Tastes and tales from the underground

We hit the underground restaurants in Kuala Lumpur and relish every moment of its discreet dinners

For how long can you admire the Petronas Towers? Following tourist trap tradition in Kuala Lumpur, we have a drink at the chic Sky Bar on the 33rd floor of the Traders Hotel, dutifully gasping at the startlingly pretty towers while sipping on over-priced cocktails.

Then, we rebel. Hop into a cab and head to Jennifer's Underground Supper Club. We're determined to make the most of our ‘city break' by exploring layers of Kuala Lumpur independently. There has to be more to Malaysia than the staid KL-Cameron Highlands-Batu Caves-package advertised mindlessly by hordes of over-enthusiastic travel agents.

We drive away from the city's sparkling skyscrapers into quiet residential areas filled with sprawling bungalows. Jennifer Palencia aka ‘Jen' is part of the first wave of cooks in Asia opening its homes to guests. Underground restaurants such as this allow people to experience unconventional settings and unexpected food. I found Jen on Facebook, and booked the dinner online. Even as we draw up to the house, I'm not quite sure about what to expect.

Natasha, Jennifer's eldest daughter, is standing at the door in a stripy apron welcoming guests with smiles and hugs. Featuring three fat tabby cats, who stalk around like stern food inspectors, the setting manages to be both formal and welcoming. We walk into a living room draped in golden light from chandeliers twisted with flowers. Every surface is covered with quirky knick knacks ranging from polka-dotted porcelain gumboots to a big pot flashing with tiny golden fish. As we're assigned our places on a long tables set with professional precision, featuring gleaming wine glasses and a regiment of cutlery, the room fills with soft jazz music. The artist is Mia Palencia, Jen's second daughter and a popular jazz singer.

Everyone's dressed up in pretty dresses and stiff shirts. Jen's youngest daughter is sitting on my right, along with a group of her friends discussing the best places to grab a snack after a night of clubbing. They open a bottle of wine for everyone. The generosity is as unexpected as it is endearing. It quickly feels like we're having dinner with friends and family. An astonishing feeling in a city where we know nobody.

On my left is a charismatic young man who works for Facebook. “And don't even think of telling me you hate the new timeline,” he groans, mock rolling his eyes, before enthusiastically helping me plot my next few meals in Kuala Lumpur. His charming housemate pulls out her iPhone to give directions.

In the meantime, Natasha arrives holding up and explaining the first course: mushroom tartlets, with buttery pastry. The evening unfolds like theatre. There are risotto balls, savoury madeleines topped with plump caviar and moreish truffles of chevre and cream cheese rolled in crunchy crushed almonds then wrapped around juicy grapes. And these are just the highlights.

By the time we hit the entrée, luscious Portobello mushrooms filled with a blend of ricotta cheese and sundried tomatoes, we're on a food high. While we eat the main course, roast beef served with billowy Yorkshire pudding, Natasha introduces her teenage brother Christian Palencia (So that's four children in all) who strums on his guitar, and performs a couple of original songs. He's cutting his first record this month (I've been listening to him on SoundCloud ever since I got back).

Despite protests on being stuffed, we manage dessert (And some of us manage two). Apple pecan buttercrisp pie scented with cinnamon and served with ice cream. And flaky French pastry topped with vanilla bean flecked Chantilly cream and berries.

I've been plotting another first on this holiday — signing up for a cooking class. Jen's tourist cooking classes are fairly recent, but have enthusiastic reviews on Trip Advisor.

I'm back at her house bright and early the next morning. My classmate today is a hunky young Californian backpacker who's travelling the world. Over cups of strong coffee in Jen's living room, he tells me about his adventures in Beijing involving encounters with fried scorpions (Backpackers always have the best conversation openers). We're learning how to make Malaysia's staple dish: Nasi Lemak. The kitchen is bright and airy, mercifully air-conditioned and we cook in time to a peppy playlist courtesy a laptop in the corner.

