The benefits of a big behind…

And no, its for the express purposes of cutting a swathe through the crowd. Though it comes in handy for that too, I must confess.

I have always been a rather generously proportioned girl. That is not a good way to grow up in an era when stick thin insects are venerated to and top fashion models can actually count the bony protruberances on the surface of their skin caused by almost minus levels of body fat. I remember starving myself into anorexia and no menstrual cycle for six months when I was sixteen in an effort to rid myself of my curves. Yes, I got my stick thin figure and with it, PCOD. Not to mention countless enquiries about my health and well being and concerned neighbours sending in special dishes to fatten me up.

I piled on the weight again. I thought I looked hideous. The spouse begged to differ. But thats another story and a bigger post.

Fat on the hips is stubborn. It hangs on grimly. It doesnt melt away by wishful thinking (though positive visualisation is to be wholly recommended in situations needing additional reinforcement, apart from diet and exercise), and worse, we have Beyonce and J Lo making them behinds fashionable enough to be flaunted, making the pressure to flaunt them big behinds unbearable. Why does the same behind look bootilicious on Beyonce and like one had just to stick on a little grey tail on me. The answer lies, my dears, in the packaging.

Therefore, this is dedicated to all ye women who are apologetic about a little more on your booty. Be proud of your behind. It shows you are intelligent, keeps you safe from heart disease, and helps you make intelligent babies. Phtooey to them stick insects. We got our fatty deposits right where they can make a difference.

Read this:

London: They can play havoc with your stress levels when you’re trying to squeeze into skinny jeans. But big bottoms could be good for your health, according to British scientists.
    A team at Oxford University has claimed that carrying extra weight on your hips, bum and thighs is good for one’s health, protecting against heart and metabolic problems, reports the BBC.
    Hip fat mops up harmful fatty acids and contains an anti-inflammatory agent that stops arteries clogging; big bums are preferable to extra fat around the waistline, which gives no such protection, the scientists said.
    According to them, having too little fat around the hips can lead to serious metabolic problems because there is evidence that fat around the thighs and backside is harder to shift than fat around the waist.
    Although this may sound undesirable, it is actually beneficial because when fat is broken down quickly it releases a lot of cytokines — linked to heart disease, and diabetes — which trigger inflammation in the body, say the scientists.
    Lead researcher Konstantinos Manolopoulos said, “It is shape that matters and where the fat gathers. Fat around the hips and thighs is good for you but around the tummy is bad.”
    Manolopoulos said in an ideal world, the more fat around the thighs the better — as long as the tummy stays slim. “Unfortunately, you tend not to get one without the other,” he said.
    Fotini Rozakeas of the British Heart Foundation said, “This research helps us better to understand how fat acts in the body in order to develop new approaches in reducing heart and circulatory disease. PTI

That is not all. My big hips are also indicative of my intelligence, and are also indicative that I, had I decided to churn out a football team, would have spun out mini Einsteins.

http://www.physorg.com/news114062670.html

Now I know the spouse was thinking far into the future and the cognitive abilities of his future progeny when he evinced admiration of them fat deposits on the rear. He, like all good red blooded caveman providers, is biologically programmed to select a mate who will give him clever offspring. And yes, my bigger hips could also let a bigger brained baby out more easily, theoretically, never mind that the good doctor just took a scalpel and made a quick bikini cut incision and got the squalling kid out. Its another point that the squalling offspring is showing signs of intelligence only when it comes to Bollywood song and dance routines. He might still make a career choreographing for Bollywood films and earn his keep.

Read this:

Two researchers, Steven Gaulin and William Lassek believe our attraction to an hourglass figure may have evolutionary significance. In a recent study, Lassek and Gaulin found that a woman’s waist to hip ratio had an impact on a child’s intelligence; curvy women birthed children with superior cognitive abilities. “Men respond because it’s reproductively important,” Lassek believes.

Omega-3 fatty acids, the same fat found in flax and certain types of fish, are believed to be the source of the benefits. These fats compose much of the human brain (which is 60% fat by dry weight). They are selectively stored in the hips and thighs beginning in adolescence. Notably, women do not begin metabolize these deposits except during the third trimester of pregnancy and during lactation – peak times for a child’s brain growth.

