Thanksgiving means spending quality
time with grandchildren

Self-portrait by my granddaughter, Miku.
We are having a good time today.

Shoban Sen
Bestnetguru.com

 Happy Thanksgiving

Drawing by my 5-year old grandson, Tiku.

Shoban Sen
Bestnetguru.com

I have a B-A-D dream

I envision the following:

Sooner or later another Thanksgiving will come. This morning, when I got up, the reality set in. I realised stupid Thanksgiving is on my door step. Today is the second busiest travel day in America. A very well-known and well-established thing. But still ALL the channels on TV will talk about it all day as if it is some kind of news.

Then tomorrow, millions of people in America will eat the exact same menu they all eat on Thanksgiving Day every year - turkey, stuffings, gravy, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, cranberry chutney, pumpkin or apple pie, cookies - and talk about it for the next few days as if it is something new! Not only that, most people will take to work turkey sandwiches (made with leftover turkey) for the next several days!!

Even worse, people will set their alarm clocks for 1 a.m. on Thanksgiving night, so that they can be in front postions in the line that will form in front of all big retail stores like Target. These stores invariably will hold a special Black Friday (Friday after Thanksgiving) sale that "normally" goes from 4 a.m. to 12 noon. Bargain hunters want to avail themselves with the widest possible selections. Good bargains usually disappear from the stores shelves by 8 a.m., sometimes earlier!!

Then will come the Sunday after Thanksgiving -- the biggest travel day of the year in America. Again, TV news will devote a lot of time reporting this routine thing, but making it sound like breaking news. The reporters become really disappointed when planes fly on time or no major breakdown such as in baggage handling department happens.

Then, of course, Christmas will arrive with the same old, same old tune playing all around it. Useless and unwanted gifts will be exchanged only to be returned to the stores by the recepients ON THE VERY NEXT DAY, MAKING DECEMBER 26TH THE BIGGEST MERCHANDISE RETURNING DAY IN USA. Can we not do something different or something new? Can we not show a better and refined taste in doing things?

I guess, the answer is an emphatic NO. Because that is the AMERICAN WAY.

So, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I have a dream too. Only in my case, I have a BAD dream.

Shoban Sen
Bestnetguru.com

Geography

A recent news report revealed that John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent and not a country. I am not surprised. Because Sarah Palin went to school in America where geography is not taught in schools.

Read my "Where did you go to school?" here. It was written on July 3, 2004.

I think geography should be a compulsory subject in high schools. It was not only taught in schools in India during my time, we actually had to take a final exam in geography and pass it in order to graduate from high school. Average Americans really have an extremely poor knowledge of geography (not only world geography, but American geography also) and it shows. This "Who cares?" attitude of Americans is causing Americans to perform ever-so-increasingly poorly when it comes to international competitions. No wonder, the experts are projecting that India and China will soon emerge as world's super-powers.

Shoban Sen
Bestnetguru.com

Brain Disorder

Is there a doctor in the house? I want to find out if there is a name for this disease and how common this disease is. I am pretty sure it is not too common. May be it is the only known case in the world.

I live with a person who has this disease. Here are the symptoms: She has no sense of up and down, top and bottom, front and back, inside and outside etc. Let me elaborate.

When laying down a magazine or a book on the living room coffee table, most people will usually lay it face up. She invariably lays it face down. In her wallet, she meticulously puts the dollar bills in a way so that the heads of the US presidents go down, not up. When buying prepared foods from those self-service stores, she puts the foods on the top part of those transparent plastic containers and covers them with the bottom part - always! In the kitchen cabinet, she arranges the cans, bottles, tins etc. in a way so that the label side faces in. It is impossible for anybody to know at a glance what product it is. You have to first turn it to read the label! When folding sheets, blankets, towels etc. she invariably puts the seam side out and then when piling them up in the closet shelves, she puts the open ends of the folded towel etc. facing out. I cannot make her understand that it looks so much better if the folded ends face out. I can go on and on with examples, but I think you got the idea.

Is it possible that while she was in her mother's womb, she was upside down the whole nine months? I know just before birth, babies normally turn so that at the time of birth the head comes out first. But, may be, in her case she was upside down the entire time?

She also never closes anything completely or tightly, whether it is a door, or a container, or a bottle, or a toothpaste tube, or anything - such as a zipper or a ziplock bag. I have failed to explain to her that a lot of things makes a CLICK sound when it is closed completely. She leaves everything half closed or barely closed or just loosely covered! Foods or medicines or perfumes - anything that needs to stay in air-tight contaners, goes bad or evaporates in her hands in no time.

Can anybody explain why this happens to her? She just cannot be corrected! She is otherwise very normal. She is sweet and loving and caring - I have no complaints. I think there is some problem with her brain. If you are a doctor, please answer. Thank you.

