Month: September 2015

Categories
Hum log

An angel in white clothing for cancer patients in Mumbai

Harakhchand Sawla has been feeding poor cancer patients and their relatives near Tata Hospital for 32 years – for free.
by Ravi Shet

For most of us, our lives are a constant struggle to earn money and ‘get ahead’. Then there are others like Harakhchand Sawla (56), who find their own ways to make the world a better place. The Mulund resident left behind a flourishing business 32 years ago to start caring for cancer patients and their relatives with free food and medicines.

The sprightly man is always dressed in a white kurta and pajama, completing his look with white chappals or shoes. He can be seen in a lane behind Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital either distributing food on a daily basis to the cancer patients and their relatives, or simply talking to them to soothe their nerves. The activity happens from his trust office situated here.

“I started by serving food to 15 people. Today, we serve food to around 700 people every day,” he says. “My parents taught me that we should look after disadvantaged human beings unselfishly, so this is my way of doing so.” His endeavour began 30 years ago when he noticed cancer patients and their relatives coming from different parts of India and staying on the roads with their luggage and pockets almost empty due to travel and treatment costs.

“I felt bad for their condition. Cancer treatment is very costly and most people cannot afford it. That’s when I decided that I would help these people,” he remembers. To do so, he decided to give up his business – which astonished his relatives. “They thought I was crazy. But my wife was my inspiration and support during this time. I started distributing free food for these people and paid for it out of my own pocked for 12 years. After that, people started helping with money, old clothes, toys, or sponsoring lunch or sweets,” he explains.

Meals being served near Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, Mumbai.

Harakhchand starts his day with yoga and a walk, after which he reaches his trust office in Parel at noon, working till 8 pm. The lunches he distributes comprise chapatis, rice, dal, sabzi, fruit and milk, with sweets being served occasionally. Lunch starts at 12.30 pm and dinner at 6.30 pm. He says, “Donors serve sweets or sometimes we do, when it is my birthday or some festival. We also serve turmeric-infused milk to those suffering from throat cancer or who have undergone chemotherapy and find it difficult to digest food.” He adds, “I am pained to see small children suffering from cancer. We arrange a lot of activities for them, so that they are occupied and can distance themselves from their pain for at least a short while.”

Apart from providing free food, medicines, walkers and wheel chairs, Harakhchand has performed the last rites of the deceased that have been abandoned by their families, or those who had no money to perform the funeral. He now says he wants to build a hospital for end stage cancer patients who are not able to afford the treatment costs or who are abandoned by their families. “I also want to build an old age home where proper care is given at zero cost to those people with physical disability or paralysis,” he signs off.

Harakhchand Sawla can be contacted at Jeevan Jyot Cancer Relief and Care Trust, 3/9 Kondaji Chawl, Jerbai Wadia Road, Parel, Mumbai – 400 012. Call 022-2415 3453.

(Pictures courtesy Ravi Shet)

Categories
Tech

Review: Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe

Not much has changed from the Zenfone’s last outing. It has an improved design at the back, but little else.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

We reviewed the ASUS Zenfone 2 a few weeks back, and came away quite impressed with what the company offered under Rs 25,000. Now, there’s a slightly newer version of the device’s high-end model – the Zenfone 2 Deluxe. Let me put it this way, the only change here is its rear cover and storage options.

If you glanced at the Zenfone 2 Deluxe, you couldn’t tell it apart from the original Zenfone 2. With its blockish build and physical buttons, Power/Lock key at the top, brushed aluminium chin, rear-facing volume keys, there really isn’t much changed here. What is definitely different is the multi-face prism-like rear cover (see image below). The back feels really nice and is the standout feature in the phone.

Prism like back elevation on the phone

In fact, this multi-reflecting (Blue and Green) White back was the only thing people asked me about when I was using the device. The Zenfone 2 Deluxe weighs about 170 grams, but isn’t slippery, though certainly not a compact phone.

Let me tell what’s better in the Zenfone 2 Deluxe over the Zenfone 2, as there isn’t much changed here, and if you want complete lowdown in the device, you should check our full Zenfione 2 review.

Screen. The screen is the same 5.5-inch full HD panel, but this one seems a little brighter with same colour sharpness and accuracy. It’s good and works well for images and videos. For the loudspeaker on the back, it still has the same average output that does an okay job for videos and games.

Features. Basic features on this dual SIM (4G/ 3G + 2G and dual active) device like call quality network reception, WiFi, Bluetooth and USB OTG worked fine.

Camera. The camera performance, too, is a lot like the Zenfone 2 Deluxe – detailed, colours are quite sharp, but lags behind in low-light and macro shots. Though I did find the camera app to be a little quicker to take a shot in case of the Zenfone 2, the difference isn’t much. The device has a 13 MP rear camera, and here are a few sample images.

