Asia is the largest continent of the world with its 17,300,000 sq. miles area. The continent comprises of a number of countries and each country varies from the other in terms of its culture, habits, tradition and fashion. It will be a Herculean task, rather an impossible one to bring Asia and its culture under one roof. It is so vast and variegated that all the words of expression would fall short for it. So it will be wise enough to concentrate on only one of the aspects at aimed, selecting only a few countries. When we think of Asia, the name of the countries lurk into our mind are Japan, India and China. So let us concentrate on the traditional attires of these countries and find out how these traditional wear are getting infiltrated into the modern fashion trend.
India: Being an Indian, I know Indian culture and tradition better than any other foreign country. So I would definitely like to talk about our traditional clothing first. India is a country with as many as 29 states and each state has its own way of robes. But as far as the national dress is concerned it is identified with ‘sari’. It is attire for women only. A ‘sari’ is nothing but a long rectangular piece of cloth about 5 to 9m in length. It is worn without any fastening, pins or buttons. The tightly fitted blouse worn under sari is known as ‘choli’ and the final length of the saris hanging from the women’s shoulder is called ‘pallu’. The style, color, texture of a sari varies from one another. It may be printed, embroidered, stone and mirror embedded et al. The material of sari can be cotton, silk, synthetic or man many more things. Besides its color and design, the most striking and charming feature about the sari is that it is not cut or tailored for any particular size and can fit any women. There are several ways of wearing a sari; and its manner of draping as well as its color and texture indicate the status, age, occupation, region and religion of a woman.
Beside sari, there are many other dresses that are worn by Indian women like ‘salwar kameez’, ‘lehanga’, churidar etc. A ‘kameez’ is a long tunic worn over ‘pyjama’ which is like a loose fitted trousers. A tight-fitted pant is known as ‘churidar’.A pleated skirt is called a ‘lehanga’. Some traditional garments for men are ‘kurta’, ‘lungi’, ‘dhoti’ and ‘pyjama’. ‘kurta’ is like a long top while ‘lungi ’and ‘dhoti’ are apiece of cloth that is draped around the waist. ‘pyjama’is the pants worn under the ‘kurta’. A collarless khadi jacket is also popular among men. But most of the India men, unlike women, wear the conventional western clothes. A majority of women in India wear ‘sari’ though some urban women love and feel comfortable in western dresses.
Throughout the country there are many religious and regional variations in the costumes, such as Rajasthani women wear embroidered, mirrored and the tie-dye materials while in Arunachal Pradesh women are found draping home-spun long woolen skirts.
Indian dressing style is thus marked by many variations-both religious and regional; and one is likely to witness an abundance of colors, textures and style in garments of India.
Japan: The clothing of Edo period (1601-1867AD) comes into one’s mind when asked about Japanese traditional clothing. This consists of the basic pieces like ‘kimono’, ‘obi’ and ‘hakama’. The Japanese clothing is as simple as it is complex and elegant. The building block of Japanese traditional clothing begins with the “kimono’. During Edo period, this become an outer garment and was made up of all kinds fabrics. Before and during Edo period, fabric was class oriented, silk was reserved by the for the upper class people. All adult ‘kimono’ are cut into 8 pieces from 1 roll of cloth about 36cm, 14 inches wide and 11m long. The seams are cut straight and always the same width regardless of the wearer’s size, so cloth is left over. Any extra length was tucked under or over the ‘obi’ depending on the gender. ‘Kimono’ is simple in design and there is no fasteners used to hold the ‘kimono’ close. ‘Kimono’ is designed according to age, social status and gender. Just as a married woman would wear a ‘kimono’ made out of darker fabrics and with shorter sleeves than a young unmarried girl. Under the ‘kimono’, the lighter ‘kimono’ is called ‘Nagajuban’. An ‘Han-eri’(a scarf like collar) is worn between kimono and neck. Some other dresses worn by them are ‘Yukatabira’(light and loose fitting robes), ‘Happi’( a short coat), ‘Kamishino’(two piece costume), “Kataginu’ etc. “Hakama’ is like pants and has 7 folds that signifies 7 human qualities such as courage, humility, justice,chivalry, honesty, loyalty and prestige. During monsoon they wore jackets made up of straw. ‘Cording’, ‘sashes’ and ‘obi’ are used to close different types of jackets.
All Japanese clothes are wonderfully embroidered and crafted with beautiful fabric works. Clothes are highly decorative that includes family crests, animals, bamboo, flowers, branches etc.
China: The ‘Pien-fu’ is an ancient two piece ceremonial garment of a tunic like top extending to the kneesand a skirt or trousers extending to the ankles. In China, clothing indicated not only class gender difference but also ethnicity. Han Chinese and Manchu were two major ethnic groups in China who wore different cloths. The decorative band, appliquéd borders and richly variegated embellishment and embroidered design is one of the unique features of the traditional Chinese dress. ‘He ch’ang-p’ao’ is one-piece garment extending from the shoulders all the way to the heels. “Shen-I’ is a cross between the ‘pien-fu’ and the ‘ch’ang-p’ao’. It consists of a tunic and a skirt or trousers like the, ‘pien-fu’ but the tunic and the skirt are sewed together and essentially one piece like the ‘ch’ang-pao’ .Chinese clothing is not only an external expression but also an internal symbolism. Darker shades of color are preferred to lighter shades. Dresses with lighter color are worn by the people for daily use. Chinese associate few colors with seasons such as red stands for summer, black for winter, white for autumn and green for spring. They can be said to have fully developed a system of matching, coordinating and contrasting colors: and shades of light and dark in apparels.
Chinese clothing has a vitality of its own. It reflects a woman’s modesty. Chinese traditional silk clothing almost varies with consistency which was roughly established by the era of the Yellow Emperor and the Emperor Yao and Shan. Remains of woven silk and hemp articles and ancient ceramic figures further demonstrate the sophistication and refinement of clothing in the Shan Dynasty. Orient dresses almost vary with a woman’s figure. Mature women, in such attire can display their graceful and refined manner. In the 17thc in North China, a collarless tube shaped dresses were developed; they were the old ancestors of new dresses.

