Worried by multiple news reports of patients failing to get an ambulance or being charged exorbitant costs if they get one, the residents decided to gear up for an emergency.
After incidents where a shortage of ambulances led to the deaths of patients, a group of 37 residents welfare associations (RWAs) in Kanakapura in Bengaluru have rented an ambulance to cater to 3700 families.
Done under the banner of Change Makers of Kanakapura, the cost boils down to Rs 60 per month per family, with the vehicle on standby at Kanakapura road, Konankunte cross, with ICU trained nursing staff and driver at their beck and call.
“One resident who suffered a heart attack passed away as the hospital said their ambulance was preoccupied and could only reach him in an hour. In another case, a person who suffered a mild heart attack and was breathless could not get an ambulance because all hospitals feared it was COVID-19. Finally, the family had to drive him down in a car, where he was tested for COVID-19 and only after he turned negative was he sent for angioplasty,” said Abdul Aleem, member of the RWA federation.
Worried by multiple news reports of patients failing to get an ambulance or being charged exorbitant costs if they get one, the residents including apartment dwellers decided to gear up for an emergency.
The total cost is Rs 2 lakh per month and the ambulance is equipped with a ventilator, ambu bag, suction apparatus, bain circuit, PPE kits, cardiac monitor, infusion pump and oxygen cylinder provided by JK Ambulance Service.
It will cater to residents along the Sarakki signal to NICE road junction stretch. There will be 3 nursing staff on three 8-hour shifts and 2 drivers on 12-hour shifts.
They have even prepared for a scenario where a vehicle is required by more than one patient.
“In such a situation, the vendor has promised to give one more ambulance at the same time,” Aleem said, adding, “We will use it for all kinds of patients. If a patient is COVID positive or a suspect, the vehicle will be sanitized after transporting them. PPE kits will be provided to the patient and staff.”
This ambulance is a form of insurance for residents for the next six months, so they are not left helpless in case there is a medical emergency.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Ranjani Madhavan / July 17th, 2020
As many as 31 teachers from the state have been chosen for the ‘Best Teacher’ award for the academic year 2019-20.
Bengaluru :
As many as 31 teachers from the state have been chosen for the ‘Best Teacher’ award for the academic year 2019-20. They are Asha Hegade from Kalaburagi, Naganna from Mysuru, Savitramma and Rajashekar BR from Bengaluru North, Shamsiya from Sirsi, Padma D from Dakshina Kannada, omalingappa MT and Danamma Jhalaki from Belagavi, Lingaraju from Mandya, Umadevi LN from Bengaluru South, Ratnakumari S from Shivamogga, Nirmala Ramachandra and Hanumappa G Huddara from Bagalakote, B Usha from Davanagere, Mallikarjuna Shivalingappa from Vijayapura, Geetha KH from Chikkamagaluru, Narayana from Chamarajanagar, Umesh from Udupi.
Malleshappa Addedara and Kavitha Diggavi from Koppal, Jayasingh Ambulal Thakur from Bidar, K Ramesh from Kolar, Bheemaiah from Yadagir, Rajanagowda Pattara and Sharanappa Karishetty from Raichur, Krishnamurthy N from Haveri, Narayanaswami R from Bengaluru Rural, Renukaiah HR from Tumakuru and Channegowda from Ramanagara. The government, via the teachers’ welfare fund and students’ welfare fund, has sanctioned `50,000 each to the 31 schools where these teachers are employed.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / July 16th, 2020
(Clockwise) A painting of Chikkadevaraja Wadiyar; the Kote Venkataramanaswamy Temple was commissioned by Chikkadevaraja after he took over the city; earliest known painting of Bengaluru from 1792 by an anonymous British painter. This was a century af…
This story has all the hallmarks of a contemporary property dispute: an owner making a distress sale, relatives trying their best to take over the property, the eager buyer rushing in to take possession and a land shark stepping in to occupy the land illegally. The only catch is that this incident occurred exactly 333 years ago, on July 10, 1687, and the property in question was the city of Bengaluru.
