Hair raising truth . . . about hair.

Commercialization affects as so much, we sometimes wonder how we could live without products and ads, isn't it? When you have this doubt, do a flash-back. Imagine your parent's life... how they lived and how they brought you up, without any major hiccups.

While women are more conscious about their physical well-being, men are not far behind. The latest skin-whitening cream for men doing well in the market says it all. I always wondered how it will be like to have your face all glowing white when the rest of the body is tan.

Anyway, just like all, even I'm conscious about how I look and it was Typhoid that made me feel the pinch as I heard stories that Typhoid can kiss your hair from your scalp good bye. Sure enough, I did see a few extra hair strands when I was recovering. All throughout my life, I've believed in cleaning hair, at least every 2 days with lukewarm water and keeping it clean. An occasional shampoo once or twice in a fortnight.

With this new fear of losing hair, Hair and Shampoo ads started looking more attractive. Coconut oil or Amla, Rose water or Eggs, I was wondering how I should 'nourish' the hair. Instead of heading to a pharmacist, I chose to visit the Doctor.

What I'm going to describe here might invoke a lot of criticism from the Hair Oil and Hair Care products.

1. Typhoid does cause hair fall but this can be easily controlled by a good diet.

2. Hair is often abused in the name of 'care'. Hair is like any other part of our body and needs nourishment through what goes into the mouth and not what goes onto the hair directly. Else, people would bloat just by applying chicken pieces on their body, lol.

3. Don't complaint that your hair is dry, that is how it is naturally. Nothing wrong with it. Yes, applying a conditioner/gel helps to style but that doesn't do any nourishment and should be restricted to select special events.

4. The focus should be always to keep your scalp and hair clean. Plain water is good and occasional use of Shampoo is also recommended, again not for nourishment but for cleansing.



So, next time buy a Shampoo with eggs, vitamins, proteins, minerals, try making omelets. Remember, what goes into your stomach makes most of the impact to your body. Nutritious food, reasonable amount of physical movement, stress control, etc. all make life more enjoyable, mentally and physically.

Dreaming - The reality behind dreams

Rich or poor, smart or differently abled, we all see dreams and love it. There have been so many studies on understanding and analyzing dreams. This is going to be one of the most happening unresolved mysteries ever...

But then, here are some pointers about dreams that you may or may not have known and one amazing trick to see a dream at your will.



1. Until sometime ago, it was believed that dreams appear in black & white. I've been writing and recording my dreams and all my dreams appeared in colour.

2. We are ourselves in our dreams (true, not only this, we do what we may not do in real life but whatever you do is what you can actually do - something like the movie Mask, your real character comes well with no inhibitions).

3. If you think about something or someone before you sleep, you will dream about that/them (Not true, else Asin would've been always with me)

4. You are not sleeping when you are dreaming.... this means, even though you are dreaming, your brain is working and is giving you instructions on what you should do in the dream but you don't have full control. For e.g., if you are on a diet in real life and you are dreaming about a Chocolate Ice Cream, you will sense the pressure building but you are more likely to eat the ice-cream.

You have to really focus to understand and analyze point 4 and try and jot down the dream in your diary to see a trend. It helps!

5. If you think about something or someone before you sleep, you will dream about that/them (Not true, else Asin would've been always with me). But you are very likely to dream about aspects that are related to you 10 years + or -.

If you are 25, you are more likely to watch dreams about:
- sports
- exams
- failure
- friends
- fantasies
- flying (it is a subconscious effort to let you know about your freedom)

If you are 45, you are likely to watch dreams about:
- family
- money
- and more responsible aspects of life

If you have your share of experiences, do post as comments below or shoot

an email over to ajDOTmenonATgmailDOTcom

6. Would you like to dream at your will? This is now possible with a tried and tested method. You cannot however choose what you wish to dream being positive about life helps you dream good things/good experiences.

Here's what you need to do:

- Analyze how many hours of sleep you generally require (lets say 7 hours). This means, anything less than this will still make you hit the bed.

- Wake yourself using an alarm or something in the 5th hour or so. I know it sounds stupid but it worked every single time with me. Once you are up, try and come to your senses, get-up, switch off the alarm and realize that you were sleeping and you are up and hit the bed again. That's it. You are very likely to watch a dream now. Try it; it has never failed me.

Ghar ki baat - Shah Rukh Behind this hilarious comedy program

When I watched 'Ghar ki baat' accidentally while surfing, I was pleasantly surprised. It was after a long long time that we are being treated with good clean comedy.

NDTV Imagine's latest Comedy program, Ghar ki baat is now a popular program as of February 2009. With time, this blog will either be lost in the wide world of Internet or people will flock here to learn more about this program. Let's begin with some spice. Did you know that there is Shah Rukh Khan's hand in this program?

The show is all about the typical husband-wife issues in modern living. The show is good and much better than the 'hum-paanch' kind of quality because of:

1. Concept (Husband-Wife, that's an evergreen comedy concept)
2. Story line (A story line-up that is contemporary and well directed)
3. Casting (They did a good job in roping in one of the best talents).
Remember Sarabhai Vs- Sarabhai (yet another amazing 22nd century Indian Comedy)? Well, Sumeet Raghavan, the Saahil from that show plays Rajdeep Yagnik in his typical 'good husband' styled character. A mallu who we are all proud of for his exceptional non-mallu speaking style.

Anyway, Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai deserves a blog to it's name and we'll leave that for another day.

The wife's role is played by Juhi Babbar (daughter of Raj Babbar) and is known as Radhika Yagnik. She does a tremendous job. Her age, her looks, the thought process and her voice. Perfect for the role.

Swapnil Joshi as Kapil Kumar is Rajdeep's saala (Radhika's younger brother). We all know Swapnil from the amazing Comedy Circus. He is the typical young smart but rich and therefore slightly spoilt brother.

Jayati Bhatia plays Dolly Ahluwalia and the well known Ali Asgar (who also did an amazing job in Comedy Circus) plays a very interesting role as Mr. X. Why Mr. X because this is one character that changes every episode to fit into that particular story line. In one episode he is the 'sabzi waala' while in the other, he is the 'Watchman'. An intelligently thought about role. This effect has been used in the widely popular Jaspal Bhatti's Ulta-Pulta.

Why does this show bring such intelligent comedy? Because of the people behind it.

Director: Ananth Narayan Mahadevan
Creative Director: Aziz Mirza
Production: Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Idiot Box
Lyrics for title song: Pritam
Singer for title song: Sukhwinder Singh

Aired first on: January 30th on NDTV Imagine
Days: Friday to Sunday
Time: 21:30 hours
Repeat: Still checking...