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Yes, there have been many studies suggesting that a drink a day is good for your heart and a lot else. Unfortunately, these have been carried out in the West. But faithfully, like everything else, we have copy-pasted it for Indians too.

A new study carried out at AIIMS to investigate the link between alcohol consumption and heart disease has discovered that Indians are different: alcohol harms them. And it is not just heavy drinkers who are affected. Even light drinkers, the ones who consume 30 ml of spirited drinks, a chhota if you like, have a 40% higher risk of coronary heart disease.

So, the next time someone offers you a drink, you can say, without a trace of embarrassment, “No drinks please, we're Indian”

Gunfire has replaced firecrackers at weddings these days, it would seem. 'Celebration' shooting has claimed several lives in the past few years. The most recent incident happened on Thursday.

His newlywed wife waiting for him in the car outside her parents' home in Noida's Sector-10, Pankaj Karotia came back for one last blessing from his father-in-law.

His uncle, Rajkumar Karotia decided to fire a final celebratory shot in the air, and started to load bullets in his pistol. It went off accidentally, and a bullet hit Pankaj in the head, leaving him dead.

What sort of celebration is this, that claims the life of an innocent young man? Are we trying to ban undesirable traditional customs, only to create new even more harmful ones?

This can happen only in India. As per government records, two real brothers were born just five months apart around 58 years ago.

More surprising than this medical impossibility – there is no evidence to suggest that they were born to different mothers – is the fact that this glaring error has remained undetected for 37 years. No these guys are not Group 4 employees working in some remote corner where records are difficult to trace or link.

They are senior IPS officers of the 1973 batch. One is already DG of the BSF while the other is set to take over as DG CRPF and create 'history'!

The Home Ministry, on whose web site their dates of birth are available, is unable to explain this 'discrepancy' even now. This is real history!

For 25 long years, no one listened to their pleas. Finally, the residents of Tajnagar village near Gurgaon decided to do do something about it on their own.

And now they have a railway station, complete with two kachcha platforms and a ticket counter. The 700 households contributed Rs 3000 each; some of the better-off chipped in Rs 50,000 and more to collect Rs 21 lakhs to build the station. Not just that. They have also deposited Rs 5 lakhs with the railways to shame it into expanding it.

Their effort has worked. 13 trains, mostly locals, will begin to stop at the station from January 5. The villagers will no longer have to travel 6 kms in three-wheelers to the nearest railway station. A dozen nearby villages will also benefit.

Says something about how government departments work.

"Maoist uncle, what is our mistake that you blow up schools and deprive us of education? You may have problems with the police but we fail to understand why are we your enemy? What is our mistake that our schools have become a soft target for you." Wonder how Arundhati Roy will react to this open letter written by hundreds of school children of Bihar's Aurangabad district to Maoists waging war against the state.

After targeting railways and mobile towers, Maoists have blown up more than 20 school buildings in various districts of Bihar, at least 10 in Aurangabad district, only because they can be used by central para-military forces.

Great way to ensure that people remains 'equal' and dependent on forests, as they have been for thousands of years.

Arundhati, will you please ask Maoists to spare India's children?

A few months back, it was a thief with a golden heart who took a call on the mobile he had stolen and returned LIC bonds, KVPs etc – not valuables that he needed to run his family – to school teacher Kartik Mandal.

A couple of days back, it was Jayanta Gupta of Kamardanga, 24 Parganas, who showed a fine example of Gandhigiri.

Two teenage thieves, Bablu Mistry and Tapas Das, sneaked into Gupta's house when he was away. They were caught stealing by neighbours who beat them, tied them up and informed Gupta.

When Gupta, on return, heard them say that it was their first crime, committed because they could not get two square meals a day, he untied them and treated them to sandesh and rosogulla, banana and bread.

And then he set them free.

Traffic light ko dhak diya to kya hua, mera kaam to ho gaya...

What you see is sometimes not what you get. This harsh fact has devastated Afsha Sheikh.

When Afsha met Abdulla Syed in May this year, she did not take long to agree to marriage. Introduced to the family by a friend, he seemed just right. An NRI, with a thick flock of hair and sparkling teeth, and a job with Emirates Airlines, he was a good 'catch'.

