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STEM THE GROWING TIDE OF TEEN SUICIDES

pic courtesy:Google

A friend of mine recently, narrated a very heart-rending incident of the suicide of a young engineering student in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. In a note left by her, she had stated that she was resorting to that extreme step as she could not cope with her studies and that though she had reached final year, there were still many subjects of earlier years to be cleared. 

She was staying with her younger sister, a first year student in a local engineering college.  Her father, a typical middle class parent with high hopes on children, who came from Kakinada to take her home after the examinations were over, was devastated to see her body. 

In her letter to her father, she asked for his forgiveness as she could not fulfill his great expectations of her and asked him to take proper care of her younger sister so that at least she could be of help to him. 

In another incident, a student from Kurnool, committed suicide after seeing the Eamcet result as she had not fared well. Both the incidents are very shocking and too deep for tears. Did they ever think even for a minute of how much of suffering they were subjecting their parents to? What was their failure in examinations when compared to the life-long misery brought upon their parents? 

I am reminded of a very touching book, ‘Does he know the mother’s heart?’ by an eminent journalist, Arun Shourie, about his 35-year-old Spastics child. There is nothing more precious for anybody than one’s own life and to come to a mental state of putting an end to it with one’s own hands is incomprehensible for those who have not passed through that stage.

Hamlet argued within himself why people hesitate to go to that stage of self-immolation, however powerful might be the reasons prompting to it, as they will be going to ‘an undiscovered country from whose Bourne no traveler returns’ and so ‘bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of’.

The moot question before us is: ‘Who is responsible for the situation where teenagers, in a fit of emotion, end their lives? The findings of a recent study by British medical journal Lancet which has identified suicides as the second leading cause of death among the young in India should lead to deeper analysis of the whys and hows of this phenomenon. We have been hearing of suicides by farmers, a shame to the whole country in the words of our great scientist M S Swaminathan, suicides in a large number for the cause of Telangana, a shame to our indecisive rulers, but those of young ones are of a different nature altogether. 

You and I and all of us are responsible for driving them to that stage. For the past quite some time, in AP, more than at other places, we have successfully indoctrinated them with the thought that getting a good rank in AIEEEIIT/Eamcet or whatever,  is a be all and end all of their lives. 

The desire for keeping up with the Joneses is on the increase, quite unmindful of other criteria for that spirit of emulation or competition. There is a mushroom growth of techno schools in every street to instill this thought into the young minds even at an elementary stage. Parents, for obvious reasons, are drawn to high-sounding names, concept schools, international schools and so on, whatever they mean. 

Has there been any attempt to impart moral or higher values to them through right counseling that there is so much life beyond a seat in an engineering or medical college?


P.S. Even as write this piece i have been listening to this song all day today. Its one of my all time favourites. Absolutely loves the lyrics...

This is a Mizo item from the inimitable Vincy. I had never thought Vincy to be  such a good singer but this .... "Suihlung zawng a leng ngei ang. I ngaihlai engkim bang i maw. Mahse lunglen tuar zir mai nang e. Min dem lo la mampui, kiang mai tang e." This is my sentiment right now...:-)Hope you will love it provided you know the meaning of the lyrics.

oh, that magical touch

The most power-filled form of communication is touch. In addition, the intimacy, the need we all have. Michelangelo understood this, the ceiling paintings in the Sistine Chapel, he chose touch to illustrate the life gave. Massasje comes from an Arabic word which means touch. Hippocrates, the father of Medicine, wrote in the fourth century before Christ: "The physician must be familiar with many things, and certainly antripsis" medical massage art.

Massage is medicine and helping with various diseases. It has a positive effect on migraine and diabetes, and it eases the condition of asthmatic patients. It also seems positive for hyperactivity. Massage has a positive effect for both the giver and receiver. Surveys touch applying effects made ​​by Touch Reasearch Institute (TRI). It turns out that the touchscreen also helps to improve concentration in autism. Physical touch-when not only the skin. A simple touch, an arm around his waist, one hand in another, a small string on the cheek can cause the heart to beat more slowly, thereby reducing blood pressure. Positive, good touch endolfiner release, the body's own pain till the middle. Research at TRI shows that massage also strengthens the immune system, even in HIV-positive, and lowers levels of stress hormones cortisol and norepinephrine.


 Touch is the first sense we develop, and the last to be erased. Lack of contact through touch affects the development and emotional well-being. Previously, physios professions that gave massages. Requirements for efficiency and profitability resulted in new therapies, ultrasound, short wave, laser, TENS, mechanical transaction, various gyms and personal training. Life-giving, healing and stimulating massage was too time consuming, and does not fit into a healthcare system that puts increasing demands for efficiency. 


