pallikkutam: february

MAGAZINE ON EDUCATIONVOLUME 1 ISSUE 9 FEBRUARY 2014

Managing EditorDr. Varghese Panthalookaran CMI

EditorJames Paul

Associate EditorDr. Prasanth Palackappilly CMI

ColumnsK L MohanavarmaDr. K.N. RaghavanA.G. MenonSajit Malliyoor

Marketing ManagerVarghese Kachappilly CMI

ArtSajo Joseph

Contact:Rajagiri Media, Rajagiri Valley P.O,Kakkanad, Kochi-39.Phone : 0484 2428249, 39 Extn : 232Mob: +91 9497711010Mail : [email protected]

FROM EDITOR’S DESK

Prepare yourself for success

The exam season is in full swing and most of the discussions arecentred around students who are asked to prepare well and scoregood marks.

It is quite natural that students get nervous before or during exams.Experiencing fear can be a positive thing as it can motivate you tohard work. An exam is not a death sentence. It is just an assessmentto see how well you have understood a certain subject.

The term ‘examination’ is used in schools to find out the growth ofstudents in terms of their scholastic achievement. But this over-domination of examination is developing a kind of fear in the innocentminds and hearts of the children. This unknown fear is called exam-phobia. It is a fear of being evaluated, a feeling of apprehensionabout consequences.

We should always remember that, exams are not set with the aim ofmaking students fail, rather exams are designed to test what studentsknow, not what they do not know. Scoring a little less or even failingdoes not mean the end of the world. Think positive, be optimisticwhile preparing for and taking exams

The role of teachers and parents is very important in coping with thestress of students caused by this exam-phobia.

Unwanted tension and stress will make students panicky. They maynot be able to memorise things that are learned. The fruit of hard workwill not be seen in the examination hall. As a result students maybecome depressed. So it is important to get rid of the exam fear. Weshould be relaxed, calm and active while preparing for our exams andfollow a routine which would make our approach more effective andefficient. Our approach towards our exams decides everything.

Exams are not the parameters of success. There are people who havemiserably failed in exams but have been successful in life. Bill Gatesfamously dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft. Before teamingup with Steve Wozniak to start Apple, Steve Jobs left Reed Collegeduring his second semester and travelled through India and droppedacid. And we all know that Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook atHarvard before leaving early to follow his entrepreneurial dream inCalifornia.

So, don’t worry. Write your exams with confidence and reap yoursuccess.

Happy harvest!

CONTENTS

30COVER STORY

04 Pallikkutam | February 2014

Happy HarvestExams can energise us, providing motivation tolearn things we would otherwise keep puttingoff. They provide the incentive to make us lookback over what we have already covered inorder to check that we really understand it.

Fr. Varghese Kottoor

How to faceexamination

32When you hold an InnerSmile, the brain systemwill always be relaxed.

12 golden steps to writeyour exam sans fear

Gracy Babu Jacob

35Every student has talentsin different areas.

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STORIES OF LIFE18

Dr. Jos CletusPlackal

The nightmare of afamily

Sunitha’s life’sambition was tobecome a medicaldoctor.

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EXPERT COUNSEL20

Dr. K.N. Raghavan

Full Marathonsshould replaceHalf Marathons

CONTENTS

05Pallikkutam | February 2014

23 NOTES ON CREATIVITY

Dr. Varghese Panthalookaran CMI

Have some clay in the head

There is general awareness today of theneed to keep one’s mental fitness.

27 PERSONAL

Sajit Malliyoor

Stop worryingand start living

Worrying is a reaction to threat. It also hasan adaptive function of equipping you toface the adversities.

BOOK SHELF42Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishmentfocuses on the mental anguishand moral dilemmas of RodionRaskolnikov,

ASPECTS54

GUEST COLUMN62

52 FOCUS

I am proud of beinga Rajagiri alumnus:Dr. Junaid

Dr. Augustine Thottakara

Speak the Truth;Walk in the Path ofRighteousness

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NEWS

Kerala rejects proposal to set up privatevarsities

The government has rejected the Kerala State Higher Education Council’s(KSHEC) proposal for establishing private universities in the state.

Making the government stand clearabout the sensitive proposal put

forward by the council as part of thetransnational education conference held

here early this month, education ministerP K Abdu Rabb told the assembly here onMonday that the state was not in favourof giving sanction to establishing privateuniversities. In the press meet held afterthe valedictory function of the summit,KSHEC vice-chairman T P Sreenivasanhad said the council would set up acommittee to study the pros and cons ofprivate varsities, adding that there must bea regulatory body to check the functioningof private universities. “According to therecommendations of the NarayanaMurthy committee appointed by theplanning commission, 50% of investmentsin higher education must come from theprivate sector, as the government haslimited funds to invest in the sector. Apolicy decision to welcome privateuniversities would enhance the foreigndirect investment in education sector,” hehad said.

The minister told the assembly that theproposed academic autonomy to selectcolleges would no way minimize thecontrol of the state government andUniversity Grants Commission over suchcolleges. However, the fee structure forstudents belonging to above poverty line(APL) category would go up and thecolleges that get autonomy would have thefreedom to start new courses, conduct

exams and revise syllabus. The governmenthas directed 13 colleges, including two ingovernment sector, to submit applicationsfor academic autonomy to the UGC, theminister said.

State higher education council was asked toconduct a comprehensive study on thefunctioning of universities in the state.Once the report is received, correctivesteps would be initiated. Appointment ofvice-chancellors in Kerala and Cochinuniversities would be done soon.

“The state government has authorizedadditional chief secretary K M Abraham toconduct an inquiry into the allegations thatCalicut University pro vice-chancellor had

carried out foreign visits by obtaining Visathrough improper ways,” the minister said.

Thiruvananthapuram: State governmenthas rejected the Kerala State HigherEducation Council’s (KSHEC) proposalfor establishing private universities in thestate.

Making the government stand clear aboutthe sensitive proposal put forward by thecouncil as part of the transnationaleducation conference held here early thismonth, Education Minister P K AbduRabb told the Assembly here on Mondaythat the government was not in favour ofgiving sanction for establishing privateuniversities.

Varsity nod for combinedscoring in distance education

The academic council of Shivaji University, Kolhapur, has approved the

combined scoring system for studentspursuing post-graduation in arts, commerceandscience inthedistanceeducationmode.The newsystemwill helpstudentsscore thecombinedminimumpassmarks intheoryand internal (oral) examinations and moveon to the next semester in a particularsubject. Earlier, the students had to scorethe minimum pass marks separately in thetheory and oral examinations.

Arun Bhosale, director, centre for distance

education (CDE), SUK, said, "ManyCDE students are either working profes-sionals, women from rural areas andhousewives. They are from various places

andsometimesthe failure tosubmitassignmentson time leadto theirfailure in theinternalexamination.Their resultsused to getaffectedbecause ofthe earliernature of

separate pass marks in the internal andtheory examinations. We had received acouple of complaints as well. Keeping allthis in mind, the CDE proposed introduc-tion of the combined scoring system forthese students."


NEWS

Kerala allocates Rs 500 crore for studententrepreneurship programme

As a step to encourage youngentrepreneurs of the state,

the Kerala government hasdecided to set aside 1% of itsannual budget allocation for theStudent EntrepreneurshipProgramme. 1% of what hasbeen allotted to each departmentwill be set aside, which wouldamount to Rs 500 croreapproximately, Chief MinisterOommen Chandy said. Thedecision has been takenfollowing the interaction withfive students who were sent toSilicon Valley from Kerala, hetold reporters. The students hadthe chance to visit many

companies and meet CEOs.Government gives priority notjust for the IT sector but alsofor traditional sectors. Sixstudents who are ready to startnew ventures in the traditionalhandloom sector were alsoinvited for the interaction,which took place as part oftoday’s Cabinet meeting, hesaid. Chandy said that totalsupport and encouragementwould be given by thegovernment for the StudentEntrepreneurship Programme.Already 1000 business ideashave been received, the ChiefMinister said.

The Central Board of SecondaryEducation is planning to hold open

book tests for students sitting for theClass 10 and 12 boards. The boardintroduced open text-based assessment inselect subjects for students of Classes 9and 11 this academic year. For the firsttime in the country, school students willtake such a test this March.

CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi said theboard was “actively considering”inclusion of the open book component inthe boards. “It will change the wayteaching and learning happens in theclassroom ,” he said.

The board will discuss the feasibility ofextending the reform to board examstudents in February. “After the Class 9and Class 11 students take the test, wewill get feedback from students andconsider their views as well,” Joshi said.

Academics split on CBSE’s openbook test plan

Some academics expressed concern that thereform could tilt the scales either in favourof CBSE students or against them, whencompared to students taking other board

CBSE plans open book board examsexams. But Joshi said that he does notforesee issues when it comes to acceptance. “Every board has a different evaluationsystem, and designs different questionpapers, so I don’t see a problem there ,” he

said .

He added that though there has beenapprehension over the subjectivity ofteachers when it comes to evaluation , theboard has tried to address it by providing a

detailed marking guide that will balance itout .Principal of Kola Perumal ChettyVaishnav Senior Secondary School , LNeelakanta Pillai , said all CBSE schoolswill accept the test. While many have

lauded CBSE’s latest reform , othershave criticized it as being impractical ,particularly because teachers may not beequipped to evaluate such a test.

In response, Joshi said the board wouldfocus on strengthening teacher trainingand empowering teachersin 2014. “Weare going to focus a lot on teachertraining . For a programme to succeed,teachers have to be confident . We aregoing to focus on changing the teachingmethodology in the classroom ,” Joshsaid .

The board also plans to allow 75 moreschools to adopt the CBSE-i syllabus .So far , the international syllabus broughtout by the CBSE has been introduced in80 schools across the country . “There is

a demand from schools for the syllabus ,but we are not increasing the number much. This year 300 applied, but only 75schools have been given approval ,” Joshisaid .


NEWS

Manav Rachna studentsdevelop eco-friendly

Formula 1 carStudents from the Faculty of Engineer

ing & Technology (FET) of ManavRachna International University (MRIU)have invented a Formula 1 Racing Car-MRV3, a first of its kind eco-friendlyvehicle with a mileage of 123km/litre. Theurban diesel car will compete at the ShellEco Mara-thon to beheld inManila,Philippineson February6, 2014. Themarathon is auniqueinitiative tochallengestudents fromaround theworld todesign, build and drive the most energy-efficient car. At three events held aroundthe world, hundreds of teams compete totravel the farthest distance on the leastamount of energy.

“It is a moment of great pride for us torepresent our nation at such an event. Notmany students get a chance to apply andtest their theoretical knowledge at thepractical level. We are really obliged toManav Rachna for giving us the opportu-nity to work on this project,” said an

excited Aman Agha, leader of TeamSynchromesh, the team that designed thecar.

The MRV3 formula 1 racing car has fivepoint seat belt for safety, four hydraulicdisc brakes using BOSCH TMC and

Taylorsteeringsystem. Thechassis canbear a loadof 500 kgand frontimpact of2000 km.This lightweightvehicle isequippedwith driverfitness

tester, which does not allow a person todrive the car under the influence of alcohol.Weighing only 180 kgs, the engineers havecustomized the reduction box to achievehigh efficiency and a mileage of 123 km/litre. “Today, India spends only 1 per centenergy on research and innovation. Wewant our educational institution to sharethis responsibility and develop incubationcentres, encourage research and work handin hand with industries,” says PrashantBhalla, chancellor, MRIU.

Relianceannounces

scholarshipsUnder its Dhirubhai Ambani Scholar

ship Programme, Reliance Foundationhas announced scholarships to 393students in order to help them pursue theirundergraduate studies. Of the 393students, 111 are differently-abled.

The scholarship programme has so fargiven away study scholarships to 10,000students, which include 2,000 differently-abled students, to help them establish afooting in mainstream careers.

Initially introduced in Maharashtra andGujarat in 1996, the Dhirubhai AmbaniScholarship Programme was extended tothe entire country in 2009.

Out of the 393 students awarded scholar-ships, about 50 per cent are girls, founderand chairperson of the foundation Nita M.Ambani said.

Every year, the scholarship programmeprovides opportunities to meritoriousstudents to pursue their higher studies indiverse disciplines including medicine,engineering, law, science and other socialsciences,Nita Ambani said, adding thescholarship supports tuition fees and otherallowances for the entire duration of theacademic coursework.

GATE now a one-shot game for entry into PSUs

The recent trend of Indian Public SectorUndertakings (PSUs) hiring candidates

at entry-level positions on the basis oftheir GATE scores has led to an increasedthe number of students appearing for theexam.

Initially, GATE was a gateway forstudents who sought admission to variouspost-graduate programmes in Indian highereducation institutes, with financialassistance provided by MHRD and othergovernment agencies.

Though, after PSUs started recruitingcandidates on the basis of theirperformance in the exam in 2012, jobseekers too have joined the line along sidethose who aspire to continue with theirfurther studies.

The entry of various PSUs in the scenario,however, has a down as well as an upsideto it.

The main advantage of this is that GATEbecomes a common access card forstudents to land a job in various PSUs and

saves them from having to sit for aseparate exam for each company. This alsoimplies that now aspirants have to preparefor only one test module instead of jugglingbetween different test modules. It also cutsthem a little slack when it comes to theamount of syllabus they need to ram intotheir brain as GATE provides a standarisedlevel of question.

Usually these companies release theirrecruitment notifications right after GATEnotification.


NEWS

SC directs UGC to examine 44 institutionsThe University Grants Commission

(UGC) has been asked by the SupremeCourt to examine the academic standard of44 institutions said to have poor academicstandard. If the respective institutes arefound to have academic standards andinfrastructure far below the expected level,the institutes are in risk of losing theirdeemed university status.

A bench of Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan andJustice Vikramajit Sen said it was onlyconcerned with the legality of thecontinuance of deemed university statuswith respect to the 44 institutions.

It said in its order passed on Tuesday thatthere was “some conflict” between thereport prepared by the University GrantsCommission (UGC) and that of the Prof.P.N. Tandon committee.

Noting that there were three reports - oneby the Tandon committee, another by the

New Zealand is planning to set up anoffice in Mumbai to expand its

education footprint in India. The countryplans the establishment of an educationpromotion and market development rolewithin the NewZealand ConsulateGeneral in Mumbai.

Student visas issuedto Indian nationalsseeking to study inNew Zealandincreased more than10 per cent last year,making India one ofthe fastest growing student markets forNew Zealand.

“Our student numbers from India havecontinued to grow. And while currently weget a majority of our students fromnorthern states, having a presence inMumbai will enable us to focus more onthe west and south of the country, whereinterest in New Zealand is also high” saidNew Zealand’s (ENZ) Regional DirectorSouth Asia Ziena Jalil.

The Mumbai expansion comes on the backof increased activity in India in the last six

months, including a new brand launch,acknowledging India’s position as NewZealand’s second largest source ofinternational students.

“We know that Indian students are lookingfor high quality,affordable education withgood career pathways.New Zealand is perhapsone of the few countries inthe world, if not the onlyone, which has all of itsuniversities in the Top500 globally,” said Jalil.

More than 11,000students from India study in New Zealand,and Ms Jalil says New Zealand has put inplace policies to make the country a topchoice for international students.

Immigration New Zealand Area Manager,based in Mumbai, Nathanael Mackay said,“The New Zealand Government hasannounced changes to our work rightsprogramme which will allow moreinternational students to work while theystudy, enabling them to gain valuable firstworld business experience”

New Zealand to expandeducation presence in India

Supertechlaunches

university inUttarakhand

Diversifying into education real estatedevelopers Supertech Limited

announced the to launch of SupertechUniversity, an initiative of SupertechFoundation, in Udham Singh Nagar districtof Uttarakhand on Thursday.

Located at the foothills of Himalayas inUttarakhand, on a land of 47 acre campus,this will be the first foray for the companyinto the higher education sector. Theuniversity will offer programmes inarchitecture and planning, earth,environment and space studies, education,engineering and technology, fashion anddesign, hospitality and tourism, languagesand communication, law and governance,liberal arts, humanities and social sciences,management studies, medical and healthsciences, natural and applied sciences andpublic policy. This will be a fullyresidential university built at aninvestment of Rs 750 crore in the firstphase.

UGC and still another by the committee ofofficers, the court said the UGC “had nooccasion to examine” the Tandon report

and the other report has not been placedbefore the UGC.

The court said the UGC (InstitutionsDeemed to be Universities) Regulations,2010, enables both the central governmentand the UGC to inspect the institutionswhich are deficient in terms of academicstandards and infrastructure.It directed the

UGC to examine both Tandon’s and theother report.

The court said institutions were “free toraise their objections against the reports”and the UGC has to consider the same andtake a decision in accordance with the law.

After examining the reports and hearing the44 institutions, the court said the “UGChas then to tender its advice to the centralgovernment with its report”.

It, however, noted the UGC’s advice wasnot binding on the government “but has tobe given due weight since the UGC is anexpert statutory authority”.

The court also made it clear that it has notgiven its “stamp of approval to any of thereports and it is for the UGC to considerall the reports, with notice to the 44institutions, in accordance with law”.


INSIGHTS

Personalized revision toboost performance

Revision study in view of exams is asource of concern for students the

world over. A research study by RobertLindsey of the University of Colorado,Boulder suggests that computer-basedindividualized study schedule could be thesolution. Suchpersonalizedreview is found tohelp studentsremember morematerial on attestgiven at the end ofthe semester.According toLindsey thepersonalized,systematic andcomprehensivereview can beintegrated in to theclassroom in a practical and efficient way.The findings are published inPsychological Science, a journal of theAssociation for Psychological Science.

The researchers adopted different methodsfor review. In the first method theydeveloped a “massed” set, with questionsdrawn from just that week’s chapter. In thesecond, they developed a “genericallyspaced” set drawn from just the previousweek’s chapter. It was found that massedpractice is preferred by students, though

spaced review has been recommended bypast research.

As a third method they developed thereview material, drawn from any of thechapters that had already been covered. It

was delivered tostudents based on analgorithm thatpredicted whichmaterial would bemost beneficial tothem to review.Here, they followedthe same approachused by onlineretailers torecommendproducts. Thealgorithmincorporated datafrom all of the

students to determine which material anyparticular student might need to practice.

Teachers typically don’t have the time tosetup a personal question set for eachstudent. But enabled by technology suchpersonalized review yields promisingresults. A relatively modest intervention-roughly 30 minutes per week ofstrategically selected review can yieldsignificant benefits in long-termeducational outcome.

Sense ofnumbers:innate and

learnedDror Dotan, a doctoral student at Tel

Aviv University’s School ofEducation and Prof. Stanislas Dehaeneof the Collège de France, a leader in thefield of numerical cognition, have foundnew evidence that educated adults retaintraces of their innate number sense.

This finding is a significant step forwardin understanding how people processnumbers, which could contribute to thedevelopment of methods of education orto treat children with learning disabilitiesand people with brain injuries.

An educated adult consider numbers“linearly” in the order from 0 to infinity.On the other hand children oruneducated adults like tribal peoples,understand numbers “logarithmically” orpercent wise. For example, linearthinkers place the number 20 in themiddle of a number line marked from 0to 40. But logarithmic thinkers likechildren may place the number 6 in themiddle of the number line.

In an experiment using iPad, theparticipants of the study were given thetask of putting different numberspopping up in the screen on a numberline ranging from 0 to 40. Theparticipants were asked to drag thenumbers from the middle of the screendown to a place on the number line.Using software, the path the finger tookwas tracked.

Statistical analysis of the results showedthat the participants placed the numberson the number line in a linear way. Butsurprisingly, they appeared to beinfluenced by their innate number sensefor a fraction of time to start with.Eventually they corrected the course oftheir fingers.

The results suggest that the innatenumber sense remains active butdormant even in the educated adults. Itis as if there exist two systems in thebrain competing with each other.

The cause for rising obesity is oftenascribed to the fast food restaurants.

However, people believe individuals areto blame for their own obesity, notrestaurants, grocery stores, farmers, orgovernment policies. This is theconclusion of a research surveyconducted by two US food economistsfrom University of Illinois.

Past research has shown that many of thefood policies designed to improve foodchoices, such as requiring calorieinformation on restaurant menus andtaxing sugar-sweetened beverages, do not

always produce the intended results. Thenatural question is: Why aren’t thesepolicies working? Why aren’t consumersresponding to increased product prices orcalorie information on menus?

Results of the study showed that 94percent of people believed individuals areprimarily or somewhat to blame for therise in obesity, with parents coming insecond at 91 percent primarily orsomewhat to blame. Survey respondentsfelt farmers and grocery stores wererelatively blameless for the rise in obesity.

Who is responsible forrising obesity?


INSIGHTS

Link between reading and arithmetic skills

A new study by Professor Bert deSmedt of Faculty of Psychology and

Educational Sciences, KU Leuvenpublished in the journal of NeuroImagesuggests a close link between the readingand arithmetic skills.

The arcuatefasciculusanterior is aneuralpathwayconnectingbrain regionsoften used forarithmetic. Apositivecorrelationwas foundbetween the quality of the white mattersheathing the pathway and proficiency inadding and multiplying. Such a correlation,however, does not exist for subtraction ordivision processes.

Neural pathways compare with a bundleof cables, surrounded by an isolatingsheath called Myelin or “white matter”.The thicker the sheath, the faster thesignals transferred between the cables.

In the test brain scans of the childrenengaged with different arithmeticoperations was considered. Theresearchers compared the quality of thechildren’s white mater and their arithmetictest performance to come to the inference.

White matterbundle is generallyfound involved inrote memorization,which we amplyuse during additionand multiplication;whereas duringsubtraction anddivision processes,memorizationplays a subservient

role. This is a probable explanation fordifferent correlations for addition-multiplication processes and subtraction-division processes.

The researchers also found that thereading proficiency and arithmeticproficiency go hand-in-hand. The whitematter tract also plays a crucial role inreading also. This is probably because wehave to memorize the correspondence

Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) inundergraduate education is growing in

popularity in universities of USA. Theseare especially observed for the courses inscience, technology, engineering andmathematics – known collectively as theSTEM disciplines.

