EASTER SUNDAY

It is the 31^st of March, It is the third day after Good Friday … for many of you it just might be another long weekend .A time to go home and spend it with family and friends. For me it is a time of homesickness and prayer.

  You might wonder why, so I’m going to explain.

Today is Easter and it is one of the most widely celebrated fest of Christians, even more than Christmas .It isn't just the fluffy chickens and the colorful eggs or the Easter bunny for that matter.

Easter chick 

Easter also known as Pascha, derived from the Hebrew term Pesach known in English as Passover,

Passover meal

Easter is preceded by Lent, a period of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter,

Palm Sunday

The week before Easter, known as Holy Week, the Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday. The last three days before Easter are Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (sometimes referred to as Silent Saturday).

 Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday respectively commemorate Jesus' entry in Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

 Many churches begin celebrating Easter late in the evening of Holy Saturday at a service called the Easter Vigil. In some countries, Easter lasts two days, with the second called "Easter Monday".

Easter is the day that Jesus was resurrected, giving us a new life in him. But just like Christmas, the real meaning has been forgotten. For those of us who are Christians, we understand what Easter is all about. I shall now share with you the Easter story.

In Old Testament times, the priest would bring bulls, goats or a spotless lamb without any blemishes to be sacrificed as a sin offering for himself and for the people. The blood would purify and make atonement (forgive, make amends) for their sins. This was the old order of atonement. 

When Jesus came, He was a representation of the sacrificial lamb to take away the sins of the world. He was crucified on the cross (the form of execution in those days). He was the final sacrifice. It's the sin of the world was upon Him, yet He was without sin and blameless. This is why Jesus is referred to as the 'Lamb of God'.

 He was bodily resurrected (came back to life)on the third day-- the day we now celebrate as Easter Sunday .This miracle is the basis of our faith. This shows how wonderful God's love really is & that nothing is impossible with the Lord.

The Risen Christ symbolizes the truth and the passion God has for us and is a chance for us to believe that if we love and believe in God; and truly repent for our sins, we will have eternal life with him in paradise.

As a part of celebration 

we give Easter eggs to symbolize the rebirth of man they were often coloured red to represent the blood of Christ.

 

Easter lilies are also given, as they are called the "white-robed apostles of hope," because they were 

 reportedly found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus' sweat fell to the ground in his final hours

 If you still didn't understand the meaning of Easter it’s alright. Find it within yourself and celebrate it. Celebrate all expressions of joy and happiness however they manifest. Even if Easter has no meaning to you at all, it is just another day. Another day of the most beautiful of miracles.

So here’s wishing you all a very happy Easter!!

 Love,

Sue-Ellen Pereira

HOLI

Holi festival of colours 

Holi  spreads a bright carpet of amazing colours and symbolizes the victory of good over the evil. 
The story behind this festival goes back during the era of king, .during the reign of king Hiranyakashyap. He used to torture his son Prahlad as he was a true devotee of lord Vishnu instead of his father. His all methods went vein to kill his son. Then Hiranyakashyap asked his sister Holika to take Prahlad in her laps and sit in a burning fire.

Holika had boon that she wouldn't burn in fire. She did as her brother said but instead of Prahlad,  holika was burned to death/ashes. That is the reason on first day of holi in the evening a huge fire is lit with dry leaves sticks woodon logs etc. And from children to adults offer pradakshina (rounds) to the fire and pray that their sins should be burned away with Holika. On this auspicious day sweet chappati is prepared from gram flour and jaggery known as "Puran polis"! The puran poli and a coconut is offered in the Holika. Then arrives the second day which is"Dhuleti". 
On this day from morning people start colouring each other with various colours.! Till mid aftrernoon colourfull faces are observed everywhere. Children eagerly wait for this day. They start making water balloons buy pichkaris i.e water guns water bags and lot of different lively colors  Red blue green yellow magenta purple black orange etc all colours are seen splashed all around seems as if a beautiful bright coloured carpet is spread out. Children enjoy throwing water balloons from the building terraces which amazes them but is proved harmful for the passerby ! Every colour has its own uniqueness and  this festival of holi gives us a glimpse of all the colours which is a pleasure for vision. It is a festival o f  joy masti exitement and colour. If taken a wrong path this holi may prove a bad one. So everyone must play and enjoy holi safely...!! Soo have a great funnn this holi....HAPPPY HOLI!!!!

arya salgaonkar

A Step-by-Step Guide to Completing Your Assignment In Your Hostel

 1. Sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a well-lighted place. Make sure you have all the necessary stationary items/reference notes on the table, so you don't have to get up every five minutes to pick something up from the shelf. 