The principal characters in this dispute are historical figures we are familiar with: the seller was Ekoji (Venokji), the half-brother of Maratha King Shivaji. The relative was Sambhaji, Shivaji’s son. The buyer was Chikkadevaraja Wadiyar, the ruler of Mysore and the land shark was Kasim Khan, the Mughal general sent by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
Chikkadevaraja
The entire ‘property deal’, so to speak, took place for Rs 3,00,000. But how did this come to be?
Chikkadevaraja ascended the throne of Mysore in 1673 and is credited with expanding the frontiers of the kingdom to its largest extent. Three of his military exploits stand out.
The first was his defeat of Sri Ranga VI, who was propped up by the rulers of Ikkeri, Bijapur and Golkonda under the pretense of re-establishing the erstwhile Vijayanagara empire.
His victory against Chokkanatha Nayaka of Madurai extended Mysuru’s influence till Tiruchirapalli in the south.
His other big success was stopping Shivaji at Srirangapatna, when the latter was mopping up old Bijapur possessions during a campaign in South India. In April 1682, Chikkadevaraja won multiple battles against the Marathas, even defeating the combined forces of Basappa Nayaka of Ikkeri, Qutb Shah of Golkonda and Shivaji’s son Sambhaji at Banavara, in present-day Hassan.
So when the Mysore forces came face-to-face with the Mughal army at the gates of Bengaluru on July 10, 1687, they were no pushovers.
The Maratha connection
Shahaji (Shivaji’s father), who was a general in the Bijapur army, was given Bengaluru as a jagir by an Adil Shahi ruler. This was passed on to his son Ekoji.
In 1674, when Ekoji was dispatched by Adil Shah to sort out a succession dispute of the local ruler in Thanjavur, he did one better. Ekoji eventually crowned himself the king of Thanjavur.
However, Ekoji now faced a family dispute over the jagir of Bengaluru. Both Shivaji, and later his son Sambhaji — not always on cordial terms with Ekoji — coveted it. Ekoji held on to Bengaluru and Thanjavur.
After their conquest of Bijapur in 1686, the Mughals rapidly pushed towards the south.
Aurangzeb’s expansion of the Mughal empire culminated with the fall of Bijapur (1686) and Golkonda (1687). The gates to south India, then known as Karnata Empire (the official name of the Vijayanagara empire), now lay open to them. Led by Kasim Khan,the Mughal army’s run through the South began in Penukonda, in the present-day Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.
Chikkadevaraja managed to keep Tumakuru out of Mughal hands. Ekoji, now faced with the prospect of losing his jagir to the Mughals, made the offer to sell Bengaluru to Chikkadevaraja, for a very reasonable price of three lakh rupees. Contemporary accounts suggest that the amount was paid by Chikkadevaraja even before his troops were sent to take possession of the city.
On his part, Sambhaji sensed an opportunity to settle an old family dispute and dispatched his generals, Santaji and Kesava Triyambak Pant as well as Haraji, the governor of Gingee, to take control of the city before Chikkadevaraja reached there.
The Mughal general Kasim Khan reached Bengaluru before either of the two. When the Marathas reached the city, they found the Mughal flag fluttering over the ramparts and turned back without a fight.
Chikkadevaraja, having already made the purchase, was not willing to give up so easily. He went into battle with the momentum of his victory over the Mughal forces a few months earlier, in Tumakuru. The hostilities lasted four days.
The Apratima Vira Charitam, a contemporary work written by Tirumalaraya, during the life of Chikkadevaraja, records the result of this battle, ‘Mogalr savari sade badidu, manidar Mogalar, odida Mogalara padeyam, Mogala Maratarganjuva perarayar rayaraltu, avaram jayisirpa Chikadevarayane Rayan.’ (He overcame the Mughal forces.The Mughals were defeated. The Mughal forces fled. Those afraid of the Mughals and Marathas are not kings. Chikkadevaraja who defeated them both is the real king.)
