Visit to Dayabhavan, Kunigal, Tumkur.

2005 pic of inaug. by HG Osthathios (c).

Dayabhavan is the home for the non-HIV infected children of HIV infected parents situated in Kunigal in Tumkur district in Karnataka run by the Orthodox Syrian Church of India. Wanted to visit some socially stimulating place and this institution run by the Orthodox Syrian church founded by Geevarghese Mar Osthathios in 2005 was a very apt place to visit. This is our second visit... The website of the orphanage is www.dayabhavan.org 

 

The place has two buildings, the St Gregorios orphanage that houses 72 inmates from 5 years to about 20 years of age, mostly studying in the local Kannada medium govt schools and some in local english medium schools, going to PUC and Degree. 

 

The other building is the govt recognised St Gregorios adoption centre for Tumkur district that has about 17 children from 1 day to about 4 years of age. The kids are in different stages of adoption by local childless couples and foreign ones. Usually adoption is a very long legal process taking about 3 years of time. The government system works well in trying to understand over this period of time the willingness and capability of the couple to adopt and take care of children well into their adolescence. Children from the adoption centre move in to the orphanage as they grow. About 7-8 babies are in different stages of adoption by Indian and foreign couples. 

From St. Gregorios Orthodox church, Hosur Road, Bangalore, a team of ten members from five families and driver Anil, under the leadership of Dr. Alice Mani, got ready by 6 AM. By 6.45 AM we were hitting the road to Kunigal in two Toyota Innova, loaded with food and gifts for the children. We went there to spend a very productive day with the children.

We carried the breakfast of appam (total 400) for all the orphanage inmates and their caretakers, while the chicken curry was prepared by the kitchen staff. After a blessed breakfast with the children, we were entertained by them for about two hours. They sang and danced to their hearts content. It was great motivation for them to perform in front of a very welcome crowd who gave them all support and encouragement to dream big and do great things in life.

Kids having breakfast

Then we went around the compound to watch the kitchen gardens being maintained by the children with Fr. Jinesh Varkey. A type of Miyawaki forestry (click here for Miyawaki at Toyota Kirloskar plant Bidadi)  of intense vegetation is practiced here. Instead of wild trees, lot of beneficial fruit bearing trees and vegetables were planted closely together that supported each other while giving high quality organic produce for the inmates to consume. They also make very pure vurgin coconut oil which they sell at rs 300 per liter. 

We also brought some of the produce with us back to Bangalore, at a cost, which helps the orphanage financially. Besides the members also gave good donations to the orphanage to help in it's daily functioning alongside sacks of rice, books, furniture, pickles, and so on.

Alice Mani was very helpful

We also were fortunate enough to plant about ten saplings, a practice to have deep intimate feelings of association with the orphanage and the inmates. The return trip at 2 PM got us back in our homes in Bangalore by 5 PM.

This is a trip we would not forget for a long time. We have enjoyed the warmth and safety of our parents during our lifetime and so have our children. When we think of these children who were denied these luxuries, we feel sorry for them and wish to help them in all ways possible. We are forever grateful to God for giving us the basic pleasures and luxuries of life. 

Were it not for the persistence from Dr Alice Mani, we would not have made it to Kunigal during this Covid time. A big thanks to her once again.

If you want to help the orphanage financially pl contact the Manager / warden Fr Jinesh Varkey 94483 71298. The passion and dedication of Fr Jinesh to this institution is commendable.

St. Gregorios Dayabhavan

Bhaktharahalli Post, Vanigere Village, Kunigal Taluk, Tumkur District, Karnataka State, India. PIN-572 120

Ph. No: +91-76767 05649 (Admin Office), +91-94483 71298 (Secretary Fr Jinesh)

dayabhavan@gmail.com

George.

Artificial Intelligence role play in the MBA class

30 July 2021 we did a role play in the MBA sem 1 class, section B in Alliance School of Business, Bangalore, India.

According to wikipedia, Role-playing is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role.

Northern Illinois University has this explanation of role playing. Click here .. 

Role playing is that allows students to immediately apply content as they are put in the role of a decision maker who must make a decision regarding a policy, resource allocation, or some other outcome. - serc.carleton.edu

Click here for my earlier writing on the Bloom's Taxonomy to effect great understanding in the learning process, Role play comes in the top create part of the pyramid.

