COVID warrior.
#Art #Ballpen on #paper. 🙏
A tribute to those who’ve laid down their lives risking self and family for others.
Categories
A #COVID Warrior 🪖 Tribute
Category: Others
Random posts about something completely different
We are all going through a tough time with #COVID19 #Epidemic. It has been a testing time for doctors, public and administrators alike. The poor have been hit badly and are under threat as the epidemic is still spreading in various countries as we speak. Access to healthcare, paying capacity, travel are all issues that the citizens of various demographics have to confront.
We at MedTatva [ https://medtatva.com ], have been trying to solve accessibility to healthcare and diagnostic tools by using technology.
Past few days we have put together the best recommendations from CDC and WHO to build a symptom checker that is simple and which could be completed in less than a minute by a non-medical person.
Please find the screening tool here : https://medtatva.com/coronavirus/home
Free will versus Fate has been always a subject of debate between the believers and non-believers. They seem to conflict as free will would mean that fate is null and void and vice versa. On the one hand God is pictured as the all powerful fate controller and orchestrator of all things and on the other he seems to have given the beings a free will and a necessity of make an effort, an independent effort, towards doing whats good. These seem to be at odds with each other as the ‘independent’ would mean that its a realm where God doesn’t have control over. The conflict for the believer whether to put in hard work and free will to attain anything in this world if everything is already preordained by God. So whats’ it ? Free will, effort, or its all just fate ? Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharishi on this topic when probed as said (words to this effect), “inquire as to to whom is the fate and who does the work. When this is inquired and found out then one will know that there is no fate and no willing“. Sad-Dharsanam of Sri. Kaavyakanta Ganapathi Muni alludes to this conflict of Fate versus Free will and asks us to enquire to whom this fate and free will is for . The answer would be the body which is different from the ‘self’. By this self-inquiry (Vichaara) on attains Self-realisation. Sad-Dharsanam is the Sanskrit translation of Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s Tamil work UllathuNaarpathu.
Delighted to announce an Art Project with Dr. Suresh (Director , Neurologist , ICCONS) , Dr. Sekar Michael ( Pediatric Anesthetist, ICCONS) and Dr. Easwar TR (Pediatric Orthopedic & Spine Surgeon , ICCONS) as fund raising campaign for treatment of children with #CerebralPalsy, Movement Disorders, Chronic Pain and #Autism. This will be an ongoing project.
First day was today. Wonderful experience at ICCONS, Shoranur.
Lovely to see that many of the staff from Speech and Audiology participated as well.
We plan to improve this in the next iteration and pool all the paintings we paint ( Dr. Suresh, Dr. Sekar and myself ) to help build a fundraiser.
We will be holding these painting sprints at frequent intervals.
#
ArtForACause
#Art
#Painting
Happiness, as in the context of a Hindu (a cultural, subcontinental cultural expression, rather than a narrow religious term) is something that was thought about my the brightest minds.
Essays,Books, Schools, Religions have been built and nurtured on it’s name. Avatars created, Saints glorified.
Yet, for an average human in present day world with it’s plentiful amenities and material distractions, happiness seems as elusive as before; sometimes more so. The Hindu always felt its something that comes from within, our very nature, its always there, not something that’s got from outside. Our cravings, which trouble our mind and if obtained satisfy it merely gives us temporary mental satisfaction which subsides the waves of restlessness in our Chitta (A yogic term, mind-space would be a close translation) which allows the pre-existing happiness to shine through.
A Hindu, views all material happiness as temporary and bitter sweet since all material pursuits are attaching us with action and thoughts in the direction which opens us up for Karma.
So for a Hindu, happiness is our native state which we have muddled with our desires and pursuits.
It is a time of churn in India, as anywhere else in the world.
The old secular , leftist and liberal schools which was built learning upon the lessons of The World Wars, the Revolutions of Russia, France, the thoughts of Marx, Mao, Lenin and Stalin gradually had gone stale. What once helped the oppressed people solve their day to day issues had become in some cases initiator of violence or oppression themselves. The Right meanwhile is more appealing to people as it promises to take people back to the Good-Old-Days. It promises the glory days.
