Are working women more sought after as wives than those prospective full-time homemakers? Well, most men in the Indian metros seem to be in accordance with the former. Primarily because having a wife who works at an office like you do has a series of benefits.

Double income is a huge perk. The increasingly expensive lifestyle in a country like India makes it imperative for both partners to work. In fact, beyond a point it becomes difficult to survive on just one salary. Yep, the wish list is increasing and so should the monthly income too.

The feeling of empathy is on a completely different plane altogether from contributing financially, but again equally important. Working women understand their husbands better and the pressures of his job. Plus, a working wife gets a lot of exposure and meets different people on a regular basis; this increases her info bank and makes her rather more interesting than a wife who stays home 24X7, lacks company lest the saas bahu serials and fails to understand the demanding conditions of a job. C’mon, gone are the days when opinionated women were burnt on stakes. The Indian man prefers a financially independent life partner who has a mind of her own. And if she earns more than hubby dear, the deal couldn’t be better. The complete package is vavavoooom attractive!

Indeed a huge paradigm shift in a country that always looked at women as second class citizens, who were just meant to look after the house and bear children. Not anymore. Hmmm…at this extremely modern argument, can I share my apprehensions? Ok, here I go. Working women are a good, progressive sight and stand for women lib n all. But what about children? With more and more women preferring career over children, will India end up like a second Japan? Serious food for thought.
Via thetimesofindia

Once again the issue of violence and videogames has surfaced what with the Finnish authorities pulling off the gaming site for ‘Kindergarten Killer’. In this game the players roam around in a school and kill kindergarten students. This decision was taken a week after the shocking shooting incident in the country that had the 22 year-old Matti Saari kill 10 people at a vocational school. Not only this, Saari was far from guilt for his actions as he even posted boastful videos of his before the rampage on YouTube. Another student Pekka-Eric Auvinsen did the same before killing 6 fellow students, the school nurse and the principal. Both the killers shot themselves after the murders and died.

The contradictions may always remain regarding the influence of video games on human behavior, but it is not the first time a controversial game has been pulled back. In 1976, Death Race faced the same fate as it has players controlling cars that ran over ‘gremlins’.  Even the ever-so-popular Mortal Kombat has raised many eyebrows. Yet another frequently discussed example is Grand Theft Auto (GTA) in which the player is asked to commit crime one after another. The instructions may vary from carjacking to cold murder to running over pedestrians.

Sex is also a predominant theme. GTA and many Japanese video games explore sexuality, and not in a good taste. The Witcher includes full frontal nudity in the form of cards that you earn after completing sexual assignments. These are just a few examples out of many.

Agreed that smoking does not always cause lung cancer, similarly video games cannot blindly be attributed to behavioral as well as sexual violence.  But studies, researches and experts say that there is a correlation between games and the psychology. I am not saying that video games should be banned. But I do maintain that I will be very uncomfortable if my 9-year-old plays GTA. The young mind is meant to conditioned positively and the kind of video games that are being made today are nowhere close to that!
Via thoughts

Sharon Stone has been the daughter of controversy ever since she crossed or didn’t cross her legs in that notorious movie a couple of decades ago, which we all know. The smoking blonde has always managed to gain publicity whether negative or positive. This time however, she has gained a lot of negative publicity thanks to her bad mothering skills, which apparently are as much in mess as her. Californian officials have criticized and also rejected her request to change her child’s custody arrangements.

They have blamed her for overreacting to her son Roan’s medical issues. The court was especially infuriated with Stone’s suggestion that her son must be treated with botox as his feet were smelly. Now it has also come to notice that Bronstein will have complete custody over the boy and Stone may just have to worry endlessly if he would be taken care of by the jubilant father properly. The crux of the matter is not the custody of the child or Stone concern for her son’s health but the fact that celebrities usually end up over reacting to every tiny incident no matter what.

Probably, the entire attention and media glare showered and sometime forced upon them make them notice even small changes and worry about that endlessly. Probably the celebrities must be left alone and allowed to live a life in privacy. And the ones that like to be in the media glare are best avoided.

Image

Via: IMDB

Playing is an activity long forgotten by the current child generation of India. Yep, seeing kids play just like that is such a rare sight that now schools have started celebrating ‘Play Days’ only to encourage little pranksters to get back to their default settings and play!

But hey, no kid is willing to do that. Kyonki TV hai na? The growing influence of the idiot box on the progenies has been ignored for a long time by parents and the harm will be serious. Blame it on the work lives of the progenitors that they rely on leaving their kids with a TV program rather than a babysitter (who they always fear to be a paedophile). Or maybe it is the space crunch? Insufficient number of parks? Or perhaps, the kids are now just too lazy to stretch those muscles.
The lack of outdoor activity is leading to social, psychological and physiological problems in children. They are unable to pay complete attention, the flitting focus changes like the channels on the idiot box. Temper tantrums and eating troubles are also seen.

