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In servicsince 1992 / Probuzz…Monthly News Letter from
Probus Club of Chennai
(Sponsored by Rotary Club of Madras )
Registered under T N Registration of Societies Act 1975 (148 of 2004)
An Association of Retired Professionals, Businessmen, Govt Servants and Others.
K46, Anna Nagar East Chennai-102. Ph:26216767
Vol 19 No 12 April 2009
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1.0The First Column
From the President
Dear Probians,
Happy New Year.
I hereby extend my greetings to one and all Probians and thank one and all for entrusting to me the task of running the Office of Presidentship of the Club.
I am sure that with your good wishes and cooperation, we will be able to take the Probus Club to new heights.
The month of March, very special for us, which enabled us to celebrate the International Womens Day on the
9th of March, jointly with the Russian Centre for Science and Culture. We thank Mr. S. I. Simakov, Director, Russian Centre for giving all the facilities to us for conducting the meetings at their Auditorium.
Kalaimamani Dr. (Mrs.) Sarada Nambi Arooran, State Information Commissioner, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, was the Chief Guest and she lauded the activities of our Club for its social activity, including in the field of education by creating a separate Trust for the education of poor children.
Dr. (Miss.) Kousalya Devi, Managing Trustee, Gandhigram Trust, was presented with the Probus Award of Excellence for her valuable services in spreading Gandhian philosophy and promotion of rural health.
Dr. Balambal, our Past President, also was presented with the Probus Recognition award for her proud achievements at National and International levels.
This resounding success of the event was possible because of the dynamic leadership of Probn T. T. Srinivasa-murthy our Past President and his hard-working team.
My special thanks to all the partici-pants, volunteers and others who gave the full support for the success of the event.
We have ambitious plans to take up many projects in the month of April 2009. Master Health Check-up for the Senior Citizens is one of the desirous objects of the Club. We have approached the R.M.O. of the General Hospital, Prof. K. Narayanaswamy, for providing facilities for this compre-hensive Health Check-up at the General Hospital, at a near 40% concessional rate of Rs. 150/- per head. We hope our Members will participate in the event in large numbers and bring as many senior citizens as possible to make it our Health Care Project.
There is also going to be a Seminar
on the 26th April 2009, “SENIORS’ HEALTH CARE”. Our Secretary will give full details of the participant- speakers. This will be the main event for the month of April 2009.
A special mention I desire to make is that our educational project is gathering momentum with more and more members coming forward to donate generously; funds for educating poor children and for which we are forming a separate Trust.
Regarding Membership, I am very
happy that membership growth is ever increasing bringing quality members. This augurs well for the future of our Club.
Yours Sincerely,
S. Krishnaram Davey
President
11-4-2009.
Hail our Hefty Helping Hands!
Probus Scholarship Scheme:
Donors of Rs. 10,000 and more:
1. Shri Charan Kumar … Rs. 10,000
3168, Yattica place Longwood,
Florida, FL 32779, USA
(Through Probn V. Sreenivas,
EC Member)
2. Sri Vel Kannan, MBA … Rs. 10,000
Panal Pina China Ltd.
ATL Logistics Centre, (Top Floor)
Berth 3, Kwai Chung Container
Terminal, Hongkong
(S/o. Sri S. M. Chellaswamy,
Gen. Secretary, Federation of
Sr. Citizens Associations of
Tamil Nadu )
Total … Rs. 20,000
Note:Thank you for the handsome donations. Once you donate Rs. 10,000/- (and above), its interest will go to educate a deserving poor child from Std. VI to Plus two. Your name will be associated with the scholarship. You will be provided with full details of the child you are educating.
NATURE IS OUR TEACHER
To spoil the food, ways are numerous,
Thereby people make it delicious;
Rich ones make them ostentatious,
But Alas! All these are erroneous.
NATURAL FOOD is easily digestible,
Cooked foods make us lamentable;
The boiled food is destructible,
Only God given good is indispensable.
Natural foods as such have life,
Can give you long healthy life;
Other foods will act like a knife,
And you may need surgeon’s knife.
For eyes, ideal light is natural light,
Artificial lights harmful for sight;
Natural air current is right,
Conditioned air leads to plight.
Observe Nature’s every feature,
Make Nature your Teacher;
Let it be your excellent preacher,
Lest, there will be disaster.
