The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

HEALTH

BODY & MIND
Nandita to flag off walk for autism today
Tripti Nath

Action for Autism (AFA), a national organisation which deals with issues affecting the lives of the autistic community, is observing autism week to create awareness about autism, a lifelong disability that affects about 20 lakh Indians. The week began on Saturday with an international conference which was attended by parents of autistic children and doctors. More than 800 parents of autistic children are members of the AFA. Prominent among those who spoke at the conference were Delhi-based psychiatrist, Achal Bhagat, Narendra Singh from the Institute for Human Behaviour and Allied Services, Shahdara, R.K. Sabharwal, Paediatric Neurologist at Ganga Ram Hospital, Vibha Krishnamurthy, Development Paeditraician at Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai, and Zenobia Anand, a London-based physician. The speakers addressed various issues like aetiology and pathogenesis, differential diagnosis, psychiatric needs of adults with autism, biomedical issues, seizures and medication, incidence of autism and ways of dealing with challenging behaviour. A Walk for Autism will also be flagged off by actress Nandita Das in front of Amar Jawan Jyoti here on Sunday. Some activists of the AFA will present a representation to the President for a place for setting up the National Autism Centre. According to AFA founder and disability rights activist Merry Barua, the Delhi Government had recommended the AFA be given land at Sarita Vihar at subsidised rates in the B-V category. Recently, they got a letter from the Delhi Development Authority offering them land (1400 square metre) for Rs 62 lakh. The AFA is at present functioning from a cramped place in Chirag Dilli.

An exhibition of paintings by autistic persons will also be inaugurated by well-known dancer Shovana Narayan at India Habitat Centre.

According to Barua, there are about 20,000 autistic persons in Delhi alone. The most complex of developmental disorders, autism affects the ability to communicate apart from social skills and abstract thinking skills.

Barua, who is also on the board of the National Trust for Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities, says that the Persons with Disabilities Act does not cover persons suffering from autism. On a representation by the AFA, the government has set up a committee to look into the matter.

Rotary blood bank

About 60 clubs of Rotary district 3010 covering Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida and parts of Rohtak have come together to set up a Rotary Blood Bank and National Institute for Transfusion Medicine at Tughlakabad in South-West Delhi. Dr Naresh Kumar Bhatia, Deputy Director of the blood bank and former Joint Superintendent of Ganga Ram Hospital, is confident that the bank will start functioning in the coming month.

The state-of-the-art voluntary blood bank has been set up at a cost of over Rs 6 crore. The bank will be the first in the country to install MITES-II machine for blood grouping. The sophisticated machine acquired from US-based Ortho Diagnostics, a division of Johnson and Johnson, will do the grouping automatically. Its reader has the capacity to get results from micro plate as well as the latest gel technology. At present, most blood banks in the country are using slide or glass tube technique. While some are using micro plate method for blood grouping, very few are using gel technology.

The bank also has a system called the Bieu View, exclusively gel technology for grouping and cross-matching of blood. It has also installed ARIO-AMP used for Elisa testing (for testing infection markers especially HIV-I and II, hepatitis B and C. This system has, however, also been installed in other hospitals in Delhi like Apollo and Escorts. BRIO, another semi-automated Elisa reader machine from Ortho Diagnostics, will be used as a backup system for ARIO-AMP. It has also got other world-calls equipment as beeding couches and Combimix (use for collecting blood), refrigerators from Forma for storage of blood, three deep freezers for storage of plasma.

Dr Bhatia says that the institute will also encourage research and offer postgraduation in Transfusion Medicine.

“We have decided to go in for 100 per cent voluntary donations from healthy individuals in the age group of 18 to 65. Our prime objective is to ensure that nobody in Delhi dies for want of blood. The requirement of blood in Delhi falls short by 1,50,000 units every year.

