sexypablo’s blog

It was raining heavily on September 24 in the year 2007.  The rain started falling from yesterday.  It was stopping for a few minutes and then again falling.  People running to the local grocery for their rice and egg and other food items.  Newspapers came pretty late today around 8:30 p.m.  We generally read Times of India and at the top of the page which has become wet due to rain, I saw the T20 cup reminders and the hot story that India playing against Pakistan.  The good news is that later that day India won the match. 

I was trying to prepare myself for my office.  Being a medical transcriptionist I work in a office at Gariahat in Kolkata.  My shift was afternoon starting at 10 a.m.  and ending at 8 p.m.  My father told me not to go to office.  I became very angry and said, "No, I must go to office!  You can sit and get your salary being a government worker but my company is not government sponsored, it is a private firm.  I must go!  I have some responsibility!"  I dressed myself and took breakfast.  I took an umbrella.  I usually carry a 3-fold umbrella as it is easy to carry in a bag.  I will buy a raincoat as I find that umbrella is no good when it rains heavily.  Your shirt gets wet and in an air-condition room one catches cold easily!  Anyway I went out wading through the dirty water clogged street of Northern Avenue in Kolkata.  I started walking and went to the bus stand.  I went into the bus but found that half of my pant got wet.  In these rainy days, I had to use each pant and wash them everyday.  Now washing machine has made it very easy to wash.  Earlier you have to add soap and water in a bucket but mind that it is a good exercise to wash clothes and it helps you reduce fat from your body.    Anyway, I should not give advise in this way.  The rain was falling slowly and I went into the metro rail from Shyambazar.  The metro railway provides its service from Dumdum to Tollygunge in Kolkata.  The metro railways being more efficient the buses become empty during office hours.  I took money from ATM and boarded the metro from Shyambazar.  The metro ride being pollution free nowadays most of the people prefer it.  The fare becomes cheaper if you use a multi-ride ticket.  Spending Rs. 100 in metro you will get a card and you buy another 100 rupees ride you will get ride of Rs. 25 extra.  In a Rs. 200, you will get Rs. 50 extra.  So in this way your traveling to office becomes quite cheap.  So I have bought a card which is magnetic and through a special gate which is at every station, you pass by punching it and the balance is struck off!  So in Kolkata, traveling short or long distance has become quite cheap!  Finally I reached my office in time and in metro you reach always in time.  For this reason, there is such a rush.  On the road, the signals and traffic jams spoil a lot of time. 

I found that most of my friends came and after signing in attendance register, I started my work.  It feels good when you come in a rainy day in spite of all obstacles to work.  You feel you are doing something useful rather than a government office worker who just sign in and sign out giving hardly anything to the country.  We try to make our job Export Quality.  'Export' is what I mean to say as the doctor's dictation gets typed here as per the American hospital rules and uploaded.  This work done in India saves a lot of dollars and a large number of Indians engaged in this profession earns a living. 

We work till we achieve our target as with this target and if you have the capability to score more you will be rewarded for it.  So people try to work up to their capacity and the number of lines and the accuracy of each report is calculated to estimate the salary at the end of the month.  Anyway my target was 550 and I achieved 572.  I felt happy.  In the lunch time, the rain was falling slowly and I took an umbrella to the local canteen at Gariahat where food is available.  I took my lunch and came back.  The drainage system still not improved in such a location as Gariahat and water starting to choke the area.  I usually take a pan (a spicy preparation of betel leaf) but as it was beginning to rain heavily I never went there.  I entered my office.  The liftman goes to lunch and so I walked through the stairs.  Walking up the staircase is good for your leg muscles.  I worked till 4 p.m. and took tea.  The tea is given not by any human being but a machine bought by my company from Nescafe. A coin inserted from the side gives you a cup of coffee or tea as you want.  Two coins allotted for each person.  The taste of the coffee or tea??  Robotic!! As I should say, done my machine, where you cannot say sugar less or give more sugar! As per standards programmed in it.  Man is also like a machine, isn't it?? He carries on his roles and achieves up to his gene permits.  In road, we have road permit that allows drivers to achieve upto a certain speed in their vehicles.  In human life, his hereditary unit, the gene, is important that drives him and it is for this unit that he becomes a scientist or a layman or a writer or a philosopher!! We all know this but just trying to make a point in regard to this program.  Sometimes I have seen people quite stereotyped in my office and you cannot imagine how boring a man becomes in this medical transcription profession.  When I wanted to invite them to my birthday party, I mean "them" refers to my colleagues, they said later that they are busy or not possible as they have other important work.

