Early detection of Cancer

 

Cancer if detected early can be treated better and chances of cure are high too as it could be caught at an earlier stage .

The tests to detect cancer in normal individuals is called Cancer Screening .

The approved screening are for Colon cancer by  Colonoscopy and FIT stools ,Cervical Cancer  by Pap smears ,and Breast cancer by Mammograms 

Prostate cancer for high risk individuals by serial PSA  and Lung cancer by spiral CT for long term smokers .

There are strict guidelines for tgese with age for normal and high risk population .

In India unfortunately widespread population screening is a luxury 

At same time its misdone by many private hospitals as part of health packages foing Tumour markers etc which have no place in primary screening .

This is where US differs .

As seen they have Early Detection Institutes .

This is by the legendary M.D.Andersons Cancer center .

Jai Bhim ..Film review

 

Jai Bhim an OTT film in Amazon Prime is based on a true story of an young lawyer who fought for ill treated Tribals .

The lawyer in real life  later would become a judge .on whom the film is based .

Directed by Gnanavel with Surya doing the pivotal role of Justice Chandru the film is crafted exceptionally well .

Even though Reservations have existed for seven decades in our country we all know we still have stark poor ,ill treated lower castes and tribals, who do not fall in any slot as some have no documents and no vote and hence are discriminated against .

Its also a fact such poor are ill treated by powerful officialdom .

Even though the Reservations have been there for last seven decades ,the benifits are accrued by those who benifitted while a large number are still ill treated and marginalised .

The film tells of how a tribe of Irulars who live catching snakes and other reptiles ,are nomads with many not having papers .

The film is based in rural Tamilnadu and timed aroung 1994 .

Three of them are main accused in a robbery case which was hoisted on them and who are tortured .

The second part is on a brilliant lawyer who fights for these people and files a Habeus Corporis petition in the High court to investigate the police torture .

Its hard work and an uphill task for the lawyer to get to the bottom of things fighting powerful people .

At the end the tragic death of one of the irulars in custody is brought out and the police men who did the deed get arrested .

Brilliant fast paced script .

The torture bit in first half of the poor Irulars both men and women is painful to watch .

We are part of the efforts of the lawyer who works hard to get to the truth .

The Court room scenes are fast paced  logical ,and restricted to no cinematic scenes .

Its time Reservations beniffited such tribals 

In the end there is some closure 

There has been accusations of changing the SI a xtian into an upper caste Hindu if thats true its an agenda 

Goodbye

Texan operation

Abdul khan was in Texas .

The last operation in Srinagar was a sucess .

The D man in Karachi sent him to this working holiday to get some metal from  the land of easy guns .

It would sail  in the pacific  the next day with the iron ingots in 32 containers to Cochin in Kerala in South India which had many supporters for the cause .

All  he had to do was to hand over  the diamonds to the contact in the Village fair in Houston .

He saw a spectacled Indian with a funny hat walk up to him near the giant wheel and give him the password the strange nod cum shake .

Get in the wheel he grunted .

Abdul did the man got in too sat next to him and the lock was put .

The wheel went up slowly .

You have it ?

Yes .

Here he gave the diamonds and the man gave him a key to container one which had the rest .

Customs ?

he asked 

All done 

Its in the outer ,will sail shortly .

Get to Cochin with key .

The wheel was cranking faster .

Then he saw another indian desperately shaking his head below .

The wheel was dipping down .

He knew but the pain hit him 

The silencer was good as Abdul slumped silently .

The hat disappeared down from spinning wheel agilely 

The dripping blood hit a lady below and she yelled murder .

By the time the Indian hat below knew what was happening he too had a sharp pain in his neck

A single bullet had hit him just before the hat disappeared into the crowd .

First  class Emirates Airlines ,Houston to Mumbai had one spectacled passenger more ..

a last minute addition by the CIA .

" Kaam katham "he murmured into his satellite phone 30000 feet above the

 US of A

 

Popeye burger

 To me Popeye outlet of fried Chicken and Burghers  have always been a favourite .

They like KFC are known to sell fried chicken and burgers but only chicken .

More than 3500 branches in USA and in 30 countries abroad ( India does not have I think ) it was designed after the Popeye cartoon charachter of a sailor .

I started knowing it from the outlet in Kuala lumpur Airport KLIA II which was my regular transit point flying from Brunei to most places including India .

It was in the first floor just close to Lounges .