My personal problem is – Kids are not behaving like kids anymore; running around, going wild and having fun. Can anyone tell me where exactly is the play?
Via ibnlive

Tokyo at night

I have been living in Japan for the past four months. Don’t worry I am not one of those ‘trying too hard to fit abroad’ Indians who do nothing but criticise India. I love my country with passion and tell you what, I like Japan too. And I feel there are so many things we Indians can learn from the Japanese and make our country a better one!

You’d be wondering why all of a sudden, I am writing about the merits of a life in Japan but hey, didn’t you hear the news? The oldest living man is Japanese, his name is Tomoji Tanabe and he is 113 years old. For the uninitiated, Japanese women have been topping the World’s longevity ranks for 23 years while the men follow a close third to Iceland and Honk Kong.

Ok, so let me try and elucidate the reasons for a LONG life in Japan.

1.    People are safe. You know you will come back home when leaving for work/school/market etc. etc. in the morning.

2.    The police actually help a lost soul find the way. You know something, that was precisely their job always but many cops have evolved their duties to suit their comfort or maintain the false aura of fear that distances the common people from them.

3.    They are well prepared to face disasters. We know Japan’s susceptibility to earthquakes. A natural disaster that cannot be predicted. But hey, even the Japanese are ready to deal with one if it happens. The buildings are made of a special kind of light-weight concrete. There are emergency earthquake packs in offices.

4.    Government offices are proactive and well-organised. And may I say efficient too!

5.    They are not afraid to get their hands dirty to keep the place clean. The pain that the citizens and the establishment takes to keep the country clean is commendable. No one complains about sorting the garbage as burnable, plastic, cans and what not. If you don’t do it, your garbage collecter will. So, in a way you are shamed to sort your trash yourself.

6.    You can drink water from the tap directly.

7.    Your children are safe playing in the park. Not just that, 10 year-olds can safely commute on their own by the metro.

Well, I did say I’d try and discuss a few reasons.

Hard to believe, but there is an almost ideal place on the earth. And guess what, it took a lot of effort to get there.

Schools can’t be blamed for everything wrong that a child does! So believes Susan Neuman, George W. Bush’s former assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education. As per her editorial, schools do not have the exclusive rights to a child’s education. One cannot ignore the learning supports before and after school, during the summer, family’s initiative and other social encouragements.

Very interestingly, she says, “Shaming schools has become the cure to everything but the common cold, distracting attention from the devastating effects of poverty. We need to move beyond touting school reform as the magical elixir.

It is important, but we need to mobilize other institutions to help solve this problem.” To impress her point further, she explains that a child born is likely to stay poor and live in an unsafe neighbourhood, forever threatened by the anti-social elements lurking by. As a result, the child may fail to grow and leave the heap that he grew into behind.

A school cannot be expected to wave the magic wand and bring about fairy tale like happy endings. We have to get real. More institutions need to be created to share the responsibility that has been forcefully thrust upon schools.

Read

Brangelina babies’ first pics cost 14 million dollars to People Magazine. The pair, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, born by a Caesarean section on July 12 in Nice were featured on the mag cover cuddling with their famous parents. Weighing a healthy 5 pounds each the two little ones boost the Pitt-Jolie household to half a dozen in number, including Maddox, 6; Pax, 4, Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 2. Brad Pitt calls his growing family “a cuckoo’s nest”. The doting parents are extremely glad that the twins have been welcomed with open arms by their siblings. “Zahara and Shiloh are like little mommies to the twins,” shares a happy Angelina Jolie.
Well to give you some facts, Brad makes 20 million dollars per movie while his better half walks away with a smooth 15-20 dollars for a flick. So, you can easily see what a huge figure the twins have earned with their first assignment. In fact, Shiloh’s first baby pics sold for just 4.1 million dollars while Pax’ made 2 million dollars. Brangelina intend to donate the first earnings of the newest additions of their family to charity.
All that is just so super good. But I wonder what the Brangelina household will be like once these kids grow up…identity crisis (C’mon the kids look just so different, how will they overcome their ethnicity)??? Who gets mommy’s attention the most (six is not a small number)? I think the famous couple should consider family planning…any takers?
Via nydailynews

The current Mrs Tom Cruise has had enough of living in a commune. Looks like when Tom Cruise and his current better half Katie Holmes bought a 35 million dollar home in Beverly Hills, Katie insisted that everyone other than Suri and Tom’s two adopted children with Nicole Kidman, Isabella and Connor find another place to live. This new angle in the Cruise household would be the toughest on his mom Mary Lee South and three sisters who have been living with him since 2001 and are practicing Scientologists. But enough has been enough for Katie who is tired of having shadows roaming around the house.
Seriously, I never knew even film stars would find cutting off the umbilical cord so hard. Cruise should’ve had the sense to set up a house with Katie independent of his larger family. The girl needs a place that she can call her own and look after her husband and kids. I just hope the sudden turn in their relationship doesn’t prove to be hazardous to their marriage. Having been surrounded by such a crowd at home for a so long and then suddenly having to stay with just one adult and kids is a change not many can handle well.

