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By Ayesha Singh (Guest Writer)
For years, nobody could convince Raghav Seth (18)to get off the couch and take up a sport or hit the nearest gym to become fit like other boys of his age. It was only while watching the three hours and eight minute film—Bhaag Milkha Bhaag— Raghav had a moment of epiphany. “I can do this,” said a voice within him. That evening, Raghav ran; for the first time in his life. “Seeing him, his siblings too joined in and have been enjoying the results ever since—most of them tangible,” says Kavita Seth, his mother.While in India it was Milkha Singh inspiring school children to run, thousand of miles away in New York, it was marathon runner Annette Fredskov Jensen (who recently ran 366 marathons in 365 days), inspiring a mother of two to overcome her chronic lethargy and muscular pains. “In my twenties, things were alright. Pains started popping up in my thirties and when I reached 40, my body seemed to completely shut itself down. With two children and regular aches, it seemed impossible to try and get some workout. It was only recently when I heard about Annette that the light bulb went off. If Annette with two children and multiple sclerosis could do it, so could I,” says Emelia Parker, a pastry chef.
While running on the treadmill is a big hit among youngsters, running out in the open has gained momentum only recently. Exceptions to the rule are always there and Col Rajbir Choudhary has been a runner ever since he joined the army. “We would run for 10, sometimes 20 kilometres at a stretch. With ample water and an apple to keep us going, we were asked to run on any kind of terrain. That is why even today at 50 I can run long distances without losing breath. In the past 30 years I can count the number of times I have had to take medicines for any ailments,” he says.
Not only is it one of the easiest exercises, it is also one of the most effective as it involves the movement of the entire body—from head to toe. “It builds bone density, tones up muscles, strengthens connective tissues, enhances metabolic process, improves cardiovascular fitness and improves posture,” says Biomechanics Exercise Technique expert and Director GFFI Fitness Academy Neeraj Mehta.
He adds, “There are two kinds of running. The first is basic running or jogging wherein the first 20 minutes you utilise carbohydrates from the body. In the next 20 minutes you start burning fat from the body. It is very beneficial for the ‘special population’ comprising diabetics, pregnant women, arthritis patients, people suffering from hypertension and the general population above 50. It also boosts memory and helps combat water retentions. The second type of running is fast running wherein up till 48 hours after running the body continues to utilise fat from the body and keeps reassembling muscles. It builds stamina and improves metabolism.”
According to Dev Khosla, CEO of theweighmonitor.com, India’s first fully online weight management website, the health benefits of running are similar to the benefits achieved by all forms of moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise. “If we talk of running as a competitive sport, it developed at religious festivals in different parts of the world such as Greece, Egypt, Asia, and the Rift Valley in Africa,” says Khosla.
For 37-year-old marathon runner Neera Katwal, running has become a way of life. For the past four years, she has been running anywhere between 20 to 60 km a week. “I began running because I found it to be a holistic way of staying fit. In Bangalore I found a group of like-minded people with whom running became a pleasure. We share stories, experiences and chat about our lives and families,” she says, adding, “Running is a challenging activity; however, you will find most runners to be well balanced. The rigorous routine does that. The best part is that we can afford to eat whatever we want and still maintain our perfect figures,” she says.
So, what are you waiting for, put on your jogging shoes and hit the road.
What a runner's diet should include (According to Dev Khosla):■ 7-9 servings of fruits and vegetables■ 3 servings of milk/curd/paneer■ 3 servings chicken/fish/lean meat■ 2-3 servings pulses■ Handful of nuts■ Cereals, potatoes, starches and sugar as per calorie requirements■ Salt in moderation■ Limited alcohol consumption■ Diluted fruit juices and electrolyte-glucose drinks may be the best. Fluids taken should contain some amounts of carbohydrate and proteins.■ Optimum concentration of carbohydrates in a sports drink should be about 6–8 %
Things to remember while running (According to Neeraj Mehta):■ Maintain right posture. Put your toes straight on the ground, not outwards. Run with the lateral edge of the feet. This way, the interior ligament of the knee won’t get strained. Keep the hip region stretched behind. Rib cage should be up.■ Run in a flow. Put pressure on both legs instead of one.■ Start with walking then walk briskly and then jog followed by running.■ Cooling down after running is crucial. You can repeat the same process—walk briskly, followed by jogging and then walk normally. You can then stretch your arms, quadriceps and ankles.■ Drink a lot of water before running. Keep sipping in between.
