Amchee Mulund, Maaaro Mulund - Documentary

Truth or Fiction? Fictionwala?

While most surnames in India reflect caste and lineage, the Parsis had a
delightfully modern streak - having landed without caste, history and
context, they created identities through professions and urban streets.

Our family moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) from Rawalpindi in 1947. We came as
refugees but the family soon settled and by 1953 my father had restarted
playing golf at the Willingdon Club. I was eight years old and would walk 18
holes with him every Saturday and Sunday. The three Parsi gentlemen who made
up his regular four-ball were uncles Poonawala, Coorlawala and Colabawala.
Very soon they had rechristened my father
Pindiwala, though he is a Sardar. Uncle Colabawala did not live in Colaba
but in a penthouse on Malabar Hill. May be his ancestors had lived in
Colaba. I used to spend hours searching the telephone directory to find
Parsi surnames and building up stories around their families.

There was prohibition in Bombay those days. So to get liquor you had to find
Mr. Dalal, who would introduce you to Mr. Daruwala, who in turn would get
bottles delivered to your home by Mr. Batliwala who would be accompanied by
Mr. Sodawaterbottleopenerwalla (the longest Parsi surname I have come
across).

Other surnames whose ancestors were in the beverages trade were
Mr.Fountainwala, Mr. Ginwala, Mr Rumwala, Mr. Sodawala and Mr. Jhunjhunwala.

We used to have two delightful Siamese kittens in our flat and these were
gifted to my mother by her friend Mrs. Billimoria. My mother spent hours
knitting cardigans for them, with wool she bought from the Unwala family.

My uncle ran the air force canteen in Cotton Green and his partner, yes you
guessed it, was Mr. Canteenwala. They had this fantastic cook, Mr.
Bhajiwala. Their mild and meek manager, Mr. Jeejeebhoy, nodded his head and
agreed with everything everybody said.

My grandfather was the Sheriff of Bombay. I think the first and only Sikh to
hold this position. Being Sheriff it was only natural that he had Mr.
Bandookwala and Mr. Golimarwala as his constant companions.

Grandfather had many Parsi friends who were in politics. There was this
squeaky clean khadi-clad Mr. Ghandy, and the not so clean Mr. Kalaghandy -
who was invariably being hounded by Mr Kotwal. But he never left home
without his friends Mr. Barrister, Mr. Vakil, Mr. Lawyer and their > munshi
Mr. Mehnty.

My grandfather built Hotel Waldorf on Arthur Bunder Road in Colaba. So for
this he naturally used the services of Mr. Contactor and Mr. Mistry. He
never went to the conservative moneylenders when short of money, but
borrowed it from his Parsi friend Mr. Readymoney.

Our neighbour and family physician was Dr. Adi Doctor - he was only half a
doctor. He lived with his in laws Mr and Mrs. Pochkhanawala. My sister
swears they ate only poached eggs for breakfast.

I remember going to Dr. Doctor’s sister’s wedding. She married Mr. Screwala.
What he did for a living, I do not know to this day. If you are in Mumbai
maybe you can track him down in the yellow or pink pages.

Silent abrasion of the arteries...the silent killer

World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease

We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong.. As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries,today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.

I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labelled “opinion makers.”  Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.
The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.

These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.
The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.
Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.
Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every year.
Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.
Inflammation is not complicated — it is quite simply your body’s natural defence to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from these bacterial and viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process,a condition occurs called chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.
What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body?  Well,smokers perhaps, but at least they made that choice willfully.
The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream dietthat is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. Thisrepeated injury creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity.
Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.

What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flourand all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.
Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now.
Regardless of where the inflammatory process occurs, externally or internally, it is the same. I have peered inside thousands upon thousands of arteries. A diseased artery looks as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. Several times a day, every day, the foods we eat create small injuries compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously and appropriately with inflammation.
While we savor the tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and simple carbohydrates, or processed withomega-6 oils for long shelf life have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These foods have been slowly poisoning everyone.
How does eating a simple sweet roll create a cascade of inflammation to make you sick?
Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what occurs inside the cell. When we consume simple carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works.
When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.
What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.
While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator — inflammation in their arteries.
Let’s get back to the sweet roll. That innocent looking goody not only contains sugars, it is baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as soybean. Chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil; processed foods are manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6’s are essential -they are part of every cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell – they must be in the correct balance with omega-3’s.
If the balance shifts by consuming excessive omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation.
Today’s mainstream American diet has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6. That’s a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today’s food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.
To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. The process that began with a sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetesand finally, Alzheimer’s disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.

