Spring
of Nectar
Dr. Ashok Jerath
Among the Mughal gardens of Kashmir
Chashma Shahi fascinated Shahjahan, the fourth
Mughal emperor, the most owing to the fact that
it haunted him with the sweet memories of his
beloved queen, Mumtaj Mahal who always
accompanied him during his visit to these
gardens. Once she fell ill and could not be cured
despite several efforts of the royal Vaidyas and
Haqueems and the chief of the medical staff of
the court suggested that she must be allowed to
visit some health resort especially during summer
months and for that matter there was none the
better than the valley of Kashmir that too
Shahjahan prefered to stay at Pari Mahal along
with his queen leaving behind all the busy
schedule of political manoeuvring. She enjoyed
the fresh air and fresh vegetables and drank
sweet water of Chashma Shahi resulting into
miraculous recoupment in her health.
Mughal royal families were charmed by the scenic
beauty and landscapes of its surroundings in
addition to the sweet water of Chashma Shahi
having medicinal value. Mughals were followed by
Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab who reigned north
India in early 19th century. He was also fond of
Mughal gardens, Chashma Shahi was his favourite.
He was followed by Dogra rulers, second and third
Dogra emperors namely Maharaja Ranbir Singh and
Maharaja Pratap Singh were the frequent visitors
of this garden and spring. Its water was being
carried to the royal kitchen to be used by the
members of royal family. Shaikh Sahib,
afterwards, also used the water of Chashma Shahi
and it is said the water was supplied to him
during his confinement. After sixties the modern
emperors, high officials were alloted newly built
huts in the environs of Chashmashahi and for . .. . .....more
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Literary
Classics and Bollywood
By A C Tuli
 Literary
classics are a perennial source of inspi
ration for our filmmakers. Among Indian
writers whose works have been transferred
onto celluloid umpteen times,
Saratchandra Chatterjee remains
unrivalled. More than twenty of his
novels and short-stories have been
filmed, not just in Bengali but several
other Indian languages also. Take, for
instance, his most celebrated work
'Devdas'. Of course, it has been filmed
in Bengali a number of times. But three
versions of this classic have also been
rendered in Hindi- the first in 1935 with
K.L.Sehal as its doomed hero, the second
1955 with Dlip Kumar as its leading man,
and the third in 2002 with Shah Rukh Khan
as its protagonist.
Saratchandra's 'Parineeta' too has been
filmed thrice in Hindi. The first
'Parineeta' with Ashok Kumar and Meena
Kumari in the lead was made by Bimal Roy
in 1953, the second film based on this
novel was made with Jeetendra and
Sulakhana Pandit in pivotal roles, and
the third in 2005 with Saif Ali Khan,
Vidya Balan and Sanjay Dutt as the main
characters.
Premchand's novels and short, stories-
'Godaan', Heera Moti', ' Nirmala',
'Gabban', 'Saddgati' and 'Shatranj Ke
Khilari'- have also been made into
feature films. But the writer whose
influence on our filmmakers seems to be
thoroughly pervasive is William
Shakespeare. Ever since the inception of
the talkies in India, hundreds of Hindi
films have been made with their storyline
bearing a close resemblance to the plot
of some Shakespearean play. Oddly, very
few of our filmmakers in the past ever
thought of giving the credit for this to
the Bard of Avon. Unabashed plagiarism .... .. ....more
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A Puff that kills!
Aarti
The imminent risks due to tobacco
use highlighted in at least three new reports, in
recent weeks, ought to serve as a serious wake up
call to kick the habit at an individual level.
With about 700 million kilograms of tobacco
produced annually in the country, its exports
earn over Rs 1250 crore in foreign exchange.
Domestic sale of tobacco products contribute a
whopping Rs 8400 crore annually by means of
excise duty. Nonetheless, the total annual loss
from healthcare costs including lost productivity
is about Rs. 27,000 crore. Surely this outweighs
revenue from tobacco-products' sales!
When compared to 1,790 cigarettes smoked in China
and 2,193 in the US, our per capita smoking at
119 cigarettes may perhaps be the lowest. With 25
per cent of the overall population using tobacco
in some form (an estimated 65 per cent of men and
about one third of women) the alarm bells are
surely ringing.
The latest World Health Organisation report
“Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008”, points
out that tobacco, the leading preventable cause
of death, responsible for over five million
deaths a year globally will take the lives of
another 1 billion people in the 21st century.
