Beach Sand Art

World's Oldest New Mom Dying At Age 72, Child Is Only 18 Months

When she was 70, Rajo Devi Lohan and her husband Balla took out almost $3,000 in loans for IVF treatments in Baddhu Patti, India, to conceive their only child, Naveen.

Now 72, Rajo is bedridden and doesn’t have the strength to lift 18-month-old Naveen. She admits she is dying, and too weak to recover from the pregnancy.

Dr. Keith Ablow, psychiatrist, fears that technology could be partly to blame for this controversial question of ethics.

“This is crossing the boundary into the inevitable results of when people use technology without guidance or conscience. And the trouble is that even reprehensible people can do so,” Ablow told the media.

After her cesarean birth, Rajo’s womb ruptured and she suffered severe internal bleeding.

Rajo and Balla, 73, farmers who have not received any education, say they did not know it was high risk to have a baby at their age, and were never warned of any complications by their doctor.

The doctor who performed the IVF treatments, Anurag Bishnoi, says Rajo’s medical state has nothing to do with his care or her pregnancy so late in life.

"Even though Rajo's health is deteriorating, at least she will die in peace. She does not have to face the stigma of being barren," Bishnoi told The Sun.

Ablow said he believes that after this incident, Bishnoi should be prevented from being able to make these kinds of medical decisions.

“This is not a doctor; this person should not be regarded as a doctor and stripped of any credentials regarding him as medical professional. He is a co-conspirator in a medical experiment,” Ablow said.

The National Fertility Centre in Haryana, where Rajo received her treatments, was criticized for helping another Indian woman, Bhateri Devi, give birth to triplets through IVF when the woman was 66. The center claims no wrongdoing in the pregnancies of both women.

Besides physical complications, another concern is the soundness of mind at the advanced ages of these women, as well as their ability to rationally think through her feelings of wanting to be a mother.

“If this doctor doesn’t have convincing data on hand that these women are competent to make medical decisions, then him impregnating them artificially should be viewed as an assault and treated criminally,” Ablow said.

“These are women who put their own feelings about wanting to have children, maybe even regret for not having them earlier, ahead of any concerns about the development of their children,” he said.

Aside from the physical health risks to a child being born to an elderly mother, the potential for psychological damage could be significant.

“These children have to live with people who make irrational decisions based on their well being with no concern for others, which is something no one wants in a parent, Ablow said. “Later on, it is likely that these children will be anxious when they understand how old their parents are and that they may not survive very long — and that will have its own psychological impact.”

Student Braves Controversy, Refuses to Recite Pledge

"Liberty and justice for all?"

Will Phillips doesn't believe that describes America for its gay and lesbian citizens. He's a 10-year-old at West Fork Elementary School in Arkansas, about three hours east of Oklahoma City. Given his beliefs, he refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, specifically because that one phrase, "liberty and justice for all," he says, does not truly apply to all.

That did not go over well with the substitute teacher in his fifth-grade classroom.

The Arkansas Times reports that he started refusing to say the pledge Mon., Oct. 5. By Thursday, the substitute was steamed. She told Will she knew his mother and grandmother and they would want him to recite the pledge.

Will told the Times the substitute got more and more upset. She raised her voice. By this point, Will told the newspaper, he started losing his cool too, adding: "After a few minutes, I said, 'With all due respect ma'am, go jump off a bridge.'"
That got him sent to the principal's office. The principal made him look up information about the flag and what it represents. Meanwhile, there was the inevitable call to his mother.

At first, mom Laura Phillips told the Times, the principal talked about Will telling a substitute to jump off a bridge. When pressed, the principal admitted the whole incident was sparked by the boy exercising his constitutional right not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Phillips suggested an apology was in order -- from the teacher. When the principal said that wasn't necessary, Will's mother started venting to friends via Twitter. Those friends, in turn, told the news media. And what would have been a minor classroom incident has people throughout Arkansas and beyond choosing sides.

As for Will, he continues to exercise his right to remain silent. It can be rough at times, he and his family admit. He has his share of supporters, however, his critics are louder and nastier -- especially because he took his stand to defend gay rights.

"In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they've been making comments and doing pranks, calling me gay," he told the Times. "It's always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad."

