India is a great treasure for tourists who are interested in world heritage sites, enchanting mountains, Hill stations, honeymoon destinations, ancient monuments, transport, trains, culture, festivals, health care, Indian System of Medicines, medical tourism, education tourism etc.
Curious to know what sort of day you're going to have today? Your free horoscope will help you to plan your day, each and every day.
Aries
March 21 - April 19
The spotlight which picks up the confused (and confusing) situation tied to your secret life, your classified work, your confidential concerns or your invisible role behind the scenes, is so useful. You need to avoid repeating the muddles of last year. You recently saw a way to handle this but have not put it in action. You have support. Time to declare 'No more brain fog' about this unseen, hidden matter, Aries.
The new angle on a friend, or important group, helps you see just how distorted things have become. It's rather like swimming under water and opening your eyes. Come up for air, clear your vision and see what/who is bent out of shape. One of the issues about your friendship or this group as a whole, is the lack of boundaries. Before things slide backwards from June 13th, try to nail this and say a firm 'No.'
Your success, status, ambition, mission and position need more clarity. Your horoscope suggests this is an ongoing issue since 2011. Every so often, you realise that you are close to feeling all at sea, or even right out of your depth. Go get that anchor and find a light house. Some projects, roles or goals really are the stuff that stories, myths or legends are made of. If you want to succeed, though, set a few rules.
For the last five or six years, you have been in a cycle when travel (or travel in the mind) can leave you floundering. You've hit this with your website, blog or book. With your degree, course or workshops. With your foreign or regional connections. Now, you have a chance to sort out the problem, which is a basic lack of boundaries. This needs to be contained and controlled, pronto, before mid-June arrives.
You are under the protection of Jupiter the problem-solver with your finances, property, business, possessions or charity until September. You still have some housekeeping to do, though. What/who is so unfathomable right now? Your ruler the Sun is shedding light on that, and your taxation, company, income, property, business, charity or possessions is the first port of call. Organise this and grow richer.
Boundary issues are the usual result of Neptune in your watery opposite sign of Pisces, and just as fish don't have road rules, one particular 'fish' doesn't either. This is making it hard to contain and control things with your former, current or potential partner. Perhaps, too, with an enemy or rival. Consciously steer this back. You actually need a moat and a drawbridge. Create one or put it back in, if it vanished.
The Sun's useful angle to Neptune helps you see just how far removed from reality one situation has become. This is affecting the way you work (on a daily basis) or the way you deal with your body - from drugs, to food, to drink, to healers, to gyms, to doctors. Use the spotlight, no matter how challenging, to fix something before it goes any deeper. You can turn the tide, but if you don't, from June 13th you pay.
Neptune in Pisces is all that it suggests - oceanic, drifting, horoscope influences with no boundaries and an other-worldly quality. This now applies to babies, children or teenagers. Paid or unpaid work with a younger generation. Lovers who might bring younger faces into your life one day through marriage or pregnancy. Time to find an anchor and dry land. This is slipping away from you. Turn the tide. Contain it.
The alternative reality that your house, family, town, country, apartment or household has become, sometimes rewards you (everyone wants a holiday from the real world) and occasionally makes you feel flummoxed, to say the least. Reduce the flummox potential by containing this. I love that word 'flummox' by the way. It's like 'befuddled' which is exactly what has been going down with your people or place.
Communication, information, transportation, negotiation (online and offline) are regularly high-maintenance areas for you, and as the world of words, ideas and images is basically a gigantic soup these days - thank you internet - it never hurts to get seriously real about what needs to be remixed. Even your phone might be an issue, or your Facebook page, if you have one. Boundaries, boundaries!
Your money, house, possessions, charity, business, apartment or values (the big picture) are now in focus. Actually, some aspect of this has been out of focus for so long, that you really do need the big, harsh spotlight that is coming to clarify things. This is really useful as you want, need and deserve to be richer, and this can be yours in the final ten days of June - but you must control and contain a mess.