Historian Ravikumar Navalgund explains the significance of the king taking over Bengaluru. “Till that point, Mysuru was one of the petty kingdoms trying to build on the ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire and the Bijapur sultanate. With this victory, the Bengaluru region firmly became part of Mysore and even today is considered part of the ‘Old Mysore’ region. Mysuru, for the first time fought and defeated the Mughals, making them recognise Mysore Kingdom as a force to reckon with. From this point onwards, the kingdom continued to expand for nearly 100 years,” he says.
On July 14, 1687 Kasim Khan concluded an agreement with the king, securing for the Mughal’s a transit through Benglauru to Sira, in Tumakuru, where the Mughals established their regional government.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Spectrum> Spectrum Top Stories / by S Shyam Prasad / July 11th, 2020
After sharing the fourth position in the science stream with three other students in the IIPUC exams by scoring 593 marks out of 600, Deepthi is now determined to become a scientist.
Deepthi TMK with her mother. (Photo | EPS)
Tumakuru :
Deepthi Anjanachar is soft spoken to the point of being inconspicuous at times. But beneath it all is a steely determination to excel.
Nobody in her family including her brother has studied beyond class XII. Deepthi, though, is dreaming big.
After sharing the fourth position in the science stream with three other students in the IIPUC exams by scoring 593 marks out of 600, she is now determined to become a scientist.
“Since I had no one to inspire me in particular, I had to inspire myself,” she asserted.
Neither her father, a class IX dropout, nor her mother passed SSLC. Her older brother dropped out of school after failing in II PUC.
Deepthi’s achievement comes even as her father Anjanachar, who has been working in a garage, has been laid low by gangrene brought on by uncontrolled diabetes. He is recuperating at Sri Siddhartha Medical College.
Her mother Jayalaksmi TV, a homemaker, on Tuesday accompanied the proud girl with sweets to meet the Vidhaynidhi Independent PU college’s secretary Pradeep Kumar as the latter had helped them.
“Alongside her father, in the hospital, she had been attending the online classes to crack the NEET and CET with great determination,” remarked Dr Devipriya, her biology teacher.
Deepthi scored cent per in Biology, Physics, and Chemistry, and 98 in Mathematics. In Kannada, she scored 99 and 96 in her second language English.
She not only wants to become a doctor but also wants to research and discover drugs for life-threatening ailments.
Her proud brother Abhishek, who works with a private company told The New Indian Express , that his younger sister has been fulfilling the dreams of the entire family and he sees her continuing to do so.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Express News Service / July 14th, 2020
The Covid Care Centre at the sprawling Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) campus on Tumakuru Road. DH PHOTO/B H SHIVAKUMAR
The BBMP is preparing to open a massive Covid Care Centre (CCC) on the sprawling Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) campus on Tumakuru Road to combat the spiralling coronavirus cases.
Civic officials said the 10,100-bedded facility will be the country’s largest. New Delhi’s Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre currently holds the honour of being the world’s largest Covid care facility with 10,000 beds. The BIEC facility will accommodate asymptomatic Covid-19 patients or those with mild symptoms.
Initially, the BBMP planned to arrange 5,000 to 7,000 beds in BIEC’s five halls with two-metre distance between the beds. “But the latest standard operating procedure released by the Centre says one-metre distance between the beds is sufficient. So, we scaled up the capacity to 10,100 beds across five halls,” explained Sarfaraz Khan, joint commissioner (SWM), BBMP.
BBMP commissioner B H Anil Kumar said the centre is well-ventilated with enough toilets, nursing stations, kitchens, and other facilities necessary to attend to asymptomatic patients.
“We have decided to set up 10-bedded ICUs at every Covid Care Centre,” Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, who visited the facility, said. “In BIEC alone, a 100-bedded ICU will be set up with all medical facilities, including oxygen supply. By Monday, 7,000 beds will be ready to occupy and the remaining 3,000 beds will be added in a week.”
