Warrier's Collage May 19, 2022

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Thursday May 19, 2022 Underwater plants https://youtu.be/nM_ujDn4Ung (Know more : https://www.floweraura.com/blog/wonderful-underwater-plants Good Morning 🙏 Nice Day M G Warrier A Messages/Responses 1) Dr D Subbarao Former Governor RBI Thank you for directing me to your reflections on old age, retirement living and preparing for departure. I can associate with much of what you say because these thoughts come to my mind too, indeed more frequently than I ever thought possible. As you say, it's practical and pragmatic to think about these issues and indeed plan for them without being unduly sentimental. We owe it to our children to make the adjustment to our going away easy for them. You mentioned several options for coping with single living in old age. One option you missed out is reverse mortgage**. Late Dr KCC who was DG when I was in the RBI was the moving force in instituting this scheme in Indian banks. It's somehow not caught on as we expected. Is it that the terms are unattractive or is it just sentiment? Have you read Atul Gawande's ‘Being Mortal'? For sure it's morbid but immensely interesting and thoughtful. I wonder if Shri Ramachandran* (copied herein) reviewed it. Retirement homes are just about catching on in India but they have been around in the west for at least two decades now. That's long enough period for some credible sociological research. Research findings are not all benign. Some studies show that living with other old people is actually depressing and accelerates emotional deterioration. New research shows that people's sense of well being is maximum when they live in heterogeneous communities. None of this is conclusive but it certainly is material for reflection. *P P Ramachandran's response : Thank you for copying to me your response to M G Warrier's Collage and wondering if I have reviewed Dr Atul Gawande's book "Being Mortal". Indeed I have and the review was published in Free Press Journal in 2015. Here is a copy of my review* ( copied to M G Warrier). Kindly read my review and respond. P P Ramachandran *FPJ Link (For transcript please see C/H) : https://www.freepressjournal.in/book-reviews/being-mortal **Reverse Mortgage didn't become popular among middle-class which was the target clientele. I too didn't find it worth recommending to friends. For those who may be interested in knowing the basics a State Bank of India link on the subject is copied below : https://homeloans.sbi/products/view/reverse-mortgage-loan Dr Subbarao replied to PPR : Another great review of a very thoughtful and touching book. I believe I read your review before I read the book. Thoughts of mortality are difficult to handle no matter how philosophical we are. 2) T N C Rangarajan Shared a Link https://thepencilapp.com/publish? 3) Vathsala Jayaraman Arachchu vitta Sambar and Rasam After reading today's article on Sambar and rasam, I feel like having taken a sumptuous lunch with arachchu vitta sambar and rasam. I have already written to the group about the origin of Sambar and its name derived from Maratha King Sambaji who prepared Sambar in the palace kitchen. I have already shared the following information with the group : Continued at H1 4) V Babusenan Three R's A person is considered literate if he possesses moderate skill in the three R's, namely, Reading, (w)Riting and (a)Rithmetic. But that is not enough to make one what is called in Sanskrit a'saaksharaa'. Intelligence is also needed in a large measure. Notorious criminals are known to be very intelligent persons. I remember to have read somewhere that counterfeiters in UK are five years ahead of the Bank of England as regards the technology of printing currency notes. In this context, the fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will certainly remember Prof. Moriarty whom Sherlock Holmes called the 'Napoleon of crime' and whose elimination was the chief object of his detective activity. Moriarty was a mathematician par excellence and his treatice on the binomial theorem was unchallenged by anyone. Prof. Moriarty is a fictional case of great intelligence in reverse gear. 'Saaksharaa' in reverse gear is 'Raakshasaa'. If you write 'Saaksharaa' in the Devanagari script and read backwards, you get the same result. 5) S W Fadnawis Pune I more or less agree with Reshmy's views. We, as humans are a very weak species and always try to find out someone or something to rely upon in times of distress. And God comes in handy in such situations. And Guru is the middleman between man and God. So really people approach Gurus to plead case on their behalf. A big question is how many of these introspect to know whether God has helped them and rid them of their problem. On the contrary, I have found that their prayers have gone unanswered. I may sound as an atheist though I am being practical. 🙏 (Bhawan's Journal used to quote from Rig Veda in every issue : Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah आ नो भद्राः क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वतः āno bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah 'Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah' (meaning: Let noble thoughts come to me from all directions) Collage goes by and large by this principle. Let individual readers do further analysis and accept whatever suits them. Thanks 🙏-Warrier) B Media Response May 18, 2022 Misleading advertisements* This refers to the report "Celebrities should do due diligence regarding claims in crypto ads"(May 18). This is a welcome warning signal from the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). From a practical perspective, there's going to be several hurdles in implementing these guidelines. Similar to the problems in fixing MRP. Once such a regulatory requirement is insisted on celebrities associating with virtual digital assets (VDAs), consumers can rightfully demand similar treatment for other products in the market. This may impact advertisement industry in general. It's not advisable to shift the responsibility of fact-checking and quality control from producers to endorsers of products. The idea is not to underplay the harm being done to the consumers by endorsements by celebrities. We need to enforce discipline in marketing products giving false information about products. Expecting celebrities who lend support in advertising to acquire expertise in assessing the quality of products they endorse can result in reputed celebrities moving out of advertisement industry. M G Warrier Mumbai *Published in The Hindu Business Line on May 19, 2022 : https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/letters/ C Book Review : By P P Ramachandran Being Mortal by Atul Gawande ; Published by Hamish Hamilton; Pages 282 ; Price Rs.599/- The Katha Upanishad has perhaps, the best philosophical explanation of Death in the form of a dialogue between Yama and Nachiketas. But if you want an excellent human explanation of Death and Mortality you have to read Atul Gawande's“Being Mortal; Medicine and What Matters in the End". Gawande is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He wrote three best-selling books : “Complications,” ,“Better," and“The Checklist Manifesto.”He bagged the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing on Science, a MacArthur fellowship, and two National Magazine Awards. He is surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, and a professor in the department of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health and in the department of surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is the executive director of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health-systems innovation, and the chairman of Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. (Continued at H2) D Kathopanishad : Speaking Tree https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/the-katha-upanishad E Noble Thoughts Dr Charan Singh https://twitter.com/CharanSingh60/status/1526319380598255616?s=20&t=11lFjoPOaLolhVn6vel4pQ Unity in Diversity - 254 सो गुरु करहु जि बहुरि न करना सो पदु रवहु जि बहुरि न रवना सो धिआनु धरहु जि बहुरि न धरना ऐसे मरहु जि बहुरि न मरना Seek a Guru so you don't need another Similarly: Path & consciousness Die such that there is NO more death again Kabir, Gauri, 327, SGGS F Leisure 1) The other end of the pendulum* The following appeared in ET of 16th May in the column JUST IN JEST ! Before desi parents demand the ultimate ROI, run away children! Reproduction- Linked Incentive Scheme Fail In the business of business, folks call it ROI - return on investment. Desi parents, of course, have their own expectations, even demands, about the return on 'chand ka tukda' they put their savings in. But when it comes to ROI of the generational kind, it's almost always about when the child will deliver a child, and almost always this ROI is delivered. Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad of Uttarakhand are one of those 'dead serious' investors, and they have read out the Company Act to their only son - by suing him for Rs 5 crore for 'mental harassment' as a result of not 'giving them' a grandchild even after six years of marriage. Talk about performance anxiety. Also talk about the cases our courts choose not to throw out. The petitioners have come to the Rs 5 crore figure by claiming that this is the amount they had spent on their son's 'upbringing and education' over the years, not to mention on his wedding at a five-star hotel, a luxury car, gifts and expenses for the newlyweds' honeymoon abroad. Still, no bun in the bahu's oven since 2016. The fact that the poor couple may not want to supply brats doesn't seem to feature anywhere in the whole episode . Adding to the woes of beta and bahu, the latter has been accused of seldom visiting her in-laws. May we suggest the poor couple crowdfunds the Rs 5 crore to clear all debts. *Shared by V N Kelkar via Group mail 2) Thumb Rule to GOLF* Origins digged out Strange but True: 1. In the 1400s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have 'the rule of thumb.' 2. Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only... Ladies Forbidden'... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language. 3. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David, Hearts - Charlemagne, Clubs -Alexander the Great, Diamonds - Julius Caesar 4. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... 'goodnight, sleep tight.' 5. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon. 6. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.' It's where we get the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's' 7. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice. 8. In 1696, William III of England introduced a property tax that required those living in houses with more than six windows to pay a levy. In order to avoid the tax, house owners would brick up all windows except six. (The Window Tax lasted until 1851, and older houses with bricked-up windows are still a common sight in the U.K.) As the bricked-up windows prevented some rooms from receiving any sunlight, the tax was referred to as “daylight robbery”! Now, there you have the origin of these phrases. Interesting. Isn't it? *Received from Shivram Shetty Ex-RBI Mumbai G Quotes on hiring http://blog.hirerabbit.com/17-insightful-hiring-quotes-for-recruiting-hr-professionals/ Like : Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?” – Thomas John Watson Sr., IBM Thomas John Watson Sr. was an American businessman who served as the chairman and CEO of IBM. He oversaw the company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM's management style and corporate culture from John Henry Patterson's training at NCR. H 1) Continued from A2 We think of rasam being