26th July 2005 a day when Mumbai flooded

On 26^th July 2005 a cloud burst in Mumbai & Mumbai’s rainfall broke all its previous records. Water flooded into many people’s house. Mumbai’s lifeline i.e. Railway trains had stopped running. Public transport i.e. Bus service & private transport services both were badly affected due to road jams & water logging. The level of water at some places was even higher than small vehicles. At some places water level was even higher than some people’s height. Many areas didn’t have electricity. Phone lines had stopped functioning.

I remember studying Diploma in Pharmacy in NSS college of Pharmacy in Tardeo. It was afternoon time. My teacher was supposed to show my batch mates dilation of a rabbit’s eye when a drug autropine is put in its eye. I being an animal lover thought that I won’t be able to see a rabbit suffering & hence decided to leave the practical lab. Luckily my teacher had gone out for some work & I ran away from the practical lab to return home.

It was raining like cats & dogs when I came out. Somehow I managed to reach Mumbai Central station quickly & got a train immediately without even waiting for a minute at the railway platform. While being in the train I heard from my fellow passengers that all trains were running very slow. I saw that the level of water was too high on the railway tracks & I was wondering how the motorman was able to run the train. Some people were telling that after some hours trains may stop running if the rains won’t stop. I was feeling happy & was feeling proud to be an animal lover. I thought that had I not have been an animal lover I wouldn’t have left my practical & I may not have got a train to return home. Somehow I reached home. After a few minutes the rainfall increased. I was worried as my father was still at work in Churchgate.

After some hours in the evening the public transport service was tremendously affected. I remember losing electricity at home. Many parts of Mumbai didn’t have electricity. Trains weren’t running maybe due to electricity problem or due to water logging on railway tracks. My mother & I had requested my father to remain in office but he didn’t listen & decided to return home. Unfortunately he got stuck. He walked many kilometres & managed to reach home.

It’s difficult to forget this day as for the first time I experienced nature’s harshness & got to know how dangerous cloud burst can be. Somehow by the grace of GOD I was lucky than many people of Maharashtra. I pray that something like this never happens anywhere. Now it’s necessary for all to understand that our activities have affected the nature in a bad way hence our activities should be environment & nature friendly to prevent such disaster from happening. Some scientists & people think that they can command & conquer nature but nature keeps proving time to time that it can command & conquer us.

Anthropophobia

Anthropophobia means fear of people. It’s derived from 2 Greek words Anthropos which means Man & Phobos which means fear.

It’s fear of scrutiny by other people in small groups, rather than a crowd. This phobia usually leads to social situation avoidance (WHO, 1992, p. 136).

Anthropophobia is a phobic disorder that is found mostly amongst the people of China & Japan. Its core symptom is a fear of making eye contact with others A.Y. Zhang et. al. (2001).

In some cultures direct eye to eye confrontation is particularly stressful (WHO, 1992, p. 136). DSM-IV (Diagnostic & Statistical manual of Mental Disorders) specifically mentions taijin kyousho. Taijin kyousho is a Japanese word taijin means in relation to others & kyofusho means fear or phobia, thus taijin kyousho means fear of others. Taijin kyofusho is defined as “an individual’s intense fear that his or her body, its parts or its functions, displease, embarrass, or are offensive to other people in appearance, odour, facial expression, or movements” (APA, 1994, pp. 844, 849). This syndrome is considered in DSM-IV to be confined to Japanese culture rather than a cross-cultural mental illness.

According to International Statistical Classification of Diseases & related health problems (ICD-10) Anthropophobia is a case of social phobia & an extreme, pathological form of shyness & timidness.

The signs of Anthropohpobia are

Anxiety

Extreme avoidance to be in small groups

Feeling of dread

Feeling of panic

Feeling of terror

Irrational fear of people

Rapid heartbeat

Trembling

A research “Anthropophobia: Its meaning & concomitant experiences” was conducted by Amy Y. Zhang, Lucy C. Yu, Jianxue Zhang, Denghua Tang & Juris G. Draguns. It was published in International Journal of Social Psychiatry (2001) Vol. 47 No. 4 56 – 70. The researchers found that the core anthropophobic symptoms include a fear of making eye contact with others & a fear of being watched by others, which essentially express fears of others’ judgement or opinion of oneself. They even found that anxiety & depression are associated features of anthropophobia.