Colourful family history

The class is deceptively laidback, with lots of banter and laughing, between cooking tips and history lessons. Later, I realise I inadvertently learnt a lot about Malaysia in the process. Jen's husband Brabon opens by showing us how to make his ‘Fast and furious salad', a crafty mix of tinned pineapples and cucumbers spiked with chillies, shallots, vinegar and lime. By mid-morning, there's turmeric chicken roasting in the oven, coconut rice bubbling quietly on a stove, and we're knee deep in colourful family history. Like much of Malaysia, Jen's family is a mix of various influences. Her grandfather was Australian, sent to Sabah to manage a plantation. He married a local girl. Her Eurasian father fell in love with a woman of Filipino and Spanish decent.

When he was captured as a prisoner of war, Jen tells us, her mother would swim underwater to set up fishing nets so she could feed her children. Brabon's grandfather was a Belgian soldier who married a girl from Sabah. Their daughter in turn married a Filipino man and had nine children, the youngest of whom was Brabon.

As we settle for lunch, Christian comes downstairs and teaches us how to tie a batik sarong, while Natasha mixes us rose milk, made with ruby-coloured syrup, thick evaporated milk and lots of ice. They tell us, with unconcealed pride, how Jen was Sabah's first woman DJ. “We lived so dangerously,” sighs Jen. “We would leave the club at 3 a.m., then take a boat to an island to swim in pitch darkness.” The children grew up running on the beaches and swimming in the sea. “We're a real Malaysian family,” smiles Jennifer. “We're American, European, Asian. And we cannot live without our Indian roti-dosais!”

New spin on old yarn

Kannan Lakshminarayan's Fractal Foundation has introduced micro-spinning technology in rural pockets to help cotton farmers and weavers

Kannan Lakshminarayan is an IIT-groomed, hard-bitten technologist, but can pass off as a social scientist. He has sunk his teeth into various subjects, including anthropology, economics, sociology, history and politics that enable a holistic understanding of society.

This versatile pursuit of knowledge is fuelled by a belief that technologies must match the societies they are meant to serve and that mismatch between the two will only result in the exploitation of the weak. Through Fractal Foundation — a Chennai-based technology-providing company he has founded — Kannan has successfully introduced micro-spinning technology in rural pockets and helped small-time cotton farmers and artisans participate more meaningfully in textile production. With the support of the Ministry of Rural Development and the partnership of the Hyderabad-based Malkha Marketing Trust, FF runs small-sized units that integrate all the processes in the textile value chain — at four pilot locations in Andhra Pradesh, namely Burguka, Punukula, Sirsilla and Chirala. A few other units in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu that were installed by FF are now run by voluntary organisations. For these efforts, FF has been adjudged a winner in the social category of Innovation for India Awards for 2012, instituted by Marico Innovation Foundation.

Each of these village-based units engages 100 producer-households. These workers bring diverse skills to the table and work end-to-end and therefore have an understanding and control of the value chain. Creation of machinery that simplifies and downscales complex spinning operations, generally ruled by forbidding technology, is the project's chief achievement. In the journey from cotton to yarn, the set of machines created by FF performs the functions of an opener-cum-carder, a draw frame, a flyer frame and a ring frame. But they are considerably smaller in size than the machines that pack modern spinning mills and they also manage to execute the lengthy process in fewer steps.

Spinning, which turns cotton into yarn, is fraught with numerous and elaborate steps. In his long and thorough study of the subject, Kannan discovered that the actual conversion to yarn happens only in the last step and all the others are only preparatory moves. Kannan explains the key to simplification lies in doing away with many of these steps. Over the decades, many others in post-Independent India have grappled with the same idea. Efforts have been made at making the process simpler and shorter.

Besides heeding the lessons from such efforts, Kannan was also keen on following the time-tested truths of spinning. “There is a saying, ‘When the cotton is in the bud that is as good as it ever gets.' It means that anything that you do to the cotton will only make it worse. At every step of the process, deterioration happens. For example, pressing down cotton damages it. Any textbook on spinning will present this insight,” says Kannan.

Baling — where cotton is pressed into bales — for transportation results in severe damage to the cotton. A number of expensive, technology-intensive steps are required to undo its effects. Baling was unavoidable in the colonial era, when Britain wanted to take cotton to its shores. Bales of cotton will come from India and Americas and land up in Bristol before being carried to the spinning mills in Manchester, explains Kannan. Baling is also a result of industrialisation.

