I was fastening my seat belt and getting ready to land after a long haul international flight when my attention was caught by the announcement of spare change. The airline was collecting spare change . . . coins in any currency for charity to feed under-privileged children. I quickly and mindlessly looked in my wallet and came up with a few dimes and nickels. I hurriedly threw them in the envelope and handed to the hostess, feeling good about my generous gesture! The plane landed and I reached my destination, quickly getting back into the motion of things; however, the fleeting feeling of doing something good remained. And I felt I should have put in the dollar bill too along with the coins for a better donation! Then I started thinking how much does this airline usually collect and how many mouths are actually fed? In my contemplation, I thought…

Dhyan and Energy Lying still on the examination table and feeling the movement of the probe on my abdomen for the ultra sound gave me moments of awareness. I was in a state of complete surrender and trying to go into dhyan but the consistent heavy breathing of the technician distracted me. After bearing the pain of constant pressured grinding of the probe on mystomach and listening to the deep frustrating sighs of the technician, I finally opened my eyes and looked at her. I gently asked her if she was tired as she was using her left hand and trying to operate the machine with her right. After a long moment of silence, she replied that this was a doppler test and getting the right images of my aorta was frustrating. She indicated that she was going to bring her supervisor to take the right images as she was…

Nelumbo nucifera , the sacred lotus , our national flower is unique. Often confused with the water lily , Nymphaea stellate , lotus flowers are mostly pink and white. They have delicate petals, a glossy smooth water - resistant surface and a musky woody fragrance. Growing in murky waters , their existence is just short of miraculous. Amongst the various flower species , the lotus is the only one that can survive and blossom even after many years of dormancy and is also known to regulate the water temperature around it. All its parts are useful. The petals , stem , leaves , rhizomes , fruit and seeds are consumed in various ways in different cultures. Interestingly, the petals of a blooming lotus close at sunset and reopen with the first rays of the sun. This bedtime phenomenon of certain plants is scientifically known as nyctinasty and is a mechanism…