An encounter with destiny
NOT until I was back home did I actually realise how serious the whole situation had been... until then, the so-called “120-minute long nightmarish encounter with death”, when my paraglider was trapped in the 132 KV transmission line, remained a matter of sheer thrill for me. Not that I was unaware of what could have been, but I favoured my hunch that even the worst wouldn’t be had enough.

More than today’s bogeyman
After all, the expanding waistlines we see today could be due to body fat’s naturally thrifty streak coming unstuck with TV dinners and sedentary desk jobs, says Alpana Vij.

An encounter with destiny

NOT until I was back home did I actually realise how serious the whole situation had been... until then, the so-called “120-minute long nightmarish encounter with death”, when my paraglider was trapped in the 132 KV transmission line, remained a matter of sheer thrill for me. Not that I was unaware of what could have been, but I favoured my hunch that even the worst wouldn’t be had enough.

It must’ve been 7:30 that morning when, accompanied by a few friends, I left my hotel for paragliding over the Dhelu slope near Jogindernagar, Himachal. It hardly took us 10 minutes to reach the gliding spot on our bikes. Complementing the beauteous morning, the wind condition was fabulously favourable. Owing to my disgust of an unsuccessful day behind me, mine was decided to be the first flight of that morning. My take off was instantly successful. Another second and I’d have declared myself the happiest bird in the sky... but that was not to be! The wind had changed his course; the gust carried me along and I lost my control on the glider. Before I knew I was trapped.

For a brief moment, everything seemed still. Then I could hear distant voices of concern. “Bahut maza aa raha hai, bhaiya”, I had to shout back to an anxious enquiry. However, they had swung into action. It took them 15 minutes to get the power line switched off. I was told I was lucky to be hung on the right wire — the Earth wire. Also, the live wire had incidentally been switched off for maintenance which, if otherwise, would have pulled me towards it from a distance of 4 metres.

While I took in the panoramic view below me, I knew I’d never again experience anything close to it. By now a crowd had gathered. Fortunately, I didn’t have a dumb audience. Not an effort was spared by them in ensuring my safety. It did not take the villagers long to pile up matresses and heaps of hay right below me. Gradually, my initial excitement gave way to tension — more of physical than mental. With encouragement by every passing minute, they did not let my spritis sink. I was hardly scared.

Undoubtedly, there were times when I was forced to explore the risk involved in taking a plunge down the 200 feet height; the torturous time when the harness was sinking deep into my skin, when my left arm ached like hell with the increasing pressure of the strings of the glider I was clinging to, those few but fearful times when I felt I was just about to lose my grasp of the glider, when that age of an hour and a half wouldn’t pass while I was supposed to wait for the rescue team which had decided never to arrive...

Yet the experience did not lack moments when I couldn’t help but laugh at the ironical but extremely innocent behaviour of the onlookers. Apart from spreading a tarpoline, they had arranged a bucket of water for reasons I couldn’t comprehend then. Thereafter, they asked me to spit straight down on the ground which, at first, I felt embarrassed to do; then I tried, but it couldn’t travel even a quarter of the distance. The sight of miniature vehicles, in the traffic-jam on the road adjacent to fields, amused me. And how the people applauded when I slipped my shoes off before climbing down the rope! I had to stall and catch a laugh.

Yes, the arrival of the rescue team had been a cosolation. However, I was utterly dismayed by the realisation that the team was inadequately equipped. I was expected to climb down the rope which was, somehow, slid along the length of the wire to the point where I had been hanging. I could only manage only 150 feet and then suddenly I lost my grip and slipped down the rope. I bruised my hands in the process. Acute pain forced me to let loose the rope and I had a fall that shook me from head to toe. From the moment I touched the ground, I realised I had turned into a celebrity. Fending off the mediapersons, I was rushed to the hospital. The news of the incident had spread like fire through the town. Apart from the officials of almost all the concerned authorities, many of the rural people came to enquire about me. Of course, I wouldn’t have been able to make it without their love and unlimited support.

Appreciatively theirs, I owe them all — a debt of gratitude.

— Aarty Manuja

More than today’s bogeyman

After all, the expanding waistlines we see today could be due to body fat’s naturally thrifty streak coming unstuck with TV dinners and sedentary desk jobs, says Alpana Vij.

