Sad Demise of Nautanki...............

*  As a child I remember watching the stories of Buddha, Nala-Damayanti, Bharthari, Harishchandra, Dushyant-Shakuntala and so many other Puranic tales, performed by various Nautanki groups that visited our village. It was fun and education watching those dramas, through the whole night.  Even after more than four decades, I vividly remember some of these. A few have been mentioned in this blog.  Unlike the movies, who in the name of cinematic liberty, often distort the actual tale, the nautanki groups preserved the essence and character of the story, as it was written or told.

*   Nautanki was born out of folklore of North India. There was a princess with incomparable beauty who was so delicate that she weighed only as much as a flower. This folklore took the shape of a drama then known as sangeets (musicals) by the name, Nautanki Shehzadi ("The Story of Princess Nautanki"). Soon it became so popular that the name became that of the genre itself. The word, nautanki, comprises two words, nau meaning "nine" and tank referring to a "silver coin, weighing four grams". It metaphorically implied that the graceful princess weighed only 36 grams.

*  It was famous folk theater, popular in northern India, especially in Uttar Pradesh. Before the advent of cinema in India, it was the most popular form of entertainment prevalent in these areas. Usually a nautanki consisted of folklore and mythological dramas with interludes of folk songs and dances. 

*     TV and multiplexes have slowly and steadily killed this excellent art, which a few decades ago enthralled the rural and semi-urban India. Sadly, it has become extinct. Often in solitude I mourn the sad demise of my favourite drama form.

Why is WEST crying over Crimea ...?

*       Not long ago when Yugoslavia was breaking up into independent republics, the West without losing anytime granted recognition to Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Kosovo, giving the logic that it was the will of the majority in those republics. 

*       Why is West now crying over Crimea when the majority there wants to go with the Russians ? 

Cherrapunji...........

*   Remember ever hearing an anecdote or a tale from a tourist guide

    during your visit to a place and the next moment wishing to write a

    story about it. I got inspired during my visit to Cherrapunji, some

    years back. The woman guide narrated so beautifully how a little

    known village, Sohra in Meghalaya got the famous name of

    Cherrapunji.

*   It inspired me so much that I penned down a short story by the
    same name.

*   So sit back and enjoy the tale..........

Cherrapunji

A jilted Akash was escaping from his recent troubled past. Kadambini, his fiancée of four years, had left him suddenly without giving any reason. She hadn’t bothered even to tell him in person. All she said was that she was marrying a NRI and moving with him to the States. He learnt about it through her email. Her decision had shattered him emotionally so much that for a moment he had contemplated of ending his life, but somehow he held back. The example of his parents, whose married life went through its daily doses of upheavals and he had been a witness to it for over a decade or so, ironically proved to be a source of inspiration. His mother, an ambitious woman, was a top ranking bureaucrat in the government while his father who too was a bureaucrat but his laid back attitude towards life had resulted in his stagnation. Nor that he cared much for the promotions anyway. He had a penchant for painting and during his childhood he had wanted to take it as a vocation but for his father. 

     (for full story go to short stories section, thanks).....................

Understanding Cholesterol...........

Hi Guys,

For a non-medical guy like me the word ‘Cholesterol’ is quite scary. Often we suffer from many misconceptions about it. Here is the Cholesterol simplified…….

·                 There are multiple forms of cholesterol circulating in the blood. The various forms of cholesterol and other fats in the blood are together called lipids. Doctors measure and diagnose high cholesterol with a simple blood test, often called a lipid profile. It's often done after fasting for nine to 12 hours to eliminate the contribution of any fat you recently ate.

·                   Tests for cholesterol provide results for four different types of lipids.

Total Cholesterol

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is the "bad cholesterol".

HDL (high-density lipoprotein) is the "good cholesterol".

Triglycerides is a form of fat in the blood.

·                   Understanding Cholesterol test results:-

For total Cholesterol

200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or less is considered normal.

201 to 240 mg/dL is borderline.

Greater than 240 mg/dL is considered high.

For HDL ("good cholesterol"), more is better

HDL 60 mg/dL or higher is good -- it protects against
            heart disease.

HDL between 40 and 59 mg/dL are acceptable.

Less than 40 mg/dL HDL is low, increasing the risk of
            heart disease.

For LDL ("bad cholesterol"), lower is better

LDL of less than 100 mg/dL is optimal.

LDL of 100 to 129 mg/dL is near-optimal.

LDL between 130 and 159 mg/dL is borderline high.

LDL between 160 and 189 mg/dL is high.

An LDL of 190 mg/dL or more is considered very high.

So next time when your physician asks you to undergo the test, take it easy.  If bad cholesterol troubles you in the test, you know what’s to be done to get rid of the little monster.

Wishing you a good health………..

And a cousin...............Sikkim

*     Some prefer to call it a brother. But I would prefer to call it a sister, a beautiful cousin of beautiful Seven Sisters. If you are a man and in love with these eight beautiful girls, your spouse would have no cause for complain. And as a woman if you are in love, nobody can accuse you of being a gay.

*      In Hindu texts, Sikkim is known as Indrakil, the garden of  Lord Indra. It is the least populous state in India and the second-smallest after  Goa. Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak, is located on Sikkim's border with Nepal.

*   The Buddhist Guru Padmasambhava visited Sikkim in the 8th century AD and introduced Buddhism. Sikkim's Namgyal dynasty was established in 1642. Over the next 150 years, the kingdom witnessed frequent raids and territorial losses to Nepalese invaders. In the 19th century, Sikkim allied itself with British India and eventually becoming a British protectorate. Referendum in 1975, abolished the Sikkimese monarchy and the territory merged with India.

*      A journey to the famed beautiful Seven Sisters is incomplete without a visit to Sikkim.