1960 Medical batch, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Doctors and terminal illness.

Most doctors who were terminally ill would AVOID aggressive treatments such as chemotherapy - despite recommending it to their patients

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine found most doctors would opt for a 'do not resuscitate' approach to their own care.

Full Story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2643751/Most-doctors-terminally-ill-AVOID-aggressive-treatments-chemotherapy-despite-recommending-patients.html

Auto Anna Durai - An Extraordinary Philanthropist Auto Driver!!!!

email from Dawood

Heard a Radio program tonight on SBS Tamil, where this 'Auto Anna Durai' was interviewed.
That radio program prompted me to search for the name on Google and found this article which is being copied below.
It is a wonder how this simple Auto Driver can afford to do all these extraordinary Charitable activities!
Pon

CHENNAI
August 7, 2013

All in an auto

Anusha Parthasarathy

<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/society/all-in-an-auto/article4999340.ece?textsize=large&test=1" title="Large Text Size" >T+</a>  ·   <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/society/all-in-an-auto/article4999340.ece?textsize=small&test=2" title="Small Text Size">T-</a&gt

The Hindu: I want to open an old-age home where the elderly don’t feel they are a burden.

· Where they can be taught simple skills using which they can earn a little money and spend it

· the way they want to. Photo: M. Vedhan

· The Hindu: Annadurai.

· Photo: M. Vedhan

In Anna Durai's auto

Why is share-auto driver Annadurai being talked about by people in over 35 countries? His vehicle offers passengers a range of free services, discovers Anusha Parthasarathy

Annadurai spent the early hours of Friendship Day (August 4) answering hundreds of calls that kept his phone ringing incessantly. People from 35 (or more, he says) countries were trying to get in touch with him, to appreciate him and hear his story all over again.
A share-auto driver on the Thiruvanmiyur-Sholinganallur route, Annadurai’s auto is loaded with goodies — free WiFi, mobile charging point, 35 magazines, 10 newspapers, TV and a Samsung Galaxy tablet to access Internet (in case you don’t have a smartphone). When his story went viral on Facebook last weekend (posted by a group called Photos That Shook The World), with nearly 10,000 shares and 20,000 likes, it was unlike anything he had ever experienced.
“I was up all night answering those calls,” he says, shaking his head in disbelief. “When I was on one call, another would keep popping up. I’ve got over 2,000 calls so far. It was overwhelming that so many people took time and spent whatever it cost just to call and appreciate me. I know only Tamil and I couldn’t even understand most of them! Dubai, Korea, Pakistan, the list just kept growing.”
How did he talk to them then? A typical conversation would go like this. “They would call and ask, ‘Annadurai? Auto driver?’ I would say ‘yes’ and they would tell me that I’m doing a good job. Even if I didn’t exactly know what they were saying, I could understand what they were implying. I would say, ‘Thank you, sir. Sometime, you come to Chennai. You call and I will meet you.’ Whoever called on Sunday wished me a happy friendship day before they hung up.”

What sets him apart?
It isn’t just Annadurai's auto that sets him apart but what he symbolises through the services he offers. A native of Peravurani (Thanjavur District), Annadurai, now 29, came to Chennai when he was four years old and grew up with two brothers and a sister. He now lives in Injambakkam and has been a share-auto driver for four years. Two years ago, he had an idea. “I don’t know why I started adding things to my auto. I just thought I must do something for my customers and stocked around 20 newspapers. But, it wasn’t enough,” he smiles. Now, of course, it has grown to include other things. “After I installed WiFi a year back, I bought a tablet for Rs.7,000 but felt my customers deserved better (they were mostly from the IT sector). So I saved up for a couple of months and bought a more expensive one,” he adds, nonchalantly.
Annadurai’s list of services seems to be never ending. He provides free service to teachers and nurses who work in hospitals that treat those with HIV. And on eight days of the year (such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day) he offers free or discounted services to some customers. He sponsors a child’s education and has inspired three of his customers to do so too. “I do this because I need job satisfaction. Money may come and go, but the feeling you get when your customers choose to travel only in your auto is unmatched,” Annadurai says, “I think teachers do the most honourable service in the world and for them, auto rides will always be for free. They make leaders and thinkers and must be recognised for their work.”

Contest for customers
There is also a customer relationship contest in which one has to answer five questions. A lucky winner could win Rs.1,000. Similarly, a token is given to every customer who boards Annadurai’s auto. If the customer collects 20 tokens, he gets Rs.250, 30 tokens would get him Rs.500 and so on. “I wondered if my customers would participate in a quiz that I set and was surprised to get 80 entries in the first month. I’ve been holding these contests for over a year now.”
This auto driver, fondly called ‘Auto anna’ by his customers, hopes to sponsor 10 children next year and eventually plans to open an old-age home. “I’ve already begun planning how to go about it. I want to provide a place where the elderly don’t feel they are a burden. Where they can be taught simple skills using which they can earn a little money and spend it the way they want to,” he says.
But how does he manage to do all this? “It is tough, yes. I do have my problems but doing this makes me happy. I’m positive and I know I will be able to achieve my goals.”

