The suggestion is very much welcome and we will do the needful. Regards, Rajasekhar
-----Original Message----- From: AccessIndia [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Padmanabham Sent: 27 October 2013 21:03 To: AccessIndia: a list for discussing accessibility and issuesconcerning the disabled. Subject: Re: [AI] accessindia meeting in hyderabad on nov2 recording of the same may kindly be uploaded and link may be provided which helps those who could not attend the meeting. thanks in anticipation. Padmanabham. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rajasekhar" <[email protected]> To: "'AccessIndia: a list for discussing accessibility and issues concerningthe disabled.'" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2013 8:30 PM Subject: Re: [AI] accessindia meeting in hyderabad on nov2 > ANNOUNCEMENT: > A 2-hour get-together of AccessIndia members of Andhra Pradesh and > Hyderabad is planned for Saturday November 2nd, 2013. > Time: 10.30am. Venue: Conference room: Main Building: the EFL > University, Hyderabad. > Mr. Kiran Kaja from Adobe, London who will be the special guest will > deliver a talk on accessibility and technology in the west. > The talk will be followed by an interactive session in addition to An > exhibition of latest gadgets, mobile phones with accessaries and other > computer-scanning equipment. > All AccessIndia members and visually impaired friends from Hyderabad > and even from other parts of Andhra Pradesh are welcome to attend the > programme. > Kindly spread the news about the programme and make it a success. > please indicate your willingness to attend the programme by writing to > me or even by calling me on my mobile. > my personal email ID > [email protected] > My Mobile: 08121007486. > With Regards, > Rajasekhar > The EFL University > Hyderabad > > -----Original Message----- > From: AccessIndia [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of avinash shahi > Sent: 27 October 2013 18:15 > To: jnuvision; accessindia > Subject: [AI] Living with Four Senses,By V Shoba > > http://www.indianexpress.com/news/living-with-four-senses/1187813/0 > She would like to smell ripe mangoes and the wet earth after it rains. > Shachina Heggar, a woman who has lost her sense of smell, makes up for > her sensory deprivation by indulging in nostalgia For Shachina Heggar, > tea is coffee is hot water. "It all tastes the same," she says, > sipping a chai latte. Long after I have finished my fragrant > cappuccino, Heggar takes her time with her now-tepid tea. > "Right now, I can smell water. Can you smell it?" she asks. "It's a > fresh smell. I don't know how else to describe it." Heggar can't smell anything. > Hold a jar of Vicks Vaporub under her nose and she won't know it from goo. > But, every now and then, a heady nostalgia interrupts the sensory > deprivation and she finds herself surrounded by imagined aromas - of > wood burning at the farm in NR Pura, Chikmagalur district, where she > grew up; of hot akki roti; of jasmine on the vine. > > Most of us have a range of about 10,000 different smells that we > recognise, take for granted, and appreciate or wrinkle our noses at. > For 27-year-old Heggar, who lost her sense of smell about a decade > ago, only a handful of olfactory memories remain. These phantom smells > surface at will, nesting in her mind for weeks and often months, as > real to her as the smell of the coffee on the table is to me. > > Heggar wears a T-shirt, a miniskirt and Burberry's Weekend perfume. > She has never known its fragrance, but a friend she trusts picked it > out for her a few years ago, and it is one of only two perfumes she > wears. It is flowery and bright, with a hint of musk and fruit. "That > sounds like something I would wear," she says. Her vivacious > personality does match the scent. She flippantly attributes her > disability to three accidents in her childhood, a small scar from a > particularly bad fall still visible on the ridge of her nose. "I was > about seven or eight months old, playing on my dad's chest, when I > fell and hit the edge of the cot. The scar has been there since," > Heggar says. But her response to olfactory stimuli began to > deteriorate much later, at the age of 18, and a medical examination > failed to reveal the cause of the problem. "You must think I am crazy > not to have it looked at again. I hate being subjected to medical > scrutiny," she says, joking that she is happy not smelling the garbage > piling up on Bangalore's streets. > > Of course, for every bad odour she is blissfully oblivious to, there > are a hundred aromas Heggar would like to sniff. A foodie and a > self-taught cook, she gorges on biryani but is unable to conjure the > wafting fragrance of basmati rice. Since much of what we consider to > be taste is actually smell, Heggar can't really experience flavour. "I > can tell if the food is salty, sweet, sour or bitter, but that's about > all," she says. "I make up for it by trying to imagine flavours I > remember, and by focusing on texture, temperature and presentation." > But some things remain elusive: she wants to smell ripe mangoes and > searches for the aroma of earth after the rains. > > "Shachina is a thorough foodie. She is one of those people who can go > to a restaurant all by themselves to enjoy a meal," says Sowmya > Jaganmurthy, a friend who swears by Heggar's home-cooked biryani. > Earlier this year, when Jaganmurthy was pregnant, Heggar helped > satisfy her cravings. "The two of us have driven all the way to Mysore > just to eat at a restaurant. That's how crazy she is