Anaemia : some facts and an innovative idea

        Anaemia is one of the major public health problems worldwide (acc. to World Health Organization). When we hear this, the first thing that comes to our mind is - what is anaemia ? We hear this term almost daily that someone known to us has anaemia. We advice them to take iron tablets, iron tonics, nutritious foods etc. Now let's discuss some facts about anaemia in short. Anaemia - is low haemoglobin level in the blood. This haemoglobin is present in our red blood cells. Each haemoglobin molecule is composed of a 'haem' portion with a globin chain(protein). Iron is an integral part of this 'haem'. Other factors that help in haemoglobin synthesis are vitamin B12 and folic acid. Vitamin C is also important, as it increases iron absorption from diet in the body. Haemoglobin carries oxygen from the lungs to rest of the body and to the tissues, where oxygen is utilised for various metabolic processes that provide energy and are necessary for our well-being. Our body can utilise the oxygen that we get from atmosphere, only when it is transported by haemoglobin to target tissues. Now if haemoglobin level is low, then oxygen carrying capacity of blood will decrease. The tissues will suffer from low oxygen availability, and the problems due to anaemia will arise.

The etiology for anaemia in India :

Evolution of reading and writing

Reading and writing has been the nature of mankind from the very ancient period. Earlier human beings living in jungles, and fighting with wild animals each and every moment for survival, invented symbols for expressing their emotions. They started writing on cave walls. Those  writings were mostly paintings depicting their day-to-day life story and sometimes nature’s events. After this, with civilisation, man’s thirst for knowledge increased, they wanted to study & communicate with others more precisely. Several forms of writing material were invented. Man started writing on stone tablets, tortoise shells,metal plates, small pieces made of clay, wooden panels using sharp objects like stone, wood or bone as stylus. These writing were used for reading after preparation. Egyptian colourful hieroglyphs were carved in stone for glorified display dedicated to royalty and deities.  

Tortoise shell writing

Hieroglyphs

Stone tablet inscription

source: flickr.com 

Mobile revolution

When we were kids, at that time there were landlines telephones in only few houses. First it came with rotary dialler, and we kids had great difficulty in dialling a number. Elder members would dial a number, and we were so much excited to say "hello" and listen to the voice of our dear ones coming over the telephone. Each and every time it rang in the nostalgic cring-cring sound, we ran out to receive the call. 

Image courtesy:  http://bethgeduld.files.wordpress.com

We grew up, and telephones also grew up. New models with number buttons came to the market, and rotary dialler phones became history. Almost every home in our locality got landline connections. 

At that time we used to receive lots of amazing calls, especially from wrong numbers and the kids. It became so easy to dial a number, that the kids used to dial random numbers,and sometimes incidentally the numbers were real telephone numbers. I remember, we used to receive a call, and listen a sweet "hello". The kids used to chat over the phone and we enjoyed this sweet conversation.

After that cellphones came into Indian market. It was very costly then and incoming calls were also charged. Very few people used to buy cellphones, and it became a status-symbol to own a cellphone. I remember one uncle in our neighbourhood bought a cellphone, and each time he had an incoming call, he used to come to the ground in front of his home and talk loudly,may be also because the signal strength was very weak at that time. 

I got admission to my college in the city and had to leave my hometown. Even at that time, mobile phones were not so much widespread like today. Incoming calls were free but outgoing call rate was still high. I stayed at our college hostel, and only a few people there had mobile phones. We used to call home from P.C.O. & at other times it was a common thing to borrow mobile phone from roommates or friends to receive call from home.

In the first month of our college life, only one friend of us had mobile phone. It makes us laugh today when we friends meet that how we used to schedule our incoming calls to her mobile. Our parents were anxious because we were all alone in the new city, so we arranged a fair system. It was like 6 p.m. for me, 6:30 p.m. for anu, 7 p.m. for runu. If any of our parents would give a missed call to her mobile, she used to understand that they wanted to talk to their daughter, and she used to give the phone to that girl, and after few minutes her parents used to call again. Sometimes obviously she used to get irritated, but at that time, we were left with no option and we had to adjust.

 Soon we all bought mobile phones. There were three to four mobile brands in the market, and 2 mobile network providers. All phones were having black icons on the screen with either white or blue, and sometimes yellow background. It were priced between 5000- 9000 INR. We were very happy in composing and downloading ringtones, sending picture messages and SMS. I had only one game in my mobile-snakes, and i was so happy to play it in my mobile, and today, you will find thousands of mobile games.

 Really, in last 8 years mobile phones have evolved a lot. first, phones with colour screens and new operating systems, then new network provider companies, has brought together a new era of mobile network. Call rates started to reduce.. and now when you go to any store to buy a mobile, you will hear android, blackberry, i-phone, symbian, windows and so on... what you cannot do with a mobile now? you can check your location & search for navigation, listen to music, watch movies and video streaming, update status in social networking sites, check e-mails, book tickets online for train-bus-movies-theatres, read e-books from online bookstores, and yes, you can make a call also.. :-)

Image courtesy: Flickr