We often downplay just how drastically the weather can affect our state of mind, but some studies suggest that our moods change with the seasons. This could explain why it’s just as hard to imagine being lethargic and irritable on a warm, sunny day as it is to imagine being upbeat and productive when the sky opens up with heavy rain and thunder.
Just ask the people of Seoul, South Korea. Right now, they’re facing the worst part of the year: monsoon season. Needless to say, they know a thing or two about letting the weather get them down. That’s whyPantone — a leading color technology and design firm — decided to team up with creators from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to turn the bustling city’s damp, dreary streets into exuberant works of art.
These creative minds teamed up to bring Seoul and its many residents back to life during monsoon season.
Each piece is created with hydrochromatic pigments. They’re applied like regular paints, but they become invisible once they dry. The only thing that can bring them back to life is water.
As is the case in many major cities, life in Seoul revolves around the nearby river.
That’s why artists decided to incorporate marine life into these whimsical images in a way that captures the importance of the Han River to life in Seoul, while still shining a spotlight on the city’s famously vibrant culture.
It’s tempting to let rain put a literal damper on your day, but it’s important to find beauty at every turn. That being said, it’s probably much easier to do that when talented creators cover your city’s streets with stunning images of whales, fish, and sea turtles. We wish the people of Seoul luck as they endure the final stages of monsoon season, and we hope that this awesome art is helping them get by!
Visit Sai Bakery in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai, and you will find more than just the wonderful aroma of freshly baked goods wafting out of it. You’ll sense the pride with which it is run and the confidence and self-esteem it provides to many of its employees who are adults with special needs.
Pista muffins, mango blondies, cheese wraps, and wheat bread are just some of the mouth-watering treats being produced at this neighbourhood initiative that gives adults with special needs an opportunity to harness their skills, socialise with each other and the community at large, and feel like they are productive members of society.
When we talk about people with special needs, there are many organizations that provide early intervention and cater to the needs of learning-disabled children. But what happens after these children are grown adults?
This is where Sai Bakery comes into the picture. It is not just a regular bakery but it’s a place where adults with learning disabilities can come, work, learn, and spend a respectable and productive day.
Sai Bakery employs adults with developmental disabilities (cerebal palsy, mental retardation, autism and multiple disabilities). Each special person’s skills are assessed and the jobs distributed accordingly. Training is provided in the areas of baking and packaging and marketing.
“As a child with special needs grows, his or her family too is growing old. The parents have less stamina to take care of the growing child/adult. There are very few organisations that are working with adults with special needs,” says Sumithra Prasad, founder of Sai Bakery.
The idea about starting a bakery came from Sumithra’s son Srinivasan who has Asperger’s syndrome. After he finished Class 12, he just went to Sumithra and said, “I want to bake. I want to start a bakery. I will get my friends and we’ll do it together.”
Sumithra welcomed her son’s idea and enthusiasm to do something. She helped him get some training to learn the basics of running a bakery. And, in September 2013, Sai Bakery opened its doors.
Sai Bakery, which works with the support of the DORAI (Development Opportunities Resources Access Insight) Foundation, not only engages adults in baking but also provides them access to various activities like music, yoga, terrace gardening, etc. The products from the bakery are also delivered to corporate events in bulk.
“We are not a regular bakery. We make products when we get orders and deliver them fresh. Our aim is not to earn profits but to empower and give a sense of respect and individuality to these adults who have been often ignored even by their own families,” says Sumithra.
Sumithra has personally witnessed the impact on some of the lives of these adults with special needs working at the bakery.
Earlier, Shameena would not even go to the toilet alone; she was always accompanied by her mother. Today, she travels all by herself from her house to the bakery everyday, an incredible and positive achievement. She has taken over the packing of pastries in their boxes.
Once a shy boy, Anand would barely speak to anyone. But today, he sings and dances with his friends from the bakery. Similarly, there is Srinivasan who has become good at mixing and blending the dough.
Though a monthly stipend is given to these adults for coming to the bakery, it is the emotional and psychological support they get that matters.
“Many times, even families don’t take these adults seriously. Someone once said about their disabled daughter, ‘What will happen even if we teach her? She is not going to work anyway.’ This attitude needs to be changed. Respect and individuality are very important,” says Sumithra.
Sumithra adds that the attitude of parents towards their own children with disabilities has been the biggest challenge she has had to overcome. Sometimes, the families are not even ready to pay for the transport of their children, even though all the other facilities at Sai Bakery are free.