Fat is no evil, lard-guzzling monster that lies in wait on your hips. It is a beautifully designed and multi-talented body organ that plays a crucial role in keeping us healthy and happy. Far from despising it, we should learn to love our fat.

So although the chances of us learning to love our fat are slim, it’s time to get things into perspective. You can never be too rich, but you can be too thin.

Fat is an organ. You should think of it as a little bit like the liver. This organ is responsible for managing puberty, fertility and sex-appeal, as well as shoring up our defence against infection. It influences our behaviour , and may even have a say in our mood. So perhaps it’s just as well that fat can be so hard to get rid of.

As organs go, body fat is a strange beast. Instead of being concentrated is one place, it’s spread through the body in a number of locations called depots. Depots are found under the skin (subcutaneous fat), lining your belly, and wrapping internal organs such as your guts and kidneys in an intimate embrace. Scientists are finding that different depots are designed to perform different jobs, from providing a quick-response energy service, to feeding specialised designer fuel to our immune systems. What’s more, the relative sizes of these depots differ between men and women.

Men have less fat in general, up to a fifth of their body weight. The average, healthy woman has more – between one-fifth and one-quarter of her weight is due to fat. Both sexes store most of their fat under the skin, although men store more around their internal organs and belly than women do. A women needs to be good at storing energy to nourish a growing baby. She also needs fat if she wants to be a drop-dead gorgeous , goddess. A young woman’s body fat is placed in strategic places, such as her breasts and hips, rather than her belly.

So why do men tend to store their fat around the middle? Well, some words of comfort for the modern man in despair of his gut. Our male and female ancestors, had different stresses on their systems. Women would need a study supply of energy to support pregnancy and breastfeeding- a role fulfilled by her slow-burning subcutaneous fat. However, men needed an energy store that they could draw on at short notice, out hunting and fighting. To this day, belly fat is laid down and burned up three times faster than subcutaneous fat. So if all else fails, blame your paunch on the Pleistocene.

Scientists are only now discovering how body fat lies at the heart of a of a complex and finely balanced system that helps our bodies run smoothly. Fat keeps tabs on how much energy is stashed away, and decides whether our bodies can afford the expensive luxuries of adolescence, reproduction, and a sophisticated immune system. If energy revenue drops too low, it can prod us into reducing our expenditure and increasing our food intake. The secret of fat’s sweeping powers lies in its ability to communicate by making a hormone called leptin.

Bemoaning your bulges in front of the mirror, you may be tempted to wish that fat had never been invented. But if your wish came true, where would you be ?Chained to your fridge,that’s where. If it weren’t for your fat stores, you would need to eat almost constantly just to stay alive – forget about skipping dinner and carousing all night down the pub. Without a cache of fat to fuel a constant energy supply, you’d be lucky to last more than a day.

Stockpiling your fuel as fat is a stroke of biological genius. High in energy, it’s light and easy to store. And although most of us know that having a bit of fat will tide us over in times of starvation, few appreciate its dynamic role in smoothing out the energy peaks and troughs between daily meals.

It’s the honeycomb structure that bestows body fat with one of its many powers as the ultimate biological bubble wrap. Packed together in elastic tissue, your fat cells pad out your fingertips and eye sockets. They cushion your heels and joints, helping to absorb the mechanical shock of walking. Life without fat would be a bumpy ride. It could also get a bit chilly. Although not specifically designed to keep out the cold, also get a bit chilly. Although not specifically designed to keep out the cold, fat is a fairly good insulator. You’d miss your warm blanket of fat if it weren’t there.

Leptin, in particular, may have many different effects on the brain. Long underrated, fat is a talented manager, book balancer and housekeeper – a Jack-of-all-trades and master of many. So pie and chips all round, then? Fat chance. Although body fat is a highly sophisticated organ, you can have too much of a good thing. As doctors keep telling us, people with too much body fat are more susceptible to coronary heart disease, cancer and diabetes. But making fat the scapegoat is unfair. After all, the expanding waistlines we see today could be due to body fat’s naturally thrifty streak coming unstuck with TV dinners and sedentary desk jobs.

As scientists have only recently started to take in interest in fat, there could be many more surprise in store. Some researchers think it has a say in our mood, behaviour and hormonal responses.

Hated and feared , fat is the modern day bogeyman that scares adults and children alike. Only constant vigilance, diet and exercise, it is thought, will keep this dreadful demon at bay. But it’s time the truth came out.