Plan ahead – it was not raining when Noah built the Ark – G.F.C. (Reader’s Digest, April 1975)
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Encourage Your Baby to Explore
Parents who stop their babies crawling around may permanently harm their mental development, says John Brierly, a British schools inspector and author of books on child development. Encouraging a baby to explore, however, may increase inventiveness in later life.
“A narrow environment with no toys, no stimulus, no affection, inarticulate communication and a prohibitive attitude to children’s natural exploratory activity may permanently retard mental development,” he writes in the UK Department of Education’s publication, Trends in Education.
Such deprivation during the crucial years from birth to five could make thousands of children educationally backward in the early school years.
Security, minimum interference by adults and an environment that invites exploration and experiment provide the best conditions for exploratory learning.
Courtesy: The Guardian, Manchester & Reader’s Digest, April 1975 (News from the World of Medicine)
“A narrow environment with no toys, no stimulus, no affection, inarticulate communication and a prohibitive attitude to children’s natural exploratory activity may permanently retard mental development,” he writes in the UK Department of Education’s publication, Trends in Education.
Such deprivation during the crucial years from birth to five could make thousands of children educationally backward in the early school years.
Security, minimum interference by adults and an environment that invites exploration and experiment provide the best conditions for exploratory learning.
Courtesy: The Guardian, Manchester & Reader’s Digest, April 1975 (News from the World of Medicine)
Sri Visveswarar Medical College Hospital, Trichy Bypass Road, Sriram Nagar, Kottaiyur
All my people know that I seldom have anything good to say about allopathy hospitals and doctors. But here I am complimenting straight from my heart the above hospital and its physician, Dr.Kaveri, M.D.
Let me start from the beginning. First let me remove the misconception - There is no medical college as the name suggests. To my knowledge, it has been so for more than 20 years now. It is easily the biggest hospital, say, in about 50 km radius, with many latest gadgets. Somehow from the beginning it did not attract many patients. Poor management? Honestly I don’t know. Now this hospital management has been taken over by ‘Mata Amirthanandamayi Trust’.
Now the highlights:
· It has a well-qualified and well-experienced physician, viz., Dr.Kaveri, M.D. This soft-spoken and kind lady attends on patients sympathetically. Her diagnosis is good. She does not unnecessarily prescribe unwanted laboratory tests. Whatever medicine she prescribes is generally minimal and cheap.
· The consultation fee is Rs.10/- for, hold your breath, for a month. You may have any number of consultations during this time and you don’t have to pay anything except the initial Rs.10/-.
· There is absolutely no crowd. So you don’t become tense. You relax yourself and get the treatment.
· All charges are nominal – ECG, Scan, X-ray, various lab tests etc are carried out on concessional fee.
· At two places, they have parked vehicles which you can use for going to the hospital, WITHOUT PAYING ANYTHING.
Now, to the painful thing, still there is no crowd. You never see more than two or three patients. I have seen patients thronging many private hospitals, restlessly waiting for hours for their turn. Why don’t they use this hospital? God alone knows! They publicize through local TV channels. On their vehicles, you see banners highlighting the benefits. Yet, painfully, the hospital is, to put it mildly, under-utilized.
Medicine is no longer a service or a profession. It has grown into big business these days. So when you see institutions like Sri Visveswarar Medical College Hospital, you are very much moved and your cynicism is checked a little bit.
I have always been an admirer of Mata Amirthanandamayi. There are many educational institutions, including some of the best institutions of higher-learning, hospitals and many other service facilities run under benevolent guidance.
I touch the Holy-Feet of ‘Mataji’ and pray that the innumerable service activities carried out under her benevolent guidance grow and continue to benefit humanity. My grateful thanks to the local ‘Mata Amirthanandamayi Trust’ who dedicatedly run this hospital.
Let me start from the beginning. First let me remove the misconception - There is no medical college as the name suggests. To my knowledge, it has been so for more than 20 years now. It is easily the biggest hospital, say, in about 50 km radius, with many latest gadgets. Somehow from the beginning it did not attract many patients. Poor management? Honestly I don’t know. Now this hospital management has been taken over by ‘Mata Amirthanandamayi Trust’.
Now the highlights:
· It has a well-qualified and well-experienced physician, viz., Dr.Kaveri, M.D. This soft-spoken and kind lady attends on patients sympathetically. Her diagnosis is good. She does not unnecessarily prescribe unwanted laboratory tests. Whatever medicine she prescribes is generally minimal and cheap.
· The consultation fee is Rs.10/- for, hold your breath, for a month. You may have any number of consultations during this time and you don’t have to pay anything except the initial Rs.10/-.
· There is absolutely no crowd. So you don’t become tense. You relax yourself and get the treatment.
· All charges are nominal – ECG, Scan, X-ray, various lab tests etc are carried out on concessional fee.
· At two places, they have parked vehicles which you can use for going to the hospital, WITHOUT PAYING ANYTHING.
Now, to the painful thing, still there is no crowd. You never see more than two or three patients. I have seen patients thronging many private hospitals, restlessly waiting for hours for their turn. Why don’t they use this hospital? God alone knows! They publicize through local TV channels. On their vehicles, you see banners highlighting the benefits. Yet, painfully, the hospital is, to put it mildly, under-utilized.
Medicine is no longer a service or a profession. It has grown into big business these days. So when you see institutions like Sri Visveswarar Medical College Hospital, you are very much moved and your cynicism is checked a little bit.
