Kanpur: In an interesting incident, a pigeon carrying a letter was found in Kathara village of Bidhnu in Kanpur.
The pigeon with a piece of paper around its neck, with some Urdu text written on it along with blood stains on the other side, was found perched at the entrance of a local resident’s house on Thursday.
According to reports, farmer Dharmendra Kushwaha of the village was feeding the cattle, when he found a grey pigeon sitting at the entrance of his house. It was constantly cooing. On giving a closer look, he found a piece of paper tied around the pigeon’s neck with a white thread.
Later, Dharmendra caught the bird with the help of some neighbours.
“I thought it was a love letter for someone. On opening the piece of paper, I saw that there were seven lines in Urdu written in blue ink. The whole text was written in a square box,” he told reporters.
“There were some blood stains on the other side of the paper,” he added.
The villagers put the pigeon in a cage and alerted the police control room.
At the same time, they also started searching for Urdu experts to decipher the meaning of the text.
ACP Ghatampur Dinesh Kumar Shukla said, “The pigeon was carrying a ‘tabiz’ (amulet) around its neck. The police tried to release the pigeon, but it kept on returning.”
If I had been told that my dream career could end up affecting my mental health, I might have thought twice about pursuing it. Or perhaps I wouldn’t have. After all, trauma is not new in journalism – “if it bleeds, it leads” is the adage.
But while crime and war correspondents know the risks they run, I fell into covering harrowing stories accidentally. I spent more than a decade on and off in the BBC newsroom, mostly in the user-generated content (UGC) hub team, dealing directly with the audience – finding case studies and trends, and tackling disinformation early by verifying stories before they were broadcast. Sometimes it was the best job ever, when the stories we covered could change people’s lives. Other times, the job meant scouring through racist and xenophobic missives, and exposure to pornography and graphic images of human remains. I would weep and feel hopeless about the world we inhabit, as we found ourselves mapping the geographies of murder, deconstructing images of beheadings, or cross-referencing atrocities on social media videos and open-source intelligence from far-flung places.
Increasingly, these tears were not isolated incidents. I couldn’t switch off after my 10-hour shifts and would keep tabs on stories that I was not on rota to cover – just wanting to help if I could, finding case studies in my “real life” and sending in tips. There was no balance. I kept checking social media in case I had missed something. When trolls messaged my team’s public WhatsApp number, I would reply to remind them there was a human behind that screen. I have always been sensitive: it is what made me good at the job. But it also made me more vulnerable. I lost weight because of the stress and sadness – what was the point in eating? In my head, I would keep replaying images of dead bodies, or stories of murdered children, wondering if anything could have been done.
‘I found I could no longer handle the tube at rush hour.’ Photograph: Jeffrey Blackler/Alamy
I found I could no longer handle the tube at rush hour. I was no longer me – the girl who liked wolves and biscuits and was capable of finding light and ridiculous things to counterbalance the sad stuff. I felt so lonely and guilty, so disappointed that the world was such a broken place, and I no longer knew what I could do to help fix it. I wanted to stop feeling so much and so empty at the same time. It was this alien experience that made me seek professional help, which is how I first heard about vicarious trauma.
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The word trauma derives from the Greek word traumatikos, meaning pertaining to a wound, while vicarious comes from Latin, and means to substitute. But it was clinical psychologists Lisa McCann and Laurie Anne Pearlman who coined the term vicarious traumatisation in 1990, while investigating how therapists were affected by what they were exposed to in the course of their work.
Vicarious trauma usually involves a cumulative effect. It is not just one event but many things that someone is exposed to over time, which lead to a cognitive shift in the way that person interacts with the world. Symptoms differ from person to person, but can involve flashbacks, intrusive thoughts and nightmares. Those affected can feel emotionally numb or hyper-aroused; they might engage in destructive and addictive behaviours, or feel as though they have lost a sense of meaning.
