ISSUES AND CONCERNS

EDITOR'S COLUMN Friends One and a half a century later, we do feel more than ever that our continued useful and vibrant existence is ensured. At least the crowd that gathered at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in Udupi while releasing the 150th edition of ISSUES & CONCERNS by former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, did help us to look at the future with more confidence.  Yes, there have been lots of good souls who congratulated I & C on reaching the 150th milestone. One called it “story of pluck and determination”, the other saluted the “indomitable spirit and courage of conviction.” The third one called it “A meaningful development”. Thus patrons were unanimous in their approbation. It did make us immensely happy and nudged as to commit ourselves to the goal “Towards a purposeful regimen,” and like our guru Padmabhushan MV Kamath  has suggested “time has come to broaden its base”. We do hope to measure up to the expectation of our Guru, all patrons...

LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI THE GREATEST INDIAN SINCE BAAPU, THE MAHATMA – A 2nd Oct. Tribute In sensation mongering, Indian media, whether the print or the 24x7 electronic media, leaves probably most members of the 4th estate – globally – behind. The lunacy for TRP appears to be the staple diet for most of these electronic media channels. Thus the nomination and selection of the so-called “Greatest Indian After Mahatma” made its rounds in circles, for whatever it was worth, as if there were no issues of relevance to be highlighted, especially with CAG destroying the sleep, literally, of the government in New Delhi. Reportedly, the imported Indian channel CNN/IBN had made a list of 100, of such great men. This list was given to a panel of ‘eminent’ jury to be pruned to fifty. The panel had on its list, 7 media men, 5 authors and writers, 3 sportsmen and sports writers, 2 from Arts and Cinema etc besides1 bureaucrat and 1 lawyer politician. Interestingly 50% of these ‘eminent’ men were ...

GANG LEADER FOR A DAY The Stay-Together Gang A few months after T-Bone gave me the Black Kings’ financial ledgers. Ms. Bailey invited me to a back-to-school party for the children in her building. J.T. had given her a thousand dollars to throw the party and to buy the kids some sneakers, clothes and school supplies. I hadn’t been spending much time around J.T.’s building in the months leading up to the party. I was generally holed up in the library, working on my dissertation. My advisers and I had agreed that it should explore how families cope with poverty-specifically, how CHA tenants solved problems and kept the community together without much help from the government of clarities. When I arrived for the party, it felt like my first visit from years earlier. There were cars parked all around the basketball court, rap music blasting away, kids running everywhere, and squatters grilling burgers and hot dogs to earn a little money. J.T. and his senior officers were drinking b...

Bedside Medicine- A Forgotten Art. Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com Fatigue: This is a non specific symptom but an important one in heart failure patients. To get at the bottom of this symptom on the bed side could be quite taxing as anything from anxiety to cancer could cause this, fatigue syndrome being another confounding diagnosis. However some questions are in order to get at the truth. • How long have you been having this problem? Fatigue is one of the earliest signs of progressive cardiac failure especially of the right heart variety. • Is it worsening as the days go by? • What exactly do you mean by fatigue? • How much can you do routinely? • In what way do you think your daily routine is affected by this fatigue? System review: A thorough examination of the cardiovascular system requires the patient to be comfortable and co-operative. One needs to do a cursory general examination with special reference to signs that are secondary to hear...

A DATE WITH TIME - 8TH SEPT. 2012 On 8th Sept. 2012, ISSUES & CONCERNS formally released its 150th issue at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College Udupi. Function was presided over by Padmabhushan Dr M.V.Kamath. Former Supreme Court Justice and former Karnataka Lokayukta was the Chief Guest and released the milestone issue in the presence of a packed gathering. Other Guests of Honour were Mr Gautham Pai, M.D. of Manipal Technologies Ltd., and Mr Ronald Fermnandes, Deccan Herald Bureau Chief in Mangalore. All Guests spoke highly of the efforts by I & C to keep the issues, plaguing the people and the nation, alive in the public domain and wished it long and fruitful existence. Mr Shriyan, the editor presented a perspective of the journey of I & C to its 150th milestone. Earlier on 31st August, an elocution competition was held at the same venue for degree students of Udupi & Dakshina Kannada districts.Nine of the participants namely Joyen D'Souza (I), Akanksha Hebbar (I...