Care and Cleaning of Your Silk Clothes

 

Wearing silk sarees and dresses is always a favorite thing to ladies. But when it comes to maintain and clean the silk dresses, they find it a little difficulty. Since it is relatively expensive, needs special care to maintain its elegance and clean. With proper maintenance, its lifetime can be increased for years.

Washing of silk clothes

For first wash, do not use soap or any other detergents. Because it is very delicate. So just rinse with plain water. Cold or lukewarm water either can be used. Use mild detergents or shampoo for subsequent washes. Do not use harsh detergents as it may cause the color fading and also damage the silk threads. Do not soak the silk for long time. Because it cause the silk to lose its strength. While washing, gently handle the thing. Just rinse the silk saree or dress in water without using brush. Avoid stretching or wringing the silk. While washing sarees, wash the pallu, body part and border separately. Above all before washing always check for color fastness. For this damp a small part of the dress, if the color runs it is better to have a dry wash. After washing do not wring and dry it in direct sunlight. Then roll it in a towel to absorb the water. Hang it to dry in a shaded area. Do not keep the wet silk cloth for long time. Dry it immediately.

Removing stains in silk clothes

It is really hard to remove stains from silk clothes. Stains caused by perspiration and deodorants can be removed by washing the silk clothes in water with detergents. Other stains like food stains use stain removers on affected area and then wash off. White vinegar can also be used. Never use chlorine bleach to remove stains as it will damage the fiber. Oil stains and other stains like grease can be removed by applying talcum powder over it.

 Maintaining of silk clothes

Special care should be taken to maintain the glory and shine. Keep the silk saree or dress wrapped in cotton cloth. Always hand washing of silk clothes is better to avoid damaging of fiber and zari in silk sarees. So it is safe to avoid machine wash. To remove the wrinkles, ironing can be done. But it should be with minimum heat. If needed iron on the right side of the fabric with a white cloth between the iron and the silk fabric. Otherwise it is advisable to iron with inside out of the fabric. For silk sarees care should be taken while ironing the zari part.

Once in a month, unfold your silk sarees and fold it again in a different pattern. This will helps to avoid the damage of silk strands. Do not keep the silk sarees or dresses in cupboard always. Since silk fiber is a natural protein it can be affected by insects or moth.So once in a while take it out and hang it in a ventilated area.

Preventive Measures For Diabetes

Today diabetic is a common disease for people those who crossed 40 years of age. This is because of our food habits and sedentary life style. Type 2 diabetic is considered as one of the costliest diseases in the world. As per recent researches,diabetic patients are facing high risk of cardiac failure when compared to non diabetic. Also there is increase in  pre diabetic condition for people below the age of 30. If  they fail to take preventive measures,they will be type 2 diabetic in next 10 years. It is not possible to cure diabetes . So it is better to take preventive measures for our healthy life.

There are few reasons which make a person to fall in diabetes.

1. Obesity and  Sedentary life style .

2. Parents and sibling having diabetes.

3. Gestation period diabetes for female.

4. Having blood pressure and cholesterol.

5. Having Poly cystic ovarian disease.

So if your current blood test shows that you are non-diabetic, it is advisable to check your health condition once in a year. Not only by medicine but also you can prevent yourself  from the disease by maintaining healthy diet and regular exercises.

Method Of Eating Food And Tastes

The word taste strikes the mind if one speaks about food. Tasteless food is not considered as food. The food item is considered as  complete food only if it has all six tastes of food and even though it has two food tastes it is not considered a complete food.

The Tamil medicine namely Sidha medicine says that the human tongue can identify six types of tastes. Body minerals combine with these six tastes to build the body. The human body consists of blood, muscles, fat, bones, nerves, saliva and organs like brain,heart etc. Out of these the brain can function normally only if other systems and organs in the body work properly. The six tastes helps the proper functioning of the entire system.

Properties of Taste

Astringent – Increases the blood production

Sweet – builds muscles

Sour – Produces fat

Pungent – Bones growth and strengthening

Bitter – Strengthens nerve

Salty – Secretes saliva

Food with these above six tastes is considered as delicious food

Benefits of Tastes 

Astringent

 It is important for all human health. Excessive sweating, heavy blood loss and diarrhea are cured by this taste.

