Back Pain: Causes and Remedies

Most of us suffer from back pain at some point in our lives. There are many reasons for recurrent back pain, the commonest of all is a sedentary life style. As we get more and more accustomed to an executive job, remaining glued to our computers in the office, stuck to our chairs for hours on end, at the end of the day we come back home tired and a nagging back pain sapping our spirit. This pain is a gentle reminder that as we move upward in our corporate ladder, we neglect our health citing lack of time.  We often tend to neglect this pain and if it is getting out of control, we start popping pills.

Apart from our lifestyle, back pain may occur due to sciatica, vertebral fracture, and spinal arthritis. These are medical conditions and require proper diagnosis and further treatment. For immediate relief from this pain, you can apply the “ice then heat” at home. Apply an ice pad on the affected area, it will help soothe the pain and reduce the swelling if any. Follow this with a heat compression. Heat will help the circulation which will eventually relax the sore tissue.

When the pain persists or does not lessen, it is time to consult a physician for advice and further treatment.

If the back pain is less severe, certain exercises or yoga will be able to help you. Here are few yoga poses for your help and immediate relief.

1.       Spinal Twist: keep your left leg extended and fold your right leg. Keep the right hand behind you for support. Now twist your body towards your right and place the left elbow on the top of your right knee. It is a twisted position and strengthens your back muscles.

2.       Forward fold: sit on the floor and extend both legs in front of you. Bend forward to reach for your ankles bending at your hips. Hold this position for at least 5 seconds. Repeat.

3.       Child’s pose:  start on all fours and sit back so that your butts rest on your heels. Stretch and bend keeping your arms stretched forward. Lower your back till your face almost touches the floor. Repeat at least for 5 times.

These three are simple back exercises which will help you to relax the strain building up on your lower back because of neglect and long hours of sitting at a desk job. Get healthy, start leading an active life. Exercise. Soon you will be rewarded with a better and healthier you.

What steps should you take to check your social media addiction?

Today, smartphone and social media go hand in hand. For data hungry Indians, the love of staying glued to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp has become a habit which is difficult to shed. We are slowly becoming a nation of citizens forever checking their phones, laptops or PCs for the instant status update, comments, and tweets. This habit has started influencing our social activities and has made us a slave of different social media sites.

No matter how absorbed you are with your social media activities, there are ways to curb it and keep it under your control rather than be controlled by it. Here are some tips which may help you if you are serious about the issue:

• 1.       Fix a time of the day: it is indeed helpful if you fix a time in the day where you will spend some time with your social media apps. Choose a time when you are free and not disturbed by anything or anyone. However, make sure you do not touch your gadget early in the morning just after you wake up. That eats up your time and early morning is usually a rush hour in most households.
• 2.       Curtail the amount of time you spend: Most of the social media interactions are trivial in nature. It is not wise to spend hours on it. Keep in touch with friends, have a say on a social issue, thank someone for wishing you well, but, that is about it. Do understand that these do not have any serious impact on your way of life.
• 3.       Cultivate other interests: it pays to cultivate a hobby which keeps your mind and body healthy. If you were fond of reading but, lost it because of FaceBook, reignite it.  Pick up a good book instead of your phone. If you love gardening, start investing time in your garden.
• 4.       Interact with your neighbours/friends: Develop an attitude to strike a friendship with your neighbours. Real friends are always at hand than virtual friends with whom you spend so much time. Invite your friend for a small get-together on the weekends. Have fun with real people.
• 5.       Plan a small trip: plan a small trip to the nearby town/ sea beach, temples in the weekends. Moving out of the house sometimes can unclutter your mind and you can discover new ways to enjoy your free time.
• 6.       Control the urge: there is always an urge to update your status the moment you click a picture, come across an interesting situation or take part in an ongoing debate. There is no need to be present everywhere dealing with everything all the time. These things can wait. Ask yourself if it is really necessary to give a reply, post a comment or upload a picture at the instant. Most of the times, it is not.

Remember the best way to control your social media addiction is to condition your mind to spend your time doing something worthwhile. It may be difficult to do so at the beginning, but, over a period of time with your attitude and will power you will come out as a winner. 