While the term was initially applied to therapists, it is widely recognised that people in a range of professions can be affected. There are studies looking at vicarious trauma and PTSD in drone operators, in healthcare professionals, in social work and among social media content moderators. Legal professionals run this risk, as do people in more informal situations, such as carers.
‘There are studies looking at vicarious trauma and PTSD in drone operators, in healthcare professionals, in social work, and of course, among social media content moderators.’ Photograph: David Parker/Alamy
Stories about traumatised content moderators are emerging around TikTok and associated contractors globally, and in the US a class action federal court case is underway against it and parent company ByteDance. So far, the public statements issued by TikTok in response to various content moderators’ allegations have focused on the company’s trust and safety team and how it partners with third-party firms on the “critical work” of helping to protect the platform and community. Spokespeople have also said the company continues to develop ways to “help moderators feel supported mentally and emotionally”.
In the US, Facebook (now Meta) recently agreed a $52m settlement to moderators who were diagnosed with mental health disorders, including PTSD, following a class action lawsuit led by Selena Scola. Chris Gray, who is based in Dublin, is pursuing legal action against Facebook Ireland and contractors CPL over his PTSD. He has just published an account of his experiences, The Moderator: Inside Facebook’s Dirty Work in Ireland, and tells me it wasn’t just the graphic imagery that affected him, but also having to deal with complaints, generally without any context, where people would report bullying or arguments playing out on the platform. “It’s like ‘you’re a bad parent’, ‘you’re a junkie’, ‘you’re a slut’ and then somebody’s mother joins in and they are arguing about their sad, awful lives. And then somebody thinks to use the reporting tool as a weapon and they start reporting each other,” he says.
Yelena McCafferty, a Russian interpreter and translator from Lincolnshire, says her job working in public service settings with the police and in courtrooms means she often can’t talk to anyone about what she hears because the material, which can range from petty theft to child abuse, is confidential. “Sometimes you just want to unburden it on to someone, but you can’t,” she says. She has accepted that sometimes she will have flashbacks about certain cases, adding: “Interpreters are neutral. We are there to facilitate communication, but we are not robots. Everything that the person says physically goes through us and comes out in the first person.” Now, she says, there is a growing openness in her industry about the traumatic elements of the job, with training and webinars offered to raise awareness.
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Pearlman, who is now partly retired, says her understanding and development of the concept of vicarious trauma emerged directly from her own personal experiences. Speaking to me from her home in Sarasota, Florida, she recalls a conversation one Christmas with McCann and other therapists about how she was not feeling her usual self. She knew it was not depression, but what was it? “We began to understand, in talking with our colleagues, that we were taking on the trauma experiences of our clients, and that we were feeling deeply affected in ways that changed our outlook on life and our experience of ourselves as people in the world, and also our ability to manage our feelings in a constructive way,” she says.
“I was always a very trusting person,” says Pearlman, “but I started to feel like questioning ‘What is that guy doing over there in that park with that young girl and is that a healthy relationship?’ and so on.”
How permanent such a shift can be is still unknown. It is something that my BBC journalist friend Alex Murray and I often discuss. As one-time colleagues in the UGC hub, we worked on many stories together, from the Arab spring to multiple terror attacks, school shootings, beheadings, war and more. But as Murray, who at one point was deeply immersed in the reporting of jihadi movements, says: “There was a group of us who were really good at it and we were really fast. And part of our vicarious trauma was that we felt because we were good at it and fast, it was easier for us to carry the burden and get it done quickly than watch other people, who found it more difficult, struggle with it.”
The work affected the two of us, but in different ways. I was afraid of the world, of building relationships, of trusting people in all aspects of my life. Murray says he stopped enjoying things that he used to find pleasurable – such as cycling – and he became irritable with his loved ones. When even his dog started to annoy him, he realised something was not right.
