The fear, and small victories, of flying with kids

The fear, and small victories, of flying with kids

Do you know what I really hate about flying with kids? It’s not the hundreds of tiny plastic animals that erupt from my son’s Trunki and find their way down the front of my shirt. It’s not the awful foil-wrapped plastic tray food that somehow lands up in my lap instead of my mouth. It’s noteven the woefully inadequate baggage allowance (thousands of plastic animals tend to weigh a lot) carriers offer these days. No. What I hate about flying en famille is my co-passengers. There are two kinds of co-passengers: those with children and those without. And I hate both of them. The ones with children have the same dazed look in their eyes until they see you. And then the look changes to one that’s more challenging. It’s a look that says “Game on, bitch. Let’s see whose kids areworse behaved.” These parents are the ones who will offer you faux looks of sympathy as your children play human ten-pin bowling down the aisle while their spawn do flash cards in French. Of course, I choose not to engage in such petty battles, and instead allow them to win by default and send up a quick prayer asking the God Lord to see fit that their kids barf all over mommy’s iPad. Those flying solo and couples whose travel plans do not need to make allowances for buggies and binkies though invite my wrath. These people are the ones browsing in book shops while they wait for their plane to begin boarding. As they buy OK!, Hello, and other airport lounge guilty pleasures, I am busy trying to stop my son from boarding a plane to Vizag. And then there’s the ordeal that is boarding your actual flight. Getting on the bus service with two kids, buggie, backpack (because ofcourse you wouldn’t be caught dead with a blue and pink diaper bag) and aforementioned Trunki is only slightly easier than trying to find your seats on the plane. I know. I know. I chose to procreate. TWICE. And then, to make matters worse, I chose to fly alone with my kids instead of insisting that their father accompany us because, in my own words “they’re only children, how hard can it be? I mean I’m not flying with flesh-eating alien spores.” No, no. Flesh-eating alien spores are much easier to control. Of course after all this drama you finally fasten your seatbelts and what happens? The gentleman in row E has the temerity to fall asleep. Sleep. Something so precious on land and here is someone who has the gall to fall in to a state of somnolence even before we’re airborne. If that wasn’t bad enough, there are the women who clearly follow Vogue’s ‘How to travel in style’ section, because of course beige cashmere is the only thing one should wear on a Boeing. So while I’m dressed in the standard not-so-yummy-mummy uniform in ‘this season’s must have shade of sludge’, mom jeans and shoes bought in the ‘Podiatrist’s recommend’ corner of the shoe store, I am forced to watch attractively dressed women sashay down to the aisle to their seats. I can’t say for sure which I find worse. The purgatory that is air travel with one’s children. Or the constant reminder that I too was once a smug, solo traveler who used to look down my nose at the deranged looking woman running after a half-naked toddler in the lounge. It would be remiss of me if I did not mention my small moment of satisfaction as the plane began its descent. My soon to be four-year-old in all his wisdom decided that it would be funny to stand up and dramatically shout “Ahh! Save us! Help! Oh no! The plane is crashing”. Loud enough to wakeup the man in row E and have the fashion plate ahead of us clutch her LV. Cheapthrill? Yes! Worth the stern talking to from the head steward? Totally.

Pakistan to learn from India’s polio success

Pak to learn from India’s polio success

A nine-member Pakistani delegation led by Shahnaz Wazir Ali, social activist and special assistant to Pakistani prime Minister, will visit India to learn from the country’s experience in eradicating polio. The delegation will hold talks with health ministry officials on Thursday and witness a pulse polio camp in Ghaziabad. With not a single case of polio reported from India for more than a year now, the country was taken off the list of polio-endemic countries by the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently. However, neighbouring countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan – and Nigeria are still fighting the polio virus. As a preventive measure, India has set up polio booths at Attari and Wagah borderd touching Pakistan where small children are immunised before entering India. Pakistan’s polio figures rose from 144 in 2010 to 198 in 2011, while already 16 cases have been reported thus far this year. It is believed that the Sindh region in Karachi has the highest cases every year due to migration from neighbouring areas. Meanwhile, probably inspired by India’s immunisation drives, particularly Pulse Polio, the United Nations World Health Assembly (WHA) has decided to hold World Immunisation Week each year in the last week of April. The WHA has also urged member states to eliminate the non-immunised areas and maintain very high population immunity against polio viruses through routine immunisation programmes and, where necessary, supplementary immunisation activities. They were also urged to maintain vigilance for poliovirus importations, and the emergence of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus.

Create a Bliss Body - Swami Sukhabodhananda

Create a Bliss Body

Swami Sukhabodhananda

Why do we suffer in pain and recreate it moment to moment? As I told you, thought creates energy. If thought is negative, then energy is negative. The negative energy creates pain. A hurt body looks at the world through pain. A hurt body will try its best to sustain pain. It is a matter of survival. So, it loves to attract pain and sustain pain. It will use logic to protect it. Look at unhappy people. They will convince you to be miserable. How do we get out of the hurt body? What is a way out? All that you can do is to create a bliss body in you. There are 5 layers in you — Physical body, Pranic body (breath body), Mental body, Intellectual body and Bliss body. All these layers in us have energies. It is in potential form. Just as there is latent fire in wood and by rubbing the wood it is invoked. In the same way you have to awaken the physical body through exercise, yoga, dance, balanced diet. Keep the body alive and enthusiastic. You will then awaken a happy energy through the body. The pranic or breath body has to be awakened. Breathe deeply by pranayama and find a different kind of joy surfacing in you. Shallow breathing creates lower energy field while deep breathing enhances one’s aliveness. Mental body can be awakened if you keep your mind calm. A calm mind has a different joy; a noisy mind is an avenue for leakage of energy. When your intellect is open and receptive, yet another dimension of blissful energy arises. One who is open and receptive is always learning. Children learn very fast as their intellect is open and receptive. Bliss body in oneself has to be opened up. In deep sleep, bliss body opens up naturally. In waking state, if one is committed to be happy and learn to look at life in a celebrative way, a bliss centre will be awakened. When these five layers are opened, as the Vedas — the Hindu scriptures say, a bliss body is created. This is the way to heaven. Swami Sukhabodhananda is the founder chairman of Prasanna Trust and has been nicknamed ‘Corporate Guru’. www.prasannatrust.org

How US doller value increase affects our life?

RUPEE plunges to all-time low; worrying time for us



The rupee hit a new all-time closing low of Rs56.23 per
dollar on Wednesday due to a surge in month-end
demand for dollars from oil importers. The currency had
fallen more last Thursday — to 56.40 — during intraday
trade, but recovered to close at 55.66/$. How does this
fall affect us? As they say, there are losers and winners

Where you stand to LOSE 

Electronic items Fancy gizmos such as iPads,
LED television sets and all durables and electronics goods
that are imported will cost more if the rupee continues to
keep falling against the dollar

Education The cost of overseas education has shot up
and those taking loans to study abroad will be particularly
hurt. Moreover, expenses will also rise for students enrolling
in universities overseas

Travel Foreign travel and vacations will be costlier as
prices for air and train tickets to hotel rooms will increase.
The cost of boarding is set to soar as well. In such a
scenario, exploring India will be cheaper

Where you stand to GAIN

Gold & global funds Have a chunk of savings in
gold, or, better still, gold ETFs or exchange traded funds.
Mutual funds denominated in dollars may be a better bet as
they’d be prone to deliver better returns

Foreign remittance NRIs have a lot to cheer as
their dollars earn more rupees now. Three months back, an
NRI could get Rs49.20 for every dollar sent home. Today, he
gets Rs7 or 15% more