Passive smoking can make kids aggressive and anti-social: study

Kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to be physically aggressive and antisocial, a new study has warned. Researchers from University of Montreal in Canada found that aggressive behaviour in kids was linked specifically to secondhand smoke exposure in childhood regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial.

"Second-hand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40 per cent of children worldwide are exposed to it. Moreover, exposure to this smoke at early childhood is particularly dangerous, as the child's brain is still developing," said researcher Linda Pagani.

"I looked at data that was collected about 2,055 kids from their birth until ten years of age, including parent reports about secondhand smoke exposure and from teachers and children themselves about classroom behaviour.

"Those having been exposed to secondhand smoke, even temporarily, were much more likely to report themselves as being more aggressive by the time they finished fourth grade," Pagani said.

Pagani relied on longitudinal data collected by Quebec health authorities from birth onward on an annual basis.

Although no direct causal link can be determined, the statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smoke exposure does forecast deviant behaviour in later childhood, the study found.

The very detailed information collated for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development enabled Pagani to do something no other researcher has done to date: distinguish the unique contribution of secondhand smoke exposure on children's later deviant behaviour.

"Previous studies looking at groups of children have generally asked mothers whether they smoked or not, and how much at each follow-up, rather than asking whether someone smoked in the home where young children live and play," Pagani said.

"Furthermore, few studies have looked at antisocial behaviour in the parents and even fewer have investigated the subsequent influence of prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke over the long term.

"None have taken into account the fact that disadvantaged families are less likely to participate in a long study like this one, which of course skews the statistics," Pagani said.

The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

 

Indian Express

Kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to be physically aggressive and antisocial, a new study has warned. Researchers from University of Montreal in Canada found that aggressive behaviour in kids was linked specifically to secondhand smoke exposure in childhood regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial. "Second-hand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40 per cent of children worldwide are exposed to it. Moreover, exposure to this smoke at early childhood is particularly dangerous, as the child's brain is still developing," said researcher Linda Pagani.
"I looked at data that was collected about 2,055 kids from their birth until ten years of age, including parent reports about secondhand smoke exposure and from teachers and children themselves about classroom behaviour.
"Those having been exposed to secondhand smoke, even temporarily, were much more likely to report themselves as being more aggressive by the time they finished fourth grade," Pagani said.
Pagani relied on longitudinal data collected by Quebec health authorities from birth onward on an annual basis.
Although no direct causal link can be determined, the statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smoke exposure does forecast deviant behaviour in later childhood, the study found.
The very detailed information collated for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development enabled Pagani to do something no other researcher has done to date: distinguish the unique contribution of secondhand smoke exposure on children's later deviant behaviour.
"Previous studies looking at groups of children have generally asked mothers whether they smoked or not, and how much at each follow-up, rather than asking whether someone smoked in the home where young children live and play," Pagani said.
"Furthermore, few studies have looked at antisocial behaviour in the parents and even fewer have investigated the subsequent influence of prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke over the long term.
"None have taken into account the fact that disadvantaged families are less likely to participate in a long study like this one, which of course skews the statistics," Pagani said.
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/passive-smoking-can-make-kids-aggressive-and-antisocial-study/1119167/0#sthash.ugUuGu2L.dpuf

Kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to be physically aggressive and antisocial, a new study has warned. Researchers from University of Montreal in Canada found that aggressive behaviour in kids was linked specifically to secondhand smoke exposure in childhood regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial. "Second-hand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40 per cent of children worldwide are exposed to it. Moreover, exposure to this smoke at early childhood is particularly dangerous, as the child's brain is still developing," said researcher Linda Pagani.
"I looked at data that was collected about 2,055 kids from their birth until ten years of age, including parent reports about secondhand smoke exposure and from teachers and children themselves about classroom behaviour.
"Those having been exposed to secondhand smoke, even temporarily, were much more likely to report themselves as being more aggressive by the time they finished fourth grade," Pagani said.
Pagani relied on longitudinal data collected by Quebec health authorities from birth onward on an annual basis.
Although no direct causal link can be determined, the statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smoke exposure does forecast deviant behaviour in later childhood, the study found.
The very detailed information collated for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development enabled Pagani to do something no other researcher has done to date: distinguish the unique contribution of secondhand smoke exposure on children's later deviant behaviour.
"Previous studies looking at groups of children have generally asked mothers whether they smoked or not, and how much at each follow-up, rather than asking whether someone smoked in the home where young children live and play," Pagani said.
"Furthermore, few studies have looked at antisocial behaviour in the parents and even fewer have investigated the subsequent influence of prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke over the long term.
"None have taken into account the fact that disadvantaged families are less likely to participate in a long study like this one, which of course skews the statistics," Pagani said.
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/passive-smoking-can-make-kids-aggressive-and-antisocial-study/1119167/0#sthash.ugUuGu2L.dpuf

Kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to be physically aggressive and antisocial, a new study has warned. Researchers from University of Montreal in Canada found that aggressive behaviour in kids was linked specifically to secondhand smoke exposure in childhood regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial. "Second-hand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40 per cent of children worldwide are exposed to it. Moreover, exposure to this smoke at early childhood is particularly dangerous, as the child's brain is still developing," said researcher Linda Pagani.
"I looked at data that was collected about 2,055 kids from their birth until ten years of age, including parent reports about secondhand smoke exposure and from teachers and children themselves about classroom behaviour.
"Those having been exposed to secondhand smoke, even temporarily, were much more likely to report themselves as being more aggressive by the time they finished fourth grade," Pagani said.
Pagani relied on longitudinal data collected by Quebec health authorities from birth onward on an annual basis.
Although no direct causal link can be determined, the statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smoke exposure does forecast deviant behaviour in later childhood, the study found.
The very detailed information collated for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development enabled Pagani to do something no other researcher has done to date: distinguish the unique contribution of secondhand smoke exposure on children's later deviant behaviour.
"Previous studies looking at groups of children have generally asked mothers whether they smoked or not, and how much at each follow-up, rather than asking whether someone smoked in the home where young children live and play," Pagani said.
"Furthermore, few studies have looked at antisocial behaviour in the parents and even fewer have investigated the subsequent influence of prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke over the long term.
"None have taken into account the fact that disadvantaged families are less likely to participate in a long study like this one, which of course skews the statistics," Pagani said.
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/passive-smoking-can-make-kids-aggressive-and-antisocial-study/1119167/0#sthash.ugUuGu2L.dpuf

Kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to be physically aggressive and antisocial, a new study has warned. Researchers from University of Montreal in Canada found that aggressive behaviour in kids was linked specifically to secondhand smoke exposure in childhood regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial. "Second-hand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40 per cent of children worldwide are exposed to it. Moreover, exposure to this smoke at early childhood is particularly dangerous, as the child's brain is still developing," said researcher Linda Pagani.
"I looked at data that was collected about 2,055 kids from their birth until ten years of age, including parent reports about secondhand smoke exposure and from teachers and children themselves about classroom behaviour.
"Those having been exposed to secondhand smoke, even temporarily, were much more likely to report themselves as being more aggressive by the time they finished fourth grade," Pagani said.
Pagani relied on longitudinal data collected by Quebec health authorities from birth onward on an annual basis.
Although no direct causal link can be determined, the statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smoke exposure does forecast deviant behaviour in later childhood, the study found.
The very detailed information collated for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development enabled Pagani to do something no other researcher has done to date: distinguish the unique contribution of secondhand smoke exposure on children's later deviant behaviour.
"Previous studies looking at groups of children have generally asked mothers whether they smoked or not, and how much at each follow-up, rather than asking whether someone smoked in the home where young children live and play," Pagani said.
"Furthermore, few studies have looked at antisocial behaviour in the parents and even fewer have investigated the subsequent influence of prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke over the long term.
"None have taken into account the fact that disadvantaged families are less likely to participate in a long study like this one, which of course skews the statistics," Pagani said.
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/passive-smoking-can-make-kids-aggressive-and-antisocial-study/1119167/0#sthash.ugUuGu2L.dpuf

Kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to be physically aggressive and antisocial, a new study has warned. Researchers from University of Montreal in Canada found that aggressive behaviour in kids was linked specifically to secondhand smoke exposure in childhood regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial. "Second-hand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40 per cent of children worldwide are exposed to it. Moreover, exposure to this smoke at early childhood is particularly dangerous, as the child's brain is still developing," said researcher Linda Pagani.
"I looked at data that was collected about 2,055 kids from their birth until ten years of age, including parent reports about secondhand smoke exposure and from teachers and children themselves about classroom behaviour.
"Those having been exposed to secondhand smoke, even temporarily, were much more likely to report themselves as being more aggressive by the time they finished fourth grade," Pagani said.
Pagani relied on longitudinal data collected by Quebec health authorities from birth onward on an annual basis.
Although no direct causal link can be determined, the statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smoke exposure does forecast deviant behaviour in later childhood, the study found.
The very detailed information collated for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development enabled Pagani to do something no other researcher has done to date: distinguish the unique contribution of secondhand smoke exposure on children's later deviant behaviour.
"Previous studies looking at groups of children have generally asked mothers whether they smoked or not, and how much at each follow-up, rather than asking whether someone smoked in the home where young children live and play," Pagani said.
"Furthermore, few studies have looked at antisocial behaviour in the parents and even fewer have investigated the subsequent influence of prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke over the long term.
"None have taken into account the fact that disadvantaged families are less likely to participate in a long study like this one, which of course skews the statistics," Pagani said.
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/passive-smoking-can-make-kids-aggressive-and-antisocial-study/1119167/0#sthash.ugUuGu2L.dpuf

Kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to be physically aggressive and antisocial, a new study has warned. Researchers from University of Montreal in Canada found that aggressive behaviour in kids was linked specifically to secondhand smoke exposure in childhood regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial. "Second-hand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40 per cent of children worldwide are exposed to it. Moreover, exposure to this smoke at early childhood is particularly dangerous, as the child's brain is still developing," said researcher Linda Pagani.
"I looked at data that was collected about 2,055 kids from their birth until ten years of age, including parent reports about secondhand smoke exposure and from teachers and children themselves about classroom behaviour.
"Those having been exposed to secondhand smoke, even temporarily, were much more likely to report themselves as being more aggressive by the time they finished fourth grade," Pagani said.
Pagani relied on longitudinal data collected by Quebec health authorities from birth onward on an annual basis.
Although no direct causal link can be determined, the statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smoke exposure does forecast deviant behaviour in later childhood, the study found.
The very detailed information collated for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development enabled Pagani to do something no other researcher has done to date: distinguish the unique contribution of secondhand smoke exposure on children's later deviant behaviour.
"Previous studies looking at groups of children have generally asked mothers whether they smoked or not, and how much at each follow-up, rather than asking whether someone smoked in the home where young children live and play," Pagani said.
"Furthermore, few studies have looked at antisocial behaviour in the parents and even fewer have investigated the subsequent influence of prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke over the long term.
"None have taken into account the fact that disadvantaged families are less likely to participate in a long study like this one, which of course skews the statistics," Pagani said.
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/passive-smoking-can-make-kids-aggressive-and-antisocial-study/1119167/0#sthash.ugUuGu2L.dpufggg

India needs to invest in research and doctoral education""

For India to become a brain bank, it has to become a source for first class scholarship where new theories, products, and ideas are generated for itself and the rest of the world.

India may exude a great deal of confidence in its technological capabilities today.

“Confidence is a big plus, but misplaced confidence brings catastrophe,” cautioned Prof Shyam Sunder, Yale University.

To build a strong future, it is important to know at which level of knowledge do India’s IT or other industries operate in.

Referring to the instance of Infosys which said only 2 per cent of 1.3 million job applicants are acceptable, he said the quality of education in India is below average. Almost two thirds of universities and 90 per cent of colleges in the country are rated as below average on quality parameters.

“Unless India invests heavily in research and doctoral education today, the quality of its higher education will continue to decline, with serious consequences for its economy,” he said.

rethinking

Speaking at a Round table on higher education reforms in India, organised here by the Great Lakes Institute of Management, he said India lags in innovation, and needs to seriously rethink the future of innovation and original research in the Indian economy.

He pointed out that no institution can offer quality education with profits as its prime agenda.

The business community in India largely see higher education as a new entrepreneurial frontier for making money, he said.

Teaching & research

Money matters, but is not the only factor.

There are thousands of engineering colleges in the country, but who teaches there, he asked, and said, “Someone who passed out just a couple of years ago and could not land any other job.”

Giving the analogy of the farmer who saves the best grains for seed, he said India must attract a sufficiently large number of its talented youth for teaching and scholarship.

“PhD programmes are the seed farms for national intellect to instruct, expose, explore, innovate and inspire the youth,” he said.

According to him, what needs to be done is that the Indian economy and higher education must be viewed not merely in relation to its own past, but also relative to its neighbourhood and the world. 

-The Hindu 

Man with bright idea saves 50m gallons of drinking water a day

Overflowing Modak Sagar water redirected to Tansa, Man with bright idea saves 50m gallons of drinking water a day

Yogesh.Naik @timesgroup.com, Mumbai Mirror

If the city gets through the next 12 months without suffering a severe water crisis despite what has been an extremely poor monsoon, citizens will have a retired civic engineer to thank.

Prakash Limaye, who retired from the BMC‘s Waterworks department earlier this year, is based 100 km from Mumbai and is single-handedly saving nearly 50 million gallons of potable water — enough for 1 million people daily — from flowing into the Arabian Sea every day. On an average, Mumbai consumes 750 million gallons of water a day.

The idea itself is a combination of simplicity and common sense — terms not easily associated with the civic body.