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Elana Newman, a professor of psychology at the University of Tulsa, and research director for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, has extensive experience of working with journalists and lawyers. She says it is important to remember that vicarious trauma can lead to positive as well as negative cognitive shifts. Practically speaking, for example: “If you work with people who were hurt in a fire, you’re looking for exit signs.” Or a person may become more aware of all the beauty and courage in the world around them. This is something that Murray and I understand well.
Both of us have used our experiences at the BBC to try to help others, including taking part in several studies – one a groundbreaking 2014 investigation into reporting on user-generated content, which revealed that frequency of exposure to images of graphic violence was a risk factor for psychological injuries.
And to be fair to the BBC, when some of us in the team who had been having quiet conversations with each other about our worsening moods and feelings of guilt and anger eventually raised our concerns, we were introduced to our amazing colleagues at BBC Monitoring, who had far more experience of dealing with horrific stories. They shared coping strategies with us, such as turning off audio while watching graphic material and taking time to watch joyful cartoons. However, it did take a few years for more formal protocols to be implemented, and a significant industry-wide cultural shift had to occur before our teams understood that we did not always have to be the person to watch or work on stories or videos emerging from terror attacks, natural disasters or anything that could cause additional distress. Being diagnosed with vicarious trauma was not a condition for such consideration, either. The intent was to protect people from being at risk in the first place.
‘You may become more aware of all the beauty and courage in the world’ … Dhruti Shah. Photograph: Courtesy of Dhruti Shah
I first came across Sam Dubberley, a former newsroom manager at the European Broadcasting Union, when he, together with Haluk Mert Bal and Liz Griffin, was researching the effects of vicarious trauma on journalists, humanitarians and human rights workers. He is now managing director of the digital investigations lab at Human Rights Watch. He speaks regularly to his team about what they feel comfortable with investigating, and focuses on reducing the risk of vicarious trauma before it happens. He is especially concerned to include everyone who might be exposed to distressing material on a cumulative basis, such as receptionists responsible for monitoring an email address, archivists, video producers or IT support.
Newman says it is important to remember that being moved or upset by interacting with someone who is experiencing something terrible is part of “being a healthy functional person”. She stresses that there is a significant difference between having an emotional response that is “adaptive, proactive and socially and morally responsible” and having a psychological disorder. But if such a disorder occurs, it is important to act. Pearlman says connection with others, and deliberately building a sense of community, can be helpful. During the pandemic, and even now, she regularly has a group of other clinicians she checks in with. Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (a trauma therapy for reducing distress caused by memories) and cognitive behavioural therapy can help some people.
McCafferty says she visualises a waterfall whenever she needs to build a bit of distance between herself and a case she is working on. Like me and Murray, Chris Gray has written and speaks widely about his experiences at Facebook Ireland. We have all discovered that the global community that has built up around the awareness of vicarious trauma is very welcoming.
As for me, I eventually left the BBC Newsroom to re-find that curious soul who loved sharing tales of the wild and wonderful. I know I can no longer cover certain stories, but I am hopeful about what the future will bring.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
For those close friends who got a text from Nicola Sturgeon in the hours before she publicly announced her resignation as Scotland’s first minister, it was the timing and not the fact of her departure that came as the almighty shock.
But Sturgeon is a woman who likes to craft her own narrative. For months, the first minister has been buffeted by decisions not of her making – the supreme court ruling that she cannot hold a second independence referendum without Westminster approval, the UK government blocking Holyrood’s gender recognition bill – as domestic headwinds around the NHS, education and transport grew ever more unfavourable.
And so on a lacklustre spring morning in the middle of recess, she seized back control of her own story with a delicately detonated political bombshell. She leaves her party with no obvious successor and those same challenges unresolved – and herself, at the age of 52, as she stressed today, with plenty of road ahead of her.
The superlatives flooded in from supporters and opponents alike, describing Scotland’s first female first minister, who has led her party to political dominance for nearly a decade, as “formidable”, “unparalleled”, “tireless”.
So began the inevitable parsing of her resignation speech, itself praised for its honesty and humility – particularly in contrast to recent UK prime ministerial resignations. Those familiar with Sturgeon’s sensibility were mindful too of recent remarks from former New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern, someone with whom Sturgeon is known to feel a kinship.