But thanks to Sumithra’s determination, she has been able to create ripples of change in the lives of many such adults. She has also inspired four to five similar bakery initiatives in different parts of the country.
In the future, Sumithra wants to reach out to more people who are willing to start similar initiatives and enable more people with learning disabilities to become empowered. Even if there are three people with disabilities who need help, she says, Sai Bakery will help them set up the entire system.
Here is a heart-touching video on the unique bakery produced by The Better India Talkies:
To order tasty treats from the bakery or to know more about their work, contact Sumithra Prasad at – doraifoundation@gmail.com and check out their Facebook page.
The Young@Heart chorus based in western Massachusetts is comprised of senior citizens ranging from their early 70s and beyond. Established at an elderly housing project in 1982, the program has given countless aging individuals an exciting, fun, and productive pastime to look forward to each day.
During a performance in 2007, 83-year-old Fred Knittle stepped on stage to perform the lead vocal in their cover of Coldplay’s “Fix You.” Though he had retired from their group a few years before and was struggling with health issues, his incredible voice still managed to bring the house down. Prepare for your heart to melt.
Sadly, Knittle passed away just two short years after this stirring performance. But thank goodness they captured this amazing moment so his legacy can live on. You can find more of the chorus’s beautiful renditions over on their YouTube page.
Competing at the World Synchronized Skating Championships earlier this year, Team Canada stepped onto the ice with something to prove. They wanted to be the best and weren’t going to let anyone get in their way. Because after all the practice, hard work, and dedication, they knew they wanted it more than their peers.
That’s why when the music started, and their performance began, you could tell something special was about to happen…
It must be incredibly difficult to work so seamlessly with so many people — and on ice, nonetheless! But, as you can see, when it’s pulled off correctly, the result is simply stunning.
Today, we are confronted everywhere by statistics parading quantities and reports in glowing terms. Do not bother about adding to the number or achieving a target. I value quality, not quantity. Genuine and intensive devoted service offered in a few spots or villages is more fruitful than superficial service offered to a large number. Convince yourselves that life cannot continue long without others serving you and you serving others. Every relationship – be it master-servant, ruler-ruled, guru-disciple, employer-employee, or parents-children and so on – is bound by mutual service. Everyone is a sevak (servitor). The farmer and labourer whom you serve, produce by their toil your food and clothing as their service to you. Remember that the body, with its senses-mind-brain complex has been awarded to you to be used for helping the helpless. Seva is the highest of paths of Devotion which wins the Grace of God. Service promotes mental purity, diminishes egoism and enables one to experience, through empathetic understanding, the unity of mankind.
Even if it its repeated …. Read with a Smile for a Good Laugh !!!””
And Start your day with a Big Smile ….
A good 30 laughs – Dilbert’s one liners : Old Classics
🔺 I say no to alcohol, but it just doesn’t listen. 🔺 A friend in need is a pest indeed. 🔺 Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce. 🔺 Work is fine if it doesn’t take too much of your time. 🔺 When everything comes in your way you’re in the wrong lane. 🔺 The light at the end of the tunnel may be an incoming train.. 🔺 Born free, taxed to death. 🔺 Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don’t have film. 🔺 Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first. 🔺 Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.
If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you’ll have trouble putting on your pants. 🔺 It’s not hard to meet expenses, they are everywhere. 🔺 I love being a writer… what I can’t stand is the paperwork.. 🔺 A printer consists of 3 main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light. 🔺 The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was the genius. 🔺 The trouble with being punctual is that no one is there to appreciate it. 🔺 In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?
If you cannot change your mind, are you sure you have one? 🔺 Beat the 5 O’clock rush, leave work at noon! 🔺 If you can’t convince them, confuse them. 🔺 It’s not the fall that kills you. It’s the sudden stop at the end. 🔺 I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder. 🔺 Hot glass looks same as cold glass. – Cunino’s Law of Burnt Fingers 🔺 The cigarette does the smoking you are just the sucker. 🔺 Someday is not a day of the week
Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock. 🔺 The road to success…. Is always under construction. 🔺 Alcohol doesn’t solve any problems, but if you think again, neither does Milk. 🔺 In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don’t need it !!!
Why does standing in one place for a long time make my legs and feet sorer than walking the same amount of time?
Working retail, waiting tables, standing in line at the amusement park or just shopping with mom, anyone who’s ever been stuck on their feet for a long time more or less standing still knows that it’s much more tiring than walking the equivalent amount of time. But why?
