'Goodbyes should be short, really short': APJ Abdul Kalam's advisor documents his last moments

 

 

Indians reacted with shock and sadness on learning that former President APJ Abdul Kalam had passed away while giving a speech at IIM-Shillong. Bharat Ratna, President, scientist and author, Kalam had taken on many roles during his lifetime and everyone had something that they remembered fondly about him.
But even as Twitter and Facebook was flooded with quotes and other memories, an innocuous post by Srijan Pal Singh was perhaps the most insightful into the last days of the former president. Singh, an adviser to Kalam, was on the stage with him in Shillong when he collapsed and was taken to hospital. In a touching post, he documented his memories and interactions with Kalam over the past few weeks. Here are the highlights.


What Kalam spoke about on the way to Shillong
Singh wrote of what Kalam spoke of during his trip to Shillong and not surprisingly it was all about national issues. Singh's post says that Kalam was very worried about the loss of life in the terror strike in Gurdaspur and said "it seems the man made forces are as big a threat to the livability of earth as pollution". The former president was also of the view that mankind may have to leave earth in 30 years and advised Singh that the future generation needed to take better care of it.
He was also worried about Parliament's functioning for the last few days.
"I have seen two different governments in my tenure. I have seen more after that. This disruption just keeps happening. It is not right. I really need to find out a way to ensure that the parliament works on developmental politics," Kalam had said earlier, according to Singh.
In what some would say was a typical Kalam-like plan, the former scientist said he would like to give a surprise assignment for the students of IIM-Shillong at the end of his speech. Kalam said he would ask them for innovative ways to make Parliament more productive.
"Then, after a while he returned on it. 'But how can ask them to give solutions if I don't have any myself'." the former president noted, according to Singh.


'Sir aapke liye toh 6 ghante bhi khade rahenge'
Even on his last trip, Kalam showed why he was a beloved president.
"We were in a convoy of 6-7 cars. Dr. Kalam and I were in the second car. Ahead us was an open gypsy with three soldiers in it. Two of them were sitting on either side and one lean guy was standing atop, holding his gun. One hour into the road journey, Dr. Kalam said, 'Why is he standing? He will get tired. This is like punishment. Can you ask a wireless message to (be) given that he may sit?'" Singh wrote.
Singh said he tried to convince Kalam that the guard had probably been instructed to stand for better security but the former president wouldn't relent. They tried to signal him to sit down and even through radio message but they were unsuccessful.
"Finally, realizing there is little we can do - he told me, 'I want to meet him and thank him'. Later, when we landed in IIM Shillong, I went inquiring through security people and got hold of the standing guy. I took him inside and Dr. Kalam greeted him. He shook his hand, said thank you buddy. 'Are you tired? Would you like something to eat? I am sorry you had to stand so long because of me'. The young lean guard, draped in black cloth, was surprised at the treatment. He lost words, just said, 'Sir, aapke liye to 6 ghante bhi khade rahenge'(for you I would stand even for six hours)," Singh noted.

The last moments
Singh said that Kalam was characteristically enthusiastic about the lecture and never wanted to keep students waiting.
"I quickly set up his mike, briefed on final lecture and took position on the computers. As I pinned his mike, he smiled and said, 'Funny guy! Are you doing well?'
"'Funny guy', when said by Kalam could mean a variety of things, depending on the tone and your own assessment. It could mean, you have done well, you have messed up something, you should listen to him or just that you have been plain naïve or he was just being jovial. Over six years I had learnt to interpret Funny Guy like the back of my palm. This time it was the last case," he wrote.
"'Funny guy! Are you doing well?' he said. I smiled back, 'Yes'. Those were the last words he said. Two minutes into the speech, sitting behind him, I heard a long pause after completing one sentence. I looked at him, he fell down," Singh wrote.
Singh said that they picked up the former President and tried to revive him.
"His hands clenched, curled onto my finger. There was stillness on his face and those wise eyes were motionlessly radiating wisdom. He never said a word. He did not show pain, only purpose was visible. In five minutes we were in the nearest hospital. In another few minutes the they indicated the missile man had flown away, forever. I touched his feet, one last time," Singh wrote.