Other symptoms include fear of blushing, unnatural eye or facial expression, body dysmorphia & odours. Their even found that in an extreme case, a person suffering from anthropophobia would become homebound & withdrawn from society to avoid contact with other human beings. The onset of anthropophobia typically occurs in adolescent.

Japanese psychiatrist & researcher Yamashita (1993. p. 28) believes that the meaning of anthropophobic symptoms is centred on interpersonal relationships & on one’s self-image as perceived through others’ eyes. In his words, anthropophobic patients observe themselves through others’ eyes, ears & noses, instead of their own. They try to find themselves in the minds of others. In Japanese culture interpersonal relationships are more interdependent, reciprocal & implicit than in Western culture. The researcher believes that these differences play a causal role in shaping anthropophobic symptoms.

Yamashita (1977) has classified manifestations of Taijin kyofusho into seven categories:

1) Fear of flushing;

2) Fear of eye contact, including a fear of being caught by someone’s gaze & a fear of one’s own unnatural gaze at others;

3) Fear of showing one’s improper attitude toward others when interacting with others, as indicated by bodily tension, trembling, & shaking;

4) Fear of body dysmorphia, such as physical abnormalities & facial defects;

5) Fear of one’s bodily odours (patients believe that unusual body odour or gases emanating from their bodies are offensive to others);

6) Anxiety about others’ attitude & feelings toward oneself; &

7) Any combination of the proceeding six fears.

Another Psychiatrist Zhong (1987; 1993; Zhang & Zhong, 1993) has classified anthropophobic symptoms into 3 categories based on his clinical observation of 113 patients.

They include

1) Symptoms associated with eye expression, including a fear of others’ gaze & a feeling of unnatural eye-expression in oneself. Zhong suggests that the fear of others’ gaze is related to concerns that others can find out secrets in one’s mind by watching, while a feeling of unnatural eye expression by oneself expresses beliefs that one’s own eye expression suggests flirtation or irritation to others;

2) Symptoms associated with facial expression, including a feeling of unnatural facial expressions in front of others such as blushing; &

3) A compulsive desire to watch others’ breasts or genitals through one’s own peripheral vision.

Apparently Yamashita & Zong have 4 symptoms of Anthropophobia in accord i.e. fear of unnatural facial expression, fear of making eye contact, a fear of unnatural eye expression & a fear of other’s gaze at oneself.

References: -

1. AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION (1987) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd, revised). Washington, DC: APA.

2. AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION (1987) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th). Washington, DC: APA.

3. OKONOGI, K. (1973) Taijin-kyofu viewed from the perspective of shyness of strangers. Japanese Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2, 833-837.

4. UCHINUMA, Y. (1973) Symptom structure of taijin-kyofu: Symptom structure and treatment strategy. Japanese Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2, 845-850.

5. WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (1992) The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders: clinical description and diagnostic guidelines. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.

6. YAMASHITA, I. (1993, c1977) Taijin-Kyofu delusional social phobia. Sapporo, Japan: Hokkaido University Press.

7. ZHANG, J.X. & ZHONG, Y.B. (1993) Discussion of psychopathological nature and psychogenic mechanism (Amy, Lucy, Zhang, Tang, & Juris, 2001)

8. ZHANG, J.X. & ZHONG, Y.B. (1993) Discussion of psychopathological nature and psychogenic mechanism of anthropophobia. Chinese Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry, (15)9, 269-271. (In Chinese).

9. ZHONG, Y.B. (1985) Neurasthenia. Beijing, China: Science and Technological Literature Press. (In Chinese.)

10. ZHONG, Y.B. (1987) Phobia of eye contact. Chinese Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry, (15)3. (In Chinese.)

11. ZHONG, Y.B. (1993) Cognitive-insight therapy. Guiyang, China: Guizhou Press of Education. (In Chinese.)

12. Zhang, A. Y., Yu, C. L., Zhang, J., Tang, D., & Draguns, J. G. (2001). Anthropophobia: Its Meaning and Concomitant Experiences.  International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 47-56. Retrieved October 15, 2012, from Sage Publications: http://isp.sagepub.com/content/47/4/56

My mother, food & I

I’ve heard & read many times “I’m a foodie.” I can’t understand what makes people say “I love eating food.” After all it’s not something significant as majority of the world’s population is found of eating. Many overeat & hence more people die due to overeating than starvation Tahir, T. (2011), Adams, S. (2012).

