DesiReflections

Mumbai 28th January 2017 World over each country wants to expand footprints of its commerce, culture, food, way of life and  films by identifying one of its city with a city in another country which can be closer to their own with consent of that country, such cities  care called sister or twin cities. This gives an opportunity to initiate people to people dialogue, cultural exchange and increased tourist inflow. Germany and India have identified Stuttgart and Mumbai as twin cities in the year 1968 and experience great commitment in the cultural, social, political and economical fields ever since. The activities of the two cities focus mainly on education,businesses, tourism and film. Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg situated in the southwest of Germany. It is Germany’s sixth-largest city with around 600,000 inhabitants. Stuttgart and its surrounding area are one of the most high-performing economic regions in Europe. ...

If you ask me what music lovers in Mumbai lost in 2016, two iconic places which have become Mecca and Medina for them : Rhythm House at Kala Ghada and Blue Frog at Mathura Das Mills Compound Parel. Rhythm House started some 68 years back on corner of Kala Ghoda in Fort area. It had huge catalogue of music. Not surprising that music lovers from suburbs also flock there. Even the film industry also patronised this store. Kalyanji Anandji, Shammi Kapoor were regular visitors. International music celebrities to name a few like Jethro Tull, Police, Peter Andre also visited the store. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Zakir Hussain and AR Rahman were also regular. Rhythm House had dynamic owner and managing director, Mehmood Curmally. It was a close friend of the Curmallys, Sulaiman Nensy who founded the store in the early 1940s. Mehmood Curmally’s father, who’d visit it as a college student, gradually took over the business. Mammo, as he was fondly called, started out selling jukeboxes and LP player...

I remember a story which is claimed  to be world's  shortest story.  Two person were travelling in a train. To pass time one of them asked the other, 'Do you believe in ghost ? '. Looked toward him for answer but there was no body there ! But on digital platform , few years back Twitter appeared, which limited message to 140 letters. People started experimenting on this medium including composing stories.   It all started with Anuj Ghosalia. In the summer of 2013, Anuj was scrolling through his news- feed, he realised that memes, selfies and other avoidable materials were the most popular things on Facebook. Perturbed by the content that was available to netizens, especially to those who spend so much time on social media, he felt that it was important to create better content. The annoyance he felt that day, as a writer, helped him conceptualise the idea of 'Terribly Tiny Tales'.  These  are stories written within 140 characters (including spaces)....

Among the myriad bottles of oils lining grocery store shelves are some that offer a dose of  anti-inflammatory action and other health perks for people with arthritis.  When part of a diet that emphasizes vegetables, fruits, whole grains and lean proteins, certain oils can help stave off heart disease, stroke and diabetes, for which many people with arthritis have an increased risk. Some may also help prevent inflammatory conditions such as  rheumatoid arthritis  , as well as certain cancers. All oils are a mixture of fatty acids – monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated –and it’s the ratio of these acids that determine whether an oil or fat is healthful or harmful. Healthy oils and fats have a higher amount of unsaturated fatty acids and a lower amount of saturated fatty acids than their less-healthy counterparts. Unsaturated fats – mono and poly – have unique health benefits. Monounsaturated fats can help lower your blood LDL [bad cholesterol]...

I read recently that the criminals and terrorists are using Darknet for their private communication posing threat to the whole humanity. I tried to dig  deeper and found some very revealing information about Darknet.   A hidden Internet exists underneath the 'surface web,' hidden from the view of ordinary web users. . The dark web is intimidating. I assumed it was full of criminals and would have little to offer a law-abiding citizen such as myself. I also thought it would be difficult to access and that it would require some kind of advanced technical skill, or perhaps a special invitation from a shadowy figure on seedy bulletin boards. So the investigation started. One of the things that really struck was how easy it is to access and start exploring the darknet—it requires no technical skills, no special invitation, and takes just a few minutes to get started.     Access and Navigate the Dark Web   Before that we should try to distinguish between S...

Ran Gavrieli is a independent thinker. He has delivered a  TED talk in 2014 on  pornography very interesting very thought provoking. I would just share with my blog readers.  "I stopped watching porn for two reasons basically. The first one was that porn brought so much anger and violence into my private fantasies. And these were anger and violence that were not there originally to begin with. And I did not want it for me anymore. This was not me and, I decided to just put an end to it. Easier said than done — I got it later on. The second reason was that I came to realize I think that only by watching porn I take part in creating a demand for filmed prostitution because that’s what porn really is: filmed prostitution. Pornē  stands for prostitute;  graphia  stands for documentation. And prostitution was nobody’s childhood dream, it is always a result of trouble and distress. Now, I became aware of that gradually, when I was volunteering with men ...