Crazy for candies

If any country knows its candy, it’s Sweden, whose residents, according to a study by the Swedish Board of Agriculture, eat more per year per capita-more than thirty pounds per person each-than the citizens of any other nation. In Sweden, every Saturday is effectively a national holiday, called lšrdagsgodis, which means “Saturday candy.” Every corner store has a wall of pick-and-mix bins.

The history of how this tradition came to be is surprisingly dark: in the nineteen-forties, in conjunction with several candy corporations, the Swedish government performed tests on patients in a mental institution to explore the hazards of consuming sweets. When it was determined that too many would make your teeth rot, lšrdagsgodis was born-Swedish citizens were urged to have as much candy as they liked, as long as they limited their consumption to one day a week.

And so it became a crucial, and deeply beloved aspect of Swedish culture-and not just for children. Both Bon Bon and Sockerbit seem designed to appeal as much to adults as to kids. Sockerbit’s Web site makes eating candy sound like an essential element of what is these days referred to as a “self-care”: “sometimes we feel like something sour and sweet at the same time .?.?. and sometimes we need chocolate but mixed with some fruity surprises .?.?. It all depends on how we feel, our mood, the weather .?.?. . You could say that each person’s candy bag reflects the state of mind of that person.”

INTROSPECTION

When she met herself

By Mariam Sohail Rana

All she wanted was to be a rebel! She knew that it was the only way to stand out. She never liked to walk the path trodden by others; she wanted to be a paver of new motorways altering the grassy, stony grounds.

To her, she was the whole world, and that was why she had never been afraid of walking alone; she was meant to be different. It was not that she didn’t like people; she just didn’t like to be like them. She wanted to do everything with a new style and new spirit. She was like breeze that just blew, and she believed that if she let it, the power of wind would take her to her destination or, wherever the wind would take her, would be her destination.

Her obsession had taken her to the highest level of the faith; in every particle of the nature, made her fall passionately in love with it. She had started seeing the world as a part of herself.

She was on a peak, surrounded by mountains; she was reckless, ridiculously beautiful and obstinate in her ponderings. The mighty mountains, the spiky grass; stiff and soft, the supple petals, the fluffy clouds, the pattering of rain drops, the incredible waters of the seas, the never ending sky. Boundaries suffocated her, limitations filled her lungs with water. Was she demanding the whole world to be hers alone?

Falling in love with herself and tearing her body to look for her soul was leading her towards a heavenly path; the ultimate point where she would meet The Almighty – her love. The transformation of a rebel into an ardent lover! From there, would start the journey of altruism, of knowing that she would end up as a selfless one; living for the people, in the service of humanity. From then on, she could be a person of every kind; whatever she would imagine herself to be; a person for the people. She was going to be immortal as she had learnt to love.

This was what happened when she met herself.