MORTGAGING OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE

Navjot Kaur Rajiyal
indegenious_88@yahoo.com

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.

The Copenhagen Summit has disappeared the Humpty Dumpty way. Almost so. President Barack Obama has once again missed the golden opportunity to emerge as the global leader. With a George Bush legacy around his neck with America not a signatory of the Kyoto Agreement, Obama thought it politic not to play to the world media gallery by committing to cut US carbon emission to laudable levels that a sense of equity demands. By not doing so, he has arrested the already sliding popularity rating at home. Asking comfort-loving fellow-Americans to tighten the belt is a sure way of inviting a political disaster. The second best option is to let China and India play the global leader and America playing the role of the first among the equals.
China was truly playing the global leader and relished every moment at Copenhagen. The efficacy of Chinese diplomacy lies in knowing when to be friendly and when to be hostile. An unusual warmth developed between India and China notwithstanding Dalai Lama and Arunachal Pradesh, which has nothing to do with camaraderie. In the Belgian city, the two Asian giants felt helpless without each other in fighting the onslaught of the rich nations. In an article in the Guardian, the British climate secretary, Edward Miliband, accused China and other leftwing countries of trying to hijack the UN climate summit and "hold the world to ransom". Meanwhile, scientists and environmentalists were critical of rich countries which need to put up three times as much money and cut emissions drastically if they want to save the world from a climate catastrophe.

The self-styled conscience-keeper of climate change, Yvo de Boer, who is also the head of the committee for negotiations, commented:
The Marxists are using Climate Change to promote a Proletariat agricultural revolution;
The Maoists are using Climate Change to get us back to year zero;
The Corporates are using Climate Change to promote carbon trading;
The Governments are using Climate Change to tax us until the pips squeak;
The Vegans are using Climate Change to promote vegetarianism;
The One Worlders are using Climate Change to promote one government with a single point of tax and control;
The West is using Climate Change to dump pollution on the Third World;
The Eugenicist/Malthusians are using Climate Change to cull the population;
The Greens are being used by all of the above, and they don't realise it.
It’s one world, many universes!
And finally what will be remembered of the Copenhagen summit is the grim picture of the statues installed in front of the venue.

Tailpiece:
To preserve the Amazon, we need to stop eating meat. The president of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society, Ms Marly Winckler, says more than 80% of the Amazon's destruction is caused by cattle rearing.

NEW YEAR!

TSJ wishes you a Happy and Prosperous New Year

FAREWELL PRINCIPAL

TSJ's farewell to its Principal Mr. Umesh Chandrasekhar

Tista Sengupta

tista.ju@gmail.com

WHOSE INDIA IS IT ANYWAY?

Yes Telangana, no Telangana! See the power to create confusion by interchanging yes and no, like the placing of the comma in the classic sentence, ‘Hang him not spare him’. On the slender thread of a comma hangs the life of a convict. Placed after him, the hapless man dies; but after not, the man is set free. Perhaps an anecdote of two squabbling women on a railway compartment explains the situation better. One of them wanted the window to be shut because she said she would die of cold otherwise. The other woman said she would die of suffocation if the window is shut. Up came the peacemaker among the fellow passengers, who suggested to keep the window open for five minutes so that one of the contenders would die and then keep it shut for five minutes so that the other would follow suit. Deny statehood, and Telangana would burn; grant statehood, and the rest of Andhra would burn.
Ours is a democracy where decisions are taken on the street; you hijack a city, and all your political demands are met. Where will you find such a democracy in the whole world; and the marvel is that it works and all the anarchy it generates finally brings some semblance of order and merit. So we have discovered an economic wizard, Sardar Manmohan Singh, mummy Sonia Gandhi, and for a change a home minister who speaks sense, and a trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee, who knows what India needs. The marvel that is Mayawati can cut the trunk of the tree she is standing on into three pieces if not four, as she has been demanding the truncation of her own state.
In the final analysis, the root of India’s problems are two: its underemployed politicians, and unemployed youth. It’s heartbreaking but true that agitations employ our unemployed youth – which is happening in Kashmir and the North-East – and give meaning to our politicians’ existence. Imagine a Raj Thackeray without vandalism or agitation. Our politicians are now entering into a state of competitive madness to divide India into as many districts as the country has. Remember, we were once a conglomerate of 500-and odd princely states before the British came and ruled over us. We shall soon be back to square one. Who cares? Whose India is it anyway!