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Of Aman ki Asha

The new year began with a new initiative from the Times of India Group in collaboration with the Jang Group in Pakistan. Called Aman Ki Asha, this initiative seeks to strengthen people to people goodwill between the aam junta of India and Pakistan, and thereby do away with hostility and negativity that perveades the relationship between the two countries. As far as an initiative goes, it is an honest to goodness effort at building goodwill. As someone who has been working with 26/11 victims for the past year, I agree that any effort to promote goodwill between the populations of these two countries is welcome. Will it work? Not immediately. But as a start.  As drops make up an ocean, any step towards peace and goodwill will ultimately add up. It is a start, and a brave one at that, and that by itself needs to be admired. If this is a marketing gimmick as most Cassandras have been decrying, I’m all for it. Gimmick or not, it is a welcome relief from the baying for their blood stridency which had taken over most reporting on Pakistan post 26/11.
I’m not going to delve into the history of the conflicts between the two nations, the festering anger, the two wars we have fought, the countless incidents of terrorism and infiltration and the proxy wars. That is something political commentators would do better commenting on.
What I find interesting, and very commendable, is the television commercial to promote this new endevour has as its unifying factor, Bollywood. In a gist, the TVC shows a desert terrain, with people of both countries across the barbed wire, playing a kind of dumb charade wherein, the people from Pakistan finally manage to communicate the name of an Indian feature film, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. The people on the Indian side of the wire rush to dial a request for a song from the film to All India Radio, and both songs enjoy the song when it is aired. Simplistic? Perhaps. But an indicator of how much Indian movies are enjoyed in Pakistan.
Pakistan banned Bollywood movies in 1965 after the Indo Pak war. But cable networks, pirated DVDs and a thriving underground market for Bollywood ensured that Bollywood movies were available to the Pakistan audience the very day of a movie’s release in India. Indian movie stars are as revered across the border as they are here in India. This ban was lifted recently, by the Pakistan government, and subsequent to this cinema halls in Pakistan screened “Taare Zameen Par” which was the first release after the ban was lifted. This was followed by “Singh is Kinng”, “Kismat Konnection”, “Welcome”, “The Killer”, “Bhagam Bhag”, “Race”, “Golmaal Returns”, “Jannat”, “Bhootnath”, “Karzzz”, “Hello”, “Love Story 2050″, “Dostana”, “Yuvvraaj” and “Kidnap”. In fact, Mahesh Bhatt had announced a romance from his banner Vishesh Films, to be shot completely in Pakistan last year. Maybe he had something right, when he conceived of an Indo Pak collaboration to alleviate mistrust and hostilities between the two regions. In fact Raj Kapoor could be the pioneer in this, with his film Henna (which was subsequently directed by his son Randhir Kapoor upon his demise) which featured Zeba Bakhtiar, a leading Pakistani actress. Ironically, her ex-husband, Adnan Sami is currently working in Mumbai, creating music for a number of Bollywood movies. Salma Agha made a hit film Nikaah, Reena Roy married (and subsequently divorced Pakistani cricketer Mohsin Khan, which is also another great binder between the two nations, our common passion for cricket), Akbar Khan attempted to take forward the film-friendship exchange with the showing of his magnum Opus Taj Mahal in Pakistan. Interestingly, the film starred Sonya Jehan, the granddaughter of the famous singing legend from Pakistan, Noor Jehan. Pakistani comedians and comedy shows have been popular in India for decades, and Pakistani sit-coms like Dhoop Kinare and Tanhaiyian reached cult status in the bootlegged video cassette market in the 1980s. Indian films have gone the whole hog in depicting Pakistan as the enemy too. The spate of these came post Kargil.
But culture cannot draw sustenance from political enemity. The politics of distrust and hatred can only be eliminated not through further strife and war, but through concerted efforts to find a middle ground of connection and bonding.
We share a common culture, we have common references, we have the same over the top penchant for living life large through our films and entertainment. We love our musicals, we are two countries carved from one. While the politics of terror and hatred can play itself on a platform sponsored by forces beyond the control of the aam junta, the people of the two countries can leverage the powerful binding influences of entertainment and culture, movies, music and literature to create a shared heritage that goes beyond the politics of hate. Aman Ki Asha? One can always hope for peace. And commend the attempt.
 
Links: http://www.pakool.com/featured/aman-ki-asha-a-shot-in-the-dark-bound-to-fail/
http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/separated-at-birth/2010/01/04/aman-ki-asha-marketing-peace-with-pakistan/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4617447.stm

Link: http://www.afaqs.com/perl/advertising/storyboard/index.html?id=3158
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