Annadurai offers discounts on
Mother’s Day – Free rides for mothers with their children
Women’s Day – Free rides for women over the age of 50
Children’s Day – Free rides for school students
Father’s Day – Free for men over the age of 45
Abdul Kalam’s birthday – Rides at 50 per cent off for all customers
Independence Day – Free rides for anyone born before 1947
Annadurai’s birthday – 50 per cent off on rides for all customers
Valentine’s Day – Free rides for couples (Because I’m a bachelor too, smirks Annadurai).
All customers will also get a chocolate on all these days

http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/society/all-in-an-auto/article4999340.ece

A Human Kaleidoscope !

email from Edwin Kirubs

This is a fantastic clip and you wonder about the coordination of so many artists in producing it

Click on the link below to view the 'human kaleidoscope'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0-zCwSfkOo

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Sleep's memory role discovered.

The mechanism by which a good night's sleep improves learning and memory has been discovered by scientists.

The team in China and the US used advanced microscopy to witness new connections between brain cells - synapses - forming during sleep.

Their study, published in the journal Science, showed even intense training could not make up for lost sleep.

Experts said it was an elegant and significant study, which uncovered the mechanisms of memory.

It is well known that sleep plays an important role in memory and learning. But what actually happens inside the brain has been a source of considerable debate.

Researchers at New York University School of Medicine and Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School trained mice in a new skill - walking on top of a rotating rod.

They then looked inside the living brain with a microscope to see what happened when the animals were either sleeping or sleep deprived.

Their study showed that sleeping mice formed significantly more new connections between neurons - they were learning more.

And by disrupting specific phases of sleep, the research group showed deep or slow-wave sleep was necessary for memory formation.

During this stage, the brain was "replaying" the activity from earlier in the day.

Prof Wen-Biao Gan, from New York University, told the BBC: "Finding out sleep promotes new connections between neurons is new, nobody knew this before.

"We thought sleep helped, but it could have been other causes, and we show it really helps to make connections and that in sleep the brain is not quiet, it is replaying what happened during the day and it seems quite important for making the connections."

And by disrupting specific phases of sleep, the research group showed deep or slow-wave sleep was necessary for memory formation.

During this stage, the brain was "replaying" the activity from earlier in the day.

Prof Wen-Biao Gan, from New York University, told the BBC: "Finding out sleep promotes new connections between neurons is new, nobody knew this before.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27695144

World.City News Updates

The growth of Sri Lanka?

Population: 20 million(APPROX.)
4 million.retired
@NTB
2 million in state Govt;
(Doesn't work)

6 million professionals. in private sector
(Doesn't work for Sri Lanka )

3 Million .in school

1 Million.under 5 years

1 Million..unemployed

1 Million.anytime in hospitals

1,999,999 .anytime in jail

the balance is

U

U are busy
checking Mails
and forwarding them '..!!!

how can
Sri Lanka
GROW alone?

Friday, June 6, 2014

'Kool' - A thick soup with a variety of ingredients.

email from Kamalini Kanapathippillai.

Jaffna kool யாழ்ப்பாணக் கூழ்

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203218037837096&set=vb.1393063418&type=2&theater

MAGNIFICENCE OF MOTHER

email from Kamalini Kanapathippillai. Pictures removed from original due to technical difficulties.

Read each word slowly- digest it-you will feel good!!!!!!!

Mother

MOTHER
This is a truly BEAUTIFUL piece.
Please read this at a slow pace, Do not hurry.....this is a treasure...

The young mother set her foot on the path of life.
'Is this the long way?' she asked.
And the guide said: 'Yes, and the way is hard
And you will be old before you reach the end of it..
But the end will be better than the beginning.'
But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years.
So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way,
And bathed them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them, and the young Mother cried,
'Nothing will ever be lovelier than this.'

Then the night came, and the storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold,
And the mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, 'Mother, we are not afraid,
For you are near, and no harm can come.'

And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary. But at all times she said to the children, 'A little patience and we are there.' So the children climbed,
And when they reached the top they said, 'Mother, we would not have done it without you.'
And the mother, when she lay down at night looked up at the stars and said, 'This is a better day than the last,
For my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness.
Yesterday I gave them courage.
Today, I've given them strength.'

And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth, clouds of war and hate and evil,
And the children groped and stumbled, and the mother said: ' Look up. Lift your eyes to the light.'
And the children looked and saw above the clouds an everlasting glory, and it guided them beyond the darkness.
And that night the Mother said, 'This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God.'

And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the mother grew old and she was little and bent.
But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage.
And when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill,
And beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide.
And mother said, 'I have reached the end of my journey.. And now I know the end is better than the beginning,
For my children can walk alone, and their children after them.'

And the children said, 'You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.'
And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her.
And they said: 'We cannot see her but she is with us still.
A Mother like ours is more than a memory.
She is a living presence.......'

Your Mother is always with you.... She's the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street;
she's the smell of bleach in your freshly laundered socks; she's the cool hand on your brow
When you're not well. Your Mother lives inside your laughter.
And she's crystallized in every tear drop.
She's the place you came from, your first home; and she's the map you follow with every step you take.
She's your first love and your first heartbreak, and nothing on earth can separate you.

Not time, not space... Not even death!

PASS THIS ON TO ALL THE MOTHERS CHILDREN YOU KNOW.
MAY WE NEVER TAKE OUR MOTHERS FOR GRANTED...

May Your Day Be Blessed My Friends