I wonder how Cristiano Ronaldo would be feeling now that his bust has been installed at the international airport in the Spanish city of Madeira. The airport has also been named after him.

The sculpture does not do justice to Ronaldo, a handsome man by all standards. In fact it looks nothing like the footballer; rather looks like his funny, abnormal version. Ronaldo being a sporting icon took it … well sportingly but the Internet went berserk with outrage at the lack of resemblance to the footballer.

A lesser mortal would have cracked up, hats off to the sculpture Emanuel Santos, who shrugged off criticism nonchalantly saying that “It is a matter of taste. You cannot please everyone”. Wow this guy is surely sorted.

The world is anyway becoming a difficult place to please. Ask the guy who wanted to please the two most important people in his life and ended up with hilarious consequences. He not only failed miserably in achieving what he had set out to do but also became the butt of jokes all over the world.

In a truly incredible man of the match acceptance speech recently, Ghanaian footballer Mohammed Anas, thanked his wife and girlfriend in the same breath and in the same sentence. “ I appreciate my fans… Also my wife and my girlfriend” He stumbled as he realized his mistake and corrected himself, “er I mean my wife. Sorry, Im sorry…yeah I mean my wife. I love you so much. I love you so much from my heart.” Too late, you sealed your place in history as the guy who had the best of both worlds but lost it in a rush of emotions when he inadvertently declared his lucky status to the whole world.

We are trying to please people around us all the time, aren’t we? We try to please our bosses for a promotion or increment, we try to please friends and family members because we want to look good or be in their good books, we try to please our partners so that they continue to love us. Ask yourself this one question and be honest. How many people do you know who are trying to please you? Unless you are a Narendra Modi or an in power politician or a high ranking official, chances are that you can count them on your fingers.

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Time on this earth is short. So isn’t it time you started doing something/things that make you happy. The way things are going, very soon you will find it formidable to even please yourself. If you like your meat better than your vegetables or if your idea of a date is a rendezvous with your beloved in a public place, both are almost out of bounds. Forget about pleasing others, you will be lucky if you are able to please yourself in times to come.

What are some of the things that make you happy? I would love to know.

The New Year 2017 is upon us. Like very new year, we will make one or the other of the following resolutions – Be more productive, quit smoking, start exercising,  lose weight, get a better paying job etc etc.  I don’t mean to say that these are not desirable resolutions…haven’t we all been meaning to achieve these every year?  Ok may be some of us have succeeded. Congrats buddy! For most of us though, these resolutions barely last through January to February only to resurface towards end of December.

A famous quote attributed to Albert Einstein defines Insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So my humble submission is just one thing to do in 2017 – Step out of your comfort zone. For once be sane and do atleast one thing that you have not attempted before. Surprise yourself. Think of some things that scare you… give you the jitters… things you never had the courage to do. It could be anything – public speaking, singing on stage, confronting a bully, reconnecting with an estranged relative, writing an emotional letter to your parents. You alone know the limit of your comfort zone. Take a step outside.

Could be either long term or short term, big or small  

Booking a ten day trip to go Scuba diving would be quite a big thing while deciding to wake up early every day for a 15-min meditation session could be a step outside comfort zone for someone else.

Volunteering for a new project at work for which you don’t have prior experience, would probably require you to learn a new skill or two to deliver the goods. At the end of it, each experience will leave you with a sense of achievement.

Could be physical, mental, intellectual or spiritual…

If you have two left feet and want to dance like MJ, then it will be a long term process for sure. You will need to spend hours and hours in practicing to learn to move somewhat like MJ. But you will get better with time and at the end of it you will be infinitely be better than when you started out. No guarantees that you would be able to copy MJ’s moves but go ahead and surprise yourself!

The best part is that it need not be anything big. You can experiment with the kind of clothes you wear. It could be something as simple as making a cup of tea if that is outside your comfort zone. If anybody else can do it, why can’t you? You can do anything you set your heart upon.

It is never too late to step out of your comfort zone. Never. Ever.

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You may be past your 30s, 40s or even 50s, it is never too late to do something new, something that you have not done before.

You alone know your comfort zone. It is like sleeping in your bed. You are assured of a good night’s sleep. But nothing ever gets done there (unless your laptop accompanies you to your bed, in which case you are compromising on the quality of sleep you are getting). Think. Let it be something that you can challenge yourself with. One small step at a time.

Last evening I complained of stomach-ache and my two year old niece instinctively wrapped her arms around me. She then gestured as if she would pick me up in her lap and even assured me that she would not drop me. She would have most certainly lifted me if she could, she had all the intent to; just that her age did not allow her to. This two-year old girl knew that she could make me feel better just by giving me a tight hug.

This set me thinking. How come the kids today become more and more disconnected with people around them as they grow up? And the funny thing is that we the parents are proud of the fact that they are proficient when it comes to using phones and laptops.

With increasing familiarity with gadgets, the sense and need for human connectivity seems to be declining. How often have you seen a group of friends or even a couple at a restaurant, all focused on their respective phones. Other familiar sights are the teenager in the house who is forever either on the phone or on the laptop; the spouse for whom responding to messages on the phone is more important than answering your queries; the friend who will be happier watching the videos being shared on whatsapp than talking to you. We have also seen how a mini emergency situation is created both at office and at home in case Internet is down or there are connectivity issues. Having a connection or a bond with other human beings – colleagues, friends, and family counts pretty low on the priority list as compared to that.