Nokia 8600 Luna is the phone which could surely be the neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride. The sleek look, the stylish appearance and with all cool features it could easily kill you. A better approach is not to ask for this handset when you go for cell shopping, as I can bet you can’t return home without buying it. The phone is so sexy that you would love to forget the entire world once you get it.

The display of Nokia 8600 is far better than any comparative model. With 240×320 pixel panel in 16.7 million colors TFT QVGA, any image will come as clear as any highly priced digital camera offers. It has a MP3 Player, bluetooth support, quad-band GSM, GPRS and edge data. The camera is 2.0 megapixel with 4x digital zoom.

The demerits of this handset is primarily the absence of expandable memory slot. So you cannot load all your favorite tracks in 8600 luna and go on playing one after another. You need to be contented with the supplied 128 MB. It also lacks 3G support and stereo bluetooth. The phone is quite heavy and it weighs around 142 gm and the dimension is 69×107x45 which is pretty manageable.

The battery life is 3.7 hours with 240 hours standby which is disappointing. Manufacturer concentrated so much on its looks that the performance is slightly ignored. However, combining all the features and its ‘WOW’ looks will surely give others run for their money. And once the phone is in your hand, the glass and steel looks will definitely help you to ignore the glitches. You will simply get crazy to buy it.

Quick Feature

Operating Frequency

• Quadband EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Automatic switching between bands

Dimensions

• Volume: 69 cc
• Weight: 140 g with battery
• Length: 107 mm
• Width: 45 mm
• Thickness (max): 15.9 mm

Display

• 16.7 million colors TFT QVGA 320 x 240 pixels 2″ display

User Interface

• S40 user interface
• Communication mode: Left and right selection keys, Call / end keys, ITU Numeric keys
• User configurable right soft keys and menu
• Active Standby
• Graphical demo mode of basic features, accessible even without SIM
• Icon-based menu - easy to navigate applications
• Flight mode

Imaging

• Integrated 2.0 megapixel camera with up to 4x digital zoom
• Landscape camcorder and video player
• Video and still image editors
• Video recording and playback
• Image Formats Support: JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG
• Video: Video recording and playback in QCIF format with sound
• 3GPP H.263 and H.264 video playback and streaming

Multimedia

• Playback for the following video formats: H.263, H.264, MPEG4, 3GPP
• Integrated FM radio
• Integrated music player for AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MIDI, AMR, WMA Audio formats

Memory Functions

• 128 MB built-in memory

Messaging

• Multimedia messaging: MMS for creating, receiving, editing, and sending videos and pictures with AMR voice clips (with up to 600 KB)
• Email: IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, Support for IMAP IDLE, OMA e-mail notification, MIME. Support or attachments: (.jpg, .3gp, .mp3)
• Text messaging: Supports concatenated SMS, picture messaging, SMS distribution list
• Nokia Xpress audio messaging: Send a spontaneously recorded voice clip via MMS SMS reader and High-Quality-Text-to-speech, SIND Instant Messaging and Presence-enhanced contacts
• Predictive Text Input: Support for all major languages in Europe and Asia Pacific including Indian dialect variants

Games

• High Roller Casino, Soccer 3D, 3D Golf Tour

Medical science is doing wonders by means of its inventions and its proper application. It has enabled mankind to show his mastery over the god. The medical professionals are curing a number of people of their diseases and giving them a new lease of life everyday. A man can change his god-gifted features wishfully with the help of science. Even gender change is no longer a matter of surprise and awe. So man is seen defying their god in a way. But still he is unable to conquer the place occupied by the almighty God; he cannot impart life to all persons who are destined die. There are many such avenues left that are to be ventured by man. So, day–by-day man is trying to reach the ultimate knowledge.