PAYAL GWALANI

payal_gwalani@mail.com

LOVE, SEX AND TIGER

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But the tiger has dates to keep
And miles to go before he sleeps
And miles to go before he sleeps

When a person is (nick)named Tiger Woods, the chances are that he acts like a tiger in the woods. And when a person achieves success and fame right early, disaster awaits him in the shadows. Boris Becker whom the sports buffs adored at 18 crashed and tumbled into a mess of his own making, domestic and financial. Child prodigy Kevin McAllister of Home Alone fame started the slide with his first divorce at 20, with many more in the making. With the whole world doting on you, and with dollars to flaunt and morals to break, the illusion of immortality traps you.
This unprecedented career began in the summer of 1996. He has won 93 tournaments, 71 of those on the PGA Tour. Tiger became the first ever to hold all four professional major championships at the same time. He is the career player leader and the career money leader. In winning the US Open Championship, Woods became the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam and the fifth to do so, after Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.
The U.S. Open and Masters victories came by record margins – 15 strokes and 12 strokes respectively – and the U.S. Open triumph swept aside the 13-stroke major championship standard which had stood for 138 years, established by Old Tom Morris in the 1862 Open Championship.
Jaimee Grubbs, the cocktail waitress who is now well known because of her affair with Woods for three years, describes her first encounter: he just grabbed me, kissed me and what followed is material for a blue movie. Rachel Uchitel, another woman said to be involved with Woods, has gone to the extent of denying the affair, perhaps not knowing what is done cannot be undone by denials.
Now the pertinent question is how should Elin Nordegren, Tiger's wife and mother of their 2-year-old daughter Sam and 9-month-old son Charlie, take it. Do a Hillary Rodham Clinton? That perhaps is the strength of a woman and the crowning glory of a dignified married woman.
Forgive the Tiger but learn from him the laws of success – his focus, his passion, his drive, his indefatigable energy and his devotion to the game.

Ragini Shankar Sinha

raginishankar87@gmail.com

JUSTICE SHOWCASED

Kudos to Justice Liberhan for his perfect timing. Remember 17 years and Rs 8 crore is the price of the blunder that we call Indian democracy. Had there been no demolition of a place of worship, there would have been no Liberhan Commission and no squandering of our precious national resources. Competitive madness compels our political parties to acts of vandalism, like burning of trains, demonizing and attacking our own people, and desecrating sacred places. In sheer short-sightedness, everyone blamed Justice Liberhan, and no one blamed the perpetrators of communal politics.
Just imagine, Justice Liberhan submitting the report in six months after the demolition. Then in a mood of defiance, there would have been half-a-dozen more demolitions. Had Liberhan submitted the report while the NDA was in power, are you knave enough to believe that Prime Minister Vajpayee would have put L K Advani and Uma Bharati behind the bars? The rickety Manmohan Singh government in its first avatar would have collapsed had the justice been indiscreet. Instead, he showed maturity in presenting the report when the political climate is ripe and the issue almost forgotten so that the nation can have an impassioned debate. This truly is the gift of Liberhan.
Secularism got a bad name and was projected as a western concept. Secularism is a home-grown concept like yoga, which the west adopted. Back in the pages of history, we meet a marauder from Tajikistan, who along with his gang came to plunder India but stayed on to become the emperor and patriarch of a dynasty. His name was Babur, and he was surprised to see empires collapsing before his tribal gang and hence stayed on to rule the land. Babur was no ambassador of Islam and his deeds (excesses) should not be taken as the benchmark of good governance, especially because he lived in medieval times.
The interesting lesson to learn from the mogul times is what emperor Akbar himself learnt. Akbar began his rule not as an enlightened ruler which he later became but somewhat like Aurangzeb. But not long afterwards, the emperor realized that to rule the country, you have to first rule the hearts of the people – which is the secret of secularism. Nevertheless, implemented by people who do not understand the spirit of it, secularism becomes a demon.
And it is time to leave behind the ghost of Babur and enter the 21st century. We can do so only if we dump the anachronistic politicians into the dustbin of history.