2. Read over the assignment topic and reference material carefully, to make sure you understand it. 

3. Walk down to Fresh N Honest and buy some coffee to help you concentrate.

4. Stop off at another floor on the way back and visit your classmate. If he/she hasn't started the assignment yet either, you can both walk to Shenoys and get grilled cheese sandwiches to help you concentrate. (Nobody wants to study with an empty stomach!!!)

5. When you get back to your room, sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a clean, well-lighted place. Again, make sure you have all the necessary stationary items/reference notes on the table.

6. Read over the assignment topic again to make absolutely certain you understand it.

7. You know, it's been long since you have texted your classmate back from school. You'd better text him/her now and get it out of the way so you can concentrate!

8. Go look at your teeth in the common bathroom mirror.

9. Switch to the 'Music' folder on your laptop and listen to that one favorite song of yours thrice and that's it-- I mean it! As soon as it's over, you are going to start that assignment  >:( 

 

10. Listen to it five more times.

11. Rearrange all the movies in your hard drive in alphabetical order.

12. Phone your friend on the other floor and ask if he/she's started writing yet. Exchange remarks about your teacher, the course, the university, and the world at large.

13. Sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a clean, well-lighted place. AGAIN, make sure you have all the necessary stationary items/reference notes on the table.

 

14. Read over the assignment topic again; roll the words across your tongue; savor its special flavor.

15. Go online and check the Wikipedia Episode Listings of your favorite TV show to check if the latest episode is out yet. If it is, download it from Torrents and watch it.

 NOTE: When you have an assignment due in less than 12 hours, any new episode of 'Grey's Anatomy' to 'How I Met Your Mother' to 'Bones' is truly worthwhile.

16. Phone your friend on the third floor to see if he/she has watched it. Discuss the finer points of the plot.

17. Go look at your tongue in the common bathroom mirror.

18. Look through your roommate's pictures from home. Ask who everyone is.

19. Sit down and do some serious thinking about your plans for the future.

20. When the clock reads 4 a.m., sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a clean, well-lighted place. Make sure you have all the necessary stationary items/reference notes on the table.

21. Read over the assignment topic one more time, just for the sake of it.

22. Write the assignment!!!

23. Complain to everyone that you didn't get any sleep because you had to write the assignment!!!

FARZANA PALATHINGAL

BOT 1^st year

RETHINKING SLEEP!

It’s World Sleep Day on 15^th March and Oh! How we all wish we could use this day to catch up on the lost sleep. Sleep deprivation is a serious problem affecting most of our teens and youth. So often we see our classmates getting yelled at because they fall asleep in a lecture. But have we ever dwelled on the subject and given it a thought? That why we fall asleep in a lecture or in a local train or a bus?? It is not always because of the spell of boredom that the lecturers cast. It is because of excessive sleep deprivation.

              Cutting down on sleep to spend hours online chatting to a buddy or playing games or to finish an assignment a day before the submission date or studying is such a common trend. It’s almost like a fashion statement. Something that makes you look “cool”.

                 

Ø Learning and memory: Sleep helps us register the information and store it as a memory.
Ø Obesity: Sleep deprivation over a long period of time leads to weight gain and when it is compiled with junk food the effects are even worse.
Ø Safety Issues: Falling prey to drowsiness has lead to road accidents.
Ø Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness.
Ø Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.
Ø Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.

