SHORT AND SWEET STORY ABOUT A KID                            

     I was walking around in a Big Bazaar store shopping, when I saw a Cashier talking to a boy couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old..

The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have enough money to buy this doll. Then the little boy turned to the cashier and asked: are you sure I don't have enough money?''

The cashier counted his cash once again and replied: ''You know that you don't have enough money to buy the doll, my dear.'' The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.

Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to. 'It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much . I wanted to Gift her for her BIRTHDAY.

I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.' His eyes were so sad while saying this. 'My Sister has gone to be with God.. Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister...''

My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up at me and said: 'I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.' Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me 'I want mommy to take my picture with her so my sister won't forget me.' 'I love my mommy and I wish she doesn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.' Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly..

I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. 'Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?''

'OK' he said, 'I hope I do have enough.' I added some of my money to his with out him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.

The little boy said: 'Thank you God for giving me enough money!'

Then he looked at me and added, 'I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!'' 'I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn't dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose. My mommy loves white roses.'

I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started. I couldn't get the little boy out of my mind.

Then I remembered a local news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma. Was this the family of the little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young woman had passed away.. I couldn't stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make last wishes before her burial.

She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest. I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that my life had been changed for ever...

The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine. And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.

Please DO NOT DRINK & DRIVE.

Now you have 2 choices:

1) Forward this message, or

2) Ignore it as if it never touched your heart.

                        Taj Mahal Story

Male Protagonist: Shah Jahan (Prince Khurram) Female Protagonist: Mumtaz Mahal (Arjumand Banu Begum)

Taj Mahal, the magnificent monument that stands at the heart of India has a story that has been melting the hearts of millions of listeners since the time Taj has been visible. A story, that although ended back in 1631, continues to live on in the form of Taj and is considered a living example of eternal love. It's the love story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, two people from the course of history who set an example for the people living in present and the future to come. An English poet, Sir Edwin Arnold best describes it as "Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passion of an emperor's love wrought in living stones." The story that follows next will prove why the statement is true.

Shah Jahan, initially named Prince Khurram, was born in the year 1592. He was the son of Jehangir, the fourth Mughal emperor of India and the grandson of Akbar the Great. In 1607 when strolling down the Meena Bazaar, accompanied by a string of fawning courtiers, Shah Jahan caught a glimpse of a girl hawking silk and glass beads. It was love at first sight and the girl was Mumtaz Mahal, who was known as Arjumand Banu Begum at that time. At that time, he was 14 years old and she, a Muslim Persian princess, was 15. After meeting her, Shah Jahan went back to his father and declared that he wanted to marry her. The match got solemnized after five years i.e., in the year 1612.

It was in the year 1628 that Shah Jahan became the Emperor and entrusted Arjumand Banu with the royal seal. He also bestowed her with the title of Mumtaz Mahal, meaning the "Jewel of the Palace". Though Shah Jahan had other wives also, but, Mumtaz Mahal was his favorite and accompanied him everywhere, even on military campaigns. In the year 1631, when Mumtaz Mahal was giving birth to their 14th child, she died due to some complications. While Mumtaz was on her deathbed, Shah Jahan promised her that he would never remarry and will build the richest mausoleum over her grave.

It is said that Shah Jahan was so heartbroken after her death that he ordered the court into mourning for two years. Sometime after her death, Shah Jahan undertook the task of erecting the world's most beautiful monument in the memory of his beloved. It took 22 years and the labor of 22,000 workers to construct the monument. When Shah Jahan died in 1666, his body was placed in a tomb next to the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. This magnificent monument came to be known as "Taj Mahal" and now counts amongst the Seven Wonders of the World. This is the true story of the Taj Mahal of India, which has mesmerized many people with its bewitching beauty.

 

 

                         Taj Mahal: Was it a Vedic Temple?

 

No one has ever challenged it except Prof. P. N. Oak, who believes the whole world has been duped. In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak says the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz's tomb but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya). In the course of his research Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace was usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama,Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai SIngh for Mumtaz's burial . The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur still retains in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for
surrendering the Taj building. Using captured temples and mansions, as a burial place for dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers.  

For example, Humayun,Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions. Oak's inquiries began with the name of Taj Mahal. He says the term "Mahal" has never been used for a building in any Muslim countries from Afghanisthan to Algeria. "The unusual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal was illogical in atleast two respects.
 

Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani," he writes. Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters 'Mum' from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name for the building."Taj Mahal, he claims, is a corrupt version of Tejo Mahalaya, or Lord Shiva's Palace. Oak
also says the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists . Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.
 

Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era, and was a temple dedicated to Shiva, worshipped by Rajputs of Agra city. For example, Prof. Marvin Miller of New York took a few samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan. European traveler Johan Albert Mandelslo,who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the cit y in his memoirs. But he makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built. The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest the
Taj was a noteworthy building well before Shah Jahan's time.
 

Prof. Oak points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief of the Taj Mahal being a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum. Many rooms in the Taj ! Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak
asserts they contain a headless statue of Lord Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples . Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Prof. Oak's book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the
first edition dire consequences . There is only one way to discredit or validate Oak's research.
 
 

The current government should open the sealed rooms of the Taj Mahal under U.N. supervision, and let international experts investigate. Do circulate this to all you know and let them know about this reality.....
 
 
TO GET MORE DETAIL CHECK OUT THIS LINK
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/was_the_taj_mahal_a_vedic_temple.htm
         

 

 

 

 

 

                       Why Does February Only Have 28 Days?

 
The shortest month of the year seems to have gone by in a flash. Why does February have only 28 days?

It's the Romans' fault. Our modern calendar is loosely based on their old, confusing one. Though records on the Roman calendar are sparse and sketchy, legend has it that Romulus, the first king of Rome, devised a 10-month lunar calendar that began at the spring equinox in March and ended with December. It is unclear whether there were any official months between December and March, but it's likely they were left off because the wintertime wasn't important for the harvest.

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The second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, decided to make the calendar more accurate by syncing it up with the actual lunar year—which is about 354 days long. Numa tacked on two months—January and February—after December to account for the new days.

The new months each had 28 days. But that didn't sit well with Numa because even numbers were considered bad luck at the time. So, he added a day on to January, giving the year an odd-numbered 355 days. No one knows why February was left with 28 and remained an unlucky month. It may be related to the fact that Romans honored the dead and performed rites of purification in February. (The word februare means "to purify" in the dialect of the ancient Sabine tribe.)

The 355-day calendar couldn't stay in sync with the seasons because it didn't account for the amount of time it took for the Earth to orbit the sun. So, an extra "intercalary" month of 27 days was inserted after February 23 every couple of years or so to even things out. The pontiffs who were in charge of calendar upkeep didn't always add the extra month on schedule. (Some officials took advantage of the system to extend their time in office, for example.)

In around 45 B.C., Julius Caesar commissioned an expert to put aside the lunar origins of the Roman calendar and make it sun-based, like the Egyptian one. Caesar added 10 days to the calendar year and an extra day in February every four years. (The leap-year day was inserted after the 23^rd, the same time as the old intercalary month.) Now, the year averaged out to 365.25 days, very close to the actual average length of a year: 365.2425 days (and even that varies).

Some have speculated that Caesar added a day to February when he reformed the calendar—making it 29 days long. The story goes that when the Senate renamed the month of Sextilis to honor the emperor Augustus, that day was subtracted from February and added to August in order to make it equal in number to July—the month named for Caesar. But this theory is now believed to be bunk; it's likely that Julius never even added a day to February.

Hippocratic Oath

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Translation by Heinrich Von Staden, "In a pure and holy way:" Personal and Professional Conduct in the Hippocratic Oath," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 51 (1996) 406-408.

1. i. I swear ii. by Apollo the Physician and by Asclepius and by Health and Panacea and by all the gods as well as goddesses, making them judges [witnesses],
iii. to bring the following oath and written covenant to ful- fillment,in accordance with my power and my judgment;

2. i. to regard him who has taught me this techne as equal to my parents, and
ii. to share, in partnership, my livelihood with him and to give him a share when he is in need of necessities, and
iii. to judge the offspring [coming] from him equal to [my] male siblings, and
iv. to teach them this techne, should they desire to learn [it], without fee and written covenant, and to give a share both of rules and of lectures, and of all the rest of learning, to my sons and to the [sons]of him who has taught me and to the pupils who have both make a written contract and sworn by a medical convention but by no other.

3. i. And I will use regimens for the benefit of the ill in accordance with my ability and my judgment, but from [what is] to their harm or injustice I will keep [them].

