Shweta Sadanandan
The sailing fraternity in Chennai is all agog about the high seas achievements of super sailor Shweta Sadanandan (12), a class VIII student of Chettinad Vidyashram who won two national events hosted by the Tamil Nadu Sailing Association (TNSA) under the aegis of the Yachting Association of India (YAI) and the National Optimist Association of India last May (2007). Shweta was adjudged the Best Girl Optimist sailor in the Optimist National Coastal Sailing Championship and awarded sixth place overall among 47 participants. She also sailed to a grand finish on the final day of the five-day National Coastal Laser 4.7 Championship to win the Girls Gold and the second place overall. (The Optimist is a small dinghy for sailors under 16 and the Laser 4.7 is a more powerful Olympic class dinghy featuring only one sail of 4.7 sq m).Consequently she became a natural choice to represent India at the forthcoming International Optimist Dinghy Class Association (IODA) Asian Sailing Championships 2007, scheduled for July 7-15 in Singapore.
The daughter of Captain P.T. Sadanandan, a pilot with the Chennai Port Trust and Geeta, a financial consultant, Shweta found her sea legs at age seven when she was inducted as a member of the Royal Madras Yacht Club and TNSA. On the prompting of her coach Munna Jamal at TNSA, she entered her first race in 2001 and won her first cadet class (two sailors) national championship in 2003. In 2004 she was awarded the Youngest Sailor title in the Optimist National Sailing Championship held in Chennai. Subsequently she was adjudged the Best Youngest Sailor in the under-12 category for two consecutive years at the Optimist Nationals held in 2005 in Goa and in 2006 in Mumbai.
"When sailing you have to be focused, alert and sharply aware of your immediate environment. One should be able to quickly read the direction and speed of the wind, tides and prevailing currents. This requires strength, stamina and quick reflexes," she says.
A multi-talented individual, Shweta is also an accomplished bharatnatyam exponent and an enthusiastic participant in cultural events at school. Sailing, however, is her priority and she trains on Sundays plus three hours every day during school vacations. Meanwhile her sailing prowess has prompted Vestas, a Danish wind energy firm and the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) to sponsor her sailing events. "My immediate goal is to win the Asian sailing championship in Singapore and the national Optimist title next year. I’m training hard," she says.
Wind in your sails!
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)
Hrishikesh Kulkarni
Hrishikesh Kulkarni (21), a final year MBBS student of Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai was recently awarded a special bronze medal for his research paper on the positive properties of ground flaxseed on the lipid profile (cholesterol levels) of rats at the Leiden International Medical Student Confe-rence, Netherlands. His research paper was chosen from among 200 presented by medical students worldwide. Together with the bronze medal and citation, Kulkarni was also awarded a travel grant of €400 (Rs.22,000).
"The judges presumably found my paper interesting because flaxseed is easily available in India. Therefore it offers the prospect of an affordable cure for the growing number of people suffering stress-related high cholestrol health problems. If it works for lab rats, there is a good chance of ground flaxseed-based medication working for human beings as well," says Kulkarni who acknowledges his mother Mohina’s help in his project. It was she who chanced upon an article on the internet about the traditional use of flaxseed oil to cure coughs and colds in children. Based on her advice, Kulkarni began researching flaxseed at the Ayurveda Research Centre of KEM Hospital, Mumbai in 2004. The results of the initial experiments clearly demonstrated that flaxseed intake reduced cholesterol levels and trigly-cerides of lab rats fed on high-fat diets.
"I must also acknowledge the help and encouragement of Dr. Nirmala Rege who heads the Ayurveda Research Centre at KEM. We will file for a US patent for our research project soon," adds Kulkarni.
According to him India has a rich legacy of traditional medicine and medical formulations which if deeply researched and contemporised, could translate into low-cost globally accep-ted curatives. "I want to convert my research into treatments and help create a disease free world," says Kulkarni, recognising early in life that humanity lies in relieving human suffering.
Way to go!
Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)