Located 22 kms apart, Tansa and Modak Sagar dams are chief sources of drinking water to Mumbai. With below average rainfall this season, the water level at the 19-sq-km Tansa lake on Tansa river has stayed well below the desired level.

On the other hand, the eight-sq-km Modak Sagar, situated on the banks of Vaitarna river, started overflowing last week, and the city would have lost millions of gallons of drinking water to the sea had it not been for Limaye’s plan.

The pipeline connecting Modak Sagar to Mumbai passes through the periphery of Tansa. Limaye’s plan involves opening up valves on the pipelines at points closest to Tansa, thereby enabling the excess water to flow into Tansa instead of being wasted.

There are 30 scour valves passing through Tansa, each capable of releasing an average of 10 million gallons of water into the lake. At the moment, the BMC is opening 5-8 valves a day — saving close to 50 million gallons of drinking water in the process every day. In all, 400 million gallons of water have been banked over the last eight days.

Limaye, who has built his retirement home just 2 km from Tansa, is helping sub-engineer Vilas Aher in the operation. These valves need to be opened and shut manually — in fact, with a wrench — every day.

“Modak Sagar fills up quickly and overflows when there is a consistent rainfall of 900 mm, while Tansa requires around 1300-1400 mm of rainfall to fill to the brim. This year, we realised that it would be difficult to fill Tansa, so we proposed that the valves of the pipes that pass on its periphery be opened up,” Limaye said.

“We have opened up five scours of the pipe coming from Modak Sagar towards Tansa and also stopped the water supply (daily share of 100 million gallons) from Tansa. As a result, the level of Tansa goes up by a foot (0.33 metres) daily. Each day, nearly 50 million gallons of water gets transferred from Modak Sagar to Tansa,” Aher said.

Limaye, incidentally, had drawn up this blueprint in 2009, but a delay in getting the required approvals ensured that it was too late by the time the idea was implemented. That year, the city had to face acute water shortage, with the BMC imposing 15 per cent cuts on residential consumers.

With adequate rainfall in the next two years, the idea was as good as shelved. But with the monsoons barely registering, Limaye was at hand to prevent the taps from running dry.

-Wordpress

Good to go with your gut

Intuition is the signal your unconcsious mind sends you, telling you to do something or not. Hone it, say experts

Mitali.Parekh @timesgroup.com 

    Has it ever happened that your phone beeped, and you knew it was your client. Some call it a hunch, others, a fleeting flash of intuition. The word intuition is derived from the Latin in + tuiri (to look at), and in psychological terms, it’s nothing more than connecting, within a context, a range of information that the unconscious mind is absorbing every minute. “Our unconscious mind observes and stores every ounce of data,” says neurolinguistic programming expert Malti Bhojwani. “And when needed, it picks up relevant information and presents it to us. For instance, you know it is your client’s text, because you had sent him/her one earlier, and your unconscious mind calculated the time it would take for him/her to read it, based on information it had about his/her work schedule.” Intuition is like a signal that tells you to do something or not, pulling you in a certain direction so that you end up being at the right place at the right time. It may tell you that your orientation feels right or wrong. Most often, it comes to you unexpectedly. The ability to use your intuition is like using a muscle, says Mumbaibased Bhojwani. And like any other muscle in the human body, the more you use it, the stronger it grows. Bhojwani, who has discussed the phenomenon in her recent book, Don’t Think of a Blue Ball, tells you how to recognise a hunch, and strengthen it using simple techniques.
PLUGGING IN
‘Plugging In’ is the term Bhojwani uses for meditation — alone time with yourself, sitting in silence, finding your axis, praying — you can call it anything you like. All you need to do is sit by yourself, in a relaxed position of ‘openness’, i.e. shoulders thrown back, spine straight, legs and hands uncrossed.
    Accept your thoughts and feelings as they come, and let them go. Slowly, become aware of your breathing. If you like, you can ask for help, internally, from a higher power. If you don’t, think of the problem you need help with — this makes your conscious mind run down to the library of your unconscious mind with an intention. The unconscious then runs through its files of observations, and throws up all that can help you in the given situation.
    Bhojwani emphasises on connecting with the universe, or a higher self. To do this, she imagines roots growing from her feet deep into the ground and vibrations from her head reaching to the sky. You could also try imagining that you are gradually being filled with a white light, or happiness or love.
Focus on the space between your brows, where the chakra that governs third sight sits, if that is your belief.
    Bhojwani suggests doing this whenever you can, for however long, even if it is just before you fall asleep every night. Three short sessions of three to five minutes a day will help.
EXPAND-CONTRACT
Once you are plugged in, expand your sphere of observation. You have to do this on three levels — visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. Take in the details of the colours around you, the textures, the difference in shapes and shades. Notice the layers of sounds — conversations around you, sounds of traffic, bird chirping, and the voices in your head. Then, there is what you feel on your skin — the temperature, direction of air, the feeling of the sofa you are sitting on, etc.
    By doing this, you are bringing to a conscious level what your unconscious notices and stores. Thus, you will be able to recall it better.
    Now contract your focus. Take one thing, say the feeling of the chair you are sitting on, and notice the sensations minutely. The pressure you feel, the strain of the cloth on your seat, how it leads to tension between the hip and the knee. You are exercising your senses, and training your mind to recognise everything it put away, making it more diligent so you can tell the next time you have a hunch.
    You can turn this into a game you play while commuting back from work.
KEEP A JOURNAL
Reviewing hunches helps validate them. Carry a notebook and jot down every thought. From time to time, see how many of these come true, and you might end up recognising your strengths. This will also help you weed out prejudice — you knew your friend would not get back to you with a job contact, but she did. Your hunch was wrong, but then so was your prejudice.
    When you are likely to meet a group of people later, jot down your impressions of them. Mr A is a single child; Ms B went to boarding school, etc. When you get the chance, ask them about your guesses and see whether you were right. Then break down the reasons — perhaps Ms B’s independence and easy confidence is something you’ve seen in your cousin, who went to boarding school.
    This practice will help you recognise the information, and make connections.
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED
Another exercise Bhojwani suggests is to see how everything is connected. While this doesn’t work your intuition directly, it helps calm you down in a crisis, which indirectly means your brain works better since it is relaxed, and allows you to notice your hunches.
    At the end of the day, acknowledge one positive occurrence. It could be something as small as getting to unexpectedly eat your favourite dessert. Trace the chain of events that led to this — your colleague was supposed to go to a client meeting, but (s)he fell ill (and you were irritated you had to fill in). The client insisted on meeting at the restaurant that happens to serve your favourite dessert. That’s how you ate two banoffies on company account!
    When you make a habit of going through this routine, you won’t be thrown off guard by momentary disruptions and begin believing that in the end, it will be alright. 

 

-Mumbai Mirror

SLEEP LIKE AN OLYMPIAN

SLEEP LIKE AN OLYMPIAN

14 can’t-go-wrong tips from sleep expert to the British Cycling team

    How do sports stars like Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and other members of the British cycling team ensure they wake up refreshed when their big day dawns? Sports sleep expert Nick Littlehales created personalised pillows and layered memory foam mattresses, covered by hypoallergenic sheets and had them set up at the Olympic Village last month. The sleep coach tells you how to sleep to win.  

1.CHECK YOUR MATTRESS, PILLOW AND BEDDING
Are they lending you the right support? “Your mattress should take your body shape and weight easily — almost as if you don’t need a pillow,” says Littlehales. “Get someone to analyse you lying on the bare mattress, in a foetal position on your nondominant side (so if you’re righthanded, lie on your left side). This is the natural sleeping position. If there is a clear gap of five centimetres or more between your head and mattress, or you feel your head dropping on to the mattress, it could be too firm. Head raised out of line? The mattress may be too soft.”  

2 THINK OF SLEEP IN TERMS OF 90-MINUTE CYCLES
During each cycle, the body goes through five stages essential to overall recovery. These include ‘light sleep’, ‘deep sleep’ and ‘REM sleep’ (when we dream). Plan to wake at the end of a cycle, rather than mid-cycle. Work backwards from the time you need to wake up to find your optimum ‘turning in’ time. So, if you need to wake at 6.30 am, your optimum turningin time is 11 pm. This includes 15 minutes to fall asleep and 15 minutes to wake — and five 90-minute cycles of refreshing sleep.  

3 ZONE OUT MID-AFTERNOON
Between 1 pm and 4 pm, find a quiet place to sit or lie. Once relaxed and comfortable, set an alarm to go off 20 minutes later, close your eyes, drift and let go. Even if you don’t fall asleep you’ll still reap the benefits.  

4 DON’T GET EXHAUSTED Don’t allow yourself to get so tired that you fall asleep the moment your head hits the pillow. “This is counter-productive — you are skipping stages and going straight into deep sleep,” Littlehales says.  

5 CHILL AFTER EVERY 90 MINUTES OF WORK
Like an athlete, make sure your day contains a balance of activity and recovery with “round-theclock” 90-minute cycles. Ensure each cycle contains a five or tenminute break. So for every oneand-half hour at your desk, get up and walk around the office or grab some fresh air. These breaks will allow you to process your thoughts and stop worry affecting sleep time later. 

 6 UNWIND IN THE EVENING Plan a 90-minute unwinding slot between 7.30 pm and 9 pm if possible. Take a gentle 20-minute walk, or do some yoga, followed by 15 minutes of sitting quietly. Allow your brain to ‘download’ your day and plan for tomorrow.  

7 DINE EARLY Eat your final meal three to four hours before turning in, and any bedtime snacks at least 90 minutes before you hit the bed, so that you don’t go to sleep on a full bowel or bladder.  

8 TAKE A TECHNO BREAK Detach from emails and texts and write a “to do” list. Decluttering your mind will boost deep sleep by 60 per cent.  

9 FROM 9 PM TO 10.30PM PREPARE FOR SLEEP
On some days, pamper, relax, unwind at this time. Candlelight triggers the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Ease stress and muscle tension with light stretches.  

10 DON’T TAKE WATER TO BED
It’s a trigger to your body to wake for a drink. Waking up thirsty shows you’re not hydrated enough when you turn in or that you’re sleeping with your mouth open, so you’re not comfortable.  

11 AVOID USING ALARM ON PHONE OR COMPUTER They are communication tools. Stick to a functional alarm clock.  

12 KEEP BEDROOM COOL In warm weather, focus on keeping the bedroom cool during the day. Drawing the curtains will help, too. Keep the windows open at night to let in fresh air. 

 13 MAKE IT DARK AND COSY Fit blackout blinds to ensure total darkness. 

 14 SLEEP LIKE A FOETUS
At your optimum sleep time, get into bed, curl up into the foetal position on your non dominant side and let go

-Mumbai Mirror

Song of the sparrow

The World Sparrow Day, being observed today, reminds us of the need to welcome sparrows back into our cities. There are many reasons for the disappearance of this tiny bird, including a change in farming practices, architecture and lifestyles, writes Antony P U

The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) has become a rarity over the years due to various reasons. Noisy and gregarious, this cheerful exploiter of man’s wastefulness is a Red List species today. Human-altered habitats, particularly farm areas, are preferred by them. House sparrows are granivorous and 96 per cent of the adult diet is made up of livestock feed, plant materials like grain, fruit, seeds, and garden plants. G arbage, bread crumbs and refuse from fast-food restaurants can support sparrow populations in urban habitats. The current worldwide distribution of this bird is a result of this commensal relationship of it with humans.

As agriculture and human civilisations expanded, house sparrows experienced a correlated and massive expansion in range and numbers. Due to their abundance, ease to raise and general lack of fear towards humans, the house sparrow has proved to be an excellent model for many avian biological studies. To date, there have been nearly 5,000 scientific papers published with the house sparrow as the study species.

They are persistent and fairly intelligent. House sparrows are aggressive and social, both of which increases their ability to compete with most native birds. Sparrows do not migrate. While house sparrows are tolerant of disturbance by humans, they can in no way be considered tame. Their success lies in their ability to exploit new habitats, particularly those influenced by humans.

Falling numbers

House sparrow numbers have fallen significantly since they peaked in the 1920s, when food and wastes from horses furnished an unlimited supply of food. One question of considerable interest concerns the catastrophic house sparrow population declines in several urban centres of the world.

Possible reasons proposed are changing agricultural practices such as a shift to monoculture crop plantings and sealing grain stores to reducing access and spillage, increased pollution, use of herbicides/pesticides and its impact on food sources. There are various other causes for dramatic decrease in their population, one of the more surprising being the introduction of unleaded petrol.

Denis Summers-Smith who is recognised as a world expert on sparrows presumes that the unleaded fuel, believed to be eco-friendly, had harmful byproducts. The fuel uses Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) as an anti-knocking agent. Along with byproducts of combustion, this kills small insects. The insecticidal nature of the byproducts makes the food for those birds feeding on insects scarce. Though adult sparrows can survive without insects in their diet, they need them to feed their young. With fewer insects to feed on, the infant mortality rates of sparrows went up.

Reduction in areas of free growing weeds or a drop in the number of badly-maintained buildings, which are important nesting opportunities for sparrows, have also contributed to the disappearance of the bird. The widespread use of chemical pesticides in farmlands has resulted in the killing of insects on which these birds depend. Seed-eating birds like sparrows have to depend on soft-bodied insects to feed their young ones.

Predation by crows and cats

The other possibility could be increased predation by crows and cats. Crows have grown in number as a result of garbage accumulation in the city. Changing lifestyles and architectural evolution have wreaked havoc on the bird’s habitat and food sources. Modern buildings are devoid of cozy nesting sites for sparrows like ventilators, eaves and crannies. This, coupled with disappearing home gardens, are playing a part in the sparrow’s disappearing act.

