Head and Heart ....

When I went to school, we never did a separate course on "communications".  We just learnt the language and its nuances, and picked up the niceties of communication by observation, mostly at home, school and in public spaces.

Very often communication has to do with local culture, and you observe, sift and pickup things that fit in with the ethos of your surroundings and your bringing up.

Then you have folks doing courses in what is  called Corporate Communications (hitherto referred to as CC).

When this is done to get something in return , it is called PR.  

When this is done otherwise, it could be for throwing the company's weight around, being intimidating, or even being euphemistic about some impending unhappy event like layoffs and so on.   Many times these folks in CC, get so carried away, they lose track with ground realities .

An afternoon in the living room. The land line rings. A very posh and cultured voice .  "I am calling from the LIC Zonal office " ..the-voice  "Yes ?" Me. Wondering.  "We need to talk to Mr Darshan Patel" ...the-voice  "I am sorry. You have the wrong number, no one by that name lives here." Me  " How can that be ? I have called this number several times" ...the-voice  " Are you trying to call Jalgaon, because the STD code is sometimes dialled in error with a digit missing and we get the call in Mumbai . Sometimes dialling from a mobile and land line is different." Me trying to help.  " How can it be Mumbai ? I must have made more than a lakh calls to this number ! This must be Jalgaon. Call your manager. I insist " the-voice  " Hello. This is a Mumbai Powai number. I am here sitting in Mumbai and cannot say that this is Jalgaon, much as you might like me to. Me .  "How can u be in Mumbai ? You are lying. Call Mr Darshan Patell. Better , Call the Manager !. the-voice  " Ma'am, this is a residence, and I am the Manager . Ab bolo. "  Just wondering why she made one lakh (100,000) calls to the number ?

This conversation happened yesterday afternoon. And found its way to FB  to the immense amusement of various folks.

I keep getting several calls for Jalgaon. Many times it is someone trying to call a family member , and they are disappointed to get me. Then I explain the STD code to them, and some of them , who have clearly not had the benefit of CC , confide and say how so and so gave them the number, it worked when someone else dialled etc etc, but they are grateful that one is not shouted at.  They even apologize when they manage to reach me again.

Then I get these "plywood" calls. Some guys wish to know when their order is being delivered. I tried telling that I  "don't do plywood or any wood", but they then throw dates and numbers at me. Some hear when I say its me , and bashfully apologize, while others  then ask me for the correct plywood person's number!   By and large, no one abuses you. They are just confused or flummoxed .

Which takes me back to another time , in the pre cell phone days.  Somewhere in 1990.  MTNL reigned supreme, being a telephone linesman was a lucrative profession, you waited years for a  telephone , and at that time, ours was the only telephone in a building of 4 flats,  thanks to my folks transferring their phone to me on retirement .

One of my neighbors was scheduled for surgery,  there was some confusion/problem  and they came down to call the doctor. First the lady dialled. Wrong number. Then I dialled.  (I was supposed to have magic fingers; in reality it was this ability to tirelessly keep dialing till someone answered).  Again wrong number.  This went on for several minutes, till the lady at the other end asked what the problem was.  We told her the problem, the doctors name, his clinic etc,  and that we needed to explain and hear from him before the elderly patient could be moved .

Turns out, that she did know of his clinic, some numbers had changed. But she didn't know his changed number. She asked us to hold on, and sent her son to a neighbor who had the doc's card. It looked like he would take a while, so she asked us for our number!  We offered to call her again. Ten minutes later, we get a call back,not from her, but from the doc !   The patient's folks were relieved, the doc gave the instructions and everything went off fine in the subsequent days.

I don't think the lady was trained in any CC.  She probably realised we were not trained in any CC either.  She just hugely empathized with some worried folks who had an incorrect number given to them.  But she "thought out of the box" as they say,  and got in touch with the doc himself .

Such things may not happen today.  For one thing, doctors have cell phones, and they hand out the contact details to whoever they feel necessary.  Elsewhere, these are the days of trained communicators marinated in jargon. And people with fancy accents telling you to press different numbers for different services. 