Since birth I’ve never been found of eating food but I’m a food lover. I just can’t feel like stuffing something in my mouth which I love & respect so much.

My parents force me to eat. Whenever they see me they ask “have you eaten anything?” To avoid their questions I prefer to not stay at home most of the time. They aren’t happy with my body’s & face’s symmetry. They like a bit full or bulky people. They always thought that if I won’t eat then I won’t be able to perform essential activities or day to day tasks like studying, etc like normal. My mother remains concerned about her cooking reputation. She thinks that some people may question her cooking style as I’m lean.

Although I’ve proved them wrong many times but they still force me to eat. I’m taller than my parents; I can even work more & walk & run longer than my friends. I was even fine at studies & all this by eating very little food. I won’t recommend anyone to follow my way of sustaining as I do meditation for hours & that can be the reason why I feel energetic even without eating food.

My parents don’t meditate & are found of eating different types of food, whereas I prefer to have semi-solid food or liquid food.

My parents like spicy food especially South-Indian whereas I like very simple or boiled food or Mediterranean style food or British style breakfast. When it comes to eating Indian food I prefer to mix all food items together & eat. My parents don't like my jumbled style of eating food. In their opinion food shouldn't be eaten like that. They tell that this style doesn't allow understanding or enjoying a particular dish's or food item's taste whereas I don't enjoy eating food & as I don't want to get addicted to any particular type of dish or food item thus I prefer to mix all food items so that all foods will taste similar all the time. My family prefers to eat food together & while eating they prefer to talk or watch TV, whereas I prefer to eat food quietly, alone & I avoid watching TV or listening to music.

Although I’m the only son but my mother & I still don’t have a warm relationship & its all because to food. She thinks that I hate her cooking style & hence I don’t eat. Conversely I like her cooking style as my friends & small children are fond of eating whatever she cooks but I don’t like to eat food. My parents haven’t understood me till now. They think that I eat outside but I don’t eat anything out. In my father’s opinion I don’t have any of his traits. At times my mother thinks that her child got swapped when she gave birth & I’m not her real son.

I’ve told them my parents times that in my birth chart I’ve got 4 retrograde planets that makes me a different person but nothing is abnormal but they don’t believe me. I’ve even given them many examples of people who eat less & I’ve even said to them about those who don’t eat like Prahlad Janijee, Shri Hira Ratan Manekjee, Ram Bahadur Bomjom, etc.

My friends like to celebrate or party in restaurants. I don’t feeling like rejecting their invitations hence I join them. They all prefer non-veg food, whereas I’m a vegetarian. I do eat something little with them but very reluctantly as the fact is that I don’t like to eat food & I even hesitate to eat even when I don’t have to pay & someone pays for a delicious food dish for me. In my opinion celebrations & parties can also happen in a different way by excluding food. People eat to be happy & I eat to show respect to other's request & to make others happy at times.

I believe that when one overeats he/she makes his/her stomach do a lot of work as stomach has to digest the food, especially liver has to work a lot. I don’t want my stomach to overwork. I even want my liver to relax thus I eat less. My friends & family members think that I suffer from some type of eating disorder whereas I think that I'm normal & people who overeat suffer from some type of eating disorder.

I hope my relationship with my parents improves or gets a bit warm & they get to understand me. I wish we all three concur to this fact as I can’t get another father or mother for some affection & love & neither they can. I also wish my friends understand me & my food eating principles & won't get offended when I'll reject their proposal to have food together.

References: -

1. Adams, Stephen. Obesity killing three times as many as malnutrition. December 13, 2012. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9742960/Obesity-killing-three-times-as-many-as-malnutrition.html (accessed July 16, 2013).

2. Tahir, Tariq. World now has ‘more people dying from obesity than malnutrition’. September 22, 2011. http://metro.co.uk/2011/09/22/world-now-has-more-people-dying-from-obesity-than-malnutrition-160264/ (accessed July 16, 2013).