Jai Ganesha! Wonderful. . . .we are starting to get some fun, serious and occasionally wacky input for this Hot Masala Page. And it is much appreciated by this compiler of the global news mix, living so far from the unreal world and awaiting the next canoe to bring news to our island shore from afar.

IN A PICKLE WITHOUT SUN TO MAKE PICKLES
Does anyone have some help for Ramu who says:
Your recipe sounds like the one my grandmother used to make many years ago in Madras!!
Alas I live in a cold country --Ireland--
?? What do I do for Sun??
Best wishes,
Ramu

A SACRED INDIAN SITE, BUT STILL THE FONT OF STRIFE
By CELIA W. DUGGER AYODHYA, India
(excerpted from the Washington Post)
The pilgrims stand silently by the hour, watching artisans chisel giant sandstone pillars for a magnificent temple to Ram, the ideal manly incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Only the screeches of wild pink-faced monkeys scampering through the open-air sheds break the soggy stillness. The workshop here, and three others in the state of Rajasthan, are singly and relentlessly devoted to the construction of a prefabricated temple to Ram on the site that many Hindus believe was his birthplace. . . ."The birthplace of Lord Ram cannot be changed," said Giriraj Kishore, the secretary general of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. "Can you change the birthplace of Christ? Can you?" By order of India's Supreme Court, the site is under heavy security, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards posted in watchtowers and along the perimeter. The court has decreed that there be no construction until a tangle of related court cases are resolved, a process that could take years.

HOT MASALA SAYS: It appears that the initiative to re-build the Hindu temple of Rama on the site of the Babri Mosque by the year 2001, continues to grow in strength in India. As Hindus we should be aware that some western media onlookers, such as Ms Dugger of the Washington Post, are, sadly, painting a not-so-pretty picture of Hindus in their reports.

JOKES ARE STARTING TO FLOW:
"I was a vegetarian until I started leaning towards sunlight." --Rita Rudner

IN THE ANYTHING CAN BE BAD FOR YOU IF FOLLOWED TO EXCESS DEPARTMENT.... INTERNET CAUSES DEPRESSION
By The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Even though users of the Internet tend to dwell in its social corners -- chat rooms and e-mail -- they feel more depressed and lonely the more time they spend online, a study suggests. The groundbreaking study surprised even its authors, led by Robert Kraut, a social psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. ``We were expecting exactly the opposite,'' Kraut said Sunday. Before his research, he believed Internet use fostered social contact, especially in e-mail and chat rooms. One reason for the negative effect may have been that using the Internet left less time for the deeper relationships of friends and family, he suggested. ``People are substituting weaker social ties for stronger ones,'' he said. ``They're substituting conversations on narrower topics with strangers for conversations with people who are connected to their life.''

FIRST RESPONSE TO STATE GOVERNOR MAILING We sent a mailing of the July issue of HT to all 50 US state governors and Hillary Clinton, the President's wife, asking them to think seriously about banning all corporal punishment of children. The first response came from the office of John Engler, Governor of Michigan. It says, "Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with me. Your information and opinions help keep me informed on matters that are most important to the people of Michigan. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your information and concerns to the Director of the Michigan Family Independence Agency, Marva Livingston Hammons, as well as a member of my Executive staff for further review. Please be assured that your views will be considered in discussions and development of state policy as it relates to this issue."

ARTHUR PACHECO HAS A GOOD INTUITION ABOUT LEMURIAN SCROLLS: I have continued reading more of the Lemurian Scrolls and I get a feeling that with the blessings of time many people will be drawn to read it. I truly sense that this book will be one of Gurudeva's most widely read books. Its value in part lies in the fact that it covers such an enormous span of time, more than just about any other book that I can think of. And in doing so, it clearly outlines the Divine Plan as it has unfolded and as it continues to unfold into the distant future. Most people have no concept of this nature at all, knowing little or nothing of cosmology. It's such a rare gift to the library of humanity.

LIVING TO BE 100 IS NO LONGER VIEWED AS A QUIRK OF NATURE Living to be 100 is a distinct possibility, something to be worked for. It is the goal of the exercise and spirituality class for the aging that Blondola Lucas, 76, a retired educator, leads at the White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. One member of the class, James Schooler, who can do 25 pushups at a clip, has seven years to go. Walter Bortz, a gerontologist at Stanford University, has published a self-help book, "Dare to Be 100" (Simon & Schuster, 1995). Ms. Adler, 50, the founder of the nonprofit National Centenarian Awareness Project and author of a book about centenarians, says that baby boomers have traded in their youthful motto "Don't trust anyone over 30" for "Let's live to be 100." Still, attitudes toward the very old are a mixture of admiration and dread. About 30 percent of centenarians have full command of their faculties and are living in the community, said Leonard W. Poon, director of the University of Georgia gerontology center, and the director of a 10-year study of centenarians. But Dr. Poon, whose research confirmed findings of earlier studies in Germany, said that about 45 percent of centenarians had some sort of disability varying in severity, and that the rest were demented, disabled or otherwise extremely dependent. And disability can set in well before 100. According to the census, 47 percent of those 95 and older are in nursing homes. (Among those 85 and older, 22 percent are in nursing homes, while the number drops to 7 percent for those 75 to 84, and one percent for people ages 65 to 74.) Most centenarians live for about two years beyond 100.