Nonetheless, Will told the paper, he is sticking to his convictions. A reporter for the paper asked Will -- with all this talk about patriotism and the pledge -- what he thinks it means to be an American.

"Freedom of speech," he responded. "The freedom to disagree. That's what I think pretty much being an American represents."

His mother is proud.

"He's probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge that a lot of adults," Phillips told the Times.

8-year lawsuit settled over US lesbians denied IVF

A lesbian couple has won a landmark case against a Californian clinic, where doctors allegedly cited their religious beliefs as grounds to refuse the couple IVF (in vitro fertilisation) treatment.

Guadalupe Benitez, 36, of Oceanside, and her spouse, Joanne Clark, sued doctors Douglas Fenton and Christine Brody, at North Coast Women's Medical Group in Vista for discrimination in 2001. The doctors treated Ms Benitez with fertility drugs and provided her guidance about self-insemination but allegedly told her they would not inseminate her, due to their religious objections.

The couple was, however, referred to another clinic by the North Coast doctors, which they were told would have no moral objections. Ms Benitez underwent treatment and the couple have since had three children. The discrimination case was finally settled after eight years for undisclosed sum of money. 'It's been a long, hard fight to get to this point,' Ms Benitez said following the settlement announcement, adding: 'But we know we've made a difference in the law that will help people in California and across the country.' The clinic released a statement saying it welcomed lesbian and gay patients.

Californian civil rights law prohibits discrimination in businesses which serve the public. Although the law does allow doctors the option to refuse certain medical procedures, such as abortion, if a procedure is available to the public, it must be made available to all.

The case went through a state appeals court in San Diego in 2006 which ruled in favour of the doctors. However, in 2008, the California Supreme Court barred Christian doctors denying treatment to patients on the grounds of sexual orientation. The ruling stated that the laws preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation extended to the medical profession. According to Jennifer Pizer, the lawyer for Benitez and Clark, the ruling 'shows a journey that our whole society is taking together, away from intolerance and towards inclusion.'

In the UK, the introduction of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (amending the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990) allows lesbian couples to more easily receive IVF treatment on the National Health Service (NHS). Prior to this, the 'need for a father' criterion in the 1990 Act enabled some clinics to deny same-sex couples and single parents IVF treatment, through statutory interpretation. This was challenged in two legal battles earlier this year in Scotland and England. In both cases the initial decisions to deny treatment, made by NHS trusts, were overturned following threats of legal action.

Lesbian couple win fight for IVF on the NHS

A Lesbian couple have won the right to IVF on the NHS after a legal tussle, ahead of laws that will put same-sex patients on an equal footing with heterosexuals.

The couple, who remain anonymous, had to go through a legal fight to push the NHS to fund IVF because, at the moment, individual trusts decide whether they wish to pay for treatment for lesbians.

The couple were initially refused IVF by their primary care trust because they were of the same sex. One of the women had polycystic ovarian syndrome, which disrupts ovulation, and is one of the most common causes of infertility.

From October, clinics will no longer be able to block lesbians by referring to a child’s “need for a father”. Instead, same-sex couples will need to demonstrate only that they can offer “supportive parenting”.

If NHS trusts continue to deny lesbians fertility treatment after this date they face possible legal action.

Ruth Hunt, head of policy at Stonewall, the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity, said: “The changes in the law should mean that no infertile lesbian is refused NHS fertility treatment on the grounds of her sexual orientation.

“We have just published a guide on how to get pregnant for lesbians in response to lots of queries. This is a hot topic for us at the moment.”

While same-sex couples have won new rights, many heterosexual couples continue to be denied IVF on the NHS. Only 27% of trusts offer heterosexual couples three cycles of treatment as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the NHS guidance body.

If lesbians are fertile they can usually conceive by intrauterine insemination (IUI), the medical name for donor insemination. This is less complicated than IVF, which involves fertilising eggs in a test tube. IUI is also cheaper,at about £700 per attempt compared with £3,000 per cycle of IVF.

The lesbian couple enlisted David Herbert, a partner at the law firm Lester Aldridge, when they were denied IVF on the grounds that they were of the same sex. The trust reversed its decision in June.