prepared in a small vessel or lead pot for 4 or 5 people.But kings have to plan a lot for large scale cooking. In Tanjore palace there was a particular method by which the Chief cook was appointed. People would be informed about the appointment of chief cook by Tandora. Intending candidates were listed & based on the confidential reports received from reliable sources they were shortlisted. Such candidates were asked to prepare one or two food items & finally 3 persons were shortlisted. Final selection of the candidate was done by a strange process. There were 3 empty tanks( Kulams) specifically constructed for the purpose & the tanks were of the size of 15ft x15ft with a depth of 10 feet. The 3 Short-listed candidates had to prepare PEPPER-CHEERAKA RASAM upto the level of 5 feet in the tank. Tamarind water, Salt, Chillies etc were to be added in the correct proportion & the RASAM had to be boiled directly under the heat of the sun for 72 hours,without being externally heated by any other method. Pepper-cheeraka- toor Dal mixture also had to be added at the appropriate intervels. On the 73rd hour three RASAM TASTERS of the palace tasted the rasam prepared by all the 3 shortlisted candidates & based on their recommendations, final selection was made. The item is a very simple one. But the quantity was huge. Roughly the volume of RASAM to be prepared by each person was 15ftx15ftx5ft i.e 1125 cubic feet or31848.75 litres to be exact. (28.31 litres per cubic feet), nearly 3 huge lorry loads of RASAM!!( Chennai people, used to water shortage may know how much will a sump hold and exact calculation.) The information finds a place in THANJAVUR ARANMANAI KURIPPUGAL (Tanjore palace records) published some 80 years ago. The particulars stated to have been taken from Saraswathi Mahal Library. May be the king wanted to test their sense of CORRECT ESTIMATION, APPROXIMATION & commonsense while preparing large quantities.. Part II On reading Shri Karunakaran's article on Sambar and rasam, I am reminded of Kalsatti in which Amma used to prepare Sambar and Vathal kuzhambu. They said that the items got the special taste when prepared in Kalsatti and eeya sombu( lead pot). I am reminded of an incident while I was doing graduation in Chemistry in SRC in Tiruchirapllai. The College authorities decided to conduct a science exhibition in the College. We formed into various groups consisting of 6 students each. We had to prepare a product and keep it for sale. Unfortunately all the six in our group belonged to poor families. We could not invest money. At the most we could contribute three rupees each, which was a huge amount in those days. With Rupees 18 on hand, nothing could be done. We thought and thought and nothing struck. In my anxiety I slipped the kal satti when I was taking it to the back yard for cleaning and got a liberal dosage of abuses from Amma. Suddenly an idea arose in my mind. I have studied somewhere that the main ingredient of Talcum powder or face powder was magnesium silicate, which was available in big stone forms, out of which Kalsattis are made. I got the same confirmed from the college library. Luckily there was a kalsatti industry( Cottage industry) in our village. There were heaps and heaps of broken kalsattis outside the shop to be just thrown away, along with some kalsattis for sale. I bought a kalsatti for 6 Annas and asked him whether he would give the heaps of broken pieces of kalsatti. He returned 6 Annas, gave me all the kalsatti pieces and asked me to pack all the broken pieces home to have more space for his job. I sought his advice as to how to make it into a powder. He showed me a big funnel like machine. All the pieces were made into a rough powder. We brought it home in two big bags. We had an 'Enthiram' at home.( Two pieces of stones one above the other, the top one with a handle. All the six of us worked for two hrs each and the rough powder was made into a soft powder. We sieved it well three or four times out of salladai. We had the basic material, as soft as Johnson's to pack 200 dubbas of 100 gms each. We got some mild colouring material, some sandal powder and some scents for a few rupees from a famous shop in Gandhi market. We had to spend six Rupees for 200 small tins, half an Anna for each dubba. We segregated the basic powder into 4 categories, packed it off nicely and named the powder as 'INDU' meaning the moon. One of the six was good on Rangoli. She drew a beautiful design on a big sheet of paper. We pasted Rangoli stickers on the tins with the name 'Indu' stylishly written. Other groups had arranged to sell costly things and decorated the stalls beautifully. Ours was the simplest stall with 200 little tins arranged on a table with letters 'INDU' made out of Tins. I was able to convince many mamis with the description of the actual contents-Kalsatti or magnesium silicate, the harmless product. We were able to sell all our tins within 2 days. Our product was adjudged as the best one with minimum expenditure. Whenever we buy ponds, cuticura, and sandal powders I am reminded of this kal satti. Kalsatti reminds not only of the aromatic sambar and vathal kuzhambu but also of the talcum powder which we prepared with the least expenditure. Thanks to the kalsattiwala to whom we presented two small tins of powder. To my imagination :- I'm even more impressed at the attention to detail right from choice of fragrance to packaging. These days DIY (Do It Yourself) cosmetics are all the rage on the Internet. The little Indu talc tin cans with the rangoli artwork would have become collector's items by now. It's a wonderful parable of overcoming obstacles with ingenuity and enterprise. I don't know whether mamis took pity on me and bought the powder or were really convinced. But we were really proud when the unexpected award reached us and I recd it on behalf of all the six with great pride. My Amma forced me