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One more H1N1 death
Ramzan feasting cost doubles as dates, meat prices soar
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Refused sex, man kills brother’s wife
Grim social realities bind art in Subcontinent
Still life, portraits, waterscapes — Renaissance flavour in India
Obsessed about sex or cleaning? Visit a psychiatrist
Bypoll: Three in race for Cong ticket from Okhla
Woman roughed up for advising youth to drive slowly
Black magic practitioner rapes customer
Man held for raping maid for 6 months
Spurious desi ghee, tea leaves worth Rs 1 cr seized
Jolly slams Delhi govt for Friday’s chaos
Part of Raisina Road closed
Husband beats wife of one month
to death
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One more H1N1 death
New Delhi, August 23 Dr Randeep
Guleria, professor at department of medicine in AIIMS said, "Rather than wasting much of the crucial time by making rounds of hospitals, patients with severe flu-like symptoms must report to nearest designated government hospital so that the required clinical examination and sampling if warranted can be carried on time." Informed Dr Nitish Kumar
Chaturvedi, medical superintendent of RMLH, the latest fatality of the vial disease in Delhi, a, resident of Panchsheel Park in Delhi, came to RML after days of onset of flu-signs and consulting private practitioners. He said, "The man came to us on August 20 with fever, breathlessness and renal complications, and hence had to be admitted to ICU, but he succumbed last evening due to acute respiratory distress syndrome and pneumonia." His sample test report was yet to come from the
NCDC. At RML, there are two other persons-man in his early forties and woman in her late forties-currently admitted in the ICU and are on ventilator. Hospital sources said both the patients were brought to the hospital on ventilator from private hospitals. Earlier, the H1N1 flu had declared its fatal hold on the national Capital on Thursday with two persons, Samrat Pandya (31 years) and Renu Gupta (38 years) losing the battle against viral infection at RML Hospital. The string of similarity between all these cases is unnecessary delay in reaching the designated treatment
centres. And the very fact that most of the positive cases of the flu that have been reported at the early stages of surfacing of symptoms have been treated and gone back to home, said a nodal officer designate at a government health facility. He added, "The deaths due to H1N1 could have been prevented, if the patients would not have delayed in reaching the designated government treatment facilities." An expert from the Indian Council of Medical Research said till now the PCR testing for H1N1 isolate and Tamiflu procurement have been under the purview of the government to check the indiscriminate prescription , which might enable the circulating virus to develop resistance. But, soon private labs are going to test the samples based on the protocols stipulated by WHO. |
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Ramzan feasting cost doubles as dates, meat prices soar
New Delhi, August 23 Many traders and devotees in the national Capital fear that the soaring food prices, particularly of fruits and vegetables across the country, will make Ramzan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, an expensive affair. The month of fasting begins on Sunday in the sub-continent, except for Kerala, where Muslims began fasting on Saturday. As the month-long festivity begins, which traditionally is one of the highest periods of food consumption among the Muslims, people of the community are wondering if they would be able to enjoy the celebrations with the usual fervour due to high prices. “Last year, I used to get a kilo of imported dates for about Rs 130-150, but today (Saturday) I was told that the same dates now cost Rs 300,” said Anwar, 39, an employee with a private firm. “Ironically, my salary is less as compared to last year while the prices are higher,” he said “What a paradox. It is like killing somebody with a double-edged knife,” Anwar rued, as many like him expressed fear that the global inflationary trends would put added pressure on Muslim families during Ramzan. A stroll down the markets revealed that the prices of fruits and vegetables are high, which sellers as well as buyers said contradicts “media claims” of declining inflation. “Why has the dropping inflation - which is negative these days - not translated into lower food prices,” asked Taha Siddiqui, 21, a student who was stocking up on ramadan necessities at a market. “Meat and chicken prices are up at least 10-20 per cent. Nothing is going down,” she said as she bought a kilogram of mutton for the first sehri - the pre-dawn meal which Muslims take during ramadan after which they refrain from eating or drinking till the sunset. “Look, I bought pears for Rs 80 a kg, half a kg of lemons cost me Rs 35. I didn’t dare to buy apples because they cost Rs 120,” said Siddiqui, who is a student and lives with her family in Abul Fazl Enclave of Okhla village. Fruit and vegetable vendors are also ruing the high prices, which they say has resulted in low sales this time. “Why would anybody buy apples for Rs 120 a kg if they cannot afford it. I have sold just one kilogram of apples since morning. People are not just buying,” said Raashid Khan, a fruit seller. Muslims prefer eating dates for iftar - the first food after the daylong fast - and drink lemon juice to quench their thirst. “I don’t think we can have the luxury of buying lemons every day this year,” Anwar said, adding that even sugar prices have gone up to Rs 30 a kg from Rs 22 last year. The crisis has affected the ramadan budget of many Muslim families. “Ramzan specialties are bound to take a hit,” said Siddiqui and wondered what the government was doing about it.