In small-sized cohesive units, baling is unnecessary and any spinning technology created for them will be less complex. Through research, Kannan discovered that textile-making units in ancient India were small-sized, cohesive units that catered to small groups. This model obviously worked, because textiles from this part of the world made their way to various countries. He quotes Pliny on how Indian textile exports were draining Rome of all her gold.

Kannan believes India's return to a position of world dominance involves customising technology and, most importantly, learning from her rich textile past.

Keywords: Fractal Foundation, micro-spinning technology, textile production, textile industry

Mountain high

akes, walks, viewpoints… Mount Shasta, the well-kept secret in Northern California is packed with wow moments

Mount Shasta in Northern California is a well-kept secret. It is a straight, smooth and simple five-hour drive from San Francisco. It has some of the best wilderness that the State has to offer and a sense of calm and wellbeing seems to hang in the air.

The Shasta Mountain, which lends its name to the town, is 14,180 ft high and towers over the other mounts in the Cascade Range, which is a part of the Trinity Mountains. It stands like a beacon and can be seen from way off far. Many have waxed eloquent about it, and to quote Theodore Roosevelt: ‘I consider the evening twilight on Mt. Shasta one of the grandest sights I have ever witnessed'.

And, this is not untrue because I visited Lake Siskiyou again when day was giving way to dusk, and the orange glow on Mt. Shasta has an almost spiritual aura to it.

But, besides the natural splendour that was Mt. Shasta, for me the icing on the cake was the drive on the road that goes from it towards Lake Tahoe. This is the U.S. Highway 89, and it is part of the Volcanic Legacy Byway that goes through the American States of Oregon and California, and it will bring a smile on the face of any driving enthusiast.

When I started off from Mt. Shasta to Lake Tahoe, I had the option (and was advised too) of taking the Interstate 5 and then the 50, which was a simple and straight forward road to Lake Tahoe, but a quick look at the map told me State Route 89 would definitely turn out more scenic and exciting. And it is from Mt. Shasta that this road passes the maximum number of volcanoes, some extinct, some dormant. Besides volcanoes, the road also goes by plenty of waterfalls, the first of these being the McCloud River Falls, just past the town of McCloud.

Besides going through or skirting many national or State parks such as the Mount Shasta Ski Park, the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Lassen Volcanic National Park and the Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park, I remember driving past lovely one-stop towns such as Hat Creek and Old Station. These are a delight, and the main provision store is usually manned by a local, and sells everything from coffee and beef jerky to snow chains.

There are some camping grounds, and plenty of off shoots leading to lakes, walks and viewpoints.

At the other end of this road was Lake Tahoe where I had my shot at skiing after a three-year break. If you want to learn to ski or if you are a rusty novice like me and have no equipment, few places in California can beat Heavenly Mountain at Lake Tahoe. When I met my personal ski instructor Chris Rodgers, we went to the rental shop right near the gondola at the Heavenly Village where I was kitted out for ski jacket and pants, shoes, skis, poles and a helmet. The equipment comes as a package deal and it's an offer you can't refuse — scenes from “The Godfather” were shot quite close to here!

Dressed for the occasion and with a dull walk — thanks to the restrictive ski shoes, we boarded the gondola that whisked us away to the mountain in 17 minutes. The views from the gondola are simply jaw-dropping as the entire lake comes into view as the cable car gains elevation.

We disembarked at 9,000 ft and the temperature dropped a few more degrees. It was now close to -9 degrees, but thanks to my well insulating clothing I was snug and warm.

Heavenly Mountain has four access points, and once on top, skiers have a huge choice of chair lifts and slopes to suit their skiing capabilities.

The few times I have skied before must have helped because under Chris' expert guidance I was soon zipping down slopes and managing turns. In fact, I spent six hours on the slopes without a single fall. Skiing, like any sport, is very addictive once you get the knack, and the sense of speed coming down the slopes is quite the rush. Trust me, if you set your mind to it, you can learn to ski in a full day on the slopes. After that, all that is needed is practice.

I know I am itching to hit ski slopes again because from here on, I can only get better at it.