My work finally ended at 7:30 p.m.  My colleagues were leaving early.  Some telling to supervisor about lot of water in front of office and near their home!  But when I came out I was surprise to see for the first time knee-deep water at Nandy Street, such is the name of street my office stands.  Actually we enter through the back side of the Ballygunge A.C. Market at Gariahat and the water has reached the stairs.  The buses and cars are moving by and making huge waves.  You will as if you are in the shallow river!  I think that the drainage system should be improved substantially.  Politicians do work only before elections and this work is nothing compared to the myriad problems we have in the city.  The councilors do very little for the city.  They only care for the city at the time of election when they need to get votes.  They smile, talk sweetly with a lot of proposals they try to win the heart of the citizens!  Anyway winning in the election is mainly through rigging and party influence in India.  The party which is dominant in a region gets the maximum votes.  Power is such a thing that it can turn a man into a devil.  I say "devil" as the ruling party members are responsible  for killing people and their sons do criminal activities and get scout free.  Politics in India has become just like any other profession.  Here you do not need an educational qualification.  What you need is influence and good network!  The party does nothing for the common man.  Let me give you an example.  Our tenant made a shop in ground floor.  We want him to leave but in spite of notice, he is not ready to leave.  We informed to the local party and the party member assured us that they will help us.  But what we see is they are doing something which is for show!  Practically they are doing nothing! 

I walked with the streets full of water and went to the bus stand at Gariahat.  Unfortunately there are no autorickshaw. There are water in the stand also.  Many men and women standing there waiting for the bus.  The cars are moving splashing water on us! We are standing as a crow soaked in water in the rain.  The buses are coming and I took a bus to Rashbehari.  The bus was overcrowded as people cannot walk in the dirty waters, so most of them prefer a bus ride!  Anyway I took a metro at 8:04 p.m. and finally reached Shyambazar.  But my worries did not end there!  I was surprised to find that a lot of people standing in bus stand at Shyambazar Five Point Crossing.  People running to and fro but unfortunately no bus of their desire.  I had planned to take a bus straight to my home.  But I found bus not coming which will take me to my home.  So I decided to go near my home.  I planned to go to B.T. Road.  I took a bus and went there!!  I found at the B.T. Road-Paikpara junction, a lot of people watching T.V.  The final match of India and Pakistan are going on and people are enjoying the match!  At the moment, I reached there India had already won and later I learnt when I reached home that the win is by 5 runs.  Still India celebrates in a big way when it gets a win against Pakistan!  Bombs are flung in air as the road is moist and full of water!  The local boys are singing and shouting loudly in joy!  They are dancing in the water!  I felt a bit nervous!  A guy in the street asked, "Hey!  Are you a Pakistan supporter?"  Then he threw dirty water towards me!  I shouted and protested, "What is this?"  Another guy chased me like a dog!  I just walked calmly.  An old man scolded and they finally stopped.  I was walking as the rickshaw puller demanded Rs. 20 instead of Rs. 5 due to heavy rain!  The charge is exorbitant!  So I decided to walk.  The rickshawpullers become sharks and the people who ride rickshaws are few in number.  But does that mean that they will overcharge the few people who wants to go?  I decided to walk.  I walked through the waters and found another group of guys.  This group is a mixture and they are singing but not shouting.  I finally reached the road where my house is located.  I found it pitch dark.  The electricity not there!  I carefully managed to get on the footpath as the road and the footpath is deep inside the water!  So I reached the my home and shouted. 

