An Appreciation : What to appreciate, When and How: an Important Lesson!

One young academically excellent person went for an interview for a
managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview;
BUT in that Company, the director did the last interview, made the last
decision.

The director discovered from the CV, that the youth's academic result was
excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the
postgraduate research, never was there a year he did not score. The
director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarship in school?" and the
youth answered "no".

The director asked, " Did your father pay your school fees?". The youth
answered, "my father passed away when I was one year old and it
was my mother who paid my school fees".

The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" the youth answered, "my
mother worked as cloth cleaner." The director requested the
youth to show his hands and the youth showed a pair of hands that was smooth
and perfect to the director.

The director asked, " Did you ever help your mother wash clothes before?"
The youth answered," never, my mother always wanted me to study
and read more books, furthermore, my mother could wash clothes faster than I
could"

The director said, I have a request, when you go back today, go and help to
clean your mother's hand, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that the chance of landing the job was high and when he
went back, he happily wanted to clean his mother's hands. His
mother felt strange. With happiness mixed with fear, she showed her hands
to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly and his tears fell as he did
that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands
were so wrinkled, and that there were so many bruises in her hands. Some
bruises were so painful that she shuddered when his mother's
hands were cleaned with water.

This is the first time that the youth realized and experienced that it is
this pair of hands that washed the clothes every day to earn him
the school fees and that the bruises in the mother's hand were the price
that the mother paid for his graduation and academic excellence
and probably his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother's hands, the youth quietly washed
all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, the mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office. The director noticed
the tear in the youth's eye and asked: " Can you tell what
you did and learnt yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered, " I cleaned my mother's hands and also finished washing
all the remaining clothes'

The director asked, "Please tell me what you felt"

The youth said:
"Number 1, I know what appreciation is now'. Without my mother, I would not
be successful today.

Number 2, Now I know how to work together with my mother. Only now do I
realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done.

Number 3, I know the importance and value of family relationship."

The director said, " This is what I am asking, I want to recruit a person
that can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the
suffering of others to get things done, and a person that would not put
money as his only goal in life to be my manager. You are hired.

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of
his subordinates, every employee worked diligently and as a team
and the company improved tremendously.


The Lessons from this anecdote:
A child who has been protected and habitually given whatever he needs,
develops "entitlement mentality" and always puts himself first. He
is ignorant of his parents' efforts. When he starts work, he assumes every
person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he
would never know the suffering of his employees and always blame others.
These kinds of people, may/will achieve good results and may
be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel a sense of
achievement or satisfaction.

If we happen to be this kind of (protective) parent, this is the time to ask
the question- whether we did/do love our kids or destroy them.

-You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn to play
the piano, watch a big screen TV but when you are cutting grass,
please let them experience it.

-After a meal, let them wash their plate and bowl together with their
brothers and sisters.

-It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because
you want to love and show them the correct way.

-You want them to understand that no matter how rich their parent are, one
day they will grow old, become weak and that their hair too
will grow grey,.

-The most important thing is for your kid to learn how to appreciate,
experience and learn the effort and ability needed to work with
others to get things done. They should also value, appreciate what the
parents have done and love them for who they are!

Tracing history with the Net

A tool that helps to visit old web pages with ease

It is difficult to study/analyse a phenomenon without understanding its historical context. Net presents several means by which we can enrich our historical understanding. This edition of NetSpeak deals with this theme and introduces a tool that helps us visit old web pages with ease.

Historical reflections help us gain insights on almost every phenomenon one can think of — technological developments, development of economic systems, change in human values over time and so on.

Unlike in the past, thanks to the Net, doing historical research is no more a difficult task. Services meant for doing historical research on different subjects/themes are in place. Smarthistory (http://smarthistory.org/) and ITHistory (http://ithistory.org/about/about.php) are some such sites worth a visit.

The historical values of old movies are indisputable. Besides offering clues on the technological changes, these movies take us back in time to comprehend changes in a society's speech structure/story themes/values and the like.

Many of these old movies are now in public domain, available at various on-line archives (http://www.openculture.com/freemoviesonline) for free viewing/ download.

Critical Past (http://www.criticalpast.com/), the video archival service that hosts tens of thousands of historic video clippings, is yet another wonderful resource for retrospection.

Yet another innovative service worth a mention in this context is HistoryPin, which attempts to collaboratively recreate the digital history of the world. The service allows netizens across the globe to upload images (of old street surroundings) and pin them on the corresponding current street locations on the Google maps imagery with necessary comments. Once the service is populated with sufficient content, it might help us compare the current surroundings of our favourite streets with that of its past. In addition, the HistoryPin's promoters offer some ideas that might help the teaching community (http://www.historypin. com/schools-toolkit/).

Historical routes

Like any other phenomena, Web also has its historical roots. A few years ago, most of the web sites, even the ones from big companies, were just a pack of static plain HTML pages with a couple of graphics interspersed here and there. From that stage the evolution of the Web is undoubtedly phenomenal.

