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A common accessory to modern living like the fridge can make a huge difference to hungry and poor on the street as an innovative experiment in Jaipur shows. Rekha Pal reports Sometimes a small idea can result in big results and make a difference to a whole lot of people. A community fridge for the poor in Jaipur, Rajasthan's Pink City, is one such. A first of its kind initiative in India, some colonies- both posh and middle-class, in the city have put togeth- er a simple yet innovative idea to make a difference to the underprivileged and saving them from hunger pangs. People looked curiously when recent- ly a 450 litre refrigerator was placed in the city's Mahesh Nagar locality which can store food for at least 400 people. A fridge in urban homes is almost an essen- tial item today. The same facility, unavailable to the poor, can change the way they live and eat. The core idea is that residents of the area would leave their surplus or leftover food in this fridge everyday, which would then be distributed amongst the poor and the needy next day. The simple idea is to make people understand that the surplus food, which we often throw away can be easily stored in the community fridge, which can then be distributed amongst the poorest of the poor after a proper quality check. This way the food is not wasted and the needy would not have to starve. Foods vans have been pressed into service to collect the eatables and transport them to areas where there are poor people. Annakshetra Foundation, which has been working in this field for over four years now, took the initiative to launch this new mission to stop food wastage and bridge the gap between wastage of surplus food and those who do not have enough to buy food. Says Vivek Agarwal, heading the foundation: "Our sin- gle-minded belief is that nobody should sleep hungry. We have been collecting surplus food from weddings and social gatherings, restaurants, caterers and distributing amongst the poor. The food is generally distributed amongst people like labourers, rag pickers, waste collectors etc. who do not have enough money to buy food. Since most functions are held at night, our two vans collect food after the functions are over." Agarwal says that people of various residential associa- tions, who came in contact with them and had seen and appreciated their work thought up of this unique initiative of community fridge and wanted to be a part of this social cause. "The vans usually had duty during the night; we thought why not utilize vans in the mornings as well." The vans can be used to collect surplus food from the community fridge placed in various residential colonies in the mornings. People can keep their leftover and surplus food in the fridge after all their meals are over. "The food would be distributed only after medical and food experts check the food quality and certify in writing if the food is fit for consumption." The foundation has plans to install ten more such refrig- erators across the city. The only requirements include a proper place for placing the fridge, electricity connection and also security to guard the fridge, which the resident associations have promised to provide. The approximate cost for installing the refrigerator is about rupees one lakh, the maintenance of which has to be done by the residents themselves. Some banks, schools are also interested in getting these fridges installed outside their premises . Residents of Jaipur have a tradition of feeding animals and birds, especially cows, and also give food to beggars at the temples. Most people now think the fridge is a pioneer- ing idea to help the deprived class. Says Navha Sisodiya, a resident of Mahesh Nagar area : "It is a unique initiative to work towards zero wastage of food and to help the poor. We throw away surplus food or give it to dogs and other animals but now we can store it up for needy people." Agarwal says that he had read reports that a person in Saudi Arabia's Hail city had placed a refrigerator outside his house last year and called on neighbours to fill it up with surplus food for the needy. This had set him thinking before he floated the idea before the people, who gladly wanted to put in their resources to help the poor and marginalized. According to the Global Index Hunger, India ranks 55th in the 2014 enumeration, lagging behind Nepal and Sri Lan- ka. Its hunger status is classified as "serious" in the report prepared by the International Food Policy Research Insti- tute and NGOs Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide. Besides, India is home to the largest number of chroni- cally malnourished and stunted children under five. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is designed to compre- hensively measure and track hunger globally and by coun- try and region. It is calculated each year by the Internation- al Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). ? (TWF) Malvika Sharma and Surinder Pal Singh Baby corn was first discovered by Korean botanist Jason H. Ahn in the early 20th century. Baby corn, the newly developed corn, is used as a vegetable in many Asian cuisines especially in China, Thailand and Taiwan. In Thai cook book it is referred to as candle corn. It has a crisp tex- ture and a subtle, slightly sweet corn flavour which adds a special gourmet touch to many dishes and salads. Its miniature size is appealing, and has delicate sweet flavour, taste, colour, and crunch. It is also gaining fast popularity in Indian