Peer-Led Team Learning is an innovativemodel of undergraduate instruction thataugments the traditional lecture. Itconsists of a weekly two-hour workshopin which six to eight students worktogether to solve challenging problems in apeer group. The peer leader is a fellowundergraduate who has mastered thematerial and is a good communicator. Inaddition to course content instruction, heor she receives training in teachingmethods such as how to work withstudents who attempt to dominatesessions and how to provide a boost tostudents who have difficultyparticipating.

It is obvious that faculty and studentsshould work as partners in constructinglearning environments. PLTL is anexample of such a partnership where peerleaders partner with faculty to facilitatethe learning of students that are slightlyless advanced than themselves and theyalso advice faculty on what is working ornot working in the course.

Researchers from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis study theeffects of such peer-led team learning.

Peer-led teamlearning

In a recent study University of Houstonassistant professor Arthur D. Santana

has found a significant correlation betweenanonymity and civility. Comparing thetone of thousands of online commentsposted by anonymous andnon-anonymous usersfollowing onlinenewspaper stories,Santana found that 53.3percent of anonymouscomments includedlanguage that was vulgar,racist, profane or hateful;only 28.7 percent of non-anonymous commentswere found to be uncivil.

This behaviour is attributed to so called,“Online disinhibition effect”, whichsuggests that when people’s identity ishidden, their actions and words have noconsequences, thus their inhibitions drop.

Online, under the cloak of anonymity,people are more likely to behave in waysthat they ordinarily would not if theiridentity was intact. When anonymity wasremoved, civility prevailed. Vexed with an

overwhelming number ofuncivil comments thatthreaten to undermine thevalue of their commentingforums, newspapers areincreasingly disallowinganonymity by makingreaders sign in, forexample, with user’sFacebook account.

As commenting descendsinto hateful language, threats or racism, theconversation breaks down diluting benefitsof constructive dialogue. It is hoped thatabandoning anonymous commenting willraise the level of the dialogue and allowmore people to join the conversation.

Online disinhibition effect

between particular letters and the soundthey represent. It is in this respectcomparable to the addition andmultiplication processes.

The times-table drills in arithmetic issimilar to the nursery rhymes, bothrequires memorization and hence theinvolvement of the white matter. We maybe able to auto-recall both of them aftermany years.


INSIGHTS

Do not tease kids duringphysical exercise

A recent study reveals that childrenwho were bullied during a physical

drill class or during some physicalexercises are less likely to participate inphysical activity one year later.

Overweight orobese childrenwho experiencedteasing duringphysical activitywere found tohave a lowerperceived health-related quality oflife one year later.Health-relatedquality of lifeconsidersphysical, social,academic andemotional well-being.

Even children with a healthy weight whowere bullied during physical activitytended to exercise less often one yearlater. The result is published in theJournal of Paediatric Psychology.

Earlier studies have also correlatedobesity with bullying with over-weight.However, the prolonged effect of it overyears has not yet been proven.

The questions explored experiences suchas:

•Being made fun of when playing sportsor exercising.

•Not being chosen to be on a sports teamor otherchildren lookingor acting upsetwhen the childwas placed onthe team.

•Being calledinsulting nameswhen playingsports orexercising.

Decrease inphysicalactivity ofhealthy-weightstudents who

were bullied, and a decrease in the health-related quality of life for students whowere overweight or obese who reportedteasing in the survey.

The researchers warn schools to developbetter anti-bullying programs thatdiscourage peer victimization based onphysical abilities.

Civic learning and community service isslowly being accepted as essential

components of education. Educators andresearchers at Tufts University havedeveloped Civic Seed, an interactive videogame, which may better prepare collegestudents to engage with the community.

It is found that students participate incommunity service with little or noknowledge of the history, assets andchallenges of the community. Studentsmay even carry presumptions that aredestructive to the desired outcomes ofworking in the community. The onlinetool helps to solve this important problem.

The online interactive game includes videoclips from community partners, facultyand student interviews, whiteboardanimations and info graphics. The onlinevideo game includes multiple game levelsthat explore community collaboration,professional standards, sustainability,connecting academic interest to careeraspirations, and leadership development.

The Tufts University is also developing aself-paced non-gaming online module withcontent similar to what they haveincorporated into the video game. Studentsare randomly assigned to either theinteractive video game or the self-pacednon-game training. Both groups will thencomplete a pre- and post-testquestionnaire that will measure things likecritical thinking, communication withdiverse populations, individualmotivations and values, etc.

Video game toprepare students

Educational institutions fare well ongrading

A study by Randall Reback, associateprofessor at Barnard College of

Columbia University and Molly Alter, aresearch analyst for the Research Alliancefor New York City Schools at New YorkUniversity suggests that academic rankingof educational institutions have ameasurable effect on their futureprospects. Unfavourable quality-of-liferatings for peer colleges are followed bydecreases in student applications and theacademic competitiveness of its studentcommunity.

The study raises important questionsabout the large role some arbitrary rankingscan play in the college selection process.

The quality of life ranking was based oncategories like, Happy Students; LeastHappy Students; Most Beautiful Campus;Unsightly, Tiny Campus; Party Schools;Stone-Cold Sober Schools; and JockSchools, etc. The positive characteristicslike happy students, most beautifulcampus, etc attracted more number ofapplications to the graded schools.Whereas, the negative characteristics like“Least Happy Students”, “Unsightly orTiny Campus” detracted studentapplications. However, inclusion on“Party Schools”, “Stone-Cold SoberSchools”, or “Joke Schools” did not have astatistically significant effect on the overallnumber of applicants.


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fm-Wn--h......

AXn-Po-h\w

A\m-Y-Xz-Øns‚ Ccp≠ CS-\m-gn-I-fn¬ hnßepw ho¿∏p-ap-́ epw iq\y-Xbpw h∂v sIń-∏n-Sn-°p-tºmƒ,Pohn-XsØ i]n®v ]gn-°p-tºmƒHcp ]nSn-h-≈n-bv°mbn Rc-ßnbF{X-sb{X aplq¿Ø-ßƒ....

iq\y-X-bpsS ]mXm-f-K¿Ø-ß-fn¬InS∂p Dd-ßmsX \ne-hn-fn® F{X-sb{X cm{Xn-Iƒ....

As∂ms°{]Xym-i-bpsS HcpssIØn-cn-\m-fw-t]mepw Pohn-X-Øn-en-√.

ac-W-Øns‚tNmW-\p-dp-ºp-Iƒ ico-c-Øn-eqsS F√m Ah-b-h-ß-fn-eq-sSbpwHmSn-\-S-°p∂Akz-ÿ-]q¿Æ-amb Zn\-ßƒ....

AtΩ F∂p \ne-hn-fn-°m≥ AΩ-bn-√. ape-∏m-ens‚aWhpw cpNnbpwNp≠n¬\n∂p amdpw-aptºFtßmt´m, Hcp-]-s£, amem-J-am¿°p \Sp-hn-tet°m t]mbva-d™ AΩ.

Xmcm-́ n-√.

kvt\l-Øn¬ s]mXn™ DΩ-I-fn-√. Ipdp-ºp-Im-´p-tºmƒ Ip™p-in-£-I-fn-√.

hnØp- a-c-am-Ipw-t]mse Rm≥hf¿∂p Pohn® Pohn-Xw.B¿t°m th≠n....

GXp ]£n-°pw, GXp Nn√-bnepwCcn-°m-sa-∂-t]mse...

Fs‚ Pohn-X-Øn¬ h∂pwCcp∂pw InS∂pw t]mb-h-sc{X?

aXn. Cu Pohn-X-sa∂v a\ v izmk-\n-izm-kw-t]mse Dcp-hn´ Znh-k-ß-fp-sS, amk-ß-fpsS Zn\m-¥y-ßƒ....

AXm-bn-cp∂p Fs‚ Pohn-X-Øns‚BsI-Øp-I.

ac-W-Øns‚ ssIøp-]n-Sn®psImØm-¶√p Ifn-®p.

{]mb-am-b-t∏mƒ {]W-b-Øn-\mbnXpWsb tXSn.

\n-μbp-sSbpw A]-lm-ky-X-bp-sSbpw hrW-ßƒ apJØpw a\- nepw s]mń-hn-cn-™p.

Xnc-kvIm-c-Øns‚ H‰-s∏-S-ep-I-fn¬PohnXw aSpØp Imep sh¥ ]ń-sb-t∏mse e£y-an-√msX HmSn-s°m-t≠-bn-cp-∂p.

NnIn’ e`n-°m-Ø, at\m-tcm-K-Øns‚ IS-∂¬°qSp Npa-°p∂A∏-s‚bpw ˛ kmtlm-Z-cy-_‘wIqS-∏n-d-∏m-°mØ ktlm-Z-c-ßfp-sSbpw \Sp-hn¬, AsX, Hcp th´-ar-K-sØ-t∏mse Hfn-®p-Po-hn-®p. Nne-t∏mƒ ]c-°w-]m™vHmSm≥t]mepw Ign-bmsXXI¿∂pw Xf¿∂pw c£n-°tWssZhta! F∂ \ne-hn-fn-t]mepwC√msX....

AXm-bn-cp∂p tPm¿Pv tPmk^vsI.

ac-W-Øns‚ \oscm-gp-°p≈ apdn-I-fm-bn-cp∂p Fs‚ hoń-ep-≠m-bn-cp-∂-Xv. Rm\-Xn¬ \o¥n \S-∂p.

ssIIm-en-´-Sn®v ]X®p \o¥n]Tn®p Pohn-X-sØ. F∂n´pwPohnXw ]pdw-Xn-cn-™p-\n∂vF\n°pw \n\°pw XΩn-se¥vF∂v tNmZn-®p.

Ctøm-_ns‚ ico-c-Øn¬ hrW-ßƒ h∂p ]gp-Øp-s]m-ń-b-t]msetaem-k-Iew ]cp-°ƒ h∂p \nd-™p Fs‚ ico-c-Øn¬ (I-©mhphcp-Øn-b-hn-\)....

Hcp-\mƒ D®n-ap-X¬ Im¬s]cp-hn-c¬hsc hrW-Øns‚ ]q°ƒ\nd-™p-]qØHcp Xmgvhc-bmbnamdn-F-s‚- i-cocw.

A∏\pws]ßfpw hoń-ep-≠m-bn-cp-∂n´pwA°m-eØvRm≥ XnI®pwH‰-s∏-´-h\pwGIm-In-bp-am-bn-cp-∂p.

ac-W-c-Y-bm-{X-Iƒ CSn-an-∂¬∏n-W-cp-Iƒt]mse Fs‚ ico-c-Øn-eqsS]m™p-s]m-bvs°m-≠n-cp-∂p.

Afn-™p-t]mb ico-c-hp-ambnkz¥w ico-c-Øns‚ Zp¿K-‘-Øn¬]pX∏p ]pX-®n-cp∂p Rm≥ GXp-t\-c-hpw.

]I-ens\ F\n°p `b-am-bn.

Bsc-¶nepw hoń-te°p Ib-dn-h∂vFs∂ I≠m¬ Bfl-\n-μ-sIm≠vFs‚ icocw Aen-™-en™v C√m-sX-bm-Ip-am-bn-cp-∂p.

A∏\pw s]ßfpw Fs‚tcmKsØ I≠p-t]m-ep-an-√.I≠m¬Ø-s∂bpw GtXm IpjvT-tcmKn A\p-hm-Z-an-√msX Rß-fpsShoń¬ h∂v Hcp apdn Iog-S°nAXn¬ Xma-kn-°p-I-bm-sW∂p

ac-W-Øns‚ \oscm-gp-°p≈ apdn-I-fm-bn-cp∂p Fs‚ hoń-ep-≠m-bn-cp-∂-Xv.

Rm\-Xn¬ \o¥n \S-∂p. Nne-t∏mƒ ]c-°w-]m™v HmSm≥t]mepw Ign-bmsX

XI¿∂pw Xf¿∂pw c£n-°tW ssZhta! F∂ \ne-hn-fn-t]mepw C√msX....

AXm-bn-cp∂p tPm¿Pv tPmk^v sI.


AXn-Po-h\w

am{Xw Ah¿ Icp-Xn. aq°p-s]m-Øn-∏n-Sn®v s]ßƒ `£Ww Hcp ]m{X-Øn¬ sIm≠p-h∂p sh®v thKwapdn-hn´v HmSn-t∏m-Ipw.

PohnXw Fs∂-t∏mse Atß-b‰wshdpØ Hcp kv{Xobm-bn-cp∂pFs‚ s]ßƒ. ap∏-Øn-c≠phb p Ign-™n´pwkv{Xo[-\-N-¥-bn¬hn¬°m-sX-t]mbHcp Nc°p am{X-ambn Ah¿ Pohn-XsØ i]n®p \ne-sIm-≠p.

Fgp-]Xmw hb- p-hsc PohnXw BSn-Øn-a¿Ø A∏≥enh¿Iym≥k¿ tcmK-Øns‚ ]®-∏p-I-fn¬thZ-\-bpsS \rØw-N-hnń, Cu temIØvXm\n√ F∂ ań¬Pohn®p, F\n°pws]ßƒ°pw \Sp-hn¬.

a\p-jy¿ KmV-\n-{Z-bn-em-Ip-tºmƒ]pX∏pw hmcn-∏p-X®vRm≥ tdmUn-te-°n-d-ßpw.]I¬°m-esØ ho´p-X-S-¶ens‚hnc-k-X-b-I-‰p-∂-X-ß-s\-bm-Wv.]I¬sh-´-Øn¬ Xs‚ Ad-bv°p∂icocw a\p-jy¿ ImWm-Xn-cn-°m≥]pe-cm-dm-Ip-∂-Xn\p apºv Xncn-®p-h∂v {Um°p-f-{]`p ih-s∏-ń-bn¬InS-°pw-t]mse Rm≥ Iń-en¬ InS-°pw. Ccp-ńs‚ temI-Øm-bn-cp∂pFs‚ Pohn-Xw.

tcmKw _m[n-°pw-apºv Rm≥ I©m-hn\v ASn-a-bm-bn-cp-∂p. H∏w temI-Øp≈ Zp¿Ωm¿§n-I-fpsS ]pWy-hm-f\pw.

cm{Xn Dd-ßm-Xn-cn-°p∂ Hcp aqß-sb-t∏mse I©m-hns‚ ab-°-Øn¬ IÆp-an-gn®v ]I-en-cp-∂p. HcptUmIvS-sdbpw ImWm≥ t]mbn-√.

Fs‚ Ahÿ I≠v hoń-ep-≈-hcpw NnIn-’-bv°mbn Fs∂Fßpw sIm≠p-t]m-b-Xp-an-√.

Bfl-lXy sNøm-\p≈ G‰hpw\√ hgn GsX∂ Nn¥ am{X-ambn]ns∂ Fs‚ a\- n¬.

Xqßn-a-cWw hø.

sh≈-Øn¬ apßn-®m-Imw. ]s£,apºsØ Hcp ]cm-P-b-Im-c-Ww-sIm≠v AXp ths≠∂p h®p.A∂v Bfl-l-Xy-bv°mbn s]cn-bm-‰n¬ NmSn-sb¶nepw Hcp t]mÃvam≥Icbv°p hen-®p-I-b‰n c£n-®p-I-f-™p.

Ah-km\w Hcp hgn apºn¬ Xpd-∂p.

Xpfkn!

AsX, Ah-s\s‚ Bfl-kp-lrØv.

Ah≥ NpgenZo\-°m-c-\m-Wv.

Ahs‚ acp-∂v.....

^nt\m-_m¿_n-t‰m¨(-D-d-°-a-cp-∂v)

Kh¨sa‚ v {] n¬ F∂pw cm{XnPoh-\-°m-c≥.

Cu ]gp-Ø-fn™ Pohn-X-tØmSvbm{X ]d-bm≥ G‰hpw \√acp∂pw hgnbpw AXp-X-s∂-bm-sW∂v Dd-∏n-®p.

Xpfkn Xma-kn-°p-∂-Xv t\m¿Øvsdbn¬∏m-f-Øn-\-cn-Inse Hcp hmS-I-ho-ń-em-Wv. Fs∂-t∏mse

\s√mcp hmb-\-°m-c-\mWv Xpf-knbpw.]pd-Øp-t]m-Ip-tºmƒ hoSp-]qńXmt°m¬ Hfn-∏n-®p-h-®n-cn-°p-∂-bnSwFs∂ ImWn-®p-X-∂n-´p-≠v.

Zp:Jhym-gm-gvN.

A∂-h\v tPmen-bp-≠v.

cm{Xn Rm\-hs‚hoń¬ t]mbnBcpw ImWmsXhoSp-Xp-d∂v Ahs‚acp∂v ^nt\m-_m¿_n-t‰m¨ FSp-Øp-sIm≠pt]m∂p.

F√m sh≈n-bm-gvNbpw tIme-t©-cn-bn¬ tPmensNøp∂ tN´≥ AK-Ãn≥ hoń¬hcpw. Fs‚ c≠m-asØ tN´-\m-Wv. hnhm-ln-X-\mbn tIme-t©-cn-bn-emWv Xma-kw. an°-t∏mgpw Rßƒ]ń-Wn-bpsS IpS-NqSn Pohn-°p∂Ime-am-W-Xv. tN´-\mWv tdj≥hmßm\pw a‰pw Imip Xcp-∂-Xv.IpSpw-_-tØmSv Aev]-sa-¶nepwIcp-W-bp≈ Hcm-fmbn AΩ {]k-hn-®Xv tN´s\ am{X-am-Wv. _m°na°-sfms° Akpc P∑-ßƒ.

ac-W-Øns‚ cm°n-fn-Iƒ Fs‚hoSn\p Np‰p-an-cp∂v Nne-®p.

Zp:Jhym-gmgvN I¿Øm-hns‚ ]mSp-]o-UI-sf-tbm¿Øv hnizm-kn-IƒIc-™p hne-]n-°m≥ ]≈n-bn¬t]mIp∂ kabw Fs‚ ac-W-Øns‚ hn\m-gnI h∂p F∂v

Zp:Jhym-gmgvN I¿Øm-hns‚ ]mSp-]o-UI-sf-tbm¿Øv hnizm-kn-Iƒ Ic-™p

hne-]n-°m≥ ]≈n-bn¬ t]mIp∂ kabw Fs‚ ac-W-Øns‚ hn\m-gnI h∂p

F∂v Rm≥ a\- n¬ IW-°p-Iq-́ n.


AXn-Po-h\w

Rm≥ a\- n¬ IW-°p-Iq-ń.

\nXy-amb Dd-°w- X-cp∂ ^nt\m-_m¿_n-t‰m-Wns\ Rm\-∂p-hscI≠ Iq´p-Im-cn¬ G‰hpw henbIq´p-Im-c-\mbn I≠p.

Ipsd-\mƒ apºv Fs‚-sbmcp Iq´p-Im-c≥ \n mc Imcy-Øn\v Ft∂mSp hg-°n-ń-cp-∂p. AXp ]ns∂-∏ns∂ henbi{Xp-X-bmbn s]cpØpRß-fn¬. Fs‚Ahÿ Ah≥ Fß-s\tbm aW-Ø-dn-™p.Ah≥ \mń¬ F\n-s°-Xnsc Hcp s]cp-º-d-bmbn apg-ßn.

""tPm¿Pn\p IpjvT-am-Wv.Ah≥ NnIn-’-bv°p-t]mepw t]mImsXAXp-sIm≠v hoń¬AS®p]qń Ccp-∏m-Wv.''

Np‰p-ap-≈ Ab¬h°wAXp apgp-h≥ hniz-kn-®p. icn-bm-Wv. Fs∂Bcpw ]pdØp ImWm-dn-√. Dul-ß-fpsS Nm‰-a-g-Iƒ Ah¿ s]cp-a-g-bm-°n am‰n.

CXn-\n-Sbv°v ]≠p hoń-ep-≠m-bn-cp∂ NneBbp¿th-Z -te-ly-ßƒRms\-SpØv tcmKw amd-s´-sb-∂p-I-cpXn kzbw tkhn-®p. At∏mƒtcmKw apº-tØ-Xnepw hj-fm-bn.ico-cØn¬ apgp-h≥ I©mhp]qØp-e-™n-cp-∂-Xn-\m¬ Fs‚icocw Fs∂ h√msX ]oUn-∏n-®p.

Fs‚ ico-cØns‚ Zp¿K‘w arK-ßƒ NØp-No-™- a-W-Øn\p Xpey-ambn hoń¬ \ne-sIm-≠p.

ASpØ Zp:Jsh≈n Fs‚ Nc-a- sh-≈n-bmgvNbmbn Rm≥ kzbw {]Jym-]n-®p.

s]kl Bcm-[-\-bv°mbn s]ßƒcm{Xn ]≈n-bn¬ t]mIp∂ t\cw acn-

°m-\mbn Dd-°-Kp-fn-IIƒ Ign-°-Ww.

hmb-\bv°v Hcn-S-th-f.

*************

Zp:JhymgmgvN cm{Xn.

tIme-t©-cn. kabw cm{Xn ]Ø-c. AK-Ãn≥tN´s‚ s\©n\v

Hcm-[n. h√mØ hnΩn-jvSw.Ft¥m Zpc¥w kw`-hn-°m≥t]mIp-∂p. `mcy-tbmSp tN´≥]d™p:

""F\n-°n-t∏mƒØs∂ Ieqcvt]mWw.''

""\nßfv sh≈n-bm-gvN-bt√t]mIm-dv.''

""\msfhsc ImØn-cn-°m-\m-In-√.F\n-°p-≈o°n-S∂v h√mØsh{]m-tfmw ]c-th-timw.''

""Cu ]mXn-cm{Xn C\n _ pInt´zm?''

""Inń-bmepw Inń-bn-t√epw Rm≥

t]mIpw.''

""Fßs\?''

