Category: You

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Achieve

Underprivileged children put up photo exhibition in Mumbai

Click Rights, a photojournalism initiative, returns in its 2015 edition with photographs taken by street children of their younger siblings.
by Child Rights and You

The first five years play a significant role in a child’s life. But for thousands of children, a healthy start to life continues to be a distant dream. Long before they turn five, their physical, emotional and cognitive growth is hampered by the lack of adequate nutrition and healthcare. Child Rights and You (CRY) aims to change this by launching its ‘Get Healthy. Give Healthy’ campaign that will give 2,81,045 children a healthy start to their lives.

One of the primary features of the campaign is CRY’s annual photo journalism initiative called ‘Click Rights’  that is in its 4th year.  Click Rights 2015 will highlight through the power of photography the health and nutrition challenges faced by children under the age of 5 years. A large number of the photographs have been contributed by children from our supported project areas in the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, with training from esteemed photographers and CRY volunteers. These children were given cameras to photograph the daily lives of their younger siblings. Many of the elder children had in fact never stepped into a school because they were entrusted to look after their younger siblings.

Their photographs will be showcased at exhibitions across the country, in malls, parks, colleges and as part of projections on prominent buildings.

In Mumbai, the first exhibition will be at Phoenix Mall, Kurla (West) from October 17 to 18.

“The real health of a country can be measured by how we look after our children. Hence it is alarming that in India today, 13 million children are un-immunised, making them susceptible to deadly diseases, and 40 per cent of these children are underweight. With Click Rights, we would like to highlight the health related issues confronting children in India. We hope it will build awareness, start conversations and motivate people to take action for children,” says Kreeanne Rabaddi, Director, Western Region, Child Rights and You (CRY).

PHOTOVOICES

This is what 12-year-old Raj clicked.

Photo by Raj“This is my two-year-old brother Manas. He is quite naughty and plays with mud all day. We are three brothers and one sister. We live on the roadside and spend our whole day playing. We have no school in our area. We don’t have any toilets as well. I want to see my brother happy. I want to build him a home one day.”

This is what six-year-old Anjali clicked

“My little brother Ajay (name changed, in featured image above) stays with me all the time and plays with me. I take care of his needs. He is one year old. My parents are labourers, they leave the house early in the morning and come back only after dark. We live on the street, sometimes it is difficult to manage him, but most of the times I do it with ease. I love my brother very much and think of him as an angel. If he weren’t there in my life, I don’t know what would I do the whole day.”

This is what 12-year-old Umesh has to say of his photo…

“These two girls are my best friends. They are more like my sisters. Many of the kids don’t go to school, so we play all Photo By Umeshday on the road. Some people give us food to eat, on Sundays so many bhaiyas and didis come to visit us and we have fun sessions with them. I wait for Sundays, that’s the only day I feel loved and cared for.”

Categories
Deal with it

How to make a good impression at work

You don’t need to suck up to the boss. Healthy work habits, promptness and good manners will get you far.
by Reyna Mathur

Shashwati Agarwal (33) vividly remembers her first job at a magazine office in Bangalore. “As an editorial assistant, I had to ensure that all functions in the office happened smoothly, nobody’s work got held up due to scheduling mistakes, all advertisement dummies came in at the right time. I was also in charge of ensuring smooth production.” She says the biggest compliment came from her boss, who called her when Shashwati was on a month-long break owing to an illness. “My boss said, ‘We can’t handle this without you. Please come back soon!’” she laughs.

All of us crave for approval and confirmation that we are doing our jobs so right that the office will suffer if we are not there. But the practical reality is that nobody is indispensable at the workplace – if you quit today, the office will simply replace you and work will go on as before. However, there are always a few employees who are so impressive at the office that when they decide to quit, the management normally tries to talk them out of it. Contrast this with other employees, whose resignations are accepted at once. This means that the former are doing something that the latter are not.

