Should Kerala govt follow up the K Rail project ?

K Rail project is a railway project that is being claimed will help Kerala to reduce the travel time from Kasargod in north to Trivandrum in the South. 

K-Rail is a government-proposed speed-rail corridor collaboration between Kerala Govt and Department of Railways Govt of india, connecting Kasaragod in the north and Thiruvananthapuram in the south. K-Rail promises a 200 km per hour speed, and is expected to cover a distance of 529.45 km in less than four hours — at present it takes the Indian Railways 10-12 hours to cover this distance                                                 www.moneycontrol.com

Most of the people of Kerala I spoke to are tooth and nail opposed to the project. All media are against the project. E Sridharan, the metro man of India, who is considered to be the father of railway projects in India is opposed tooth and nail to this project - unprofessional project management and incapable technical expertise.

Inexperienced professionals are heading the project. The project said to cost INR 64,000 crores and to be completed in 3 years, can never be completed as the Kerala CM only has inexperienced professionals in key positions in the organisation running the project. 

There is total lack of transparency as to the environmental damage, the undisclosed Detailed Project Report (DPR) etc. Simply said, a project of this type, the railway engineering professionals of Kerala are incapable to manage and execute. This people say is just a ploy by the CM Pinarayi Vijayan to start huge financial irregularities, corruption and to push the state into eternal state of debt. 

When the most sincere Metro man of India E Sridharan sir says the project is infeasible in Kerala, given the Madhav Gadgil report that mentions Kerala has a very precarious environmental balance, such projects should not be followed up. 

If Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is supporting that is with an eye to sell their technology and reap gains, with total disregard to the delicate environmental balance in the state, post the floods of 2018 and 2020. Hope the obstinate CM understands the gravity of the situation and pulls out of the project at the earliest not letting any unnecessary expenses on the state.

The people of Kerala do not want the citizens to be further pushed into a virtual economic spiral of debt, decay and degradation of the state. Starting a mammoth project of this size and expense, without proper planning and with an eye on the commissions behind the work allocation, the people smell inefficency and corruption in this project.

As a responsible citizen, I feel the project is being attempted to be executed with total disregard to the environment and this project should not permitted to be executed given the delicate environmental balance in Kerala. It is true we need projects to develop, but do it with transparency and include available international experts, not local party sympathisers who will waste public money and bring disrepute to the state. The CM should work for the development of the state.

George.

Simple ways for detoxing yourself ..

When one hears of the word detoxification, what comes to our mind is the dictionary definition which says that detoxification is the process of removing toxic substances (either from human body or other substances)

An interesting article which I happened to read of late is one at getpocket.com (click here) which talks of simple two steps of detoxification.

They are 1) getting atleast 7-8 hours of sleep and 2) drinking lots of water.

By getting enough sleep, we give enough rest to all our organs to revive after functioning for good 15-16 hours a day. It helps our brain to revitalise, our muscles to get oxygenated and take enough rest before starting another day of full activity.

Drinking lots of water helps our body remain hydrated, remove the acidic content in our intestines and flushes out along with the fibrous food we take, the digested material, enabling free movement of the bowels, ensuring healthy bowels. Every night before I go to sleep, for many years I have been sincerely following the habit of taking two glasses of water. Of late when I get up, my wife also feeds me two glasses of hot water with jeera or methi, that again helps cleanse the digestive tract. 

Besides these two steps, I also engage in good personal exercises like walking a least 2-4 kms daily, always climbing stairs wherever possible and not taking the lift, ensuring a healthy heart.

Anybody who follows these steps I can ensure good health will follow.

George

Recent family pic ..

A homoeo cure for low back ache

Over exertion during the final stages of my PhD thesis at IIT Bombay from 1998 to 2004 and sitting for long periods of times without exercising, probably led to the start of my low backache in 2003 immediately after submission of my pre-synopsis in May 2003.. While I am perfectly healthy in all other aspects of my life, the low backache, it affects the Sciatica nerve, has been bothering me. On recurrence of symptoms, I took Ayurveda treatment in May 2007, Allopathic treatment in 2011 and 2015.

Most recently I had a recurring bout due to cold weather in November 2021.  Incapacitated and on bed, this time I called my sister-in-law, Shirley, a homoeo doctor practicing in Kochi. She prescribed the medicine Rhus Tox to be taken every two hours, besides Arnica daily thrice and Ruta, daily once.

Surprisingly I should say, the pain disappeared and of late I also have added confidence that I have got the correct medication and can emerge healthy out of this seventeen year ordeal against low back ache. 

Besides my daily back stretching exercises, I continue the best exercise for the human body walking, (have even given away a good car and use an 8 year old Nano of my son) have also started daily exercising using  Resistance rubber tubes for back stretching and  Abdomen muscle building roller wheels through Amazon India. So far, so good ..

