Shweta Taneja | Shweta Taneja

September 6, 2016September 6, 2016

The djinn-saints of Delhi

There’s a djinn that lives next to the Feroz Shah Kotla cricket stadium in Delhi. His name is Laat Waale Baba (The Pillar Saint) and he’s older than the stadium and older than the British rule. Some whisper he’s even older than the city-fort which was built by Sultan Feroz Shah Tuglaq in 1356, after whom the stadium is named. Laat Waale and his assistants, thousands of other minor djinns, live in the skeletons of the once royal city. And they live royal lives. For they get a heap of letters and coins and prayers and fruits and sweets from worshippers every week.

Come Thursday, be it sweltering hot or bone-chilling cold, hundreds of worshippers gather around the Minar-e-Zarreen, a 13.1 meter high, polished sandstone pillar that stands in the middle of the ruins. The pillar, which is believed to be the pathway for the djinn and his minor army, is surrounded by a protecting grill put up by the Archeological Survey of India who maintain the Tuglaq ruins. The worshippers stretch their arms through the grill, futilely to try and touch the pillar, their hands full of letters, photocopies and hope. After the trial to touch, they kiss the grill and tie up these letters, full of prayers. They even bring photocopies and photographs so they can post multiple letters to multiple minor djinns in case one of them is not heard. All letters are full of prayers and pleadings, asking for a wish or hoping the senior djinn or one of the minor ones will help them in matters of the heart, or marriage, of wealth or of health. Some even bring their possessed relatives for exorcism in ruined caverns with bats hanging upside down in the dampness, witnessing the thrashings and shrieks.

A worshipper whispered to me that a hundred years ago, under the British rule, these ruins were haunted by ghosts and pretas and thugs and tantrics and dogs and bats and the Pillar djinn wasn’t a saint. He turned into one post Independence when partition changed the dynamics of the capital city. That’s when, people, maddened by grief of what humans could do to other humans, left with no hope and no other saints or gods, crawled to the ruins, clutching letters of hope. They turned to djinns when they saw the worse in human nature. For they hoped that djinns, who according to Islamic mythology live for centuries and are made of smokeless fire, might know something about life and dignity that humans forget. Continue reading “The djinn-saints of Delhi”

September 2, 2016July 25, 2016

Eating fat is good for you

Dietitians and nutritionists agree with your grandmother: ‘Ghee’ and oil are good for vitamin absorption as well as the muscular and skeletal systems

Think you’re living healthy by avoiding fats? Think again. The 2015 dietary guidelines issued by a panel of nutritionists in the US for the agriculture department earlier this year have recommended adding an egg or two in your everyday diet to keep type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease at bay. Fat, the recommendation proves, is suddenly fashionable.

“Our body needs a certain amount of fat to function since it can’t make triglycerides, cholesterol and other essential fatty acids on its own,” says Seema Singh, chief clinical nutritionist and head of department, Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. The breakdown of fats provides energy, helps in growth, immunity, reproduction, and protects organs. Fat also helps proteins do their job and stores certain fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K, explains Singh. The National Institute of Nutrition and the Indian Council of Medical Research recommend an equal ratio of saturated fatty acid (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acid (Mufa), and polyunsaturated fatty acid (Pufa) in oil. “Rotate vegetable oils, ghee (clarified butter) and butter in your daily diet and consume two teaspoons every day if you’re an adult with ideal body weight,” says Singh.

For those who like adding a dollop of ghee to their rotis, there’s more news. A paper published in 2014 in the journal Annals Of Internal Medicine, which analysed existing cohort studies and randomized trials on coronary risk and fatty acid intake, found no evidence of a direct relation between saturated fats and cardiovascular disease. Another study, published in the Open Heartjournal in February, found that diet guidelines which have been in force in the US and UK for over 20 years now, recommending people reduce dietary fat consumption to 30% and saturated fat content to 10% to cut the risk of heart disease and death, are not based on scientific evidence.

