RAMBO THE BLOGAHOLIC : RAMBOS BLOGS

After receiving my Millenium Gift, on 13th April 2000, a "Brain Stem Stroke" the umpire gave me out Plumb LBW. I appealed to the third umpire who had to review the TV footage several times to decide I was not out as the ball was not going to hit the stumps.

Not Out, may be, yet this marked the end of my first innings in this life. It ended my 30 years career overnight. Never did I think I would never ever work again in this life, even though a friend had predicted this after reading my palm soon after my 50th B Day but long before my stroke at age 54. That iss another Story for another time.

In 2019 on reflection I can say that the second stint at the crease, virtually my second innings, my game changed totally. It was not about scoring but all about staying at the crease and hanging in there as an anchor for the rest of the tribe.

Brain stem stroke could have sent me into deep depression and I could have hit the bottle and become an Alcoholic; yet that is not what happened. With Mithu going to work and Anand going to school, I was all by myself at home doing everything possible to remain sane.

I had my beloved Rajah who sat by my bedside all day and kept me company but Pity he could not talk. Every day we went for walks round the block all the way to Strathfield Railway Station and back which was about 6.5 kilometres and took me about 90 minutes. Not at all bad for a Stroke survivor. But that was at 5.00 in the evenings.

I had just one constant companion in 2000. it was my super duper Windows XT Computer with a mono chrome Monitor. Slow as a snail but to me was super fast considering I had lost control of my right hand and I could not keep pace. Oh Yes it had floppy disc and a 40Meg Memory.

In 2000 there was talk of search engines and I have tried many . My favourites then were Alta Vista, Yahoo and Copernicus. Google did not exist.

So my Partner at the other end of the pitch was my PC and I became a PeeSeeHolic or PC-Holic.

Two major things happened, Yahoo created the Yahoo groups and over night I took to this and connected with family and friends I had lost touch with for 25 years after moving to Sydney. Snail Mail meaning letters that we mailed were just that, slow as snail and I did not write many letters ever, used the phone instead to talk.

At one stage I belonged to as many as Seventy Yahoo groups many of which I created and hosted for different interest group of IIT Alumni. Many still exist but I made an exit in 2017 after my Computer got hacked and ID Theft was a major concern. The crooks had the correct password to my ANZ Bank Account. I dumped my email id and quit Yahoo groups, face Book, twitter etc etc. On hindsight it happened for a reason. Took up too much of my time. Now that I have quit I realise no one really cares shit about your existence in social media. If you write something then they are all there to agree or pounce on you to say you are wrong and explain why...

In 2000, more than anything, I wanted to understand my Brain Stem Stroke, a Lateral Medallary Infarct with Wallenberg Syndrome ND HORNER'S SYNDROME inside out and relied on my PC TO DO THIS

One day good fortune led me to the Massachusetts Neurology Forum which even then IN 2001 had about 56K members with many many sub interest groups for Migraine, Alzeimers, Parkinsons, Dementia etc. I honed in on the STROKE Group.

There were many many Stroke survivors but majority had suffered hemorrhagic strokes meaning bleeds in the brain caused mostly by high blood pressures. Mine was exactly the opposite, Blood flow to a part of my Brain stem got cut off, and as the brain stem controls the autonomous system very very few survive and I happen to be the odd one.

I came across an old post from a lady named Sheila who described all my pre-stroke symptoms but never posted again suggesting she had died But two people had responded to her appeal. One was Andrea Conway a young speech pathologist who went on a roller coaster ride. by the time the ride was over she had suffered a brainstem stroke caused by two dissected vertebral arteries in the neck as a result of her head being tossed around in the roller coaster.

As time went by one by one others with VAD were turning up in the Neuro forum.

It was then that I decided to Create a Yahoo Group that I called the "VAD CLUB" there were about 50 members mostly from US and this was an inspirational ride as I was connecting with people with same condition and similar disabilities and worries. In recent years I created the VAD CLUB Blog that sort chronicles what transpired in our VAD Club Yahoo Group.

If I was not on the computer, I was watching DVDs. It was then I started my DVD Collection and today I have 930 Orginal English Titles not including Western and War Movies or Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Chinese and Korean Movies :-)

BLOGGING

As for Blogging, I must confess I do not remember when I created my first Blog.

Blog history says " On August 23, 1999, Blogger was launched by Pyra Labs. As one of the earliest dedicated blog-publishing tools, it is credited for helping popularise the format. ... In 2004, Google purchased Picasa; it integrated Picasa and its photo sharing utility Hello into Blogger, allowing users to post photos to their blogs.

I did use Picassa for my Photos and believe I created my first ever blog around 2006 for IIT Madras Alumni Association, after I got elected as an Executive Committee member having changed the bylaws of the association to allow Global Participation.

Today, I surprised my self to find that I have 77 Blogs still on line. there were many others that I deleted over time as they served no purpose.

My niece Kavitha Govardhan, who helped me create the IIT Global Yahoo Groups in 2002 when I was in London has been pleading with me to put them all together so the rest of the world could read and benefit from my writings and personal experiences.

Following are Rambos Blogs:

( PLEASE CLICK ON EACH LINK TO VIEW THE BLOG )

1 - RAMBO'S RANTINGS
Man with 9 lives
DADDU'S DARK DREAMS
IMHO
RAMBO'S KEY BOARD

NoDesCo Innovations
RAMBO'S MOVIE COLLECTION

2 - PUBLICATION
REFLECTIONS BY IITIAN'S
REFLECTIONS BY IITIANS - THE BOOK

3 - AADHAAR RELATED
AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES
MY VIEWS ON AADHAAR
ARTICLES QUESTIONING AADHAAR
ORIGINAL AADHAR RELATED ARTICLES
SAY NO TO AADHAAR
YOUR SAY ON AADHAAR
STOP AADHAAR NOW
OPEN LETTER TO SC JUDGES
RIGHT TO PRIVACY & DNA PROFILING

AADHAAR ACTIVISTS
USHA RAMANATHAN
SUDHIR VOMBATKERE
REETIKA KHERA
JEAN DREZE

4 - MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE
AAKASH INDIAS $35 COMPUTER TABLET
CELL PHONE AND CANCER RISKS
BELLSY GIRL
JUJABOY
INDIAS NUCLEAR ENERGY
IMPROVING EDUCATION IN INDIA
ASSYLUM SEEKERS AUSTRALIA
JAN LOKPAL BILL & ANNA HAZARE & ARVIND KEJRIWAL