""AsX-\n-°-dn-™p-Iq-Sm..''

tN´≥ j¿´pw ap≠pw amdn. tIme-t©cn PwKvj-\n¬ h∂p. _kp-ImØv HØncn \n∂p. Ah-km-\sØ {Sm≥kvt]m¿´p-_ pwt]mbn-°-gn-™n-cp-∂p. ]e temdn-

Iƒ°pw ssIIm-ń. Ah-km\w Hcp ]m≠n temdnt{_°p Nhn-ń.

*************

^nt\m-_m¿_n-t‰m¨Kpfn-I-Iƒ Fs‚ apºn-en-cp∂v ac-W-Øns‚ HcptKmjvTn Imń Nncn-®p.

]mhw Xpf-kn.

Hcp amksØ Ahs‚Kpfn-I-Iƒ.....

AXn-√msX Ah≥ NpgenImń-°mń Hcp tImam-fn-bmIpw Bfp-I-fpsSapºn¬. Rmt\m ]c-a-kp-J-a-\p-`-hn®v \nXy-ambn Dd-ßpw.

ho´p-Im¿ ImWmsX Hfn-∏n-®p-h-®n-cp∂ I©m-hp-s]mXn Xpd∂v Rms\mcp

_oUn-sbm-cp-°n-sb-SpØvB™m™p hen-®p.

kz¿K-Øn¬ sN∂v amem-J-am-tcm-sSm-∏hpw \c-I-Øn¬ sN∂vs]¨]n-im-Np-°-tfm-sSm-∏hpw\rØ-am-Sn.

\rØ-Øns‚ emky-e-l-cn-bn¬Rm≥ aXn-a-d-∂-t∏mƒ AK-Ãn≥tN´≥ Fs‚ apdn-bpsS Ip‰n-bn-SmØ hmXn¬ Xpd∂v AI-Øp-h-∂p.

apdn-bn¬ IS-∂Xpw tN´-\-dn-bmsXaq°p-s]m-Øn-t∏m-bn.

Agn-™p-\m-dnb ih-ßƒ Iqń-bn-ń-

tN´≥ HmSn-h∂v Fs‚ ]pX∏p hen-®p-am-‰n. Fs‚ Afn™ tZlsØ

ad∂v sIń-∏n-Sn-®p. Xe-bnepw apJØpw kvt\lw-sIm≠v DΩ-h-®p. Fs‚

hrW-ß-fnse Nehpw tNmcbpw tN´s‚ j¿ń¬ ]c-∂-Xp-t]m-ep-a-dn-™n-√.

Rm\-t∂cw Ikm≥km-°n-kns‚ t\mh-ense sk≥{^m≥kn-kns\

Hm¿°p-I-bm-bn-cp-∂p.


cn-°p∂ Hcp apdn-bn¬ Adn-bmsXIb-dn-t∏mb {]Xo-Xn-bmbn tN´-\v.

tN´≥ O¿±n-°m-\mbn Hm°m-\n-®XvRm≥ tI´p.

apdn-bnse NnΩn-\n-hnf-°ns‚ Xncn-\mfw Rm≥ XmgvØn h®n-cp-∂Xv{]Im-iw- Iq-´m-\mbn tN´≥ sXfn-®-t∏mƒ \nd™ shfn-®-Øn¬Fs∂ I≠p.

Hs∂m-∂c amk-ambn tN´≥ tPmen-Øn-c-°p-aqew hoń-te-°p-h-∂n-´v.tai-∏p-d-Øn-cp∂ Dd-°-Kp-fn-I-I-fpsS t_mń¬ I≠v tN´≥ \Sp-ßp-∂Xpw `b-°p-∂Xpw Rm≥ I≠p.

I©m-hns‚ el-cn-bn¬ Rm≥ ]d-™Xv At±-l-Øns‚ s\©n¬ Hcn-°epw sISp-Øm-\m-ImØ Xobmbn]S¿∂p.

""CØncn sshIn hcm-cp-∂nt√?\msf.... F¶n I¿Øm-hn-t\wFt∂w Hcp-an®v AS-°mcp-∂nt√?''

tN´≥ HmSn-h∂v Fs‚ ]pX∏phen-®p-am-‰n. Fs‚ Afn™tZlsØ ad∂v sIń-∏n-Sn-®p. Xe-bnepw apJØpw kvt\lw-sIm≠vDΩ-h-®p. Fs‚ hrW-ß-fnseNehpw tNmcbpw tN´s‚ j¿ń¬]c-∂-Xp-t]m-ep-a-dn-™n-√. Rm\-t∂cw Ikm≥km-°n-kns‚ t\mh-ense sk≥{^m≥kn-kns\ Hm¿°p-I-bm-bn-cp-∂p.

IpjvT-tcm-Knsb sIń-∏n-Sn®pNpw_n-°p∂ sk‚ v {^m≥kn-kv....

sk‚ v {^m≥knkv {InkvXp-hm-Ip-I-bm-bn-cp-∂p.

]≈n-bnse s]k-lm-cm-[\Ign™v s]ßƒ h∂p. tN´≥s]ß-tfmSv tNmZn®p:

""Ch\o KXn-bn-em-bn´pw HcpIm¿Up-t]m-ep-an´v Cu hnhcw Adn-bn-®n-√-t√mSn Fc-Ww-sI-´-h-sf.''

tN´s‚ tNmZy-Øn\v bmsXmcpDØ-c-hp-an-√msX \n w-K-X-tbmsSs]ßƒ \n∂p.

tN´≥ Ae-am-cn-bn¬ kq£n-®n-cp∂ap√-∏q-hns‚ aW-ap≈ sk‚ vFs‚ tZlØv Xfn-®p. Fs‚ Ipń-°m-ew-ap-Xte AK-Ãn≥ tN´≥hoń-te°p hcp-∂Xv ap√-∏q-hns‚K‘-tam-sS-bm-Wv. Fhn-sS-t∏m-bmepw hnb¿∏p-\m‰w tXm∂m-Xn-cn-°m≥ tN´-\Xp ssIbn¬ Icp-Xpw.Ft∏mgpw ]qipw. tIme-t©-cn-bnepw Ieq-cnepw F∂pw AXns‚tÃm°p-≠v Ae-am-cn-I-fn¬.

]{¥-≠p-aWn Ign-™p.

shfp-∏m≥Im-e-am-bn.

Fs∂ tN´≥ Hcp j¿ń-\p-ta¬BZyw Ipsd sk‚p ]qin as‰m-∂-W-bn-®p. ]ns∂ AXn-\p-ta-sebpwsk‚p ]qin. AXn-\p-ap-I-fn¬ho≠pw Hcp ]pX-∏v. AXn\p apI-fnepw sk‚p ]qin. ]ns∂Fs∂bpw Iqń {Sm≥kvt]m¿´v_kvÃm‚n¬ h∂p. Hcp aqe-a‰w^m-Ãn¬ Rßƒ Ib-dn. tN´≥tIme-t©-cn°p c≠p Sn°-s‰-Sp-Øp.

I≠-IvSdpw _ n-ep-≈-hcpw sk‚ vXe-bv°-Sn®v aØp-]n-Sn-®p. Cfw-Im-‰n¬ _ v tIme-t©-cn-bn-te°p\oßn.

XΩm-\n-a-‰sØ Hcp \m´p-ssh-Zys‚H‰-aq-en-bnepw Ijm-b-Ønepw aq∂p-am-k-Øn-\p-tijw Rm≥ ]q¿Æm-tcm-Ky-hm-\mbn Xncn-®p-h-∂p. Fs‚cq]ta amdn-t∏m-bn-cp-∂p.

hoń¬ Xncn-s®-Øn-bn´pw B tai-∏p-dsØ Kpfn-I-Iƒ Bcpwam‰msX Ahn-S-Øs∂ Ccn-∏p-≠m-bn-cp-∂p.

As√-¶n¬ B apdn-bn¬ Bcp Ib-dm≥?

Fs‚ s]ßƒ B apdn ASn-®p-Xq-Øp-hm-cm≥t]mepw AXn¬ Ib-dn-√m-bn-cp-∂t√m?

sNdp-∏-ambn Pohn-®n-cp∂ ImeØvZp¿\-S-∏p-Im-c-\mb arK-Xp-ey-\mba\p-jy-t\mSv I\n-hp-Im-´m≥ am{XwssZhtam amem-Jtbm H∂p-am-bn-cp-∂n-√t√m Fs‚ s]ßƒ?

tIme-t©-cn-bn¬\n-∂p≈ B Xncn-®p-h-chv AsXs‚ c≠mw-P-∑-am-bn-cp-∂p.

ssZhw Ctøm-_ns\ A\p-{K-ln-®-Xp-t]mse Rm≥ Ccń A\p-{K-l-ßƒ°v DS-b-h-\mbn. ]gb a\p-jys\ Rm≥ Dcn-™p-I-f-™p.{InkvXp-hn¬ Rm≥ ]pXnbkrjvSn-bm-bn.... ]ns∂ ssZho-I-k-tμ-i-Øm¬ Bfl-l-Xy-bn¬\n∂vRm≥ c£-s∏-Sp-Ønb F{X Pohn-X-ßƒ?....

Ct∏mƒ \memƒ Adn-bp∂ Fgp-Øp-Im-c-\m-bn.

Zp»o-e-ßƒ hns´m-gn™ a\pjy-\m-bn. \√ `¿Øm-hm-bn. a°-fpsS \√A∏-\m-bn.

ssZh-Øns‚ ssI]n-Sn®v Ct∏mƒRm≥ \S-°m≥ {ian-°p-∂p.kvt\lw-sIm≠v Fs‚ PohnXwAXn-cp-I-fn-√mØ {]]-©hpwhnkvXr-Xn-bp-ambn amdp-∂p. Zp»o-e-ßƒ°v ASn-a-bmbn Zp¿am¿§n-bmbn\S∂ Fs∂ c≠v Bfl-l-Xym-{i-a-Øn¬\n∂pw ssZh-Øns‚ Ic-ßƒ s]m°n-sb-Sp-°m≥ am{XwRms\-¥p≈q?

shdpw s]mSnbpw shÆodpw am{X-amb a\p-jy≥. AXn-e-∏pdw Rm≥H∂p-a-√t√m? GXp-a-√t√m?

ae-bm-f-Ønse {]ikvX sNdp-I-Ym-Ir-ØmWv teJ-I≥

Ct∏mƒ \memƒ Adn-bp∂ Fgp-Øp-Im-c-\m-bn. Zp»o-e-ßƒ hns´m-gn™

a\pjy-\m-bn. \√ `¿Øm-hm-bn. a°-fpsS \√ A∏-\m-bn. ssZh-Øns‚

ssI]n-Sn®v Ct∏mƒ Rm≥ \S-°m≥ {ian-°p-∂p.


AXn-Po-h\w

15Pallikkutam | January 2014

Dr. Jos Cletus Plackal

Brightest in school, the nightmareof family!

Sunitha’s life’s ambition was to become a medical doctor. She knew thatshe had the real potential for it. However, due to a series of unforeseen

and unfortunate events, both from within and without, her emotionalworld was on the brink of shutdown.

\

Sunitha (not real name) is a 16-year-oldplus-one student, class-topper in

SSLC, quite amiable, helpful, smart andpleasant. Some time ago she developedhealth-related problems such as migraine,and more recently, breathing difficulties,causing hospitalization and disruption tostudies. The violent nature of migraineattacks and the more serious pulmonaryspasms which created frequent medicalemergencies resulting in hospitalizationscaused the girl, her parents and extendedfamily great anguish. She was treated atsuperspeciality hospitals and all relevantclinical investigations had been completed,but the specialist doctors couldn’t find thecause of these life- threatening pathologicalconditions. The family was in great agonyand experienced the helplessness anddespair of their dear daughter who had,until recently, bagged the top honours instudies and in extracurricular activities.

Tremors underneath Sunitha’spsunamiThe family brought the girl for counselling.Her parents accompanied her; all of themlooking visibly shaken, greatly worried andsad. The girl looked depressed, very sadand tired and was in tears. An in-depthclinical interview conducted individuallyand with the family brought to light thecomplexity and depth of the problems thatthis teenager was going through. NeitherSunitha nor her loving family was aware ofthe enormity and viciousness of these life-threatening syndromes.

Although she was a topper in her school,she didn’t get admission in the first round

through an oversight. For two weeksSunitha had to sit at home anxious anddesperate blaming her bad luck.

When parents decided to take her to aprivate school, she was reluctant andundecided. She had no friends, she didn’tcatch up with what was taught and the talkof class tests by the teachers petrified heras she knew for sure she won’t score evenminimum marks. (And she was a fiercelyself-respecting person).

Sunitha eventually got admitted to aGovernment HSS, and that only added toher woes. This school was very success-oriented, pressurizing students byintimidation, taunts etc. Each time ateacher applied pressure on students,Sunitha got intimidated and frightened andher anxiety level shot up skyhigh. Thisdemoralized her and affected herconcentration and studies. She feltneglected by teachers, lonely and lost.

About this time Sunitha, for the first timein her life, did a FaceBook adventure. Shechatted with a man who happened to befrom her own neighbourhood, and theentire family rose up in arms. They wereterrified that Sunitha might run away witha man whom they knew was a real loser.She felt the pain of being emotionally cutoff from the extended family. As sherecalled, ‘this was like death’.

Sunitha is a very affectionate girl, but shedoesn’t want anyone to touch her,including her mother and sister. But sherelished the affectionate strokes andpampering from her maternal grandpa. Her

father though affectionate didn’t get timeto pamper the little one when she needed itmost. (Touch has enormous potential foraffirmation, especially during the formativeyears).

Sunitha’s life’s ambition was to become amedical doctor. She knew that she had thereal potential for it. However, due to aseries of unforeseen and unfortunateevents, both from within and without, heremotional world was on the brink ofshutdown. Gradually it dawned on her thatat the current rate she would not make it tothe top grade and that she would never beable to fulfil her life’s ambition ofbecoming a medic. This sense of impendingfailure nagged her inner self, froze her vitalenergy. Hence she felt everything had cometo a standstill, life was not worth living,dying was much easier than living!

Therapeutic strategy : A) The immediategoal was to arrest the recurring bodyshutdowns leading to deeper despair and(death). Sunitha needed help to get out ofthe deep despair and depression—fromemotionality to reality. For this, memory-healing therapies were administered.Traumatic memories were recalled,reconstructed and reworked and theintensity of emotional events was acceptedand allowed to be defused through BWTs(brain wave therapies). Realistic appraisal,setting up of goals and means to achievethem etc were worked out. As the examswere fast approaching, the simple andstraight goal selected was “to write theexams, come what may, regardless of theoutcome”! This was necessary since


STORIES OF LIFE

16 Pallikkutam | January 2014

Sunitha eventually got admitted to aGovernment HSS, and that only

added to her woes. This school wasvery success-oriented, pressurizingstudents by intimidation, taunts etc.

Each time a teacher applied pressureon students, Sunitha got intimidatedand frightened and her anxiety levelshot up skyhigh. This demoralizedher and affected her concentrationand studies. She felt neglected by

teachers, lonely and lost.

The author is licensed clinical psychologist(HRT), Jeevas Centre Aluva.

Sunitha had an obstinate fixation onacquiring higher-grade marks which wascausing her a great amount of tension.

B) The long-term strategy was to hardenher resolve to become a medical doctor,and so get back to her regimen of studies.Knowing well that Sunitha was a resolutefighter to the core, the same strength wasput to good use. She was also made torealize that she was facing tremendousodds vis-à-vis her resolve to reach the topof the class and, eventually, to become adoctor. The final option was very simpleand straight—either fight with all might,or flee! She was told that she was doingthe latter.

The entire extended family was broughtinto the therapeutic process by gettingthem involved in supporting Sunitha,instead of isolating her. They showed moretrust in her, and on her part, Sunitha closeddown her FB account.

Sunitha’s teachers were also brought onboard. Her oversensitivity to scolding,punishment etc and her overanxiety werebrought to their attention. The teacherswere willing partners and were verycooperative and understanding. After all,she was one of their best students!

The therapeutic outcome was quitepositive. Sunitha did write her exams andfared rather well. For the first time in lifeshe focused on learning rather than ongetting top marks. Her physical symptomseased and mood changed to be morepositive and active. Two weeks aftertherapy, she maintains her momentum instudies and seems less tense, and morefocused. After six weeks, Sunitha has madestrides in studies as well as in relations,especially with teachers. She is back to hernormal self, symptom-free and interestedin studies.


STORIES OF LIFE

Dr. K.N. Raghavan

Full Marathons should replaceHalf Marathons

The first-ever Half Marathon conductedat Kochi recently was a resounding

success. It was well organized, the level ofparticipation was good, the support fromthe media and the public was exceptionaland the participants went back with a glowof satisfaction on their faces. While theorganizers deserve to be congratulated onits successful conduct, one should alsopoint out that it is the originators of thevery idea of hosting the Half Marathonwho merit a louder round of applause.They correctly identified this long-suppressed need of the public that had not

yet been voiced and acted in a proactivemanner.

It is noticed after the event that there hasbeen an increase in the number of peoplegoing for jogs and walks in the morning.The conduct of an event of this nature andmagnitude would by itself have served asan inspiration to people to start exercisingtheir body in a modest manner. The beautyof the human body is that it welcomes suchexercises warmly and soon a person wouldstart feeling that his/her day is incompletewithout the morning walk/jog. Further

small groups congregate during suchactivities involving like-minded peoplehaving similar interests and gradually themorning constitutional would evolve intoan enjoyable experience that one looksforward to eagerly.

However one problem that most of thepeople living in tier II and tier III cities inour country is that there are not enoughareas where one can go for a walk or a jogpeacefully in the mornings. Most of thehitherto-open areas have been filled inwith new constructions, and parks have

By successfully conducting the Mini-Marathon, Kochi Corporation hastaken the first step in its efforts to improve the quality of lives of people

living in the city.


EXPERT COUNSEL

The author is the Commissioner of Customsin Kochi.

either become too small in size or vanishedaltogether. The practice of walking/joggingalong the roads is neither safe nor healthybut indulged in by many on account of lackof alternative options. In Kochi, thewalkway in Marine Drive and the circularroad around J N Stadium are the onlyplaces where one can enjoy a morning walkin peace without worrying about being runover or hit by fumes emanating from theexhaust pipes of vehicles. The crowds thatthrong these areas in the mornings areproof of the growing realization amongstthe population about the importance oflight exercise in one’s day-to-day life.

Every important city in the world boastsgood parks and greenery that serve toabsorb all the carbon dioxide released intothe atmosphere by the vehicular traffic. InIndia also, one can find such parks andgreen belts in metros such as Delhi,Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. But whenit comes to the fast-growing smaller cities,one finds that the authorities havecompletely ignored this aspect whileplanning their growth. And worse, therehave been no qualms about cutting downtrees and converting existing grounds andparks into high-rise structures or evenparking areas for vehicles.

Unless this trend is reversed, one will soonfind that a substantial number of peopleliving in such cities will fall victims to theso-called lifestyle diseases, which are

nothing but protests emanating from thehuman body about bad eating habits andlack of exercise. One would look up to theauthorities to plant more trees and buildwalkways for the general public in the newcities and towns that are witnessing afaster pace of growth.

People of my generation were taught theadage “The Battle of Waterloo was won inthe playgrounds of Eton”. The emphasison physical exercise and all-rounddevelopment with focus on camaraderieand team spirit, which was followed in thepublic schools of Britain, was consideredto be the ideal grooming for young minds.So we were encouraged to spend as muchtime in the playground as we did inside theclassroom and the achievements outsidethe academic terrain were given equalimportance.

Thus there was an early introduction tothe world of exercises, sports and games.However these days the focus has shiftedalmost exclusively to academic excellenceand the time outside the classroomconstitutes only a small portion of achild’s day. This stress on studies, to theexclusion of all other activities, along withunhealthy eating habits and a tendency forspending long hours in front of thecomputer and televisions, places the newgeneration at considerably high risks offalling prey to lifestyle diseases.

By successfully conducting the Mini-Marathon, Kochi Corporation has takenthe first step in its efforts to improve thequality of lives of people living in the city.However sustained efforts at various levelsby different organizations are required tomake substantive progress in this regard.

While the corporations and the townplanning authorities should take steps toincrease the area under the green belt andprovide more space where people canenjoy a morning constitutional in peace,schools should not only possess largegrounds but also encourage the students touse them liberally. Healthy living is a basichuman right and it can be achieved only ifpeople take it upon themselves to practicehabits aimed at promoting good health andthey are encouraged, guided and supportedin this endeavour right from childhood.

The evolution of Half Marathon into awell-contested full Marathon would takeplace in course of time; however thesuccess of this venture should be measurednot in the number of participants fromother countries that the event attracts eachyear but in the number of people whoreceive and accept the message of physicalfitness for all that it seeks to convey.

In Kochi, the walkway in Marine Drive and the circular road around J NStadium are the only places where one can enjoy a morning walk in peacewithout worrying about being run over or hit by fumes emanating from the

exhaust pipes of vehicles.


EXPERT COUNSEL

NOTES ON CREATIVITY

Dr. Varghese Panthalookaran CMI

Have some clay in the head

Flexibility is an important measure ofcreative thinking, according to J P

Guilford, the famous creativity expert. Tothink creatively implies to think flexibly.Creative thinkers are seldom adamant, rigidor frozen in their concepts. They are opento new realities and allow them to modifytheir world-views. They are not convictedto their convictions. Their convictions areregularly updated. They are tried andtested against the realities of life; thosewhich stand the test of time are upheld andothers are forsaken. They continuously

calibrate their world-views against theemerging facts and evidences. They enrichthe tenets of their faith through creativedialogue with those of other faith systems.They do not just compromise; rather theyrelinquish half-truths in the quest forabsolute truth. They do not just adapt tothe times; rather they acknowledge thelimitations of their minds and keep themopen to full revelation of the truth.

Creative people have“clay in their heads”!That one has “full of clay in the head” isconsidered to be an abusive expression. Itgenerally connotes the dullness of mindone possesses. However, it need not be thecase. Creative people are those who havelots of “clay in their heads”, which allowsthem to think flexibly! Their minds are notelastic; rather they are plastic. Plasticmaterials are sensitive to the externalforces acting on them.