“I have never recommended fat-free diets for any patient,” says Suvarna Pathak, a dietitian and nutritionist coordinator at Mumbai’s Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital who has been providing diets to patients for 23 years. “Fat is important for smooth metabolism, vitamin absorption, lubrication of joints, the working of our muscular, skeletal and organic systems, absorption of vitamin D and strengthening of muscles and bones. Even the functioning of heart muscles needs fats,” she adds. In Pathak’s experience, even patients with cardiovascular or liver disorders shouldn’t be barred from fats, for these help essential body functions. She recommends 10-15% of the total calories consumed every day should come from fat sources like eggs, nuts, oil, fish and cheese.

Of course, there’s fat and there’s bad fat. Trans fat, made when natural-occurring fat sources are processed, give nutritionists the heebie-jeebies. “Trans fats and refined oils, and oils that are polyunsaturated like sunflower, are refined through chemical processes, which make them rancid and toxic if used at higher smoke points,” explains Madhuri Ruia, a Mint columnist and fitness and nutrition professional who heads Integym in Mumbai. Fat is good if had from natural sources, she says.

Avocado

This fruit is high in Mufa, a heart-healthy fatty acid, dietary fibre and phytochemicals, according to a study published in theNutrition journal in 2013. “This fruit has 75% fat, but it is Mufa,” says Mumbai-based dietitian and sports nutritionist Deepshikha Agarwal. She recommends having it once a week. “Add a slice to a sandwich, salad, or even desserts,” she says.

‘Ghee’

Ghee made from cow’s milk has been used in India as an essential Ayurvedic therapeutic agent and a cooking oil.

According to a paper by the National Dairy Research Institute in Karnal, published in the Indian Journal Of Medical Research in 2012, cow ghee decreases the activation of cancer-causing carcinogens in the liver. “Ghee decreased the activities of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP1B1 and CYP2B1, responsible for activation of carcinogen in liver,” the study states.

“If used in moderation, it prevents cardiac disease and reduces bad cholesterol,” says Singh. Around 5-10g of ghee every day provides not only saturated fat but also vitamin A, boosts libido, and results in brighter skin and a healthy gut. “Have one teaspoon daily to keep up your energy and fat requirements,” says Divya Choudhary, chief dietitian, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi.

Egg

“Eggs are high in Mufa and Pufa, which are cardio-protective fats,” says Agarwal.

August 30, 2016September 6, 2016

Neil Gaiman’s handwritten notes

Call me old fashioned, but there’s something in notes that are handwritten. So I salivate after notes of my favourite authors, trying to find bits and pieces of handwritten marvels from them, when they were constructing my favourite books. So imagine my sheer bliss at having discovered Neil Gaiman’s notes on his book American Gods. of that’s been handwritten. Glee.

Initial thoughts about the book

Continue reading “Neil Gaiman’s handwritten notes”

August 26, 2016July 25, 2016

The zero-baggage webapps

Smartphone users are tired of downloading and updating apps. It’s time for businesses to think about Webapps

Gunjan Jain, a Delhi-based media professional, spends most of her time on her iPhone 5s, which has 16 GB space, with no memory card slot to add more. To save battery, she has switched off the auto update feature for the 20-25 apps she has on her phone. She manually updates apps on her phone every month. “Sometimes I have to delete old apps before I can try new ones as there’s no extra space for them on the phone,” she says, wishing there was a simpler solution.

It was storage space issues that made Bengaluru-based Kiran Jonnalagadda, a technologist and founder of HasGeek, a community of technologists, buy a OnePlus 2, with 64 GB extendable space, six months ago. “I’m a heavy app and data user and have over 100 apps on my phone,” he says.

What are Webapps?

