To Believe or Not to Believe in Poochaandi

All of us have had our fair share of fears that scared the shit out of us at some point of time in life. Some of us might still be carrying those fears with us even after growing up. It could be the fear of darkness, heights, ghosts, certain objects etc.  Each one of us also has a unique mechanism to overcome it. One of which could simply be growing up and getting over it or by attempting to do things that scare us the most. But, fear of the unknown seems to haunt majority of us across all ages.

 During my Quora routine, I ran into a thread discussion about how Elon Musk overcame his fear of darkness. This is what he said:

“When I was a little kid, I was really scared of the dark. But then I came to understand, dark just means the absence of photons in the visible wavelength--400 to 700 nanometers. Then I thought, well, it's silly to be afraid of a lack of photons. Then I wasn't afraid of the dark anymore after that."

This to me is the most nonpareil strategy to overcome our fears. Science has always helped us rationalize our problems and offer solutions. By applying the first principle basics, we not only grasp things faster but also understand the fundamentals. Understanding the core principles of darkness helped Elon get over his fear. Being an Optometrist, never have I perceived darkness the way he has elucidated (concealing my face in shame)! As an ardent Elon fan, I adore him even more now.

On sharing this quote on Facebook, my cousin immediately asked me how to overcome the fear of Poochaandi? For those of you wondering, Poochaandi is a Tamil household word which means a ghost or a fearsome man (why is it a man and not a woman? I do not know). Poochaandi term is used to scare little children and trick them into finishing their meal or getting them to sleep  or be on their best behavior. By doing this, we adults sow the seed of fear in children and later criticize them for their cowardice.  This amplifies as a concept in their heads and the mind tricks them into believing and seeing apparitions.

So, how do we overcome the fear of ghosts or Poochaandi?  I am no Psychiatrist or Psychologist, but here are my two-cents based on first principles:

1.   Poochaandi- A monster

Anatomically, he is just a guy who is unusually tall, covered in scarred tissues because of some previous trauma and has unkempt nails and unruly hair. His frenzy behavior can be attributed to some mental sickness often left untreated. Now, is there a need to fear an un-hygienic sick man? No.

2.   Poochaandi- A ghost

·      Ghosts are supposedly negative energies. If there is negative energy, then there exists positive energy and they negate each other. So, nothing to get scared of.

·      Ghosts/spirits do not have physical bodies (as they are energies) and hence cannot cast a reflection on the mirror. Optically they are real images.  But, since they are also illusions/phantasms (figment of our imagination) projected by the mind of the percipient, they become virtual images. Why fear a virtual image?

It is all in our minds. Try to rationalize your fears and it could help you overcome them. Also, next time you see some-one scaring children by pulling a Poochaandi trick, please stop them. Or make them read my blog. 

That “Yikes” moment when you forget to carry your toothpaste and/or toothbrush during a travel

Morning odour is definitely not pleasant, especially if you are to go meet people for the rest of the day. I am pedantic about oral hygiene and do not even talk with out brushing my teeth in the morning. So, imagine my plight when I forgot to carry my toothbrush and toothpaste (note the AND). Usually the hotel stay provides a dental kit when you check-in, but to my surprise they did not, and thanks to my busy work schedule and the drowsiness induced by tab. cetrizen, I hit the bed straight after work.

So, how to grapple this problem?

Google to the rescue. I felt less shameful when I saw thousands of people google the same problem. (Sick pleasure). Here are some hacks:

Scenario 1: How to clean you teeth without a toothpaste

1. If there is a store nearby your hotel, you could run and buy yourself a tooth paste. Worth the run
2. Assuming you have been using you tooth brush for more than two weeks, there are chances that your toothbrush still carries the essence of your toothpaste, inspite of cleaning it properly. So, rinse your mouth before brushing and spit out the water. This removes the particles stuck to your teeth and tongue. Then run the toothbrush under tap water, clean it and start brushing. The toothbrush will still produce some lather. Rinse your mouth throughly after the process
3. If you are carrying a mouth wash, you can rinse your mouth after brushing. Mouth wash is a saviour!

Scenario 2: How to clean your teeth without a toothbrush

1. Again, if there is a store nearby, you could still go fetch it
2. Fingers to the rescue: Forgetting the toothbrush is a better scenario than forgetting your toothpaste, according to me. Back in the time when toothbrush was not invented, people used their fingers and tree(neem,babool) barks to brush their teeth. So going back to the roots (shoots, in this case), squeeze some toothpaste on your index finger and start rubbing the paste on your teeth and gums. The finger acts like a brush and you can achieve a near to perfect brushing action and freshness after
3. Use mouthwash/ dental floss  if you are carrying them

Scenario 3: How to clean your teeth without a toothbrush and a toothpaste

This definitely is a terrible situation! Worry not. There is always a solution to every problem.