It was only after the wedding that the horror hit. As he sat on the bed on the wedding night, he took took off his wig. If that was not bad enough, he then removed his dentures. Without waiting for further shocks, Afsha packed her bags and informed her mother who filed a complaint against him with Agripada police

Not surprisingly, she later found that even the jewellery given by him was fake.
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Picture: Mumbai Mirror

Couples and lovers looking for luck in love can now buy a 'Laila-Majnu' plant. Named after the legendary lovers, this plant has been developed after four months of effort by Ram Brikhas Chaurasia.

The plant sold like hot cakes in the recently held Sonepur cattle fair, with newly married couples and lovers buying it with the belief that it will bring them good luck and strengthen their relationship.

What is so special about this plant? Well, its leaves are green on one side and red on the other.

At Rs 35 a sapling, it is not a bad investment, if not for a relationship, at least for a garden. Or even a bedroom, where slightly more 'enterprising' couples will surely place the universal symbol of love, two doves, on this plant! Why take a chance?!

As almost always, it is the neglected, away-from-the-limelight aam admi from Bharat who has, without being asked by anyone, gone beyond tokenism after 26/11.

While well-heeled, media-conscious Indians have limited the show of their solidarity with those who died by lighting candles and holding peace marches, prayer meetings and TV studio debates, immediately after the attack and to mark its first anniversary, the aam admi of Maharashtra has come forward to take the bullets on his chest, if necessary.

The number of persons volunteering to serve in the military has doubled in Maharashtra. In 2007, there were around 2000 recruits. This year over 5000 have already been recruited, the second largest among states. Volunteers have been lining up selection centres across the state.

Any surprise that this jump in recruitments is for jawans, not officers?

Sometimes love can make a person strangely selfish, cruel and heartless too.

Seema, a bar girl, fell in love with Avdhoot Ghule a couple of years back. When he proposed to her, against his family's wishes, she said 'yes'. But there was a big problem: a nine year-old son, Rahul, about whom she had not told him. .

So, she tried to strangulate Rahul, but lost nerve. After a few days, she took him for a treat and, while he was eating pani puri, deserted him. Within a few hours, she married Ghule.

The police picked up Rahul, who did not know where he lived, worked painstakingly and finally traced his mother.

Ghule refuses to see Seema and Rahul has been sent to a children's home. She chose to lose son to get love, but now has lost both.

As India remembers those who lost their lives during 26/11, the family of a cop who was martyred has done something which should make India proud.

Vaishali Ombale, daughter of ASI Tukaram Ombale, has declined aid of Rs 8 lakh, on the advise of her mother that her father's soul will not be in peace if she accepted it.

Earlier too, the Ombales had refused to accept donations collected by students of Rayat Sikshan Sanstha in Solapur. Instead, Mrs Ombale added her own contribution and donated it back to the school.

Says Vaishali, “Had the money being donated to us...been used to purchase arms and ammunition, lives of a few policemen could have been saved.”

Will these words shame the corrupt who can't see beyond their pockets, including those who bought the missing bullet-proof vests that let bullets through?

A 36-year old priest of the Machaesa Perumal Temple in the pilgrim town of Kancheepuram has been arrested for having sex with women inside the sanctum sanctorum.

The shocking behaviour of the priest came to light when he gave his mobile, in which he had recorded his escapades in MMS format in 19 files running into 90 minutes, for repairs. These have become a rage among some people and are even available on the net.

Devanathan, a father of two, used to entice women who came alone to enter the sanctum and then seduce them. Those who fell for his charms got preference over others for puja.

In an unrelated nation wide study, NGO Gram Niyojana Kendra has found that pilgrim centres are becoming a growing hub for sex tourism, after major cities and places for sightseeing.

If you are into kidnapping, extortion, attempting to murder, or even "pure" murder, all is not lost. You have a very "productive" career ahead of you as a candidate for elections in Jharkhand, supposed to take place on 25th.

Out of a total of 470 candidates, 370 have been checked out by the National Election Watch, and 108 candidates have criminal backgrounds.

27 candidates have declared assets of more than 1 crore. 168 candidates have not provided PAN card details, and by logic, their tax payment details .

Why were they allowed to contest ?

A retired peon I know was refused the facility of a bank account because he didn't have a PAN card. (The bank did not inform him about the form 60 alternative)

Is being a criminal a necessary electoral qualification ?

