Author – Pallavi Pradip Ghose

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Do you know who Monica, Ross, Chandler, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe are? If you are a person of the 1990s or before, you sure do! What comes to your mind when you picture the six friends of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. TV serial? You might imagine them sitting at Central Perk, cafe chatting about everything under the sun – boyfriends and girlfriends, failed marriages and day-to-day occurrences.

Now, picture four male friends playing video games, board games, reading comic books, while eating from take-out boxes. They talk not only talking about everything under the sun, but also over it. That’s “The Big Bang Theory” (TBBT)! Looks like there has been a drastic change in the Emmy award winning sitcoms over the last decade.

Our present day generation that no longer finds its ultimate comfort in finding a partner is concerned with personal achievements. This gets highlighted when we see an audience cheering to group of nerds. The characters in TBBT are academically qualified, high achieving men in comparison to Friends where Ross was the sole ‘academic’. Monica, the competitive one in the series wasn’t highly qualified either. Rachel’s character gets a career break only at the age of 28. Phoebe remains a masseuse, and Joey, a failing television star. Chandler’s profession was the most talked about, whereas he was the one earning the big bucks.

The central theme for Friends concentrates on love affairs and friendly banters, whereas TBBT circles around individual characters the glue being, science. Friends portrayed a social life that was comforting, cosy and caring, which we miss in TBBT, where almost every character is sarcastic with one another. The men in Friends were less socially awkward than the men in TBBT. At least they were not suffering from selective mutism!

The Big-Bang Theory | CBS

We don’t see academic inferiority complex among the characters in Friends when Ross exultingly talks about his research papers. However, in TBBT, Penny falls prey to demeaning insults (Gorilla, slave to biological urges!) very often. Every good looking character displayed on TV has some sort of attitude and charm. Unlike the blonde cheerleader and prom queen Rachel who bullied her contemporaries in school, Penny in TBBT is gentle, nice, sweet and welcoming. There’s no reason for her to tolerate Sheldon’s snobbish sarcasm!

Parental interference is well portrayed in TBBT something I appreciate immensely; the outcome of tumultuous upbringing can have profound effect over people, something that is not very deeply projected in Friends.

Altogether, both the sitcoms, of different time frames, cater to different audience. While TBBT makes me laugh and think, I realise the urgent need for friendly relationships, how a comforting shoulder is better than a condemning advice. After all, we don’t make friends by judging their IQ, we see their heart!

While I say this, I deeply regret the great Indian mega serials have completely avoided talking about or dealing with friendship as a relation. There is a wide variety of ‘rishtey’ (relationships) portrayed on TV sitcoms today, but none catering to the theme of friendship. Anyway, I hope this Friendship Day, we as a nation will stop obsessing about Saas-Bahu relationships and move onto more friendly relationships!

Let’s ask ourselves a simple question – What memories does the Commonwealth Games bring up? The CWG scandal by our politicians or the stellar performance by our sports stars? I would say actually we as a nation need to introspect why such debacles happen. Is it because our politicians are corrupt or is it because we do not have a sporting culture… leaving the debate aside, let’s look back at the history of Indian performance at the Commonwealth Games and see if there are better memories to recollect:

CWG 2010 – 101 medal haul

Image via ndtv.com

The 2010 Commonwealth Games can be easily dubbed as the best ever performance by our sporting team and the worst ever accomplishment by our sports authorities. At no other event, did we witness Indian sports hit its nadir and then bounce back to its zenith in such a shocking turn of events! First, it began with the series of delays in completing the infrastructure in Delhi for the games; then came the revelations of substandard work done in the sports village; followed by the climax of corruption scandals allegedly done by the organising committee led by the infamous Suresh Kalmadi. The nation was ashamed in front of the international media that had arrived to witness the grand spectacle.

Fortunately, once the games began, the heart-warming performances by our sports stars erased the ugly memories. Particularly, the powerful individual feats of Saina Nehwal in Badminton, Geeta Phogat, Alka Tomar and Anita Tomar in wrestling, Somdev Devvarman in tennis, Krishna Poonia in discus throw set the stage for bigger achievements. However, the biggest performance came from Gagan Narang who secured four golds in shooting, who added to the 101 medals won by India – the largest medal haul ever!

