In Focus- Facebook

Facebook has changed the online face of millions of people, bringing about various transformations in their lives and has allowed people to network and socialise on a large scale. Personally it has let me connect with my friends and family who reside abroad and has helped them keep track of what I do on a daily basis, which is quite impossible through the telephone and emails which could get annoying after a point.

Facebook groups help people to stay in touch with those who are like minded. A separate journalism group created for my class helps us share notes and circulate important information. A group created by a close friend just to keep in touch with my close friends gang is truly amazing as we get to connect on a daily basis.

These groups helped protestors in the Arab countries to organise mass protests and unrest. It is a tool that empowers people and helps them connect with others, which they wouldn't normally do in their busy lives.

Though at times, the constant notifications and reminders are a distraction, I doubt if I could breathe without Facebook. Or anyone for that matter. It has become an integral part of our lives, just like the mobile phone.

It allows you to read content/news online through social reader apps, chat with friends and upload photos and receive comments for the same. Games like Farmville, Angry Birds and Scrabble are quite popular on this site and friends can challenge each other in such applications. Facebook has changed the way the world works, and no wonder Mark Zuckerburg was adjudged the Man of the Year by the Time magazine.

‘Funspiration’: Inspiring the young to lead!

A team of six volunteers from Social Welfare Funds (SWF), an NGO which is dedicated to the cause of spreading education and empowering the youth conducted events, under the banner ‘Funspiration’ from the 25^th to 30^th of April, for the under- privileged students in the Tamil Medium School inside Church Park School premises. The events included arts, crafts, dance and spoken English classes for 150 children belonging to primary school.

These volunteers received training in leadership qualities under the ‘Rising Leaders’ initiative of this NGO. It is an internship program where volunteers are taught the essentials of leadership qualities and have to put these lessons to practice in various ways. The interns work, lead and manage the different verticals of a social organisation structure. Professionals trained in dance and art forms have been roped in to conduct the classes free of cost.

Anand Arivukarasu, Manager, Strategy and Planning Division of SWF said, “We choose volunteers who are dedicated and give leadership training. They put this training into practice by doing projects and services. Funspiration is one such event where the interns go to different schools and conduct events.”

He also said, “It is a win-win- win situation, since the community benefits, the volunteers get practical knowledge and the NGO’s message is spread.”

-Manasa Karpagam Kumar

An impressive milestone!

I managed to visit the opening of the Le Meridian Hotel in Coimbatore that was conducted in a gala style. The Le Meridien group of hotels which was started by Air France way back in 1972 launched their 100^th Le Meridien at Coimbatore. This massive project had its grand opening on a historic day- 11/11/2011. This hotel just like all the other Le Meridiens across the world has a basket full of experiences waiting to be discovered by its guest. The concepts used within the hotel whether we are talking about the ‘eye openers’ which are a range of refreshing drinks offered as you enter are simply outstanding so much so that the names really make you wonder how they came up with such ideas(mango chilly lime and cherry lemon peppers) or we are talking about the creatively designed collectable key cards, everything inside this paradise island is so articulately and meticulously planned with immense passion. The Le Meridien spoils its guests with choice and if your only staying for a night you would really go bonkers thinking of what to do first, Le meridian offers you an amphitheatre, a gym, an entire building dedicated just to healthcare facilities and a whole range of spas, a temple, of course a pool and the common lists of restaurants, a coffee shop and a bar. So if you want to be pampered Le Meridien coimbatore is the place for you.

The Peacock

As you enter the intricately carved doors of The Peacock At Le Meridien Coimbatore, the inidan restaurant there. The smell of smoking hot chicken tikka marinated in mint chutney lures you to your seat. The welcome is warm and they first serve you a small glass of mint and jaljeera water to refresh your senses. Each and every restaurant within the Le Meridien has been designed based on three basic principles that they must be a) chic it should have b) culture and there should to be a c)discovery.

The Peacock most definitely has all the three ingredients embedded in each of its aspects, interiors are chic, the recipes have culture and every course is clearly a discovery.