market as it can be eaten raw and included in diet in number of ways as salads, chutney, vegetables, pickles, pakora, soup, kheer etc. During the last one and a half decade baby corn has emerged worldwide as one of the high value crop due to its high nutritive value and exotic taste. Baby corn is highly nutritive and its nutritional quality is superior to some of seasonal vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, and tomato and hence can be good dietary supplement. It con- tains 89.1 per cent moisture, 0.2 g fat, 1.9 g protein, 8.2 mg carbohydrate, 0.06 g ash, 28.0 mg calcium, 86.0 mg phos- phorus and 11.0 mg of ascorbic acid. It also contains small amount of vitamin B-complex and vitamin E. Yellow baby corn, in particular, is abundant in carotenoids, zeaxanthin and lutein, which keep eyes healthy that may help prevent coronary artery disease, certain cancers, and cataracts. It is also free from residual effects of pesticides, as the young cobs are wrapped up within the husk and well protected from diseases, insects, fungicides and insecticides. In addi- tion to high nutritional value as human food, another ben- efit of baby corn lies in utilizing husk, silk, and stover as green herbage for feeding ruminants and swine. It is used as main source of calories in fodder and feed formulation. The corn gives the highest conversion of dry substance to meat, milk and eggs as compared to other cereals. Baby corn is a money-making crop and farmers can boost their income in a short period by cultivating this crop. Besides being a profitable crop can also become a compo- nent of diversification as the crop duration is of only about 60 days as compared to the 110-120 days duration of the grain crop. To achieve the objective, they are required to be equipped with the cultivation technology of this crop. Production of this vegetable is an intensive task. It can be grown either as a primary crop (all ears are harvested for baby corn) or as a secondary crop (the top ear is left to mature for sweet corn or field corn while subsequent ears are harvested as baby corn). The decision whether to grow baby corn either as a primary crop or as a secondary crop will influence variety choice, planting density, and fertiliz- er rates. New baby corn growers can adopt secondary crop system to avoid market risks. For commercial production the variety should have cer- tain additional attributes. In baby corn ideal plant should bear at least three cobs with good quality, proper size and shape. Any corn cultivars can be used for baby corn pro- duction. Synchronization in cob emergence reduces the cost of harvesting and storage. Therefore, for commercial cultivation of baby corn, the variety should preferably be a single cross hybrid. In addi- tion, the ear quality should be the primary objective when selecting a variety than yield. Baby corn is hand-harvested one to two days after silk emergence, while the ears are still immature. The ideal ear size is two to four inches long and 1/3 to 2/3 inches in diameter with regular row arrangement that depends on the variety, population density and the cropping season. The most preferred colour by the consumers and exporters is generally creamish to very light yellow. Frequent harvest after every two to three days is necessary because ears can quickly become too large and tough to be sold as baby corn. Young cobs should be picked in the morning. The harvest period can last two to four weeks. By the best production practices, a hybrid variety of baby corn can give 6-8 tones per hectare of husked cobs with 15-20 per cent recovery of de-husked tender cobs. Besides cob yield, 25-35 tones per hectare of green plant yield can also be obtained which can be used as fodder and green manur- ing and may result in good profit to farmers. Fresh baby corn is highly perishable in hot weather. For every 5°c increase in pulp temperature sugar breakdown to starch doubles, meaning that baby corn can completely lose fla- vor in a short period of time. Hence growers are suggest- ed that cultivation of baby corn be taken in areas near to main market or having proximity to tourist places. The success of the crop could also help to boost the econ- omy of the local farmers and even the urban people through kitchen gardening can earn good marginal returns by fol- lowing such crop which needs less input but more returns. This can also provide an opportunity for crop diversifica- tion and besides can provide impetus for development of dairy industry. Last but not least the cultivation and pop- ularity of such crop can generate plenty of employment opportunities. Even though there have been many films which have been made on the theme of weddings in Bollywood, there has nev- er been a movie that dealt with the concept of destination wed- ding. This week's release SHAANDAAR is one such film that treads on the never-before attempted theme of destination wedding. Will SHAANDAAR prove to be a goldmine at the box- office or will it be bite the dust... let's analyze. SHAANDAAR starts off with a cartoon animation (flash- back) story narrated by Naseeruddin Shah, wherein he 'intro- duces' the audiences to Bipin Arora (Pankaj Kapoor) and his adopted daughter Alia (Alia Bhatt). The animated narration then moves on to a real life 'accidental meeting' between the wedding organizer Jagjinder Joginder (Shahid Kapoor) and Bipin Arora, when Jaginder's bike crashes into Bipin's car. Bipin is travelling with his wife and two daughters Alia and Isha (Sanah Kapoor) and this is when Jaginder's eyes