Swathy and Sky

Beware of where you are eating!

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Hopefully, you have seen Blood Brothers which I had posted a few days back. If you missed it, watch it here. Now, I was talking that I was having a discussion with my friend about HIV-AIDS. Durign the convo, he narrated an incident which happened almost a decade back in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.
The incident went something like this. There was a panipuri guy who used to serve really good panipuris in Banjara Hills. One day he got a cut in his hand which he did not bother to cover or treat and obviously he could not stop serving panipuris coz of a cut so he continued with an open wound. And, a month later some person was detected positive for HIV. So, ultimately a trace was run on how he got the disease and it was found that the panipuri wala was the cause. That day around 80-85 people who ever had panipuri at that guy’s stall were detected positive for HIV. This incident garnered a lot of media attention though I could not find any details on the net. If you do or know anything about the incident (even if I am wrong), please do share the news.
This incident whether true or not had raised a lot of questions in my mind. I am a person who loves to eat junk and all the road side crap (even if I stop you from dong so). I try to curb my junk food cravings but chat and panipuri are my loves and I can’t leave them totally. Now, I donno how many of you would agree with me on this but I always found roadside items to be more tasty than the same items available at a posh restaurant. Well, that might be psychological too. But, whatever the case be, I wanted to warn everyone including myself from eating too much outside because the food can be unhygienic. Even the cutlery is enough to transmit the viruses and bacteria from one person to another.
I know that this post of mine would have an impact for at max a week. It is not easy to leave the habit of eating outside. So, I would just list down certain tips which can help you maintain a decent level of hygiene.
  • Avoid using cutlery in places where you can. Going to road side stalls, sweet shops, small local restaurants and dhabas are places where you can avoid cutlery easily.
  • When the plates are put in front of you, wipe them with a tissue once on your own.
  • Where you are doubtful about the quality of water, order a mineral water bottle or better yet, carry your own bottle of water.
  • Check the seal of mineral water bottle and always order bottles of cokes and other drinks.
  • Do not worry about the quality of water used in cooking coz temperature destroys many bacteria.
  • Always wash your hands before you eat. Prefer to carry a small tube of hand wash or a cheap face wash will also do the job. Anti-bacterials are not as effective as soaps.
  • Try to choose a hygienic place where self-service is allowed.
  • Avoid anything given in newpaper wraps (road side chats and other things).
  • If you are really interested in eating them, carry your own tiffin box and ask him to put the item in your box. Newpapers have a lot of germs.
  • Similarly, do not ever put your hand in your mouth after handling cash. Cash notes change a lot of hands so always avoid handling cash before eating.
  • You can wear gloves to keep your hands clean when using public transports.
These are certain precautions which can be taken to avoid unnecessary diseases. And, I am not just talking about AIDS, Hepatitis and TB but also simple cold and coughs and other unnecessary complications.
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My experience with Body Shop and Lush

