Author: The Metrognome

Categories
grey space

Who says senior citizens are ‘old’?

This gentleman is 76, and absolutely fighting fit! His active lifestyle can inspire other elders to take up exercise too.
by Jayeeta Bose, Morning Song Foundation

It can be said with a great deal of certainty that physical fitness impacts health positively; not only at a young age but at a later stage as well. Studies related to health and ageing have thrown up the fact that lifestyle changes incorporating exercise into the daily routine, can significantly augment fitness in older people. Is there a specific age beyond which exercise is harmful? What is the right amount of exercise for an elderly person?

To address these issues, we should closely examine factors that lead to successful ageing. Being free of illness does not necessarily ensure good quality of life as one ages. Mobility, independence, cognitive function, psychological state and social relations and network are also very important. Healthy ageing is about optimising opportunities for good health, so that older people can take an active part in society and enjoy an independent and high quality of life.

How do we ensure that we lead an active and healthy life as we grow old? Let’s find out through the story of BS Nagabhooshan Rao.

Fighting fit 

Pic 2 Fit as a fiddle@76Mr Rao is 76 years old and fit as a fiddle. He is our neighbourhood ‘uncle’ and widely respected. He is leading a quiet and relaxed retired life after a successful stint in a reputed private organisation. His formula for healthy living is very simple: discipline, physical activity and social engagement. Beginning his day at 4 am, he sets about the day with vigour and resilience. Yoga is his first preference as it calms the mind and makes the body flexible. Following this, he takes a brisk walk in the neighbourhood which gears him up for the rest of the day. A strict disciplinarian, he sticks to his schedule with unwavering regularity.

He takes his meals on time and rests a while in the afternoon. His chores take up most of his day, but evenings are dedicated to his favourite sport, table tennis. This being a team sport, ensures sufficient social interaction in addition to promoting strength and agility of the muscles. A typical day ends with a family dinner and reading. A disciplined lifestyle such as this keeps him fit as a fiddle and less prone to ailments. His reflexes and alertness are far better than his peers’, which enable him to drive from Bangalore to Mysore (about 150 km) to visit relatives! No better way to celebrate longevity, is there?

How does an active lifestyle help?

Benefits of a routine such as this are enormous. There is reduced chance for diseases; BP and obesity are under check, increased strength and endurance, better lung function, greater balance and no trace of depression or anxiety.

A holistic lifestyle has its merits and a range of mental and physical health benefits can be reaped. People tend to get less active as they grow older, though moderate activity and walking increases. It is never too late to take up a new activity irrespective of the age. If the body is too frail, a moderate activity will serve the purpose. Good exercise will actually slow down the decline associated with ageing, prevent the onset of several diseases, and alleviate some of the consequences of diseases. A combination of physical and social activities is particularly advisable. A few activities suited to older people are walking, cycling, yoga, all kinds of games, family and community life to name a few.

As monsoon retreats and autumn sets in, there is great sagacity in planning a “health holiday”. It would mean making minor changes in lifestyle, but will guarantee overall wellbeing. The time is ripe for everyone to take charge of their ageing process. The secrets to everlasting happiness are twofold – a healthy body and a healthy mind. Growing old is not necessarily a burden and it does not reduce one’s ability to contribute to society. Senior persons can make valuable and important contributions making them socially inclusive and dependable resource.

Grey Space’ is a weekly column on senior citizen issues. If you have an anecdote, or legal information, or anything you feel is useful to senior citizens, caregivers 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.

Categories
Film

Review: Murder Mestri

An intriguing plot is somewhat waylaid by its lazy treatment, but is saved by its stellar performances and crisp dialogues.
Rating: 3 out of 5

Murder Mestri, directed by Rahul Jadhav, is the story of Prabhakar (Hrishikesh Joshi) who works as a postman in Malgaon and has a strange habit of reading other people’s letters.

Prabhakar is close to his lovable daughter Pari, whom he tells bedtime stories. One day, the villagers find that Prabhakar has been hiding many of their letters for a while (to read at his leisure) and they beat and abuse him in front of the other villagers, including his wife and daughter. Pari believes that her father is a superhero and wants him to do something great that would make her proud.

He decides to stop reading people’s letters; however he can’t resist and soon opens another letter which says that someone named Madhav Mestri in Sawantwadi will be killed by his wife. Encouraged by Pari, Prabhakar makes his journey to Sawantwadi to find and save this Mestri; however on reaching his destination, he discovers that there are three people with the name Madhav Mestri.