4. i. And I will not give a drug that is deadly to anyone if asked [for it],

ii. nor will I suggest the way to such a counsel. And likewise I will not give a woman a destructive pessary.

5. i. And in a pure and holy way
ii. I will guard my life and my techne.

6. i. I will not cut, and certainly not those suffering from stone, but I will cede [this] to men [who are] practitioners of this activity.

7. i. Into as many houses as I may enter, I will go for the benefit of the ill,

ii. while being far from all voluntary and destructive injustice, especially from sexual acts both upon women's bodies and upon men's, both of the free and of the slaves.

8. i. And about whatever I may see or hear in treatment, or even without treatment, in the life of human beings -- things that should not ever be blurted out outside --I will remain silent, holding such things to be unutterable [sacred, not to be divulged],

i. a. If I render this oath fulfilled, and if I do not blur and confound it [making it to no effect]

b. may it be [granted] to me to enjoy the benefits both of life and of techne,

c. being held in good repute among all human beings for time eternal.
ii. a. If, however, I transgress and purjure myself,

b. the opposite of these

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                      La Tomatina

Before going into detail about the famous and very loca Tomatina festival, some background is needed:
The Spanish LOVE to eat tomatoes and according to Fruittoday Euromagazine, they eat 17 kilos per person annually! As with all Mediterranean cuisines, the tomato is an essential ingredient of Spanish cooking. The Spanish eat tomatoes every day and prepare them in a variety of ways, including fresh, crushed, stewed or simmered in a sauce. Tomato sauce is served on the side with fried eggs, chicken, meat and omelets at most Spanish dinner tables.
Since one of the principal tomato-growing regions of Spain is the southeast, including Murcia and Valencia, it seems appropriate that the famous tomato fight takes place in Buñol, just west of the capital city of Valencia.
It's not too hard to understand that La Tomatina festival started by accident. According to all accounts, there was a parade and festival in Buñol on the last Wednesday of August of 1945 when a fight broke out between some young men. Taking advantage of a nearby fruit and vegetable vendor’s stall, they threw tomatoes at each other. The police broke up the altercation and those responsible ended up paying restitution to the tomato vendor.
Apparently planning ahead, the following year the young people brought tomatoes with them to the parade and started a tomato fight again. Each year the fight continued until the early 1950’s when it was prohibited by order of the town council, but some townsfolk insisted on creating a fight and were thrown in jail. Protests ensued, including a “Tomato Funeral” and finally, in 1957 the town council allowed the fight to continue. In fact, since 1980 the city government has provided the tomatoes!

La Tomatina Today

The celebration continue to take place on the last Wednesday in August in the plaza mayor of Buñol. The tomatina starts at 11:00am with the sound of a rocket being fired and ends one hour later. Last year 40,000 people were expected to participate in throwing over 100 tons of ripe tomatoes in the streets and this year even more are expected.

Rules of the “Fight”

According to La Tomatina’s official web site, there are five simple rules that must be followed. They seem to be common sense to ensure the safety of participants, or as stated on the web page "are simple rules of civic responsibility and cohabitation.” Below are the official rules almost verbatim:

1. You must not bring bottles or other type of objects which could cause an accident.
2. You must not tear or throw t-shirts.
3. The tomatoes must be squashed before throwing them, to avoid hurting people.
4. You must be careful of any lorry (truck or van).
5. When you hear the second shot, you must stop throwing tomatoes.

 facts:

Tomatoes are definitely an essential ingredient in Spanish cooking! The Spanish enjoy fresh tomatoes many ways - in salads, sliced on French bread or cut in half and eaten like an apple, but with a pinch of salt. They even make cold soup from raw tomatoes. As far as cooked tomatoes, they appear in casseroles, sauces or stuffed with meat or fish.
The tomato wasn’t always an essential in Spanish cuisine, or any other European cuisine! As you may remember learning in school, tomatoes are natives of the New World and were brought back to Europe by Spaniards in the early 16th century. Because they are part of the nightshade family of plants, which are poisonous, it was thought for many years that tomatoes were, too. They were first cultivated as a decorative plant and not used in food for years. The Spanish word tomate comes from the Aztec word “tomatl.”
So crazy are Spaniards about tomatoes, that there is a festival called the Tomatina in Buñol, Valencia every year for the last 61 years. It is essentially a HUGE tomato fight in the street! It so popular that 40,000 people throw 110 tons of tomatoes that are provided by the town council. If you'd like to see the official web site including "rules" of the fight and many wild photos of the celebration and learn more, try La Tomatina.es.
Since tomatoes like full sun and well-watered soil, Spain has a perfect climate for growing tomatoes and produces around 3 million tons a year. Just as canning fruit and vegetables were common tasks for women around the US for many summers, putting up bottles of sofrito, (a mixture of stewed tomatoes, onions, and garlic) is for women in the Spanish countryside. Sofrito is used as the base for sauces, rice dishes and for stews.

