Citygritty — Pune

Dancing into their hearts
The Americans will soon be dancing to a different tune, if the response to city dancer, Maneesha Sathe’s 17-city tour in America is anything to go by. The Kathak danseuse, along with some of her disciples, returned from a highly successful tour, which had the American audience more excited than apna desis. Sathe, who was accompanied by daughter Shambhavi Vaze, and disciples Poorva Doshi, Tejaswini Gokhale and Mugdha Potdar, started with a much appreciated performance at the Durga Mandir in Washington, and visited cities across 10 states, which were less exposed to the Indian classical dance form. Says Sathe, “We decided to go to the interiors because the art lovers in big cities can regularly watch performances by Indian dancers based there. And the Americans loved the intricate footwork, the typical kathak spins, and the items which concentrated on facial expressions – life of Krishna, scenes from Mahabharata and Ramayana.” And the enthused group has plans to repeat the performance next year.

Fear not Operation for most of us is a bad word. The minute a doctor informs you that you need a surgery, the fear of being cut is so acute, sometimes more than the illness that prompted it. Chandrakant Parchure an employee with the LIC has spoken to four doctors from the city and complied their advice into a Marathi book, Operation Chi Bhiti Kashala? (Why fear operations?). Drs Suresh Patankar, Nitin Bhagli, Dilip Kiyawat and Manisha Bhagli have provided the inputs for this book that promises to clear several misconceptions about surgeries.

Get informed
Seems like writing about medical ailments is fast gaining ground. Another booklet in Marathi is out. Written by Shrikant Mundada, this booklet deals with high blood pressure and heart disease. As our lifestyles get more complicated, with large doses of stress, heart disease and blood pressure are fast becoming the number one killers. The booklet discusses the stress factors, lack of exercise and faulty eating habits and their relevance to heart disease. It also has tips from doctors, H.V. Sardesai, Abhijeet Vaidya, Saroj Sahasrabudhdhe and Suhas Erande on high blood pressure among the young, B.P. and heart disease and tips on what to do in case one actually gets a heart attack. After all getting informed is the first step towards good health.