Eat healthy, fight anemia

After I passed out of 12th std, I went for my first health check up and discovered that I was anemic. It means my haemoglobin levels are at an all time low due to poor iron supply. Since then I have taken to eating iron rich foods as often as possible and I have seen a remarkable improvement.

Dates-I absolutely loath this food item, but it it supposed to be really rich in iron and hence the first preference!

Prunes-Though they are a bit tangy they are quite yummy when you get to eat a dried and seedless variety of prunes.

Figs are a great health food, containing many vital minerals and vitamins as well as contributing to your daily portions of fruit and veg. Two minerals found in figs that are particularly beneficial to women's health are iron

Channa- Small amounts of boiled channa or sundal is extremely good for women's health! So your mother to whip up a sundal that you can have for breakfast.

Flax seeds are a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids and have been linked to reduced risk of breast cancer and heart disease. The seeds' anti-inflammatory properties are also good for preventing arthritis, while their digestive benefits can help irritable bowel syndrome; two painful conditions which are more prevalent in women than men

So make sure these food items are part of your diet and prevent anemia!

Designer boutiques- A Plethora of options in the city

Occassions such as Diwali, Pongal, New Year, call for designer salwar suits for most fashion conscious women. Designer boutiques are mushrooming across the city in an effort to cater to the tastes of working women and teenagers.

Her Choice, located at T.T.K. Road, is a designer store in the city is choicest of Anarkali suits, chudidars and kurtis. The prices are not too high and do not burn a hole in your pockets.

Sanskrutie, a kutch designer store in C.P. Ramaswamy Road offers kutch dress materials and salwar suits in dull tones but with embellishments. It was started by a sister duo and is successful because of its unique dress pieces. I bought a kurti from here and it is extremely comfortable to wear during the summer though it is a bit pricey!

Brass Tacks is a store with a difference. Though it is quite expensive, it is worth all your money. This is because the materials are made of jasmine flowers; yes you heard me right, and other organic materials.

Riya, previously Shades, is on Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai and offers the best Bengali sarees and salwar suits. Chifon sarees, lehengas, salwar suits with embellishments and motifs, sarees with designer works and a lot more at affordable prices! My sister and I picked up a saree and salwar within 6,000 which is quite a deal!

Rekha’s Boutique has been in this business for a long time now and is situated in Mookambika Complex in Alwarpet. It offers a little more expensive suits and they have an in house tailor who will make changes to the set to fit you perfectly.

So explore your options before you pick that perfect salwar suit for a grand occassion!

Leh-Ladakh: Experience tranquility at its best!

Sand, sun and camels form the perfect mix of what a small desert called Leh, situated in Jammu and Kashmir, has to offer. Leh, the second largest district in India, has been known for its camels from the Silk Route days when it was used extensively for trade purposes. The double hump camels were the heart line for the traders for exporting indigenous products to Tibet and China. When one plans to visit Jammu and Kashmir, they cannot afford to miss out this tiny heartland of Ladakh, where one can see the alternating of snowy mountains against dry desert plains. Camel Safaris are famous and has tourists flocking to it to take rides on the humpbacked animal. Do not miss a ride on the humpback when you visit Leh!

Ladakh

White water rafting, as exotic as it sounds can be done in the serene waters of Ladakh and one need not travel all the way to US or other nations to tick this off the to-do list. Though a wee bit scary, one can be assured that a kayak will follow your boat throughout the journey to save you in the unfortunate event of you drowning in the waters!

Pangog Lake

Have you ever seen a pink lake that turns into a shade of purple when hit by sunlight? Such is the beauty of Pangog Lake which shares its border with China. It is the second highest lake in the world. Swans float around in the pinkish waters that just blow you away at first glance. You can just visit this place for the tranquility and peace that envelopes you.

Khardung La Pass

Driving past the world’s highest motorable road is no small feat. We stopped at this pass just to take a photo with the signboard that notified us about the feat. It is not very often that one gets to drive on a road at an altitude of 18,380 feet. That is where Khardungla Pass, meaning the ‘Pass of Lower Castle,’ is located on the way from Leh to the Nubra Valley in Ladakh. It is the highest motorable road in the world as signs put up by the Border Roads Organization proudly proclaim. You can actually do some shopping here – at a souvenir shop run by the Army, where I managed to pick up a mug.