I washed my legs with antiseptic soap.  The dirty waters can harm your feet and cause foot infection!  In Hollywood movies, we see drains the size of a human being and even taller than him.  A huge tunnel is built to drain water!  But we do not have such drainage system!  Our sewage disposal system is not up to the mark!  If it rains heavily, waterlogging is a usual phenomenon.  Whenever it rains, what happens is street gets waterlogged and internet connection is lost!  We imitate Western culture but we cannot imitate their good habits!  We have copied Western clothes, music, and wine above it.  We take wine whenever we are sad and whenever we are happy!  Under the consumption of alcohol, a man gets out of control and does what he is not supposed to do!  The girls wear western wear and some guys rag them!  The colleges are full of girls wearing western wear and the Christmas and New Year is celebrated in India as if it is our festival still the Christians are a minority in the country!  Our society is changing.  Globalization has changed human life in India.  Now we have mobile and internet and some people have 2 mobiles.  Sophisticated mobile phones are seen in the hands of ordinary men and women which proves that electronic goods are becoming cheaper and cheaper day by day.   

Rainy season will be there but the rain is falling at the wrong time.  The usual season for rain is June and July in India.  But it is falling in September while in the rainy season, we do not see much rain.  Climate is changing.  Earth is gradually turning into a warm planet with the melting icebergs, and so low lying islands and people living near the water bodies are losing land.  The melting ice in Antarctica may seem to be insignificant to our life but it affects the climate as we constantly pollute the environment more and more.  So it is important to become conscious of the environment change and late little steps to protect our nature.  It is this wonderful earth which helped our ancestors to grow up.  It is this mother earth which helped us to evolve a culture suitable to our needs.  So lets save the nature and prevent the loss of human, animal and plant lives from this global warming!  I pray human being not to call God for a change but to use their brain to reduce the after effects of global warming!  The harm that we have already made to nature cannot be reduced but we can always try to prevent further damage of nature.

The serials in channels like Zee TV over the last few years show serials like Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Saloni, Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki etc.  These serials tell the story of family life.  They try to drag on episodes after episodes even when the main story has ended long time ago.  The story of these serials do not follow any definite line. 

The men in these serials wear office suits and ties with boots always in the house. The elders wear Indian dresses.  The dress codes for young girls are mostly western outfits like jeans and t-shirts.  In some serials, when the story depicts a traditional family then only they wear salwar kameez. 

It is astonishing to see that a family which has become penniless in the above mentioned serials show actors wearing high price clothes.  Men wearing expensive suits.  It seems the director has forgotten that they should wear ordinary or torn garments. 

The serials show that somebody coming for an interview and getting job right way!  But in real life, we have interviews and out of 20 negative responses, one may hit and you get the job!  Practical life is so different from the way the serials portray!  These serials should not be viewed by the elders and also the young generation. 

The way human life is portrayed as rosy with everything going fine.  The hospitals are portrayed as something which has all the medical facilities and the patient care is their first priority.  In real life, the patient's care is the most neglected in the hospitals in general. 

It is generally shown that when a young girl is raped, somebody jumps upon her and fights the eve teasers.  In practical life, when somebody is getting raped, there is hardly any protestor and if the protestor gets injured nobody there to help.  Even the person for whom the boy is giving his life at stake flies away carelessly. 

People are so selfish these days say when you are injured and lying in the road, there is hardly anyone who will take care of you and take you to the hospital.  So social security is something the old as well as the young generation lack.  In these serials, there is always somebody helping the aged and the poor!   Everyone has a big heart helping people in need! 

Television serials which hardly reflect reality should not be watched by the young generation.  It will have a false impression in their minds.  The young generation should be told the right things by the parents and they should develop a positive attitude towards life.  In fact the need for parental guidance is more important these days as there are a lot of distractions. 

I turned 26 yesterday.  Yesterday was my off day.  Before that I had 6 continuous days of night shift.  I work in a back office as a medical transcriptionist.  I celebrated my 26^th birthday with 8 guests along with my parents and grandmother.  The day started with my return from office after the Saturday night shift.  The work pressure was as usual.  I left my office around 6 and got a bus and came straight to my home.  I took a breakfast with sweets and other delicacies prepared by my dear mother.  I went to a long sleep and woke up at 5 p.m. 

I woke up and took a lunch and started chatting with my friends through the internet.  I chatted for quite some time upto 2 p.m.  I decided to go to bed and take rest again!  I have to take a nap at noon in my night shifts.  You know you feel quite tired and you feel weak after waking up from the bed and you feel a little dizzy also and you have finger pains as you type all through the night meeting up the company targets.  We actually create documents which the Americans use to claim insurance.  So everyone knows that the job has its importance. 

