SPORTS
SUPPLEMENT
THE Daily OBSERVER THURSDAY, April 6, 2017
Getting Physical Today is the International Day of Sports for Development and Peace Nivedita Naidu
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he current times have witnessed a huge shift in people’s lifestyles. The sedentary way of life is taking over the world. Physical inactivity leads to an estimated 3.2 million deaths every year, says Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, according to the official website. To combat this situation where inactivity may eventually lead to diseases, UN has joined hands with the World Health Organisation (WHO). This initiative calls for commitment and resources from all actors, including public policy especially in terms of public health, education, urban planning, infrastructure, transport. They also want to focus on working with the private sector in the development of legislation, regulations and national sports policy. This initiative goes far from just spreading awareness at a personal level. In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 6 April as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, to celebrate the contribution of sports and physical activity to education, human development, healthy lifestyles and a peaceful world. The 4th International Day of Sport for Development and Peace is being celebrated on 6 April 2017. So why sport? Sport has played an important role in human societies through competitive sport, physi-
cal activity or simple play. Sport is an important investment that helps not only the individual but the community as a whole. “Involving in any sort of sport or physical activity benefits not only the health of the body but also helps in emotional well being,” says Martial arts trainer Thamchand. He
various football tournaments. Jaykishan Adesara, is a jewellery designer by profession and enjoys trekking. “I was never seriously involved in any sort of sport since my childhood. I turned to trekking as it helps me break the monotony in my daily routine and also helps me stay fit”. He recently scaled the Kalsubai, which is the highest peak in Maharashtra. He believes trekking has improved his confidence in his day to day decision making. According to World Health Statistics ,2016 (Monitoring health for SDG’s ) by the WH0 6 per cent of the world’s adolescent population is insufficiently physically active. WHO defines physical activity as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that require energy expenditure – including activities undertaken while working, playing, carrying out household chores, travelling, and engaging in recreational pursuits. Exercise is only a subset of physical activity according to the definition.
also stressed on the importance of maintaining ones balance in this fast paced world. He added, failing to engage in any sort of daily physical activity is only an invitation to stress and other ailments.” Sukanya Biswas, a psychologist by profession and a football enthusiast says, “Football helped me make friends”. She represented her college at
sports performance monitoring with the
Dr. Laxmeesh, chief coach and chief of Sports Authority of India( SAI ), Bangalore says, good fitness is the backbone of good health and good health leads to better sporting performance. He added a fit society is always a smart society, moving towards creativity which leads to a comprehensive lifestyle.
Breaking Boundaries with Frisbee Ultimate Frisbee helps young people overcome social stigmas and gender biases Karishma Jayapaul
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he simple sport of Frisbee is being used to transform lives. Bridging the Gaps (BTG) Youth Camps is an initiative by Sangeeta Isvaran and Liz Haynes aimed at breaking barriers of gender, language, caste and socio-economic status amongst young people. Sangeeta Isvaran, founder of the Wind Dancers Trust, is a dancerperformer who came up with the Katradi method from a verse in Abhinaya, a common precept in Bharatanatyam, which she later connected to community development to design programs like Bridging the Gaps. They have a module designed on the basis of the Katradi method which includes Ultimate Frisbee as a framework of imparting core life skills, promoting team building with communication and civic engagement techniques. It is a five day camp, which has reached over 2000 Indians
with 450 teenagers across the country, with 125 trained youth coaches in Ultimate Frisbee and 50 coaches trained to run a gender module. The Katradi method is based on a belief that all violence is triggered through sensory, emotional and intuitive factors of the body, mind and heart. The program relies heavily on Ultimate Frisbee, a sport not very well known in India. This sport originated in the U.S.A. in the 1960s and is a game with seven players on each team. These players have to score a point by catching the disc passed in the opponent’s end zone. Liz Haynes, one of the cofounders of the program believes Ultimate Frisbee has unique elements which allow more opportunities for personal and team development than other sports. Ultimate Frisbee requires boys and girls to play on the same team. This is one of the ways the program stabilizes social stigma of gender based segregation in sports. Even at the international world championship level, men and women play together in a mixed gender division. All fouls and other arguments are settled through discussion amongst the players which helps open lines of communication. They then have everyone sit in a circle with players from one team sitting next to the ones from the other, called a Spirit Circle where they promote sportsmanship in the teams which is seen as an effective tool to build empathy. Liz has also helped with disaster relief agencies post hurricane Katrina before coming down to India and believes that sport has
the power to heal. She adds, “While I thought I’d just be in India for six months I decided to stay here because I saw the power of sports for development, specifically how the sport of Ultimate Frisbee was changing the lives of teens I was working with.” The coaches also come from similar underprivileged backgrounds ridden with caste inequalities and gender biases. “But it's during the teenage years that so many issues come up: gender, sex education, substance abuse, etc. We use Ultimate Frisbee as a tool to teach life skills and important topics which help in personality development. A sport for development is surely one that needs a greater push in India. The BTG Youth Camps are taking India one step closer towards using sports more effectively. Like Andre Agassi, an award winning professional tennis player once said, “This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. This is the only thing we can do that has any lasting meaning. This is why we’re here.”