Of the nine million units of blood needed in India every years, only 4.5 million units are collected. Of this, only 50 per cent or less is coming as voluntary donation. The rest is coming as replacement donation. The problem here is that although the Supreme Court banned commercial blood banks in January 1996, professional blood donors manage to sell blood by posing as relatives and friends. The quality of this blood is very poor and causes infections like AIDS, hepatitis B and C.’’

Nasal surgery

The department of ENT, Ganga Ram Hospital, recently inaugurated a workshop on endoscopic intra-nasal dacryocystorhinostomy (super specialised nasal surgery in the nasal cavity). The surgery is recommended to persons who complain of tears flowing from the eyes continuously.

The workshop was inaugurated by Dr B.K. Rao, Honorary Secretary, Board of Management, Ganga Ram Hospital, and was attended by 80 ENT and eye surgeons from various parts of the country. The delegates also got an opportunity to see a live surgery during the workshop.

According to Dr Devinder Rai, Course Director and Consultant ENT Surgeon at Ganga Ram Hospital, the surgery is performed on patients who complain of tears dropping from the eyes continuously due to a blockage in the naso-lacrimal duct. In the conventional surgery, this defect is corrected by opening the inner side of the eye whereby the lacrimal sac is opened as well as the nose after removing part of the bone between the sac and the nose. This results in an external scar. This problem has now been solved with the advent of a nasal endoscope which provides for adequate illumination of the area in the narrow confines of the nose. This helps in avoiding a scar near the eye and its subsequent visual cosmetic disfigurement. There is no need for stitches.

Dr Rai says the surgery is being done only at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences. The surgery takes about 25 minutes and costs anything between Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000. The patient is discharged after two hours.

SEARCH WITHIN
A misplaced sense of martyrdom

In the current scene of terrorism, the world has witnessed a crop of highly motivated youngsters who are willing to sacrifice their lives in the process of causing widespread death and destruction. They act as agents of the “culture of death’’ but would like to be remembered as martyrs in the cause of their particular faith.

But the people of this nation, particularly the Sikhs, would recall a different type of martyrdom on Wednesday that reflected the noblest capacity for self-sacrifice in man – that of Guru Tegh Bahadur, who laid down his life to defend the rights of Kashmiri Pandits to practise their faith.

It happened thus: A group of Kashmiri Pandits approached the Guru for help as the then Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb had threatened them and given them the choice of either accepting Islam or facing death. He pondered over the issue and advised them to go to the oppressor in a group. They were to tell the emperor that they would all embrace Islam voluntarily if the Sikh Guru was persuaded to do so.

The emperor was quite pleased with the proposal and the prospect of a large number coming into the fold of his faith. The emperor then summoned the Guru and told him that if he embraced Islam he would receive whatever his heart desired. The emperor reportedly added: “God the most high had appeared to me in a vision and asked me to convert the whole world to Islam.’’ But the Guru replied that he believed that it was the will of the Almighty that three religions, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism, should survive for all times to come.

What happened subsequent to the Guru’s refusal to accept the decree of the emperor is history. There are, however, conflicting reports about the course of events culminating in his execution and events following his death.

Even his executioner Adam Shah had reportedly pleaded with him not to abandon his life in vain by his refusal to embrace Islam. “The Sikh religion is dearer to me than life and I cannot renounce it even under the pressure of immediate and certain death,” the Guru had maintained.

A large crowd had witnessed the execution. The sword struck his neck when he bowed to God at the conclusion of his devotions. Sikh historian Max Arthur Macauliffe quotes a report that the head of the Guru “flew off’’ into the lap of a disciple, Gurditta. A great storm at the moment reduced visibility and enabled some Sikhs to take away the head to Anandpur where it was cremated.

At the spot in Chandni Chowk (Delhi) where the beheading took place stands Sisganj Gurdwara. Another memorial, Rakabganj Gurdwara, was built over the spot where his headless body was cremated.

