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Rally around for human rights

NGO to hold rallies, informal meetings and lectures to spread awareness of human rights violations. Human Rights Day was yesterday.

The Students’ Islamic Organisation (SIO) of India’s Mumbai chapter yesterday held a meeting to brief the press and the public about its programme to spread awareness of human rights violations, both in India and abroad. A major talking point for the meeting was the ongoing crisis at Gaza, and the numerous reported human rights violations happening there.

As per a member of the SIO, Mumbai, “On the occasion of World Human Rights Day, we decided to hold a meeting to discuss the ongoing human rights violations in Gaza, as well as the State-sponsored imprisonment of several Muslim youth in jails on the wrongful accusation of them being terrorists. Besides this, we are also addressing such issues that affect the society in terms of education and employment, as also the effect of extremist speeches and writings on people and the loss of personal liberty.”

The SIO plans to implement its programme through a series of events, such as public lectures, essay writing competitions, lectures in colleges, youth meets, ‘corner meetings’, discussions and analysis of the Human Rights Charter, displaying human rights posters, and human chains at various points in the city.

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Event

200 participate in Transplant Games

Transplant Games 2012 by Narmada Kidney Foundation
Transplant Games 2012 by Narmada Kidney Foundation
Organ donors and recipients participate in the sporting event held in Mumbai on Sunday. A pitch report from the organisers.

The nation has seen the best of performances by Indian sportsmen in recent times. Mumbai was witness to another national sporting event, which was very different from other sporting events – this was the ‘National Transplant Games’, organised by the Non-Government Organisation (NGO), Narmada Kidney Foundation, for the fifth consecutive year. The Games were held at Goregaon.

Transplant Games 2012 by Narmada Kidney FoundationAs per estimates, about 200 patients from across the length and breadth of the country participated in the Transplant Games held on Sunday. Dr Bharat Shah, founder of the Foundation said, “This is one of the most emotionally overwhelming events for us. It is such a pride and pleasure to watch the enthusiasts coming from different parts of the country to participate in the Games. This event has been inspiring not only many potential recipients and donors, but also the Foundation to keep working in this direction relentlessly.”

The Transplant Games 2012 encapsulated outdoor and indoor games, especially organised for the transplant recipients and the organ donors. The objective of these Games is to demonstrate the success of organ transplantation and paint a big, positive and hopeful picture for the future donors and transplant patients. The Games underscore the significance of care, compassion and contribution.

Dr Shah further added, “Every year, approximately four lakh people are diagnosed with the last stage of acute kidney failures, of which only 4,000 patients are fortunate to get a kidney transplant. Approximately 10,000 patients are put at the helm of dialysis, which is an expensive modality with poor quality of life and poor long term survival. The approximate cost of dialysis is Rs 25,000 per month and the cost keeps increasing with the passing time for the patient.”

Approximately 2,000 patients on dialysis are waiting to receive kidney transplant in Mumbai alone. At the current rate, it would take 10 to 15 years for a dialysis patient on the cadaver wait list to receive a transplant. The present situation is alarming, as many patients would exhaust their resources on dialysis when they have their turn for a transplant. There are patients to tell their own stories of struggle, suffering and fighting for the life merely waiting for the day when they would be able to receive a transplant of the critical organ, like kidneys.

(Pictures courtesy Narmada Kidney Foundation)

 

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Go for COFFI

Short Film festival invites entries from new filmmakers and film institutes; six prizes are up for grabs in three categories.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

If you’ve made a short film and are looking for a good competition to enter it in, you just got lucky. Or, putting it in another way, if you’ve made a short film and are still readying it for competition, you’re cutting it extremely fine.

The Conference on Film Finance (COFFI) and Awards is giving you the chance to show your film to those who matter the most – filmmakers, producers, film investors and lenders – by bringing the Short Films Contest 2012. The finalists’ films will be screened at COFFI and the winning films will be screened at Shamiana Club. The Awards night is scheduled for December 18, 2012.

The competition has three categories – Short Films, Animated Films and Documentaries, all with a running duration of not more than 15 minutes. Last submission date is December 3, 2012, and if you’re a student submitting a film, your entry fee would be Rs 1,000. For others, the fee is Rs 1,500.

For more details on the competition, list of conference attendees and prizes for winners, log on to coffi@sixsigmafilms.com.

(Picture courtesy astro.temple.edu. Picture used for representational purpose only) 

 

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Laugh and save a child’s sight

Stand up comedy show will raise funds for eye treatment of BMC school children at YB Chavan Auditorium this evening.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

What’s a fun way to raise funds for a serious cause? Have a stand-up comedy show featuring some seriously funny comics, that’s what. It’s an idea that will hopefully make enough money to treat 10,000 children with preventable blindness and other eye problems.

The Rotary Club of Bombay Central and Rotaract Club of the Caduceus are organising ‘Eye Stand Up’, a show featuring stand up comics Aditi Mittal, Tanmay Bhat, Karan Talwar, Gursimran Khamba and

International comic star Andy Zaltzman will also perform, while DJ and Submerge founder Nikhil Chinappa will be chief guest at the event, which will be held at YB Chavan Auditorium, Nariman Point, this evening.