 

One Madhav Mestri (Vikas Kadam) is recently married to Hemlata (Manasi Naik) and he is planning his honeymoon. The second Madhav Mestri (Sanjay Khapre) is the sarpanch of the village and his better half Saraswati (Kranti Redkar) while the third, Madhav Mestri (Dilip Prabhavalkar) is a doctor and Malini (Vandana Gupte) is his wife. Prabhakar writes and delivers letter to all the three Mestris, so that one of the Mestris whose life is in threat can be saved. The moment the letters are read by the three Madhav Mestris, it leads to chaos in the married lives of the three couples.

The plot is interesting but its treatment is passable, however the performances by Dilip Prabhavalkar, Hrishikesh Joshi, Kranti Redkar and Vandana Gupte take this film up several notches. Their comic timing is impeccable and the lines they speak are crisp, so if you’re looking for a good laugh riot, you could try this film out.

(Picture courtesy marathistars.com)

Categories
Hum log

Yossi Ghinsberg: 1, Amazon rainforest: 0

The fantastic story of how an Israeli traveler struggled against all odds alone in the Amazon and came back alive.
by Subhasis Chatterjee

There exists a man in the world, who gamely stuck on in the Amazon even after losing three companions, alone, hungry, without the means to light a fire and with no way to get in touch with the rest of the world.

That man is Israeli traveler Yossi Ghinsberg.

I met Yossi in a tech conclave at Kolkata recently, where he was invited as a motivational speaker. He described in graphic detail his doomed Amazon expedition of 1981, a story so unique and fantastic; it forces you to suspend disbelief. He spent three long weeks in extreme pain and starvation, survived venomous snakes and a near-drowning and even an encounter with a puma. His unbelievable story has now been made into a documentary, popular in near about 160 countries.

He says it was his continuous struggle to find a retreat that led to his eventual rescue. Today, he has gone back to the place that made a man out of the naïve 22-year-old youth, back to Madidi National Park – the largest biodiversity conserve for the Amazons. His thoughts on using unconventional thinking and living through unexpected circumstances have been documented in his new book, Laws of the Jungle – Jaguars Don’t Need Self Help Books.

But let’s hear his story.

Looking for romance in the jungle

YossiAs a young 22-year old man just out of the military service in the Israeli Navy, Yossi was idealistic and naïve. “I wanted to be like the heroes of the books I read. That’s why I wanted to go to the jungle. I wasn’t interested in the adrenaline rush of danger, I was more interested in the romance,” he explains.

His ventures took him to Bolivia, where he met a Swiss explorer called Markus Stamm. “It happened almost like a novel,” Yossi says, explaining that he met Marcus on an outing at a lake. “There was also Karl Ruprechter, an overwhelming Austrian who was overwhelming. He was knowledgeable about jungle adventures and told me about this incredible journey he was going to undertake through the rainforest to discover a hidden clan. I was hooked,” he says.

As they started for the Amazon, there were four of them- Yossi, an American named Kevin Gale, Karl and Marcus. The group pledged to stay united despite their distinct personalities, but a clash was inevitable. The situation took a turn for the worse after the group travelled through the jungle for a couple of weeks. Yossi recalls, “The environment was harsh. There were tensions, the food was basic – we shot and ate monkeys, among other things. I was cursing myself for my stupidity and wanted to go back, but I stuck on.”

The group ultimately broke due to disagreements. Earlier, they have built a raft to travel down the Amazon river, but Karl thought they should continue on foot as it was too dangerous to sail. “But then Kevin proposed that he and I could carry on in the raft on our own. I was shocked, but I agreed. But later, we failed to control the raft as it rushed towards a giant waterfall. Kevin somehow managed to scramble towards the shore, but I fell into the waterfall.”

He adds, “There were moments of great despair, but falling down the waterfall wasn’t one of them. That was just like a roller coaster ride that lasted for about 20 minutes. I just kept my head above the water. And though I was initially excited to be alive when I reached the shore, the feeling of despair soon gripped me again.”

Yossi felt he would reunite with Kevin after a few hours, but there was no sign of him. “That was the toughest moment – the realisation that I was totally alone,” he remembers.

Hair-raising adventures

Yossi survived a late-night encounter with a puma by setting alight a bug repellent. Then he kept himself alive by eating leaves and eggs scrounged from the chicken homes in the jungle. “I strolled on for several days, thinking I was near San Jose,” he says. “I discovered my own power and then I didn’t even want to be rescued anymore. It was intoxicating.”

But fate was not done with him yet. He nearly drowned in a horrible flood and sank in a bog twice. By the end of the third week, he was completely exhausted and could walk no more on his bad foot. There was no food left. And then a miracle happened –Kevin arrived with a rescue team!

