| Food for Thought |
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| "What is the point of talking about dieting
when a majority of the population in this country can't have two square
meals a day?" |
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S. Shanthi, Delhi
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| Eating Right |
| Congratulations for identifying the need for an
elaborate analysis of Indian diet and for well-compiled information
("How to Diet on Indian Food", April 28). In our country, health is
never given the priority it deserves. Quite often, the number of dishes
offered at a meal symbolises the status of the host. The invasion
of food from western countries has worsened eating habits. Sedentary
lifestyles, stress and lack of awareness on food and pollution often
take a big toll on our health and the difference between "exertion"
and "exercise" is not understood. It may be tough to turn the tide
but Indians should take a serious look at what they eat. |
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Ashish Gore, Mumbai
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| Each individual has a unique genetic make-up so
diet regimens also tend to differ. But with the mushrooming of health
centres and weight-loss clinics, people suddenly want to become reed
thin. The fault doesn't lie in Indian food. It lies in Indians who
blindly ape the West and follow their food habits. One only needs
to set aside some time (which is a rarity these days) to prepare simple,
tasty and nutritious meals at home. Today 30-year-olds suffer from
obesity-related disorders like hypertension and cardiac troubles,
something that was unheard of in the days of our forefathers. |
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Ritu Awasthi, Kanpur
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| An ancient saying in ayurveda goes like this:
"If the diet is wrong then medicines are of no use. But if the diet
is right then medicines are of no need." |
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Dev Kumar Vasudevan,
on e-mail
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| An ideal diet should contain enough calories apart
from other ingredients for an adult to get going the whole day. Your
box on "Ideal Adult Diet" should actually have been titled "Ideal
Reduction Diet", for the calories in the recommended diet totals about
1,100 calories. This is about half the ideal adult diet of 2,200 to
2,500 calories. |
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Y.N.I Anand, Madurai
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| Multiple News |
| The entry of so many new players will surely redefine
the dynamics of the electronic media market ("The New Face of News",
April 28). Many challenges lie ahead in terms of production and packaging.
However, the mushrooming of channels has also multiplied the gaffes,
with one anchor of a recently launched channel referring to the bombing
of Iraq as "fireworks" and another getting the genders mixed up. It
shows that acquiring the latest technology and hiring marketable faces
is not enough, a lot needs to be done on the editorial front. News
is serious business and should be handled with sensitivity. |
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Rupabh Shukla, Delhi
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| With over 200 hours of private news programming
every day now, we have indeed come a long way from the early 1990s,
when half an hour of government-controlled news on Doordarshan every
night was the only source of television news. |
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Suhrud Javadekar, Pune
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| Where has all the hard news gone from our idiot
box? With 10 news channels already on air and more in the pipeline,
the standard of news is degrading pretty fast. News bulletins have
become more interesting than a David Dhawan thriller, thanks to the
endless glitches every now and then. I hope that in the coming days
these news channels focus more on some hard news instead of resorting
to tabloid journalism. |
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Rajat Agrawal, on e-mail
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| Dead End |
| I strongly feel that a person convicted of a heinous
crime deserves no kindness ("Hung Verdict", April 28). It is quite
surprising to find "enlightened" thinkers showing so much concern
for convicted criminals while very little sympathy is shown to their
victims. Also, instead of limiting the capital punishment to the "rarest
of the rare" cases, it should be made mandatory for crimes like murder,
rape, drug trafficking, child molestation and all anti-national activities.
If a person does not respect the law, let him at least fear it. |
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Nitin D. Joshi, on e-mail
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| When a man is sentenced to death for whatever
crime he has committed, he should at least die a painless death which
is possible only through lethal injection. Why should anyone oppose
this on the plea that "the man convicted of a heinous crime deserves
no indulgence"? When modern methods are being used everywhere, why
not in the case of death sentences also? |
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S. Bakthavathsalan, Gurgaon
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| Genderless Music |
| Savita Devi may be right in saying people describe
the thumri as an effeminate art because of its amorous theme, decorative
style of rendering and sensuous emotional impact ("Fading Melodies",
April 28). But it is certainly not an exclusively female domain. Legendary
singers like Manzuddin Khan and Bhaiya Ganpat Rao popularised the
genre. Khayal luminaries like Abdul Karim Khan, Faiyaz Khan and Bade
Ghulam Ali Khan raised it to great heights by adding it to their repertoire
as a dessert after the heavy and rich serving of their khayal gayaki. |
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V.K. Rangra, Delhi
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| Fair Demand |
| The demand for Fixing minimum freight rates for
road transport appears to be genuine ("Load Rage", April 28). The
pinch is felt most by the organised transporters who face unfair competition
from single and small fleet owners who have no administrative overheads
and who pay meagre salaries to truck drivers and other supporting
staff. |
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P.D. Gupta, on e-mail
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| Silly Game |
| Last year, the US was looking for Osama bin Laden
("Where is Saddam?", April 28). Now bin Laden has been forgotten and
the hunt is on for Saddam Hussein. It says a lot about the so-called
intelligence service of the most powerful nation of the world.
