Discover Life: Some of the Visitors to ‘Discover Life Site‘ in Alphabetical Order Since 31 January 2012

Here are some of the countries from where our readers visited Discover Life Site from 31 January 2012 to 23 February 2012
  
© Harish Jharia

1. Abbottabad, Pakistan 
2. Albany, Oregon, United States 
3. Athens, Ohio, United States 
4. Ayutthaya, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Thailand 
5. Bacolod, Philippines  
6. Bangalore, Karnataka, India 
7. Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India 
8. Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India 
9. Bonorino, Argentina 
10. Braintree, Essex, United Kingdom 
11. Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados 
12. Brussels, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, Belgium 
13. Buffalo, New York, United States 
14. Cairns, Queensland, Australia 
15. Calgary, Alberta, Canada 
16. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom 
17. Cebu, Cebu City, Philippines 
18. Chachoengsao, Thailand
19. Chicalim, Goa, India 
20. Cluj-napoca, Cluj, Romania 
21. Cobb, Georgia, United States 
22. Corozal, Puerto Rico 
23. Curitiba, Brazil 
24. Davidson, New South Wales, Austria 
25. Dehiwala, Sri Lanka 
26. Denver, Colorado, United States 
27. Dhaka, Bangladesh 
28. Dover Plains, New York, United States 
29. Drogheda, Louth, Ireland  
30. Dublin, Ireland 
31. Durango, Colorado, United States
32. El Paso, Texas, United States
33. Emmendingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
34. Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan 
35. Farmingdale, New York, United States  
36. Faversham, Kent, United Kingdom 
37. Fleet, Hampshire, United Kingdom 
38. Fremont, California, United States 
39. Fresno, California, United States 
40. Fribourg, Switzerland 
41. Fujairah, United Arab Emirates 
42. Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India 
43. Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India  
44. Haldwani, Uttaranchal, India 
45. Haora, West Bengal, India 
46. Hounslow, United Kingdom 
47. Huntington Beach, California, United States
48. Hyderabad, Pakistan 
49. Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 
50. Islampur, India 
51. Jakarta, Jakarta Raya, Indonesia 
52. Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India 
53. Kannur, India 
54. Karimnagar, India 
55. Kharagpur, West Bengal, India 
56. Konstanz, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany 
57. Kontich, Antwerpen, Belgium 
58. Le Perreux, Ile-de-France, France
59. Liverpool, United Kingdom 
60. Lodi, New York, United States 
61. Lubbock, Texas, United States 
62. Madrid, Spain
63. Maisuru, Karnataka, India 
64. Malinta, United /states 
65. Manipal, Karnataka, India 
66. Mank, Niederosterreich, Austria 
67. Marburg, Hessen, Germany 
68. Mascot, Australia 
69. Mcallen, Texas, , United States 
70. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States  
71. Morganton, North Carolina, United States 
72. Mormugao, Goa, India 
73. Mount Gilead, Ohio, United States 
74. Mountain View, California, United States 
75. Multan, Pakistan 
76. Nairobi, Nairobi Area, Kenya 
77. Oakville, Ontario, Canada
78. Oborniki, Wielkopolskie, Poland 
79. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States 
80. Okpo, Kyongsang-namdo, Korea 
81. Omaha, Nebraska, United States 
82. Oulu, Finland
83. Palakkad, India 
84. Palo Alto, California, United States 
85. Patna, Bihar, India 
86. Phoenix, Arizona, United States 
87. Porirua, Wellington, New Zealand
88. Providence, Moka, Mauritius 
89. Pune, Maharashtra, India 
90. Quetta, Pakistan
91. Quezon, Nueva Ecija, Philippines
92. Quincy, Illinois, United States
93. Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
94. Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates 
95. Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan 
96. Redditch, Worcestershire, United Kingdom 
97. Renton, Washington, United States 
98. Richardson, Texas, United States 
99. Rohtak, Haryana, India 
100. Rose Hill, Plaines Wilhems, Mauritius 
101. Salt Lake City, Utah, United States 
102. Sambalpur, Orissa, India 
103. San José, San, Costa Rica 
104. Sangrur, Punjab, India 
105. Schenectady, New York, United States
106. Scottsdale, Arizona, United States 
107. Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia 
108. Singapore, Singapore
109. Sukkur, Sindh, Pakistan 
110. Sulaimani, Diyala, Iraq 
111. Surabaya, Jawa Timur, Indonesia 
112. Tel Aviv, Israel 
113. Thalassery, India 
114. Thana, Maharashtra, India 
115. Thrissur, Kerala, India 
116. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
117. Unknown, Europe
118. Unknown, Norway
119. Unknown, Republic of  Korea
120. Vacoas, Plaines Wilhems, Mauritius 
121. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
122. Venice, Veneto, Italy 
123. West Haven, Connecticut, United States 
124. Wigan, United Kingdom 