CWG 2006 – Shooting

Indian shooters have always been our main medal hunters in many Commonwealth Games. However, in the 2006 CWG held at Melbourne, our shooting stars captured 16 gold, 7 silver, and 3 bronze medals. Samaresh Jung won five golds, one silver and a bronze in men’s 25m centrefire pistol, 50m pistol, 10m air pistol and 25m standard pistol events. For this clean sweep, Jung was given the ‘David Dixon Award’ for the most outstanding athlete of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Surprisingly, Samaresh Jung’s wife Anuja Jung added a gold and a silver to the family collection with a victory in the Women’s 50m Rifle Three Positions Individual event! The other stars of the games were Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who went on to win many medals in Asian Games and the Olympics. However, Anjali Bhagwat, who won four golds at the previous edition, had to satisfy herself with just a silver!

CWG 2002 – Women’s hockey team

Indian women’s hockey team via Zimbio

While the Indian men’s hockey team garners the spotlight with its non-performance, the women’s hockey team has been silently winning laurels at numerous occasions. While names like Mamta Kharab, Suraj Lata Devi, Jyoti Kullu, Joyoti Sunita, Suman Bala might not raise eyebrows among Indians who don’t follow hockey, but the name ‘Chak De India’ surely does register a missed heart beat! While everyone is familiar with the Yashraj Films’ movie, very few know that the movie was inspired by the golden run of Indian women’s hockey team during the 1998-2006 period.
It all began with a surprise silver medal at the Bangkok Asian Games in 1998. However, the spectacular gold medal win at the 2002 Commonwealth Games at Manchester, including the golden goal in the final against the hosts, England, became the talk of the nation. The underestimated women’s hockey team led by Suraj Lata Devi had its dream run by beating New Zealand 2-1 in their semi-finals, 1-0 in the quarter final against South Africa, along with 1-0 win against Canada , 3-0 against New Zealand and a 1-1 draw against England in the pool games.

1994 and 1998 CWGs – Weightlifting

Weightlifting was another sport where India held sway, winning numerous medals for the country. In fact, Indian weightlifters dominated the proceedings in Commonwealth Games in the early 1990s. India produced a series of weightlifting champions such as Murgesan Veerasamy, Badathala Adisekhar, Dharmaraj Wilson, Arumugam K. Pandian, Satheesha Rai who went onto to win gold at three consecutive Commonwealth Games in 1990, 1994 and 1998. It is surprising to see so many South Indians dominating this sport!

However, you would be more surprised to know that there is a secret behind Indians winning so many medals in weightlifting. No, no, I am not pointing at our drug-enabled performance! That’s another issue altogether. It is because weightlifting at the Commonwealth Games has three different medal categories: Snatch, Clean & Jerk and Overall, whereas in all other major sporting events, these categories are combined. So our athletes can win thrice in their own sport!

CWG 1990 – Weightlifting

The 1990 CWG held at Auckland brought many laurels to India in terms of 13 gold, 8 silver and 11 bronze medals. However, this sporting event marked the darkest history in Indian sports. Indian weightlifter Subrata Kumar Paul became the first athlete to fail a drug test in the 60-year history of the Commonwealth Games. Subrata Paul, who had won two silver medals and one bronze in the 67.5-kg category, was disqualified for using anabolic steroids and his medals were taken back. Sadly, the memories of this dark moment had a relapse in the 2010 CWG, when our athletic women’s 4 x 400m relay team was caught doping!

CWG 1982 – Badminton

At the 1982 Commonwealth Games held at Brisbane, India found its star in Badminton men’s singles. Syed Modi had been the eight-time national champion and had also won the bronze in the Asian Games held in the same year. So obviously, he was the man to watch out at the 1982 CWG and he didn’t disappoint. Syed Modi beat England’s Nick Yates, 7-15, 15-5, 15-7 to take home the gold medal in men’s singles. This win didn’t cause much flutter in the Indian media, but what happened after that etched a ghastly memory in everyone’s mind!

