Before Marriage - After Marriage - After Divorce

The Legend of Mata Vaishnodevi

According to a legend, about a thousand years ago a Brahmin, Pandit Sridhar, discovered the holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi. He used to live in Hansali village at the foothills of the Trikuta Mountains. One day he met a beautiful child, Vaishnavi, on the hills. She urged him to invite the people of his village to a feast. By mid-day when his guests arrived he had still not made any arrangements for the feast. Suddenly, he saw Vaishnavi coming out of his hut and she asked Sridhar to call his guests, as the food was ready. He watched in amazement as all the villagers went inside his small hut and had their meal. After they left, he called out to young Vaishnavi to know the mystery behind the episode. But she was not to be found. His search for her led him to a cave up a cliff where he thought he spied her; but in vain. As he wept in anguish, a light shone on him and he had a vision: Vaishnavi was transformed into a transcendental beauty with eight arms! and astride a lion. She told him she was Shakti and in this cave she was manifested in her three forms of Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Sridhar's progeny have been worshipping the Goddess in this Holy Cave ever since!
Vaishno Devi is one of the most revered holy sights of India, visited by the people of almost all the religions from every part of the world. It is believed that devotees visiting the Mata or Mother for the fulfillment of their wishes, never return empty handed. She is our Family Goddess & I for one have been visiting the shrine annually for the last 18 years or so. I used to walk up or even run up & down the steep path (all of 13-14 kilometres one way) in my younger days. Today, unfortunately because of my poor physical shape, I use the hardy mountain ponies to go up. This time, I went up one way by the Air Deccan Helicopter. which is a shame. village folklore says that only the pilgrims who walk up get their wishes fulfilled. The shrine environs are in a very bad condition today. I will write about this maybe on the weekend.

The Russian "Sex" Day

The governor of Ulyanovsk region in Russia is offering prizes to couples who have babies in exactly nine months - on Russia's national day on 12 June. Sergei Morozov wants couples to take the day off work to have sex. If a baby is born on national day, they will receive cars, TVs or other prizes. Mr Morozov has declared 5th September "family contact day" as part of efforts to fight Russia's demographic crisis. The population has sharply declined since the Soviet Union collapsed. This is the third year that Ulyanovsk, in central Russia, is offering prizes for babies born on 12 June. This year, a couple won the grand prize of a sports utility vehicle (SUV) (Picture on Top).

The initiative seems to be paying off, as the region's birth rate has risen by 4.5% over the last year. "If there's a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits... so there'll be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country," Mr Morozov told the Associated Press news agency. Demographers estimate that Russia could lose 40 million people - almost a third of its current population - by the middle of the century. A combination of falling birth rates, emigration and an ailing healthcare system has led to the decline.

President Vladimir Putin has introduced a scheme to encourage more children. Women who have a second or third child are eligible to receive $9,000, which can be used to pay for education or home purchases. Interesting. Would love posts of similar offerings from other Governments in the West.

