CULTURAL QA 03-2024-04A Allthe below QA are from Quora DIGEST tome on 04-03-2024.
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 Doeslaughing actually help increase life expectancy? A1 TinyNair, Cardiologist at PRS Hospital, Trivandrum 5y Laughter – unclear neuroanatomy ‘So how areyou doing?’, I ask the 60-plus lady brought to us for cardiac check- up,referred by the neurologist. ‘Fine, doctor’she answers. Sitting on a wheel-chair she looked fairly cheerful. Exactly 10 seconds later she catches hold of my handand start crying inconsolably. Not the usual way that an unhappy adult weep; an uncontrollable cry like a3-year-old, as if her favourite teddy-bear has been taken away. I knew there must be something traumatic event, deepin her mind; something inexplicable. I let her cry, holdingher hand. And then I find something odd. The young man; presumably hergrand-son, standing by her side was smiling. Unusual, I should say, even for today’sear-plugged, i-padded, tattoo clad grand-sons who generally tend to be close tograndparents.. Then the lady on the wheel-chair suddenly stops crying;silence. Just about 10 more seconds later; she starts gigglingand laughing loudly as if she was watching a funny cartoon. I was stunned for a moment. Is she faking? Is she a fine actress? Is she psychiatric?No, none of the above. She is suffering from a neurological disease called‘pseudo-bulbar-palsy’(PBA). Our brain, no doubt, is the most importantstimulatory master-switch, and is the source that create the spark that startoff new ideas, ask us to throw-off that blanket, put on our Nike and get out tojog. But ‘socialized’ human brain does far more inhibitory function than werealize. Our cerebral cortex continuously inhibits (suppresses)areas that control emotions like crying and laughter; which are situated in thebrainstem. Loss of such inhibition creates the circus ofpseudobulbar palsy. It is almost like what alcohol doesto your brain, take away inhibitions. Laughter - vague neurophysiology A person walks smartly in an Armani jacket and pinktie and a maroon umbrella out of a white ‘Rolls-Royce Phantom’.; he steps on a banana peel andslips comically; he is sure to provoke laughter; butat the same time if he hits his head in the processand start bleeding,people would run either to help him or take selfie; depending on the brand of smart-phone they own. As Dr.V. Ramachandran, the neuroscientist points out, a laughter is naturesway to breathe out a relief and convey to our fellow-men that; everything isfine. Laughter - complex psychology On the 30th January, 1962, in a boarding school at‘Kashasha’, on the western coast of lake Victoria in Tanzania, three girls started laughing.The laughter spread to hundreds of students in the next few days assuming an epidemic proportionneeding closure of the school. This proved that laughter is contagious. Professional comedians onstage exploit this phenomenon by starting off laughing after their ‘own’ humourand in time the entire audience break down laughing. Once someone starts laughing, he or she loses thatartificial armor of not-letting-out-themselves to their enemy; we doctor’s useit to let people come out of their inhibitions and tell us about their‘personal’ problems stored in the dark vaults of their mind. Believe me, used in proper dosagelaughter is the best mental cathartic. Laughter – long term effects. A good laugh result in reduction of ‘catecholamine’(stress hormone), increase in ‘serotonin’ (happy hormone) and ‘endorphins’(body's own painkillers). Improvement of social bonding, reduction of bloodpressure, and increase in immunity to infections are some of the broad-spectrumbenefits credited to a hearty laugh. Next time you see a person laugh, join him. It may notextend your life, but is sure to light it up. Just make surethat he doesn’t carry a neurology prescription. My note- I hope my vegetarian or good non vegetarian jokesadding in cultural QA are good Q2 What aresome of the greatest examples of presence of mind? A2 ManthanMaheshwari, Updated 5y I reside in a PG in the Ahmedabad. As custom inAhmedabad, no PG/Hostel will provide dinner on Sunday, so we have to manage from outside. Usually, it cost us 150-200 per person. So on one ofthe Sunday, I and my one roommate go for dinner in some decent restaurant. We opened the menu and to our surprise, we are not able to find anydish below 500. Beforewe decide what to do, Waiter: Sir, what you like to have. Me: (After a silence of 5 seconds) No non-veg dishesare available? Waiter: Sorry sir,but it's pure veg. restaurant. Me: stand up and said we like non-veg only and leftthe restaurant. Let me tell youI'm vegan. Atthat time one thing comes to mind is demand what this restaurant doesn't have,so did we. Afterwards, We went to some good restaurant withinbudget and ate pure-veg food. Q3 What isthat one particular childhood memory that tickles your funny bone every timeyou remember it? A3 VijayaLakshmi, Have experience in life for 68 years.6y I joined in aschool directly in 4th standard.I have mentionedthis in some of my answers.I was some 5–6 years old and my brother was 4–5years old.Our father would teach us math at home. For othersubjects like language, history etc. he engaged a private tutor.We used to call him ‘privatemaster’(private mastaaru’ in Telugu).He was avery angry person. Both, my brother and I were always scared of him. As soon as my brother saw him coming towards ourhouse, he would run to my mother and tell her some excuse to escape thetuition. My mother would then coax him and send him to the teacher. On some days, seeing the teacher coming from thefront door, my brother would run from the back door to the nearby playgroundand hide there. If my father happened to be at home, he would go andfetch him home.If father was not at home, the teacher himself, would go to theplay ground and drag him to the house. On one sunny day as usual my brother ran from theback door to the play ground on seeing the teacher coming.The teacher was in a very bad mood that day.When I told himthat my brother had gone to the playground and hiding there, he became furiousand started walking toward the ground. I followed him. When