These are days, where there are set ways of greeting each other in a corporate ambiance. I've often greeted folks with a namastey, the same instant that they have held their palm out to shake hands. It is fun. :-)

There are even set ways of dressing, as was brought home to me (after a lifetime of working/retiring and dressing in the Indian National Dress ) when folks went shopping for "western formals"  on acquiring their first job.

What is true of verbal communications is also true of non-verbal .  I am aware that corporate types having to work with, say Japan/Taiwan/Korea, or even Middle East folks, get special training in local communication culture. 

This form of communication is often culture centric.   And very often , those who do not have the benefit of special professional training, communicate the best.

Young children  in the house know, that when they take leave of elderly grandfolks , whether actually related or no,  they are expected to touch their feet doing namaskar. This is mostly taught  to them by example , as it was , to me , personally, by my mother.

A couple of years ago we were visiting   a family friend  , an American lady,  aged 92(or is it 94) , while on  trip to the US. This lady's son lived in India for several years, and is conversant with the cultural ethos, and we  had accompanied him to his mother's house. When it was time to leave after a very nice lunch visit, my daughter quickly bent to do namaskar to her.  The lady was literally taken aback  (she actually moved half a step back, wondering if something had fallen down).  In a reflex action of sorts, she placed her hand on the daughter's shoulder and patted her.  The message had probably gone through .  (Her son must have later explained to her the namaskar gesture by the younger to the older folks) .

I guess communication, per se,  whether verbal or nonverbal, originates in the head, but is more enjoyable, with a dollop of heart thrown in.....





    

Cell phone to the rescue

I was a late entrant into the world of cell phones. I used to think at first that only folks like doctors , emergency services like police, fire etc would benefit from these so they could respond faster.

Slowly, cell phones became a "required item" for everyone. It was de rigeur, to give folks minute to minute updates on your bus trips to and from work. It was de rigeur to do mass messaging of some stupid jokes. Amazingly, sometimes narcissism flowered unknowingly, as folks photographed themselves with their own cellphones, holding them in front, now that cameras had a become de rigeur on phones. And when all was done, you stuck two probes in your ears, wore wires like garlands, and walked around , looking, as if you were a lost case , and were talking and guffawing to yourself; all because you wanted to use what was called "hands-free".

Then I heard about the "missed call" system. Reams have been written about the innovative usage of these in India, from simply sending a preplanned message via a terminated call, to running an entire autorickshaw-on-request system, in Kakinada , at no cost to either consumer.

One birthday dinner at a well known Marathi traditional food place in Pune, saw a young girl photograph a wonderfully filled plate with all the goodies, and upload it on Facebook; her cousin in the US who was a FB friend was impressed , and immediately sent back a "like", and shared the photo with others, one of whom was actually celebrating the birthday at that moment in India, at the lunch !

I recently heard of a more serious use.

An old grandpa in Bengaluru had cataract surgery. He was so impressed with the results that he complimented the doctor profusely, and then decided to go on a special thanksgiving pilgrimage. Certain part of the pilgrimage was to be done barefoot. And by and by the family returned home. Except, grandpa was a diabetic for many years, and his foot had now caught some infection. Typically, the hurting foot was treated first with household remedies, wraps, massages, etc etc, without success. It was an angry reddish swollen sight, very painful, and mobility was getting affected. So it was finally decided to operate before the danger of gangrene manifested itself.

Grandpa's only son , X. , was there throughout , and everyone breathed a sigh of relief after grandpa recovered from the surgery and was brought into the hospital room. X was married to a girl whose mother was a doctor in Mumbai. The doctor from Mumbai had called earlier to find out how things were going. X took a photo on his cell phone , and sent it to his ma-in-law, so she could see for her self.

Soon it was evening, and a relieved family brought out their dabbas and had a dinner of sorts in the waiting area. Grandpa too, was allowed a meal. He was helped up , and he had some excellent home made food . The energy seemed to be returning back, and people stopped by to chit chat with grandpa. This went on for some time.


Sometime later, a cleaning staff member, on a routine visit to the room, suddenly looked aghast at grandpa's foot , and what he said threw everyone into a tizzy. The foot was slowly dripping blood, and a pool was forming on the floor. And no one had noticed, including grandpa.