Raw banana, pomegranate, tender mango, turmeric, lab lab and raw fig have astringent taste.

Sweet

This taste gives enthusiasm to both body and mind. However, it increases body weight, fatigue and sleepiness if consumed heavily .

Fruits, potato, carrot, rice, wheat and sugarcane have the sweet taste.

Sour

This increases appetite. It would affect the teeth if taken heavily. Irritation, heartburn, blood pressure and itching effects are also seen.  Body tiredness is also a common issue.

Lemon, citron, tamarind, sorrel leaves, tomato, curd, buttermilk and mango have the sour taste.

Pungent

Improves digestion. The body becomes slim. It makes the water bodies come out of the body. Purifies the blood.

Onion,chilly,ginger, garlic, pepper and  mustard have this taste.

Bitter

This taste is vital for the health of the person. It increases the immunity power of the person. It reduces thirst, burning sensation, itching and fever. It also purifies the blood.

Bittergourd, solanum berry, brinjal, fenugreek, gingelly, neem and omam have the bitter taste.

 Salty

Helps secreting saliva. Helps in the digestion process after eating. Vegetables like Ridge gourd, bottle gourd, radish, pumpkin have  the salty taste in abundance.

 Method of Eating Food

It is important to know the food taste to be consumed at first and which one at the end while consuming food.

After the food is served, sweet taste food is taken first and it is followed by  sour, salty, pungent, bitter food items. At the end astringent taste food is consumed. Digestion is excellent if curd is added after this process of the above said procedure. Thus our body would consume the whole energy from the food consumed.

The food with six tastes has to be consumed at the correct time and if not chances of stomach diseases may occur. Eating food is avoided when a person feels angry, sleepy and sad. Also, eating food is not good while standing or resting hands on something. After eating food, it is important to walk at least 100 feet distance.

Nowadays,food eating culture is depending on tongue’s taste and hence many people eat food whenever they like thereby inviting many diseases. So, it is important to know the food eating method with these delicious taste to lead a healthy life forever.

5 Cheaper Alternatives For The iTunes Store

The world of music is constantly changing. Vinyl, cassettes, CDs, and now MP3s – and that means that we’ve gone from analog to digital. The best thing about digital music, in my opinion, is that you can purchase it in full online without ever leaving the seat of your desk. But the latest question in online music purchases is - where?

For a long time, iTunes was the de facto leader in online music sales, mostly because everyone flocked to the iPod and praised the seamless transition between it and the iTunes Store. Fast-forward a few years later and now we have plenty of competitors that sell music online. iTunes may still be the largest, but it’s not the best and it’s not the cheapest.

Comparison Methodology

For this article, I’m going to test and compare four distinct qualities between all of the online music retailers on this list: price, selection, user-friendliness, and availability.
Price will be testing the comparative prices between the music services for a particular basket of goods. Specifically, I’ll take the complete price (in USD) of the following 5 albums at each site and use that as a measurement. The 5 albums cover a range of genres and artists:

• Pop by U2.
• Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• Taylor Swift by Taylor Swift.
• Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex.
• Curtis by 50 Cent.

For a baseline measurement, the iTunes Store would sell this bundle for 9.99 + 9.99 + 7.99 + 7.99 + 9.99 = $46.00

Selection will be testing the sheer quantity of songs available at each of the sites. It’s difficult to devise a metric for measuring diversity and variety, but as the total quantity increases, the chance of greater variety increases, too. For a baseline measurement, iTunes Store has over 28 million songs.

User-Friendliness will be a subjective measure of the look-and-feel and ease-of-use of each site. I like to think that I’ve visited a great number of sites during my still-short lifetime, and though I don’t consider myself an expert in user-friendly design, I’ll be assigning a rating from 1-10 in this category.

And lastly, Availability, which is all about regional limitations to each of these services.

MP3Panda

Price: 1.26 + 1.57 + 1.15 + 1.22 + 1.79 = $7. I don’t know how they do it, so don’t ask me, but MP3Panda manages to sell entire albums of songs for the same price as one track at other online music stores. If you want to purchase individual tracks at MP3Panda, they only cost $0.15. If that’s not cheap enough for you, then what is?


