DailyOh! Why you must sleep through Shivratri to whether coronavirus can prevent climate change
So, how’s it going for you? We guess well, because it was possibly a day away from work. We mean office work, not all work. But if you had to go to office, or are still in office, we just want to tell you, we are in this together. Hope that mitigates your miseries.
Now, today happens to be Shivratri and we wonder if it is Shiv’s ratri (night), why is the whole day Shivratri. Possibly, because some of us, maybe many of us, prepare through the day for the night. That is only conjecture. But the ratri of Shivratri is special because it is believed this is when the constellations are in some particular position that is considered auspicious for meditation. That is the reason why it is recommended believers stay awake and meditate on Shivaratri. If you don’t know the art of meditation, we suggest, don’t even try. You may just drift into sleep as you meditate.
So, use the night for what it is best used. Go to sleep. Plan your meditation for early in the morning, if you get up early in the morning that is. We guess, if you are the meditating types, you would be getting up early.
But there is a reason we are asking you to not stay up through the night. If custom demands, you can do that for Shivratri, but if it’s a habit, it is best avoided.
There is this study which suggests that the health effects of sleep aren't just about how much of it we get but also about when we get it. Researchers found a more evening-driven schedule could be less healthy than a morning one. Now, humans claim to be the most intelligent species, maybe because animals are in no position to lay a counter-claim, but when it comes to sleep they act stupid, if we may say so. Humans are the only mammals who delay sleep — at the cost of health.
Did you know that we could survive longer without food than we could without sleep? Don’t try this stunt at home. Not even under expert guidance.
So while humans are reckless with sleep, what about animals? Haven’t you ever envied a dog or cat sleeping just about anywhere while you were forced to either reach for work, or go to school? Guilty confession: we have. And thankfully, we haven’t even seen a koalas sleep. The average sleep time for a koala is 18-22 hours. Some of us can also do it. If you have ever had bhang you know 18-22 hours is nothing to get over the intoxication. Holi is round the corner. Give it a try if you want to, but be prepared to handle the consequences.
But snails are unmatched. They can sleep for up to three years during hot and dry weather. No, they are not in coma but aestivation.
Talking of animals, did you read this story about China’s chicken chain being hit by the coronavirus. No, it doesn’t spread from chicken to humans. Scientists are still trying to figure out the animal from which humans got the coronavirus. But so far, there are no reports of chicken being the culprit. Sale of poultry has still taken a hit in China in a year of bumper production. China, as you might already know, is facing a pork shortfall that was caused by the African swine fever.
China is the world’s largest market for beef, pork and poultry.
For nonvegetarians this may be bad news, but environmentalists say it is a good thing if people eat less meat. They suggest people should completely stop eating meat.
Wondering why? That’s because when land is used to raise animals instead of crops, precious water and soil are lost. Also, trees are cut down to create land for grazing or factory-farm sheds. Untreated animal waste pollutes rivers. If you think you have made your contribution by not eating meat on Shivratri, think again. Union of Concerned Scientists lists meat-eating as one of the biggest environmental hazards facing the earth.
Animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all the world’s transportation systems combined.
Taking of vegetarianism, have you seen Netflix documentary The Game Changers? The series features vegan activist James Wilks travel the world to find out the truth about meat, protein, and strength.
It features the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, we don’t know what’s more difficult, getting Schwarzenegger’s spelling right (without Google) or giving up on meat, talking about their experiments with turning vegan.
Watch the trailer here:
We are not advocating vegetarianism or veganism. Not fair to preach, what we don’t practice. Not fair to preach even you practice. Is Wilks preaching? No, just advocating through examples.
We are telling you about how coronavirus is impacting the meat market in China.
While we were talking about meat, it just struck us who meat also happens to be slang. And so we decided to dig deeper into the word and its origin. You got that right, meat is our Word Of The Day.
The word meat comes from the Old English word mete, which referred to food in general. The term is related to mad in Danish, mat in Swedish and Norwegian, and matur in Icelandic and Faroese, which also mean ‘food’.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in early 11th century, meat was used as a verb. Meat describes the act of feeding or providing it some provisions. Over the centuries, the word transformed, from feeding animals to feeding on them, and came to acquire its present form.
And it wasn’t just the food part. It is often used as slang too, sometimes in combination with other words and at other times, even alone. For instance, an example of meat is how a woman might describe her younger boyfriend. If you too advocate age restrictions in relationships, we have a song for. Actually, Indeevar wrote it and Jagjit Singh sang it, we are just bringing it to you:
But talking of meat, meat has also been used in countless proverbs and phrases, such as “one man’s poison, another man’s meat,” and “meat and potatoes”. In journalism, one common way to differentiate a good story from a bad one is meat. If a story has meat, it is a good story, if it has no meat, it is a bad story.
Now, we have told you so much about meat on a vegetarian day and we hope that is okay with you because we are only talking about it.
Amid all this, we forgot to give you that good news. Some of you may say, what do we have to do with news? Some of you may say, that’s really a good news. Difficult to get everyone on the same page on anything.
The news is that Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra have welcomes their second child, a baby girl. They have named her Samisha. If you thought you are under pressure to bring a child to this world, imagine the pressure of those who have name a child who has already arrived in the world. Each name has to be unique. When you get to doing it, you realise it ain’t no easy task.
But that’s not why we mentioned the story to you. There are some reports that suggest that Samisha is a surrogate child. The couple have not said anything about it though. A child is a child. Doesn’t matter how she was born. We wish her a long, healthy and happy life.
But when the topic of surrogacy came up, we were reminded of Dev. Remember Dev? Dev was a surrogate child born to an Indian-born Australian couple had through an Indian surrogate mother.
Actually, in late 2012, the couple travelled to Delhi to see their twins. Dev had twin sister. The couple took the daughter with them, but they didn’t want the don, so they left him back. The whole issue erupted in a massive controversy because surrogacy was surrogacy is under no legal framework in India. Just some guidelines.
But where is Dev now?
The couple gave him up in adoption to a local family – friends of their friends, they claimed. There is no trace of Dev’s adoption in official government records, nor of any other adoptions of the unwanted children born out of surrogacy.
Maybe a law would help to deal with such cases. But laws have loopholes too. In any case how do you force someone to take care of someone, even if it’s a child born to you? We don’t know.
What we do know is what you can do this weekend. You can go watch, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. Prefer to read a review before risking your time (and money)? Here’s one for you.We will take your leave now.
See you Monday. Have a good weekend.