I even took Premila and Shyam there on our transit to Cambodia in 2019 .

In fact I used to have food in lounge but still not miss my Popeye burger .

The patty was very fresh and crunchy and the Buns warm soft but not friable and dry .

The french fries described as Cajun were long crispy slightly spicy tangy and irresistible .

I think they had coffee too instead of usual soft drinks .

The popeye outlet was started in 1972 in New Orleans Lousiana .

I was happy to stay a week in this birthplace recently  of my favourite Burgher though I did not have one then .

Yesterday Achu took us to Popeye in Houston knowing I liked it do much .

Popeye still did not disappoint us .

It was fresh crunchy tasty satisfying as ever .

Diwali sweets

 

One more foodie festival Deepavali is over .

Well most will not be happy with me for reducing a pan global Hindu festival into just a foodie one but for a radical foodie all festivals are an excuse to indulge .

Having been born and brought up in a hardcore vegetarian Mylapore in Antha kalathu Madras I knew Deepavali meant sweets and savouries .

My mother learnt all the tricks to make kai muruku to Juicy Jangiri from pakkathu veetu maamis and in style too .

Her Badushas were to die for, and she would leave nothing to be bought from shops  even those yellow crispy mixtures .

Preparation would start a few days before Deepavali  and she would prohibit me from entering the kitchen as she knew my hands were adept at snatching a ladoo or dipping into a jamun or a handful of murukku .

These preparations were made mostly to return for the goodies expected from the one hundred thousand and one laxmipathys and vaidyanathaswamys ..

 Therinjukko not for you gobbling elllamme in malayalam of course .

Of course my father working in Tamilnadu Secretariat would bring his office ordered packet of sweets they got at special price and made in shudh ghee from Agarwals in Broadway .

Shuddha neyyaakkum .

We did have a Mudaliar family next door who wickedly gave us succulent mutton Biriyani during any weddings in thier family .

whispers of thier idlis with mutton curry on Deepavalli mornings were in the air..

Avaathulle Deepavalikku kari pannuvaalam !! Shiva Shiva 

But we too sadly went veggie on that day .

By mid day tired after bursting all the crackers our stomachs would be bursting with south indian sweets discovered till date from all our neighbours .

Those days life was like that.

We never had much borders on anything though castes ,religion, languages were all mentioned ,

but when it came to sharing we the malayala maama pasanga were just like the mudaliar payyans and those iyers and iyengaar aathukaar or Basheer Bais or Robert aathulle 

And food was the most common denominator indeed .

Life was simpler

So were humans .

They were more humane .

M.D.Anderson Cancer Centerr

For any professional in oncology the M.D.Anderson Cancer Center is a mother of all cancer centers .

Located mainly in Houston Texas its affiliated to University of Texas  .

It was started around 1940 by collaboration of public private partcipation .

Anderson a rich cotton farmer wanted to start a charitable foundation to avoid huge taxation in event of his company breaking up .

His foundation collabarated with University of Texas to start the center in the Texas Medical Complex which was also part of its efforts .

The largest Cancer center in US has several centers in Houston itself .

The main building is called North campus has a 700 bed inpatient state of art hospital .

The mid campus a 23 storey building mostly has its Corporate and Admin offices .

The Early detection center has several depts including Genomics and Reserarch Translational research etc .

The Proton center houses one of the largest Radiotherapy centers .

The Women and Children Hospital also has MDAnderson Gynecologic cancer center .

The satellite hospitals in Houston like in Sugarland ,Woodland,

West Houston and in League city are each huge clinical treatment diagnistic and in patient centers not to mention the centers in other parts of the US and affiliated centers around the world .

 

Rice university Houston

 

For any professional in oncology the M.D.Anderson Cancer Center is a mother of all cancer centers .

Located mainly in Houston Texas its affiliated to University of Texas  .

It was started around 1940 by collaboration of public private partcipation .

Anderson a rich cotton farmer wanted to start a charitable foundation to avoid huge taxation in event of his company breaking up .

His foundation collabarated with University of Texas to start the center in the Texas Medical Complex which was also part of its efforts .

The largest Cancer center in US has several centers in Houston itself .

The main building is called North campus has a 700 bed inpatient state of art hospital .

The mid campus a 23 storey building mostly has its Corporate and Admin offices .

The Early detection center has several depts including Genomics and Reserarch Translational research etc .

