NARA'S NOTEPAD
VOLUME 17
JANUARY 2021
NUMBER 1
Friday, January 1, 2021
SPONSOR
Prof. S. Thamburaj Ph.D.
Former
Dean, Faculty of Horticulture, TNAU, Coimbatore
11, Vaiyapuri Illam, Sabapathy Road, Saibaba Colony, Coimbatore 641 038,
ph. 96007 39443
2021 - THE YEAR OF VACCINATION
Last
year – 2020 was the year of coronavirus spread. Due to the spread, millions of
human beings died all over the world. People were helpless and afraid of the deadly
virus. Everyone was cautious and protected themselves with face-masks, social
distancing, and washing hands often. Still, the fear of infection is in the
minds of people. We all know that every country in the world was affected. The
Heads of States were after the biologists to find a solution. Since it is a
virus the only way is to invent a vaccine and testing it at three levels to
make sure that the vaccine is safe for mass vaccination.
Therefore
many Pharma companies came forward to concentrate on finding a suitable
vaccine. Some scientists said that it may take two to three years to bring out
a vaccine that can be confirmed and used for vaccinating the world population.
Few of the organizations proposed vaccines like Sputnik V (Russia), Oxford University
AstraZeneca vaccine (UK), Pfizer BisNtech vaccine (USA), and Moderna vaccine
(USA). These vaccines varied in their efficiencies from 79% to 90%. But the
Pfizer BioNtech claimed 100% efficiency.
Moreover,
to produce a suitable vaccine is not easy. The efficiency, the side effects,
duration of effectiveness, storage temperature and shelf-life under various
temperatures are some of the crucial factors to be worked out meticulously.
Then only the World Health Organization (WHO) and other National Certifying
Agencies will certify that these vaccines can be used on human beings. Vaccines
are known for the eradication of smallpox, tetanus, and measles-like diseases.
In fact, vaccines are a way of artificially activating the immune system to
protect us against infectious diseases. Vaccines contain a microorganism or
virus in a weakened, live, or killed state. They may also contain proteins or
toxins from the organism. This minor doze teaches our immune system to
recognize and fight specific germs so that when we are exposed to them, we are
at a much lower risk of getting sick. Most vaccines are given by injection as
they are not absorbed reliably through the intestines. Just like any medication
or procedure, no vaccine can be 100% effective for everyone. This is because
each person’s body reacts differently to vaccines.
In the 1800s,
cowpox created a scare in the UK, many people lost their lives battling the
deadly disease. It was then that the British physician Edward Jenner injected
people with weakened cowpox virus (vaccine) to immunize them against smallpox.
That was how the vaccine and vaccination came into practice.
The WHO
estimates that vaccination prevents two to three million deaths every year. The
development of vaccines is a complex procedure. Sometimes it takes 10 – 15
years. Now for the Covid-19, it has taken hardly a year! The human trials of
vaccine take place in three phases. During the Phase I trials, a vaccine is
tested in a group of about 20 people and see how it is safe? In Phase II, if
the vaccine is safe in Phase I, the test is expanded to include 59 to several
hundred people and evaluated for its effectiveness and the ideal dose. If Phase
II proves to be successful it is taken to Phase III where it is tested in
thousands of people. This phase normally can take several years to complete. If
we need it urgently as in the case of Covid-19 vaccines, the vaccine may get
the license.
Since the
vaccine for Covid-19 was tested on volunteers who were eligible with 12–65
years-age it could be released within a year. There were many Indian volunteers
in the UK offering them for the testing. It is a great thing there are very
good souls who came forward to save humanity. The UK took the bold step to
vaccinate an old British woman on 8 December 2020 and mass vaccination was on
from this date. On 14 December
2020, the first vaccination
was done on a New York nurse and Canada also initiated with Pfizer vaccine.
In India too thirty drug
companies are trying to produce Covid-19 vaccines like Covaxine, ZyCO-D,
Mynvax, etc. these vaccines are at different phases of testing. Hopefully, they
will be also ready by the first quarter of 2021. So there are possibilities
that a number of vaccines are on the line to save human beings in 2021.
Therefore I call 2021 as the year of vaccination.
Everything depends on the hard work of our biologists. There is no border for
science. In fact, science works for the benefit of humans. - NARA
TIPS FOR BETTER COMMUNITY
1. Call your family
often.