Witcher 3

Witcher 3 is an open world action role-playing video game developed by CD ProjeKt Red. It was released worldwide for Microsoft PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in May 2015. It is the third in its series, following The Witcher and Witcher 2:Assassins of the Kings.

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is truly a game on epic scale and Geralt the Witcher is completely different from the sword swinging Mr.Loverman of the Witcher. Geralt is more mature, reflective and a fully transformed hero. And that is not all. The music, story and action all come together to give the player a completely different experience of playing an excellent RPG game.

As a player of the game, you control the protagonist of the game, Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter who travels through the Northern Kingdom and you fight against many devils who come on his way. You get to use swords and magic to ward off the evil designs of Geralt’s enemies. You get to use endless possibilities but, the key is never to get overwhelmed by these. CDProjeKt is trying you to get used to the systems, by encouraging you to find the notice boards, travel on horse backs and discover what lies ahead. Here in this game the sytem and the storyline blend together beautifully to bind you to the game.

The game starts with Geralt on a mission to find his beloved sorceress Yennefer. In his mission, Geralt spends a large portion of his time on horseback and you get to explore the wilderness, discover characters as you progress through his mission. You get to encounter the starving peasants who inhabit these areas and are easy prey for monsters lurking in the shadows. You get to see ordinary folks suffering, injustices are rampant and sometimes the hero has to look the other way. Even then, as you move along as Geralt, you need to fight these monsters off. You fight off beasts, spirits and otherworldly figures to reach Yennefer. In the process Geralt gets involved in intrigues that decide the course of the nations.

The game has every classic look of an RPG game. You get to fight monsters to gain experience and also gain loots so that you upgrade your skills to fight more monsters. To find his beloved, Geralt becomes more of a detective so his vision ability helps him to read his environment. He is able to detect foot prints, blood, scents and you can now identify and trace more monsters to kill. The visuals are astonishing, landscapes are beautiful and it uses fog, cloud, light and colour beautifully. The game has incredible options of exploring the landscape and your quest is very well scripted and full of adventure.

On the downside, the loading seems to take extra long time and the frame rate falters occasionally. Facial animations occasionally look stiff. Sometimes gauging combat can be tricky. Apart from these minor glitches, Witcher 3 is a brilliant master piece and is the largest and most convincing open world game.

An Encounter with an Online Fraud

Let me call her Ms. X. it was a chance encounter with her on one of those numerous FaceBook pages where freelance writers and clients post their requirements. Ms. X has posted a job. It was simple and to the point. The gist was: she is a budding writer and has a collection of short stories. She needs someone to read, analyse and send her feedback.

What got me interested in that post was the nature of the job. Being an avid reader, I always have a soft corner for something to do with books. May be a review, a critical analysis of the characters or simply to rewrite the story in a nutshell. Naturally, I was curious and was interested so I shot a mail to Ms.X

A series of emails was exchanged. Ms.X sweetly informed me that she is an aspiring writer and has managed to write a few, “good” short stories which she wants to be read and a feedback needs to be given to her on “What works” and “What does not work” for the stories. She also informed me she intends to publish the stories and is in talks with a few on this. Delighted, I asked her to send across the stories to me to go through. She assured me it is a paid job and as she wishes to publish the stories, more work is expected to follow.

The stories arrived via an email attachment. I began going through the stories. Plainly speaking, I was aghast that someone spends time to write these. On no account these can be called stories. Full of errors, the narrative had nothing that can be called a story. A few jumbled up thoughts loosely connected with wrong grammar and syntax made her “stories”. I could not decide what to say and more importantly how to say it. But, I had a job at hand and looking at her enthusiasm I decided that I will go easy on my feedback.

Painstakingly I went through each story and wrote a feedback on each one. Since there was nothing much to write about anyway, I just managed to tell Ms.X what she should do with the stories, what these lack and how to rectify these. I even advised her to remove two stories from the collection as these two were not worthy of publication.

I clearly pointed her that she must rewrite the entire collection if at all she wants these to be published. I sent ny feedback on the due date and waited for her email. There was no email from her side and ultimately I sent my bank details to her for the payment. Her return mail had just one sentence: “I am not happy with the feedback”, which meant she had no intention of payment. She never had and that I should have understood when she had given me a missed call expecting me to call back.

If, Ms.X did not have rs.2 to make a call, how will she pay me in thousands for a critical acclaim?