Pure water and water purifier

Recently I bought a water purifier. Before buying , I did some research to find out which is the best water purifier I should buy based on water quality and my budget. I want to summarize all my findings so that you can use this information.

Below information is applicable to tap water and ground water.

We will talk first about the water quality and then types of water purifiers.

When we talk about potable water, there are following factors associated with it:

1. TDS(Total dissolved solids): A TDS value less than 500 mg/L is considered good for drinking water. Also TDS value should not be less than 100. If TDS value is very less then it means that water does not have even the necessary minerals in it. 

2. Lead, Nitrate or Arsenic content: you can find if your area's ground water has any of the contents from this link.

3. Dust : This is the visible dirt in the water.

4. Germs and Bacteria.

In the market there are four types of water purifier. They are :

1. RO water purifier: These purifiers use reverse osmosis technique to filter water. These purifiers need electricity to operate. Maintenance cost is also high. These are expensive also.

2. UV water purifier: These purifiers use UV light to kill germs and bacteria and micro filters to remove dust. They also need electricity.

3. RO- UV: This is a hybrid of RO and UV and more expensive.

4. Filter based: These purifiers use simple micro filters to filter water and chlorination to kill germs etc. These are comparatively cheap and maintenance is cost effective.

Now to select an appropriate water purifier one must find out the TDS level,Lead, arsenic or nitrate content of water supply. If the TDS level of water is greater than 500 (which is very rare in India) then one should go for RO purifier. Also if there is lead, arsenic or nitrate content in water then also one should buy RO purifier. Otherwise a simple filter based is enough.

In most parts of India we need only filter based water purifiers. We can save a lot of money on buy and lot of money on the maintenance. Due to marketing strategies of companies, they have created a fear in our mind of water pollution so most of people go for RO or RO-UV purifier which in many cases is overkill for water purification.

Before buying water purifier consider TDS value in and presence of Lead, Nitrate or Arsenic in water in your area. You can save a lot of money if you take an informed decision on water purifier selection.

Why So many C-Sections

A Caesarean section or C-section is a surgical procedure in which one or more incision are made through a mother's abdomen to deliver one or more babies. It is usually performed when a normal delivery would put the mother or baby's life or health at risk. According to history the first child born from such incision was Bindusara. Bindusara was second Morayan emperor and was born in 320 BC. This C-section was performed by brilliant Indian economist and political scientist Chanakya. The first modern C-section was performed in 1881 in Germany.

If you look at the year when first C-section was performed(1881) then you can figure out that there should be few child birth cases which require birth by C-section than normal delivery. The logic is simple. Before 1881 babies were born in normal/natural way. But the facts are quite opposite to the conclusion we drew in the above lines. According to Wikipedia, in recent years the rate of c-section births has risen to 46% in China, and a level of 25% and above in many Asian, European and American countries.

In my friends group there are close to 10 couples who become parents in last 1 year. Strangely every birth was C-section. There was a 100% rate of C-section births. The story was almost same in every case. Doctor gave an expected birth date. Mother did not get any labor pain till that date. Next day doctor induced artificial labor pain by some medicine. Nothing was the result and next day Doctor told the Husband and wife that the more we wait the more is the danger. Finally with the consent of couple, Doctor performed the c-section and baby is born.

Post c-section births, both baby and mother are fine. Thanks to modern medical facilities and advancement in medical science. Though the trend is increasing and people are starting to think that c-sections are nowadays normal But the reality is something else. C-section is a Surgery and like all other surgeries it has its disadvantages. But their are other disadvantages which are different and I would like to explain them as follows:

1. If there is a c-section child birth then all the following child births by the same mother will happen via C-section. than means Once a mother has undergone a c-section then it is difficult for her to give next birth via normal delivery.

2. A lady can undergo C-section only two times after that it becomes very risky to perform c-section. So if a lady is going to become mother for first time and the child birth happens through c-section then the lady can have only one more child in future and that also through c-section.

3. Post C-section a lady can not eat normal food for at least 3-4 days and has to live on medication and glucose. This means she can not feed the infant for at least 2-3 days after the delivery.

4. C-section delivery is a complete surgery and the mother has to take complete rest for minimum 7 days for recovery.

5. From a financial point of view a C-section is very costly and the expenses are almost 10 times of normal delivery or more in some cases.