Selection: Compared to the big ball players, MP3Panda falls short here. Unlike iTunes, which has 28 million songs, MP3Panda only has 3.6 million songs. But for the price, you really can’t complain here. As long as you want to purchase well-known albums by well-known artists, you’ll probably find it here. However, you are limited to 500 track downloads per 24 hours.

User-Friendliness: The website is not very pretty. It’s not ugly, but it does leave something to be desired. However, it is easy to navigate and everything is very clear and in-your-face. The font is large and the buttons are prominent. It’s no-nonsense here. 7/10.
Availability: Google has MP3Panda located in the United Kingdom, but as far as I can tell, there are no regional limitations for using their service. Their legalese, however, adheres to International Copyright Law and places all responsibility for abuse on the user.

eMusic

Price: 6.18 + 7.79 + 5.19 + 5.19 + 6.49 = $31. Compared to MP3Panda’s basket price, eMusic is a considerable step up. However, compared to iTunes, it’s a 33% savings. The way eMusic works is through subscription: a monthly subscription lets you download a certain number of songs depending on your plan. Single tracks can be bought for $0.49 each.
Selection: eMusic offers over 17 million songs for download, a little more than half of the size of the iTunes Store. But based on a quick browse of their library, they do include some obscure artists and genres that I’ve never heard of, so if you’re looking for a specific unknown artist, you may or may not find it here.

User-Friendliness: The website looks very mid-2000’s in terms of design, but in terms of functionality, it does everything it needs to do. The quick search bar at the top, coupled with the quick dropdown menu filter, made it extremely easy to find what I needed. The layout is clean and easy to navigate. 6/10.

Availability: eMusic services the following countries: United States, Canada, member states of the European Union, Norway and Switzerland. Using eMusic outside of these locations is a violation of their Terms of Service.

Amazon MP3 Store

Price: 9.49 + 9.99 + 5.99 + 5.99 + 9.49 = $41. Now we’re getting into the more mainstream alternatives to the iTunes Store, and Amazon MP3 is probably as mainstream as we’ll get. Amazon’s offerings are cheaper than Apple’s offerings–marginally, but still cheaper.

Selection: Amazon MP3 Store is, as far as I know, the second largest online music store next to iTunes, coming in at 20 million songs. If you can’t find a song for sale at either iTunes or Amazon, then it’s likely you won’t find it anywhere else. With that said, Amazon’s selection is indeed huge.

User-Friendliness: Having been in the online retail business for over a decade, Amazon knows what it’s doing in the user-friendliness department. Amazon’s design has been tweaked numerous times over the years, and their MP3 store is just fantastic. 9/10.
Availability: Amazon currently has MP3 stores for the following locations: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, Italy, Spain. I believe they intend to open up to more countries in the future, but no announcements have yet been made.

7digital

Price: 9.99 + 8.99 + 7.99 + 8.99 + 7.99 = $44. The basket price sits at a $2 difference between 7digital and iTunes. The general trend is that prices for songs in these two online stores will be similar, so if cheaper is the only metric you care about, 7digital may not be the alternative you’re looking for.

Selection: 7digital is a service that’s been around since 2004 and it’s apparently one of the largest online music retailers – equal in size to Amazon’s 20 million songs. They carry all of the popular artists and genres, as well as some of the more obscure ones. In terms of selection, 7digital is one of the best.

User-Friendliness: My biggest complaint with the 7digital site is that it’s really, really slow. Perhaps I was just using it during a coincidentally bad time (maybe their site was experiencing technical difficulties?) but it left a sour taste in my mouth. But otherwise, it’s nothing to write home about, but it’s nothing terrible. 6/10.
Availability: 7digital is available in United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and most of Europe.

Google Play Music

Price: 9.49 + 9.49 + 7.99 + 7.99 + 9.49 = $45. In terms of price, Google Play is cheaper than iTunes, but only technically. I would think that a company as large as Google could provide some more savings on their offerings, but I guess the price differential is not an important factor for them.

Selection: Google Play’s selection is not the most impressive. They claim to have “millions” of songs on their store, which I believe, but I did have some trouble finding a few of the more obscure artists on my playlists. If all you want is mainstream music, Google Play should suit you just fine.