Shoban Sen
Bestnetguru.com

 End of procrastination

Whew! I just finished it, and I am exhausted. I was thinking of doing it for Y-E-A-R-S, but  actually never could even start it! You can call me lazy, but I am not. I thought it wasn't a priority, though I knew someday I had to do it. The worst part is, though I knew someday I had to pick-up all my stuff and move, I was accumulating more stuff at the same place so when the actual move time arrived, the load was almost impossible to handle single-handedly. But guess what? I have done it, and done it alone without any help from outside and apparently without any mishap. I just have to notify everybody about my new address now so people can find me. But first, I need a strong drink (may be 2 strong drinks) and a week's vacation.

It was America Online who forced me to do it and do it NOW. For years they had been hosting most of my web sites (for FREE - smile). All on a sudden, earlier this month, they declared that they were going to close their doors for good. So I had to pack up and move in a hurry.  First I had to buy some private space in the cyberspace, then I had to name my new place and then build a new house there to provide shelter to all my web sites. Fascinating ... and backbreaking! But it is all done now.

Now I am inviting everyone, humans and search engines, to visit me at my new place. I have named my new place bestnetguru.com (yes, it is the consolidated form of best net guru). So, according to the rules of the cyberworld, my address is:

    http://bestnetguru.com/

Now if you go there, there is not much to see. Because it is only the gateway to my different web sites. So according to your taste or interest or need, choose from the following:

Computer tutorials:
ABC's of Computing
Computer Help for People Over 50
Internet Basics for Seniors

My stamp collecting sites:
Stamp Collecting - Doing it for enjoyment, not for profit
Tour India Through Stamps

An Indian tour operator's site (designed, created, and maintained by me):
Oasis Travel India

Site for children:
A Children's Story

A site about the stunningly beautiful, multi-talented Bollywood heroine of yesteryears:
Vyjayanthimala - A Personal Tribute

Personal/Family sites:
Shoban and Aparna's Penultimate Home Page
Shoban Sen's Scrapbook

My blog (mostly food for thought):
Shoban Sen's Diary

Personal and travel photo albums (many sub-sites):
Shoban Sen's Homepage on Worldisround

Hey, I don't really care if you pay me a visit or not. But I do want the search engines to visit me there. And I know they will. My mission accomplished!!!

 My Video Experiment on Xanga
(Harvard University Moving Buildings)

I have this video about Harvard University's moving of three buildings on YouTube since the day the buildings were actually moved. Since I have nothing better to do today, I thought I should upload the video on Xanga and see if it works. I could not find on Xanga's Help on videos how big the file size can be and the duration of the video that Xanga allows. Let me see if my video works on Xanga.

To see a whole lot of still pictures of the move, please click here.

 Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand

One of the most spectacular places I have seen in my life is the Grand Palace of Bangkok, Thailand. I have posted pictures of it here. I am posting a slideshow form of it here today. The slideshow pictures are small and low resolution, and as such not very clear. But you will get an idea of the place if you have never visited it. Enjoy the slideshow.

 High Fructose Corn Syrup –
Probably Your Worst Enemy

This food ingredient, which has been introduced as a sweetener in American packaged foods since the early 1980’s, is making America another gold medal winner in the race for obesity. Of all the advanced countries of the world, the percentage of overweight or obese people is highest in America. 200-300 pound people are a common sight in America. No where else in the world such high numbers of ugly looking people can be seen on streets. Waist size around 50 inches is a common sight. The number of X’s before the L is increasing almost everyday in clothing sizes. TV shows like the Biggest Loser is becoming popular. What a shame!

There are a number of factors which is contributing to this. Lack of physical exercise, fatty food, junk food, large portions, snacking between meals, consumption of soda or pop or juice instead of water, are among the main factors.

Physical exercise is essential to maintain a healthy body weight. We all know how a large percentage of our population is doing less and less exercise everyday. Thanks to technology, one does not even has to get up from that couch to change the channel on the TV. The remote is there. You can drive your car through the drive-through section of your local McDonald’s to pickup your double cheeseburger, large fries, and large coke and bring them back to your couch! Even worse, you just pickup the cell phone to order dinner to be delivered to your door. No need to walk even to the old-fashioned telephone on the other side of the room! But these sedentary habits are not my topic of the day.

Today’s topic is the poisonous food ingredient that was discovered and introduced in our American packaged foods and drinks since around 1980. It is called High Fructose Corn Syrup or HFCS for short. People, who watch their weights, usually worry about fats. Fats do contribute to weight gain if eaten excessively combined with lack of adequate physical exercise. But very few people know that HFCS contributes to very rapid weight gain and the weight gained from HFCS consumption is very difficult to shed. Here is why:

When HFCS is ingested (taken by mouth), it travels straight to the liver which turns the sugary liquid into fat, and unlike other carbohydrates HFCS does not cause the pancreas to produce insulin; which acts as a hunger quenching signal to the brain. So we get stuck in a vicious cycle, eating food that gets immediately stored as fat and never feeling full.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is not only physically and chemically addicting, but it alters your metabolism in such a way that makes you hungrier, and also causes your body to produce more fat. And Americans are consuming more and more of it every day. Why?