It turned out that Kevin had looked for him everywhere; but there was no news of Karl and Marcus – they probably perished in the jungle. But Yossi was found and he soon returned to the outside world, a changed man – born an American Catholic, he married an Israeli girl and became a Jew.

His ordeal in the jungle changed his life forever in many ways, and made him a humble person. “I now consider the smallest things in the world to be very special. I don’t ascribe much significance to the things I have now. That feeling of touching death has never left me,” he says.

(Pictures courtesy Yossi Ghinsberg)

Categories
Tech

Why use fitness-tracking watches?

Fitness and technology merge seamlessly with sport watches that give real time details of heart rate, speed and performance specs.
by Reyna Mathur

Fitness is a rapidly growing industry all over the world, and it is crossing paths with other industries as well. This is especially true of the technology industry, which is churning out fitness-based gadgets, apps and even games almost by the week.

India is a lucrative market for these apps and devices – as per industry estimates, the country’s fitness industry is growing at a steady 20 per cent annually, and interest in technology that aids the fitness-conscious Indian’s efforts are more than welcome.

Fitness gadgetsTracking this interest, several foreign companies such as TomTom and Samsung have already launched or announced future launches of GPS sport watches that track the user’s daily fitness regimen, in India. Not only are the watches great to look at and easy to use, users say they more than serve their purpose as well.

What’s the deal?

Says Ashish Chittarmani, a Goregaon resident who regularly cycles to work and works out every evening, “I gave up going to the gym many months ago, because I found that I enjoyed outdoor running and cycling more. However, I wondered how to track my progress when I exercised outdoors, because one can only measure one’s steps or note the fluctuations in weight.” For people like Ashish, these fitness sport watches go a long way in helping them pace their workouts and monitor daily progress.

Adds Dr Rehan Billimoria, cardiologist who specialises in post-operative exercise, “I recommend these fitness apps and sport watches to my patients who are looking to exercise – many of them for the first time – after some degree of cardiac trouble. They are apprehensive about over-exerting themselves, and not everyone likes to employ a personal trainer. I find it easier to ask them to get these fitness watches because just one device lets them know how fast or slow they are going, where they need to relax or step up – all of this without constantly having to call me for advice.”

He adds that the fitness-friendly technology has wider implications in helping persons of age and disability exercise better, especially without the help of assistants. “A colleague of mind helped trained a wheelchair-bound young girl in Gujarat to do hydro-aerobic workouts as part of her physiotherapy. People like her can monitor their own progress with these fitness watches. Today she doesn’t need a trainer shouting instructions at her, and she is doing well in her sessions.”

What users find useful

The biggest benefit of using such a gadget is that people can set their own fitness goals and monitor themselves without the need for a trainer. Many runners find that having such a watch strapped to their wrist is a better motivator than having a trainer constantly give you pep talks.

But what users find very useful is the real-time feature of all these gadgets. “When one is training for a marathon or a cyclothon, one needs to know individual time, how many kilometres covered, with a corresponding detail of physical changes such as calories burnt, heart rate at peak activity level, etc,” says Prashant Pawar, a gymnasium trainer. “I advise my clients to use fitness apps even inside the gym while doing free hand exercise or spot jogging. Knowing immediately how much your body can take is crucial in understanding which workout works best,” he adds, admitting that he even takes tips from these apps to help his clients better.

For those who are quite technologically-savvy, it is a plus to know that the sports watches launched by major players also sync seamlessly with popular fitness platforms for more in-depth results. “I like to set goals for myself every week, which I break down into smaller daily goals,” Ashish explains. “For example, I set a target for a certain number of calories to be burnt in a 10-minute swim. If I’m ‘going blind’ with my regime (i.e. without a device to measure performance), I might under-perform or go overboard hoping to burn more calories. Having a smart sports watch helps at such times.”

(Pictures courtesy thehealthpunch.com, www.news.com.au. Images are used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Film

Review: Minions

They are out to find the most despicable master of all time. But are they good enough henchmen of their era?
by Ritika Bhandari Parekh

Rating – 3 out of 5

The dungarees-wearing, goggle-eyed and pill-shaped creatures called the Minions are back. And this time, they help us trace their origins.

Right from losing the T-Rex as their master to wiping the Egyptian civilisation, their only purpose is to serve the ‘biggest and baddest’ master. With visits to the Dracula and the Yeti, the villainous humour is at times ‘so much fun, that it is a crime!’ But the Minions’ foolhardy antics bring about the downfall of the tyrants.

