Aravind eye care, Madurai ..

Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai

Madurai Meenakshi (Meenakshi Amman) temple (click here for video) dedicated to Parvati or Meenakshi, the consort of Shiva or Sundareshwar, was built on the banks of Vaigai river according to Dravidian architecture around 600 BC. Click here for the official site of the temple 

It is contemporary to the ancient Greek civilization and the last of the Egyptian Pharoahs, was built in all its glory in granite rocks in Madurai around 1600 AD, but existed as a temple from 600 BC, ie 600 years before Jesus walked in Palestine in Middle East Asia.

late Dr V Govindaswamy

Around 1976, Madurai was witness to another great event too. A medical institution, Aravind eye hospital was started by a retired govt eye surgeon, Dr V. Govindaswamy in Madurai, which has now grown to be the world's largest and most productive eye care facility. 

Dr V is now no more. But his legacy lives through the Aravind eye care. (as told by Dr V's grand neice Pavithra Mehta)

Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple, 2600 years old

This is also the only medical institution in India where medical interns from Johns Hopkins, Cornell and Harvard Medical schools come as residents or for internship.

With 9 hospitals in S India, it now does 200,000 surgeries annually ..

Embodying the perfectability of the human soul !

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr70IrWM-n8

George ..

Jagjit Singh ghazal..

Music can take us to a different world altogether !! 

Thank you sir .. Your rendering is beyond compare ..

https://youtu.be/CG2cdLolRuQ

The best ever Persian contribution to the great Indian culture, thru great ghazal music ..

Click here to listen to a great Jagjit Singhji performance with his accompanying group at the Opera House Sydney..  (a 2 hr program)

George ..

How to plan for a dissertation ..

"A dissertation is an extended piece of work, usually divided into chapters, and containing a significantly more detailed examination of your subject matter and evidence than is the case for most essays and reports." (www.wikipedia.org)

What is a dissertation ?

Click here for a high quality document that gives one great insight into the knowledge generation process of writing a dissertation..

A pdf doc on writing a good dissertation..

If the dissertation topic is of your interest and which gives you excitement and is passionate to you, the work coming out of it will be absorbing and of high quality..

Ge.. (this compilation is for the whole graduate student community of the world)

Alexander the Great ..

The fact about Alexander the Great (356 BC - 323 BC) that surprises and baffles me is the fact that he is regarded as the greatest warrior in history and the youngest one too !!.

He completed all his exploits by the time he was 32 years of age. Having been tutored by Aristotle, Alexander gives a great word of appreciation to all this teachers in one of his great quotes.

Click here to know more about Alexander the Great ( Alexander III of Macedonia)

Read about the other great ruler from South Asia, Asoka the great who was born 55 years after the death of Alexander III of Macedon. 

We are what we were .. (this is my understanding of how past events have mouded who we are today) 

Unless we are aware of what great predecessors of ours did hundreds and thousands of years back, we are ill equipped to assess the future and are bound to repeat the same follies our ancestors have committed. 

Knowing what our ancestors did right and what they did wrong, gives us the code of conduct and ethics which has guided all of history and which is to guide us into the future too. It also helps us to gauge what were the codes of conduct in different parts of the world at different periods of time. 

Being able to peep into their minds, gives us great confidence of the present times and hope of the future too.

george..

Lessons from the decline of Roman Empire ..

Edward Gibbon, historian and author. (1737-1794)

Edward Gibbon, (1737-1794) in the "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (publ. 1776), gives his penetrating insight to the five reasons why Rome fell:

1. The rapid increase of divorce

2. The craze for entertainment

3. The building of gigantic armaments

4. Decadence of the people and 

5. Decay of religion

Very insightful points indeed ..

For a more detailed reading from contemporary sources of the collapse of the Roman empire, click here .. 

The sad thing is humans will never learn from history and keep committing the same mistakes even in this modern advanced age ..

The western world presently from Gibbon's historical study of the Roman Empire, made in 1776 (240 years back in time, ie. just when United States of America, USA, was born of extreme bloodshed and pain to the natives) is moving to degradation and decadence. The buildup of armaments, nuclear weapons, powerful navies are all examples of this and point to this grave future awaiting those nations.

The strength, vitality and depth of the culturally strong and spiritually deep Indian culture is evident from the fact that we have withstood the test of time for the past seven millennia and the onslaught of the perverse western culture over the past two millennia.

We have assimilated the best practices and strains of culture from around the world, from our invaders too and have denounced the worst. The invaders have all finally and shamelessly given up and merged with the rich native Indian culture. But we cannot yet be complacent, as the temptation for us to repeat history is too strong ..

Some of the poorly read, badly informed and the "unfortunate" among us, strive to settle on these "western shores", let us empathise with them ..

George .. (credit also to my friend and senior colleague George Ninan for sharing some of his research and insight here) 

Rewards quotes ..

Quotes on consequences of our actions ..

Materialism - a curse .

Is it not so true ?

A person with a good car going for a bigger one and many, with a good house going for a still bigger house, with one house wanting many houses, a small church going for a bigger church, community with one church going for many churches and so on ..

Are'nt we all a victim to this mental disease called materialism ?

Materialism doesn't spare even the worldly religious (not spiritual) leaders !!

Even God must be sad how his name is being abused by people !

George ..

Asianet Star Singer season 7 Finals ..

Aslam and Malavika in Star Singer season 7 final ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBe8xFFnm5I

Varsha  in the same finals..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAmYTK2dIdc

Each one is better than the others, what a performance.. ??

Out of this world singing of singing prodigies from Kerala in Carnatic music numbers..

Unforgettable ..

george..

Importance of discipline..

Over the past few months, I have been trying to identify the inner meanings of life.

I have been going through some values of life over the past few months and have been trying to get the thoughts of some great men in those areas. These values which range from gratitude, materialism, contentment, leadership, patience, dreaming big, achieving goals, maturity, success, passion, positivity, enterprising etc brings us close to achieving our dreams in life.

For some people, dreams are not just making money, or becoming successful, for others it can be knowing more about certain things, meeting people, travelling lot of places and so on.

Of all these values in life, showing gratitude, willing to work hard and having discipline are the greatest values which we need to master ..

Hope you become successful in doing it.

ge..

Justice quotes ..