Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 30.10.22
Cricket Mania!
The day India
defeated Pakistan in a crucial and dramatic match thanks to the swash buckling
innings by Virat Kohli in T-20 world cup ISRO launched the first Indian rocket
with 6 ton plus payload. It carried 36 satellites of OneWeb onboard LVM3. The
LVM3-M2 mission is a dedicated commercial mission for a foreign customer
OneWeb, through NSIL.
Few noticed the
feat. Most of us rejoiced at the defeat of Pakistan, more than celebrating the
win of India. Crackers were burst. Sweets distributed. Many of us shouted Bharat Mata ki Jai. Social media
platforms were filled with laudatory messages. Next day photographs of Virat Kohli
adorned the front pages of almost all newspapers. The achievement of ISRO was
tucked in the inner pages. There was hardly any buzz in the social media. Most
of the television channels mentioned it passingly.
And then, we
lament why we are not able to produce more scientists?
Saptaparni
Post rain, this is the time of the season's
first flowering of the Saptaparni (Alstonia scholaris) trees. It is known in
many names across the country. In Odia it is called Chachina, in Bengali and
Assamese it is Chatim. It is called Pala maram(Pala tree) in Malayalam. In
several Hindi speaking states, it is called Saitan
ki Ped (Devil's tree). In English it is also called the Blackboard tree.
Saptaparni flowers, which also signal
the advent of winter in North India, will be there for a month. By the time one
discards the half sweater or half jacket for full woollen cover and we exhaust
celebrating all our festivals, the flowers would have turned grey from greenish
ivory which they are now.
Saptaparni tree is interesting, as it
conjures completely different images. It is associated with scholarship and
knowledge. It is the State Tree of West Bengal. In Viswa Bharti, Shantiniketan
a leaf of this tree is presented to the Chancellor before the convocation
ceremony. It is called ‘Devil’s Tree’ in several parts of the country as no
cattle eat its leaves. In Kerala it is believed that the heady scent of the
flowers of the tree attracts Yakshis (paranormal female beings).
There is hardly any tree which evokes
so different feelings.
Dilip ‘ORS’ Mahalanabis
Eminent paediatrician Dr Dilip Mahalanabis, who
pioneered the use of oral rehydration therapy during the outbreak of cholera
among refugees of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, passed away recently
after a long age related ailments. He was 88.
Oral
Rehydration Solution (ORS) as a simple, effective remedy for dehydration is
presently known and used around the world. According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), diarrhoeal diseases, such as cholera, are among the leading
causes of mortality in infants and young children in many developing countries,
where the patient dies of dehydration. ORS, a combination of water, glucose and
salts, is a simple and cost-effective method of preventing this. The Lancet
called it “the most important medical discovery of the 20th century.’’
Born on November 12, 1934 in West Bengal, Dr Mahalanabis studied
in Kolkata and London, and joined the Johns Hopkins University International
Centre for Medical Research and Training in Kolkata in the 1960s, where he
carried out research in oral rehydration therapy.
When the 1971 war broke out, millions of people from then East
Pakistan took refuge in India. Clean drinking water and sanitation were
problems at these refugee camps, and cholera and diarrhoea broke out among
people anyway exhausted and dehydrated. Dr Mahalanabis and his team were
working in one such camp at Bongaon. And it was at this point that ORS was
used and found to be highly effective.
From 1975 to 1979, Dr Mahalanabis worked in cholera control for
WHO in Afghanistan, Egypt and Yemen. During the 1980s, he worked as a WHO
consultant on research on the management of bacterial diseases.
In 2002, Dr Dilip Mahalanabis along with Dr Nathaniel F Pierce
was awarded the Pollin Prize by Columbia University (considered the equivalent
of Nobel in peadiatrics).
His contribution to the discipline of medicine could be mapped
in the fact that WHO eventually adopted ORS as the standard method for treating
cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases. In India, July 29 is observed as ORS
Day.
Eco-friendly
College
Recently I visited Imperial College at Bargarh, Odisha.
I found it to be one of the most eco-conscious and study-friendly colleges of
Odisha.
This is one of the few colleges in Odisha which has
integrated it in its architecture and building plan (open space to get sunlight
and natural air, use of hollow bricks to reduce temperature in summer and
noise) and landscaping (creating water body at strategic place to get cooler
air flow). It has created an open air library inside an old and discarded car
using old TV sets and microwave boxes; couple of water bodies including a lotus
pond, an organic farm, and an open air study area. They have a project to
produce ‘holy fertiliser’ out of the worn flowers offered in nearby temples.
They use this fertiliser for organic farming.
Wish other colleges replicate what they are doing.
Tailpiece-1: Law and In-Law
Infosys acquires Britain. Not by law but by in-law.
Tailpiece-2: Heard
Just heard on the grapevine: Truss will now fly
first class for the rest of her life.
No one wants her anywhere near business or economy
!!
(Courtesy: Social Media)
++
Journalist turned media academician
Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction and plays.
He can be contacted at mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
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