Where are all the pomegranates?

I live in New Jersey and I remember, last year we enjoyed lots of pomegranates. It is such a delicious, nutritious and all the x-cious fruit. And many (especially Indians) know that the cover of pomegranate is great remedy for sore throat, cough, etc. But this year, we only saw pomegranate only once in stores, that too in the beginning of Feb. Though, this time of year pomegranates are available in stores in plenty. But this year, no sign of it for last 5-6 weeks.

So what changed in last one year. It is the great "POM" juice. For the ones who didn’t notice, last year a pomegranate juiced was launched with a brand name "POM", "The wonderful POM". “POM” advertisements are sticking in all trains, buses luring people with punch lines like “Cheat Death”, “Surprise your doctor”, “Power of anti-oxidants”, etc. "POM" has become such hype that every magazine termed it as the best thing to happen to juice because it has maximum anti-oxidants. Now, why not call pomegranate as the best fruit, why not eat the whole fruit? But gullible public believes what corporations tell.

Some common sense reasons to avoid juice and eat whole fruits.
1. Fruit is a complete package with fiber, carbs, protein, vitamins etc. given to you by Mother Nature who knows what is good for us than anybody else.
2. We might take in juice more then good for us. This might be harmful. Can you eat 8 oranges in one go? But I am sure you can drink 2-3 cups of orange juice.
3. Please read http://pediatrics.about.com/od/weeklyquestion/a/04_fruit_juice.htm and http://recipestoday.com/resources/articles/fruitjuice.htm : Even pediatricians recommend that too much juice reduces appetite in infants/toddlers because lot of juice has lot of calories.
4. Our body needs solid diet to sense that it is filling. Too many drinks with lots of calories cheat our body sensors and we don’t get a feeling of fullness. Hence we over-eat.

Well, we get all other types of juices, I am ok with them because we also get fruits for them. But with this “Wonderful POM”, pomegranate juice has swept away all pomegranate fruits from shops.

Well, I have saved come coverings of pomegranates for future use, very precious.

Use of cell phones in India

Today only I read a news item saying 10-20% of cell-phone usage in India is for 'missed-call's. 'Missed-call' has become such a common day-2-day term that it should be added in an english dictionary.

missed-call; noun: an action by a cell-phone caller where he/she drops the call only after 1-2 rings. Mainly used to indicate to the recipient about caller's interest or presence. A 'coded' call which is free.

When I visited India last, it took me a while to understand the real 'meaning' of missed-call. No wonder, even in US, I get missed calls from India and I am supposed to recollect the caller's identity from the number and call them back.

Common usage of missed-call:
1. Caller wants the recipient to call him back at recipient's convenience.
2. Caller thinks it is less expensive for recipient to call-back. A hang-over from last decade when cell-phone calls were 'really' expensive.
3. Some people have coded missed-calls. like "1 missed-call=call-back whenever get time", "2 missed-calls = call-back urgently", "3 missed-calls = call at some specific number like home/office/cell etc/". Similarly other missed-call frequencies can be agreed upon and encoded.
4. Missed-calls are also used as reminder or morning wake-up alarm. For instance, people decide in advance that a missed-call in the morning means he is ready for pre-decided task/job.
5. A regular evening missed-call to home-maker wife: husband is reaching home in 5 minutes, hence get the tea ready. :-)

Any other usage you can think of or came accross?

US President Mr Bush's india visit

I noted following items from all the storm going on in the media over this visit.
1. Right before visit, news was hot about protests happenning whole over India. People were confused over the real agenda of the visit, but categorically said that Bush is a terrorist after what he did in Afghanistan and what he is doing in Iraq.
2. Some people voted to give due respect to a visitor as per Indian traditions and they seemed eager to understand the use and advantage of the impending nuclear deal between host and guest.
3. Some people (mainly NRIs, industrialists) wanted India to take advantage of the situation and giev a good impression on guests.
4. CEOs of US companies (visiting India with US President) found indian infrastructure and bureaucracy discouraging for foreign investment. They think India should open up foreign investment in insurance, power, roads, ports, etc. to boost economy.
5. Few publications in the US painted a rosy picture of India as the next big thing in teh world economy.
6. Apart from this, there was no other news. It seemed like nothing else was happenning in India.

I agree that US president is most powerful man on the planet. But does this mean we forget our priorities and issues we want to get addressed. I remember when Indian Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh was on US visit last year, few elements of indian media picked up some issues which needed to be discussed between India and US.
Why no one in media raised such issues this time. Some of the issues in my mind:
1. Terrorist activity in Kashmir and east India and its support from foreign elements. As US expects whole world to condemn any terrorist acts on americans (on US soil or not), we should expect the same from them. I have noted that whenever any visitor visits US, Mr Bush says few lines to condemn terrorism and his conviction continue his fight against it.
2. Immigration issues: Due to slow permanant immigration process, many skilled workers (in thousands) have to lead a indecisive and tormenting life. They get exploited by employees and have minimal rights/information. US should make the process more transparent and predicatable.
3. It has become a common story about newly married indian brides getting ill-treated in the US. NRIs go to India and marry indian girls on false promises and then exploit the bride's family for dowry or never take their bride's to the US. High-level government co-operation is required to nab such culprits.
4. Foreign investment into India: Before we open our doors for foreign companies, we should ensure we have proper labour, pollution, industry, human-rights, etc. laws in place. It is no secret that foreign companies are attracted to India because of cheap labour and ill-equiped law-system. They take advantage of this and end-up creating environmental and human-rights hazards. Coca-cola plant polluting ground-water in Kerala, French ship laden with deadly lead coming to Gujarat for dismantling, pharamceutical companies doing testing on indians in India without proper safety procedures, etc. are few examples. Many such tragedies don't even make it to the news.

I feel that news media should raise such issues at such times and run a follow-ups on the progress.

What do you guys feel? Any other issues we should (have) raised?