They are shaped by the forces acting onthem. Plastic minds are open to the windsand waves. They respond to the zeitgeist,the spirit of the time. They sense the signsof time. They read the writings on thewalls. They do not consider adaptation asa crime and they do adapt accordingly.They adapt and survive! Plastic mindsallow newness to touch their core. Theyare prepared to be transformed by the newrealities. They allow their substance to betouched by the circumstances they are in.

There is general awareness today of the need tokeep one’s mental fitness. At all times and at allages, people want to be mentally fit and agile.

There mushroom training techniques for brain fit-ness. Such techniques generally focus on the train-ing of cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility isone of the important prerequisites for creative

thinking.23Pallikkutam | February 2014

NOTES ON CREATIVITY

They are ready to rewrite their textsaccording to the context.

Plastic minds are like reeds. They bendand adapt to the tornado and survive it.Elastic materials rebel against anydeformation to it. It is difficult to shapeelastic materials. They develop restoringforce which acts against any deformation.Elastic minds are rebellious. They resistchange. They are not capable of learning orunlearning. They hold on to what theyhave learned. They easily turn fanatic.They are already “matured” and fullydeveloped. They are fully scripted andnothing new could be added to thosescripts.

Elastic minds are insensitive. They closetheir eyes towards newness. They areadamant. They do not turn around. Theynaturally develop resistance against anychange. On this account, they will be athorn in the eyes for the prophets, whowant society to change. Elastic minds arelike oak trees. They do not oblige thetornado. They do not care to bend oradapt. Tornadoes will tear them apart.

Stephen Hawking is an awesome exampleof creative but plastic thinkers of moderntimes. Confined to his wheel-chair hestarted making history with his braveefforts to unify macro-physics withmicro-physics. The physics of very largescales (cosmic levels) is governed by theGeneral Theory of Relativity of AlbertEinstein; whereas the physics of the sub-atomic scales is governed by the QuantumMechanics of Niels Bohr. Hawkingradiation, which allows a black hole to leakenergy and gradually fades away tonothing, is Hawking’s path-breakingcontribution, which emerged from hisefforts in this direction. In a recent papercalled “Information preservation andweather forecasting for Black Holes”Stephen Hawking, however, denies theexistence of Back Holes, which is thecorner-stone of Einstein’s Cosmology. Hewrites: “...There are no black holes—inthe sense of regimes from which light can’tescape to infinity”. He substitutes “BlackHoles” for so-called “Gray Holes” in amanoeuvre to accommodate the currenttheories better into the framework of aphenomenon, which many believes to be a“persistent mystery” of modern physics.Plasticity of mind is required in the questfor truth. It applies equally to thephysical and metaphysical truths.


NOTES ON CREATIVITY

Rigid thinking is seldomeffectivePeople who think radical and rigid oftentrigger revolutions. However, an honestevaluation of revolutions would identifyrigidity of thoughts at the root of theirfailure. Rigorous implementation of rigidconcepts is fatal to human freedom. Theysuppress human freedom, which givesbirth to the very revolution. Thus ittriggers a process of gradual self-destruction. This part of history is foundto be self-repeating. The champions ofsuch revolutions resort to brute force inthe course of time to implement rigid rulesof frozen thoughts. They attempt to nipthe emerging opposition in the bud andunknowingly set a fresh revolution intomotion.

A thinking style which accommodatesdiversity of ideas could prove to be moreeffective. A democratic fabric of mind hasto be cultivated to suit this purpose. For ademocratic mind, a multitude of differentideas is not a threat, rather they posit newpossibilities. A democratic mind functionsas the loci of synergy of differing ideas.Leaders who have a natural sense ofsynergy of ideas are the need of the hourfor democracies of the world. Such leaderswould churn out a host of ideas, creativeconcepts for the future. Such leaderswould successfully change the course ofhistory. They would steer the destiny ofnations.

True revolutionaries are the prophets, whoconsider themselves as the “voice of thevoiceless”. They represent the voice of theDivine, on whose behalf they aresupposed to speak. The revolutionaryvision of prophets regarding the future of aland represents the dreams of the “poor”of the land. That dream is born out ofsuppressed wishes of the multitudes ofpeople who internally cry for liberation.

Flexible thinking always leaves room forsynergy. It lends itself to be cross-fertilized with other similar and dissimilarideas developing into formidable conceptswith great power and effectiveness.Flexibility of thinking generates synergyand the synergy renders it witheffectiveness. Thus flexible thinking actsas the key to effectiveness.

Take for example the case of water: Waterdroplets are extremely weak and


NOTES ON CREATIVITY

powerless. They are rarely effective tobring about a change. They resembleflexible thoughts. When billions of waterdroplets coalesce to form a water body, itpreserves tremendous force in its chest. Itis powerful to draw and redraw theboundaries of cities and of worldcivilizations. A water wave in the form of atsunami possesses devastating powers thatrewrite the destiny of a land.

The power of water bodies is the power ofsynergy. They are effective to dismantleold structures paving ways for new ones.Similarly can flexible thinking synergizeideas and bring about critical changes.Flexible thinking is much more effectiveand sustainable than rigid thinking.

Rigid thinking exposesunripe minds.A mature mind prefers flexible, democraticand synergetic thinking to rigid thinking. Itis much more open and receptive. Childrenareobserved to be strikingly inflexible intheir thinking as shown by the tests ofcognitive flexibility. Up to mid-twentiesdevelopment of cognitive flexibility isobserved. This development is associatedwith maturing synaptic connections,formation of a myelin sheath around a

nerve fibre (which protect and insulateneurons) and enhancement of regional graymatter volume.

Diminished cognitive flexibility has beenobserved in a variety of neuropsychiatricdisorders such as anorexia nervosa,obsessive compulsive disorder,schizophrenia and autism, and in a subsetof people with ADHD. Similarly, peoplewith addictions are also found to be limitedin cognitive flexibility. Further, aging brainsoften experience deficits in cognitiveflexibility. They undergo physical andfunctional changes including a decline inprocessing speed, central sensoryfunctioning, white matter integrity andbrain volume.

Taking these factors into consideration,one needs to keep the brain regularly fit forflexible thinking.

Implications foreducational policyA plastic mind is but a prerequisite foreffective educational processes. Childrenwith better receptivity are counted assuccessful students. Those students whoare prepared to form their minds could beequipped to face the challenges of life in acreative manner.

Education aims at enabling students toacquire the necessary skills to suitablyapply them to changing environments.They should learn the art of adapting whatthey learn to fit into new life situations.They should be able to think fluently andflexibly to arrive at novel solutions to thefresh tasks and challenges on hand.

An appropriate educational policy shouldtake flexible thinking skills seriously. Teaching styles should be attuned to therequirements of flexible thinking. It shouldavoid over-simplification which preventsstudents from applying the attainedknowledge to new domains and contexts.Teaching styles should incorporate groupproblem-solving activities, and demandhigher-level thoughts. Students shouldlearn to solve the same problem in aflexible manner in different ways. Sucheducational policies are already underdevelopment in many countries.

There is general awareness today of theneed to keep one’s mental fitness. At alltimes and at all ages, people want to bementally fit and agile. There mushroomtraining techniques for brain fitness. Suchtechniques generally focus on the trainingof cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibilityis one of the important prerequisites forcreative thinking.

The power of water bodies is the power of synergy. They are effective to dis-mantle old structures paving ways for new ones. Similarly can flexible thinkingsynergize ideas and bring about critical changes. Flexible thinking is much more

effective and sustainable than rigid thinking.


PERSONAL

Sajit Malliyoor

Stop worrying and start living

Worrying is a reaction to threat. It also has an adaptive function of equip-ping you to face the adversities. It can be useful in situations like prepar-ing for an examination or planning for a trip. However, it becomes patho-

logical when it turns uncontrollable; when it interferes with your activities,work, or social life.

I am a 19-year-old girl, studying in mysecond year degree course. I am the

youngest of three girls. We were a happyfamily until the day four years ago when welost our father to an accident. I think myproblems started after that. I am deeplyworried about the health of my mother. Sheis an asthmatic patient and frequently fallsill. Each time she is ill, I am almostparalysed with dread that she is going toget seriously ill and die. Then I’ll startpreparing myself for the activities to followif the situation worsens and she needshospitalisation. At times, I realize that I amworrying unnecessarily but I can’t seem tocontrol it. Lately, the dread never leavesme. Even at times she is healthy, I findmyself worrying about the same topic. I askmyself a hundred questions related to herhealth, and when I can’t satisfy myself withthe answers, the dread builds up. Anothertopic which has found an entry to myproblems is my future. Studies, job,

marriage, everything is a topic of worrythese days. Kindly help me get out of myproblem.

Your letter reads like a textbook descrip-tion of a clinical condition called general-ized anxiety disorder (GAD). You identifythat your problem is excessive worryingand you also realize it is unwarranted.Probably you would have tried to stopworrying yourself, but nothing works.These are some of the main features ofGAD. Much has been discussed about thecondition; there are hundreds of web pagesgiving you tips on how to tackle thesituation, and there are scores of self-helpbooks advocating different forms oftherapies to GAD and yet, generalawareness of the condition remainslacking. Despite the extensive availabilityof literature, sufferers would still find itdifficult to identify that their condition isqualitatively different and distinguishedfrom the ‘normal’ worry that all of us face

some time in our lives. Worrying is areaction to threat. It also has an adaptivefunction of equipping you to face theadversities. It can be useful in situationslike preparing for an examination orplanning for a trip. However, it becomespathological when it turns uncontrollable;when it interferes with your activities,work, or social life. In GAD, you will findyourself worrying almost on an everydaybasis for months on end, about all sorts ofthings, expecting the worst outcome. It isnot caused by stress, whereas stress canworsen your symptoms. When you haveGAD, you may be worrying about thesame things that most of the people do—financial problems, relationship issues,health etc, and you may realize that theanxiety is more intense than the situationdemands. The difficulty here is that youcan’t turn off your anxious thoughts. Theykeep running through your head, onendless repeat.


PERSONAL

Please send your queries to [email protected]

What you fear the most rarely happens. Recognize that a certain amount ofanxiety is normal. By expecting future anxiety you’re putting yourself in a

good position to accept it when it comes again.

Now we will discuss a few techniques that people find useful indealing with the condition. One of the most important steps towardsovercoming worry is getting a better understanding of what worry isand how it sticks around as a problem. To understand your worriesbetter, you can start keeping a worry diary by noting down the time,duration and the intensity of your worry on a 10-point scale. Onceyou have had a closer look at the worries, you can assign yourself a‘worry period’. You will decide that every day, in a pre-defined timeslot, you will worry about all that you want to worry about. At othertimes of the day, when you find yourself worrying, you will post-pone the worry to this stipulated time.

Experiencing the worries is more than just thoughts. The physicalcomponent of it results in faster breathing, pounding heart, tensedmuscles; the general symptoms associated with the anxiety. Learningto relax would counter these consequences effectively. If you strugglewith GAD, relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relax-ation, deep breathing and meditation can teach you how to relax.Equally important is your ability to calm down quickly when theanxiety shoots up. Here you can use distraction techniques to soothyourself down. You can use any of the physical senses to distractyourself from the train of thoughts. Taking in a beautiful view,walking around a pretty neighbourhood, listening to soothing music,enjoying the sounds of nature like birds singing, winds rustlingthrough the woods are all examples. Employing other senses, you canlight a scented candle, cook and eat a delicious meal or pet your dog orcat. While doing it, be mindful of the sensations acutely.

Gary Emery suggests being AWARE to cope better with the anxiety.The key to switching out of an anxiety state is to accept it fully.Remaining in the present and accepting your anxiety cause it todisappear.A: Accept the anxiety. Welcome it. Don’t fight it. Replaceyour rejection, anger, and hatred of it with acceptance. By resisting,you’re prolonging the unpleasantness of it. Instead, flow with it.Don’t make it responsible for how you think, feel, and act. W: Watchyour anxiety. Look at it without judgment—not good, not bad. Rate iton a 0-to-10 scale and watch it go up and down. Be detached.Remember, you’re not your anxiety. The more you can separateyourself from the experience, the more you can just watch it. A: Actwith the anxiety. Act as if you aren’t anxious. Function with it. Slowdown if you have to, but keep going. Breathe slowly and normally. Ifyou run from the situation your anxiety will go down, but your fearwill go up. If you stay, both your anxiety and your fear will go down.R: Repeat the steps. Continue to accept your anxiety, watch it, andact with it until it goes down to a comfortable level. And it will. Justkeep repeating these three steps: accept, watch and act with it. E:Expect the best. What you fear the most rarely happens. Recognizethat a certain amount of anxiety is normal. By expecting futureanxiety you’re putting yourself in a good position to accept it when itcomes again.


Examination is a very hard nut for mostof the students. There are many

reasons for this problem. 1. High ambitionof the students. High expectations of thestudent. Expecting too much from oneself.Social pressure from relatives and parents.All there are causing great stress on thestudents. Every student is different intalents, temperament heredity. Phyical,psychological and intellectual potential.Everybody cannot be a doctor, everybodycannot be a scientist. Everybody cannot bea musician. There are different levels ofintelligence. The following are differentlevels of intelligence according to thepsychology department of HarvardUniversity U.S.A.

1. Body intelligence: a setneurons in the brain system iscontrolling this level ofintelligence. Sportsmen andWomen have very high level bodyintelligence. The muscular System,the nervous system, the bonesystem and blood circulation arewell cultivated and prompt in thispeople who take the physicaldiscipline to develop the bodyintelligence. The stimuli andresponse are very prompt in thesepeople. Their sensitivity andability to respond is very promptand accurate. This is the brillianceof the sports men and sportswomen. In our country P T Ushaand Sachin are examples. They hada very high level of bodyintelligence. Regular and systematicdiscipline helps to reach the highest levelof body intelligence.

2. Musical Intelligence:- a set ofneurons in the human brain is controllingthis level of intelligence. Music is thesymphony of sounds. Sensitivity tosounds is the preliminary form of language.

Music is the melodious sounds, language ismeaningful sounds. Both are differentapplications of sound. Children beforethey are born they are respond to soundpositively.

3. Language Intelligence: - a set ofneurons in the human brain is controllingthis Intelligence. By the repeated of act ofspeaking reading and writing studentsdevelop language Intelligence. Language isintimately related to the personality ofstudents. Correct thinking, correctlanguage, correct person this is the impactof language Intelligence. By learning highlycultivated language by heart is a way ofactivating language Intelligence. The person

will go through a verbal therapy, achieves,language, maturity; and the net result ispersonality development. That is to saylanguage is intimately related to theperson.

4. Mathematical Intelligence:- A setof neurons in the human brain iscontrolling Mathematical Intelligence:

precision, accuracy, clarity in thought andexpression is the signal of MathematicalIntelligence. By engaging in mathematicalcalculations this level of intelligence can beactivated.

5. Spatial Intelligence:- this iscontrolled by another set of neurons.Sensitivity to colours and shapes is anexpression of spacial intelligence. Artistsare having a very high level of SpatialIntelligence.

6. Intra-personal Intelligence:- theNoble aspects of human nature, just aslove, joy,peace,service,forgiveness,kindness and compassion are inborn insome persons. The family back ground and

family climate has a great deal todo to activate Intra-personalIntelligence.

7. Inter-personalIntelligence:- the noble aspect ofhuman nature are cultivated andclarified by the inter-actions ofthe students in the context ofclass rooms and school. Abilityto socialize is achieved byinteraction with others in theclass room.

8. Spiritual Intelligence:-This expressed in the level offaith. Whatever is the religioustradition of person is at the backof the person of the student?Here also the family backgroundand traditions count a lot.

The whole program of education isto develop their levels of intelligence. Inthe examinations these levels of intelligenceare assessed. In the process of cultivatingthese levels of intelligence studentsdevelop lot of stress and tension.Examination is the time they develop a lotof stress.

Fr. Varghese Kottoor

How to face examination

When you hold an Inner Smile, the brain system will always be relaxed.You will take delight in everything you do, and you will be surprised to see

your own achievements

COVER STORY


How to help students to come out of stress and face theexamination?

A simple method is “Inner Smile Meditation”

“Smile is love energy.

Outer smile is a social virtue.

Inner Smile is mysticism”.

Smile has tremendous power to keep theperson relaxed. When we smile we areradiating love energy. Everything up onthis earth will respond loveenergy positively. Outer Smileis a social virtue. People meetand greet each other with asmile, showing their beautifuland shining teeth. A very fineand graceful situation wecreate by Outer Smile. InnerSmile is cheerful disposition.Every fibre of our personalityis charged with love energy.This is the power of InnerSmile. When we hold an InnerSmile the centre of our brain isrelaxed. When we hold onsmiling, that relaxation iscarried to the whole bodythrough the nervous system and the resultis total relaxation, total freedom fromstress. We energy enjoy deeper level ofconcentration and relaxation. Relaxationmeans blissfully happy. This is theexperience of Inner Smile Meditation. It isvery interesting to note that a little childwill smile 500 times in a day. At everysmile the child is growing. Even when thechild is asleep the child will smile. Atevery smile the child is growing andenjoying relaxation. A grown up personwill smile only 18 times in a day. Becauseof the anxieties and worries the grown uppersons are not able to smile. There areone hundred billion neurons in the humanbrain. When we hold and Inner Smile theblood circulation to the brain systemimproves as a result the whole brainsystem is clear and clean and totallyrelaxed.

There is no fungus and virus in the brainsystem. That is to say the whole system

is totally relaxed. There is no stress andstrain as a result we enjoy intellectualwork. Delight becomes the key words inthe learning process. Then the personbecomes brilliant person. If a person isable to take delight in the things he does heor she becomes a great person a genius.Mind is always thinking, body is always

acting. The thinking mind and the actingbody will merge into your soul when youhold an inner smile. At that point you arein meditation, you are a mystic.

Everything we do has a meditativedimension or Contemplative dimension.When people do reach up to that point,they are mystics. They discoverCorrelations and Connections. The resultis enlightenment, a new discovery.Einstein, the great scientist says, “Therehappens in human consciousness a leap’’this is what he calls “intuition”.

People are habitually tensed. So theirproductivity is negatively affected. Whenwe became meditating persons we becamehabitually relaxed. As a result ourproductivity improves as well asemotional balance intellectual power,creativity, inner harmony psychologicalintegrity and physical well being. And onthe top of all these “expansion ofconsciousness.’’ That is what we call

enlightenment, the full-flowering of humanbeing. “Meditation is the oldest, fullest,richest and the most valuable education ofall’’.

Now let me share with you some practicaltips to improve the quality of persons.The following Caption will carry thewhole message.

“When my body is at rest

My mind is at rest.

When my mind is at rest,

My soul is at rest with in me.

When my body, mind and soul

Are at rest, I am at my best, I ama mystic’

1. The first thing we have to do isto tune the body. This is done bydoing same stretching exercisefrom head to foot. By thesephysical exercises, we are

discharging all physical toxin, negativeenergy from the body. Negative energy,physical toxin causes. Stress in the bodythat is transferred to the mind and mindbecomes disturbed and makes theintellectual work, very difficult and heavy.This is called stress and tension. Tensionis a negative programming in the humancomputer. When the person is understress, human brain becomesdysfunctional. This leads the person todepression and all other psychologicalproblems. Now this negative programmingin the human brain is to be rectified. Herecomes the marvelous role of inner smile.When we hold an inner smile the bloodcirculation to the brain improves as a resultthe negative programming in the brain isrectified, and the person becomes totallyrelaxed. Mind becomes fresh, bodybecomes light, the whole heavinessvanishes that is to say the person isrelaxed, free from tension, creative, and athis/her best.

When we hold an inner smile the blood circulation to the brain improves as aresult the negative programming in the brain is rectified, and the person

becomes totally relaxed.

COVER STORY


How to do the inner smile meditation?

Stand up straight and take deep breathing;there are 6000 small cabins in the humanlungs. All these cabins should function,when we breathe that is the first step ofrelaxation of the body.

When our body is relaxed, mind getssettled side by side the soul also getssettled. Sit straight on a chair, headparallel to the roof, ears and shoulders inthe same line, the tip of the nose and navalin the same line. Then you can be surethat your body is straight. When yourbody is straight your lungs are free andchest is open and you can take deepbreathing easily. Keep your hand on yourknees gently close your eyes and take deepbreathing. Gently and mindfully. Hold aninner smile, a cheerful disposition, as youconcentrate your mind at the centre of thebrain. Continue to hold an inner smile,with an attitude of forgiveness. Forgiveyourself, your limitations, yourweaknesses, your imperfections. Do notget entangled with these negativities, gobeyond them; that is what we callforgiveness. Forgiveness leads to innerfreedom and relaxation. The antidote totension, remain like this for five minutes,holding an inner smile. Then open youreyes with a bright outer smile. Then listento yourself, your body, mind and soul.This is inner smile meditation. Themoment you miss the inner smile yourmind will start jumping from place toplace. That is what we call distraction.The benefits of inner smile meditation are,1. Deeper level of concentration 2. Deeperlevel of relaxation 3. Emotional balance 4.Improves level of energy. 5. Increasecreativity 6.Improves learning ability andmemory 7. Develops will power 8.Emotional maturity

9. Improves intellectual productivity 10.Enhancement of self confidence 11.Enhanced feeling of happiness. 12.Develop positive thinking.

2. Do everything cheerfully:-

This is the simplest way of improving thequality of person and personality. eg:Reading Writing, Speaking, Walking,

Eating, Thinking all with an Inner Smile.This is a marvelous experience.

That is to say, when you hold an InnerSmile, the brain system will always berelaxed. You will take delight in everythingyou do, and you will be surprised to seeyour own achievements. The brain system

and the eight levels of Intelligence will beactivated to the Optimum. This is howpeople become genius.

3. Reading with an Inner Smile:-

It is a meditative way of study.

This is a relaxed way of study. Takea book and read silently with an InnerSmile for five minutes and then assessyour experience. The following will be theresult of your reading.