Sivakasi, the pyrotechnics capital of India, will soon become Sivakaasi.

Several firecracker units in this town have been suffering accidents, prompting soothsayers to suggest that the adding of an 'a' to its name – remember how Jayalalitha became Jayalalithaa? - will ward off “the evil eye.”

Municipal vice-chairman AMSG Ashokan of the Congress is convinced and the 33-member municipal council has also unanimously passed a resolution accordingly.

As per Chaldean numerology, the present name adds up to 18, a fiery number of Mars. The change will make it 19, a powerful number.

One would have thought that with 90% of India's firecrackers and 80% of its safety matches being produced here in over 8000 factories, more attention would have been paid to improving safety standards.

But, what the hell, a change of name doesn't cost a paisa!

Remember how India's elite were visibly shaken when terrorists struck Mumbai's 5-star hotels, “where we sit down for dinner”, on 26/11?

For two months, 30 policemen have been staying under the dome of the Gateway of India, to ensure that those dining in the Taj are not rudely disturbed by terrorists again. They had no other shelter.

But most of those for whom they are expected to die, as well as conservationists, are upset about the fact that they have driven nails into the walls of the heritage monument and covered its arches with plastic sheets.

Net result of their cacophony? Last night, these SRPF jawans were thrown out with their belongings onto the sidewalk and asked to stay there till alternative arrangements were made.

How and where these sub-human 'guard dogs' live doesn't concern India's bubbled elite.

Remember how King Pandu was cursed when he mistook Rishi Kindama and his wife for deer and shot an arrow, killing them when they were making love?

Selva Kumar, a 34-year old farmer from Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu, did something similar when he was 18. He stoned to death mating dogs and hung their carcasses from a tree.

A few days later, his hands and legs got paralysed and he lost hearing in one ear. Doctors were clueless.

Finally, an astrologer told him that he was cursed by the spirit of the dogs he had killed and the only way to undo it was to marry a bitch and live with her.

He did that with 10-year old Selvi who was dressed in an orange sari, in a ceremony befitting a beautiful Hindu bride.

No word yet on the honeymoon.
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Also read: Man rapes bitch, to be tried

Madhabi Khatoon, 7, of Murshidabad district , rolling beedis since she was five, now rolls 400 a day, working 14 hours a day.

She is at risk for tuberculosis, postural and eye problems, anaemia, lung and skin diseases. Continuous beedi rolling and exposure to tobacco, makes fingertip skin thin, and they are unable to roll beedis by the age of 45. They have to resort to begging as they know no other trade or occupation

1 out of every 6 girls dies before her 15th birthday.

1 out of 4 girls is sexually abused before the age of 4.

Death rate among girls below the age of 4 years is higher than that of boys and 53% of girls in the age group of 5 to 9 years are illiterate.

You think she knows what Nov 14 is ?

Most statistics coming out of Bihar continue to confirm that this state has been laid waste by the corrupt and powerful who continue to get richer while the state stagnates.

A couple of months back, there was a report that the money deposited in Patna banks, Rs 23,169 crores, – the highest in any Indian city - exceeded the annual expenditure of the state.

A recent youth survey has revealed some more startling facts:

• Internet accessed by only 6% men and 3% women. In urban Bihar, only 18% and 9%

• 17% men and 50% women have never attended school

• 40% men and 60% women justify wife-beating

• 75% men and 50% women have engaged in paid/unpaid work

No wonder poor Biharis migrating in large numbers are creating social problems elsewhere. Soon they may not be welcome anywhere.

Everyone has heard of or witnessed a snake-mongoose fight as each tries to sting/bite the other to death. But man and snake fighting like this?

This is what happened between a 25-year old gardener and a snake on Saturday in a park just outside Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Furious at being bitten by a snake, Ramesh Kumar Jamda grabbed it, tore it apart, chewed parts of its body and, hold your breath, even swallowed the flesh.

After the 'fight', Jamda fell unconscious and the snake died on the spot. The former was taken to the local hospital and regained consciousness after treatment. “I was very angry after the snake bit me on my finger”, says the survivor, “I chewed parts of its body to take revenge”!

It is not clear whether the snake was poisonous. Jamda certainly was!