THE DIARY OF Z

When an offshore drilling rig sank in The Gulf of Mexico last week it was anticipated that the flood of oil that was entering the surrounding waters could be controlled. Initially experts believed only 1,000 barrels worth of oil a day would leak out, an amount they deemed manageable, and that they felt could be contained.

However, after the flow continued at the same rate for some days and the wind turned to blow inland, test sections of the slick have been set on fire in an attempt to burn off the oil before it reaches the shores of the surrounding countries which, if it does, would cause unprecedented environmental damage.

The major area that is of the most concern for conservationists is that of the Mississippi Delta and the Delta National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, an area which contains some 40% of the US’s wetland breeding grounds for fish and birds.

President Obama has been briefed on the situation and he has offered the service of the defence department to help control the spill.

However, one is left thinking, with increasing pressure on the G8 countries to reign in their carbon emissions for the sake of climate change, surely our greedy drilling for oil should fall into a similar bracket, and more restrictions on hunting for fossil fuels need to be made?

No there aren’t oil spills like this every day, but they are becoming more frequent, and the catastrophic environmental effect that each spill leaves behind scars our planet; our home, more violently than 5 years of carbon emissions.

Surely this is something worth thinking about?

Contributed by Jenny Wren-Charlton

Ours is a period of history where much of our daily lives are consumed by topics that are inherently negative and destructive; terrorism, global warming, natural disasters, incurable disease, the list is endless. The other day, however, I found a real sense of joy in finding a positive and uplifting headline piece in the world news, a story which inspired rather than appalled.

This week, Imtiaz Sooliman, an Indian born man, received the Order of the Baobab in Silver award, from South African President Jocob Zuma, "for his excellent contribution through the Gift of the Givers Foundation to humanitarian aid in South Africa and humanitarian relief missions in various countries."

Sooliman set up the ‘Gift of the Givers Foundation’ over a decade ago which has since provided humanitarian aid to people in countries all over the world which have been torn apart by war or natural disaster. The Foundation’s most recent effort was in providing aid to the victims of the earthquake which killed over 250,000 people in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was with the help of Sooliman’s team that the first survivor of the disaster was found.

In an age where there is such a huge barrier between those who have and those who need, isn’t it wonderful to see the stories of those who give, honoured for what they do and put up on the front page where they belong?

The day is not far when newspapers and TV channels will dedicate a section of their space and air time on do-gooders and positive news.

Contributed by Jenny Wren-Charlton

If someone had asked me two months ago what I thought of wacky therapies like acupuncture I would have said something along the lines of ‘a load of piffle, pointless and probably painful.’ 

As a life long sufferer of eczema and generally dry skin, I have tried every medicated cream, soap, wash and spray under the sun. Results varied from a vague improvement for a couple of days to extreme irritation and crazy rashes on my arms that made me, and those around me wince at the sight of them. 

Exasperated, I decided to follow my mother’s advice. I went to visit the local acupuncturist. She sat me down and went through my symptoms. We talked for ages… it was a bit like having a counselling session. Another type of ‘therapy’ I was not much convinced by until recently. 

So following a long chat, I was told my skin didn’t have enough ‘wind’. To be honest, I didn’t know my skin was supposed to be windy at all, but there you go, learning something new everyday!

As such, she laid me down and proceeded to prod and poke me with no less than 10 needles. I make a big deal, but actually there was no pain. It was quite soothing, in fact. Once I was transformed into a living pincushion, I was left to doze for half an hour to let the effects of the pins run through my ‘wind channels’.

Results?

Impressively and surprisingly positive. Not cured, but significantly improved after four weeks. Perhaps this hippy freaky nonsense is worth a shot! 

Moral of the story: Always follow your mother’s advice.

Contributed by Jenny-Wren Charlton

As a ‘volcanic ash victim’, I became all too aware of the frustration of the many thousands of travellers left at the mercy of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajoekull over the last 10 days. My flight departure was scheduled for April 17th, but I finally arrived in Bangalore on the 25th. But should I have?