The Proton center houses one of the largest Radiotherapy centers .

The Women and Children Hospital also has MDAnderson Gynecologic cancer center .

The satellite hospitals in Houston like in Sugarland ,Woodland,

West Houston and in League city are each huge clinical treatment diagnistic and in patient centers not to mention the centers in other parts of the US and affiliated centers around the world .

Texas history

Texas the southern state in the United States of America is called a Lone star state .

Its Native Americans lived eons back during neanderthal period .

It was only in 16th century European colonists landed there lured by its riches .

France initially later Spain who ruled for a century imparting their culture .

In 1828 Spain liberated Mexico and since Texas came under Mexico it was taken by Mexico .

There were wars to reoccupy Texas by the Spanish ,though they lost in a couple of battles like Alamo .

In 1836 State of Texas won against Mexico decisively under Gen. Sam Houston in San Jacinto where there is a memorial seen in the pictures taken 

In 1861 it joined the union but in 1865 it fought with confedrates against North America but they won the war and Texas would change its colours .

The finding of oil and gas brought lot of immigrants and Texas became big and strong .

 

Morning walk

 

Amongst all exercises brisk walking has been found to be the best .

It has plenty of benifits with less harm .

An hour walk at least five days a week not only helps in minimal weight reduction ,a boost to all bodily systems .

It gently stimulates your heart but never stresses it by hyperactive Gym manouveures .

Of course if done professionaly cardio in Gym gives better results and ideal for youngsters and middle age .

But lot of recent stories of sudden death in those straining in Gyms like Kannada film star Puneeth tells us serious studies are needed to find out this .

Diet fads too taken too far @ to me arent very good .

Long time fasting or very strict diets at times is inimical to our body .

Its better to have a bit of lard or a tiny paunch than a six pack glistening body at the cost of a sudden collapse .

Iam no professional in this field so please dont take my views as advise .

This is just take of a senior citizen on the other side of obese border who loves his walk for it also gives him time to think and enjoy music or his languid swims but without much visible differences in his physical structure

But never overdo things 

Even charity or spirituality

Adigamaanal Amirthavum Visham 

Says a famous Tamil saying even Amirtha is a poison if in excess .

So live your life balanced ,laugh a lot and try to make others laugh even if at your expense,

The world has enough to make you laugh ,all you need to is watch those conceited constipated men and women preaching commandments and edicts they believe in .

Or watch those scheming plotting looting puny politicians living a life of falsehood die one day like unremembered flies in a cesspool .

Enjoy life as one never knows tomorrow .

Reduce the gripe ,but talk bravely on injustice unfairness and abuse by anyone .

If at all you just have just one life to lose .

We will have other lives too and karma balam will do rest .

I dont have a long runway of plans to take off 

I do like a rocket straight up if something inspires me 

of course learn to fall like a cat if you can

 I fall with a thud but .

Good day .

Memories of Madraas

Three delights I remember in my childhood are

Bread Butter Jam

Masala Milk or paal

And Rose milk .

Of course not that I got them often .

Close to my house there was a bakery owned by a malayalee in downtown Mylapore ( downtown sounds nice after coming to US 😁)

To your information yours faithfully spent his childhood in this conservative temple strewn narrow streeted part of Madras ( no Chennai vennai those days it was Madras pronounced Madhraas .)

The place was mostly middle class hard working people ,most were brahmin households and vegan was in the air .

Making non veg was surreptious and fish never with its trade mark smells for we all cared for our neighbours as much as they did to us ..

People were simple honest friendly helpful and with no disdain .

The buffaloe rearing milkmen were boorish after 7 pm with local spirits in thier tummy but by morning would become timid pet cats while they skilfully mixed water with milk under the strict security cameras of doubting maamis .

As i mentioned most bakeries and tea shops were run by malayalees to whom Madraas was Dubai then .

Most were called Naayars by the locals though they may be a Poulose or ibrahim kunju from Pala or kottakal .

Coming back to my original story bread butter jam was a quick snack in local bakery I saw when i went to buy bread .

Fat school boys would get down from cars and bite into one while thier doting mothers would watch them indulge .

Masala milk used to simmer by evenings in corner tea cum pan cum cigarette shops and plump mamas would sidle up after thier early dinner for a quick hidden ciggy and a perfumed masala paal .

Rose milk from legendary Kalathi stores which still sells it ,was a temptation for all and a rare reward those days .