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What is Gerontology? Gerontology is a relatively new terminology and academic discipline although it has its beginning in the annals of history from the primal evolution of life. Ageing is a natural, physiological and an inevitable process. It brings along physical, social, cultural, biological, psychological changes. Gerontology is the study of this age related concerns. This is an interdisciplinary field which incorporates study from different fields of life. Gerontology Vs Geriatrics Gerontology is differentiated from Geriatrics in the sense that while Geriatrics is a medical branch that specializes in the treatment of existing diseases in older people, Gerontology is the study of old age, the process of ageing and the particular problems of old people. It requires the attention and collaboration from all areas of life - biology, nursing, medicine, criminology, social work, geography, pharmacy, sociology, economics, political science, public health and anthropology. The te...

Parenting is an acquired skill. Parents have to be conscious about how they represent themselves in front of their children.  This is because, most often, children try to find their first idols in their parents and mould themselves accordingly. A parent’s good habit is automatically passed on to the child without any deliberate effort. But then, it is not only the good habits but the bad habits as well that gets naturally passed on. It therefore, becomes extremely important to maintain a congenial environment in the house for the proper growth and upbringing of a child. I wonder, if this was the case in the older times as well. Ours was an extremely conservative, patriarchal family. My Maa would scare us and say “Wait, till your Baba comes” and this would be enough to quiet us. Before Baba came home from his teaching job, each one of us would be sitting with our books, hair braided and learning our lessons. The perfect child to be! But as time went by, it donned that the clear...

India is a democratic country. The good governance of a country necessitates the passing of laws, taking adequate measures to make the laws functional and to punish the law breakers. Hence, the constitution of law forms an integral backbone to any government and any country. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar is called the 'Father of the Indian Constitution' for his arduous role in constituting the law of this land. Ambedkar campaigned for and advocated the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. He championed the cause of the underprivileged and the downtrodden and was an exponent of women's empowerment and emancipation. As Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, he laid down laws to bring equality for all. Ambedkar defended that if the democratic right of 'one man, one vote' -'one man, one value' can be sanctioned in the political system then why can't this principle of 'one man, one value' be sanctioned in the social and economic sy...

Memoir of the black American Solomon Northup, a free man who was sold as a slave in the South, Twelve Years a Slave , later cinematized into the 2013 Oscar –Winning film by the same title left an indelible impression in the face of the post-colonial world. History records and keeps within its fold stories of unbearable torment, pain and anguish of a faction of the society by another. As civilization progresses, we cannot forget that the past is not , taintless,  unstained. To willfully forget this history is cowardice on the part of later generations and therefore courage lies in accepting this bitter and harsh reality of human violence. Arguments, discourses and debates are prejudiced from one’s point of view and therefore cannot be sanction for intolerance, violence and injustice. Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad is an imprint of absorbed facts as it narrates the tale of a slave-girl Cora, her escape from serfdom to factually uncertain liberation through the Underg...

“What could be put up against the noise of time? Only that music which is inside ourselves – the music of our being – which is transformed by some real music. Which, over the decades, if it is strong and pure enough to drown out the noise of time,is transformed into the whisper of history”(125) Julian Barnes The Noise of Time captures the war time Soviet Union during the period of political turmoil and its repercussions in the freedom of artistic creation recorded beautifully through the life of the music composer Shostakovich. It is a multi-layered narrative of small incidents and events I the life of the main protagonist. Much of these incidents is indebted to Elizabeth Wilson’s exemplary multifaceted “Shostakovich:A life remembered (1994) and “ Testimony:The Memoirs of Shostakovich”. The title intrigues as well as attracts – the suffocation of music in the cacophony of political and social turmoil corresponded by the soft melody of music across time to immortality. It is...

Born Again on the Mountain Arunima Sinha Penguin Books India 2014 No of pages 217 Rs. 299 “At 10.55 a.m. on 21 May2013, I was on top of the world. I felt like dancing, crying and laughing at the same time. My mind was a kaleidoscope of emotions. I knelt down, utterly exhausted. I felt like shouting, announcing my arrival to the world. Everyone has a reason to be alive, a role to fulfil. Maybe this was mine.”(192) In the recent spurt of news headlines locating the adventures of mountaineers and the tragic death that many have across in their adventurous conquests, Arunima Sinha’s “Born Again on a Mountain” brings in a breath of fresh air and hope for all adventure lovers. It would be wrong to be prejudiced that this book is only for a certain section of people, it is an inspirational journey that will motivate all human beings. The book is autobiographical in nature and the narrative simple. There is no affluence of words and incidents narrated are at the same time hear...

The Good-Morrow BY  JOHN DONNE I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then? But sucked on country pleasures, childishly? Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den? ’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be. If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee. And now good-morrow to our waking souls, Which watch not one another out of fear; For love, all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room an everywhere. Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown, Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one. My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, And true plain hearts do in the faces rest; Where can we find two better hemispheres, Without sharp north, without declining west? Whatever dies, was not mixed equally; If our two loves be one, or, thou and I Love so alike, that none do slacken, none ...