Sreedhara Gupta (centre) and Salil Datta at work in the IICB lab. Picture by Subhajoy Roy

She chose the road less taken, preferring research over more lucrative professions like engineering or medicine. Her dedication won Sreedhara Gupta national acclaim recently, in the form of the Young Scientist Award by the Indian Science Congress Association for her contribution to kala-azar research.

Sreedhara is part of a team at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Jadavpur, that has been researching kala-azar. The disease is a deadly one, and is particularly prevalent in certain areas of India, including West Bengal. ?WHO (World Health Organisation) has declared that in 2007 this disease is going to become an epidemic,? says the PhD student of IICB.

After passing out with top honours in Madhyamik from Sakhawat Memorial Girls School, she moved to South Point for Class XI and XII. Then, it was on to Jadavpur University for graduation and post-graduation in chemistry. When she applied for research work, kala-azar needed more hands. So she took the offer. ?Lots of people are affected by the disease, but there is not enough awareness,? says Sreedhara.

Dr Salil C. Datta, head of the department of biological chemistry at IICB, explains: ?Tropical countries are mainly found to be affected by kala-azar. North America, Africa and Asia are the most affected, but not a single kala-azar patient has been identified in Australia to date. The skin of the kala-azar patient blackens gradually. It affects the spleen and liver the most, and the five to 16 age group is most prone. Lack of proper treatment may turn out to be fatal.?

A female sandfly is the carrier of the parasite that spreads the disease. WHO has laid special emphasis on tackling kala-azar, which has been found to be among the five most widespread diseases in the world. In India, the eastern region remains the most affected area. States like Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Uttar Pradesh and Bengal have the most number of kala-azar patients. In December 2004, the village of Phoolmalancha in South 24-Parganas was severely affected, leaving 25 dead. Around that time, kala-azar also struck in Kandi, Murshidabad.

Adding to the danger is the fact that some recent cases have been showing a different strain of this disease. ?It is being seen that HIV/AIDS patients are prone to kala-azar and vice versa. So there may be a link,? says Datta.

Dr U.N. Bramhachari first came up with a preventive drug for kala-azar, which worked well on soldiers during World War II. But it is no longer effective. There are a few drugs available, but they?re expensive, toxic and have side effects which can sometimes be fatal. Research as well as clinical trials are ongoing.

It is her research that earned Sreedhara the award. Applications poured in for the award from around the country. Six were finally selected, who then presented their papers to a jury and faced questions on their work. Sreedhara won the award in the area of new biology, and received it in Gandhinagar in January this year.

?We don?t make medicines. We provide details about the ingredients to be used and certain other clues based on which medicines are made,? adds Datta. ?The parasitic cells and the host cells are almost the same. Parasites survive on the host cell?s nutrients. We have found a characteristic present only in the parasites. So we can apply drugs which are less toxic and kill that particular parasite, with less side effects,? summed up Datta.

The team is also trying to develop drugs from medicinal plants.

What’s on your mind this week

Soccer success

May 25, 2005, is etched in red on my calender. Soccer aficionados reading this will know why. The fever and the thrill of the past few months culminated in a memorable event ? the grand finale of the Champions League in Istanbul. Seemed like Lady Luck was playing dice that day at the stadium. Just when AC Milan was feeling the wind beneath its wings, Liverpool stormed out of their doldrums and gave the 2003 champions a demonstration of resilience, which they are sure to remember. Here?s wishing the club a vintage 2005-2006 season back home. Steven Gerrard?s men are on song and their fans are probably singing: ?While all those around us fade and they tire/You will hear the Kops singing the reds never tire.?

Chandrika Acharya

Go Greg

With the mantra of full time commitment to excellence on and off the field, Greg Chappell has impressed the selection committee. It?s now up to India whether they can make the best use of this man. The successful ex-cricketer from Australia, once known for his crisp pulls and cover drives, hates losing. With his experience as a coach, there is no doubt about the fact that he is one man who can make a difference in the team. If competent support staff is provided and a proper bowling and fielding coach is appointed as per his wishes, he can certainly live up to his promise. The BCCI should give him more say in the selection process. Here we can learn a lesson from Pakistan ? Bob Woolmer was given a free hand. Personal wishes and tantrums thrown by the skipper should be ignored.