My casual observations in selected areas of Bangalore to correlate the abundance of the bird with architecture of the buildings, commercial activities going on, human population and their lifestyle, etc convey that sparrows are not totally extinct from Bangalore, but there are still areas where significant populations of this bird exists. Some such areas that I came across in the southern and eastern parts of Bangalore are the Rajendra Nagar slum in Koramangala, Anjaneya Temple Street and AR Colony in Adugodi, S G Palaya, Ejipura, New Tippasandra in Indira Nagar, wholesale fruit market in Huskur, etc.

A moderate number was observed in churches like Infant Jesus Church in Vivek Nagar and St. Mary’s Basilica in Shivajinagar. They were active even in the vicinity of various small old temples buildings in Adugodi and Ejipura. It is very interesting to note that sparrows are mostly the companions of poor and middle income groups in slums and old villages within the city where people have still retained their thatched houses and their old lifestyles and food habits. Shops and other establishments like flour mills, grocery shops, where they store grains in open bags, etc, invite more sparrows in slums and villages. Even the old-styled electric poles with all the wires strewn out haphazardly form ideal roosting places for the birds here.

Architecture makes a difference

Not even a single sparrow was noticed in any of the posh, planned residential layouts like Koramangala, Jayanagar, BTM Layout, Indira Nagar, etc. or even in the outskirts of Bangalore with organised apartments. Living in close proximity with humans, sparrows used to build their nests below tiled roofs. With contemporary architecture making a clean sweep in Bangalore, tiled roofs have become a thing of the past, and sparrows have lost many a nesting spot. Also, the birds were used to pecking at grain in the backyards of homes where people cleaned paddy or wheat. Grain spills outside godowns or provision stores drew a lot of sparrows twittering over them. But now, with backyard cleaning virtually extinct, and polythene packaging taking over from gunny bags, there are no handy spills, and neither are there twitters.

In recent times, sparrows are not the only birds that have moved out from cities. In Bangalore, one used to see a lot of warblers, barbets, bee-eaters, kingfishers, golden orioles and sun birds. Today, most of them have given way to scavenger birds like crows, mynahs and kites which feed on the large amount of garbage generated in the City. Our smoky and unfriendly cities may be forcing birds to take wing and head elsewhere. The challenge is to arrest that and to bring back some of these little winged beauties that were common not so long ago. This requires giving up on luxurious lifestyles that allow harmonious living with other species. The World Sparrow Day reminds us of this need. 

-Deccan Herald 

Election reforms a Must: #NOTA - top priorty agenda

Why can't there be a "None of the above" (NOTA) option in the electronic voting machine (EVM) ??
          This will make MPs/MLAs accountable transparent and responsible in the long run! Using the article 49-0 is a bul****t process! Nobody does that and nobody cares! And also it never empowers the Election Commission to disqualify a candidate. Please bring in #NOTA option in electronic voting machine & see the change! I won't say there will be a paradigm shift but a slow change.#NOTA option will also make the citizens responsible and accountable for running the government. Either you choose one or you REJECT all. 

Make #NOTA stronger. If a candidate looses to NOTA votes he looses the eligibility to stand as candidate in elections for next twenty years.This will go a long way to clean up the politics.This will also stop politics of division of votes. Practically, general public won't go to vote if you don't pay them to vote. Thus #NOTA coming in majority is practically difficult-but still the politicians are afraid or against that idea! But still it a very important and urgent election reforms that has to be enacted.


Theoretically, it is actually not selection but rejection that takes place.When you look at the trend of Indian elections, the statistics show winning margin of average 20-25% votes in the voting percentage of 50-60%. Remember that too after the public is given bribes (min. Rs. 1000/- in cash per vote) to vote for them or in form laptops, phones, sarees and what not!

In places where people are more aware these bribing also not works and the voting percentage is below 50%. Not to forget a significant amount of eligible voters don't have their names in the voters' list-that is another way of manipulating results. 


The voting percentage rises with awareness, reaches a saturation and then falls with increase in knowledge and experience - when the citizens realise he has no power to change anything with his voting power, and he stays away from voting. Abstaining from voting has a serious effect in multiparty elections than in bi-party systems like in Kerala and West Bengal.


If we give them a choice to reject the candidate- no one will be selected.Since it is practically difficult to implement that system it is enough to implement the REJECT ALL (#NOTA) into EVM to get that trend.

INDIA is called largest democracy in the world, but is run by parties which promote nepotism, corruption, criminals & communalism. #NOTA is the only way to cleanup!!!

Now in India everything stinks - judiciary to Lokayutta, Department of Science and Technology to Education ministry, ARMY to DRDO, DAE to ISRO, NREGA scams, 2G scams,  CWG scam, IPL scams, and still nobody is held accountable.


In recent 2012 UP elections campaign Congress was portraying  Rahul Gandhi as their Prime-ministerial candidate. BJP played a game-they declared if the congress looses the UP elections it will be termed as rejection of Rahul Gandhi. The congress suddenly made a U-turn in their campaign. they said Rahul Gandhi is not in the race of Prime-ministership. They brought in Priyanka Gandhi to emphasis that claim. In short, here nobody absolutely - nobody wants to be held responsible or accountable. This is a very good culture we developed!

#NOTA is the only option for the general public to show its anger of continued exploitation of the ruling parties & incompetent opposition.You can see so many number of scams and irregularities in the governance but the opposition is absolutely incompetent to bring the government down. There is a behind the door deal between every ruling party and the opposition that a common man on the road also knows. But he can't do anything. All these Bas****ds are eating the public money and we say chalta hai. We can't even touch their hair. They have billions of dollars of black money stashed in Swiss bank and we quietly and obediently pay our taxes! They have the A-Z security. They have the keys to all the gates they are the law makers and we the slaves. How long are we supposed to eat this sh*t?!

 In this 21st century as U R Rao said  "Right people needed to be put in the right place." The country's development was dependent on its science and technology and not on religion/region/Caste based politics.

The common man is now so used to these issues that he now never questions them.The middle class, the so called literate, educated  and intellectuals, is a small percentage and government pleases them in between by providing them with salary and DA hikes in between. This class even tough a small percentage sets the trend in favour of ruling party. This percentage may increase but will be kept so busy all the time that they will only get the time and energy to make the both ends meet. The rising cost of living and education is the main cause of their worries. The privatization of education sector implies now that the ones who have the money to pay for donation and capitation fees need only study rest all will be provided with NREGA bonus. Then for entertainment they all the best saas-bahu and reality shows on the TV to stop them waking up to reality around. They are now more interested to know whether the child born to a celebrity couple is a boy or a girl than to know why the price rises after every elections?

There is nothing called as "Free Lunch". They are killing with slow poison. They are making the people live for the small pieces of bread thrown here and there and keep them begging as they have forgotten to cultivate the wheat and make the bread on their own.


They want the uneducated class to exist as huge eternal vote banks. The sad point of democracy is that-you will only get average of all individuals-mediocrity. The quality will get only poorer and poorer with larger chunk of illiterate population provided with voting rights and a thousand rupees note.


