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This is an archive article published on March 7, 2008

Letters to the Week

How important is it to know when to seek medication for depression, and when to dig deep and work...

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How important is it to know when to seek medication for depression, and when to dig deep and work it out yourself? As Nandita Pillai from New Delhi wrote, there may be no easy answers ‘The dumps are real’.

This refers to ‘Well-being in a bottle’ by Farah Baria. It trivialises depression by saying that it can be beneficial and can spark creativity as well.

Who doesn’t feel sad in this world? Life does have its ups and downs. But it is important to note that clinical depression is a serious medical condition. In a country where most people are not even aware that depression has a bio-chemical basis (scientifically proven, contrary to what the writer says) that can be treated with medication and are reluctant to approach psychiatrists, whom the writer refers to as shrinks, this article can do much damage.

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Untreated depression, over time, can spiral into chronic psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which lead to thousands of suicides every year.

How we exult

Your editorial, ‘Irrational exuberance’ , is timely but it is like whistling in the dark. Cricket craze growing with each passing day bodes ill for the nation. The welcome accorded to the players at the Feroze Shah Kotla stadium had the feel of a victory in the Battle of Britain or the Battle of Stalingrad.

It is time someone did some serious research on the sociological and economic downside of the craze. As cricket matches now are going to be played more or less round the year in one format or the other, neither the students nor office-goers will be able to fully concentrate on their jobs at hand. Cricketers, film stars and show business professionals earning mind-boggling sums of money tend to turn the real world of many people in our country into an illusory one. The loss to the national exchequer due to cricket obsession may not by any long shot be small.

The British conquered India, ruled and left but their one legacy continues to enslave us in fetters of a different kind. This means Sachin is God and work or study is a big bore; the cricket board in India gets richer and richer and the country goes downhill. These are the wages of irrational exuberance.

— John Alexander

Nagpur

Drumbeat 123

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Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s comments about the Left’s allegiance to outsiders are born of a late realisation, her party being the one that has enjoyed a near full term of power on communist crutches. Possibly, she is echoing the new drumbeat of defiance that marks the Congress’s post-Budget determination of going ahead with the nuclear deal with the US? Nevertheless, the UPA government will do well to seal the deal, ignoring the Left’s threat. The nation’s needs are more important than the Left’s outmoded views.

— V.S. Ganeshan

Bangalore

Three vectors

To our comrades anything American is like a red rag to the bull. So they oppose the nuclear deal. The BJP is peeved, because the credit for a historic breakthrough for India is going to its rival. Strobe Talbot’s comments about the NDA having been ready to sign a (similar) agreement with the US for much less are unpalatable to the saffron brigade. So, the nuclear question meant to answer our energy needs boils down to the Left being pro-China, the BJP pro-itself, and the Congress ‘pro-India’ as Indira Gandhi once famously said.

— Mukund B. Kunte

New Delhi

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