to clean the enthiram well and clean the cemented flooring so that that appalam flour to be prepared the next day did not smell of talcum powder. Those days were quite interesting just because of our resourcefulness, though lacking in resources. My Amma, who initially scolded me for breaking the kal satti, was of much assistance to us. She allotted a 12x12ft cemented area in the back yard, closed on three sides with walls, the other side with a sack. She spread her nine yards cotton saree all around the enthiram and placed thick old news paper 'The Hindu' on the saree and gave us six newspapers to be used for sieving. She helped to keep the place dust free. As eleven news papers weighed 1.400 gms( a vis), it was her generous contribution to the project. When the project results were announced, I came home along with my five friends. My mother shed tears of joy, hugged every one and gave two silky soft dosas to us all with chutney and sambar prepared in a kalsatti. By the by the name 'INDU' was suggested by my Amma. A sweet short name denoting 'moon'. We didn't have any floral decorations. for the stall. It was a simple welcome with the auspicious kolam made out of wet rice flour. My Appa's sparking white angavastram adorned the table with the talcum dubbas arranged as 'INDU'- so simple , easy and convenient to arrange and replacing also was easy. A profuse 'thanks' to Amma for her choice of the name. Vathsala Jayaraman 2) Continued from C In his books Gawande has fearlessly written about the travails of his profession. He examines its critical limitations and inherent failures based on personal experience and that of his colleagues as life nears its end. Trying to discover how we can improve the state of our departure, he goes along with a Hospice nurse on her rounds, a geriatrician in his clinic, and reformers who turn nursing homes upside down. He locates people who show us how to have the hard conversations and how to make certain not to sacrifice what people genuinely care about. Through deep research and practical examples of his own patients and family Gawande reveals the suffering they undergo. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors tend to rely on false hopes and treatments that result in shortening lives instead of improving them. We learn of an incident. It begins with a tingle in a surgeon's fingers and a pain in his neck. A couple of years later, he learned he had a tumor inside his spinal cord. That was when the difficult choices began. Should he have it removed right away in a risky operation, as his doctor recommended? Or should he take time to consider this question : At what point would the expanding tumor cause debility bad enough to justify the risk of greater debility or even death in trying to fight it? The surgeon in the story is the father of Atul Gawande. This book is a personal meditation on how we can better live with age-related frailty, serious illness and approaching death. It is a clarion call for a change in the philosophy of health care. A doctor's job is more than ensuring health and survival, It is“To enable well-being. For many, such talk raises the specter of a society readying itself to sacrifice its sick and aged. Medicine has been slow to confront the very ­changes that it has been responsible for — or to apply the knowledge we have about how to make old age better.” The experts quoted by the author argue that doctors should not only treat disease but also concern themselves with people's functional abilities, and that most medical trainees should know more about geriatrics. Gawande explores different models of senior living — from multi-generational households to newfangled nursing homes. He shifts to end-of-life medicine, promoting Hospice as a model of care. This book is a valuable contribution to the growing literature on aging, death and dying. It contains clinical descriptions of bodily aging and the way it often takes us by surprise. The stories give a dignified voice to older people in the process of losing their independence. We see the world from their perspective, not just those of their physicians and worried family members. According to Gawande for defining Assisted Living, “we have no good metrics for a place’s success in assisting people to live,” He searches for models of care that promote frail people’s ability to live a meaningful life, by imbuing them with cause or promoting their ability --to keep shaping the story of their life in the world. Arriving at an acceptance of one’s mortality and a clear understanding of the limits and the possibilities of medicine is a process, not an epiphany. Gawande uses his father's powerful story to explore the concept of shared ­decision-making in medicine — the idea that the ideal modern doctor should be neither paternalistic nor informative but rather interpretive, helping patients determine their priorities and achieve them. He shares lessons--- Ask what patients want to hear, tell them and then ask what they understand. One of Gawande's most touching examples centers on the final weeks of his daughter’s piano teacher, who was suffering from terminal, untreatable leukemia. Gawande persuaded her to leave his hospital and try, with his support, hospice home care rather than passively await the future or seek “death with dignity.” With a combination of pain management and thoughtful physical assistance she regained energy and found the zeal, in the six weeks that followed, to give private lessons again. She also enjoyed a recital organized by her pupils, past and present, wherein they could all express their gratitude to her. Three days later she slipped into coma and passed away peacefully. With Gawande’s help this patient demonstrated that “Last days need not be lost days.” Being Mortal is a remarkably insightful book for our times from Atul Gawande one of our finest physician writers. P P Ramachandran 18/01/2015