Although mobile applications, as we know them, have proved to be quite useful, they’re also inconvenient. The ones you can download on your Android, iOS or Windows 10 smartphone are called native apps. If your phone doesn’t have enough storage space, these apps can become a massive headache. The solution lies in using apps on Web browsers, such as Google’s Chrome or Mozilla’s Firefox, on your phone. Continue reading “The zero-baggage webapps”

August 19, 2016July 25, 2016

7 health boosters from your gym

You may have been working out at a gym for years, but we’re willing to bet you haven’t heard about these little secrets

If you thought you’ve mastered all the techniques of using a dumb-bell, treadmill, exercise bike, stepper, upper body and kinesis stations, think again. New studies show that gym equipment might be able to offer you much more than the usual brawn-building exercises. In fact, hopping on to the treadmill more often can help your memory.

A study published in the Neurology journal in April 2014 found that cognitive skills improve with higher levels of cardiovascular fitness. The study, which tracked 2,747 participants in the age group of 18-30, concluded that those who had exercised at this age had better verbal memory when they were in the age group of 43-55. “Training four times a week has a very positive effect mentally and physically,” says Deepshikha Agarwal, a Mumbai-based sports nutritionist. “Exercise increases blood flow to the brain and triggers nerve cells which, in turn, signal the brain to release new neurons.” According to her, it’s so effective that it can even delay degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

We sifted through studies and asked experts to tell us how equipment in the gym can help elevate your daily workout.

Hop on the rower

“The indoor rower is an effective cardio machine which has gone out of fashion in recent years,” says Shraddha Sheth, vice-president, sales, operations and marketing, Gold’s Gym India. “The rowing workout is a challenging one that targets the entire body since you have to move both arms and legs simultaneously.” The workout improves cardiovascular and muscular endurance, burns calories like no one’s business and engages the core muscles. Wanitha Ashok, a Bengaluru-based fitness expert, agrees. “Rowing aims at major muscle groups like the legs, arms, chest, shoulders, upper back, abdominals and buttocks, taking them through a wide range of motion, and also helps tone the thighs and buttocks and firm up arms and back muscles,” she says. The rhythmic style helps the body switch to the fat-burning zone. “Within 10 minutes, the body is burning fat and calories, so your workout time is reduced,” she adds. Ashok suggests beginning by rowing for 10 minutes a day.

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Dumb-bells are more effective than push-ups

Want to pump up your shoulders? Dumb-bells might be more effective than push-ups, according to a study conducted by the American Council on Exercise, a non-profit fitness education and research organization. “For an optimal workout, you’re best served doing the dumb-bell shoulder press to target the front of the shoulders,” says Cedric Bryant, chief science officer, ACE Fitness, at Kirkland, Washington, DC, US, over email. He suggests combining that with a 45-degree incline row or the seated rear lateral raise for the rear part of the shoulders. Channa says body-weight exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups are harder to perform. “On the other hand, even with lighter weights, you can gain muscle and strength,” he says.

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Resistance bands add zing

Want to improve muscle strength? Agarwal suggests alternating weights with resistance-band exercises . “Ignored by most people going to the gym, the resistance band is durable, low maintenance and works all parts of the body,” she says. She suggests adding 15-18 sets with different resistance (strength from 1-3) before your cardio workout, or combining it with weight training.

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Boost the core with a Bosu ball

Mumbai-based Vinod Channa, a celebrity trainer and fitness expert, believes people often underestimate and ignore the smaller gadgets in a gym. “Wall slides, Swiss ball, medicine ball, ladder, Bosu ball, battle rope…all of these are very good for improving agility, balance and speed, as well as strength and flexibility.” His personal favourite, something he suggests regularly to his clients, is the Bosu ball. This half-sphere-shaped ball can increase the muscle involvement in squats, push-ups, upper- body movement, shoulder and side press. “When you do the strengthening regime on the floor, you work just one muscle, but add the Bosu ball to the same workout and you’ll also work your core and improve your balance,” he says. Since your core will become stronger, this will help you perform better in other sports and avoid muscle tear and injury. He suggests a mix and match with your current weight training. “Just add Bosu to your regular workout and weight training, for 10-20 seconds maximum in a set, to boost your core,” he says.

