CULTURAL QA 03-2024-04 Thebelow two QA are from Quora DIGEST tome on 03-03-2024. Lengthy answers
Selected quora answers generallyinteresting including jokes are included Still they need not be 100% correct answers. I am only a compiler. Compiled and posted by R. Gopala Krishnan, 80, on 04-03-2024. Q1 Can you tell an instance-if you have theblessings of your father, then no power in the world will let you be defeatedanywhere. A2 Chauhan BabuNath,Feb 27 This is a true incident of a businessman from Bengaluru, Karnataka. When thetime of death approached, the father called his only son Dhanpal and said... Son, I don'thave any wealth to give you as inheritance. But I have worked with truth andauthenticity throughout my life. So I bless you that you will be very happy in lifeand even if you touch dust, it will turn into gold. The son bowed his head and touched his father's feet.The father blessed him by placing his hand on his head and gave up his lifewith satisfaction. Now son Dhanpal had to manage the household expenses.He started his business on a small cart. Gradually the business started growing. Took a smallshop. Business increased further. Now he started being counted among the prosperouspeople of the city. Hebelieved that all this was the result of his father's blessings. Because, he suffered sorrow in his life, but neverlost patience, never lost faith, never lost authenticity, hence there wasstrength in his speech. And hisblessings bore fruit. And I was happy. This thing came out of his mouth again and again. One day a friend asked: If your father had so muchstrength, then why was he not successful himself? Why weren't you happy? Dharampal said: I am not talking about the power ofthe father. I am talkingabout the power of his blessings.In this way, when he repeatedly talkedabout his father's blessings, people named him Father's Blessings. Dharampal does not feel bad about this, he says thathe wants to prove himself worthy of his father's blessings. Many years passed doing this. He started doing business in foreign countries.Wherever he did business, he would get huge profits. Once it came to his mind that I only get profit!! So let me experience lossonce. So he asked one of his friends to tell him a businessin which he could incur a loss. The friend felt that he had become proud of hissuccess and money. To remove his pride, let me tell him that this is such abusiness that he will only suffer losses. So he told him to buy cloves in India and ship them toZanzibar in Africa and sell them. This seemed right to Dharampal. Zanzibaris a country of cloves. From there, cloves are brought to India and sold hereat 10-12 times the price. If you buy in India and sell in Zanzibar, then clearlosses are visible. But Dharampal decided that he would buy cloves inIndia and take them to Zanzibar himself. Let me see how much my father's blessings support me. To make up for the loss, he bought cloves in Indiaand packed them in a ship and himself reached Zanzibar Island. There was a Sultan's kingdom in Zanzibar. Dharampalwas coming down from the ship and going on a long sandy path. To meet thebusinessmen there. He saw a person like Sultan coming from the frontwith soldiers on foot. He askedsomeone, who is this? He said: This is the Sultan. Seeing him in front of the Sultan, he asked about hisintroduction. He said: Iam a businessman from Khambhat, Gujarat, India. And I have come here to dobusiness. The Sultan respected him considering him abusinessman and went to talk to him. Dharampal sawthat there were hundreds of soldiers with the Sultan. But in his hands there isno sword, gun etc. but there are big sieves. He was surprised. He politely asked the Sultan: Why are your soldiers carryingso much sieve? The Sultan laughed and said: The thing is, thismorning I had come for a walk on the beach. Then one of the rings from myfinger fell off somewhere here. Now I don'tknow where the ring fell in the sand. So that's why I have brought these soldiers along. Theywill sift the sand and search for my ring. Dharampal said: The ring will be very expensive. The Sultan said: No! I have countless rings that costmuch more than that. But thatring is the blessing of a fakir. I believe that my kingdom is so strong and happy because ofthe blessings of that fakir. That's why in my mind the value of that ring is more than that of theSultanate. Having said this, the Sultan again asked: Tell me Seth, what goods have you brought this time? Dharmapala said:Clove! There was no limit to the Sultan's surprise. This isthe country of cloves only, Seth. Have you come here to sell cloves? Who gaveyou such advice? Surely that someone must be your enemy. Here you get ahandful of cloves for a penny. Who will buy long here? And what will you earn? Dharampal said: I have to see whether there is profithere also or not. With the blessings of my father, whatever business I havedone till date has yielded only profits. So now I want to see whether his blessings bearfruit here too. Sultan asked: Father's blessings? what does thismean? Dharampal said: My father worked with honesty andauthenticity all his life. But could not earn money. While dying, he took the name of God and blessed meby placing his hand on my head, saying that even dust will turn into gold inyour hands. While saying this, Dharampal bent down and filled a fist with sand from theground and after opening his fist in front of Emperor Sultan, he dropped thesand from between his fingers. Both Dharampal and Sultan were beyond surprised. There was a diamond studded ring in her hand. This was the same Sultan'slost ring. The Sultan became very happy after seeing the