Reincarnation

Reincarnation is the belief, that death itself is not powerful enough to put an end to the existence of the deceased. According to its beliefs, when a person dies, his or her soul has the capability to live on by entering a newborn's body. Now, whether the body is human or not depends mostly on the person's past life. If you were a human in your past life, you might as well be a cow in the next and vice versa. In the end, your own actions lead you to your ultimate fate. Contradictorily, if a soul is to enter the body of a newborn and for some possible reason it fails to do so, will the new born turn out to grow up soulless?

There are of course several religions in this world that have blind faith in reincarnation. And while some religions have similar ideologies, others beg to differ. Listed below are some of the more well-known religions and their interesting perspectives on reincarnation:

Hinduism
In Hinduism, people believe that there is no limit to the number of times that a soul can be reincarnated. It actually depends on the soul's personal desire: whether or not he wants to be born again on this Earth, and enjoy the pleasures that it has to offer. This process of continuous rebirth finally ends when the certain desire subsides through dissatisfaction that comes along with every life.

Buddhism
Even though Buddhist scriptures speak of reincarnation rather explicitly, its basic values of reincarnation are different. According to Buddhism, when one person passes away, another is born. “The way a flame from a candle can be used to lighten up another one” many people say. Some agree that this in a sense supports the law of conservation of energy, since it continues in a cycle.

Taoism, which is a way of life also, has its different but rather complicated takes on reincarnation. But the relevant fact is that all these various faiths and religions believe in their individual concepts of reincarnation.

Weird incidents
Disagreeing with these ancient beliefs, we could very well say that reincarnation is a delusion better left to the textbooks. But mysterious occurrences around the world have kept people under a shadow of doubt.

In India, a boy claimed that he had memories of a man named Maha Ram who had been killed with a shotgun. His story was then checked out and discovered to be true. 'An autopsy report recorded the man's chest wounds - which corresponded directly with the boy's birthmarks'.

Another fascinating case is about a man from Thailand who claimed that during his childhood, he had distinct memories of a past life as his paternal uncle. 'This man had a large scar-like birthmark on the back of his head. His uncle, it turns out, died from a severe knife wound to that very part of his head'.

Entertainment
Two very thriving sectors where reincarnation has been a great hit are Bollywood and the Indian Television Industry. You must have watched the movie 'Om Shanti Om', where Shahrukh Khan dies once and is reborn again to be with is love (who is born again too), and fulfill his dream of being a great actor. But reincarnation seems to be more popular with the Hindi Serials. Actors and actresses die, are born again with the same face and come back to rejoin their families from the past life, even of all the rest of the family members still look the same. Perhaps reincarnation has some sort of anti-aging effects too?

As far as we know, Hitler could still be amongst us and all those graveyards full of bodies are not actually filled with dead people. Well, they are dead people but…you know what I mean right?! Then again, reincarnation could simply be a figment of our imagination, a ray of hope that the departed, the people we love, will always be around. It is only death itself that can answer all our questions and unlock the mysteries that have baffled us for decades. Till then, let's just enjoy those movies and amusing serials.

Reference: paranormal.about.com, wikipedia.com

By Nayeema Reza

Weird ways to counter frustration

There are days when you feel like tearing out your every strand of hair from your head one by one. My simple (and probably unwanted) advice to you would be: don't. You're going to have massive hair fall due to all the tension at some point of your life anyway, so going easy on the hair right now is probably the better option.

Get someone to scream at you
This seems to have a soothing and numbing effect sometimes, and I repeat-sometimes, when you're already feeling down, not always. At least that's what happens to me. Getting screamed at is effective in the way that it kind of relieves your guilt and frustration in a weird way and gives you a boost to get up and counter every bad thing that has happened.

Scream about something abstract
Not getting screamed at? Take it out on something else in private. You're frustrated about something and, on top of that, the internet connection is terribly, terribly slow when you're trying to surf. Make a big deal out of it. Vent your frustrations by screaming about the internet connection; but do it in private, please. All that screaming might actually sound quite scary in a public place.

Water therapy
Splash water on your face every time a disturbing thought bogs you down. It's almost like mentally slapping yourself to remain focused.

Keep replaying the problem in your mind
Remind yourself how you failed your own expectations and how crushed you are. This actually works in the way that you remember the pain so vividly that you don't want to go through it again and would work as hard as possible not to mess up again.

Do some work
Seriously, this works. Iron your clothes, water the plants, arrange your clothes in the wardrobe by colour-coding them, clean your room- just do something that temporarily gets your mind off the problem.

These are some of the ways that work for me when I'm feeling really low; but, ahem, try them out at your own risk. There's also an equal chance that people are going to think you've become half-crazy from all the pent-up miseries.

By Anika Tabassum

What men want and why

Men are simple creatures of habit and have a few demands. It should be mentioned that their demands are not as frequent or unreasonable as their female counterparts, but men demand few necessities with simple explanations. We are plain and have no hidden agendas, unlike some other genders and thus it is wrong to call men cunning. Clever yes, but never cunning. Let us examine the needs of men and why these needs come about.