The one Mantra to solve all Connectivity problems

Did you know that there are groups around the world in countries like Australia, Austria and the US who give free hugs to strangers as random acts of kindness. The idea is to connect as humans and that a hug has the power to make the giver and the receiver feel better.

BJP State Unit chief Manoj Tewari recently announced that people lining up in queues outside Delhi Banks and ATMs would be given Laddoos. It would be better Mr Politician if the people who are standing in queues could get hugs instead. Hugs are 100% hygienic while the quality of laddoos in today’s tainted times will be suspect even in best-case scenario. Hugs have no expiry date; they serve the purpose wherever and whoever receives them. In fact how about getting Modi clones to give hugs to the common masses in queues; it will give extra bucks for the actor and would generate a feel good factor among the patriotic and nationalist citizenry.

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Do not underestimate the power of a hug or “Jaadu ki Jhappi” as immortalised in the hugely successful Munna Bhai MBBS. I have personally experienced the positive power of hugs. There are days when nothing seems to be going right. A warm hug from your loved ones at such a time suddenly brightens everything; spreads that warm fuzzy feeling inside you.

In our house we have what we call a family hug. Everybody gets together and hugs and believe me it’s like all the energy get pooled in and just makes everybody feel better. Try this in your family today. See how it makes you feel. As India is still a closed society, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that hug a stranger. Rather give a hug to your parent, sibling, family members or friend. Not only will they feel better but you will also find that small spark of strength in your being. Give a hug today.

Your love for green tea might save you from abdominal aortic rupture — a deadly condition of the main artery of the body that often turns out to be a silent killer, researchers say.

“Japanese people have the longest lifespan in the world, and studies show that 80 per cent of the population drink green tea on a daily basis,” Hidetoshi Masumoto from Kyoto University noted in the paper published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

The findings showed that green tea polyphenol, which is a major component of green tea, can help in preventing the abdominal aortic aneurysm — a condition in which the main artery becomes overstretched and bloated.

In the study, the team treated rats with enzymes that induce abdominal aortic aneurysm and found that the condition developed less frequently in rats that drank green tea polyphenol.

“Abdominal aortic aneurysms often go unnoticed because there are no symptoms until they burst,” says Kenji Minakata from Kyoto University in Japan.

Without treatment, abdominal aortic aneurysms eventually rupture and lead to death 50 per cent of the time.

Drinking green tea polyphenol also reduced inflammation and lead to more elastin production – the major reason for abdominal arterial aneurysms as well as rupture in the arterial wall.

“The type of polyphenol found in green tea has recently been shown to regenerate elastin, an essential protein that gives the artery its stretchy, yet sturdy texture,” explained lead author Shuji Setozaki from Kyoto University.

Previous studies had shown that drinking green tea can prevent cancer, heart diseases, inflammation, as well as oxidation.

“Daily intake of green tea should be considered as a new preventative strategy for abdominal aortic aneurysm,” Hidetoshi Masumoto from Kyoto University suggested, adding that Japan’s favourite beverage might be offering more than just a relaxing tea break.

“Japanese people have the longest lifespan in the world, and studies show that 80 per cent of the population drink green tea on a daily basis,” Masumoto noted in the paper published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

-IANS

• Investment of time in yourself for self- discovery and self-improvisation
• Self-nurture/ Re-charge
• Fulfillment /Enhanced self-worth
• Addition of fun to your life
• Learning a skill to show-off

I recently suffered from a bad bout of “Irritable Bowel Syndrome” and was advised by my doctor to switch to a plain bland diet. It basically meant giving up so many things that I love. An energising cup of Masala chai to wake me up in the morning, spicing up meals with mango pickle, dark chocolate any time of the day, the fruit of the season-the king of all fruits –my beloved mango, a glass of hot milk at bedtime.

My original problem was giving me so much heartache (read heartburn) that I readily agreed to forego the little loves of my life. Adhering to this spartan diet, I felt life slowly ebbing away from me. It is then that realization dawned that these are the things that I took for granted and only when I couldn’t have them, it struck me how they are an integral part of my life.

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Its only when something is taken away from you, do you understand its importance. For e.g. ( an extreme, self-experienced one) its only when you suffer from a neck muscle pull and are unable to even get up from the bed without asking for help that you realize the work that your neck does and bless it for helping you be up and about. The same is the case with any other organ in our body. The same thing also applies to other every day actions in our life that help us be who we are and define who we are.

The One thing To Remember

Yes big goals – promotion, increment, better job, bigger car, another house are and will remain important. But what about all the good things rather great things that are already going in your life?

Some of us cannot imagine our life without watching our daily soap, without finding out what our favourite characters on television are doing and what is happening in their lives. For others it could be anything, from reading the morning paper in bed with a hot cuppa, or the broad smiles and open arms of your kid/spouse welcoming you back home after a long hard day at work, a tete-atete with your best friend, listening to your favourite music/singer, watching your most loved sports stars in action while lounging on the sofa. 

I do not know which one of these is working for you right now. Maybe it is one of these or none of the above. Make a list of all the things in your daily life that complete you, make you happy and bring a smile on your face (Need not be limited to food, as was the case with me) and  post it in the comments section below.