Karthik Krishnan

SACHIN GENIUS OR BOGUS?






Sachin Tendulkar is a genius. But a recent survey by Harvard University concludes that it takes 10,000 hours of practice for anyone to become a Genius in their respective field.
Beethoven and Albert Einstein, most definitely. Sachin Tendulkar?.
Sachin Tendulkar, with 20 years of cricket behind him, has 149 Test matches and 435 ODIs. After some maths, Sachin has put in 4237 hours of actual matches. Given 4 hours of Practice before every match day, it gives him another 2336 hours of practice. With a little help from our beloved Calcy, the Master Blaster has practised cricket for - *trumpets* - 6573 hours.
Just read what Shane Warne said on Sachin Tendular:
You have to watch cricket in India to truly appreciate the pressure that Sachin Tendulkar is under every time he bats. They seem to want a wicket to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer. This is cricket as Sachin has known it since the age of 16.
If you believe Warne, you’ve got a Genius for India. If you go by Harvard, he is not a Genius. Go Fish.

VIRAJ DESAI
virajd29@gmail.com
NOBEL FOR HOPE

What would you call a man who mesmerizes billions by his rhetoric? Call him Barack Obama, because there are very few on the world stage who could do that. The same Barack Obama has taken the world by surprise by winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The pertinent question is whether the Nobel Prize is given for performance or hope. Hope indeed is what he has raised; performance indeed is what he has to show. Nevertheless it is the right prize for the right man, perhaps a little premature. One sees the wisdom of the Nobel Committee only when one thinks of the imponderables. Should Obama’s fate follow that of Lincoln and Kennedy’s? To be sure there is no posthumous Nobel Prize.
The world, of course, is a different place than it was when Bush left the White House. The glimpses of recuperating American economy and extending the hand of friendship to Islamic world are certainly reasons for the cheer. But is it judicious that the Nobel that slipped Gandhi, the greatest personality of the 20th century, be awarded to Obama-just because no one is worthy of it is in sight?

VIRAJ DESAI

HELP, HELP SYCOPHANS!

Poor Ramakrishnan! We Indians won’t even let him work. His only crime, he happens to be the seventh Indian (or Indian origin) to win the Nobel Prize. A nation of one billion people, we started sending congratulations, each according to his might that his computer system crashed. And with it is gone all his important documents and research papers. All his life-time achievement seems to be deluged in the sycophancy of the largest sycophantic nation of the world.

Success has many fathers but failure has none. In the temple town of Chidambaram, teachers vie with one another claiming to have taught the Nobel laureate chemistry in schools where he never went. Anecdotes depicting his genius and his singularly profound respect for the teacher are invented by the hour that story-telling has become a cottage industry in this town.

VIRAJ DESAI

VERSATILE NEWTON

The apple did not fall on my head because I was holding it in one hand and munching it. In my other hand was Newton and the Counterfeiter, a well-researched and elegantly written book by Thomas Levenson centered on the genius Sir Isaac Newton.

It was Britain’s worst liquidity crisis; recovering still from the Civil War and the Glorious Revolution that saw the Catholic King James II driven out by Mary Stuart and William of Orange. The antiquated silver coins were melted down and sold as bullion in Holland and France where they fetched a much higher price.

The Royal Mint produced nearly half a million pounds worth of silver currency between 1686 and 1690, but in the next five years it could find no silver to coin, putting the Treasury in a spot.

It was then Newton got an SOS from Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Montagne. Lord Montagne knew Newton from Cambridge days and was convinced that only a genius like Newton could solve the problem. When Newton took over as warden in May 1696, he found the Royal Mint riddled with corruption and inefficiency. He was rapidly forced to deploy all his wits against a horde of counterfeiters, chief of which was William Chaloner, a wily rogue who clipped shillings.

