Your floods, My floods

My two bits on the Chennai (TN) floods vis-a-vis Assam floods, media coverage etc and what we can learn.
Did Chennai really get national media coverage? No, it didn't initially but citizens did not give a damn and didn't stop allow that to stop them from actually helping and acting on their own... they did not complain, did not whine but set about making news their own way. Media followed the Chennaites..it had to if it didn't want to lose face..so did the politicians. where there's honey, there will be bees.

Chennai floods

Each one is helping the other... Twitter is abuzz each sec with tweets asking for and offering help, normal citizens like you and me are out in the streets bringing people to shelters, distributing food, doctors are moving on their own to people needing help, people are throwing open their homes to total strangers.

Chennai, whether we want to admit it or not, is a much bigger metro than Dibrugarh or Guwahati or any other city in Assam. It is the fifth-largest city and fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the country and 36th-largest urban area in the world. Chennai's economy of US$58.6 billion PPP(US$17 billion nominal GDP, 2010) is currently rated the fourth-largest economy in India. Disruption of corporate communications and industrial houses here obviously means more attention. Water levels were also extremely high, reaching up to first floors. Being the HQ of The Hindu, it obviously, as it should, got local 'national' news. 
Instead of comparing and cribbing about govt and media attention being partial and Assam being treated poorly, let us try and learn how ordinary citizens can make a big difference without depending

Dibrugarh floods

on the govt. (central/state both) Let's really stop blaming and whining and actually start acting on our own. Each one doing whatever we can when there is such a natural calamity or disaster. Media is not covering, what's the big deal? You become the media. Who's stopping you from flooding social media with reports of your areas, putting up pics, everyone pitching in to help people. And why do we have to wait for floods in Assam next year? Instead of comparing media coverage, etc. right now, let us discuss why floods come, steps that can be taken from now on to minimize damage/casualties, form groups for this, motivate others. If there is a major drain blockage near your house, why don't you let all of us know about it? If there is water stagnation, why don't you take pics and share? Let's make a difference ourselves. Aren't we tired of cribbing?

One Very Important Reason to get a Mammography Done

A lump in the breast is what most women dread. What dreaded me most was a mammography. 

I have lived with a lump in my left breast for a long long time, since school... Had a similar one in my right breast, was operated and the biospy showed it was a fibroadenoma, and when I discovered another one, I took it cool. Since it never bothered me, I never bothered with it. Years went by and I forgot about it.

(What is a fibroadenoma? According to the Mayo Clinic, these are 'solid, noncancerous breast tumors that occur most often in adolescent girls and women under the age of 30.' These are usually painless and move under your touch. Treatment includes monitoring, fine needle biopsy and removal by surgery.)

After the birth of my second son, I gained quite a bit of weight, and at the same time, I also started feeling a bit of discomfort around the lump and armpits. This discomfort had lately increased. At around the same time, we had our biannual medical examination and for the first time, ladies had a physical examination, and the doctor was shocked to find the lump. I was asked to go in for a mammography immediately. I told her the history but she said better be sure, 'My mom had a lump for a long time', said doc, 'since I was in class 4. She passed away recently because of cancer, which was discovered too late.' I understood, nodded my head, and then forgot about it.

It was time for my next biannual exam, and I still hadn't gotten my mammography done. You have to do it immediately, I was again told. I nodded and came back home. Between work, kids and home, it gain got postponed. A few days ago, while chatting on Whatsapp with my kid's school's moms group, a mom spoke of getting her mammography done and going in for a surgery, then another shared her experience of how she had fought cancer and survived. We all spoke of immediately getting check-ups done. I shared my experience and was pushed by all the 49 moms into immediately getting it done. In the meantime, our garden doctor's wife, a happy and very positive person, too had been diagnosed with breast cancer but luckily in the first stage and was undergoing chemotherapy, and had very good results.

Maybe it was because of them, maybe I was also getting anxious, and I finally stood and said I must get this done. Sent a message to my cousin who was a doctor, and Sanjib called her and she immediately fixed an appointment. I was terrified the night before. I really did not know what a mammography was. Too scared even to google, I decided to just go with the flow. 

What exactly is a mammography? Now that I have been through it, I can tell you. It is nothing invasive..that is, no needle is inserted, no cuts are made. It is basically an x-ray of your breast tissue. But with regard to privacy, if you think you could go into this fully clothed and remain fully clothed throughout, then no, you cannot. Your breasts, one after the other, are put between two plates and then squeezed by the upper plate. There will be discomfort (and this is putting it mildly). And I was terrified when I saw what was about to happen the first time! They will probably do each breast twice from two angles and with the armpits also coming in view. This will probably be done by female nurses who are professionals and after the first few seconds, you will cease to be embarrassed by the experience.