Herbert said: “Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is contrary to the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act. There is an element of conflict in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 which requires clinics to consider a child’s ‘need for a father’.

“This was used historically to justify denying treatment to same-sex couples. The ‘need for a father’ element is just about to be removed on the grounds that it is discriminatory. The assessment will be for ‘supportive parenting’, which will come into force in October.”

The government’s equality watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, took an interest and offered its support to the couple.

This is the second known case in which lesbians have been given fertility treatment after a legal fight. In February a Scottish couple forced Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS health board to offer them treatment.

The Making of an Art Gallery

Today is my birthday. I'm in Rajasthan with my camera. I decided to spend my 46th birthday surrounded by Indian heritage and Indian art. I also decided to gift myself my own retirement plan this year - something that was incubating in my head - refused to get out for possibly over 20 years now! I decided to gift myself an Art Gallery at Lavasa! This is what I always wanted to do besides Assisted Reproduction. This story is about the making of one of the finest art galleries-to-be on the Indian sub-continent. I used to have a romantic notion of what it would be like to own an art gallery. To be surrounded with great art everyday, to work with artists I love, and to sell art to people that love art as much as me....But it's not as easy as it sounds.
I haven't owned an art gallery or worked at one, but I have had a close friend whos an artist to take me through the nitty-gritties of running one. Which took all of the romanticism out of the idea. There's marketing, hanging, organizing the opening, air-smooching, air kissing, and when it's all up and running, it's just like looking after a shop. We shall cross the bridge when we come to it. The tentative date of launch being January 2010.




"The best art dealers are not salesmen in the classic sense of the word. Their passion and their connoisseurship and their knowledge have to combine to convince someone to acquire something that has no ostensible function in life, and that's not always an easy thing to do. It is distinct from the normal business world because of that."
-Anonymous

In the three years of being associated with Lavasa and the team-Lavasa, I found only one more person who had as much passion for making Lavasa an art hub. He has far bigger plans than I have because he is the man who gave shape to his vision - Mr Ajit Gulabchand. He has plans to make an art-village in Lavasa that will celebrate Maharashtrian culture, art as well as everything Indian!

I have smaller dreams - getting Lavasa on the world art map with a well run art-gallery with India's best "Artist-in-Residence' program. It has taken almost two years on planning on the drawing boards. Pure passion and foolhardy financial courage (according to my wife!) has shaped the destiny of the art-gallery-to-be! There is a gallery I've seen in a small town in Mexico which is a family run operation, a small gallery that does everything from emerging to recognized international artists and they seem to do it as a labor of love.. that is where I'm aimed.. I think it is good to think outside the box. after all that is what we do when we create an art concept or painting, sculpture .. so why not think of creating a gallery in the same way..

We are now short-listing the staff at Lavasa - I am looking for an ex-art-teacher or a passionate art-lover who would not mind re-locating to Lavasa. For like-minded individuals, here are my requirements for the Vice-President, Art:

* If your motivation is purely financial, forget it. There are far too
many uncertainties in art.
* Those without any prior art back-ground need not apply.
* You have to be passionate about it. The "merely interested' won't cut it.
* You have to have a precise focus.
* In Lavasa, you have to be equally certain of loving the place more than the job.
* You have to have the ability to make both artists and collectors comfortable
with you.
* Then, if there is a secret ingredient, here it is: You have to have "a good eye."
* In conclusion, you need a wide range of skills, you need to work hard, and
you can't imagine for a moment that this going to be easy.
* You have to get along with your boss - however crazy he might look on
first appearance!