With the aid of fast changing web technologies, web masters modify the design and appearance of their sites endlessly. It is always fun to compare how your favourite site looks now as against the same a few years ago. Going back to past web pages of your favourite web site is not only amusing but it could be enlightening as well. Accessing previous versions of a web page would provide us insights regarding the changes in Web technologies. This could also provide you an opportunity to discover the humble past of a high-profile web site.

As mentioned in these columns long ago ( The Hindu dated November 22, 2001— http://goo.gl/41ZQG), web archival services such as Wayback machine help us access old web pages with ease. To access via Wayback machine, you just need to enter its URL on the service's input box. In response to your request, the service presents a list of links to older versions of the page being queried.

Of course, Wayback machine is not the lone source from where one can find past versions of a web page. Sites such as Wikipedia automatically keep the older versions of each of its pages. For instance, if you wish to visit the old version of a Wikipedia page, you just need to click on its ‘View History' button.

Now, if you wish to retrieve the old version of a web site at a specific moment in time, you have to go to an online archive and enter its web address. Here is a better and elegant solution — the Firefox extension provided by Memento (http://ww w.mementoweb.org/).

Once installed, the extension places a date-slider that can be used to select a specific date to view the current page in its past shape. To access an old version of the current page, just set the target date and the extension will in turn fetch the relevant copy of the web page from an appropriate web archive.

Also, if this past web page, retrieved from an archive, has got a link, memento will try to make sure that you access the older version of this link (instead of its current version), subject to its availability. If you wish to know how Memento does this, view this video recording of the presentation available at: http://goo.gl/xJCK8.

J. MURALI

He can be contacted at jmurali@gmail.com

Special Thanks: The Hindu News Paper

Quit smoking, for heaven's sake

Quit smoking, for heaven's sake

DR. P. DURAI

If you kiss a cigarette, it reciprocates by biting your lungs.



A policeman undergoes COPD test in Vijayawada.

A 60-year-old man gets admitted to the intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital with complaints of fever and breathlessness for two days. He is diagnosed as a case of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) with respiratory failure, just hours before he knocks on the doors of death. Though he had troublesome respiratory symptoms for many years, and has been moving around consulting more than half-a-dozen doctors, none has made a precise diagnosis of COPD. Had the diagnosis been made earlier, it would have been possible to prolong his life, if not saving him permanently from the icy hands of death.

The bitter truth is that a large number of COPD cases go undiagnosed, misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed and get undertreated/mistreated in our country or rather throughout the globe, leading to permanent complications and poor quality of life thereafter. A simple breathing test, spirometry, would make a precise diagnosis of COPD.

According to the World Health Organisation's global estimates, 210 million people have COPD. The rate of morbidity and mortality will increase over the next 20 years and make COPD the third leading cause of death (currently the fourth) and fifth leading cause of disability.

I do not underestimate the potential of the Indian medical fraternity, but the slackness with which it deals with respiratory care needs to be overcome. This slackness has been utilised, rather misused, by the self-advertising and recently, the legally insulated quacks (in the medical field) and the crude and brutal treatment administered by them has added to the burden of respiratory handicaps.

So what is this COPD? A condition where your airway loses its elasticity and becomes rigid, i.e., your airways which are like rubber tubes turn into plastic tubes.

As a result, there is airflow limitation in and out of the lungs, thereby compromising oxygen supply to the whole body. As a result, the person becomes breathless, coughs up and expectorates, troubling himself and his loved ones for years before dying a painful death.

Tobacco smoking is the main culprit behind the cruel damage. Smoke from other sources has also been implicated but to a lesser extent. An exponential increase in cigarette smoking in the Indian subcontinent has increased the prevalence of COPD. With global warming, the risk of premature death among chronic respiratory patients is up to six times higher than in the rest of the population. Hence, much has to be done to chase out this social evil. A mere pictorial warning on tobacco products won't help. Healthier lifestyles should be inculcated even as a kid grows.

If you kiss a cigarette, it reciprocates by biting your lungs. So those who smoke quit today, and those who do not never ever think of starting it. Remember, “Lighting up a cigarette would darken your life permanently.” The theme for the World COPD Day: ‘2010-The Year of the Lung: Measure your lung health-Ask your doctor about spirometry.'

( The writer is post-graduate student in Thoracic Medicine, Thanjavur Medical College, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. His email id is: drpdorai@yahoo.com)

special thanks: The Hindu News Paper

Knowledge

Knowledge

He who knows not, and knows not he knows not, he is a fool, shun him.

He who knows not, and knows he knows not, he is simple, teach him.

He who knows, and knows not he knows, he is asleep, awaken him.

He who knows, and knows he knows, he is wise follow him.

- Kipling -

Simple wisdom

Simple wisdom
Our task is to strike a balance, to find a middle way, to learn not to overstretch ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations, but to simplify our lives more and more. The key to finding a happy balance in modern lives is simplicity.

--Sogyal Rinpoche

Blood Pressure - Simplified Data Chart

Equations of Life!!