MAVERICK GENOME SCIENTIST UNVEILS HIS GENETIC CODE

The scientist who lead the private effort to sequence the human genome has revealed his own complete genetic make-up. The race to decode the human genome may not be entirely over: the loser has come up with a new approach that may let him prevail in the end. In 2003, a US government-financed consortium of academic centers announced it had completed the human genome, fending off a determined challenge from the biologist J. Craig Venter. The consortium’s genome comprised just half the DNA contained in a normal cell, and the DNA used in the project came from a group of people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. But the loser in the race, Dr. Venter, could still have the last word. In a paper published recently, his research team is announcing that it has decoded a new version of the human genome that some experts believe may be better than the consortium’s. Called a full, or diploid genome, it consists of the DNA in both sets of chromosomes, one from each parent, and it is the normal genome possessed by almost all the body’s cells. And the genome the team has decoded belongs to just one person: Dr. Venter.
Dr. Venter’s race with the consortium began in 1998 when he spotted a quicker method of decoding the human genome. He tried to wrest this rich scientific prize from his academic rivals by co-founding a genome-decoding company called Celera. By June 2000, the two sides were neck and neck preparing a draft sequence of the genome. But in January 2002, Dr. Venter was abruptly fired as president of Celera. The consortium went on to claim victory when it announced its completion of the genome the next year. But the consortium’s genome, though immensely useful to biologists, was full of gaps and only complete in the sense that it was the best that could be done with existing technology. Dr. Venter has spent the last five years and an extra $10 million of his institute’s money in improving the draft genome he prepared at Celera. That genome was based mostly on his own DNA, and the new diploid version is entirely so. His critics may accuse him of an egocentricity of considerable dimension, but by analyzing his own genome he has sidestepped the problems of privacy and consent that could have arisen with other people’s DNA when he made the whole sequence publicly available, as he is doing now.
Like James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA, whose genome is also being decoded, Dr. Venter believes strongly in making individual DNA sequences public to advance knowledge and hasten the era of personalized genomic medicine.
The unveiling of J. Craig Venter's genome in the open access journal PloS Biology marks the first time that the complete DNA sequence of an individual has been published. In 2001, Venter's company Celera published a version of the human genome that was based on information from himself and four other individuals. At the same time, the publicly-funded Human Genome Project consortium released a consensus human genome, based on DNA samples from over 100 people.
The latest study shows that the amount of genetic variation between individuals is 5-7 times greater than previously suspected. In addition to the expected 3.2 million single DNA 'letter' changes known as SNPs, Venter's genome has nearly a million other variations, which involve small sections of missing, duplicated or 'flipped around' DNA. 'This is the first time that anyone has had an accurate representation of how much variation there is in a human genome', said co-author Stephen W. Scherer of Toronto University.
Commenting on the findings, Venter said that: 'each time we peer deeper into the human genome we uncover more valuable insight into our intricate biology', adding that 'only with additional sequencing of more individual
genomes will we garner a full understanding of how our genes influence our lives'. He also revealed that the results show he has a moderate risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, saying 'there are two groups of people out there, the half that really want to know about themselves and the half that's afraid to know because of all this genetic deterministic nonsense', adding 'knowing what is there will do nothing to change what is already going on in my body'.
The new genome sequence, dubbed HuRef, was pieced together using the 'whole genome shotgun' method previously used by Celera. However, several organisations are now working on faster, cheaper methods that will eventually enable the genome of many more people to be sequenced. DNA pioneer James Watson is the only other person currently having his genome decoded.

Believe It Or Not

It is little known that one Okhil Chandra Sen wrote this letter to the Sahibganj divisional railway office in 1909. It is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi. It was also reproduced under the caption "Travelers' Tales" in the Far Eastern Economic Review

Okhil Babu's letter to the Railway Department :

"I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with 'lotah' in one hand and 'dhoti' in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shockings to man and female women on plateform. It is too much shame shame for me. Then I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station.

This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report to papers."

Any guesses why this letter was of historic value?

It apparently led to the introduction of toilets on trains.

Its All About Efficiency

Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant, and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.

It seemed a little strange.

When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets.

When the waiter came back to serve our soup, I asked, "Why the spoon?"

He explained: "The restaurant's owners hired Andersen Consulting to revamp all our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour. If our personnel is better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift."

As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace it with his spare.

"I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now."

I was impressed. I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly. Looking round, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies.

So before he walked off, I asked the waiter, "Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?"

"Oh, certainly!" Then he lowered his voice. "Not everyone is so observant. That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we can save time in the restroom. By tying this string to the tip of you-know-what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39 percent."

WOW!

I asked, "After you get it out, how do you put it back?"

"Well," he whispered, "I don't know about the others, but I use the spoon."

Did These Subjects Survive?

Its a lazy Sunday. Just got up after a long long snooze. Thought would put up some cerebral photographs. These were forwarded to me with a caption saying: Their Last Photos.