What Kalam wanted to be remembered for
Singh spoke about a discussion he had with Kalam some time ago about what they would want to be remembered for.
"'First you tell me, what will you like to be remembered for? President, Scientist, Writer, Missile man, India 2020, Target 3 billion.... What?' I thought I had made the question easier by giving options, but he sprang on me a surprise. 'Teacher'", he said.
Singh said that Kalam while discussing his friends, the former president had said that children should take care of their elders but it wasn't taking place always.
'He paused and said, 'Two things. Elders must also do. Never leave wealth at your deathbed - that leaves a fighting family. Second, one is blessed is one can die working, standing tall without any long drawn ailing. Goodbyes should be short, really short'," he noted.
Here's the full Facebook post:
What I will be remembered for.. my memory of the last day with the great Kalam sir...It has been eight hours since we...

How a young child fought off the AIDS virus

 

In 1996, a baby infected with HIV at birth was started on anti-AIDS drugs. But at age 6, against the advice of doctors, her family stopped treatment. Twelve years later, the young French woman is still healthy, with no detectable virus in her blood. Her unusual case, reported today at an international AIDS conference in Vancouver, Canada, may hold clues that might help other HIV-infected people control their infections without antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and offer insights to AIDS vaccine developers.

The case adds a new wrinkle to earlier reports of people who manage to control their HIV infections on their own: the so-called elite controllers, who never receive treatment yet suppress the virus to low levels, and posttreatment controllers like the “Mississippi baby,” who stopped taking ARVs at 18 months of age and remained virus free for more than 2 years. In 2013, many researchers thought that child might have been “cured,” but HIV came back strong after 27 months off treatment.

This time, it’s clear that the French woman is not cured: Investigators have found strong signals of HIV DNA in her immune cells and can readily induce them to produce virus, says Asier Sáez-Cirión, a viral immunologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris who reported on her case. But she is the first documented HIV-infected child to go off treatment and remain in remission for this length of time. “We don’t know why this happened,” Sáez-Cirión says.

Some clues may come from a group of people infected by HIV as adults, known as the VISCONTI cohort, who went off ARVs and did not have the virus return for many years. As Sáez-Cirión and colleagues described in the March 2013 issue of PLOS Pathogens, the adults were diagnosed shortly after they became infected, began ARVs immediately, and stayed on them for an average of 3 years. At the time of that publication, the average person had been off ARVs for 7 years. Sáez-Cirión and co-workers have added the new case to the VISCONTI group, which now has 20 members.

The people in the VISCONTI cohort look strikingly different from elite controllers, the 1% of HIV-infected people who never have high virus levels, even in the first weeks of infection, despite never receiving treatment. Although no single factor explains the unusual ability of elite controllers to rein in HIV, many are genetically predisposed to have high levels of the CD8 lymphocytes that identify and eliminate cells infected with HIV. 
Posttreatment controllers, like the people in VISCONTI, have high virus levels shortly after infection and their immune systems rapidly deteriorate. Paradoxically, many have a genetic background that predisposes them to a weak adaptive immune response to the virus.

Sáez-Cirión thinks they may be receiving help instead from the more primitive and less powerful “innate” immune system that serves as a frontline defense against invaders. The researchers suspect that the innate immune system may be strong enough to contain HIV if people have very small reservoirs of viral DNA. Members of the VISCONTI cohort began treatment so quickly after infection that those reservoirs never got a chance to fill.

Another, somewhat counterintuitive, possibility is that the weak immune response in posttreatment controllers helps limit the size of the reservoir before the drugs are even started. HIV preferentially targets and infects the CD4 white blood cells that help fight infections. A weak CD4 response to the virus means fewer targets for it to infect.

Sáez-Cirión also suggests a third possibility: that some posttreatment controllers happen to be infected with a weaker form of the virus—a mutant resulting from HIV’s error-prone replication.

Anthony Fauci, who heads the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says he’s intrigued by the new French case and how it fits together with the Mississippi child. “There’s something about the immune system of a very young person,” Fauci says. “The Mississippi child was a tickler for us, and I wouldn’t throw it out the window—27 months is a long time. Maybe, somehow, the way that child kept the virus under control is the same as the new case. I have an entirely open mind.”

