Dear Mr Sekar,
Thank you for your response with additions to my QA posting. I read it
yesterday itself.
Regarding the last line, though my home was "root" in my native with
nalukettu, by the time I was born my family was just middle class.
My grand mother got a lot of paddy every year as "Pattam" from the Paddy
field about 15 KM away, cultivation was conducted by Nampyathi Brahmins. She
lived with it. After her period it became a few bags of paddy, and paddy
field got owned by them.Finally if we went that side a few measures of rice,
honoring us.
I studied in college with scholarship and additional amount for fees was made
up my father with difficulty. He was a school peon, and many times on last day
for fees remittance he made up from somewhere, and he himself remitted it. I
could not go for post graduation since my father retired by the time I passed
my BSc. I had higher rank, which enabled me to get selected as Junior
Engineer, in par with Engineering graduates in 1966.
In the morning I was busy responding to Mr Rajaram. I never thought he will
respond, in-spite of my request.
Either he has no ethics nor some persons from behind the curtain pushed him to
respond. Anyway in no way it is related to my response to you.
I quoted to Mr Rajaram, showing yours and Mr Madras Sivaraman responses. I do
not know whether it went to deaf ears.
Gopalakrishan
On Monday, 27 May, 2024 at 08:30:12 pm IST, 'N Sekar' via KeralaIyers
<[email protected]> wrote:
Thanks.
Q1 just proves that simple things are effective. We realized the importance of
hand hygiene when, as kids, our mothers insisted we wash our hands before we
eat anything.
Covid protocols reimphasized the importance of general hygiene and hand hygiene
in particular.
Q2 She deserves our respect and support. Big heart even if she herself was
poor.
Q3 Inspirational. It is always nice to hear and read how people fought against
all odds and succeeded.
Problem is many of us born in good families and in good neighborhoods don't
realize how much struggle the less privileged had to put up, to come up in
life. It is easy to break down but it requires a lot of will power to try and
succeed.
N Sekar
Yahoo Mail: Search, Organize, Conquer
On Mon, May 27, 2024 at 5:05 PM, 'gopala krishnan' via
KeralaIyers<[email protected]> wrote:
CULTURAL QA 05-2024-27
All the below QA is from Quora digest to me on 27-05-2024.
Quora answers need not be 100% correctanswers.
May I request Mr Rajaram, not to respond my postings since his responses
contains fullof criticism and bad remarks on me. It is a request. Let members
check themselves theauthority, accuracy etc etc if they require.
Inspiteof this request, if Mr Rajaram wants to respond, please respond. I
understand I cannot stop anyone from responding to my postings once published
on the net.
Compiledand posted byR. Gopala krishnan, on 27-05-2024.
Q1 Whathas been the most important medical advancement in the last
200 years?
A1 Silk Road, Studied at Generative Pre Training May 20
Handwashing.
Sounds basic, right?
But it's the cornerstone of modern medicine, a hard-earnedlesson from the days
when doctors were more likely to prescribe leeches thanantibiotics.
Enter mid-19th century, Vienna.
A Hungarian physician, Ignaz Semmelweis, is puzzled by thehigh death rate among
mothers in the maternity ward.
He begins to notice something odd – doctors fresh fromautopsies are delivering
babies without so much as a rinse.
His radical suggestion? Wash your damn hands.
The medical establishment scoffs, Semmelweis is ostracized,and countless women
die needlessly.
You see, we humans have a nasty habit of rejectinginconvenient truths, a
phenomenon now known as the Semmelweis Reflex.
It wasn't until the germ theory gained traction that hand washingfinally got
its due.
The numbers are grim.
Before Semmelweis' handwashing crusade, the death rate inmaternity wards was a
bloodbath – up to 18%.
That means nearly one in five women checking in forchildbirth were signing
their own death warrants, not from the perils of labor,but from the filthy
hands of their supposed caregivers.
After implementing basic hygiene, that number plummeted to amere 1%. A 94%
decrease.
Let that sink in.
Extrapolating this globally is tricky, but the impact isundeniable.
In the pre-handwashing era, infectious diseases were rampant,and hospitals were
often death traps.
Millions, possibly billions of lives were undoubtedly savedthanks to this
seemingly trivial practice.
And it wasn't just mothers who benefited.
Surgical patients, the elderly, anyone with a weakened immunesystem – they all
became less likely to contract deadly infections inhospitals.