Full article over at Livemint.com

August 16, 2016August 12, 2016

A few good Khasi tales

In the beginning of things, there was vast emptiness. God created two beings out of it – Ramew, the guardian spirit of Earth and her husband Basa, the patron god of villages. They had five children, the Sun, the Moon, Water, Wind and Fire. The family provided for Earth, giving it rich soil, fruits and trees and flowers. All it lacked was a caretaker and so God called upon seven families from Heaven and told them to take care of the Earth and planted a divine tree that served as a golden ladder between Heaven and Earth. Every day, these seven families would climb down from Heaven to Earth to till it and cultivate crops. However, soon humans were discontent and began to steal, swindle, cheat and even kill for gain. Angered, God decided to pull up the Golden Ladder and so the seven families were stranded on Earth and had no option but to make it their home.

The story rings true as I look over the endless emerald of the rolling hills of Meghalaya’s Cherapunji-Mawsynram Reserve Forest. We’ve stopped at a roadside tea kiosk to sip on sweetened black tea. For a split second, as you see the sun peeping through laden clouds, you can also see a ladder from the skies to earth, the golden light its beams.

Like this origin myth, Khasi people have many stories. Their language didn’t have a script before the missionaries, when they adopted Roman script.

For centuries, oral stories have carried forward Khasi traditions, their collective knowledge and their ideas, generation to generation. There is a story for everything in Khasi legends. Thunder and lightening, a gigantic boulder that looks like an overturned conical basket, the name of a waterfall, a hill, a forest, a village…everything. They even have a story on how they lost their script. The story goes that once a Bengali and a Khasi scholar had to cross a river. The Bengali tied the books to his hair, while the Khasi put it between his teeth. When crossing, the Khasi, a mountain person, almost drowned. Instinctively he opened his mouth and took a deep breath, swallowing his text by mistake. The Bengali script remained intact. However the Khasi script was lost, though the knowledge remained in people’s minds.

One of my favourite stories is about a dragon spirit called thlen. Legend goes that thlen was born near the village of Rangjyrteh, an abandoned village which stood on top of the famous Dainthlen waterfalls. According to the legend, whenever a group of people passed up their way to the village, the dragon-demon would attack and devour half of them. The only way anyone could escape was to walk alone as the thlen couldn’t devour a half of a single person. The people of the village approached U Suidnoh, a brave and devout keeper of the grove to get rid of the monster.

U Suidnoh befriended the dragon demon by feeding it goat’s flesh daily. After gaining its trust and confidence, he heated a bar of iron in a huge furnace, went to the cave and called out to thlen to open its mouth. When the dragon opened its mouth, he shoved red-hot-iron down his throat. Taken unaware, the thlen violently choked and died. The carcass was cut up and distributed to all for a public feast. A strict instruction was issued that the meat should be ingested at the site and even a single scrap should not be left uneaten as that will allow the monster to spring back to life.

However, an old Khasi woman saved a piece of it to take home for her grandchild. When she reached home, she forgot to give it to the child and lo, the thlen came to life again. In exchanged for sparing her life, the thlen demanded shelter in her house and a regular diet of human blood. It also promised increase of wealth for its keeper. Ever since then, keeping a thlen makes you wealthier, but for that you have to provide sacrifice humans and feed it blood.

It’s a tale that cautions against human greed and private ownership of land. Decades before the government made private land owning possible, the land in Meghalaya belong to the community and not individuals. In case the owner died, within a few years, the land would go back to the community, ensuring that a single person’s greed didn’t destroy the resources meant for all. Something all the more relevant as mining, both legal and illegal, is fast devouring these iron, coal and limestone rich hills, leaving chipped and ravaged empty shells behind.

