Your smoking is injurious to my health

It’s one of those WTF moments, when you hear on the radio, while you are driving, that a case has been slapped on an actor because he appears on a poster smoking. 

Sure, cinema plays a very important role in Indian life. Actors are treated next to God, or rather the other way around, where even gods take a second place. The industry has yielded a lot of gems which form the Diamond Necklace that the Indian Cinema industry is. That automatically leads to a bit of imitation of style by some easily impressionable young minds and we can hope that this will be for the greater good of society. The movie itself carries a good message, if you look beyond the story, of living within your means, and now; dont smoke too!

The case slapped against Fahad Fasil an upcoming actor, who has been doing an excellent job so far, proving he is no rough diamond, is because he is portrayed as smoking in a movie poster. The rules (whose? god knows) states that there should be a statutory warning placed on smoking and drinking scenes. This must be to deter those who are considering taking up either or both as a past time or hobby. However, movies can depict violence, sexual violence and any other genre of violence against all genders without placing a statutory warning that it is a health hazard for the victim and punishable by law. Thats not done because everyone knows it would be as effective as lighting a cigarette under water. 

If the government or authorities or anyone is serious about banning smoking, because it is a health hazard, the first thing they should do is ban cigarettes (without which a certain actor would not be able to perform his trademark move) and not attack an artist. The censor board should have taken care of that. A ban on tobacco will definitely deter anyone from taking up smoking, but again it needs to be seen if cinema or tobacco and its products are the bigger contributor to the economy.

Any publicity is good publicity and that may be the case here, as the public will definitely sit up and take notice of the poster, the movie and the actor on it. 

Those who smoke and plan to start smoking…sadly…will always continue to do so…inspite of a poster, a warning or anything, as long as they can get their hands on a ciggie!

Sunshades

My search for a pair of Rx-able sunglasses got over when I visited the Mont Blanc service center to have my wife’s sunglasses fixed. They showed me the Liberty range from Liberty Sport, which was the closes to a pair of sporty looking glasses as a semi-visually impaired person can get.

Being Rx-able means that you can have prescription lens fit into the frames without it looking awkward and actually looking like they are a pair of sunglasses. They also have a range of magnetic accessories which make these glasses fit for a wide range of sports and hobbies like golf or biking. Standard equipment includes a semi hard carry case, a band and magnetic side covers which provide extra protection depending on the model you choose.

They have a cool range which is currently available at Kefan Optics and International Optique in Kuwait.

What if it wasn’t….

The Emperor of all maladies by Siddartha Mukherjee makes for a more interesting read than just an addition to the nowreading hash tag on Twitter.

I am now half way through the book, and it seems to be the guide to cancer for non-medical professionals or perhaps the dummy’s guide to cancer. The writing style is simple and lucid. The book presents a hassle free look at cancer, making it sound so good that you wish you would get cancer, because it is largely curable, or at least that is the feeling you get as you go through the book.  I am not going to attempt to review the book any further.

What struck me as very interesting was the fact that cancer which is perceived as death and destruction is shown as the anti-thesis of disease, in that it is an uncontrolled proliferation of cells. Cancer is actually a growth of cells and not the destruction of cells. No one has been able to find out how it starts or why it does so.

Given that certain cancers still remain incurable, I am forced to think that Cancer may be just an other evolutionary process in the progress of man. We may be trying to stop the unstoppable in trying to find a cure, and stop the evolution of mankind.

What if it wasn’t meant to be cured? What if we are playing havoc with our evolutionary process? What if we are throwing a spanner in the works?

Chain of life

Kochouseph Chitillapilly, owner of publicly traded V Guard( which is a pioneer in voltage stabilizers and other electrical and electronic consumables) and a couple of leading amusement parks in India, besides other businesses, has decided to donate his kidney. By doing so he will be starting a kidney donor chain, where a relative of the recipient, usually a spouse, parent or sibling, will donate a kidney to another needy matching recipient and so on and so forth.

The inspiration behind the chain and Kochouseph’s decision is a Catholic priest, Fr. John Chiramel, who donated one of his kidneys to a renal patient. This act was all the more significant in a country where communal strife, though not rampant is lurking around the corner, as the recipient was a Hindu. The priest has definitely demonstrated a shining example of communal harmony. Fr. John is also the President & Founder of the Kidney Federation of India, which plans to start a kidney bank and provide haemodialysis to needy patients at affordable rates.

The media in India, which tries to milk the public’s sympathy by crying foul when they find someone selling a kidney to make a few bucks to feed their families or send a child to school, and does not bat an eyelid while describing the gory details of organs being harvested from people without their permission, has missed this bit of news which would have inspired many and educated a lot more on how a person can survive on one kidney.

The example set forth by this industrialist should set an example of philanthropy, which seems to be lacking in India when compared to the West.

Movember

Movember is a month long event, wherein men grow their moustache for a whole month and raise charity funds to support men’s health issues.
Issues like prostrate cancer and depression in men. Stuff men don’t usually pay attention to. The event was started in Australia in the late 90’s.
The prostrate, is one of those glands that make men what they are and well a cancer is something too small to ignore. Most cancers if detected at the right time can be treated.
As for depression, well I’m sure there’s nothing a strip club can’t solve!! 😀

Schick is having a promotion where they will donate a dollar if people upload their photos with moustaches and Heinz is donating 10c a bottle in honor of the moustachioed Mr. Heinz.

more here