His martyrdom has relevance to our times. Even though modern societies may not face dangers from despots and tyrants like Aurangzeb religious fanaticism can threaten peace in pluralistic societies. The Sikh Guru died to uphold the cause of Kashmiri Brahmins. The same selflessness and spirit of sacrifice is needed to safeguard human rights and dignity of all following different creeds.

The universal spirit and secular nature of the tenets of Sikhism are reflected in the writings of Guru Tegh Bahadur. Here is a popular hymn of his which reads as follows: “He who in adversity grieves not/He who is without fear/ He who falls not in the snare of sensuality/ He who has no greed for gold knowing it is like dust/ He who does not slander people when their backs are turned/ Nor flatters them on their faces/ He who has neither gluttony in his heart/ Nor vanity nor attachment with worldly things/ ...who cares not for the world’s applause/ Nor its censure/...In such a man does the Guru’s grace descend/ For he knows the righteous path. O Nanak, his soul mingles with the Lord/ As water mingles with water.’’

M.P.K.Kutty

SPORTS

Birdie blitz hands Mukesh Kumar sole lead
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 15
Mukesh Kumar played brilliantly on the back-nine to open up a seven-stroke lead with a four-under 68 on the penultimate round of the Rs 8.5 lakh Servo Masters Golf 2001. Mukesh’s tournament tally now stands at an impressive ten-under 206. The 13th leg of the 2001-2002 Golf Tour, the tournament is being played at the par-72 Digboi Club Golf Links.

Overnight joint-leader Feroz Ali was joined by veteran Delhi golfer Rohtas Singh in the second spot at three-under 213. Just one stroke behind at tied fourth place and a tally of 214 was the trio of Yusuf Ali, Basad Ali (both Kolkata) and Harmeet Kahlon (Chandigarh). Delhi’s Zai Kipgen and Pune’s D.S. Raghuvanshi were tied seventh at 216.

Mukesh Kumar made a timely return to form today setting himself up nicely for his third title of the season.

“Today’s round took a huge weight off my shoulder. I have been playing really well for the past two months but luck has deserted me when it matters most. This time, with a seven-stroke lead, I think I have the title in my bag,” said the current Order of Merit leader.

Mukesh has thus far had a dream season with nine top-ten finishes in 12 starts, including two runner-up finishes and wins at the TNGF Open, Chennai, and Sher-e-Kashmir Open, Srinagar. The Mhow golfer started the day tied with Feroz Ali but managed to sneak two strokes ahead after the front nine, courtesy a birdie-bogey sequence on the seventh and eighth.

“At that stage, I was looking to play my back-nine to two or three under but I guess I outdid my own expectations,” said the 33-year-old. Indeed, Mukesh caught fire on the back-nine. Starting with a par on the 10th, he went on to burn the course with five straight birdies from the 11th to 15th”.

“I am hell bent on winning and I know I will win tomorrow,” said the star golfer. Feroz Ali’s round would have reminded him of his final round collapse after leading the field for three days at the HT Pro-Golf in Kolkata, a fortnight ago.

“I am back in form and everything is in place but God only knows what happens on certain days. Today, my entire game went for a toss. I felt I was hitting the ball well, but my putting was atrocious,” said the winner of last week’s Surya Nepal Masters.

“It will be an uphill climb but I am going for a win tomorrow,” he added. Feroz’s round of three-over 75 included just one birdie on the 16th amid bogeys on the fourth, ninth, 12th and 14th. His putting tally stood at 29. Rohtas Singh, the winner of the `99 Servo Masters, returned his third straight score of one under 71 today. “I am playing percentage golf and that has got me this far. Tomorrow, I will assess the situation and decide whether to attack or continue with my game plan. Mukesh is too far ahead and unless he really loses his feel, I don’t see anybody catching up with him,” said the veteran golfer. Raj Singh maintains amateur lead: Raj Singh fought off a brave challenge from Ajay Barua to maintain his lead in the amateur field at 14-over 230. One stroke behind Raj was Barua at 231. Aparup Saikia was placed third at 238.