Fatso is funny?

If you take a look around you, signs of the soaring childhood obesity epidemic are everywhere. Beyond the physical hazards of carrying extra weight, parents need to understand that social and emotional problems and concerns, more often than not, underlie these conditions. These issues may include:
Depressive symptoms - Overweight children may experience overwhelming feelings of hopelessness leading to depression. This may include a decreased interest in normal activities, excessive crying, and an increase in sleeping, etc. Out of control feelings and behaviors can spread to areas beyond food and eating. The child may have turned to food to somehow affect or camouflage feelings and emotions. Even the 'happy fat kid' who clowns around is probably using his image to hide a lot of pain and insecurity.
Low self-concept and bullying - Today's society places a high premium on on looking good, which means being 'thin', so children who are overweight tend to become victims of poor self esteem and a negative body image. They may get bullied and may, in turn, become bullies as they struggle with a lack of self-confidence and lower self-concept.
Social struggles with peers - Teasing from peers and difficulties in the classroom may lead to behavioral problems and school-related anxiety. Physical size and shape during this period can affect friendships. Obese children get picked on and are victims of name-calling like 'motu', fatso', potato', etc. This makes them want to avoid school or playground situations, but this lack of positive social interactions can lead to learning problems, preventing the overweight child from meeting his or her full potential.
We all need to learn how to support and motivate our children to be healthy, particularly when emotional issues are instrumental in your child’s becoming overweight, the emotional arena would be the first place to seek solutions and bring about change:
It is for parents to step in to encourage their child to recognize, define and resolve underlying emotional issues that may be driving the dysfunctional behaviors in an effort to resolve problems at their source. Teach your children appropriate ways to express their emotions. Encourage them to talk about their feelings and not to internalize their emotions. It is important to teach them 'feeling words' early to encourage verbal expression. Non-verbal emotional outlets might include drawing, role play with toys, and any time-out with physical exercise.
It is for parents to supply healthful meals regularly for the child, and then to sit down to eat these meals together with the child, listening to thoughts and feelings, at the same time as observing eating behaviors. If you notice emotional eating, confront your child and discuss healthy alternatives for meeting the underlying need.
The overweight child needs encouragement to turn off the television, put down the computer game and go outside to play, to ride his bike, walk the dog, etc. He should not be allowed to eat in front of the television, but to sit down at the table to eat with a plate in front of him.
Parents should engage in activities, sports, and healthful exercise with their child. You could go for a bike ride together, take tennis lessons, or walk to the library rather than drive. Encourage family walks every evening as a way to share stories with your family, walk the dog, and get a low-impact workout. Your children can hop on their bicycles, scooters, or skateboards and ride alongside while you walk. If you spend an hour playing outside with your kids each day, physical activity will become a consistent part of your daily routine.
Positive parental attention of any type creates positive self-esteem. Obesity and a healthy self-esteem are an unlikely duo. Parents need to focus on health, not appearance, and on more activity, not less food. Praise your children and focus on their gifts and talents to build and affirm their self-concept. Help your children learn to love and accept themselves as you reflect that unconditional love toward them.
Become alert to your child’s experiencing stresses at school or with peers. Talk to your child about whether he or she has ever experienced teasing in the schoolyard and if so, discuss how he or she felt about it, and what he or she did or might do in response in the future.
Sit down with the family to create a fitness schedule. Let each family member choose an activity so everyone has something to look forward to. Trying new things will help your children discover what they're good at and what they enjoy. The fitness schedule also gives each child a chance to show off their skills by choosing an activity they excel in. Invest in low-priced, easy-to-use equipment like jump ropes, free weights, exercise balls, sports equipment and video workouts.
Work together on household chores.It's not very difficult to work up a sweat cleaning house. So why not turn up the stereo and dance as you mop the floor or dust the shelves? Let your kids get messy helping with gardening and yard work. Create contests to see who can clean their room fastest or whose cloth cleaned off the most dust!
Check your local newspaper or the Internet for local charity walks or races, or simply a cycling or sports club in your town.
Busy schedules make it difficult to prioritize the things that are most important to us. Your health and the health of your loved ones is the single most significant part of life. By limiting your own TV, video game, and computer use and making time for exercise each day, your children will have a concrete example of how physical activity can be incorporated into a busy lifestyle. With a small investment of time and money, there are dozens of ways to find time to stay in shape - together.