Here’s how you can come close to being indispensable at the office:

Always be ahead of schedule. If you are in charge of a certain task which has to be completed in a week, start on it the moment the assignment is given to you. People make the mistake of starting work at the last minute and then handing in shoddy work. If you give yourself enough time to work out your assignment, your focus will be greater and the quality will be top notch – a sure way to get noticed. If you are in charge of a regular task, ensure that you are ready with the final product before deadline.

Cultivate good manners. Always be ready with a smile and a genuine compliment for colleagues and your immediate seniors. Your composure will be tested in times of stressful high-pressure situations, so handle yourself with dignity and calmness. If you find a colleague panicking over an issue, try to calm them down and offer assistance. If you see your boss looking tired or stressed, tell him or her in a polite, non-intrusive way that you have noticed them looking worried, and that they should let you know if you can help in any way. Extending a helping hand always works, but be genuine in your interactions.

Display initiative. If you have a solution to a problem, don’t be afraid to offer it. Many employees don’t offer solutions fearing that others will think they are showing off, or that it will annoy the boss if they speak out of turn. Unless you are being brash and arrogant about it, there is no harm in revealing that you have something to say. Make your point and don’t gloat if your suggestions are taken on board, and don’t sulk if they are not. You are not there to display one-upmanship; you are there to work with a team. Don’t try to stand out in a group and never claim credit for the group’s success even if it was your hard work and ideas that won them the success.

Be organised. Understand how the office operates on projects, and follow that system religiously. If necessary, add your own tips and tricks to the system to optimise it further. If you are left to work out your own system, start by making progress charts of an ongoing project, and if necessary, tack them on to the soft board at your work station. This brings a semblance of order to the job, especially if it helps you to keep track of all deadlines and summarise the project satisfactorily. Your seniors might adopt this system and you will be credited with introducing it to the office.

Don’t badmouth anyone in the office. Even if your immediate colleague is highly irritating or your boss is irrational, refrain from speaking ill about anybody in the office. Since everybody gossips, the person who doesn’t immediately sticks out and gets noticed by the seniors. Your office management will understand that you are discreet, mature and capable of not giving in to the temptation to gossip.

(Picture courtesy www.morganmckinley.com. Images used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Wellness

Maharashtra skateboards for breast cancer awareness

Skateboarders from across the State convened recently at Bandra to spread awareness about rising incidence of breast cancer in India.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

October is known as Breast Cancer Awareness month. In India, however, despite rising numbers of breast cancer victims, many women are still shying away from speaking about the disease. There is also widespread ignorance about the disease and its symptoms, which renders it undetectable for long.

Understanding that breast cancer continues to the leading killer of Indian women, the DS Research Centre came up with the idea of spreading awareness about breast cancer. They decided to do this with a skateboarding rally, which would travel the length and breadth of the country all this month. The rally kicked off in Mumbai at Bandra with over 50 skateboarders from across Maharashtra participating in it.

The next phase of the rally goes to Bengaluru.

Some facts about breast cancer:

– Breast cancer accounts to about 29.7% of all cancers in women.

– Approximately 2,000 to 2,500 new cases of breast cancer are detected every year in Mumbai, and the number is increasing.

– Presently, breast cancer is more common in the younger age group and 52% of all women suffering from breast cancer in Mumbai are below 50 years of age.

– A significant number of patients are below 30 years of age.

– Men can get breast cancer too.

– 1 out of every 2 women detected with breast cancer is in the terminal stages of the disease in India.

Categories
Achieve

Playing God with the inanimate

We catch up with Mumbai’s first 3D designing and printing firm that brings all your fantasies to life – seriously!
by Ritika Bhandari Parekh

It looks like a scene from the future – jewellery being printed from a printer. And no, it isn’t paper jewellery. We are talking about wearable jewellery, from earrings to rings. Intrigued? We were too.

Siddharth Sah

When 28-year old Siddharth Sah finished his MBA from California in 2012, he decided to fuse his love for design with his inherited business genes. The result: a one-of-its-kind 3D Design Studio in Churchgate, called Make Whale.