Newton realized that the problem had to be fought on two fronts – replacing old coins and eliminating clippers and counterfeiters. He pursued Chaloner relentlessly through the back alleys of the crime-ridden London, interviewing more than two hundred accomplices and enemies until he had enough evidence to build an airtight case. Subsequently, Chaloner was hanged in March 1699.

The book brings out the tenacity of character and the sheer intensity of concentration, and the determination not to let a problem go till he extracted all the answers. John Maynard Keynes described Newton as a versatile genius – lawyer, economist, historian, theologian, mathematician and astronomer. The book reads like a spy thriller and is recommended to anyone looking beyond gastronomical delights.

SNEHA SALONI
snh.sngh3@gmail.com

A HEADMASTER AT 16

At 16, Babar Ali probably is the youngest headmaster in the world. A teenager in charge of teaching hundreds of students in his family's backyard, he runs classes for poor children from his village. The saga of this teenager from Murshidabad (West Bengal) kindles the desire to learn amid the direst poverty-stricken.

Ali rises early, does his household chores, takes an auto-rickshaw and finally walks to Raj Govinda school, 10 km from home. The school is the best in this part of West Bengal, where hundreds of boys and girls attend. In class 12, Ali is studious and smart, and a model student. He is the first member of his family ever to get a proper education.

"It's not easy for me to come to school because I live so far away," he says, "but the teachers are good and I love learning. And my parents believe I must get the best education possible that's why I am here."

Chumki Hajra, a pupil at Babar Ali's school, describes her day thus:
Every morning, instead of going to school, she scrubs the dishes and cleans the homes of her neighbours. She's done this ever since she was five. For her work she earns just 200 rupees a month. It's money her family desperately needs.

"My father is handicapped and can't work. We need the money. If I don't work, we can't survive as a family. So I have no choice but to do this job."

Babar Ali has made it his mission to help Chumki and hundreds of other poor children in his village. The minute his lessons are over at Raj Govinda school, Babar Ali doesn't stop to play. At four o'clock every afternoon after Babar Ali gets back to his family home a bell summons children to his house.

Standing on a podium, Babar Ali lectures them about discipline, then study begins. Babar Ali gives lessons just the way he has heard them from his teachers. Some children are seated in the mud, others on rickety benches under a rough, homemade shelter.

"In the beginning I was just play-acting, teaching my friends, but then I realised these children will never learn to read and write if they don't have proper lessons. It's my duty to educate them, to help our country build a better future."
(Courtesy: BBC News)

Aaheli Bagchi

aaheli.bagchi@gmail.com

TO SEX OR TO CELIBATE

Is it right for a celibate Priest to kiss a married woman, especially when she has come for guidance? The answer depends on whether you have an ethical heart or a human heart. It is, of course, ethically wrong for a man, let alone a priest, to look at a woman with lustful eyes. The human heart that knows the frailties of the flesh whispers: to sex is natural but to celibate is unnatural.

To find one of the partners guilty and let the other go scot- free is undoubtedly a travesty of justice. Medieval societies considered women as temptress and blamed them for anything that goes wrong. The modern society blames it on sex, instead. The pertinent question is that, had the priest stopped at the passionate kiss, would the hapless woman, or perhaps the fortunate woman, let him go?

Passions kindled had to find their logical end, no matter who the prime mover may be. And out of the unholy wedlock came the boy who called his progenitor, the Reverend father, not his own father. Mysterious are the ways of religion which outsiders will never understand.

News report in TOI Delhi (Oct 17, page 18): Pat Bond, who went for a spiritual conference in Illinois 26 years ago, was passionately kissed by Rev Henry Willenborg, a dynamite, handsome priest, drowning her into a vortex of lust with no holds barred. Out came the inevitable, Nathan Halbach, now 22. Both the mother and son are fighting cancer but raising burning moral issues.

Pallavi Malik

malik.pallavi@gmail.com

COOKING FOR THE RETARDED

“The mentally challenged won’t ask for food or money. They normally sit in the same place the whole day, and they are seen in the same place every day,” says N. Krishnan, who has been feeding these hapless one thrice a day for the past seven years.