Neptune in Pisces, your own sign, has been with you since 2011. Over that time, your personal appearance, reputation, role, title or brand has offered you The Great Escape to end all Great Escapes. Now and then, though, it does create issues for you. So front up to yourself and see what's there. What needs to be sorted out? This is a bit like pulling seaweed out of a rock pool. You being the rock pool.
First started as a weekend service in 1930, now a daily service, country’s first super-fast train, the legendary Deccan Queen Express connecting Pune with Mumbai turns 86 today! Regarded as the lifeline for thousands of office-goers who commute to work in Mumbai, “Dakkhan Chi Rani” as the localities mention it, the train makes its way through the beautiful landscape of Bhor Ghats and covers a 192 km long journey in 3 hours and 10 minutes.
Anniversary Celebrations
Deccan Queen is one of the most favorite trains among the Railfans. Every year on 1st June, season ticket holders, Railfans and the railway authorities have a grand celebration on the train’s birthday. To mark the momentous day, daily commuters decorate the coaches and the loco with garlands and balloons followed by a small puja and cake cutting ceremony. To mark the occasion, last year 85 kg cake was cut and distributed among the passengers.
Unique Dinning Car
The Deccan Queen is the first train to feature an on-board restaurant-cum-dining coach, the “Dinning Car”. The dining car offers table service for 32 passengers and has modern pantry facilities such as microwave oven, deep freezer and toaster. It is also wonderfully furnished with cushioned chairs and carpet. Commuters sit and enjoy the popular items on the menu of this 86-year-old dining car. Popular items on the menu include baked beans with buttered bread, cheese toast sandwich, cheese omelette, pomfret bread with potato chips and chicken cutlet, served in customized crockery. Its ambience complements the delicious food. ”Sitting by a window of the dining car and sipping a cup of coffee while the train is slowly winding its way up the Bhor ghats is heavenly” says Aakash Karnani, Railfan based from Mumbai.
Story of the Hawkers
Apart from the passengers, Deccan Queen is the best friend of many hawkers who sell accessories, food items, jewelry and much more on the train. Some of the hawkers have been selling items on this train for many decades now.
Other Unique Facts about the Deccan Queen Express
The train has set a record for longest on-time performance (timely departure and arrival)
It is India’s first Superfast and vestibuled train
Deccan Queen started as a weekend service for British race fans visiting the Pune derby
The train is so popular among regular passengers that 2 of the 5 first class coaches and 2 of the 11 second class coaches are reserved for seasonal pass holders only.
When the workforce used to be male dominated, the Deccan Queen was nicknamed “The Husband Express” because it transported men to their jobs in Mumbai in the mornings and took them back home in Pune in the evening The train makes a technical halt (to test train’s brakes) at Monkey Point where passengers amuse themselves with the hordes of monkeys
Burning fat with food must sound contradictory, but there are certain foods that can actually melt away your fats by improving your metabolism.
Some foods have an extensive thermogenic effect (metabolism increasing effects) that can lead to reduction of fat in your body. Read on to find out five such super foods and burn your fat away.
Tuna
Tuna is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids and it also helps boost the production of a hormone called leptin.
This particular hormone gives the illusion of fullness and you don't end up having large portions. It also accelerates your metabolic process. Apart from tuna, sardines too have the same properties.
Green tea
The benefits of green tea are widely known. It has 'epigallocatechin' which improves the nervous system and elevates the heart rate.
Drinking three cups of green tea daily has proven to burn up to 80 calories.
Hot peppers
Different kinds of hot peppers not only spice up your food but they also melt calories.
Capsaicin, a chemical present in peppers can increase metabolism rate by 25% for up to three hours after you consume your meal.
Grapefruit
This delicious fruit has the amazing power to make you slim.
Grapefruit has an antioxidant called 'naringenin' which can aid your body in its use of insulin more effectively, thereby keeping the blood sugar level under control and prevent diabetes.
Recent studies have shown that sugar control coupled with grapefruits lead to improved calorie
burn.
Whole grains
The body needs a lot of energy to break down and digest whole grains which causes it to use more calories.
You literally burn your fats when you eat whole grains. Start your day with a bowl of oats which will not only keep you full but also aid your metabolism.