It is the responsibility of intellectuals (the dying numbers) to show these facts to the society. But now who is bothered?! How intelligently they killed the huge momentum of  anti-graft movement ?!


Can we ever dream of doing anything against them?

Do we have a choice?

 I know none of these reforms will take place. And I know we won't revolt like the Arab Spring Revolutions - as either we believe in gandhigiri or are divided by caste/religion/region based politics. We can't and won't unite for a common cause. And these  Bas****ds know that very well and will keep us ruling for many generations to come- why waste my time and energy.

The Hindu hits back at TOI with its new campaign

The three TVCs created by Ogilvy & Mather put the focus back on substantive journalism vis-à-vis Page 3 brand of journalism

Two brands taking pot shots at each other, directly or indirectly, is nothing new in advertising. Many brands have done it in the past, such s Rin v/s Tide or Audi v/s BMW. The latest one to do so is English daily The Hindu taking on The Times of India in Chennai.

It all started in November last year, when TOI challenged the leadership position of The Hindu in the Chennai market with its ‘Wake up!’ campaign. Designed by Taproot India, the campaign provoked readers to give away the newspaper that supplied boring news to them and instead switch to TOI.

Now, The Hindu has chosen the positioning ‘Stay ahead with the times’ to hit back. Crafted by Ogilvy & Mather, the three TVCs have used the format of ‘vox pops’, i.e., voice of the people in interview format used in broadcasting. The agency found this sort of candid camera approach an interesting way to deviate from the tried and tested means and existing storytelling formats.

Talking about the genesis of the campaign, Joono Simon, Executive Creative Cirector, O&M, said, “The Hindu has always stood for in-depth, substantive journalism. Though the brand has always been slotted in a well-defined space in the minds of the consumer, there was a need to articulate it sharply, especially in the context of the growing competition. Also, the environment around us is constantly changing as the notion of popular culture is vastly different from what it was a few years ago. All this demanded a fresh interpretation.”

The three TVCs show the lame answers given by the general audiences in reply to simple questions like “What does ATM stand for?” or “Which sport does Dhyanchand play?” While a majority of the people fails to reply correctly to these questions, they promptly revert back with an answer for the last question based on Bollywood. Like “What is the pet name of Hrithik Roshan?” or “Which actress is associated with Size Zero?” The films end with a beeped sound of people responding to “Which newspaper do they read?” implying TOI is the answer.

Clearly, the creative idea behind the campaign exhorts readers to move out of the Page 3 and Bollywood gossip news to relevant current affairs and world events. And for this they need to change their current newspaper – to The Hindu.

Talking about his experience during the making of the campaign, Simon said, “We were really astonished by the level of ignorance among people of general and current affairs. What was more shocking was how some of them were very comfortable with their lack of understanding of things that are important.”

Although the campaign is a direct dig at TOI, Simon rules that out saying, “It is not a direct take on any newspaper. It is substantive journalism v/s what is generally termed as pulp fiction.”

Giving his perspective about the campaign, Suresh Srinivasan, Vice-President, Advertising, The Hindu Group, said, “The basic thought behind the campaign is that in an ever globalising economy where knowledge is power, there is a tendency with media companies to shy away from national and international issues. While in the short term this is of benefit in terms of readership, in the long term it takes a toll on readers who end up knowing nothing about important issues. This was a concern and stance that we had taken.”

Simon also describes the campaign as challenging in terms of execution as it took more than a week for them to complete the project. Interestingly, the films that were largely shot around Mumbai, and featured many people who were “street casted” keeping in mind a pan-India representation.

The agency has also released various versions of the print ad with similar insight. Going forward, the agency also plans activities in digital, cinema, radio, outdoor and activation.

The Best Media Info

1 in 5 Indians have diabetes, high BP

One in every five Indian adults living in urban cities suffers not only from hypertension but also diabetes. In Maharashtra, more disturbingly, one in three persons is struck by the twin epidemic. 

These are some of the highlights of India's largest clinic-based survey to assess the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension. The findings of the study, called Screening India's Twin Epidemic (SITE), were announced on Monday in Mumbai.

The overall health picture, the study suggests, is grim: 60%, or three out of every five Indians, have either diabetes or hypertension or both. The corresponding figure in Maharashtra, at 67%, is worse. In particular, almost 40% of those tested in the state had diabetes. And every second person had hypertension.

The only parameter where Maharashtra performed better than the all-India average was in the level of awareness: if 7% of those tested in the eight states put together didn't know they had these diseases, in Maharashtra it was 5%.

The SITE study, sponsored by a multinational pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, tested almost 16,000 people living in urban cities across eight states over the last three years. Patients walking into general practitioners' clinics for complaints other than diabetes and hypertension were tested.

"It is shocking that 60% of those we studied suffered from hypertension or diabetes or both," said Dr Shashank Joshi, the principal investigator for the SITE study. He further said that the total number of people suffering from either of the two diseases was almost as much as the number of people having both the diseases. "This only shows how uncontrolled the diseases are. People don't monitor their sugar or blood pressure regularly."

The study assessed people on three parameters: if their levels of glycated haemoglobin were under 7, if their blood pressure was less than 130/80 and their levels of bad cholesterol less than 100 mg/dl. Epidemics fed by obesity and non-vegetarianism

Study to find prevalence of diabetes & hypertension discovers 80% people had abdominal obesity

The study found that only 1.9% of those tested could achieve these standards," said Dr Joshi, with only 20% having controlled blood pressure levels.

The study was conducted in 800 clinics in urban hubs such as Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur in Maharashtra; New Delhi-NCR; Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai in Tamil Nadu; Bangalore, Mangalore, and Mysore in Karnataka; Hyderabad, Vizag and Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh; Bhopal and Indore in Madhya Pradesh; Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara in Gujarat; and Kolkata, Hoogly and Howrah in West Bengal.

The reason for the surging numbers is not hard to find: obesity. Almost 80% of the people studied had abdominal obesity or a waist circumference of over 90 cm. The study also found that one of the driving forces was the rising trend of non-vegetarianism along with the old cause of excess salt in diet. "We found that 61.5% of those interviewed were nonvegetarians," added Dr Joshi.

While the average American consumes 4 to 6 grams of salt a day, Dr Joshi said that Indians had almost 6 to 8 grams a day.

Dr Hemant Thacker, a consultant at Jaslok Hospital, blamed this on lifestyle changes. "There is a change in lifestyle, especially among the young. Instead of climbing stairs, we use elevators. We have become couch potatoes and like our drinks. We, however, don't exercise enough," he said.

The biggest challenge, said doctors, was the silent epidemic. The SITE study, for instance, found that 7.2% of those tested didn't know they had diabetes or hypertension. "Worse, 18.4% of those tested had a condition called pre-diabetes," said Dr Joshi.

Extrapolations from the recent ICMR study say that India has approximately 75 million people suffering from diabetes. But it is estimated that double that number have pre-diabetes. "For every person with diabetes, there are two who have elevated blood sugar levels that could result in diabetes a few years later," said Dr Joshi.