1. You enjoy reading.

2. You enjoy deeper level of concentration

3. You enjoy deeper level of relaxation.

4. You enjoy deeper level of clarity-comprehension

5. You enjoy deeper level of memory.

6. You take delight in reading, anintellectual delight.

When you hold an Inner Smile the brainsystem is totally activated and theprogramming is accurate, clear, clean anddeep. That is what we call memory. Smileis love energy. When you read with aninner smile you are activating love energyto the book- to the subject and also to theteacher sand you enjoy the learningprocess. And creatively enjoy the reading,you are not tired or tensed or stressed.When a student says a particular subject is

difficult, there comes psychological blockto the learning process. Thispsychological block is causing stress to thestudent. This psychological block isremoved from the mind of the student bylove energy,that is Inner Smile. If thestudents are given training to read with anInner Smile and make their learning andreading process a meditative one, they willnever be stressed when they takeexaminations or handle the subject theylearn.

People students are intelligent and brilliant.But they do not know how to use theirbrain .All human being who are normalhave one hundred billion neurons in theirbrain system. If they have less than thisnumber of neurons they have to joinspecial school. The normal student withpsychological block go through great stressin the learning process and in examinationseven causing physical ailments.

Therefore the simple way of helping thestudents to face the examination is to trainthem to do everything cheerfully. I amtrying this method of learning in ourschools in Bijnor mission. First of all theteachers are given training for couple ofdays. They practice the inner smilemeditation and guide the students in theclass room contexts. During the firstperiod after taking the attendance studentsare given two minutes meditation. Theefforts of students to learn and the effortof the teacher to teach become easier andhappier. The students listen to the teachercheerfully and the teacher teaches thesubjects cheerfully. Thus teaching learningprocess becomes a delightful experience.Examination becomes a delightfulexperience. And the life becomes stressfree.

Fr. Varghese Kottoor CMI is the generalformation co-ordinator of the CMIcongregation. He had his special studies inspirituality and guidance in Manila. He wasintroduced to Indian spiritual experience atRishikesh. He is teaching spirituality andpsycho-somatic and spiritual integration inDharmaram Vidya Ksheetram,Banglore.

When you hold an Inner Smile the brain system is totally activated and theprogramming is accurate, clear, clean and deep. That is what we call

memory. Smile is love energy.

COVER STORY


Where the mind is without fear and thehead is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken upinto fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depthof truth

Where tireless striving stretches itsarms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason hasnot lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of deadhabit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, myFather, let my country awake.

—Rabindranath Tagore.

A nation with heroes like Tagore are ourstudents to live a life with fear in theirminds?

Once when I was on duty during an SSLCexamination, I observed a boy in his teenslying with his head down on the desk inthe hall while others reading the questionpapers. Curiously I asked him, “Son,

12 golden steps to write yourexam sans fear

Gracy Babu Jacob

what’s your name?” He answered in atrembling voice, “Vishnu, Ma’am” . I askedhim why he was not writing theexamination. He replied with tears rollingdown his cheeks that he had forgotten

everything that he had studied, his mindhad become blank and he was even scaredto read the questions and write the examproperly. He pleaded with me to allow himto leave the exam hall. I kept my hand overhis head and gave him a glass of water andtold him to listen to me. “Vishnu, anywayyou have decided that you are not writingthe exam. Please do me a favour. Look atother students, they also have the samefeeling and fear of the examination but still

they are able to overcome their fears andare writing the examination with a strongmind. Like that I want you to be in yourseat with a peaceful mind and keep tellingyourself, “I can do it too”. Then read thequestions carefully with full concentration

for three times and see. If you think youcan answer any question you justanswer that.”

Then I went out. After 10 minutes whenI came back I saw him answering thequestions one by one. At the end of theexam I saw him leave the hall with asmile on his face and told me that he hadanswered quite well.

Later during that semester I received acall from him informing me that he hadpassed that exam with good grades.What if I had not been able tounderstand him? He would have beenanother student who would have failedthe examination because of lack of

confidence and excess of stress.

Later when I became the Principal of SRV,Ernakulam, I was determined to give strongtips to guide my students to overcometheir stress and fear of exams. I visitedevery class and ensured that they preparedtheir own timetables listing the time theyshould wake up, drawing their dailyroutine like prayer and study time (foreach subject) etc. And I made sure that

Every student has talents in different areas. Some may excel in studies,some others in arts and some may have leadership qualities. But theythemselves have to find out in which area or subject they can shine.

COVER STORY


they followed it. The parents and classteachers were asked to sign them to makesure that their children strictly followedthem up.

Today I am proud to share with youreaders that my students did not let medown. By the hard work of my studentsand teachers at SRV, the school that wasconsidered as a cartel of dropouts achieved100% results in last year’s SSLC exam andwon for it and me (as the personresponsible for it) the Pourasamithy’s BestSchool Award 2013 for the first time afterit was started.

Every student has talents indifferent areas. Some may excel in studies,some others in arts and some mayhave leadership qualities. But theythemselves have to find out in whicharea or subject they can shine.Students, you should compete withyourselves today to become what youwant to be tomorrow so that you canimprove the results and be betterpersonalities tomorrow. Setting atimetable will certainly help even theweakest of students to achieve goodresults in their exams.

Exams are around the corner. Tensionsare high. Here are some simple tipsthat can help you perform much,much better in exams:

1. Positive stress: Stress is notalways negative. In some cases it’s agreat motivating force for improvingperformance. In a majority ofstudents, small amounts of positivestress increase the mind’s crammingcapabilities by a few hundred times.Parents and students should identifyand use positive stress.

Remember: it will increase your crammingcapacity, never your learning capacity.

2. Make a time table: Make a timetableof which subject is to be done and when,and follow it religiously. This way thework will remain systematic. Or justfollow a priority timetable. You can alsostart studying for the last paper first, so

that when the exams are actually near, youwill be doing the study for the first paper.

3. Night study: Night time study is invogue these days. Every student whopromotes and practises it abides by theexplanation “When the world sleeps, I canconcentrate better as nobody can disturbme.”

Many parents who contact me to helpimprove their child’s memory power feelproud of proclaiming how their childrenspend an entire night studying.

I hate to break hearts, but this is illogical!!!

I would just like to remind you. Allschools in India start at 8am-9am. Hence

for their entire school life, a child haswoken up around 7am, and reached schoolby 8. And his brain has been conditionedto start functioning to process informationby 9am-10am.

When such a life cycle is disrupted, night-time study only helps to createdisharmony within the sleep cycle. Thisleads to increased body fatigue, body painsand mental weakness.

Remember: the exams are normally timedto happen in the morning. Your brainshould be accustomed to such a way thatduring exam timings you are at the day’speak performance levels.

4. Writing speed: If you are concernedabout your writing speed, practise solvinga question paper of a previous year, whichwould give you more confidence. It willalso help you in knowing what you shouldtake care of while answering your exampaper.

5. Sleep: Most children sacrifice a lot oftheir sleep during exams. This leads toincreased stress levels. For those who canbattle the stress level, the brain uses this as

positive. But for those who cannothandle it, it decreases the brainoutput and performance.

Make sure you get a minimum of 6hours’ continuous sleep every day.

6. The important first: Moststudents seem to be in some sort ofrace to finish the syllabus. The myththat “the more you attempt the betteryour result” plagues them to doom.

If you go through old questionpapers, you will find that 70% ofquestions are asked from specifictopics and 30% from diverse topics.It’s logical to concentrate on that70% first as it will give you thechance to get the best marks.

Remember: When studying, alwaysfocus on the important topics first.Don’t leave them for the end.

Study them properly as they willgive you maximum chance to scoregood marks.

7. Know how to answer: Whileresearching for this article, I asked a lot ofteachers how much time they spend on ananswer sheet, what they look for in a goodanswer and what is their mindset whilechecking.

Most teachers said that they first look atthe way an answer is written and fix theirmind on how much they want to score it.They look for specific points, and

Night-time study only helps to create disharmony within thesleep cycle. This leads to increased body fatigue, body pains

and mental weakness.

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simplicity in finding those points helpsthem judge an answer better.

They also complain that most studentsfeel that by filling pages and pages for asingle answer, they will get better scores.

It’s important that a student understandshow to write a good answer for aparticular subject.

Ask your teachers. Tell them to showyou sample answers.

Remember: make it a practice to take aminute after getting the question paper.See those questions which you cananswer best. Formulate a game plan, keepit simple and enact on the planned.

8. Shorthand notes: It’s a small note ofpaper in which only the important pointsare mentioned. It works as a greatrefresher for the mind. It’s a great help tocreate short notes for yourself whilestudying. These will help you revise agreat portion of the syllabus later withinminutes just before your exam.

Remember: utilize them to revise, not tocheat!

9. Eat: Glucose is the fuel that drives thebrain and body. Proteins are the buildingblocks of the brain and body. Water helpsto maintain a positive circulation aroundthe body.

The author is former Principal of SRV Govt.Model High School,Ernakulam

When in high stress situations, the brainand body tend to utilize glucose andproteins a hundred times more than duringnormal times.

Drink a glass of water every hour and eatsmall portions of balanced diet (high onenergy and protein) every 2-hourly to keepyour body at peak performance.

10. Unwanted discussions: It is alsoimportant to avoid having unwantedconversations with your friends about whatthey have studied, how much they havestudied. This will make you more tense andnervous.

11. On the exam day: If you feel verytense and anxious just before entering theexamination venue, take a few deep breathswhich will help you to relax. During theexam, if you get tensed or blank after seeingdifficult questions, skip them for the timebeing and attempt questions which you findeasier. Once you have completed them, goback to the difficult ones. In this way, youwill surely be able to answer themconfidently.

12. Negative stress: Just as positive stressis beneficial in increasing the crammingcapacity of the brain, negative stress isdetrimental in decreasing the ability tolearn, decreasing the ability to write thelearnt in an exam and increasing thesubconscious anxiety which can lead to

running away from the exams or drasticsteps like self-harm and/or suicide attempt.

Note to parents: If stress is causing anemotional roller-coaster within the student,it’s important to consult your localpsychiatrist and get a short-term course ofnon-sedative, non-addictive medicationswhich will boost the brain and memorypower along with decreasing the negativestress. It can help to avoid a lot of mishapwhich can be easily solved.

I leave this message from Sanskrit to you:

Na Raja Haryam Na Chora Haryam

Prayana Kale Na Karothi Bharam

Veye Kritha Vardhatha Aevam Nithyam

Vidya Dhanam Sarva Dhanal Pradhanam.

The meaning of this message is: No kingcan take it forcefully from you; No thiefcan steal it; It weighs nothing while youtravel; It expands the more you share it;Education and knowledge are the biggestwealth, my children, earn it, share it, enjoyit.

May the good God bless you to achievethis wealth.

In order to overcome your fears to takean exam you can adopt the followingsteps:

1. Eat well, small, frequent meals.

2. Sleep well and at fixed times.

3. Make an organized study schedule- -list out subject-wise what you need torevise - divide that by the number ofdays you have left before the exam date.

4. Make a timetable for revision-whichyou can manage to achieve -

this can be done subject wise, topic wise,by grouping the easy ones with the hard

ones, it depends on your choice.

5. Make sure you reach the target eachday according to your schedule andreward yourself when you achieve thetarget set by yourself. This will boostyour confidence. Solve papers over theweekend within the stipulated period asindicated on the head of the exam papersto gain confidence. Deep breathingexercises at the start and end of eachsession will also rejuvenate your energylevels. You should also involve yourselfin outdoor activity of half an hour or anhour as it always helps.

During the exam, if you get tensed or blank after seeing difficult questions,skip them for the time being and attempt questions which you find easier.Once you have completed them, go back to the difficult ones. In this way,

you will surely be able to answer them confidently.

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COVER STORY


kl]mTnIƒ aIs‚{]mb°mcmbncp∂p F∂p am{Xw.Rm≥ B c≠mw hnZym¿∞n P∑w]camh[nBkzZn°pIbmbncp∂p. PohnXwbuΔ\`wKnItfmsS aSßnFØpIbmbncp∂p, ]pXnbNn¥IfpsS, ]pXnbat\m`mhßfpsS, \ne]mSpIfpsSF√mØnepap]cn ]pXnbDu¿÷Øns‚ km∂n≤yw F∂n¬\n∂v \o≠v \o≠ h¿jßfpsSIń]nSn®p InS∂ncp∂ hnckXsbFSpØp am‰pIbmbncp∂p.ho≠pw Rms\s‚buΔ\Ønte°v aSßn. Fs‚kl]mTnIƒ Fs∂Ah¿s°m∏tam AXnepw Ipdt®mam{Xw {]mbap≈ Hcmfmbn am{XwIcpXn XamiIƒ ]d™vA[nImc`mhtØmsS am{Xws]cpamdn. Ah¿°vRms\mcn°epw ZqcZ¿i≥ \yqkvFUn‰¿ Bbncp∂n√, H∏w]Tn°p∂, Hcp]mSv ASn®ps]mfn°m\pw B\μn°m\pwIgnbp∂ Hcp kl]mTn

am{Xambncp∂p, G‰hpwB\μtØmsS, Dt∑jtØmsSRm\hcpsS Iq´pImcnbmbn.Fs‚ samss_¬ C≥t_mIvkn¬tImtfPv ]nt≈¿ At\ym\ywAb°p∂ t^m¿thUvsatkPpIƒ h∂p \ndbptºmƒBZysams° Rm≥ h√msXbmbn.Sn‚ptam\pw, ]rYzncmP∏\pw a‰vXamiIfpw ]Xps° ]Xps°Rm\pw BkzZn®p XpSßn. Fs‚PohnXw s]s´∂v \ndßƒ sIm≠v\nd™p. Rm≥ Xs∂ AdnbmsXRms\mcp tImtfPv Ipńbmbn.

kl]mTnIƒ Fs‚Xnc°pIfdn™v F\n°vth≠sXms° sNbvXp X∂p.]co£m ôkSbv°m≥,Assk≥sa‚pIƒ sImSp°m≥,]Tn°m\p≈ ]pkvXIßƒsse{_dnbn¬ \ns∂Sp°m≥,t\m´pIƒ t^mt´mÃms‰Sp°m≥F¥n\pw GXn\pw ]≠vtImtfPn¬ ]Tn®s∏msg∂t]mseXpWbmbn kl]mTnIƒ. Ah¿hnfn®v At\zjn°pw.""]Tn°p∂pt≠m?''

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a°ƒ Zqsc t]mIptºmƒ ASpsØØp∂ HmtcmcpØcnepw \n∂v

kvt\lw kzoIcn°m\pw, sImSp°m\pw Ignbpsa¶n¬ PohnXw

\ncmibnepw hnckXbnepsam∂pw hoWv \c®v t]mIns√∂pw tXm∂n.

COVER STORY


ho≠pw A\p`hn® Znhkßƒ.A∏phn√mØ iq\yXbnte°vAhs‚ {]mb°m¿ \nd®kPohX. AhntS°v IrjvWbpwh∂p tN¿∂p. A∏phns\m∏w{]mbap≈ IrjvW Imcyh´Øv]{X{]h¿Ø\ hnZym¿∞nbmWv.Ahsf\n°v`£Wap≠m°nØ∂pw, Fs‚Imcyßƒ At\zjn®pw ]et∏mgpwAΩbmbn. ]Tn°mØt∏mƒ NoØ]d™v apXn¿∂tN®nbmbn. A¿≤cm{Xnhsc Fs‚m∏w Ccp∂v]Tn® ImcyßƒBh¿Øn∏n®v Fs‚A≤ym]nIbmbn. ]ns∂kvt\lw sIm≠v Fs∂\nd®v Fs‚ aIfpambn.

]co£bv°v c≠v Znhkwapºv ZqcZ¿i\n¬ \n∂veohv A\phZn®p.]n∂oSp≈ aq∂mgvN°mew]co£m°mew,]T\Imew, D’hImew.

Imcyh´tØ°p≈ _kv{ioImcyØv {Sm^nIv tªm°n¬Ipcpßptºmƒ \nXp\ ]co£mlmfn¬ \n∂v {`m¥v]nSn®Xpt]msehnfn®psImt≠bncp∂p.

Rm\hsf Bizkn∏n®p.

""Rm\o ]co£ FgpXnbnt√epwIpg∏sam∂pan√t√m. Aev]wsshInbm¬ Xs∂ F¥m?''

\nXp\bv°v AsXm∂pwkzoImcya√mbncp∂p.

""F{Xbpw s]s´∂v hcq, ]co£Ct∏mƒ XpSßpw.''

BZy ]co£ ZnhkwRms\m∂ºc∂p. ""Cu{]mbØn¬ 3 aWn°q¿IpØnbncp∂v Rms\gpXptam?,]Tn®Xv h√Xpw Hm¿°ptam?''

kl]mTnIƒ IÆpcpń.

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Ah¿ X∂ ss[cyØn¬Rms\gpXn.

F´p t]∏dpIƒ FgpXn°gn™v]co£ Xo¿∂ Znhkw Rßƒ

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Aßs\sbms° FgpXnb]co£bpsS êamWvh∂ncn°p∂Xv. C∂seFs‚ t^mWn\vhn{iaap≠mbn√,HmtcmcpØcmbn hnfn®v]co£ê hnhcßƒ]¶phbv°pIbmbncp∂p,c≠mw h¿j]co£bv°v]Tn°m\p≈Xns\°pdn®vHm¿Ωn∏n°pIbmbncp∂p.

Rm≥Hm¿°pIbmbncp∂p,F\n°v Ch¿ Iq´pIm¿

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a°ƒ Zqsc t]mIptºmƒASpsØØp∂ HmtcmcpØcnepw\n∂v kvt\lw kzoIcn°m\pw,sImSp°m\pw Ignbpsa¶n¬PohnXw \ncmibnepwhnckXbnepsam∂pw hoWv \c®vt]mIns√∂pw tXm∂n.

]{X-{]-h¿Ø-Ibpw Fgp-Øp-Im-cn-bp-amWv

sI.F _o\.

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IqSnbmWt√m F∂v. kvt\lw IpSpw_ _‘ßfn¬ am{XsamXpt°≠X√

F∂ kXyw ]t≠ a\ nembn´p≈XmWv. sImSpØmepw sImSpØmepw Ddh

h‰mØ A£bL\nbmWv Hmtcm a\pjys‚ D≈nepap≈ kvt\lsa∂pw.

COVER STORY


Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a story of redemption and

liberation through suffering – an extreme form of suffering generated by theprotagonist’s destructive thoughts. Through an at-times comical, at other

times heart-wrenching novel Dostoyevsky explores the human soul’ssusceptibility to sin and regret (not to be confused with repentance) and theunfortunate, if extreme, consequences that result from accepting prideful

thoughts.

Crime and Punishment focuses on themental anguish and moral dilemmas of

Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulatesand executes a plan to kill an unscrupulouspawnbroker for her cash

Crime and Punishment is the mostappreciated classiacal novel by theRussian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Itwas first published in the literary journalThe Russian Messenger in twelve monthlyinstallments during 1866. It was laterpublished in a single volume. It is thesecond of Dostoyevsky’s full-lengthnovels following his return from ten yearsof exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment isthe first great novel of his “mature” periodof writing.

Summery:Raskolnikov, a conflicted former student,lives in a tiny, rented room in SaintPetersburg. He refuses all help, even fromhis friend Razumikhin, and devises a planto murder and to rob an unpleasant elderlypawn-broker and money-lender, AlyonaIvanovna. His motivation comes from theoverwhelming sense that he ispredetermined to kill the old woman bysome power outside of himself. While stillconsidering the plan, Raskolnikov makesthe acquaintance of Semyon ZakharovichMarmeladov, a drunkard who recentlysquandered his family’s little wealth. Healso receives a letter from his sister andmother, speaking of their coming visit toSaint Petersburg, and his sister’s suddenmarriage plans which they plan to discussupon their arrival.

After much deliberation, Raskolnikovsneaks into Alyona Ivanovna’s apartment,where he murders her with an axe. He alsokills her half-sister, Lizaveta, who happens

to stumble upon the scene of the crime.Shaken by his actions, Raskolnikovmanages to steal only a handful of itemsand a small purse, leaving much of thepawn-broker’s wealth untouched.Raskolnikov then flees and, due to a seriesof coincidences, manages to leave unseenand undetected.

After the bungled murder, Raskolnikovfalls into a feverish state and begins toworry obsessively over the murder. Hehides the stolen items and purse under arock, and tries desperately to clean hisclothing of any blood or evidence. He fallsinto a fever later that day, though notbefore calling briefly on his old friendRazumikhin. As the fever comes and goesin the following days, Raskolnikov

behaves as though he wishes to betrayhimself. He shows strange reactions towhoever mentions the murder of thepawn-broker, which is now known aboutand talked of in the city. In his delirium,Raskolnikov wanders Saint Petersburg,drawing more and more attention tohimself and his relation to the crime. In oneof his walks through the city, he seesMarmeladov, who has been struckmortally by a carriage in the streets.Rushing to help him, Raskolnikov givesthe remainder of his money to the man’sfamily, which includes his teenagedaughter, Sonya, who has been forced tobecome a prostitute to support her family.

In the meantime, Raskolnikov’s mother,Pulkheria Alexandrovna, and his sister,Avdotya Romanovna (or Dounia) havearrived in the city. Avdotya had beenworking as a governess for the Svidrigaïlovfamily until this point, but was forced outof the position by the head of the family,Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigaïlov.Svidrigaïlov, a married man, was attractedto Avdotya’s physical beauty and herfeminine qualities, and offered her richesand elopement. Avdotya, having none ofthis, fled the family and lost her source ofincome, only to meet Pyotr PetrovichLuzhin, a man of modest income and rank.Luzhin proposes to marry Avdotya,thereby securing her and her mother’sfinancial safety, provided she accept himquickly and without question. It is forthese very reasons that the two of themcome to Saint Petersburg, both to meetLuzhin there and to obtain Raskolnikov’sapproval. Luzhin, however, calls onRaskolnikov while he is in a delirious stateand presents himself as a foolish, self-righteous and presuming man. Raskolnikovdismisses him immediately as a potential

BOOK SHELF


husband for his sister, and realizes that sheonly accepted him to help her family.