A couple of years ago, the Indian newspapers, magazines, TV channels & tabloids were full of art-news - Art was being projected as the next-get-rich-quick-sure-shot recipe.This is no get-rich-quick business.As Heller put it, There are so many better ways to make money. You either have to have a lot of savings, be personally wealthy or have backers because its very expensive.Indeed, the start-up costs are significant, which, for many gallerists, means outside funding is essential to get going. I think you have to have a reasonable amount of money before starting a gallery, rather than starting a gallery to make a lot of money. That way you can afford to show art that might be more daring and less commercial. After 19 years of private practice as a fertility physician, I dared to invest a large part of my savings into art. It is almost like my second innings in life going through my post-graduation exams all over again! The reading is more than what I remember reading in my Medical college years! I hope we get a stream of high-rollers & art lovers with good taste coming up to Lavasa. Yes, it's tough to sell art to people that have no taste or no money. It takes a lot of money to do the real thing, and connections with wealthy buyers who also have taste. For the poor and the tasteless we have poster stores. But, if it's any consolation, many of our museums show atrocities that will only be remembered in their own archives. These big organizations seem to be bent on abusing the attention of the public in the name of educating them. They are just following the crowd of other groupies to show overrated but well packaged crap. For instance, Dale Chihuly, a likeable guy with a big rep. But come on - he's over-rated. He fills up space in public areas that need "something different". What does a guy with 10 assistants have to show for his endless and repetitive production of mildly ornamental forms in glass? Chihuly has some good things but they are buried beneath the storm of mediocrity that he gets paid to ship and install. There is a dilution of art due to too much crap out there for the masses to digest. I remember Helen May Glickenstein - an art dealer from Virginia, USA telling me that until you have too many artists and too many collectors as a private dealer, do not open a space. I have not taken that advice very seriously. The most important thing is the real passion for what it is you are planning to embark on, because it is an emotional roller-coaster ride. If there is a single, basic requirement, this is it! You have to love art in some way or another to do it. I went into it because I like talking to artists and being with artists, and I like helping artists further their careers.

There are hundreds of galleries in India, dealing in dozens of different genres.You need to be certain of your area of specialization and stick to it.One of the most important [requirements] is to define the vision for the business as distinctly and succinctly as possible.From there, the rest generally falls in to place.I know that I will not dabble in Indian art - my focus is getting global art to India!I spent years finding the artists across five continents who I was interested in and figuring out what my eye was about and what my point of view was and how that all came together.I did not want to start in a cubby hole in Mumbai.I wanted to establish a gallery with huge open spaces. Mumbai was impossible with the real-estate as pricey as Manhattan. God got Nathan Andrews to sit next to me at an RCI dinner - next I met the Late Himanshu Saxena who was so very passionate about Lavasa. Then I followed my heart -
Lavasa is, unquestionably, the most beautiful hill-station in this part of the world, and in such a crowded field in India, it can be difficult for a newcomer to get noticed. I know & believe that Lavasa will give me an opportunity to teach, live and discover Art.

You have to have the ability to make both artists and collectors comfortable with you.Everybody talks a lot about how important interpersonal skills are: Both artists and collectors tend to be pretty demanding characters, and you have to be able to bridge the gap between them. More than that, you have to want to. I have been mingling, eating, socializing and going on vacations with my artist friends across the world. They are all looking forward to spending quality time painting their symphonies at Lavasa. Artists don't want to show with someone they don't feel a connection to. You have to understand the work. You also have to understand collectors.Art is the ultimate luxury item, lets face it, so we want everybody to feel safe and secure when they are spending a lot of money on a work of art.

I want to make contemporary art accessible. The fact of the matter is most people dont know that much about art, and most people do not have a vast art history background. I decided that I was going to build an art gallery where artists were going to be there talking about their work, and I wanted it to be enriching. The gallery will was really a hybrid between education and a gallery. Certainly you have to be able to recognize quality in a work of art in its own terms - pictorial, sculptural, etc.but you also have to be able to comprehend it as a means of communication. You have to be able to appreciate how it sits within a cultural context, and how it relates to other art and other cultural objects and events. And then, as a dealer, you have to be able to comprehend art as a commodity: Will it sell? Its quite a balancing act. You really need a wide range of skills, you need to work hard, and you cant imagine for a moment that this going to be easy.

The most important thing when establishing an art gallery is to be patient.
It is a business that takes time to flourish. You need time to establish connections with various art collectors, to market the gallery and find really good art that actually sells. A lot of it apart from running the actual 'shop' and having to deal with the day to day organization / management side of it, is PR. You have to devote quite a chunk of your time to PR the gallery. We take PR very seriously and have a lot of social media initiatives in place to let the world know that the "Ginger Giraffe" has come into this world! We had 9 months of solid research to choose the appropriate name for my baby - Ginger Giraffe is getting ready for a baby shower!