It was sometime before the doctors would arrive, but X had in the meanwhile got alarmed, called his ma-in-law, and sent her the picture of the bleeding foot and its environs. She immediately realised that no one had informed the patient or his relatives about keeping the leg appropriately elevated, and not letting it hang down like this. She even uploaded the photo on her computer to see it in detail, and promptly told her son-in-law what was happening.

Grandpa needed to lie down, slightly elevating the leg. They needed to ensure that grandpa's loss of blood had not adversely affected his Hb levels, his blood pressure needed to be confirmed, and she stayed alert , as X , sent her photographs of the wound which was now being attended to by hospital staff, stitches being checked etc etc. When the duty doctor checked the BP and did blood tests , X informed her, so she could tell him if it was a cause for worry or no. The sight of wounds, blood, dressings, stuff dripping all over etc was so traumatic, that X also sent her pictures of the finished dressing , to confirm, if she thought it was OK. Naturally, given grandpa's age, and diabetes, loss of blood, surgery etc, she asked X to stay at the bedside the whole night and keep observing grandpa. Ensure that the leg was at a slight elevation, and not allowed to hang down . And contact the resident doctor immediately and then her, if he noticed certain signs.

The next day dawned , and grandpa had recovered well. The dressing on the foot looked a bit frightening. The wound and the blood was under control. X called his mother-in-law with the news (and latest closeups of the stuff), checked if he could leave for a short while and then left when some other family member took over.

Grandpa returned home after a couple of days and is now fine. This episode happened almost a couple of months ago.

It is a fact, that sometimes, health care entities do not educate the patient and the attending relatives on the things to be careful about , post surgery. Things like the post surgical normal position of the limb in question, whether the person can use a pillow, whether water can be given to a patient when demanded ; so many things. Even simple things like which pills must be given with food, and which ones when fasting. Sometimes patients hesitate to ask the doctors, sometimes overcome by the aura of the expertise. Some people hesitate to ask the doctor thinking he /she will get angry. I've seen folks going into huddled whispers when the doctor comes on a visit. When they should actually be listening carefully and asking questions related to the patients well being and perceived difficulties.

It's not as if grandpa in the above story, would have had problems , if X had not called someone who was a doctor in Mumbai and related too. But he was able to ensure that post bleeding, the blood pressure , haemoglobin was being checked and followed up, and was able to confirm with his Mumbai contact what the local doctor was saying. His ability to stay alert throughout the night checking up on grandpa, his sleep, alertness and movement of the leg, possibly also kept some local paramedical folks on their toes.

And there is something to be said, for a son, thanks to some reassuring advice, getting some peace of mind, after all that "bloody" excitement, as he sat by his father's bedside, the whole night, keeping the truant limb in sight.

Such a great use of a cell phone, for someone not familiar with medicine, surgery, and the likes. But very very familiar with what all the cell phone could do.

I just thought this was such an amazing use of the cell phone ....

Carving to Communicate : 2nd part of Scratching the surface...

Lest people confuse Henna(Mehendi) designs with Tattoos, let me rush and add that this distinction is similar to what they say about Sachin Tendulkar, when he makes anything less than a 100 runs.

They say Form is Temporary, Class is Permanent. Mehendi/Henna is temporary, Tattoos are permanent.

And this is about Tattoos. And their ability to function as disseminaters and communicators of information.

Gerard Cote, of Texas A&M University, and Michael Pishko, of the chemical engineering department at Penn State University, have come up with, what can only be called the glowing diabetic tattoo. A special tattoo is inscribed on/in your skin. It is blood- glucose sensitive, and is scheduled to glow when your glucose levels change. My late mother-in-law, who lived in the days before disposable syringes would have been thrilled.

Dr Garry Hellerman, writing in Genetic Vaccines and Therapy, says research indicates that many vaccines could now be given in tattoo form. Tests indicate that tattoo vaccines generate 16 times more antibodies in you than normal pokes, and stuff looks more promising for vaccines for HPV and cervical cancer.

While all this is something that gives long range tattoo benefits, there are some folks who don't have the patience.

Just in case you are unclear about his right or left brain proclivities, this guy has made good use of his bald state. Though constantly visualizing his dormant grey-red matter would be a bit traumatic. And I wouldn't fight to sit behind him in a lecture hall.




