Facebook, where is the best teacher in the world?

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Facebook, where is the best teacher in the world?

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I was not very old then. But I was not young either. I had been in this school for more than a year. Long enough, that I had graduated to a level where I didn’t have to carry a slate with me. I owned my own notebook. Just like my elder brother and sister did. The session had been in progress for a couple of months and it was monsoon season.

She was our teacher. A lovely lady. Pretty and softspoken. And more than that!
When you are a child, there is only one great teacher. And that is invariably yours. So was my teacher. And needless to say, she knew everything.

She taught us elementary math – the addition and subtraction. She taught us really well, for I still remember what she taught four decades ago. Then came the earliest written test, we ever had, or the one that I now recall.

The test was held and the next day, the notebooks had been checked. I scored well and she gave me my notebook herself. Other notebooks were handed over to Pankaj who continued to distribute them.

“Your notebook”, he said thrusting yet another notebook in my hand and quickly vanished to distribute other students' notebooks.
What would I do with this one? I had a quick look at it. Oh, it was almost entirely unused, brand new! … except for the two pages used for the test. So many more pages to write and draw! Whatever I could do with it, it”s all mine! With a furtive look all around, I pushed it in my bag. However the euphoria did not last long.

“…. Ma’am, I didn’t get my notebook,” I heard someone say in a feeble voice.

“Look around, it must be there”.

“No it’s not, I searched all around….”.

“OK, all of you check your bags, if someone has it, please return it”.

Ten minutes, no one answered.

The second appeal came: “Please check again, check yourself. Otherwise I will have to check everyone’s bag…”.

Time clicked away quickly. There was no response.

And then the inevitable began. I was in the front row, so I did not have to wait for long. My bag was opened and the notebook appeared.

“Yes, Ma’am, that’s my notebook”, the feeble voice said again.

It was embarrassing. How would I face everyone? What if everyone teases me the next day? They will call me thief…., I worried.

“Oh, it seems, he got it by mistake…. Fine now let us sing a song”, said our lovely teacher as it began to drizzle just then. No questions were asked, no allegation made. She used the song to distract the kids. My self respect had been defended.
The song continued, as did the rain. Everyone else sung but I simply moved my lips. A lesson had been taught. A lesson I never forgot again!

Facebook, can you find the best teacher in the world? She lived in Bhopal in early 70s, and her son’s name was Neetu Arora.


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Nobel laureate

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Glad to have another person of Indian origin sharing a Nobel with other two!

Congratulations Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan!

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Delusion of grandiosity

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Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal1989

Prof. Bhiman was talking about the delusion of grandiosity where a patient has an exaggerated, enhanced self image. To make the things easier, he cited an example: "A person with the delusion of grandiosity would go to market, let's say to buy a ball..."

"He would instead land up buying several such balls in a grandiose manner."

Can the class add any such example of grandiosity?

" Yeah, the patient goes to buy a table tennis ball, and returns with a basket ball", quipped, a student.

The class continued to laugh as Prof. Bhiman added the last punch:" It's nice to hear someone sharing a personal experience!"

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Overheard

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Overheard, between my children....

Elder daughter: Do you have headache?

Younger: Yes.

Elder: Where exactly? ... In your forehead (Read 4 head)?

Younger: No, it's in my "ten" head.

That's a child's headache.


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Universal stem cell....

Stem cells and their applications are making news these days. Cardiac lesions, neurological upsets, spinal injuries, ocular surface problems... everywhere there is a potential scope.

A stem cell typically retains its ability to differentiate along any cell line as happens during normal course of development.

I just wonder if we could generate a designer cell with mostly evolutionarily conserved and housekeeping genes, along with those meant to be active in different cell lines. We could have the same cell applicable to most humans or at best few hundred cell types that would at best have few matching human leucocyte antigens (HLAs). People will receive a designer cell that would match their own HLA make up and thereby evade the immune system to s considerable extent!

These best matched "non autologous" cell lines can be commercially available and ordered ... as per need.

Scientists are any way using cells that are indeed different from host cells yet continue to function for the assigned task. For instance, we have cells that produce insulin in diabetics. These cells are "cushioned" in a suitable biomaterial with "holes" that can allow the exit of the hormone but prevent the entry of cells that carry out immunological functions of recognizing an outsider!

Honey, the kid wants to shrink us!

A child's perspective on life

God may have created us, but it is true that across the civilizations, man recreated god(s). Gods of different colours and hues! ....Gods with form and without form!

The existence of god that man created helped answer many questions about his life and even the "after life"

My little daughter Maitreyi has her own perceptions about life.

We have told her about growing up: importance of proper meals.

She has seen our childhood photographs and at this age she has her own questions about life and their answers.

An obvious one in her mind is, what would happen to her parents, when she will grow up? She seems to have found an answer to that:

"Papa (or Mummy) when I will grow up, you will become smaller..... , .... and I will feed you, give you bath, dress you up and send to school".

I wish, science had a way to help her live her fantasy when she could parent us: although in India and also elsewhere, children are looked upon as investment for future! But that reverse care is different from this true reverse parenting.

And I hope when that happens, they don't have school home work any more!

Right, Maitreyi Mumma?

Can a house lizard inspire you to go to the lab?

Yesterday I had to chase out a large black colored lizard from my kitchen! My wife Seema had given me an ultimatum: either the lizard goes out or I don’t cook today.

I had to come out of my slumber.

The lizard tried to outsmart me: it quickly “jettisoned” a three inches long segment of its tail even as I wanted to catapult it across the door. I felt pity but had to continue. Soon it parted with another 7 mm wide wedge of what had remained of its tail.

The precision with which it had eliminated its tail was remarkable. It looked nearly like a scalpel cut, albeit this was a biological scalpel. But two such cuts! I had not seen before. Although it could be argued that a stroke of the broom I used to chase the creature may have helped it in shedding its tail nevertheless, as would be general experience, the impact of the stroke is relatively gentle and certainly it demonstrates biology's superiority over mechanics.

My younger daughter has a compressed thumb nail for two to three weeks now. The nail is regenerating slowly through the stem cells in the nail bed, but the original nail is still hinged and she asks everyday, when will “God Sir” replace it completely? I have no definite answer.

Plants too use abscisic acid to allow an old leaf to fall, but that takes time as well.

A lizard’s ability to regenerate its tail always fascinated me. I haven’t searched the status of research in this area yet, but it could have applied implications in neuronal regeneration! If only we could isolate the growth factor, most likely a neuropeptide, we could use it in patients with paraplegic, quadriplegia and even central nervous diseases where degeneration sets in. Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinsonism, glaucoma etc….

Some of the best innovations come from the imitation of nature!