As the novel progresses, Raskolnikov isintroduced to the detective Porfiry, whobegins to suspect him for the murderpurely on psychological grounds. At thesame time, a chaste relationship developsbetween Raskolnikov and Sonya. Sonya,though a prostitute, is full of Christianvirtue and is only driven into theprofession by her family’s poverty.Meanwhile, Razumikhin and Raskolnikovmanage to keep Avdotya from continuingher relationship with Luzhin, whose truecharacter is exposed to be conniving andbase. At this point, Svidrigaïlov appears onthe scene, having come from the provinceto Petersburg, almost solely to seek outAvdotya. He reveals that his wife is dead,and that he is willing to pay Avdotya avast sum of money in exchange fornothing. She, upon hearing the news,refuses flat out, suspecting him oftreachery.

As Raskolnikov and Porfiry continue tomeet, Raskolnikov’s motives for the crimebecome exposed. Porfiry becomesincreasingly certain of the man’s guilt, buthas no concrete evidence or witnesses withwhich to back up this suspicion.Furthermore, another man admits tocommitting the crime under questioningand arrest. However, Raskolnikov’s nervescontinue to wear thin, and he is constantlystruggling with the idea of confessing,though he knows that he can never be trulyconvicted. He turns to Sonya for supportand confesses his crime to her. Bycoincidence, Svidrigaïlov has taken upresidence in a room next to Sonya’s andoverhears the entire confession. When thetwo men meet face to face, Svidrigaïlovacknowledges this fact, and suggests thathe may use it against him, should he needto. Svidrigaïlov also speaks of his ownpast, and Raskolnikov grows to suspectthat the rumors about his havingcommitted several murders are true. In alater conversation with Dounia,Svidrigaïlov denies that he had a hand inthe death of his wife.

Raskolnikov is at this point completelytorn; he is urged by Sonya to confess, and

Svidrigaïlov’s testimony could potentiallyconvict him. Furthermore, Porfiryconfronts Raskolnikov with his suspicionsand assures him confession wouldsubstantially lighten his sentence.Meantime, Svidrigaïlov attempts to seduceAvdotya, but when he realizes that shewill never love him, he lets her go. He thenspends a night in confusion and in the

morning shoots himself. This samemorning, Raskolnikov goes again to Sonya,who again urges him to confess and to clearhis conscience. He makes his way to thepolice station, where he is met by thenews of Svidrigaïlov’s suicide. He hesitatesa moment, thinking again that he might getaway with a perfect crime, but ispersuaded by Sonya to confess.

The epilogue tells of how Raskolnikov issentenced to eight years of penal servitudein Siberia, where Sonya follows him.Avdotya and Razumikhin marry and areleft in a happy position by the end of thenovel, while Pulkheria, Raskolnikov’smother, falls ill and dies, unable to copewith her son’s situation. Raskolnikovhimself struggles in Siberia. It is only aftersome time in prison that his redemptionand moral regeneration begin under Sonya’sloving influence.

Dostoyevsky conceived the idea of Crime

As the novel progresses, Raskolnikov is introduced to the detective Porfiry,who begins to suspect him for the murder purely on psychological grounds.

and Punishment in the summer of 1865,having gambled away much of his fortune,unable to pay his bills or afford propermeals. At the time the author owed largesums of money to creditors, and wastrying to help the family of his brotherMikhail, who had died in early 1864.Projected under the title The Drunkards, itwas to deal “with the present question ofdrunkness ... all its ramifications,especially the picture of a family and thebringing up of children in thesecircumstance, etc., etc.” OnceDostoyevsky conceived Raskolnikov andhis crime, now inspired by the case ofPierre François Lacenaire, this themebecame ancillary, centering on the story ofthe Marmeladov family.

Dostoyevsky had to race against time, inorder to finish on time both The Gamblerand Crime and Punishment. Anna Snitkina,a stenographer who would soon becomehis second wife, was a great help forDostoyevsky during this difficult task.The first part of Crime and Punishmentappeared in the January 1866 issue of TheRussian Messenger, and the last one waspublished in December 1866.

In the complete edition of Dostoyevsky’swritings published in the Soviet Union, theeditors reassembled and printed thenotebooks that the writer kept whileworking on Crime and Punishment, in asequence roughly corresponding to thevarious stages of composition. Because ofthese labors, there is now a fragmentaryworking draft of the story, or novella, asinitially conceived, as well as two otherversions of the text. These have beendistinguished as the Wiesbaden edition, thePetersburg edition, and the final plan,involving the shift from a first-personnarrator to the indigenous variety of third-person form invented by Dostoyevsky.The Wiesbaden edition concentratesentirely on the moral/physic reactions ofthe narrator after the murder. It coincidesroughly with the story that Dostoyevskydescribed in his letter to Katkov, andwritten in a form of a diary or journal,corresponds to what eventually becamepart II.

BOOK SHELF


No Indian institutions among the worldtop 10 list: QS Ranking

India and South Africa are the only two countries from which none of thevarstiess have been able to get among the top 10.

There is sharp contrast between Indianand Chinese achievement in higher

education. Despite being marginallysmaller in population, India has only 16institutions listed here, less than halfChinas haul, says Quacquarelli Symonds(QS) in its recent rankings, “QS UniversityRankings: BRICS”of universities in Brazil,Russia, India, China and South Africa(BRICS).

While India has world-class institutions inscience and technology, its comprehensiveuniversities are not as strong in aninternational context.

Five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)

have been ranked among the top 20universities in the QS University Rankingsof, ranking of universities in BRICS.

India has 16 universities among the top100 varsities in the BRICS nations, IIT-Delhi has been ranked 13th followed byIIT-Mumbai (15), IIT-Madras (16), IIT-Kanpur (17) and IIT-Kharagpur (18), IIT-Rourkee (34) and IIT-Guwahati (51).

Among universities, University of Calcuttahas been ranked 52nd followed byUniversity of Delhi at 53, University ofMumbai is ranked 62, University ofHyderabad 64, University of Madras 70,Benaras Hindu University 85, IIT-

Allahabad 92, University of Pune at 94th.For the first time, Manipal University hasbroken into the international rankingstaking the 100th spot.

Top 10 universities are TsinghuaUniversity China (1st), followed byPeking University China (2nd) followedby Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityRussia, fourth and fifth position has beenbagged by Fudan University from ChinaNanjing University China and ShanghaiJiao Tong University China is at sixth.

University of Science and Technology ofChina is at seventh position andUniversidade de So Paulo (USP) Brazil is

IIT-Delhi has been ranked 13th of the best universities.

STUDENTS’ CLUBCURRENT AFFAIRS


at eighth followed by Zhejiang UniversityChina and Universidade Estadual deCampinas (Unicamp) (10th).

India and South Africa are the only twocountries from which none of thevarstiess have been able to get among thetop 10, the University of Cape Town andthe Indian Institute of Technology Delhiare ranked 11th and 13th respectively.

Chinese universities have dominated thetable with 40 universities figuring amongtop 100, Russia has 19 of its universitiesin the top 100, Brazil 17, India 16 andSouth Africa 8 in the list.

The QS World University Rankings ismade up of six indicators: academic

reputation (40%), employer reputation(10%), faculty student ratio (20%),citations per faculty (20%), internationalstudents (5%) and international faculty(5%). As per QS, this year, 62,094academic and 27,957 employer responsescontributed towards the results, makingboth surveys the largest of their kind in theworld.

Zoya Zaitseva, project director for QSUniversity Rankings says, “BRICScountries are focussing on developingworld-class universities as a strategicpriority to sustain the growth of theireconomies by producing innovation,cutting- edge research and highly qualifiedand employable graduates. This first

ranking reflects the relative strengths ofeach of these ambitious nations while alsohighlighting the potential for growth.”

As per QS, it has developed the newranking in collaboration with Russian newsagency Interfax, and is based on amethodology developed in consultationwith a range of key stakeholders and highereducation experts across the BRICScountries.

The new rankings is to highlight thestrengths and achievements of highereducation systems in these five majoremerging economies, and to facilitate directcomparison of universities in thesenations.

India has world-class institutions in science and technology, itscomprehensive universities are not as strong in an international

context.

Tsinghua University China is in No.1 spot in Top 10 universities.

STUDENTS’ CLUBCURRENT AFFAIRS


INNOVATION

Neanderthal lineage identified inmodern human genome

A purely computational analysis ofwhole-genome sequencing data from

665 people from Europe and EastAsia reveals that 20% ofthe Neanderthal genomesurvives in their DNA.The finding is expectedto trigger a search forNeanderthal lineagesurviving in present-day humanpopulations, it isbelieved.

The research to thiseffect was carried out bythe scientists ofUniversity ofWashington and isreported in the ScienceExpress.

Scientists comparedthe suspectedNeanderthal sequences with the recentlymapped Neanderthal genome obtainedfrom DNA received from bone preservedin the Max Plank Institute of EvolutionaryAnthropology in Germany.

The results suggest that DNA sequencesmight be obtained from extinct groups even

in the absence of fossilized remains. Suchancient sequence could be equivalently

collected from those individuals,who might have inherited it

and characterizepreviously unknown

archaic humans.

Neanderthals becameextinct about 30,000

years ago. It is believedthat Neanderthal DNA

was passed alonggenerations throughmixing of DNAs. In aproposed model, thismixing of DNA couldhave occurred both beforeand after the evolutionarydivergence of non-Africanmodern humans from acommon ancestralpopulation.

This “fossil free” method of sequencingarchaic genomes holds promise in revealingaspects of the evolution of now-extinctarchaic humans and their characteristicpopulation genetics. It also might provideinsights into how interbreeding influencedcurrent patterns of human diversity.

Glass made non-fragile bybio-mimicking

University of McGill reports inventionof a glass which is far less brittle than

the normal glass. Instead of breaking it willjust bend and get slightly deformed onfalling upon a rigid surface. The inspirationfor this innovation derivesfrom the mechanics ofnatural structures likeseashells.

Mollusk shells are madeup of about 95% chalk,which is extremely brittlein its pure form. Nacre, ormother-of-pearl, whichcoats the inner shells, is made ofmicroscopic tablets that are a bit likeminiature building blocks, which is knownto be extremely strong and tough.

Prof. François Barthelat and team ofMcGill studied internal “weak” boundariesor edges found in materials like nacre. Thenthey used laser to engrave similar networksof 3D micro-cracks in glass. It worked.

The toughness of the newglass was 200 times morecompared to the non-graved slides. Byengraving networks ofmicro-cracks, they couldstop the cracks frompropagating and becominglarger.

Mimicking the natural world has alwaysproven to be a sure method of improvingman-made designs.

Foldable mobilephones to be a

realityUniversity of Houston researchers

have developed a new stretchableand transparent electrical conductor,bringing fully foldable cell phone or aportable flat-screen closer to reality.

Portable electronic devices have beenresearched for long years. But a materialthat is both transparent and has bothsufficient flexibility and conductivity waselusive. The combination oftransparency, flexibility and conductivitywere never achieved.

In the current study, reported in NatureCommunications, suggest gold nano-meshelectrodes that provide good electricalconductivity as well as transparency and

flexibility as a solution. The studyreports of gold nano-mesh electrodes,produced by the novel grain boundarylithography, increase resistance onlyslightly, even at a strain of 160 percent,or after 1,000 cycles at a strain of 50percent. And unlike silver or copper, goldnano-mesh does not easily oxidize, whichcauses a sharp drop in electricalconductivity in silver and copper nano-wires.

There is already a boom in the portableelectronics. Korean electronics makerSamsung demonstrated a cell phone witha bendable screen in October; LGElectronics has introduced a curved cellphone. The discovery of gold nano-meshtechnology is all set to boost thisadvancement.


INNOVATION

Building designs influencetheir bacteria content

The recent issue of PLOS ONE reportsthat the bacterial content of the living

space depends on their architecturaldesign. A team of biologists andarchitects noted that proteobacteria,fermicutes and deinococci dominate theliving spaces. However, the biogeographyof microbial communities indoorsdepends onarchitectural choices.

The study is a part ofthe efforts due to theBiology and the BuiltEnvironment (BioBE)Center of University ofOregon to explore themicrobiome of theindoor world, wherepeople spend themajority of their time. Microbiome refersto the total makeup of microorganismsand their collective genetic material foundin or on human body or in anotherenvironment.

The team made their studies on the LillisBusiness Complex at University ofOregon with LEED silver certification forits sustainable features. The microbeswere collected from 155 of its roomsusing specially filtered vacuum cleanerswhich collected dust from offices,

Microwires: theGPS for mobile

phonesclassrooms, hallways, bathrooms andstorage closets to develop a microbialsnapshot of the building.

The team analyzed DNA from more than30,000 different types of bacteriathroughout the Complex. They observethat what people do in the room, how

many people there arein a room and howmany different peopleare in the room allmake big difference inthe microbiome of theroom.

The researchers foundthat soil- and plant-associated bacteriawere most common in

unoccupied spaces, such as mechanicalrooms and storage closets. Differenthuman-gut-associated bacteria, includinglactobacillus, staphylococcus andclostridium, were common in bathroomdust. Deinococcus, whose members areknown for their resilience when exposed toradiation and dry conditions and hangingout in harsh conditions, were odds in thegroup. They were found in all rooms, butmore abundant in mechanically ventilated— versus naturally ventilated — rooms.

The journal Physica B: CondensedMatter reports a study which reveals

the surface magnetic behaviour of glass-coated microwires, which could be usedfor use as high sensitivity sensors, inmobile phones, for example.

Microwires were formerly used by theSoviet Union for military purposes. Theyessentially have a metal core and a crystalskin, in other words, they have a glasscoating. The core of the microwire consistsof a ferromagnetic alloy, which variesaccording to the metals used in the alloyand the final geometry of the wire. Theirmagnetic properties and small size makethem important materials in electronics.

Microwires can be used as sensors in theelectronic compasses of mobile phones. Itallows the position of the mobile phoneowner to be determined in space just as ifthe device were a GPS. Devises are beendeveloped by the Japanese company Aichiand are currently used in automotiveindustry and in traffic surveillancevehicles.

The research in this regard has beenunderway for last 25 years.

Floods are one of the biggest problemsfaced by places lying near sea level,

countries like UK. A cost effective andnatural way to slow river flow andreduce flooding has been suggested by astudy conducted by NewcastleUniversity in partnership with theEnvironment Agency and published inthe academic journal Science of the TotalEnvironment. They suggest methods ofcapturing flow upstream to preventfloods downstream where they are likelyto have a greater impact on infrastructureand homes.

The research team suggests that bychanging and hindering the natural flowpathways within a small catchmentsystem, it is possible to manage theamount of run-off from the land. This

reduces the risk of flooding in low-lyingareas and also cuts down on pollution bypreventing phosphorous and nitrates frombeing washed off the land. The method

suggested involves disconnecting fast-flowpathways and adding storage to arrestflooding into the towns.

Natural Flood Management aims toreduce the downstream maximum waterheight of a flood – the peak – or delay thearrival of the flood peak downstream,increasing the time available to prepare.This target is achieved through fourmeans: 1) Storing water such as ponds,ditches and field attenuation bunds, 2)Increasing soil infiltration through thecreation of ‘infiltration zones’ to helpwater get into the soil at certain locations,for example tree belts, 3) Slowing waterby increasing resistance to its flow, forexample planting in the floodplain orriverside woodland and 4) Redirecting thewater by channelling it away from themain flow into temporary water storageareas or buffer zones to hold the waterback until the flood peak drops .

Fighting flood in natural way


INNOVATION

What does a fast eye movementbetray?

Researchers from Johns HopkinsUniversity report evidence that

people who are less patient tend to movetheir eyes with greater speed. According tothem, the natural expression of passage oftime like eye movements may be a traitconsistentlyused in theirbrains, whichcould influencespeed withwhich theymakemovements, aswell as theway theymake certaindecisions. Theresults arepublished inthe Journal of Neuroscience.

The study also notes that a betterunderstanding of how the human brainevaluates time when making decisionsmight also shed light on why malfunctionsin certain areas of the brain make decision-making harder. This is especially the casewith those with neurological disorders likeschizophrenia, or for those who haveexperienced brain injuries.

The basic question the research teamconfronted is why some people are willingto wait and others aren’t. They studied

very simple eye movements, known assaccades. Saccades are the motions that oureyes make as we focus on one thing andthen other. They are probably the fastestmovements of human body. Usuallyhuman saccades are at their fastest during

teenage and slowsdown as we age.

In principle, the speedat which people movecould be reflection ofthe way the braincalculates the passageof time to reduce thevalue of a reward.Based on a computer-based evaluation ofsaccades, the teamconcludes that saccadesare rather a personal

trait, which varies from person to person.

The researchers also identified a strongcorrelation between saccade speed andimpulsivity in decision-making. Thissuggested that people who make quickmovements, especially quick eyemovement, tend to be less willing to wait.

This indicates that there may be afundamental link between the way thenervous system evaluates time and rewardin controlling movements and in makingdecisions.

Betterrechargeable

batteriesGurpreet Singh of Kansas State

University and his team havedemonstrated that a composite paper madeof interleaved molybdenum disulfide andgraphene nanosheets can efficiently storesodium atoms. It functions as a flexiblecurrent collector and can be used as anegative electrode in sodium-ion batteries.

As different from usual negative electrodesof sodium-ion batteries, molybdenumdisulfide paper does not undergo an“alloying reaction with sodium”, whichresults in swelling of batteries to about500% resulting in mechanical damage andloss of electrical contact with the currentcollector. The paper electrode offers a newkind of chemistry with sodium ionswithout the above-mentioned swellingeffect. It offers a stable charge capacity of230 mAh/g with respect to total electrodeweight.

The interleaved and porous structure ofthe paper electrode also offers smoothchannels for sodium to diffuse in and outas the cell is charged and dischargedquickly. This effect allows one to eliminatethe polymeric binders and copper currentcollector foil used in traditional batteryelectrode.

The research appears in the latest issue ofthe journal ACS-NANO.

The researchers are working tocommercialize the technology, withassistance from the university’s Instituteof Commercialization. They also areexploring lithium and sodium storage inother nano-materials.

Computer-aided control ofmolecular factories of cells

Biotechnologists take advantage of thecell metabolism to produce

pharmaceuticals and bio-fuels by “over-expressing” certain genes in the cell. Dueto “over-expression” greater-than-normalamounts of proteins are producedboosting specific metabolic pathways inthe cell, thus increasing production ofdesired compound. However, thismetabolic engineering could be radicallyaffected by the genes that become toxic tothe cell due to such over-expression.

Tel Aviv University’s Blavatnik School ofComputer Science and Department ofMolecular Microbiology and

Biotechnology, along with researchers atthe Weizmann Institute of Science, havedeveloped a computer algorithm thatpredicts which metabolic genes are lethalto cells when over-expressed. The resultsof their research are published inProceedings of the National Academy ofScience. This finding is supposed to aidmetabolic engineering to produce newchemicals in more cost-effective ways.

The newly developed algorithm is namedExpression Dependent Gene Effects(EDGE). It predicts what happens ifscientists manipulate cells to over-expresscertain genes.


INNOVATION

What helps better decision making:overwhelming flood of information

or small amount of selected information?Most of us are happy with a few numberof relevant information to optimizedecision making process. However,according to a study published in thejournal, Big Data, for certain types ofpredictive models to guide decisionmaking, there is no such a thing as toomuch data.

The New York University researchershave proven that certain telling behavioursmay not be observed in sufficient numberswithout massive data.

However, sweeping assumptions like“bigger is better” can be also dangerous.On using certain type of data called fine-grained data, such as observing anindividual’s behaviour in a certain setting,big data is invariably useful.

The power of any analytic tool is in usingit appropriately.

Role of Big Datain improving

decision making

A research study by University ofVienna throws light into the

promotion of cooperation among humans,in the light of the Darwinian principle ofnatural selection.

Rewards and punishments are ones of themost commonly used tools to shapehuman behaviours. Earlier studies inevolutionary game theory focused verymuch on punishment as a means to shapebehaviours.

However, according to the new result,punishing is more costly for its initiatorthan rewarding. Thus the evolution ofcooperation by punishment often needssupport from other mechanisms.

To reward is the betterpolicy when it comes toenhance cooperation

Can we achieve cooperation withoutheavily relying on punishment, which canpotentially lead to decreasing opennessand escalating conflicts among groups? It isnot only possible, but is the right policy,asserts the new research study.

One may resort to an evolutionaryperspective towards rewards. Thus, it maybe ideal for an official subsidy, to includeits own expiration conditions.

Similarly, the new study recommendsabolishing of the reward system in asystematic manner, with achievement of asufficient fraction of co-operators.

Inspired by the “Chameleon ofthe sea”

Cuttlefish, which is also known as the“Chameleon of the sea” is all set to

offer clues for bio-inspired humancamouflage and color-changing products.

Scientists at Harvard University and theMarine Biology Laboratory (MBL) havederived a better understanding of nano-scale photonic device that equipscuttlefish to dynamically change itscolour. The research could for example,do good to soldiers in the battlefield withimproved protective camouflage. Theresults are published in the Journal of theRoyal Society Interface.

The cuttlefish is a cephalopod, likesquids and octopus. They can rapidlyalter both the colour and the pattern ofits skin, helping it blend in with itssurroundings in an attempt to avoidpredators. The challenge is to reverse-engineer this system in a cost-efficient,synthetic system that in amenable tomass production. The technology couldalso find applications in the materials forpaints, cosmetics, and consumerelectronics.

It is discovered that neurally –controlled,pigmented organs called chromatophoresallow cuttlefish to change its appearancein response to the visual clues. Toregulate its colour, the cuttlefish relies ona on a vertically arranged assembly ofthree optical components: theleucophore, a near-perfect light scattererthat reflects light uniformly over the

entire visible spectrum; the iridophore, areflector comprising a stack of thin films;and the chromatophore. This layeringenables the skin of the animal to selectively

absorb or reflect light of different colours.This is, in fact a much more complexsystem than earlier thought.