Dear All,

We want to share that  YES! i am the CHANGE (YIAC) is the Largest Social Film Movement in India with 50,000 participants across1,000 cities and towns across the country. In 2015, a record 5 lakh youth are expected to participate, making it the World’s Largest Social Film Movement.

YES BANK strongly believes in the power of the youth and media to bring about social change. Hence has a special ‘Student Category’ for Campuses, which will be open for participation from 15^th – 19^th August, 2015. This is a wonderful opportunity for Students from your Campus to showcase their creativity and contribute to India’s social development. The participants will need to make a film of 3 minutes duration.

Support Required:

·         Please share maximum number of students details (in the format attached) latest by 2pm, 21^st July 2015

·         From backend we will auto–register these student and a mail confirming their registration will be sent to their e mail ID

·         Once we have auto registered, request you to send a mail from your ID to theses students, encouraging them to participate in World’s Largest Social Film Movement and win prizes

Awards Categories / Awards:

S. No.	Prize Category	Prize
1	Top 5 Films	INR 100,000 per team + Trophy & Certificate
2	6th – 10th  Best Films	INR 25,000 per team + Certificate
3	11th – 20th Best Films	INR 15,000 per team + Certificate

We strongly believe that participation in this initiative would sensitise students towards social causes, enabling them with the mindset to grow as responsible and compassionate citizens.

Social media links for YIAC are appended:

Youtube:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZgRDi_zNw

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/YesFoundation

Twitter:    https://twitter.com/YesFoundationIn?s=08

Request you to disseminate this information amongst the students and encourage participation.

Looking forward for heartfelt cooperation for World’s Largest Social Film Movement in making.

Thanks for your support.

Parents Taking Our Place

Parents Taking Our Place

Majority of moms and dads in the US and India are joining Facebook to give and seek emotional, social and parental advice, a new study suggests.
The Pew study on how parents -- defined as those with children under the age of 18 - use social media found that three-quarters of parents are on Facebook.

As many as 94 per cent of parents in the study said they share, post and comment on the social networking website.

The study also found that mothers tend to use Facebook more than fathers, with 37 per cent of moms checking Facebook "frequently," as compared to only 20 per cent of dads.
A huge 75 per cent parents log on daily, with 51 per cent using social media several times a day. This is more frequent than non-parents, with only 67 per cent checking Facebook daily and 42 per cent checking multiple times a day.

Parents tend to give and receive emotional, social and parental advice on Facebook, researchers said.

As many as 81 per cent parents in the study said they try to respond to good news their friends have shared, while 58 per cent said they respond to bad news, 'siliconbeat.com' reported.

Seventy-four per cent have received support from friends on Facebook, and 45 per cent of mothers who use social media "strongly agree" that they get support from friends, more than double the 22 per cent of fathers who feel the same.

About 79 per cent of parents who use social media have found useful information on Facebook, with more than half finding useful parenting advice, the study found.
 SO BEING SOCIAL IS NOT ALWAYS HARMFUL....

Let us learn from these Pakistanis!

The power of Social media these days cannot be underestimated. What started off as mass circulation of mails and facebook pages creating awareness has extended its outreach by means of Whatsapp messages. Now, these messages that ping us daily are such a vital component of our existence that it is difficult to live without browsing through some of the “ekdum fresh” jokes etc.

I received a message today which talks about how we Indians should take a lesson from Ratan Tata’s true blue kind of attitude towards our country with reference to certain Pakistanis. I’m sure you all would have come across a lot of inspirational quotes from this gentleman and I respect the kind of speeches he gives in colleges. Just like any other message talking about what he has to say, I eagerly browsed through what this message was about.

So, its basically that after the 26/11 attacks on the Taj, Mr. Tata invites tenders for remodeling its structure. The bids that come in also include some from Pakistan. It goes on to say about how Ratan Tata refused their offer by saying, “you could be shameless, I am not.” I don’t know how much truth this statement holds but the author of the message has moulded it in such a way that he is urging readers to take inspiration about how we should have that kind of ‘love’ for our motherland!! It has a very dramatic end saying “Awake countrymen, the nation is above everything else!”

Take a minute to analyse what is being propagated. Just because the attacks were from Pakistan, we will not allow any kind of interaction from any Pakistani who is taking genuine interest in reviving our heritage! Dear Author, I think you are one of those first countrymen who needs some awakening!

