ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends Can we say, we are excited? Indeed we are. Yes, we have just crossed the milestone ‘10 YEARS’. With the publication of our Oct. 2010 issue, we have completed ten long years of trials and tribulations in the print media. Looking back is really a moment of satisfaction. When we started off, except the enthusiasm and the ardent desire to make a difference we didn’t have much to sing a song about. Of course, there were souls like Dr M.V. Kamath, a Padma Bhooshan, the inborn journalist that he is, who stood like a rock with us for all the 10 years. He had commended that we published every month for all 10 years without a break, but then he is too good a gentleman to add that, what kept us going was not merely our will to carry on but his uninterrupted contribution equally without break for all the 120 issues for the LAST PAGE. Yes, we do salute him for his unstinted support for all that we did. He has indeed been like a GURU to us. Om Shree Guruve Tasmai Namaha! Another soul that st...

AYODHYA – MEDIA & POLITICS 'Kasab attacked Jail staffer’, ‘Prosecution submits CCTV footage to court, exposing his dangerous assault’. This was the print media news from Mumbai on 29th Sept. 2010. A thought inadvertently crossed the mind. ‘What if Kasab was a Christian or a Hindu, and was caught and jailed in Pakistan?’ After the above attack would he still be alive to see the next day? But in India there is a semblance of law and order and this Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist caught during the 26/11 attack, is alive, and apparently kicking. On 30th Sept. 2010, the next day, India was waiting with bated breath, the long awaited judgement in the dispute on the land surrounding the Ayodhya shrine, where Babri Masjid stood before 6th Dec. 1992, which was demolished by a restive crowd of, apparently, Hindus, who claimed that Masjid stood on the ground where Hindu God Lord Rama was born, and that a temple was demolished to build the mosque by Babur, (pronounced Baabar) the Mongo...

What is a teacher, anyway? "The authority of those that profess to teach is often a positive hindrance to those who desire to learn." Cicero. The younger generation today rarely follows our preachings; is more likely to follow our example. A good teacher, therefore, should be a good example to students. S/he should walk the talk. An ideal teacher is more like a midwife, who stands by the side of the pregnant mother in pain, coaxing her, cajoling her, empathizing with her and provoking her to deliver. It is the mother that eventually delivers. Similarly, an ideal teacher does not deliver her/his didactic lecture in the class as is the practice but, tries to get the best out of the student. The student should deliver (e=out; ducere=deliver). Swami Vivekananda once said: "Education is the manifestation of the perfection that is already in man." Another great thinker, Dr. Alexis Carrel, a Nobel Laureate, had opined that: "no man could teach any man anything that he...

GANG LEADER FOR A DAY As I spent more time with Ms. Bailey over the coming months, I found that most tenants were less suspicious of me than they’d been in the past. Sometimes, when a tenant came into Ms. Bailey’s office to talk about a problem, the tenant would say, "It’s okay, I don’t mind if Sudhir listens." Like J.T., Ms. Bailey seemed to enjoy the fact that I was interested in her. Perhaps she, too, thought I was going to be her personal biographer. I could see why she might make this assumption.I took every opportunity to express my fascination for her life, which seemed more fascinating the more I hung around. One cold winter morning, I sat in Ms. Bailey’s office with Catrina. It was a slow day, and only a few tenants visited. Ms. Bailey asked if I would go out and get her some coffee, and Catrina came with me. We bundled up and trudged through eight inches of fresh snow. The wind was nearly strong enough to blow you over; it was too cold for even a conversation. Catri...

‘I DIDN’T MEAN’ ESCAPIST SYNDROME People in media glare, if not in public life, have a tendency to be little oversmart. Being in the limelight gives them a little aura, at least that is what they think. Sometime, they mouth ‘pearls of wisdom’ unsolicited and then walk into avoidable tricky situations. Caught in the wrong foot, they mouth inanities justifying some, denying some other statements, usually ending into saying "I am being quoted out of context and I didn’t mean what they (the aggrieved) think. Media is twisting the truth to hurt my reputation etc. etc." One such episode was the one involving Salman Khan. Probably all 24x7 T.V. viewers and print media reading public are privy to this incident. This Salman Khan, the Bollywood actor, gave an interview to a Pakistani T.V. Channel called Express T.V. Why in the first place Pakistani T.V. was interested in seeking the views of someone like Salman Khan is not known. Salman Khan has reportedly remarked "Too much hype ...

Depression? Drown it into a cup of tea Ahhh! It’s gone Regular drinkers of green tea appear to have lower rates of depression, says American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2009, quoting research in Japan. Both green and black tea are made from the same plant, camellia sinesis, but are processed differently. Tea is high in a class of antioxidants called flavonoids. These flavonoids are potent antioxidants and are thought to be the ‘active ingredient’ in tea that provides many of its potential health benefits. Tea, especially green tea, appears to have a beneficial effect on the prevention and management of depression due to its anti-inflammatory properties. Green tea also contains large amounts of an amino acid called tehamine which has been shown in laboratory studies to have a relaxing effect on the brain by increasing the dopamine production. Depression? Who? Me? Tips to keep your voice young Drink more fluid You need it for the vocal folds to vibrate well. No liquids touch the vocal ...