Choosing Fresh Tomatoes

There are many varieties of tomatoes. Visually you can distinguish between the small cherry tomatoes, the larger round tomato (such as the beefsteak) and the plum or Roma tomatoes, which are oblong.
Because tomatoes are harvested when they are still firm, so that they survive transportation to the market, they may be green. So, lots of tomatoes we see in supermarkets are gassed with ethylene to turn them red. This practice has been in place for several decades. When you choose fresh tomatoes at the store, pick tomatoes that are firm, but give slightly when you press the flesh with a finger. To soften a tomato, take it out of the plastic bag and leave it on the kitchen counter or windowsill for a day or two.
If you would prefer vine-ripened tomatoes, you have some alternatives: First, recently some supermarkets have started to carry vine-ripened tomatoes – still on the vine! Second, you could grow tomatoes yourself either in a small garden patch or in a container. If you aren’t going to grow your own, stop by your local farmer’s market and shop for ripe tomatoes. Either way, we predict that you’ll end up with tomatoes that are much more flavorful than what you normally find in the produce section.

Choosing Tomato Sauce or Crushed Tomatoes

Any brand of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes is fine to use. You’ll get to know the flavor of each brand and you’ll learn which ones are more or less acidic than others. The acidity of a sauce is good to know since it affects how your final result tastes.
If a recipe calls for fresh tomatoes and you do not have any on hand, you can usually substitute crushed canned tomatoes if you are making a casserole or a sauce where it will be cooked or simmered.

Dashrath Manjhi – The Man Who Moved a Mountain

Dasrath Manjhi, a landless farmer from India, made history after he spent over two decades chiseling away at a mountain with rudimentary tools, in order to create a road for his community, when the Government refused to.
If you’re looking for some motivation, stories don’t get much more inspirational than that of Dasrath Manjhi. 53 years ago, he set out to carve a 1mk-long path through a rocky hillside, all by himself, in order to make it easier for his fellow villagers to access schools, markets and neighboring villagers. “This hill had given us trouble and grief for centuries. The people had asked the government many times to make a proper road through the hill, but nobody paid any attention. So I just decided I would do it all by myself,” Manjhi told Indian newspaper Tehelka, in 2007, a shortly before succumbing to the cancer that was plaguing him.  With just his chisel, hammer and shovel, this legendary man turned what was once a precarious one-foot-wide passage into a 360ft-long, 30ft-wide road accessible by bicycle and motorcycle. The hill kept the region’s villages in isolation, forcing people to trek through dangerous terrain for hours just to reach their lands or the nearest market town. Children had to walk eight kilometers to reach school, but thanks to Dasrath Manjhi’s handmade road, that distance has been reduced to three kilometers, and people from over 60 villages now use it every day.

But what empowered a single man to accomplish such a monumental task? For Dasrath it was the love for his wife. “My wife, Faguni Devi, was seriously injured while crossing the hill to bring me water; I worked then on a farm across the hills. That was the day I decided to carve out a proper road through this hill,” the farmer said. Sadly, his beloved wife didn’t get to see the fruits of his labor, as shortly after the accident she fell ill and died, because she couldn’t be taken to the hospital in time. The tragic loss only made the ambitious man more focused on his task, and fellow villagers remember seeing him “ hacking at the hill day and night as if he were possessed”. But with the passing years, his motivation changed. “My love for my wife was the initial spark that ignited in me the desire to carve out a road. But what kept me working without fear or worry all those years was the desire to see thousands of villagers crossing the hill with ease whenever they wanted,” Manjhi said in an interview.