From a hard core, irrational patriot’s perspective, this may seem as something which should be applauded and circulated amongst all. But look at this from the point of view of those industrialists… or let me specify “Pakistani” industrialists. They must have obviously thought about the rare chance of their bid being approved because the attacks were also from their country but irrespective of what people would say, they came to India! They were denied a meeting with Ratan Tata after hours of wait at the reception but they enthusiastically went all the way to Delhi only to request for a meeting. Had we Indians been treated in such a way, we would have walked out with the choicest of abuses to be served to that arrogant Head! We would have gone all out against Pakistanis and made such a hue and cry about how rudely we were treated. But for them, mutual co-operation was more important than their egos!!

And by the way, where was the principle of “Atithi devo bhava” that we keep harping about in every incredible India ad?! Is it just meant for select countries from whom we need to extract some advantages? Is the Indian ego bigger than this statement that is part of our rich legacy?? Debatable!!

Its so strange that on one hand we talk about becoming a superpower in the next decade and on the other hand hold such prejudices in our minds. This is not love and respect for the motherland! Why, we don’t even get up with 100% pride to sing the national anthem in cinema theatres! Till such time these kind of ideas and notions persist in our society it is very difficult to progress. We might as well progress materially but that is not what we want our future to be.

Indians, Pakistanis, Americans, Jews, Muslims, Dalits and all of us sharing this tiny planet are humans at our heart, after all! Why should someone’s nationality or religion make us think in wrong light about them? We talk about concepts like globalism and international relations and let us include Aman ki Asha also for that matter…. This eutopia will remain in black and white forever if we don’t practice what we preach! If we do have the “Asha” to establish peace, let us not sit hand on hand waiting for the governments to launch various other such fancy campaigns… Let us change our mindset, let us just intend that we shall look at the world through a broader perspective, through a rational perspective and not blindly get flown along with the crowd. 

Just a mindset change and believe me, we shall be halfway through!!!

come.. lets be LOST..

             

                LETS BE LOST…

Sometimes you just need to be lost..

Embrace on your parts, humble with the air of freedom 

calling.  

Out of all stress, leaving worries ashore.

Combine with the crowd, be one amongst them.

Live  like there’s nobody watching, wave like nobody cares,

 stretch and shine like its worth living for self.

Cheer, enjoy, laugh… just forget and live to the fullest.

Not keeping a watch, no count kept ,

Just BE LOST!!!

         DEATH BY SOCIAL MEDIA

  Facebook, Twitter, et al, once considered super effective ways to build brands, are now at te forefront of bringing them down.

CASE STUDY 1

  Devorise Dixon, an American citizen, claims he was served a deep fried rat instead of chicken at a California KFC outlet. He posts a picture on Facebook that goes viral across the globe. KFC denies the allegations, says it looks like a hoax.

   A DNA test confirms the product was chicken and the incident was a hoax. KFC asks Dixon to apologize. Even KFC’s “fried rat” finally turned out to be a canard, for a good 10 days the brand was roasted on social media. But think of the damage done to the Brand’s Equity.

   “Social Media has always been a word of mouth medium, and where there is a word of mouth there are half truths and hoaxes”, says Rajiv Dingra, Founder& CEO of WAT Consultant, a digital and social media agency.

CASE STUDY 2

  UPFDA (Uttar Pradesh Food and Drug Administration) finds traces of lead and high percentage of MSG in samples of Maggi. The brand denies all allegations, says it’s safe for consumption.

  Rumors of Maggi recall flood social media. The Brand denies the allegations, says its safe for consumption. Nestle also conducts tests but no excess lead in Maggi.

  On June 5, Maggi is taken off the shelf but the brand still maintains that it is ‘safe’. Social Media is where it takes only one person to call your bluff. So its best to be honest. If you know you have messed up, its best o acknowledge, accept and apologize.

  Brands it seems are learning the hard way to deal with social media.

  

Mocktale: JEE topper to skip IIT to pursue his dreams  

The results for IIT JEE (Advanced), the gateway to India's premier engineering institutes, were declared yesterday. 26,456 out of the 1,17,238 candidates who took the exam cleared it. Things turned interesting when this year's topper announced that he might skip IIT to pursue his dreams. Our Mocktale reporter spoke to him to know how he arrived at this decision.