By Dr. C. S. Raju
Courtesy:‘Natural Health’ by
Dr.C.S.Raju, B.Sc.,B.E.,FIE,PGDPM,Ph.D. Former General Manager, Neyveli.,Phone No.:(044) 2486 5858
(A sane advice on ‘World Health Day’–Ed.)
2.0Editor’s space
HEALTH FOR ALL – IN THIS CENTURY’S END!
“Save lives: make hospitals safe in emergencies”.—WHO theme 2009.
The title will raise a few eye brows, as all of the present day – Seniors will not live to see that day!
In our younger days, a ‘Vedavakyam’ (sacrosanct word) was “Health is Wealth”. But, a day has come now when we wonder whether the reverse is more relevant at our late age.
This brings to my mind, what I heard in my school days; when our comrades (communists in then princely states, now in Kerala) promised a piece of land, about 4½ cents or so, absolutely free to every landless citizen when the party comes to power. But how? Simple... “Rob Peter to pay Paul”.
I confess, still, this appealed to me too as my father could not afford to buy even a square inch of land then. Of course, the comrades have had a few good innings, most of the them are land lords (barring a golden exception of a few, whom I still respect for their uprightness). In the euphoria of power, promises were conveniently forgotten and went the way of BHOODAN YAGNA, promoted by Sri Vinoba Bhave, a saintly person of our times. This is just to emphasis the fact the proposition is much more difficult as HEALTH is not a commodity.
The idea is a laudable one, a day came when the world populace established an organisation, in 1948, known now as World Health organisation for attainment of highest possible level of health by all people. 7th April is the day on which the WHO was established. This day is being widely observed as WORLD HEALTH DAY. Every year, a theme is selected for implementation during the year, throughout the world: besides promotion of Good Health with requisite infrastructure, to support.
This year the “World Health Day” creates an awareness of the urgency of planning and implementation of certain measures to tackle certain ‘medical emergencies’. So it addresses the medical emergencies related to acts of God like Tsumani and acts of man like Terrorism. Besides the above, the WHO is monitoring the status of its earlier recommendations to its member-nations: especially General health of people.
What is health? AROGYAM, in Sanskrit, means a status of absence of illness. It appears that the word HEALTH is derived from Heal.
Age-old ‘healing traditions’ of India and China, dating as far back as 5000 years, stressed on adoption of a HEALTHY WAY OF LIVING IN HARMONY WITH NATURE.
As regards Western medical traditions, in the 4th century BC, Socrates warned against treating one part of the body alone and said thus:
“The part cannot be well, unless the WHOLE IS WELL”.
Jan Christian Smuts, in 1926, coined the word “Wholism” (spelt as ‘Holism’). It was a concept of viewing living things as “entities greater than and different from the sum of their parts”. However, the word ‘Holistic’ came in common usage only since 1970’s, especially in healthcare.
As human beings, we are made up of separ- ate PARTS or ASPECTS, such as Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual. Remarka- bly, these parts do not function in isolation; on the contrary they CONSTANTLY INTERACT. This reminds me of a story I read recently (Malayala Manorama Weekly of March 2009).
A workholic and rich man always felt ‘run down’ most of the time. So he went to consult a doctor. The doctor after an elaborate and careful physical examination of the patient, found nothing wrong. After a brief chat with the patient, the doctor scribbled on his prescription pad “Advised to spend half an hour daily in a cemetery (grave yard). The patient aghast asked the doctor to elucidate as it could not make any sense to him. The doctor calmly added “There you will be in close communion with several of those like you who died (now lie buried there) under the same circums- tances. Hard work does not kill but the killer is the in-built anxiety undergone. WEALTH IS NOT HEALTH. What you require now is a time for your mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
Allot some time, regularly, for yourself; to gain ‘holistic health’ and enjoy ‘Natural health’ (without medication)”.