2. Every day gives
something good to another.
3. Forgive everyone, for
everything.
4. Spend time with
people over 80 and under 6 – it will teach you a lot.
5. Try to make at least
3 people smile every day.
6. What other people
think of you is none of your concern.
7. Your work won’t take
care of you when you’re sick. Your family and friends will. Don’t cut ties.
GOOD WILL
Do what you do because you believe it’s the
right thing to do. Do the right thing even when nobody is looking. Be one of
the people who make a true difference in the world by leaving it a little
better and more wholesome than you found it.
1.
Give small just-for-you presents. Whether it’s a candy bar you
know the other likes or a paperback book you found at a sale, it really is all
about the adage that it’s the thought that counts.
2.
Make it a point to slightly touch him or her often. Nothing
intimate, just an enthusiastic hug of pleasure when you greet or part, a touch
boost people’s mood and sense of connection; one paper found that even the most
fleeting touch of the fingers when a librarian returned a reader’s card made
the customer remember the library visit as a pleasant experience.
3.
Share a warm memory of the other person with him or her. I was thinking the other day about the
time I saw you. Knowing that you are noticed, remembered, or thought of, is
wonderfully flattering to anyone.
4.
Whatever your talent, employ it to create something that make
someone feel special appreciated. If you can cook, invite the friend for a home
cooked dinner or tea with your own baked treat. Such gestures are long
remembered.
5.
Plan an event.
HABITUAL
When people come across certain things for the first time, they may
understand the extraordinary nature of them and this may spur them to further
inspect what they see. After a while, however, they develop a habitual
resistance to those things and they no longer impress them. In particular, an
object or happening they meet every day becomes ‘ordinary’ for them.
TO QUOTE
Worrying is stupid. It’s like walking around with an umbrella waiting
for it to rain. – Wiz Khalifa
A mind is a parachute. It doesn’t work if it’snt open. – Frank
Zappa.
Looking at beauty in the world is the first step of purifying the mind.
– Amit
Ray
A house that has a library in it has a soul. - Plato
JUST TO LAUGH
On her first day of rounds at a
Australian hospital, a visiting American nurse meets an old man packing up.
“I’m going home to die,” he says.
She quickly checks the chart.” Not
according to your chart.”
“I am going home to die,” he
insists.
“Who told you that?”
“My doctor.”
Well, it’s not true. You are not
going home to die!
“Yes, I am! I was supposed to go
home yester die, but instead, I’m going home to die!”
LINES I LIKED
Ø
Imagination decides
everything.
Ø Imagination is a force that takes you to places you have never been.
Ø
Immerse yourself
completely in what you are doing in the present moment.
Ø
Improve the way you
communicate your thoughts and ideas.
Images are often more powerful than words...
Meet you next month –2021
Professor A. Narayanan, Ph. D., FISPP
SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO:
E-mail: arumugakannu@gmail.com
Ph :
0422 4393017 Mobile: 75399 15614
(NARA’S
NOTEPAD)
Monday, November 30, 2020
SPONSOR
Prof.
S. Thamburaj Ph.D
Former Dean, Faculty
of Horticulture, TNAU, Coimbatore
11, Vaiyapuri Illam,
Sabapathy Road, Saibaba Colony
Coimbatore 641 038,
ph. 96007 39443
ONLINE CLASSES
Every year we used to see the students going to schools and colleges during the month of June. They all wear new uniforms with new back-packs filled with new textbooks and notebooks. At every house, moms will be busy preparing their children (bathing, dressing up, and feeding breakfast) for school. The students go to school or colleges either by the school or college buses, or privately run vans or auto rikshaws or parents drive them in their own vehicles like scooters or motorbikes or by four-wheelers. All these pleasant sights every morning in every town has become a dream since 2020 June. It’s all caused by the cruel coronavirus pandemic. No normal classes, no class-room teaching, no games in the play-ground, no mixing with old and new friends and above all no enjoyment in spending time in school or college campuses!
Educationists and Education Ministers, even the Prime
Minister and Chief Ministers met many times to tackle the pandemic problem not
affecting the academic year. They could successfully conduct the NEET
examination at the all-India level. They introduced online teaching and the
teachers were asked to conduct virtual classes every day so that students stay
at home and learn their lessons without exposing to the coronavirus. Even
examinations (tests) are conducted periodically on-line.