User-Friendliness: Google Play’s reinvented design over their older Android Market days is a considerable improvement. Shopping around is easy, fonts are readable, the design is simple and clean, and everything is where it should be. Plus, it’s extremely fast. 8/10.
Availability: At this time, Google Play Music is only available to the United States.

Tokyoflash Kisai Online LCD Watch Review

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the minimalist designer watch ZIIIRO Celeste and I absolutely fell in love with its geeky, quirky take on time. Today, I’ll be looking at something similar from the renowned geeky watchmaker, Toykoflash — the Kisai Online LCD watch, a $169 watch with an emphasis on design.

Does this futuristic watch deserve a spot in your watch box? Does it look as good in person as it does online? Is the design practical and suitable for everyday use? If you’re aching to find out if you should spend $169 on this watch, find out in the details in my review. Plus, we’re also giving this Tokyoflash Kisai Online LCD watch away!

While the ZIIIRO Celeste came packaged in a stylish circular box, this Tokyoflash Kisai Online LCD watch was shipped in a plain carton box. So, in terms of packaging, it was a total let down, hence the lack of unboxing photos here. No matter, since all we’re interested in is what the box contains so I’ll look past the unattractive packaging and go straight to the watch.

If you’re a seasoned online shopper, the fact that some products are made to look better online and in photos, from capturing them at the right angles and image editing, probably isn’t much of a surprise to you. Unfortunately, the Tokyoflash Kisai Online LCD watch was poorly (falsely?) represented online. In person, it was pretty much a disappointment.




What you can’t see from the product images on Toykoflash’s website is that the watch is really quite thick. And it wasn’t until I put it on that I realised just how heavy the 160g watch is. In my mind, I was expecting a watch with finesse and a futuristic, elegant design. Instead, in all honesty, I received a product which pretty much looks like a counterfeit watch you might find in an Asian night market.



This Toykoflash Kisai Online LCD watch features a black or silver stainless steel case with an adjustable bracelet strap. Each design is sold in one of 3 LCD colour options: natural, blue and red. The case is also made of stainless steel, with what I’m assuming is a plastic face cover, and measures 33mm x 51mm x 14.4mm — that’s right folks, the watch is over 1cm thick. The steel used to construct the watch doesn’t exude a quality finish either. In fact, I’m sad to say that it sounds and feels rather plasticky, hollow and cheap. Due to the largeness of the case and the relative skinniness of its strap, I found the watch to be quite top-heavy and not at all comfortable to wear.



What initially attracted me to this watch was the LCD display and its vertical line design. On paper, the cool cryptic pattern has the potential to turn something as boring as telling time, into an interesting, head-turning event that people will enjoy talking about. In reality, I’m afraid that it doesn’t even come close.



The red on black colour scheme not only makes the lines and “digits” difficult to discern, it can sometimes be impossible to read in certain conditions. Even though the LCD is constantly on, there isn’t enough contrast between the lines and the background, so they blend into each other — another aspect of the watch which was falsely represented by their manipulated product images. In low-light conditions, this turns into a nightmare. The fitted electroluminescent light source isn’t even close to bright enough. So don’t bother looking at this watch if you expect to read the time at night.

One of the main selling points of this watch is a cryptic mode, which adds even more lines to its already complicated design. This is achieved using an accelerometer — swing the watch towards you to reveal the time, swing it away from you to enable the cryptic mode. In the image below, I have the watch upside-down and as you can see, when the watch is in cryptic mode, it’s impossible to tell the time. Fantastic.



Along with the current time, the Tokyoflash Kisai Online LCD watch also has a date indicator and an alarm, which beeps like a cheap watch and is dreadfully impossible to set. So my advice to you is: never use it.

Should you buy the Tokyoflash Kisai Online LCD watch?

As I mentioned in the beginning of this review, Tokyoflash is a respected geeky watch maker. Several of their designs have made it to well-respected designer blogs. So, as a consumer who paid $169 for the Kisai Online LCD watch, I expected more. I would have preferred the LCD to be easier to read. The case could have been slimmer. The stainless steel finish could have been better. The EL light could have been brighter. The entire watch could have been lighter.

Overall, manipulated product images on Tokyoflash’s website made the watch look better than it actually is. Additionally, its shortcomings prevented me from utilising the watch to its fullest potential.

