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12 Jul

A day at HH desk at Baptist Hospital

The baby Adreet Dutta is three months old, suffering from severe seizures (fits). Parents are from West Bengal and are very much worried.  They wanted the infant to be cured, come what may, after so many trial at Kolkata. So, came to NIMHANS and the initial treatment was done. Referred the infant to get admitted in a pediatric Neurology Ward available in a children’s hospital.

Ran to that hospital and then to B’lore Baptist hospital. Soon pediatric doctors took very good care of the infant but in view of irreversibility of the condition the doctors referred the patient to the palliative care.

So on discussion and advice parents decided to take the child back to Kolkata. But, on one condition that the child has to be on oxygen during the travel. So the option was to travel by train as the option of air travel was too expensive. They did not know how to go about the train journey in the short notice.

At this juncture the empathetic and kind hearted  Dr. Amy of palliative care and her team came to volunteers help desk and made an enquiry for “any assistance” . One of  HH volunteers listened to the plight and started working on this.

First this volunteer remembered and called his close friend at PMO’s office in Delhi and explained the predicament. That friend immediately spoke to the top executives at Bengaluru Railway office (Commercial Department) and explained the situation and requested for help.

Soon this volunteer arranged the transport and accompanied the child’s father to the Railway office knowing that the child’s father did not know the local language. There he met the concerned officers and explained. The kind authorities arranged the special quota (emergency) for the child to travel to Kolkata with the oxygen and medical papers. The journey ticket and a coupe was also organized. This volunteer ran around and helped at every step and arranged for the family to make the journey back home . This brought a sigh of relief to the parents. It was learnt soon after that this family reached their home safely. God has his own ways

This volunteer after retirement from a senior position in the Central govt. department and joined Banjara Academy. He serves as a volunteer at the Helping Hand desk in Baptist hospital 2 days a week and also assists in the blood bank office He is none other than  SOMSHEKAR. Wishing him all the best. – HH Vol- N. Ramaswamy

Banjara Academy

 

Every baby and small child has an innate desire and curiosity to explore, learn and acquire skills. 

Adults find it so difficult to hold back toddlers who wish to move around all over the place and investigate everything within their reach. They use all their senses to see, listen, touch, taste & smell whatever they come across.

As the child grows older, he is sent to school to get ‘educated’, but all his motivation and desire to learn reduces.  He then has to be forced to listen to the teacher, take notes, do calculations, complete his homework, and ‘mug up’ for exams. Is it the fault of the student, or is it the fault of all of us adults who kill the curiosity and the joy of learning?

Instead of blaming the system or authorities, each one of us can, and should, do our bit to rekindle the spark of learning in any child we interact with, and send him off on a path of growth to become a capable adult.

It’s not difficult.

Careers and Studies:

Find out your most suitable learning style: 

Each one of us is unique, and the best method that suits our study should be determined by trial and error, till we are satisfied.  Check out if any or many of these techniques give you better learning and retention:

  1. Sitting in one place and reading, or standing, walking around, moving place of study every few minutes, or even lying down.
  2. Writing as you read, either in a notebook, small flip-cards, or on a black/white board that you can keep in your room.
  3. Reading mainly from the notes instead of the main text book, and referring to the text book periodically.
  4. Reading aloud to yourself, or even reading out to a friend or parent.
  5. Highlighting or underlining with a pencil the important passages or definitions.
  6. Closing the book once every 5, 10 or 20 minutes and recalling what you have read (or even writing down in point-form)
  7. Playing soft music when you read
  8. Reading one subject continuously for hours vs. shifting periodically from one subject to another.

 

Case Study

Rohini has been a good student and managed 10.0 CGPA in her 10th standard CBSE.  However she did not like science too much (though she enjoyed Math), and took up Commerce at the +2 level.  Her parents were not too happy with it as everyone in their family were engineering, doctors etc and they felt that science students have better careers than commerce students.

As an after-thought Rohini’s parents asked her to enroll for the Common Proficiency Test (CPT) which is the first step to becoming a Chartered Account.  Again it was entirely in the belief that CA’s are the most respectable professionals in commerce.  Rohini appeared for CPT but missed clearing it by a few marks.  Her parents again coaxed her to re-appear, and in the second attempt she succeeded!

Rohini is not interested in becoming a CA, but did not know how to convince her parents.  Finally she went in for an Aptitude test.  The result was that she is a people-oriented person and would be much happier in areas of applied finance, not pure accounting.  The report mentioned many careers that have commerce as a base but which involve understanding and dealing with people.  The family started looking up details of the careers highlighted in the report, and were pleasantly surprised to see very interesting and exciting options open for their child.  Rohini is now happily doing her B.Com, getting fairly good marks.  She has also taken up a couple of on-line courses suggested by her counselor to enhance her skills in the fields she is considering as her final career.

A famous writer once said: “We Indians are only focused on weddings, but do not give any significance to marriage”.

I look around and find people doing everything to arrange the grandest weddings, but hardly spending any time or effort on helping the couple understand how they can make their married life harmonious.

When two people of opposite gender, having had different upbringing, education, relationships and attitudes, come together to share such an intimate relationship (and even bring up children together), don’t they require to plan, prepare, look into possible hurdles, and learn how to build a strong and loving relationship – which may last more than half a century ?

There is so much that can be done on working out all issues of the marital relationship in advance, the way we work out careers, homes, finances or health. Wish we start working on this crucial issue. 

Generally we are contented with the way our days are going and can deal with minor issues without much discomfort.

But sometimes life throws up unexpected challenges at you. Circumstances change, fortunes go up and down, luck favors or abandons you, and you face intense happy or sad situations. Sometimes you have no control of what is happening, and you do your best to overcome the hurdles or setbacks.  When faced with very difficult times, one thing becomes clear – you get to know who your true friends are, and who will give you unconditional support. 

Hope Diwali brings brighter days in your life.