about food," she > says. > > The irony of a foodie without a nose is not lost on Heggar. An > engineering dropout-turned-fashion designer, she came close to > becoming a chef. "I was deciding between fashion and cooking school," > she says. "Luckily, I chose right." Heggar retails her eponymous > Indian-wear label at a few stores in the city, besides designing > clothes for Kannada films. Her repertoire of 26 films includes Junglee > (2009), Paramathma (2011), Charminar (2013) and Topiwala (2013). > > The last time she thought she could taste something, Heggar was trying > exotic meats at a food street in Singapore. Each piece was beautiful, > textured and hinted at delectable, if imaginary, flavours. "The idea > of flavour is exciting to me," she says. When we meet two days after > her return from the trip, she is ecstatic about another episode in > Bali. "I was in a cab making my way to the hotel from the airport when > this exotic smell hit me. I rolled down the windows, I thought I could > actually smell again and even called some friends," she says. It was > everything she wanted a holiday to smell like -sandalwood, spice and > musk - but the next day, her nose drew a blank once again. > > Heggar's friends say she likes to travel, perhaps, in search of an > impossible scent that even her nose would pick up. "She is a strong > person. > She is so used to living without her sense of smell that we often > forget about her condition," says Dipanjay Sanyal, an ad filmmaker, > who has known Heggar for eight years. According to Sanyal, Heggar > makes a mean paella but can't tell if the leftovers in her fridge are > rotten. "It is a health scare, and since I live alone, my friends come > and make sure I don't eat anything that's gone bad. Just like they > check the gas stove for leaks," Heggar says. > > Outside the realm of medicine, Heggar has tried every trick in the > book in the hope of regaining the bits of the world now lost to her - > aroma massage, looking at a pile of garbage, even repeatedly ordering > her beloved strawberry margarita. A mention of the drink, probably the > last she had before she lost her ability to smell, makes her smile. > One day, last year, she woke up to its sweet aroma, and the feeling > stayed with her for over two months, night and day. "I must have been > the happiest person on the planet. I could only smell strawberry > margarita for weeks," > she says, wistfully. Yet, these sensory surges aren't under her control. > They are involuntary, like the memories of childhood triggered in > Marcel Proust when he had a fleeting taste of madeleines years later. > > Scientists have known for a long time that odours trigger emotional > connections. Indeed, research suggests that smells can influence mood, > memory, emotions, mate choice, and the immune and endocrine systems. > "My friends joke that I will never get married because I can't smell > the pheromones on the men I date," says Heggar. Pheromones are > chemical signals that animals use to transmit messages to one another. > Forget subtle signals, Heggar cannot smell her own shampoo. Living and > non-living things release certain chemicals that upon entering the > nose dissolve in the mucus inside. Beneath the mucus is a membrane > containing olfactory receptor neurons that can detect thousands of > odours. These receptors transmit information through the olfactory > nerve to the olfactory bulb, which in humans is located in a rather > inaccessible region at the back of the nose. The bulb, in turn, > communicates signals to the brain. Thanks to this shortcut to the > cortex, the sense of smell travels to the brain very fast compared > with other senses. Heggar says she would like to have access to this > primal cue some day. Dr T Sankarshana, a well-known ENT surgeon, says > anosmia - the loss of smell - affects about 20-30 per cent of the > patients he receives, but in most cases it is reversible. "Bangalore > is the allergy capital of India. The reason for sudden loss of smell > is often an obstruction in the olfactory region," he says. As for > Shachina, she says she "would like to know my husband's smell when I > do get married". And she hopes to get there with her nose held high. > > > > > > -- > Avinash Shahi > M.Phil Research Scholar > Centre for The Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University > New Delhi India > > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing > accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: > http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_acc > essind > ia.org.in > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, > please visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org > .in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking > of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its > veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the > mails sent through this mailing list.. > > > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing > accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: > http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_acc > essindia.org.in > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, > please visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org > .in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking > of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its > veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the > mails sent through this mailing list.. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessind ia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