Juhi Mehta, the quintessential mother-teacher, runs Life Express - an after-school center for children. She can be reached at juhimalini@gmail.com. She also writes 'Reflections of an inner Journey'

Tintin in DehraDun. The new adventure. Fiction.

Tintin and Snowy arrived at the railway station. They had always heard of this quite, polite town, inhabited by courteous and well mannered folks. The place in India for Tintin fans and much needed rest.

To receive the world famous reporter was the local administration, headed by the Mayor of Doon. The Mayor was of course overjoyed. He will be showing Tintin around, and also giving our favorite reporter the details of the many things we are doing to make our city more adventure prone.

A car for Tintin is parked right outside the station porch, with a red beacon flashing. “Am I a state guest?” asks Tintin. “No, No,” replies the Mayor, “pointing at all the other white cars with Red or Blue beacons, “you see, this is the capital of our state, Uttrakhand…we have to make sure that people know we are at the seat of our government.” Tintin started reading the little red boards in front of the cars aloud:

1. Manager, Gandhi Park Morning Walkers Association.
2. Chief Warden, Bushes and Hedges Club.
3. Secretary, Sulabh Shauchalya , Rajpur Road Branch.
4. Chief, Adventures of Tintin.

Tintin quickly got into the last car; that he was sure was for him, but didn’t like when the driver switched the sirens on. “Is this what most people do here Sir?” Tintin asked the driver. “Yes Sir, Tintin Sir,…you see nobody really stops you if you’re in a large white car, with a red or blue light on top ; and a red plate in front saying that you’re important. So everybody puts a red board saying whatever they do” Tintin noticed another board that said ‘Brother and Principal, High Class School’. He knew immediate…this city is special.

The car left the station and picked speed. “And what is that long structure” Tintin continued peeping out of the window as the car sped on. “Oh that! That sir is called Ghanta Ghar. We don’t really need it now. The British wanted us to be punctual so they built one for the city. Now we just look at our mobile phones for time.” “It’s a nice looking piece of architecture…does the city not preserve it?” asked Tintin pointing at the many Peepal shoots coming out of the structure and spoilt clocks. “Oh we do sir, once every 10 years, this gets painted. The elections for the local municipality are in 3 years. We still have time for repairs, and those trees growing on the structure…you see Sir, we can’t cut trees anymore in the city. Bad for the environment.” Tintin just opened his mouth a little, and then shut it; without saying anything.

This is when he suddenly heard strange sounds. Car horns, bike horns, double tone high octave horns…all at once. He was sure the driver was on the wrong side. Why would so many people suddenly get so loud on the road? By this time the driver was sure that this foreigner needed some advice. “Sir, you see, you seem to be from a different generation. This is DehraDun. We were at one time a polite and well mannered town. But that was way back sir.” Said the driver, as he continued spitting Paan outside his window.

Tintin looked at the filth on the road and finally said “Isn’t there a train leaving town in 20 minutes?”.

Vineet Panchhi owns and runs Audio Wagon, his lifelong passion and now a music company. He blogs at Unplanned Journeys , and can be reached at: vineet.panchhi@audiowagon.com

How to Raise Kids?

How to raise healthy, happy and wise kids in the 21st century – the
question puzzles and the answer evades most of us! If this question
worries you, come and join the club! All concerned, sensitive,
intelligent and loving parents are welcome. The past few weeks have
been dedicated to the 'integrated development' of a child, so if
you've missed some, do catch up and then go further. This week, I'm
going to write about one of the eating disorders in children –
obesity. I have previously only touched the tip of the iceberg, but it
should suffice to send chills down the spines of parents, enough to
take cognizance of this growing ailment among our children. While the
West woke up to this malaise long ago, a lot of us in India are still
not aware of this as a serious problem.

Obesity has taken on epidemic proportions across urban India.
According to doctors at the All India Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the
death rate among children will soon shoot up to 33% percent (from the
current 9%) on account of cardio-vascular diseases caused by obesity
alone! According to a survey conducted by them on 1,100 adolescent
school-going children, about 21% boys and 22% girls were overweight
and an overall 24% qualified as obese! The children in government
schools were in better physical shape than the children in private
schools, revealing a connection between higher incomes and obesity.
The higher the income, the fatter the kids! The World Health
Organization (WHO) calls it 'globesity', since this problem is now
worldwide.