It costs him Rs 8000 a day, and the Akshaya Trust of Madurai supports him for 22 days a month; the rest comes from his pocket.
A former chef in a five-star-hotel in Bengaluru, he cooks the food himself and serves the mentally retarded. He also disposes of unclaimed corpses of the destitute.

People wonder why he left his five-star job to feed the mentally handicapped. With a smile, he replies, “I just like it”. A winner of the Real Hero Award and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh instituted by CNN-IBN in collaboration with Reliance Industries, he remains a bachelor at 28.

Parvathy Gopalakrishnan

parvathy8288@gmail.com

PHILOSOPHER, IMPOSTOR AND GREAT TEACHER

“I am an imposter. I don’t know what journalism is. I want to learn something. 40 years of ignorance has to end somewhere”, said Jug Suraiya, the inimitable humorist and Associate Editor of The Times of India. He was talking to journalism students at TSJ on Thursday.

The session began with an enquiry of what we had learnt so far. In response to several answers, he affirmed, “One of the best ways to recognize whether you have learnt something is to teach someone.”

He raised some very significant questions: “Are journalists disembodied spirits or are they a part of the community? Are they split personalities? Is journalism cramming opinion down the throats of people?” The answer according to him was, “Journos are like triangles with four angles.”

“Everyone looks at things through the prism of their own experiences, prides and prejudices.” Therefore a certain amount of subjectivity is bound to exist even in the most objective and unbiased reports.

Speaking about the freedom of press he said, “There can never be such a thing called freedom of expression. The journalist’s freedom is circumscribed by the establishment he or she works with.”

“A journalist is first and foremost a reader, listener and viewer. These are the ingredients of a good journalist.”

And his parting shot: "I have to go back and pretend to be a journalist."

Karthik H

karthik.h.krishnan@gmail.com

A TONGUE OF THE SLIP!

It was a Freudian slip. Our netas consider people as cattle – the milich cow to be milked during polls and slaughtered thereafter. A fast learner, Shashi Tharoor understood the game right at the outset. Gandhi cap and Gandhian austerity is not his cup of tea. Champaign and sherry, whiskey and vodka keep the spirit of a diplomat high. And a politician can tighten anybody’s belt but his own. After all, the diplomat-turned-politician has fought and won the election with a convincing majority. It would be an irony if the nation has to spend a fortune to keep Shashi Tharoor poor.

If you're looking for trouble, then politics is the right place. As Shashi Tharoor has seen these past few days, his sense of humour is not in the same level as that of the country or of his party. In politics, absurdity is not a handicap. Absurdity gets a new meaning when certain politicians spend crores of rupees on statues of themselves and elephants. India is a land of faulty subsidies and useless politicians who extend sops and rice for One rupee a kilo, That's governmental economics. It's unfortunate that people like Narayanamoorthy, Amartya Sen and Madhavan Nair are not MPs. Presumably because of the axiom, I think, therefore I am not a MP.

Dipika Rathi

rathi.dipika@gmail.com

PREVENTION BETTER THAN H1N1

The Magsaysay Award-winner, Dr Alan Alappat, spoke to Creative Thinker on the pandemic:
In times of pandemic, I see around 200 patients on a single day at OPD. Of course, I wear a mask and continue my daily routine. It is important to keep the patients correctly informed.The symptoms of H1N1 are:

• Running nose, cough, headache, fatigue and fever
  
• Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in some patients
• Pneumonia and seizures in severe cases( mortality reported at 6%)
  

The best preventive is vaccination, which unfortunately is not yet available. But a few preventive measures can help stall the spread of the epidemic:

Cover your nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing, with a tissue or a handkerchief. If one doesn't have a tissue, cough into your upper sleeve and not into your hands. Dispose oFf the used tissues in a trash.
Wash your hands after you cough or sneeze, with soap and water, and often, if possible, with an alcohol- based hand cleaner. Avoid touching your nose, mouth and eyes.