1. Check your bag to see if you are carrying oil. Oil pulling is a an old and effective Indian art of maintaining good oral hygiene. Sesame seed oil (gingelly oil) is generally used, but since most of us carry coconut oil/ olive for hair and skin during travel, they can still be used. Some oil is better than no oil. After oil pulling, use your fingers to remove the excess oil and rinse your mouth throughly. I used almond oil. No complaints!
2. If you are carrying only a mouth wash, then rinse your mouth using it and brush the teeth using your index finger
3. You could also floss if you are carrying dental floss with you
4. If you are not carrying any of the above , use your index finger and scrub away the particles or other stuff stuck to your teeth and gums and rinse your mouth throughly. Keep chewing mint flavoured gums till you get hold of a toothpaste and brush

        Once bitten, twice shy. You will never forget to pack your dental kit for the next trip after this.

An ordeal by fate

It all began with a thought, that originated as a dapple
kindling emotions and actions I had to grapple
a thought, a dream to be something
not in to fit in, but to stand out.

Took a leap of faith just to fail
lost my confidence and became frail
Belief, faith and trust seemed futile
battled waves extremely brutal.

Shunned loved ones and avenues that meant the world to me
hoping that was the best coping mechanism that could possibly be
Filled with dread and terror,
I faced the consequences of my error.

Out sprung a path after a long wait
a path of patience and perseverance,
a path little less ornate.

Walking the path, as there is no place to go
unaware of the repercussions my life might throw
The path is long and I am still nowhere
but is filled with wisdom that would enhance my flair

I choose to tread to a destination unknown
vehemently exploring out of my comfort zone
Basking on the diverse experiences laid on my track
hoping the dots would connect, when I look back


                                                                                                            - Sandhya Shekar

Optometry Humour

John Watson: Are you familiar with a photon particle?
Sherlock: It is elementary, my dear Watson!

Cop: Stop! Do you know you were speeding at 29979245 m/s? What are you on?

Photon: Nothing! I'm always a "light" traveller.

What did the photon tell MgF2?
- U R destructively interfering between the lens & me.

Why was "light" facing identity crisis?
- It was unable to decide between wave or a particle

What do Optometrists get when they go tricker treating on Halloween ?
-Eye Candy

What do eye lids do when they angry?

- They lash out

Why do Optometrists avoid blind dates?
- They find it difficult to break the eyes.

Why did the teacher ask her students to go to a prism?

- She wanted them to come out with flying colours.

How would Tim Cook describe iContact lenses if they ever get launched? 

-Apple of my eyes

Why did the address book wear spectacles? It lost all it's contacts

Right Eye:Sir Ur number? Left Eye:(666)666 666 RE: woah that is Satanic. LE: Yes,I'm Oculus Sinister

What do Optometrists and Woodcutters have in common? They are both obsessed with the sharpness of their axes

Why did Inferior Oblique get convicted? Because, it got involved in extorsion and adbuction

A simple pair of glasses can bring a huge change to an individual. Boom! #Superman becomes #ClarkKent

An eye for an eye makes.... a successful corneal transplant.

What kind of a relationship does telescopes have with binoculars? A:Long distance Did I go too far??

What do #Optometrists and #Pirates have in common? A: Both of them take eye patching seriously.

What colour would you wear to a Rainbow themed party? A. White

P1: How did you feel after undergoing LASEK? P2: Powerless

I prefer to use concave lenses while doing math. It minimises the problems for me.

Being amblyopic and claustrophobic is too much crowd work for a stand up comedian..

A friend: You look a bit fat from this angle.. Me: Optoms, Stops prescribing plus cylinders!!

What did the mother eye tell her lethargic kid? A: You are such a "Lazy Eye"

With great power comes..... well, thicker glasses.

What did one eye say to another when it got bored? Hey, let's converge.

Knock Knock Whose there? Light. Cornea: Light who? Let me enter, only then you can see..

What is Retina's favourite subject? A. Geometry. As it is all about rods,cones&cylinders

In the Ocular world, who would make the best leader? A. Cornea, because it believes in transparency.

Child birth in ocular world would be very easy. The pupil dilates effortlessly!

How can one conquer the globe successfully? - by wearing Scleral contact lenses -Borrowed& enhanced

Funny one liners and quotes that one can find on vehilces in Hyderabad

I am a Tamilian, native of Bangalore but grew up majorly in Hyderabad. I also spent brief periods at Vijayawada, Bellary and Goa. So, when asked where I belong, my answer becomes a great conversation starter. People, especially the ones in Hyderabad(I did not want to generalise, but am forced to) found it difficult to fathom how I, a tamilian, native of Bangalore lived in Hyderabad.My etinicity bemuses them.
To make things easy, I stuck to "I am a perfect example of an Indian belonging to no where and yet every where." So, I take the liberty to point out that Hyderabadis are innocently funny, but are not aware of it. I love Hyderbad. It is one of the coolest places (if not the weather wise) to live in. May be some day I shall write about it. So, hitherto, Hyderabadis are funny and THEY DONOT KNOW IT.
Walk the roads on Hyderabad, you'll know what I mean. They have a habit of quoting and giving way too much information about themselves on the vehicles they ride and drive. From what I have observed, one can even get details about the rider's/driver's personality, favourites, caste and even the names of his/her children.

