It's literally the freedom of script and expression; the one that every novelist seems to be practising. With the explosion of first-time authors on the literary scene, with multiple distributors, plethora of publishers, equivalent writers, needless to say, just as many readers; looks like signing that first copy has become all the more easier. Calling it a good/bad, either/or phenomenon depends on the fence that one's looking from. Meanwhile, there's a literary boom and the banker, the student, the engineer, the programmer are accessing their way to publishing houses.

"My first book of poem Aloft on Wings of Grit was released in 2008 in Chandigarh when I was 15. It's a collection of 28 poems on death, separation, poverty and similar themes," recalls Janhavi Malhotra, Class XII student, Vivek High School. It was neither an uphill task nor a beginner's struggle for breaking that first book barrier. "I did not face any difficulty at all. I used to write these poems in my diary and never thought I'd publish a book. But when everybody did encourage me to try get them compiled, they were published by a non-profit charter." She adds, "In fact, I'm currently working on my next book on poems and short stories." Poetry need not be only dumped on blogs, an act that, by the way, got Aayush Gopal Dawra his collection of poems Playing Flipside out at high school age.

Just like solo exhibitions no more remain a prerogative of artists of experience and repute; writing doesn't fit into the stereotypical 'salt and pepper' image. Where people quote pages of resume, list of achievements, years of experience before being out with a debut novel. "Surprisingly these first timers have the writing skill. And, the boom is mainly due to publishers and distributors who are daring to give a chance to young and even first-time authors," Azeem Ahmad Khan, production manager, Mahavir Publishers, shares. He adds, "There is this one publication that prints minimum three titles per month and together they may have sold 10 lakh copies till now. As far as we are concerned, we are looking for young teen stories that can sell."

While the final decision with many a house rests on in house reviews, there's no escaping the beginners daring to knock at publishing doors. Though Pushpinder Singh, currently studying programming in London, had it easy with his first book; courtesy his mentor. "I started writing at the age of 19 and finally had my book on poems Jinna Handhayian Peeran, released early this year at the age of around 23. It's actually based on human sufferings in today's materialistic world." He adds, "For me, it wasn't tough because I was lucky enough to have Kanwaljit Dhudike as a mentor. Generally it isn't that easy as debut writers have to pay publishers and distributors."

While some even concede that where authors pay, it's their endeavour to market the product, get reviews and sell. Nods Azeem, "A lot of publishers do this, take money and many young authors don't mind paying. But in the end, it's also a risky game. Because publishing is easy, it's the selling that's difficult. Such books don't get reviews in the media." He adds, "It's all a reflection of the circuitous phenomenon; people from all fields are taking to writing and whosoever writes wants to become an author." Guess, that sums up!

manpriya@tribunemail.com

Kabbadi -the traditional, rustic game is the theme of this new Punjabi flick being produced in the region called Kabbadi Ik Mohhabat. The cast of this movie released the music at Press Club-27 on Saturday.

A lot of known Bollywood singers have given their voice of the movie, Oscar award winner Sukhwinder Singh, Uditya Narayan, Mika, Labh Janjhua, Sadna Sargam, Mamta and Shipra. The lyrics of the film are written by Upinder Pal Wariach, Manpreet Tiwana, Sham Balkar and Garry Grewal. With five songs in the album, Hausle buland is the theme song sung by Sukhwinder Singh, Kabbadi khed hai Punjabiyan di is by Mika.

The screenplay and dialogues of this movie are written by known Punjabi actor and comedian Rana Ranbir.

The film revolves around the game of Kabbaddi with romance, comedy, action and drama woven around.

The film's main cast includes Dev Kharoud, a known theatre artist, Hashar fame Gurleen Chopra, Punjabi cinema's known face Guggu Gill, Deep Dhillon, and Punjab's one of the favourite comedian Gurpreet Ghuggi. Kartar Cheema, Balkaran Brar, Rajesh Sharma and Gagan Gill are some of the new faces introduced by the film.

The film is produced by a new young team under the banner of Jattitude Entertainment, a new venture of Patiala's young producers like Bobby Sidhu, Avneet Kakku, Vikas Puri and Gaurav Sandhu. The movie is being directed by Gurinder Dimpy, a well known Patiala based experienced director. — TNS

‘Visionary gurus, saints and sages had been influencing the lives of the people and society with their inspiring utterances as enshrined in holy epics or books. But it is imperative to know, analyse and imbibe those ideals for leading a peaceful life," observed author Harsimrat Kaur whose fourth book Parvar-e-Sarbans Dani was released at Punjab Kala Bhavan under the aegis of Punjabi Lekhak Sabha.