Now the question comes that in spite of above listed disadvantages why so many people have c-section deliveries than normal delivery? According to me there are following factors which can explain this trend:

1. Life Style: Modern/Urban Women have a very different lifestyle as compared to older days. Now a days there is very less physical work and very much intellectual work. Physical work results in body fatigue and results in a sound sleep in the night but intellectual work results in mental fatigue, coupled with work stress it results in lack of sleep. So in older days the ladies were more strong physically to handle the delivery of child birth where as the modern lifestyle and work habits has changed the body metabolism of current generation of ladies to handle normal child birth.

2. Money: Doctors seems to be more keen on making money. One C-section operation can fetch money which 10 normal deliveries will do. So I am little suspicious that they might be doing C-sections to earn money in cases where normal delivery could have been done. This is backed by the fact that when one goes to some private hospital, the first question asked is if you have an insurance to pay off all your expenses.

To increase the chances of normal delivery , one should consult the acquainted doctor. Ladies who are expecting a baby should practice yoga daily during the pregnancy time. Their are a few yoga exercises which helps in pregnancy and helps body to prepare for normal delivery. But before starting it is a good idea to consult one yoga expert.
There is nothing better than a normal child birth for a mother and for a baby. The couples who are expecting a baby should put every effort to make sure that the birth is by normal delivery. This effort will definitely pay off in future. In the end as old saying: Health is wealth.
your comments are always welcome :)

Beware: media can change your right opinion to wrong one...

ON 17th September Gujarat CM Mr. Narendra Modi started his fast for the communal harmony. It was reported by various news channels. I saw the live telecast and listened to Mr. Modi's speech. It was a very good speech which was delivered in a great way. We all know that from time to time great leaders have motivated their followers with their speeches. One can say that a great leader is a great speaker and this is true with Mr. Modi.


Coming back to speech of Mr. Modi, he described all the achievements of Gujarat state under his last 10 years of leadership. He mentioned all the roadblocks, difficulties and criticism of oppositions and other people. Despite all this Gujarat made tremendous growth.He did mention this in his speech without criticizing any person, party or organization. To name a few achievements : The villages of Gujarat have 24 X 7 electricity supply, Children drop out rate from schools has dropped to 2 percent, No curfews in the past 10 years, people from every district in India have got employment in Gujarat, Crime rate is very less as compared to other states. The list goes on and on.


People from all over Gujarat and leaders from all over India were at the fast venue to support Mr. Modi's fast. On the stage were Mr. L. K. Advani, Mr. Arun Jaitely, chief minister of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, representatives of AIDMK party. Among the audience were people from different religions and walks of life. Spiritual leaders of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Parsi, Christians , Jainism were present. Overall It was a nice experience to watch such an event attended by people from all states of life. I had a good feeling that the fast for communal harmony is really paying off and if you had watched it then definitely you will agree with me.


Next day on the morning of 18th September, I got up in the morning and started reading Hindustan Times while having tea. The front page had headline " Not too Apologetic, Modi begins fast with self - praise". Below that news another news headline was " Vajpayee was warned of CM's riot role". Imagine a person who had not watched Mr. Modi's speech live and who has not watched yesterday's telecast live. I am sure there are plenty of such people. For such people what would be the reaction or opinion about Mr. Modi's fast for communal harmony.
I am sure it will not be positive. The headline "..self praise" is questionable. What is wrong if someone is telling his achievements in the age when the ruling party at center is full of scams. Ruling party can not tell their achievements because there are none. What they can tell is corruption, Notes for Votes, Inflation and praise of Madam. If Mr. Modi told few of his achievements in his speech then that is not self-praise.
Why the media or especially Hindustan times is trying to ruin the positive vibe which has started with this Fast? On the page with news at national level there was a headline " Local BJP MLA says that party leadership has clearly directed to bring as many Muslims to the fast as many possible". What does this mean ? Is it really a news? Just another line to change the opinion of readers. When you read such line immediately you start thinking that Muslims are not willing to join this communal harmony instead forcefully they are coming at the fast venue. How credible is such statement made by the newspaper. What is the MLA's name?
If Mr. Modi is bringing together Hindus and Muslims for the sake of common development then we should help him in any way possible. Also in the time when people of India are pissed off from the corruption, inflation and there is no strong leader in any major party, Mr Modi has given a ray of hope that yes India has a leader who is Indian by birth, by heart and by deeds. Mr Modi has shown to all the Indians that if Gujarat can prosperous under his leadership then so can whole India. Media should encourage his efforts to encourage communal harmony. I hope in the coming elections in 2014 people of India choose Mr. Modi as PM of the country and give him a chance to serve India.