Because HFCS is found in almost everything we eat today. The worst culprit is, of course, the soft drinks or sodas (this includes fruit punch, fruit cocktails, and Kool-Aid). A single 12 oz. can of cola contains about 13 teaspoons of sugar, most of it fructose from HFCS. There is HFCS hidden in almost all kinds of packaged foods like candies, baked foods (cakes, cookies, muffins, to name a few), jams, jellies, syrups, etc. It is easy to understand that HFCS is present in almost all sweet packaged foods as a cheap substitute for sugar. But did you know that HFCS is present in foods like breads, English muffins, ketchups, relishes, and salad dressings? Most alarmingly, low-fat diet foods also contain HFCS. Manufactures substitute HFCS for the fat in foods like mayo, peanut butter, and salad dressings, and then mark them as diet foods!!!

Why do the food manufacturers use HFCS instead of regular cane or beet sugar? There are several reasons. First of all HFCS is much cheaper than real sugar. It also has a long shelf life. Besides, it helps to keep your cookies chewy for a longer time, your bread browns nicely upon toasting, and so forth.

While driving on highways in America, everybody sees those 18-wheeler tanker trucks crisscrossing the country. Do you think they always carry gas, diesel, home heating oil, kerosene, and the like? You will be surprised to know that a lot of the time they are carrying a clear, sweet, edible liquid called High Fructose Corn Syrup to deliver the product to a food manufacturer who will make those tasty foods and drinks for you using this clear liquid for your enjoyment tomorrow. Fascinating. I am already salivating at the thought!

So what if I am a little obese? Nothing. You are just increasing your chances to a great extent to develop Type II diabetes, arthritis, heart attack, and several forms of cancer. That’s all. (Hopefully you don’t care about how you look.)

Who has not seen those warnings on the cigarette packets what the Surgeon General has determined about the consequences of smoking? I want to ask the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) why they cannot force manufacturers to print on the front of the food packaging a warning saying something like: “This product contains HFCS which might lead to obesity – a definite health hazard.”

I know the medical community and medical associations are lobbying for such a warning. But on the other hand associations representing the corn growers are fighting it as the corn farmers will be economically affected if such a law is passed. Everything is politics.

So, dear readers. Please educate yourself. Read the labels before you buy that packaged food or drink. But, to tell you the truth, just reading labels is not going to help you much as almost everything sold in American markets today contains either HFCS or corn syrup or corn syrup solids or something similar. All of these are bad for you, only in different degrees. HFCS is, of course, the worst (probably worse than trans fats which leads to heart attacks).

Change in life style is the only real solution to this rapidly growing problem.

1. Drink plain water, not soda, to quench your thirst. (In my case, water and only water, can quench my thirst. Nothing else.)
2. Eat Quaker Oatmeal for breakfast. Its label says, Ingredient: Oatmeal [Nothing else. I like that.]
3. Stop drinking sodas (this point is worth repeating!) and try to avoid packaged foods. Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Do your food shopping from farmer’s markets or health food stores, not from super markets or neighborhood convenience stores.
4. Avoid eating in restaurants and also take-out foods as much as possible. Most of the time cook at home from scratch (we always do and it is possible unless you are a real dumb and a real couch potato). You will know that you are not cooking with HFCS!!!

I have done my share of public service today. I know I cannot change you. You must have the will to change yourself. I hope you do.

 My Most Favorite Person

For her privacy, I cannot name her. (Hint: she is not Agarwal, or Jones, or Anderson). I cannot even disclose where she lives. (Hint: not in Delhi, not even in India.) All I can tell is her country of origin is India. She has traveled around the world several times, mostly on other people's money. She speaks several languages including two Indian languages. She wears both Indian and Western  clothes, but her most favorite dress is saree, as is evident from this picture. (By the way, I personally believe that saree is the most elegant women's dress in the whole world. I was once branded as "old fashioned" by a modern 22-year old Delhi girl for this belief of mine!) 

This young lady is exceptionally talented and successful. She has attended two of the most renowned universities of the world and holds the highest degree that an university can offer. Yet she is so simple, so down to earth. As a young professional, she has very high responsibilities; yet she finds time for her three young kids and her husband. And on top of everything, she is a movie (especially Hindi movie) addict. I don't know how she finds time to do all of these. She also loves to cook and loves to dress up her kids in exotic dresses! She is a multi-talented sweet, young lady who knows how to enjoy life.

No wonder, I am so fond of her. I love her very much.