That Sturgeon was ready to leave the role she has occupied since she seamlessly replaced Alex Salmond in 2014 was no secret. For at least 18 months, she has been dropping regular hints and allusions to her post-Holyrood future: telling Vogue in October 2021 that she and her husband, SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, had discussed fostering, and the Guardian in August 2022 that she looked forward to “just not feeling as if you’re on public display all the time”.
All of which seemed jarring for a politician who was also claiming to be up for the fight over a second referendum and the gender bill.
But still the abruptness of the announcement was a surprise, although the explanation given was straightforward enough: with a special conference in March to decide the next steps on independence strategy, she wants to leave the SNP – and her successor – “free to choose” without her.
The immediate speculation was whether Sturgeon was anticipating heavy and humiliating opposition to her preferred option of running a future election as a de facto referendum at the special conference – or what other domestic catastrophes had yet to emerge.
While she insisted at her press conference that the ongoing row over the placement of transgender offenders in women’s prisons was not “the final straw”, this was also the moment when she revealed most emotion, appearing close to tears as she told reporters: “I will always be a voice for inclusion … I will always be a feminist.”
While Sturgeon has been consistently robust in her defence of her reforms, those working closely with her acknowledge how difficult the last few weeks of relentless and increasingly personal criticism have been, overlaying the regular denunciations of her deeply held feminist beliefs during the passage of the gender recognition reform bill through Holyrood, with hundreds of (mainly) female protesters booing her outside the parliament building and wearing T-shirts with the slogan: “Nicola Sturgeon, destroyer of women’s rights.”
“People can only take so much” says one SNP veteran, but this applies as much to her experience leading the country through the pandemic, and the Salmond saga which played out concurrently.
Jeane Freeman, whose friendship with Sturgeon was cemented when she worked as her health secretary during the pandemic, told the Guardian: “It’s inevitable that going through something as relentless and all-consuming takes its toll, as I know personally. I don’t think any of us know the impact it has had on us until we’ve had space and time to reflect on it.”
Sturgeon has also previously discussed her lack of time to fully reflect on the “toxic horribleness”, as she described it last summer, as the Salmond saga – which saw two high-profile investigations into the Scottish government’s handling of harassment complaints made against the former first minister, constant calls for her to quit, and ultimately her being cleared of misleading parliament.
Maybe now the time has come for such reflection for the woman whose mammoth contribution to post-devolution politics has yet to be fully assessed.
Her unerring ability to “speak human” brought her to an audience well beyond Scotland, particularly during her daily Covid briefings, and she remains one of the few politicians in the UK recognised by her first name alone – an electoral boon not enjoyed by any of her potential successors.
While the level of adoration may have calmed since the high point of “Nicola-mania” during the 2015 election campaign when she was regularly mobbed by adoring and sometimes tearful admirers demanding selfies, she remains a popular and trusted figure.
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In her resignation speech she warmly thanked “my SNP family”, the party she joined as a serious-minded 16-year-old in the 1980s, when support for independence was marginal and membership was not about forging a career in politics.
Sturgeon’s leadership style is often criticised for her keeping a tight-knit group around her – unlike Salmond’s unruly court – with regular complaints from both Holyrood and Westminster groups that she fails to engage with the party’s rank and file.
This can partly be explained as personality: she describes herself as naturally reserved and shy, but has spoken out about profoundly personal experiences of miscarriage and menopause, saying she feels an obligation as the first woman in her office to “move the dial a little bit”.
Meanwhile, younger women politicians emerged to salute her as a personal inspiration, with social media this afternoon peppered with testimony – not only from SNP members – from those who say they would not have considered entering public life without her example.
MP Amy Callaghan toppled the former Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson in 2019 and Sturgeon’s delighted fist-pumping reaction, caught unintentionally on camera, went viral at the time. Callaghan, who suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2020, spoke warmly of Sturgeon as “a great source of knowledge and strength during my campaign, and also through my ill-health”.
Those who know Sturgeon well highlight her comments on Wednesday on the polarisation of Scottish politics, and its “brutal” nature – especially for women. They praise her insight in recognising the point where her own leadership, or the perception of it, has itself become a barrier to change.
While she leaves the independence question in deadlock, she insisted her decision to step down was anchored in what was right “for the country, for my party and for the independence cause I have devoted my life to”.
While she indicated she may not stand again for Holyrood at the next Holyrood elections in 2026, she said that her commitment to that cause was unwavering.
“Whenever I do stop being first minister,” Sturgeon told the Guardian in August 2022, “I’m still going to be relatively young. This would not always have been true of me, but a life after politics doesn’t faze me.
“The world is my oyster.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Jaipur: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Dattatreya Hosabale on Wednesday said the organisation works in the interest of the nation without any political inclination. “We are neither right wing nor left wing. We are nationalist. The Sangh is only going to work in the interest of the nation,” Hosabale said.
He was speaking on the topic ‘Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ organised by the Ekatm Manavdarshan Anusandhan Evam Vikas Pratishthan at the Birla Auditorium her.
He said all the people living in India are Hindus because their forefathers were Hindus. “Their methods of worship may be different, but they all have the same DNA.” He said India can lead the world by becoming a ‘Vishwa Guru’ only with collective efforts of all.
He said the Sangh considers all religions and sects of India as one. “People can do organisation’s work while retaining their sect. The Sangh is not rigid. It is flexible,” he added.
He also spoke on the Constitution, and said even a good Constitution cannot do anything if those in charge of implementing are bad.
Hosabale said the RSS played a role in the establishment of democracy in the country which finds mention in the write-ups of foreign journalists. Former chief minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje, former BJP state president Mahesh Chandra Sharma, Leader of Opposition Gulabchand Kataria were also present in the programme.
SRINAGAR: A self-styled ‘Guide’ has duped at least 10 Kashmiri pilgrims, after taking money from them to show sacred shrines and places in Iran, Iraq, and other countries, leaving them mid-way in Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon.
At least 10 pilgrims are stuck in Delhi this time, requesting Jammu and Kashmir Administration to help them return home as they are without money.
One of the pilgrims Ghulam Hasan Wani of Devara Yetalampora village of Singhpora Pattan told over the phone from Delhi that a Guide Syed Nasir from Harennarah Pattan took Rs one lakh per person to help them on pilgrimage to Karbala and other sacred sites.
“After performing the pilgrimage, the guide left us mid-way in Beirut without informing us. He is still absconding. We suffered heavily as we were not having money with us. We sold our valuables including the earrings and gold chains of women pilgrims accompanying us. Somehow we have managed to reach New Delhi,” he said.
The pilgrims said that they have no money to return back to Valley as they have no money and are starving.
They appealed to LG Manoj Sinha led administration to help them in returning home and direct police to take action against the guide.
“We can’t narrate our sufferings in words. We are illiterates and yet he (Guide) left us in the lurch,” said a woman pilgrim. (KNT)
These past few days have been dominated by events that took place in Turkey and followed up in Hyderabad. Nawab Mir Barakat Ali Khan who was popularly known as Mukarram Jah Bahadur passed away in Istanbul, Turkey at 89 on January 14. His body was shifted to Hyderabad in a chartered aircraft the next day evening. A few selected groups of people were allowed to pay him their last respects that night.
The next day the general public was facilitated to enter the Chowmahalla Palace to see him for the last time between 8-00 am and 1-00 pm. The body was later shifted to Makkah Masjid where he was interned in a grave alongside the other Asaf Jahi rulers.
One question that has lingered on in the minds of the people is: Why he did not choose to be buried next to his grandfather, Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan, the Seventh Nizam, in the foreground of Masjid Judi located in the premises of King Kothi? It was the Seventh Nizam who had chosen him over his first son Azam Jah Bahadur to be his successor.