If you get sick, remain off from work/ school and stay at home. Avoid mixing with others, especially a crowd, at least for 24 hours. After the fever comes down, you can reduce the medication.
Face masks and surgical masks do prevent infection from spreading.
Clarification: Respirator refers to N95 or high filtering facepiece / mask device.Close contact is defined as 6 feet distance.
You cannot get swine flu from pork or pork products.If you suspect influenza, consult your doctor and take Tamiflu or Relenza as a preventive measure or even as treatment. If you have contacted H1N1 patients, or health workers who are susceptible, within 48 hours you can stall or prevent morbidity.

Sandeep Shrivastwa

sandeep.andes@gmail.com

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF DR ALAN

He wakes up around six. A small prayer of thanks giving, sitting in the bed. Thanking God for everything in life, till that moment. Asking God for continued help. And asking Him to heal his patients.
Some 10 minutes of exercise. At the clinic at Orlem, Malad East, Mumbai, around 7.45 a.m. See patients till 1.30 in the afternoon. But during pandemic, till 3 p.m. After lunch, writing letters, sending e-mails, phone calls. Back at the clinic around 5 p.m. and work till 11p.m. But during pandemic, do not leave before midnight.
Every alternate Sunday, get up at five and leave at six for the Adivasi Service Project Free Clinic, 125 km. away from Mumbai. At the clinic from 9 a.m. to 12 pm, and return by 4 p.m. for the evening church service. Usually sleeps 4 to 5 hours a day.

‘‘My aim as a doctor is to help as many sick people as possible, relieve them of their pain and anguish. I enjoy helping the poor, though there is little money. I would go out of my way to help a poor patient than a rich patient who can afford the best of medical treatment. I enjoy working in the Adivasi free clinic in Talwada, and the Free Prayatna Clinic in our church every Thursday afternoon.
‘‘The greatest achievement of my life is that I could execute my service projects without break. Help from friends, old and new, has been overwhelming.
‘‘My role model is Jesus Christ whose immense humility, suffering, hard work and selflessness in healing the sick, poor and suffering has motivated me to follow His footsteps.

‘‘My LORD has said: ‘Whatever you have done to the least of my brethren, you have done unto me’. ‘‘My life has been fruitful by God's grace. At 60, I enjoy good health but swallow 25mgs. of Losartan every day to prevent my B.P. going up. I walk from Mumbai to Shirdi every year, covering some 280 km. And I have been doing it for the last 18 years. The six days of climbing the Kasara ghats on the way is a blessing in disguise. My Mom is 83 years old, and does not touch medicine; she goes to church on her own every day. ‘‘My wife Dr Shobha, and our son Dr. Dennis and daughter-in-law Sumi help me. Our grandchildren Jasmine (6) and Alisha (2 months) are a blessing. My daughter Dr. Lisa and son-in-law Vinod with their son Aryan (2) are settled in Kansas, USA. WHAT MORE DO I WANT FROM GOD!’’

Tista Sengupta

tista.ju@gmail.com

MONSTER THAT DEVOURS CHILDREN

Twelve-year-old Abishek is tormented by fever, cough, diarrhea and acute pain. He is not alone. Two-year-old Ramesh and four-year-old Akash and six-year-old John are tormented, too. All have one thing in common AIDS. They are among the hundred children living in Mukta Jeevan (Veloli, Asangaon) on the Mumbai- Nasik Road, and Ish Krupa (Naya Jeevan) on the highway immediately after Shahapur crossing.

These flowering children, with twinkling eyes and singing and smiling whenever they can, greet visitors. When they hear ‘Doctor Uncle is coming,’ they ran to meet him. “I wish I had more than 10 fingers,’’ says Dr Alan Alappat, who visits them at least twice a year. ‘‘My heart goes out to those children who are unable to come to me because they are bed-ridden with high fever or diarrhea. I try my best to cheer them up.

‘‘They are fond of talking about the movies they watch on TV; John complaining Akash fights with him all the time, Sunita coaxing me to scold Ramesh for being naughty. I love their beaming smiles, each one trying to push the other to come to me.