Once my mammography was done, the doctor wanted to do an ultrasound examination.  What was discovered was a calcified fibroadenoma in my left breast, 3.5 x 1.9 cm and another in my right breast which was considerably smaller. The armpit area had breast tissues, which the doctor said was there in quite a few women... and the final diagnosis was not to worry. Benign.

Never felt so relieved before. But, if this was the real deal, then my delay could have really really caused problems. Sent a prayer of gratitude!

On a serious note, here are some facts: It is always better to get your mammography done immediately if you feel a lump, and if you are above 40, it is recommended that you get one done every year. Husbands should also be taking their wives for an annual check-up even if there are no lumps. It really, really does not cost anything to be a bit more cautious as Breast Cancer is the commonest cancer in women worldwide. According to WHO, over 508 000 women died in 2011 due to breast cancer. Almost 50% of breast cancer cases and 58% of deaths occur in less developed countries (GLOBOCAN 2008). survival rates vary from higher than 80% in developed nations like USA and Japan to less than 40% in low-income nations. This is because of late detection in the latter. The lowest incidence rates are found in most African countries.

Women who are more at risk of breast cancer: 

1. Women who smoke, take alcohol or junk food are in the risk group. 

2. Women who have had their first child after 30 years.

3. Childless women or women who have breastfed for a very short interval.

4. Women with mother or siblings who have had breast cancer have a 50% greater risk factor.

Charts courtesy: http://www.breastcancerindia.net/bc/statistics/stati.htm

Planning to run in the Guwahati Half Marathon...and training starts today! a bit late but then, let's go!!! Today and tomorrow I continue a 40-minute walk...and start with Week 1 schedule from sunday. Hope Sanjib joins in :)


Here's week 1 schedule:

WEEK ONE

Sunday: 40 minutes run

Monday: Rest day

Tuesday: 8 x 400m (track or grass) at 3 km pace, lap jog recovery

Wednesday: Easy 5 miles

Thursday: 40 minutes run

Friday: Rest day

Saturday: 5 miles at steady pace

Tiku Mama

Tiku mama with Arjun...

As soon as I reach Ambari, I walk into the TV room. He is inevitably there, watching TV, with his legs folded and his fingers curled around a cigarette. I can see him in his lungi, and the vest, his hair a shade between flaming orange and dirty grey, smiling at me. I do not want to remember that he had lost his hair, and the last time I met him his head was covered with a gamucha to cover up the effects of chemotherapy. A gamucha, not a cap—that was Tiku mama. It was 1982 when Arun, my father, passed away and we came to stay at Ambari. Dhriti and I grew up with Riku and Miku as one family. If my mother baked a cake, they would be there downstairs to share. If mami made rotis, we had it with honey upstairs. In the middle of everything there was always Tiku mama. Everytime someone felt ill, we would troop to him and he would hand out small homeopathy sugar pills. We mostly faked illness for that. There was a version of scrabble called ‘Word making and taking’ that we used to play. Come exam time and Tiku mama would make us his special timetables with a time for everything from watching TV to eating to Maths. I already loved books and he loved to discuss different books with me. He taught us the importance of having a well maintained library and both Miku and I had notebooks where we catalogued all our books. We had hearty discussions on any topic from Perry Mason to Sangam to Global warming to Pakistan-India with him. Tiku mama loved Raj Kapoor. Cricket was his life. He was however an enthusiast on all other sports, especially tennis. I remember watching the 1985 Wimbledon matches with him. Ma was away and both of us sat late watching each and every match we could. As we grew older, we moved away but Ambari was always Ambari. He was always there when I came for a visit and if he wasn’t the house was empty. In times when he was worried about something, he would pace up and down, smoking his cigarette, in his quintessential old white lungi. He did so many things and knew everything and if you had any problem on anything he had the answer. Anything from cattle rearing to ship building to security software to baking cakes to knitting to car mechanics. Everything. You go ahead and think of something, ask Tiku mama a question and he will give you the most sensible answer there is. I got married from Ambari and he made the Doi-Mas at my athmongola. It was, everyone said, the yummiest. Ma and I spoke to him over the phone just as he was to go in for his first operation. I asked him if he was scared. He said “No, it’s ai paar or sai paar so I am not scared”. Ma and I was crying after we spoke to him but he was smiling. It was not ‘sai paar’ yet for him and he also met Arjun, my son. Miku’s wedding went off very well, and hundreds of people visited the house in the days prior to the event and attended the wedding, everyone had a chance to talk to him. He joked about his illness and was always smiling when I met him. In fact, because of that the news came as a shock. I thought he would always be there, despite his illness, despite everything. He must be smiling now, wherever he is. He must be missing his lungi, cigarette and cricket matches though. I miss you Tiku mama and so does Dhriti and Miku and Riku.