Keywords: Mount Shasta, California tourism

Whole gamut of Social Sciences

The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, functions under the control of the Indian Council for Social Science Research and is financed primarily by the council and matching grants from the Government of West Bengal.

The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, which was founded in 1973, has on its faculty an eminent panel of academics well versed in the disciplines of Economics, History, Political Science, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Geography and Cultural Studies.

The centre, located at R-1, Baishnabghata, Kolkata – 700 094 (www.cssscal.org), sees substantial collaboration among its different disciplines, at notable variance with the traditional style of department-based academic approach. The centre has a special focus on problems of the eastern region and West Bengal.

It functions under the control of the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR). It is financed primarily by the council and matching grants from the Government of West Bengal.

The centre carries out the following responsibilities.

Promoting and coordinating research in social sciences.

Providing academic and professional guidance to agencies, institutions and personnel engaged in research in social sciences.

Offering consultancy services to the Union and the State governments, universities, educational institutions and industry, whenever required.

Acting as a clearing house of ideas and information or research in social sciences, with special emphasis on the problems of the eastern region in general and West Bengal in particular.

Collaborating with other agencies, institutions and organisations, including universities, colleges, management institutes and other institutes in India and abroad, for achieving the objectives of the centre.

Offering fellowships and scholarships for research in social sciences.

Providing advanced training to teachers in universities and colleges for improving the quality of teaching and research in social sciences.

Publishing papers, periodicals and books for the promotion of social science research.

The institute admits candidates to its Research Training Programme, if they are about to begin, or have begun, full-time research leading to a Ph.D. They should possess a Master's degree with at least 50 per cent marks in any branch of Social Sciences or Humanities. Further, they should have scored an average of more than 50 per cent marks in the higher secondary and the degree examinations. They should be below 30 years.

Students can apply to do a Ph.D. under a supervisor at the centre. Admission is on the basis of the academic record and aptitude for research. The degrees will be awarded by the universities in West Bengal. The scholars may have a co-supervisor from the affiliating university.

FELLOWSHIPS

The ICSSR offers several doctoral fellowships to those who have cleared the National Eligibility Test of the University Grants Commission. There are a few doctoral fellowships and internships provided by the Ford Foundation.

The M.Phil. course in Social Sciences of the centre is an interdisciplinary programme, affiliated to Jadavpur University, Kolkata. This programme is meant for research students in India who wish to pursue doctoral research but have not enrolled in any doctoral programme or any other full-time taught course. Research scholars at the centre will benefit greatly from the large number of well-planned and organised academic conferences with the participation of a wide cross-section of national and international scholars. These are occasions that facilitate international exchange of ideas on the latest trends in social research.

Conferences on diverse themes enhance the competence of the research scholars at the centre. Some of the themes taken up are “Issues in growth and poverty;” “Politics, reform and prosperity: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives on contemporary India;” “Frontiers of development economics;” “Cultural consequences of globalisation: The Case of Music;” “Indian Industrialisation;” “Agricultural and Agrarian Structure in Contemporary West Bengal;” and “Tribal Politics and State Systems.” These themes have been mentioned as a sample that reveals the diversity of the subjects for serious discussion and study.

CULTURE STUDIES

Another feature of work at the centre is the conduct of international cultural studies workshops funded under the ENRECA, Sephis and Ford Foundation schemes. These workshops involving young researchers from India and abroad have turned out to be innovative and stimulating. Some of the themes taken up are “The sacred in contemporary culture;” “Culture and economic life;” “Postcolonial cultures;” “Culture and the disciplines;” and “Culture and modernity.” The conferences and workshops are usually interdisciplinary in temper and multi-focussed in approach.

WORKS ON BENGAL

The centre has carried out remarkable research and documentation in the field of Bengali history.

The work covers textual documents in microfilm, private papers and special collections, documentation and dissemination, and exhibition of visual materials. The rich archives at the centre have attracted several grants and other financial support from several organisations. Exposure to such rich treasures is a valuable experience for research scholars.

The composite collection of texts and images at archives seek to create a new repository of sources on the cultural history of modern Bengal.