-TOI

Cell phone use may cause cancer: WHO

Heavy use of mobile phones and other wireless communication devices could possibly cause cancer, the World Health Organisation has said and asked people to use texting and free-hands devices to reduce the risk.

The electromagnetic fields generated by such devices are "possibly carcinogenic to humans," the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced at the end of an eight-day meeting yesterday in Lyon, France.

A group of 31 experts from 14 countries has "reached this classification based on its review of the human evidence coming from epidemiological studies", ABC News reported.

The experts also pointed to an increased incidence of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said in a statement.

The number of mobile phone subscriptions is estimated at 5 billion globally.

"The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk," said Jonathan Samet from the University of Southern California, the chairman of the group of scientists.

The IARC, which is part of the WHO, cautioned that current scientific evidence showed only a possible link, not a proven one, between wireless devices and cancers.

"It is important that additional research be conducted into the long-term, heavy use of mobile phones," Christopher Wild, director of the IARC said.

"Pending the availability of such information, it is important to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as hands-free devices or texting." 

-DNA India

But stop pretending high growth is inclusive

  GDP and national income are aggregative measures that capture the total size of the cake. They tell us nothing about what it is made up off or how it is distributed between different segments of society. This simple truth is one reason why GDP and its rate of growth have never been considered to be the perfect yardsticks for judging a society's well being. Yet in India, those who should know better often ignore this. They remain obsessed with achieving high growth, celebrate India's success in this, and contend that this is necessary to lift millions of Indians out of poverty. In the process, however, they indulge in more than a sleight of hand.

Imagine a society with a fixed population where, to begin with, half the income accrues to the top 20% of the population. This corresponds to a situation where the average income of the top 20% is four times that of the remaining 80%. Now consider three possible scenarios. In scenario 1, the income of the top 20% increases by 10% every year while that of the remaining 80% increases by 2%. In scenario 2, the situations are reversed such that the incomes of the top 80% increase at 2% and the rest at 10%. In scenario 3, both segments of the population achieve increases in income at the rate of 6% every year. The trajectory of the annual rate of growth of the aggregate income in both scenarios 1 and 2 would be identical -6% in the first year, but inching upwards every subsequent year and approaching 10%.

However, the trend in the inequality between the levels and shares of the two groups would be very different in the two cases. Inequality would grow explosively in scenario 1, while scenario 2 would achieve a leveling of incomes in 18 years. Naturally, the level of income attained in the process by the bottom 80% would be greater in the latter case, in fact nearly four times what it would be in scenario 1. Moreover, equality would be achieved not with a reduction in incomes of the top 20% but instead with their steady increase. Compared to scenario 1, the bottom 80% would also be better off with scenario 3, which would result in the rate of growth of the aggregate remaining at 6% every year. In other words, even with a trajectory involving lower growth than in scenario 1, this 80% in 18 years would be twice as well off than they would under a high-growth scenario 1.

The high growth India has been witnessing in recent years is of the scenario 1 kind. Aggregate growth rates not only reflect the growth in incomes of the minority of India's citizens but are increasingly doing so. GDP growth is becoming a meaningless indicator for the rest of the population. One might therefore ask the growth fetishists -if one is to have high growth, why not the inequality reducing high growth of the scenario 2 kind? They would probably turn around and say that is impossible and if you try and achieve it you would kill all dynamism in the economy and produce stagnation. If this argument is valid, it must also mean that the increasing inequality currently being generated cannot ever be reversed by a scenario 2 kind of growth in the future. In such a situation one would ask: what about the scenario 3 option? If growth is necessary to lift the incomes and standards of living of the majority of Indians, would not such a relatively low rate of growth be a better path than the high growth road India is hurling along? Even in this case, the majority of Indians, after two decades, would be living on an income that would be less than Rs 3000 per month per person today. If this too is impossible to achieve then we might as well stop pretending that growth in India will ever become inclusive.

-TOI


It's immoral for us to slow growth

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said last Sunday that his country's annual growth target has been lowered to 7% for the next five years. He made this remark in an online chat with the nation. "We must no longer sacrifice the environment for the sake of rapid growth as that is unsustainable," he said. He urged the government to shift its focus from GDP growth to the quality and benefits of growth.
Premier Wen's statement comes in the wake of huge concerns in the west over the impact of China's (and India's) economic growth on the global environment. China's GDP growth reached 10.3% last year and is expected to be 9% this year. Although he was talking to his netizens, Wen's message was aimed at his critics in the west. His remarks appear to be eminently sensible -- who could be against protecting nature? But is Premier Wen right to slow down the growth rate of a poor nation? I do not think so.

There is a saying that a woman can either be beautiful or faithful but not both. The proverb illustrates the human tendency to create mental boxes and fit people into them. Wen appears to have fallen into the ecological trap in believing that you can either have high growth or a clean environment. We too will soon be asked that if China is taking steps to lower its growth rate, why is India still obsessed with high growth? Indeed, the day after Wen's online chat, India's finance minister Pranab Mukherjee presented a road map in the Budget to achieve a 9% GDP growth rate, hoping that it might go higher.
The dichotomy between high growth and protecting the environment is false. A nation can grow rapidly and save its environment just as a woman can be both beautiful and faithful. The only sensible way to grow, in fact, is to make peace with nature and save the green-blue film on which life itself depends. But to ask a poor country to slow down its economic growth is immoral — it is to condemn its poor to penury. The past 200 years teach us that the poor will only rise into the middle class if there is growth. Growth creates jobs and wealth, which the government taxes and spends on roads, education and healthcare, and this enables the poor to rise. Indeed, 350 million Chinese and 225 million Indians have risen out of poverty in the past 25 years because of high growth.

Once upon a time i used to be a huge fan of the ecology movement, but i feel gloomy today. I am upset that so many fine projects have suffered from endless delay at the hands of activists. No one calculates the real cost of delay--the lost future of a starving child who does not realize a dream when a factory or power plant does not come up. The movement has evolved into an anti-science, anti-growth, secular religion. I shudder to think that if activists had been as zealous in the 1960s, they would have killed India's 'green revolution', which multiplied our wheat and rice crop many times and succeeded in feeding 500 million additional mouths.

Meanwhile, bureaucrats and politicians have captured ecology and made it a lucrative business in India. Indeed, the prime minister complained in 2009, "Environmental clearances have become a new form of licence raj and corruption." Hence, i was glad when a clean, modern minister came in 2009. But my optimism soured quickly when he turned activist and began to reopen major projects, such as Niyamgiri, Lavasa and POSCO, and proceeded to "make an example" of them. His arbitrariness resounded around the world and turned investors against India. The Reserve Bank reported recently that India's foreign direct investment declined by 36% in the first half of 2010-11 primarily because of "environment policies in mining, integrated township projects and ports." Of course, the environment ministry must ensure that projects meet standards, but it must do so by creating transparent institutions and not through arbitrary acts.
All of us must become sensitive to nature, especially with the rapid degradation of forest cover and global warming. But we must also be aware of the fundamentalist and irrational nature of the ecology movement, which is willing to sacrifice human opportunities to preserving nature. Environmentalists have nostalgia for vanishing, old lifestyles and refuse to admit that their earlier Malthusian predictions were wrong. Despite massive population growth, people around the world are better off today, and as prosperity and education spreads, population growth has begun to slow down in most countries. Obviously, we have to protect nature, but if it does come to a choice, human beings, i think, must precede nature. To believe the contrary is not only elitist but immoral.