The civic body has put up LED screens to beam entertainment programmes, especially for children and the elderly to help them overcome boredom. Good quality food has also been organised for patients with separate bins to dispose of the plates.
A bio-medical waste agency has been given the tender to clean the facility. The centre will have separate cabins with 40 beds and televisions sets in each cabin.
“High-tech toilets and washroom facilities have been provided at all the halls. Separate oxygen chambers have also been set up,” K Narasimhamurthy, joint commissioner, Dasarahalli Zone, explained.
Narayan said patients will be diverted to BIEC by the end of the week. “All medical staff have been relieved from their non-medical duty and directed to these clinical services. Additional trained staffers will also be deployed at these Covid centres. If there are any more complaints about the quality of food, the suppliers will lose the contract without notice,” the deputy chief minister cautioned.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / DHNS / July 06th, 2020
When their property in Banaswadi turned vacant after their tenant left, brothers Sandeep, Sachin and Ashish Jain tried to turn adversity into opportunity.
(From left) Ashish Jain, Sachin Jain and Sandeep Jain
Bengaluru :
When their property in Banaswadi turned vacant after their tenant left, brothers Sandeep, Sachin and Ashish Jain tried to turn adversity into opportunity. They decided to help those struggling to find places to quarantine themselves. “Initially, there was a lot of confusion. People who couldn’t quarantine at home were having trouble finding a place. And we found that we had vacant rooms. We gave it out to those in need,” says Sandeep. The brothers run Global Wings Group, a multi-diversified business.
Now hosting doctors, nurses, and paramedics from government hospitals, the brothers have been working to help people with quarantining. “During the lockdown phase, most of the hotels were shut and there was no staff. We had to activate the properties in short notice. We used to get calls at odd hours and we had to take care of safety, security and hygienic food. Our team was placed at the airport too to coordinate with officials for quarantining,” says Sandeep.
Amid the crisis were also challenges, in terms of keeping the rooms clean or serving food. Sandeep, whose team was also serving meals to the needy at their restaurant Desi Masala, says, “Several of our workforce returned to their hometowns, so we had to manage with the staff we had.” A stable back end machinery was put in place in association with BBMP. “We are working to help healthcare workers, police personnel, primary and secondary contacts and migrants from other cities. This also entailed ensuring timely meals. Whatever the challenge we faced, our goal was to pull this off,” says Sandeep, who is now partnering with over 20 local hotels to help people find places to quarantine.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / July 19th, 2020
In the recent demise of Dr. N. Kannan on 31st May 2020, we Mysureans have lost an iconic figure and one of the most well-known doctors from our midst. If I may jog people’s memory a little, he was the first person to set up a Pathology Lab in our city, way back in the year 1968, in the Gayathri Bhavan building on Dhanvanthri Road and his tiny lab was called just that — The Pathology Lab !
Born in the year 1936 on the 10th of January, he too was a fighter like the American boxer George Foreman who was also born on 10th January but more than a decade later. But while Foreman fought tenaciously for boxing titles, our hero fought no less valiantly for principles and ethics in the practice of medicine. That is why after a very short but promising stint as a lecturer in Pathology at his Alma Mater the Mysore Medical College, Kannan decided to quit his very secure and sheltered job and ventured to launch himself in a tiny boat on the uncharted seas of running his own lab, guided only by the pole star of his own convictions.
Risky decision
What exactly were the circumstances that led him to take such a seemingly rash and certainly risky decision is something unknown even to his children. The true gentleman that he was, he preferred to remain silent about this part of his life to refrain from hurting the sentiments of his former colleagues. Surprisingly, I know about them because he used to on some very rare occasions, become sentimental and open up his heart before me and my late father during the many get-togethers we used to have along with a few other very senior doctors of our city in our home over some late night dinners.
My dad and he were very close friends. The most amusing thing that he used to say was that it was the obstacles that others created for him when he was junior pathologist in government service which became the stepping stones to his stupendous success as a leading private pathologist ! I do not wish to lay bare here the details of what went wrong and what went right for him fifty long years ago as it is best if his secrets rest alongside his soul !