The problem with such issues is that one tends to lose the self confidence they have in themselves. Over seventeen years, I always felt a missing piece that kept going off my hands, but this time , I am bent on regaining it. 

 

I have regained the lost confidence of all these years and can focus on regaining the lost seventeen years of my life ..

George 

iD fresh business model ..

It is great to see iD fresh has come a long way. They have set up a INR 50 crore plant in Anekal.

In the processed food industry which is bound to have excellent growth in the coming decades.

Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industrial methods used to make convenience foods. Wikipedia

Click here  for a Harvard uty doc on why processing of foods is done, the different types of processed foods, advantages and disadvantages etc .

Idfresh idli dosa vada batter does not have any added preservatives and has to be used within 3-4 days and is to be stored in controlled refrigerated environments. Storage and transportation is a problem which prevents the massive growth of this business model. 

 

Processed food is any food that’s altered during preparation to make it more convenient, shelf-stable or flavorful. Some foods are much more processed than others. 

 

There are lots of discussions on what foods are better - minimally processed ones or the maximally processed. Without any extra reasoning, it can be concluded, if you read the following passage.  

Minimally processed food vs heavily processed food

A bagged salad or pre-cut green beans technically count as processed, but it’s only minimally processed because its natural state hasn’t changed. 

In other words, it looks pretty much the same as you’d find it in nature. Bottled water is minimally processed.

A box of macaroni and cheese or a microwavable dinner or biriyani on the other hand, are considered heavily processed (also called ultra processed) because they’ve been chemically altered with artificial flavors, additives and other ingredients. A bottle of coke or Pepsi on the other hand is heavily processed - ihsfna.org

George 

How to stay positive ?

Daily we hear or read lot of messages that exhort us to be positive. Deep, hard core research work carried by some of the best behavioural scientists from around the world reinforce the fact that positive thinking besides giving us good health and glad tidings, exhort and motivate us to be positive and remain positive. 

 

The three main points in this direction are given here.

1. Separate fact from fiction / weakening negative thoughts

2. Identify positive thoughts / actions and pursue them

3. Develop a sense of gratitude to others / God

Click here for the April '16 Forbes article by Travis Bradbury 3 ways to stay positive. 

I wish to add a couple of powerful points to this from my life experience of 50+ years ... 

1. Do something positive everyday. for example send a whatsapp goodwish query or an Amazon gift.

2. Think twice before you act, is it positive or negative.  If negative, postpone it for another time and think again,  is the action positive or negative  ?

3. Promise to talk only good things about others. 

All the religious scriptures, traditions and customs teach and exhort us to stay positive..

Practice makes perfect.

George 

Another great opportunity to serve humanity..

Money makes Friends, Blood Makes Brothers"

"The only postive thing about me is my Blood group" 

Last evening, 3 Nov '21, when I contacted Dr. Sitalakshmi, St Johns hospital in Bangalore, she asked me to get ready for a voluntary apheresis procedure this morning. It was a great God given opportunity this morning to voluntarily donate platelets through an apheresis procedure for 2 kids aged 4 and 12 suffering from critical bone marrow illnesses. 

Click here for my earlier posted detailed researched explanation of the apheresis procedure, what it is and how safe it is ..

3 months back I had donated whole blood, my 41st donation. Since then every two to three weeks I have been doing platelet apheresis, where the whole blood is passed through a centrifuge and only platelets are separated, about 200ml or 3x10 ^^11, and the blood is sent back to the body. 

Today a 4 year old kid and 12 year old kid, waiting for bone marrow transplants at St Johns Medical college Bangalore benefitted from 100 ml each of my platelets.

From a whole blood donation, they get 70 ml platelets, but from each platelet  apheresis they collect 200 ml platelets, equal to about 3 whole blood donations. More effective and productive. To the donor it makes more sense. Since my last whole blood donation, after three months the next whole blood donation would have helped just one patient,  but the four platelet apheresis procedures have benefitted at least 8-12 needy patients.

The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of any voluntary blood donation is the number of critically ill patients who have benefitted. 

My friend Sandra from Goa had this to say, " You should create awareness as  more people can benefit. A person like you creating awareness and a hospital creating awareness is very different. More people will come forward when people like you tell others....and, do  not create awareness under the umbrella of any hospital".

My only fear is awareness creation should not be misconstrued as selfish image building. Being a socially beneficial activity,  I request more people to come forward and donate blood or specific blood components.

I have no words to thank and appreciate the blood bank department from St. John's MC Bangalore, led by Dr. Sitalakshmi and her capable team of senior residents and others, who have been a humble and selfless source of inspiration for the donors. A big thanks to all of you .. 🙏🙏

George