DISCLAIMER: The below mentioned one/two liners are not made up and are quoted as seen by me on the vehicles.

Starting with the motor bikes:
1st category:
They are the ones who acknowledge their donors.
These are some of the captions:
1. Mom's gift
2. Dad's gift
3. God's gift

2nd category:
This comprises the youngsters, teenagers mostly. Their quotes are mostly anti-girls. But, in reality these guys are the most desparate ones.
Some of the quotes I've seen on bikes:(Note the grades of increasing desparation)
1.No girlfriend no tension
2. Boy's friendship is best friendship. Girl friendship is like snake friendship.(well, who would want to be friends with snakes?? I do not even want to get into deciphering this statement)
3. Girls let me down, my bike lifted me (ahem ahem, if that is the case don't you guys show off your new bikes to your friends as your new girl,soulmate or with other feminine names?? Just asking..)
4. Names/images of their favourite actors. Just wondering, how much they can do with such limited space

3rd category:
The so called rebels. You find the funniest most profund(cough, sarcasm, cough) quotes written by them on their bikes.
1. Donot follow me, my path is dangerous
2. Donot follow me, I am lost and rediscovering myself (too deep bro, too deep)
3. Touch my bike and see if there is life after death (now, that is some after life talks I want to know)

Speaking of two wheelers, how can I not mention about activas, the rulers of the roads these days.
Found this one liner really witty and funny: Fearless and Gearless

The next category belongs to truck drivers. These quotes are Universal and not just found in Hyderabad. Trucks are always considered for publicizing social messages such as population control (truck drivers carrying the messages of popolation control- Mother of IRONY), anti-dowry campagins, messages to ward of evil effects of casting eyes etc. Here are some of them:
1. Hum do hamare do, now changed to Hum do hamara ek
2. Dulhan hi dahej hai
3. Buri nazar wale, tera moo kala
and the best of all
4. Dheere chaloge tho baar baar milenge, tez chaloge tho Hardhwar mein milenge

Coming to the cars,owners make the best use of the space available on the car's rear windshield and give every intricate detail of their likes and personal life:
1. First comes the lord worship: stickers saying "Lord Balaji's blessing, Sai baba's blessing"
2. Second, hero worship - Pawan kalyan rocks, Pawanism,NTR Junior rocks, Chiru for life
3. Then comes their caste. They very proudly flaunt their caste- Reddy's, Naidu's etc.
4. Names of their children- Aishwarya, Sushmita; Abhilash, Aniket etc. Nick names of the kids are also given in brackets some times. Aishwarya (pappu), Sushmita (pandu)
5. Acknowledgement yet again- God's gift, Mom's gift, Dad's gift.Most of the guys get their cars in dowry, ideally they should be saying "Father-in-law's gift, mother-in-law's gift."
6. Name of the car dealer- The stciker is left for years to rot- Maruthi motors, Advaith Hyundai etc
7. Name of their car service provider- Gem motors, Srinivasa motors

It looks something like this: (could not find real photographs, so decided to make one on Paint)

But, the best one liner that I have come across so far was on an auto and it read, "Could not afford a Volkswagon, thus auto." I applauded his wit. 

Emailing and personality traits

I have learnt to become more observant these days (not that I wasn't earlier). I donot know what to attribute this to, is it for a new blog post inspiration or picking content for my newly found talent, Stand up comedy.
A recent observation and retrospective inspection of events steered me to write this post.
I am no Freud when it comes to analyzing personalities  precisely but a series of incidents revolving around me made me quite good at it.
Emails have become a crucial form of communication these days.Interestingly every email is so unique that if you closely observe, reveals a few personality traits of the sender. As a person who drafts and sends at least 5-6 official emails everyday,I observed that there are 10 different types of personality traits in people writing formal emails.

*FORMAL- I am restricting this to work place related emails only
This is where variety dances on your plate.

First ones are those whose eyes dart towards finding a reason to write a lengthy email. They fill pages to impress the bosses. If you keenly follow, they are the ones who get busted all the time and their amount of work is inversely proportional to the content filled.

Second are those who use plenty of jargons and similes in every email in such a way that even a casual email sounds as though they are fishing in deep waters. These are basically the attention seekers who love drama.