Future of Dollar

Few days back I had to send some money to my brother studying abroad. I sent him 50000 indian rupees. When he received it on the other end it was approx. 1000 US Dollars(USD). This difference between indian rupee and dollar made me to think that why money earned by me in rupee is less when it gets converted to USD. I did some studies on it and here I am with my findings, about the US dollar's past present and future.

No doubt all the countries are seeking to get dollar in their pocket and few are running behind Indian rupee. So this explains the difference between value of the dollar and Indian rupee. Same logic can be used to explain the reason for difference between the value of any two different currencies.

So many countries have saved huge sum of the dollars in their Foreign exchange reserve (Forex). According to some statistics published on internet China has approx. 2273 billions, Japan has 1019 billions, Russia 434 billions , Taiwan 321 billions, India 285 billions of USD. Eurozone, Brazil, South Korea, Germany being other major aggregators. Rough calculations show that nearly 5437 billion USD are held by 10 countries only. This is a huge sum of money if we see the value of dollar in the current perspective. Now let's think in another way. A country has to deploy a lot of resources to maintain this much forex reserves.The benefit of holding forex reserve is that it gives a country a feel of being in a better position to defend itself from speculative attacks on the domestic currency. Now let's take the case of a few countries. Lets start with China because it holds the largest forex reserve so it is of special interest to me. China has progressed very fast in the last decade and is well placed economically as well as in military modernization. So it does not need 2273 billion dollars to have that secured feel. A meager reserve of 400 billion USD is sufficient to do that. Now question arises that: What China can do with the rest 1700 billion dollars in it's wallet? I am sure that policy makers in that country are definitely working on this topic. I could think of 2-3 answers of this question.

The first obvious answer is that , it will retain this amount as it is. Benefit of keeping this much reserve gives the power to manipulate exchange rates - usually to stabilize the foreign exchange rates to provide a more favorable economic environment. The problem with this is that it requires to deploy some resources to maintain reserves. Another point is that it does not fit well into China's undeclared strategy to become the supreme world power.

The second option which according to me is more likely to happen is that China will invest this amount in capturing the natural resources possessed by developing and under-developed countries in the third world. Most of these third world countries natural resources are in the claws of US corporations.This is because of the following reason:

Most of these countries are in the big debt. Because of the debt they are in the agreement with International Monetary Fund (IMF) and this agreement forces them to let the US corporations to access their natural resources.These countries can restrict access of these US corporations to their natural resources if they pay back their debt to IMF or to world bank. Some of the countries are trying to do that. One example is Venezuela. Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, paid all the debt to IMF. So that he can use natural resources of his country to benefit his own people rather than getting them transferred to US. Venezuela is rich in oil so Hugo Chavez was able to repay the loan and get out of the contract from IMF. But not all the countries are capable of doing that. So even though these countries have realised that they are getting exploited but still they are unable to get out of this.

US corporations are holding a large share of natural resources in these countries. From these resources they are creating different products which are required in the day to day life of a common man. It is also true that these corporations have made these products necessary for day to day life by their excellent marketing. These corporations ask for USD when they sell these products across the globe. So everyone needs USD to buy all these products and hence this creates demand for USD. Because of this continuous demand USD is always strong as compared to most of other currencies.

Now let's say China starts using its forex to help some of these poor countries to pay back their debts to IMF. In return China can ask for a limited share of their natural resource. This will be a win-win situation for both. China will get a share of resource and that country will be out of the claws of US corporation.

The consequence will be that both the China's currency yen and and helped country's currency will gain some value whereas dollar will lose some. This can be explained as follows. Let's say that country A has a natural resource R. Since A is in debt to IMF or world bank so USA corporation C has access to this resource R. C is making some products by using R and selling it to the rest of the world in exchange of USD. Now if China helps A to repay it's debt then A will no longer require to be in contract with IMF and will kick C out of their country. Now what ever products C was selling out of R, China and A will be selling the same to rest of the world. China will ask for yen and A will ask for it's own currency or may be gold in exchange for these products. USD will be out of the picture and it's value will decrease. This could have two consequences. One is either other countries who have the big USD forex reserve would start helping poor countries to pay back their loan in return to a fair share of their natural resources. Or they will start buying gold (the ultimate currency). In both the cases USD will lose it's value. In case of former it is already explained whereas in case of later gold's value will increase and since market is flown with USD and it is well understood that whatever is available in excess is cheap. So in any case dollar will lose it's value.