The centre recovers the visual material not merely as works of art but also as ingredients of the social and cultural history.

Keywords: social science research, Social Science Centre Kolkata

Costume jewellery designing an exciting career option: expert

Several opportunities are on the anvil for women who are keen to make a career in costume jewellery. They can work for top brands and can start their own outfits from home as there is tremendous demand from the younger generation, according to National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kolkata designer Rumeet Singh.

Speaking at a workshop on costume jewellery designing organised by Samana Institute of Fashion Technology (SIFT) here on Monday, Ms. Rumeet said more and more young girls were using costume jewellery instead of the traditional yellow metal along with their regular attire like jeans and salwars. “The mindset of the youth is changing and they wish to wear accessories matching their dress,” she felt.

“Costume jewellery is not only gaining popularly in India but also has tremendous response from the Indian Diaspora. With more and more shopping malls coming up in cities and towns, women entrepreneurs can make a mark for themselves and create their own brand by using their creativity,” Ms. Rumeet added.

Rumeet, along with another designer Basu (also of NIFT) interacted with around 35 students on various aspects such as selection of stones, moulding, making and crafting of jewellery like finger rings, bracelets, ear rings and necklaces. “Costume jewellery is made of less valuable materials including base metals, glass, plastic, and synthetic stones in place of more valuable materials such as precious metals and gems,” she added.

“The rolled-gold business at Machilipatnam is a classic example of the popularity of costume jewellery. Hundreds of families not only make their both ends meet but offer opportunities to many in the town. We are offering the course with the best of faculty from Kolkata's NIFT along with two professional designers from Hyderabad,” said Samana Institute of Fashion Technology chief executive officer Samana Moosavi.

SIFT has introduced an 18-month course in costume jewellery designing and the course commences on June 1.

Keywords: NIFT, jewellery designing

Easing the affiliation burden

Autonomy, smaller universities and cluster colleges are some of the affiliation reforms recommended by an UGC expert panel.

With the State universities burdened with administrative work of affiliating and managing large number of colleges, a University Grants Commission expert committee has recommended affiliation reforms to improve the quality of innovation and research — the prime function of a university system.

Some of the colleges in the country, for instance, the Osmania University or the Bangalore University have close to 1,000 colleges affiliated to them. “How would they manage these colleges and maintain standards?” asks S.P. Thyagarajan, chairman of the expert committee which authored the report on affiliation reforms.

The committee studied the existing system in India and abroad, compiled and analysed views emanating from consultative meetings, worked out on an action plan and has made recommendations. The reforms suggested would be used by the UGC while chalking out schemes for the XII Plan.

To diffuse the burden of affiliating universities, a gradual step-wise formula has been suggested. “Providing autonomy to colleges is the key,” says Mr. Thyagarajan. The report suggests that the maximum number of colleges to be affiliated to any university should be limited to 100.

Any college that has been NAAC-accredited with A grade for the last five years may be elevated to the status of an autonomous college. These colleges need to be monitored and if they maintain quality over another term they may be awarded the status of unitary university. This is done parallel to the accreditation process, says Mr. Thyagarajan.

Also the bigger universities that have more than one campus may be divided into smaller universities. “They need not lose their original stature, but be named based on the geographical location. The Mumbai University for instance may be named Mumbai North, South, and so on, as per the geographic location, while retaining the nomenclature ‘Mumbai University'” explains Mr. Thyagarajan.

Introducing the cluster college system is another suggestion made to improve the output of colleges. This would involve neighbouring universities sharing human and infrastructure resources with proper norms and funding support.

“The first step in bringing about a better system for affiliation is to distribute the task to more colleges. Then a monitoring system should be in place to ensure that the autonomous body carries out its duties, without compromising on quality of education,” explains Mr. Thyagarajan. For this, the report calls for the need for States to adopt and follow the UGC (Establishment and Maintenance of Private Universities) Regulations, 2010.

To make these recommendations a reality, there is need for the State Councils for Higher Education and the UGC to work in tandem, fix a timeframe to achieve specific targets during the XII plan period and ensure a monitoring mechanism consisting of experts in place.

Keywords: UGC affiliation reform, university affiliation

MBAs, how about opting for rural entrepreneurship?