Of late, a striking invention of medical science has made man to see a ray of hope. Patients of incurable diseases have to undergo very painful process to continue their life. The patients of Thalassaemia have to live on blood transfusion throughout their life. But the invention of the procedure to cure blood disorder has shown its patients a gleaming horizon.

The doctors claims that the cord blood or can be better explained as the blood collected from the umbilical cord of a woman, soon after her second delivery , can save her first thalassaemic born child. This blood is collected after the umbilical cord has been severed from the new-born. The cord blood is a rich source of stem cell. These cells are found at different stages of foetal development. Stem cells are also present in several adult tissues. It has the potentials to cure almost 75 serious ailments, from blood disorder to heart and eye ailment to Type 1 diabetes. Diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, to name a few, can be cured using cord blood. Stem cells form part of our blood and immune system and they help to grow other cells in our body’s system. Thus it is expected to be a cure for cancer also.

The most striking feature that has made the invention more useful is the capacity of storing the cord blood. There are banking facilities where the parents can store the blood. If the first child of a couple is suffering from a blood disorder or any other disease that stem cell can cure, and the mother is expecting her second child, she could store her cord blood. This blood has the quality to cure her first thalassaemic child. Number of couples is storing their cord blood for any future need. The parents who decide to store the cord blood have to undergo a proper HLA (human leukocyte antigen) match. It is a procedure through which the immune system recognizes ‘self’ and rejects ‘non-self’ cell, then the stem cell is transplanted into the patient’s body.

There are mainly three kinds of stem cell transplantation namely adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells and cord blood cells. Here one caveat is that the stem cells taken from adult bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells are prone to rejection while cord blood stem cells are more adaptable and acceptable. However in India, the adult stem cells are mainly collected from bone marrow. For bone marrow, a perfect 6 out of 6 HLA match is required to prevent tissue rejection. But in case of cord blood stem cells for some diseases even 2 out of 6 match will suffice, but the chance is rare as the cord blood is collected immediately after birth.

In India the banking facility is available in the cities like Mumbai, Gurgaon, Chennai, and soon Kolkata will have one. Before delivery the parents can deposit Rs. 35000/- to Rs. 40000/- ($800 to $1000) initially and have to pay 10% of the deposit annually. So people can any corner of the world can store the cord blood stem cells of their children into these banks quite easily. With rapid advancement in stem cell research, the day is not too far when we will bid adieu to all generic diseases.

Read : stem cell research advanced-giant stride taken in past 5 years

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Beauty is the most sought after thing among all. Men along with women do their best to look handsome and attractive. To look presentable is highly expected from everybody, especially in the world of glamour and fashion. This craze drives people to spend long hours in beauty parlor. Even they don’t get afraid of following strict beauty regime just for a presentable appearance. Those who are gifted with this physical quality of beauty face fewer problems but who have less than average looks wade through more obstacles. The most common problem with them is that they suffer from a lack of self confidence, depression and frustration.

But now it is no more a problem at all because the abnormalities of face can be treated medically. There are many procedures for it like cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, face transplantation, hair transplantation, orofacial reconstruction etc. By undergoing this procedures person’s looks can completely be changed. People whose face has been distorted due to some accidents or who are born with defaced looks can go through a face transplant to get a better look and identity. Plastic surgery is also a way by which person can make his features sharp and striking. Balding is also a very common problem that sucks his confidence and spirit. So a hair plantation is the way to get back the lost treasure. One more common problem seen among people is overbite or ‘bimaxillary prognathism’. People suffering from this problem could not bite into their food properly. They suffer from the ulceration of lower lip due to the constant friction between the lower and upper jaws. Moreover the patient could not close their mouse completely. Overbite is a common congenital developmental anomaly of the orofacial region. It can be described as the protrusion of the maxilla or upper jaw. Other deformities of face like mal-positioned jaw or deformities arising from accidents and illness can also be rectified with this kind of surgery.