Few Tips For A Better Sleep:

·         Go to bed earlier — and at a set time. Sounds obvious right? The problem is there's no alternative. We already wake up at the latest possible time you think is acceptable. If you don't ritualize a specific bedtime, you'll end up finding ways to stay up later, just the way you do now.
·         Start winding down at least 45 minutes before you turn out the light. You won't fall asleep if you're all wound up from answering email, or doing other work. Create a ritual around drinking a cup of herbal tea, or listening to music that helps you relax, or reading a dull book.
·         Write down what's on your mind — especially unfinished to-do's and unresolved issues — just before you go to bed. If you leave items in your working memory, they'll make it harder to fall asleep, and you'll end up ruminating about them if you should wake up during the night

Here's what former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin had to say in his memoir White Nights about the experience of being deprived of sleep in a KGB prison: "In the head of the interrogated prisoner a haze begins to form. His spirit is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire: to sleep .  Anyone who has experienced this desire knows that not even hunger and thirst are comparable with it."

NIRAJA

BPT 1st year

Women's Day Special!!!

March 8^th is International Women's Day!

Every year during this time everyone – media, government, social activists…..are abuzz with talks on Women’s Day. Everyone suddenly starts to talk only about women’s right. What does this day really mean? Is it a day when by some unspoken signalwomenall over the world are given their rightful place in society? Are all mothers given the day off from their parenting duties? Do their husbands and children pause a moment to think about what their wives and mothers do for them on a daily basis?

Sadly No! It is just another day for most of these women!

'Woman'- is a word that conjures up a lot of images in our minds and brings out varied emotions of selfless love, nurturing and caring. Woman is sometime the dutiful wife, other time she is an obedient daughter, she is a caring mother, and is also an adoring sister.  She plays all her roles with ease, balancing each one with utmost care. A woman is the epitome of love, sacrifice and care. She has the unique ability to provide and nurture life.  

But, over the years, the woman’s worth and contributions have been ignored and they have been subjected to gross injustice by the society.  She has been, time and again, put through many injustice, wrong practices and inequality.

 Although all of us take pride in our Indian culture, we need to recognize that there is something fundamentally wrong with a culture that assumes the superiority of males, and that celebrates Indian women for being meek, submissive and sacrificial. One way you can help counter this mindset is by being proud of the women in your life, and by taking pride in yourself if you are a woman.

I think we can atleast take the following steps towards our goal:

Educate our daughters - Get serious about your daughter's education. Encourage her to have a career of her own, no matter what your financial standing.

Say no to dowry - Even modern, well-educated families start saving up money for their daughter's dowry as soon as she is born, so what can one expect from the uneducated masses, whose only form of education is tradition?

Teach herself-respect from early childhood - The greatest need of the hour is to change the social attitude to women; especially she herself realizing her worth and learning to respect herself.

Remember, Woman is in no way inferior to her counterpart,man  -From time immemorial, woman represents history in all its grace and distress in terms of time and space, social ups and down, political subjugation and freedom. In religion, social intercourse, education, literature, art and culture, her status was never in doubt.

Celebrating Women's Day gives an opportunity to everyone who care, to appreciate the remarkable contributions of women to our society.

This March 8^th as we celebrate International Women’s day, I wish there was some way in which we could know how many less female foeticide were there, how many less girls died for dowry; or howmany men decided not to hit their wives; or how many more girls were encouraged to get an education; or how many fathers thought that their daughters were not a burden on them and could be allowed to grow atleast till 18 years before they could be married off!

 

Wishing all the women their rightful place in this society and wishing all the men realize and start respecting the women around and in their lives this Women’s Day! Happy Women’s Day!

                                                                         - DOLA SAHA,

                                                                                        Staff Advisor – College Magazine,

                                                                                    Assistant Professor – Selection grade,

                                                                         Dept. of Health Information Management,

                                                    Manipal College of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal University                                                                            

Yoga-the key to healthy living!

Yoga is an art consisting of asana (poses) while focusing on breathing. It is the door out from obesity, unhealthy lifestyle & bad health.
You must have often thought about practicing yoga but never had the time to look for yoga classes or actually found it tiring/boring to go to one. Some of you might feel shy thinking I wouldn't be comfortable doing such poses in a group’. So here’s a blog about how you could do yoga at home & still expect positive changes in your body.