— IANS |
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Refused sex, man kills brother’s wife
Noida, August 23 The husband of the deceased has registered a case with the Sector-58 police. The police has sent the body for post mortem. According to the police, Putan (25) of Behlolpur village under Sector-58 Kotwali, was living with his wife Kamla (22) and brothers Anil and Anshu. Putan and Kamla got married in May this year. Putan is working at a factory in Sector 63. The incident happened while Putan was asleep. Putan told the police that his brother Anil wanted to establish physical relations with Kamla. He had tried to do this on several ocassions earlier also, he told the police. The police has sent teams to Ghaziabad and Delhi to trace Anil at all bus terminals and railway stations. The Sector-58 police has seized the club and the belt used for the murder. SP (city) Ashok Trapathi said the police teams had fanned out to arrest Anil and he would be nabbed soon.
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Grim social realities bind art in Subcontinent
Gurgaon, August 23 Three video, installation and relay drawing projects are being held at the Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon, one of the country’s biggest private museums of modern and contemporary art. The show will be on till November 1. Leading Bangladeshi painter and performance artist, 40-year-old Mahbahur Rahman uses his body, popular Bangladeshi literature and the bovine (cow) species to convey the increasing Talibanisation of Bangladeshi society and the looming threat of returning to military rule. “Cow, oxen and bovine slaughter pre-occupy me because they symbolise so many things in the Bangladesh like repression of women, exploitation of the poor and the struggle for freedom,” Rahman said. In his performance art project - ‘Transformation’ - a series of five photographs - Rahman performs an interpretation of a popular Bangladeshi play, “Nurul Diner Sara Jibon (The Whole Life of Nurul Din)” by writer Syed Shamsul Haq on beach in Chittagong. He wears giant buffalo horns and a coconut coir mesh. “Nurul Din was a poor indigo farmer during the British rule in Bengal, when indigo cultivators were being tortured by the British agents and local landlords. One day, he takes his young son to till the indigo field, where he works. “Since Nurul has no oxen to till the land - because of the landlords’ meanness- he tells his son to hold the ploughshare while he becomes the human ox to drag it down the field. Weak and hungry, Nurul collapses under the weight of the ploughshare. His son watches in horror as Nurul slowly metamorphosis’s into an ox and moos in agony in a rather Kafkaesque (Franz Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’) manner,” Rahman explains. The photographs, shot by his wife, fellow artist Lipi, show Rahman collapsing under the weight of the giant horns in the surf. In his rather eerie installation-cum-video project, ‘Toys Are Watching Toys,’ Rahman uses the seated figures of 20 burqa-clad Bangladeshi women watching a nikah-cum-wedding ceremony of a couple in progress against a projection of a cow being slaughtered. The masked women - made of black cloth, wood and paper - are dead and look like “ghosts in a funeral”. The bride in black is offset by the bloody black cow being butchered. “Women in Bangladesh are usually uncertain about their fate after marriage. They are fattened and beautified like slaughterhouse cows to be sacrificed at the altar,” Rahman said. Rahman, the founder of Bangladesh’s biggest contemporary arts initiative, Britto Arts Trust, is one of the few artists in the country who lives on art alone. “The rest all have jobs to support themselves because market has not yet made inroads into Bangladeshi art,” he said. Bangalore-based artist L.N. Tallur, known for his new age installations, speaks of “social chains and repression of human freedom across Asia” in his interactive project, ‘The Souvenir Maker’ in which viewers are invited to operate a barbed wire making machine to create souvenirs of golden barbed wires stored in glass milk cans- marked ‘Designed in America, conceptualised in India, Made in China and Sponsored by Korea’. Contemporary Sri Lankan artists Muhammed Cader, Chandragupta Thenuwara, Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan and Jagat Weeasinghe document the civil war, people’s unrest, social disintegration in Sri Lanka in a relay drawing project featuring 100 sketches, ‘The One-Year Drawing Project’, between 2005-2007. “The One Year Drawing Project is one of the most significant art projects to have emerged from Sri Lanka in the recent past. The project seemed to find a way of surmounting the turmoil and civil unrest in the country through its process - that of artists mailing works to each other and allowing each artist to articulate their visual vocabulary over a period of time,” co-owner of the gallery Anupam Poddar, one of the country’s top collectors of contemporary art. “We were extremely keen on bringing this project to Indian audiences,” Poddar said. The projects are an extension of the India Art Summit.