Different massage parlours are located around.Some of these are  associated with something more suspect, and may be used without a referral from a physician. This sort of costly touch can probably still have an effect that contributes to mental peace and harmony, but maybe with a consequent sense of shame? The American pre-school does not have the staff allowed to touch students. This fear of today's hysteria about the judicial interpretations of the abuse of children. In France, teachers dare to show physical affection. This leads to less aggressive and far more harmonious child. Lack of contact of all ages can lead to emotional loneliness, anxiety, restlessness and decreased concentration. Let us take care of each other!


Tailpiece: A Japani came to INDIA...! He took an Auto to go to the airport, on the way a Honda overtakes ... Japani: HONDA made in JAPAN..... very fast... next a toyota overtakes Japani: TOYOTA made in JAPAN.....very fast .... Reached Airport & asked How Much? ... Driver: RS. 800 .... Japani: Why so expensive?? Driver: METER made in INDIA ........''VERY VERY FAST.....'' 

My Tryst with Cake making

I have not the habit to juggle the many recipes as festive cake will be created. But a Sunday afternoon, I was really doing-something-I-not-have-done-before mood and thumbed through the book with dessert cakes. Of all the marvels I stopped at the picture of a beautiful three-piece, high majestic case of a large, round glass dish. Frosting was chocolate brown, smooth and shiny. A large piece of the cake was cut, and cut surface showed three layers of moist vanilla coloured cream in a pastry, with a little aprikosmos on each team. Under the cover was a chocolate layer syltynt marzipan, both on top and sides of the round wonder. The lid was lined with a regular pattern of white marzipan rosettes with coctailbær. 


The recipe was far from new, it had been well hidden and not available for several years. It required not to go. It should be a cake for the big occasion. Now I decided that the opportunity was there. Sugar loaf was unproblematic. There I took my good old, the one called "sponge that never fails." It did this time too. Homemade cream cake, however, I was not so absolutely certain of. Egg yolks, gelatin, maisennamjøl, vanilla bean .... Yes, it should go smoothly. It was just to keep the heat low enough and not blend into nypisket cream too soon. Standby Time went fast. To be honest, it was no wait, for everything else took so long that the custard was cold enough. About Cream has the will, it came to expression now. Egg custard and whipped cream seemed to be enemies, they would certainly not be mixed. The thin, lumpy lubricants, only to remove. It's okay to stay close to the store, one that sells vanilla cream. And with a cooling disc featuring whipped cream at all hours. Marzipan was crunchy smooth with powdered sugar. Kneaded marzipan would roll out a spoon. Round spoon to the top was fine. But a four inch wide strip of thin marzipan to roll around the edge .... and liquid chocolate to cover the marzipan lid .... Why the hell had I not put me firmly into the latter part of the recipe before I embarked on this perilous path? 


Sunday night was moved to last night. No other than I had seen the picture of the elegant marzipan rosettes with coctailbær. There are many ways to decorate a round cake with shiny, bumpy chocolate glaze on. I placed a simple and straightforward approach. 
Kaka was absolutely wonderful - the taste. Not everyone is suitable as confectioners.

THE DARK SIDE OF INDIA'S MEDICAL TOURISM INDUSTRY

                                                ORIGINS OF LOVE : A REVIEW

Kishwar Desai, the author (pic courtesy:Google)

Every couple  dream of the ideal family, replete with a bunch of happy, gurgly babies, the pitter-patter of little feet and eventually a bunch of rambunctious kids. But what happens when this dream comes crashing down because one of the partners cannot have a baby for a medical reason? There’s heartbreak, dejection and often rifts so serious that nothing can heal a relationship. This is exactly where India’s designer baby boom steps in, in Kishwar Desai’s latest novel Origins of Love.

The novel throws light on the booming surrogacy industry in India and all the underhanded business that goes on in India’s many fertility and ART clinics. With the ART Bill still in limbo, there are several loopholes for medical practitioners to exploit and that is exactly what they do in this book. Despite the desperate childless couples heading to clinics in the country, these clinics seem to have one aim — exploit the clients and the surrogates. At the heart of all this money-making business lies a little baby, a product of IVF, abandoned with an ailment that leaves absolutely no hope for her future. But the Pandeys, the couple who run the IVF clinic where this baby, Amelia, was born, have no idea how such an error could have occurred. Until their friend Simran, an activist of sorts, steps in and offers to investigate. Her investigation takes her to London, to try and trace the source of this whole problem, all the time posing as a woman desperate to have a baby, no matter what or who it takes. But what lurks beneath is chilling — so chilling it makes you wonder what the cost of a human life really is.

The plot is interesting and Kishwar Desai successfully weaves in several stories together to form one electrifying novel. There are couples desperate to have babies, there’s a doctor couple promising to make this dream come true, there’s the tout who arranges for the surrogates and then there’s another doctor who is bent on running the ART clinic like a profitable business, all the time conducting his own little secret experiments on embryonic cells.