The city-based author Harsimrat, a postgraduate in Punjabi and History, like any aspiring poet, started her literary voyage with poetry book Koonaj de Bol and later Sandali Dhaghe… But the urge for meaningful literary creations aimed to serve the society you live in grows as one grows in life. That holy spirit of commitment inspired her to sculpt a book Darghah Parvaan Darvesh documenting the life history of 36 saint poets and guru sahiban whose divine words are enshrined in the holy Guru Granth Sahib.

Her latest book, released by Punjab Arts Council vice-chairperson Harvinder Singh Khalsa, is dedicated to the eternal glory of Guru Gobind Singh whose supreme sacrifices must be emulated by young generation lost in drugs. 

The International Institute of Fashion Technology (IIFT) Mohali organised a fresher's party at Chandigarh Ashok, near open hand monument, Zirakpur road on Friday. Students from different streams like fashion designing, garment manufacturing techniques GMT, apparel merchandising AMM and post graduate students had a ball of a time dancing to glory.

Students showcased their talent and innovation through fashion show on the theme Bollywood 1960's and played different entertainment games like treasure hunt , talent round and solo dance performance. —TNS

It's a vicious circle where the first negative factor leads to the second, and so on till the circle is complete. If the child is obese, he will find it difficult to participate in any physical activity for long, resulting in more weight gain and thereby making the child prone to lifestyle diseases like hypertension, increased levels of cholesterol and diabetes at an early age.

The situation is grim in the urban areas, since children's intake of junk food is more and physical activity is far less. A survey recently conducted by Edusports, a sports promoting company, claimed the same. It asserted that 25 per cent children above the age of eight in urban India are obese.

Says Sunita Malhotra, senior dietician, PGI, "The number of obese children in the next few years will increase further if necessary lifestyle changes are not introduced in time. We can't shut down the fast food joints operating in the city and that leaves us with the only choice of planning children's diets."

She holds junk food responsible for obesity in children. It's a fad to have a pizza, pasta, sandwich or Chinese cuisine. "For children, it's a status symbol to get some international dish in the tiffin box. They certainly don't want to carry a chapatti with some vegetable. Thus the mindset needs to be changed to develop healthy eating habits in kids."

Made of refined floor and trans-fats in huge quantities, junk food do not provide enough energy to children to aid them participate in rigorous physical activities. Informs Madhu Sharma, senior dietician, RD, GMCH-32, "Children love to have soft drinks. These empty calorie drinks do provide energy for some time but don't have any nutritional value. Instead, in some cases they may even cause osteoporosis (weakening of bones)."

Aggressive marketing by food joints and option of home delivery make children prefer junk food to home-cooked meals.

Packaged food is as good or bad as the junk food. "Though on every packet of potato chips, it's mentioned that they don't contain any trans-fat, it isn't true. Trans-fat is a chemical reaction that the oil undergoes after cooking food in the same oil. It's not feasible for manufacturers to cook a packet of chips in fresh oil," informs Madhu.

She adds that children devoting a lot of time to TV viewing and playing games on the computer are at a higher risk of gaining weight. "Junk food is also known as the convenient food because parents need not cook to feed their children. Also, they get so addicted to TV and computer that they don't seek parent's attention, both factors lead to weight gain. Parents' role is thus indispensable," she says. Madhu suggests that parents from time to time should meet dieticians to know what should comprise their child's diet to maintain the required weight.

The increasing number of queries in gyms about weight loss programmes for school- going children also indicates that obesity is on the rise. Says Gaurav Sanotra, manager, Elemention Club, "There are no such programmes for kids but we do offer them the option of indigenous activities meant for children to burn calories the healthy way." He adds that joining a gym can lead to the weakening of joints in children, which means the only way to counter obesity is right diet and a lot of physical activity.

ashima@tribunemail.com

Weekend was once considered to be an outdoor fun break from a stressful week, but a recent study has revealed that the sedentary lifestyle is taking its toll on outdoor activities. The research talks about children spending excessive time in from of a TV or computer screen rather than indulging in outdoor activities.

"A sedentary lifestyle has become one of the major public health problems in developed countries", said Juan P. Rey-Lopez, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR). "During the week, one-third of teenagers said the watched more than two hours of television per day. At weekends, this figure exceeds 60%", he added further.