— IANS |
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Still life, portraits, waterscapes — Renaissance flavour in India
New Delhi, August 23 A closer look shows a canvas base and the magical use of oil paints and brushstroke, which is almost photographic in details and finish. The canvas Chateau Pichon Longueville by leading American contemporary still life artist Paul S. Brown is part of a cache of 15 still life paintings in the Renaissance tradition, brought to India by the 250-year-old London-based W.H. Patterson Fine Art dealer. Classical still life drawings and Renaissance-style portraiture by both foreign and Indian artists captured the imagination of Indian buyers and viewers at the India Art Summit 2009 at the Pragati Maidan in New Delhi from August 19-22. The cache includes Venetian waterscapes, nude studies, floral still lives, animal portraits and traditional kitchen scenes made famous by the Dutch painters of the 16th and the 17th century. “Still life never went away. People appreciate its technical details and find it easy to identify with objects. We as a gallery deal only in still lives and realistic landscapes and have a collection of more than 200 still lives back in London. Our oldest still life drawing dates back to the 17th century,” Glenn A. Fuller of W.H. Patterson Fine Art Dealer, who manages his family art house, told IANS. Fuller sources his still life canvases from across Europe and the US, where according to the gallerist, “several young contemporary artists are returning to Renaissance realism”. Peter Wageman, says Fuller, is another such artist whose floral still life canvases are popular among Indian collectors in Britain. “Indians like flowers in vases,” said Fuller, who sold a floral still life study at the summit to a Delhi-based collector on Thursday. The price bands of the still life canvases at Patterson range between 6,000 and 30,000 pounds. Chennai-based Sangeeta Chopra, the secretary general of the World Crafts Council, who has a “small collection of still lives by M.F. Husain and M. Krishnan,” feels still life compositions give the viewer a sense of participation. “They are profound and the mind can share what the artist is trying to capture,” the collector, who was in New Delhi for the art summit, told IANS. Chopra, who has toured Venice, was riveted by a Venetian waterscape. “I almost feel that I am back in Venice,” she said. Master realist Subodh Gupta, known for his still lives of kitchen utensils, says over 50 per cent galleries across the world show still lives. “Realism has always been there and will never disappear,” Gupta said. Concurs Latvian gallerist Yvonna Veiharte, who is showing Renaissance-style portraiture and still life compositions by young contemporary artist Anita Arbidane. “Most of her works are detailed self portraits. She likes Renaissance art and its decadent and detailed style of painting,” Veiharte said. Arbidane, 26, shot to the limelight last year with her Renaissance style portrait of the Latvian president titled “President’s Portrait With Rabbit”. Her works are priced between 7,000 and 9,000 euros. Vadodara-based contemporary artist Gargi Raina, who was displaced from Kashmir as a two-year-old, is also a Renaissance realist. One of her art works—a panel of nine canvases in water wash technique and dry pastels titled “Constructing the Memory of a Room” in her childhood home in Kashmir—uses the Renaissance still life technique to portray individual objects in the room. The panel is priced at Rs10 lakh. “Her show with us last year was a runaway success,” Anubha Dey of the Mumbai-based Bodhi Art Gallery told IANS. “Realism and classical touch in art are back though with a contemporary flavour. Young artists are returning to their figure and line drawing roots,” artist Vivek Sharma told IANS. Sharma carries realism and still life a step further. His style is photorealism. “My art is inspired by photography and I try to replicate photographs on my canvas,” he said. One of his works, “The Deep”, a large format canvas of US president Barack Obama with his head against a chessboard held aloft by Indian god Hanuman, is simultaneously Renaissance and contemporary.