‘‘The parents of these children died of AIDS, a few in their last stages. Sister Jayshree is their
mother, bathing them, clothing them and serving food to them. These children need extra care
since they have no resistance. That is why HIV/AIDS positive persons are vulnerable to any
disease.

‘‘Last June, I got a call from the Sister saying the children wanted to play in the rain. I bought 25 umbrellas and raincoats and sent them to Mukta Jeevan. Soon we got the message: “The children are dancing and playing in the rain”.

‘‘We cannot cure these children; they will soon die! We cannot give them a golden tomorrow. But at least, we can give them a dignified life today.

‘‘The 13-year- old Lakhan spoke on the World AIDS Day: “ Please don’t make the mistake my parents made! This message is for society at large: Do not indulge in premarital, extra- marital and clandestine sex.

‘‘I thank God for giving me good friends who support me in this endeavour.’’

Dr. Alan Alappat
28405117 28072966

TIPS ABOUT AIDS

Aquired means not inborn but passed from one person to another; it could be from mother to child.
Immune means relating to body’s immune system which provides protection from disease causing germs.
Deficiency means lack of response by the immune system to germs.
Syndrome means signs and symptoms of one or more diseases.

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which attacks and, overtime, destroys the body’s immune system that leads to AIDS.

Symptoms of HIV infection are severe unexplained loss of weight; common diseases like long standing cough, fevers, loose motions, swollen glands not being cured and relieved with medications.

Aids brings in severe and oftener attacks of Tuberculosis, Pneumonia, Herpes, Types of Cancer.
AIDS virus is found in body fluids e.g. semen, vaginal secretion, blood and breast milk of infected persons.

Window period is the time that the body takes to produce measurable amounts of antibodies after getting infection of HIV, this period varies from 2 to 12 weeks or may be longer.
Period between infection with HIV and the beginning of signs and symptoms related to AIDS varies from 6 months to 8 years or more.

Period between full blown AIDS and death may be as short as 6 months to as long as 2 years or more.

HIV is transmitted in 4 common ways:
(1)Unprotected heterosexual or homosexual intercourse with an HIV infected person.
(2) HIV infected blood transfusion.
(3)Sharing of needles, syringes, shaving razors, toothbrushes or any skin piercing instruments or equipment used by HIV infected person which could have been contaminated with infecting body fluids.
(4)HIV infected mother to infant, during pregnancy, delivery and breast milk.

Blood tests: Elisa Test (primary confirmation) …Western Blot Test (final confirmation)
HIV is not transmitted by air, water, foods, toilets, urinals, swimming pools, cutlery, glasses, cups, coughing, sneezing, sitting together, touching, shaking hands, pets, mosquitoes and other insects.

There are no drugs to cure AIDS, but anti-retroviral drugs to delay effects of AIDS virus and thus give sizeable protection to AIDS patients. Many of the diseases associated with AIDS can be treated successfully.

Sandeep Shrivastwa sandeep.andes@gmail.com

Shaily Bhusri shailybhusri@gmail.com

LEADER EXTRAORDINARY!

In politics, victory is history and defeat shattering. The architect of BJP’s defeat,L K Advani, has all the qualities of a leader by their conspicuous absence. A sense of time, a grand vision, decisiveness, the ability to inspire and command respect, the ability to win trust and, above all, the ability to unite are qualities you find in any leader, be it Churchill, Lenin, Napoleon, Kennedy or Nehru, whom the part ideologues never grow tired of berating.

All Advani’s troubles stem from not quitting at the critical moment and not being decisive but dithering. In all his political career, or more precisely before, during or after the general election, he had no grand vision to offer. Instead of rising to Himalayan heights during the campaigning, he went on sniping at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was doing a reasonably good job under great constrains. His credibility was strained more than once challenged by his own party men. His machinations won him enemies in his party, sowing seeds of mistrust. Advani is truly a leader half a century out of date. In a fast changing world, he refused to change and found himself hanging on to a cliffhanger. So much for Advani but Rajnath Singh does not merit our time and space except to remind ourselves that he was in charge of UP assembly elections that ensured the emergence of Mayawati and the decimation of BJP. With the same precision, Singh ensured Sonia Gandhi’s victory and the decimation of his own party at the general election. Greater service, no man can do to his party.