Quest for invisible suit exists throughouthistory. Nature has solved that problem.Now it is up to us to replicate this genius,so that we could also avoid predators.


What to eat before an exam ?Nutrition tips to support your brain during tests

Did you know that what you eat anddrink can affect your exam

performance? What is the best diet tofollow on exam day?

A long exam is like a mental marathon inwhich endurance is critical. Nutritionistsemphasize the importance of healthyeating habits at this stressful time. Theysay the right food and drink can energizeyour system, improve your alertness andsustain you through the long exam hours.The wrong dietary choices can make youfeel sluggish, jittery, or burned out. Thefollowing nutrition tips will help youperform at your best on exam day.

1. Make sure to eat Even if you normallyskip breakfast or avoid eating when youare nervous, you should still make the timeto eat something. Very simply, your brainneeds the energy from food to workefficiently.

You need to keep your mental focus onyour exam and not on your hunger. Itwould be a shame to study intensivelybefore your exam and then be too fatiguedphysically to do your best on exam day. If

you really cannot stomach food, then tryhaving a protein shake or smoothie.

2. Eat brain-boosting food. This includesprotein-rich foods which can lead togreater mental alertness. Healthy foodchoices on exam day include eggs, nuts,yogurt, and cottage cheese. Good breakfastcombinations might be whole-grain cerealwith low-fat milk, eggs and toast with jam,porridge, oatmeal, or sugar-free muesli.

Other dietary choices considered to bebrain foods are fish, walnuts, blueberries,sunflower seeds, flaxseed, dried fruits, figs,and prunes.

Although unproven, many consider fruit toprovide excellent brain fuel, which can helpyou think faster and remember more easily.You could eat cantaloupes, oranges,strawberries, blueberries, or bananas,which are especially popular.

In terms of vegetables, raw carrots, bellpeppers, Brussels sprouts, spinach,broccoli, and asparagus are good choices.

3. Avoid brain blocking foods. On examday, stay away from foods made of white

flour, such as cookies, cakes, and muffins,which require added time and energy todigest. Also avoid foods that are high inrefined sugar, such as chocolates, desserts,and candies.

When eaten alone, carbohydrates makeyou feel more relaxed than alert. So carbsare a good option for the day before theexam, but not on the actual exam day. Inaddition, carbs such as rice or potatoes,eaten in large quantities, can make you feelheavy and sleepy.

Avoid foods high in sugar, such aschocolates, desserts, and candies. Theywill send you off on sugar highs and lows— the opposite of stabilizing you duringyour long exam.

4. Drink brain boosting beverages.Make sure you drink enough water beforeand during your exam. Tea also works,though without a lot of sugar. Dehydrationcan make you lose your concentration, feelfaint, and sap your energy. Don’t wait tillyou’re thirsty to drink a glass of water. Ifyou wait till you’re thirsty, it means yourbody is already a little dehydrated.

Avoid foods high in sugar, such as chocolates, desserts, and candies. They willsend you off on sugar highs and lows — the opposite of stabilizing you during

your long exam.


HEALTH WATCH

Fairness creams, lipsticks contain toxicheavy metals: CSE

Fairness creams may contain toxic heavymetals like mercury while lipsticks may

be tainted with carcinogenic chromium,finds a new study released today.

Centre for Science and Environment’s(CSE’s) laboratory in Delhi, whichdid the study, found mercury in 44per cent of the 32 fairness creams ittested.

It also found chromium in 50 percent and nickel in 43 per cent of the30 lipstick samples. The reportfrom CSE said they found mercuryin 14 fairness creams in the range of0.10 parts per million (ppm) to1.97 ppm.

Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Acts andRules of India, mercury is banned for use incosmetics.

A neurotoxin, mercury can damage kidneysand may cause rashes, skin discolourationand scarring besides resulting in anxiety,

depression, psychosis and peripheralneuropathy. Chromium was found in 15out of 30 lipsticks tested in the range of0.45 ppm to 17.83 ppm while nickel wasfound in 13 out of 30 products tested in

the range of 0.57 to 9.18 ppm.

Hexavalent chromium, one of the forms inwhich chromium is present, is known tocause cancer in humans.

Eminent environmentalist and CSEdirector general Sunita Narain said,

“Mercury is not supposed to be present incosmetic products. Their mere presence inthese products is completely illegal andunlawful”.

The researchers however, did not find anyheavy metals in anti-ageing creamsand lip balms. The study did notdetect lead and cadmium in lipsticks.

“What is coming out very clearly isthat this sector has extremely weakregulations and almost noenforcement of whatever laws thatexist,” said Chandra Bhushan, CSEdeputy director general and head ofits lab.

He said that manufacturers often get awayon the pretext that toxic metals are presentin trace levels as limits for final productsare not set. One of the fastest growingindustries in India, it is estimated that thecosmetic industry sold products worth Rs26,410 crore in 2011.

5. Avoid brain blocking beverages. Avoidsugary sodas and colas. Avoid caffeine, as itcan increase your nervousness. However, ifyou are accustomed to drinking coffeeregularly, then have a small cup or two. Tryto eat something healthy along with yourcoffee. If you cut out the coffee suddenlyand completely, you could end up with acaffeine-withdrawal headache.

6. Eat light meals. Eat enough to feelsatisfied but not so much as to feel full. Ifyou eat a big breakfast or lunch before anexam, you will feel drowsy and heavy.Your body’s energy will be focused on thedigestive process rather than on providingyour brain with the energy it needs tofunction efficiently. Instead, try a lightlunch such as a salad with chicken orsalmon.

7. Don’t try any new foods, drinks, orsupplements just before the exam, even ifthey come highly recommended by friendsor family. You don’t know how your bodyresponds to them and you don’t want any

surprises on exam day. Stick with foodand drink your body is accustomed to.

8. Consider taking multivitamins.Most students do not eat a healthybalanced diet. When you survive on

pizza, junk food, Red Bull, and coffee,your body ends up with a lack ofessential vitamins and minerals. Amultivitamin can help. The B vitaminsespecially strengthen brain functioning.Iron, calcium, and zinc can boost yourbody’s ability to handle stress.

9. Snack intelligently. In somecountries, you are given a five- to ten-minute break in the middle of a long exam.Carry healthy snacks, such as protein bars,trail mix, energy bars, granola bars,almonds, walnuts, or fruit for such times,

to keep your energy high. Avoidchocolates or sweet treats as the energyhigh could be followed by an energycrash during your exam!

10. Get enough sleep. Many studentsget into the habit of studying late into thenight, hoping to cram in a little moreinformation into their already exhaustedbrains. Instead, on the night before theexam, stop studying in the early evening.After that, take it easy, eat your dinner,lay out your clothes for the next day,

pack your bag, take a shower, set a coupleof alarms and head to bed early. You’vedone all you can. To function at your beston exam day, you need not only the energythat comes from healthy nutrition, but alsothe energy that comes from adequate,restful sleep.

Your brain needs the energy from food to work efficiently. You need to keepyour mental focus on your exam and not on your hunger.


HEALTH WATCH

I am proud of being aRajagiri alumnus: Dr. Junaid

“Rajagiri is something very special to me.It is still close to my heart”, was the firstexpression of Dr Junaid Rehman, whenasked to comment on his schooldays.

Dr Junaid is the man who changed the faceof Ernakulam General Hospital and madethe medical profession more accessible tocommon people.

He acquired his positive qualities andmental makeup during his schooldays.”Itwas my days at Rajagiri School,Kalamassery, that moulded me. I studiedthere and passed out in 1972. I was in thehostel throughout. I really enjoyed myschooldays,” he says.

During those days students were notallowed to keep money in the hostel aseverything would be provided there. “Sowhy should they keep money withthem?” was the logic. It was true. Studentswere allowed to go out on Sundays. “Weused to go to the movies or roam around.

The priests and teachers at Rajagiri werevery strict, but they allowed us a lot offreedom also. Mandatory study time wasvery little. We were allowed to playleisurely. I was active in all kinds of sportsand games,” he says.

Dr Junaid was a school student at a timewhen there were no computers andmobiles. “Our teachers were veryknowledgeable. They were staying in thenearby staff quarters. We could approachthem at any time for any kind ofclarifications or doubts. Such was theirdedication to their profession. I stillremember the warmth of the teachers ofRajagiri. I could feel the difference betweenteachers there and elsewhere because I hadstudied in some other schools beforejoining Rajagiri.

All the good qualities that I claim to havenow were acquired from my days atRajagiri,” he proudly says.

Dr Junaid was a Government doctor andwas never enamoured with privatepractice. “Money is important but it is noteverything in life. I learnt this mostimportant lesson from Rajagiri. This hashelped me a lot while taking importantdecisions in life. I developed an outlook onlife from Rajagiri.”

Dr Junaid’s father was an advocate. It washis wish to make his son a medicalprofessional. The doctor now feels that itwas a wise decision.

The General Hospital owes its presentstature to Dr Junaid who with his untiringefforts brought a host of facilities therefrom the day he joined it in 2002 asResident Medical Officer. He completedhis 10-year-old mission of giving a modernface to the hospital that is sought by themiddle-class and poor people in andaround the city to whom he has beenproviding yeoman services for more than adecade.

“Money is important but it is not everything in life. I learnt this mostimportant lesson from Rajagiri. This has helped me a lot while taking

important decisions in life. I developed an outlook on life from Rajagiri.”

James Paul


FOCUS

“Former District Collector GyaneshKumar had a project up his sleeve and thenecessary funds and we started work andnow the hospital has received NABHaccreditation,” Dr Junaid says.

“Thanks to Gyanesh Kumar, MuhammadHaneef, Dr. M Beena and the presentcollector P I Sheik Pareeth, who moppedup funds through various sources, thecasualty, operation theatre, different ICUs,sophisticated labs and the CT scan unitcould be housed in the new casualty blockcosting Rs 7 crore by 2004. Using the Rs1-crore buffer fund, we bought modernequipment,” says Dr Junaid about his firstinitiative.

With Rs 10 lakh given by the Rotary Cluba burns unit was set up. The ortho wardwas renovated at a cost of Rs 16 lakh,again collected as donations. Using Rs 1crore given by K.V.Thomas and LouidLouis, then MLAs, a new OP block wasset up. The OP block was extended, againwith another Rs 1 crore given by K VThomas from both his MLA and MPfunds. “As RMO I was given a free handby the four superintendents under whom I

worked till 2010 before graduating into asuperintendent.

An office complex could be set up with Rs25 lakh given by NRHM and a mortuarycomplex using Rs 4 lakh given by NawabRajendran and Rs 21 lakh from SebastianPaul MP’s fund,” says Junaid.

Dr Junaid considers the NABHaccreditation the hospital received as thejewel in the crown. He egged on BPCL togive Rs 10 lakh for the blood bank, securedRs 10 lakh from CSL for the palliative careunit and Rs‘8 lakh for the solid wastedisposal unit. P Rajiv, MP, along withBPCL provided Rs 25 lakh to set up thefamed Oottupura at the hospital.

The Chief Minister’s hunger-free Keralaprogramme is running at the hospitalwithout interruption with CSL support.Dr Junaid is now now working as MedicalDirector of the Cooperative MedicalCollege (CMC), Kalamassery. TheGovernment had also appointed him asSpecial Officer for the Governmenttakeover of the college.He has plans totake some corrective measures immediately

to improve the functioning of the college.“Now that the takeover has beenannounced, we will focus on short-termgoals.

Resuming some of the defunct services willbe our priority.’’ Facilities for taking moreaccident cases also will be arranged soon,he says. “We have started efforts toentrust Kerala Medical ServiceCorporation Limited (KMSCL) with thesupply of entire medicines to the medicalcollege,’’ he says.

The Health and Family WelfareDepartment that will bring the collegewithin its purview like the other medicalcolleges in the state has formed a panel ofhigh-level officials to decide how tointegrate the staff, equipment and facilitiesin the college under the Department ofMedical Education.

The Director of Medical Education hasalso formed another panel of collegefaculty to inspect the college. Dr Junaidtook over as Medical Director of CMC inApril this year after he retired from theHealth Services department as the DistrictMedical Officer in Ernakulam.

Dr. Junaid is the man who changed the face of Ernakulam General Hospitaland made the medical profession more accessible to common people.


FOCUS

Dr. Augustine Thottakara

Satyam vada; Dharmam caraSpeak the Truth; Walk in the Path

of Righteousness

ASPECTS

The word “dharma” is perhaps the richest,most comprehensive, and most noted term inthe entire gamut of the Sanskritic traditions,which include literature, philosophies, reli-

gions and scriptures. Dharma is religion; it isduty and law; dharma is religious obser-

vance, ethically legitimate way of living andconformity to traditions and customs; it is

righteousness, virtue and justice; dharma isharmony, harmony in nature, in society and

in the life of an individual; harmony betweenthought, word and action of humans.

“Om. After having taught the Vedas, thepreceptor gives the last instructions to hisdisciple:

Say always the truth; Walk always in thepath of righteousness;

Never fail to study the Vedas; Bring a giftpleasing to the preceptor (get his blessing),

and do not cut off the family lineage (begetchildren);

Do not swerve from the truth. Do notswerve from dharma;

Do not neglect personal welfare. Do notneglect your prosperity.

Do not neglect the study and the teachingof the Vedas;

Do not neglect your duties to the gods andto the manes;

Treat your mother as God. Treat yourfather as God. Treat your teacher as God;

Treat your guest as God;

Whatever deeds are faultless, they are tobe performed; not others. Whatever goodworks have been performed by me, thoseshould be performed by you too; notothers; If you meet a person more learnedthan I, respect him by offering him a seat.Whatever is to be given should be givenwith faith, not without faith; give withgracefulness, with modesty, with fear, andwith sympathy.

Now, if there arises in your mind anydoubt concerning any act, or any doubtconcerning duty, you should conductyourself in such matters as learned personswould conduct themselves. ...

This is my final commandment. This is theteaching. This is the instruction. This isthe content of the Vedas and Upanisads.This you should observe. This alone is tobe observed. Om Peace, Peace, Peace!” (Taittiriya Upanisad I.11).


ASPECTS

Truth can be viewed from different angles: There is theabsolute Truth or, the metaphysical Truth: that is the SupremeBeing, God. Then there are the relative truths: we are all, this

cosmos and everything in it—all these are relative truths.

In the last issue I explained the shortestspeech/lecture ever delivered—to beprecise, the shortest convocation address. It consisted of only one letter: “da”. Here Iam dealing with yet another convocationaddress. This rather long speech is foundin Taittiriya Upanisad. In someuniversities, for example in BangaloreUniversity, this text is solemnly read out/chanted before the annual convocationceremony.

Normally the teaching process at theteacher’s home (gurukula) lasts for 12years. At the end of this long and arduousperiod of education, the disciple, with thepermission of the preceptor, takes theritual bath (mention has already been madeabout this bath in the last issue) and comesbefore the teacher for his last instructionbefore he goes home to enter into thehouseholder’s state.

Very important, relevant and valid moralinstructions, or rather commandments, aregiven here by the preceptor to thedisciples. Altogether 20 commands are putforward by the guru for the faithfulobservance of his disciple. I would like toelucidate some of them.

Satyam vada: ‘Say always the truth’.Truth can be viewed from different angles:There is the absolute Truth or, themetaphysical Truth: that is the SupremeBeing, God. Then there are the relativetruths: we are all, this cosmos andeverything in it—all these are relativetruths. Then there is truth as a virtue, as avalue, as a good quality of a person. Thatis honesty. Always speaking the truth isthe expression of this virtue. Truth andahimsa were the two pillars of Gandhiji’sphilosophy and spirituality. He tried toapply truth in all spheres of life. Forexample, he said, ‘If you think that as ahuman being you are inferior to anybody,that is untrue, that is a lie. If you thinkthat as a human being you are superior to

anybody, that is untrue, that is a lie. Truth is that as human beings we are allequal.’

Dharmam cara: ‘Walk always in the pathof righteousness’. The word “dharma” isperhaps the richest, most comprehensive,and most noted term in the entire gamut ofthe Sanskritic traditions, which includeliterature, philosophies, religions andscriptures. Derived from the Sanskritverbal root dhr[1], which means tosupport, to sustain, to maintain, to holdetc, the word “dharma” has a variety ofmeanings. Dharma is religion; it is dutyand law; dharma is religious observance,ethically legitimate way of living andconformity to traditions and customs; it isrighteousness, virtue and justice; dharma isharmony, harmony in nature, in societyand in the life of an individual; harmonybetween thought, word and action ofhumans; dharma is also used to denote theessential characteristic of an object, thebasic inner principle which makes a thingwhat it is. Some systems like Nyaya-Vaisesika see dharma and adharma as twoqualities of individual selves. Dharmawould basically mean that law orprinciple, which sustains, maintains andprotects moral and physical order in thelife of individuals, in society and in thecosmos as a whole, and finally leads theseekers to the ultimate liberation. “Thatprinciple by which the universe issupported is called dharma” [2].

Svadhyaya-pravacanabhyam napramaditavym: ‘Do not neglect the studyand the teaching of the Vedas’. Theteacher is telling the departing student thatthe end of the period of studentship is notthe end of study of the Vedas. Ashouseholder he should continue to read,study and assimilate the sacred texts. Heshould also preach and teach (pravacana)the Vedas to others. The householder hasthe responsibility of sharing his

knowledge and insight of the sacred bookswith others. Preaching the Word of Godshould become part of household-ministry.

Matrdevo bhava ... Respect, revere andhonour mother, father, teachers andancestors. These are the categories ofpersons who are the cause of our existenceas we are today.

A householder, according the Codes of Law(Dharma-sastra), has to perform five greatsacrifices (panca-mahayajnas). Sacrifice(yajna) in this context means great effort,wholehearted endeavour. The five greatsacrifices are: (i) Brahma-yajna, that is,study of the Vedas (the word “Brahma” inthis context means Vedic word); (ii) Deva-yajna, that is, worship of God; (iii) Pitr-yajna, that is, rituals and obsequies for theancestors; (iv) Nara-yajna, that is, respectfor all human beings, especially for toguests; and for (v) Bhuta-yajna, that is,protection of all living beings. These aredaily obligatory duties (nitya-karma) of ahouseholder (Cf. Manu-smrti III.70 ff.;III.81 ff.).

A human being, especially a male memberof society, is born to this world with threedebts or obligations (rna-traya), namely (i)debt to God (ii) debt to the sages and (iii)debt to one’s own ancestors. Debt to Godis paid back by offering worship andsacrifices (yajña), debt to the sages is paidback by studying the sacred scriptures(svadhyaya) and debt to the ancestors ispaid back by begetting children (praja) andthus safeguarding the continuation of thefamily lineage (Cf. Manu-smrti VI.35-36).

The final instructions of the guru to hisdisciple, who has completed his education,contain all the essential elements for anethically and spiritually successful life.

[1]dharati (parasmaipada), dharate(atmanepada) and dharayati (causitive).

[2]dhriyate anena lokah iti dharmah.


INFO TECH

New technology that can ‘replace’ internet

A new project has been launched thatcould replace the internet.

The ambitious project, Bitcloud, aims toprovide services currently controlled byinternet service providers ( ISPs) andcorporations. The project is based on thesame methods used to mine bitcoins.

According to the BBC, individuals wouldperform tasks such as storing, routingand providing bandwidth, in return forpayment.

Microsoft’s push into the smartphonemarket may not get off to the best

start.

Nokia, which is selling its handset divisionto the US technology giant for $7.4 billion,said that the unit’s sales fell 29%, to 2.6billion euros, or $3.5 billion, in the fourthquarter. The operating loss for thedivision was 201 million euros.

Sales of its smartphones declined7% in the quarter to about 8.2million units, despite an increasein consumer spending during theholiday season.

Nokia’s interim president, TimoIhamuotila, said the company’smidrange phone, the Lumia 520,had performed better than itshigh-end phones in the fourthquarter. The company saidincreased competition from otherdevice manufacturers like Apple,Samsung and Sony was theprimary cause for the drop insales.

“Breaking into the high-end market wasalways going to be a challenge forMicrosoft and Nokia,” said Nick Dillon, asenior telecommunications analyst at theresearch firm Ovum in London. “Windowsphones still don’t offer the same level ofapplications that are available on Androidand Apple’s iOS. The software is stilllagging behind.”

After announcing the deal to buy Nokia’shandset division in September, Microsoft

said it wanted to combine its ownmarketing and development teams withthose from the Nokia unit to increase itspresence in the global smartphone market.

Analysts said that Microsoft could stillcompete with rival phone makers butshould focus on emerging markets like

India and China, where the growingnumber of middle-class consumers areseeking to upgrade to smartphones.

Nokia’s quarterly earnings also gaveinvestors their first look of what theFinnish technology giant would look likewithout the phone business. Most werenot impressed.

Excluding the sales from the handset unit,Nokia had a net loss of 25 million euros,about $34 million, in contrast to a profit of193 million euros in the fourth quarter of

2012, and a drop in revenue of 21%, toabout 3.5 billion euros.

The company, which will retain its mobileinfrastructure, mapping and intellectualproperty units after the deal withMicrosoft is completed this quarter, saidsales across the three divisions fell in the

fourth quarter.

That reflected in part reducedinvestments by some of theworld’s largest carriers in theinfrastructure equipment usedin high-speed mobile networks.

Nokia’s stock closed down8.7%.

As part of its overhaul, Nokia isexpected to announce soon theresults of a strategic review ofits operations, including apotential dividend toshareholders from the proceedsof the phone sale. Ihamuotila,the interim president, declined

to say when the results of the reviewwould be released.

The company’s board also must decide ona new chief executive to succeed StephenElop, who will join Microsoft after thephone sale is completed.

Analysts expect the company to focus onits mobile infrastructure business, whichmakes networking equipment for cellphonecarriers. The unit, called NSN, representsabout 90 percent of the revenue from thecompany’s remaining operations.