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To bring down the serious tone of my previous posts, I am sharing with you a hilarious tragedy which quite often happens with me. So, I hate The Body Shop (TBS) and Lush both. Well, I know there are ardent lovers of them among you all. But, seriously, have you ever been in their shop repeatedly and got so confused that every time you returned empty-handed???? I have been to TBS like may be 7-8 times since it opened here and always came out with out buying because there are so many amazing products which I wanna try but then I always end up getting confused and miser. Obviously, TBS is very heavy on the pockets.
So, this December, I went with my dad to make it easy on my pockets 🙂 And, again, the tragedy !! I came out empty handed 🙁 I wish now that I should have bought at least one product. I applied all the testers there and I ended up getting a greasy skin 🙂 You know I am so embarrassed now that I am always sitting and thinking what would I buy when I enter TBS next so that I end up buying something and not make a complete fool of myself. I guess I wanna start with Moroccan Rose or something range. It seemed most fascinating to me. So, hopefully, next time, I would be a proud owner of TBS products. I really wanna check out their body and facial oils. I read a review of some facial oil a few days back but the cost was whopping. Guess, how much??? Some 945 bucks for 15 ml. I mean come on???? They should at least give 50 ml in that money even if they are using the most exotic ingredients of the world !! One other thing I hate about TBS is their lack of sale offers. Most of the time I check that the sales are for members only and it seems that there is an extra 500 bucks for becoming a member though I really donno if you can redeem those 500 in your next visit or what. Would love it if you could explain about this thing. And, then, even on the New Year, they had just 2 day sale and I missed it and even the sale was bad – you had to buy 4 products to get a 20% discount !! I do not even consider it to be a sale frankly but yes, something is better than nothing. I have heard people saying they got products at 50% so would be keeping an eagle eye for that one but please it should be for everyone not only members.
Oh, so now its the turn of Lush. Frankly, I did not know about it. So, where it started? I went to Hypercity in Hyderabad for the first time soon after it opened and found a really amazing store with all kinds of colorful bath products and soaps and body butters. I did not check out the shop name at that time but loved the shop coz it smells so heavenly. You gotta go to experience it, seriously (if you have already not been there !!). I was very sure that I’ll buy something from there like shea butter or stuff. But, then it became a forgotten story coz I went to Hypercity some time later and could not find the store. May be it was closed or I did not check out on the right floor. I thought that it might not be selling enough so it closed down. I took to reading reviews of products very recently like 6 months back. So, I found Lush mentioned at very few places and the prices were even pricier than TBS. Consequently, I did not pay much attention to them. But, when I went to Hypercity, I checked out the name of the heavenly store I mentioned and then I knew that Lush was in Hyderabad too !! So, since then, I have been aching to lay my hands on Lush products. Please can any one inform me about the sales in Lush coz I never paid attention to it prior.
I wish I had an unlimited supply of money and I could spend it where ever I wanted. Anyway, my first love would be Marie Veronique in that case. Do not forget to inform me about the sales, please!! Guess what, even I became a sales freak now 🙂Also Read:
Lakme Vital Indulgence: Review
LashMantra Natural EyeLash Growth Serum: Review
24 Letter Mantra Products by Sresta Natural Bio Product Limited
Parachute Head Massager Review
Always have a bottle of calamine lotion
Get a bottle of Rogan Badam Shirin
Winter Skin Care Lotions
My tryst with Himalaya
Ponds Face Washes

How much weight do you want to lose?

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Ok, so I came across a story of Isabelle Caro. I am not sure how many of you have read the story so I am recounting it for everyone. Isabelle Caro was a French model who died in November, 2010 due to anorexia. She was 28. Anorexia is an eating disorder caused by losing too much weight and not partaking proper nutrition to meet the daily dietary needs.

 
Isabelle Caro was anorexic since the age of 13 due to her personal life. And, when she joined modeling, she was advised to lose 10 kilos to survive in the fashion world. She had been hospitalized at the age of 20 for the first time. In 2006, she had slipped into coma where it was predicted that she would not survive. At that time, she was weighing only 25 kilograms. Since she recovered, she has been trying to gain weight and was weighing 33 at the time of her death. The video is an interview of Isabelle Caro with Jessica Simpson for the documentary series “The Price of Beauty.”
 
 
The idea of telling you this story was not to discourage modeling or to show the fashion world as an unsightly profession. This thing of losing weight runs much deeper than that. First reason is to fit into that favorite dress which is only available for a size 2 or 4. Or, to equate yourself to some sexy gal who might be luring the guy you have your heart set on. We all want to become thin.
 
Recently, my father went to Baba Ramdev’s shivir. He told me an amusing incident which happened there. One of the girls present there asked him how to go about losing weight. He asked her what her weight and height were. They were proportional and the reply given to her was “What more do you want to lose?”
 
I would not deny that even I was a part of this brigade until I joined my college. The girls in the school were athletically thin and I was not. So, people did make fun of me. I still had my baby fat. As a consequence, I did feel bad and tried to exercise but I am so irregular at that so I could never stick around with it. But, gradually, I lost my puppy fat and grew to be fine proportioned though still on the heavier side. But, as I reached college, I came to an equation with myself that I can never get thinner than what I was and my only vow at that time was to stay healthy and well-toned. I have always been healthy but even today I am struggling with the well-toned concept. But, definitely, I am a big foodie and have never given up on food. I have fasted a couple of Mondays in my life but they were never done with the viewpoint of losing weight. Instead, I always ended up eating more in the night. Peer pressure and societal strictures dictate our outlook at life.Not only those, genes can dictate your body type whether you would be anorexic or elephantine. And, of course, there is always a psychological background to it all. Be happy with what you have. When ever you feel like throwing up the food for the sake of losing weight, think about the people who have no access to the luxuries you take for granted and thus, suffer and die of hunger.And, I mean this from the bottom of my heart without sounding preachy. So, the summary of the story is that there is no point starving yourself to lose weight. Follow a healthy routine and you would definitely remain in shape. On that note, I am leaving you with an extremely shocking ad. Check it out for yourself.

 
 
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