Skip to main content

The Sacred Turtles of Kandavu

  The Sacred Turtles of Kandavu A Fijian Legend 1.     What is a legend? A legend is a very  old   story  or set of  stories  from  ancient   times about famous events or persons. These   stories are not always  true . 2.     Where does the story “The Scared Turtles of Kandavu” take place? The legend of the sacred turtles of Kandavu takes place in the Fijian island of Namuana. 3.     Fiji:  Fiji, a country in the South Pacific, is an archipelago (group of islands) of more than 300 islands. It's famed for rugged landscapes, palm-lined beaches and coral reefs with clear lagoons. 4.     How, according to the legend, did the warriors of Kadavu save themselves a long journey by sea? The Fijian islands are surrounded by sea. The legends says that the warriors of Kadavu saved the time for a long journey by sea, by sliding their canoes on rollers up over the na...

Dangers of Drug Abuse : Dr. Hardin B Jones ( Questions and Answers)

 


Dangers of Drug Abuse

Dr. Hardin B Jones

Questions and Answers:


1. Why do people believe in drugs?

People believe in drugs because they think that any aliment, physical or mental can be cured by taking a pill. Moreover, medical journals advertise them and doctors prescribe them.


2. What is the danger of over-dependence on drugs?

When one become over-dependent on drugs to solve one’s problems, one loses one’s capacity to deal with life’s situations through perseverance, self-discipline and mental effort. Some people think it is foolish to waste time and money and energy on solving a problem when there is an easy way out.


3. What is Hippocrates chief contribution?

Hippocrates of Kos, the Greek physician and father of medicine, was the first to recognize that a remedy must take into account not only the symptoms of the disease, but also the health and habits of the patient. The medicine must specifically suit the disease and the patient.


4. What is the distinction between medicines and sensual drugs?

The difference between medicines and sensual drugs is that sensual drugs are those that the body has no need. They give the user a strong sense of pleasure. Sensual drugs activate the brain’s pleasure centres. Medicines are used to cure or prevent diseases. The body needs medicines but not sensual drugs.


5. How do sensual drugs act on the human body?

Sensual drugs activate the brain’s pleasure centres either directly or through chemical mimicry.  It is the brain that governs sensations, moods, thoughts and actions. Sensual drugs upset the normal working of the brain and give the user a false sense of pleasure.


6. What is the danger of severe addiction?

A drug user’s craving for the drug continues, but he feels less and less satisfaction. His brain’s pleasure reflexes are weakened by constant artificial stimulation. In severe addiction, the pleasure mechanisms fail to respond to drug stimulation. The drug then gives the user only relative relief from misery.

7. Why does the craving for sensual drugs persist in an addict?

In an addict the pleasure mechanisms fail to respond to drug stimulation. The drug then gives him only relative relief from misery. So, he wants more and more drugs and thus the craving persists.


8. How does the brain govern sensations, moods, actions and thoughts?

The brain governs sensations, moods, actions and thoughts not by a magical process but by an unbelievably complex series of chemically regulated controls.


9. Why does the addict suspect everything external?

The addict suspects everything that is external because he cannot discern the source of his problem and he is in a state of paranoia. He looks for its cause everywhere except in himself. Everything external terrifies him and he develops withdrawal symptoms.


10. What are the symptoms of the addict’s sensory deprivation?

The symptoms of sensory deprivation an addict are a general feeling of physical discomfort and personality changes. The addict feels depressed. He fails to respond either to his environment or to other people. His mental disturbance can be similar to paranoia.


11. Why do addicts press their fingers deep into their bodies?

Addicts press their fingers deep into their arms and legs because their sensations are lost, and they want to reassure themselves that they are alive and real.