The cause

We usually do not associate problems of sight with young children. In fact, it is this mindset that often prevents the treatment of several treatable eye problems in children. Recognising this, the Rotaract Club of the Caduceus, a city-based group of 135 doctors, dentists, medical students and paramedics under 30 years of age, adopted a preventable blindness programme and is working towards treating the eye problems of 10,000 children from BMC schools by end of January 2013.

Says Pankaj Jethwani, one of the Club’s members and organisers for the check up camps held in schools and slum communities, “India is home to 1.5 crore visually-challenged people – that is like two Switzerlands put together! However, eight out of 10 people can get their sight restored or their problem treated with a simple operation, but there is very low awareness among people. Besides, several people cannot afford even the Rs 1,200 surgery, plus the drugs and spectacles.”

However, the cost was brought down to Rs 50 per person through bulk operations; this includes screening, treatment, managed referrals, deworming, Vitamin A prophylaxis and risk-pooling for surgery. “When we went to BMC schools, we found that some children had myopia, or a spectacle number of 1.2. They couldn’t see the blackboard, and so they didn’t feel like studying at all.” Pankaj says he was surprised to note that 13 per cent of children had undiagnosed myopia, and that none of the children screened had ever been to an ophthalmologist.

He says they’ve treated about 2,800 children in the last 55 days, and hope to complete the target of 10,000 children in two months. “The treatment has been on-the-spot for most, but if surgery is required, it is done for free at BYL Nair and KEM Hospitals. We provide spectacles, manage infections, and refer cataract and squint cases for free surgery. We also conducted surprise checks to see if the children were adhering to the treatment we had prescribed; 92 per cent of them were.”

The event

The Club initially wanted to organise a marathon to raise funds for the programme, but then finally decided on a stand up-comedy event. “We love these comics – everybody follows them on Twitter and everyone wants to see them live. We got the venue and sponsors on board very quickly. But we will use the money we get strictly for the programme.” Plus, Cafe Mocambo will sponsor an exclusive after-party for those who attend the show.

(Picture courtesy www.betterphoto.com) 

 

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Event

26/11 heroes’ tribute tomorrow

Government and police will pay tribute to slain police personnel on the fourth anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

This November 26 will mark four years of the ghastly terror strikes that changed the face of Mumbai and resulted in the capture of a terrorist who lived to tell the sordid tale of how the terror plot was hatched. Ajmal Kasab was executed early last week, and it is perhaps with a clearer conscience and a part sense of closure that the city and the country will head into the fourth anniversary of the attacks tomorrow.

The State Government will pay tribute to slain police heroes at the Police Gymkhana at Marine Lines tomorrow; in attendance will be Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, the Governor K Shankarnarayanan, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, State Home Minister RR Patil and Minister of State (Home) Satej Patil, apart from police officials and families of the slain cops. The tribute will include the laying of a wreath at the 26/11 memorial that stands in the Gymkhana premises at 8 am.

(File picture of Kavita Karkare and Smita Salaskar. Picture courtesy DNA)

 

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New Gandhi on the block

Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Rajmohan Gandhi has recently become a grandfather – the child was born last month in the US.
by Humra Quraishi

I have often wondered if the Indian political scene would have been any different if Mahatma Gandhi’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren had stepped in and got into the thick of things. Sure, his grandson Rajmohan Gandhi (son of Devdas Gandhi) had been politically active for a brief while, but then he moved far away from it, taking to academics and writing on a full-time basis. But Rajmohan and Usha have now been blessed with a grandson! A new Gandhi is born.

I have known Rajmohan and his wife Usha for several years now. Their daughter Supriya  and my daughter Sarah studied together  in college and were great friends, and through the girls, we parents got to meet each other. They – Supriya and Sarah – were pursuing Philosophy honours at Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College. We’d resided quite close by on  Lutyen’s Delhi Shahjahan and Pandara Roads, so the interactions grew. And what struck me about the couple was the simplicity at Usha and Rajmohan Gandhi’s home – they believed in simple food, simple clothing, and the very basics required for living.

About 12 years ago, Usha, Rajmohan and their two children, Surpiya and Devadatta, shifted to the United States. Rajmohan is currently a Research Professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, but the family comes to India almost three or four times a year.

A few years ago, Supriya married an academic, Travis Zadeh. The wedding was a simple affair – just flowers and diyas dotting the lawns and  in the midst of it sat the guests. Perhaps in keeping with Mahatma Gandhi’s stress on simplicity, his great grand-daughter Supriya Gandhi’s marriage was one of the most austere marriage ceremonies anyone’s ever attended. There was no band, dholak, shehnai or music of any strain, no horses or elephants, no dolis or carts, none of the usual tamashas. Friends and close relatives were served vegetarian snacks and fruit juice. The same was offered to the baraatis who had come all the way from the US with the groom, Travis, who is of mixed American-Iranian parentage.

After all these years, it brings me a quiet happiness to know that Supriya, my daughter’s friend, is now the proud mother of a baby boy. The child was born last month in October in the US. They have named the child Anushirvan Gandhi-Zadeh. Anushirvan in Persian means ‘one possessing an immortal soul’.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist and author of Kashmir: The Untold Story, and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

 

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