relationships

New expressions of love

Flower emojis, heart text, love videos are the new languages of love

Nona.Walia@timesgroup.com

For Generation Tik Tok, love emojis are the new poetry, and 2-minute love declaration videos, the new love letters. Love’s language in our digital age has got to be Instagrammable, emoji-fied and text-able. Don’t get us wrong. Flowers still matter as do romantic dinners. But when you are wooing people, who have grown up with emojis as expressions and YouTube as entertainment, the language of love is a bit more complex. And visual.

They say lovers find a language to communicate to each other. These days, it’s mostly through social media on our smartphones. Priya Agarwal’s venture BackPorch Memories collects WhatsApp chats of couples or Facebook photos of people, and collates them in an album or book format that people can cherish forever. “What if you meet your partner on Facebook?, she asks. “It is one of the platforms where lovers are making ‘eye contact’ for the first time these days. How do you turn these moments into life-long memories?” That’s how she caught on to the idea of her company.

Adds Agarwal, “Couples now want their WhatsApp messages to be in a book format. You may find it unbelievable but one couple preserves their 49,000 WhatsApp love exchanges and their selfies!”

VISUAL FOOTPRINT OF LOVE
Digital technology gives us all the unique chance to have our cherished moments preserved, and this generation wants to showcase their love-text history, display to the world how their love progressed. So, the texts, WhatsApp messages during courting have become the modern love letters.

Millennials are getting quite creative and using apps like Audiotool or Ujam to write their own love song or recite a poem to their loved ones. Emotions are conveyed through emoji flowers, hands-up and hearts signs. The dance of seduction happens through texting. That is the language of modern romance.

According to eHarmony’s 2018 ‘The Happiness Index’, millennials are actually the most romantic generation among all.

Erotologist Seema Anand says the days when people waited for romance to come in the form of a love letter are over. “There was disappointment if the postman didn’t have a letter for you; there was a skipped heartbeat if he did... During ancient times, Kama Sutra lovers exchanged messages through different types of paans, which had extensive erotic vocabulary – like a carefully crafted love letter and visually beautiful too. Emojis is that new language of love. It is instant as well as utilitarian.”

THE EMOJI GAME
The cynic in us may sneer but the language of emojis isn’t that simple either. Adds Anand, “I find it fascinating. There is a lot of speculation involved for the one sending it and the one receiving emojis. It’s not quite as simple as merely using the ‘right’ emoji – it’s a far more complex engagement. Even emojis build tension and create trust – whatever is your love game.”
Says Gaurav Sen, doctor, “When I was courting my wife, there were a lot of times we would send this particular WhatsApp smiley to each other. It could mean a ‘yes’ or a ‘maybe’. There are a lot of emojis on various platforms that can be used to elevate the love game, keep someone guessing/pining, or pine yourself – depending on how you put these new mediums to use.”

NEW LOVE LETTERS
OF LOVE AND TEXT-ISM

An ongoing online endeavour called, ‘The Love Text Project’ allows participants to upload their message histories. When the project is over, the messages will be used for research on the role of text messaging in building relationships and establishing intimacy. So far, some key metrics identified are: the frequency and length of messages, the number of mistakes, textisms (the language used in text messages, characterised by the use of abbreviations, symbols etc.), and the usage of key words such as ‘love’, ‘like’, and ‘you’, and the time between messages.

Says Jasmine Singh, 25, dietician, “You have to understand that emojis may seem universal but there is no ‘one emoji wins all’.” Different people react differently to some emojis. You have to move with caution and bear in mind the specific personality traits of the one you are pursuing.”

Emojis have completely changed the language of love. According to linguist Vyvyan Evans, author of

The Emoji Code: 
How Smiley Faces, Love Hearts and Thumbs Up are Changing the Way We Communicate, about 12 per cent of daily global emoji usage involves hearts (including broken ones). The red heart is the second most popular emoji. Would-be-lovers also use suggestive visuals, Instagram updates to hook the possible partner’s interest. Says romance author, Raksha Bharadia, “Digital laughter is the best way to grasp someone’s attention. Emojis have become the new feelings.”

Love, today, is an emoji in action.

IRCTC ORDERS PROBE

Cockroach found in Shatabdi biryani

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata:10.02.2019

A passenger on the Puri-Howrah Shatabdi Express fell ill on finding a cockroach in a packet of chicken biryani served to him on the train on Friday.

Pinaki Saha, a resident of Nagendra Nath Road near Nagerbazar, lodged a complaint with the IRCTC after reaching Howrah. A probe has been ordered.

“I opened the biryani packet and found a dead cockroach next to the chicken piece. On seeing it, I fell ill and threw up. Other passengers, too, could not have their food. IRCTC should take immediate action against the caterer,” said Saha (39), travelling in a large group in C2 coach.

While IRCTC in Bhubaneswar is responsible for the food served on Puri-Howrah Shatabdi Express, Debashis Chandra, group general manager (east), has sought a report from the on duty supervisor. Passengers have complained about the quality and quantity of food on Shatabdis in this region.

“We attended to the passengers on Friday and served them fruit and dry food at Howrah station. It doesn’t seem the cockroach was cooked with the food. It might have had entered the packet when the food was being warmed on the train after being loaded at Balasore. Action will be taken,” Chandra said.

NO HYGIENE: The cockroach in the train food. Passengers have complained about the quality and quantity of food on Shatabdis in the east region

Banaras Hindu University TOI 10.02.2019

Man drops off pregnant wife at rly stn, vanishes

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:10.02.2019

Railway police rescued a pregnant woman stranded at Chennai Central abandoned by her husband.