Management students usually look at careers in marketing, investment banking and so on. To encourage MBA students to take entrepreneurship to the hinterlands of the State, the R.V. Institute of Management here will hold Prerana Sindhu 2012, a rural entrepreneurship competition, on May 4.

Jyotirmoy Ghosh, assistant professor in the college, told mediapersons here on Wednesday that the competition would see over 150 students and rural entrepreneurs collaborating to design unique business models that would help agricultural and rural industries.

“For example, those who make toys in Channapatna currently cannot sustain themselves because their products are not marketed properly. If these entrepreneurs can find the right channels, then we may be able to market the toys even in supermarkets,” he said.

They will guide

To guide these students and ensure that the projects do not stagnate in the blueprints stage, rural entrepreneurs will be roped in to guide the contestants. Organic farmer Anjanappa from Hoskote, Sampangi Ramayya who used innovation to boost the yield of his carrot farm in Anekal, and sericulture farmer Nanjunda Reddy from Dommasandra are some of those who will inculcate their rural entrepreneurship skills in the students.

Prerana Sindhu 2012 will also feature a workshop on May 4 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on the college campus in Jayanagar 4th T Block.

The organisers added that the performance of folk dances and plays would provide a glimpse of rural culture to the participants.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, MBA

Harvard and MIT team up to offer free online courses

In what is shaping up as an academic Battle of the Titans — one that offers vast new learning opportunities for students around the world — Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Wednesday announced a new non-profit partnership, known as edX, to offer free online courses from both universities.

Harvard's involvement follows MIT's announcement in December that it was starting an open online learning project, MITx. Its first course, Circuits and Electronics, began in March, enrolling about 1,20,000 students, some 10,000 of whom made it through the recent midterm exam. Those who complete the course will get a certificate of mastery and a grade, but no official credit. Similarly, edX courses will offer a certificate but not credit.

But Harvard and M.I.T. have a rival — they are not the only elite universities planning to offer free massively open online courses, or MOOCs, as they are known. This month, Stanford, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan announced their partnership with a new commercial company, Coursera, with $16 million in venture capital.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Thrun, the Stanford professor who made headlines last fall when 1,60,000 students signed up for his Artificial Intelligence course, has attracted more than 200,000 students to the six courses offered at his new company, Udacity.

TECHNOLOGY EVOLVING

The technology for online education, with video lesson segments, embedded quizzes, immediate feedback and student-paced learning, is evolving so quickly that those in the new ventures say the offerings are still experimental.

“My guess is that what we end up doing five years from now will look very different from what we do now,” said Provost Alan M. Garber of Harvard, who will be in charge of the university's involvement.

EdX, which is expected to offer its first five courses this fall, will be overseen by a non-profit organisation governed equally by the two universities, each of which has committed $30 million to the project. The first president of edX will be Anant Agarwal, director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who has led the development of the MITx platform. At Harvard, Dr. Garber will direct the effort, with Michael D. Smith, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, working with faculty members to develop and deliver courses. Eventually, they said, other universities will join them in offering courses on the platform.

MIT and Harvard officials said they would use the new online platform not just to build a global community of online learners, but also to research teaching methods and technologies.

Education experts say that while the new online classes offer opportunities for students and researchers, they pose some threat to low-ranked colleges.

“Projects like this can impact lives around the world, for the next billion students from China and India,” said George Siemens, a MOOC pioneer who teaches at Athabasca University, a publicly supported online Canadian university. “But if I were president of a mid-tier university, I would be looking over my shoulder very nervously right now, because if a leading university offers a free circuits course, it becomes a real question whether other universities need to develop a circuits course.”

The edX project will include not only engineering courses, in which computer grading is relatively simple, but also humanities courses, in which essays might be graded through crowd-sourcing, or assessed with natural-language software. Coursera will also offer free humanities courses in which grading will be done by peers.

EXPERTS OPTIMISTIC

In some ways, the new partnerships reprise the failed online education ventures of a decade ago. Columbia University introduced Fathom, a 2001 commercial venture that involved the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan and others. It lost money and folded in 2003. Yale, Princeton and Stanford collaborated on AllLearn, a non-profit effort that collapsed in 2006.