Now what is ‘Natural Health’? All of us are part of the world around us and consis- tently responding to our surrounding environment. The earth is made of air, land, water, plants and animals. For a good NATURAL HEALTH, live as close to MOTHER NATURE as practicable IN THE WAY SHE DESIGNED YOUR SYSTEM – WHICH IS SELF-HEALING AND SELF-SUSTAINABLE (with reasonable care on the part of the individual). A scientific report which appeared recently is a revelation. Here it is:
US Centre of Disease Control and Prevention reports that the key factor, influencing the status of health of an individual’s status of health, has not changed significantly in the past two decades. Further, according scientific studies made by the Centre show
1. Medical care is only 10%. 2. Heredity accounts for 18%. 3. Environment 19%. and 4. EVERY-DAY LIFE STYLE CHOICES & CULTIVATED HABITS 53%. Notably our LIFESTYLE AND CULTIVATED HABITS (Item 4) is the largest determinant of WELLNESS. The choice of MAKING or MARRING our wellness or health is our own.
By now, it is clear that a good health is not a state of absence of illness; on the other hand, it is an on-going process of a conscious balanced-living addressing the way of ‘Natural living’.
A good health, like education, is neither CHORAHAARYAM (theft by thieves) nor RAAJAHAARYAM (theft by King (Government) as tax). Majority of the illnesses and premature deaths are now being traced to LIFE-STYLE-CHOICES. Notably, part played by Medical Care or Medical shield, Modern or ancient, is mostly insignificant; in the Healthcare system.
Very often, our Modern Medical Education and Medical Practice is criticized as more focused on cure of the symptoms rather than the basic cause of the melody. This trend is changing for the good with move emphasis on prevention and rehabilitation of the patients on recovery from illness. The medical fraternity is also waking up to the fact that there is NO PILL FOR EVERY ILL. However, there are some ‘disturbing trends’ in our Medicare, both in Modern or Alternative Medicines.
No doubt, Scientific advances in Medicare systems have increased the longevity of man. But with declaration of HEALTHCARE as an industry and encouragement of MEDICAL TOURISM by the Governments, MEDICARE has become more expensive, even beyond the reach middle class people. This problem is further compounded by deliberate inclusion of in-built ambiguities in Health Insurance Policies, now available, throwing the elderly population in a tail-spin. The need of the hour is a tangible solution to the unethical practice of ‘Padding’ the medi- cal bills with unnecessary branded drugs and procedures. How? When?.
With the unethical practices, going uncheck- ed; “Health for all” slogan will remain at best a wishful thinking! Let us remember our wise forefathers, whose philosophy was to ‘Hope for the best and submit to the inevitable stoically. Here is an oft-chanted prayer, at bed-time daily, in Sanskrit.
“Aanayasena maranena vinadenena Jeevitham
Anarjitha Govinda, dehime Madhu-sudhana, dehime Madhusudhana”.
The prayer is to pray to God to give life that is without dependence on others at any time and the inevitable – a death without pain to SELF OR TO OTHERS.
On this WORLD HEALTH DAY, let us wish each other thus: MAY NOBLE THOUGHTS COME TO US FROM EVERYSIDE & MAY WE ALL BE WELL, PHYSICALLY, MEN- TALLY, EMOTIONALLY & SPIRITUALLY.
Reference:
1. SANKALP, Souvenir 2008, published by Samyuktha Saraswat Foundation, Secunderabad, -500 026. Ph.:(040) 2770 2080
2. Article ‘Holistic Health’ by Padmaji, published in YAGNA BHOOMI by Suddhananda Tapovanam (Tapasvini Trust), Guthavaripalem Village, Kadavedu Post, Gudur Taluk, Nellore District, Andhra Pradesh, PIN 524 410.
Phone No.: (08624) 255388 / 399
E-mail:
3.‘Natural Health’ by Dr. C. S. Raju, B.Sc., B.E., FIE, PGDPM, Ph.D., Price Rs. 90/- plus postage etc. Pages 136. Published by Sri Sai Publishers, Plot 116, Rajagopalan Street, Devi Karumariamman Nagar, Valsara-vakkam, Chennai-600 087. Phone No.:(044) 2486 5858
E-mail:
3.0Events and Activities
3.1 International Women’s Day cele-brations, jointly with Russian Centre of Science and Culture,
at 3.30 p.m. on 9-3-2009, Chennai-18.
Soon after a high-tea, celebrations started with cultural activities SHAKTHI MALAI, by an all-women troupe lasting for about half an hour. Uniquely, it started with an invocation song by Krupa and Kruthi, two students and sisters, well-known to the probians (Please see review of this event in
para 5 of this issue – Ed.).