Airspace in and around Europe was closed for a total of six days with only a handful of test flights going on. And all the while, airlines became more concerned about the loss of revenue as time flew by. So after calls for the government to start contributing to bail out expense claims and pour more money into the ‘repatriation’ effort for Brits stranded abroad, airspace was miraculously deemed safe to fly in. 

Looking at the history of volcanic ash clouds, surely, a basic view of the facts suggests that this could be a grave mistake. The infamous flight that flew into the ash of Mount Galunggung after it erupted in Indonesia on 24th June 1982 and was lucky to restart its engines proves that ash hovers in the air and poses considerable risk up to three weeks after eruption. On 13th July 1982, another flight in the same area suffered a similar fate, yet luck was on its side as well. 

Yes, the globe is suffering from its worst economic setback since the Wall Street crash. But will pushing aside scientific evidence and historical fact in order to save crucial pounds, pence and euros be worth it if a 747 turns into a gliding bomb that lands in the middle of Europe tomorrow?

Hopefully, we shall never know. But the governments of Europe will have some severe questions to answer if luck is not on their side.

Contributed by Jenny-Wren Charlton

Mock meat is making its rounds to India with exciting options for vegans, vegetarians, and carnivores.  Extremely popular in China and the UK, Indian chefs are experimenting with soya ingredients to bring about veg chicken, veg lamb, veg duck, etc. 

Edward Wang, owner of  China Garden in Mumbai, says “The dishes are 15 per cent more expensive than vegetarian food but the health benefits are many".  High in protein and flavour, these mock meats will even have carnivores fooled as to what they are eating!

I recently went to Little Italy in Bangalore’s Indiranagar that had a mince “meat” pasta which we all thought was real meat.  Only after the meal did we realize that Little Italy is a vegetarian restaurant! Vegan societies such as PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) have long promoted adding meat substitutes for those who cannot give up flavour for animal rights and health purposes. 

Contributed by Prachi Jain

Good news: the Iranians can now surf on Facebook.

Iran restored access to Facebook Tuesday after blocking the popular website for four days.

As it’s often the case with the Iranian government, nothing is clear with this story.

The government didn’t say why it blocked access to Facebook last Saturday. It didn’t say why it decided to lift the block on Tuesday. And didn’t say if this lift is permanent or not.

Many people think the government blocked Facebook for electoral reasons. The electoral campaign is running strong right now in Iran, and the reformist opposition is massively using Facebook to reach the young Iranians (more than half the population of Iran was born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution).

In any case, this block should be seen as another sign of the control-freak regime put in place by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranian authorities often block websites what are considered going against the Islamic Regime.

Let’s just hope this ungracious strategy ends up going against those who used it to control their citizens and restrict their liberties.

Contributed by PHILIPPE MERCURE

Journalist, writer, photographer, 33, Bangalore, India

‘What I’ve Learned’ is one of the most popular columns in Esquire magazine. Once, they asked readers to send in their two cents of wisdom gathered over the years. And this is what I sent Esquire.

1. Honestly is indeed the best policy. But just when you think, it’s not working, go ahead anyway. Backtracking can be more harmful.

2. It’s better to be sorry than safe. That translates to taking risks whenever, wherever and not fighting shy of saying ’sorry’ when you screw up.

3. Sometimes, it pays to listen to your ego. But most times, it’s the cause of things only going downhill. And there’s no such thing as a balancing act. Either you are in it or you are not.

4. Judging people by how they dress can turn out to be downright wrong. But it’s good to judge people that way, too. It takes all kinds of judgements to sum up an individual. You could start with his fashion quotient.

5. Sex is good, whether you like it or someone else likes it. The glow of satisfaction you get from your partner’s body language can de-stress you more than massage.

6. You can make a fashion statement by not following it and no one will call you a rebel except the fashion designers whose rules you blatantly violated. So go ahead. Live your freedom to be.

7. Never go behind what women want. Eventually, everything will be to their heart’s content and nothing to your liking.

8. Phone etiquette is good to an extent. After that, what matters is how much you pretend to be ‘interested’ in the conversation. If your pretension is up to the mark, you don’t need no etiquette.