"Going to an IIT is no more a cool thing. A lot of people like Chetan Bhagat change careers after graduating from IIT to become a novelist, motivational speaker, scriptwriter and a dance show judge. Though, it is also true that he is equally bad at all of them," he said, making no efforts to mince his words.

On being asked why he opted to take the exam in the first place, he said, "My parents started sending me to coaching classes for JEE when I was in kindergarten. I had to kill my hobbies and interests so that I could devote more time to JEE preparation. They always kept saying that if I clear JEE, I can lead a comfortable life in future. I figured out that was a big fat lie and they had said the same thing after class 10th and 12th exam."

He went on and said, "All the girls I have a crush on talk to me only when they need help with a math problem. People all over the world get friendzoned, while I get mathzoned."

He shared his future plans and added, "I am going to travel all over the world and share photos on Facebook and amass 'likes' while my friends slog it out at college. Also, since I am not going to IIT, I am sure I will turn into a likeable and sociable person."
We also talked to his parents and they said, "If he skips IIT, how will I brag in front of my relatives that he is a prodigy. Also, skipping IIT will lessen the chances of getting a huge dowry. So, there is no way he is not going to an IIT." 

Rehab program for people who missed Chris Martin's gig

Friends, after the previous article, I just came across this...

Rehab program for people who missed Chris Martin's gig  Shashank Tiwari | Jul 3, 2015, 01.36 PM IST

People of Delhi were recently left disappointed and surprisingly it had nothing to do with the Aam Aadmi Party. Chris Martin, lead singer of popular band Coldplay, paid a secret visit to the bar in Delhi and played an impromptu acoustic set.

As soon as the news spread, people cursed their luck and displayed their frustration on social media. Even guys who had never heard of Coldplay jumped on the bandwagon to garner attention. To restore normalcy, Delhi government is working on a rehabilitation program for the heartbroken fans.

"If the Aam Aadmi Party is really so concerned about the welfare of the common man, why was not anyone informed about the Chris Martin gig. Every time there is a stupid dharna or some rally, it is publicized through TV, radio and newspaper. But not a word was let out about Chris Martin's performance," said an ardent Coldplay fan who had to be rushed to the nearest rehab centre.

Another heartbroken fan who shared his favorite Coldplay song with us said, "You know that song about the death of a parrot which goes like, "parrot parrot parrot dies" gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it." It took our Mocktale reporter a while to figure out that he was talking about the song "Paradise."

The rehab program will try to fix people who have gone almost crazy by repeatedly playing Coldplay's famous song "Fix you."

Chris Martin was impressed to find out that he had so many fans in India and said every one should buy tickets for his next show to watch him perform. People of Delhi including die-hard Coldplay fans who have become so accustomed to free stuff under Kejriwal's government showed no interest in the news.    

Excuse me but aren't you...? [Click To Enlarge]

Jul 05 2015 : The Times of India (NaviMumbai)

WHY SO SER1OUS - Excuse me but aren't you...?

Vikramjit Singh(The writer is a stand-up comedian )





New Yorkers often talk of how often they enter a coffee shop and spot people like Woody Allen working casually . Or an A-list Hollywood star joining a street performer. Things like that don't happen in India. We hardly ever see celebrities in their natural habitat. 

We don't go to Juhu beach and spot Amitabh Bachchan enjoying a gola. Which is great for Amitabh Bachchan, because otherwise, he'd have to answer a lot of questions. “Sir, how to get so tall, sir? Bless my son, sir“ “Sir, do you and Abhishek Sir and Aishwarya mam sing Kajra Re everyday? Tell na, please“ everyday? Tell na, please“ You get the drift.

Even so, a great thing happened at a Delhi bar last Wednesday . Chris Martin, the lead vocalist of British band Coldplay , performed for about 50 unsuspecting listeners on a whim, making them the most hated people in the country . The crowd grooved to acoustic versions of Coldplay's greatest hits, while the bar owner grooved to the sound of free publicity .
 Delhi people who weren't there cried at the missed opportunity of a selfie and a facebook checkin.
Bombay people who weren't there cried at something cool happening in Delhi, “of all places“.
  Bangalore people who weren't there were, umm, okay: they've never been anywhere post 11pm.

