Window Seat |Mrinal Chatterjee | 5.12.21
Food Museum
India’s
first food museum has recently been opened in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu by Food
Corporation of India (FCI). It may be recalled that Food Corporation of India
(FCI) opened its first office here on January 14, 1965. The museum has been
established on the ground floor of its regional Office in collaboration with
Bengalure based Viseswaria Industrial and technical museum to provide a glimpse
into a fascinating world of food and especially agriculture.
Although
homo-sapiens have been around in the world for over two hundred thousand years,
agriculture began some 10 to 12 thousand years ago. This was the time when the
effects of the ice age receded and temperate climate ensued. It led to the
domestication of certain plants. Agriculture as we know it today- tilling the
land and sowing of seeds and rearing with care, began then.
Agriculture
has been the primary trigger for the civilization to grow. Access to more food
thanks to agriculture triggered business as excess food-grains were traded for
other goods or services. As business
grew, there emerged the need for accounting. Roads were needed for transport of
food grains. Several other spin-offs emerged. Human beings started to settle
down. They began to learn to live in a larger community. The concept of society
emerged.
Impact
of COVID-19 on Immunizations
The
COVID-19 pandemic has led to major reductions in childhood immunizations in
South Asia. More than 5.3 million children in South Asia missed out on
essential vaccines through routine immunization services in 2020 – nearly 1.9
million more than in 2019 – according to official data published by WHO and
UNICEF. This is the highest number of under-vaccinated children since 2014.
In
a study published in The Lancet,
India’s coverage for the first dose of measles vaccine is likely to have fallen
below 86 per cent, and coverage for the third vaccine dose against diphtheria,
tetanus, and whooping cough, under 75 per cent. Measles, diphtheria, tetanus,
and whooping cough (pertussis) are four vaccine-preventable childhood diseases
targeted by immunisation programmes around the world, with measles claiming the
lives of over 207,000 people in 2019.
COVID-19
and the pressure it has put on healthcare around the world may be the largest
and most widespread global disruption to life-saving immunization programs in
history, putting millions of children — in rich and poor countries alike — at
risk for measles, diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough.
On
3 December I attended a webinar on the impact of COVID-19 on Childhood Immunization and listened to some of the
top doctors, social workers and journalists. With the Corona virus taking on
new avatars and impacting the public health ecosphere, it would be a stiff
challenge for us in India. However, we have to rise up to the challenge for the
sake of our children.
Rajnikanth@72
Tomorrow,
December 6, 2021 ‘south-superstar’ Rajnikanth turns 72. In a country which has
the median age of less than thirty, septuagenarian Rajnikanth remains the
highest selling film star. In fact his last five films have done more business
than any other film star’s including Amitabh Bachhan, Akhay Kumar and the
Khans. He remains one of the most popular film stars of India for over four and
half decades now. He made his cinematic debut with K. Balachander’s 1975 Tamil
drama Apoorva Raagangal in which he played a minor role of an abusive husband.
He had his first major role in Balachander's Telugu film Anthuleni
Katha next year. The rest is history.
In star crazy South India,
especially in Tamil Nadu he enjoys the status of a demi-God, though he is not a
Tamil by birth (he is a Marathi) and learnt to speak Tamil in his
twenties.
Born
in 1950 in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) to a family with modest means, he grew up
and started working as a Bus conductor. He liked to act in plays. He was noticed
by Tamil film director K.Balachander and asked him to learn to speak Tamil,
which Rajnikant did quickly. Balchander offered him a minor role in Apoorva Raagangal. However, it paved a
way for Rajnikanth to land more roles and within three years he achieved
stardom.
His
mannerisms, his gait, hair style, dress- everything was liked by the people.
For them he became no less than a demi-God.
His
lasting friendship with the Bus driver Raj Bahadur who encouraged him to pursue
acting and helped him financially to learn Tamil, the fact that he rarely uses
make-up and other procedures to look young and remains his natural self- with
half bald head, his philanthropy and alignment with some social issues-endeared
him to the masses and made him a legend. Rajinikanth is probably the only Indian actor
to be featured in the CBSE syllabus, in a lesson titled From Bus
Conductor to Superstar.
3 Rajnikanth Jokes
Innumerous
jokes and memes have been created on Rajnikanth. Most of them portray him as
having kind of a ‘super power’. Here are three, just for sample:
Once
Rajnikanth was travelling in a helicopter via Switzerland and his wallet fell
down. That place is now called Swiss Bank.
Rajni
decide to donate his eyes for NASA to make new HD telescope.
Once
a farmer put Rajnikanth’s photo instead of a scarecrow in his farm. You won’t
believe what happened. The birds started bringing back the grains taken last
year.
Omicron
Sala,
is this Corona or a IT Company’s software! Every year a new version comes.
(Courtesy:
Social Media)
+++
This column is published every Sunday in Gangtok based English daily Sikkim Express and www.prameyanews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment