Category: Union Territory

‘Will showcase Kashmir traditional food to the world’

Srinagar, Oct 18: Next time you see Kashmiri Wazwan becoming a household cuisine across India, don’t be surprised.

A Kashmiri food technologist is taking the local cuisines of the valley to the India’s top cooking reality show Master Chef India.

As per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Dr Rukhsar Saeed, a food technologist from Pampore has made it among the final 16 contestants of Master Chef India, which is being broadcasted on Sony Liv.

In June, she auditioned for the show and after clearing several stages, she made it to the final 16.

Rukhsar said that throughout the show will present the Kashmiri cuisines before the judges in order to promote the local food of the valley.

“In Kashmiri, there are thousands of indigenous vegetables and spices. My cooking style is based on innovation with the veggies and spices. My aim to participate in the shows is to promote the Kashmiri cuisines throughout the world,” she can be heard saying in one of the episodes.

Saeed begins her journey in the Master Chef India with Shab Deg, which is a traditional Kashmiri Kofta Curry dish cooked with Turnips in a heavy-bottomed deg/handi/vessel on charcoal fire.

Chef Vikas Khanna who is a jury member in the show termed it one of the best cuisines he had so far.

In the promo, Dr Rukhsar was seen saying that she wants people to know about Kashmir’s traditional dishes.

“When someone eats my food with closed eyes, I want to take him or her to the valleys of Kashmir,” she can be seen saying in the promo.

Prominent celebrity chefs including Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar, and Pooja Dhingra are the jury members who will judge the cooking skills of 16 contestants.

Dr. Rukhsar Saeed is also an entrepreneur who started the valley’s first ‘Frozen Food’ venture in 2019.

She started this venture soon after she completed her PhD in Food Technology.

Kashmiri traditional food, particularly Wazwan, is famous across the world. Scores of the foodies across the world relish this multi-course meal during their stay in the valley—(KNO)

Srinagar, Oct 07: Questions are being raised on the engagement of senior stipendiary residents in Sher-E-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) at Soura Srinagar, with candidates claiming that neither merit nor entrance exam was used as a yardstick for the selection of candidates.

As per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), on 21/09/2023, under order number SIMS/ACAD/538, SKIMS put out a selection list for the engagement of 53 stipendiary senior resident doctors, and when the aspirants saw the list of selected candidates many raised this query that only blue-eyed candidates had been selected, especially in the department of surgery.

Among those selected in the surgery department, was the son of GMC principal Dr. Masood Tanvir Bhat and many other blue-eyed candidates.

According to both the aspirants and the senior official of SKIMS, neither the exams were conducted nor the merit was used for the selection of the candidates. The candidates were selected solely on the basis of performance in the interviews. However, the majority of the aspirants said that they were not asked more than three questions in the interview: 1. When did you complete your MS? 2. What was your thesis topic? 3. And who was your guide?

“We were not asked any questions, just three simple questions and then we were asked to go home. When the results came out, we were surprised that nepotism had played a major role in the selection. The selection should have been either on the basis of examination or merit, but they neither conducted the examination nor considered the merit as a basis for the selection. I am myself a third position holder in the MS in Surgery, but I was left out,” an aspirant lamented while speaking with The Watchdog on condition of anonymity.

Another candidate said that “the whole process was rigged,” and that they were already aware of who would feature in the list; it was the candidates who had connections. The process was not fair.”

“There was no transparency in the process. We are not sure what was the basis for selection. If the interview was a basis for the selection, then how come there were some candidates in the selection list who we did not even see during the interview?” another candidate asked.

One more candidate said that “some doctors who were already doing a registrar-ship at the SKIMS institute also featured in the list because their registrar-ship was about to end and they wanted to stay in the institute. If this keeps happening, how can new doctors get the opportunity to work in our prime institutes? It is unfair processes such as these that many of us are considering to start doing our practice outside Kashmir.”

Many candidates demanded a high level of inquiry into the matter and invoked the lieutenant governor to take stock of the workings at SKIMS.

“From cradle to grave, there is corruption everywhere, whether that is an appointment of a peon or an appointment of a senior doctor. Education and healthcare are the backbone of any country, and when such pious institutions are destroyed through corruption and nepotism, you can imagine what would be the future of a country,” Dr. Abdul Bari Naik, a social activist, commented while speaking with The WatchDog.

When The WatchDog reached the dean of academics SKIMS, Dr. Bashir Ahmad Laway, for comments, he said that the selection of the candidates was done on dynamic criteria.

“We could not take the merit as a yardstick in the selection because a candidate can have good grades, but he might not be so good at other things. Similarly, we did not go for the written test because then we had to worry about the secrecy and the paper leak issue. Therefore, we were satisfied to go for the selection at the discretion of the selection committee,” Dr. Laway added further.

The selection committee included the following officials from SKIMS: Director, Dean, Medical superintendent, Director of finance, and expert HOD for the concerned department. However, many candidates said that the concerned HODs were not present to assess their performance during the interview, raising questions whether the process for selecting 53 senior resident doctors at SKIMS was done fairly—(KNO)

“Over the last few weeks, hospitals are seeing increase in number of seriously-ill RSV patients,” said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.

Dr Hassan said young children and elderly are coming to hospitals with severe pneumonia requiring oxygen, some needing intensive care and support of ventilators to help them survive the respiratory distress.

RSV is not new. We see it every year during winter months. RSV particularly affects young children. It can be life-threatening in infants and older adults.

“Most years, infections typically occur in the late fall and winter, often overlapping with flu season. But since last year we are seeing early surges,” he said.

The DAK President said RSV kind of took a backseat during Covid pandemic. People were hardly exposed to the virus because of Covid precautions like masking and social distancing. Now with reopening it seems to be coming back again.

“Very young children born just before or during the pandemic had no exposure to RSV and didn’t build immunity against the virus. And now they are getting exposed to the virus and it is hitting them really hard,” he said.

Dr Nisar said the symptoms of RSV include runny nose, cough, fever and difficulty in breathing. Infants can manifest with irritability, trouble breathing and refusal to feeds.

RSV is a respiratory virus and spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

“This year we have vaccine against RSV. The vaccine is recommended for people aged 60 years and older. The vaccine is also approved for pregnant women in their third trimester which will protect the new born babies’ up to six months of age. For very young children we have RSV antibody which will help prevent severe disease in this vulnerable group,” he said.

“Till we have vaccine available, people should continue with precautions like hand washing and cough etiquettes. If you are down with cough or fever stay home and wear a mask. Infants and very young children should be kept away from sick people,” he added.