An Introduction to Yoga

Yoga is a gift given by our ancestors to us to protect from diseases and live a long life. We all heard about Yoga but there is no great awareness or a clear explanation about what is Yoga. Yoga is a wonderful art of  our country. It is a sanskrit word which means ‘to unite’. Through Yoga we can able to unite our body and mind. By uniting we can get an excellent energy.

We all know that ‘Health is Wealth’. So to do our duty properly we should have a healthy body and mind. Yoga is very helpful for this. It leads us to a healthy lifestyle. That is why our ancestors gave all this through some arts like yogasans, pranayama (breath exercise) , meditation.

Many of us are having confusion that Yoga and physical exercise are same. But it is not so. Physical exercise is that it gives strength only to nerves and muscles. We have to strain our body in doing physical exercise. But through Yoga we can able to get energy to our body, mind and soul. There is a general thought about Yoga is that it is difficult to do yogasanas because we have to bend our body and it is painful. But it is not the fact.

There are energy centers in our body which are called  ’chakras’. Only through this ‘chakras’ we are able to absorb energy  to our body. When we do Yoga this chakras are induced. So our body get renaissance and the diseases can also be cured.

By practicing Yoga all our internal organs are activated and rejuvenated.

Yoga is scientifically proven art.

It enhances the quality of our lifestyle.

It makes our life blissful.

So it is recommended to practice Yoga regularly. But it should be done in appropriate manner. We cannot do it by just watching television programs and reading some yoga related magazines. It will cause harmful effects. So have a trained teacher and learn properly.

Organic Food-Live and Let Live

Mother Nature has given all necessities required for a man to live in peaceful harmony. It is due to the exploitation of its resources, unmindful of the consequences by unscrupulous elements of the society that cause depletion of its fertility. Due to population explosion, usage of synthetic pesticides, bioengineered genes, petroleum based fertilizers, sewage sludge-based fertilizers. etc. has been encouraged in order to increase growth and production of food grains. This has resulted in malnutrition amongst all, because such non-organic food does not provide energy or nourishment. The day has come when people have realized the bogey of non-organic food, which is manufactured in large quantities, with huge factories and large numbers of employees. Organic food has become highly popular now, although the earliest food and crops were only organic. It is only later that chemicals and fertilizers entered the field and brought about carcinogens in food material.

Organic crops must be grown in safe soil, without the usage of chemical input. Food implies grains, vegetables and fruits and food products made from them. According to a study, organically grown fruits and vegetables contain more Vitamin C, antioxidants and minerals. It also serves as anti-allergic to some people, since no preservatives are added to improve its life. Due to continuous consumption of non-organic food, our body is exposed to accumulated pesticides. This leads to weakening of our immune systems. Antibiotic treatment gets supplemented by usage of organic food. By cultivating products in the organic way, we are assisting Nature to regain its lost strength. It reduces air, water and soil pollution, conserves water to an extent, lessens soil erosion and improves its fertility. Birds and animals too are benefited by organic farming. Organic farming relies on biological diversity and natural fertilizers like manure and compost. The weeds are removed by hand, there is crop rotation, tilling etc. Insects are eliminated by natural methods such us preying insects, traps, birds etc.

Because of the large scale manufacturing and network, non-organic foods are able to sustain the tempo of their consumption. We must encourage organic farming everywhere. This will pave the way for farmers to get their due benefit; employment is generated in their own area; they do not move to urban areas, leading to congestion; they need not transport products to urban area which again causes considerable use of fossil fuels. The local economy is strengthened leading to establishment of many infrastructural facilities. Organic meat and dairy products are made from livestock which are given organic food. No antibiotics, hormones or pesticides are used on the animals. Such animals are protected from disease with healthy diet, normal grazing and clean surroundings. But due to lesser production and lack of network facilities, organic foods are costlier. But it is up to us to choose foods which we eat most and buy these foods alone in the organic version. Instead of high-end stores, we can get organic products from local farmers in the weekly market, or the street vendor. Still you can enlarge your buying by organizing a consumer club or society and through them buy organic products at a lesser rate. By eating organic food, our generation and future generations will live longer, healthier and ultimately Mother Nature will bless us with her bounty forever.