I could not write for the past two months. I could not write because I didn’t have internet connection. Yes, it is a hard fact. In 2009, in one of the metropolitan cities, I struggled to get an internet connection. Why? The story is long, but in one liner, like most of the places in India, my current residential place too, didn’t have last mile network. I ran from pillar to post, went to all service providers, yet could not avail of a connection.

Finally, the ray of hope sparked and soon extinguished. I had no way this time, but to be offensive. That paid. However all credit goes to Airtel. In my opinion the finest service provider in India. Understanding my plight, they rapidly arranged connection in just two days. From the time I complained to their support, till I got the connection, they continuously updated me on the status and found thousand solutions to every problem they came accross.

I salute Airtel and request everybody to try their service. It’s simply excellent.

Thank you Airtel.

The beauty of your face gets enhanced if your smile is enchanting and that mesmerizing smile depends much on your healthy and glowing teeth. Everyday we wake up from sleep and perform the daily ritual of cleaning them. Brushing teeth is now more a fashion statement than anything else. Moreover, when we talk or smile only the outer portion of our teeth get exposed and this makes most of us brushing and cleaning only the outer surface of our teeth while ignoring the inner surfaces. This makes our teeth more vulnerable to infections and diseases. A number of persons are suffering from teeth and gum problems around the world. Moreover, our teeth are one of our precious possessions and our negligence would led us to loose them before time. New scientific studies connect bad gums and periodontal diseases to brain and heart diseases. Periodontal disorder is an infection of the gum and bone that hold the teeth. The disease is painless and creeps up slowly without warning. Only a dentist can diagnose it.

But no, there is nothing to get worried and feeling low. As everything has a solution, so it has too. The most potent weapon to fight against these diseases is the very commonplace plastic and nylon contraption called the toothbrush. Doctors describe it as the oral scavenger that fight against mouth infections. A medical journal also reveals that people suffering from diseased gums, cavities and missing teeth are more prone to heart diseases. Though doctors are not sure that proper cleaning and brushing of teeth can prohibit heart ailments but its probability places the brush on par with life savers in the medical kit.

Gone are the days of rubbing your prosaic toothbrush around your mouth. Now Sonicare has launched its battery operated or electrically charged automotive toothbrushes. These brushes rotate like spinning tops at the head and spare the finger muscles from its daily work of cleaning. A power brush has a deeper reach and cleans both the inner and the outer areas. These electrical brushes are rechargeable and their heads can be replaced. These brushes are also available in family pack that worth only Rs. 400/- (Around $9) in India. People are going gaga over this latest production of Sonicare. The brush removes plaque, reverses gingivitis and naturally whitens teeth. Its slim, angled neck, tapered brush head and contour-fit bristles provide an unparalleled level of comfortable cleaning, especially in those hard to reach places. It is futuristic with an in-built micro-processor, which makes it 100 times faster than the manual toothbrush. The power brushes also stimulate back and forth movement and produces ultra-sonic waves that rev up the gums. Studies show that its trajectory is 2-3mm beyond the bristles.

But when it comes to choosing a toothbrush, be it power or hand-driven, it is necessary to keep in mind some points. Your brush should have a long and soft bristles which can penetrate deep into the gums and should be replaced every month because the bristles have short self lives. Moreover, there are some ways of brushing that can keep diseases at bay.

• First of all, while brushing, place your toothbrush at a 45-degree angle against the gums.
• Always move the brush back and forth gently in short strokes as wide as the teeth.
• Remember to brush both the inner and outer surfaces, and the chewing areas of your teeth.
• Use the ‘toe’ of the brush to clean the inside surfaces of the front teeth and use a gentle up and down stroke.
• Never forget to brush your tongue to remove bacteria to freshen your breath.

So, keep aside your worries and smile but with oral hygiene.

In May, 2000, when PHP4 released PHP3 was doing a great job, but with the advent of PHP4, it just took over the web market by storm. PHP has never looked back since then. From 2000 to 2004, one after another release of PHP only boosted its presence as the most sought after web programming language. In 2004, when PHP5 released by then PHP has already grabbed the maximum of web market and has become a de-facto choice for web developers and hosting companies. In these 4 years of journey, PHP has not only added fillip to its own market but supported both apache and mysql to grow as one unit and created an environment what popularly known as LAMP.

2004, was not a gainful year for PHP as PHP5 failed to achieve the success its already enjoying and even failed to meet up the hype it raised before its launch. Most of the web hosting companies simply turned their back and just said a clear NO when the question of up gradation arose. The possible reasons one can draw are

• PHP4 was already installed in majority of web servers and PHP developers could not leverage PHP5’s full potential without dropping support for PHP5.
• Hosting companies didn’t have enough motivation for shifting to PHP5. Already most of the web applications were running in PHP4 and they could not force the applications to shift base to PHP5.
• PHP5 is a fully object oriented language while PHP4 was mainly procedural with object oriented support. From scripting angle a PHP4 script and a PHP5 script is totally different. So shifting to PHP5 needs one to rewrite the entire script.