City clichés apart, it surely was a sign of changing times that so much noise was made in India over international music.Because otherwise, our countrymen have the endearing quality of walking up to a dubstep DJ and going “BHAI BOLLYWOOD BAJA NA!“ More importantly , the fact that there have been no reports yet of a Delhi guy going “Perform at my farmhouse, Chris, I pay double. Otherwise I shoot“, tells us that we might finally be learning how to behave with famous people. Because traditionally , we never have. We could be anyone, but show us a celebrity and we go crazy .

I remember this time I was stuck at Hyderabad airport after a delayed flight and I heard some typically angry comments. “ Airline sucks. Airport sucks. Government sucks. Country sucks. You suck.“ Until someone saw a familiar face and shouted “OH MY GOD, LOOK! RAJPAL YADAV!!“ and the delayed flight became the best thing to have happened to everyone there. No celebrity is ever too irrelevant to get excited about.
But this whole Chris Martin episode sets such a good precedent. The bar has been raised. Now if I don't see important people in unexpected places, I'll be very disappointed. Like, politicians in the parliament throughout the entire session. Or, Virat Kohli in a Vipassana course.So cute! I dare you not to go `Aww' in a squeaky voice, even if you're the most macho bouncer in a Gurgaon pub.

And I hope this pleasure isn't restricted to just a certain strata of the Twitter-ized, bar hopping, iPhone owning strata of the society . We've got to let the benefits seep down to the deepest levels. I look forward to the day autowallahs and migrant labourers call for a strike because they just found Altaf Raja singing at a chai stall. Never mind the awkwardness Bangladeshi workers would feel on hearing `Tum toh tthehre pardesi'. It'll be a great vibe, and I hope we become the kind of country where people break into unexpected jigs and states of trance at will.

Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

An Insight

   L.I.F.E 

To the birds it is the sky, 

To the flowers blooming each day, it is the brisk glimmer of the sun.To the butterfly, it is the nectar of the blossoms.And to humans it is the horror of the future, stress of the present and depression of the past.

Would have been better if humans rather flied high in the sky like the birds and taste heavy winds.  And with each wave of the air let the horror of the future fade.

If humans were like flowers blooming everyday with the glimmer of the sun, merrily spreading bountiness.  If so, the stress of the present would on its own whisk away.

For the nectar is happiness to the butterflies. If only humans would have been satisfied by the fruit they bear, the fate that awaits. The depression of the past would be taken away.

If so things happen this way,

WONT THE WORLD BE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN??

Life has no meaning; it’s rather an opportunity to create one!!

Let’s design our own meaning of life…. Our way!!

IAS Officer Smita Sabharwal Sends Legal Notice To Outlook For Sexist Article Calling Her 'Eye Candy'

NEW DELHI — A woman IAS officer, one of the youngest to have cracked the tough civil services exam in 2001, has sent a legal notice to a weekly news magazine for a blatantly sexist article that described her as 'eye candy'.

Smita Sabharwal has also called the article "distasteful, cheap and titillating” in the notice sent to the Outlook magazine which in a recent write-up titled 'No Boring Babu'said the IAS officer made "a fas­h­ion sta­tement with her lovely saris and serves as eye candy at meetings."

Sabharwal had secured the all-India 4th rank in the Union Public Service Commission exams.

The writer reportedly spoke to “leading party politicians” who “admitted” that Sabharwal served as “eye candy at meetings”. But now Outlook has some major damage control to do.

The five page legal notice has been sent to editor-in-chief Krishna Prasad and Hyderabad-based assistant editor Madhavi Tata asking the magazine for a detailed apology. The magazine has been given a 15-day period to act, failing which Sabharwal has threatened to file a criminal and civil suit against it.

The notice alleged that Outlook has "deliberately played mischief by implying that Sabarwal's portfolio was a mystery.”

"Sabarwal's hard work, dedication and her excellence at her chosen profession are washed away by the mere fact of her being an attractive, young and successful woman who has also accomplished quite a lot professionally, owing to her dedication and perseverance,” says the notice.

The notice says that the Sabharwal was "extremely disturbed" by the article.

The IAS officer, however, has scored major points with women on social media for taking a stand against everyday sexism at the workplace.