But what I can say with a very loud and clear voice is that he was a stickler for outstanding quality when it came to his work. That is why we all saw him sitting bent over his good old microscope and himself drawing the blood of every single patient that came to his lab and writing and signing every single report with his fountain pen, in bright blue ink! Yes, he did that, year after year and even a little painfully too, because of his advancing arthritis which too failed miserably in subduing his indomitable spirit and so decided to leave him to do his work!
It was also because of the pain of this affliction that stayed with him all through his life that he would often ask my mother for a blanket to wrap around his legs if he happened to sit in our garden chatting with my dad on wintry nights. The son of a Sessions Judge at Bangalore, Dr. Kannan graduated from the Mysore Medical College in the year 1960 and went on to complete his Diploma in Clinical Pathology from the Madras University in the year 1963. After his marriage to Romilla from Madras in the year 1962, he settled down at Mysore with his wife and his two sons Lakshman and Praveen Kumar and one daughter Shankari.
Well-versed in Kannada
The interesting thing is that although theirs is a Tamil speaking household, none of them, except the lady of the house, can read or write their mother tongue because they never studied it as a language in school, including Dr. Kannan himself who was educated in Bangalore! Whenever some of his relatives used to tell him with a sense of disapproval that this was not very right he used to proudly counter them with the argument that since Karnataka was his home State it was enough if he was well – versed in Kannada !
Dr. Kannan shifted his lab from Dhanvanthri Road to Irwin Road in the year 1971 and it stayed there till the year 1989. After his son Lakshman became a Pathologist himself and joined his practice, Dr. Kannan started the Kannan Pathology Lab on Sayyaji Rao Road in the year 1989. When his second son Praveen Kumar became a Radiologist and joined the venture, it became the greatly expanded and upgraded Kannan Diagnostic Centre. Uncompromising attitude towards accuracy made his lab outstandingly successful and a byword for pathology laboratory work not only in Mysore but with a reputation across the entire State.
He was a very strict disciplinarian and his sons say that he always advocated a very frugal lifestyle without any frills and show-offs. For a large part of his life, he drove his good old Ambassador car himself and if you stood anywhere on Irwin Road you could set the time on your watch by his arrival for work every morning. Your best and most expensive watch could err but he would not when it came to keeping time!
Soft heart
Many saw him as a very grim man but only the few very close to him could see the soft heart behind his frown. Money had almost no importance although it came to him unsought. Being very close to him for many years, I knew that he had helped many of his friends and relatives and many strangers too, without their asking, just by sensing their needs, and keeping no records! He would be most willing to waive off the charges completely for any patient who came to his lab with a look of anxiety about how he or she would be able to pay for the tests advised by their doctors.
Let alone giving discounts, he never ever charged a single rupee for the tests that he would do for the hundreds of doctors and their families who went to his lab with their faith and trust. He was famous for this streak of professional courtesy which shone for miles around like a bright guiding beacon. Thankfully, both his sons too turned out to be admirably solid chips of the same old block when it comes to this sterling quality and the high and uncompromising standards of their work.
Guiding spirit
When I salute their dad for inculcating his best values into them, I also compliment them both for so willingly accepting and upholding them as their guiding spirit. Dr. Kannan trod a path no one had trod in our city till he came on the scene and by facing the storms that he faced with courage and faith he proved that ‘Calm seas never make capable sailors.’
He practiced pathology actively, with great enthusiasm and vigour almost till his demise. Every time we met, he would always tell me with a smile that all he wanted in life was to die with his boots on and he did just that ! His was a life well-lived and the rest his noble soul is getting now is a rest most well-deserved ! He was not only a pioneer in his field but a perfect gentleman too ! May his noble soul rest in eternal peace. Amen !
e-mail: kjnmysore@rediffmail.com
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Columns : Over a Cup of Evening Tea / by Dr. K Javeed Nayeem MD / July 10th, 2020