Orofacial reconstruction is different from cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery is done for the sake of cosmetic reason while orofacial reconstruction is done to restore both cosmetic and functional values of the jaws. In majority of the cases of dental deformity, the jaws remain dysfunctional to a certain extent and this requires a complete reconstruction of the facial bones along with the tissues. When this is done the external features become rectified too.

In case of ‘bimaxillary prognathism’, one has to undergo orthognathic or open jaw surgery, which includes cutting the jaw under general anesthesia. At first an incision is made from the upper left to upper right per-molar. The oral and palatial mucosa is then removed along with the portion of the heart palate. Then the maxilla is cut with bone cutting devices. The pre-molars are extracted beforehand. Then the bonny portion of the jaw is reshaped and fixed to the skull with the help of tiny titanium bio-absorbable bone plates. Finally, the absorbable sutures are used to close the bones. Calculations are drawn on the basis of x-rays and model analysis. A plaster-of-paris model is prepared based on an impression of the jaws. Then a study is done to determine the gap between the upper and lower jaws and how much needs to sawed. A dummy operation on the model is performed. And the effects are observed. If the result of that operation makes the client happy, only then the surgery is performed. The cost of this surgery is not very high. It costs between $600 and $1200 in India. Moreover, patients are not required to stay in the hospital for more than 72 hours. However pre-operative or post-operative counseling and dental care are required, which vary from case to case.

If you are worried with your looks, gone are the days to sob over your appearance. With the rapid progress in medical and surgical science, the world of beauty is within your grip. You only need to find a good cosmetic surgeon and that is where your beauty key is stashed.

‘Roti, kappra aur makan’ (food, clothes and shelter) is not the ‘mantra’ (magic- words) of this era of luxury and fashion. With this changing world, its inhabitants as well as their demands have changed a lot beyond recognition. Man is no more satiated with the minimum and basic requirements of life. Everybody wants to relish the best of all things, be it food, garments or shelter. Though it is a characteristic of all human beings that they are never satiated with what they get. They always want to have more and more. There is no end of their wish list. But this urge of man to get more, has also helped him to wade through all obstacles of life. It has also acted as a source of inspiration to move forward. And the word shelter carries more weight as it displays one’s living standard and strength.

Now a house does not mean only the four walls of brick and mortar but the ‘term living in style’ has evolved to take its place. Living in style or living kingly is the catchphrase of the time. A more demand for an elegant living will generate in future for sure. The definition of house has been changed significantly. It has moved from a mere shelter to a sign of premium living, from single standing Project to Condominium, from cement paint exterior to plush glass and metal front. There is a gradual leap from simple apartments to A/c apartments. French windows, aluminum sliding doors, terrace pools, a small garden with the living room, spa and Jacuzzi in the master toilet with shower panel, high quality flooring and specification have become the thing of necessity. Amenities like sophisticated waiting lounge, shopping mall, swimming pool, community hall, children’s park, lots of open spaces and garden, health club, club house, high speed automatic lift with top class security and facility management are on the top of their list. What was considered a luxury few years ago has now become a necessity with the changing lifestyle. It is also due to this aspiration of man to lead a life of comfort and luxury that men are coughing up a good some of money on it. The whole world has learned to live a life in a more stylish way.

People are also running after the most sought concept of building automation or the digital homes. The concepts of digital homes have already reached many countries but still there are such countries that are still untouched by the concept of digital homes. The system enables its owners to control everything from lights, curtains and security system and operate appliances like microwaves, air conditioners and geysers through landlines and mobile phones ( via SMS also). The owner can also connect their homes with internet to control the gadgets and view their homes.

Moreover, after you come back home, you can get fresh and cool air around you, your food already ready to eat, all lights on and many more such services can be controlled only through a SMS from your mobile phone from any nook and corner of the world. This system will prove to be a friend in need of yours.

Finger identification doors, video door phone, gas leak detector, smart card and cameras are already there. But a new leaf has been added with the invention of door alarm which will aware the owner if the door is not properly locked.

In near future, we will find that the building automation, which is a luxury now, will no more remain a luxury but a thing of necessity. Few years back, a building with a good elevation and lift was a mark of luxury but now it’s no more that. Today, premium project means value addition of facilities and lifestyle with location advantages. With the rapid escalation in people’s earnings the popularity of the digital type homes are also increasing.

As the life style plays an important role in the buyers’ mind so as in the developers’. The meaning and aspect of life style is not stagnant. It is always changing with the changing time. The gulf between luxury and necessity is getting thin. Men now can afford more for the availability of easy loan terms with many money lenders. Living in style is no more an uncommon word; rather it is a natural choice for all.