Wristwatch: We men like having 'ONE' thing dangling from our wrists, especially if it is metallic, expensive or shiny. Thus we love wristwatches. We feel superior when we can help dictate the correct time to someone. The power of being able to tell time is magical for us. Bangles, we don't understand and we probably never will.

Television: Men need television. It is our only form of true entertainment. We dislike shopping and gossiping and without TV, we have nothing to talk about. We like to watch sports and yes it is much more important to watch a live game than a pre-recorded, 100 times a day repeated, soap opera. Documentaries are important too and we must watch the news, no matter whether there is anything new to report or not. And yes we dislike having 'conversations' when we are watching TV. So we would like if everyone shut up and watched the TV quietly. That would help men come much more closer to the female species, instead of talking.

Food: Men love to eat. And when I say eat, I mean gluttony. It is hard for us men to be conscious and be picky all the time, so we just choose to gobble down. We love to eat as it is a past time, a hobby and our purpose of existence. Women can watch us and not remind us about cholesterol, sugar and whatnot. We don't care about all those things and we do not consider salad as a meal. A salad is an appetizer. Period.

Alone Time: We need to be alone. We need to be with our other male friends. It is highly important. It is our basic need and right to mingle with our own kind and talk and ogle women at times. This does not mean that the men are being disloyal and unloving. Emotional blackmail, we do not want. Ever.

Silence: We men, really like to be quiet at times. For the love of God, men should be given at least a simple moment of silence, devoid of nagging and complaining and demands of attention from their female counter-parts. It's really not that hard to quit yapping for a brief minute. Give those jaws a rest!

This is of course a preliminary list and I promise a second part to it, which will never come. If you have enjoyed this then you would be glad to read my other related works, namely 'Men Have Habits, Women Have Correction Facilities' and 'Why Women Want'. So keep your eyes peeled. And in conclusion, I can only request that men's simple demands are met. We cannot tell you most of the things in person because we dearly fear female tantrums, tears and slaps. Yes, we FEAR. Till next time…

Disclaimer: All men are not like that and all women aren't as evil as described. But we are talking majority

By Osama Rahman

Very wrong sentences

“I heartily love you”
“I heard you sleep around a lot…at 3am”
“Do want to bite my…burger?”
“Why aren't you a call girl? I hate to be the one who call you all time”
“Do you shit much in public? Me, I no swear so much.”
“Your nose is running so much! Gosh, I hope I don't grab a cold from you”
“Hey you look so gay today! What are you so happy about?”
“My father told me to buy drugs from the drugstore…every time I get sick”
“Look! Water is falling from the sky!! After all that heat!”

By Nayeema The Reza

Olympic trivia

-The first games to be held in the southern hemisphere were the 1956 Melbourne Australia games.
-Ice hockey made its first appearance at the 1920 Antwerp Games.
-The first games to be televised were the 1936 Berlin Games.
-Holland's "Fanny" Blankers-Koen won 4 gold medals in track and field at the 1948 London Games. Fanny was 30 years old and the mother of 2 at the time.
-Communist China entered its first games in 1984-Los Angeles.
-More athletes than spectators attended the 1900-Paris Games.
-The Soviet Union first entered the Olympic Games in 1952-Helsinki.
-In 1972 American Frank Shorter pulled the US into the running boom by winning the gold medal in the marathon at the Munich Olympics. Where was Shorter born? Munich
-The first Latin American host for the Olympic games was Mexico City, Mexico in 1968.
-Aleksandr Ditiatin of the Soviet Union earned 8 Gold medals in gymnastics at the 1980-Moscow games.
-American Mildred "Babe" Didriksen won medals in high-jumping, hurdling, and the javelin in 1932-Los Angeles. She is the only athlete to ever medal in all three events

Source: Janecky.com

His wedding

Sitting on a throne, lit by a
Thousand stars
A whiff of sadness came to him,
Like a drop of alta in the whiteness of milk.
The shehnai
Quivered with the anticipation
Of unfathomable joy its approach
Almost Intimidating;
Drowning the hum
Of conversations,
Of unabashed commentary.
He could see the colors around him,
The sarees, the flowers. And suddenly,
The passing of the moment
Was almost disappointing like the feeling
Of weariness after a long battle.
There he was, sitting
Just next door to his prize:
Clad In a crimson Benarasi.

In a crimson Benarasi, she waited
The aachol draped over her head,
Secured with a safety pin.
She could barely smell the flowers
Intertwined like the thoughts in her head.
As she slipped in and out
Of the conversations around her.
She struggled to separate the thoughts
To hold on to something a promise
Of neither happiness nor hope,
But courage
To neither smile nor cry.
Her face, caked in the right complexion
Was perfect now.
Just next door, in a throne
Lit by a thousand stars
Her mirror glittered with all its brilliance.

By Tausif Salim