First published in Discover India. Credit for a few images go to FolksFestival.in

August 12, 2016July 25, 2016

A million ways to read

Share your book, read an unlimited number of them or just pay for one chapter. E-book publishing is becoming flexible in a bid to suit individual needs

Continue reading “A million ways to read”

August 9, 2016July 29, 2016

Gond Ramayani: Ramayan in tribal comic format

I found my first Gond story in a Gond painting exhibition by Indra Gandhi National Centre of the Arts in Bangalore. The series of paintings, in ten by ten feet frames, was a graphic narrative like I’d never seen before. And I was wowed.

It’s Ramayana, I exclaimed, a story I knew, peering to understand the visuals and corroborate it with the story my grandmother had told me ages ago. The story I’d seen again in Ramananda Sagar’s Ramayana TV series which was inspired by the Awadhi text Ramacharitra Manas written by Goswami Tulsidas. However, I couldn’t decipher the visual story. It didn’t collaborate with the Ramayana tale I knew. The one I considered the right one. Curious and fascinated, I contacted IGNCA, started to research on this unusual Gond version, emailed people, called scholars, read books and piece by piece constructed the story that is sung by the bards of Gond, where Ram isn’t the main hero. And so I build up the whole story. Or atleast a version of it. For I’m a storyteller too.

Have you heard the story where Lakshmana is the real hero in Ramayana? And Ram, that ideal husband and king is but a side character who orders his younger brother to fetch his dice for a game and then blames him for trying to sleep with his wife. I hadn’t.

So I’m going to retell one of the Gond Ramayani tales to you.

Continue reading “Gond Ramayani: Ramayan in tribal comic format”

August 5, 2016July 25, 2016

Doctor at your fingertips

Medical apps are proving to be a win-win for both doctors and patients. They provide immediate help and appointments as well as recommendations

In May, Shwetha Narayanan, 33, had a severe throat infection and urgently needed to see an ENT specialist. “I didn’t have any recommendations from friends and when you can’t speak, you don’t really want to wait,” says Bengaluru-based Narayanan.

She opened Practo, a doctor-appointment app, on her phone, read reviews of doctors close to her home, and booked an appointment with an ENT specialist within minutes. Since then, she has used the app multiple times to find specialists, such as a paediatrician for her daughter. “I’ve just taken another appointment with a doctor who has close to 100 reviews on the site,” says Narayanan. “I’ve not had a bad experience till now. If I do, then I might think twice on booking through an app.”

Continue reading “Doctor at your fingertips”

August 2, 2016July 31, 2016

Author Ursula Le Guin on how to start a story

There’s a germ of an idea in your head which craves to be built up into a novel. It urges you to fill copious amounts of empty pages with plot lines, character sketches, scenes and more. All this while, you’ve not written even a single piece of your book. Where do you start? How do you start writing, just like that, start it and continue page after page after page for atleast 150 odd pages? How does the idea, the plot line, the character, the scene come together? I’ve always wondered and pondered and thought about it. It’s a question that doesn’t end even though I’ve started and finished a few novels now. Finally I came across author Ursula K Le Guin’s brilliant advice on how to start a story and had to include it in Witchery of Writing series.

My own experience of starting is different for every story and every book. In my teens and twenties, I made endless enthusiastic starts to dead ends. Gradually I learned that if I got thinking about a place or a situation that felt like there was a story in it, and if I hung on to that place and that situation, put my mind on it, then people and what they’d do (their behavior, the events, the plot) might begin growing out of it. Sometimes quite rapidly, as if the story was actually all there already and just needed to be written. Sometimes only with a long time of pondering, brooding, working it out, making notes, rethinking. Occasionally, as I got more experience, my first glimpse of a story was like seeing a trailhead. What I had to do was start following that trail (in the person of a character) and discover as we went where we were going. (“I learn by going where I have to go.”—Roethke.) I call this “writing the way through the forest,” the same metaphor Karla uses — and I honestly do not recommend it to an inexperienced writer. Continue reading “Author Ursula Le Guin on how to start a story”