Be it jewellery or a carved bottle to hold your messages, a Ganpati idol or a wacky creation of your company logo – Make Whale gives you an opportunity to go wild in your thoughts and shape them. Intricately carved or flexible in design, the design studio gives you complete freedom to mould your creations and showcase them.

“Our thumb-imprinted cufflinks are gaining much popularity these days. As each product is designed from scratch, we have no inventory as such. Also depending on the style, designs and colours, we choose the material which will fit best for the product. So while sandstone allows for a multicolour product, it is difficult to have interlocking designs in the same material,” he says. “Steel helps to give various finishes, for instance gold-plated jewellery. But there are design limitations, too.”

Sah tell us how 3-D printing as a technology has been around for 30 years, but its advancement began only in the lastGanapatifive years. “I remember taking a joint class in design as a business student, to understand the world from their angle. The first-time I witnessed 3D printing at the prestigious Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, I was hooked.”

Studying the market and understanding if all the hype around 3D printing – does it have or not have substance – led him to opening the business venture. “After a lot of research and development, we started in August 2015. I have a team of product designers who help with the gift designs and an experienced automotive engineer,” he explains.

A graduate of Jai Hind College, this SoBo man believes that besides bobble heads, the market for 3D printed gifts is still in its nascent stage in India. With the focus on designing, Make Whale wishes to plunge deep into the elite society weddings and corporate gifting arena. “Whether customising candle stands or napkin rings with the initials of the bride and groom, the possibilities are endless. Our focus is on the consumer and once we are a bit more settled, we wish to bring out ceramic plates and mugs which adhere to the food safety standards,” he says.

Spicy1Their office has an in-house 3D printer to give the consumer an idea of how his creation will look as a prototype. And that is where the magic happens. A loop of material attached from the rear is heated till the design from the SD card finally takes shape in its current avatar. The designing process takes from a week to 10 days’ time, while the 3D model prototype arrives within a couple of days. Once approved, the final product takes three weeks to be created and delivered.

In a small way, 3D printing gives mortals like us a chance to play God. Inanimate gifts are created, designed, re-designed and produced. The limitation is only your imagination and the materials, to some extent. Sah signs off hoping to see you the next time brandishing your creative juices, keeping your gifts anchored in fantastical reality and designing it with Make Whale.

To know more about Make Whale and their products, log on to http://www.makewhale.com. Look up more images on our Facebook page.

Categories
Guest writer

Are youngsters a generation tainted by ego?

A reader pens down her thoughts about a generation that marks happiness by its bank balance, not its personal ties.
Photoby Vidya Rekha

Looking through the window, a thought popped into my mind one day…Why does the younger generation not take responsibility? Responsibility at the job, in their personal lives, with their parents? We are always taught to be responsible, to always emanate the spiritual thoughts within us. But I increasingly see that the younger generation doesn’t want to be inside the boundary of responsibility – within the bounds of marriage, within the bounds of authority.

Youngsters today want to be autonomous in their thoughts and actions. Ostensibly they want to be with someone who can share the same conception as theirs and enjoy the colours of life without binding to any obligation. While this sounds attraction on the surface, it comes with its own pitfalls. Not everyone is able to comprehend this style of living and thinking. Soon, marriages lead to divorce. Personal relationships break down. It is disturbing to see so many newlyweds separate before they celebrate their first wedding anniversary.

At the root of most of these troubles is money. Most women today are financially empowered, they are accomplished in their careers. So they think, ‘I have no need to obey a man’. Likewise, men think that when they earn and take care of their families, their responsibilities do not include listening to or taking advice from a woman. They simply presume that girls should be meek to them, regardless of their employment.

Many girls today easily agree to get married to a man working overseas, under the false impression that they will get a queenly lifestyle abroad. Once they actually reach there, they realise that living in comfort abroad requires hours of work. Most women fail to remember their own parents’ initial struggles to raise a family and run the house. It is also disturbing to see how many people are unhappy about attending to the brood waiting for them back home, and more so, about taking care of their parents.