— IANS |
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Obsessed about sex or cleaning? Visit a psychiatrist
New Delhi, August 23 Both Singh and Thakur are unaware that they are victims of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) though the nature of their individual problem differs. A new study points to these gender differences among men and women suffering from OCD. Urban, educated men are more prone to sexual obsessions as compared to women, who have higher chances of being compulsive cleaners. Also, men see early onset of OCD as compared to women, says the study conducted by four doctors at the department of psychiatry in the G.B. Pant Hospital. “It is considered to be a common psychiatric problem. But there is a slight behavioral change as compared to men and women,” R.C. Jiloha, head of the psychiatry department, told IANS. Jiloha, who was one of the doctors involved in the study, said: “Men see OCD at an early age and are thus less likely to be married. It is commonly seen that they have sexual obsessions, whereas woman think of cleaning and washing all the time.” The study was conducted among 66 patients who had attended the OCD clinic in the department of psychiatry in the G.B. Pant Hospital and associated Maulana Azad Medical College from December 2007 to October 2008. While 31 were men, the rest were women. The study, published in the Delhi Psychiatry Journal, said while men start showing symptoms at the age of 19, women get OCD at 23. It is usually because they don’t recognise the symptoms and come to the hospital late, said Ashish Khandelwal, who was also involved in the study. “Men usually come to us at the age of 24.35 and women at the age of 27.34,” he said. He said the study showed most patients were from an urban background and educated. Many were students - 48 per cent of men and 17 per cent of women. Around 55 per cent of women were homemakers, the study said. It found that 64 per cent of men who had OCD showed aggression, while 38 per cent had sexual obsessions. In case of women, 82 per cent were obsessed about contamination. “Most men think of sex. But if they think about it all the time even when they are doing something else then it is called OCD,” Khandelwal added. “In our culture, we think that sexual matters do not apply to women, so even if they think about it, they do not come forward with the problem. But as cleaning, arranging, washing and checking are considered women’s jobs, most don’t realise when it has become an obsession for them,” he added. “People should recognise the signs if their problem gets out of control, poses a problem in their daily lives and is no longer normal,” Khandelwal told IANS. Men are more likely to have a higher rate of social phobia, tic disorders, sexual disorders, hypochondria and psychosis while women have a significantly higher rate of depression and panic disorder. Jiloha said there is no exact reason for the onset of OCD. “There are many factors - development and training as a child, bio-chemical changes in the body or it could be a genetic problem,” he said. “Such behaviour stems from buried obsessions and compulsions. Some people are able to take care of their depression but for some it manifests in different ways. They take it out on themselves,” he said. “We can control the illness and in some cases, people have been able to get relief from their obsessions,” he said. “If people ignore it and live with it, it could have a bad impact on their personal lives,” Jiloha added.
