Power Balance bands, worn on the wrist, work as a fitness gadget to check on your metabolism rate. Now, a study claims they can cure arthritis and migraine….

Ismat Tahseen (Bombay Times Feature, 1st March, 2013)

Forget those expensive watches and diamond studded bangles. The ‘it’ symbol to be seen in is a simple plastic band. And it’s not just for its aesthetic value. The bands, which were considered as a stamina-booster are now being hailed as the answer to relief from arthritis and migraine. In a city that doesn’t sleep and works round the clock, it’s being grabbed as the health trend du jour…. 

WHAT LIES BENEATH… 

It’s not expensive; the surgical-grade silicone band comes at an approximate cost of 2,200. Experts say the band can boost core strength and body flexibility. The hologram set in the centre of the band is said to work in accordance with the body’s natural energy field, also called chi as per Chinese medicine. The more the energy flows, the less the chance of aches and pains developing. Golfers and swimmers have claimed it helps build focus, too. 

Though a study suggests that joint injuries and arthritis have been healed with this band, doctors say there’s no credible scientific basis for the claims and say there is no ‘natural energy field’. In fact, some have even decried the trend saying they are just ordinary rubber bands and have no real health benefit. 

B-TOWN FAVE 

All said, a growing number of celebrities in Bollywood have been wearing the Power Balance band. Would you sport one in a bright colour, too? 

INTERNATIONAL CRAZE 

Everyone from Brad Pitt to Megan Fox, Gerard Butler, Leonardo DiCaprio, P Diddy, and David Beckham have been seen flaunting the Power Balance band. The latest addition to the British royal family, the Duchess of Cambridge too, has been spotted wearing this colorful band. 

WHO’S WEARING IT

Sanjay Dutt

Priyanka Chopra

Sidhartha Mallya

Gul Panag

Here is something new to look forward to, every Wednesday we will be bringing to you the week’s hit list. A list of what we like or what we hate about what’s happening around us in the world, from sports to art, from fashion to movies, this list is our personal choice for the best of the best and the worst of the worst!

India’s win over Australia in the first test of the Border-Gavaskar trophy series!

Why we liked it? Because we love sports and like many Indians we love it when our team trumps an opposition of the quality of Australia! It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen our much hyped batting line up deliver and fire on all cylinders! Excellent to see young players making their mark, and even better to see that the old boys justified their selection. Outstanding contributors: R. Ashwin (12 wickets), Virat Kohli (102) M.S.Dhoni (224)

The Oscars: Movies of substance taking the crown on the biggest stage of them all!

Why we liked it? Diverse movies across genres split the honours pretty evenly! Argo, one of the years most talked about films taking picture of the year was validation that Ben Affleck is a better director than actor! The talented Hugh Jackman missing out on the best actor accolade was the only disappointment of the night, but when you’re faced with competition from Daniel Day-Lewis there’s not much you can do about it! Anne Hathaway and Christoph Waltz winning for Les Miserables and Django Unchained came as no surprise!

Intelligence lapses and the blame game: The Hyderabad Bomb Blasts

Why we hate it? That’s an easy one really! With the city of Cyberabad reeling after the recent blasts, the grieving relatives of the 19 people who were killed and millions of other Indians were treated to a virtual mud slinging match between political parties and different branches of law enforcement! We understand that nobody in this system wants to take responsibility for the tragedy, but blaming one person or another isn’t going to ensure the timely apprehension of the culprits! Simply put, not the right way to have handled the situation!

Face it folks living within one’s means has been perfected to the level of an art form by the middle class. So much so that if it were an Olympic sport, the Gold would’ve been purchased when the prices were at an all time low, the Silver would’ve been age old (cause silver is for life) and the Bronze would have been picked up from the neighbourhood scrap dealer. 

Now with the prices of the essential skyrocketing, prices of the ‘luxuries’ (that’s the way we refer to an extra pair of shoes) are almost out of bounds! So maybe the art of thrifty spending should be taught in schools. Come to think of it, it should replace a fancy-schmancy discipline like economics in Ivy League colleges! But for those who find themselves short changed in the long lines at luxury malls, here’s a few tips that may benefit you on your next shopping spree!