Rather, they will die prematurely.
Another WHO study on “Global Tobacco Use
& . . ......more
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Have libraries
become passe
Harish Chandra Shrivastava
In a very recent welcome move
reported in newspapers, the NCERT has appealed to
the Union education ministry to mobilise funds so
that all schools can have access to their own
library collections. In a general environment of
rote learning, libraries in schools and colleges
can be a veritable life-line to encourage
creative thinking and research interests.
In Asia, as in Europe, libraries were invariably
though not always, intrinsically linked to
centres of learning and monasteries. The
libraries of Nalanda and Vikramsila were very
much part of renowned centres of Buddhistic
learning. The ravages of time, natural disasters
or acts of human vandalism have destroyed
libraries all over the world. Defacing books and
libraries is a form of repression and when books
are banned or censored, fears of fundamentalism,
autocracy and fascism resurface in civilised
enclaves.
In India, the first public library opened at
Esplanade Row in March 1836 under the
"proprietorship" of Dwarakanath Tagore
who appointed Pyari Chand Mitra as the first
librarian. This remained a private one-off
phenomenon until the concept of the public
library was officially popularised in India by
the British in the mid-nineteenth century. For
decades, public libraries played a crucial role
in the spread of education, information and
knowledge.
By 1903, when Dwarakanath's library had become
almost defunct, it was given a new lease of life
by Lord Curzon who bought its rights and merged
it with the East India College Library and other ... ........more
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Sport
Scenario in India
Prof. P.L.Bakhshi
 Sports are more than
just fun. Sport not only improves
health and physical fitness,
builds self confidence but also
teaches young men and women
agility, quick thinking,
responsibility and teamwork.
Sports are believed to teach
useful aspects about life from
winning, losing and being
competitive. Sport exercise is an
activity that transcends age.
Besides providing recreation it
helps improving productivity and
fostering social harmony and
discipline.
India is land of many talents but
it does not include sports. With
the exception of cricket and
field hockey-at which Indians
comparatively have done well-this
nation of more than 1.1 billion
citizens really struggles in most
international sport. This can be
revealed by the fact that in each
of the last three Olympics, India
earned just one medal. Field
hockey, in which India has an
impressive record with eight
Olympic gold medals, the World
Cup in 1975 and runners-up in
1973; is officially the national
sport. Major Dhyan Chand, a
former Indian hockey player
nicknamed as wizard of the
hockey, is regarded as the
greatest player ever to play the
game and was part of the three
Olympic gold medals winning
Indian team. His birthday, 29th
August, is celebrated as the
National Sports Day in this
country. Since 1956 it is
disappointing to see Indian
hockey slump to dismal lows in
international events and in view
of our abysmal performance, in
2007 India's Parliament demoted
field hockey to a general sport.
Hockey still strikes an emotional
cord . . ... ......more
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Minimally Invasive
Joint Replacement
Dr. Manuj Wadhwa
Total hip and knee joint replacement
has become one of the most frequently performed
and successful reconstructive procedures in
orthopedic surgery since its introduction few
decades back. As outcomes following joint
replacement continue to improve, the demand for
less traumatic and invasive surgery has
increased, shifting the challenge towards less
invasive, yet equally effective techniques that
reduce pain and lead to a quicker recovery.
Potential Advantages of MIS:
* Less blood loss
* Less trauma to the surrounding tissues
* Shorter hospital stays
* Generally earlier rehabilitation
However, MIS is not suitable for everyone.
Successful candidates for this type of surgery
are generally at a healthy weight, in good
health, younger than traditional joint
replacement patients and must be motivated to
work at their recovery.
Individuals who are obese or who have had
previous hip or knee surgery are generally not
suitable candidates. The decision to have this
type of surgery must be made after a careful
evaluation by the surgeons, and a discussion of
the risks and benefits of MIS compared to
traditional joint replacement.
Minimally Invasive Hip Replacement
Minimally invasive hip replacement surgery was
created to allow surgeons to replace the hip
through one or two smaller incisions. When the
surgical incisions are smaller, fewer muscles and
tendons are traumatized, which helps in a quicker
recovery for the patient. ..........more
Albert Einstein
T K Munshi
 Albert Einstein was born in
a Jewish family in the south German city of Ulm
on March 14, 1879, but his family moved to Munich
when he was only a year old. Grandmother
complained that baby Albert was slow to speak and
remained silent until his third year when he
uttered full sentences. At times, he could be a
willfull child prone to tantrums. Once he tried
to drive a hole in the skull of his sister and
once stroked his tutor with a chair, and the
tutor didn’t turn up next day. But Albert
was Mom Maja’s pet, who would coax, and
cajole him to sit for his violin practice until
the boy genuinely loved his instrument.
