stammering

Gone are the days when being pregnant meant wearing anything loose and shapeless. With the trend of maternity fashion catching on fast in India,
there are a plethora of super speciality stores in every city catering to this segment and their collection includes everything from lounge wear, casual wear, party wear, work wear and active wear.

Remember the following:

- Wear what is comfortable

- You don’t necessarily need maternity clothes from day one of your pregnancy. For the first few months, you can continue wearing loose fitting clothes or even larger sizes

- A belly belt is a great way of turning your favourite pre-pregnancy clothes into inexpensive and trendy maternity wear! Shop intelligently for your growing shape.

- It may be wise to invest in loose/front opening T-shirts, tops and nightdresses that can also be worn after the baby is born.

- Try to select dresses made of cotton or other natural fibres as you tend to feel quite warm in pregnancy.

- Try to mix ‘n’ match as much as possible. It is economical and also adds colour and variety to your wardrobe.

-Make accessories an essential part of your wardrobe: nice earrings, striking scarves, etc. help to make you look and feel brighter.

What to choose?

Casual wear: Choose soft and stretchable cotton tees in bright summer colours and in trendy silhouettes with lace and soft frills. Choose blouses in summer voiles with soft frills and delicate embroideries. Evening wear: Pick an evening wear dress with flattering silhouettes. Bright floral prints on stretched poplin and flowing crinkle chiffons are the ideal grab.

Shoes and tights: It is very important to select comfortable, low-heeled footwear. Beware of high and flat heels. It is also best to avoid shoes with laces, as with your growing size, tying them will be a nightmare. Support tights may be useful to relieve aching legs, swollen ankles and varicose veins.

Lingerie: A good support bra is essential all throughout pregnancy to provide comfort and also to prevent breasts from sagging. Buy a couple of them first and then buy more when you outgrow these. It may be a good idea to get yourself measured for a perfect fitting maternity bra (many stores now offer this facility). It may be useful to buy sleeping bras if your breasts are tender and need support at night.

Former Australian cricket captain, Steve Waugh cleaned muck from a water body in Kolkata during a cleanliness drive in the city.

Wading through the dirty waters of the canal, Waugh took many by surprise as he got his hands and feet dirty while cleaning the waste at Ananadapally region of the city on Thursday.

The enthusiasm soon caught on and many children also joined Waugh on his cleanliness drive.

The modern Mother’s Day holiday was created by Anna Jarvis as a day for each family to honor their mother, and it’s now celebrated on various days in many places around the world. It complements Father’s Day, the celebration honoring fathers.

This holiday is relatively modern, being created at the start of the 20th century, and should not be confused with the early pagan and Christian traditions honoring mothers, or with the 16th century celebration of Mothering Sunday, which is also known as Mother’s Day in the UK.

In most countries the Mother’s Day celebration is a recent holiday derived from the original US celebration. Exceptions are, for example, the Mothering Sunday holiday in the UK.

It is celebrated in the United States each year on the second Sunday of May.

Different countries celebrate Mother’s Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins.

One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods. This festival was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the Ides of March (15 March) to 18 March.

The ancient Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day.

Under pressure from the US, President Asif Ali Zardari today said Pakistan is ready to shift some of its troops from the Indian border to its western frontier to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists.

The US has been pressing Pakistan to step up its offensive against the Taliban but Islamabad has been reluctant to move troops from the eastern border as it considers India as its main threat.

US President Barack Obama, who met Zardari here, has been trying to convince Pakistan that such a belief is “misguided” and that the terrorists inside the country pose the most serious threat to its security and safety. “Let me tell you that we have moved some more (troops) recently because the action asked for it. If need be, we will move more,” Zardari told the popular Charlie Rose Show on PBS on Saturday when asked about the US request in this regard.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai also appeared on the show.

“It was the demand based proposition, when the demand goes up, we shift. Whenever we have to move, we will have to move from that (Indian) border towards this (Afghan border), ” Zardari said.

Zardari’s comments came after the US said it continues to be concerned over the situation in Pakistan. Washington
also voiced skepticism over assurances given by Zardari to Obama on the Taliban issue and made it clear that the country
needs to “do more” to meet the threat.

Asked about the perceived threat from India, Zardari said the Indian border is sometimes hot and sometimes cold.
“But democracies are always trying to get friendly with each other… We are trying to improve our relationship with India, So we never talk war. Pakistan under a democratic system has never gone to war with India,” he argued.

“At the same time, there is an active threat on the Afghan border from our side, from their side, from within the mountains, and that’s where we’re engaged today. Today’s war for the perceivable future for the world and for us is that
area,” Zardari said indicating he is now convinced that the Taliban posed a serious security threat to his country.

“I can assure you that everybody in my government knows that the threat is to them. It is not a threat to you or
anybody else,” he said.

The Pakistani President said his country needs the equipments to successfully fight out the Taliban and al-Qaeda
from within its territory. “We need much more help. And more technology. We need more helicopters, we need night vision equipment. I have even asked for the drones,” he said.

Seeking to allay western apprehensions, Zardari assured that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are safe and it would never land in the hands of the Taliban or al-Qaeda.

The Pakistani President said the reports about an eminent Taliban taken over of Islamabad are a media creation.

If the excitement it created in the critics, trade pundits and exhibitors at the London premiere recently echoes across America and worldwide, the 43-year-old franchise Star Trek has a splendid revival. And there could be at least three more Star Trek movies, which, like the upcoming one, would be aimed at the younger audiences.

The film, to be released by Paramount, is surely going to be one of the biggest hits of the year but whether the film could come near Paramount’s last year’s comic book triumph Iron Man, which grossed about $600 million worldwide is to be seen. Some trade experts expect the film to be as huge as last year’s Batman movie, The Dark Knight, which grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

‘Even the most ardent fans of Star Trek would concede that the brand had become a cultural joke, consigned to the black hole where exhausted franchises go to die,’ mused The Times in London.

‘Yet, by some fiendish reverse engineering worthy of the great Scotty, a revitalised USS Enterprise has reemerged in a blaze of glory and people are falling in love with the series all over again’