Third are those who love to beat around the bush. They take about 10 lines to get to the point.They are called the seekers(Seekers.... Aah, Harry Potter/Quiditch moment). They always write to you with an intention to seek or expect something from you.

Fourth are those who parrot the boss's words and use them inappropriately in places where they are an absolute misfit. Sheep mentality kicks in and they blindly talk and write in boss's words. They are basically sychophants.

Fifth are those who love to edit emails even when they are infalliable. They intend every email to be in their words and fail to understand that each one of us possess our own style of writing an email. They claim their style to be more perfect and sacrosanct. These are the people who try to show off their authority to their subordinates.

Sixth are the kind who do not commit to any task  in their emails or write a semi finished email. They hardly draft emails or even worse, direct their subordinates to draft emails and asking them to Carbon Copy the former while sending it out.  They are the ones who do not want to get dumped with further work and are actually cumbersome.

Seventh are the kind who draft an email only to create a conflict.They kindle and dig out latent information(information which is laid to rest) pertaining to others, blow it out of proportion leading to futile discussions & making the boss feel that they are the only ones working efficiently. They are the quirks...... STAY OFF THEM!!!

Eighth are the kind who make atrocious grammar and spelling errors. They confidently send out emails with out proof reading it. These are the ones who are genuinely diligent and have worked their way up from scratch. Their learning is purely based on their experience and not from their education.

Ninth are the kind who genuinely write good emails with decent to good vocabulary. They state facts based on their research and back ground work and not arbitrary thoughts. It is these folks whose emails get edited by Type Five Personality.

Tenth are the kind whose emails are either a one liner or with a vague combination of one or two words with emphasizing punctuation marks. They are none other than the self obsessed and indecisive BOSSES..

Combination of the above traits exist too. Sounds lethal isn't it??
DING.. 1 unread email... Ok, let me go analyse it...

Operation: Vision Puzhal Prison

The World Optometry Day events that I was a part of this year shall remain indelible to me. As a whimsical person, I always loved to be a part of uncommon, adventurous and fun filled events and experiences. This event was one such an experience.  Being a part of India Vision Institute,I got an opportunity to be a part of the team that handles the Community Vision Screening Programs. We organized a vision screening camp for the inmates of Puzhal Prison in Chennai, which is claimed to be one of the biggest prisons in Asia.

The very thought of getting inside a prison that mammoth drove immense excitement through my veins. I mean, how many of us would get a chance to walk the corridors of a Prison without getting arrested? Scenes from various con movies and shows ran past my eyes and I was completely lost in imagination and anticipation. As an ardent fan of the Prison break series, I was hoping to find a doppel of Micheal Scofield (I mentioned I am whimsical,so no face palm guys) or some story as intriguing as theirs. 23^rd March, the big day arrived and we all set forward for the most anticipated event of this year at work.  A small team of about 5 optometrists including me entered the gigantic gates of the Prison.  After going through a tight security check we proceeded towards the auditorium to start our screening. After making brief arrangements we set up our vision charts, reading charts, retinoscopes in position. I had a small presentation prepared on general eye care to share with the inmates. It was highly welcomed and immensely appreciated. Little did they know the amount of preparation I put in mastering the Ocular conditions in Tamil. It was a task. I sat down with my aunt and learnt the Tamil equivalent of all the salient words. But, in vain. I was grappling with the words. So I decided to switch to student mode. What else?? Bittu tha (chits as prompters) I wrote down the Tamil equivalent words in Hindi and English. .I successfully delivered the talk three times in three different jails. As a trainer I had delivered sessions to a variety of eye care practitioners such as optometry students, educators, ophthalmologists, opticians etc. but this was disparate. Discipline was an absolute code of conduct. It was the most organized screening I have ever been to. We were under the assumption that making the inmates read the distance and near vision charts would be a herculean task, but their literacy levels were pretty good and all of them were able to read at least one language and thanks to my clinical experience at L.V. Prasad, I remember the N6, N12 and N36 lines of every language in the book by heart even now. It was surprising how neither I nor my team members encountered a single non-compliant inmate. All the inmates underwent a complete vision assessment, objective and subjective refraction and torch light examination. Free spectacles were given to those with refractive errors and those with an Ocular condition were referred to secondary and tertiary eye care centers. As I have been dealing with other areas of optometry over the last few years, this experience helped me jog my memory about the clinical skills I learnt during my internship. I got nostalgic about my internship days at L.V. Prasad Eye Institute and Bausch & Lomb School.

 It has been a wonderful journey so far. My work experiences have always been a mixture of education and fantasy put together, which according to me is quite an interesting blend. I conclude this post with a hope of being a part of many such interesting and unique experiences in life.

Until then- What happens in Vagueness stays in Vagueness...
Here are a a few pics: