January, 2014 | Ila Asthana

Jan242014 by IlaNo Comments

Suicide – Walking through the darkness…

[caption id="attachment_453" align="aligncenter" width="284"] "Suicide - A Coward's Act"[/caption] The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that each year approximately one million people die from suicide, which represents a global mortality rate of 16 people per 100,000 or one death every 40 seconds. Overall, the suicide rate among teens has climbed in the past few years, from 6.3% in 2009 to 7.8% in 2011. In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 (male and female). Most people are uncomfortable with the topic of suicide. Too often, victims are blamed, and their families and friends are left defamed. As a result, people do not talk openly about suicide. Thus an important public health problem…

Jan82014 by Ila2 Comments

When Private becomes Public…

Blog, Media

[caption id="attachment_446" align="aligncenter" width="300"] TEEN SEXTING[/caption] For generation upon generation, teens and adults have been sharing sexually indicative and explicit letters, messages, etc., so sexting shouldn't come as a big surprise. Most teens today are comfortable with documenting their lives online. With the advancement in technology, sexting is the new form of social interaction. Newer technology allows sending pictures, and videos, which are intrinsically more explicit and have greater impact. Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages and/or photographs, primarily between mobile phones. The term was first popularized in the early 21st century, and is a hybrid of sex and texting, where the latter is meant in the widest sense of sending a text possibly with images. Sexting as a phenomenon began primarily through the extensive use of…

Jan22014 by Ila4 Comments

The Real Incredible India…

Blog, Civic

[caption id="attachment_439" align="aligncenter" width="636"] THE GREAT INDIAN SPIT[/caption] A recent train journey gave me a disturbing insight to the one of the creepiest attitude that we find in Indian. The compartment was filled with educated adults, munching the gutka and talking about everything under the sun. Suddenly one of the members of the group spitted out whatever he had been munching just under the seat to where he was sitting. Adding to all this his friends, started laughing and seemed like, indirectly appreciating him. This sad and astonishing act proved that “Civic sense in even some educated Indians has gone for a six”. Along with this, it also triggered a question in me that, “Will this same individual, behave in the same way, when he is in a foreign land?”…

Jan12014 by Ila2 Comments

Mirror into the “World of Life”

Blog, Media, Relationship

“Family” is the most important foundation. A family consists of mother, father, sisters, brothers and grandparents.. As time changes, the role of an individual in the family also changes. Parents become grandparents and children become parents, hence continuing the circle of life. Over the centuries, grandparent – grandchild relationship has undergone lots of vicissitudes, influencing the meaning of relationships. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, the joint family model prevailed. A family lived along with the extended families under one roof, sharing and caring for each other, thereby strengthening the relationship. With industrialization in the 19th century, the fashion of nuclear family started prevailing, redefining this relationship. Talking to few grandparents who had seen 3 – 4 generations and grandchildren, resulted in the critical analysis of various changes that…