Battery. The battery performance was slightly short of the Zenfone 2 with the average being 14 to 15 hours. There’s a 2A charger bundled with the phone that charges it up in a little under two hours (0-50% in about 40 minutes).

Software and performance. There’s an Intel Z3580 chispet in place(2.3 GHz quad-core processor, PowerVR G6430 GPU) coupled with 4 GB of RAM. It runs on Android 5.0 with ZenUI on top. The overall performance on the phone is satisfactory. It handled games like FF Legacy and Real Racing 3 quite well, as there weren’t any frame drops or stuttering during playing. The phone does warm up a little near the dual tone flash, but not to an alarming extent.

Extensive customization options – icons packs, themes, icon text colour, double tap to wake and lock – are present here. Plus, four dozen ASUS apps are also present, something that really needs to be cleaned up ASAP. The only place it seemed to struggle a little was the recent apps list where scrolling isn’t as smooth and sometimes the selected app would take a while to load up, a known Android Lollipop issue.

All in all, it can perform most tasks well and hardly lagged during my usage. I used the 64 GB model that had about 54 GB of available space, which you can further expand using a microSD card. There’s also a 128 GB model priced a bit higher (and 256 GB in select markets).

It’s clear that ASUS really had one thing in mind for the Zenfone 2 Deluxe – the same content, but new packaging. It would be fair to say ASUS has done well with it. If you want a phone with a rear that is rather not boring, you should consider this phone that has a similar performance and experience as the original Zenfone 2.

(Pictures courtesy Manik Kakra)

Categories
Places

Goa goes traditional on Ganeshutsav

Far from Mumbai’s raucous Ganpati celebration, many devout Hindu families in Goa celebrate the festival with dignity and quiet faith.
by Gajanan Khergamker and Sriddhi | gajanan@draftcraft.in, www.draftcraft.in

Ganeshutsav is Maharashtra’s most prized…and Mumbai’s landmark festival. In sharp contrast to the psychedelic ‘lighting’, the colossal ‘mandaps’ and endless sea of crazed dancers accompanying the ‘visarjan’, lies the festival’s traditional, family-centric avatar in India’s smallest state, Goa. The idols here are all made of mud and clay as a rule.

So, however far and wide a family’s members move beyond their ancestral homes in Goa, come Ganeshutsav, they make a beeline for their roots. Reliving the joint family saga, almost all Hindu families across Goa bring the God of Knowledge home for at least five days. The ‘hall’ is decorated with multi-hued plastic ribbons forming a play of patterns on the ceiling leading to the murti usually bought from the Maharashtra-Goa border at Sawantwadi.

In a modest house at a quaint Arambol in North Goa, Sarika Naik rushes to complete her daily chores and pre-pooja formalities before the pundit arrives. Work doesn’t stop for Sarika but there is a spring in her step as she hurries about offering tea to guests, getting the pooja samagri in place and attend to her in-laws visiting for the five-day fiesta.

Ganeshutsav is the Goan Hindu’s most cherished festival. It binds families together during this period. Unlike Mumbaikars, Goans prefer celebrating Ganeshutsav in the most traditional manner. An idol of Lord Ganesha is established in the ancestral home and all members of the family and the extended family come together to live in the house for the entire duration of the festival. A daily pooja takes place in the presence of a pundit and traditional meals, which include puri–bhaji and neori (known as karanja in Maharashtra) and modak.

In contrast, in Maharashtra, particularly Mumbai, Ganeshutsav is perceived as an opportunity to display stark commercialism and vulgar show of pomp and wealth. Often, Sarvajanik Ganeshutsavs are organised to extort monies from local businesses who pay up more for fear of reprisal rather than devotion. The money involved in even creating a Mumbai Ganesha Mandap complete with decorations and security is phenomenal.

And opposed to the pack-and-go kind of Ganeshutsavs celebrated by families in Mumbai for a series of reasons that include lack of space, dearth of time and a shift in values systems, most Goan families have been celebrating Ganesha Chaturthi for generations together.

Putting profit on the back-burner, Goa shuts shop during Ganeshutsav. Bars down their shutters, hotels operate at bare minimum for local needs and markets open up just for a bit for essentials during this period. “It’s a holiday for a full 11 days during Ganeshutsav in the whole of Goa,” says Francis Fernandes, a resident.

It was Lokmanya Tilak who had initiated the public celebration of the festival which went on to be known as the Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav. Over the years, families started installing the idol at home for shorter periods of time. And, today almost every Hindu family in Goa has its own Ganesha idol during the festival. The Ganeshutsav celebrations in Goa are predominantly traditional and family driven as opposed to the commercial extravaganza in Mumbai.