The outcome of it all has the reader gripped. What really works for Desai’s novel is the fact that it minces no words and brings to fore the booming but somewhat twisted medical tourism in India. Read it,for a glimpse into what really goes on in those little clinics that line nondescript streets, promising to make your baby dreams come true.

Name: Origins of Love

Author: Kishwar Desai
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

GHAZAL KA SAFAR (The journey of the Ghazals)

As I entered the swanky auditorium at the newly opened 5-star Hotel Avasa i was surprised to see all the seats  filled with music enthusiasts and ghazal lovers. The programme, as part of Hydourite 2012 was christened as "Ghazal  Ka Safar"- a grand romantic journey detailing the evolution of the Urdu literary form ghazal from 13the Century to the present. The concert brought together Sahitya Akademi winner poet Nida Fazli and ghazal maestro Rajkumar Rizvi on a pleasant evening marked by storytelling and spontaneous exchanges of creative interpretations of poetry and melody

The stage was lit with the presence of the poet Nida Fazli, musician Rajkumar Rizvi, his daughter Neha Rizvi, an upcoming ghazal singer along with a team of talented accompanying musicians on instruments such as harmonium, sarangi, tabla and acoustic guitar. Hyderabad based tabla player Javed Khan made a notable contribution by providing sensitive accompaniment to Ustad Rizvi's ghazal enditions.

According to Nida Fazli, the literary form "ghazal", technically known to be a collection of two lines poems(sher) sharing the same meter(beher) ia simply another name for love(mohabbat). It was first composed by versatile poet Amir Khusro, who was considered the godfather of Hindi and Urdu languages. In expressing his journey to find God, Khusro said,

        "Mandir bhi tha, uska pata tha,

         Masjid bhi thi uski khabar thi,

         Bhatkay idhar, bhatkay udhar,

         Khoja nahi upna hi ghar"

     (I knew where the temple was and also aware that the mosque existed-  I wandered here and i wandered      there; just forgot to check my own home.)

Rizvi successfully strung the couplets into songs based on popular tunes sung by musicians such as Jagjit Singh's " Kal chaudvin ki raat thi, shab har raha charchaa tera" or Ghulam Ali's "Hungama hai kyoon burpaa, thoidi si jo peeli hai". His command over raga based Hindusthani classical music was evident from the manner he developed the ghazals, sometimes using aakaar alaapa and at other times using crisp sargams.

In a span of two hours, poet Nida wlake the audience through a memorable journey delineating the history and evolution of ghazals. Strating with the creation of ghazal by Amir Khusro in emperor Alauddin Khilji's court, the audience was transported to Benaras, the city of the holy river Ganges, where poet Kabir wrote 150 years later

          Haman hai isq mastana

          Haman hai hoshiyari kya

          Rahein azad ya jag mein

          Haman duniya se yaari kya

      ( Why do I need to be careful? Being free in the world , What of the world's friendship do I need?)

Poet Fazal struck a chord with the audience when he narrated the story of emperor poet Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah(1580-1611) who fell in love with Bhagmati in the city of Bhagyanagar, married her and gave her the title "Hyder Mahal". Bhagyanagar city became the present day Hyderabad deriving its name from the queen's title. Qutub Shah wrote

          Piya baaj pyaala piya jaae na

          Piya baaj ek din jiya jaae na

          Qutub Shah na dey mujh diwaane ko pan

          Diwaane ko kuch pan diya jaae na

Rajkumar Rizvi involved the audience in an interactive session of clapping along to eight beat keherwa taal while explaining salient features of raga jhiunjhoti, on which the ghazal composition was based. Between Fazli's narration, explanation of the difficult Urdu words in the poem to his illustration of melodic elements of the ghazal, the audience was not only entertained but educated on various aspects of history, poetry and raga based music composition.

The next stop was Agra where lesser known poet Nazir Akbaraabadiu conveyed through ghazal the concept of God, common to all languages and religions was expressed differently in different languages. Allah in Arabic was the same as Khuda in Persian. Fazli drew a chuckle from the audience when he recited Akbarabaadi's couplet

           Masjid jo jaa raha hai who hai aadmi

           Jootay choorah raha who bhi aadmi

        (The person  going to a mosque ia a man as much theman, as the one who is stealing shoes.)

From Agra, the poet took the audience on a flight of imagination to the land of Gujarat and recited a ghazal  by poet  Wali Daqni that praised the father-daughter relationship.

          Jisay dektay hi khumari lage,

          usay umra sari hamari lage

Poet Fazli then introduced the audience to the ghazals of Mohammed Taqi known as Mir, court poet of Lucknow's emperor Wajid Ali Shah. His famous ghazal was rendered with feeling by Rajkumari.