ring.Said: Wow God, there is no limit to your magic. You make your father's blessings come true. Dharampal said:The same God makes the blessings of the fakir true also. The Sultan became more happy. He hugged Dharampal andsaid: Maang Seth. Today I will give you whatever you ask for. Dharmapala said: May you live for 100 years and takecare of your people well. May the people be happy. Apart from this I don't needanything. The Sultan became more happy. He said: Seth, I will buy all your goods today andwill pay you the asking price. The lesson from this story is that if you have the blessings of yourfather, then no power in the world will let you be defeated anywhere. Service to father and mother definitely pays off.There is no other wealth like blessings. The mother who knows the mind of the child and the fatherwho shapes the future are the two great astrologers of the world. Respect your elders! This is the greatest service ofGod. Q2 What aresome significant new advancements in medical technology? A2 Tiny Nair, Cardiologistat PRS Hospital, Trivandrum7mo The first time I touched it, I was not impressed. The ‘heart valves’ looked andfelt like a piece of fabric with worn out edges, pale and unhealthy. Itwas in the anatomy dissection hall. The intense stench of formalin quicklydoused my fire of curiosity, but that short encounter taught methat most of body functioning parts don’t look or feel high-tech. A year later, my posting in the operating theaterconfirmed my belief; ateardown video of a MacBook looked so much more tidy than a abdomen opened bythe surgeons incision. But somehow, my attraction for the heart as awhole, and the valves in particular continued. The heart valveslook and feel delicate but work against a extremely harsh condition. Opening and closing withevery heartbeat, roughly 35-million times a year, the mitral valve for exampleholds tight, not letting in even a single blood corpuscle of 120 micron to passthrough when it is closed. That against a pressure of 120 mm Hg (equal to 1.6meters of water). You run or jog, and the pressures rise steeply, but thevalves never fumble of fail in their duty. There are four of them, Mitral (named aftera bishop’scap), the aortic, the tricuspid and the pulmonary. Manufacturingdefects rarely happen even in the stringent manufacturing line of Mercedes Benz atStuttgart, BMW facility at Munich, as well as in the mothers womb. A baby may beborn with a slightly deformed aortic valve. The aortic valve, which normally has three leaflets,come out with just two. Sometimes nothing happens for the next 3decades, excepting a murmur that the doctor might pick-up during a routinecheckup (bicuspid aortic valve). But over time, this abnormal large twin-leaflets overwork andeventually fail. To strengthen a failing, eroded valve, body mobilizescalcium (the same way youput support to a falling boundary wall), but eventually the valvestiffen, the openingbecomes narrow, and it leaks. The narrowing is called aortic stenosis.Sometimes, infections like rheumatic fever can damage the valve. A normal aortic valve too can get damaged by way of ageing (calcific aorticstenosis). Around 5% of people, over age 65 years have aortic valvedisease. Onceaortic stenosis becomes severe, it creates trouble. The narrowed valve doesn’t allow sufficient bloodto flow to brain, and the owner can develop breathing problem, trouble inwalking fast and sometimes, dizzy spells and fainting. Fainting,resulting from severe aortic stenosis is a very ominous signal. Unless treated surgically, it has asurvival of around 3 years on an average. The treatment is simple, to surgically replace thevalve by an artificial one. This simple procedure involves cutting the sternal bone, stopping theheart, incising off the damaged valve and implanting a new one in place. Withan elderly patient with multiple problems like asthma, fragile health, anxiety,lack of appetite, arthritis, hearing impairment it doesn’t sound simple to us. The case ‘Open heart surgery for me?Never’ she announced emphatically. Her family too tried to talk to her about it andfailed. ‘Is there a alternative?’ thefamily asked. Alternative - The high-tech. TAVR (transCatheter Aortic Valve Replacement) is a procedure where an artificial valve is crimped(crumpled) over a thin tube (balloon catheter), which is negotiated through aartery of the leg by a puncture. It is an extremely skillful procedure in thecath-lab but it is available. It is one of the pinnacles of modern high-technon-invasive medicine. Done under local anesthesia, it takes under an hourto implant the valve. No scar, no open-heart surgery. Our team of interventional cardiologists sat together,discussed, debated and finally decided to go ahead. As the patientslept under a mild sedation, silicon tubes (catheters) nudged their way up into the heart.Pacemakers were kept ready. Surgeon on the stand-by. We held our breath andprayed as the valve was rightly deployed. (The closedvalve in position. The coiled structure is the catheter) (The valvedeployed and open, the catheter pulled out of the Heart) Two hours latershe was in the ICCU, next day shifted out to a room. Today she came inwalking for follow up, with her naughty grandson in tow. This is advancement of medical technology, with arose in hand. A technology that can put a smile on the face of a grand-mom,without a scar on her chest. End-Note This is our first case of TAVR; the credit goes to the entire cardiology team. Also the hospital admin and the patients family who gaveus the support to go ahead. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1015313175.2182988.1709516591288%40mail.yahoo.com.