It’s a wonder for old age people like me to see such a
change and the role played by laptops or smartphones. One of the major
limitations is the availability of these devices to all the students who
are economically weak. For the middle and upper-class people of the urban
society, on-line classes work successfully. Many teachers and students felt
this change as a burden and uncomfortable for them because they have to come
out of their comfort zone.
There are advantages and disadvantages to online teaching. Some of the advantages are: there is no need for school or college uniforms; there is no need for traveling to school or colleges which are either located near or far away.
The schools and colleges need not spend on maintaining
the classrooms and huge buildings with hundreds of rooms. Some of the
disadvantages felt by certain parents and the students are not being with
friends for the whole day, eating and sharing lunch with close friends,
spending time in the cafeteria, no school/college day functions and no sports
meet for the annual days. Practical classes may not be possible to conduct
on-line. Probably someone may come forward with a solution soon! Availability
of uninterrupted internet facilities all over the country is another major
limitation. There will be loss of jobs for many who worked in hostels and
messes (cooks and mess boys)
How in future our students are going to cope up with
all these restrictions. But still, the attempt to continue the academic year is
taking place with an expectation that the pandemic will come to an end by 2021.
So the on-line classes are being conducted by some schools and colleges. The
web portals and mobile apps like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Skype,
Diksha, e-Patshala, and many others are used for online classes. In fact, the
academic seminars and comprehensive examinations, and thesis viva-voce
examinations are being conducted online by webinar. It is very simple to do
without so many festival-like activities. Technology has given us the devices
for everyone to participate and carry out all these academic activities cheaply
sitting at their own place.
So I think if the on-line teaching is successful,
liked by students and teachers it may continue and change the future of
education. Such changes may totally modify the education system and students
will be adapted to the
change. When everything is going online, why not schools and colleges? - NARA
TRAITS NEEDED FOR ALL
1. Make ‘Let Go’ a happening phenomenon
2. Don’t judge people
3. Don’t compare with others
4. Accept people as they are
5. Love without expectations
6. Be empathetic
7. Learn to be tolerant
8. Kindness and compassion as an integral
part.
9. Celebrate joy in ‘Giving’
10. Enjoy spontaneously love and laughter
11. Understand you just can’t change
others
12. Focus on changing yourself for better
13. Realize happiness is within you
14. Differentiate the need & greed
15. Make relationships live
16. Be a contributing personality
17. Inbuilt integrity in you
18. Make prayers integral part of you
19. Enjoy essence of yogic living
20. Be meditative and mindful
PHYSIOLOGY
Your body reflects your emotional state.
When you are positive and confident, you stand erect with your chest out and a
smile on your face. If you just won $10,000,000 in the lottery, imagine how you
would feel and how your physiology would respond ☺. You would feel on top of the world. Everyone
watching you will see it by the way you carry yourself.
Imagine how you would feel and look if you
lost your winning lottery ticket ". If this depressed you, your eyes would
be down and your shoulders slumped. Some individuals would probably feel like
killing themselves for losing their winning ticket.
Your physiology works both
ways. Your body reflects your feelings. However, how you carry your body
affects your feelings. One of the quickest and easiest ways to improve your chemistry is to change your
physiology. By taking slow deep breaths, standing tall and sticking your chest
out, you automatically increase your
chemistry and immediately feel better. Raise your eyes to the sky and smile
right now. Do you feel a change in your energy and alertness? If you always
carry yourself like a winner, you will feel like a winner.
TIPS FOR HEALTHY AGING
1.
Exercise regularly ( check with a doctor before starting an
exercise program if you have any chronic illnesses).
2.
Get regular health check-ups.
3.
Stop smoking (it’s never too late to quit).
4.
Practice safety habits at home to prevent falls and fractures.
Always wear your seatbelt in the car.
5.
Stay in contact with family and friends. Stay active through work,
play, and community.
6.
Avoid overexposure to the sun and the cold.
7.
Use moderation if you drink alcohol. When you drink, let someone
else drive.
8. Keep personal and financial records in order to simplify budgeting and investing.
9. Plan long-term housing and money needs.
10. Keep a positive attitude toward life.
11. Do things that make you
happy.
.
TO QUOTE
If you change the way you look at things, the things
you look at change. – Wayne Dyer
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leanardo
da Vinci
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