        Patta  Patta Boota  Boota

        Haal humaara jaanay hai

        Jaane na jaane gul hi na jaane

        Baag tho saara jaane hai

      ( Every leaf and shrubs knows my plight....   The rose alone does not know what the garden knows...)

The spotlight was then on the ghazals composed by famous poet Mirza Ghalib and Nida Fazli recited them soaked in lyrical beauty.

The remainder of the vening was a continuation of the journey of the ghazal through various Indian cities where the works of classical and contemporary poets were introduced to the audience through recitations and songs.

HIDDEN WONDERS OF HEIDELBERG

Lange lieb‘ ich dich schon, möchte dich, mir zur Lust,

Mutter nennen, und dir schenken ein kunstlos Lied,

    Du, der Vaterlandsstädte

       Ländlichschönste, so viel ich sah....“

(Since long I’ve been loving you now, (and) wish to call you mother in my        pleasure or joy,

   And give you an inartificial tune,

    You(most) dearest in landscape amongst fatherlands,

          I have seen so far…)

   

the Verse was how Friedrich Hölderlin described what is said to be one of today's most romantic city in  Germany ' Heidelberg'.It took away the heart of the Famous Poet- Philosopher Johann wolfgang von Geothe who visted HD several times in his lifetime and wrote several poems describing the Autumn and the Spring in the city.What makes this city one of Germany's most popular tourist destination is hard to describe.

The city, which is a home of over 150,000 people, stands with its massive gothic and roman architecture in the south of Germany in the state of Baden würtemberg.Heidelberg lies on the river Neckar at the point where it leaves its narrow, steep valley in the Odenwald(wald for forest) to flow into the Rhine valley. 20 kilometres  northwest of Heidelberg, it joins the river Rhine at Mannheim. It is also a is part of a densely populated region known as the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region.

No sooner had I arrived this university city by express train from Frankfurt International Airport,I was immediately taken in by its leisureliness and wanted to stand aloof from worldly affairs. It truly is one of the most charming cities I have ever seen. On my first day, apart from various churches including St.Peter’s Church and the 600 year old the Church of the Holy Spirit Church, I visited Carl Bosch Museum which shows the life and work of Chemist and Nobel Prize winner. I also visited German packing Museum which gives me an overview on the history of Packing and wrapping things. My host, an Adventist Pastor enlightened me that Heidelberg is 600000 years old. The oldest jaw bone of mankind was found in 1907 here and therefore name after the city as ‘Heidelberg man’

Heidelberg is also home to one of Europe's oldest educational institutions, the Ruprecht Karls University founded in 1386 by Rupert I Elector Palatine. It is commonly known as the University of Heidelberg. Among the prominent thinkers associated with the university are Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Jaspers, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jürgen Habermas, Karl-Otto Apel and Hannah Arendt. The poet Mohammed Iqbal is alumni of this great University. Eight Nobel laureautes received their awards during their tenure here. Medicene,Philosophy.Anthropology and Physics being the highlights .

The most charming sites of this city is however the Heidelberg Castle and the Philosophen weg(Philosophers way)  On one side of the valley stands the Castle which was almost destroyed by the French. On the other side of the valley Philisophenweg (Philosopher’s Way), winds upwards through orchards and quiet leafy clearings to a series of peaceful viewing gardens – the perfect place for a picnic! We took a guided tour offered by ‘Heidelberg Marketing’ that took us to the castle. Sailing on the river Neckar in the world’s biggest solar-powered cataraman ‘Heidelberger solarschiffarhrstssi elschafty nott’ was amazing. Powered by the sun it glides along the river in a fifty minute round trip. We also went to the wine cellar Here we saw the largest wine barrel in the world- holding 55,345 gallons of wine. There is much charm in this old city along steep river shores

But Heidelberg is not just about the grandiose. The many alleyways offer up all sorts of delectable treats, including the Cafe Knosel. This legendary shop's claim to fame is the "Student Kiss", a nougat and praline delight that young swains purchased as a means to secretly declare their affections to well-chaperoned single ladies in the 1800s.

On the slightly more macabre side of things, the Karzer student prison is definitely worth a peek. The graffiti-covered cells once housed university students from the early 18th to the early 20th centuries who were incarcerated for everything from public brawling and unpaid debts to releasing pigs into the streets. It's fascinating to study the wall-to-wall graffiti from the different time periods, ranging from poetry and protest slogans to caricatures and signatures. Heidelberg is where one can observe the workings of man and nature over the centuries -- much of which still lingers in its modern day life. Little wonder, 3.5 millions of tourists from all over the world are drawn to experience the mystique of Heidelberg every year.

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