12. Name some drug related health disorders.

Drug-related health disorders are many and varied. Dirty needles and solutions used for injecting drugs can cause abscesses in the arms and veins. They can cause liver disease, venereal (Sexual) disease and infection of the kidney and brain. Sniffing cocaine and amphetamines can damage the tissue of the nose. Marijuana and tobacco smoking can cause lung diseases. Babies of women addicted to opiates are likely to be born addicted and may suffer from withdrawal symptoms. Cocaine and amphetamines can cause hair fall. Marijuana can damage cells. A drug addict is easily subjected to pneumonia, tuberculosis, mal-nutrition and weight loss. An overdose of any sensual drug can cause respiratory or cardiac failure and death.


13. How do drug affect women addicts?

Babies of women addicted to opiates (different types of drugs) are likely to be born addicted and suffer from withdrawal symptoms.

                                                                                                               
14. How do sensual drugs affect brain cells?

Sensual drugs affect the chemistry of brain cells. Cell function is carried out by thousands of enzymes acting within each cell. Every exposure of the cells to drugs can make changes in their function. Toxic chemicals can upset the brain’s intricate system of communication. They can also damage cell tissues. Some of the toxic effect may be permanent.

15. How does the belief in drugs lead to drug abuse?

Drugs were discovered to prevent and cure physical diseases and reverse the disturbances that occur in some mental illnesses. The power of drugs has led people to believe that any ailment, infective or psychic, can be relieved by taking a pill. At the first sign of nervousness, they try pep pills. Medical journals advertise tranquilizers, amphetamines and other mood-altering drugs. Doctors prescribe them and people expect miracles from them. This excitement over drugs leads to drug (or substance) abuse.


16. Do you think addiction to drugs will result in identity crisis? How?

An addict feels that others look at him strangely. When people smile at an addict, he thinks they are laughing at (mocking) him. An addict may even lose his sense of being alive. He feels ‘dead inside’. Once, a rehabilitated heroin addict told the Hardin B Jones that looking out of the window, he can see that the sun is shining and the flowers are in bloom. Those are signs of a good day. But pressing his chest, he said that he didn’t feel it in his heart. Addicts often press their fingers deep into their arms or legs to reassure themselves of their own reality. Their sensations are lost and they look for drug-induced sensations.


*****************************************

Popular posts from this blog

Character Sketch of Ajit and Nomita from Matchbox

Character Sketch of Nomita   Nomita in the story  Matchbox   written by Ashapurna Debi is a typical Indian housewife who is bound to sacrifice many of her ambitions and hopes and be enslaved in the kitchen. Ashapurna Debi portrays her colorless – without the hues of a happy life. Her widowed mother thinks that she is successful in consigning her daughter to a rich family which is not on the merit of finance but by looks alone. Nomita expects a minimum freedom of reading the letters addressed to her. Her husband seems to be dubious about the letters when he tries to read it without her consent.  It is true what Ashapurna Debi says about Nomita and women in general that they are like matchboxes settled at the corners of the house with their hidden power to explode at any time. Nomita follows the example of a matchbox and she burns with anger when she is helpless. To break the shackles of marital slavery she is rea...
Read more

The Price of Flowers: Notes

                                             1. Why was the narrator’s attention drawn to the English girl? Mr. Gupta, an Indian, visiting England, once went to a Vegetarian restaurant. He saw an English girl of 13 or 14, sitting opposite to him, watching him with interested surprise. But she turned her eyes away as soon as he looked at her. The girl’s interest in him drew his attention. 2. What is your impression of the girl? The girl, Maggie, is a teenager from a poor family. Her clothes betray her poverty. Her large eyes with a sorrowful expression move our minds. When she saw the narrator, her belief that an Indian, who is a yogi, can find something about her brother through the crystal ring and   that is why she watches him so closely. Then she asks the cashier to find out if he is an Indian and if he comes to that particular restaurant all the time....
Read more

