20 July,2024 06:52 AM IST | Mumbai | Team SMD
Pic/Shadab Khan
A father teaches his son the fine art of feeding pigeons at Carter Road.
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There's reason for parents of nervous and anxious pets to relax a little bit as India's first veterinarian with a degree in behaviour medicine, Dr Prerna Vaswani, is right here in Churchgate. What this means is that cats and dogs now have a psychiatrist - someone with a medical degree to prescribe psychotropic medication to help with intense behaviours. This involved a one-year course in Behaviour Medicine with the University of Sydney, and then a 1.5-year course with the University of Australia and New Zealand.
"Behaviour is a much-needed field of study as a vet," says Dr Vaswani, "A physically sick animal behaves in a certain way, and an emotionally disturbed animal behaves in a certain way. As vets, we don't have much knowledge about these complex issues. I wanted to understand what animals were feeling to have happy healthy relationships with them."
Like Greg Chappell in 2005, Gautam Gambhir will undertake his first tour as India's head coach in Sri Lanka.
Back then, regular captain Sourav Ganguly could only join the tour party later in the triangular which featured the hosts and West Indies. Ganguly was serving an ICC-imposed ban for slow over-rate in the previous series against Pakistan.
Rahul Dravid led the side even when Ganguly qualified to play the August 3 game against Sri Lanka at Dambulla.
Chappell had familiar company in Sri Lanka. His brother Ian was one of the commentators and there was West Indies fast bowler-turned-journalist Colin Croft, who played against the Chappell brothers often during Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket.
Another West Indian big name familiar to Greg in Sri Lanka was Tony Cozier, his colleague in the television commentary box on several occasions (yes, Greg was a fine commentator).
The 2005 Indian Oil Cup was a forgettable tournament for India although they reached the final after which Greg had to face the media which included a probing Croft, who wanted to know whether the new coach felt his team lacked mental strength. Crafty Croft couldn't get through Greg's defence here. He pointed to tournament winners Sri Lanka having been used to winning and ended his comment by saying, "that's the way sport goes sometimes."
After 26 years at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), with a ringside view of major financial events in the country, Alpana Killawalla has a story or two to tell. In her new book, A Fly on the RBI Wall, the former head of the central bank's communications department has penned down anecdotes relating to historic events such as the Harshad Mehta scam of 1992 and the 2016 demonetisation.
"Initially, I was reluctant about the book. I had always considered myself a fly on the wall at RBI, and everything that I witnessed, I would mentally record, but had never thought to put it down on paper. It wasn't until I retired and started teaching that I realised my anecdotes could also be useful for others who want to learn how to manage communication in a crisis," says the author, from Bandra.
When the Harshad Mehta scam was busted, Killawalla had just made her transition from journalist to communications head at RBI. It was the era of paper trading, she recalls. "Harshad Mehta was able to take advantage of the system. I realised that if it hadn't been for the RBI, the scam might have continued till date. It was RBI that had discovered how Mehta was getting money from banks [via bankers receipts] and then investing it in the stock market," she adds.
As for the demonetisation, Killawalla says, "I remember how people suffered and we suffered with them."
In the hurly burly of our daily lives, let us remember one milestone. Friday, July 26 marks the 25th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas. To pay tribute with heart 'n' sole (pun fully intended) Fitistan-Ek Fit Bharat and the Military Headquarters Mumbai Goa and Gujarat area, have announced the Mumbai Kargil Soldierathon on Sunday, July 28. This running event is to be held within the Military Station, Colaba. Fitistan-Ek Fit Bharat co-founder Shilpa Bhagat said, "We are also planning a tribute wall and a cheer buddy category, where a buddy can cheer a runner." We say let the biggest cheers go up for Kargil bravehearts, the 527 who made the ultimate sacrifice. Runners can visit the www.fitistan.com for details.
The Beginning, activist Insia Dariwala's short film about ceremonial genital cutting of young girls in the Bohra community, was screened to a small audience recently and the panel discussions that followed attempted to untangle how the ritual could be banned. Would a law help, as it did in the case of sati? But then POSCO criminalises genital touching, advocate Audrey D'mello reminded: The question is, who would the complainant be? Would a seven-year-old child go to the cops about her mother, grandmother? Would a father intervening get loans from the Jamaat in their trading community? Would medical intervention help? The conclusion was that only community effort could stop the practice and the most important fuel would be money to help such campaigns and films. To which Dolly Thakore from the audience quipped, "Stop spending on weddings."