— IANS |
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Bypoll: Three in race for Cong ticket from Okhla
New Delhi, August 23 Member of parliament from West Delhi Mahabal Mishra tried hard to convince the party to give ticket to his son Deepak from Dwarka, but the party high command chose Tilottma, who was municipal councillor from Dabri ward. Defending party’s decision, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president J.P. Agarwal said Tilottma enjoyed an image of committed and devoted social worker and had done commendable works as a municipal councillor. He added that the ticket was a reward to Tilottma for her hard work during the parliamentary elections. Meanwhile, the race for ticket Okhla is becoming intense. Three leaders – Farhan Hashmi, son of Rajya Sabha MP Parvez Hashmi, municipal councillor from Nizamuddin Farhad Suri, who is the son of a senior Congress leader Tajdar Babar; and Mahmood Pracha, son of Siraj Pracha, a well- known Muslim politician in Delhi – are the prominent names being considered. Parvez Hashmi has represented this constituency for the last four times. The seat has fallen vacant after he was elected to Rajya Sabha. According to sources, Parvez has approached the party high command requesting it to consider his son for the ticket. Similarly, Farhad Suri has also approached the party high command. He is related to Kidwai family that has say in the All India Congress Committee (AICC). While, according to sources, Mahmood Pracha is close to East Delhi MP Sandip Dikshit. Polling for both the constituencies is to be held in September. As far as the BJP is concerned, it has chosen Irfan Ahmed for Okhla and Praduman Rajput for Dwarka. Praduman will file his nomination papers tomorrow in presence of state party president O.P. Kohli, leader of opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijay Kumar Malhotra and other leaders like Parvesh Verma, Ramesh Bidhuri and R.P.
Kohli. |
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Woman roughed up for advising youth to drive slowly
New Delhi, August 23 Kiran Anand, 57, was riding pillion with her daughter, Aneesha on a two-wheeler, when they stopped at a red light in the Pashchim Vihar area in west Delhi on Saturday evening. A speeding black Alto car stopped very close to them, scaring her as the driver braked suddenly, a police officer said on Sunday. “Anand requested the man behind the wheels to drive slowly as it could lead to some accident,” said DCP (west) Sharad Agarwal. According to Agarwal, the man identified as Ashu, saw red at Anand’s suggestion and hit her. “He held her by neck and dragged her for about 20 metre before throwing her on the road. She has suffered head and elbow injuries and was rushed to the hospital,” said Agarwal. Anand, reported to be a cancer patient, was discharged from the hospital on Sunday. The police has identified the youth on the basis of the number of the car provided by Anand’s daughter. “We have registered a case in the matter and have traced the car. We have identified the man and will arrest him soon,” Agarwal added.
— IANS |
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Black magic practitioner rapes customer
New Delhi, August 23 "Tarachand offered her some drink spiked with sedatives. After consuming the drink, the woman fell unconscious and was raped by the accused," the police officer said. The woman was depressed as she was not able to conceive and came in touch with Tarachand, who assured that after taking his medicine she would be able to conceive. 7-yr girl crushed by truck
A seven-year-old girl was crushed to death under the wheels of a speeding truck here, the police said on Sunday. Isran was returning home with her brother on a bicycle on Saturday night when the truck hit them in Mangolpuri area in outer Delhi. The truck driver has been arrested. Criminal held
The Delhi police today claimed to have arrested an alleged criminal active in Haryana and Delhi. The suspect was identified as Tarun Azad, alias Bittoo. The police said Bittoo had come to Delhi to murder his friend Prince Chopra, a resident of Tilak Nagar because he believed that Prince was responsible for his arrest in three cases of murder, robbery and attempt to murder that he had committed in Kurukshetra and Ambala. The crime branch came to know that Bittoo, along with his associate Ajay, would come to Vishal Cinema in Rajouri Garden and thereafter both of them would go to Tilak Nagar to kill Prince. |
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Man held for raping maid for 6 months