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Crazy Ideas: Indian Bathrooms the Common Deathtrap for Senior Citizens

Colorful bathroom floors may turn fatal if we skid over them...

© Harish Jharia 

In western countries the bathrooms in the residences are mostly dry-floored and some are even carpeted whereas in India and in other countries in the Indian subcontinent the houses are wet-floored. 

That means the water released from showers or after bucket-baths, eventually flows over the main floor of the bathrooms leaving it totally drenched, wet and slippery. Resultantly, the floor that is made of smooth tiles becomes highly skidding and dangerous for aged people. 

There are reports about senior citizens skidding in the bathroom floors and succumbing to the injuries. They, fracture their bones, inflict head injuries and in some cases die of cardiac arrests.

They slip or skid whenever they use the bathroom with barefoot. Nevertheless, such slippages or skidding can be easily avoided if they wear slippers or ‘chappals’ with rubber-sole,  because, rubber-soles will provide strong grip to the feet of the user on the slippery floor. 

However, these slippers should be well designed for fitting with the contours of the soles of the user's feet especially the toes, heels and the arches.  The feet of the users hold the entire weight of the users' bodies. It becomes more risky when the user has a heavy body of 70-80 kg or more. The user would skid if he loses balance of his / her body and does not have proper footwear with strong grip on the floor. Once the body starts falling it keeps falling on the slippery floor and and the entire incident happens within a fraction of a second. 

Therefore it is essential for the bathroom users especially the elderly people to keep wearing slippers with rubber-soles as long as they are in the bathrooms. 

Here is a suitable design of slippers / Chappals for the senior citizens:

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TV Review: “Mi, Aaji Aur Saheb” Daily Soap Opera on Imagine

© Harish Jharia 

        Megha, Vishwaas and Vasudha (Aaji)

The meaning of the title “Mi, Aaji Aur Saheb” is “I, Grandma and Master” where ‘I’ stands for the central character, an eight year girl Megha (Reem Sheikh) who has lost her mother and abandoned by her father. Megha has been adapted by her maternal grandmother, Vasudha (Smita Oak) whom she calls Aaji. Saheb is the young son of the employer of Aaji whose name is Vishwaas.  

Aaji (Vasudha) lives with her selfish son and oppressive daughter-in-law who always try to exploit her and her granddaughter. Aaji, works as a housemaid in an affluent family for earning her livelihood and meeting the expenses for the education of her granddaughter Megha. During school vacations Aaji takes Megha along with her to the employer’s house. The employer’s young son Vishwaas (Sandit Kumar) who was in his early twenties, develops innocent friendly relationship with Megha. 

The serial “Mi, Aaji Aur Saheb” moves on with the story of Megha, her grandma and her friend Vishwaas whom they call Saheb. Megha’s relations with Vishwaas are objected to by his arrogant and egotistic mother who has a feeling of extreme social discrimination against her servant Aaji and her grandchild Megha. 

Megha grows up idolizing Vishwaas and their relationship continues for many years until she grows up into a beautiful youngster. Their relations take new turn when Vishwaas finds the little schoolgirl Megha transformed into a young lady. The makers of the serial believe that this ever-changing relationship between the little girl and the young man will carry the show to different fascinating phases. 