The mostly fish-eating families do not cook any fish or meat, even abstain from the use of onion or garlic during the five days they house the Lord. Alcohol, a tax-exempted commodity consumed widely in Goa, is strictly prohibited during this period. After installation of the idol, the next most important day is that of visarjan. Once again, unlike Mumbai where the idols are carted along public roads amid fanfare and cacophony, in Goa, families of an area get together and meet at a pre-determined place where all the idols are placed in a tempo or small truck and transported to a local water body which may be a lake or a nearby river side where they are collectively immersed.

In Mumbai, the installation and immersion is an ear-splitting public affair. Few families manage to get the Lord home for a range of reasons. The families here are nuclear in nature and with the constraints of time and lifestyle, Ganeshutsav too assumes urban proportions. It is a social festival in Mumbai, where even traditional aartis are mixed with bhangra beats.

In contrast, at Goa, it’s a family affair with daily poojas, ethnic food, local bhajans and traditional aartis. It is not that there aren’t any Sarvajanik Ganesha Mandals in Goa: every village in the State has at least one, like Mandrem’s Sarvajanik Ganeshutsav Mandal which keeps an 11-day socially-driven celebration so that Goan families from the area can participate after the five-day immersion of their own Ganesha. The celebrations include regional songs and dance, folk songs, bhajans, ghumat arti, kirtan, drama, etc. Local ‘heroes and performers’ are felicitated and lectures are organised to inspire and motivate the youth.

Sarvajanik in the true sense as it aims to achieve public good.

Categories
Do

Pest proof your home

Pests can make your life miserable and your home inhabitable. Treat the problem before it gets completely out of hand.
by Reyna Mathur

All houses are attacked by pests at some point in time. While some infestations are minor and can be handled swiftly, others remain hidden for some time and quickly become unmanageable.

The problem normally starts with the entry of ants, which are then followed by cockroaches. In houses that are not dusted regularly and which are located in areas of dense traffic and construction activity, there will be an abundance of dust mites on the furniture and clothes. After cockroaches settle in and begin to multiply, they will be followed by lizards. In the meantime, if bed bugs have entered the home, they wreak their own havoc.

Don’t subject yourself to this torture. Once pests make an entry into the home, it takes a lot of effort and money to clean out the house in its entirety. It is not a problem that goes away forever after one bout, you have to be on your vigil. But if you take the right steps on time, you can save yourself a lot of trouble later.

This is what you should do:

Examine all wet areas. The wet areas of the home are the bathroom, toilet, wash basin and kitchen sink. Moisture is omnipresent in these areas, however much you try to keep them clean and dry. However, your cleaning routine in these areas should include a strong disinfectant cleaner. Wipe down all surfaces at least twice a week to discourage fungal growth, and spray all water traps with insect killers thrice a week at night. Cockcroaches tend to come out of these traps from water pipes, so they should be discouraged at the earliest. If there are any places that remain moist even without direct contact with water, have them checked for hidden leakages. Wet areas breed vegetation, mosquitoes, and certain types of bugs and worms, and are most prone to attack.

Enlist the help of a pest control agency. The first line of attack should always be launched by a good pest control system involving sprays, gels and powders. A basic pest control clean-up will comprise three rounds of spraying and powder-treating all vertical and some horizontal surfaces of the home with chemicals to repel ants, bugs, dust mites, cockroaches and lizards. Bed bug infestations will have to checked every 10 days for a month with intensive sprays in the affected areas. Borer infestations are normally controlled by special anti-borer sprays and gels with two spells of treatment. If you have rats in the house, you will require a multi-pronged strategy requiring sprays, foods laced with poison, adhesive surfaces to which the animal will adhere, and also rat traps. Explain the situation in detail to the pest control company, and they will suggest the course of treatment to you.

Bird-proof your windows. Birds are not pests, but when allowed to enter the home, they can cause infestations. Of the birds present in the cities, pigeons are the most prone to enter the homes looking for nesting places. Their droppings contain carbon compounds that cause respiratory disorders in humans and pets, and their feathers contain dust mites. Too often we ignore birds’ feathers that blow into our homes with the breeze, but we must get rid of them at once because they house several bacteria that can cause allergies and pests. A simple remedy is to install a wire mesh on your windows so that birds cannot get in. When you leave water outside the windows for the birds to drink, be sure to examine the area every day, since crows have a tendency to drop hard food like animal bones and tough rotis inside the water to soften them. This gives rise to a column of ants and bugs that are attracted to the carcass and which soon enter the home.

Examine your pets for ticks and mites. Dogs and cats have hidden ticks and mites inside their fur, and these soon multiply if the pet’s skin is not cleaned thoroughly. Chemists and pet shops stock several sprays and dips to clean out mites, and you can also invest in a firm comb to remove the animals hiding in the fur. You must get rid of these animals at the earliest, because over time, they can also infest your furniture and wherever the pet is accustomed to sleeping. They can also pose a danger to very young children who constantly play with the pet.

(Picture courtesy www.in.all.biz. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
grey space

My son doesn’t want me to marry again

Hirendra Sampat is 64, divorced and wants to get married. But his son doesn’t approve. What is to be done?
As told to Vrushali Lad

He says he is ’embarassed’ that I am thinking of ‘such horrible things’ at my age. He says he will leave me and never come back to check on me if I insist on doing what I wish to do. Even my daughter-in-law has been giving me strange looks for a few days now. They think I am being perverted, obscene.

I want to get married.

My wife and I parted ways after 15 years of marriage. We parted amicably – a few months after we were married, she told me that she had been in love with somebody else. I had been, too. My parents had opposed my affair with a girl from college. So in that sense, both my wife and I were in the same boat. We were married to each other because our parents wished it so. But though we were never completely happy with each other, we were never cold or cruel to each other. She managed the home well, I earned enough money for our family. We had a son after two years of marriage.

Then one day she decided to separate from me. I did not stop her. I think my son holds that against me, that I allowed the divorce to go through. Though I got custody of my son, I never stopped my wife from visiting us often, she was even welcome to come and stay whenever she felt like it. She now lives in Bangalore with her sister.

In the last two years, I met a lady at the local library where I have been a member for over 20 years. I had never seen her before, though I learnt later that she was also a member for many years. She and I were looking for a copy of the same book that had not yet been returned. We started talking to each other, exchanging notes on the books we had come to return that day. I asked her when she came to the library, she said, ‘Every Monday, if possible’. The next Monday I went to the library again. And every Monday after that.

She is a wonderful person – outgoing, warm, unattached. We share a common love for books and gardening. I want to get married to her, so I proposed and she said yes. But when I told my son this, all hell broke loose at home.

“How can you think of all these things at your age?” he asked. “Everybody will laugh. Are you so young that you think you will get married at this age?” He is disgusted that I am thinking of having sex at my age and bringing a woman into the house.

It has been three months since I told him about my plans. My fiancee says, “Be patient. He will come around.” I worry that he won’t. His life is set with a wife and small child. It does not occur to him that I need a companion, too.

‘Grey Space’ is a weekly column on senior citizen issues. If you have an anecdote or leagl information, or anything you feel is useful to senior citizens, caregives and the society at large, feel free to get it published in this space. Write to editor@themetrognome.in or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Themetrognome.in and we will publish your account.

(Picture courtesy www.oratechsolve.com. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Beauty

10 reasons to rock those curves

In an age where fat shaming and body image issues prevail, we list 10 reasons why you should celebrate your curves.
by Beverley Lewis

Skinny models have always been featured on catwalks, pages of fashion magazines and coffee table books. The status quo, in fashion, has always been the skinny girl. But, things are now changing for curvy women, thanks to some bloggers, plus-size models, fashionistas and even advertising campaigns, which have been gushing about curvy women. Even popular artists like Meghan Trainor have been pushing the body positive manifesto with songs about embracing one’s curves. So, without further ado, here’s are our top 10 reasons for embracing and flaunting your inner Vidya Balan.

1. You don’t need to spend your hard-earned money on padded bras or implants.

2. If Danish researchers are to be believed, curvy women are more likely to live longer than their skinny counterparts because our hip fat contains anti-inflammatory properties, which may prevent the arteries from getting clogged. So, good news for most Indian women.

3. Curvy women’s bodies are perfect for cuddling and hugging.

4. Some of the sexiest women like Beyonce, Sonakshi Sinha and Salma Hayek have stunning curves, which they are not afraid to flaunt.

5. Most curvy girls enjoy a hearty curry now and again and are not afraid to reach for seconds and then finish off with dessert.

6. Since most curvy girls like eating good food, we do know our way around the kitchen.

7. We still haven’t jumped on the whole gluten-free bandwagon and enjoy a dish full of pasta or a nice big bowl of rajma chawal, guilt-free.

8. According to a study conducted by Oxford University, curvy women with big butts are more likely to have healthy children because their bodies contain high amount of Omega-3 fatty acids. Another reason to celebrate that booty.

9. Just walk into the Louvre or simply visit the temples of Khajuraho and you’ll see that in the past, curvy women have always been associated with beauty and sex appeal.

10. Men can’t resist women with curves. Scientific research proves that men are genetically wired to be sexually attracted to a woman with curves.  So, go ahead ladies, shake what your mama gave you.

(Picture courtesy wallpapers.brothersoft.com)

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