Dipro Ray,
Calcutta University

Sati sacrilege

The recent act of sati by 70-year-old Ramkumari shows that the identity of a woman is still limited to her husband. Even more flabbergasting is the concept of her family building a temple to glorify this act. No one seems to bother about the painful death of a frail, old woman but are keen to portray this as a heroic deed, which increases the possibility of repetition of such a heinous practice. Lack of education is the cause of such practices still persisting in rural India. The situation of rural women is extremely paradoxical. On the one hand they are revered as goddesses, on the other they are denied their basic rights.

Priyanka Mukherjee,
Lady Brabourne College

One of the many ways to beat the heat, captured by Sanghita Chatterjee of CU. The pavement-dwellers on College Street cool off on a hot day. Most of them live and work under the glare of the sun, and yet they are a carefree bunch

In praise of profs

Strict, stern and decorous ? this is how we usually perceive the pillars of our education, our teachers. Many add the epithets formidable and unapproachable. But in the English department of Presidency College, our professors are our second parents, taking personal interest in every student and affording guidance through love, understanding and amiability. Treating hungry students to chocolate biscuits and tea while taking extra classes, arranging special classes on theories outside the syllabus, clearing pre-examination doubts over phone, making accessible to the students the assistance and guidance of renowned professionals from different fields... For everything they have done for me and my batch-mates, thank you all very much, especially J.G. ma?am, D.B. ma?am, M.A. ma?am and S.K.M. sir.

Rajrupa Banerjee

Party politics

In India, there are more then 100 political parties. New ones are added to the list almost every day. This is good, if the parties actually do good work by helping the people. But some parties misuse their power through illegal activities. Many students are joining political parties. In college, these students don?t study properly. They always sit in the party office and think they will pass the exams using party clout. But they are not aware of the dangers of politics. Some of these local parties behave like gangs, trying to outdo each other through crime. The students are joining politics without thinking of the future, hoping that the party will give them greater opportunities later in life. However, only a proper education can prepare one for the future.

Samiran Banerjee,
Asutosh College

Teacher trouble

Remember Tiyasa Biswas, the girl who committed suicide after being humiliated by her teacher? Tiyasa is not the only one to undergo such suffering. The growing incidence of such cases proves that the teacher-student relationship is a thing of the past. In most schools, semi-literate teachers often psychologically harass students for small reasons and even if a complaint is made, the authorities try to hush up the issue by giving a clean chit to the teacher. This mounting pressure adds to the psychological problems of the students, which result in such extreme steps. An independent board should be constituted to rationally and psychologically counsel teachers and only then should they be recruited.

Avishek Ganguly,
Jadavpur University

Chat Chat

Twelve-year-old Protiti Chatterjee performs a kathak recital at a classical music and dance programme organised by Surchandam and Youth Guild For Friendship. The event was held at Gorky Sadan on Monday in memory of Ustad Md Dabir Khan Saheb and was called Guru Sishya Parampara. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Prisoner

And the prisoner will be born

Will the horse ride to the moon?

There will be dungeons in the eye

And the blood will dry

The vision will fly

The vision must die

And the prisoner will be born

Are there ghosts in the siren?

In the celebration of ashes

And in numbed fears

There will be loss of fingers

Among the dead singers

And the prisoner will be born

Do you feel the traveller in your body?

There will be an open diary

On the sea shore

? The story of a whore

With hours between the doors

And the prisoner will be born

And the prisoner will be born again.

Tina Ganguly, English, St Xavier?s College

Dria?s home

And Dria picked up the blue doll

Lying on the floor,

A long time now?

We sit in the brown caf?

And wonder where the dead rose dropped,

On the hills or in the folds of the curtain?

The rain flickers like the farmer?s lantern

When there is lightning

And often Dria stands at night

Over the fields of rice

Watching the farmer on his night patrol?

I look at the stray hair

Dria gave me

When she left our town

To look for fish

I never read your poetry

It was in another language

But now I think it?s mine too

When she brings your words home

Etched on coconut leaves?

I wait for a good song at the caf?

And ask why

He dreamt of parrots

In every sleep?

And from the screen of my car

I can watch Dria

Softly step into the beggar?s eye

And say, ?let?s go home??

Inam Hussain Mullick, English, JU

Both poems are dedicated to Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), whose birth anniversary is on June 5