Here ---> is someone who thinks he needs to educate his doctor, about his muscle pain. I mean, we all know, BUT, Just in case the doctor gets confused about triceps brachia and the biceps brachia, you just land up, roll up your sleeves (if you have some), and point to the 3rd muscle fibre 6 inches above the elbow. Eureka!


A spectacularly cool device for "vein contrast enhancement" called the VeinViewer, , is now in use throughout the Memphis-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare system.

We have something cheaper.

Not to be outdone, and probably to help in his med school Viva exams, this guy has his entire arm veins blood supply displayed. They ask you a question and you simply point. The guy above too, probably had this ulterior motive in mind for the Muscles exam.




Next time you see a med student wearing Bermudas at his Vivas, and looking down and depressed, you know its not true. He is actually checking to see the answer to the question about the left coronary artery,, the pulmonary vein. and the Bundle of His.

(It might entertain folks to know that in my language, Bundle is another word for Fib.)





And just in case someone needs to give someone's backside a much wished kick, you can now pick and choose which of this gent's vertebrae and ribs will take the load. No need for Xrays. Just point and kick. This is the WYSIWYG method, the last G stands for " give" and not "get" . (WUSIWYG =What You See Is What You Give/Get).




Like late ex-President Nixon was fond of saying, this guy is really making things "perfectly clear"...... just in case you thought the heart was on the doctors left, in lieu of your left, this needs no explanatory words. Very useful for folks thinking of making an incision in your chest to operate on you.




Should you decide to have that operation.......
A great example of how tattoos can help when the surgeon says, "make an incision of 6 inches....." ....never thought these medical types had a mathematical side to them. But the key question is, does the other hand display tattoos in the metric system ?



Is it time to look for math tattoos ?


Here is a functionally disabled fellow. He has rested , but not before showing the fist with the function f(x) = 1/x. So apt. for someone whose life may have just turned upside down ....




A fine way to postulate the theory of infinitely integrated love..... Of course, no one has ever found the solution to this problem, although everyone from Afghanistan to Zanzibar is trying, even the Nobel folks are trying, on the off chance that they can get the prize themselves .....






A great way to fudge your electrical engineering exams. The "circuits" are permanent, and the examiner cannot remove the stuff." without breaking your arm"

. A great way to remain charged at all times




You know, I have always been intrigued by the number "pi", shown tattooed alongside, divided by 2. What tickles me no end, is that the word "pi" in my language, Marathi, means "leg, and this is so fitting, that one single leg in tattooed with "pi divided by 2" ! How they would tattoo the whole "pi" is a different problem, but since pi = 3.14 something, we can talk about it on 3/14 which is, what else, "international PI day ie March 14.....!"





Some people with lots of time calculated the value of pi to 100 decimal places. Some other people with more time, tattooed this value on their entire arm . It seems at first glance you can only see 73 decimal places. .......Now that "mine eyes have seen " seen the 74th decimal place, I can die ..........




And finally Maxwell, who postulated the equations for the speed of light in a dilelectric medium (OK, I know you all know about them, but accuracy is important , like in tattooing) , must be feeling positively sorry for this guy who tattooed the equations, and their effect in terms of something from Genesis,cutting in too hard, hoping that his girlfriend taking the exam sitting behind him, would, maybe , finally, see the light.....
Pass the soframycin, will ya ?


There are so many ways one can do complicated subjects, aided by tattoos. Folks doing geography can tattoo maps to remember that Urals are not in Nebraska, the Taj Mahal is in Agra and not Mumbai, And Alaska is near to Russia, but you cant see there even if you are Palin; the cooking and eating types can tattoo caloric values and obese figures on their palms. Physics Folks can tattoo equations on their back and sit for a price, in front of those who fool around throughout the semseter. David Beckham can Tatoo his wife's picture on his back, and offer a buy-one-get-one-free deal, even if he returns to Spain and she sticks to LA. All corporate cheaters can be tattooed with the dollar amount that they defrauded the country with.

The possibilities are endless.


But the final say has to rest with these two.

The one of the left , telling us of future events.

The one below, very much having to do with this blog.