And the ripple effects extended far beyond those hospitalwalls.
Diarrheal diseases, a scourge in developing countries, saw adramatic decline
with improved hand hygiene.
Even respiratory infections took a hit.
We can't put an exact figure on the lives saved, but theevidence is
overwhelming.
Handwashing isn't just agood habit; it's a lifesaver, a silent weapon in the
war against disease.
It is arguably the most important medical advancement in thelast 200 years.
Ayush Bhandarkar, B.E. from Shri Ramdeobaba College ofEngineering and
Management, Nagpur (Graduated 2019)Updated 5y
Q2 Canyou tell me something inspiring?
A girl was born in the cowherd's house. Unwanted child forparents, she was
named chindhi (torn piece of cloth).
Father keen on educating her, against the wishes of hermother. She successfully
passed 4th standard.
At the age of 10, she was married to person of age 30, threetimes her age.
Till, age of 20, she had 3 children.
During her pregnancy, a nasty rumor of infidelity wascirculated by an angry
landlord because she strongly opposed the exploitationof village women by
landlord.
Husband abandoned her when she was beyond 9 months of herpregnancy.She gave
birth to a baby girl in a cow shelter outside their house,all by herself and
walked several kilometres away to her mother's place.
Her mother refused to shelter her.
She lost hope and reason for survival. Helpless, strugglingfor food, alone and
heartbroken women, suicide was easy option, but she kept itaside.
Started begging for food on railway platforms. During this,she realised that
there were so many children abandoned by their parents.
She adopted them as her own and started begging to feed themtoo.She decided to
become a mother to anyone and everyone who came across toher as an orphan.
She has devoted her entire life to orphans. As a result, sheis fondly called
Mai (mother).
Now, she has almost 1050 children, 208 sons-in-law, 36daughters-in-law and
thousands of grandchildren.
She is honoured by 273 awards for her dedication and work anda film on her
life.Someone whom I admired.
God do exist, I guess.She is inspirational.Her life isinspirational.
She is SindhutaiSapkal, mother of thousands of orphans.
Footnotes[1]Sindhutai Sapkal – Wikipedia
Q3 Whatdoes it feel like to be poor?
A3 AjayGautam, Engineering Manager at Microsoft (company) Updated 6y
My grandfather was rich but did not have any sense ofresponsibility. Three out
of his four sons grew up uneducated and affected byalcoholism. (One of them is
my father). They also had this false sense of pridethat created this feeling of
shame in doing small jobs.
So what happened? By the time I gained conscience, we wereshit poor.Getting
bread with some vegetables on the plate, twice a day, was adream. On countless
occasions, we used to eat only roti with chilly chutney.
Sadly, sometimes there won't be enough chilli even to makechutney.
In early childhood, I used to get old books from my cousin(lets call him Pappu)
who was one class ahead of me in school. Pappu was acontemptible person, he
used to bully me for his old books.
>From early age (~10), I used to work on farms with my mother.After ~14, I
>started working at a whole lot of places.
This is my resume before I entered college-
Worked on Sugar cane farms for as low as 10 INR a day. (US $1= 64 INR)
Sold Ice creams, earning ~15-20 INR a day.
Worked as daily wage labour in house construction for 45-60INR a day.
Worked in transporting bricks from brick fields toconstruction sites for ~80
INR a day.
Worked in an Indian wedding band for ~60 INR a day (onlyonce). And yes, I had
to wear a uniform like this.
My most memorable day is when I sold Kakadi (cucumber) forthe full day with
same cousin Pappu earning 7.50 INR. Each one of us got 3.75rupees, with lots of
Kakadi to eat.
How poverty affectedmy education?
If I look back, I was above average in my class. But all thatwork for food, bad
neighborhood, and lack of resources (time, stationery,school uniform etc.)
affected my education badly. Also, my self confidence wasvery low.
So what happened? By the time I came in 10th Standard, myeducation was messed
up. I got 46% marks in 10th exams. I cleared 11th standardwith grace marks and
finally...I failed 12th standard.
But, my failure was actually a gift. My friend-circle wasgone, everything was
meaningless to me. I had that talk with myself that mademe realize that nothing
matters except a good education.
One of my uncle guided me in this tough time. He asked me tocarry my 11th
standard Physics, Chemistry, Maths books and go to a nearbyAshram every day in
the morning. I used to study there, eat free food, and comeback in the evening.
