Daily sugar requirements

Daily sugar requirements according to WHO is around 12 teaspoons of sugar

Your softdrink can contain around 8.5 teaspoons which is daily limit for 4-5 years old kids

Harmful effects of excess sugar in diet include

1. Obesity
2. Type 2 Diabetes
3. Heart disease
4. Cancer
5. Gum Disease
6. Tooth decay

Why is so much sugar placed in drinks?

• Caffeine is bitter. Most people address this by adding sugar to caffeinated beverages.
• Straight coffee (no milk, no sugar) is zero-calorie and sugar-free, but bitter so it is sweetened to improve flavor.
• Energy Drinks contain lots of sugar, particularly those that are juice/soda combinations. Rockstar Juiced and Punched are very high in sugar.

For more information click here: Sugar content in my drink

GMCH: A Look Back Into Time

Divyanshoo Kohli, 2003 batch

Connections:September 2012 (Eds: Divyanshoo’s essay was originally published in the 2012 issue of the GMCH magazine Glimpse)

As the Independence Day of India rolled by, I read an interesting series of article on the state of the country that looked back at the past 65 years of the country. It was an instructive reading, at times critical, at times sentimental and occasionally comical. It is in a similar vein that I pen down these thought regarding the state of GMCH over the past 22 years.We began way back in September 1991 in a rented building that was still under construction. Much like the students who reach the class 10 minutes too late and asks around softly for ‘an extra pen’ and prays for the good humor of the attending, we too were on a borrowed existence teetering on the precipice of failing. The stools that the students sat on were marked for Government College for Men-11, the building was for mentally challenged children (poetic!), the specimens were from PGIMER! The hostel of GMCH students was in the engineering college in sector 12. Even the director was on a loan from PGI and the patients were seen at the poly clinic in sector 22! The faculty had been hurriedly assembled from any place feasible. Like a newly born, we were dependent for everything on everyone.
Like the famed Indian approach to things we began with nothing, survived with sheer luck and blossomed through sheer perseveration despite the powers that were. Getting a letter of recognition for the medical college had all the ingredients of steep uphill battle that remind me of the ‘83 victory of Kapil Dev or VVS Laxman’s terrific score against Australia. Some of the old timers recall going on hunger strikes and shuttling between Chandigarh and New Delhi in a desperate attempt fighting an obdurate and insensitive bureaucracy that was beholden to the letter but blind to the spirit of the law. We owe it to the members of the initial batch who fought for their own and our good.
As the decade rolled by, things began to gather pace (or thereabouts!). After a series of false starts, the building of the hospital was inaugurated. The Prayaas building, our rented home in sector 38, got completed. The current students would not be able to appreciate the open hallways and the dreadful anatomy halls complete with a feeling of freedom that characterized that place. We ended up moving from sector 38 to sector 32 a few years back. Earlier, the first and second year students often commuted from 38 to 32 for college functions. Some of those innocuous trips have actually ended up in wedlock! The hostels for boys and girls were constructed; the emergency started functioning as did the ICUs. I was still around when the C-block was inaugurated and we would often lose our way in that labyrinth. Soon, the D-block came into being as well.
Through these years the college, the hospital, its faculty and students grew in numbers, strength and stature. We held convocations, organized national and international conferences one of which was graced by the former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
The strength of our college and hospital has been to a huge extent the faculty that has guided us from strength to strength as we scaled from peak to peak. A lot of the original faculty members stayed with GMCH – Drs. Atul Sachdev, Jagdish Chander, Ram Singh, SMS Lehl, AK Attri, Harsh Mohan, Kanchan Kapoor, Rajeev Sharma, Suman Kochhar among others. However, some incredibly talented people left early as well: Drs. Krishan Vij, KK Gombar, AS Bawa, Robby George among others. While the reasons they left were myriad, their loss was monumental and absence felt acutely. Any hospital is the sum of the talent of its physicians and talent retention is incumbent on the administration.
The brand ambassadors of the college are always going to be its students. In this context, the college is well-endowed. Consistently, the students entering the MBBS course have been the top-rankers and
crème-da-le-crème of the tri-state area. We have also consistently shone brightly in the national PG entrance exams of PGIMER, CBSE and AIIMS. I vividly remember the time 2 years ago when my mother had to undergo a hysterectomy at PGI. To my intense surprise and undisguised relief, every single resident in that particular Gynecology unit was from GMCH (including 2 from my batch itself)! If demographics are anything to go by, the residency class of OBGYN there is dominated by the girls of GMCH. Interestingly, some of the students have gone in a full circle and have joined the hospital as faculty – a truly joyous feeling of accomplishment!
The success story of the students in the US is self-perpetuating. We have excelled in the USMLEs and are starting to create a name. As an example, during my interviews in the USA that were spread all along the east and Midwest, I had to pay for accommodation only once! Everywhere else, there was someone from GMCH who opened the doors for me and let me stay overnight. I have no relatives in the US but still feel that help is only a phone call away. For a lot of my friends, the experience has been the same.
A matter of pride for all of us has been the newspaper stories of our students excelling in the civil services exams. Our students have gone into services as diverse as the Indian army medical corps, the IAS and even the corporate world. There have been some blemishes on this count as well. The recent spate of suicides among the younger lot has been a matter of intense shame and introspection. All our glory and accomplishments fade away when one of our own goes down so tragically.
All in all the students and faculty have worked hard to reach where we are. It is easy to bask in the glory of the bygone days and let the nostalgia sweep us under its dizzying influence. It would however be futile to pat ourselves on the back and enter into a state of inertia. Much like our nation, we have worked a lot to awaken, break the shackles and cobwebs, and gather pace as we race ahead. The time though, is to fly.

Advertising for the nation

Inspiring Advertisement

This is probably most innovative of advertisements given by Indian Army encouraging  youth to join it.

Picture above shows top Bollywood heroines who are daughters of army men ,and encourages people to join

If you want to have beautiful and successful daughters ,Join Indian Army

Republic Day Parade

I have been a keen watcher of republic day parades since my childhood.

The glamour the parade holds is unsurpassed and makes one feel more patriotic and a  proud Indian.

The parade showcases  nation’s achievements in various fields through its military prowess, a scintillating display of its air power and its rich and diverse cultural heritage.

A gradual change over the years has been shift to indigenous weaponry .

The highlight of this year’s parade was  Agni-V missile.It has a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) but it still requires a battery of tests and must clear other bureaucratic hurdles before it can be inducted into India’s arsenal in a few years.

BSF Camel contingent

A great quote in president speech this year is worth  quoting

“In thought faith…
In word wisdom…
In deed courage…
In life service…
So may India be great” 

Agni-V, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

Amar Jawan Jyoti, India Gate

 

Motorbike riders of Border Security Force

A Flower’s Desire-Pushp Ki Abhilasha

A great poem on desire of  a flower

Reminds me of school days.Wonderfully written and used to be my favorite poem during school days …………….

 

चाह नहीं मै सुरबाला के गहनों में गुंथा जाऊं

चाह नहीं प्रेमी माला मे बिंध , प्यारी को ललचओं

चाह नहीं सम्राटों के शव पर , हे हरी डाला जाऊं

चाह नहीं देवों के सर पर चधों , भाग्य पर इतराऊँ

मुझे तोड़ लेना बनमाली ,उस पथ पर तुम देना फेंक

मात्र  भूमि पैर शीश चढ़ने ,जिस पथ जाएँ वीर अनेक

                           माखनलाल चतुर्वेदी (Makhanlal chaturvedy)

English Tranlation

The Yearning of a Flower Desireth not to be on the young lass’ Tresses…living twice all over,

 Desireth not to be in a garland Binding, enticing young lovers, 

Desireth not to rest on the mortals Of Emperors – aren’t we equally God’s own?

 
Desireth not to be on the heads of Gods To take pride in mere fortune,

Pick me out, O Gardener! 

Strew me on the path that the Brave tread To sacrifice for Motherland!

 Let me, in obeisance, bow my head!

Punjabi Thought on life…….

Spotted at Leisure Valley Chandigarh,This en-craving on the rock spells out the Punjabi Youth way of life .

Kudos to the guy who took time out of his college schedule(Most probably,being adjacent to Arts College) to spread this message to whole of Chandigarh.(or his damsel)

Punjabi thoughts on life

“Even if you live a few days less in your life,live  excessively refined and fastidious in taste and manner(foppish)”.

In Nature’s Lap-The Chattbir

Dancing Peacock On sunny day

In the past few years ,the pace at which periphery of Chandigarh has been covered with housing societies and developmental projects,it has become hard to find the lap of nature in the city’s periphery.The lush green periphery of the city has stumbled to the real estate giants .Out of very few places that still maintain their charisma is Chattbir zoo,located near Zirakpur .

It had been more than 15 years since i had last visited the place and some how i had always wanted to visit it in all those years but  it had never worked out.It was my cousins little daughter’s visit which inspired the trip last month.

After a  drive of about 25 minutes from Chandigarh ,we reached the wildlife park on a Sunday afternoon.The great thing about the this zoo is you can take your vehicle inside at nominal charge,if you don’t feel like walking all day long .It is spread over 500 acres and the splendid Big Cat family that the  park boasts off is unmatched in this region.

The entry is lavish and sleepy  crocodiles along with monkey welcome you to the park.The boards describing these animals are bit gloomy but not everyone minds reading them as watching these animals is much more fun .The drive way is well made and you comfortably drive along till next animals place .The variety of animals includes Crocodiles and family,Neel gai, Chimpanzees, some variety of snakes,Deer and its related families,Hippos,Tigers and its family,Peacocks and some other beautiful birds species and many more….

Another interesting feature was the refreshing joints along the park.These are just aptly located  for you to refresh yourself while you move along.

For the first time in my life  i saw a peacock dancing on a sunny day……proving my notion of it dances in rains wrong but it did rain that evening…..probably he was intuitive of rain as the time i had visited it was sunny morning .

A visit to Lion Safari was big turn off as the lion was pretty old and was hardly mused by the bus.It even didn’t care to move when the bus reached very it,and seemed a bit ill.Well the children’s shouting on seeing the lion made the day for them.

The tigers and the big cat family outside the safari were really ferocious and seemed interested in  scaring people.

The Elephants were amazing ,so were hippos and many other animals along the way.

Somehow the environment in Chattbir takes one away from city life and it seems so great to be in such lush green garden and spending time in nature’s lap while viewing its few creations

An interesting feature was many of tigers,lions,leopards have adopted by the MNC,s and they are providing for the feed of these beasts on daily basis as was suggested by the boards.

On the whole a visit to Chattbir takes one away from the monotonous city  life’s routine  and provides a perfect day off.

In the woods…….

DEER -who jumped the wall to see the chattbir