1. Always check the price online and then do some leg work to find a store in your area that has more or less the same merchandise at a fraction of the cost! It’s called a surplus or a seconds store and before you go off being a snob or a purist, most surplus stores have the same quality of goods as their name brand counterparts with one small defect that your eyes won’t be able to detect! 

2. In the case of accessories like sunglasses, be smart, try on as many pairs as you like at the neighbourhood optician and then look for a similar design online! Just the opposite of step 1. And guess what? Just as effective! Ask my new generic Wayfarers that cost me 10 percent of what a Ray Ban would have!

3. When shopping, leaving your credit card behind is almost always a good idea. With a finite amount of money to acquire what your heart desires, you will make sure you work extra hard to get a bigger bang for your buck!

4. Having a buddy along to keep you strong in the face of a ‘bargain’ is an excellent idea! 

Just 4 simple steps and you’re sorted… Remember to have fun, you needn’t have a pocket the size of your waistline! (Or mine anyhow!!)

Take it easy, we’re not going to relate a tale about how one of us was robbed blind at gun point (though that’d be an awesome way to get a few sympathy hugs!) We’re talking of course about mugs! Come on, we all love our coffee, we all have a specific container/utensil/pot we drink it out of, and therefore we all have a preference towards a certain mug! 

Whether it was gifted to us or we just picked it up cause we thought it was funky, fact is they are so versatile as a gifting solution that it isn’t funny! 

Imagine you’ve had a rough night, you’re red eyed and you have an important presentation the next day. What better way to remind yourself to smile than to drink out of a mug that says it to you! A simple smiley face and a lot of coffee later, you’re smiling (fact is, no matter how jaded we are we always crack into a grin once that first cup of coffee is coursing through our veins!)

We all wear tees that announce to the world what brand we prefer, who we idolize and how screwed up we really think the system is! Mugs on the other hand are a far more subtle indicator of our taste in things! For example how would you know that your otherwise grouchy boss was actually an ATARI fan, if he wasn’t holding a mug that looked like this?

We know for a fact that women love jewelry! But if you truly want to find out if your partner is ready for that big leap (moving in or marriage count), why not slip a little cup around their fingers to first get them warmed up to the idea? (Sorry, the context was so right for that one!)

Let’s just agree that some of us are just more forgetful than some others. If you’re the type who forgets where he put his specs (when they’re perched right on your head) we thinks it is safe to assume that you also forget to get yourself a refill of coffee! Yeah there’s a mug for that too! What will they think of next? 

Our mugs are an extension of our personality. Now whether you are a really excitable, hardly comprehensible rapper like this guy…

Or you really, insanely love your pistol. There is a mug for you! And whether you use it for coffee or something called CRUNK JUICE, they will always be dear to you. 

So go on! Fill up your mugs and take ‘em for a spin. We know as we write this it is coffee time and the caffeine demon is stirring deep within the recesses of your soul, waiting impatiently for his fix!

Enjoy being MUGGED! 

Thomas Alva Edison once said, “To invent you need an imagination and a pile of junk.” True enough, the man knew what he was talking about being one of the world’s foremost inventors (after all he did literally invent patenting every thought that crossed his mind!)

That being said however there are some people who totally flip the quote and make it, “To invent a pile of junk all you need is an imagination!” We speak of course, of that not so rare breed of people who invent stuff just because they want to show the world that the absolutely ridiculous or the everyday banal can indeed be invented! 

So here’s a salute to the inventions that made the world go, WHATEVER…

The Toilet Roll Hat:

Part bored, part insane and part visionary, the inventor of this amazing, one of a kind thingamajig was probably trying to solve the unfathomable riddle, “Where’s a goddamn square of toilet paper when you need it?” I mean can you imagine the sales pitch for this product, totally imagining Don Draper saying: Not a drop of snot will ever… and I mean ever touch your expensive linen shirt again!