spot Alia and he falls for her at that very moment. The story then moves to Isha's destination wedding named 'Shandaar' in the exotic countryside of UK. And the man in charge of the entire pro- ceedings is none other than Jagjinder Joginder. The whole wedding is nothing but a 'financial arrangement' (read 'deal') between Bipin Arora's mother aka Dadimaa (Sushma Seth) and the 'richy rich' Sindhi family helmed by Harry Fundwani (Sanjay Kapoor), who wears his 'Sindhi-ism' up his sleeve and also around his neck! The bankrupt Aroras think that the mar- riage with the Fundwani family will get them out of bankrupt- cy. Understanding the 'importance' of her wedding with the Fundwanis, Isha starts to compromise at every step for the sake of her family, despite being endlessly ridiculed by her would-be husband Robin Fundwani and his friends. On the other hand, love starts blossoming between the two insomni- acs Jagjinder and Alia, something that Bipin doesn't seem to approve of. While everybody is really busy with the wedding preparations, Jagjinder and Alia leave no stone unturned in making Isha feel special. During one of the wedding events, the whole family, desperate for veg food, ends up eating hash brownies and mushrooms and get high. It is during this time that Bipin rattles down a startling revelation about his real relationship with Alia. What is the actual relationship between Bipin and Alia, does anyone bother to listen to Isha and her feelings, does Isha ultimately get married into the Fundwani family for her family's sake, what ultimately happens to Jagjin- der and Alia's insomnia and do they find a cure for the same through love, is what forms the rest of the film. The film's director Vikas Bahl, whose last film was the National award winning QUEEN, makes a different kind of film this time. SHAANDAAR has a fairy tale kind of feel to it with lots of VFX, animations, exotic UK locations and big expensive sets. The film is very high on glitz and glamour. It is a larger than life film, with funny and quirky characters (dominating grandmother, scheming mom etc.) and to a large extent, that does the trick for the film. Vikas has extracted good performances from most of his actors. He has also tackled issues such as adoption, family relationships and sacrifice, 'compromised relationships', insomnia and most important- ly one's body size and self-esteem issues due to the same, very smartly. Even though the film does not have a strong storyline, the humorous sequences keep the audiences engaged. The film starts lagging in its second half though but manages to save itself in time. The climax of the film is a bit silly, but it lands up working in the favour of the film. Now for the performances. Shahid Kapoor, who was last seen in the hard-hitting HAIDER, does a complete U-turn with his character in SHAANDAAR. His performance is extremely endearing, affable and loveable. His onscreen chemistry with Alia Bhatt is excellent. He also has a funny jugalbandi of sorts with Pankaj Kapoor in the film. He maintains his youthful charm and grace throughout the film. And it is due to this nat- ural charm of his, this Kapoor lad is bound to make his young fans go weak in the knees. On the other hand, there's Alia Bhatt, who seems to be getting better with every passing film of hers. By now, she has repeatedly proven that how effortlessly she can get into the skin of every character that she portrays. SHAAN- DAAR is no different. Her portrayal of her on screen character Alia will definitely find res- onance with every dreamy eyed girl out there. The veteran actor Pankaj Kapoor is a (refreshing) delight to watch in the film. His chemistry with Shahid is good and extremely natural and believable. Sanjay Kapoor, as the 'over- the-top-and-boisterous' Sindhi is funny. On the other hand, Sanah Kapoor makes a lasting impact with her debut film. The rest of the characters help the film move forward. The music (Amit Trivedi) of the film is enjoyable. The film's music definitely acts as one of the film's highlights. The veter- an cinematographer Anil Mehta does an extremely superlative job in the cinematography department and is hugely respon- sible for making the audiences go spellbound with the film's visuals. SHAANDAAR boasts of excellent production values. The film's dialogues (Anvita Dutt) are simple and lucid which will definitely find resonance with the audience, especially the teenagers, who also happen to be the film's target audience. The film's editing (Sanchari Das Mollick) is good. Though the scenes like 'Mehendi With Karan' and 'Monday-becomes- Tuesday' seemed forcefully added and stretched in the film. The film's highlights include the animation sequences, which sets up the mood and gives it a fairy tale look. Also, the 'qawwali' scene is definitely one of the scenes to watch out for. On the whole, SHAANDAAR is a feel good movie that will make you leave the cinema hall with a smile on your face, despite its flaws. It will mainly appeal to the youth who seem to be the target audience for the film. Courtesy : http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2015 (PAGE-4) TREND HEALTHLINES MOVIE-REVIEW A feel good movie A nutritious food NATURE Dr Masarat jabeen Non-medical Causes of Hair Loss These causes of hair loss usually do not require a doctor's attention and will resolve on their own with time. These include. * Newborn hair loss: Many newborns lose their hair dur- ing the first few months of life, and baby hair is replaced by permanent hair. * Hair loss due to rubbing: Between 3 and 6 months of age, many babies have a bald spot resulting from friction with the crib mattress or pillow. Once your child starts sitting up, any lost hair should return. * Excessive hair force: Vigorous brushing or pulling the hair into tight pony tails or braids can cause it to fall out. Being more gentle with the hair will allow it to grow back. Medical or Pathological causes of hair loss in children Fungal infection of scalp or Tinea capitis: Tinea capitis, commonly known as ringworm of the scalp, is a fungal infection often seen in children. It can show up in a number of ways, but often as scaly patches of hair loss on the head. The patches are usually round or oval. The hairs may be broken off at the surface of the skin and look like black dots on the scalp. If your child's doctor suspects tinea capitis, a microscopic examination can confirm the diagnosis. Treatment usually involves an oral antifungal medicine and use of an antifungal shampoo such as selenium sulfide or ketoconazole to decrease shedding of the fungus. Because ringworm is contagious, your child should be care- ful not to share any objects that touch the head such as hats, pillow cases, hair clippers, or brushes. Early detection and treatment can prevent permanent scar- ring and hair loss. Alopecia areata: Alopecia areata is a non-contagious condition of hair loss thought to be caused by the body's immune system attacking the hair follicles. It is characterized by the sudden appearance of round or oval patches of hair loss. The patches are smooth, without scaling or broken hairs. About 25% of children also have pitting and ridging of the nails. Many have their hair back within a year even without treat- ment, although regrowth is unpredictable and many will lose hair again. For about 5% of children the disease progresses to alopecia totalis -- loss of all of the hair on the scalp. Some of these will develop alopecia universalis -- a total loss of body hair. Treatment consists primarily of corticosteroid ointments or creams applied to the bald area, steroid injections into the scalp and minoxidil . Hair growth may come back in 8-12 weeks. In severe cases oral medicine or light therapy may be needed. Trichotillomania: Trichotillomania is hair loss caused by the child pulling, plucking, twisting, or rubbing his or her hair. The hair loss is patchy and characterized by broken hairs of varying length. Trichotillomania may be triggered by a stressor or anxiety in your child's life at home such as parental divorce or a school stressor. If you notice your child pulling hair, scolding will not likely be helpful. However, counselling to help your child deal with the source of stress or anxiety that triggered the habit may help stop it. Traction alopecia: Traction alopecia is a form of hair loss that occurs when braids or pony tail holders are put in too tightly resulting in loss of hair at the hair line. It may present with inflammed fol- licles at the area of irritation. Telogen effluvium: Telogen effluvium is a condition in which a sudden or severe stress -- such as extremely high fever, surgery, the death of a loved one, a severe injury, or the use of certain prescrip- tion medications -- interrupts the normal cycle of hair growth. The hair follicles stop growing prematurely and enter a rest- ing phase (called the telogen phase). Between six and 16 weeks later, hair sheds excessively, leading to partial or complete baldness. However, once the stressful event is over, full hair growth usually returns within six months to a year. Nutritional deficiency. Though less common, hair loss can be a symptom of defi- ciencies in certain nutrients, including: * Vitamin H, or biotin, one of the B complex of vitamins, which help the body to convert carbohydrates into glucose to fuel the body. * Zinc, an essential mineral involved in numerous aspects of cellular metabolism. It also supports normal growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence With a healthy, varied diet, most children will not experi- ence nutritional deficiencies that lead to hair loss. However, if you suspect a problem, speak to your child's doctor before giv- ing nutritional supplements. Endocrine problems: In some children the cause of hair loss is hypothyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid is underactive and is produc- ing an insufficient amount of thyroid hormones required for regulating metabolism. A diagnosis of hypothyroidism is made by a blood test, and possibly a scan of the thyroid gland. Treatment may involve medication to replace deficient hormones but will depend on a number of factors including: * Your child's age, overall health, and medical history * Extent of the disease * Your child's tolerance for specific medications, proce- dures, or therapies One must remember that there are many reasons for hair loss in children. If you suspect a medical problem, or have any concerns about hair loss, it is important to seek medical advice. (The writer is M.D Dermatology, Venereology and Leprosy, Lady Hardinge Medical college, New Delhi) Hair Loss in Children Hair loss, or alopecia, can be a concern for a child and their parents, whether a child has thinning hair or develops bald spots. The good news is that, with a proper diagnosis, most cases of hair loss can be treated successfully. This article will help you learn about the causes and treatments for hair loss in chil- dren. The causes of hair loss can be divided into phys- iological (non medical) and pathological causes. BABY CORN Food for thought