At the prime age of 26, Syed Modi was shot dead on 28 July 1988, as he was coming out of a stadium in Lucknow after a routine practice. A brilliant career was cut short and a severe blow was dealt to Indian badminton. The murder caused much controversy since police suspected that his wife and Amita Modi and local politician Sanjay Singh were involved in it.

Factfile –
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/28/world/india-murder-scandal-mixes-sex-and-politics.html
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900129&slug=1053199
http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/Sports+and+Venues/Shooting/News/Default.htm
http://www.sportstaronnet.com/tss2533/25330700.htm
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/commonwealth-games-indian-weight-lifters-bag-27-medals/1/316340.html

Continued from part 1: Children and Technology – a childhood lost?

Source

Changed Times of Childhood

The major change started with the advent of satellite TV when characters like Ninja Turtles and Batman entered the living room, and children lapped it up with all eagerness. Finally, in the 2000s, they got channels dedicated to them! They sure were happy lot. Now playing with friends was becoming a second option. Who would want to play when entertainment was literally in your hands? Then came the next big thing; yes, the Internet. It was like the star which came down to earth. Adults themselves were hooked on to it in no time. And the desktop PC became a prominent feature in every home. Children got to dabble with video games, CDs and what not.

The internet became such an addiction for every child that even TV took a backseat. Parents themselves where so overwhelmed with these new gadgets and technology that they were taking pride in the fact that their children are so good at gaming and online searching! However, these gadgets still needed to be played with a mechanical device. Whoever knew that the next big thing will sort of take thousand leaps over the current technology? Yes, we are talking about Smartphones and touch-based gadgets!

Touchscreen Gadgets – Angel or Devil?

When touch-based gadgets entered the market, children born after the millennium were getting ready to form a bigger relationship with them. Their tender fingers were getting ready to take pictures from their dad’s phone, play songs and watch videos. A child as young as four could easily play adult game like a child’s play (pun intended!). The love of gadgets became an obsession now and children refused to go out and play. They didn’t want toys anymore (he wanted them till he left the toy shop of course). They just wanted a new game. Their after school hours were spent in playing games. This combined with constant run of cartoon shows and movies made his life even more luxurious and lazy.

Consequences of gadgets on kids

As a parent, it is frustrating to see your child hardly playing any outdoor games. When your child sits in a corner and plays games in a guest’s house, in your house, in car, in train, you realise that something has gone wrong. The child’s imagination is not growing. That it is getting stifled between the walls of the gadgets. Its fingers can only move that much and its mind has no free time to wonder, or to simply watch its surroundings. When the only conversation we have with the child is about asking them to stop playing the game, we realise that childhood is not same anymore.

Technology and kids Big Picture

Technology has indeed bettered the lives of many people. TV, news media, internet, phones have all definitely brought the entire world inside our homes. They have helped in the advancement of science, medicine and even our missions to outer space. However, in this frantic pace of advancement, have we forgotten our children? How is the technology affecting our children? It seems to have made the child an adult at the age of five. Children of today know everything, because they watch everything. To re-phrase it, they watch everything they allowed to and not allowed to watch!

The onus lies on the shoulders of adults to ensure the child is getting the right kind of exposure required for its age. Technology has added one more evil to the society: the child’s social skills are getting pushed under the carpet. Value of friends is lost – why value friends when you can make new ones instantaneously?!

Today’s child only enjoys the company of its gadget. It maybe because that the gadget doesn’t answer back and just does what the child asks it to do. Everyday, new gadgets are being invented and thrust into the market. So can we really blame the inventors of the product? A debatable topic, but higher the sales more the inventive quotient (not a surprising fact), right? So should we the parents really stop buying these gadgets?

The Answer for kids overusing technology

The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle. If adults themselves limit their usage and engage themselves in more physical, creative activity, then the child may look towards them as well. Setting a precedent is the only way. Technology cannot be avoided. We must find a way to live with it, but in a symbiotic way and not in a subservient way. Let your child get its “gadget time”, but ensure that it also gets to do other things like reading, playing and even just being idle!