9. You may not believe in clichés even when ‘being in the right place at the right time’ worked for you.

10. Luck is no lady unless you manage to inherit millions from your grand mom.

11. Patience and perseverance can get you everywhere, including a woman’s pants.

12. It’s better to think you can read people’s minds. That will boost your self-confidence and egg you on to breaking the ice with people who were indeed very hard to crack.

13. Maturity is to know when to be immature. It’s true and it works, even if it seems like a clever little cliche.

14. Chant ‘love is lust without desire’ and you will have a good time in bed because all the time your ladylove will be convincing you that love is indeed lust atleast for her. Now which man would resist that?

Make no mistake. Traditional martial arts techniques don’t prepare you for the real world. So what does? Krav Maga. It’s the Israeli form of hand-to-hand combat made famous by Hollywood actresses Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie, and most recently by Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum. When you see him tackling his attackers, both armed and unarmed, with lightning hand movements, it was Krav in action.

Now, you can, too.

The International Krav Maga Federation recently opened its Bangalore chapter. And already, it has 30 members on its rolls, more than half being techies. Not just that. The institution recently conducted a special workshop this February 24. “After reading about some road rage oriented attacks in the Bangalore papers, we decided to conduct a basic road rage workshop,” says instructor and centre in-charge Frank. “Since Krav Maga is trained in a real-life scenario inspired by real sudden violent attacks, we enacted basic violent attacks on both the bike riders and car drivers.”

The proponents offered the students, a close to real-life attacking session inside the confined space of a car or bike and see the effectiveness of Krav Maga for themselves. The training started at their Richmond Town centre for a couple of hours and later shift ed to a vacant spot on Old Madras Road for real-life training with a couple of cars and bikes.

The popularity of Krav Maga is such that it’s now being employed by many western special forces such as the Swedish and Polish army and the French GIGN. After 9/11, even a team from America’s Central Intelligence Agency went to Israel to learn it. The founder of Krav Maga was one Imi Lichtenfeld who taught self defence and combat techniques to jews so they could protect themselves from armed German Nazi soldiers. After Israel was formed, Imi became the chief instructor to the Israeli Defense Force. A good 20 years after his retirement, the International Krav Maga Federation was founded in 1996 with Imi’s consent and support, by a bunch of enthusiasts. Now, the federation has grown to be one of the largest, professional and well respected organisations in the world.

So how does it find a resonance to our lives? “Because it’s not martial arts, but more of street fighting, something you need in real life,” says advertising professional Abinanth Potri who has been training for the last two months. “In Karate, you practice a punch for some 16000 times to strengthen just the punch. In Krav Maga, you take the best parts of all the martial arts and use what is needed in a normal life situation. For example, you don’t need a flying kick or a boxing glove on the street. All you need is to sharpen your natural reflexes.”

Experts will tell you that Karate, Taekwondo, Ju Jitsu, Judo, kickboxing, Thai boxing are inferior to Krav Maga when it concerns real world self defence. But why? Because the other martial arts give you the reflexes to block the initial stab but you probably would not instinctively grab the knife like KM teaches you. “KM is instinctive, simple and easy to apply even in a really crowded place,” explains Frank. “Most importantly, it could well save you especially if the attacker is just some ordinary guy with a knife trying to stab you, and not a trained killer.”

Right now, it’s a male-centric domain, as the male-female ratio at the Bangalore centre is 10:1. “Krav Maga is great for both men and women. There is no gender or physical barrier to it, so it should catch on among women too,” he says. About the kind of people who are walking in, he said, “Out of the 30 who have enrolled so far, 16 are from IT-software / hardware / BPOs, 1 is from the defence forces, 6 are businessmen, 3 are corporate executives, 2 are from advertising and 1 is a medical student,” he says. “Though all these people either hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree, only four have some form of martial arts experience. The rest are new to any system of self defence or martial arts.”

Being conducted at The Doodle Den is another plus. It’s an activity store for children and adults to unwind in creatively satisfying ways. They can sprawl on the large open floor area to watch a movie on the Panchatantra tales, sharpen multiplication skills by watching a fun session on maths or read a Tenali Rama story. Adjacent to it is The Colour Factory where you can splatter, spray, paint or create your own thing. Adding Krav to the surroundings has only made it even better in this quiet, nostalgic neighbourhood boasting of understated elegance (read: Victorian bungalows).