We had a Mexican firm jointly design the Ginger Giraffe with Toezer Contractor. Leonardo Diaz Borioli & Gerardo Sanchez Sendra from Guadalajara's well known architectural design firm - Estudio Pi did the basic design. They were flown into India and spent time with the Lavasa Infrastructure team onsite in Portofino C. We hosted them in Mumbai and the Lavasa Corporation hosted them at their offices and congratulated them on their singular achievement of getting in Mexican art-forms and architecture for the first time into India since after Independence. The pictures here show Mr Rajgopal Nogja and Mr Nathan Andrews accepting the first blue-prints of the Ginger Giraffe design.

Leonardo Diaz-Borioli is from Mexico and a founding director of the global architecture firm ESTUDIO 3.14 with offices in Mexico and France. His studies took him to Florence, in Italy, Cambridge and Princeton in the United States, and Guadalajara in Mexico. Leonardo holds a Science Master of Architectural Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a second post-professional degree from Princeton University and is currently a PhD. candidate in the history theory and criticism of art, architecture, and urban form at Princeton University.Both his academic and design practices have been published in Europe, the United States, and
México and he is the recipient of numerous awards that include architectural
biennials and prestigious fellowships and grants. Leonardo is a specialist
on Mexican architect Luis Barragán that is the topic of an upcoming book to
be published in Mexico by the ministry of culture.

Gerardo Sánchez-Sendra, his partner and CEO of the global architectural firm ESTUDIO 3.14 holds a Master in Business Administration from the Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empresa (IPADE), a professional degree in Architecture from the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO) and is an attendant to MIT professional Development courses on Real State. A teacher on the school of architecture in the “Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey” (ITESM) since 2007, his previous research includes “Suprematismo Re-Visiones”, a study on the Russian Suprematist movement.




























Why Mexican architects & why Mexican architecture? The Ginger Giraffe has some other unique distinctions - singular to India! We are launching India's first Sergio Bustamante boutique within the Ginger Giraffe. Sergio Bustamante is to Mexico what Mahendra Singh Dhoni is to India! American Express carries TV commercials with Mr Sergio Bustamante across Latin America. Though born in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, Sergio Bustamante has lived in the Guadalajara area since early childhood. In his youth, he studied architecture at the University of Guadalajara, but abandoned this pursuit when his talents and interests drew him to the fine arts and crafts. He began with paintings and paper mache figures, inaugurating the first exhibit of his works at the Galeria Misracha in Mexico City in 1966. In the early 1970's, he traveled to Amsterdam, where he further developed his talents. After his return to Guadalajara, he established in 1975, along with other artists, the "Family Workshop Studio" in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico.

While Bustamante's works initially focused on painting and paper mache, his talents inevitably led, in the mid-1970's, to the creation of sculptures in wood and bronze, many reflecting animal themes. 1979 marked the inauguration of innovative furniture designs in wood and glass with bronze accents, currently available in distinctive patterns and motifs. The creation of ceramic sculptures in the mid-1980's provided avenues for the use of color and form in ways not previously explored. In 1992, the initiation of an extensive line of exquisite jewelry in bronze, gold and silver, many set with precious and semi-precious stones and, again, often reflecting animal themes, marked a new and expansive direction for his creations. In this same year, a new series of paper mache sculptures was introduced. In the new millennium, Bustamante continues to explore uncharted paths for the further expression of his uniquely imaginative and gifted talents.Each piece belongs to a limited edition and is created by hand, therefore unique. A certificate of authenticity duly signed by the artists itself is attributed to each sculpture. All works are of very good quality, and pieces of small and big size up to four (4) meters high are available in the collection. It is amazing how Sergio Bustamante can project all that magic and fascination to each one of his works.

The art collection of many private residences, public buildings, and museums in every part of the planet has been enriched by Sergio Bustamante’s works. The Mexican government even elected them for official gifts to state governors and to high personalities. His works are more and more wanted around the globe (Mexico, United States, Japan, Europe, and recently Russia); therefore they will probably increase in value over the next years. The Ginger Giraffe will be the first step for Sergio Bustamante into the country that he loves & admires & had always longed to display his art in! We welcome Sergio Bustamante to India! Lavasa loves you, Sergio!