1. Basic Requirements:
Create a tranquil atmosphere. Make sure you have enough floor space to move forward, backward, left & right without running into or hitting anything. 
If you don’t already have this space, you may need to clear out some clutter. 
If you want, you can add to your atmosphere by lighting candles or incense.
2. You will also need to purchase a yoga mat, which may be found on the internet or local stores.

The full routine should be done two to three times a week.

#1. Mountain Pose (tadasana)
Stand with your arms hanging straight at your sides, feet together in tadasana (mountain pose). Close your eyes & take 5 to 10 slow breaths. Inhale & bring palms together overhead.



#2. Four-limbs Staff Pose (chaturanga dandasana)
Inhale & step your feet back into plank position, then exhale & bend your elbows until your upper arms are parallel to the floor in chaturanga dandasana (four limbed staff pose).



#3. Upward-facing Dog (urdva mukha svanasana)
Inhale & push your chest forward while pressing the tops of your feet into the floor & straightening your arms in urdva mukha svanasana (upward-facing dog).



#4. Squat (malasana)
Stand with your legs hip-width apart. On an inhalation, raise your arms above your head & press your palms together. Drop your tailbone, exhale & with your knees splayed, lower your hips as far as possible, trying not to let your heels come off the floor. Lower your hands, keeping your palms together, until they’re in front of your chest in prayer pose. Take one deep breath in & out, then inhale & return to standing, raising your arms (palms still together) overhead. Repeat five times.
Form fix: if you have trouble keeping your heels on the floor, widen your stance & turn your toes outward to ease the tension on your Achilles tendons.



#5. Bow (dhanurasana)
Lie on your stomach & bend your knees, bringing your feet toward your buttocks. Reach back & grab the outsides of your ankles & draw your knees toward each other. Inhale & left your feet toward the ceiling & your thighs & chest away from the floor. Take three to five breaths & then gently release the posture.
Form fix: to maintain the alignment, do not your knees splay wider than your hips.



#6. Plow (halasana)
Lie on your back with your arms at your sides, palms down. Take three breaths. Exhale, push your palms into the floor, rock your legs up over your head, & touch your toes to the floor behind you (place palms on the small of your back for extra support). Take 5 to 10 breaths. Slowly roll out of the posture, one vertebra at a time, until you’re lying flat on your back again.


#7. Fish (matsyasana)
Lying on your back, inhale & slide your hand, palms down, just below the base of your spine. Then inhale, pressing your elbows into the floor, & lift your head & chest off the floor. Exhale & relax your neck backward, resting the crown of your head on the floor. Take 5 to 10 breaths & then inhale out of the posture: tuck your chin toward your chest before returning to the starting position.
Form fix: if your neck feels compressed, place a blanket under it.



#8. Corpse (savasana)
Lie flat on your back with your legs slightly apart & your arms at your side, palms up. Focus on relaxing every muscle, from your toes to your tongue. Remain in this position for 5 to 10 minutes. To come out of the pose, bend your knees & roll onto your right side; lie in a fetal position for a few breaths. Place your palms on your floor & slowly push yourself up into a seated position.
Form fix: let your mind relax but remain present (in other words, don’t fall asleep)




Be patient & stick with this regime. The benefits of yoga are too many to list here, but with a regular practice you will reap them all. Keep in mind that is not about whether or not you can do a particular pose exactly like the person on a video or in a picture. It’s about the journey towards the pose, enlightenment, or whatever your goal is. Keep an open mind & heart at all times.

Yoga Food



The food that you consume forms an essential part of your journey towards betterment.
Although there are no special dietary rules for asana practitioners, there are many recommendations with the main ones being to eat natural foods & eat in moderation. Yoga advises a vegetarian diet, particularly as it is preparation for the higher forms of yoga. 



Vegetarianism has been found to promote inner calmness & harmony between the body & mind, whilst meat had been linked with inner, tension, anger, disharmony & an increase in desires. Vegetarianism is the basis of a sattvic diet.

                                                                                             ISHA MODY
                                                                                              BPT (2)