I followed that routine during my summer vacations andbuilt my fundamentals. I
realized that education is the only way out of my patheticlife. I used to
recall Booker T. Washington's essay, The Struggle for anEducation from my 10th
English syllabus. It was a real inspiration.
Next year, with same levelof dedication, I cleared 12th with flying colours
with distinction in Physics,Chemistry and Mathematics. Also, I appeared for
Chaudhary Charan SinghUniversity engineeringexam and secured 3rd rank. That
gave me enough confidence to try somethingbigger.
Next one year I did nothing but prepared for biggestengineering entrance exam,
Indian Institute of Technology, Joint EntranceExamination and cleared it.
Ispent next five years studying Computer Science & Engineering at
IndianInstitute of Technology (BHU)
. Life was all set.How poverty changed me as a person.
It made me rock solid. When usually people are scared aboutsomething, I drink
some tea and carry on. Unless it’s about someone's life, Ikeep my cool.
Also, I have immense respect for hard working people. Whileso many people
around me feel ashamed to talk to Rickshaw pullers, it gives meimmense pleasure
to talk to them. I speak politely with Rickshaw pullers, farmers, waiters and
all thosepeople trying to earn a living in tough economy.
It also made me realize the value of food. Usually this ishow my plate looks
like once I am done eating (even if food is not so tasty).
I never smoke. Sometimes I will drinka beer with my friends, but no hard
liquor. Possibly because partially Ihold my father and his drinking habits
responsible for my bad childhood.
As far as money is concerned, being an ex-Oracle and currentVMware employee, I
earn well. Still, I don't waste money. I consider buyingcostly gadgets,
drinking a lot, and doing something useless to impress your"friends" as a waste
of money.
That doesn't mean I am a miser. For me, only few things areworth my hard earned
money. I am living at a great place paying more thanaverage rent for this
apartment, because it’s so beautiful and peaceful.
I am also a proud owner of a Royal Enfield Thunderbird.All inall, poverty made
me the person I am today. It was one hell of a journey. Andit's still going on.
It's just not that challenging any more :Life is good.
My note- I am thrilledat the admitting by Mr Ajay Gautam that he consumes
limited quantity of beer. A student from very poorbackground rise up and become
a student in IIT and now works in micro soft. A young manwith no PRIDE, whom I
like to appreciate.
Q4 Whathistorical figures would you love to have on your payroll?
A4 SeanKernan,5y
This guy:The idol of Elon Musk.
Nikola Tesla.
He’d get his own giant room. I’d give him a huge budget. Asexy secretary. A
security guard to protect him.
Nobody would be allowed to bother him in his research roomwithout consent.
I’d give him all the technology he needed. If he wanted aprogramming tutor I’d
get him that. But he probably wouldn’t need it as he’sone of the smartest
people who ever lived.
I’d probably just get him a stack of books. And let him go ham.
I’d hire an artist/designer to assist him. Tesla typicallyvisualized all of his
inventions with perfect detail prior to creation.
As a reminder to those who don’t realize Tesla’s mentalprowess:
Tesla had a bewildering list of inventions that included theradio, the
induction motor (vacuums, blow dryers), teleautomation (remotecontrol), and
absolutely critical innovations that enabled modern electricity.
And as a further reminder of how visionary he was, this wasTesla’s prediction
of the future:
“When wireless isperfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a
huge brain, which infact it is, all things being particles of a real and
rhythmic whole.
“We shall be able tocommunicate with one another instantly, irrespective of
distance. Not onlythis, but through television and telephony we shall see and
hear one another asperfectly as though we were face to face, despite
intervening distances ofthousands of miles; and the instruments through which
we shall be able to dohis will be amazingly simple compared with our present
telephone.
“A man will be able tocarry one in his vest pocket.”
He stated this nearly 100 years ago.
Q5 Doyou know a joke about getting into heaven?
A5 JamesWasvary,21h
It’s the last judgement, and Christ is judging souls by theriver.
Moses comes before him, and is upset.
“Who are you to judgeme? I am Moses. I spoke to god. I led the Israelites out
of Egypt. I couldperform miracles.”
He holds his staff over the water, it parts. He walks down,comes back dry.
“Well, I am Christ theredeemer. I am the son of God. I had no need to part the
waters, I could walkon water.”
He takes a few steps into the river, sinks to the bottom,comes out
distressed.“I don’t understand, that never happened before!”
“Well, the last timeyou tried it did you have those holes in your feet?
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