Between husbands and wives – Part 3

Men’s brains, women’s brains

men's brains, women's brainsWho do you think has a more superior brain? Who’s more intelligent? Man or woman? Many men will of course grunt: Me Tarzan, me smart. And as expected, women will say: I’m Jane. I’m smarter. The age-old debate between husbands and wives, men and women, routinely picks up momentum whenever an article on the latest research on men’s brains and women’s brains is published.

A recent research study on this topic caused ripples and a lot of controversy when the findings were published in December last year. Here’s what the research team at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, headed by Dr. Ragini Verma found on scanning the brains of hundreds of young males and females.

They found that the brains of the two sexes were wired differently and that while men have more connectivity within each hemisphere of the brain, women have more connections between the two hemispheres.

The researchers said the two different patterns of connectivity show that women are better equipped for multi-tasking and remembering things, while men’s brains are wired more for coordinated actions, better perception, and for learning and focusing on single tasks. Apparently, we should never expect men to attend to more than one chore at a time for they’ll just mess things up. Continue reading

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Earning money from freelance writing – 8

Ten tips for writing a good query letter

tips for writing a good query letterSo you’ve decided which publications you’re keen on writing for. Good. But the publications you’ve picked say “No unsolicited contributions”.  So you’re wondering how you could submit articles to them.

Well, no unsolicited contributions just means “Please don’t send us any articles we have not asked to see” and not “don’t send us any articles”. So what should you do? You should send them a query letter.

This online freelance writing tutorial covers everything you need to know about writing a query letter, but let me clarify that there is no magic formula for writing the perfect one (though I’ve included a sample query letter here). Continue reading

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Exercises for preventing bone fractures

Exercises for stronger bones

What do you think will happen to a house if its framework is weak and rickety? Right, it will soon collapse.

Well, if we don’t take care of our bones which are the support system of our body, then our body too could “collapse”.

That is, we could develop osteoporosis (literal meaning: porous bones), a bone disease that makes us prone to falls and bone fractures. Osteoporosis makes our bones so weak, they could break after even a minor fall or slight injury.

When we’re younger, most of us tend to worry about suffering from heart disease or cancer or maybe even dementia later on, while osteoporosis and bone fractures are not given the attention they deserve. Just imagine. Even one bone fracture could drastically change an older person’s life. Just one fracture could result in immobility and permanent dependence on others. Continue reading

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Bird watching in Goa

The delights of birding

bird watching in goa, india

Imagine discovering the delights of birding at the ripe age of sixty. Imagine seeing even some of the common birds of Goa for the first time so late in life despite making trips there almost every year.

In all these years I had never seen so many varieties of birds in Goa, but am I glad I finally did!

It happened like this. In the December of 2011, my US-based sons Kaustubh and Nikhil, Kaustubh’s American wife Laurel, and Laurel’s parents Ginny and Larry decided to come to India for a few weeks. Continue reading

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Viva Goa! Part 2 – A top birding destination in India

Discover the beautiful birds of Goa

eurasian oystercatchers, goa

Elegant beauties, aren’t they? The Eurasian Oystercatchers in the picture above, I mean. My son Nikhil clicked this photo one breezy morning in January 2012 when we were out bird watching along Goa’s Cavelossim beach. I’m sure many Goans reading this are thinking: But we’ve never noticed such birds in Goa.             

Happens all the time. People admire pretty pictures of birds from other parts of the world; but the ones in their own backyard remain undiscovered.

How many Goans know that Goa is one of the top birding destinations in India? Or that it is located in one of the 25 bio-diversity hotspots of the world and has diverse bird-rich habitats within easy reach of each other?

Goa is a bird paradise, and that, my friends, is one more reason to holler – Viva Goa!  Continue reading

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Earning money from freelance writing – 7

Building your freelance writing portfolio

Building your freelance writing portfolioIf you thought working at improving your writing skills was tough, brace yourself for what comes next. Getting your writing published. You need to accomplish this so you can start building your freelance writing portfolio.

But before proceeding any further, check if you’ve really made progress with your writing.

Don’t tell yourself you’ve practised enough, you should now stop the tedious stuff, and gear up for the real thing. Let me warn you such impatience won’t get you anywhere. To be successful, it’s not how many weeks or months you’ve been practising that matters, it’s how far you’ve come from where you started. Continue reading

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Earning money through Content Writing and Web Copywriting

SEO Content Writing and Web Copywriting Course, Mumbai

seo content writing and web copywriting course mumbaiYou spend a lot of time surfing the internet, don’t you? Now how about tapping it and using your time to add some money to your savings? The best part is earning money online won’t involve any investment. Just a sound knowledge of English and a willingness to pick up some lucrative skills.

Sounds good? Would you or anyone you know based in Mumbai be interested in learning how to turn words into $$$? Quickly, and easily? Then read on. 

A full value-for-money course Continue reading

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Between husbands and wives – Part 2

Have you laughed lately?

chaplin the best medicine

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.”  Famous words from Michael Pritchard, the humorous motivational speaker, and they pack quite a punch. So don’t forget to have a good laugh now and then. It works better than any other medicine.

Chuckling over the ups and downs along the road called marriage

Married or not, we all need regular doses of the best medicine to stay sane in an age of high-stress lifestyles. Humour is such a wonderful thing, and so I wanted to send this post out into cyberspace on Valentine’s Day, hoping to add a few chuckles to your celebrations, and to remind those who have already tied themselves in knots that for most marriages, the going would be rough if husbands and wives didn’t look for humour in their day-to-day life together.

Anyway, here it is now, albeit a day late – my selection of husband and wife jokes picked from my favourite cartoon strip – The Lockhorns. Enjoy! Continue reading

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Earning money from freelance writing – 6

How to find freelance writing opportunities

finding freelance writing opportunitiesAt the outset, my apologies to all those following this course and those who have sent me gentle reminders. It’s all my fault. Mea culpa.

Since the last few weeks I’ve been stuck with a crazy, neurotic, 14-hours-a-day-at-my-computer daily schedule. And all because of some over-the top research-intensive assignments I’ve been working on lately.

But no more ridiculously long gaps from now onwards; that’s a promise.

OK. So you’ve been practising your craft like crazy. You’ve been squeezing in time for reading, and tried your hand at penning articles on topics that interest you the most. And now you need to know how to monetize those refined writing skills. So let me tell you how.   Continue reading

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Viva Goa! – Part 1

What makes Goa so special

goa india
What’s so special about Goa? Well, going by what some tourist brochures seem to suggest and consequently what tourists sometimes think, unlike the rest of India, Goa is a beach bum paradise, a place for beach parties, booze, and bikini babes. What crap! That’s like ogling at a small part of a painting with a magnifying glass and then describing all of it without actually looking at the whole picture. Yes, Goa certainly is a fun place, a place where you’re free to be just like you want to be. But it is so much more than just a good-times getaway, and it would not only be unfair, it would be stupid to pare down her appeal to just this.

Let’s look at another explanation – the oft-repeated platitude that Goa is not just a state, it’s a state of mind. Too vague, too abstract, don’t you think? So let’s dump both the philosophical and the blinkered stuff, and consider the tangibles. Let’s really get to know Goa, and understand why Goa is Goa. Continue reading

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