The Bad Dream

Lavasa Rules

I was on my last egg-pickup procedure & it was already 2:00pm. The ribbon cutting ceremony was scheduled for 5:00pm. I left the clinic immediately after the patient was settled and got into a big traffic pile-up at Chembur! The express-way was empty at that time of the afternoon & I clocked just over 80 minutes to reach the end of the expressway. Once you turn right from the expressway, it is exactly 20 kms to the Chandni Chowk underpass which leads to the Pirangut-Paud tollgate. Taking the short-cut from just before Pirangut passing the Indai Lawns, I cruised onto the Lavabahn at 4 pm.It would have taken me just 30 minutes more to reach Lavasa, but I was hypnotized by the shades of green, rust & reds. March was a different spectacle altogether from February! The Jowar crop had just been harvested & the dried fields were being converted to bundles of hay. I would have thought that the heat would have turned everything around into shades of brown, but I was surprised to see nascent green all around. The 30 minute jouney now took two hours & I fell in love with the wild flowers all over again. These were a completely new set of species, which were not seen in the past six months. The majestic trees on both sides of the Lavabahn were swathed with a sheet of exotic red flowers. The helipad appeared around a curve in the road & seeing the helicopter, I realized how late I was. I reached the lobby bang in the middle of the Inaugural ceremony. Hugged my buddies & rushed up to freshen up. Another pleasant surprise - a WOW room!!! ITC has again excelled itself & have created a lovely hotel with ultramodern comforts. Rushed down, but the ceremony was over. Decided to visit Jimmy Shaw's Waterfront Serviced Apartments. Fida & Jimmy took us for a sneak preview - "WOW-WOW"- this was a whopper surprise. Beautiful & spacious serviced apartments with every imaginable five star amenity in these 43 apartments! The future of Lavasa had arrived. We had time to kill & decided to "experience' the LEC (LAVASA EXPERIENCE CENTER) next to the Fortune building. Another architectural masterpiece - Elegant straight lines, a airy majestic atrium & a superlative auditorium. This indeed is the showcase of modern India!

Around me I hear my friends Deepak & Jimmy remarking on the several species of birds that have congregated on the broken limbs of what at one time must have been beautiful proud trees. And that’s when it hits me. This wasn’t always a dried up grove. At some point this was probably a full and lush grove of trees. They once claimed this space for themselves. They lived here, providing a safe haven for countless generations of creatures. Somehow over the course of time these trees became a casualty of the elements to which they were exposed. Slowly, they succumbed, one by one to the inevitable effects of being deprived of water. The little collection of trees, that had managed to survive for years unattended, died. Now only a few brave soldiers still stand tall and proud. You can see them trying so hard to maintain their dignity as all around them life goes on. At first glance it’s easy to overlook them. We tend to get so caught up on the hustle and bustle of the life we see all around them. This bird or that one going about their daily life with the same nearsightedness from which we all suffer. Each keeping to themselves, going about their day and following their own urgent agenda. It’s not so difficult to understand. We are ourselves a reflection of the nature we came out here to be with. At one point or another all of us have been exposed to loss and grief. Though we might think we’ll never survive such losses; we inevitably do. As is in the human spirit, we survive and overcome and manage to live day to day in spite of it all. These once magnificent trees are a testament to the frailty and beauty of life. They have struggled through many changes and managed to remain standing through many seasons. And though they stand here before me; I know they are dying. Life is no longer theirs to have. They are destined to keep struggling everyday for that last shred of sunlight to touch their trunks before finally giving in to the red caked earth below. They have so much they would like to tell us. But it’s hard to hear them over the squawking migratory white birds nearby. It’s only when we stop and find some stillness that we can hear their tale.
All of us had congregated at Lavasa to witness the grand opening of the ITC Fortune select Dasve Hotel. Our honorable MP Sou Supriya Suleji had inaugurated the hotel & the celebratory party was a few hours down the evening. A group of us friends decided to take a walk around the lake & that is where we discovered this dead patch of trees. The most visionary project taken up by Team Lavasa is the re-forestation of barren slopes & the re-greening of the hillsides which have been cut to make way for the Lavabahn that is the connecting artery to the outside world. This is such a serene world by the lakeside. A beautiful blend of nature & its eco-friendly environment. We walked ahead from this barren area towards the dam and on towards the Portofino street. Jimmy had also inaugurated his out-of-the-world American Diner (A replica of the successful restaurant from India Habitat Center, New Delhi) that afternoon. We were in for a pleasant surprise... our first onion rings & peanut butter smoothies in Lavasa. We were joined by Dr & Mrs Suri who had also come in from Mumbai for the Fortune launch.
The Fortune Select Dasve looked resplendant & bedecked in shimmering lights like a newly wed bride. The glitter of the sparkling lights reflected off the serene waters of the lake. We walked across the "venetian" bridge & joined the party on the lawns of this magnificient building.

Daily drink for middle-age women cancer risk

A new study involving nearly 1.3 million middle-age British women - the largest ever to examine whether alcohol increases a woman's risk of cancer - found that just one glass of chardonnay, a single beer or any other type of alcoholic drink per day poses a danger.

"That's the take-home message," said Naomi Allen of the University of Oxford, who led the study being published March 4 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. "If you are regularly drinking even one drink per day, that's increasing your risk for cancer."

Understandably, the study may leave many women scratching their heads - and perhaps needing a drink more than ever - given all the talk about red wine being something akin to a fountain of youth.

"I thought drinking wine was good for you," said Mirella Romansini, 27, of Chevy Chase, Md., outside a Washington liquor store. "Now they are saying it increases your risk for cancer? Yes, I would say I'm surprised."

Romansini is hardly alone. At least half of U.S. women drink sometimes, and even the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, the government's official bible on what we should be putting into our mouths, say alcohol can have beneficial effects, allowing women up to one drink a day (men get two, of course).

