Ramu Langur - the Monkey Chaser

Such a human look !

Super Moonset over GLA

Logos That I Like and Some That I Do Not Like

Busy Busy ---- transporting Delhiites hither and thither

Operation Flood, the eye-catching drop encasing a promise of health and nutrition - yet open-ended

Analog and digital - exudes sheer elegance

Subtle yet classy - a promise of unparalleled quality

The "S" that changed the Indian motoring scene

Those funky days of the cassette player

Carried on the Congress-cleansing after the Jansangh deepak. The pristine lotus blood in the mire of Indian politics

Power and speed. Poised for a take-off

The "W" formed by four fingers of the left hand over the guitar. the one-legged dove!

***

Don't like

A bag of creepy-crawly earthworms - too complicated for a logo

Lousy logo for the otherwise excellent Delhi Metro

Dated, dullsville. Too many letters

Table Mat

Dasiy Mae - Learning to Chew the Cud

Ruminating

Cogitating

Brooding

Musing

Contemplating

Deliberating

Quality Control is our Motto

Nature's Spendour

Green Leaves, Yellow Flowers, Blue Skies

Thank You Appachetty for the Perfect Fried Egg

Fizzzz Splutter

Drool

My Response

Squirrel - Mating Call and a Controversy


A couple of guys are going ballistic over the name of this furry little mammal in response to a video I posted on YouTube.

My response

Cure for Cancer

My reply to:

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-cure-for-cancer-so-elusive/answer/Siddhartha-Lal

Siddharth, well written indeed and deeply researched.

I have a more cynical take on this.

Why talk of a cure for cancer when we cannot treat diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, schizophrenia, dengue, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis etc? The ‘common’ cold still defies us – the three to four miserable days of sniffling, alternate runny and blocked nose, malaise, lack of sympathy knocks most of us out at least twice a year. Flu pandemics have wiped out large sections of the populace.

However, cancer connotes a fearsome disease and thus a cure for it has to be found.

We have managed to eradicate small pox and could have claimed equal success with polio but for a few recalcitrant and regressive nations. However, falciparum malaria has developed resistance to various anti-malarials as has tuberculosis against antibiotics. This scenario is due to an administrative or Public Health failure to implement proper protocols of prescribing by health-care professionals.

Remarkable progress has been made in surgery and orthopaedics. However, for most diseases, all that we can offer are some drugs to control the disease or alleviate some distressing symptoms – a radical cure is not possible even in the foreseeable future. Moreover, most treatments have adverse effects and, as in the case of cancer, the side-effects of the treatment (be it radio- or chemo-therapy) are worse than the disease itself.

To cure a disease, we have to know the cause of the malady. Malaria is caused by Plasmodium vivax – protozoon that is transmitted by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. It can be treated by taking a suitable course of chloroquine.

Just as we do not know what is the first step in the cascade of events that leads to the development of high blood pressure, similarly we do not know what was the precise cause that led a cell to mutate and start proliferating uncontrollably.

Was it a photon of UV light that turned a skin cell melanomatous? Was it ionizing radiation, industrial pollution, a pesticide molecule, some chemical from cigarette smoke? Was it “karma”, mental or spiritual stress? Was it an imbalance of वायु-पित्त-कफ़ (for Indians) or yin-yang (for Chinese)? Was it a lifestyle induced (obesity, sedentary habits) or due to poor oral or genital hygiene? Finally, how do we explain cancers in infants?

The human papilloma virus has been implicated in cervical cancer so a vaccine has been developed to prevent this cancer. Would it not be simpler just to have safer sexual practices?

A human is not just a conglomeration of cells or organs. There are billions of minuscule critters dwelling on our skin and coating our intestines, genitalia, nose and lungs. These range from fungi, mites, lice, round worms, amoebae, bacteria and viruses. Like all living things they ingest, excrete, respire (both aerobically as well as anaerobically), multiply (thankfully most do not copulate or we all would be quivering masses of orgasms). So, to put it flippantly, in essence, we are also made up of bacterial poop, pee and farts. This ‘biome’ makes each of us a unique individual – each reacting to our environment in a unique manner.

At  http://hmpdacc.org/ metagenomics (which provides a broad genetic perspective on a single microbial community), as well as extensive whole genome sequencing (which provides a "deep" genetic perspective on certain aspects of a given microbial community, i.e. of individual bacterial species) should provide some answers for the cause and cure of some intractable diseases.

We have not even touched upon the roles of the psyche, spirit, आत्मा in the genesis and cure of diseases.

So have I obfuscated the issue adequately?

Twitter

Tweeting away the moments  that make up a dull day
Twitter and waste the hours in an off-hand way

- with apologies to Pink Floyd's Time

Kindle Unlimited in India - Quite a Joke Mr Bezos!

Amazon launched Kindle Unlimited promising free books for a monthly subscription.

But the choice of books is rather limited. Most of them are those self-improvement manuals that can be purchased by the kilo at Daryaganj. 

On searching for 'Jeeves' I found a questionable book called 'What Ho Jeeves by Ephraim Gadsby', which turned out to be a tribute to PG Wodehouse. The real 'What Ho Jeeves by Wodehouse' costs Rs 606 for Kindle.

Good books have to be paid for, just trash is for free on this much hyped Kindle Unlimited.

Waiting for Appachetty

 What is this?

The map of India with the North guillotined? Gujarat flowing amoeba-like into Rajasthan, MP and Odisha? South India flattened by a gigantic elephant squatting on it?

Or an egg fried by Salvador Dali (a la his drooping clocks) high on marijuana?

जो भी है बहुत yummy है।

Lust and Greed

A tale as old as humanity - from cave men, ancient Egyptians, Greeks, the age of Mahabharata to the lascivious and sordid details of the Sheena - a tale of lust and greed.

These two human traits led to the development of civilization. Empires were created, conquered or gambled away.

So why such a hullabaloo over some girl's murder?