What is generally seen is that fat babies(not the regular baby fat)
grow up to become fat children, then on to fat adolescents and
eventually fat adults. The babies and small children are overfed or
given a wrong diet, a huge amount of fat cells are produced in the
body, as compared to a child whose fat cells are of normal count.
After growing up, if this same adolescent or adult goes on a diet and
loses weight, he/she thinks that the fat cells have finally gone, but
unfortunately, that is not the case. The fat cells, squeezed and
shrivelled, stay in the body. As soon as the diet is relaxed, they
become re-activated with a vengeance, and these people put on weight
faster than they lost it! That is why you hear people complaining that
they always have to stay on a diet otherwise they gain weight very
fast. This is because since childhood they have stored more fat cells
than other people.

There are many known causes of obesity - genetic, hereditary,
cultural, while others are because of a sedentary lifestyle. One main
genetic reason is the leptin gene, which is manufactured in the fat
cells, and it sends messages to the body to eat or stop eating. An
excess or lack of this gene can cause undereating or overeating. The
other reason is heredity. An individual inherits a particular body
type and a genetic inclination towards obesity manifests itself in
those people more who are more prone to environmental triggers like
stress, easy availabilty of convenience foods, a lazy lifestyle, etc.
When the genes tip the balance, some succumb easily, others less so.
According to the American Cancer Society, obesity leads to a dozen
different types of cancer!

The cultural factor has to do more with lifestyles, habits, likes and
dislikes of various races and cultures. Like I've mentioned before, in
a lot of cultures, overfeeding children is indicative of familial
love. The more the food and the richer it is, it sybolizes health and
prosperity! Haven't we all met people whose children are just
'healthy', not obese? This is just a way to turn a blind eye to the
real problem, but it does not go away, only takes on worse
proportions.

A great amount of research points to the fact that television and
computers are the menace of society today, especially among children
and are the primary causes of obesity and other health-related
problems. Parents switch on the TV to keep infants or even older
children from crying or throwing tantrums. In a lot of homes, meals
are always eaten while watching television. I've been told by a lot of
parents that their children fall asleep only to TV, and the first
thing they do when they wake up is switch it on again! They don't
'listen' and there is no other way to make them do anything, besides
letting them watch as much TV as they want! Well, most of you who are
now familiar with my thoughts, know what I have to say on the subject!
But that is a separate discussion altogether, to be talked about
later. Parents are either helpless or in despair. The 'eye-mouth'
connection is very strong, watching more TV leads to a 'zombie'-like
state and the children keep eating while watching. Fat is bound to
accumulate if the input is more than the output. Such children also
don't like to go or play outdoors and physical activities are soon
beyond their physical capacity. They are unable to burn all the excess
calories. Our bodies are better designed to deal with hunger than
fullness. When we are inactive, controlling appetite does not happen
instinctively, so it has to be self-imposed. Also the kind of
advertising about foods these days promotes only high-calorie
fast-food. Although obesity has been recognized as a serious national
problem, precious little is being done to curb advertisements endorsed
by or aimed at children. On the other hand, countries like Norway and
Sweden have placed a complete ban on such advertising. Consequently,
in these countries, the level of childhood obesity is very low, while
countries with the least regulated television laws have alarming
levels of child obesity!

All in all, a great cause for worry. Next time I will talk about the
effects of obesity on a child's health, personality and psychology, as
also the other eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia). Till then,
enough food for thought!

Juhi Mehta, the quintessential mother-teacher, runs Life Express - an after-school center for children. She can be reached at juhimalini@gmail.com. She also writes 'Reflections of an inner Journey'

On ‘Freedom’ and Peepli

I have no idea about what life was when the British ruled us. Neither do I relate very well to the concept of us as a ‘nation state’, and before you start to wonder what I mean …let me explain.

A nation is a ‘close-knit’ group of people which share a ‘common culture’. The emphasis hence is on ‘close-knit’ and ‘common culture’.

When the British left us, we started to knit together whatever they left and started to call it a nation. It is also evident that there are multiple cultures in India that are obviously not ‘close knit’. And whilst we continue to believe that we are a ‘nation state’, and sometimes use this term interchangeably for ‘county’, I think the truth is far from it. That’s one.

We went to watch ‘Peepli (Live)’ yesterday at Prabhat. It’s a short and hard hitting movie and I recommend each of you to spend on this ticket. After the show and dinner, I was much disturbed. Not because what we saw in the movie was new or surprising, but because I could relate to some of the characters and felt ashamed of our current state of affairs as a country (not a nation).