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G.S. Rao, on e-mail
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| Belling Bush |
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The urgent question before the world now is not Iraq, which is
history at least as far as US fixation is concerned ("The World
According to Bush", April 28). It is not Syria, however bleak that
country's emerging future in the wake of Iraq turns out to be, or
even the American-led so-called war on terror. The question is how
to bell the increasingly scruffy-looking American cat which is terrorising
the alleyways of the world.
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Joe Fernandez, on e-mail
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| The US chose to attack and invade Iraq on the pretext
that it possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). On the other
hand, North Korea has nuclear weapons, yet the US did not dare attack
that country. It is clear that the US respects only power-military
or economic. So India need not be a lap dog of US and try to curry
favour with it. We should cooperate with the US but not at the cost
of our principles. If we are strong economically, then no power on
earth will dare attack us. This is time for like-minded nations to
band together. |
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D.B.N. Murthy, Bangalore
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| Self Goal |
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Your story has hit the nail on the head with the words "competitive
jockeying for the Muslim vote" ("Suicide Squad", April 21). I don't
suppose any other country has such a bunch of "people's representatives"
who consider their election prospects more important than the welfare
of the nation. Thanks to their deliberately injudicious condemnation
of the US, there will be an upsurge in terrorism and sabotage in
Kashmir by Pakistani militants under the fond gaze of Uncle Sam.
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C.G. Prasad, Chennai
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| Initially The US faced stiff opposition in its
own country on its war against Iraq. As the war advanced, however,
the US leadership was able to turn this opposition into support. The
reason behind this change was that the interests of the country was
paramount. In India, initially the ruling NDA showed much pragmatism
reflected in the "middle path" policy on Iraq that satisfied all.
In an unseemly anticlimax, however, our politicians passed an unnecessary
resolution in Parliament that only served to nullify whatever little
diplomatic gains India had achieved. India's approach was clearly
self-defeating and it might have lost a significant economic opportunity
in terms of a share of contracts in Iraq's reconstruction. |
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Vinay Thakur, Damanjodi, Orissa
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| Hollow Victory |
| The coalition troops may have effortlessly forced
out the despotic Saddam Hussein regime, but it would be imprudent
and naive to consider this as a token of victory ("The Fall of a Dictator",
April 21). In hindsight, it is not Saddam who is the loser in the
war, for it is only after years of dictatorial rule that he has been
ousted. The real losers in the war are none other than George W. Bush
and his pack of warmongers whose baseless claims that Iraq possesses
WMDs have exposed their mendaciousness. |
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Sairam Sanath Kumar, Thrissur
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| The fear of the overwhelming military might of
the US as well as its new-found preference for unilateralism is preventing
nations from asking the questions that they would like to. The first
of these is: What do the US, UK and the three other permanent members
of the Security Council, not to mention a few non-permanent members
like Israel, propose to do with their chemical and biological weapons?
Unless nations get bold enough to ask this question, the first steps
towards ridding the world of these monstrous weapons will never be
taken. |
| Ravi Prakash, Hyderabad |
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| Dual Crime |
| The public is not surprised by the ways and means
of extortion of money by the top bureaucrats with the help of "middlemen"
in the recent Delhi Development Authority scam unearthed by the CBI
("Busting the Plot", April 14). While the bribe-takers are taken to
task, bribe-givers always go scotfree. In fact, both the parties ought
to be prosecuted and treated equally. |
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N.R. Narayanan, Delhi
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| Ultra Virus |
| "If SARS were to spread all across India, then
God help this country." |
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Arindam Sen, Patna
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| "There have been so many mystery epidemics in India.
So SARS shouldn't be a worry at all." |
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T.V. shankar on e-mail
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ASH Global Goddess
CURRENT
ISSUE MAY 05, 2003
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