Via glosslip

Children are susceptible to virals (not just the infections caused by viruses). I’m talking about the Virals/ Viral Promotions and ads on Internet, being made to exclusively target your small kids! We all know what a powerful medium advertising is in affecting our senses and molding our behavior especially when it comes to our decisions regarding purchasing a product. Despite being banned on TV, commercials promoting highly salted, sugary and fatty junk food are frequently mushrooming on the worldwide web to lure soft targets- children (under16) who are often unable to differentiate between healthy and non-healthy foods.

Companies manufacturing such greasy and highly saturated junk food have now devised a smart backdoor policy of actively advertising on internet because they know that today’s kids are smart enough to use internet but gullible enough to fall in their trap. In the United Kingdom, where the problem of child obesity is rapidly increasing it seems, a mere ban on such TV ads is not enough. While the traditional advertising-tactics like cartoon characters, film tie-ins and celebrity endorsements still continue to target a younger demographic, a report prepared by the consumer group “Which?” found that junk-food producers are now circumnavigating their tactics to reach a wider audience young in age and computer & mobile phone savvy. Junk-food companies now push their products on kids by using gaming websites or via sponsored mobile phone competitions.

The prizes won in such games are often rebate coupons or happy-hour tickets of junk-food outlets offering combo meals consisting giant burgers, colas, ice creams, fried chips etc. All this lacking any substantial nutritive value in terms of fiber content, vitamins, or minerals! The rise of advergaming promoting fast food ads is also a concern regarding this. Researchers at Which have singled out an ad campaign by Fanta (soft drink brand). The latter launched a “Want It, Win It” competition and sent a free branded mobile phone game to anyone who accessed the competition. As per the company the competition was aimed at young people above 16yrs. But Which? found out that younger children could easily access the website holding competition by lying about their age!

Ofcourse Fanta is not alone in the business. Cadbury’s Creme Eggs made social networking website Bebo its niche for promotion and publicity. Similarly, McDonald’s continues to host a “Kid Zone” on its website. Small children can actively play games here and can browse through a no.of Happy Meal products, thanks to the alongside adverts by the company. Which? is now signing out petitions against such reckless and irresponsible advertising. The companies’ ofcourse have a different word to offer on it. The issue also is not a new one but now it is acquiring dimensions that are harmful for young ones. Parents indeed act as a vital interface between these ads and the demands created by their children after being affected by such ads. But in this age of active and diverse media proliferation, tackling problems like child obesity demands action in many spheres so that, kids can opt for healthier food choices.

Government is playing its part by banning adverts promoting unhealthy foods on terrestrial television programming. The law was enforced from Jan 1st this year and children’s channels like cartoon network, pogo etc. have to phase out such adverts completely by December. While broadcasters express their concerns over quality of kids programming in wake of such a ban, which will definitely affect the ad-revenues, social groups like Which? are concerned about the rerouting of such ads through another, more widespread and relatively unguarded medium of internet. A balance definitely needs to be achieved by those who make such junk food, by realising their social obligations. While no body is asking them to pull out their marketing efforts but it would be in the best of the interests for the younger generation, if these companies act more responsibly in choosing a proper medium to advertise for their products.

Via Independent

Rajat, a school kid, is reminded of his English teacher each time he sees the ‘Bum Bhole’ song of ‘Taare Zameen Par’. And like in the movie, Rajat’s teacher was not liked by the school authorities because of his teaching methods.

Despite the decades that have gone by, I still remember studying…naah…enjoying a poem called ‘The Frog and the Nightingale by Vikram Seth in our textbook. The reason I remember it still is because of my teacher and the fun he added to Seth’s writing style. He enacted the poem and became the frog as well as the nightingale. Imagine, a fully grown man jumping around like a frog in the class so that his students can enjoy and understand better. His classes were always so much fun. I loved studying drama the most as his voice changed with the tenor of statement and that of the character. Yeah, there was a play with an android in it and guess what, he even spoke like a robot whenever he read the android’s lines. His classes were never boring and I remember that I always played complete attention when he was teaching. I think it’s true when they, all study and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

Via BlogBharti