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By Santwana Bhattacharya / Delhi
Faced with multiple challenges on social and mainstream media, the Congress top brass has been allowing unprecedented moves. Setting up three separate departments headed by relatively younger party members — Ajay Maken for quick communication with media, Sandeep Dikshit for research and input supply and Deepender Hooda for Twitter/Facebook — shifting the old war-horses, was one such measure.
Another move has been to change the “internal dynamics” of the party. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has been holding meetings, two states at a time, at 24 Akbar Road every second or third day, turning the AICC headquarters into temporary fortress manned by SPG men at the gates.A slothful party burdened by history of a century-and-a-half, which rarely ever started functioning before sundown, is now up and about by noon, with a media strategy for the day already rolling out in succession.
The extraordinary measures are for extraordinary situations. Congress internal surveys have thrown up uninspiring results. “No one is denying that the situation is not too good. We are in a fight,” admitted a Congress war-room hand, quickly pointing out that despite the “10-year incumbency” the party is not down and out.
The survey has shown some hope in the southern and the north-eastern states, where Congress’ main rival BJP has not much foothold. Hence, the sudden burst of actions on the southern front. Whether it backfires or not, we are told, the Congress high command has taken a firm decision on Telangana. The spate of resignations, threats and protests from Seemandhra, Congress leaders claim, have been factored in. Despite denials, the party top-brass “is seeing the crisis through the prism of parliamentary and assembly seats.”
Next, the Congress president turned her attention to Kerala where the Oommen Chandy government has been under siege. Sonia held a long meeting with Kerala PCC chief Ramesh Chennithala to see if he can be inducted into the Chandy cabinet with a bit of persuasion, but the issue has been set to rest as Lok Sabha elections were a bigger priority.
A meeting of Karnataka state unit and in-charge was left to Rahul as it was seen to be the least of the Congress’ trouble points. But for Tamil Nadu, where the party is virtually in a limbo, and which is the home of Finance Minister P Chidambaram, quite back-channel moves are on from the top. Defence Minister A K Antony and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid have come on board to organise a meeting between the Tamil Nadu fishermen association and their Sri Lankan counterpart, to address one of the most emotive issues in the state. It is one of the measures to stall a complete political wipe in the state in the next election.
The Congress/UPA Government hopes to make some peripheral gains from the Koodankulam nuclear power plant once it starts generation and helps overcome the acute power crisis in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. But, in all this, the man with some base in the State, Shipping Minister G K Vasan, remains a curiously silent element.
On the North-East, the AICC did an unusual thing as holding a separate high-octane briefing on the special financial package that have been given to the seven states, of which the Congress has big stakes in Assam.
Amidst all this, there is a fierce debate on in the Congress on whether to advance the polls to the end of 2013 or allow it to happen on schedule around March-April. According to the war-room sources, younger leaders are raring to go and would like a year-end election coinciding with the assembly polls in Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The Congress at best can retain the states that it already has in its kitty.
A factor that the Congress never mentions in public, but is a matter of concern is how the Narendra Modi factor plays out once he hits the road with his no-holds-bar oratory. Those in favour of advancing the polls have argued that it would give Modi/BJP less time to prepare and queer the pitch.
The proponents of election-on-schedule, who are also the heavyweights of Congress core group, are arguing that it will not allow the party time to make gains on policy initiatives like Direct Benefit Transfer and food security. “For the results of these schemes to percolate down, we need to give another six-to-eight months,” a senior Cabinet Minister said. The last call will always be Sonia Gandhi’s.
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By Shankkar Aiyar (Guest Writer)
India seems to produce a political paradox almost every week. Indians were told that overall poverty levels fell from 37 per cent in 2004-05 to 21.9 per cent in 2011-12. This did not trigger any review of the idea to give 67 per cent of the population subsidised grains. The chasm between statistics and political arithmetic persists.