Although you’d expect people to jump in and help someone working for the entire community, it wasn’t Dasrath Manjhi’s case. At first, people ridiculed him and called him mad for taking on such a herculean task, but as time went by, and the unfazed farmer continued to split the troublesome hill in half, he started getting some help. “Though most villagers taunted me at first, there were quite a few who lent me support later by giving me food and helping me buy my tools,” he remembered. Now, all the people of the Gaya district have nothing but gratitude for the “mountain man” who single-handedly made their lives so much easier.

He never received any recognition from the Indian Government for his accomplishment, just a state burial, after he passed away, in 2007. “What I did is there for everyone to see. When God is with you, nothing can stop you,” Dasrath Manjhi once said.  I am neither afraid of any punishment from any government department for my work nor am I interested in any honour from the government.” It took him 22 years to fulfill his self-imposed task, but it granted him immortality…

          What is Asperger syndrome  ?

As soon as we meet a person we make judgements about them. From their facial expression, tone of voice and body language we can usually tell whether they are happy, angry or sad and respond accordingly.
People with Asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted. This means they find it more difficult to communicate and interact with others which can lead to high levels of anxiety and confusion.

About Asperger syndrome

Asperger syndrome is a form of autism, which is a lifelong disability that affects how a person makes sense of the world, processes information and relates to other people. Autism is often described as a 'spectrum disorder' because the condition affects people in many different ways and to varying degrees. (For more information about autism, please read our leaflet What is autism?)
Asperger syndrome is mostly a 'hidden disability'. This means that you can't tell that someone has the condition from their outward appearance. People with the condition have difficulties in three main areas. They are:

• social communication
• social interaction
• social imagination.

They are often referred to as 'the triad of impairments' and are explained in more detail on page 3.
While there are similarities with autism, people with Asperger syndrome have fewer problems with speaking and are often of average, or above average, intelligence. They do not usually have the accompanying learning disabilities associated with autism, but they may have specific learning difficulties. These may include dyslexia and dyspraxia or other conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and epilepsy.
With the right support and encouragement, people with Asperger syndrome can lead full and independent lives.

Three main areas of difficulty

The characteristics of Asperger syndrome vary from one person to another but are generally divided into three main groups.
Difficulty with social communication

If you have Asperger syndrome, understanding conversation is like trying to understand a foreign language.

People with Asperger syndrome sometimes find it difficult to express themselves emotionally and socially. For example, they may:

• have difficulty understanding gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice
• have difficulty knowing when to start or end a conversation and choosing topics to talk about
• use complex words and phrases but may not fully understand what they mean
• be very literal in what they say and can have difficulty understanding jokes, metaphor and sarcasm. For example, a person with Asperger syndrome may be confused by the phrase 'That's cool' when people use it to say something is good.

In order to help a person with Asperger syndrome understand you, keep your sentences short - be clear and concise.
Difficulty with social interaction

I have difficulty picking up social cues, and difficulty in knowing what to do when I get things wrong.

Many people with Asperger syndrome want to be sociable but have difficulty with initiating and sustaining social relationships, which can make them very anxious. People with the condition may:

• struggle to make and maintain friendships
• not understand the unwritten 'social rules' that most of us pick up without thinking. For example, they may stand too close to another person, or start an inappropriate topic of conversation
• find other people unpredictable and confusing
• become withdrawn and seem uninterested in other people, appearing almost aloof
• behave in what may seem an inappropriate manner.

Difficulty with social imagination

We have trouble working out what other people know. We have more difficulty guessing what other people are thinking.

People with Asperger syndrome can be imaginative in the conventional use of the word. For example, many are accomplished writers, artists and musicians. But people with Asperger syndrome can have difficulty with social imagination. This can include:

• imagining alternative outcomes to situations and finding it hard to predict what will happen next
• understanding or interpreting other peoples thoughts, feelings or actions. The subtle messages that are put across by facial expression and body language are often missed
• having a limited range of imaginative activities, which can be pursued rigidly and repetitively, eg lining up toys or collecting and organising things related to his or her interest.

Some children with Asperger syndrome may find it difficult to play 'let's pretend' games or prefer subjects rooted in logic and systems, such as mathematics.

Characteristics of Asperger syndrome

The characteristics of Asperger syndrome vary from one person to another but as well as the three main areas of difficulty, people with the condition may have:

• love of routines
• special interests
• sensory difficulties.

