How Do I Love Thee?

How Do I Love Thee?
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Miracle of Green Tea

Better to be deprived of food for three days, than green tea for one day

Why is Green Tea so Special and What are the Health Benefits of GreenTea?

Presence of Anti Oxidants: Green Tea is the store house of epigallocatechin gallate, an antioxidant. This antioxidant effectively protects the cells of your body and helps you get rids of malignant cells without creating any negative side effects.

Weight Loss Tool: it is proven that green tea when consumed 5 times per day on a regular basis helps you in reducing your weight by 70 calories a day.

Raises HDL and Lowers LDL: it reduces the bad cholesterol content and increases the good cholesterol count in your body.

Panacea for Blood Pressure and Type 2 Diabetes: Green tea is rich in polysaccharides and polyphenols. These antioxidants present in green tea when consumed lower your blood pressure and sugar level thereby preventing the onset of Type 2 Diabetes.

Green Tea has the power of smothering angiotensis II, a chemical that causes the choking of blood vessels within your body. This in turn keeps your body's blood pressure under control.

Relives You Of Skin Problems: Green tea is one of the natural solutions that helps you to get rid of your skin wrinkles. It has proven to be the best solution for skin acne, psoriasis, rosacea and warts.

Increases Body Immunity And Frees You From Allergies: The antiviral and anti bacterial properties of green tea prevent you from getting into contagious flu, cold and common cough.

Due to that anti bacterial property of green tea, it has proven to prevent the decay of tooth to a very great extent by killing the harmful germs that cause the decay.

Practical Solution for Retarding the Development of Arthritis, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's: Green tea has the power to subdue the enzyme that ruins cartilage and thus helps you in keeping away from contracting arthritis. Alzheimer's is mainly caused due to reduction in the level of acetylcholine in the brain. Green tea defends against the reduction of acetylcholine and aids in slowing down the process of Alzheimer's contraction. Green tea protects the destruction of brain cells thereby making the probability of contracting Parkinson's to minimal levels within our body.

Why don't other teas have similar health-giving properties?

What sets green tea apart from the black tea is the way it is processed. Green tea leaves are steamed, which prevents the useful compound from being oxidized. By contrast, black tea leaves are made from fermented leaves, which results in the useful being converted into other compounds that are not effective.

copy pasted from: forwarded emails

Vanilla Sky

Photographed: Ammar Fakhruddin

The First Day of Winter

Today was the first day of winter

Its coming

Its on its way

I can smell the crispness in the air

The lazyness of the mornings

The incomprehensible urge to just lie in bed

...tucked under the covers

The smell of brewing coffee more heightened than before

Snuggling into the tunnels of the nostrils

... aah winter is here!

The Mystic Sea

The smell of the sea in my nostrils, The sound of the sea in my ears; The touch of the spray on my burning face, Like the mist of reluctant tears. The blue of the sky above me, The green of the waves beneath; The sun flashing down on a gray-white sail Like a scimitar from its sheath. And ever the breaking billows, And ever the rocks’ disdain; And ever a thrill in mine inmost heart That my reason cannot explain. So I say to my heart, “Be silent, The mystery of time is here; Death’s way will be plain when we fathom the main, And the secret of life be clear.” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Weathered Periwinkle

Photograph by: Shabbir Fakhruddin

A trip to Marjan Island

Marjan means coral in arabic and various other regional languages.

Situated a little away from the hub of Dammam Corniche, the Marjan Island was built by Saudi ARAMCO ....hmmm lets say a lot of years ago. The island is small, consists of patches of green and cement; perfect for a day out for all activities.

Families usually crowd around to have a fun time barbecuing, the children playing around and a lot of serious fishermen and fisherwomen.
In the centre is a tower in the shape of the coral and one can climb up the winding stairs to get a 360 degree view from the top.

There is no restaurant, so pack up a stack of your own ration. However, there is a tuck shop , commonly known as boofiya. If you chance to come here, try the cone icecream.... slurp

... and you can catch a boat ride from the island everyday.

At night, the skyline is lit up with lights from the Corniche area.

The Sleeping Muse

It has been a long time since my last post. Infact about 4 months gone by and the "I" in me has... rather hopefully had disappeared.

Stuff happens.... and then for a long time one thinks about getting back on the horse but it just doesnt happen. And the muse inside, starts to ignore you as you had ignored her.

She sleeps unperturbed until one day with fresh energy she blooms out and refreshes everything.