Lalitha Kameswari

Software Engineer @Google | Researcher @precog_iiitd | CS Grad @iiit_hyderabad | Computational Linguist | Continuous Hummer 🎶 | Bibliophile | Art 💙

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

@ramaravi1231 Yeah, they apologised and rechecked their inventory. They also told me that they disposed off the remaining dal for that day.

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

Admitted in @ManipalHealth Varthur Road with dengue, and the food they gave had an actual piece of metal in the dal!
Called the relevant folks, but no one showed up to even acknowledge. Is this the food given to patients, or are you taking "iron supplements" quite literally?

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

I am a Hepatologist.

Arguably, I care for the sickest group of patients in medical practice – end stage liver disease.

I see death almost every day in my ICU.

Some are natural deaths, leading to multiple organ failure triggered by a failing liver.

Some are decided. The family decided to pull the plug. They decide it was time to let go.

And every time, I see the heart rate drop, the blood pressure fall and the electrocardiogram go flat.

And I wonder. What goes on inside a dying brain?
Was it a small black hole, that gets bigger and bigger and then engulfs the field in darkness as the heart shuts down taking the brain away with it?

Or was it just all light at the end of the tunnel and then darkness, once the destination had reached?

A group of doctors did something strange. Something unimaginable.

And it led to them witnessing something melancholic, but beautiful.

They went inside an ICU. Saw that four patients were unconscious.

They were not clinically dead, yet. And not brain-dead. But were comatose.
They were kept alive by a machine that pumped oxygen into their lungs.
Three had brain injury due to cardiac arrest. One had haemorrhaged into the brain.

All were unresponsive for a very long time and sadly, the family decided to pull the plug on them.
To let them go away, peacefully.

But before they did that, the loving family did something bittersweet. They signed a document which was made by the group of doctors, allowing them to study their beloveds’ dying brain.

The group was led by Dr Jimo Borjigin of the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor at Michigan.

The doctors fitted machines to the heart and brain of the dying patients and then withdrew their life support by removing the breathing tube.

Immediately after the tube was removed, the brain activity did not show anything different.
But as the brain got closer to death, about 300 seconds before death, a power surge. And it occurred in the regions of the brain which was associated with conscious experience. Like the dying was suddenly yearning to live.

And make no mistake, these were not “some bursts” of electrical activity that happens when the brain cells withered away without oxygen. This was a special kind of activity.

These power surges increased connectivity in a region in the brain called posterior cortical “hot zone” – an area crucial for conscious perception – when it came to just before dying, the brain cells were having a cross-talk, not dying away into oblivion.

They were passing final messages to each other within the regions of the brain, while the physical body lay, limp and motionless.

And the doctors were heartbroken – because the final electrical pattern of surge that the dying brain was showing was the similar to those seen in dreaming humans.

All the patients in the study died.
But before they died, they taught us something.
That even in death, our minds are resilient.
That we clutch at only everything that is good.

What were they dreaming of?
A husband, about his loving wife?
A mother, her children?
Children, their parents?
Or maybe a scene from a movie that changed you?
Or a song under a starry sky?
Or a pet who loved you unconditionally?
We will never know.

But know this, even in death, the mind conquers – with dreams and love, not nightmares and hate.

Remember, nothing perfect lasts forever, except in our memories.

Make good memories while living, so that we can re-live them in death.

Go hug you family, take your children for an ice cream. Walk your dog into the sunset.

Sources:
➡️"Surprising brain activity moments before death" by Dr. F Perry Wilson @fperrywilson via https://t.co/g2NmWlMrAs

➡️Research Article: Surge of neurophysiological coupling and connectivity of gamma oscillations in the dying human brain from @PNASNews https://t.co/YqvZIlDaxN

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

A heartfelt thanks to my advisor, friends, labmates and everyone who was a part of this journey with me❤️

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

A special first for me😇
Super happy and grateful!
To some, it might look like just another formality before graduating, but presenting my thesis and engaging in a great discussion with the reviewers during defense is something which I'll never forget

[Ponnurangam Kumaraguru “PK” @ponguru]

Congratulations @Valalithak for defending your Masters thesis. Always 👌🏾👌🏾 to see Dual Degree students complete their thesis requirements within 5 years of joining the program (2017-2022). Advisor: Prof. Radhika Mamidi, Examiners: Prof. @Bhakteedon & Neelesh Agrawal. #PGChairGiri

[Jivitesh Jain @ NeurIPS @jiviteshjn]

A fantastic opportunity to learn about computational social science (from the best!)