Objective : Understand how AI applications in daily rioutine activities in industry or elsewhere can help simplify matters and improve productivity

Procedure : There were 3 groups of 4 students each, the rest of the 45 students were taking online sessions from home. The 12 students carried out the role play.

The role we assumed in the class were of participants who earlier had issues with carrying out the mundane functions in the manufacturing plant or office or home and demonstrating how AI helped to efficiently carry it out.

The first group showed how they had problems manufacturing computer displays in the shop floor. The manual processes were inefficient and resulted in errors which the quality manager often found and complained to the top management in the company. It was when they decided to call in an AI expert and succeeded in effectively shifting from manual control to AI based control, which saw high quality and increase in efficiency.

The second AI based role play involved the hostel mess where the students were bored with the same breakfast. Even after repeated complaining, the menu had not changed. That was when one of the students had a friend who was contacted and who helped come out with an AI program that helped to mix the right ingredients of different varieties of flour to get any food of their liking and preferences. It changed the students perception to the hostel mess food immediately and was a big success.

The third group focused on a retail store. Earlier the store had problems with low sales and the store management decided to install AI systems. This system tracked eye ball movements of customers that gave indicators to the store management what were the items customers were looking at which would move faster than the other items in the store. The store was able tom improve its sales by installing this system. 

Learning : The exercise helped the students to visualise a poorly performing situation and the improved situation with the application of AI based systems that led to overall improvement.

Difference between religion and spirituality (from Internet)

This is one tremendous message, read it completely at a leisurely pace. 

A learned man was once asked to explain the difference between Religion and Spirituality. His response was profound:

▪ Religion is not just one, there are many.

▪ Spirituality is one.

▪ Religion is for those who sleep.

▪ Spirituality is for those who are awake.

▪ Religion is for those who need someone to tell them what to do and want to be guided.

▪ Spirituality is for those who pay attention to their inner voice.

▪ Religion has a set of dogmatic rules.

▪ Spirituality invites us to reason about everything, to question everything.

▪ Religion threatens and frightens.

▪ Spirituality gives inner peace.

▪ Religion speaks of sin and guilt.

▪ Spirituality says, "learn from an error".

 

▪ Religion represses everything which is false.

▪ Spirituality transcends everything, it brings you closer to your truth!

▪ Religion speaks of a God; It is not God.

▪ Spirituality is everything and therefore, it is in God.

▪ Religion invents.

▪Spirituality finds.

▪ Religion does not tolerate any question.

▪Spirituality questions everything.

▪ Religion is human. It is an organization with rules made by men.

▪ Spirituality is Divine, without human rules.

▪ Religion is the cause of divisions.

▪Spirituality unites.

▪ Religion is looking for you to believe.

▪ Spirituality you have to look for it to believe.

▪ Religion follows the concepts of a sacred book.

▪ Spirituality seeks the sacred in all books.

▪ Religion feeds on fear.

▪ Spirituality feeds on trust and faith.

▪ Religion lives in thought.

▪ Spirituality lives in Inner Consciousness.

▪ Religion deals with performing rituals.

▪ Spirituality has to do with the Inner Self.

▪ Religion feeds the ego.

▪ Spirituality drives to transcend beyond.

▪ Religion makes us renounce the world to follow a God.

▪ Spirituality makes us live in God, without renouncing our existing lives.

▪ Religion is a cult.

▪ Spirituality is inner meditation.

▪ Religion fills us with dreams of glory in paradise.

▪ Spirituality makes us live the glory and paradise on earth.

▪ Religion lives in the past and in the future.

▪ Spirituality lives in the present.

▪ Religion creates cloisters in our memory.

▪ Spirituality liberates our Consciousness.

▪ Religion makes us believe in eternal life.

▪ Spirituality makes us aware of Eternal Life.

▪ Religion promises life after death.

▪ Spirituality is to find God in our interior during the current life before death.

Religion is for the illiterate masses

Spirituality is for our soul

-We are not human beings, who go through a spiritual experience.

-We are spiritual beings, who go through a human experience.

Why the Covid second wave could be serious in India ?