In the evening, a man came who massages me and he massaged me nicely and he takes only Rs. 50 for a full body massage.  He has an expert hand.  His name is "Babu."  He lives in Sundarban and now lives at Birpara.  He has learnt how to massage and now my dad also asks him to massage him.  Anyway massage helps your body to become soft and supple.  It helps you to relax. 

Around 6:30 I dressed up with the Punjabi and pyjama, all white in color, which my parents have bought from Big Bazaar.  I liked them and I think we should mostly wear Indian clothes at home.  Those western wears like jeans, t-shirt, shirt, may be good for offices but not for home.  Indian clothes are good for Indian weather.  What do u think?

I went to buy 2 bars of ice cream of Metro Diary.  I bought the chocolate flavor.  The guests appreciated the ice creams given at the end of the party.  On my 25^th party, I had bought a big cake.  This time no cake but my mother prepared fried rice, chilli chicken, cutlet, etc.  The visitors liked them and above all I liked them too! 

In our party, I played my synthesizer in front of my guests.  The guests liked the western and Indian Tagore songs I played on the keyboard.  I usually play with both hands along with beats which I learnt from my teacher Mr. Tarak Roy who used to work in Sudhin Dasgupta band.  I liked the way he taught  and he used to teach his students individually with a lot of care and patience.

In our party, the special guest was Mr. Soumitra Dastidar who is a director of documentary films and I was quite pleased to meet a person who traveled around the country and made good films.  His wife was my college teacher at Narasinha Dutt College.  Her name is Professor Barnali Ghosh Dastidar.  She takes Bengali classes.  Besides teaching, she also takes interest in creative writing like short stories, novel, poetry, etc. She helped me with her valuable notes in my college days. 

Our party ended with blessing from my guests.  They left around 10 p.m.  Such a nice party can be arranged only by such wonderful parents.  I am proud of my parents who regularly arranges a birthday party every year!  I feel great when friends and other family members gather on this wonderful day making it a memorable moment in my life.

I often watch Hollywood and Bollywood movies.  I hardly find any difference.  The action of Stallone and Bruce Lee gets imitated in Bollywood in India.  We often see our Indian actors like Salman Khan, Hritick Roshan, Amir Khan, Arjun Rampal etc. showing their muscular bodies in the current movies. 

Now the emphasis is more on showing body both for actors as well as actresses rather than good acting.  Acting skills were there in the days of  Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, etc.  You would have thought a bit after watching a good actor.  The Bengalis still remember Uttam Kumar.  They still regard him as "Mahanayak."  We love to see good acting but in return spending our money what we see is muscular men fighting like Hollywood movies with Hollywood stunts and the Indian style of dances in between the action scenes as muttons in between two pieces of breads as in burgers!! 

Sometimes the old generation who crave to see good acting but cannot see them feels frustrated!! They always criticize while the young generation go to gym both boys and girls to develop bodies like Salman and Akshay for boys and Katrina etc. for girls. 

Many girls and boys dive into modeling career as a stepping stone for acting in serials and then films.  They love to think big.  They love to think of earning crores.  Only few of them have the network for reaching the top!  Life is hard in glamour industry.  You need good managers who will back you up so that you become a good actor.  There must be good publicity manager so that you can get good offers in films as well as advertisement.  Nowadays getting advertisements is an incentive to both the actors and cricketers.  The endorsements give nice pay packets that the players take the cricket casually and fans get angry!  As a result their contract with the ad agencies vanish and they have to sit idle when they are dropped from the National team. 

Glam quotient is important these days.  Everyone going to gym means large number of handsome men and beautiful women queueing either to modeling or acting.  As a result, casting couch is a common phenomenon.  The directors and people who take  the young ones to their film exploit these people. 

Good story is lacking and good directors also.  We stress more on physical beauty rather than good acting and story line.  For a good story line, a viewer will watch the film a number of times.  But a good action and good physique can draw viewers but not very long!