There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.
There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state. To build muscle, eat more protein. Choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Cut down on or eliminate inflammation- causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them.
One tablespoon of corn oil contains 7,280 mg of omega-6; soybean contains 6,940 mg. Instead, use olive oil or butter from grass-fed beef. 
Animal fats contain less than 20% omega-6 and are much less likely to cause inflammation than the supposedly healthy oils labelled polyunsaturated. Forget the “science” that has been drummed into your head for decades. The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent. The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is also very weak. Since we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, the concern about saturated fat is even more absurd today.
The cholesterol theory led to the no-fat, low-fat recommendations that in turn created the very foods now causing an epidemic of inflammation. Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favor of foods high in omega-6 fats. We now have an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading to heart disease and other silent killers.
What you can do is choose whole foods your grandmother served and not those your mom turned to as grocery store aisles filled with manufactured foods. By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet.
Dr. Dwight Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital , Mesa , AZ. His private practice, Cardiac Care Center was in Mesa, AZ. Recently Dr. Lundell left surgery to focus on the nutritional treatment of heart disease. He is the founder of Healthy Humans Foundation that promotes human health with a focus on helping large corporations promote wellness. He is also the author of The Cure for Heart Disease and The Great Cholesterol Lie.

OnLine Shopping - Instant Gratification

Amazon, Costco, eBay, Walmart going head to head.
Amazon is constantly innovating, coming up with their version of virtual coins, a 3D smartphone.
Amazon $61B
Ebay $14B (Income $2.88B)
COSTCO $99B

From Forbes here


In the case of Walmart Vs. Amazon, it’s about to get interesting.
Let’s put aside the much discussed news leak that Walmart is considering using its own shoppers as delivery people, providing some kind of incentive to drop off online orders on their way home from the store.
It’s not likely to happen, there are far too many unattractive variables. But it shows the retailer is thinking outside of the box when it comes to competing with its online competition, Amazon.
Walmart already offers in-store pick up and just expanded its test of a locker system where shoppers can order online and pick-up in the store without waiting in line. It’s similar to Amazon’s recent deal with Staples and 7-Eleven to do the same.
The big box behemoth may not be a start-up, but it does try to think like one with its Walmart Labs division. That group is developing Pangaea, a global technology platform, scan and go apps that let shoppers buy in store via a smartphone, and online operations in growing markets outside the U.S. such as Brazil and China.
Wal-Mart is still testing same-day delivery in four cities. The program uses stores as fulfillment centers and if expanded, could turn 4,000 stores into bases for same day delivery.
According to Internet Retailer, Walmart is the fourth largest e-commerce retailer and expects to generate $9 billion in global e-commerce revenue in its current fiscal year, ending Jan. 31, 2014.
Compared to Amazon, that $9 billion is pocket money. Amazon’s sales for the fourth quarter alone were $21.27 billion.
But take a look at the profits and some other key indicators. Income is slowing, expenditures are up and there’s an Marketplace Fairness Act on its way to force the collection of state sales tax. Sooner or later, people will start to notice the lack of earnings.
Amazon is building out a physical infrastructure to provide same day delivery, it doesn’t have Walmart’s existing store base to work from.
It’s too early to call a winner in the retail race. Maybe there’s room for both, although they don’t think so. In the case of Walmart Vs. Amazon, it’s about to get interesting.

Believe it or NOT!

(By way of Kris Legleiter) THE YEAR 1909 What a difference a century makes! Here are some statistics for the Year 1909 : More importantly - food for thought; how will the world of 2109 look like? ************ ********* ********* ****** The average life expectancy was 47years. Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub. Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles Of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph. The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower! The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour. The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year .. A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year. More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME. Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which Were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard. ' Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound. Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo. Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from Entering into their country for any reason. Five leading causes of death were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza 2. Tuberculosis 3. Diarrhea 4. Heart disease 5. Stroke The American flag had 45 stars. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!! Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea Hadn't been invented yet. There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day. Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school... Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said,'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health' ( Shocking? DUH! ) Eighteen percent of households had at least One full-time servant or domestic help. There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE !U.S.A. !

Ratan Tata's Radical Transformations

SUN'S POLARITY REVERSAL ....

