adhunika blog

From Our Archive:

Several years ago when I was passing by an area in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I was quite shocked!  I used to know this place as a playfield for the neighboring kids. But I noticed big construction piles, mounds of sand, cement and concrete in that field, the playground was gone.  It was being developed for new multi-story apartment buildings! Those kids will not have a field to play anymore. What will they do now instead of playing in the field?

Thanks to technology they might watch TV or play video games.  Even in US, I have seen many kids spend most of their free time playing video games or browsing Internet.  The more urban and tech-savvy we become, more and more our children lose their connection with the natural world. We don’t need to take our children to a park or natural setting; they have their own virtual world in the computer! Some parents are relieved because by staying home their kids are safer; they are safe from outside bullies, drugs, or many other bad influences. No disagreement with parent’s concerns for their children; but do we know what impacts it might have on those little brains for not being in touch with the natural environment?

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By Krittika Ghosh MSc.

Normally when one writes about health issues, it is usually in conjunction with a particular event such as “Breast cancer awareness month” or “walk against MS”. While these are all worthy causes and events, wouldn’t it be great if we were raised awareness of these issues throughout our every day lives as well as in these once a year event?

One of the major health issues that has affected my family has been diabetes. I recognized that my dida (maternal grandmother) had diabetes when at the relatively young age of 55 she passed away due to diabetes related complications, followed by my dadu (maternal grandfather) a few years later. My mom was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when she was in her early 40’s and living in NYC. I found myself changing roles and trying to reason with my mom whenever we were out to eat and she just had to have that bowl of kheer or gulab jamun (the women in my family are infamous for their sweet tooth)..at the same time, I myself was not eating much healthier than my mom, but I thought “I’m young…this is an old person’s disease…let me enjoy myself while I can”…While family members cautioned me about “not eating too much mishti”, I did not pay much heed. I now realize that perhaps we Bengali’s take diabetes’s association with “sugar” a bit too literally since just eating mishti doesn’t necessarily contribute to the disease. (more…)