First, when you stand, your legs aren’t resting, even beyond just supporting your weight. Instead, your body sways very slightly. To keep you upright, a few muscles, particularly those in your calves, are constantly working, making very small adjustments that you probably aren’t consciously aware of. On the other hand, when you walk, the burden is distributed across more muscle groups. Muscles swinging the arms help propel them, core muscles keep you stable, butt muscles complete your stride, and the legs of both the calves and the thighs are employed.
Second, when you’re standing still, each foot and leg supports about half of the body’s weight, but neither ever gets a rest. On the other hand, when walking, each time a foot is raised the muscles formerly helping to balance you get a little break as does the bottom of your foot. While only a small break each instance, this totals to about half the time being in more or less a resting state other than the muscles required to lift your foot off the ground.
Third, when you stand, the blood and lymph fluids pool in your feet, calves and ankles, because your heart cannot efficiently pump the blood all the way up from your feet by itself. This is why if you stand in one place for long periods, you might notice that your feet and lower legs swell a little.
Because the heart isn’t up to performing this task efficiently, it relies in part on muscle contractions that occur when you walk and move about. As David J Tibbs in Varicose Veins and Related Disorders, states,
Only the peripheral pumping mechanism (musculovenous pumping) can cause full venous flow against gravity. This forceful pumping action is brought about when multiple veins are compressed by contraction of surrounding skeletal muscle. The valves direct the blood heartwards and prevent it from falling back again. Thus, by this simple arrangement, the harder the muscles work, the more vigorously is the massive flow of blood generated by this activity returned towards the heart.
Thus, when you stand in one place, your muscles are receiving less oxygen and other such things they need to operate at peak efficiency compared to when you walk around.
Fourth, when you stand, the entire load of your body rests on the same place – the underside of your feet, and particularly on the balls and heels. Beyond one side getting the aforementioned break about half the time, when you walk, different parts of your feet bear the load at different times.
Fifth, standing is sometimes much more boring than walking, particularly if you are at work with nothing mentally engaging to do (or watching your mom shop…). With nothing to occupy your mind, it can wander to how tired you are and how much your feet hurt. On the other hand, when walking, your brain will be more occupied since you must constantly assess the situation and avoid obstacles. Thus, standing may also seem even more tiring because you are just more aware of how your legs and feet are feeling.
Sixth, if you walk fast enough (or jog), your body will release neurochemicals that make you feel better, including adrenaline that pumps the heart faster, providing more oxygen to the muscles and brain, as well as endorphins that improve mood.
Bonus Facts:
In addition to those muscles mentioned, walking also works out the muscles around the pelvis, including the external abductors and internal adductors, belly muscles in the front and spinal muscles in the rear.
As with standing, anytime a person remains upright, venous pooling will occur; in some situations, such as when a construction worker remains suspended in a “fall harness” (the device that saves his life after a fall) but is unable to move his legs significantly, the pooling of blood can reach a critical level. As more blood pools in the legs (which aren’t moving enough to send it back up to the heart), the heart rate increases at first, and then will slow significantly. Without sufficient blood to bring fresh oxygen to the brain, the victim first loses consciousness, and if left in that condition, renal failure and even death can occur. (See: Suspension Trauma)
The average U.S. adult walks about 5,900 steps each day. Health experts recommend this be raised to at least 7,000 – the amount the average Japanese person gets in a day.
Interestingly, in a 2004 study of American Amish, it was shown that women got in more than 14,000 steps each day, and men more than 18,000. If only they had Fitbits to have the data to brag with…
Australians average almost 9,700 steps each day, and the Swiss get just a bit less than that.
The idea that “10,000 steps each day” is required for optimum health comes from an early Japanese pedometer from the 1960s called manpo-kei (“10,000 steps meter”). That said, the Centers for Disease Control does not recommend any particular number of steps, and instead suggests adults get 150 minutes of moderate activity each week.
Today people are wasting a big portion of their precious lives by indulging in flimsy gossip and watching scenes of violence and cruelty. Many are unaware that time sanctified by service offers high rewards to themselves as well as to those they serve. All acts of service are not equally sanctifying or uniform in the benefits they confer. When service is undertaken by power-hungry people, or under compulsion or by imitative urges, it results in more harm than good. A sincere aspirant undertaking service must avoid egotism(ahamkara), exhibitionism (adambara) and favouritism(abhimana). Before embarking on a service project, introspect and examine whether your heart is full of selfless love, humility and compassion, whether your head is full of intelligent understanding and knowledge of the problem and its solution, whether your hands are eager to offer the healing touch, and whether you can gladly spare and share time, energy and skill to help those in dire need.
Take off with Natarajan 