The Solar Powered Cigarette Lighter:

For those who don’t mind not smoking in the night! This genius invention is part magnifying glass, part cigarette holder. Focusing the power of the sun to light your cigarette, the product of course was meant to make you feel like the Sun God Apollo, if he ever smoked a ‘Marlboro’ or a ‘Dunhill’. We’ll give the inventor props for trying to make something eco-friendly, even if it only did work during the day, oh and in the summer!

The Lipstick-Colour-Within-The-Lines-Mould:

If you follow movies, like I do this picture will remind you of Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s mask thingy in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’! Well this particular product gives you that opportunity to feel like the world’s most famous cannibal, while ensuring that you colour within the lines of your own lips! A must have for every woman who ever wondered, “what shade would Hannibal have worn?”

The Butter Stick:

It is a statistical fact that butter knife related injuries cause almost 0.5 fatalities every 20 or so years! To prevent this senseless and alarmingly low loss of life this product is an absolute Godsend! One word of caution, you may want to keep it as many miles away from your glue stick as possible, you wouldn’t want to glue your mouth shut on a nutritious breakfast we would assume.

The Shoot Around the Corner Submachine Gun:

This masterpiece comes from the annals (read anals) of history as one of the stupidest things a Nazi German could’ve invented. The barrel of this gun is curved so that when you’re hiding around the bend, you can still be an effective marksman! I’m pretty sure not to many were made after the numerous complaints from the German soldiers getting injured in ‘friendly’ fire! 

The i-Pod Powered Toilet Paper Dispenser:

The ultimate tribute to the late Steve Jobs, this quirky product is the i-Poop of all -i-powered accessories! It however just begs one question! What if I have a Zune or any other mp3 player? How do I clean my unmentionables then?

Let’s see if we can do this! We’re going to try and avoid mentioning the occasion for which this day is known all over this little blue marble! Now while that seems easy to do, it jolly well isn’t!

Can you imagine substituting the word ‘Christmas’ with ‘the day on which the promised messiah of those of the Christian persuasion was born” or “the day a jolly fat man in a red suit defies his girth and slides down a narrow chimney to leave gifts under a tree for good children around the world!” Seems absurd doesn’t it? Likewise the 14th of February! 

Not that you can blame someone for using the ‘V’ word you know! Think about it! Everyone (especially those of us in relationships) feels extra ‘lovey’ around this day! Those that are single (and optimistic) try to increase their frequency of dates in the hope that yet another of these days isn’t spent in solitude! Those that are single (and pessimistic (read funny) just spend their day coming up with vitriolic and ironic updates on Facebook! So yeah! Unwittingly this day affects us all. 

Is there a cure for this phenomenon that afflicts us you ask? First of all, for those of us that already have dates, maybe not. But if you haven’t planned on something this year why not…just hangout with pals, or visit the elderly, hug a stranger (which if you’re in Delhi, isn’t a very good idea), adopt a pet or throw an impromptu concert at a street corner. Do all those things that you’ve always wanted to but never have for whatever reason! Show yourself some love. After all you are your own best friend too! And when the day ends maybe we can all look forward to an ‘normal’ 15th of February, free of the hangover of too many drinks or the depression that yesterday wasn’t special enough!

So here’s a toast, here’s to an especially normal day! And many more to come! 

I love reading. I cannot shut my eyes every night unless I’ve completed a said number of pages! I can afford to do this simply because my home has a steady supply of electricity. Millions of people across the Indian subcontinent don’t have this luxury. I realise how ironic that sounds when I use the words ‘electricity’ and ‘luxury’ in the same sentence. Shouldn’t they have amended that list of basic necessities to include electricity by now! This is after all the 21st century! 

The sad fact is that electricity remains a luxury for this country’s teeming masses! Sure we’ve tried to electrify the villages and to a limited extent have succeeded! Yes, we’ve succeeded in giving them the hope that someday they’d be able to see in the dark. But we’ve also seen them get disappointed election after election. We all wish we could do something about this sad state of affairs. Some of us have participated in charity drives where we’ve raised money for some village or another. Isn’t it lovely that, that is where our conscience is sated? Isn’t limited liability a wonderful thing?

