Earth Hour 2009

Earth Hour is an initiative by WWF (world wildlife fund), a campaign against global warming. 

Its based on an idea that switching off our electricity for 1 hour in an area, locality can aid a lot against Global warming. Imagine a whole city shutting off lights, the effects are really exponential.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights.

In 2009, India joins Earth Hour for the first time. New Delhi and Mumbai are among 825 cities across 80 countries and territories that have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009. 

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet.

VOTE EARTH campaign was simple by just switching off the lights for one hour on Saturday, March 28, 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm local time. 

I was in the hospital, during this time. As im on call in the hospital, I cannot switch off the whole hospital lights. I did my bit by switching off lights in my room and  the adjoining rooms for 1 hour between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm. and i felt really good about it. Imagine the effect of switching off lights in the entire country and world would be. This campaign is phenomenal and the attention and importance that it has got is even more encouraging. Its a small bit we can give back to mother earth. If we can have similar campaigns every year, the results would be really great..

Kudos too WWF to come up with such a wonderful idea and successfully campaigning it..

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When You Can't !!!

God has made this world, with so many incidents, lives, needs intermingled with each other. I used to think that thers always some solution to a problem. 

But my beliefs came to an abrupt end, when i recently met a patient. She was a mid 20 something lady. If u wud look at her past, u would say, shes any normal girl going to school, college and so on. She finished her bachelors degree in Arts.

One Day all of a sudden, She had pain in the neck and weakness in the limbs. Her Family being in a village, they wend to some local ayurvedic practitioner. Don't know what he did, but he put some needles in the neck of the girl. And now you see her after about 6 months, shes on a Wheelchair, with her head completely flexed to her chest, she can't lift her head, she can't walk , her hands and feet have become weak. Shes been in the same state since almost 4-5 months. Im not a senior doctor, But the seniors in our hospital assessed her, whether anything can be done for her. But we finally realised her problem had progressed to such a stage, nothing can be done about it. This was their family's last hope, they went everywhere across many states to find a solution for the girl, but same answer everywhere. Ours being a very superior and tertiary hospital, they had high hopes that their girl would be alright. As the girl was waiting after her assessment, she was a bit sedated, but she was talking to me, about how her mother takes care of her everyday, feeds her, helps her lie down on the bed somehow, massages her limbs and neck with oil. As she was talking tears rolled down her eyes. She said , its better to die, rather than living such a painful and dependent life. Even though she was so dependent, she was very brave and confident.

Usually im not that sentimental guy, and being in this profession, ive learnt to be so, but as the girl was talking, I felt really bad and it hurt me to the core, that even with so many medical advancements, we can't give that young girl her life, a life any girl would atleast want, to live with their family, get married, have a happy married life. It hurts to imagine that maybe she would be in such a way her entire life. It hurts to say ' we can't do anything'. 

As i went to the ward today, i saw her in one corner of the ward sitting in her wheelchair, writing something in a notebook. I thought maybe she has good writing skills, she could learn to survive in life. But i din't have the courage to go near her. Then her relatives met me, they were still enquiring, hard to believe that thers no treatment option for her. Her brother told me, that their mother is so upset about her daughter, that hes afraid she might get a heart attack or something... I felt helpless... 

Hope she finds some way to help herself in life.......

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Bangalore Indiblogger meet 2009

Yesterday evening I went to this bangalore blogger meets by Indiblogger.in . Indiblogger.in is a blog directory website for indian bloggers as well as some cool forums and other stuff.
So first time I was going to any bloggers meet, so was really exciting. It started with a 1 minute of fame for all the boggers, where you had to introduce yourself. I turned up a bit late, so missed out on that. but no issues, there were really interesting introductions..
Then there was a talk on security issues for bloggers, which was really informative for people like me..
Nxt was launch and a sneak peek at windows 7 by two guys. They had a nice ppt presentation, but kinda boring for me, coz I had no clue about all the technical stuff. But nevertheless , they had a decent presentation.
Next session was clearly the best - the eating session, we gulped some tasty pizzas, and cola, felt really refreshing:)
In the end we wrapped it up with a nice group discussion on blogging, monetization, twitter and other stuff. we were enlightened by a guy named Sherin, he called himself  'The Money Maniac' , he shared with us his tactics of getting higher pagerank, monetization tips etc. That was amazing..
Overall it was a great meet, good getogether, looking forward to attend some more similar meets..

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