MATHEMATICS

Smart man + smart woman = romance

Smart man + dumb woman = affair

Dumb man + smart woman = marriage

Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy



SHOPPING MATH

A man will pay Rs 500 for a Rs 100 item he needs.

A woman will pay Rs 100 for a Rs 500 item that she doesn't need.



GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.

A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.

A successful woman is one who can find such a man.



HAPPINESS

To be happy with a man,

you must understand him a lot and love him a little.

To be happy with a woman,

you must love her a lot and not try understanding her at all.



MEMORY

Any married man should forget his mistakes,

there's no use in two people remembering the same thing.



APPEARANCE

Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.

Women somehow deteriorate during the night.



PROPENSITY TO CHANGE

A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.

A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.



DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE

A woman has the last word in any argument.

Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

Hygiene - Hand Washing

Hand-Washing
Washing your hands may seem rather unsophisticated compared to today’s medical advances, but it works. Washing your hands reduces the rate of bacterial and viral infections by 1/3 to ½, and gastrointestinal infections by 80%. “Frequent hand-washing is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of infectious disease,” say the Centers for Disease Control.

You should wash your hands before, during, and after food preparation; before eating; after using the bathroom; and after touching pets, animals, or waste of any kind. To wash your hands: apply soap and rub your hands together vigorously for 10-15 seconds not forgetting under your finger nails, rinse and dry your hands after.

Old Man

A 60-year-old man went to a doctor for a check-up. The doctor told him, "You're in terrific shape. There's nothing wrong with you. Why, you might live forever; you have the body of a 35-year-old. By the way, how old was your father when he died?" The 60-year-old responded, "Did I say he was dead?" The doctor was surprised and asked, "How old is he and is he very active?" The 60-year-old responded, "Well, he is 82 years old and he still goes skiing three times a season and surfing three times a week during the summer." The doctor couldn't believe it! So he said, "Well, how old was your grandfather when he died?" The 60-year-old responded again, "Did I say he was dead?" The doctor was astonished. He said, "You mean to tell me you are 60 years old and both your father and your grandfather are alive? Is your grandfather very active?" The 60-year-old said, "He goes skiing at least once a season and surfing once a week during the summer. Not only that," said the patient, "my grandfather is 106 years old, and next week he is getting married again." The doctor said, "At 106 years why on earth would your grandfather want to get married?" His patient looked up at the doctor and said, "Did I say he wanted to?"

A business trip - Mr. Barack Obama to India...

The chief business of the American people, argued Calvin Coolidge, is business. So if the television pundits and mandarins of India’s security and political establishment expected President Barack Obama to lustily cheer for India and blast the traditional US ally and friend Pakistan as the fount of global terror the moment he landed in Mumbai, they would have been disappointed.
Even though by opting to begin his visit in Mumbai with a memorial ceremony for the 26/11 victims at Hotel Taj and condemning terrorism in strongest terms possible, Obama sent the right message, some of his hosts took exception to the fact that he did not slam Pakistan as the alleged architect of the terror attacks two years ago. Others expected other things in his very first speech, as though he was Father Christmas offering his hosts all sorts of things wherever he went.
All said and done this visit, historic and defining as it is in many ways, is not about India or about the US equation with India and Pakistan. This visit that also takes Obama to South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, the largest Muslim country where he grew up, is about the US economic interests.  Haunted by the devastating effects of the recession and the economic mess left behind by his reckless predecessor, which have just cost his party the midterm elections, the US leader is on a mission to sell the US economic agenda.
This is not just about doing something about those tens of millions of American jobs outsourced to little known businesses and call centers in India.  It’s also about boosting Indian investments in the US, which have grown exponentially over the past few years, creating jobs in towns and cities across America. Obama is also keen to increase the US exports to India, balancing a trade partnership tilted in favor of the rising Asian giant.
So it was only fit that the US delegation clinched more than 20 business deals with Indian companies worth over $10 billion that, as Obama emphasized for the benefit of his audiences back home, will create nearly 50,000 American jobs.
Clearly, this once one-sided economic equation has undergone a dramatic transformation with India now investing back in the world’s largest economy. So the most important and productive business on Obama’s agenda was concluded on the day one of his 3-day visit to the land of Gandhi, who is said to have inspired the first black president.
However, as the leader of the reigning superpower, Obama cannot altogether skirt the hot-button issues and problems in the region. While the US has over the past few years supported India as a counterweight to China, it shares a long and enduring, even if uneasy, relationship with Pakistan. It can’t be held hostage to the US equation with India. 
During this trip, India is sure to push Obama to take a tougher line with Pakistan on militant, pro-Kashmir groups. While Obama may not mind pushing Pakistan, it is unlikely he will take up Islamabad’s concerns on Kashmir with New Delhi. It’s hardly a secret that groups like Lashkar have long exploited the plight of Kashmiris to fill and multiply their ranks and target India.
Over the past few months, political situation in the Kashmir Valley has fast deteriorated with more than a hundred young protesters dying in police firing. So it’s not a bad idea if Obama could help the neighbors talk and resolve this long-festering conflict.