Avadh Singhal

IAS'20, WB cadre | ex- BCG | IIT Delhi'16

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

Language and the ever-changing idea of home and Identity, please read and share your thoughts

https://t.co/HUACvwxJWO

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

@RohitChowd7421 May please meet me tomorrow at my chamber during office hours, will get it sorted

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

In a small hamlet of Naxalbari, #Siliguri, people gather to choose how ₹10 lakh will shape their polling station area. Democracy, done right. #AmaderParaAmaderSamadhan #ParticipatoryGovernance

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

Please read and share your thoughts :)

https://t.co/mPBvs7PNO5

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

An effort to reach the most deprived, special #DuareSarkar camp for sex workers in #Siliguri, #Darjeeling

[DICO DARJEELING @DarjeelingDico]

Duare Sarkar services especially for sex workers by Siliguri Municipal Corporation, today.

[Read A Little Poetry @readalittlepoem]

“If the day clouds over, / go on anyway / regardless.”

— Ko Un

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

I understand that Tesla’s product will take time to reach the level of its marketing, and hopefully, the results will benefit humanity when it does. But exciting times are ahead, for sure!

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

This video is eerily similar to how the Kaylon (AI-powered robots) were marketed on an imaginary planet in one of the episodes of The Orville (a sci-fi dramedy).

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

However, the turn of events in the TV series was not pleasant for the parent species, as they were wiped out when the Kaylon took over after developing super intelligence.

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

Rest in peace Sir 🙏

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

Please read and share your thoughts :)

https://t.co/Wx7eYl9dOk

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

@himan47agg_IAS @CsPunjab Many congratulations sir 👏

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

Would love to hear your thoughts on the below 🙂

https://t.co/70T77n7DEk

[Avadh Singhal @avadhsinghal]

Congratulations team @isro. Thank you for making the county proud 🇮🇳

[ISRO @isro]

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
'India🇮🇳,
I reached my destination
and you too!'
: Chandrayaan-3

Chandrayaan-3 has successfully
soft-landed on the moon 🌖!.

Congratulations, India🇮🇳!

#Chandrayaan_3
#Ch3

[Dr Jason Philip. M.S., MCh @Jasonphilip8]

In the year 1917, a Tamil Indian girl was born in a middle class family at Rangoon, Burma, where her father had gone for a living. He named her Sivaramakrishna Iyer Padmavathi. At a time when women were traditionally confined to the kitchen/illiterate, the middle class girl did MBBS from Rangoon Medical College.
When the Japanese invaded Burma, they briefly returned to their traditional home in Coimbatore. In 1949, she went to London to do an FRCP, then unimaginable for a Female Indian doctor. She was selected to study further at Johns Hopkins University, US, where she trained under the legendary cardiologist Helen Taussig. Thereafter, she moved to Harvard University, where she trained under the Father of Cardiology- Paul Dudley White.
When a glorious cardiology career awaited her in the US, she was firm in returning to India & serving Indians. She joined Lady Hardinge Medical College in 1953, to become India's First Lady Cardiologist.
S.I.Padmavathi started India's first Cathlab & exclusive Cardiac Clinic. Started India's first DM Cardiology course. She founded the All India Heart Foundation (AIHF) in 1962, to serve the poor & needy. She joined Maulana Azad Medical College in 1967, by which time her fame had spread. The Indian Govt under Indira Gandhi honoured her with the Padma Bhushan, that year.
She was the cardiologist & administrator of 3 great colleges at the same time- MAMC, G.B.Pant Hospital & Lok Nayak Hospital. She retired as Director,MAMC in 1978.
She set up the National Heart Institute (NIH) in 1981, at Delhi. At age 90, Padmavathi became a fellow of The European Society of Cardiology in 2007.
Till age 95, (year 2015), Padmavathi worked 12 hours a day, five days a week, to serve poor and needy Indians, with state-of-the-art Cardiac Care. She retired from active practice, that year. The Government of India bestowed India's second highest Civilian Award, the Padma Vibushan on S.I.Padmavathi in 1992.
Both Padmavathi and her sister Janaki(neurologist) remained single and started the Janaki-Padmavathi trust, pouring in their entire earnings to start a trust to provide poor people with money for life-saving Heart Surgeries.
After dedicating her entire life to serving the poor in the field of Cardiology, S.I.Padmavathi passed away in 2020, at age 103 from Corona.
Imagine the steely resolve, vision, brilliance and sheer determination of this iron- lady to shatter the glass ceiling in achieving all these, serving poor Indians with quality cardiac care, and finally giving away all her wealth to her fellow citizens.
Most of the DMs I get are about: How do I get through USMLE or PLAB? What salaries can I get? Quality of Life? Citizenship?
Here is an inspiring story of the first female cardiologist of India, who achieved so much by returning to her country. Tamilnadu & India should be mighty proud of their daughter- Sivaramakrishna Iyer Padmavathi!

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan 🌏

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

What is your brain doing when you are doing absolutely nothing?

A neuroscientist wanted an answer to that question.

So she conducted the first brain-imaging study of brain activity when the brain is in a "resting state"—free of inputs/free to wander.

The results are interesting...

The neuroscientist Dr. Nancy Andreasen used a positron emission tomography (PET) scan to study brain activity when the brain is at "wakeful rest"

When you are doing absolutely nothing:

"We found activations in multiple regions of the association cortex," Dr. Andreasen wrote. "We were not [seeing] a passive silent brain during the ‘resting state,’ but rather a brain that was actively connecting thoughts and experiences.”

Essentially, Dr. Andreasen demonstrated that the brain defaults to creativity.

When you are doing absolutely nothing, the brain engages in what the researchers termed "random episodic silent thought" or REST.

And during REST, the brain "uses its most human & complex parts."

Takeaway 1: Doing nothing promotes creativity.

Raymond Chandler, Neil Gaiman, Dr. Suess, George Lucas, and many other writers all have/had a similar habit.

They gave themselves two options:

a) You don’t have to write.
b) You can’t do anything else.

@neilhimself explains:

"I go down to my lovely little gazebo at the bottom of the garden, sit down, and I’m absolutely allowed not to do anything...I'm not allowed to do a crossword, read a book, phone a friend...all I’m allowed to do is absolutely nothing, or write. But writing is actually more interesting than doing nothing after a while."

Takeaway 2: REST

Resting, Dr. Andreasen wrote, “allows the association cortices of the brain to converse in a free & uncensored manner.”

This is why ideas come to us in the shower, on walks, and when daydreaming.

A favorite example of this: @Lin_Manuel had the idea for “Hamilton” on vacation:

"I was on a pool float with a margarita in my hand and had a moment when my brain could unplug. [It was his first vacation in 7 years]. The moment my brain got a moment's rest, the best idea I've ever had in my life walked into it."

---

“If a plant only gets sunlight, it’s very harmful. It needs darkness too…In the darkness, it converts oxygen into carbon dioxide. We are like that too. We need periods of doing & periods of non-doing.” — Robert Pirsig

Follow me @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Mittali Sethi @MittaliSethiIAS]

All of our discussions for Fundamental Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) as administrators. How we need reimagining!