Ramana Gove

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Foundations for Future-Hallmark of ‘Sci-fi’ !

The other day I was reading an article in newspaper on Nigerian-American novelist Nnedi Okorafor’s Sci-fi novel ‘Lagoon’. For a while,my mind detoured from the routine and made me wield my pen on this essential and integral part of all great types of fiction.Sci-fi speaks of the possible futures. My earliest familiarity is with the theme of voyage to moon by Jules Verne of 19th century,about which I heard in my college days.It is amazing to note that he made some precise calculations on the magnitude of force needed to propel the rocket out of the Earth’s atmosphere. Another interesting Sci-if work I had exposure to, is ‘The Time Machine’ by H.G.Wells in which the author travels in time both into past and future too by a specially designed vehicle. Part of the work portrays creatures who are physically emaciated and mentally imbeciles being most reluctant to use body and mind,a logical consequence of a prolonged sedentary life style and automation.Today even we find ourselves di

When is life back to normal ?

It is true that life may not be same as it was before for quite a good length of time. Even the so called vaccines rolled out need time to do the job. It is usually a few weeks for the body to build immunity after vaccination.Thus to have an established efficacy among demographies, it takes a considerable time.Needless to say that the timeline for all the people to have the shots or even to attain herd immunity depends upon a number factors such as availability, accessibility, and affordability of the vaccines.Also the travel restrictions and social distancing are likely to gain momentum despite the vaccines being popular for the simple fact that people in different countries are not equally sensitive to the demands of precautionary measures and as such, nations like India where relatively greater care is evinced by the people compared to even many advanced countries,got to keep themselves in isolation to reap the maximum benefit from their practices.The intensity of new strain in Brit

Mending the Mannerisms for the Public Good

It is a common, disgusting and unhygienic scene to observe people spitting on the road or spewing out a stream of reddish saliva from pan chewing or a stream of watery ejection from vomiting while on move. Of course, vomiting from the window of moving bus or train or car is understandable to some extent as it is a result of nausea due to motion sickness or gastric disturbance but then, one may keep a carry bag along, and care a bit to peep either side of the window for a while so that the passers by can protect and prevent themselves from getting drenched !The same thing is applicable in the case of those who can not so easily get rid of other practices. Similarly smoking in public places is another such undesirable habit.A study says that passive smoking( breathing in the smoking of other people ) is no less harmful.If one has never smoked but lived with people who smoke, there are chances of getting affected from a range of tobacco related diseases such as certain types of can

From numero phobic to numero philic !

We often develop a dislike or even look down or undermine the importance of certain branches of knowledge.This happens mostly out of our ignorance in that branch but certainly not because of our indignation or haughtiness.I must confess that one such subject which I used to think is of lesser importance, is ‘Statistics’.But I understand the height of my ignorance. I believe that figures speak volumes ! Figures compel us to think and analyse and help us to search for a probable cause effect link. Figures provide insights to arrive at certain conclusions which otherwise may not be possible. Whether we talk of the GDP data of trillions of dollars of a nation or the mind blowing findings of the data of observations that estimate a 2 seconds increase in the length of the daily in 100 years’ time due to changes in the earth’s magnetic field, or the data of the weather profiles of the past decades that help a logical extrapolation with modelling leading to precise forecasts etc ,a

WFH(Work From Home) signals a new socioeconomic order?

Marchetti’s constant (Cesare Marchetti is an Italian physicist) speaks of the average commuting time a worker spends.It is said to be an hour a day and quite surprisingly this has been found valid right since Neolithic times.(thousands of years ago)). Taking this in to account and assuming a 38 hour working work , it is said that there would be a substantial increase in productivity due to the elimination of this commuting time. There are some more advantages like :(1)The decreased pollution levels due to an enormous reduction in commuting and (2) the resultant savings in crude import bill for the nations ( more so for energy hungry countries like India ) and (3)the reduced costs of health burden for the nation in the event of this culture continuing for long. Well, it is true that by cutting down the commuting time, the productivity shoots up as perceived, probably fuelled by an undisturbed concentration, reduced stress levels in commuting (more so in buzzing metros),longer connecting

Psychological Disorders - Role of Near and Dear

While the roles of a clinical psychologist and psychiatrist are not to be forgotten and neglected,there is a lot to be done by the near and dear to augment the professional help in mending the things. The effective tools available for the care takers in dealing with health disorders like anxiety, depression, OCD (Obsessive–compulsive disorder) bi polar disorder are talking,explaining,narrating,instilling(confidence),sympathising,hugging, cuddling, caressing,counselling and consoling,motivating as excessive thinking, fears, phobias, introversion, aloofness, rumination,repetitive gestures,heightened and subdued spirits etc form an integral role in these with an inability to maintain an emotional balance.Introversion and depression often go together while either being the cause and the other, the effect ! Stephen Hawking’s statement that ‘quiet people have the loudest minds’ perhaps applies well to introverts and the depressed as they have loud and chaotic minds,engrossed in their o