Many education experts are more hopeful about the new enterprises.

“Online education is here to stay, and it's only going to get better,” said Lawrence S. Bacow, a past president of Tufts who is a member of the Harvard Corporation. Dr. Bacow, co-author of a new report on online learning, said it remained unclear how traditional universities would integrate the new technologies.

“What faculty don't want to do is just take something off the shelf that's somebody else's and teach it, any more than they would take a textbook, start on Page 1, and end with the last chapter,” he said. “What's still missing is an online platform that gives faculty the capacity to customize the content of their own highly interactive courses.” — New York Times News Service

Keywords: free online courses, Harvard University, MIT

Taste of summer

If the searing heat is taking its toll on you, it may be time to take stock of what you are eating

“This time, it's hotter than last year,” that's what everyone is saying these days. And this time, it is no exaggeration. Soaring temperatures are leading to cases of heat exhaustion – a rarity here. But don't let those television commercials fool you into buying fizzy drinks to quench your thirst. What you eat and drink need not always cool you.

DRINK WATER

Liquids in the form of water and fresh juices trump everything else in extreme heat. Mini Mary Prakash, chief clinical dietician, PRS Hospital, adds that it would do good to up one's water intake from the usual two litres to anywhere between 3.5 and four litres: “Green tea is recommended instead of regular tea as it has less caffeine. Alcoholic beverages, chilled drinks, even iced tea won't help as they have a diuretic effect, leading to more loss of water from the body. Chilled drinks constrict the blood vessels and obstruct sweat.”

She also advises adding a few sprigs of mint to one's early morning cup of green tea. “That's no substitute for water,” says Jayasree N. S., senior dietician, KIMS. “One can drink up to 15 glasses of water every day.” She adds: “Coffee beyond the normal limit will only add to the heat as it contains caffeine. Chocolates also increases body heat,” says Jayasree.

Milk, that too low-fat, and curd, also in variations like buttermilk, are recommended as it also provides calcium. Tomato juice is also great for the weather as it provides lycopene. “Lycopene helps repair the body's tissues. Cucumber, musk melons or water melons are good too as they are high in water content.” Those looking to lose weight should skip the sugar when drinking juices. “It is good if those dieting do not substitute fruit juice for water as it can lead to weight gain,” says Mini.

Jayasree points out that people can help themselves best by avoiding foods with fat content: “Avoid snacking on puff pastries, cake, things of that sort as they will surely have fattening ingredients such as butter or ghee to help increase taste and texture. Fried food such as chips and puris should not be had either.”

Red meats are a strict no-no, while chicken and fish are still better, though again not fried. “Everything we have for a sadya is acceptable. As for vegetarians, it is important to keep having pulses.”

Mini says the summer is also the season when people tend to contract food-borne illnesses. “Vendors add ice to fruit juices. This may not always be hygienic. Yoghurt contains probiotic bacteria that decreases chances of food-borne infections. It should be made a part of one's daily diet.”

Save dry fruits like dates, figs and apricots for winter. “The absence of water in them will only make one thirsty. Also avoid sugary foods or anything with honey or molasses as they will make one thirsty and tired. Ice cream and beer, though summer favourites, have a temporary cooling effect on the body. Food that is too salty or spicy adds to the discomfort as they generate heat,” Mini says.

Both dieticians agree on the goodness of vegetarian food in summer. “Christians observe Lent in summer. It is a time when the community follows a vegetarian diet. This has health benefits too,” adds Mini.

For those who didn't know, Mini says cardamom, gooseberry, papaya, mushroom and pomegranate compromise ‘cooling' foods too. Mango, she adds, increases heat: “If you are really craving mangoes, put them in water overnight and then have them as it absorbs the heat.”

So now that you know, bring more of the right food into your diet to stay cool during summer.

Sedentary lifestyle triggers frozen shoulder problem

 

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Sedentary lifestyle, especially a work environment in which employees spend lot of time in front of computers, is triggering cases of frozen shoulder among many in the capital. Orthopaedics and physiotherapists point out that many neglect condition by brushing it away as normal pain only to realise later that they can't move the shoulder even an inch.