Once a Jewish leader, Herbert Goldstein, asked
Einstein if he believed in God. Einstein wrote
him, ‘‘I believe in Spinoza’s God,
who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of the
world, not in a God who concerns with the fate
and the doings of mankind.’’ Spinoza
was a 17th- century philosopher-scientist,
excommunicated from Amsterdam’s Jewish
community for his beliefs. Einstein like Spinoza,
never sought comfort from a traditional God.
Emboldened by his stature in his fifties, he
offered the most comprehensive public explanation
of his spi universe in essay ’’
‘‘Religion and Science’’. In
it Einstein outlined his unique
‘‘Cosmic Religion’’ and
traced its development through three stages of
human consciousness. The earliest’ religion
of fear rested on primitive people’s fear of
hunger, wild beasts, sickness, death. Such
animist faces were appeasable only by sacrifices,
prayers and rituals. Einstein’s second
religious phase was based on a moral and ethical
concept of God- ‘a deity meditated through
priests.’ His third phase on religion was
‘a God who rewards and punishes, who
comforts in distress and preserves the souls of
the dead. ‘Einstein went on with this ......more
Mind
control through meditation
Acharya Mahaprajna
 There
are two levels of Consciousness: Sensory
perception and Extra sensory perception
We usually live more on the level of
sensory perception. To understand sensory
perception, a little analysis is
necessary. Our five senses are -sense of
Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight and Hearing.
All our communication with the external
world is through the medium of these five
senses. Our external world is sensory in
that it can be touched/felt, tasted,
smelt, heard and seen in all its colour
and form. We have five senses and the
external world can be characterized in
these five ways. Senses allow knowledge
of the characteristics of the external
world, and they establish our contact
with it. There is, however, a sixth sense
and that is the mind. This is also a
sense. It is more developed than all the
other senses. The first five senses are
limited to knowing only the present,
whereas the mind spans three worlds: it
knows the present, past, & future.
Senses can only know the present. Thus,
sensory perception limits our daily
lives.
Preksha Meditation means the balanced
management of our sensory perception.
Sensory perception can be managed and has
been managed. We see, hear, and taste:
this is the employment of sensory
perception. This can be divided into two
types: one is seeing while being affected
by attachment and aversion, hearing while
being affected by attachment and
aversion, eating, tasting, etc. while
being affected by attachment and
aversion. This is how sensory perception
is commonly employed in the world.
There is nothing special about this. .
...more
Communication
between Doctors and patients
Dr. Arun Sharma
&
Dr. Manoj Bhagat
Millennia ago, Aristotle
said, man is a rational animal. Thereby
emerged the concept of cognitive or
rational intelligence for Homo sapiens.
And the species lived happily ever after-
well, almost - till came Howard Gardner
from Harvard University circa late 20th
century AD, to talk of multiple
intelligences that ought to apply to the
species. Despite a few raised eyebrows
here and there, the concept caught on.
Picking up courage by this development,
there soon emerged other types of
intelligences, particularly emotional (a
la Daniel Goleman) and spiritual (a la
Zohar and Marshall), ensuring in the
bargain a few bestsellers for their
protagonists towards the end of the last
century. The list seems to be growing as
of last count. We doctors are
intelligent. In fact a bit too
intelligent for ordinary H sapiens, but
largely in the sense that Aristotle
meant. But to Howard Gardner's eyes (and
ears), we appear to lack the multiple
intelligences that ensure our fitness for
the rigors of health care management in
the new millennium.
Verbal intelligence is one such that we
need to introspect on. More of the spoken
variety than the written. And once we
start the process of introspection, why
not go the whole hog and consider Goleman
and Zohar-Marshall as well? The no-time
bogey As for written communications of
the bread-and-butter variety, we are
already notorious for our unintelligible
scribbles called prescriptions,
notwithstanding modern help coming from
assorted hardware and software of the IT
world. In other domains of written
communication such as medical writing ........more
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