Simultaneously, the bone of contention between many couples is: Why should I take care of your parents? Meanwhile, more and more couples are increasingly opting to live in with their partners, since this arrangement does not come with the complications of marriage.

But this kind of autonomy, both in marriages and live-in relationships, can come with a price. There is no substitute for the guidance and wisdom of elders in our lives.

Life is all about giving and gaining. The full form of the word ‘Ego’ currently is ‘Edging God Out.’ This means we have no time or inclination for introspection, that we are completely devoted to our own interests. We will soon become people who are selfish, concerned only for our own welfare, whose God is money and material comfort.

Instead of money guiding our choices, it should be our higher self doing so. If the choice we make brings us a sense of peace, then that is our higher self at work.

Vidya Rekha is a graduate from Mysore University, and works as HR professional for the JGI group. She loves reading books and listening to music. The views expressed here are her own.

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

Categories
Deal with it

Mumbai gets registry of organ donors

IMA Kalyan ties up with LH Hiranandani Hospital to compile data about voluntary organ donors and also record their consent letters.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

This one’s a great initiative to increase the numbers of organ donors in the city.

Indian Medical Association (IMA), Kalyan has come up with a plan with LH Hiranandani Hospital to create a voluntary registry of organ donors with details of people who are willing to donate their organs and their consent letters. The registry will contain the consent letters of those willing to donate their organs and their health status along with other details.

At the moment, about 7 kidney donations happen every month, and about 4 liver donations. These numbers need to be much higher – for this, more awareness is essential. During a recent programme at the hospital, around 350 doctors and more than 500 people came forward from various walks of life to give their consent letters to join the registry, said Dr Anjum Syed, President, IMA Kalyan and gynaecologist attached with various hospitals in the region.

Traffic police, volunteers and others signed up to donate organs for the initiative

Heart Transplant surgeon Dr Anvay Mule said “There are thousands of patients who are waiting with hope. Such activities are required to create awareness and increase organ donation.”

Elaborating on the organ donation scenario in India, Dr Syed, said, “Figures show that India’s current organ donation is 0.05 per million populations (about 50 cadaver donors per year). The number of transplants per year is in the range of 3,000 to 3,500 with barely 5% coming from brain dead patients. The annual requirement is about 1, 50,000 donations. However, if we can improve it even to 1 per million donations, we could take care of some of the organ shortages in India. At 1 per million donation rate, we would have 1,100 organ donors which could take care of almost all current demands for organs in India.”

“The rate of renal transplants in our country is actually quite dismal, as more than 1,00,000 patients are waiting for renal transplants, and less than 5,000 happen every year. It is much worse for cadaver transplants as less than 1,000 happen per year. In comparison, Mumbai city does less than 300 renal transplants every year, of which only 30 to 40 will be cadaver donations. So the people requiring dialysis has steadily gone up, putting a lot of strain on the infrastructure to accommodate all these patients,” added Dr Syed.

ORGAN DONATION KIDNEY LIVER LUNGS CORNEA HEART
LIVE ORGAN DONATIONS FROM 1995-2015 8,061 202 – – NA
CADAVERIC (FROM BRAIN DEAD PATIENT) 546 150 2 19,285 (from June 2006 to June 2015 3

 Requirement in Mumbai and Thane

KIDNEY LIVER LUNGS CORNEA HEART
2800 210 – – 10

Source: Maha Arogya Seva Mandal, Thane

“Aiming at increasing the number of donors by creating awareness on organ donation is required. From increasing the current 5,000 to lakhs and more, IMA Kalyan has joined hands with many private hospitals to spread awareness on importance of organ donation. This is the first step to reach among the educative society,” says Dr Syed.

Dr Pravin Shingare, ZTCC committee member, added, “Our aim is to remove misunderstandings among public regarding organ donation.”

(Featured image courtesy zeenews.india.com)

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