Writes Gaurav Rastogi - As I read and blog the Gita, I notice that my approach to life is improving! As you will notice I haven't become a complete Karma Yogi or an Ascetic yet. Like all year-end reviews, let me rate my favorite verses/advice in ascending order of ease ...

Shobha Reddy is a fitness guru and personal trainer based in the Bay Area. She will answer reader queries on fitness and nutrition. Questions may be sent to her via our feedback form. 1. What are the diet challenges for a vegetarian who wants to train for a marathon?...

By Vidya Pradhan Bollywood has been indulging a bout of navel-gazing this last year, offering up movies that have been tributes, analyses and spoofs of itself. If Om Shanti Om treated the 70’s as a glorious, inventive period in Indian mainstream cinema, KKC takes a peek into the 50’s, a time when heroines led perhaps more emancipated and free-thinking lives than their contemporaries today, and moviemakers, cast and crew, were literate and cultured.

Salil Chaturvedi takes a humorous look at the American obsession with spreading democracy around the world. Americans had stopped going to heaven. It wasn’t the air-conditioning. That was the most obvious thing that came to mind, but a quick discussion between St. Peter and the angels threw that possibility out ...

It all began when, sick of the materialism and unashamed greed of the holiday season,I suggested to my 11 year old that he give, instead of receive, this Christmas. He was surprisingly receptive. Having planned a holiday trip to India, I suggested to family back there that maybe we could ...

By Vidya Pradhan Observe a group of Asian immigrants huddled around the Super Bowl game and chances are at least 50 percent of them are waiting for ads that premiere on television that day. Well this year there may be a uniquely desi reason to watch the half time show as well, a show that has been made memorable in the past by wardrobe malfunctions( Janet Jackson) and resurrections ( Rolling Stones, literally).

By Rohini Mohan  And now for the big question, is America heading for a recession? A rising job market crunch, galloping oil prices and the real estate market in doldrums marks the economy today.

By Rohini Mohan  Almost 50 million Americans have no health coverage, 9 million of whom are children. Today on an average, an American spends $7000/ year on healthcare, but premiums, deductibles and co-payments are getting higher and higher, forcing people to put off getting medical aid. And if you’re over 65 without a job, it’s a scary thought to be living in America from the health care point of view. In Sicko, Micheal Moore compares America’s profit oriented health care system with that in Canada and England. He calls the system here, “Soul less”

By Rohini Mohan  War or peace? Bush certainly did not make it clearer with his statement “I just want you to know that when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace”. Here’s what the candidates have to say about the war in Iraq…

We continue our series on where the presidential candidates stand on various issues. This week we take on the candidates’ agenda on the environment. After the early threat of Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore’s candidacy, Democratic presidential hopefuls quickly trotted out comprehensive approaches to the looming climate crisis. Even Republican candidates have had to soften their anti environment stances after an international body of scientists concluded that global warming was one of the major threats to global peace and stability. Here are the front-runners’ agendas.