Review:

1. I have been following the promotional visuals of “Mi, Aaji Aur Saheb” for the last many months. Since the title “Mi, Aaji Aur Saheb” is in chaste Marathi language, I was a bit confused how this serial is going to be aired on a channel known to be a Hindi TV channel. I even thought about possibilities of Imagine launching a Marathi channel with this serial as an opening blockbuster.
2. Nevertheless, the serial titled as “Mi, Aaji Aur Saheb” has finally appeared on Imagine TV as a Hindi serial and is being telecast as a daily soap opera. I have seen a couple of episodes of it and found that it is based on a story with a Maharashtrian background and characters of the same linguistic society.   
3. I have the following observations to offer as review of this TV serial:
4. Being a Hindi serial the Hindi speaking people may not understand the meaning of the title “Mi, Aaji Aur Saheb”
5. This linguistic confusion might affect adversely in amassing more TV viewers and gain better TRP ratings
6. The relation Aaji has been shown as the maternal grandmother; whereas, in central India Aaji means paternal grandmother 
7. The maternal grandmother is called Nani in Hindi speaking areas
8. Therefore the word Aaji is going to create confusion in the minds of the TV viewers 
9. This theme of transforming relations between man and woman with an age difference of about 20 years is quite old and hardly convincing
10. Children at the age of 8 should portray characters involved in relations of compassion and parental love rather than any other affair   
11. Some of the actors are quite loud while playing their characters 
12. The serial is looking quite interesting in the initial episodes; nevertheless, I am doubtful whether the episodes expected to be shown about the romantic relationship between Vishwaas and  Megha, with 20 year age difference, would be suitable for children in Indian families

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Editors Page: Discover Life Site crosses 1,00,000 page views

It is a matter of great achievement and a moment of pride for Discover Life Site on crossing the magic figure of One Lakh (One Hundred Thousand) 100,000 page views.

I am thankful to the followers, members and visitors from India and across the world that spared time to visit Discover Life Site and patiently read the contents written by me. I am also grateful to the visitors who posted positive and encouraging comments on the articles. 

I as a writer thank all our visitors from India and across the world for patronizing the Discover Life Site and achieve one hundred thousand page views in just 30 month period from July 10, 2009 to February 19, 2012.

The first article posted on Discover Life Site was: Do we have a child within us…?  and 
the latest article has been posted on February 18, 2012 : TV Review: “Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuchh Kahaa” Daily Soap Opera on Colors 

Top Five Visitor Countries (since 11 October 2010):

India: 15518 
United States: 3206
Pakistan: 1415
United Kingdom: 969
Canada: 531
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Total Visitors: 26534 
Total Countries: 161 
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I wish all the very best to the registered members of Discover Life Site and the visitors from across the world all the very best… Happy Reading…

Harish Jharia 
New Delhi, India
19 February 2012

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TV Review: “Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuchh Kahaa” Daily Soap Opera on Colors

© Harish Jharia 

A new TV serial titled “Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuchh Kahaa” is currently being telecast on Colors TV Channel (India). I have been watching it since the beginning of the series and liked it because of the following reasons:

1. The serial has a freshly discovered theme, based on innocent relations between a young single mother of two children and a young crime reporter of a newspaper. 
2. The serial has characters of common middle class families shown in simple outfits and without multilayer heavy makeup and heavy excessive jewelry.
3. The viewers of all the intellectual levels are expected to like the serial. 
4. The location and sets of the serial also look natural and realistic those convey the real scale and realistic look of the ongoing life and environment.   
5. The direction, cinematography and editing of the episodes are excellent and different from the ongoing monotonous way of showing close-ups of the characters in action  in the shots, followed by slideshows of other characters present in the scenes… in other TV shows.
6. The main attraction of the serial is that the story moves ahead in each episode and the deliberate stagnations are avoided.

The meaning of the title “Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuchh Kahaa” is “Neither you spoke… nor did I say anything” and so is the way the relations between Megha (Aakanksha Singh) and Mohan (Kunal Karan Kapoor) keep going with mistaken communications. 

Megha is a young single mother in her early twenties with two kids. She is a good looking civilized woman who continues to live with her in-laws, after the death of her husband Amar (Rohit Bharadwaj). Her father-in-law is a soft heartened insurance agent and her mother-in-law a confused housewife. Her husband, a civil engineer, died in a massive accident when a flyover caved in killing him and a dozen plus employees in the debris. The builder took advantage of the death of her husband by accusing him of using substandard material in the construction and held him responsible for the accident and the deaths. 

Mohan, a bachelor in his early twenties is a crime reporter in a leading newspaper. He lives in a rented accommodation in Megha’s neighborhood, along with his mother (Neelu Kohli)and a servant (Dushyant Wagh). Mohan is a carefree, disorganized but hardworking journalist. He collects information about the crimes committed in his area and prepares press reports on his laptop. Incidentally, he is investigating the case of the flyover accident, in which Megha’s husband died and was held responsible for his own death and that of a dozen plus people. 

