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I was happy teaching physics because during my time physics dealt only with simple systems unlike engineering, chemistry or biology.
But sometime in the 1980s I started hearing Complexity as a fashionable subject for physics researchers. The canonical example they boasted of was:
"A butterfly deciding to flap its wings in KGP can trigger a thunderstorm in NYC"
That looked great on paper but of course you needed super-duper computers to figure it out.
The most complex system we have to deal with willy-nilly is our own body and its malfunctions.
The first time I got wind of it was when my infant son started crying the whole night one day at KGP inconsolably. It was clear he was suffering from acute ear-pain, for, he was holding his earlobes and the pain was shooting in spells. Next morning we rushed him to Dr DDG who was the only child specialist at BNR Hospital allowed to practice at home for a couple of hours in the mornings and evenings.
There was a huge crowd and he could only see each kid for half a minute. And he had a temper so no parent was bold enough to argue with him. He looked at my son's ear and wrote down a prescription that had some drops. We went home and I bought the drops and found that they were not ear-drops but nose-drops. And I was worried. So I rushed to him again for confirmation and he looked at me and said:
"Yes, put them in the nose. Blocked noses cause ear-pain. Next!"
Later I discovered that the Ear-Nose-Throat thing is a connected evil. But thought that eye has no connection with these devils. A few months back when I was being subjected to a variety of drops before my cataract surgery, the chap there put some drops in the eye and said:
"These drops will descend into your throat...swallow them"
That was a revelation...I did swallow them...they were salty.
My MD uncle became famous in a case at Vizagh in the 1960s. A rich lady was suffering from unexplained fever, headache, belly-ache; and nothing helped. She was treated by all specialists for each ache and gave it up and was sinking into depression.
Then the case came to my generalist uncle who asked her to open her mouth, and said:
"Get your right upper wisdom tooth pulled out"
The lady was cured miraculously.
The limit was yesterday when I went to the skin man for my furuncles (aka multiple boils) on the tummy. The old man wrote an ointment and asked me to apply it on the tummy wherever needed. And said:
"Also apply the ointment inside your nostrils lightly"
There is a saying in Sanskrit for complexity:
"Prishtha thadanath danta bhangah"
Meaning:
"A hit on the bottom loosens the tooth"
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I was happy teaching physics because during my time physics dealt only with simple systems unlike engineering, chemistry or biology.
But sometime in the 1980s I started hearing Complexity as a fashionable subject for physics researchers. The canonical example they boasted of was:
"A butterfly deciding to flap its wings in KGP can trigger a thunderstorm in NYC"
That looked great on paper but of course you needed super-duper computers to figure it out.
The most complex system we have to deal with willy-nilly is our own body and its malfunctions.
The first time I got wind of it was when my infant son started crying the whole night one day at KGP inconsolably. It was clear he was suffering from acute ear-pain, for, he was holding his earlobes and the pain was shooting in spells. Next morning we rushed him to Dr DDG who was the only child specialist at BNR Hospital allowed to practice at home for a couple of hours in the mornings and evenings.
There was a huge crowd and he could only see each kid for half a minute. And he had a temper so no parent was bold enough to argue with him. He looked at my son's ear and wrote down a prescription that had some drops. We went home and I bought the drops and found that they were not ear-drops but nose-drops. And I was worried. So I rushed to him again for confirmation and he looked at me and said:
"Yes, put them in the nose. Blocked noses cause ear-pain. Next!"
Later I discovered that the Ear-Nose-Throat thing is a connected evil. But thought that eye has no connection with these devils. A few months back when I was being subjected to a variety of drops before my cataract surgery, the chap there put some drops in the eye and said:
"These drops will descend into your throat...swallow them"
That was a revelation...I did swallow them...they were salty.
My MD uncle became famous in a case at Vizagh in the 1960s. A rich lady was suffering from unexplained fever, headache, belly-ache; and nothing helped. She was treated by all specialists for each ache and gave it up and was sinking into depression.
Then the case came to my generalist uncle who asked her to open her mouth, and said:
"Get your right upper wisdom tooth pulled out"
The lady was cured miraculously.
The limit was yesterday when I went to the skin man for my furuncles (aka multiple boils) on the tummy. The old man wrote an ointment and asked me to apply it on the tummy wherever needed. And said:
"Also apply the ointment inside your nostrils lightly"
There is a saying in Sanskrit for complexity:
"Prishtha thadanath danta bhangah"
Meaning:
"A hit on the bottom loosens the tooth"
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