Of course there’s also the question, what could we do beyond this? What if there was a way we could actually help these people. Once we know that the possibility exists, our curiosity is piqued. Here’s the idea. 

The Solar LED lamp. Self sufficient in the sense that it generates it’s own  power by harnessing the sun’s through a solar panel. Simple, eco-friendly and quite possibly the beginning of the end of this country’s rural electrification problem. Once charged it can be used for several hours a day! 

Now imagine a lamp like this in every village home. Suddenly, the breadwinner of the home can work a few extra hours a day, the children study in its glow, every corner of the village bathed in its gentle radiance. Beautiful isn’t it! 

Sure a mix CD of love songs (a sentimental favourite) makes a great Date Night gift. The songs chosen often speak of the feelings we have for our partner in ways that we can ne’er express. And while that is a beautiful way to show someone you care, the songs that we choose sometimes can trivialize those feelings (often to hilarious effect!) So here’s a list of songs to avoid, even though they may seem like a great choice!

Fire to the Rain - Adele:

Sure Adele is an amazing singer and ‘Fire to the Rain’ is an equally beautiful song, but before you put it into your ‘Love Mix’ please pay close heed to the lyrics, a sample of which reads, “There’s a side to you, that I never knew, all the things you said, they were never true, and the games you played, you would always win!”  Sorry, but to our ears, it sounds like (drum roll!) Post Break up Backbiting!

Blind Melon: No Rain & Spin Doctors: Two Princes

These two bands are probably the most famous one-hit wonders from the 90s. While the aforementioned songs are catchy, ear pleasing and infectious, they are not even remotely about love. Avoidable, unless you want to impress your date with your musical acumen about the obscurest of what the 90s had to offer!

Europe: The Final Countdown 

If your definition of love is roaming together in the vast void of space, then by all means, this is the song you should be blaring over the 
P.A system when they blast you off into space, together and in love! A definite NO-NO!

Bruno Mars: I think I wanna marry you

Now this is a beautiful song, hands down and there is a possibility that many Date Night mixes will have it on as a favourite, but when the lyrics read, “It’s such a beautiful night, we’re looking for something dumb to do,  oh baby, I think I wanna marry you…” You really start to wonder! Just to be safe, avoid this cause your date may think that you want to marry her, either because you’re bored or for lack of a better option, neither of which is speaking of her too highly!

Billy Joel: Piano Man, Bob Dylan: Blowing In the Wind, Elton John: Sacrifice 

Individually, all great songs from some of the most acclaimed musicians of their genre! Individually also, one’s about a travelling musician, the other about society’s perception about manhood and the third, about why divorce happens! Kudos to those who knew this and a fair warning to those who didn’t, sure these songs belong in your personal collections, just keep them off the ‘Date Night’ mix! 

Other worthy contenders:

Savage Garden: I want you: The lyrics, the altogether weird sound, do we need to say more!

Eminem ft. Rihanna: Love the way you lie: Not every song that has the word ‘love’ in it, is a love song!

Kansas: Dust in the Wind: Really! You were considering a song about mortality in your Date Night Mix!!

Anything you’ve ever heard in a Quentin Tarantino film: While Tarantino knows his music and uses it to great effect in his films, your ‘Date Night’ isn’t on the set of his next opus! Avoidable!

The Righteous Brothers: Unchained Melody: While this is a legitimate love song, immortalized in the Swayze-Demi Moore starrer, ‘Ghost’ we just think it has been done to death! Seriously overdone!

So if you have a date night coming up and a CD of songs is what you’re thinking of gifting your special someone, follow this list as a template and  chances are you won’t go wrong!

(All artist images have been sourced from Google and are easily available on a simple image search of their names.)

At HitPlay, we love what we do.

We think that if we do what we love we’d never have to work a day in our lives! 

We love the little things that make life worth living!

Be it a classic rock track, a humorous little pun or the latest gadget we can lay our hands on… we love them all for brightening up our lives!

From the coming we’re going to do things on this blog a little differently. In what way, you ask? Simple, wait and watch… here’s a little hint though, more tech, with more fun stuff and a dose of humor! Don’t say we didn’t warn you!