In the night of January 20th, Mukarram Jah’s first son Mir Mohammad Azmat Ali Khan Azmet Jah has been anointed as the new head of the family. The press note issued by the Palace said that the successor of Mukarram Jah was declared in the presence of “immediate family members, trustees, close friends, well-wishers, and staff members.”
Leaving out Muffakham Jah
Surprisingly, among these “immediate family members…” Muffakham Jah, the only brother of the late Prince, was not present. According to Palace sources, Muffakham Jah who was there at the Palace and later at Makkah Masjid during the last ceremonies was not informed about this succession ceremony. Why?
Muffakham Jah
What is left of the grand old Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan who owned huge tracts of land in Hyderabad and on its outskirts, Golconda Fort, several palaces, etc.? (For reference please refer to the Blue Book, a document spread over several pages. Copies of this book are available with some resourceful persons in Hyderabad).
It is sad but true that Mukarram Jah did not value his lineage or heritage and quietly left Hyderabad in 1971 never to return and stay here for long.
Yes, he did make a few sojourns to the city, visited a mosque near Katora House in the precinct of the Golconda Fort, and met a few friends and acquaintances. He is also said to have held a ceremony or two in these last 51 years in Hyderabad.
Mukarram Jah Trust
Mukarram Jah School
However, he did establish Mukarram Jah Trust for Education and Learning and, roped in some big names to be part of that trust but nothing beyond that has happened. An educational institution for boys and girls has been set up somewhere in the mid-eighties. He made a few visits to the school whenever he was in the city.
City watchers ask what he has done beyond establishing that school for Hyderabad and its people. There are many other people who have done a similar or even better job. For instance, you have Sultanul Uloom Education Society, Deccan Education Society, Madinah Education Society, Shaadan Education Society, etc. where thousands upon thousands of boys and girls are graduating every year. Hundreds of them are medical, engineering, pharmacy, education, and business management graduates.
So what is the big deal if Mukarram Jah has established one school? People ask.
Nazri Bagh in dispute
The Purdah gate of the King Kothi palace, which was the residence of Osman Ali Khan, the 7th and last Nizam of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad (Photo: Yunus Y. Lasania)
The status of King Kothi Palace of which only a portion—Nazri Bagh—is left with the family is not known. Even Nazri Bagh is said to have become a disputed property with no clarification from quarters that claim proximity to the Prince and his heirs.
Prince Neglects Chiran Palace
Some six acres of property spread over different parts of the premises of KBR Park belong to the late Prince. It is known by its original name Chiran Palace. The Prince and the people appointed by him have held long but unending negotiations with the State government over the status of the land. The negotiations are in limbo.
KBR Park
Mosque in Chiran Palace
Chiran Palace is occasionally used by the family. This writer interviewed Prince Mukarram Jah and his son Azmet Jah there a few years ago.
Chowmahalla Palace opened
Now we come to the Chowmahallah which has been renovated and opened for the public by Princess Esra Jah, former wife of the Prince, who holds a general power of attorney over his properties in Hyderabad. She has done a fine job. Whoever visits the palace comes out praising it. It was the Durbar Hall of this palace where the body of the Prince was kept for the people to pay their last respects.
Princess Esra accepting condolences from Telangana CM KCR
Now, the questions that the people of Hyderabad would like to ask: Princes Esra, whenever she is in Hyderabad, stays at Falaknuma Palace where a separate luxurious portion has been left aside for the family by Taj Falaknuma management. Would Azmet Jah stay in the same area as her mother? Or would he like to stay at Chowmahalla Palace where an exclusive portion has been left for occasional use?
What role would he like to play within his extended family that includes a host of hostile relations? What relations would he like to have with Hyderabad as such (that also means the government of Telangana). Finally, the most important question: Would Azmet Jah stay in Hyderabad at all, or would like to fly back to his cozy corners in the UK and the USA?