Hidden in the reams of data on poverty reduction is an interesting fact. United Andhra Pradesh is among those states which brought down poverty the most. Since 2004, when K Chandrashekar Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti was promised Telangana, poverty in united Andhra Pradesh dropped from 29.6 per cent to 9.2 per cent in 2011-12. And the absolute number of those below poverty line has come down from 235 lakh to 78 lakh. World over, poverty reduction is an accepted indicator of growth and governance. This should be an accepted precept in India too. Not among politicians facing an election! On Tuesday, the coalition members of the UPA formally approved the creation of Telangana.
This is not about the creation of Telangana. It is about debating what drives growth and good governance. Continuing with the measure of poverty reduction, consider the states along with Andhra Pradesh which have brought down poverty the most between 2004 and 2012: Tripura (25.95 per cent), poverty-ridden Odisha (by an astonishing 24.6 per cent), Bihar and Maharashtra (by 20.8 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (by 18.1 per cent). There is no obvious commonality—Bihar and Tripura (as indeed Telangana will be) are land-locked states while others have access to ports. Now consider the performance of the newly formed and land-locked states of Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Uttarakhand has outdone most states bringing down poverty by 21.44 per cent but its siblings Naxal-hit Chhattisgarh (9.4 per cent) and Jharkhand (8.3 per cent) haven’t done well.
Fact is, whether it is economics or politics, outcomes are determined by necessary and sufficient conditions. Smaller size states promise access to the citizens and easier operations but good governance also needs enlightened political leadership. When Jharkhand was carved out, Lalu Yadav had said Bihar was left with floods, droughts and poverty while Jharkhand walked away with riches. Turns out Bihar has done twice as well as resource-rich Jharkhand. Thanks to political instability, Jharkhand has been subjected to a musical chair of nine chief ministers—including three terms of Arjun Munda, two of Shibhu Soren and a term under the one-man-majority of Madhu Koda. In the beginning of the millennium, it was argued that size matters and that states which are smaller are better governed. Size may matter, but size is not all.
The elephant in the room, which no committee or commission talks about, is rampant centralisation. The operations of state governments are pretty much dictated by the writ and fancies of governments at the Centre. Under the Constitution, bulk of the taxes are collected by the Centre and allocated through the finance commission to different states. Indians paid a sum total of Rs 14.94 lakh in taxes in 2012. The Centre itself collected Rs 9.32 lakh crore of which Rs 2.67 lakh crore, or 29 paise per rupee, was shared with the states. A large chunk of the remainder is spent on the states—directed by ideas from the Planning Commission and dictated by reigning political ideology.
In the 11th Plan, the Centre spent nearly Rs 7 lakh crore on Centrally sponsored schemes. This will shoot up to over Rs 15 lakh crore in the 12th Plan (2012-2017). The states can only suggest changes but don’t have a say. For instance, since 2006, the Centre has spent over `1.6 lakh crore on MGNREGS. The states may perhaps want to spend this “dole budget” differently—put a condition for creation of assets in the rural economy—but it is the Centre which decides. Policies on every major issue—be it education, health, agriculture or approach to urbanisation—is dictated, funded and regulated from Delhi. There are at least 18 ministries at the Centre which have no business to exist. There is no real logic why the Centre must have ministries for subjects that are state administered.
And it is not just the Centre which centralises. The states are worse offenders and deny panchayats, zilla parishads and municipalities the autonomy to plan and decide. If small is always beautiful and efficient, why are India’s cities—the smallest geographical units—so badly governed? Why do the middle class urban Indians in Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore have to suffer poor services and pot-holed roads? It is because the municipal bodies are virtually run by the diktat of state governments. Former Maharashtra CM, the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, pithily told this columnist: “What the Centre does to the states, the states do to local self-governments!”
The cry for smaller states is less about representation and more about real aspirations. Size may matter. Big could be bold and beautiful too. Bigger states like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu do better by leveraging the state’s output and budgets for intervention and investment. So let’s forget formulaic solutions and worry about formats. In a democracy, every vote is sacrosanct. Voters vote for change, not to be presented with fait accompli. And delivery of governance is dictated by devolution, not dialects. India turns 66 this month. Let not petty political cartography obfuscate the real reasons for failure. Let not India get lost in transmogrification.
(About the Writer: Shankkar Aiyar is the author of Accidental India: A History of the Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change.)
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