Pari Talks

  Fall Color P.K.Ghatak, MD No 55. Fall Colors. Every year before the long winter sets in, Nature presents us with the most spectacular display of Fall Colors. Those who live along the mighty Rocke mountains, on the shores of the Great Lakes, Catskill and Blue Ridge mountains are fortunate to enjoy the treat each year. The leaf colors of the deciduous trees last only about 3 weeks and are often delayed or cut short by adverse weather, however, dazzling colors make people happy. We take it as granted and do not think much about the chemistry or science of plant physiology at all. Where the colors come from: The Green is the color of chlorophyll which gives the leaves their green color. Chlorophyll is produced in the Chloplasts within the leaves and also present in the green stems and green branches. The chlorophyll is made up of 4 pyrrole rings, like human hemoglobin with an exception having metal magnesium in the center instead of iron as in the hemoglobin. And like hemoglobin, ch...

                                                                        Summer Gripe. P.K.Ghatak,MD No.54 The Webster dictionary calls gripe spasmodic contractions of the gut. In the nautical fields it conveys something very different and in European countries summer gripe'e means summer influenza which produces fever, aches with runny nose, watery eyes and cough. It is more like a common cold than flu in the summer. In those days when illness due to viruses was unknown but the medical community knew Koch's postulate; in one experiment a group of volunteer prisoners in Ohio, USA were fed clean filtrate made from rectal swabs of patients suffering from Summer Gripe. All volunteers came down with similar symptoms like the source patients...

  The Spring Fever P.K.Ghatak, MD No.53. We wait so impatiently to usher in the spring at the end of winter. Then we welcome Easter with a fanfare; followed by egg hunts, costume parades and lovely family dinners. Seasonal allergy sufferers hate the arrival of the spring because it is also the beginning of their period of misery of sneezing, coughing and not feeling well and unable to join the rest of the family with outdoor activities. The bursts of outdoor activities, festivities and entertaining is not only limited to humans but also by the plant and animal kingdoms. The plants initiate the process by a burst of colors, flowers and new leaves. Plants sense the arrival of the spring by judging the lengthening of the day and not by the thawing of snow due to increasing temperature. The role of eyes: Retina. The retinae of the eyes contain the light and color sensors; these are rods and cones respectively. They are connected to a layer of bipolar cells. The optic nerve originates f...

  Winter Blues. P.K.Ghatak, MD No. 52. Winter blue is one of these shades of blue colors. Winter blues is a temporary phase of depressive mood in the winter months. It is not a disease. It is a fairly common feeling in the winter, lasting only a short period of time and clearing spontaneously. Winter blues is more common in women and generally follows a specific event, stress of holidays or missing a loved one. This sad mood does not interfere with normal functioning of daily activities of the individual. Some experts think winter blues is an early phase of an illness known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Unlike winter SAD, some may feel SAD in summer months. The real cause of SAD is not known. It is linked with increased production of melatonin from the pineal gland in the brain, producing prolonged periods of sleep and an additional reason for decreased concentration of serotonin in the brain. Reduced serotonin produces decreased concentration ability and alertness. Winter ...

  Making a New Year Resolution: P.K.Ghatak, MD No.51. All Internet searches invariably use AI (artificial intelligence). The process is fast, and one can get an instant answer but whether the information so obtained, is biased or tainted that remains hidden. Not having a person standing behind providing information should be considered as subject to modification. With this preset condition, why people make New Year resolution searches yields interesting results. Making promises to their gods during a 12- day new year celebration started in Babylon 4,000 years ago. Romans adopted this practice. It has evolved into a self-motivated promise for a new start of self-improvement on this 1 st day of a cyclical maker of time. People in less advanced countries make a lot less New Year resolutions. English speaking and non-Catholics population are the highest percentage make resolutions. People living in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the USA are top of the list of all the countri...

Celebrating Christmas. P.K.Ghatak, MD No.50 The world celebrates Christmas on 25 th December to mark the birth of Jesus. But Jesus was not born on 25 th December. The Bible does not mention Jesus' date of birth, the description of the season at the time of birth was not definitely winter. The astrologers, and religious scholars by studying the appearance of a bright star on the night sky, calculated Jesus was born in between 6 th BC and 4 th BC. The ancient church in Rome decided to celebrate Christmas on 25 th December because it was already a holiday in the Roman empire. That day Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a popular winter solstice festival in honor of Saturn, their god of agriculture and harvest. First Christmas celebration. Romans celebrated Christmas in 336 CE for the first time. In Russia and other places where the Julian calendar is followed, Christmas comes 13 days behind December 25, on January 7. The Eastern Orthodox church celebrates Christmas on 7 th January. T...