The story goes on in the city of Indore in Madhya Pradesh state of India. Megha is having a one point agenda in her life and that is fighting for seeking justice for her husband from the court of law. She along with her father-in-law (Anjan Srivastav) is striving hard to prove her husband innocent in the flyover accident case and punish the real culprits. Megha and Mohan continue meeting each other because of their common cause the flyover case and being neighbors. 

The successive episodes showcase frequently changing relations between Megha and Mohan dotted with incidents of comedy, laughter and tragedy. Variety of interesting and decent shots are shown in the episodes with incidents involving other characters like Mohan’s mother and his servant; Megha’s son (Vishesh Bansal) and daughter ‘Nanhi’ (Ashnoor Kaur) and her other family members. 

I recommend… “Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuchh Kahaa” … as a must see TV serial that is expected to provide healthy and decent entertainment for individuals and family members of all ages. 

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Design Development for Automobiles: Develop Corner-Lights on Cars for Safe Night-Driving At Turnings under Poor Visibility

                      

© Harish Jharia

Driving cars in India is a real troublesome job because of the bad condition of roads, crowded traffic, inadequate street lighting and poor traffic sense among drivers and pedestrians. It becomes dangerous and even fatal when we need to drive in pitch dark nights in a congested locality and turn the car at 90 degree angles.

Deficiency in the Present Design:

On turnings at right or left in pitch-dark nights we need to almost stop the car at the turnings because our headlights illuminate the road straight in the front. We are not able to see the road, beyond the turning, where we are about to turn. There are possibilities of some pedestrian walking on the dark road. There might also be a bicycle rider or a rickshaw moving on the dark road. There might be anything beyond our imagination and something against which you may bang your car if you keep driving carelessly.

Design Development Suggestion:

I think we should have some additional corner lights at both the right and left front corners in addition to the present headlights. Corner-lights may have specifications approximately as suggested in the following points, subject to suitability to the overall design of the automobile:

1. The corner-lights may be installed as parts of the headlights or be installed separately at the outer sides of the headlights or right under them.
2. The corner-lights may also be installed in place of the fog-lights, replacing them.
3. The axis of the corner-lights may be kept somewhere between 15 to 30 degrees outwards from that of the respective headlights.
4. The luminosity of corner-lights should be sufficient to illuminate about 25 feet in the direction of its axis.
5. The reflector of corner-lights may be designed in order to achieve its requirements
6. The corner-lights are also required to be at the ‘low beam’ angle
7. In standing position and during straight driving the corner-lights will remain switched-off.
8. While turning the vehicle at right or left, the respective corner-light may be operated with the help of the side-indicator lever.
9. The particular corner-light will be turned-on when the side-indicator lever is turned towards that side.
10. Eventually, the side-indicator and the respective corner-light will glow together.

Alternate designs already in vogue:

               Xenon Adaptive Headlight

An alternate system called Adaptive headlights is already being used on some specific models of super-luxury cars like BMW and Audi. Nevertheless, their technology is too advanced for Indian cars manufacturers to adapt and exorbitantly expensive for the customers to afford.

Click here:

How Adaptive Headlights Work: 

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Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh diagnosed malignant tumor near lung: Gone to US for treatment of this curable ailment

'Discover Life' wishes Yuvraj... "Get Well Soon..."

Based on a Times of India report 

- Harish Jharia 

Yuvraj had earlier been detected with a tumor between his left lung and heart, which has since been diagnosed as malignant. Yuvraj has been in the US since January 26, 2012, for chemotherapy at Cancer Research Institute, Boston on the malignant Tumor. 

Going by the line of treatment he is receiving, doctors here in India said that Yuvraj is likely suffering from a rare condition called lung seminoma, in which chances of recovery are more than 95%. This condition has no relations to excessive smoking or alcoholism. 

Family sources said Yuvi, who has made many comebacks into the Team India, is determined to overcome the disease and make a comeback again. They said the chemo sessions had begun and he is showing the side effects of this treatment. "He is showing common after-effects of the treatment like loss of appetite and nausea. He is anxious but also keen to fight the ailment," a family source said. 

Sources said BCCI would bear the expenses for Yuvraj's treatment in the US and his IPL franchisee, Sahara India, would release $1.8 million that the player would have received had played in the IPL this year. 