A research done at Oxford University states that tax on salt, peppery, and fatty foods could save thousands of lives in Britain.  The Value Added Tax is imposed on consumer goods.  The charge imposed is 17.5% on the price of goods.  This can cut the customer demand.  So this will reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes. 

Tax have already been imposed on the following items:

1. Potato crisps.
2. Ice cream.
3. Confectionary.
4. Chocolate biscuit.

The people of Britain take fatty foods so much that 3200 lives are lost.   The Department of Public Health have imposed tax on cigarette and alcohol to encourage healthy living. 

Now if Britain can do it, then why not India?  Why do we are not concerned so much of our health?  We always mimick the Western culture, then why not we also adopt this policy so that our citizens live a better life?

It has been found that Indians also take a lot of fatty foods.  Most of the shops around are full of foods rich in saturated food.  Very few shops are found that have healthy foods.  Nowadays offices like our office have stopped canteen facility, so we have to move around in search of food.  All I find mostly are junk foods made rich with oil and spices.  We all know that these foods are injurious for our health but we take them to meet our hunger.  All offices should provide a canteen facility.  This should be the responsibility of a good company.  In front of schools, we see vendors selling fried potato crisps, etc.  After the school, the students come out and eat them out of hunger but this is very injurious to health.  India have taken steps in control of smoking but still it is not adequate.  We need to be more stringent in antismoking measures.  We must increase the price of the cigarettes. 

We should be health conscious and do regular exercise.  We can help reduce the number of people taking junk foods by developing the habit of cooking healthy food at home.  Whether it is girl or boy, proper eating habit should be taught early in life.

A scientist tries to find out why we often have back aches.  He wanted to find out when and how early man developed the habit of walking upright.  A 21-million year old fossil have been found which gave the first clue.  The scientists studied the fossil's back bone and were amazed!  Dr. Aaron Filler of Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles lead the study.  He found that a major change in the vertebrae that allowed this prehuman to stand straight and carry things.  The same change is responsible for him to crush and strain the spongy discs between each vertebra.  This findings explains the reason for back pain being a form of disability.  This study was published in Neurosurgical Focus.  He said that muscle attach to the spine in the transverse process.  Transverse process, to tell you in brief, is a bone structure that sticks out from the hollow, round vertebrae. Filler opined that vertebra is transformed in a way that reverses the way the spine functions.  The bone lever of the vertebrae gets switched from bending the spine forward to bending the spine back.  We can stand erect because of our spine and this back bone's adjustment helps us to walk by suitable adjustment. 

We find that most vertebrates are oriented forward.  This enables them to walk on all fours.  The transverse process is at the front of each vertebra facing the human's belly.  Just if we close our eyes and visualize, you see you have a spine which has 4 curves and the transverse process are towards the front.  This is true not only for man but also for monkeys!   

A fossil have been discovered which dates back 21 million years.  Its scientific name is Morotopithecus bishopi.  Some facts of this fossil can be stated as follows:

1.  Habitat:  It is tree dwelling.

2.  Place of living:  Uganda.

3.  Type of creature:  Ape-like.

4.  Vertebral structural change:  The transverse process has moved backward behind the opening for spinal cord. 

5.  Similarity:  With great apes.

6.  Time of discovery:  1960s.  Its importance was realized in 1997.  Laura McLatchy at State University of New York at Stony Brook  reported of its remarkable features.

We concluded that upright posture bipedalism goes back to 20 million years.  We previously thought it is 5 to 6 million years.  In this study and a book published in this regard named "The Upright Ape?A New Origin of the Species."  Filler argues that ancestors millions of years ago could walk upright!  Homo sapiens continued to walk upright while apes continued to walk on all fours.  So there is a divergence when we have two groups one standing on its own and walking since 20 millions years and another group called apes evolved back and walked on all fours.  Please make a note the apes evolved back while man evolved forward!  Isn't it interesting?  A careful look at ape's spine reveals they look like monkeys!

