This Is How Your Bags & Shoes Are Made

The Lifetime Ban

Starbucks Logo & The Egyptian National TV

Valerie O'Neil, a Starbucks spokeswoman, said that the logo is an image of a "twin-tailed siren" (the siren of Greek mythology). The logo has been significantly streamlined over the years. In the first version, which was based on a 16th century Norse woodcut, the Starbucks siren was topless and had a fully visible double fish tail. The image also had a rough visual texture. The siren has been likened to a Melusine. In the second version, which was used from 1987-92, her breasts were covered by her flowing hair, but her navel was still visible, and the fish tail was cropped slightly. In the current version, used since 1992, her navel and breasts are not visible at all, and only vestiges remain of the fish tails. The original "woodcut" logo can still be seen on the Starbucks store in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and on both the House Blend and Decaf House Blend packaging.

At the beginning of September 2006 and then again in early 2008, Starbucks temporarily reintroduced its original brown logo on paper hot drink cups. Starbucks has stated that this was done to show the company's heritage from the Pacific Northwest and to celebrate 35 years of business. The vintage logo sparked some controversy due in part to the siren's bare breasts, but the temporary switch garnered little attention from the media. Starbucks had drawn similar criticism when they reintroduced the vintage logo in 2006. The logo was altered when Starbucks entered the Saudi Arabian market in 2000 to remove the mermaid, leaving only her crown, as reported in a Pulitzer Prize-winning column by Colbert I. King in the Washington Post in 2002. The company announced 3 months later that it would be using the international logo in Saudi Arabia.

The Indian Airforce

Splendid Work In The Skies!!!

Obama 100 day special

An old priest who for years had faithfully served the people of the nation's capital, lay dying in the hospital. He motioned for his nurse to come near. "Yes, Father?" said the nurse. "I would really like to see Barack Obama and Joe Biden before I die," he whispered. "I'll see what I can do, Father" replied the nurse, and she respectfully forwarded the request to the DNC and waited for a response.
Surprisingly, soon the word arrived. Obama and Biden would be delighted to visit the priest. As they made their way to the hospital, Obama commented to Biden, "I don't know why the old priest wants to see us, but the media coverage will certainly help our images." Biden agreed.
When they arrived at the priest's room, the priest took Biden's hand in his right hand and Obama's hand in his left. There was silence and a look of serenity on the ancient cleric's face.
Finally Biden spoke. "Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?" Taking a deep breath, the old priest painfully replied, "I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Saviour."
"Amen," said Obama. "Amen," said Biden. The old priest continued, "He died between two lying thieves and I would like to do the same."

The MOGS Indo-Israeli Gynecological Endoscopy Workshop & Conference

The MOGS academic year began with a memorable and hugely successful event. Our first academic event -The MOGS Indo-Israeli Workshop on Gynecologic Endoscopy was held on 25th & 26th April 2009 at ITC Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai. This was organized by the MOGS Team 2009-10 headed by Dr Gautam Allahbadia (President, MOGS 2009-10) (yours truly) and Dr Ashwini Bhalerao-Gandhi (Secretary, MOGS 2009-10). Dr Sulbha Arora and Dr Reena Wani worked hard as Program Conveners to make the conference a grand success. Here I must mention that the Congress/Workshop planning was entirely Sulbha's baby & was done with pinpoint precision. Yashesh Shah from Drake Medical (Distributors of Richard Wolf GmBH, Germany) and his excellent team of engineers really worked on this project like possessed men. All the instrumentation was pre-approved from the Israeli surgeons in Tel Aviv & the missing instrumentation was especially flown in from the Richard wolf head-offices in Germany. Gurunandan Masurkar & his AV Medicon engineering team laid down a fibre-optic cable between KEM Hospital Gynecology OR and the Banquet Hall at ITC Grand Central. The trial run was made on Friday to rule out any bloopers on the workshop day.