The Common wealth games haven’t even started and we are already wishing that they end soon, so we can save face as a county (not a nation).

I don’t think I have had too much to crib about in life. The right education and support available to us helped us grow in directions that made us feel privileged. The economy also opened up at the time when we could make the most of it and did. I remember a time when my Dad would compare his government salary after 35 years of work; to ours after 5, and that he got paid much less. We made our houses, bought cars, and filled our houses with stuff we needed, or thought we needed, traveled and took regular vacations. What more can we ask for?
And yet, I feel ashamed.

As a kid; I remember looking at my neighbors new car (the first Maruti model), and out of a sheer sense of envy at our family not being able to afford it…I went and made a huge scratch on it, with the sharpest stone I could find. On being questioned on my actions as a 9 year old, I couldn’t explain the behavior.

I can now. I did it because I believed; that our neighbors didn’t deserve it, or; that all of us should be able to deserve it, or, if they really did deserve it, why can’t they share it with us, or; at least they shouldn’t show it off in a way that makes everybody else feel small or worthless. I did scratch it nevertheless.

The situation in our country isn’t very different today. When we buy a liter of water for 15 bucks, we hardly realize that that is the money an average rural Indian makes a day, or; that drinking water is still a ‘pipe dream’ in most of India, or that even in an advancing state like ours, the nearest doctor is sometimes 50 Kms away, or; that most of what kids are taught at government schools will never get them a decent job.

When these people see a few of us ‘deserving’ lot living it up, not sharing, and showing off in ways that makes other people look small and worthless, would they make a huge scratch on us, with the sharpest stone they can find?

I would.

Vineet Panchhi owns and runs Audio Wagon, his lifelong passion and now a music company. He blogs at Unplanned Journeys , and can be reached at: vineet.panchhi@audiowagon.com

Discovering Doon - Sundays Around Doon

Back in the days when I had a struggling career, I was trying to establish the first English newsmagazine in the region with my friends Anup, Anjali and Ajay (3aces!). It was during this process, that the town I always thought I knew like the back of my hand started opening its leaves to me. And the more I explored, the more I found, and the discovery of our beautiful valley amazed me. It was as if I was discovering a new town, unknown to me so far.

The man who was responsible for catalysing this change was the late Prem Hari Har Lal. author of “Doon Valley down the Ages”. He was not just a living encyclopaedia of Doon Valley, he was a charming conversationalist and entertainer too. It was during those coffee evenings at his house, that we came to know about our town so much. Ofcourse, his book had all of it, but to listen to him narrate was so much more fun. And much more, because he egged us to explore, telling us just half the hint, fuelling our curiosity.

How else were we to know where in the valley was an “extinct Volcano”? or what the centre of Dehradun looked like till the Forties “without a Clock Tower”? Where and when was the “First concrete Well” dug up in Dehradun? or that our Doon valley is equi-distant from both “Ganga and Yamuna”? or why is our “Clock Tower” so unique from the other clock towers? or the place where a “beer-brewery” existed during the British times in the Doon Valley? Or that much before the East Canal (EC Road) and West Canal (GMS Road), where the “Central Canal” that brought water to the Dera of Doon lay? Or the story behind the famous “sidhhs” of Doon valley – Kalu Sidh, Manak Sidh, Lakshman Sidh and Nag Sidh!!

I could go on and on, but I guess that will take all the fun out of discovering your own town. So this weekend, go out and explore your town, without an agenda, without a destination. Just explore, and wander around, and notice what’s so very unique about our town, in its small little lanes, narrow bazaars, wide fields and curvy hillocks. Who knows you might find something no one has ever found before! Atleast that’s how, standing knee deep in the marsh, near a patch of forest, we came to discover that the ‘Asan’ and ‘Suswa’ rivers sprang from the same source!

Ofcourse, you can read Prem Hari Har Lal’s book, and get to know everything. But that won’t be quarter of the fun there is in getting your rides out and wandering your weekends around the valley.

So here’s good luck to you all, and in the last, if you don’t want to wander like mad discoverers, or read up the book without any chapter index, just write to me and I’ll answer your queries. But the catch is, I will ask one question with every answer. And you better be ready to answer it. So, bon discovery!

Him Ahuja is an avid traveler and runs a travel blog named http://allhimalaya.com