my brother saw him coming after him, he startedrunning.The teacher started running to chase my brother. This chasing game continued for some time. Then I became amused. It was just like‘thief police game’ After some time my brother became tired and he wasstruck with a bright idea.There was a slide in the play ground. With greatspeed he climbed the slide and sat on top of it and started peeping down andgiggling. This is how the slide looked: On seeing my brother giggling the teacher becamestill furious. The teacher whowas a middle aged man, started climbing the slide.Just before the teacher reached thetopmost step, brother immediately slid from it. I was just watching the fun. Then teacher had only two options. To slide fromone side or to climb down from the steps on the other side. He chose thefirst option and slid from it. As soon as he slid from one side my brother climbedthe steps from other side.Before teacher could get up and reach toward thesteps brother was on top of the slide. Teacher started to climb the stairsagain. This climbing upand sliding down thing happened 3–4 times.Teacher gotexhausted and left the ground and walked toward our house. He asked mymother to pay his fee up to that day and told her that he was not coming from the next day.Thuswe were relieved from that ‘angry teacher’ from next day. Whenever wemeet, we both recall that incident and laugh heartily. Edit: As per the request of some readers, I amwriting about the reaction ofmy father. He called both of us to his room and asked my brother why didhe behave in such a naughty manner. My brother and I told him how he beats us on our headvery hard with his fist(it is called mottikaya in Telugu) and how he pinches usvery hard. My brother showed some scar marks on the skin to him.“You should have told me oramma about all this instead of behaving like that” he said. “We got scaredto tell” we told. “Ok but nowonwards don’t behave in such a way” he said.We were relieved. My note- If one can imagine the slide and the boy and teacher climbing and sliding, teachertrying to catch the boy in vain, one may not be able to control the laugh. Icould not control my laugh whilereading and adding the QA. Q4 What isthe interesting story of the Christian missionary sent to Assam for spreading Christianityand pulled down by a Hindu grand mother? A4 ChauhanBabu Nath, Feb 19 A Christian missionary was sent to Assam, The name wasFather Cruz...He gotthe opportunity to come home and teach English to a boy from an influentialfamily of Assam. Pastor Saheb slowly started inspecting the house...He come to know that the child's grandmother is the mostinfluential person in this house...Therefore, if they are caught in thetrap of the teachings of Jesus,the whole family through them and then theentire village can be converted to Christianity... Pastor started telling grandmother How Jesus cured the leper,How he gave eye light tothe blind, etc. Grandmother said, son, all this is nothing compared to the miracles of our"Ram-Krishna"! Have you heard that when our Ram touched a stone. Sheturned into a living woman, Due to the influence of Ramji's name even a stoneused to float in water, even today it is floating. Pastor Saheb became silent but continued hisefforts... One day thepriest brought a cake from the church and gave it to grandmother to eat.Pastor Saheb wassure that grandmother would not eat.But contrary to his expectation,grandmother took the cake and ate it...Pastor Saheb laughed hysterically withpride in his eyes.Grandma, youate the church prasad...Now you are a Christian, Grandmotherpulled the priest's ears and said, Wow you donkey...fed me cake one day,So I became aChristian, And I who feed you every day from my house,So whydidn't you become a Hindu... Every day you visit this original land of SanatanDharma.Takes air, water...Then every pore of yours should become aHindu...to lead one's own religion and nation astray andIt wasgrandmother who saved me from going in the wrong direction. Famous revolutionary of Assam "Kamala Devi Hazarika Who knows them outside Assam?Is it not our duty thatthe country knows about them... Q5 What doyou do if your flight arrives at 5am in the morning and your hotel doesn'tallow check-in until 2pm? A5 AnilRoongta, Former Member at Consumer Court20h A few years back I and my wife had gone to Nepal.From Kathmandu we went to Pokhra, a scenic place. Our hotel was booked. We reached Pokhra at 9 in morning.The hotel staff told usthat the room wouldn’t be ready before 1 pm. Initially we were a little irritated but then wedecided to take a walk outside. We left our bags in the hotel and went out inthe streets. The place was kind of quiet. Weather was excellent. We walkedaround the streets for may be one hour. Then we found a nice little roadsidecafe. We had an excellentbreakfast and then returned to the hotel. It was almost 12. We wereinformed that the room was ready and we could check in. But it was a lovely twohours spent outside. The check intime in most of the hotels nowadays is 2pm. If you are arriving early, you need to be ready forit. Or you need to book a hotel which allows early check ins. My note- It wasa decade back, 1 PM checking was just getting introduced. With all familymembers it was my maiden trip to OOty. Wewere picked up at 5.30 AM by sterling Holidays and reached by 8 AM, the resortwas booked by my son in law. My daughter reached the welcome counter, afterwelcome talks showed a room to keep luggage, resort staff took them and kept. Wewere asked to refresh in a room, and to have break fast before getting closed.By the time, three rooms were made ready, Lately they told checking in was 1 PM. Honouring them, (we had to vacate after 3 days) mydaughter was ready to vacate by 12 AM. But they were gracious telling since ourreturn train was at 7 PM, we could stay and vacate by 4 PM. My maiden tripto OOty. MyJunior engineer practical training was in Coimbatore for 3 months in 1967.After became AE, my first posting was in Coimbatore 1979. Forreasons not known, I could not visit Ooty during the period. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. 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