Of late, just over the past two weeks, we have been hearing about more Covid occurences. Why did this happen ? Many reasons are cited, I am listing some of them here.

1. People have felt relaxed about the restrictions of Covid

2. The second wave is a different variant not responding to the vaccines nor showing any response to the RTPCR vaccine.

3. During the elections held in some states, no Covid restrictions were followed that led to the massive spread

4. People have been traveling wide and far and have been responsible for bringing the virus from other parts

5. The covid patients now are asymptomatic, because of which they are moving freely in society acting as super spreaders

6. Asia and particularly India is showing the max Covid patients now.

7. travel is still possible over air, rail and road across the different affected states 

8. curfew restrictions were relaxed initially that led to people moving across the states and affected areas freely

9. People who have taken one and two doses of Covaxin or Covishield are now getting infected, proving that the new variant has no vaccine and is dangerous

If the situation goes this way,  lockdown will also be declared in Karnataka like it has been done in Mumbai. 

So be prepared and take care.

George

Blood donation at Narayana Hrudayalaya Bangalore 3/3/21

My close friend and classmate Brian DSa from Goa, sent me a message on 2nd March. It was from the Bangalore Blood Donors Forum (BBDF) that a patient is in urgent need of 30 units of blood at Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH) and asked whether anyone could help. A sincere request, a great deed to carry out. After all, it was a request from a close friend.

NH was the most convenient place for me to go, just 10 kms from my Anekal campus of Alliance University. Also my blood being O+ve I could donate to anybody. Though my last donation was on 24 Dec '20 and it was just past 9 weeks, because of the urgent  request from BBDF, I did not wait for the mandatory 12 weeks before the next donation. 

At 10.30 am I left the AU Anekal campus to NH by bus (a low Carbon footprint activity) and returned by 12.15 pm after donating 350 ml of blood. Very trained nursing personnel made the process very simple, professional, smooth and remarkable one. The donation procedure lasted about 20 mins. After a very minor refreshment I was back inside the bus to the campus at Anekal.

 

This is my 39th blood donation, ever since the first one in '85. This is my fourth or fifth donation at NH. I was feeling really on top of the world after  the donation. I thought they would take 450 ml of blood as is usually the case at St. Johns, but at NH they took only 350 ml, no strain at all.

Thanking God for giving me the great opportunity to serve mankind this 39th time. 

Most people look down upon blood donation because of poor awareness. That system should change in our society. Blood donation keeps you healthy and active, with a great feeling of doing something and giving back to society. Click here for the link to my 2016 blood donation, again to Narayana Hrudayalaya. 

One blood donation gives you enough vitality and health as running two full length 41 km marathons .. so why wait ?

George 

Make this lenten season a memorable, forgiving one ..

The vicious rift in Kerala, the southern state of India, between the Malankara Orthodox and Jacobite Syrian Orthodox factions of the ancient Eastern Orthodox Syrian church headquartered in Antioch, Syria has been bothering and pestering believers of both sides for more than a century now. 

 

Both sides have gone to court and the Indian Supreme Court had come out with a final verdict on 3rd of July 2017 in favour of the Malankara Orthodox faction working out of Kottayam, Kerala.

 

What could have been a peaceful settlement did not end then as the Malankara Orthodox priests wanted to extract their pound of flesh in the name of the verdict and antagonise the Jacobite faction, by insisting on a unforgiving settlement to follow the (invisible) 1934 constitution, which was not acceptable to the Jacobites. 

 

Even three and a half years after the verdict, and Orthodox faction spending crores as litigation fees and grabbing 52 Jacobite churches, the matter has not been peacefully resolved. There is a belief among the Orthodox Christians and more so with the intelligensia that a more peaceful, loving, hand-holding, accommodating approach by the Orthodox faction could have seen a peaceful resolution of the conflict much early.

Listening to Pope Francis, if during this lent season starting from 15 February, we could, starting from the Malankara Orthodox clergy and laity, try to be free from grudges and be reconciled with everyone, the objective of our Christian faith would be more than met. 

For the past couple of weeks, I have been attending the online Sunday mass / qurbana at St. Mary's Syrian Orthodox Cathedral, Manarkkadu, Kottayam, Kerala, India. Manarkadu st Marys is the famous pilgrimage centre for intercession of Mother Mary. It was spiritually very satisfying. It is high time our priests start walking the talk on the sermons they make during the qurbana, of love, brotherhood, forgiveness etc.  