Nokia’s future without handset business

The founders are searching for developersfor the project, adding that they will startby decentralising the current internet, andthen create a new internet to replace it.

According to the report, like bitcoin minersprovide computing power and arerewarded for solving complex mathematicalequations with the virtual currency, soindividual net users would be rewardedbased on how much bandwidth theycontribute to the Bitcloud network.


INFO TECH

Samsung’s operating profit tumbledalmost a fifth in the fourth quarter, due

to a one-off bonus and slowing sales of theelectronic giant’s high-end smartphones.

Operating profit stood at 8.3 trillion won($7.8 billion), down 18 percent from theJuly-September period, marking thecompany’s first quarterly profit decline intwo years.

The fourth quarter figure was also down6.0 percent from a year ago.

Net profit rose 3.7 percent year on yearbut slowed significantly from the thirdquarter’s 25.6 percent gain, as healthymargins from the company’s chip unitfailed to offset flagging profit momentumin the flagship Galaxy series ofsmartphones.

“Amid macroeconomic uncertainties suchas a strong Korean won and increasedconcerns over possible quantitative easingtapering in the US, our earnings were lower

than what the market expected,” RobertYi, head of Samsung’s investor relations,said in a statementday.

He pointed specifically to a “negativecurrency impact” of 700 billion won and aone-off 800 billion won employee bonusto mark the 20th anniversary of amarketing strategy by Chairman Lee Kun-Hee that laid the groundwork for thecompany’s recent success.

And the company earnings statementmade it clear that it expected no immediaterebound in 2014.

“For the first quarter it will be challengingfor Samsung to improve its earnings as theweak seasonality of the IT industry willput pressure on demand for componentsand TV products,” the statement said.

The latest earnings result ended thecompany’s long run of record quarterlyprofits on the back of surging sales of itsGalaxy products.

The mobile division posted a quarterlyoperating profit of 5.47 trillion won, down2.8 percent from the third quarter.

Samsung’s statement said the division’searnings were down due to seasonallyincreased marketing costs, as well as theone-off bonus.

The strength of the Korean won againstother currencies also weighed onperformance, inflicting foreign-exchangelosses and making Samsung less price-competitive in the global market.

Samsung quarterly profit dips due toslowing smartphone sales

‘123456’ tops list of worst passwordsPerhaps you chuckled at the irony of

making your password “password.”Or you thought it was the right place toexpress affection for your favorite primateby choosing “monkey.”

More likely, you were lazy andwanted something easy to remember,like “123456.”

If you’re using any of thesepasswords, change them.

Those are some of the most commonpasswords, according to a new listreleased by security company SplashData. The group comes up with thetop 25 list based on lists ofpasswords that were stolen and postedpublicly in the previous year.

This year, the most common password is“123456,” which unseated last year’s No.1, “password.”

In addition to strings of digits in numericalorder and simple words and letters like“qwerty” and “admin,” there are a fewphrases on the list. The sweet and

common “iloveyou” is beloved byhackers, as is “letmein,” “trustno1” and“password1.”

A string of high-profile breaches in thepast year may serve as a wake-up call to

the consumers who use these passwords.Many perhaps assume they would neverbe the target of hackers, so there’s noreason to enact strict, or even common-sense, security measures.

This year’s list was clearly skewed by thelarge number of Adobe passwordsincluded in the round-up, as indicated bythe presence of “adobe123” and

“photoshop” on the list at number 10 and15 respectively. Adobe experienced asizable security breach in 2013 thataffected 38 million users.

We can deduce that choosing apassword named after the product forwhich it’s used is a bad idea. Alsoavoid using your own name or otherobvious words someone who knowsyou could guess (the name of yourhusband, child, cat).

To beef up your defenses, immediatelychange any of your own passwordsthat show up on the list. Combinerandom words instead of usingcommon phrases, and if you include

numbers or symbols, don’t just substitute3s for your Es. If you’re ready to takeyour security to the next level, don’t usethe same password for all sites.

Also, when possible, turn on two-factoridentification, in which access is grantedbased on a password and something else,such as a specific image.


INFO TECH

Facebook’s Sandberg is nowa billionaire

A record high close for Facebook shareshas made Sheryl Sandberg one of the

youngest female billionaires ever, accordingto a ranking from Bloomberg.

Sandberg, who is the company’s chiefoperating officer, owns 12.3 million shares.That makes her stake worth about $720million.

In addition,she owns 4.7millionoptions,which wouldnet her $220.6million at herexercise price.

She has alsoreceived stockawards whichhave not yetvested, theestimated value of which takes herover the $1 billion mark.

Female billionaires are still relatively rare.Bloomberg’s list of the 200 richest peopleworldwide shows only 17 who are women.

Forbes reported last year that there were138 female billionaires worldwide, butthat’s out of a total 1,426 billionairesworldwide.

And only 24 of the women billionaires onthe Forbes list earned their wealththemselves; most inherited a significantportion of their fortune.

Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 afterworking at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500).Before that she was the chief of staff toLawrence Summers when he served asTreasury secretary in the Clintonadministration. Fortune magazine rankedher as the fifth most powerful woman inbusiness, and with 2012 earnings of $26.2

million, the thirdhighest paidwoman.

She also wrote abest-selling booklast year, “LeanIn.” She serveson the board ofWalt Disney(DIS, Fortune500) and waspreviously adirector ofStarbucks

(SBUX, Fortune 500).

But despite her accomplishments, the 44-year old Sandberg is not as wealthy ascompany founder and CEO MarkZuckerberg.

The 29-year old Zuckerberg owns 426.3million Facebook shares, worth nearly $25billion. Two of Zuckerberg’s former collegeclassmates, Dustin Moskovitz andEduardo Saverin, are also both billionairesdue to their Facebook stake, according tothe company’s most recent filings.

Facebook is like an infectious disease,experiencing a spike before its decline,

according to US researchers who claim thesocial network will lose 80 percent ofusers by 2017.

Two doctoral candidates in mechanical andaerospace engineering at PrincetonUniversity made their astonishing claims ina paper published online at a scientificresearch archive, but not yet peer-reviewed.

Based on the rise and fall of MySpace,John Cannarella and Joshua Spechler saythat Facebook, the largest online socialnetwork in history, is set for a massive fall.

“Ideas, like diseases, have been shown tospread infectiously between people beforeeventually dying out, and have beensuccessfully described withepidemiological models,” they wrote.

They applied a modified epidemiologicalmodel to describe the dynamics of useractivity of online social networks, usingGoogle data that is publicly available.

It will make uncomfortable reading for thesocial media giant co-founded by MarkZuckerberg, which has more than 1.1billion users around the globe and turns 10years old next month.

Their study said Facebook, whose sharesclimbed to a new high of $58.51 this week,has been in decline in terms of data usagesince 2012.

“Facebook is expected to undergo rapiddecline in the upcoming years, shrinking to20 percent of its maximum size byDecember 2014,” said the report postedonline to peers at ArXiv.org.

“Extrapolating the best model into thefuture suggests that Facebook will undergoa rapid decline in the coming years, losing80 percent of its peak user base between2015 and 2017.”

The new research comes amid surveyssuggesting that younger users startedgravitating away from Facebook in 2013.

Cannarella and Spechler told AFP they didnot wish to comment publicly in personuntil their manuscript had completed itspeer review process ahead of formalpublication.

‘Facebook could fade out like a disease’But at leastfor now,Facebook’sfortunes arein goodhealth.

Rising shareprices havemade chiefoperating

officer SherylSandberg thelatest techbillionaire andZuckerberg, 29,has a personalfortuneestimated atabout $19billion.


Computer accessories maker LogitechInternational raised its forecast for

the year after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results, helped bysales of covers for keyboards it makesfor Apple’s iPads.

Logitech’s shares rose as much as 15%on the Swiss Exchange on Thursday asthe results and raised outlook forcedshort-sellers to unwind negative bets onthe stock.

“It’s mostly a squeeze from short-covering,” a Paris-based trader said.

Logitech’s US-listed shares rose 15% to$15.20 in premarket trading.

Retail sales, which bring in almost all ofthe company’s revenue, rose 4% to $563million in the third quarter.

Logitech, best known as a computermouse maker, has been focusing onaccessories for tablets and smartphones.In 2013, the company’s product launches

Logitech raises forecast over sales jumpincluded a keyboard for iPads and awireless portable music player.

“We still have more work ahead, but ourturnaround is on track...,” said CEOBracken Darrell.

The company, which was slow to adapt tothe shift to mobile devices, raised its sales

forecast to $2.1 billion, from $2.0 billion,for the year ending March 2014.

Logitech also increased its non-GAAPoperating income expectations to a rangeof $120 million to $125 million from the$100 million it had previously estimated.

Analysts were expecting full-year salesof $2.1 billion, according to ThomsonReuters I/B/E/S.

Logitech reported a net income of $48million, or 30 cents per share, for thethird quarter ended Dec. 31, compared toa loss of $195 million, or $1.24 pershare, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 2% to $628 million.

Analysts had expected earnings of 17cents per share on revenue of $599.6million.

Logitech’s shares were up 12% at 13.70Swiss francs in afternoon trading. Thestock was the top percentage gainer on theSwiss Exchange.

Qualcomm buys Palm patents from HP

Cell-phone chip maker Qualcomm Inc.said Thursday it has acquired

patents once owned by smartphonemaker Palm Inc. from Hewlett-Packardfor an undisclosed amount.

Qualcomm says the purchase covers1,400 U.S. patents and about 1,000more foreign patients for the company’smobile computing technology.

Hewlett-Packard Co. paid $1 billion forPalm in 2010 as part of its first forayinto tablet computers and smartphones,which ran on Palm’s operating system.The effort flopped and HP now sellstablets using Google Inc.’s Android anda recently introduced version ofMicrosoft Corp.’s Windows. Palo Alto,California-based HP hasn’t re-enteredthe smartphone market.

The Palm acquisition was one of threemajor purchases that have haunted HP,

along with technology consulting service

EDS and business software makerAutonomy. In November of 2012,Hewlett took an $8.8 billion writedown

on the Autonomy acquisition, saying itwas the victim of a multibillion-dollarfraud at the hands of the Britishcompany. Autonomy’s former CEOsaid HP’s allegations were false.

HP last year sold Palm’s mobileoperating system, webOS, to LGElectronics, which now implants thesoftware in Internet-connected TVs.

Qualcomm didn’t elaborate on its plansfor the Palm patent portfolio. Big techcompanies in recent years have beenlooking to expand their patentportfolios to help introduce newtechnology and protect themselvesfrom lawsuits.

The San Diego company last yearintroduced a smartwatch called Toq to

showcase the potential wearable devicesthat can connect to the Internet.

INFO TECH


BETTER ENGLISH

A Guide to English Style and Usage- 10A.G. Menon

H

gourmand and gourmet A gourmand issomeone who loves eating and drinking toexcess: The food at the new hotel willsatisfy gourmands. A gourmet is someonewho enjoys good food and drink. In theopinion of a celebrated gourmet, non-vegetarian dishes in Kozhikode hotels arebetter than those in Kochi hotels. The wordgourmet is also used as an adjective (a‘gourmet restaurant’).

graduate You graduate from a universityor a particular college, not at it: Igraduated from Calicut University/Providence College with a degree inchemistry.

granted It is take it for granted(that),not take for granted (that). Theexpression means ‘assume that somethingis true or will happen’: You cannot take itfor granted that he will attend the function;you have to go and invite him; You cannottake it for granted that the system you havejust installed is foolproof.

grassroots The grassroots of anorganization are its ordinary membersinstead of its leaders: Earlier the leadersdid not get the necessary support for theplan, but this time the party is hoping forfull participation at grassroots level.Please note that it is grassroots, notgrassroot. Grassroots is also written astwo words (grass roots).

grateful and thankful It is wrong to sayI am thankful to you for the present. Itshould be I am grateful to you for thepresent. Thankful means ‘happy andrelieved that something good hashappened’: We should be thankful that noone was injured in the accident. Gratefulmeans ‘full of thanks’: We shall/would be

Ggrateful if you will/would let us know yourviews on the matter.

grave The word means ‘extremelyserious and worrying’. So the sentence Iencountered a grave problem at the bankyesterday is not correct. Say I encountereda serious/an unpleasant problem at thebank yesterday; The skirmishes on theborder have created a grave situation iscorrect.

greatly The word is usually placedbefore a main verb: An immediate reply willbe greatly appreciated; The standard ofliving in the state has greatly improved(NOT ‘improved greatly’).

green light If someone in authority givesyou a(the) green light to a project etc,they give you permission to do it: TheMinistry of Environment has finally giventhe green light to the airport project. Pleaseremember that the phrase is green light,not green signal as is used in India.

growth Don’t write The company hasachieved a remarkable growth as growthis an uncountable noun. The company hasachieved a growth rate of 12% is,however, correct.

guilty The phrase guilty about means‘feeling guilt or ashamed’: I feel guiltyabout not helping him when he neededmoney.(Be) guilty of means ‘beingresponsible for breaking a law etc’: Thecourt found him guilty of murder andsentenced him to life imprisonment.

gymnastic is an adjective the noun formbeing gymnastics. So the sentence Sheshowed great skills in gymnastic evenwhen she was at school is incorrect. Heregymnastics has to be used instead of

gymnastic. But Her gymnastic ability iswell known is correct.

Don’t invite a headache; be in goodhealth

had better/best If you had better/bestdo something, you should do it or it wouldbe good to do it. It is an idiom: You had/You’d better/best leave now so you cancatch the 2’o clock train/...so you may notmiss the train. Don’t say You better/bestleave now so …

hairdresser/hairdresser’s is a term usedin Britain for a shop where someone’s hairis cut. Though it is a ‘refined’ or ‘modern’word for a barber/barber shop theBritish male continues to say he goes tothe barber and the female to thehairdresser.

hair The word is both countable anduncountable. When you mean ‘a singlehair’ or ‘some individual hairs’, it is acountable noun: I found a white hair in mybed coffee today; He has a lot of grey hairson his head. When you mean ‘all the hairon one’s head’, the word is uncountable:She lost her hair after her illness.

half Don’t use the before half exceptwhen you talk about a particular half: Shespent half the term with her friend. Shegave the half of the lottery amount to herfather is, therefore, wrong. Say She gavehalf (of) the lottery amount to her father.

It is wrong to say I am thankful to you for the present. It should be I amgrateful to you for the present. Thankful means ‘happy and relieved that

something good has happened’.


BETTER ENGLISH

Like that, Viswan wants to donate two andhalf lakh rupees to charity is wrong. SayViswan wants to donate two and a half lakhrupees to charity. It is one and a halfhours, not one and half hour(s).

hallo, hello and hullo are acceptablespellings of the word used for greeting:Hallo/hello/hullo, he said when we met atthe party.

hand It is on the one hand or on theother hand, not in/at the one hand or in/at the other hand: On the one hand Iwould like to accept the new job offer, buton the other (hand) I enjoy the presentwork because it is in my home town. Athand means ‘near in time or position’:Help is at hand if we seek it. If someonesuffers at the hands of someone else, theyhurt you or treat you badly: Many freedomfighters had died at the hands of theautocratic rule. In the hands of means‘controlled by’: In that country all thepower is in the hands of the military. Don’tsay He came to see me with a book in thehand, say He came to see me with a bookin his hand. The expression is ‘in one’shand/s’, not ‘in the hand/sS’.

handicapped Many people dislike theword because they feel it is too negative.Some of them therefore use the worddisabled instead of ‘physicallyhandicapped people’. Some others suggestthe use of physically challenged anddifferently abled.

handle It is handle somebody/something, not handle with somebody/something: I left the matter to be handledby my friend; He told his children to handlethe new TV with care.

hanged/hung Both are past participlesand past tenses of ‘to hang’ but they areused in different contexts. Hanged is usedif a person is executed or commits suicideby hanging: The accused was found guiltyof murder and was ordered to be hanged;She hanged herself from a ceiling fan witha sari. Hung is used in the other sense of‘hang’ as in: They hung the picture on thewall; A large handbag hung from hershoulder.

happen Something happens tosomebody/something, not with someone/something: I don’t know what happened tothe boss yesterday; he was very angry.

hardly is used to indicate a negative idea.So it is not used with another negative.Sentences such as I couldn’t hardly hearher speech and He didn’t hardly eatanything are, therefore, wrong. Thesentences have to be rewritten as: I couldhardly hear her speech and He hardly ateanything. Hardly is followed by ‘when’,not ‘than’, as in Hardly had he started hisaddress when some students tried toobstruct him. However the ‘than’construction is common. Hardly usuallygoes directly before the main verb: I hardlycould decipher my own handwriting! is

wrong. Say, I could hardly decipher myown handwriting!; It was raining soheavily that we could hardly drive, not Wecould drive hardly.

have and have got When have is used asa main verb, the negative and questionforms are made with do. So the sentenceAfter paying my fees, I had not any moneyleft should be rewritten as After paying myfees, I didn’t have any money left. Theexpression have got/has got is usuallyused only in informal styles. So say Yourselection will depend upon whether youhave top scores in maths, insteadof...whether you have got top scores...

he/she In the past, when people referredto a member of a group of men andwomen, or boys and girls, they used thepronouns he/him/his: A good teacher isalways liked by his students; Every drivermust park his car outside the building. Toavoid sexism in language many peoplestarted using either his/her or his or herin the above examples: A good teacher isalways liked by his/her (his or her)students; Every driver must park his/her(his or her) car outside the building. Thisis, however, considered clumsy by somewho put it in the plural: A good teacher isalways liked by their students; Every drivermust park their car outside the buildingeven though it is considered by purists asungrammatical.

Something happens to somebody/something, not with someone/something: Idon’t know what happened to the boss yesterday; he was very angry.


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GUEST COLUMN


To the little mischief

One day, the young man left homesearching for a ‘Guru’

He roamed everywhere but could notmeet his Guru anywhere.

He met a wise manwho advised him “yougo back to your home.You would meet your

Guru there, waiting foryou”

“How can I recognize him?’

‘Your Guru will come to youwearing only one chappal.That will be identification

mark.’

He thought ‘My Gurus to enlightenme were here always. They werearound me with limping legs andalways got ridiculed. I failed to

identify and salute my poor Gurus.

The young man went back. Next day earlymorning reached home and knocked the

door. Inside house, his mother wassleeping. When she heard her son’s sound,she got up and went fast with joy to see

him. She was in a hurry and so her leg hitsomewhere and one of the chappals

slipped out of the leg. She didn’t want towaste time by searching chappal as she

wanted to meet him first.

She reached front side by limping. Seeinghis Guru, the son stood perplexed.


Printed and Published by Fr.Varghese Panthalookaran CMI on behalf of Rajagiri Media, Rajagiri Valley PO, Kakkanad, Kochi-39Ph: 0484-2428249. Printed at Anaswara Printers, Elamakara, Kochi. Editor: James Paul

ConfessionsJaya Prada

What is your idea of happiness?

Happiness is a feeling of your ownachievement, and it signifies goals. It alsorelates to a vast variety of changes in yourlife and there is always a hope ofappreciation.

What is your greatest fear?

Dark nights and being alone in the middle ofthe forest.

Which historical figure do you mostidentify with?

I recall my schooldays and the historylessons in my books, the warriors belongingto various parts of the country, includingJhansi ki Rani, Rani Kittur Channama, RaniRudramma Devi, Maulana Azad, SarojiniNaidu, Indira Gandhi and VijayalakshmiPandit. They never lost their ideologyduring their fights. I identify myself with allthose who have given their support andstrength to the success and progress of thecountry.

Which living person do you mostadmire?

I am still in search of the person whom Ican admire most. But I would admire theperson who extends his support and helpsin crises.

What is the trait you most deplore inyourself?

Possessiveness and always trying topreserve my true identity.

What is the trait you most deplore inothers?

I am still in observation.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Buying diamonds. It is my passion.

What is your favourite journey?

Holding my mother’s hand and learning totake small steps in preparation for the longjourney of life.

Who is your favourite painter?

There are many exceptionally brilliantartists but among my favourites areRabindranath Tagore (for his deft strokes)and Raja Ravi Varma (for his gloriouscolours). But the greatest painter, in my

opinion, is the Almighty, who created thisbeautiful, immortal universe.

What do you consider the mostoverrated virtue?

Simplicity and honesty make a personmost graceful, but in today’s world, theyare overrated.

On what occasion do you lie?

This is kalyug and I am helpless. Youmake me recall Raja Harishchandra.

What do you dislike most about yourappearance?

Nothing. Most of my appearances makeme look impressive.

Which living person do you mostdespise?

Anybody who takes undue advantage andis an opportunist.

Which words or phrases do you mostoveruse?

The most used words or phrases in my lifeare also put to practice everyday. Take upone idea. Make that one idea your life.Think of it, dream of it, live on that idea.Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every partof your body, be full of that idea, and justleave every other thought. This is the wayto success.

What is your greatest regret?

Thinking about the past when I may havemade small mistakes, which areundoubtedly regretful.

When and where were you thehappiest?

I feel happy whenever peoplecompliment me. I remember the legend ofIndian cinema, the world-famous directorSatyajit Ray’s compliment: “Jaya Pradais the most beautiful actress on the Indianscreen.” It makes me most happy.

What is your present state of mind?

Searching for peace. I feel like going backto Buddha’s golden era where there waspeace and ahimsa, no bloodshed.

How would you like to die?

One day, the inevitable will happen.Death venerates all. I cannot predict when,where and how.

What is your favourite motto?

I want to fight corruption. Seeing today’sscenario and the society’s mood, it is amust to protect our constitution and savethe decorum of our democracy.

What or who is the greatest love of yourlife?

Love is universal. It is immortal. It existseverywhere in every relationship.

(Jaya Prada is an actor who has starredin numerous Telugu, Tamil and Hindi filmslike Anthuleni Katha, Siri Siri Muvva(remade in Hindi as Sargam), AdaviRamudu, Ninaithale Inikkum, 47 Natkal,Kaamchor, Sharaabi and SagaraSangamam. She was elected to the LokSabha from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh)

pallikkutam: february

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