n couple of days, we have Vinayaka Chavithi ( September 15th) – Our Lord Ganesha’s birthday. This festival is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Bhaadrapada, starting on the shukla chaturthi. On this auspicious day, here I provide few links for the pdfs and audio clips which can be handy for proper pooja vidhanam of our dear Lord Ganesha.

Vinayaka Chavithi Pooja Vidhanam - Text in Telugu and in English.

Vinayaka Chavithi Pooja Vidhanam – Audio(Telugu): Part 1 : Puja
Part 2 : Katha*

Back in Hyderabad, we had Vinayaka Chaturdhi booklets which were so handy for performing pooja. But, those who are staying in other countries (like me) and who don’t have the booklets, these pdfs and audio clips are so much of convenience. Isn’t it!!

This is my first entry for Ganesh Chaturdhi Event hosted by Latha.

May the blessings of Lord Ganesha be with you in all your efforts always.

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all of you folks..:D

The hopes of those clamoring to see Coldplay in Tampa tomorrow night have been cold-cocked.

The Grammy-winning British foursome announced this morning that its concert, scheduled for the Ford Amphitheatre, was postponed for “artist-related medical reasons.”

A release did not say which artist or what medical reason. No word if it had anything to do with a rush of blood to any band member’s head.

Details of when the gig will be rescheduled are still to come.

Kate Mara (born February 27, 1983) is an American television and film actress. Beginning acting in her hometown of Bedford, New York, she moved from the stage to her first film, Random Hearts (1999). Her notable roles include appearances in the Academy Award-winning film Brokeback Mountain, playing the daughter of Heath Ledger’s character, and on the Fox television series 24, as computer analyst Shari Rothenberg. She has since appeared in the feature films We Are Marshall (2006), Shooter (2007), and Transsiberian (2008). Mara will next be seen with Justin Timberlake in The Open Road (2009), in the sixth season of the HBO series Entourage, and has joined the cast of Iron Man 2 (2010).

When Phyllis Murphy’s mother was pregnant, back in the 1950s, her doctor advised her to take up smoking for relaxation. A few years later, that same mom smeared her toddler’s skin with a concoction of baby oil and iodine for a deep, rich tan. Now, safely in adulthood in Vancouver, B.C., Murphy fondly recalls childhood as a time of leaping from rooftops and accumulating “more scars than Joan Rivers.”

And Tim Palla, a 46-year-old pastor, spent his childhood just north of Pittsburgh where he got just one vaccination, gobbled wild berries and mushrooms, drank from the ditch, and chewed road tar like gum.

Like Palla and Murphy, many of us who were raised in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s are survivors. We were tiny daredevils: sun-blasted, pocket-knife-carrying, bottom-spanked, cow eaters. We ran the streets armed with BB guns, boxing gloves and bottle rockets, wholly unprotected by bike helmets, sunscreen or Amber Alerts. Our houses were filled with the blue cigarette smoke of our cocktail-drinking parents and we believed it wasn’t supper without a mountain of red meat.

Best Premature Solution

We just didn’t know then how brave we were. And, surely, future generations will marvel at our physical moxie. Because, truth be told, it was not easy to get here.

Whether you were raised on heaping bowls of Boo Berry (1970s), Quisp (‘60s) or Sugar Jets (‘50s), you probably, unknowingly, violated every nutrition and safety maxim of modern day childrearing.

And yet, somehow, despite all that, most of us made it out of our childhoods just fine. So what gives? Is there really any point to denying ourselves delicious, sugary, buttery food, stamping out our cigarettes and straining our muscles at the gym?

Despite years of confusing, mixed messages about whether red wine, chocolate, fish, coffee or eggs are a tonic or maybe somehow toxic, there have been enough randomized clinical trials to offer some undeniable truths: high cholesterol, low exercise, excessive sun, inhaling cigarette smoke, failing to wear a seatbelt, and excessive drinking while pregnant can hurt you (or your baby). They may not, but they can, or quite likely will, depending on the behavior. U.S. death rates from heart disease have dropped by 50 percent in the last 20 years — about half the decline is thought to be due to prevention. Today’s parenting styles are guided by that knowledge.

“It would be a disservice to say that (modern, healthier habits) don’t make any difference,” said Dr. Daniel Berman, chief of cardiac imaging at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, himself a vegetarian. More people soon will be pushing age 100 and feeling good, he projects. “I’m 100 percent convinced that the things we’re doing are extending our younger years.

“The bottom line is that things like bike accidents where a kid died because they didn’t wear a helmet, those rarely occurred. But if your kid happened to fall and was one out of 10,000 who died, you must live with knowing it was preventable,” Berman said.

Ann Middleman recalls a friend’s 18-year-old daughter died in the ‘60s while sledding in New York without a helmet.

“I think of all the people who didn’t survive,” said Middleman, 47, whose father, a lifetime smoker, died of cancer at age 52. “I’m glad I live now, have access to good medical care — as well as the information to make informed choices — and safer products. Seat belts and air bags alone save numerous lives every year. Before we had them, people did die. Needlessly. We may not have known about them, but for their families, the losses were, indeed, tragic.”

Genetic destiny?
Many of us weathered our childhood deeds and diets because we heard about the health studies, or the tragic accidents, and changed our ways as adults. But another big factor in our longevity is rooted in our DNA — 50 percent of our health outcome, Berman estimates, is determined by our chromosomes. Which explains how cigar-sucking, overweight Winston Churchill lived to be 90, while running guru Jim Fixx died of a heart attack at 52.

But some unknown quantity, some slice of the equation, is not due our genetics or our subscription to Cooking Light magazine. Some of this, say many folks 40 and up, is a matter of attitude, an edge we still carry from our younger days.

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