This cycle was indeed a vicious and this was greatly affecting the success of PHP5. And this lead to the announcement of PHP team to discontinue PHP4 from year 2008. On 13th July, 2007, PHP community (php.net) announced that by 2007 they will withdraw support and maintenance of PHP4. “The PHP development team hereby announces that support for PHP 4 will continue until the end of this year only. After 2007-12-31 there will be no more releases of PHP 4.4. We will continue to make critical security fixes available on a case-by-case basis until 2008-08-08. Please use the rest of this year to make your application suitable to run on PHP 5.”

Though I am not sure if this decision is a ridiculous one but surely I am afraid of the web applications running on PHP4 and doing good business. The demand of PHP5 even created website which are forcing users in deciding their choice of scripting language by forming a community. I am not sure if we will call a product as good one if its survival depends on the extinction of its mother.

Right now 33 projects and similar number of webhosts decided that they are not going to provide any support and service to PHP4 from 2008 onwards. Here is a partial list

Projects: Krumo, Asido, PEAR, SimplePie, Gallery, Flyspray, Jelix, Swift mailer, phppgadmin, domain name portfolio, solar, silverstripe, Irokez CMS, PHPUnit, CMS Made Simple, Wide Image, Fry PHP, Desk Pro, Website Baker, ICE BB, CV CRM, S2Container, PHPMyVisits, PHPMyFAQ, UseBB etc.

Looking optimistically, however this isn’t a bad news at all. Since PHP5 has well support for PHP5 and before we start migrating to PHP6 this forceful migration is a welcome step. When the decision has been taken and when the time has come for the change we can say unanimously GoPHP5.

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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It’s not a denying fact that women have conquered all the
avenues of knowledge as well as of profession. She has
applied her talent to all the streams to increase the
frontiers of her views and understanding. Women have also
tried her hand in each and every profession. She is walking
equal steps with man in every sphere of life. The clamor of
the feministic activists and feministic authors have helped
them a lot in securing them this social status and
theoretically let all the social creatures know that women
are the backbone of the society. But still there is some gap
and something is missing. Though the gender ratio in job
sectors are significantly changing but the price of women in
the marriage market has remained the same as it were. This
is especially prevalent in middle-class families and the
lower middle-class society. All women both employed and
unemployed are put to the test of beauty. Beauty is the
first thing that all men ask for. Dark is still not fair for
them. Though dusky women are redefining the parameters of
beauty in the glamour world but actually nothing has changed
strikingly. There are many such examples that will be enough
to prove that they are also successful in their respective
professions. . In India, the ruling party at the centre is
headed by a woman; a woman president is also likely to take
over the office. Naomi Campbell, now a super-model, won the
Miss Universe crown and is a very successful woman in the
world of glamour. Some dusky beauties of Bollywood are
Rekha,Hema Malini, Kajol , who are reigning the Indian film
industry. So their dark skin color has failed to prohibit
them to relish the nectar of success and fame.

But at the time of marriages, the parents as well as the
groom are united in their desire for a fair and lovely
bride. This is applicable especially in cases of arranged
marriages though the issue is quite different in the matters
of hearts and love affair.

If the would-be-bride is a working woman, the eligibility
criterion is a little relaxing for them. But again, the
working women have their won problems. Professionals like
doctors, lawyers, policewoman, models, journalists, BPO
employees, are look down for their erratic workloads and
hours. Even women working in IT companies are not spared
from this, due to their irregular working hours. Moreover,
women working in night shift are not eligible bride as
staying long hours outside the house after marriage is not
desirable. If a girl is returning home at night, it becomes
the talk of the town and the news is sold like hot cake.
Gossip and that about a nocturnal girl is more to cherish
than others.

There are many such families who pre-set many conditions
like, the girl would leave the job after the marriage or in
some cases, she is compelled to leave her hard-earned job to
shoulder all the house-hold responsibilities. Jobs that make
a man lucrative in the marriage market goes against the
woman.

Men want their brides to accept their decision on whether to
work or not after the marriage. Moreover, there is question
of moving with husband in case of a transfer. There are also
such families who search only working brides for their son
to appease their hunger of money. In such cases the woman
has to work both inside and outside the house. And moreover
she has to face weird questions from groom’s family at the
time of match making regarding her choice of career.

It has been noticed that the preferences of jobs changes
with community. While Marathis and Bengalis look for working
woman who is also homely, Punjabis prefer pure housewives.
Marathis also give importance to brides with government jobs
and Marwaris prefer a woman who has a small business of her
own.

One profession is surely the most lucrative in marriage
market. School teachers are more in demand and even more
than college lecturers. Primarily for the reasons that
school offers more paid holidays and vacations other than
good salary, convenient working hours and schools are pretty
large in numbers.

In such a moody marriage market it is really a curse to be
the bride’s parents or the bride herself. Socio-economic
conditions sometimes change the directions of the wind but
unfortunately any direction has so far proved to be against
the bride’s wishes. The irony of the fact is that though the
decision rests with the bride, it is mainly governed by her
father, a male.