-TOI

They don’t steal mangoes in ANNA COUNTRY

The mangoes are ripening in the sun. The hundreds of trees planted by Anna Hazare are laden with tempting fruit these days. No one's keeping watch. Does anyone ever steal mangoes around here? Apparently not. "The notice boards you see, warning of a Rs 100 fine for plucking fruit or flowers is for people coming from outside. We get hundreds of visitors who come to see Anna's work or to receive training in watershed development at our training centre," says Anil Sharma, who lives in Ralegan Siddhi and is Hazare's secretary.

The village, 80km from Pune, is home to 2,500 people. Listen to the locals and it is a veritable paradise on earth. But what do the police records say? Last year, the local Parner police station recorded five 'crimes' in Ralegan Siddhi. Two were accidents, the others family disputes. This year, just one 'crime' — a quarrel between brothers — has been registered so far, says Inspector T K Vahile, who looks after Parner police station. The crime rate — if it can be called that — is "extremely low" in Ralegan Siddhi, says Vahile.

What makes Ralegan Siddhi so special? Appearances count. At first glance, Ralegan Siddhi turns a smiling face to a watching world. Despite being in a drought-prone area, it is lush and green. Its tree-lined roads are clean; neat houses abut them; every villager seems healthily and happily busy harvesting the onion crop. Unlike the typical Indian village, Ralegan Sidhi does not have open drains; its trees are not festooned with plastic bags and its streets are not clogged with litter.

Look as hard as you might but there is no one to be found smoking, chewing tobacco or spitting. Anna Hazare's paradise on earth bans cutting trees, putting cattle out to pasture, liquor dens and the sale of tobacco, cigarettes and bidis. Datta Awari, 27, is proud to explain the law enforcement process of the village. "Old and decaying trees are cut after taking permission from the gram sabha. But before cutting a single tree, at least five new ones are planted. Now we have reached a stage where there is hardly any land available for tree plantation."

He says the rules governing cattle are strict. "The ban on open grazing does not mean we send our cattle to the next village for grazing. Our cattle are stall-fed and we buy the fodder when the forest department holds auctions to sell hay."

The village appears to have had a knock-on effect on others in the area. Awari claims the neighbouring villages of Vadule, Panule, Sangvisurya and Pimpalner took a leaf out of Ralegan Siddhi's book five years ago and now pursue developmental work.

The state government introduced a model village scheme in 2001, which offers money for watershed development, tree planting, sanitation and carefully designed cropping patterns. Hazare was given responsibility for drafting the rules that govern the scheme. Maharashtra had 201 model villages in 2010. A further hundred will convert to 'model village' by 2014.

Inspector Vahile corroborates some of the transformative magic worked by Ralegan Siddhi. He says there is complete prohibition in Ralegan Siddhi, Pimpalner and Panule. "Other villages in the area do not have liquor shops or dens but as they are located on the highway the villagers have access to beer bars on the highway. However, nobody dares to take liquor from outside into these villages," he says.

But don't villagers chaff at these rules? Not at all, insists middle-aged Badambai Bhalekar. "Why would we oppose the rules laid down by Anna and the gram sabha? He is not teaching us anything bad, is he? When you live in cities, you too must be following some rules. We are doing the same, following rules that are for the good of the village and us. Had you seen the pathetic condition of our village before Anna came here, you would not have asked me why we do not mind following these rules," she says.

It is a reference to the hard life Ralegan Siddhi endured before Hazare wrought his quiet revolution. Then, the village grew little food, had little water at the height of summer and 80% of its people had to walk five kilometres a day on average in search of work. For many, operating a liquor den was the only reliable source of income. It took its toll. Indubai Mapari recalls that whole "families were destroyed". She says that "men would drink and do nothing. It was impossible for village women to step out of our homes after 4pm because the roads will be filled with sozzled men. We had to go to neighbouring villages in search of work so that we could feed our families." Things got so bad that almost 40% of the village migrated to Pune and Mumbai. Most returned only in the 1980s when farming became a paying activity thanks to Hazare.

Ganesh Bhapkar, a young man, says his peers are happy to shun the vices that afflict others around the world. "In the earlier days some of the old people had become addicted to liquor and would do anything to get it. But once liquor dens were removed, their families kept a watchful eye on them and any attempt to bring liquor from outside was dealt with firmly — by sound thrashing by the family members," he says.

Shopkeeper Arun Bhalekar is a senior citizen and remembers the difficult transition to an alcohol-free zone. "Anna came here in 1975 and the next two years were spent convincing villagers to shun liquor. We had stooped to such level that wood planks and logs from the village temple were stolen to be used as fuel in liquor dens. Anna spent his own money to rebuild the temple, held gram sabhas to convince us about the importance of voluntary labour, watershed development and tree plantation. When we asked him how we can become prosperous, he said giving up liquor and removing the dens would help. Surprisingly the first support came from a villager who owned four dens."

Hazare set the village to work — and on the course to a more sustainable future. They learnt to conserve water, built nullahs and bunds and dug trenches. They planted meadows and 500 hectares with crops. They constructed weirs. Ground water levels rose and Hazare was able to work out a cropping pattern suitable for the soil and available water. The village was finally able to grow enough food to feed itself and its wells stayed full of water even at the hottest time of year.

But the biggest change has been in social behaviour — perhaps at the cost of some personal freedom? No one here would admit this and in any case, many might think this a small price to pay for the freedom from want. Suresh Pathare was one of those who left the village but returned when it had remade itself. "My parents and uncle shifted to Mumbai in 1972 but after hearing about Anna's work my parents decided to come back in 1982 after I was born. I graduated from Shirur and came back to Ralegan Siddhi to work in a project started by Hazare and I was so impressed that I decided to continue working for him."

Pathare says his generation likes Hazare's code of conduct. "All the rules were unanimously passed by the gram sabha in a democratic manner. Nobody imposed them on us," he says.

Is Ralegan Siddhi too good to be true? No, says Sunita Gupta, head of the sociology department in Pune's Fergusson College. People like Hazare have the moral authority to tell people what to do, she says. "Be it Anna Hazare in Ralegan Siddhi or Popatrao Pawar in Hivre Bazar village, both have done commendable work and improved the conditions there. Though some decisions may have been taken unilaterally, there is no doubt about the quality of work done by them. It is in our culture to deify such persons and once that happens nobody can think of opposing people like Hazare. The tendency is to do what they say." 

 

-TOI