Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow. Dealing With Hair Loss & Balding

There’s a saying that the information that we think is most private to us and of little use to others, is in fact most useful to others!

So although it seems like our personal experiences and failures as regards family, relationships, career, business, aging, sex, health… are of little value to the rest of the world, in reality those very experiences could provide valuable insights to others in similar situations. Read more

An impatient’s guide to Knee Surgery – Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Reconstruction and Meniscus Tear

The story begins many years back, on a beautiful sunny morning in 1997. I was playing cricket in the inter division cricket tournament in my college. I had bowled my quota of overs and we had kept the opposition down to a modest score. Later while batting we were within reach of the target with 10 runs to get and 8 balls to go. 8 balls 10 runs wasn’t easy but I did think we could make it. I took strike, the bowler bowled a delivery that rose to about waist height. I swung the bat in what is known as a pull shot, hoping to get a boundary. My bat moved, my chest and waist rotated in an attempt to generate max power, but my legs did not move. I heard and felt a snap / pop in my left knee and I was down in excruciating pain. I could not even think of getting up, let alone running. After a few minutes of agony, I was helped off the field. We later lost the match. Read more

Indian Sport of Spitting On The Streets Needs To Get Its Due Recognition

India Sport - Spit On The Road Competition

“World Spitathon Champs”

Indians might have the strongest lungs on the planet. Not because of any genetic reasons but because of the exercise that they make their lungs undergo by firing spit missiles every couple of minutes. Across the country we have great exponents of this art, hard at work on every street. While walking, driving, through cars, buses and every other vehicle you will find spit missiles fired with great dexterity and regularity. Although the best performances come from tobacco consumers, even those who are not, often put in scintillating performances.

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Canal Road connecting Bhandarkar Road and Agarkar Road – “Cleaning Pune”

The building I reside in, is located beside the canal road connecting Bhandarkar Road with Agarkar Road. The road condition is such that it is rarely used by vehicles and so it’s primarily meant for pedestrains.

Many years back, the canal road was a nice, green and clean place. But today it’s become a garbage dump. The corporation has ignored the road and so its become a garbage dump. The garbage in turn is disposed of by burning it and creating a horrible smog over the area.

As I cannot possibly keep a watch all day and stop people from using the road and the canal as a dump, the only feasible solution is to keep the road so clean that people hesitate before dumping any garbage. Could also put up boards that educate people.

Unfortunately dumping garbage in public places is so much a part of Indian psyche that even the educated and affluent lot rarely hesitate before they throw garbage at any place that does not belong to them. Absense of civic sense is perhaps India’s biggest problem.

Our leaders are very good at working up passions and causing trouble over stupid issues but when it comes to constructive work, no leader or political party ever uses its mass base to do good. Have you ever heard a mmber of parliament tell his supporters to not spit on the road or clean up his surroundings, educate his children…

That apart…So what I am planning, is to forget about the corporation fixing things and get down to doing them ourselves…

A cleanliness drive for the canal roads in Pune. If I manage to find more volunteers we can take up not just the bhandarkar road – agarkar road connection but even more. If not, I intend to atleast fix the bhandarkar road – agarkar road stretch.

We planted trees last year beside this same road, but all of them were pulled out for firewood by teams of women from the slums who desperately need wood for cooking.

Just goes to show how interlinked things are: The rich, educated or powerful can never have the surroundings they want unless they work for the illiterate, poor and helpless to get their rights. So essentially the trees I plant can survive only if the poor get cheap fuel to cook their meals.

Hmmmm….lots of mixed thoughts put into one blog entry. not the best way to write, but I guess blog’s are meant to be that way … random thoughts put down in the order in which they come up.

Yoga, Religion and Swamis on TV

Although I like early mornings, I very rarely manage to get up early. Today was one of those rare days. As the newspaper had not come in, I switched on my TV set and had a look at some of the early morning religious preachings being aired on various channels.

While many channels had people talking about religion and god, there were some that also aired a mix of Yoga and religion. I do not remember the name of the swami I watched but I was impressed by the way he held the audience and made them do various yoga poses.

TV swami’s have become very popular in India and some like Baba Ramdev have become even more popular due to some recent controversies. The one thing I like about these swami’s is that they ask the listener to do good. The yoga swamis I think have had a good impact on society as Yoga today is more popular in India than it might have been in 100s of years.

I too was fairly ignorant of yoga until a few years back and used to associate yoga with PT drills that we had in school. Yoga is nothing like Physical Training (PT) and the mind plays just as important a role as the body.

Anyway, teaching yoga is fine, but preaching religion to 1000s of people through the medium of TV however I don’t think is such a good idea. Religion and mass media is a very dangerous combination.

Cancer – Early Detection

I was looking for ways for early detection of cancer and came across these sites:

“For many types of cancer, it is easier to treat and cure the cancer if it is found early. There are many different types of cancer, but most cancers begin with abnormal cells growing out of control, forming a lump that’s called a tumor. The tumor can continue to grow until the cancer begins to spread to other parts of the body. If the tumor is found when it is still very small, curing the cancer can be easy. However, the longer the tumor goes unnoticed, the greater the chance that the cancer has spread. This makes treatment more difficult.” (FamilyDoctor.org)

Cancers for which there is an early detection mechanism, if properly followed, the survival rate can be as good as 95%.

Found a couple of Indian cancer sites as well:

Do have a look and get the necessary tests done. The likelihood of a certain type of cancer would depend on your race, sex, etc., so do keep those factors in mind when you get the tests done.