Matchbox By Ashapurna Debi : Summary

Matchbox Ashapurna Debi “Matchbox”, is written by Ashapurna Debi, a Bengali Novelist. It tells the story of Ajit and Nomita , young married couple. The story narrates the unhealthy man-woman relationship existing in most Indian families. Ashapurna Debi, in the beginning of the story compares women to matchboxes. Matchboxes have the potential to light up everything into fire. The tiny bit of gunpowder in it can burn down a hundred Lankas, she says. But in appearance, they are meek and harmless. You can place the matchbox in the kitchen, pantry, bedroom, in pocket or anywhere without fear. We know that it won’t cause a fire by itself. It is the same with women. They also appear to be meek and harmless. Men treat the like matchboxes. Men don’t fear women and take them lightly. But Ashapurna Debi tells us that if they want, they can set everything into fire within no time. The central character of the story is Nomita. Her husband Ajit has the habit of opening his wife’s letters a...
Read more

Horegallu : Character Sketches of Grandfather and Ratna

  Horegallu Sudha Murthy Horegallu is a stone bench, placed on road sides. Travellers and farmers working in nearby fields could take a little rest on the horegallu. They were usually placed under trees like banyan which provide much needed shade and relief. Cool water would also be made available in earthen pots for the weary travellers. They could put down the burden they carry, rest for a while, refresh themselves, exchange the news of the road with fellow travellers, share their worries and difficulties, and later continue their journey. Character Sketches of Grandfather and Ratna Grandfather was retired schoolteacher. He used to sit under the banyan tree, in the village and talk to those resting there. They were mostly farmers working in the field nearby or long distance travellers. He used to listen to their worries and hardships patiently. Talking to him used to refresh the travellers and they would pick up their burden once again and continue their journey. Ratna ...
Read more

And Then Gandhi Came : Notes

  And Then Gandhi Came   1.     What is referred to as the “all-powerful monster”?   The brutal, oppressive and humiliating British colonial rule that denied the Indian people the right to live respectfully is referred as all powerful monster .   2.     What was the impact of the First World War?   The first world war had already caused enough suffering in the Indian sub-continent. The Indian soldiers fought alongside with the British forces. When the war ended, the people thought that the British would be more lenient but they humiliated the people with more oppressive legislations and imposed martial rule in the Province of Punjab. People thought that they had become a derelict nation and felt hopeless and helpless. Unemployment and poverty worsened.   3.     How does Nehru describe the coming of Gandhiji?   Jawaharlal Nehru describes the coming of Gandhiji in beautiful words. He co...
Read more

Character Sketch of Maggie

  Character Sketch: Maggie Maggie is the central character in the story "The Price of Flowers" written by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay. Maggie’s or Alice Margaret Clifford, is a young English girl of 13 or 14 years of age whom Mr. Gupta meets in a restaurant. Her clothes betray her poverty. Her hair hung in a heavy stream down her back. She had large eyes with a sad expression. She works in a shop close the restaurant as a typist. She goes to the restaurant only on Saturdays because Saturday is pay day. Maggie is hardworking. She lives with her old mother in a small house in the poor neighbourhood of Lambeth. Her only brother, Francis, is in the army and he is in India. She loves her brother very much and he too loves her.  She loves her mother. She nurses her when she is sick. She is very disciplined and has polite manners. Maggie is not happy with her work in the shop. She says it is a mechanical job. She wants a job in which her brain can be used. When she gets a better ...
Read more

The Sacred Turtles of Kandavu

  The Sacred Turtles of Kandavu A Fijian Legend 1.     What is a legend? A legend is a very  old   story  or set of  stories  from  ancient   times about famous events or persons. These   stories are not always  true . 2.     Where does the story “The Scared Turtles of Kandavu” take place? The legend of the sacred turtles of Kandavu takes place in the Fijian island of Namuana. 3.     Fiji:  Fiji, a country in the South Pacific, is an archipelago (group of islands) of more than 300 islands. It's famed for rugged landscapes, palm-lined beaches and coral reefs with clear lagoons. 4.     How, according to the legend, did the warriors of Kadavu save themselves a long journey by sea? The Fijian islands are surrounded by sea. The legends says that the warriors of Kadavu saved the time for a long journey by sea, by sliding their canoes on rollers up over the na...
Read more