During this crisis time, one lady kept her silence. A leader is one who knows when to speak and when to be silent. Her silence was golden. And Sushma Swaraj reaped a rich harvest for her silence. But Arun Jaitley cannot keep his mouth shut that long. The media savvy urbane glamour boy has a penchant and style that belong to the 21st century. He has no political roots or mass base like Narendra Modi but he can articulate and give a sense of direction to the party that needs leadership. Just imagine, one book triggered the crisis – that too, not on Godse but on Jinnah!

Aaheli Bagchi
aaheli.bagchi@gmail.com

MOST TALKED ABOUT BOOKS
Some authors are more famous than their books, but some books overtake their authors. Books by Amartya Sen and Shashi Tharoor are read for what they are than for any other reason. Sen’s Idea of Justice and Tharoor’s Shadows across the Playing Field are a ‘must’ read.
One billion Indians and 30 millions of injustice cases pending! The tiny state of Manipur has 10000 cases are pending in the Guwahati High court!
That’s not all. The National Human Rights Commission receives more than 75,000 complains a year; the National Crime Bureau registered 27,000 cases of violence against Dalits in 2006, 32,461 cases of murders, 19348 rapes, 7618 dowry death and 36617 molestation cases.
Amartya Sen speaks on the land acquisition by the West Bengal government for Nano plant. He thinks acquisition should be the last resort because while it may be justified as a greater good, when it benefit some and costs others, then the question of what you are going to do for those paying the price arises.
In a society where agriculture is the main employer, land is what you rely on. When you are poor, your life is insecure and you don’t want to be told that your life will go much better if you give up your land. It is not just a sentimental attachment, but rather it’s the thought that “my god! This is the basis on which I live.”
He was supportive of Bengal’s industrialization but they made two mistakes. More public discussion would have helped alleviate the fear for those for whom there would be some loss involved. Basic policy was right. Without industry West Bengal would continue to remain poor, and even if a new government comes, the people who come in will face exactly the same problem. And having created a situation where the whole industrialization process was seen with a sense of suspicious then you have to face the question that what are you going to do? To leave the West Bangle to its poverty or to face the anger of the people was the question?
Justice is a complex idea, but it is important to understand that justice has much to do with everyone being treated fairly. The leading political philosopher, John Rawls, neglects a couple of important connections. One neglect is the central recognition that a theory of justice has to be deeply concerned with how to reduce injustice in the world, rather than only with the identification of what a hypothetical “perfectly just society” would look like.
Second, analysis of justice has to pay attention to the lives that people are actually able to lead, rather than exclusively concentrating only on the nature of “just institutions.” In India, as anywhere else, we have to concentrate on removing injustices that are identifiable and that can be remedied.(Courtesy: G.S. Oinam)
The story of the turbulent cricketing relations between India and Pakistan has been told by Shashi Tharoor and Shaharyar Khan who make an instant cocktail of love of the game and diplomacy. Shashi Tharoor, whose comprehensive, entertaining and hard-hitting analysis of sixty years of cricketing history displays a Nehruvian commitment to secular values, which rejects sectarianism in sport in either country. Shaharyar Khan, a former Pakistan foreign secretary, writes compellingly of his pivotal role as team manager and then chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Control Board at a time when cricket was in the forefront of d’ tenet between the two countries.
The two authors trace the growing popularisation of cricket from the days of the Bombay Pentangular to the Indian Premier League. They show how politics and cricket became intertwined and assess the impact it has had on the game. The book is a celebration of the talent of the many great cricketers who have captivated audiences on both sides of the border. If politics and terrorism can at times stop play, the authors believe that cricket is also a force for peace and they look forward to more normal times and more healthy competition.
Jinnah simply refuses to die! When he has ardent fans like L K Advani and now Jaswant Singh, immortality is assured for Jinnah. Singh’s book is a roaring success in Pakistan and even in India for reasons of curiosity. Singh should privately thank Rajnath Singh and Advani for making his book a controversial sell.