If you’re in CS and want to explore social applications or if you’re a social scientist looking at computational approaches, check it out ✨

#SICSS2022

[Suparnojit Sarkar @Suparnojit]

Metaverse and all is cool, but have you ever played this

[Ponnurangam Kumaraguru “PK” @ponguru]

Our third #UPElections2022 analysis: Midpoint Melodrama: UP Political Twitter Halfway through Polling Phases
https://t.co/husJ6FZg7m
w/ @asmitks @jiviteshjn @Valalithak @DipanwitaGuhat1 @joyopal Shaurya @tushar2407 Aravind
Findings 🧵👇 #Election2022 #C2S2IIITH

[joyojeet pal @joyopal]

Our third paper on the action on Twitter during the 2022 UP elections.

TL;DR

1. Modi more imp than Yogi for BJP politicians & party on Twitter since Feb 2022
2. Literacy, Urbanization strong predictors of politicians' Tweeting
3. A list of who leads where on Twitter

Thread:

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

@KTRTRS @TelanganaCMO

[Ponnurangam Kumaraguru “PK” @ponguru]

One of my amazing Dual Degree student @THArjun2 @iiit_hyderabad is critical & hospitalised for severe #COVID19 pneumonia. Family needs help with funds. 🙏 for helping & spreading the word. https://t.co/KEFW9AwsbR /c @KTRTRS @TelanganaCMO @SmitaSabharwal @jayesh_ranjan @devvarma

[Ponnurangam Kumaraguru “PK” @ponguru]

Our #upelections2022 analysis covered in @the_hindu!
https://t.co/XttE7ycQLO #Election2022 #UPElections /c @joyopal @asmitks @jiviteshjn @Valalithak @iiit_hyderabad

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

Our observations thread on the hashtag wars and the Uttar Pradesh IT cells

[joyojeet pal @joyopal]

UP election hashtags study:
1. Smaller alliance parties (RLD, ApnaDal etc) hashtag about larger partners (BJP, SP), don't get reciprocated!
2. BJP hashtags more positive-themed, INC most antagonistic
3. Alliance parties prefer talking about Modi, State BJP wants to focus on Yogi

[Fermat's Library @fermatslibrary]

In linguistics, Escher sentences are sentences which initially seem acceptable but upon further reflection have no well-formed meaning.

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

Excited to be a part of this project!

[Ponnurangam Kumaraguru “PK” @ponguru]

Our #UPElection2022 analysis starts! We plan to share results regularly. If you are interested in anything specific or want more details about our analysis, please feel free to reach out. W/ @asmitks @jiviteshjn @Valalithak @joyopal Analysis: https://t.co/cm8dZ7gnsi

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

Some more interesting work covering the Twitter scenario during UP elections coming up!

[joyojeet pal @joyopal]

We'll report on Twitter use by UP politicians, leading up to the elections.

First, we cover over 10,000 politicians at all levels in the state and find Twitter no longer used just by elite politicians for press outreach. Less than 14% of UP politicians' tweets are in English.

[Vasudeva Varma @devvarma]

Arjun is one of brightest students @iiit_hyderabad
I was in the panel which interviewed him for dual degree admissions. I was instantly impressed. Now he is struggling for his life due to SEVERE COVID PNEUMONIA. Please help if you can

https://t.co/i6qaIcysrX

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

Please help and amplify!

https://t.co/dDM346nZL3

[Harsha @HarshaKaramchat]

Personally verified case. Please help.

FUNDRAISE FOR SEVERE CASE OF COVID PNEUMONIA FOR 21 YEAR OLD STUDENT

The family already spent 40lakhs and still need 45 lakh more
Patient: Arjun T H, Continental Hospital Gachibowli, Hyderabad
https://t.co/zm2mUIx5KB @SonuSood

[joyojeet pal @joyopal]

Our work on the organized radicalization on social media in India on @timesofindia shows that this explodes in spurts during major news events, driven by an ecosystem of polarization on top of which sit a number of digital influencers who make a living out of outrage.

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

@sugandh Thankyou!

[Lalitha Kameswari @Valalithak]

Had fun working on this! Grateful to Prof @joyopal for his wonderful insights and support.
#AryanKhanDrugCase

[joyojeet pal @joyopal]

We studied Twitter activity around the Aryan Khan case and found some interesting patterns, some expected, some mildly surprising.

TL;DR anti-Bollywood tweeting has a functioning ecosystem

First in this thread, a visualization of the timeline of Twitter activity and events.