Mental health – Smile Simi

Yesterday, 10th October was World Mental Health Day.

According to the National Health Mission (India) website…

It is estimated that 6-7 % of the population suffers from mental disorders. The World Bank report (1993) revealed that the Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) loss due to neuropsychiatric disorder is much higher than diarrhea, malaria, worm infestations and tuberculosis if taken individually. Together these disorders account for 12% of the global burden of disease (GBD) and an analysis of trends indicates this will increase to 15% by 2020 (World Health Report, 2001).

One in four families is likely to have at least one member with a behavioral or mental disorder (WHO 2001). These families not only provide physical and emotional support, but also bear the negative impact of stigma and discrimination. Most of them (>90%) remain un-treated. Poor awareness about symptoms of mental illness, myths & stigma related to it, lack of knowledge on the treatment availability & potential benefits of seeking treatment are important causes for the high treatment gap. 

NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMME (NMHP), Government of India

The pool that changed swimming

July 9, 1976 was the turning point of swimming in Karnataka. The swimming pool in Baldwin Girls’ High School (BGHS), Bangalore was inaugurated, and looking back, it definitely impacted competitive swimming in India as well.

Back in the 1970s, there were only a handful of swimming pools in Bangalore for the public. The Corporation Pool at Corporation Circle, a 30 yard pool, was one of the most popular ones. It’s gone now, and buildings occupy the place where it once stood. Kensington Pool, next to Ulsoor Lake, is another old summer time recreation spot, still a sought-after swimming space, especially because it’s a 50 metre pool, ideal for competitive training.

Film shooting at Lokhandwala Circle

6th November 2016: There was excitement at Lokhandwala Township this Sunday morning. Word was out that there were vanity vans parked on the hill slope going up from Lokhandwala Circle. Some ad shoot probably. But no. From security guards, we learnt that Sidharth Malhotra and Jaqueline Fernandez were in the vicinity!

From our home we have a bird’s eye view of Lokhandwala Circle, the activity centre of the township. This is the place for public meetings, protests, festivities and promotions. Earlier that morning, we had seen a group of motorbikes from the Kranti Maratha Morcha, setting out for their planned protest demanding reservation for education and jobs. Even after they left, the crowds around the circle, and the policemen still hung around. It was then that we realised that the “shoot” was going to happen right under our eyes!

From the trial runs, we figured that cars were clearly a part of the shoot. There was one scene shot with the camera mounted on the bonnet of the car.

The camera car

Of pigs and piglets

Babies of all species are cute. Usually not when they’re just born, but after they’ve spent a while outside the confines of their gestational/incubational container). Pigs have large litters so they always make a happy family picture. Minus the father though! There were seven of these little things, six pink and one black, scurring around their mother as she took them out to forage in the grass and green plants, on the slopes of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) campus. Their tails so like the little pigtails we see hanging down from a school girl’s head.

Remembering Ramanujan, and the Bangalore connection

December 22 is National Mathematics Day in India, in honour of the great Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan who was born in Erode on 22 December 1887.

In his short lifespan of 32 years, Ramanujan discovered and rediscovered (things unknown in India at that time, but known in other countries) about 3900 theorems and equations that have mostly been proven correct, and have been the basis for new research around the world. One of his more known magical revelations was that the number 1729 is the smallest number that can be expressed as the cube of two numbers in two different ways. 1729 = 93+103 = 13+123.