Complementing the setting is the holistic way Krav approaches fine living, making it extremely practical and effective in the same breath. “Krav-Maga increases your flexibility, concentration and presence of mind, body language, muscular as well as cardiovascular stamina, mental endurance, confidence and healthy aggression,” says Vicky Kapoor, chief instructor at the International Krav-Maga Foundation (India) in Delhi. “Since physical fitness is closely interwoven into the system, the workout includes a number of cardiovascular and strength-building exercises, as well as stretching to increase flexibility. Emphasis is put on speed, endurance, strength, accuracy and coordination, especially for intensive Krav-Maga training.”

What that means is if you practise these KM skills, then your trained reflexes will save you and give you the edge over the attacker, because the last thing he would expect is a competent counter attack. “I find KM very easy to learn and effective at the same time,” says software engineer Pramoda Vyasarao, who has been training for the last three months. “It’s not like any other art that takes years together to just learn different postures on how to stand and how to kick. This is purely based on human reflex actions. On the first day itself, we were actually fighting, like what to do if someone tries to choke you.”

Clearly, Krav Maga does pack a mean punch. But does it make you crave for action? “Not at all,” says Potri. “In fact, you tend to respect life and humans a lot better because you see the kind of damage you inflict on the pads you practice with. You become more responsible and try and stay out of trouble most of the time.”

Got that? Practice KM with a winning attitude. And employ it only if you really need to.

Krav Maga Bangalore

C/o Doodle Den, No.3, Curley Street,

Richmond Town, Bangalore 560025. Tel: +91.80.41240090

Saturday: 8:30-11:00AM, 11:00-1:30PM & 5:30-8:00PM

Sunday 8:30AM-11AM

Contact: Frank on 9886769281 or visit SelfDefenseBangalore.com or KravMagaBangalore.com.

Fees per month: Rs 2800 + Rs 1000 Admission Fees (Non-Refundable)

Introduction Training: Rs 300 per hour (Adjusted to fees if you enrol)

(This piece appeared in Mint, the business newspaper of The Wallstreet Journal)

Health is indeed wealth in today’s disease-embedded times. Here are some handy tips from people in the medical field. Do make the most of them.

Happy living!

Dr PS Murthy, consultant psychiatrist
1.    Avoid stress by setting realistic and achievable goals.
2.    Accept the work that is given to you with a positive frame of mind, irrespective of its outcome.
3.    Take small (mini) breaks and relax at work.
4.    Take weekend breaks with family or visit places that rejuvenate and recharge you.
5.    Inform your family members about the nature of your work so they don’t have unreasonable expectations regarding your quantity and quality of time spent with them.
6.    Go for longer breaks with family/friends atleast once a year.

Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, heart surgeon
1.    De-stress your heart by changing your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.
2.    Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints.
3.    Control cholesterol by walking and eating walnuts.
4.    All oils are bad. The so-called best oil company has the largest marketing budget.
5.    Drinking less water doesn’t’ lead to heart problems, but drinking plenty helps in preserving good health.
6.    Usually, you get chest discomfort or shortness of breath, months or years before the heart attack. So, when in doubt, go for a heart check-up, which should not take more than a couple of hours. And if you are past 30, go for a health checkup at least once in two years.

Dr Jyoti Prasad, nutritionist
1.    Take the best advantage of seasons and have fresh fruits and vegetables of that season
2.    Avoid anything that’s got fine flour, fat and salt.
3.    70% of your diet should contain carbohydrates (rice, wheat, ragi), 20-25% proteins (dal, sprouts), 10-15% fat (oil, fried fat, invisible fat) and the least usage should be for fat and sugar. Take that to mean, salads, cooked vegetables, chapattis, rice, a little bit of curd, lean meat and chicken.
4.    Nothing like a 45-minute walk every day. It’s cheap, you don’t need any special equipment or dress.

R Basil, Managing Director & CEO, Manipal Health Systems
1.    Always keep the medical emergency number of a multi-speciality hospital located nearest to your home and office.
2.    And always keep the number of Police control room as well as the local police station and the fire services.  Health and safety go hand in hand.