Instead of spending huge amounts to visit exotic cities, one can travl to Ladakh and Leh, the forgotten places of northern India to boost tourism in the country and envelope yourself in the tranquility of nature!

My 18th Birthday gift- A trip to the land of freedom

It was so hard for me to imagine myself holding a passport with a US visa stamped on it. My head kept imagining a churlish officer smirking and telling me, “Sorry Ms. Manasa, but your Visa to the US is denied.”

I prayed and tortured my friends to pray for me. I renewed my one-way conversations with god after almost a year. I went over, again and again, in my head as to what questions they most probably will ask and tortured a friend of mine to tell me what all they asked him when he went for his interview.

I waited, like how Sidharth waited for his visa in the movie Ayutha Ezhuthu , in front of the American Consulate, looking above at the skies for some inspiration and sympathy. I wore my brand new fab india kurta and jeans for it just seemed right for the occasion. Okay great, I even started considering it an occasion!

When I finally trotted along the long corridor, completely terrified since I was doing it alone, I let go of all fear. The air conditioning inside is letting my tense muscles loosen a bit and I breathe. A little.

I am asked to sit in any seat I want and wait for my number to be called. I pick the last left corner seat since that queue directly goes to a cute Visa Officer who seems to be smiling and giving everyone the thumbs up.

Now I'm shaking my legs like I've got a fit. Not like that's anything new, but it's got a new vigor now. I'm considering all the worst case possibilities: I could throw up on the glass pane while he's interviewing me, or I could faint..! But anyway once she calls out my number, I head to the counter. He turns out to be quite nice and tells me after asking me a round of simple questions, “ Your visa is approved. You can collect it in a few days.”

The trip to the US seems like a definite reality now. My tickets are booked (Air india though, don't ask me why), my shopping going on on an everyday basis, and my happy hormones? They are bubbling up inside.

After days that felt like years, of shopping and waiting, I set off with Gauri to the land of Madonna and Abraham Lincoln. Of Martin Luther King and Obama. Of McDonalds and Walmart. Okay, you get the point right?

When the plane landed in the soil of the USA, I felt elated. At that moment, I knew. I was going to make this trip, my best ever. I was so glad to see my sister and Raj after so long. And Nandita!!! She is just too cute to be described by a single word.

I don't exactly recall the order of events and it doesn't even matter at this point..The places I saw was just amazing and enriched me a lot.

1) Smithsonian Museums: They are a class of their own. Even though I saw only a few of them, the feel of them tells me they are probably the best in the world. I went to the Natural History, Air and Space and American Art Museums. It gave me the feel of the extinct species, nice museum burgers and aeroplanes. I saw a beautiful 3 D movie about the Hubble satellite.

2) White House: Though it isn't like the most brilliant piece of architecture that's caught my eye, it is the whitest and coolest with the most amazing goose-bump producing sight since it has such a popular stories attached to it.

3) Tyson's Corner: This is just a mall. But we went there so many times! Thrice for shopping (Duh!) and once to catch a movie called Letters to Juliet, which was pretty nice actually. I ate form a huge popcorn tub with lots of butter and a coke to go with it =)

4) Niagra Falls: The scenic view was just mind blowing. NOTHING can beat that feeling. It is gigantic, fierce and refreshing to just be able to look at it. Once I went on the Maid of the Mist boat which went just under it's nose, I was so fascinated by it. The falls is just outright beautiful.

5) Potomac Mills: This is basically an outlet mall. Since the branded clothes are so expensive in the malls and private outlets, they are offered at factory price at this place. I got my first Banana Republic top form here =D

6) Hershey's chocolate factory: Phew this was one hell of a place! The chocolate making process was a revelation and I got to make my own chocolate bar with the ingredients of my choice and I designed the cover too! And to top it off I got a degree in Chocolate tasting!