Noida, August 23 Noida city SP Ashok Kumar Tripathi said the woman in her written complaint had stated that she was employed by Daniel on January 9, this year. “The miad hails from Jharkhand and has come to Noida through an NGO,” said Tripathi. Daniel is reportedly working with a leading MNC for the past four years. He is married and has a three-year-old child. “The woman alleged that Daniel had been forcing her into physical relationship for the past six months. She objected to it, but he threatened her with dire consequences if she opened her mouth against him. However, after six months, she gathered all her courage and reported the matter to Daniel’s wife, who instead of helping her, threw her out of the house,” said SP Tripathi. According to the police, Daniel’s wife, who is employed with a company in Noida, became furious after she found out about their physical relationship. “The wife asked her husband and maid to leave the house on August 16. The girl went to the NGO that provided her shelter from August 16 to August 22. Finally, she gathered courage and lodged an FIR against Daniel. We arrested Daniel after the medical test confirmed rape,” said Pranesh Shukla, station incharge, Sector-20 police station. “Our investigations reveal that Daniel’s wife had come to know of the rape even before the maid told her. The woman has been sent to the custody of the NGO for the time being,” said Tripathi. |
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Spurious desi ghee, tea leaves worth Rs 1 cr seized
Ghaziabad, August 23 When the police raided the godown, some workers were about to pack two quintals of tea in the wrappers of a well known “Tata Tea” manufacturing company. The tea leaves were scattered on the floor. The police said many quintals of tea packets were also recovered from the godown. The police has arrested four persons, including the trader. The trader used to manufacture spurious desi ghee and adulterated tea leaves. After packing them in the wrappers of a branded company “Parag EgmarkGhee” he would market them in Noida and Greater Noida. The SHO of Kotwali said that arrested persons would be booked under NSA, fraud and Prevention of Food Preservation Act. The police had received information that at a house in Khazanchi Wali Gali of Agersen Bazar, a factory for making spurious desi ghee and adulterated tea leaves was being run. It was then raided by SOG team and police jointly. On the ground and first floors, the police found a store of spurious desi ghee and tea leaves. On the second floor, spurious desi ghee and adulterated tea leaves were being readied for packing. The police arrested trader Ashok Kumar Garg along with workers Dinesh , Ravi Kumar and Ram Niwas Bansal The trader told the police that he used fat, refined oil and vansapati in manufacturing desi ghee. A chemical scent was also used in it. |
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Jolly slams Delhi govt for Friday’s chaos
New Delhi, August 23 It seemed that the government was unaware of its social and public responsibilities, charged the BJP leader. Jolly said heavy rains wreaked havoc at the new domestic departure terminal 1-D at Delhi airport, waterlogged central, south, west and north district areas bringing traffic to a standstill. Massive traffic jams, caving in of roads, uprooted trees could be seen everywhere, he said. Electricity poles and live electric wires drenched in water posed huge danger to lives, he added. The worst hit were the poor people living in the unauthorised and resettlement colonies in Delhi. These colonies were totally flooded, he stated. Jolly demanded setting up of a disaster management group (DMG) comprising top officials of various government agencies to tackle natural calamities like heavy rain, earthquakes and fire incidents in the Capital. |
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Part of Raisina Road closed
New Delhi, August 23 The Rajendra Prasad road is already closed on account of DMRC construction. This has necessitated changes in traffic flow between Sunehri Masjid roundabout and Rail Bhawan roundabout. Traffic movement from Sunehri Masjid roundabout to Rail Bhawan roundabout will now proceed through K. Kamraj Marg, Krishna Menon Marg, South Fountain, Vijay Chowk, Raisina Road to reach Rail Bhawan roundabout, from where it can further proceed towards Red Cross Road and Parliament Street. |
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Husband beats wife of one month
to death
Noida, August 23 Kamla’s husband Kuttan continuously hit her on the head with a wooden stool on Friday night in their rented house in Bahlolpur, the police said. Hearing her cries, the neighbours called the police. Kamla was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. “We have arrested the accused,” said city police chief A.K. Tripathi.
— IANS |
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New Delhi, August 23
