Panchkula, January 11
A four-member group study exchange team from Rotary District 6110 Arkansas, USA, visited the Rotary Club, here today. The group members — Mr P. Larry Long (team leader), Mr James Smith, a banker, Ms Angie Dowell, a teacher and Mr Jake Labert, a builder — were full of praise for the work being done by the host club.

The president of the club, Dr J.K. Kakkar, president-elect, Mr Parveen Goel, Secretary, Mr Sandeep Aggarwal, Mr Mohinder Nandwani and Mr Pardeep Aggarwal escorted the team to various ongoing projects of the Rotary Panchkula.

They visited the Rotary Vocational Training Centre, wherein they saw literacy classes, beautician classes and sewing and embroidery classes for poor children and girls in progress.

The visitors were shown the Saket institute for the physically challenged, which is a regular project of the Rotary Panchkula. The inmates were given fruit by the club. The team enjoyed a table tennis game with the physically challenged.

It appreciated the efforts by the Rotary Panchkula to impart not only skills but also education to the street children. They promised to help the community through the Rotary Panchkula with medical equipment like the MRI, ultrasound and X ray machines free of cost.

Chandigarh, January 11
Spring is the only time in a year to celebrate life. Literally. And now a six-year study conducted by Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, substantiates the "high-on-life feeling" all-pervasive at spring time when nature is a splash of colour and the weather is "just perfect".

Contrary to this, summers are the worst time when it comes to mood disorders. The high temperature, the blazing sun and the "loo" together have a very negative influence on the mind and that's when more people contemplate suicide.

While mood disorders, based on the number of patients visiting hospitals and bed occupancy, were at their peak from May to July, neurotic patients sought psychiatric help in August and September.

"The winters, beginning December, are generally associated with depression, a time where an individual will sit alone and brood over his problems. This practically leaves spring to be less problematic to patients with psychiatric illness,"says Dr Gurvinder Pal Singh, senior lecturer at GMCH-32, who has been associated with the study from the start.

The study is unique in the way that it is the only one to have investigated the influence of season on mood disorders, schizophrenia, neurotic disorders and substance abuse. "We also found that schizophrenic patients and substance abusers peaked in particular months, 
though no clear trend in the six-year data at our disposal was visible,"he maintains.

"The point our study intends to make is that when a patient says he feels low during a particular time of the year, we must give weight to his judgement. So, a psychiatric patient's report of being affected by a season, month or weather should be valued,"he added.

The study carried out jointly by Dr BS Chavan, Professor and head of the Psychiatry Department, Dr Priti Arun, a Reader, and Dr Ajeet Sidana, a lecturer, all from GMCH, along with Dr Gurvinder Pal Singh, suggests that hospitals should make more manpower available to deal with increased patient flow and make more beds available for the mentally ill during these peak months.

"We organised a data-based study in which over 12,000 psychiatric patients were studied from 1999 to 2004. We studied bed occupancy and seasonal index. We even sought the help of the met office for data on weather conditions to arrive at our conclusions," he stated.

So, next time when your spirits are dipping in summer months, be sure to look out of the window. The shining summer sun and the above normal temperature could be 
to blame.

Chandigarh, January 11
The next four days will once again be exciting when the second leg of the premier division also known as ‘Tier I’ of the ongoing Premier Hockey League (PHL) begins from Thursday at the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium. There was a break of three days for ‘Tier I’ matches.

On the first day, last years’ runners-up Sher-E- Jallandhar will take on defending champions Hyderabad Sultans.

The real ‘lions’, led by Indian skipper Gagan Ajit Singh, will have to prove themselves as with zero points, their morale is low.

They have the most experienced hockey players but still due to lack of team effort and cordination, the spark is missing.

Hyderabad Sultans, led by Dilip Tirkey, has the top line-up of Jorge Lombi (Argentina), Shakeel Abbasi (Pakistan) and Vikram Pillay. The dark horse of the previous week, Didar Singh, who did a hat trick will be the darling of the crowd.

Jallandhar’s challenge will be spearheaded by Gagan Ajit Singh, Mohammad Saqlain (Pakistan), Pau Quemada (Spain) and Bevan Hari (New Zealand).

On January 13, this week’s top ranked Maratha Warriors which has players like Dhanraj Pillay, Viren Rasquinha and Shivendra Singh, the star of the last week, will cross swords with another spirited team — Chandigarh Dynamos — the team that played only one tie last week but gave scintillating performance.

It has the likes of Rajpal Singh, Deepak Thakur and Sandeep Singh among others.

Coming Sunday would feature Chandigarh Dynamos playing their second match of the week against Bangalore Lions in the last tie of the second leg of the Tier I.

The kind of public response to hockey has brought cheers to the hockey fraternity and also a surprise for the sport lovers.

Never before in Chandigarh, such a large number of fans have assembled on daily basis.

Many of them have made it a routine to come to Sector 42 stadium either in the morning hours or in the evening. Many Some also bring their children to introduce them to hockey — our national game.

Meanwhile, the main goal scorers of the last week in Tier I matches were Didar Singh-Hyderabad Sultans (3), Shivender Singh -Maratha Warriors (2), Adnan Zakir- Maratha Warriors (1), Deepak Thakur-Chandigarh Dynamos (1), Hemant Ghete, Maratha Warriors (1), Jordi Quintana-Bangalore Lions (1), Rajpal Singh-Chandigarh Dynamos (1), Rehan Butt-Bangalore Lions (1) and Shakeel Abbasi-Hyderabad Sultans (1).

Chandigarh, January 11
Tejinder Kaur and Harpreet Singh, both from Chandigarh, have passed the Referee Board Certificate Examination of the Throwball Federation of India. The examination was held in Hyderabad recently. According to Mr P.S. Bar, general secretary of the Amateur Throwball Association of Chandigarh, this will help promote throwball in the city.