“We are showing for the first time that even a brief exposure to opioids can have long-term negative effects on pain.
We found the treatment was contributing to the problem.”
The study on mice treated an injury with opioids.
The scientists found that the long-term consequences of taking the drugs were serious.
The injury plus the opioid delivered a kind of ‘one-two punch’ to cells in the spinal cord called microglia.
Professor Linda Watkins, one of the study’s authors, said:
“The implications for people taking opioids like morphine, oxycodone and methadone are great, since we show the short-term decision to take such opioids can have devastating consequences of making pain worse and longer lasting.
This is a very ugly side to opioids that had not been recognized before.”
Around 20,000 people in the US died of prescriptions opioid overdoses in 2015.
Increased pain is not the only risk from opioids, they are also addictive.
People given opioid pain medication are 25% more likely to use the drugs chronically, a recent study found.
Study author Dr Susan Calcaterra said:
“These drugs are highly effective for pain control, but also cause feelings of euphoria.
For these reasons, patients may ask their physicians for additional opioid medication even after their acute issue is resolved.”
Dr Calcaterra continued:
“…patients [given opioid painkillers] were more likely to become chronic opioid users and had an increased number of opioid refills one year post-discharge, compared to patients without opioid receipt.
They were five times more likely to be chronic users after one year.”
Balaji Viswanathan's answer is pretty comprehensive. Here's a little case study on the foreign policy experiments of the Mughals who were probably best placed to expand Westwards and their experience is very indicative of why the expansion did not happen.
Expanding into Central Asia
Ever since Babur came south from Kabul, his descendants (till Aurangazeb) usually occupied both sides of the Khyber Pass. They held Kabul except for brief intervals, and while they did not always hold Kandahar, they were always in control of it (they were usually well positioned to cut off supplies and retake the fort).
Now Babur always dreamed of recapturing Samarkhand, the capital of his illustrious ancestor Timur. Though he mostly failed, his great-great-grandson Shah Jahan found himself with a great opportunity to retake it. He sent an army of Mughals and Rajputs under his son Murad to take Balkh, which he did in 1646. In 1647 Aurangazeb, in an early indication of his great military acumen, totally routed a 120,000 strong Uzbek army that attacked them at Balkh. From here, Shah Jahan hoped to take Samarkhand and Bukhara. There was hostility among the local populace but Shah Jahan could still claim to be a Timurid, which the Uzbeks were not, thus lending some legitimacy to his claim on Samarkhand. Yet, Shah Jahan found not one Mughal (or Rajput) noble willing to stay and continue the campaign in Central Asia. Though the historic homeland of the Mughals, it was no longer any match for the luxuries of Hindustan. The Mughals left Balkh in October 1647 just as winter was approaching. The return was nearly a rout, as they were repeatedly attacked by roving Uzbeki bands, except for Aurangazeb who kept the army focused and together.
Expanding into Persia
To the south of the Uzbek Khanate was Persia. Since the days of Babur, the Ottomans and the Persians always vied to be best friends with the Mughals. Babur initially allied with the Persian Shah Ismail I to defeat the Uzbeki Shaibanids and take Samarkhand. After they had a falling out, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I sent Babur some gifts as a token of his friendship - canons and the gun master Ustad Ali Quli (which Selim had used to great effect against the Persians, and Babur used with similar success in conquering Hindustan). Over the decades and centuries, the Ottomans and the Uzbeks, who were both always fighting the Persians, would time and again suggest that they should both ally with the Mughals against the Persians. A three way attack on Persia - the Ottomans in the west, the Uzbeks in the north and the Mughals from the east would destroy the Safavid empire once and for all. This was a potential opportunity for the Mughals to expand further west than any Indian empire had before. And yet, that alliance never happened. The Mughals never trusted the Uzbeks enough, and mostly maintained friendly relations with the Persians. The Persians gave Humayun refuge when he was deposed, and culturally dominated the Mughals, even if they could not get the Mughals to covert to the Shia sect. Of course that friendship collapsed after Aurangazeb, but that is another story altogether.
