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TOI : PUNE: In a gruesome incident, a decomposed body of a senior citizen was found at his bungalow in Mundhwa on Friday morning. The police identified the deceased as Navneet Ramchandra Tare, aged between 55 and 60 years.

Tare’s neighbours and the local corporators informed the Hadapsar police that his bungalow was open and lights were on. “A team was sent to the bungalow, where the decomposed body was found on a bed,” the police said.

The police found Tare tied to his bed. “His neck was tied with a black duppatta to the bed’s iron rod. His legs were also tied with a cloth. The post mortem report cited strangulation as the reason of death.”

The police said Tare has been murdered a month ago. “His viscera has been preserved, which will shed light on when the murder really took place.”

According to his neighbours, Tare had retired from the merchant navy and was the vice-president of the Rashtriya Janata Mahasangh. “Neighbours said that he used to be on Mumbai tour most of the times and hardly stayed at his Mundhwa bungalow,” police said.

Tare never socialised with his neighbours. Moreover, his bungalow has a high boundary wall. “No one could actually check whether he was inside or not. However, for the past few days, the neighbours found his bungalow open and lights switched on, which made them suspicious,” the police said. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : Medical science has started realising the potential of music as a form of treatment, called music therapy. In short, it is the use of music to treat people with special needs in physical and mental health.

At the recent National Conference of Music Therapy in Hyderabad, the state was represented by city lad Sarang Vaidya. Vaidya (22) is a classical singer training under Hema Gurjar. He is also a Reiki grandmaster and it was this association with Reiki that had him thinking of music as therapy.

“Music is my passion. So, doing something in the field of music came naturally,” says Vaidya. “Music therapy is an automatic process of inner healing set in motion through the right combinations of sounds that resonate within and fill the space around us.”

The conference was organised by the Nada Centre for Music Therapy, Chennai and held in Hyderabad on July 6 and 7. Vaidya was chosen on the basis of his research paper that was based on his treatment of people using music therapy, along with other forms of treatment.

His paper, he says, is an attempt to find if music therapy, combined with counselling, can cure hypothyroid disorders and associated psychological problems.

In his paper, Vaidya also names ragas which he says can be used in the treatment of some illnesses. “For example, the raga Bhairavi for rheumatic arthritis and sinusitis.”

As for the conference, he says, “The experience was great. My paper was well received and now the organisers will include my paper in a journal on music therapy,”

“I don’t think that music therapy can cure a patient by itself. My paper says that it should accompany some other form of recognised therapy. But I think that music therapy ensures the patient’s peaceful recovery,” says Vaidya. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Call it superstition or desperation. With the rain playing hide and seek, villages in western Maharashtra are looking for strange ways to “please the rain gods” by taking out processions of donkeys and parading naked kids. Amid all this, anti-superstition activists are blaming the government for failing to address the issue effectively.

“It is mid-July and every year by this time, sowing of kharif is over. But this year, we are still waiting for the rain. Now, it’s too late and a good rain won’t help much,” says Raju Chougule, a farmer from Shirol in Kolhapur.

Villagers in Shirol taluka took out a procession of donkeys. The hapless beasts were painted with colours and paraded in the entire village. The womenfolk performed ‘puja’ of the donkeys and while praying for rain.

In some villages kids are being paraded naked with neem leaves tied around their waist. “There is also a tradition of taking out a procession of the village deity and dispel evil out of the village. In many villages, temples is filled with water,” says M.B. Jadhav of Sangli. Such practices are gaining moment in the drought-affected areas of Sangli, Satara and Solapur.

“We desperately need the rain. If the monsoon showers don’t hit the region within eight days, the situation will worsen and it would be difficult for us to survive. The government is taking its own time to announce drought,” says Satara farmer Mohan Patil.

Narendra Dabholkar of the Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (Committee for eradication of blind faith) blamed the state government. “Farmers can’t be blamed for the rituals they are performing. It is the responsibility of the government to make provisions to face adversities. The state has faced similar situations before. It has discussed ways to combat drought, but all that remained on paper,” he said.
“I hope the government plans long-term water…More

TOI : PUNE: In a major relief to students ahead of this year’s admissions to engineering and health science courses, the Supreme Court-assigned Shikshan Shulka Samiti (fee fixation panel) has directed all private unaided institutions to charge an interim fee at 80 p.c. and 60 p.c. of last year’s fee for engineering and medical seats, respectively.

The panel, appointed by the state government as per the apex court directives, has set this arrangement until it finalises the fees for 2008-09 for all private unaided engineering and medical colleges.

Post-finalisation, students will have to pay the differential amount, but the instant orders (issued on July 4) provide a relief considering the huge sums charged for professional courses.

For instance, the medical course fee is upward of Rs 3 lakh per annum and varies from college to college vis-a-vis costs incurred. On the scale of Rs 3 lakh, students will have to pay Rs 1.80 lakh as an interim fee for 2008-09. The relief is a cool Rs 1.20 lakh per student till the finalisation of the fee amount.

The panel’s decision is also a departure from the practice over the last two years, of allowing the colleges to effect a 7.5 p.c. ad hoc hike in the fees. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: A former Dehu cantonment member and estate agent Nanasaheb Nagu Dhavare (42) was shot dead in his car by unidentified people at Big India chowk in Nigdi Pradhikaran around 11 am on Friday.

Police suspect property dispute as motive for the murder. Three suspects - Krishna Viran of Sainagar (Dehu Road), Avinash alias Aathwan Arana of Gahunje and Deepak Saisar of Paradhi chawl (Dehu Road) -were detained by the Nigdi police.

Brother of the deceased, Bhausaheb Dhavare, has lodged a complaint in this regard.

On Friday morning, Dhavare was proceeding towards Dehu from Chichwad when an unidentified person seated on the back seat of his car fired two rounds. One bullet pierced his neck and the other his waist. The police suspect that there was one more person sitting alongside the assailant in the car.

On hearing the gunshots, people soon gathered near the car, by which time the two assailants had fled, leaving Dhavare in a pool of blood, the police said.

Dhavare was taken to a private hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. A post-mortem was done at the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital in Pimpri. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More