A child’s mind should be exposed to as many fields as possible to make him/her a “complete person”, who has an individual mind. He/she needs to know that even painting can be a career option; he need not be a painter, but if he is able to appreciate the fact, that should be good. A child is like wet clay and shaping it lies in our hands. Any shape is ok as long as there is a shape. Dried up clay will only break into pieces!

Factfile –

http://www.academia.edu/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Author – L N Venkataraman

The only thing permanent in life is change. This veritable fact is omnipresent except in the wallets of people and cash boxes of shop vendors in India! I am talking of none other than the ‘loose change’ or the seemingly vanishing government minted metallic discs of our currency called ‘coins’. It is a loss almost every Indian consumer bears each day, which has now been accepted as a way of life. Similar to our prevalent bribe-fed bureaucracy, a unique Indian culture of vanishing loose change has laid its roots in our blood.

Ask any kirana store to return your remaining change and the familiar reply would be, “Sir, khulla nahi hai”; and thus goes the invisible change into the shopkeeper’s pocket as though a wireless transaction deposited it by that three-word verdict! Consumers unconsciously suffer this ‘minor loss’ everyday.

I fail to understand the depleting nature of coins and their destiny in our inflation. Shopkeepers don’t seem to have them and we don’t have an option but to allow the price of commodities virtually rise by a few rupees. It appears to be a universal phenomenon across India that adds to the woes of its citizens. Even if I hold a bag of fresh coins from a bank and use it to tender exact change at the shop, it does not help. A day soon comes when I run out of coins and I am back to the conundrum of the vanishing change. I cannot be visiting the bank every time as it costs time and money for each visit. I am left to wonder why we face this situation everyday and is there a black hole in our economy where the coins disappear into?

During my recent visit to Germany, I was amazed to see the bountiful “akshaya patras” in grocery shops, which were always full of coins. No matter how small the change was, the shopkeeper would return exactly the required money to the cent. Even 1 cent coin is prevalent and used to its utmost capacity with due respect to its position in the economy!

India has already abolished the lower denomination coins (25 paise and below) due to their increasing cost of production. Of course, I cannot draw a comparison between the two vastly different countries, but look at the impressive sense of respect and accuracy conferred to the value of money. Every hard-earned cent or paisa has some value attached to it, but sadly in India we are devaluing the lower denominations (even rupee coins) from our own pocket.

As per current estimate of the Indian population of 127 crore, around 66% are in the productive age group of 15 to 64 years. Since there are some irreversible movements of coins to beggars and temples in India, we can assume a lower percentage of consumers. Even if we consider only 30% of this age group as consumers, having one transaction with a vendor per day i.e.25.146crore of population, there is a loss of Rs.25.146crore per day if each consumer loses an understated 1 rupee per day!

Even if my theory of loss appears overstated and the lack of correct tender by shopkeepers is not always true, you would agree that we do suffer a loss at a mammoth scale of at least few crore per day, not to mention the loss due to “tips” and the “Sir, chai paanika…” public toilets and other innumerable places in India that are now left mandatory to bribe!

At such a magnitude of loss, the new age “coin” economy becomes a force to reckon with, making its presence felt in every common man’s life. Money is certainly being siphoned away from the pockets of consumers. Where is the money going? Is someone hoarding coins at home or are they melting them to extract the metal for trading?

Money of such magnitude if collectively saved could perhaps be well spent on the needy or to lay better roads or better healthcare and education to the deprived. At the least, families like mine would have bought those expensive onions in the recent past – essential for everyday cooking! Just as every drop of blood matters, so that every currency coin in our bleeding inflationary economy.

Factfile –
http://www.thehindu.com
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Guest Author – Dean Ronnie

Today, we live in a technology-driven society where new gadgets and machines are created everyday; in fact every minute. At the same time, older technologies are forced to die a premature death due to obsolescence. While we are all nostalgic about some good old machines that we grew up with, we rarely bother about reviving them.