For almost 6 decades after independence of India the Left Parties, Leftist policies where popular. Over time, increasing conflicts between the once shunned Right and the ubiquitous Left are common place. Narratives are built with cases of return to old glory in the case of Right and of oppression or class struggle in the case of Left.
The society seems to swing between one form of violence and injustice to another, swinging past the midpoint of peace. While this seems to be a post World War phenomenon, in reality, the fight between thought schools are not new; at least to the South of India. Indian Civilization being so ancient, it has seen similar days in the past. It has lived and survived these to tell its tales.
Examples of how the Jains and Buddhists – The Heterodox systems- had frequent conflicts with Shaivas (Worshippers of Lord Shiva ) and Vaishnavas (Worshippers of Lord Vishnu ) – the Orthodox systems – are detailed in Tamil Scripture of Periya Puranam. There are even descriptions of impalement, immersion in lime, drowning a saint in ocean tied to rope, and several such mass attempts at conversion to a school of thought. Well, if one looks critically at these, convert-or-perish instances of those times, it was no different from the crimes committed by the IS terrorists now where they behead non-Islamists. Yet, these beliefs co-existed, albeit with friction, with royal patronage to a particular school of thought. The Royals were rarely ‘secular’ , to use today’s terminology. Yet, there seems to be times in past where the saints seem to come from all stratas of society and they were respected equally. In Periyapuranam and elsewhere in South Indian history, there are references to a number of saints who have come from humble social backgrounds ( which now belong to oppressed social classes ) and are equally respected – and in some cases more – by the peer saints and followers alike. This does seem strange when we consider that South India actually required a Temple Entry proclamation to allow the commoners from “lower castes” to enter the temples again in 19-20 century. This was about 500 years after the saints from the very same castes were actually venerated. So we really are not sure when the social degradation happened. One thing is certain. Depending on ones ideology – left or right, one can choose to go back to either a past where caste oppression and persecution existed or to one where they apparently did not . I use the word ‘apparent’ because here I have to go by the scriptural records and not actual rock edicts themselves.
[ Some terminologies I use in the poem I am translating here to stimulate further reading : 'Austere Potter' : Saint Thiru Neelakanta Kuyavanar, first saint listed by Saint Sundarar in his list of 63 'Shepherd' : Saint Sri Thirumoolar, composer of Thirumanthiram 'Toddy and fish loving incarnation' : Sri Mutthappan, Kannur, Kerala 'Fearless tiger mounted battlegod of yore' : Sri Ayyappan of Sabarimala, Kerala 'lowly ox' : Ochira Parabrahmam, Ochira, Kerala 'first monist' : Adi Sankara , Kaladi , Kerala composer of Manisha Panchakam ]
Recent rise of right wing in India has witnessed renewed conflict between Left and Right at various levels ; political and otherwise. Some of these have been peaceful, but many especially in the district of Kannur, Kerala State has been especially bloody. The once popular Left movement in India is on the wane as it is losing state after another. The right on the other hand is on the rise. Probably the Left has moved away from the minds of people and Right is occupying the space.
It would be nice if there is no violence and lasting peace. My wish.
At a politically tumultuous time when you’re not even sure what secularism, nationalism, sedition, freedom of speech in particular and freedom in general (aazaadi) is, we have here a peice on what constitutes ….for want of better words , shall we say and in the process provoke a redefinition of the word ‘decently dressed’. Thought provoking for the impartial inquirer, revolting to the convent educated elite, too much for even the liberalism chanting neavueau-upworldly mobile, slap in the face for ultra-conservatives. All at the same time. Are we staring at the truth here – for isn’t not truth said to be unpleasant/uncomfortable ?
This piece was a reaction to seeing a room full of amazing black and white photos by Sunil Janah of women who were topless. Like the below photo of a Hill Maria Woman from Bastar. Courtesy of the …
Commemorative day for Cancer passed us by, mostly un-noticed amidst the din of modern self centered life. Here is an article by my dear friend and senior colleague Dr. Sekar Michael who runs a Coimbatore Pain Clinic at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India and is actively involved in treating under priviliged cancer patients.
This was published in Times Of India, an Indian News Paper.
Dr. Easwar T.R 