I have always been an admirer of Mata Amirthanandamayi. There are many educational institutions, including some of the best institutions of higher-learning, hospitals and many other service facilities run under benevolent guidance.
I touch the Holy-Feet of ‘Mataji’ and pray that the innumerable service activities carried out under her benevolent guidance grow and continue to benefit humanity. My grateful thanks to the local ‘Mata Amirthanandamayi Trust’ who dedicatedly run this hospital.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
6th Karaikudi Book Festival
The 6th Karaikudi Book Festival was inaugurated at Kamban Mani Mandapam, Karaikudi, on Saturday, the February 9, 2008 by renowned philanthropist and writer, Nalli Kuppusamy Chetty. Rotarian PHF Muthu.Palaniappan (President, Chamber of Commerce, Karaikudi) welcomed the audience. Writer and Chairman of Organizing Committee, Prof.Dr.Aykann delivered the presidential address. Dr.N.Palaniswamy, Deputy Director, CECRI, offered felicitations. I was honoured at this function as the person mainly responsible for the introducing State-Level Book Festival at Karaikudi and for organizing the first four Book Festivals. While thanking the Organizers and the Executive Committee of FASOHD, I recalled the problems faced in organizing the Book Festivals and the unstinted support received from the Presidents of FASOHD during this period viz., Dr.M.Raghavan, Dr.V.Sundaram, Mr.K.Nakkeeran and Rtn.Muthu.Palaniappan; and the Secretaries of FASOHD during this period, viz., Dr.Visalakshi Ravindran, Dr.R.Srinivasan, Dr.N.Kalaiselvi and Dr.S.Sathiyanarayanan. Dr.A.Muthukrishnan, Controller of Administration, CECRI, Karaikudi, offered the Vote of Thanks. Competitions for students at the college and school levels, Cultural programs, Quiz programs and various other activities are on the card during the Book Festival, which will be concluding on the night of Sunday, the February 17, 2008.
My best wishes for the success of this Book Festival.
My best wishes for the success of this Book Festival.
A Thought for Today : February 13, 2008
We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart - Blaise Pascal
A Thought for Today : February 11, 2008
You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through - Rosalynn Carter
A Thought for Today : February 10, 2008
Prayer is less about changing the world than it is about changing ourselfves – David Wolpe
A Thought for Today : February 9, 2008
Luck is not chance, it is toil. Fortune’s expensive smile is earned – Emily Dickinson
A Thought for Today : February 8, 2008
People hardly ever make use of the freedom they have, for example, freedom of thought; instead they demand freedom of speech as a compensation – Kierkegaard
A Thought for Today : February 7, 2008
Let us not look bck in anger nor forward in fear, but around in awareness – James Thurber
Friday, February 08, 2008
A Thought for Today : February 6, 2008
No day in which you learn something is a complete loss – David Eddings
My Album-17: "Achu (after hair-offering and ear-borning ceremony) with Ammu"
Achu with Ammu, after hair-offering and ear-boring ceremony. Clicked by Vinod using his Nokia N70m. My Album-16: "Achu again, before hair-offering(tonsure)"
Achu, a day or two before hair-offering. He is in a jolly mood with a bewitching smile.My Album-15: "Achu dressed like a Girl!"
In our family, it is customary to have the first hair-offering ceremony at one of the various tremples of Lord Muruga, preferably the nearest one, after the child is one year old. Achu's hair-offering got delayed by nearly 5 months. His ear-boring and hair-offering function were held at the Lord Shanmuganathan (another name for Lord Muruga) Temple, Kundrakkudi recently. The day before this photograph was taken at a studio. His mother dressed him like a girl and had this photo taken. Does he not look charming?
A Thought for Today : February 5, 2008
Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching - Thomas Jefferson
Three Stages in Life
There are three stages in life: you have to take a nap and you don’t want to do; you want to take a nap but don’t have the time; and you want to take a nap, and you do have the time, but you can’t fall asleep. - Sarah Raymond
Courtesy: Reader’s Digest, September 1997
Courtesy: Reader’s Digest, September 1997
The Long and Short of Life
Pessimism is a very easy way out because it is a short view of life. If you look at what is happening around us today, you can’t help but feel that life is a terrible complexity of problems. But if you look back a few thousand years, you realize that we have advanced fantastically. If you take a long view, I do not see how you can be pessimistic about the future of mankind.
I become very amused by my colleagues – particularly in the study of literature – the tragic view is the only key to life. This is self-indulgent nonsense. They simply feel rotten about everything, and that is terribly easy. But if you try to see things a little more evenly, it is surprising what complexities of comedy and ambiguity and irony appear. And that, I think, is what is vital to a novelist. Just writing tragic novels is easy. – Robertson Davies
I become very amused by my colleagues – particularly in the study of literature – the tragic view is the only key to life. This is self-indulgent nonsense. They simply feel rotten about everything, and that is terribly easy. But if you try to see things a little more evenly, it is surprising what complexities of comedy and ambiguity and irony appear. And that, I think, is what is vital to a novelist. Just writing tragic novels is easy. – Robertson Davies
Quoted by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Creativity (Harper Collins)
Courtesy: Reader’s Digest, September 1997 (Points to Ponder)
Courtesy: Reader’s Digest, September 1997 (Points to Ponder)
A Thought for Today : February 4, 2008
Truth is eternal, knowledge is changeable. It is disastrous to confuse them – Madeleine L’Engle
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