7) New York City: When I reached there, it felt like I had landed in India. There were so many Indians around, walking, shopping, screaming into their iphones. It was just crazy. Also, New York is way more crowded and noisier than DC. Hari Anna came to pick us up and we headed to his quaint apartment in Queens. The first day, we didn't do much. We just looked around and shopped somewhere near his house. The next few days were hectic as we hit the streets, Fifth Avenue, Fashion street, and there was this nice bazaar kind of exhibition in the weekend which served many cuisines and offered a lot of variety for us shopaholics!We also saw the Empire State Building, Central Park, Times Square, Broadway, NBC studios and the Statue of Liberty. We ate out at an indo-chinese restaurant called Tangra which was really yummy and spicey. We also went to another relative's place for dinner and they had prepared a feast for us! On the whole, New York City is known for its gastronomic delights!

8) Union Station Mall: Oh this mall has a feel of the place it's attached to, the Union station which caters to trains and buses. It is more expensive and has a lesser variety compared to other shops we visited but it was fun anyway.

9) Lincoln Memorial: Lincoln's statue rests here on a chair, a HUGE one. Really nice statue and his speeches are carved on the walls. It's a nice place to go for a picnic because there is a fresh lawn and the famous lake connecting the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

10) Holocaust Museum: The holocaust museum was pretty depressing, but it enlightens one about the whole nazi propaganda and the stories of the victims. It has a very impressive exhibition of a boy called Daniel and his story. The whole exhibit is like a maze where we travel, with the help of Daniel's narrative, around a replica of his original house and how his life changes during the holocaust. The ghetto he is forced to stay in, the gas chambers, there are even pages of the original diary in which he wrote, on display.

11) Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum: This place was just full entertainment. We went crazy hugging Tom Cruise and posing with Obama! There were a truckoad of celebs for us to pose with and we took as many photos!

12) Newseum: This is a museum for news. It was like the perfect place for us journalists! We did a mock TV report. We were allowed to pick our story for the day, so we picked reporting from the moon. It was so awe-inspiring! We loved the video feed that came out, since we picked reporting from the moon!

13) Gravelly Point: Here, we were like just few feet away from flight landings near the Ronald Reagen National Airportt in D.C. The landings were REALLY loud and this gush of wind will just hit you when the flights are right above you.

14) George Town: This place is a small town for shopping! Aldo, The Body Shop, Banana Republic, Tommy Hilfiger, Urban Outfitters and lot more stores kept us busy 'window'- shopping. We had some toothsome cupcakes at Geargetown Cupcakes, which is this tiny picturesque bakery, which is also way too expensive! I guess old-world charm comes for a price these days!

15) Walmart: This probably what I have been waiting for all my life. Hahahaha! I mean it! It was heaven. I actually didn't cross my budget too while shopping here...because well.. It's Walmart! Everything was so cheap there, and it wasn't even lacking in quality. I got some things I've always wanted here so I'm a happy person!

16) Costco: Costco is way too phenomenal. This is the place you would have probably got your chocolates from your relatives who reside in the US. It offers all kinds of things in bulk; Chocolates, cookies, cheese, drinks, EVERYTHING. They even have these small counters at every few feet which give out samples of the huge items on sale. I tried Feta cheese something, caramel popcorn, blueberry yoghurt and some Starbucks coffee!

17) Jazz performance/Sculpture Garden: I went to the sculpture garden to meet a friend of mine where couple of jazz musicians were playing. It was really lively and the crowd was going crazy! It was flooded with families picknicking at the lawn and everyone was drinking wine! I was hardly able to see the sculptures that were on display due to the multitude of people standing there! I also went to this place called Fro Yo after the jazz performance, which is a self service eatery, where we take a cup and walk around the shop, scooping up as much yoghurt as we want into the cup. There were so many flavors to choose from! I just couldn't decide. So I picked them all! I tried every flavor there was and my cup was the heaviest!

18) Chinatown: This place was definitely not a town. It was just a couple of streets having very few chinese shops ( Not that America isn't covered with Made In China products but anyway!) We just walked to this place that said Chinatown, ate in Subway and window shopped in the chinese shops

I guess that's about it. I enjoyed myself like crazy in this land of freedom! I've got so used to taking the metro here that I feel I can't do without it! I just wish I find a good college here with an impressive journalism program that I could get into!

I hope to come here again real soon. But until then. I will miss the USA!