Most of us immerse in the practice of lent, ie. generally avoid rich food, luxury and pleasure, abstaining from food till noon everyday and try to be more engaged in spiritual activities, forgiving others, having frequent prayers and doing social service.

Instead of attending only our service or qurbana, and carry out the activities as listed above, if a large number of Orthodox believers could attend occasional Jacobite qurbanas during this lent season, it would be the best way to show our love and develop respect for our brethren. 👍🙂

 

Can we forgive our Jacobite brethren during this lent season ..? If not during this year, let us plan to forgive and be Christ-like at least during the 2022 lent season .. Again a wasted year ..

Why are our spiritual leaders not taking proactive action to bring peace in the church ? There are vested interests of protecting their turf of influence and affluence besides simple ignorance and playing politics. If all Christians following Christ are sure to go to heaven, why do we need all these sects and groups? If every good person irrespective of their religion can lead a happy life, do we need religions at all ?

It is our baggage of materialistic assets (the devil) that is stopping us from getting closer to God. Nobody wants to admit it openly and continue fooling and cheating the innocent public.

Pope Francis, different from the others, is known for making such spiritual, introspective and surprising calls every year during important occasions. The spiritual head of almost 1.2 billion Catholics, who are about 16% of global population and about 50% of all global Christians, as per 2010 data (click here), is a very respected figure for the whole world. 

George Easaw

Unknown facts about our body ..

Body matter - Some interesting secrets about the body ....

 

 1. Our nose can detect the smell of 50,000 scents.

 2. Like a fingerprint, each tongue has different lines.

 3. Some of the bones in the human foot are stronger than concrete.

 4. We can light a watt bulb with the energy produced by our brain.

 5. If the first tear when crying comes from the right eye, it is a happy cry and if it is from the left eye, it is a sad cry.

 6. The average person blinks 12 times a minute.

 7. Our eye is 576 megapixels.

 8. You can't sneeze with your eyes open.

 9. Every minute 300 million cells in our body die.

 10. Our body produces enough heat to boil half a liter of water every 30 minutes.

 11. Do you know how much saliva an average person produces in his lifetime?  The same amount of water needed to fill two swimming pools.

 12. The eyes of newborns are generally blue.  Later, when the ultraviolet rays hit, the eyes turn black.

 13. Every sixty seconds your red blood cells are circulating throughout the body.

 14. During urinary incontinence, your bladder often appears larger than usual.

 15. It takes about six months for a fingernail to reach full growth, that is, from its base to its tip.

 16. The average person in the West consumes 50 tons of food and 50,000 liters of water (not only water but also all liquids) in his lifetime.

 17. The muscles in the eyes contract and expand a million times a day.

 18. One kidney in the human body has one million filters to purify the blood.  It purifies 1.3 liters of blood every minute.  The amount of urine it excretes in a day is 1.5 liters.

 19. The average lifespan of a person is 40 pounds of skin peeling off their skin.

 20. A man's brain uses 20% of the oxygen in the air he breathes and the calories he absorbs.

 21. The ovaries produce about five million eggs, but only about 400 cause the pulse of life.

 22. Every human body has a different smell.

 23. Have you ever wondered why your stomach is indigestible?  This is because new cells are produced faster than the cells of the stomach that are destroyed.

 24. There are about half a million sweat glands in a human body.  The amount of sweat it produces in a day is 750 ml.

 25. 90% of the knowledge we gain is from the sights we see around us.

 26. You can never tease yourself.

 27. The bark of newborns is used to implant new skin on the body of burns.

 28. The skin of a full-grown man is about 20 square feet when stretched.

 29.  We can recognize the taste of anything only when it is mixed with saliva.

 30 .One produces ten million sperms a day, which is enough to produce a population equal to the population of this planet in six months.

 31. There are 300 million microscopic blood vessels in a human lung.  If these are executed one after the other, it will be about 3499 km.

 32.  It is estimated that the IQ level of those who dream regularly is higher than others.

 33.  When you go to bed, your height will be less than one centimeter than when you wake up in the morning.  This is because the cartilage in your spine is compressed throughout the day ....