Home remedies for acne, blackheads & pimples

Where skin disorders are concerned, it is best to stick as much as possible to natural cure options; as these are less likely to have any adverse side-effects.

Acne, pimples and blackheads are basically skin dis-orders that cause eruptions and inflammation in human beings especially on the face. The most important thing to do if you suffer from any one of these is to drink at least four pints of water every day. Drinking a lot of water is very beneficial to your skin. Including fresh fruit and leafy green vegetables in your daily diet will also bring about a marked improvement in the quality of your complexion. Regular Yoga exercises will also help improve skin and overall health.

• Give below are 10 simple home remedies to counter act these skin eruptions:

1. Make a mixture of 1 tsp of mint powder, 1 tsp of oatmeal powder and 2-3 tsp of rose water. Mix well and apply on pimples. Wait till it dries up and wash off. Repeat daily for about a month to see a change in your complexion.

2. Before bathing, apply a mixture of tomato pulp – real tomato pulp, not packaged one – honey and rose-water to your face and keep for twenty minutes before washing off. And at night, before going to bed, apply a mix of cream, glycerin, and lemon juice to your face and again keep it on for a short while before washing.

3. Mix equal amounts of lemon juice and rose water, apply to face with a cotton ball, and allow it to set for 30 minutes before rinsing. 15-20 days of this application helps cure pimples and also helps to remove blemishes and scars.

4. Apply fresh lemon juice on the affected area overnight. Wash it off with warm water next morning.

5. For acne that does not seem to respond to anything, steep 2-3 tsp. dried basil leaves in 1 cup boiling water for 10-20 minutes, cool, and apply to affected area with a cotton ball.

6. Add curd to gram flour to make a paste and apply it on the face. Completely rub it off before it dries. Repeat every two days. This is also good for removing blemishes. Make curd out of skim milk for oily skin.

7. Take about 2-3 tsps of warm honey and mix it in about 1 tbsp of gram flour to a smooth consistency. Apply this paste to your face. Wash off the paste with warm water after it dries. This remedy will keep acne and pimples at bay.

8. Make a mixture of 1 tsp fullers earth, 1 tsp of fenugreek powder, 1 tsp mint powder, juice of 1/2 lime and 1 tsp of rose water. Apply this twice a day. Keep on the face till it dries up then wash off with cold water. This is an effective remedy for pimples and acne.

9. Even applying scrapped half apple softly all over the face does, do wonders for the blemished skin.

10. Another very effective pimple and black head banisher is this mixture. Take 1 tsp drumstick leaf juice mix with 1 tsp lime juice and apply on face let it remain for about 10 to 15 minutes and wash off with cold water.

Try any one of these above home remedies and you will definitely be the proud owner of a wonderful clean clear complexion that will be the envy of all.

De-Indoctrination on terrorism

• URGENT NEED OF THE HOUR

Friday morning, July 6, 2007 one read the blazing newspaper headline “Suicide Bomber is Bangalorean” To say that one was shaken to the core was just an understatement. Of course at that point in time one did have some inkling on the matter as there was news in bits and pieces that the suspects in the blotched terror plots in UK could be Indians. The two Indians said to be involved in crashing a blazing Jeep Cherokee into the Glasgow airport terminal building. But like any other citizen, one lives in hope and faith that our country men will not be involved in such dastardly attacks, where they not only massacre other human beings but are even prepared to die for the attainment of so called martyrdom. Now it has been confirmed that one of them is indeed an Indian, lying in a critical state with little hope of survival. So the unimaginable has happened. Now reality stares us starkly in the face, that from now onwards even our citizens are no longer immune from being in the vicious grip of invisible master minds of terror attacks.

According to newspaper reports the two Indian youths were Kafeel Ahmed, 28-year-old engineer and the other is his brother Sabeel Ahmed who is 26. Their cousin who is also alleged to be involved is Mohammed Haneef, 27. In all three of the eight suspects are from the same family from Bangalore, while the families of another two were old friends, in the Middle East. Several shared homes in Britain. The shocking point here is that except one, all are doctors working in NHS hospitals. This is ironical, as they have to take an oath before they receive their degree to save lives and today they are involved in an attempt to take human lives on a mass scale.

The purpose of this article here is not to discuss the details of the plot and whether our citizens caught are guilty or not. All these matters are being widely publicized and printed all over. And of course the law must take its own course and the guilty youth too have to face the legal outcome. Which again is terribly sad, considering the fact that the parents of the youths have to face so much of trauma and suffering for no fault of their own? They are respectable citizens and doctors to the core living honest simple lives, who have dedicated their lives to saving precious lives.

The concern here is what as ordinary citizens we are doing to prevent such incidents from happening. Are we indeed powerless to prevent our precious highly educated youth from falling prey to the masters of terrorists modules sitting somewhere at their head quarters, who plot and plan and target gullible youths in cities and towns. Then slowly start the process of brainwashing them, using various religious theologies and goading them into acts of revenge against alleged wrongs done. They are indoctrinating and manipulating them not only into committing terrorist attacks but shockingly even motivating them to give up their own lives in the name of martyrdom. And once the job is done, washing their hands off from the whole incident and hiding behind the clock of invisibility searching for more such soft targets to carry out their sinister agendas.

We too on our part may sit back and discuss these issues till the matter is hot and is a newspaper headline and the next day may just shrug off our shoulders and go on with our lives. Moreover as Indians we have got into the habit of locking the stables after the horses have bolted. But we cannot afford to do so this time, as we will have to pay a very heavy price for our complacency and laid back attitude. Earlier our reformers and founding fathers used to preach that education is the solution to most of the evils in society. That a thinking man, armed with degrees and knowledge will not fall prey to evil activities and commit inhuman acts.

All such theories need a complete overhaul in today’s changing scenario. Today we are noticing a new trend of highly educated youths who are being transformed into anti-socials. These are the youths, on whom the country’s exchequer has spent valuable resources and money in order to groom them to be valuable and useful members of society. To bring laurels to their country wherever they go and to represent their country in a proud light, just as our very own Mangalorean, actress Shilpa Shetty, who not only made her parents but all us Indians proud. Today in UK, if we Indians can hold our head up high it’s in no small measure to the way Shilpa conducted herself in the course of the British television show where she showed exemplary grace and dignity when racially attacked by her fellow contestants.

One suggestion is that just as there is slow process of doctrinarian and brainwashing of youths going on and cases of violence and hatred on the rise at the grass root level, the government along-with religious bodies, the NGO’s as well as we ordinary citizens can support a cause whereby special cells or modules are opened in colleges, government institutions and different religious places - whether a temple or a masjid or a gurudwara or a church where youths and teenagers are given counseling. General awareness and guidance program can be conducted on not falling prey to any kind of terrorist networks and modules. And also bringing some of those involved in small crimes back to mainstream society.

The readers are invited to give their own suggestions in this matter which will be whole heartedly welcome. One such valuable suggestion put forth was that counseling and watch-out on the whereabouts of the youth in all areas and from different back grounds should be done by a special state squad. It would also be very useful if the students of the NCC and NSS as also the Scouts and Guides are made to form together a particular organization, and trained thoroughly. The purpose is that the common youth is fore-armed from falling prey to evil ideologies. Concluding this article one may state that unless steps are taken now for some kind of de-indoctrination, we will in future too have many more exceptionally brilliant doctors like Kafeel and Sabeel falling prey to invisible terrorist master minds.

CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE ON TERRORISM FOR A DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM:

Inter Subjective Dimensions of Terrorism and its Transcendence