Restoring old machines can be a wonderful thing, since it allows you to bring back items from the past right into the future. Sometimes vintage design cannot be bettered; there are many machines from the past that just haven’t been replicated. For those seeking to bring an old machine back to life, there are two options: bringing a machine back to its full working glory; or restoring it aesthetically and use it as a showpiece. Here we take a look at a few examples of machines from the past that can make wonderful restoration projects:

Old Radios

Vintage Radio

Whether it has been passed down the generations or you just spotted it in a second hand sale for a good price, an old radio makes for a wonderful restoration project. Taking you back to the golden age of broadcasting before TVs, video games and the internet, a vintage radio such as Murphy, Bush, Philips features superb vintage appeal. It is up to you whether or not you restore it back to working condition or not, but even if you don’t, restoring the outer of a vintage radio makes for a great antique to be displayed in your home.

If you do choose to restore the radio electronically, there are a number of things to look out for. These include replacing tolerance resistors, repairing any ripped speaker cones, cleaning and lubricating any mechanisms. While this all may sound daunting, there are hundreds of guides and videos available on the internet for your assistance.

Vintage Sewing Machines

Singer Sewing Machine-Odin’s_raven

Although modern sewing machines are easily available and are much more effective, there is just something about a vintage sewing machine. Whether you want to restore a vintage one to put it to use or you just want to use it as a showpiece, there many options available.

If you don’t have one already, the best place to find a vintage sewing machine is by asking friends and relatives; they might have one hidden away in their garage or attic. If not, there are plenty to be found among newspaper classified ads, the neighbourhood scrap dealer and of course, the internet. Major sewing machine manufacturers to look out for include Usha, Nagpal, Singer and also imported ones like Jones & Frister and Rossmann & Bradbury.

If you are purchasing a sewing machine, don’t rush into buying a machine that shows signs of a hard life. Check the underside and look inside the covers and doors. Any chips to the paint, rust or missing parts are all signs that the sewing machine will need a lot of work to get it back to its best. If you plan to use it, you may have extra work on your hands to get it moving again that will involve dismantling it, removing the rust from the parts and then giving it a thorough clean. Never use common lubricants such as WD-40 as these will harden over time and will collect dust and lint, and can also gum up the metal gear driven parts.

Motorcycles

Yezdi Classic | Sandeep K Ram

There is nothing quite like riding a classic! Once you are astride a vintage motorbike from the past such as Yezdi Roadking, Royal Enfield Bullet, or Triumph, you will be immersing yourself in history. A large part of the fun with riding a classic motorbike is taking something that has fallen into disrepair and resurrecting it. For many like me, working on a restoration project is as much fun as actually riding the bike itself.

Even if you don’t plan to ride the bike, if you have the room, a vintage bike can make an excellent addition to your garage as a showpiece. Of course if you do plan to ride it, restoring the bike to roadworthy condition will be no overnight process, as you find yourself taking the bike apart piece by piece. As part of the restoration process, you will need to fully inspect every inch of your bike. Check for cracks, holes, rusting parts; check every fixture and fitting, and be sure to test all electrical components. Serious attention to detail is needed as one loose bolt could cause a breakdown.

While spare parts for vintage motorcycles can be hard to come by, advances in technology mean they can be reproduced in certain cases. Using processes such as rotary swaging, specialist engineering companies have recreated parts for motorbikes from as far back as the 1920s.

Push Lawnmowers

Lawnmower | CubaGallery

The basic design of hand-push lawnmowers has changed very little since they were first invented in 1830. With a gear wheel connected to a rear roller featuring a cylinder of sharp cutting blades, the design of these machines is incredibly simple. Using a scissor like action, the blades cut against a bottom blade for a very precise cut.

As they were built to last a lifetime and were often engineered using high grade materials, these lawnmowers can be repaired and brought back to working order. Once refurbished, a push lawnmower will require little maintenance aside from little greasing, cleaning and blade adjustment. Since they are entirely manual, they are harmless to the environment, save you money on electricity and are also great exercise. Even if you don’t actually plan to cut your grass with these lawnmowers, refurbishing them can give you a great showpiece for your garden, which taps into the trend of upcycling.

Factfile –
flickr.com/sandeepkram
flickr.com/odins_raven/
flickr.com/cubagallery