CINEMA
SUPPLEMENT
THE Daily OBSERVER THURS DAY, April 6, 2017
The End of an Era Indian Cinema has reinvented itself to suit the times Yogita Chainani
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indi Cinema, now popularly known as 'Bollywood,' has evolved massively over a period of time. Raja Harish Chandra was the first black and white film, which was released in India in 1913. Dadasaheb Phalke, who is known as the father of Indian Cinema, directed it. Since then, the Hindi cinema has never looked back. From a bulky-mustached Raj Kapoor in the 40s to a six-pack flaunting, butt-baring John Abraham today, Bollywood has had quite a makeover. Gone are the days, when the heroine in Indian cinema was portrayed as a damsel in distress, or idolized as the "all good" woman. Through the 1940s, 50s and 60s, heroines such as Mala Sinha, Meena Kumari, Madhubala, Nanda and Asha Parekh ruled the Indian cinema industry. It was only in the 80s and 90s that the woman in Indian Cinema evolved as protagonists (Rekha in Khoon Bhari Mang, 1988), (Meenakshi Sheshadri in Damini, 1993.) The heroine today is not only bold and confident but also has her own say in the movie. Heroines like Kangna Ranaut, Priyanka Chopra and Kalki Kocheline have created their own benchmark. Women are striding down the industry with lead roles in movies, unlike their earlier depiction as "the other". Films have evolved over a period of time. First we had films that spoke more about family values and relationships for example films like Hum Aap Ke Hai Kaun, Hum
Saath Saath Hai. Succeeding them were films like Lagan and Rang De Basanti completely changed the focus of Indian Cinema. They gave us a rear view of the protest cul-
ture in our country. Movies were no longer about the utopic family and people with ideal, forever-good personalities. Actors were now portrayed more like the conman man than mere glamour pieces. A new wave of non-commercial cinema came in with films like Pink, Margarita with a Straw, Traffic and
Kahani where story was the hero. Films like Paa, Baarfi tried to break taboo associated with certain disorders. Not only this, films like Chaandini Baar and fashion took us closer to the reality by showing the reality of certain issues, which those films had adapted. Dances, music, shooting style and techniques have changed quite a lot. Bollywood also has also opened its arms to a diverse dancing styles ranging from salsa to hip hop. Melodious music to racy tracks, the music has changed immensely. From RD Burman to Sonu Nigam we not only saw the transition but also experienced the diversity of filmy music. This is also because of the advancement in technology and also because of the young creative minds. Shooting in foreign location was an extremely tedious and costly affair back then but now for a better cinematic experience almost every second film has an exotic location to beautify the film even more. Songs are no more about dancing around a tree; a song may now span an entire city or town. Films have changed and so has the scenario. Films are now being made on real life incidents like Talvar- one that was made on the wellknown Aarushi Talvar murder case. Not only have films evolved, but also the audience has evolved over a period of time. Audiences have become more receptive and are now open to new concepts, genre and ideas that the films portray through their stories.
The Age of Stupid Humankind is reckless to ignore the warning signs of climate change Mahak Dutta
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he lack of human ability to accept climate change will have serious repercussions. Set in 2055, The Age of Stupid is a documentary-drama-animation hybrid, which projects the consequences of this ignorance. The climate change documentary called 'The Age of Stupid' by Franny Armstrong starring Pete Postlethwaite as an archivist in the devastated world of the future shows the history of its destruction along similar lines. He asks: "Why didn't we stop climate change when we still had the chance?" He looks back on the recorded footage of real people around the world in the years leading up to 2015 before major changes in climate started taking place. He contemplates sorrowfully on how humankind is stupid to ignore the environmental warning signs. The movie depicts how at the cost of other people’s lives and means of sustenance, we have developed our own livelihoods over time. Moreover, by not giving a thought to what nature has to bear in order to give us the lives that we have been living so far, we are continuously moving ahead on the path of uprooting it. Not thinking about what nature has to bear in order to sustain us, we have constantly ignored the changing signs of climate. Mining of oil and minerals, ruthless nature of the construction business and the profit-oriented nature of human beings
around the world has put immense pressure on the available resources- both renewable and non-renewable. The movie has also shown through various instances that how striking the beauty of nature is! Carrying the idea of 'The Bigger The Better', the human race has been continuously working towards its own extinction. Not only that but we are also harming the mother nature, thus posing dangerous threats to the existence of life on the earth and its future. Through the medium of various witnesses, including an oil executive from New Orleans- how the hurricane Katrina destroyed everything he owned- Postlethwaite depicted how administrative inaction and non-availability of
mitigation measures can usher in disasters. Armstrong shows that marred by extreme weather conditions, the world will soon come to an end. The movie maps out the changing climate in a unique manner depicting how disasters like floods, droughts and melting snow on glaciers are bringing cities and countries to an end. The film's most intriguing part deals with how the earth is destabilizing and that the norms that have allowed life to sustain on it are changing. With rapidly changing climatic conditions, now there exist only two seasons: Winter and Summer. Not only geologists but common people have noticed the change in their daily lives. And unfortunately, we can't do anything to reverse this change. Hence there is no escape. The saddest part is, as we stand on the verge of destruction here in the year of 2017, still there isn't enough reportage done on global warming or climate change. Today, media is operating with a profit-driven motive blindfolded in the hands of the political authorities. Therefore, there isn't much awareness till date regarding such an issue which requires the immediate attention of the masses around the world. There have been various depictions in the media of how the world will come to a dreadful end, but this movie has skilfully depicted how the future could look like. The argument made in 'The Age of Stupid' can be analyzed or even criticized on various grounds, but it deserves to be heard.