The Pre-Congress Workshop on Saturday 25th april 2009 was conducted at the KEM Hospital with the support of the entire Gynecology Department headed by Prof SV Parulekar. The Coordinators for the Workshop were Dr Anahita Chauhan and Dr Niranjan Mayadeo. The Operating Team included Dr Motti Goldenberg & Dr Chen Goldchmit from Israel as well as Dr Rajendra Sankpal, Dr Pritesh Naik, Dr Vivek Salunke & Dr Ameya Padmawar from Deccan Fertility Clinic & Keyhole Surgery Center (Richard Wolf Center of Excellence for Gynecological Endoscopy), Shivaji Park , Mumbai. Surgical procedures were demonstrated by the operating team and relayed live to the attending delegates at ITC with a one way video link & a two way audio link.. The same procedures were also relayed simultaneously to the KEM Main Lecture Theatre for the benefit of post graduate students & the KEM Faculty. We are grateful to Drake Medical & Richard Wolf for undertaking the entire sponsorship for this cutting edge CME program. The morning live surgery session at ITC Grand Central was ably chaired by Dr Kiran Coelho, Dr Makrand Masrani and Dr Swati Allahbadia . The post-lunch live surgery session was chaired by Dr Sudhir Gokral, Dr Kevin Quadros and Dr Sudha Tandon. Almost the entire gamut of Gynecological Endoscopic Surgical cases were demonstrated by the Indo-Israeli team. Ovarian Endometrioma Excision, Adhesiolysis, Laparoscopic Hysterectomies, Lap Myomectomies, Hysteroscopic Adhesiolysis, Hysteroscopic Myoma Resection and Hysteroscopic Tubal Recanalization amongst other diagnostic cases were demonstrated via a digital beam to ITC Grand Central which is almost a kilometer away from the OR. The Israeli team felicitated the Head of Dept., Prof SV Parulekar for having hosted one of the most successful & flawless workshops for the MOGS (see Video). One must mention the generous & unstinting support from the Director & Dean, Seth GS Medical College & KEM Hospital - Prof. Sanjay Oak. With such a young and dynamic Director of Medical Education, I'm sure KEM Hospital will be a role model for other Medical Institutions in the country! The best part according to me was the live interaction between the surgical team and the discerning audience!

The Workshop/Conference had an attentive "glued-to-the-seat" 150+ delegates and 22 post graduate students. The Scientific Program covered varied topics & interesting cases of Gynecologic Endoscopy; and the contents were highly appreciated by attending delegates.The conference on Sunday, 26th April 2009 started with a session on Invited Videos. International and national experts enthralled the audiences with their expertise. Dr Pritesh Naik's video was one of the highlights of this session.The official Conference inauguration began with the President's Introductory speech followed by the National anthems of both countries. This moment brought tears to many eyes & there was a strange surge of pride running through the hall hearing & watching the Jana Gana Mana first & then the Hatikva! Im sure the Israeli duo were moved by a hall full of Indian Medical Professionals standing alongside them honoring both the countries for this joint continuing medical education mission.

The MOGS Indo-Israeli Keynote Address was delivered on 'Modern Endoscopic Management of Asherman's Syndrome' by Dr Chen Goldchmit, President of the Israel Society of Gynecologic Endoscopy.

This was followed by an interesting Panel Discussion on Complications of Gynecologic Endoscopy moderated by Dr Rajendra Sankpal. The panelists were Dr Motti Goldenberg, Dr Chen Goldchmit, Dr Prakash Trivedi, Dr Pritesh Naik, Dr Vasant Kawade, Dr Kiran Coelho and Dr Kusum Zaveri.

Invited Lectures were delivered by Dr Mufazzal Lakdawala on 'Stretching the Limits of Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery'; Dr Ravi Ramadwar on 'Pediatric Laparoscopy: Sky is not the Limit' and Dr Rajendra Sankpal on 'Laparoscopic Myomectomy: When do you call it a day?'. Seeing is Believing - We had focussed on videos in this meeting & we had a veritable feast. The MOGS will now be offering the Workshop & Congress proceedings on sale in India & abroad. Proceeds of the same will be used for charity.

Post Lunch there was a Competitive Video Session in two halls simultaneously. Eight-minute videos with finished soundtracks pertaining to Gynecologic Endoscopy were presented by various speakers and judged by a panel of four experts in each hall. All the videos presented were of excellent quality making it a tough competition. The three award winning videos were presented by:

1st - Dr Makrand Masrani - Lost & Found Department of Operative Laparoscopy (41.50/50)
2nd - Dr Nagendra Sardeshpande - Laparoscopic Correction of Uterine Inversion (39.25/50)
3rd - Dr Kundan Ingale - Role of Endoscopy in Genital Tuberculosis (39.00/50)

Makarand walked away with a hand-engraved silver plaque presented by our Israeli Duo - Motti & Chen.

The coup-de-resistance was the much-awaited MOGS Dr Subhash J Penkar & Dr Marie Pereira Silver Jubilee Oration which was delivered by Dr Motti Goldenberg, recipient of two Golden Hysteroscope Awards at the International Congress of Gynecologic Endoscopy. The subject of his oration was 'Hysteroscopic Resection of Intramural Myoma'. The wonderful talk with the rarest of rare videos was enjoyed by all.

Eleven pharmaceutical and instrumentation companies exhibited stalls during the conference. The Banqueting facilities were appreciated by one and all. The famous Bukhara & Peshawari cusine took even the most hardened-conference-attendees by surprise. The food was outstanding. Our kudos to the ITC Grand Central team - in particular Mr Zubin Songadwala (GM) and Mr Vishrut Gupta who is coordinating all 7 academic events this year for MOGS!