Category: Perspectives

An eternal father’s forgotten son – Harilal Gandhi – II The book by C.B Dalal notes that in 1926, Gandhi had surrendered all rights to his ancestral house at Rajkot. The partition deed that was prepared showed Gandhi’s elder brother Lakshmida’ son Samaldas and another brother Karsandas’ son Jethalal, as the new owners. Around this time Harilal was in dire financial need and borrowed about ten thousand rupees from the Thakore Saheb of Rajkot. When the new owners Samaldas and Jethalal wanted to sell the house, the amount lent to…

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Our world of today attaches considerable value and importance to our intellectual capabilities than our physical abilities. When man first stepped on earth, he did not require intellectual skills to survive and he was totally dependent on his physical abilities. There was no requirement for application of mind. It was in these stages of civilization that man’s actions and deeds were closest to his immediate requirement. He hunted when he was hungry and slept when he was tired. His body and physical activity was instrumental to his existence. With the…

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It was on the 26th April 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe took place and the incident soon became synonymous with the name ‘Chernobyl’. The worst nuclear power plant accident in human history took place when the core of the reactor number four melt partially. It was a routine shutdown to determine turbine effectiveness when main power supply fails. The reactor’s emergency core cooling system was shut off too. The reactor was operating at half power as the electric load dispatcher didn’t permit further shutdown. The subsequent explosion and fire…

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Nations worldover including some of the most advanced nations have economic difficulties. One of the greatest challenges for most nations is addressing poverty. While all permutations and combinations of economic plans and schemes have been formulated to effectively resolve them, there has been no effort to correlate poverty with wealth accumulation. No nation had ever tried to resolve poverty by curbing wealth accumulation by the wealthy. Although nations have earning ceiling on what its employees can earn for a particular job, there is no such ceiling for what an individual…

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Sexual assault is one of the most under reported crimes. Both men and women can become victims of sexual assault, although all related statistics are associated with women. Sexual assault is a broad classification for all unaccepted sexual advances or exhibition of sexual desires. It differs from rape, which is the gratification of sexual desire by force. It is estimated that only one in 69 rape cases in India are even reported and only 20 % of those reported result in convictions for the rape accused. The main reason for…

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With traffic congestion particularly on rainy days being very common in big cities throughout the world, the concept of car sharing seem to take off in a rather big way. The travel times during rush hours in many major cities around the world even reach two to three times of that required during non-rush times. Another harmful effect of the bumper-to-bumper traffic jams is that these vehicles spew harmful emissions like carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide. With lesser traffic there are also lesser jams. An interesting aspect of the car…

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The contemporary world is faced with several emerging issues with food security and effective regulations being a prominent one. The phenomenally rising food prices that had imposed hunger on many people have triggered a painful debate on the availability and distribution of food. Trading in food cereals and grains, artificial demands, ineffective policies, have all contributed to rise in hunger levels world-over. However the worst is only yet to come. With the world population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, the food requirement is anticipated at over 70% of…

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Environmental problems are a widely understood phenomenon although not much has been achieved in this direction. Pollution, particularly carbon-based emission is the core of the environmental negative effects. Although the world aspires for a low carbon society (LCS), the modalities of achieving it and the results achieved so far are debatable. The world nations have decided to cut emission to pre-industrialization levels by 2050. This is in fact a very bold aspiration reflecting the unanimity of thought among the member nations. However, is this really achievable and even if achieved,…

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The major causes of depressive illnesses are complex and not fully understood. Researchers and experts today attribute depression to three major causes, namely biological, genetic and environmental and psychological factors. Among the major causes for depression are biological causes, genetic causes and Environmental and psychological causes Biological causes The command structure of the brain is affected by chemicals called neurotransmitters which carry a command or message through the brain’s network of special brain cells called neurons. The limbic system is a part of the brain that regulates emotions, sexual desire,…

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Even the most severe forms of depression can be effectively treated and similar to most other complications, the earlier the treatment begins the more effective it is. It should be noted here that some medications and certain medical conditions can give rise to symptoms that are similar to those of depression. These possibilities require to be first ruled out, before psychological evaluation by a mental health professional.  This psychological evaluation would include a discussion on complete symptom history and family history of depression. The discussions would also relate to substance…

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