Faced with depression and no master, Kevin – a brave Minion – has a plan. Unwittingly, Minion Stuart and enthusiastically, Minion Bob join his mission to save their race. Their journey takes them to the land of Scarlet Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock), who is the coolest villain ever. They help her in a heist to steal the crown of Queen Elizabeth. And what follows, brings the tiny Minions to their ultimate master Gru.

 

Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, the movie has quite a few ‘aawww’ moments – especially when the Minions (voiced by Pierre Coffin) speak and sing in their gibberish language. The plot takes us on a rendezvous from New York to London. It also has stereotypes (like how the English love their tea), the regular villain convention and a long climax to take it forward. With the story completely resting on the Minions, it tends to become a bit predictable. The gags and slapstick humour will keep you glued, but the story should have risen above with a bit of intellect.

Bullock’s Scarlet is rightly named Overkill, as her evil intentions border on plain madness. She does a fine job of being the badass villain. Writer Brian Lynch has the pulse of the kids, but the adults will be left asking for more. This 91-minute animated comedy of errors makes for an average prequel to the stunning Despicable Me series. It is a one-time watch and a must watch if you are fans of the Minion army. So get ready to be squished by cuteness.

(Picture courtesy pop-verse.com.)

Categories
Uncategorized

6 rules for renting a flat

Several people in Mumbai live in rented accommodation across the city. Handle the entire process right to make your stay comfortable.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Living on rent in the cities is not a big deal for people any more, whether single or with families. The high price of accommodation all over the country makes it difficult for most people to purchase homes, while others may be in a particular city for a brief period for official purposes. By now, the rental ecosystem in India is clearly defined by a certain set of rules.

In the light of people planning terror strikes from rental accommodation, or inconveniencing the neighbours with loud parties every other day, building societies are a bit sceptical about allowing people to rent out homes in their premises. There are several cases of societies refusing homes to people of a certain religion or gender, or specifically to bachelors or spinsters. Many buildings turn away live-in couples and persons belonging to the entertainment industry. Societies are not legally empowered to discriminate among potential licensees, but these instances still take place regularly.

However, there are some ways in which you can make a good first impression and follow some rules to make your stay in a rented accommodation easier:

1. Get a referral if you are single. If you discover that there is a good house in a locality and building of your choice, but the society will not entertain your request because you are single, try and get a referral from a resident of that building, or somebody who knows the managing committee well. This referral will help you get your foot in the door for future negotiations. Also try and get a character certificate from your place of work, and take a copy with you when you get an interview with the society chairman and secretary.

2. Meet the managing committee members. Most people skip this crucial step. In fact, the first thing you should do once you and the flat owner decide to seal the deal is to meet the building society secretary and chairman and ask the flat owner to introduce you. Then take over and tell them what you do, how long you will be using the flat, and assure them that you will submit the registration documents as soon as the flat agreement is registered.

3. Sort out bills and payment arrangements. If your flat owner lives close by, he or she may want to collect the monthly rent in person. If not, you will have to write out a series of PDCs (Post Dated Cheques) and hand them over to the flat owner at the time of registration. Secure the flat for yourself by paying a token amount, so that the owner does not continue scouting for more candidates. Also discuss how you will settle the flat’s electricity, cable and gas bills. Note that the building maintenance and water bills are to be paid by the owner and not by you.

Agreement4. Register your flat agreement. Insist on registering your flat agreement, more for your own safety, and insist on a lock-in period of six months, under which the owner cannot evict you from the premises till six months have elapsed after the first day of your occupancy. The document must clearly state the lease period, the complete names and permanent addresses of the owner and you, the purpose to which you are leasing the flat, the monthly rent you are paying and the mandatory one-month notice applicable to both parties for vacating the premises. On the last page of the agreement should be a list of the PDCs you are giving to the owner, with details of the cheque date, name of bank, and amount.

5. Submit all your documents. Once the document is registered, you will have to undergo a compulsory police verification process. This is normally handled by the broker who is handling your transaction, or you can do it yourself by going to the area’s police station. Do not omit this step at any cost. Once the verification certificate arrives, attach a copy with a copy of the registered agreement, and a copy of your marriage certificate if you are married. Submit the whole lot to the building society and take an acknowledgement receipt.

6. Follow all building rules. Every residential locality has its own rules, and you cannot challenge them. Do not behave in a way that will inconvenience or Rulesdisturb others, and pay all utility bills on time. Further, if the society insists that you cannot throw parties, refrain from defying this rule. Additionally, participate in building society functions and get to know the neighbours well. Creating a positive impression about yourself will keep you in good stead while you are living there, and if you some day decide to buy the house for yourself.

(Pictures courtesy labor-employment-law.lawyers.com, breathingmeansmore.com.)

Exit mobile version