Is chocolate bad ?

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
- Charles M. Schulz

Millions of people, all around the world (including myself) rely on their daily dose of chocolate bar to elevate their moods. It is even reported that melting chocolate is better than a passionate kiss. Part of the pleasure comes from the fact that the melting point of chocolate is slightly lower than human body temperature resulting in the "melting" taste.

Chocolate is considered to be a health food with its high contents of flavonoids considered to be good for heart. Cocoa is known to be an anti-oxidant. Studies have also indicated that small but regular quantities of dark chocolate could lower possibility of heart attack.


But it could all change according to a new study which says that eating chocolates could lead to weaker bones and a greater chance of suffering fracture. According to the study, women who ate chocolate daily had an overall bone density 3.1 per cent lower than those who consumed it less than once a week.

It comes after the British medical journal The Lancet said chocolate could no more be considered a health food as the chocolate manufacturers remove flavonoids because of their bitter taste. As a result, chocolate might end up being just another source for fats and sugars :(

Image Credits : Wikipedia.

NDTV gets a boost

India's success in the IT-Software and outsourcing world has been well documented. Be it the fancy BPO,KPO or LPO India had always had the better of it when it came to the 'O'. All this while Indians have always maintained that they were destined to be the next Superpower.

However in a recognition of India's growing entertainment market in particular and the nation in general, Global media and entertainment firm NBC Universal acquired a 26% stake in New Delhi Television (NDTV) Networks for $150 million. What it means is that NBC has bought stake in the entertainment arm (NDTV Imagine),Lifestyle Channel (NDTV Good Times), Convergence, NGen and NDTV Labs. What's more significant is that they have not bought any part of the 3 news channels. What it also means is that NBC has now got a firm foothold in India as it may now join NDTV to launch its channels in the country.


NDTV Networks had last year raised $120 million through private equity placement that reportedly included Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Velocity Interactive Group (earlier called ComVentures) for a nearly 24% stake.

This is the third deal of a major US media conglomerate taking a stake in a TV network in India recently.Viacom has a 50 - 50 JV with Network18 in Viacom 18 and Disney has picked up a 14.85% stake in UTV. CNBC, which is controlled by NBC, has an equity joint venture with Television Eighteen, which runs the CNBC-TV18 business news channel in India.

Bharat Ratna

Biju Patnaik, Karpoori Thakur, Jagjivan Ram, Jyotiba Phule, Mohammed Rafi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram, M Karunanidhi, Chaudhari Charan Singh, Jyoti Basu and finally the man who started it all - Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The race for this year's Bharat Ratna started when L.K. Advani proposed the name of Vajpayee for the nation's highest civilian honour. Since then its been a barrage of sorts with every political party worth its salt, proposing its own candidate for the award to be announced on Jan 26 - The Republic day.


This kind of drama can only be expected in a messy "democrazy" like ours! When will these power mongers get rid of their oneupmanship and understand that the highest civilian honour of this country cannot be bestowed on the basis of political affiliations. We've got enough of this! Let us hope good sense prevails soon.