Physiotherapists point out that at least one out of every 10 persons has frozen shoulder condition. The frozen shoulder condition occurs because of inflammation and thickening of the shoulder capsule.

“Frozen shoulder condition is common among women. They get injured due to trauma but never visit the doctor. Women also don't know that this condition can be cured and there is no need for complicated shoulder procedures,” says Sports Medicine and Consultant Physiotherapist at Vivekananda Hospitals, Dr. M. Manjunatha.

Diabetes/thyroid

While doctors maintain that the exact reason for frozen shoulder is yet to be known, broadly 5 to 10 per cent of frozen shoulder cases are due to diabetes and thyroid problems. Any kind of trauma and injury to the joints could also lead to such a condition.

Three phases

There are three phases in frozen shoulder condition. “In the first phase, persons will feel severe shoulder pain and yet patients can continue to move shoulders. This condition could last from five to nine months. The second phase is the frozen stage in which patients won't be able to move the shoulder and finally in the third phase, which could last for years, the shoulder is fully stiff,” explains Dr. Manjunatha.

Surprisingly, treatment modality for frozen shoulder does not entail complicated procedures. The ideal treatment is by physical exercises under the guidance of a physiotherapist.

“Pain killers, administering ultrasound high frequency current, low frequency current that produces a massaging effect can be used to reduce stiffness. Main treatment method is exercises,” he said.

Call to include Psychiatry a separate subject in MBBS curriculum

“There is no health without mental health. Mental health is essential for maintenance of the overall health and well being of individuals and the society at large. It affects the individual's ability to function, to be productive, to establish and maintain positive relationships and to experience a state of well being,'' says Dr Roy Abraham Kallivayalil, new national president of Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS).

In an exclusive interview, the IPS chief told The Hindu that about 14 per cent of the global burden of disease has been attributed to neuropsychiatry disorders, mostly due to the chronically disabling nature of depression and other common mental disorders, alcohol and drug abuse, and psychosis.

The number of psychiatrists in India is only 4,000 for 1.2 billion population, one psychiatrist for 300,000 people which is grossly inadequate. ``If we have to achieve a minimum ratio of atleast one psychiatrist for every 1,00,000 people, the number of psychiatrists should be trebled. Providing basic training in Psychiatry to medical graduates, and inclusion of Psychiatry a separate subject in the MBBS curriculum could fill up this huge vacuum,'' he said.

According to Dr Kallivayalil, training in Psychiatry to undergraduate medical students is very important as the knowledge of Psychiatry, mental health and behavioural sciences equips him to deal with various difficult and complex situations during medical practice. This will also help the students to develop proper communication skills and to empathise with the patients and their suffering.

Moreover, proper knowledge of Psychiatry would instill humanistic values in the students, further empowering them to establish and maintain a fruitful professional relationship with the patients, he said.

Depression on the rise

Though the prevalence rate of depression is higher than psychosis in modern times, the number of people treated are far lower due to the limited awareness about depression in the community. The situation is still worse in the rural areas, says he.

Dr Kallivayalil said the mental health infrastructure available in India was largely limited to large size custodial institutions, providing services to a limited group of the population and these institutions too were are a great source of stigma. The stigma in utilising psychiatric services, especially from Psychiatric hospitals, is another major issue concerning the healthcare, he said.

Cost-effective delivery

More than 70 per cent of India's population live in rural areas and a large majority of them avail treatment from primary health centres, especially for financial reasons. If the medical officers at these primary health centres have adequate knowledge in Psychiatry, it will be a great gain for mental health. He said delivering mental health care through primary care would be cost-effective and practical.

MCI decision sought

Dr Kallivayalil said IPS has already moved the Medical Council of India for making Psychiatry a compulsory subject for the MBBS course. There should be a separate theory paper, clinical examination and viva voce, as in the case of various other subjects, he said.

According to him, good training in Psychiatry during the under-graduate course will help the general practitioners to become well equipped, to consider the psychiatric and psychological factors from the outset, to reduce mortality and morbidity due to psychiatric illness, to provide cost-effective and cost-efficient treatment, and to avoid unnecessary investigations.