The sun's magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun's inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself. The coming reversal will mark the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24. Half of 'Solar Max' will be behind us, with half yet to come

Avoid Brain damage....what NOT to do!

10 Things That Have a Damaging Effect on the Brain

1. Not getting enough sleep

This phenomenon, familiar to anyone, is becoming a global problem. According to the WHO, over the past 100 years, people began to sleep an average of 20% less. Severe lack of sleep creates the risk that different parts of the brain move into a phase of slow wave sleep in the state of wakefulness. As a result, a person can’t concentrate and his fine motor skills deteriorate. The regular lack of sleep leads to brain cell death.

2. Lack of breakfast

Skipping the morning meal affects the performance and energy of the person during the day. It seems obvious, but the point here is not so much the consumption of energy necessary for the body, but the fact that lack of breakfast lowers the level of sugar in the blood. This in turn reduces and hinders the flow of nutrients to the brain.

3. Sugar

The preceding paragraph explains why it is recommended to eat sweets, especially dark chocolate, to have a good brain performance. However, excessive amounts of sugar cause problems with the assimilation of protein and nutrients. It leads to the same result as the low level of blood sugar: the brain does not receive enough nutrients.

4. Stress

Severe emotional stress weakens the connections between neurons and thus complicates the understanding of cause-effect relationships and sequence of events. Strong nervous excitement, poor memory and the feeling that everything goes wrong are also linked to stress.

5. Tranquilizers and sleeping pills

The use of sleeping pills and popular tranquilizers such as Xanax can impair memory up to amnesia, cause dementia and obsessive suicidal thoughts.

6. Smoking

Speaking about the negative effects of smoking on the body, the image of black lung and damaged teeth first comes to mind. At the same time, it is not said much about how cigarettes affect the brain: nicotine narrows its vessels. Besides the problems associated with lack of nutrients in the brain, this greatly increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

7. Lack of sun

Lack of sufficient sunlight directly affects cognitive abilities. First, ultraviolet light produced from sunlight regulates blood circulation, that is, the flow of oxygen and nutrients. Second, sunlight helps produce serotonin – the hormone that affects a person’s mood.

8. Lack of water

Lack of water causes a decrease in brain volume, which considerably reduces its efficiency and leads to almost zero ability to memorize information. It is recommended to drink an average of 1,5-2 liters of water per day.

9. Too much information

Year after year, the amount of information to digest increases enormously. This would seem quite useful for the brain exercise and the maintenance of its performance. However, brain responds to such an information excess with resistance. It is expressed in the fact that at a certain moment the information is no longer absorbed causing up to memory lapses.

10. Multitasking

Another anomaly of the information world: people simultaneously process multiple streams of information. As a consequence, none of them is absorbed properly, and the mind gets used to this way of working. Information is perceived superficially, while being focused and doing only one thing without frequent change of activity is becoming more difficult.

A McDonalds diet didn't cut it for you Mr President?

Bill Clinton Enjoying Vegan Lifestyle, Says Healthy Eating Could Help Country

President Bill Clinton finally started responding to the doctors and decided to trim down..
Better late than never right?
Three years later, lost 30 lbs already on a Vegan diet.
Good going Bill...


Former President Bill Clinton began his national political career known for his frequent trips to McDonald's, but he now enjoys his relatively new life as a vegan after losing 30 pounds and responding positively to the advice of his doctors.
An AARP magazine profile says Clinton "received a blistering email" from his physician not long after his 2004 quadruple-bypass surgery.
"I just decided that I was the high-risk person, and I didn't want to fool with this anymore. And I wanted to live to be a grandfather," Clinton said. "So I decided to pick the diet that I thought would maximize my chances of long-term survival."
Today, more than three years after taking up veganism, Clinton says he's enjoying his diet free of dairy, meat and fish. But the transition was difficult, he said.
"The main thing that was hard for me actually -- much harder than giving up meat, turkey, chicken and fish -- was giving up yogurt and hard cheese," the former president said.
Clinton said he "would keep a record of everything I ate every day — what, when and how much."
"That's easy for everybody to do. Just go write it down. And then I'd start looking at it and say, 'what am I going to give up and what am I going to substitute?'" Clinton said.
Clinton also said he's learned that diet problems are crippling the country's health care system.
"You have to make a conscious decision to change for your own well-being, that of your family and your country," he said.