Peace of mind I have a friend walking the path of spirituality. As meditation clams and tranquillises her and frees her from ambition and the need for fame and fortune, she finds herself asking: "Is my future life only going to be about bliss? Isn’t that boring?" One can understand where she is coming from. As we move along the path, there are many things we must die to. Flaming passions must temper down and die. The rapturous experience of falling in love (which later ends in equally strong feelings of anger and hate) must be transcended. The huge highs and lows of life must be curbed and bridled to middle point. We must bid goodbye to all the emotions that create so much drama in life. Elation at having won an award or a coveted promotion. Triumph at having beaten someone in a competition. Despair at not achieving success. Anger at someone who put you down. Our life is a whirling emotional states; we swing like a pendulum between pleasurable feelings such as joy, excitement...

Vigilante gone bonkers Yogesh Sadhwani The culture of vigilantism and mob justice that’s seeping into urban life after numerous such incidents in smaller districts across India, claimed another victim on a Mumbai local train. Amruta, who had given birth to her fourth child just three days before, boarded the ladies compartment of the CST-Kalyan local with her newborn at around 8.30 pm at Dadar station. Her husband Maltan, a small-time supplier of jewellery parts, got on the general compartment next door, as the family headed towards their kacha tin-sheet house in Dombivli’s pathrali locality. No sooner did she get on the train than the problem began – her only sin that her graying hair made her look much older than 42. Amruta’s companions in the compartment, intrigued by the four-day-old baby girl in her arms, suspected something was not right in this picture of a new-born child with an ‘old’ woman. Word spread, and in a few minutes, without any evidence or inquiry, the buzz in the com...

Same-sex couples now in textbooks of Netherlands Amsterdam: The Netherlands was the first country in the world to grant same-sex marriages and allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt children. Now the Dutch are taking the next logical step and are introducing same-sex couples into the nation’s schoolbooks. However, not everyone in the country approves. "Two fathers go out to buy a guinea pig that costs 17.95 euros in the pet shop. The shop owner gives them a discount of 20 percent. How much must Jan’s fathers pay?" In the near future, math books could be posing this question, or one like it, to school kids in the Netherlands. Soon the country’s foreign language textbooks will no longer be able to ignore the reality of same-sex parenting in Holland. Eberhard van der Lann says the country’s school system must treat same-sex couples as a normal part of daily life. The 55-year old father of five children is mayor of Amsterdam, which has been marketing itself as a destination for g...

Nails extracted from abused Lankan maid Colombo: Doctors removed 13 nails and five needles from a Sri Lankan woman who says the couple she worked for in Saudi Arabia hammered them into her body. L G Ariyawathi, who was hospitalized with severe pain after returning from Saudi Arabia, has said the family she worked punished her by heating the nails and needles before sticking them in her body, said Dr Keerti Satharsinghe of Kamburupitiya hospital, about 160 kilometers away from the capital, Colombo. The nails ranged in length from one to 2.5 to 5 centimeters while the needles were about 2.5 centimeters. They were removed from her legs and forehead. "The surgery is successful and she is recovering now", said Dr Satharasinghe after a three-hour procedure. He said six more needles which are in her both hands could not be removed as such an operation could harm her nerves and arteries but that they would not be harmful to her. Since being admitted to hospital, Ariyawanthi has descr...

Let’s integrate Dr.Chitralekha J.S. Health care is popularly compartmentalised as Allopathy, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, and Naturopathy and so on. Amongst all these, allopathy has been branded as primarily treating only the ‘disease’. This is a popular public perception. It is fashionable to say that certain other branches of medicine have "no" side effects. First of all there is no branch of medicine that can afford to ignore the mind for healing. Psychology forms a voluminous part of allopathic training Mental make up, the environs, the kind of food one consumes, the kind of life style, all contribute to both the disease process and its healing. Secondly every reaction has a counter reaction. Whether it is medicine or food, that we consume, they all interact with our system and produce some effect and some side effects, all of which are not always beneficial. Sadly compartmentalisation has brought about conflicts of interest. Taking the best of ancient medicine coupled with rigo...

SHGs and Rural Maternal & Child Health - An Impact Assessment Andrew Adelman & Dr. Shashikant Ahankari One morning, Rasika Chandnshiwe, a resident of the Habbu Wasti area of Solapur city, saw red water flowing from the bathroom drain of her neighbour Sumita’s house. Knowing Sumita was pregnant, Rasika immediately rushed to her house. Sumita was in pain and had been bleeding since the previous night. Rasika, the leader of the local women’s self-help group, was trained as a community volunteer under the maternal and newborn health project run by the Halo Medical Foundation in Solapur. She immediately knew to rush Sumita to the nearby hospital. Although Sumita had an abortion, Rasika’s timely intervention saved her life. This story, and many like it, demonstrates successful accomplishments of the Sure Start Solapur (SSS) project run by the Halo Medical Foundation (HMF). Working in 80 slums with a population of 180,000, the SSS ensures that each pregnant woman within its network re...