Confused? It turns out the guidelines were never intended to recommend that anyone drink for their health.

Yes, it's true that studies have indicated that moderate drinking may cut the risk of heart disease and other ailments. But officials have long worried about sending the wrong message, giving people who should never drink - young people, pregnant women, those prone to alcoholism - permission to abuse alcohol. As a result, they have long tried to walk a fine line between acknowledging the possible benefits of alcohol without encouraging people to start drinking or to abuse it. The guidelines were intended to set an upper limit on what might be safe, not a recommended daily dose.

"It's a level of consumption that generally has been found in scientific studies to be associated with a relatively low risk of harms," said Robert Brewer of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But low risk does not mean no risk."

Based on the findings, the researchers estimated that about 5 percent of all cancers diagnosed in women each year in the United States is due to low to moderate alcohol consumption.

Most are breast cancers, with drinking accounting for 11 percent of cases - about 20,000 extra cases each year - the researchers estimated.

In any group of 1,000 U.S. women up to age 75 who consumed an average of one drink a day, the researchers calculated there would be 15 extra cancers; two drinks per day would result in 30 extra cancers and so forth.

The risk appeared the same regardless of whether women drank wine, beer or any other type of alcohol. Allen noted that even less than one drink per day may increase the risk.

"There doesn't seem to be a threshold at which alcohol consumption is safe," she said.

Several researchers noted that the findings were essentially consistent with previous studies, and despite its size the study does have shortcomings. The researchers could not, for example, distinguish between women who drank only one or two drinks every day and those who drank seven drinks all at once.

Some researchers worried that the findings could possibly frighten women and deprive them of the possible health benefits of an occasional drink.

Katie Kirkpatrick

The girl in the picture is Katie Kirkpatrick, she is 21 . Next to her, her fiancé, Nick, 23.The picture was taken shortly before their wedding ceremony, held on January 11, 2005 in the US . Katie has terminal cancer and spend hours a day receiving medication.In the picture, Nick is waiting for her on one of the many sessions of chemo to end.

In spite of all the pain, organ failures, and morphine shots, Katie is going along with her wedding and took care of every detail. The dress had to be adjusted a few times due to her constant weight loss.

An unusual accessory at the party was the oxygen tube that Katie used throughout the ceremony and reception as well. The other couple in the picture are Nick's parents. Excited to see their son marrying his high school sweetheart.

Katie, in her wheelchair with the oxygen tube , listening to a song from her husband and friends.

At the reception, Katie had to take a few rests. The pain did not allow her to stand for long periods.

Katie died five days after her wedding day. Watching a woman so ill and weak getting married and with a smile on her face makes us think..... Happiness is reachable, no matter how long it lasts ..

We should stop making our lives complicated.


Life is short


Break the rules


Forgive quickly


Love truly


Laugh constantly


And never stop smiling


No matter how strange life is


Life is not always the party we expected to be


But as long as we are here, we should smile and be grateful.

Clients of Surrogacy Agency Missing Millions of Dollars After Company Suddenly Closes

The Web site was impressive. An agency called SurroGenesis listed 60 locations worldwide where infertile couples and individuals could find women willing, for a fee, to serve as gestational surrogates. Aspiring parents put up tens of thousands of dollars hoping the agency could help them start families.

Today, SurroGenesis’ main office, in Modesto, Calif., is closed. So is an escrow company, Michael Charles Independent Financial Holding Group, that was supposed to be safeguarding the clients’ money. It turns out that many SurroGenesis locations were post-office boxes. An FBI spokesman, Steve Dupre, said the agency was evaluating the case but had not opened an investigation.

U.S. and international clients of SurroGenesis are missing as much as $2 million after the company suddenly shut down without explanation, according to lawyers familiar with the case, the New York Times reports.

Money gone

SurroGenesis told clients March 13 via e-mail that their money was gone. The shutdown affected about 70 people, some of whom had paid as much as $90,000 for promised gestational surrogacy services. “Many of them have lost their savings, and any chance of having a family is completely destroyed,” said Andrew Vorzimer, a lawyer working with those affected. “We’ve got couples in the midst of pregnancies with no ability to pay the surrogate, or even make insurance payments, which have gone unpaid.”

On the heels of the birth in January of octuplets, conceived by in vitro fertilization to a single California woman who has six other children, the case highlights the lack of oversight in the business of creating babies. There is no licensing requirement for egg-donor and surrogacy companies.

According to the Times, several couples learned about SurroGenesis on the Internet. As part of the agreement for surrogacy services, parents were instructed to deposit money to cover costs in an escrow account. SurroGenesis in a March 13 e-mail told clients that their money was gone and advised them to hire lawyers. The e-mail also said that clients should contact the Modesto Police Department because the escrow company that was supposed to be holding clients’ money — the Michael Charles Independent Financial Holding Group — was no longer paying its bills. California records show that SurroGenesis founder Tonya Collins is also listed as the registered agent for the Michael Charles group, even though it “was supposed to be an independent and bonded escrow company,” according to the Times. FBI spokesperson Steve Dupre said the agency is evaluating the case but has not launched an official investigation. Andrew Vorzimer, a lawyer working with some of the clients, said, “Many of them have lost their savings, and any chance of having a family is completely destroyed.” He added, “We’ve got couples in the midst of pregnancies with no ability to pay the surrogate, or even make insurance payments, which have gone unpaid.” According to the Times, Vorzimer said there is one surrogate carrying twins for a couple who lost more than $50,000. The surrogate is on bed rest, but the couple now is unable to reimburse her for lost wages.

Sources: New York Times, 3/21/2009

Seattle Times, 3/22/2009

Reproductive Health News, 3/24/2009

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