The woman, who gave her name as Jennifer, of Salem, came to the station with her husband and went to Kasturba Gandhi Government Maternity Hospital in Triplicane for a health checkup.

The couple returned to Central to board a train to Salem. Her husband Sabapathy made her sit at a place and told her he would be back with tickets. He never returned.

The woman searched for him in vain. Seeing her crying, railway police came to her rescue. They informed the Flower Bazaar police station and the woman was sent to the government home in Mylapore. TNN

Apollo moves HC against Jaya death probe panel

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:10.02.2019

Apollo Hospitals has moved the Madras high court pleading for an interim stay on Justice (retd) A Arumughaswamy commission’s proceedings relating to the medical treatment given to late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. It has asked for a direction to stop the commission from inquiring into the adequacy or inadequacy and correctness of the medical treatment given to her during her hospitalization in September-December 2016.

The hospital has also asked for a direction to quash proceedings relating to inquiry into correctness and efficacy of the medical treatment given to Jayalalithaa.

The hospital has also filed a second writ petition seeking to appoint an independent medical board of specialist doctors who are not associated with any of the parties involved (state government or Apollo) and give a time-bound report directly to the high court. This is, in case, the high court finds that the terms and reference of the Arumughaswamy commission include an inquiry into the efficacy of the treatment given to Jayalalithaa.

The writ petition is likely to be heard on Monday before a division bench of Justice R Subbiah and Justice Krishnan R.

The hospital has stated that the commission has gone beyond the scope of its terms of reference and behaved in a partial manner to fasten liability on Apollo, alleging medical negligence in Jayalalithaa’s treatment.

In their affidavit, Apollo has stated that the nature of questions framed by the commission for witnesses and recording of their depositions disclosed a predetermined mindset against it.

Apollo also stated that the commission had launched a “roving and fishing inquiry” into the correctness, adequacy and appropriateness of the treatment for which the commission neither had sanction nor expertise.

Hospital horror: Docs leave scissors in patient’s stomach

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:10.02.2019

Doctors at the city-based premier public hospital, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), left a pair of six-inch surgical scissors inside a patient’s stomach during a hernia operation, sparking outrage. The surgical scissors remained inside the patient’s abdominal cavity for three months, before it was discovered on Friday night when the patient was rushed to NIMS after she complained of severe stomach ache.

The patient, 33-year-old Maheshwari Chowdhary, was suffering from acute stomach ache on and off since her surgery on November 2 at the hospital. She was discharged on November 12 but had to be rushed to NIMS on the night of February 8, 2019, after she complained of excruciating pain.

After undergoing a battery of tests at the hospital, an X-ray revealed the goof-up. The pair of scissors was subsequently removed through another surgery on Saturday morning and she is now recuperating in the intensive care unit of the hospital.

Lashing out at the hospital authorities, the patient’s relatives said they tried to cover up their negligence and were not even willing to hand over the Xray film to them. The patient’s husband first lodged a complaint with the NIMS Resident Medical Officer (RMO) after which he filed a complaint with the Punjagutta police on Saturday afternoon.

“She had been complaining of severe stomach pain at times but we thought it was due to the surgery. When she was brought to the hospital yesterday, the X-ray report clearly showed the scissors. Initially, the hospital authorities were reluctant to give us the X-ray but we managed to get it,” said the patient’s brother-in-law, G Mahadev.

“She had come to the hospital in a bad condition on October 30. She had gangrene of the stomach. The team of doctors did a good job and the patient was fine. She had an issue after three months. The scissors have been removed and the patientissafe.Nointernalorgans were damaged,” said Dr K Manohar, director, NIMS, adding that a three-member committee has been constituted to probe the lapse and action will be initiated based on the committee’s report.

HARD TO STOMACH:The surgical scissors remained inside the patient’s abdominal cavity for three months, before it was discovered on Friday night

Med univ appeals against HC order to revalue answer scripts

Direction Overlooks MCI Rules, Says Plea

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:10.02 2019

Stumped by court order directing the Villupuram Medical College dean to re-evaluate the answer script of a first year student who failed twice, Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University has challenged the order saying its academic authority cannot be undermined.

The state university, which urged the division bench to stay the single judge order, has made a government medical college dean one of the respondents in the case. The appeal by registrar Parameswari Srijayanth said the judge had overlooked regulations of the university and Medical Council of India that don’t provide scope for revaluation. The university conducts examinations, evaluates and awards degrees to 22 state-run medical colleges and all other self-financing medical colleges in Tamil Nadu.

Of the three first year papers, the student, Priyanka Venkatesh, passed in one subject and failed two others. She appeared for the supplementary exam in November but failed to clear that too. In December, the 19-year-old moved the court seeking directions to re-evaluate her anatomy and biochemistry papers. In her petition Venkatesh said that incorrect evaluation led to her failure in the subjects.

She listed out the answers she had written for 11 questions in bio-chemistry and six questions in anatomy along with the prescribed answers from the text book.

Justice T Raja directed the Villupuram Medical College Hospital dean to appoint an expert faculty member in the subjects to evaluate the answers and submit a report to the court by February 5.

On Friday, however, the university challenged the order stating it would dilute the regulations of the university and go against several court judgments. The university said it had a double evaluation system to check human errors. Answer scripts of students who fail the first evaluation will have the benefit of second evaluation. After the evaluation, the first mark or average, whichever is higher, will be taken as the final score. “The university has not issued any text books and the contention that the answers were based on the text book we issued is false,” the appeal said.