The study analyzed the prevalence of sedentary behaviour in 3,278 adolescents (1,537 boys and 1,741 girls aged between 12.5 and 17.5) in 10 European cities. The teenagers indicated the amount of time they spent in front of the television, computer and games consoles, the amount of time spent connected to the Internet and the amount of time spent studying outside school hours.

The researchers also studied the availability of computers, televisions and consoles at home and in teenagers' bedrooms, and their impact on whether they watched too much television (more than two hours per day). "Our findings support the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics not to put televisions in teenagers' bedrooms, in order to reduce the amount of time they spend watching the television", says Rey-López.

He said that keeping a games console or television in the bedroom triples the risk of exceeding the health recommendations to not spend more than two hours per day watching television. The results are published in the July issue of the journal Preventive Medicine. — ANI

An Australian study has revealed that the longer someone stays away from work, the worse his or her health becomes. The report presented in Adelaide by the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine said the biggest health risk posed by workplace injuries is not returning to work quickly enough. The tendency towards a sedentary lifestyle after a workplace injury, and the loss of identity and social status produced by long-term worklessness, massively increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and suicide.

The risks associated with not working were higher than working in the most dangerous construction or forestry occupations and were equivalent to smoking multiple packets of cigarettes daily, contributing to elevated mortality rates. "Not working for long periods of time is one of the greatest known risks to public health," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted the co-author of the report Dr Robin Chase.

"It reduces life expectancy to a greater extent than cardiovascular disease. For example, suicide among young men out of work for more than six months increases 40-fold. It increases six-fold among the population more generally," Chase said.

Conversely, workers who return to work soon after suffering an injury have far better health. The authors of the report found that many people with mild to moderate musculoskeletal problems, such as back pain, were being wrongly certified unfit fit for work for long periods.

This was despite the fact that most of these health conditions could be accommodated in a willing workplace with the right support. "When doctors give people a script for medication they'll weigh the side effects against the benefits," the other co-author of the report, Dr Mary Wyatt, said.

"But we don't do that when time off work is proscribed. After all, people take holidays all the time right? But there are side effects and they are quite profound. "We need a community approach - it's the guys down the pub who need to say: 'What do we need to do to help you get back to work mate?' and the doctor working hard with workers to figure out a solution," she stated. — ANI

Deposition of fat in the arteries of the heart is the principal reason of coronary artery disease. Presently, state of the art treatment facilities are available for the cure of the blockage caused by this deadly disease. However, these methods are not only invasive and costly; they do not prevent its recurrence. A very common inquiry from the cardiologist treating the patients of coronary artery disease is regarding the reversal of the obstruction of the coronary arteries. Patients wish to know if the disease could be reversed by any therapy or if there is any treatment.

Most of the patients who suffer from this dreadful disease are not aware of its presence. In one study, it was found that as many as 60% to 85% patients who die of a sudden heart attack did not get any warning sign or symptom. Another significant inference had been that the majority of the heart attacks occur in patients who suffer from mild atherosclerosis. Most of these fatal events are caused by rupture of these mild fatty deposits. Such mild atherosclerosis is extremely common. By an estimate, 20 to 40 per cent of United States middle-aged population is suffering from mild atherosclerosis. Discovering methods to detect early mild atherosclerosis or stabilizing the fatty deposits to avoid rupture would be the best solution of this disease.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle by quitting smoking, effective stress management program, regular exercise and eating heart healthy diet help in reversing atherosclerosis. In recent years, it has also been observed that atherosclerosis could be reversed by keeping blood cholesterol at an acceptable level and lowering intake of refined sugars as well as saturated and trans fats. Drugs, which help in reducing the atherosclerotic burden on the vascular system, are available. These drugs are known as statins and many angiographic clinical trials have demonstrated their effectiveness in reducing the fatty deposits in the arteries of the body. The salutary effect of this is not only reduction in the risk of heart attack, but also of stroke, peripheral vascular disease, eye disease and kidney dysfunction.

The key to reverse heart disease is restraint. It is important to curtail those calories rich snacks with high content of saturated and trans fats. Lipid lowering drugs do have an important role to play in this regard and must be taken with recommendations from the doctor. The good news is that coronary-artery blockages are not irredeemable and a healthy diet, drugs and a good exercise programme can reverse the atherosclerosis.

(The writer is a city based cardiologist.)