in children crossing borders at the lower edge of the normal range. Indeed, ICSI children more often scored less than 85 than natural conception children."