Nevertheless, the family considers all these matters as secondary issues at the moment. Before leaving for the US, Yuvraj's mother Shabnam Singh had told the press that, "For me, the health of my son is more important than his career in cricket at this stage." 

His father Yograj Singh said with prides that, "Yuvi is a 'sher' and all I can say is that he will make a comeback". 

Medical Marvels: Comeback Heroes 

Cancer is a disease that does not discriminate among the fit, the unfit, the skilled or the average. Yet, in sports there are some who have returned completely cured after treatments or surgery to and excelled in their field:   

• Eric Abidal: The Barcelona left-back was diagnosed with liver tumor. He underwent immediate surgery. Just two-and-a-half months after undergoing a three-hour operation, the Frenchman recovered fully. 
• Simon O' Donnell: Simon O' Donnell was celebrating Australia's first cricket World Cup win when he was diagnosed as non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He staged a remarkable recovery to return to the Australian one-day team. 
• Dave Callahan: The South African cricketer's best moment of his international career came right after he recovered from testicular cancer. 

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Rajasthani delicacy 'Ker Sangri' : The Leafless Colorful beautiful Bush ‘Ker’... Desert Shrub Capparis Decidua

         Rajasthani delicacy 'Ker-Sangri'

© Harish Jharia 

The term desert always fascinated me since my childhood days, when I read and heard stories from the Arabian Nights series. I really wanted to visit a desert and see it all by myself. I specifically wanted to see the sand dunes, the storms, the lifeless endless uneven earth’s surface and an oasis situated somewhere at a far off distance with water bodies, green foliage and date palms. 


'Ker' Fruits that are cooked to make 'Ker Sangri' Rajasthani delicacy

I visited the desert in Rajasthan, India many times. I had been to the Thar Desert in 1993 on an official visit. Thereafter, a part of my family shifted to Jodhpur about 3 years back and now I make frequent trips to this place.  Nevertheless, when I went to the real desert and saw the environment and the people living in that unpopulated and arid world, all those fascinations vanished. I was simply disillusioned when I saw the hard life of the people in the desert, their sun burnt skin and the rampant poverty they lived in.  

                                    The 'Ker' Bush

In this article, I am not going to discuss the problems faced by the desert people. I am writing this article to share information about a wonderful desert tree called Ker. It is a thick green bush that attracted my attention. It can rather be called a tree or a shrub because some of them are about 15 feet tall. Whereas, most of them spread over huge area of sand in 5 to 6 feet high heaps of green foliage. 

It is called a Ker or Kair shrub that has no leaves on it. It is simply a huge bunch of thin branches with triangular thorns. It produces a green berry like fruit called Ker or Kair that is used for cooking curries. Ker or Kair is a thorny bush (capparis decidua) found in the arid region of Rajastnan, India. Ker bush is a small moderate sized evergreen thorny tree. It has brilliant light bluish-green slender branches armed with conical thorns. Looking at this beautiful green tree with no leaves on it is a real wonderful experience. Growth of brilliant green colored foliage (bunches of thin branches) in a desert land is a natural miracle. 

'Sangri' beans that are cooked to make 'Ker Sangri' Rajasthani delicacy 

‘Ker Sangri’ is one of the greatest dishes in the menu of Rajasthani cuisine when Ker is cooked along with another desert vegetable called Sangri beans. This is a simple piquant and tangy vegetable preparation but it is cooked in all the hotels and restaurants with extra pride. Ker  and sangri are not exotic vegetables, but are wild berries and beans that grow independently and abundantly in the vast desert areas specifically in Western Rajasthan that is Jaisalmer and Barmer. 

                              The 'Sangri tree'

It is believed that that ker and sangri were discovered ages ago by Rajasthani villagers during times of a great famine when all other scarce natural vegetation had died and vanished away. Nevertheless, ker (small, radish berries) and sangri (longish beans) flourished abundantly even during the famine. 

Attracted with the green and pinkish shining berries on brilliant green branches, delighted by their abundant availability, the villagers collected them and carried to their homes. In times of famine there was no water for cooking. Therefore, the villagers dried the berries and cooked them in vegetable oil along with chilies and other spices. 

         The dried vegetable kair, Kumita and sangri 

The famine stricken people of the desert found something wonderful to eat with their bajra (millet) rotis (breads) and survive.

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