Many women want an hourglass figure.  The scientists have found a procedure to take fat from around the middle and turn them into bigger breasts.  The operation takes a short time.  It can be done under local anesthesia.  The cost is similar to silicon implants.  It costs around 2000 pounds per breast.  As a result, a B-cup breast can be increased to D-cup!  It will be available in the next year.  This process is known as Celution.  This process includes injecting a supercharged fat mixture into the breast tissue.  The fat is taken out first through liposuction.  The stem cells are filtered out and then put into cartridge.  This injection process takes place within an hour.  Initially the breasts look small but they gradually inflate within a six-month period.

This process was not new but the effect was short-lived in the past.  It was absorbed in the blood stream.  But with stem cells, it grows and stays permanently as an addition.  The US company Cytori has patented the Celution.  Its director for clinical applications is Dr. Kai Pinkernell.  He opines that the fat graft survives well and it fills in the volume defect left by the partial mastectomy. 

This process seems to have  a number of benefits.   About 300000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in Europe every year!  But Cytori targets also the cosmetic breast enhancement market.

Now there is an interesting lesson we can learn from the rats!  The rats are caring and selfless as studied by the zoologists.  They are kind to even their strangers in their community. 

The experiment goes like this.  The Swiss researchers put female rats in a cage.  They are separated by wire mesh.  In one half of the tray, a rat could pull a liver attached to the baited tray that delivers food to her sister.  But this tray did not give food to her.  Each rat was trained in alternate sessions.  First they are taught as a receipient of food and then as a provider.  The sisters learned to cooperate.  They are observed to pull significantly when their littermate was present than when the opposite cage was empty! 

The next step was to put rats who have been assisted by their partners and those rats who have not been recently helped with unfamiliar rats.  Those who have been helped are 21% more likely to pull the liver for their new partner. 

The scientists tell that this is not an ordinary act.  These rats were not rewarded for their behavior.  These rats giving food to newcomers had no interactions with them before!  The scientists believed that the rats have developed Generalized Reciprocity.  They are helping those they have not helped in the future.  They are instinctively kind to them!  Isn't it amazing?  At the University of Bern in Switzerland, Claudia Rutte is a behavioral ecologist.  She studied this interesting case in rats.  She opined that they are interested in the evolution of operation.  They think that their research is with animals and not with humans. 

This finding was published in PLoS Biology at the July issue.  People who have been helped some time are more likely to help others immediately afterward.   It should be noted that these rats are not the usual pink eyed, cute, white lab rats!  They were bred from wild Rattus norvegicus, which is the brown or gray Norway rat. These rats are found in many American cities. 

Now we can say that its high time we stop using the word "rat" as an insult.  We have seen experimentally how kind are these little creatures.  They too are kind for their near ones and also to the strangers!!  We can say with a smile that a dirty rat has a lovely character! J

Back office is an office where job from U.S.A is done at a low cost.  In a back office, we jobs of American hospitals in case of medical transcription and in case of call center, we serve customers live by talking with them.  My job is medical transcription.  So let me tell you the companies these days are abandoning their canteen facility to make more profit.  These companies are asking their employees to take food from outside.

In my company, the canteen has been stopped and we are asked to take food from outside.  Think of the rainy season, a person will have to get wet in the rain for his hunger.

The employees think that the money given for food can be saved if they take food from outside but think of the difficulty, an employee has to go outside and take the food.  In the scorching heat, he has to go out as he is hungry. 

Canteen facility is good and in a company, if a person wants food again from the canteen, a canteen owner will not charge for that but in outside canteens, they charge always. 

Life is becoming so hard these days.  We have little choice.  Most of the companies are adopting this as they think it will reduce their cost.

After you lift heavy weights, drink milk.  Scientists in Canada find that drinking milk helps your body burn fat.  We all know that milk has the best calcium content.  It supports in growth of bone.  It also aids muscle growth. 

The research was done in McMaster University in Ontario.  The scientists took 56 men aged between 15 to30.  They divided them into three groups.  They were put to 5 day per week weightlifting program.  This rigorous program was done for 12 weeks.  This study has been published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  It showed that drinking soy lost no fat.  The muscle strength was increased by milk drinkers rather than soy takers. 

This study shows that when a child drinks a glass of milk a day, his body is healthy and strong.    As he does his normal activity, his bones become strong.  Milk  is considered an  effective loser of weight.  It helps your body burn fat.  So if you exercise regularly and drink milk, your weight will be reduced.