Love of routines

If I get anxious I get in a tizz. I have a timetable; it helps me to see what I have to do next, otherwise I get confused.

To try and make the world less confusing, people with Asperger syndrome may have rules and rituals (ways of doing things) which they insist upon. Young children, for example, may insist on always walking the same way to school. In class, they may get upset if there is a sudden change to the timetable. People with Asperger syndrome often prefer to order their day to a set pattern. For example, if they work set hours, an unexpected delay to their journey to or from work can make them anxious or upset.
Special interests

I remember Samuel reciting the distances of all the planets from the sun to a baffled classmate in the playground when he was five. Since then he has had many obsessions, which he loves to talk about at length!

People with Asperger syndrome may develop an intense, sometimes obsessive, interest in a hobby or collecting. Sometimes these interests are lifelong; in other cases, one interest is replaced by an unconnected interest. For example, a person with Asperger syndrome may focus on learning all there is to know about trains or computers. Some are exceptionally knowledgeable in their chosen field of interest. With encouragement, interests and skills can be developed so that people with Asperger syndrome can study or work in their favourite subjects.
Sensory difficulties

Robert only has problems with touch when he doesn't know what's coming - like jostling in queues and people accidentally brushing into him. Light touch seems to be worse for him than a firm touch.

People with Asperger syndrome may have sensory difficulties. These can occur in one or all of the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste). The degree of difficulty varies from one individual to another. Most commonly, an individual's senses are either intensified (over-sensitive) or underdeveloped (under-sensitive). For example, bright lights, loud noises, overpowering smells, particular food textures and the feeling of certain materials can be a cause of anxiety and pain for people with Asperger syndrome.
People with sensory sensitivity may also find it harder to use their body awareness system. This system tells us where our bodies are, so for those with reduced body awareness, it can be harder to navigate rooms avoiding obstructions, stand at an appropriate distance from other people and carry out 'fine motor' tasks such as tying shoelaces. Some people with Asperger syndrome may rock or spin to help with balance and posture or to help them deal with stress.
Who is affected by Asperger syndrome?
There are over half a million people in the UK with an autism spectrum disorder - that's around 1 in 100. People with Asperger syndrome come from all nationalities, cultures, social backgrounds and religions. However, the condition appears to be more common in males than females; the reason for this is unknown.

Causes and cures

What causes Asperger syndrome?
The exact cause of Asperger syndrome is still being investigated. However, research suggests that a combination of factors - genetic and environmental - may account for changes in brain development.
Asperger syndrome is not caused by a person's upbringing, their social circumstances and is not the fault of the individual with the condition.
Is there a cure?
There is currently no 'cure' and no specific treatment for Asperger syndrome. Children with Asperger syndrome become adults with Asperger syndrome. However, as our understanding of the condition improves and services continue to develop, people with Asperger syndrome have more opportunity than ever of reaching their full potential.
There are many approaches, therapies and interventions, which can improve an individual's quality of life. These may include communication-based interventions, behavioural therapy and dietary changes.

Diagnosis

Because Asperger syndrome varies widely from person to person, making a diagnosis can be difficult. It is often diagnosed later in children than autism and sometimes difficulties may not be recognised and diagnosed until adulthood.
The typical route for getting a diagnosis is to visit a GP. He or she can refer an individual to other health professionals who can make a formal diagnosis. Most frequently they will be psychiatrists or clinical psychologists and, in the case of children, paediatricians.
Some people see a formal diagnosis as an unhelpful label; however, for many a diagnosis:

• helps the individual, families, friends, partners, carers, professionals and colleagues to better understand and manage their needs and behaviour
• is the key needed to open the door to specialised support, eg supported living or finding suitable employment.

There are diagnostic differences between conditions on the autism spectrum. Sometimes people may receive a diagnosis of autism or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), high-functioning autism (HFA) or atypical autism instead of Asperger syndrome. Alternatively, they may be given a diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder - not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) or semantic pragmatic disorder. However, people who have been given these diagnoses will have similar difficulties and similar support needs to those who have Asperger syndrome.
You can find more information about diagnosis and how to get one here.
If you would like to read more about the different types of autism (including Asperger syndrome) and the diagnoses that people get, see:

• High-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome: what's the difference? 
• The use and misuse of diagnostic labels.

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 Information about many of these can be found at: www.autism.org.uk/approaches